Neil

Craig, First I'd like to compliment you on a great article. Your lesson was one of the best risotto lessons that I've seen, and I've looked at many. However, as any article that is good does, and should do, it raises questions. I'd like to bring up a few. Brodo: You make a big distinction between stock and brodo. I've just spent a fair amount of time searching through over a dozen cookbooks trying to discern the difference between broth and stock, and frankly I can't seem to get a clear distinction between them. In most respects, your broth recipe and those of any Italian cookbook that I own, would seem to be the same as a white beef stock. And, as I've looked at dozens of recipes, the only difference I can see is the point you made that broth is made with fewer bones than stock. It would seem the resulting difference has more to do with the gelatin content obtained from adding veal knuckles or shins. So I'd be interested in a cleared distinction between meat and chicken brodos - and meat and chicken stocks. The ONLY difference I can see is that Italian broth is lighter than French stock. Would you please elaborate? Rice - Strains: I now use carnaroli exclusively. Carnaroli takes longer to cook than arborio, and I assume, vialone. I guess this means that it gives up its starch a bit slower than other varieties. In my opinion you get a longer "window" of readiness. This is important so that the risotto has a longer time to be ‘al dente' and less chance to overcook and turn to paste. Here's a curious factoid that I found. Although I was aware that carnaroli is a relatively new strain of rice, developed in the 1940's, so is arborio. In fact, arborio was developed in 1946 and derives from vialone. (http://www.risoscotti.it/xmidco1a.html) You make mention of Gabriele Ferron on your web site. He is a producer of vialone nano rice. An article I have says that he has an unconventional method of cooking risotto. He uses 1.5 times the volume of the rice for the broth. Then he covers it and cooks it gently for 15 minutes, after which he adds a little more broth to finish it. Not exactly traditional, but I guess he can do it anyway he wants. (http://f.about.com/z/js/spr09sm.htm) Do you have any experience with ‘baldo" rice? The Beginning: You say that the rice should be sauteed for one minute. I've read and use a 4-6 minute saute. I saute until the grains become a little shiny and start to become translucent. This necessitates using olive oil, or at least 50-50 oil and butter so that the butter doesn't brown. I only use oil at this point and save any butter I want to use for the mantacare. I've read absolutely conflicting accounts of why this is necessary. One camp seems to think that this saute helps the starches begin to cook; whereas the other opinion is that it seals the outer layer of starch so it doesn't give up its starch too quickly. Which do you believe? Neither? Also, some recipes advise removing the onions at this point so that they don't brown, returning them after the first addition of broth. You don't make any mention of heating the wine when adding it. If the stock needs to be at the boil so it doesn't shock the rice, shouldn't the wine also be hot? I don't understand that one comment someone made about ‘boiled wine taste' The Finishing One sign that I use to test for doneness, is from about 15 minutes into the cooking process, I rub a grain between my fingers every minute or so. When ‘perla,' the core, of the grain breaks into 3 pieces, the risotto is nearly done. And, as you say, it should be firm, not crunchy. I think that is the best description I've heard about the doneness test. I don't know if this works for vialone nano. One restaurant I know adds some unsweetened whipped cream to loosen it up and give it a very creamy texture. You say serve it immediately after adding the mantacare, but I've read that you should time the risotto to allow a 2-3 minute sit before serving. I usually add a bit more stock just before the risotto would be finished so that it thickens and comes to proper doneness during this siting phase. I don't let it sit intentionally, but it gets about a 2 minute rest during serving. Any comments? Thanks again for your lesson. Neil