It’s fish for dinner tonight (actually some very nice looking whole trout I found at the fish market), which brought another of lemon juice’s many uses to mind (albeit non-bakery). It’s one of natures great aroma killers. Again, it’s the acidity that’s important, not the flavor. Citric acid has a lovely way of converting a […]
READ ONO knobby blob, Yellow, round and waxy, What bittersweet wonders await Beneath thy sunny zest? Ouch. Better not give up my day job (and anyway, Pablo Neruda had this covered a long time ago). If you’ve ever been inside a walk-in in a real pastry kitchen one thing will certainly strike you: how many dang […]
READ ONA darn good question. Especially good when you consider that to the untrained eye lemon curd closely resembles any number of lesser flour- or cornstarch-thickened lemon fillings, fillings that form the basis of many (especially commercial) lemon tarts, lemon-filled doughnuts, fruit pizzas, cakes…yadda and yadda. Not to say that these types of preparations don’t have […]
READ ONIt’s later winter here in the Northern hemisphere, and that means citrus. My hands-down favorite in that department is lemon, and what better way to enjoy a little lemon than with plenty of butter, sugar and eggs? Lemon Curd I know it’s technically considered a sauce, but I could eat it with a spoon. In […]
READ ONI can’t say really, I never heard from my host, but the site was down for about 48 hours. Maintenance maybe, or somebody’s toddler hit the off switch. Based on recent experience, I’ve got my money on the latter.
READ ONI’m being called away. To Milwaukee. No worries, I’ll be back soon telling tales of bratwurst. Plus I’ll get a few full nights sleep — which puts a whole new positive spin on business travel.
READ ONWatching all the hand-wringing at Starbuck’s over the pasting they took in last month’s Consumer Reports taste tests (not to mention their nosediving customer loyalty numbers) makes me think of the old adage that sooner or later every overnight success has to go to work for a living. For years now the good folks out […]
READ ONWell it’s been three weeks and the Chicago deep-dish crust tastes every bit as good to me as it did that first night. I’ve made a couple of tweaks to the procedure (a higher par-baking temperature, for instance) but the proportions are same. Oh what joy there is in knowing I can now take Gino’s […]
READ ONAnd that’s not a metaphor, at least if you live in Chicago. Last Friday longtime friend Doug Sohn was cited by Chicago police for continuing to serve his famous foie gras dog in open defiance of the world’s most ridiculous law. In real-world dollars the fine doesn’t add up to much (though few business owners […]
READ ONAll my girls need extra sleep this morning, so I’ll take the opportunity to blog while I may. One thing that I think is interesting to examine is the role of a baguettes’s shape in its preparation. A long, skinny form with lots of surface area obviously lends itself to rapid heat penetration, which means […]
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