A reader and very good friend wrote in yesterday to ask: Hi [Joe], With the Kentucky connection and the food/farming focus, I’m just curious what you think about this interview: http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/391/digging_in The man featured in the interview is of course the irreplaceable Wendell Berry; farmer, poet, essayist and Kentuckian who lives roughly an hour east […]
READ ONFor those of you who find it impossible to believe that tomatoes can work as a sweet, I urge you to try this recipe. Not just because it’s delicious, but because it unfailingly simmers down to just the right consistency…no need to check for “gelling” like you do with standard fruit jams. Believe me, you […]
READ ONGet creative with how you serve it! My original intention with this series of ice cream posts was to get into cone (and other ice cream vehicle) making. However I’ve run my fingers long enough on this topic — it’s time to move on! I’ll save ice cream carriers for another day…but thought I’d at […]
READ ONVanilla is the world’s second-most expensive spice? It is, the number one honors going to saffron.
READ ONReal vanilla beans are so expensive (though thankfully less so than they were a few years ago, after a typhoon wiped out most of the Madagascar vanilla crop), that you want to be absolutely certain that you’re getting freshness and quality when you set out to buy them. Good, fresh vanilla beans should not only […]
READ ONThe weekend’s mailbag contained this interesting question from regular reader and commentator Hans Fugal: You brought up vanilla (briefly) which reminded me of a thought I’ve been entertaining. I heard about vanilla sugar at http://www.saunalahti.fi/~marian1/gourmet/i_vanill.htm and started working the math in my head. A couple of beans will make a jar full of vanilla sugar, […]
READ ONWhether home-made or store bought, you’ll want to be sure to store your ice cream in the coldest environment you can find. That means the freezer, obviously, but more so at the back of the bottom-most shelf. Why is this important? Because as ice cream is warmed and chilled with each subsequent removal from the […]
READ ONIt’s a common misperception that because gelato is made with milk it’s lower in fat than American and French-style ice creams. Wrongo. Though on average they’re a little lower in milk fat, gelatos can weigh in at up to 18% total fat, which is up there with the chubbiest of the ultra-rich (so-called “super premium”) […]
READ ONThere’s less and less every day it seems. However there are two, maybe three base differences that more or less hold true. First, that gelato is made (or was once exclusively made) with milk. This is supposed to differentiate it from a French-style custard ice cream in that French-style is made with — no surprise […]
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