Adam Balic

Here is some scientific facts for those of you who like that sort of stuff. While beet and cane molasses has a similar overall composition the type of sugars are quite different. The sugar in beet molasses is almost entirely sucrose, while cane molasses is 2/3 sucrose, these rest being fructose and glucose. Makes sense really, as they are quite unrelated types of plant. Sucrose is a diasaccraride, fructose and glucose are mono-saccarides. I wonder if this diffrence in sugar composition in the molasses is enough to account for the observed diffrences in cooking properties? Here is a link to all types of cool sugar information. Sadly, it is a scientific institution though. sugar!

BH - the texture of the flesh was unusual. A slight crunchieness in the outer layers, but never tough. Crunchy, but tender. I'm not sure how big your clams are or if that makes a difference, in cross section the siphon was about 5-6cm at the base to about 2-3 at the squirty end. Back in Australia, black lipped abalone are common enough that we would pre-pare them as you described. I think I prefer that flavour of the clams more though. Would have to taste them side by side to be sure.

So that's what egg white are for! I once asked a chef what their restaurant what they did with all the exess egg white and he said that they added a couple of whole eggs nad made them into staff meal omelettes. Good for muscle tone I guess.

That's just too easy, Adam....... But, I have learned that the secret to good tempura batter is to make it at the last moment and to make it with Soda water that has been kept in the freezer until it is ice cold. S Soda water heh? Will Tonic water do? Do you use cornflour?

That sounds really cool. I liked them raw, but I don't think that the other people will go for that. Otherwise the seviche would be great (yes, I know it is 'cooked' by the lime).

Simon - that sounds very good and it would do well as a starter before the woodcock, which I am going to serve with Chantarelle/hedgehog/griolle risotto. Miss J - simple is good. Have you a fail safe tempura batter/cooking technique? Mine always falls off.

Whilst cuising my local fishmongers I noticed that amounghst all the razor clams, there were a few dozen giant clams (shells about 15 -20 cm long) with very long siphons. I have read several discussions on geoducks on this site and while I don' think that these scottish clams are the same species (they are called 'Sandgaper' clams here, they looked similar enough that I bought several (along with a few razor clams). (Total cost = 98 pence!). The fishmonger had never eaten them. I put the shell fish in a bowl of water with sea salt, where they quite happily squirted water aroung the place until I killed them. Following the advice given here, I striped off the skin of the siphon and ate some of is raw, some quickly sauted in butter (more warmed through really). The flesh was slightly crunchy, yet soft and tender, but the flavour was incredibly sweet and similar in taste to lobster or, even better, octopus. THe flavour of the razor clams was similar, but not as sweet. I would like to serve some of these to people for dinner tomorrow any suggestions? They would need to be altered in some way as not to look 'icky' for these particular guests. Sliced in a Salad? Oh is it worth the bother to eat the foot?

Not really, I was in a rush and so didn't plan it very well. I had been to a wine/whisky tasting for the previous five hours and had cleverly spat the wine for the first four hours, but then drank 12 single malts in the last hour. I had planned a salad of bitter herbs, but I forgot at the last moment. Meal was rather heavy, so the only solution was to drink loads of wine and finish with more whisky. Feel a little poorly today. Also cut my thumb again on the mandolin - I must stop using that thing when I am drunk.

Not raisins, "sultanas". I don't much like them either, but they give sweetness to the dish. The gratin was stolen from a Charlie Trotter book, it was v. good, but very rich.

Roger, yes, it was can't. Yes vinegar is quite disimilar, in flavour. However Barberries are very similar in the type of sourness they impart to a dish and they are proberly the most common souring agent in British period cooking, They are still used a great deal in Persian cooking.

Have looked into this now. Tamarind has been a trade item in Europe since Medieval times (maybe before). Medieval - 18th C. British cooking had quite a few sour flavours (barberries, vinegar, green fruit, wine), but I can see any specific reference to Tamarind in any of my sources. Either wasn't used or it had a name differeent to any that I was looking for. Fish sauces seem quite popular though, either anchovie essence type stuff or pickled oyster liquor.

Visitor from Australia. Cooked for ten people. Pasta 'Cittarra' with pesto Hugh joint of pork (loin on the bone), seasoneds with fennel seeds, garlic and rosemary. Gratin of potato, porchini and chestnut mushrooms. slow cooked white beans (some rare, tiny Chiantian ones I picked up in Siena) with olive oil, garlic and sage. green beans with Alpine Italian butter and almonds. Spinach with pinenuts and sultanas Celery braised in milk. Apple pie using 10 diffrent types of British heirloom apples and three quinces, soaked in Croatian apple brandy, drained cooked, custard made with cream, eggs and marination liquor, almonds scattered on top.

Various single malts and grappa. Not together. Prefer the single malts in cold weather as they are 'uppers' and make you toasty warm.

Tony - it was the "Times", people still have elevenses in the Times . Maderia is a lovely wine, loads of different types and flavour ranges. Good versions have that lovely nutty "rancio" flavour and they have a great balance of acid and sweetness, which is often lacking in fortified wines. Also historically, it is the American fortified wine, so maybe that would be a good choice as a winter warmer? I agree with everything you say, but I am also selfish so I know that un-fashionable = cheap. If the Tio Pepe groovy young thing advertisements worked, do you think that you could buy a bottle under twenty quid in the future? I bought a circ. 1930's Maderia a few years ago for sixty Australian dollars (twenty quid), could you do that with a Claret?

Correct. Spend four quid for terrible stuff or six quid for excellence. What other wine gives you the oppertunity to do that. Hidalgo PX is good, some othe the others lack acid balance and they end up tasting rather cloying. As a winter warmer I like Whisky, Australian fortified wine, decent quality Malaga (not the New style light muscat, the rarer old style stuff) and decent maderia. Infact maderia is a fanastic drink, pity it is even less popular then all the other fortifieds. All drank with a slice of panforte and a Cox's orange pippin to nibble, a good book and a nice fire.

Basil and roquet pesto-oid with pasta.

Spag. Bol. at a friends home, drank with a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut 1993.

Recipes for similar types of sauces exist in medieval British recipe sources ( ). I think that Worstershire sauce is of that culinary tradition. I'm not sure about tamarind in historic British cooking, but I can see no reason why it wasn't avalible from a early time or was simply a replacement for vinegar etc. I will investigate.

Foster's Lager. Terrible stuff, I don't know why people drink it, certainly nobody in Australia does.

Risotto with chanterelle. Rice stored with Truffle for two days. Truffle shaved over-top.

MAN PROVES THAT A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE MAN SAYS "I feel total cheated, the young man said it was amyl nitrate, but it smelt like badly made meatballs!". ROBOT WARS MOURNS DEATH OF "PAPA PLOTTERS", DUE TO ACCIDENTAL INHALATION OF COW: Story link: ITALIAN CHEF ARRESTED FOR CHARGING DINERS TO INHALE COW FARTS, CLAIMS "BUT THIS IS HIGHEST EXPRESSION OF ITALIAN COOKING, YOU FOOLS!"

True, true. As you said wrap in foil and use meat thermometer. Or you can simmer te birds in broth rather then roasting.

It isn't that difficult to do actually. De-boning birds is a doddle, if time consuming. That advantage of this technique is that you don't have to worry so much about not putting holes in through inner birds. It is usual to fill up gaps between the birds with force meat etc also. In England people would make these monsters and bake them in a tough paste crust, so that they were in effect a large pie, they would then be sent to friends etc as gifts.

Hi Heston and thank you for your significant input to this forum. I have an amateur interest in historical cooking, one thing that has become apparent from this is that modern tastes/flavours are just that, modern, not necessarily more refined, as some would have it. Several times I have recreated a dish (as far as I am able) and while the combination of ingredients sounds very strange by modern standards, in general the final product tastes great. An example of this would be an Italian Renaissance period pie, where a sweet short crust is stuffed with pasta, sweetbreads, chicken livers and a ham/porcini custardish sauce. This just sounds terrible too most people I have shown, yet tastes great. The sugar in the crust seems to counteract the richness of the filling (which is the opposite of my expectations). You obviously combine all types of interesting flavour combinations professionally (I've heard ), so could you give you opinions on how much of what we taste and perceive to be good is innate and how much is a learned? In addition, how difficult is it for you to alter peoples opinions on taste? Would it be easier for you in some instances not to describe the contents of a particular dish, as the combination of flavours is too confronting for people?

Sauted hedgehog mushrooms on crostini Fancy free range French chicken roasted with truffle slices slipped under the skin. Roast potatoes, Roast Fancy Violet de Cadours garlic, Extra fine green beans with Italian Alpine butter, crisped sage leaves as garnish. Bottle of 1997 Guigal Cotes du Rhone that a local shop is foolishly selling as the '99. Glass of 15 year old Bruichladdich for desert. To be honest the garlic had more truffle flavour then the truffle. Except to my wife, who is a super-taster and tests off scale for certain aromas when it comes to detection threshold (tested for her work). I looked up my Big Book of Truffle Trivia and it says that only a portion of the population can detect certain componants of the truffle aroma. I am not one of these it seems. .