paulraphael

Any enriched bread or whole grain will have a lower g.i. The most important consideration is the g.i. of the meal as a whole; the g.i. of individual componants is irrelevent beyond the degree to which they affect the meal. As an example, baguette has a very high g.i.. but if you put butter and piece of ham on it, the total g.i. becomes low. Your body can't digest and metabolize that bread out of context; the fats and proteins that you eat at the same time slow down the digestion of everything, including the starch in the bread.

The NYC pizza experience frustrates me, because I can't find a pizzeria that does everthing brilliantly. It's always one tradeoff or another. Patsy's Harlem does incredible crust, just as everyone says. But the toppings are lousy. Napoletana has great toppings. But offers few choices. And their crust, while the most delicious I've ever had, strikes me as wildly inconsistent in terms of texture. It's often too soft for my tastes. And the astronomical price, especially in the context of the crummy service I've experienced, keeps me from going back. I've become a fan of Luzzo's. They strike me as the best at nothing, but they do everything well. Friends have lately told me that Lucali's in Brooklyn is the best they've ever had in NYC, or the known universe for that matter. I've yet to make a trip. Anyone been there?

I recently had a request for Bouillabaisse, so I did a bit of research. The only consistent, defining ingredient, as far as I can tell, is contention: no two people seem to agree on what makes an authentic bouillabaisse. People in the Mediterranean are convinced that it's impossible to make one outside the region, with non-indigenous fish. But people in neighboring villages and even neighboring restaurants fight it out just as often. The recipes I found, while wildly divergent, all included many kinds of fish ... often seven varieties. Some considered shellfish vital; other considered them blasphemous. James Peterson has some good looking recipes, both in his soup book and his seafood book. He's taken the louder arguments into consideration. I decided to be lazy and just made a bourride ... a less famous soup from the same region, with just one kind of fish, thickened with aioli. Delicious! And much less to fight about.

Prociutto cotto just means "cooked ham" ... so I think it could refer to any Italian cooked ham of any type. What we usually think of as prosciutto is technically prosciutto crudo (cured, raw ham) ... or more specifically, the Parma style of prosciutto crudo.

If you're experimenting with interesting hydrocolloids, it might be worth playing around with the fundamental structure of the mousse. Rather than trying to stabilize a traditional mousse that's based on a fundamentally unstable foam (egg white? whipped cream?) folded into the chocolate mixture, you can dispense with all that. The chocolate base can include cream, water, or liquids to adjust the consistency, and then other ingredients to emulsify, stabilize, and adjust the final texture. After chilling it below 50 degrees, the whole thing can be whipped into an airy mouse, molded, and chillled again for several hours. the result is stable. I've experimented with combinations of gelatin and cornstarch, and gelatin and xanthan gum. I think I'd stick with gelatin just for the melting mouthfeel that it lends. But for complimentary ingredients, there may be a lot of more effective choices than the ones i've tried.

Organic certification is given to food that's been produced according to a specific set of rules. It's untrue that organic food is never grown with pesticiedes or chemical fertilizers; the chemicals used must simply be approved ones. The exact list varies from country to country. Any notion that there are "no chemicals" in organic food just reflects a misunderstanding of chemicals. All the food you eat is 100% chemicals. As are you. The real questions all concern which chemicals are allowed and which aren't.

Some things that help crisp the skin ... -an air dried bird -a bird that you pre-salt and hold uncovered in the fridge for 12+ hours -a hot oven (470 to 500 degrees F) -a preheated roasting pan -a low sided roasting pan -if you do a dual temp roast, hitting the high heat at the end, not the beginning -skin coated with butter or other fat -a loose tent or no tent during resting Some things that hurt ... -brining -a wet-packaged bird (almost anything from the supermarket) -low roasting temperatures -basting with liquid -a high sided roasting pan -a cold roasting pan -lots of aromatics under the breast skin -tight tenting during rest I follow all this advice, with the exception that I often put garlic or herbs under the breast skin, and that if I have a good, air-dried bird i don't bother drying it futher in the fridge. Skin always stays crisp long enough to get it to the table. It doesn't always stay crisp long enough for seconds. Reheating under a broiler usually breathes life back into it.

Why not make a foie pop tart? Sounds like something Keller would do. He'd just have to come up with a silly name for it ... a bad pun that doesn't in any way prepare you for the sophistication of the dish.

These machines do a decent job. They put a very robust edge on the blade (it actually puts on 3 different bevels, and the smallest one at the edge is much more obtuse than 15 degrees). The machines are a good choice for people who want a serviceable, strong edge that can take a lot of abuse. They're no good for knives that have already been sharpened to an extrememly accute or asymmetrical bevel ... a knife like that will just get torn up. And I don't know if they'd work well on extremely hard steels, although it's unlikely that your friend will have any. Make sure anyone who uses a chef's choice machine knows that the coarsest wheel is only to be used when necessary. If it's used regularly, all the knives will wear out before their time.

but that mystery icing is like rocket fuel.

Sam, I agree on general principle, but have to say that my friends who are classical musicians would (and do) cringe at the notion that Benjamin Britten has some innate musical or cultural superiority over, say, Radiohead. It strikes me a bit like the belief that haute cuisine is somehow superior to regional cuisine, when in my experience there are inspiring and disappointing examples of each. I tend to agree with Alex Ross, music critic at the New Yorker on the general issue. And on Radiohead.

It might not melt, but it CAN catch on fire. Which might even be scarrier. I walked into the kitchen once to see the entire toaster (one that was plastic on the outside) engulfed in flames started by poptart icing. The whole fireball had to be picked up by the power cord and hurled into the sink. I'm definitely going to try the pop tarts. Gfron said his main goal was to improve the filling, but I'm more excited about the pastry. The original tastes a bit like particle board. This version has a butter crust.

A couple of months ago I served lamb seasoned with lapsang souchong. I made a rub with the tea leaves (ground to powder), salt, black pepper, butter, and a bit of red wine and red wine vinegar. The rub went on the full lamb racks about 2 hours before roasting. The flavor picked up from the rub was subtle ... enough to taste on bites of the outer part of the meat, but not the middle. I also used lapsang in the sauce. The sauce was lamb coulis (jus made by multiple emersions / slow reductions of veal stock and lamb bones and trimmings). The tea was steeped in right at the end, for four minutes, with the sauce held below a simmer. I'm a whore for lapsang souchong and have been looking for ways to cook with it. My dessert experiments haven't gone so well ... this lamb is the first thing I've been happy with.

I think that's right. The trouble is that next month it could be from some completely different maker.

I'm stumped then. Wild guess: the creme fraiche was a bit low on butterfat, and this reduced its stability. I'm not convinced either but it's all I got

I'm guessing it's overwhipped. If that's the case, stirring in a bit of unwhipped creme fraiche might fix it (i'll bet you already tried this).

Here are some links to informal videos that show excellent cutting technique: Hung from Top Chef (includes tip chopping, forward push cutting, and using usu-zukuri on a raw hanger steak)A chef while making lunch and worshiping his expensive knife. He does a lot of classical cuts (julienne, etc.) but with more efficient techniques than the classical ones.Another chef's full suite of cutting demos. Pay attention to how lightly he holds the knife, and also to the chive cutting technique, which is vastly better than what typically gets taught in cooking school. And a book that's coming out soon ... no idea how it will be. For the basic classical techniques, this book is pretty good. The attached DVD is great for things like butchering chickens, although for a lot of other skills the author's technique is oddly lacking.

I'd strongly recommend seeking out instruction from someone who has Japanese training. I learned all the traditional Euro cutting methods (like the ones in the EGCI course and in Chad's book) and practiced them for years. Now I almost never cut like that. Japanese and Hybrid techniques let me cut faster, more precisely, with less damage to the food, and with better edge retention for the knife. Unfortunately there's a dearth of good instructional information. Most of it gets taught from cook to cook. There's a book coming out this summer (announced on Amazon), but I have no idea how good it will be or how relevent it will be to non-Japanese cooking. I'd love to see an updated to the EGCI taught by someone who's a master of the more refined techniques.

I've never heard of a knife snapping mid-potato, but there's been a lot of chatter lately about terrible quality control from Fujiwara. Someone in another forum complained about a new gyuto with a bent tip ... the temper of the metal was softe enough that he could bend it back with his fingers. This all seems to be new. Not too long ago everything I heard about Fujiwara was positive. Edited to add: I just took a closer look at the photo. I've never seen a knife snap like that (practically at its thickest point) under any circumstances. Truly amazing. Looks like someone cut your sword in two with theirs, in a low budget kung fu movie.

Some sites to check out: Tsuji, showing a lot of hira-zukuri technique, on usu-zukuri, and a site that will give you formal lessons for 10 bucks a month.Make sure your knife is very sharp! If you're going to make a habit of this, you should have at least a small set of waterstones, and spend as much time practicing with them as you do with your cutting. A long knife (9 to 12 inches) will make life easier, assuming you have room to use it. Sharpness, length, and technique are more important than having a real yanagi.

If that's true you might want to get your thyroid checked ... it could save you some money! I don't know how the Gila compares with stage races like the Tour de France and the Tour of California, but in those races riders eat 6000 to 9000 Calories a day ... about as much as three or four normal adults. If your local race is at all similar in daily mileage and elevation gain, then it's likely you're just not counting the food the racers eat while on the bike. Stage racers typically slurp down 50 or 60 grams of carbs every hour during a race, or whatever their stomachs can handle. This is still only a fraction of the calories that they're burning; the rest has to be made up at breakfast and dinner.

A relevent study in these hard times ... Abstract Considering the similarity of its ingredients, canned dog food could be a suitable and inexpensive substitute for pâté or processed blended meat products such as Spam or liverwurst. However, the social stigma associated with the human consumption of pet food makes an unbiased comparison challenging. To prevent bias, Newman's Own dog food was prepared with a food processor to have the texture and appearance of a liver mousse. In a double-blind test, subjects were presented with five unlabeled blended meat products, one of which was the prepared dog food. After ranking the samples on the basis of taste, subjects were challenged to identify which of the five was dog food. Although 72% of subjects ranked the dog food as the worst of the five samples in terms of taste (Newell and MacFarlane multiple comparison, P<0.05), subjects were not better than random at correctly identifying the dog food.

Any updates on remmedies for the pine nut affliction? My girlfriend has been gagging on all food for the last four days. She says it tastes like something died in the back of her throat. Diagnosis by google pointed to every kind of horrible chronic gastric disturbance, until I noticed that none of those conditions produced a foul taste specifically when you eat. A bit more snooping around pointed to pine nuts ... which she'd eaten the day before. We're all relieved that she's not dying, but a cure would be nice. She read that acids like vinegar can help, so she ate a salad with tons of vinnaigrette. It helped, but only for the duration of the salad.

I was under the impression that food costs for pastry are lower than for the rest of the restaurant. With the notable exception of good chocolate, the main ingredients are cheap. With most dishes there are advantages like being able to do most of the heavy lifting well in advance, and only minor assembly and plating at service.

I've often wondered about deep-frying maki -- not to salvage it; just because it sounds good. And I assumed it would be seen as some kind of sacriledge, but apparently not. I can imagine it coated in a light tempura batter, and fried just long enough to crisp it on the outside and warm it slightly or cook it rare in the middle.