A Dutch painting from 1681 that depicts a baker selling, among other things, pretzels. As I mentioned back in January when I was blogging on the subject, the shape of the pretzel is a hotly debated subject. There is seemingly no end to the cock-and-bull stories that purport to explain it. Here, however, is some […]
READ ONSupposedly they’re called that because the sandy — or sablé, of which the World Peace Cookie is an example — was invented in the town of Sable-sur-Sarthe toward the end of the 17th Century. However I suspect the crumbly, vaguely gritty mouthfeel of the sandy also plays a part in the name. But what causes […]
READ ONKentucky Derby season! And this town is jumpin’. Take my derby picks with a grain of salt (cubical or flake, it’s really up to you), but I like Conveyance. That’s mostly because I find his generic, totally understated name hilarious. I half expect his jockey to be wearing silks with the olive drab stripes and […]
READ ONCall me skeptical that a mere cookie can solve our most intractable foreign policy problems, but heck, at this point I’d be willing to try just about anything. Chocolate-y, sweet and salty, they’re a guaranteed crowd pleaser at any international summit, piled in heaps next to the water pitchers on those long, shiny wood tables. […]
READ ONI’ve received a heap of emails the last day from folks arguing that they really can taste the difference between different kinds of salts, especially products like “smoked” salt. I concede that these folks have a point, but I’d argue that smoked salt isn’t actually a “gourmet” salt but rather a flavored salt. These types […]
READ ONPart of the reason, as I said yesterday, is merely caché. Yet there are some other good reasons why many chefs prefer to work with flake salt. For one, it’s easy to pick up. And I mean that literally. Granules of table salt run from between your fingers like tiny ball bearings when you try […]
READ ONWould you believe salt crystallization is a force that can literally move mountains? Actually, I suppose “erode” is a more accurate term. Mountains on the shores of seas, salt lakes or salty streams are prone to erosion when salt water soaks into them. When the water evaporates the salt it leaves behind crystallizes, prying stone […]
READ ONRemember the below post about salt suppressing bitterness? Turns out that ain’t just Joe blowin’ steam. Thanks to reader Kelly H. for the tip!
READ ONTrace impurities may not have much impact on the way a salt tastes, but the size and shape of the salt crystals definitely do. Again, not because the salt is any different chemically, but because crystals of varying sizes and shapes have different surface areas, and so dissolve at different rates. Salt grains come in […]
READ ONAs I wrote late last week, I’m not a big believer in “gourmet” salts. I don’t set a table with half a dozen different colored salts in little finger bowls. All the fuss over salt these past few years, well…it’s just a lot of hooey in my opinion. All “eating” salts are chemically identical: NaCl, […]
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