paulraphael

Understanding emulsions will help demystify many things in the kitchen. Here are some of the basics: Emulsions in cooking are mixtures of oil and water, which do not disolve in each other. Their tendency is to separate, with the lighter oil floating on top. When emulsified, the oil and water combine in a way that appears to be homogenous, but still retains many of the individual characteristics of the oil and the water. The process is assisted by a third component (which we call an emulsifier) that helps keep the emulsion from separating (breaking). One of the components in an emulsion is in what we call the continuous phase; the other is in the dispersed phase. If you incorporate oil into the water (as in a mayonnaise) water is the continuous phase. This means that the water molecules can move around freely and touch each other, but the oil molecules are segregated into small droplets, separated from one another by water molecules, with the assistance of the emulsifier. The emulsifier in the case of a mayonaise is traditionally egg yolk, but it can be garlic, shallot, mustard, or any of a number of foods or refined ingredients that help keep the dispersed molecules from finding each other, glomming together, and separating. For an emulsifier, we look for an ingredient that has a kind of tensioactive molecule that attracts both oils and water. There are actually a number of different ways emulsifiers work, but the details are unimportant. When water is the continuous phase, we call the emulsion an oil-in-water emulsion. Like mayonaise. This is the reason it isn't greasy; the oil is in the dispersed phase so all the oil moleculse are surrounded by water. This explains the mixing method: you take the lemon juice (water based) and yolk (emulsifier, and another source of water) and then gradually whisk in the oil. Even though the recipes call for significantly more oil than water, the water remains the continuous phase, with the oil broken up into segregated droplets within the water. Other oil-in-water emulsion include hollandaise and bearnaise sauces, cream, milk, beurre blanc, and beurre monté (melted, unbroken butter). Water-in-oil emulsions include butter, chocolate, traditional vinnaigrettes (although non traditional ones are often made oil-in-water).

i've thought about trying something like that ... maybe a huge cast iron griddle. makes a lot of sense.

Here's the recipe that I've been using. It requires kneading, but very little, and can be done by hand, mixer, or food processor. The autolyse and wet mixing stage are more important to the gluten development than the length or type of mechanical kneading. Fermentation is retarded in the fridge for one to several days; final rising happens at room temp in a few hours before baking the pies. There's salt in the dough. There are enough toppingless bites in a pizza that I feel this is important. Like Sam's recipe, this one is 70% hydration. Actually a bit higher. This is important not just for gluten and flavor development, but for keeping the crust from drying and toughening in the long baking times required by a home oven. My oven only goes to 550 degrees; many only go to 500. A wood-fired pizza oven hits its stride above 800 degrees and bakes the pies in less than half the time, so there's less tendency for the crust to dry out.

yeah, that fresh, bright red color. once you get spoiled by that, all the other ground meat just looks ... gray.

... is that what you meant?

You don't need any vanilla at all. Just mix up your base of choice without flavoring. I'd cut back a bit on the sugar, since sugar (along with alcohol) softens the ice cream, and since the liqueur probably has some sugar of its own. you can also substitute fructose for regular sugar, which will give you more sweetness with even less sugar. What's the alcohol content of the Raki? That's important. For 80 proof booze, I start with 2 or 3 TB per quart. If that doesn't get enough flavor, I'll flame some of the booze, add that, and then top off with a bit of unflamed booze (to taste). It takes a bit of experimenting to get a flavor right.

I've played around a bit with blends of meat. It seems best to be familiar with the categories of cut, so you can make up your mind when you see what's actually available from the market or butcher. Right now my favorite mix is probably 2/3 chuck and 1/3 brisket (point cut). I adjust the mix based on how fatty the meat is. If the brisket is well marbled, I might go closer to 50/50. My goal is generally 15% fat, but if the burgers will be grilled, or if there are bad people coming over who want the burgers cooked past medium, I may go as high as 20%. I cut the meat into strips and chill just to the point of ice crystals forming. I season it BEFORE grinding. This mixes in the seasoning without overworking the meat. I like to add between 1/2% and 1% salt by weight. And some pepper ... maybe as much as the salt. Grind once with 1/8" disk. Genlty form into patties and cook soon ... preferably right after patties have warmed up to 60° or so. Last week I tried to substitute short rib for the brisket. It was expensive (you pay for all that bone), but based on my love of short rib I thought this would be the holy hand-grenade of burger blends. It was strangely bland, though. Not sure why. Some other blends that have worked well include skirt steak, top sirloin, and flank. Chuck always works well. If you can get a well marbled chuck eye, that may be the most flavorful. edit: if you salt before grinding as i described, be sure to wash the grinder as soon as possible to keep the metal from corroding.

It's usually local or regional. Different places tend to get their stars from different organizations. If you care about these things, then you have to look into it place by place ... the standards and the star systems don't correspond. In Europe stars mean michelin. In the U.S., michelin has only recently started reviewing, and only in a few cities. They have yet to make much of an impression on the diners in those cities, as far as I can see. In New York, our 800 lb. gorilla is the Times. They use a 4-star scale, unlike michelin's 3. If you live here for a while, you get to know what the stars mean (or are supposed to mean).

Fresh, in season tomatoes, when they're good, are SO good with nothing done to them. I hesitate to use them in anything that's cooked more than a little bit. If you're simmering for a long time, you're essentially doing the same thing that canning does. When I've made sauces with excellent fresh tomatoes, I've favored styles like concasse ... French for "crushed." Tomatoes peeled and seeded, very coarsely chopped, and warmed in a pan with some cooked aromatics. Cook the tomatoes as little as possible, and season as little as possible. They don't need much.

I discovered this a while back and replaced mine with the cuisipro spoons. They're pretty accurate (not perfect, but as close as is reasonable for volume measures). And the design is excellent. They're narrow enough to fit in small jars, and can be set down on the counter without spilling their contents.

I've had a cuisinart BRK-200 (the model with convection, but no rotisserie) for close to six months now. Here's a quick review: -It's a good toaster; better than any that I've had, but not as good as commercial quality dedicated toasters. Can make several slices at a time. Only drawback is that it's slow. -It's a great broiler. This is what I use it for most. Hot sandwiches, reheating things that need to be kept crisp, gratins, etc. etc. -For both toasting and broiling, it's vital to keep the door open a crack. If you don't, the oven will develop hot spots and cook unevenly. Toast will be dried out and blotchy. -The oven (conventional and convection) is disappointing. The thermostat is innacurate, and completely non-linnear (It's fairly accurate below 300 degrees; above 400 degrees it runs over 50 degrees hot). I wanted to use this thing for cakes and tarts, and find it useless for this. Too hard to calibrate. I assumed I got a lemon, and had cuisinart replace it. New oven had the same problem. In short: great broiler, good toaster, useless oven.

Bowtie pasta with olive oil, sweet italian sausage, crimini mushrooms, garlic, ramp leaves, fresh parm, and a bit of white wine. Yesterday I put this together in the time it took to boil water and cook the pasta. I make variations on this depending on what's in the fridge. At its most basic it's just pasta tossed with olive oil and a bit of parm (and black pepper). The version I made sounds a bit like overkill, but is mostly pasta. The solid ingredients flavor the oil and provide texture. The wine was just a splash to deglaze the saute pan and add some acidity. Stupid easy.

I found a new contender Roberta's just a ten minute walk from where I live ... amazing since there's little else here besides bodegas that push forties and wonder bread. Pies are imperfect (erred on the overcooked side, not the more typical undercooked ... so the crust on most of ours was a bit dried out and overwhelmed by char). But no more imperfect than anything else I've had in town. Great toppings, great menu overall, and great prices. Be warned, Manhattanites, that the East Williamsburg industrial park requires a journey across rivers and comfort zones alike.

AFAIK, in Italy prosciutto always means the same cut: the hindquarters. In other places ham is more loosely defined (Jambon Royale is a shoulder cut, for instance). As far as preparation, I'd be surprised if all prosciutto cotto were the same. It's made in different regions in Italy ... ones that don't agree on many other culinary definitions.

I've bought lamb from a great farm that sells both conventional and organic lamb. I've asked the farmer his opinion on the difference; he says, "the price." Basically, organic certification is expensive. He's only been able to get a portion of his land certified. The lamb that grazes there is labeled organic, and he passes the cost of the process on to the consumer. But there's no actual difference between the plots of land or the way the animals are raised. In other words, just as there are farms that sell poor quality food that's certified organic, there are others that sell top quality, fundamentally organic food that's not certified at all.

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.