It is said that it’s actually derived from “magpie”, the bird, which is common to just about every continent on Earth. What’s the connection between pies and a magpies? Because magpie nests contain a variety of scraps and oddities, just like a certain Medieval baked item.
READ ONWell it’s not easy. There are a lot of different kinds of pork pies in England. However they fall into two broad categories: those that are made with cured pork products — ham, bacon, sausage, loin and the like — and those that are made with fresh, uncured meat. Of the latter the most famous come from a town called Melton Mowbray up in the Midlands of England in the County of Leicestershire (which is how the British spell “lester”). There
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Since we’ve been talking about the American and French Revolutions the last couple of weeks, it seems as though a brief stop to recognize George Washington is in order, since his birthday is this week (February 22nd). Here in the States we sort-of celebrate Washington’s birthday on “Presidents Day”, which was yesterday, though we’re also supposed to be celebrating Lincoln’s birthday as well, and maybe other presidents, and maybe the institution of the presidency in general…no one really knows what this silly day is about, except that the mail doesn’t come.
It’s my view that Washington, mensch that he was, deserves his own celebration. He was either the greatest or the second-greatest president of the United States. It’s a toss-up between him and Lincoln. What did Washington do that was so great? Well we all know
READ ONI always like to decompress a fancy pastry with something simple and work-a-day. This excellent reader suggestion fills the bill. I miss these from my university days in Devon. I can hardly wait to taste one again. I better start letting some beer warm up.
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I didn’t put spun sugar on the croquembouche and as a consequence there was a small outcry (it’s semi-traditional). But while I decided against it on Tuesday there’s no reason we can’t do it Friday just for fun.
READ ONExcellent question, reader Antuanete. That method simply involves putting sugar in a saucepan and turning on the heat. The bottom of the pan shoots up to 340 degrees Fahrenheit quickly, melting the sucrose into dark caramel, and there you have it.
Some people swear by it, but I’m not a fan for a couple of reasons. First, you have far less control over the process. Dry cooking gives you either dark caramel or extremely dark caramel. If that’s what you want then it’s a decent method, though you’d better have a plan to stop the cooking fast (butter, cream or a water bath) before the whole mass burns.
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Reader Belli wants to know why, when you’re combining the water and sugar at the outset of the caramel- or candy-making process, it doesn’t really matter how precise you are with the water. Doesn’t water content make a big difference to the texture of the finished candy?
READ ONThat’s what reader OB wants to know. Most authorities will tell you, OB, that sucrose caramelizes at 340 degrees Fahrenheit (170 degrees Celsius). That’s true, but then there are some mitigating factors that make the precise caramelization point of table sugar a rather hard thing to pin down. That’s why I generally write “above 300 degrees Fahrenheit” because it’s a safe thing to say. 320 degrees Fahrenheit (160 C) is about the point you usually start to see the first bit of yellowing in the pan. That’s caramelization. But what is going on then if sucrose doesn’t caramelize until 340?
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Talk about an inspired question, thanks reader Jo! Most pastry makers know how prone a pan of caramel is to burning if you don’t cool it right away with cold cream or butter, or take it off the heat when it’s still a light amber color. Indeed the whole caramelization process comes on in a rush. You cook and cook and cook this clear syrup until it starts to yellow then it’s dark yellow then brown and whoa nelly! — it’s burnt.
Why does this happen? Partly because molten sugar is a very dense liquid and tends to hold heat. But there’s another more interesting reason which has to do with the caramelization reactions themselves. Most Joe Pastry readers probably already know something about caramelization. It begins to happen to table sugar when it’s combined with water and heated above 300 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point the sucrose starts breaking into its component glucose and fructose molecules, then the glucose and fructose molecules themselves start breaking apart.
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What’s the hardest part of a croquembouche? The photography. I don’t do “across” on this website, I only do “down”. Why is that? It’s not because my photo studio consists entirely of a cutting board that’s twenty inches across, that’s a vicious rumor. It’s because “across” is the direction of evil. Everybody knows that. Still, “across” shots are one of those necessary evils when your finished product is two feet tall sitting on a cake stand.
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