Regular commentator Hans writes in to ask: So what’s this about food not browning well in really-fresh oil? I’m glad you asked that, Hans! For indeed people who really know frying will tell you that perfectly clear, fresh oil doesn’t cook food particularly well. That’s very true. The question is: why? The answer, again, is […]
READ ONHow long does it take for good fry oil to turn bad you mean? That depends on a number of factors, chief among them the type of fat you’re using. In general, you want one that’s fairly stable (i.e. resistant to breakdown) and neutral flavor-wise. For me that means either vegetable or canola oil. Solid […]
READ ONTo understand how the ’76 Steelers can turn into the ’08 Lions, we need to back up a bit and talk about fat composition. Kitchen fats are what are known as trigycerides. Which is to say their molecules are made up of three long-chain fatty acids attached to a “backbone” of glycerol. Imagine a capital […]
READ ONHope everybody had a great Memorial Day! Before I get back after my doughnuts, I wanted to put up a couple of last thoughts on the candy show in Chicago last week. One thing that has since occurred to me is the way in which the show echoed some of the themes from a chocolate […]
READ ONI’d be lying if I said that this wasn’t one of the best times I’ve had on the job in recent memory. However the truth of the matter is that there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot there that would have been of interest to pastry makers or bakers (except maybe those folks who […]
READ ONMy good friend Jenni over at Pastry Methods and Techniques had this to say about the NRA and pre-made pastry: Last time I went to a restaurant show, I thought the same thing. And I was working somewhere where we did make everything from scratch. I find the trend disheartening. I’m with you; I hope […]
READ ONI could go home to my doughnuts now. Or, I could stay a little while longer and also go to the National Confectioner’s Show, also known as the All Candy Expo, which is also going on in Chicago right now. Well, what would YOU do?
READ ONOne of the things that struck me about this year’s NRA was how little baking and pastry gear was on offer compared to the sheer quantity of pre-made, ready-to-ship bread and dessert. Every other aisle seemed to house a different par-baked bread company or fudgy dessert/cheesecake maker. This makes sense, of course, since there are […]
READ ONI didn’t hang in quite as long today, but long enough to see some truly outrageous blender demonstrations from Blendtec. Not since the Bass-O-Matic has a blender been this much fun. In other news, I came across the Demarle booth, where the Silpat folks had all sorts of interesting new pastry molds to demonstrate. This […]
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