As distinctive as a rehrücken is, there isn’t much history associated with it. Or at least not much that I was able to find. My assumption was that it was Austrian, however one source I came across claimed that it hails from Swabia in extreme southern Germany. I found nothing at all to back that […]
READ ONI say this a lot, but it bears repeating: the biggest secret to making great pastry is leaving yourself plenty of time to perform all the tasks involved. Trying to cram everything into one afternoon on the day of your dinner party is a recipe for disaster. Which is why a conscientious baker takes care […]
READ ONThat from reader Rose, and it’s a good question. Deer hunters and/or their families know the reason why: because venison is very lean meat. A cut like a tenderloin is particularly so. It doesn’t have much connective tissue in it, so it isn’t tough, but even when it’s properly roasted, it’s dry. So in-the-know venison […]
READ ONThere are lots of recipes out there for rehrücken if you start hunting around a bit. Most are simple bundt-style, extra-moist chocolate cakes that just happen to be made in a rehrücken mold. I prefer this formula by Austrian pastry chef Stephan Franz since it’s a spongecake, which makes it closer in spirit to the […]
READ ONFruitcake lovers, I mean. It’s after Halloween, which means that if you love a good English-style fruitcake, it’s time to start production. Two months or so of aging is pretty much perfect, so…get cracking!
READ ONOne thing about nixtamalized corn: once you start going down that road, it’s hard to stop. There are simply so many local, regional and national variations on the theme, as reader Rebecca’s email illustrates: That arepas recipe looks very similar to my experience of the Mexican gordita. Basically, they’re masa griddled as little fat cakes […]
READ ONUh oh, this is the third hero shot in a row to include the Authenticity Towel. I’d better watch myself, or bits of pre-Colombian pottery and stone tools are going to start creeping into my pictures. A few months from now you won’t be able to tell me from Marths Stewart Living. Lord help me […]
READ ONI found a very interesting tutorial at Gourmet Sleuth on making masa at home. Two things about it caught my attention. First, that it calls for dent corn, also known as “field corn” here in the Midwest. Dent corn is so-named because the corn kernels have little dimples in the top. It’s extremely common in […]
READ ONFor years I avoided making corn tortillas, for the simple reason that I’d never been able to shape them without getting huge cracks. Much later I learned an easy trick that helps the tortilla maker figure out whether the dough has enough water in it. It worked like a charm. Oh, the wasted years. Begin […]
READ ONOne thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that nixtamalized corn remains an important part of the American diet to this day, and not just because tortillas have become a staple bread. Northern Native Americans also grew and harvested corn, and like their Mesoamerican counterparts, treated it with ashes or lime. Once it was cooked […]
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