That was fast. Not one, but TWO complaints that I referenced veal on a blog ostensibly devoted to pastry. I guess I’m not surprised (though I am shocked at the speed of the responses), since I’ve noticed that several vegetarian blogs link to me (big dessert hounds, those vegetarians). Here’s an excerpt of one that […]
READ ONRyan, astute observer of all things fruitcake, wrote in over the weekend to comment: Joe…I noticed you’re not using those colored candied fruits in your fruitcake recipe. According to your story, that’s not in the tradition of your father’s fruitcake recipe, now is it? True enough. What can I say, I was going for a […]
READ ONI didn’t get many posts up, or at least not the ones I was planning. Thursday evening my butcher called to tell me he’d been busy, and had twenty pounds of veal bones waiting for me if I wanted them. It was a windfall I couldn’t ignore, and I spent the weekend making stocks and […]
READ ONWas fruitcake responsible for the discovery of the New World? Mmm…possible. The influx of exotica from Araby in the 1200’s certainly did whet the continental appetite for spices. So much so that when the spice supply was squeezed with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, European heads of state were forced to take radical action. […]
READ ONThis week’s New York Times features a recipe, not for a fruitcake, but a gooey chocolate bundt cake that apparently works with just about any type of whiskey added. Looks like one hell of a way to fall off the wagon (whichever one you happen to be on).
READ ON…something like this comes along and blows your tiny mind. It looks like real flowers set into a clear mold of Jell-O. In fact the flowers aren’t real, but pigments somehow inserted into the mold before it sets, creating this unbelievable effect. And I thought color-layered Jell-O shots were impressive. This Mexican pastry chef is […]
READ ONNo, not my ample 1-year-old daughter, I mean of course fruitcake. It’s the 12th century and newfangled dried fruit, plus spices of all kinds, are pouring into Europe by the (ox)cartload. Suddenly the continent can’t get enough of fruitcake — and everyone’s getting into the act. The English are making their cakes and puddings, the Scots […]
READ ONMore than a few food scribes will tell you that fruitcakes date to the Greeks and Romans (doesn’t everything in a newspaper food column?). But that’s only true if what you mean by a fruitcake is a cake with fruit in it. It’s sort of like trying to put a fixed date on, oh, let’s […]
READ ONYou mean what sort of spirit should you use in a fruitcake? It all depends on the cake really, since they can obviously vary in style quite a bit. But as long as the liquor is hard, you can’t go too wrong. I’d say for a lighter cake, one that’s more yellow and buttery, I’d […]
READ ONI ran into this once again this year: turkey dinner leftover pizza, made by a pizzeria by the name of Pluto’s in the town of French Lick, Indiana (no off-color jokes please, I haven’t had my morning coffee yet). As you can see, this monster features a “crust” of turkey dressing, on top of which […]
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