Why Creme Brulee?

[SobaAddict70]

Last night at dinner with three eGulleteers, I raised the question of why creme brulee appears on so many dessert menus. Creme brulee is the apple pie of the post-modern era: it appears on every dessert menu that I can think of and it refuses to die a natural death.

Like foie gras, creme brulee suffers from the misperception that its associated with haute cuisine (and thus difficult to make) or only accessible with respect to fine dining when the truth has no bearing on reality. Creme brulee is one of those desserts that apparently you can make ahead of time, as much as six hours ahead of time (please correct me if I'm wrong) and still have it come out looking freshly made.

Share your creme brulee stories -- the good, the bad and the indifferent. And also, why creme brulee is the equivalent of a dessert menu's salad and roast chicken.

Soba

[fifi]

Creme brulee is the apple pie of the post-modern era: it appears on every dessert menu that I can think of and it refuses to die a natural death.

Why? Because it is just so damn good. To me, it is one of those pleasures that touches some primal part of my brain stem. And I don't really like dessert that much. Good things should never die. I do get irritated when they start trying to get too cute with it, though.

[Anna N]

I adore it. Hubby fails to see the point. I suffer.

[tryska]

creme brulee, creme caramel, flan etc, etc..love it all.

[Katherine]

The only reason creme brulee is available on so many dessert menus is that there are large numbers of people who never tire of it, and are willing to endlessly fork over money for it.

[Jason Perlow]

There is no better dessert than a perfectly executed creme brulee, that's why.

[Katherine]

There is no better dessert than a perfectly executed creme brulee, that's why.

That, too.

[SobaAddict70]

When people get cute with creme brulee, what does that mean?

Oh and another thing: if they made a tiramisu version of creme brulee, I'd be willing to bet that'd be the next big thing on most dessert menus. (Two for the price of one!)

Soba

[fifi]

When people get cute with creme brulee, what does that mean?

That means adding too much other "stuff" to it. I am a creme brulee purist.

[vengroff]

I recently saw it listed on a menu as "burnt cream" which doesn't make it sound all that appetizing. I asked if it was indeed creme brulee, and it was.

[Ling]

Speaking of which, sometimes my creme brulee turns out, and sometimes it refuses to set up and is a soupy mess no matter how long I bake it. Then the cream starts breaking up and I'm left with sweet water with chunks of cream in it. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Am I putting too much water in the water bath (halfway up the side of the pan)?

[Pan]

Creme brulee is very pleasant. No, I think tiramisu creme brulee would suck.

[SobaAddict70]

When people get cute with creme brulee, what does that mean?

That means adding too much other "stuff" to it. I am a creme brulee purist.

So a dessert sauce such as a sabayon or a coulis would fit the bill?

On another note, I guess my real question is, what makes a dessert interesting? What's the "wow" factor like with respect to dessert? It's so easy to determine what the "wow" factor is with regard to things like carrot foam and regular food, but not as easy (to my mind) when it comes to things like dessert.

I'm not talking about plating and presentation. If you were to see a dessert menu and half of those items were new things, and the other half old chestnuts like tiramisu and creme brulee, would you go for the interesting thing as opposed to the old standbys, and if so, what determines whether something is interesting as opposed to just a variation on old hat?

Soba

[Al_Dente]

I'm not a big dessert person. I prefer rich to sweet. Hence, I love creme brulee. Cashion's, here in DC, makes a rockin espresso creme brulee-- one of my favorite desserts. Even if I didn't get to taste it, I'd love to just play with it. Carefully breaking through the crystaline crust... satisfying sensation. It can be downright sexy.

[fifi]

So a dessert sauce such as a sabayon or a coulis would fit the bill?

On another note, I guess my real question is, what makes a dessert interesting? What's the "wow" factor like with respect to dessert? It's so easy to determine what the "wow" factor is with regard to things like carrot foam and regular food, but not as easy (to my mind) when it comes to things like dessert.

I'm not talking about plating and presentation. If you were to see a dessert menu and half of those items were new things, and the other half old chestnuts like tiramisu and creme brulee, would you go for the interesting thing as opposed to the old standbys, and if so, what determines whether something is interesting as opposed to just a variation on old hat?

Soba

Feh... I want to be alone with my creme brulee. No coulis, sauces or any other distractions. Just me and a little spoon to crack that crust and get down to business with the essence of creaminess within.

"old chestnuts", "old standbys", "old hat"??? All in one paragraph? Any creation that approaches perfection never gets old, only more perfect. (Like me, for example. )

Again, I am not much of a dessert person and usually pass because it rarely interests me. But, if there is that perfect classic and I know that the restaurant does it well, I may bite... so to speak. That molten middle chocolate cake thingy is starting to get to me. I think of it as a relatively new classic. Bread puddings are also in that camp if they would just leave out the damned raisins. I was on a crusade for the perfect chocolate mouse a few years ago but gave up because most of them started tasting like cool whip. To me, that is the WOW. The perfect classic executed perfectly.

I never have gotten the foams. For some reason they remind me of the deposits of spittle bugs on the weeds in the summer. If I get the stuff on me... eeewww.

[fresco]

Always thought of flan, or creme caramel, or creme brulee, as a homely dessert, with no associations at all with fine dining. It does tend to be something that people either love or loathe.

[EdS]

Creme brulee, like properly-done roast chicken and salad, righfully holds its place as a classic. After digging through so much fashionable fluff to find an occasional gem, you can count on coming back to to the elegant simplicity and perfection of creme brulee.

[Pan]

Besides, what's wrong with chestnuts? One of my favorite foods.

[Susan in FL]

Were you trying to be provocative with this question? I agree with the replies. Creme Brulee is so popular because it's so good!

Fifi, I'm with you, a creme brulee purist.

[SobaAddict70]

Were you trying to be provocative with this question?

I'm afraid I don't do provocative very well.

I don't understand the mystique behind creme brulee. I mean, lots of desserts are good, but not as popular as the apple pie of the post-modern era. Let's face it, pecan pie done right is an amazing thing. So is chocolate anything, ice cream, apple pie/pan perdu/apple crisp/apple cobbler/tarte tatin and creme brulee's twin stepsister -- tiramisu. However, none of these seems to approach the popularity behind creme brulee.

How many variations of creme brulee have you come across? Let me count the ways: mango creme brulee, espresso creme brulee, cinnamon creme brulee, last night's Thanksgiving-themed pumpkin creme brulee. I believe someone raised the possibility of a cardamom creme brulee. While in San Francisco two years ago, I came across a black pepper/vanilla infused creme brulee. And those are just the perfect ones. We haven't gotten to the bad versions yet.

Yeah, I suppose it's popular because it's so good. But so is chocolate cake with a molten center and how many of those do you see around? I'd wager there's more creme brulee and creme brulee variations out there than there are death by chocolate desserts.

Soba

[ExtraMSG]

Soba, I think you're missing one of the best things about creme brulee: women love it. Creme brulee absent from a menu is one less way to get lucky. There should always be champagne, chocolate, creme brulee, and strawberries on every menu.

Personally, I'm not interested by creme brulee. I've had some good ones (The Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas has an excellent one), but I don't order them. But other such dishes, pot de cremes, eg, panna cottas, and the like are very well liked by those considered experts in such things. It's no different than a steak, simply prepared lobster, oyster on the half-shell, a potato-leek soup, etc, etc, etc. Compexity and difficulty have no clear correlation with what's considered haute.

I know some, like Fat Guy, have said that there are principles in cooking and dining that are recognized throughout the world, but I haven't seen it. I don't know what defines haute cuisine other than agreement. Some things seem to help, but there certainly isn't a formula you can rely on.

[summertruffle]

I love it. It used to be that it would be my dessert choice from a menu if it were there. No matter what else was on the menu, if creme brulee was present, that would be my choice.

Now, I make it at home all the time and no longer order it in restaurants. It's so damned easy to make, I no longer see the point in paying for it. :P

I agree in that I seem to find it on almost all dessert menus.

[Verjuice]

While dining out recently, I had the opportunity to witness the charm of the ubiquitous Creme Brouhaha work itself on a couple on their first date. The waiter came around to their table to offer dessert, and started down the list (I should point out that this particular restaurant is famous for "homestyle" desserts just like Aunt X used to make). None of these desserts appeal to me in the least:

White chocolate banana cream pie. Bourbon chocolate bread pudding. Strawberry rhubarb pie. Hulking slices of banana layer cake with peanut butter frosting. Key lime pie, chocolate cream pie, coconut cream pie. Blackberry cobbler, apple crisp. Flan. Butterscotch pudding. Vanilla pudding. Creme brulee. At the mention of this, the woman's face lit up, and the man said "Ohh, yeah. Now we're talking". They moaned as they ate.

I often find that my dining companions will insist on ordering Creme Brulee if we decide to split a dessert. Occasionally I too like to rap my spoon against its brittle, bitter caramelized sugar crust and eat the broken shards provided they are tasty enough, but I never feel compelled to order it myself. I see it as the dessert equivalent of ranch dressing (which I can't stand); it's familiar, it's creamy, it's rarely horrid (and even more rarely well-made), it doesn't require a great deal of imagination but it is so autonomous that it sort of stands in its own food group. It's something you either get or you don't. I put it in the same category as macaroni and cheese, fondue, queso fundido, angel food cake, bread pudding or any pudding for that matter, cream pies, most trifles and cheesecakes. Nursery fare, the lot of it. It's diametrically opposed to most things I adore.

What makes a dessert interesting? Like anything that I'm eating in a restaurant, I would like it to be 1) thoughtful 2) seasonal if possible. Like haiku, I want to know what time of year it is just by reading the menu (blackberry cobbler at the end of November?!) This means that potion size should be considered -there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Texture is key.

Most interesting are not as aggressive as the ones listed above. I love ice cream, but most of it is so gimmicky (even if you narrow it down to one favorite flavor, there are a million permutations of it to be reckoned with) that I just make my own. I like bracing, vibrant sorbets as well. Rum cake that levitates off the plate. Crisp little buttery things to have with espresso. Madeleines, croissants. A square of dark bitter chocolate. A pound of dark bitter chocolate. No cream or eggs necessary for the chocolate, thanks, but I won't say no. Frangipane, nougat, marrons glaces. Nuts; almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, macadamias. I had an outstanding pecan and dried apple strudel yesterday (no raisins, thank God); it was served with a small scoop of nutmeg ice cream, chestnut parfait, some kind of lackluster compote. Mascarpone or ricotta cheesecake. Anything done with seasonal apples or pears and lots of butter. Deep, dark, rich and butter Guinness gingerbread; the kind that sticks to everything.

A single meltingly flawless peach, or any fresh fruit for that matter.

What happened to the desserts of yesteryear? I'm not saying that it has to be simple in order to be good, but that, that one bite of perfectly executed vanilla pudding is superior to hundreds of very good creme brulees.

Claudia Fleming's composed desserts at Gramercy Tavern were invariably awesome, for example.

Edited November 29, 2003 by Verjuice (log)

[Susan in FL]

S-truffle, I am the same as you on the creme brulee. Generally I don't order it in restaurants because I like my own at home so much! And it's so easy. That's pretty much how I do in restaurants for everything -- I rarely order something that I fix at home, especially if it's one of my "specialties." Except for steak at a fine steak house. Or oysters at The Oyster Pub.

Soba, as you might imagine by my asking, I don't do provocative very well, either.

[tanabutler]

Soba, I think maybe I should challenge you to a duel for insulting my beloved crème brulée!

No, seriously, I adore it. It used to be my standard in judging a restaurant, until I decided I could make it at home with greater satisfaction. I couldn't bear to be disappointed any longer. No extra flavors: mango, chocolate, pumpkin, ginger, or (dog forbid) espresso!

A perfect crème brulée is a work of culinary art. It shouldn't be refrigerated so that condensation ruins the crust. The delicate flecks of vanilla bean, the sensual and satisfying slither of barely sweet, thick cream in mouth and throat, the lilting aroma of the custardy mass. Be still my pounding....heart.

My sister once committed the egregious offense of taking her spoon to my newly-arrived crème brulée before I could get to it. It was the single rudest thing anyone has ever done to me at a dinner table, and my mouth hung open in shock.

Oddly enough, I am visiting Epicurious and there is not one single recipe for classic crème brulée. Wait, I take it back. I suppose this is one, but the inclusion of "vanilla" in the title is superfluous and silly. As is the addition of raspberry jam to the bottom of the ramekins.

The Food Network, on the other hand, has dozens of recipes, and many of them are not embellished with all that extraneous crap.