A very wise person once said that there’s no such thing as helpful hysteria. Case-in-point the madness surrounding trans fats these past few years, which has had some very odd consequences. For cow’s milk — any cow’s milk — contains trans fats, as I explained below. That means that organic butter contains trans fats, local […]
READ ONSo, trans fats. Invented by humans…unheard of in the natural world…a “biological novelty” (to quote our dietary bellyacher-in-chief, Michael Pollan). Is it true? No. The number one “fact” we hear about trans fats — that they’re entirely synthetic, lab-created compounds — is false. The arch conspirators in the global trans fat cabal are actually cows. […]
READ ONThis one is a no-brainer, save for one very important detail: never (really, never) use high quality chocolate to top a doughnut. Why not? Because truly good eating chocolate deserves to be eaten on its own. Combining high quality chocolate with a high quality doughnut ruins them both, as they compete for attention (kind of […]
READ ONNo, only partial hydrogenation does it. You’ve heard that term before, I’m sure. Why are liquid oils only partially hydrogenated? Because the more you hydrogenate fatty acids, the more hydrogen atoms you add to those hydrocarbon chains, the firmer the fat gets. Fully hydrogenated cottonseed oil, for example, is so uniform and crystallizes so well, […]
READ ONSo then what, in technical terms, is a trans fat — really? And in what way is it different from other, more common fats? To answer this question, we must return to that “E”-shaped triglyceride molecule I mentioned last week. As you’ll recall, triglycerides are “E”-shaped because they’re composed of a molecule of glycerol with […]
READ ONThis is my favorite way to enjoy a cake doughnut, without any fancy flavors, just a good honest scratch doughnut glazed with a thin coat of icing. As you might expect, it’s a very easy thing to do. Just combine: 8 ounces powdered sugar 2 tablespoon plus two teaspoons water or milk a few drop […]
READ ON…it’s good to know there’s somebody out there swimming upstream against the whole thing, throwing fat wads of cash to the four winds. That man is Nick over at imafoodblog.com, who dined with all the humility and restraint of a rubber baron this past weekend, with his Kobe beef carpaccio with shaved black truffles and […]
READ ONYou know enough about fats and frying now to know why solid fats are valuable to the food (and especially baking industry). Solid fats are durable and far less prone to both “weeping” and rancidity than liquid oils. Which means foods that contain them are less prone to spoilage, and that’s good for pretty much […]
READ ONI went and mentioned trans fats, which means I’m getting a lot of mail, some of it from people who are angry that I’m not angry about trans fats, some of it from people who just want to know what trans fats are. Since I’m not someone who enjoys controversy very much (even though I […]
READ ONReader Matt wrote in over the weekend to ask: I read your post “The True Sinker” and it made me wonder. According to your other posts on fry oil, only oil that’s pretty far gone soaks into food that fast. Does this mean most doughnut shops don’t change their oil very often? Actually, Matt, the […]
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