Request #24: Beignets
BEEG-nets. Oh, all right: ben-YAYS. These simple fried treats have been gaining in popularity lately, so now seems like a particularly good time to do them. Break out the peanut oil, gang!
READ ONSigh.
So many responses to the sour cream post, mostly by people who seem to believe that full-fat sour cream is some sort of abomination. You know there was a time when people used to go on holidays to places like Wisconsin and Vermont just so they could have access to the ultra-rich (and fresh) products […]
READ ONButterfat and Thickening
Reader Nora asks: You say that fat is what thickens a fermented dairy product like sour cream, but yogurt is even thicker and has almost no fat. Can you explain that? I can. (I think). But first I should clarify that fat isn’t the only thing that thickens sour cream. Both yogurt and sour cream […]
READ ONIs that it???
Reader Will writes: I read your posts on cultured butter with great interest since I’ve always heard about how far superior it is to conventional butter. But I couldn’t believe that it’s bacteria that I’ve been paying an extra three bucks a pound for. Is that really the only difference, and does the bacteria have […]
READ ONMaking Buttermilk
I’ve always felt that “buttermilk” is a misleading term. It implies a richer form of ordinary milk, when in fact most buttermilk is about as rich as low-fat milk. That makes a lot of sense when you consider where buttermilk comes from, for it’s the liquid that’s leftover when fat (butter) is removed from cream. […]
READ ONHow to Make Sour Cream
Since I’m planning to gather all my home-dairying posts together and put them in their own section, I thought I’d be thorough and put up a separate post on sour cream. Yes, I know I did this yesterday when I posted on cultured butter, it’s just how my mind works. Sure it’s redundant, but it’s […]
READ ONBut wait, if I use yogurt as a sour cream starter culture…
…won’t I just make more yogurt? That question from a few folks overnight. The answer is no. But why? Because yogurt cultures, like all fermenting cultures, are composed of scores of different types of microbes. Some grow better than others depending on things like temperature and humidity. The bacteria that create the stiff gels we […]
READ ONHow to Make Cultured Butter
Cultured butter is now synonymous with European-style butter, however it was once common in the States, at least until the rise of “sweet cream” butter, which is the American standard now. The spread of sweet cream butter was based on a technological innovation: refrigeration. For it was refrigeration that made it possible to get milk […]
READ ONDiversion to Dairyland
Before we move on to the next project, I want to go on a little excursion into the world of dairy. The reason being that I’ve been getting a fair amount of mail the last several months about cream, sour cream, crème fraîche and buttermilk. Readers have wanted to know what the differences are between […]
READ ONOn Almond Flour
Pastry chef Camille emailed in from Paris on Friday to ask why I didn’t incorporate any almond flour/ground almonds into the clafoutis. I had no answer other than I didn’t think about it (almond flour being something of a rarity in the states). That said, I should point out that you can substitute almond flour […]
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