Two primary applications spring to mind: pie crusts and southern biscuits (though there are dozens more in baking and probably hundreds in cooking). What makes lard so desirable for pies and biscuits? Simply, because unlike butter, it’s all fat. Butter contains roughly 12% water, and that water causes trouble in a pie or biscuit dough. […]
READ ONThere’s something so elementally satisfying about the process of rendering lard, I…I don’t know how to fully express it. A sort of manly do-it-yourself pride combined with the boyish thrill of breaking a food taboo. As George Patton might have said: God help me, I do love it so. The obvious question is: why? After […]
READ ONI missed this announcement over the weekend, but the Nestlé company is recalling all of its cookie dough products due to fear that they might be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7. If you have any of them in your pantry, throw them away.
READ ONThis is a very American scone. It’s big, it’s triangular, it’s rich. Note, however, that it’s possible to do a lot of different things with this dough. I generally favor small scones, and indeed I normally make 12 little triangles with this recipe instead of eight large ones. You can use round cutters if you […]
READ ONJenni over at Pastry Methods and Techniques wrote in with this interesting tidbit on Friday: So, get this: pain au chocolate is filled w/chocolate that has seized! This is keen, because it gets melty but doesn’t run all over the world. So, if you ever accidentally seize some chocolate, save for these little guys. 🙂 […]
READ ONThere’s a new doughnut shop opening in Saigon this month, featuring cake doughnuts made with the Joe Pastry recipe! Above is a picture of some of the first production, and I’ll be darned if those don’t look exactly like my doughnuts! I couldn’t be prouder if I was a peacock. Best of luck to you […]
READ ONDebuts nationally this weekend. For easy reference, I’ve bundled all the posts on the subject under this link. Happy weekend to all!
READ ONToday is the first very hot day of the year in Louisville, and it seems that increased demand for power has resulted in a blackout, at least in my neighborhood. The scone tutorial will have to wait for Monday.
READ ONReader Dario, a food scientist from Italy, wrote in with this to say about last week’s agriculture flap: I read your “series” on Pollan and GMO, and I agree with you. I have just finished writing a book on GMOs in Italian to be published in the fall. I know the subject very well and […]
READ ON…but I’m still getting a fair number of emails from folks about the agriculture posts from last week, a surprising number of them about pesticide use and health. I can’t speak to them with any real authority, and at any rate, I’m more of a GMO man myself (though I should say that many GMO […]
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