Oooh! Wired recently posted a very clever and interesting and science-y piece on food. And cooking. And whether or not there are components of ingredients that make them more compatible with other ingredients. It sounds confusing coming from me, so you should just go read the article. The science guys explain it really well.
Here’s a tricky looking diagram that supposedly explains the whole thing (click on it to head to the article):
dear lord, what is going on out there? planet cocoa must be in retrograde, either that or everyone’s had too much holiday baking to do…
…i have literally been asked 22 times since monday what the difference is between natural cocoa and dutch processed cocoa. you’ve all got cocoa on the brain!
at work we use natural cocoa in our (delicious) chocolate cake. it’s a bit more acidic than dutch processed cocoa, but with the right amount of alkali, that acidity is balanced out. whoa, science! because i am starting to feel a bit like my ninth grade chemistry teacher mr. horvath, (who once told me i was like “a ball in the tall weeds - lost,”) i’m going to turn this discussion over to the master of all things chocolate - david lebovitz. he’s a genius. and he has a blog that will make you so jealous you’ll want to crawl inside your own mouth. (now, if that’s not jealous, i don’t know what is. but, seriously, the guy is a pastry chef who lives in paris - the sweet life indeed.)
read all about natural cocoa and dutch processed cocoa here. and then poke around lebovitz’s blog a while. there’s a lot worth reading!
after the great metal skewer/baked potato revelation of 2010, i decided to dig a bit deeper into everyday tips & tricks that can speed things up in the kitchen. of course i’m a big believer in a well-stocked freezer. yes, i organize my kitchen to make meal prep as seamless as possible. but there’s so much more me to learn - especially where food science and everyday food intersect.
my digging brought me back to good old harold mcgee. you know harold, right? the curious cook from the NYtimes. the author of the genius work on food & cooking. well, while digging around for information on whether or not you really need to sear meat before cooking (post coming soon!) i found something i think you’ll really enjoy.
i’ve talked a lot about berries here at sprinklefingers - and leave it to mister mcgee to have taken the time to map out how to reduce spoilage of these summertime treats…particularly perfect for those of us who go to the farmer’s market with no intention of buying berries but somehow always seem to walk away with at least a flat.
enjoy. and then go get some berries!
i feel left out.
i got a new cookbook, and while flipping through its pages last week i stumbled upon a recipe for bacon & gruyere stuffed baked potatoes. a quick scan through the preparation notes and i saw it, ‘a metal skewer inserted into the potato will make it bake faster. and, there’s really only one person on the planet who doesn’t know this. and she writes a blog called sprinklefingers.’
okay, so maybe it didn’t say ALL of that - but it most certainly did say that a potato will bake faster if you shove a metal skewer inside. a concept of which i had no idea. and what’s weird? i never saw my mother do this - and she was the queen of getting things done fast in the kitchen.
it makes so much sense - when tapped lengthwise into a potato, the skewer conducts heat. that heat runs the length of the potato - therefore the potato is baking from the outside & the inside simultaneously. duh.
but how much time does the metal skewer shave off the usual hour plus it requires to bake the perfect potato? i can tell you:
15-25 minutes.
(which is a lot. that’s almost half. almost.)
i leave you now with this. and this. and this. it took me 12 seconds to find them with the help of my friend google. which only made me feel worse about my lack of metal skewer/baked potato knowledge. sigh.
ps: did you know that wrapping a potato in foil prior to baking will cause it to steam & not actually bake? this is a tip i picked up from mrs. evenett. she’s the mother of the love of my life before i met my actual husband. and she lives in england, where the potatoes taste like heaven, so she should know.
i’ve had something on my mind for a while now, and i thought i’d share it with you. you are really lucky. you feel lucky, don’t you?
okay, here goes. i’ve been wondering whether or not it REALLY matters if you stir a kitchen concoction in one direction only as some recipes instruct. (clue #3429 that i have a lot of time on my hands AND clearly have no life.)
before turning to the internets, i thought i’d test the theory in my own kitchen. over the weekend i made 24 quarts of oregon hood strawberry jam…which means i was standing, sweaty and stirring for the majority of saturday. as i was stirring my 4th batch of jam, the whole ‘stir in one direction’ thing popped into my head.
slow-cooked jam making involves a lot of stirring - basically you want the fruit & sugar to boil without burning, so you want the heat to be gentle and you want to take your time arriving at the boil - which means stirring, stirring and more stirring. and the only way to make sure your jam has boiled enough is to wait until it is hot enough to boil so that stirring doesn’t make the boil go away.
here’s what i did to test the theory:
BUT, if i stirred in the SAME direction as the jam was about to reach the ‘big’ boil, it would:
to further test the theory, i then waited for the type of boil that couldn’t be stirred away to be in full swing and i:
what do these tests prove? that stirring in one direction only simply stirs the pot, while continuously changing direction not only stirs but also incorporates more air - which can cool down your concoction enough to effect a rapid boil. incredible! and so scientific, right? yes, right.
just call me dr. sprinklefingers.
ps: when i finally did turn to the internet to prove my theory, there was a lot of talk about custards, dumplings & mayos, etc. and stirring in one direction. to be perfectly honest with you, i had already tested the theory for myself where temperature was concerned and didn’t really have the desire to wade through so & so’s crummy blog to find out what multi-directional stirring does (or doesn’t do, more likely) to custards.
it’s no secret that many recipes are very specific about avoiding ‘reactive’ prep bowls & cookware…but why?
maybe you already know the answer - look at you go, smartypants!
clearly i’m not a smartypants, because the whole ‘nonreactive’ thing stumped me for a long time before i bothered to do a bit of research and sort the whole thing out. and i’m here now to report my findings. lucky you!
most cookware is made of metal. and a few of the most popular metals for crafting cookware are indeed reactive. meaning, they are metals which conduct & hold heat very well, but also can react to acid in your recipes. the top three ‘reactive’ metals are:
when working with a recipe containing highly acidic foods (tomatoes, jams, etc.) it’s best to avoid cookware made from the above metals because the acid in the food reacts to the metal in the pan - and you can most definitely taste it in your end product. that tinny, metallic-y taste? that’s your pan reacting to the acid in your recipe. icky.
of course there are lots of cookware manufacturers who have created cookware that has a reactive metal at its core (because of its superior ability to conduct & hold heat) yet ‘clad’ the cookware in a non-reactive metal (like stainless steel.) the best known example of this ‘technology’ - enameled cast iron cookware - my cookware of choice in nearly every situation. another example? copper-core cookware.
now, there are a few situations where a ‘reaction’ with reactive cookware is welcome. take, for example, copper bowls & egg whites. when whipping egg whites in a copper bowl, some copper ions leach out of the bowl and partner up with a protein in the egg whites called conalbumin. this teaming of copper & conalbumin is extremely stable - meaning your egg whites are less likely to unfold once you’ve done the work of whipping them into a frenzy. lovely.
another situation where reactive cookware is welcome? non-enameled cast iron. when cast iron is used in meal preparation, a bit of the iron is leached into your foods - which means it goes into your body - which is like a magic iron supplement. you didn’t even have to take pill! truly magical.
so, smartypants, that’s my breakdown of nonreactive cookware. i know, i know - so interesting you can hardly contain yourself.
i get quite a few strange publications sent to my attention at work. before owning a bakery, i had no idea that there was such a vast amount of magazines focusing on ‘volume baking’ and ‘production technology.’ but there are.
two such publications arrived in my in-box just yesterday.
the back cover of one of them features a product that made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. it’s called trancendim and the ad headline says, “make a healthier claim with high diglycerides” and it’s followed up with, “a fat structuring agent that allows zero trans oils to melt in your mouth.” WHAT?
the ad features photos of french fries, and also states that “applications (for trancendim) include frying, cakes, cookies, donuts, Danish, icing, puff pastries and laminated products.”
it keeps getting more disgusting!
so, i went on a little trip to the url listed in the ad. and, boy, am i so glad i did!
the fine people who bring us trancendim also manufacture a vast array of preservatives and other whosie-whatsits that provide longer shelf life for (their words) artisan baked goods.
now, maybe this is just me, but i really think anyone who says they produce ‘artisan’ baked goods probably shouldn’t be buying ingredients from a chemical manufacturer, right? i mean, part of being an artisan baker is that you actually want to produce a delicious, authentic product…not something that utilizes a slew of chemicals, right?
or am i the one who’s wrong here, producing our product from scratch day after day after day? are we in the minority? good lord, i sincerely hope not.
and now, for your reading pleasure, i give you cakesoft…
[this is, word for word, a press release i found on the manufacturer’s website.]
———————————————————-
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2009
Bethany Jagels
Caravan Ingredients
913-890-5541
bjagels@caravaningredients.com
CAKESOFT – KEEP CAKE FRESHER, LONGER
Caravan Ingredients has developed an extended shelf life product called Cakesoft. This product greatly reduces cake staling by keeping cake soft, moist and yet resilient. Extend shelf life in any cake form including snack cakes, sheet cakes, muffins, cake donuts and even angel food cake. Due to angel food cakes fat free formulation, an extended shelf life is typically impossible. With Cakesoft, angel food cake can remain fresh on the shelf for not just days, but weeks; which will ultimately decrease waste. To learn how to keep your cake products tasting as fresh on the day they are consumed as the day they were made, call Caravan Ingredients at 800.669.4092.
————————————————
what does all of this mean?
to me it means i’d better know damn sure how something i’m about to pay for and then put in my body is made. if we work so hard at home to reduce the amount of weird chemicals and processed foods in our diet, it doesn’t seem fair that it can all be undone by one baked good that’s most likely described as wholesome and artisan. blech.
finding a warm, draft-free spot for bread to proof is kinda difficult in my house. first of all, the house is never truly warm. second of all, there’s always a whirlwind of activity going on - someone is literally always coming and going - slamming doors, opening doors…you get the picture.
but this warm spot is essential to bread, and seeing as how my bread addiction isn’t going to wane for some time, i started to look for inexpensive solutions - on the internet, of course.
first up came this. the easyrise. i couldn’t find any other information on it…aside from a few random blog posts stating that the company was trying to prove to investors that it’s worth investing in. and this was a while ago, so i have a feeling it may never come to market. i have to admit, i like kitchen gadgets and i’d probably be convinced to buy this thing - especially because it apparently folds flat for storage. weird but clever.
after the easyrise folding proofing box came lots & lots of wacky diy projects. one person uses a fish tank heater to heat water in a plastic bin, then she sets another plastic bin filled with dough down into the water. i’m not doing that.
then came ideas on using the microwave. a styrofoam cooler with boiling water. the oven with just the oven light on.
and then it came to me. while my oven is indeed original to our 1961 house, it is a built-in. above it and below it? cabinets. so, i pre-heated the oven to 400, then stuck a thermometer into the lower cabinet - it was right around the 85 degrees most suggest for a good rise.
i simply cleared a spot for my loaf pans (which meant taking a long, hard look at how varied & vast my baking pan collection is…whoa…) and started proofing away.
perfect!
look around your kitchen. turn on your oven and feel inside the cabinets next to it - do they get warm? warm enough? maybe…probably! experiment and find out, won’t you?
more on soft & chewy. no. wait. it’s soft & supple. nope. that’s not it.
more on soft & smooth. yes. that’s it.
more on yesterday’s topic, sara lee’s soft & smooth bread!
read all about formulation challenges and shelf-life and stability here.
there are a few key words that truly disgust me.
they are, in no particular order, the following:
creamy
moist
supple
encrusted
but today i found a phrase that truly disgusts me:
soft & smooth
normally soft (on its own) wouldn’t bother me. normally smooth (on its own) wouldn’t bother me. but soft & smooth together, ESPECIALLY when it’s referring to a bread product, really kinda grosses me out.
bread? did i just say bread?
i did indeed. i had a rare 12 minutes tonight to watch some television and during that 12 minutes i saw approximately 293 ads. one of the ads was for sara lee’s new ‘soft & smooth plus’ bread. why soft & smooth? why plus? i HAD to find out.
based on my research, soft & smooth bread appears to be a whole grain bread BUT ‘tastes and feels’ like white bread. interestingly enough, when the ‘soft & smooth’ product first hit shelves, its whole grain claims weren’t exactly accepted as the whole truth. after dealing with the public relations nightmare, sara lee restated their claims of whole grain-hood and quickly set out to make clear exactly what they mean when they say whole grain. (hint: when they say whole grain, they only kinda mean it.)
and now the lovely tricksters over at sara lee have introduced this ‘soft & smooth plus’ crap. maybe it’s not actually whole grain bread…but who cares! they’ve hired a lab to create an additive that makes the bread high in DHA omega 3! which is PERFECT for their target market of young mothers who have been beat over the head with the DHA stick practically since before conception! brilliant!
instead of coming up with nutritious meals, instead of teaching kids about actual food being the best source of vitamins & nutrients, instead of doing the work that these things take - let’s feed the kids a glorified science project. perfect.
i could go on and on about this. but i’m going to leave you with this gem. i’m dying to know how much sara lee paid her for this quote:
“While moms recognize that DHA Omega-3 is important to their child’s diet, it can be difficult to incorporate, especially with picky eaters who turn their nose at one of the most common sources - fish,” said Dr. Alanna Levine, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and parenting-expert. “If parents can add small portions of DHA into their child’s diet from a variety of sources – especially in something as palatable as a mild, soft-textured bread – it’s easy for their child to get the daily nutrition they need.”
‘especially in something as palatable as a mild, soft-textured bread’ is my new favorite quote.
i call bullshit.
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