Baking season. That and something else having to do with the birth of the Christ child. What’s it called again…? Anyway, what with everybody out there planning their ginger-almond bread puddings and vintage chocolate Bûche de Noëls, I thought it’d be nice to get down to basics with the all-time most undervalued Christmas confection: the […]
READ ONWell it was a memorable holiday with the extended Pastry family up in French Lick, Indiana (no snickering, you in the back!). What, you mean you’ve never heard of French Lick, Indiana? It’s only the home town of Larry Bird, one of the greatest NBA players of all time. It also happens to be the […]
READ ON…may not be your fault. According to a new study by researchers at Oxford University, tryptophan, the amino acid in turkey that’s known to cause drowsiness, also negatively impacts the human sense of trust. So if you feel like your mother is casting you a strange sidelong glance and your brother is plotting to steal […]
READ ON…have officially begun. Turkey sandwiches, turkey salad, turkey hash, turkey casserole (or “hot dish” as I knew it when I lived up in Minnesota). Let the egg and oil emulsion extravaganza begin! And while you may be tempted to go for the usual Hellman’s or Kraft, I recommend a heaping spoonful of Duke’s if you […]
READ ONYou know you’ve got hold of a good, solid traditional fruitcake recipe when the ingredients list is as long as your arm. These recipes date back hundreds of years in America, but their pedigree goes back to at least the High Middle Ages, when European bakers emptied their pantries of every last good thing they […]
READ ONScrambling to get my affairs in order before we bug out of town for a long Thanksgiving weekend. However I wanted to provide a brick oven update for the curious. It is indeed coming along. Great strides will almost certainly be made by my intrepid mason in my absence. For now here’s where we are. […]
READ ONLooks like the new wave of German chefs, not unlike like Rommel’s fifth panzer division, really means business. My only question is, when the Germans once again go storming across the Maginot Line, what will they be after? Haricots verts?
READ ONTurns out you probably want to buy your $25,000 desserts someplace else.
READ ONLooking down below at my first attempt at Woodford pudding, it’s reasonable to wonder: isn’t this pudding actually some kind of cake? And indeed this pudding is very cake-like. Which is to say it’s floury and crumbly, characteristics we Americans are unaccustomed to seeing in our puddings. For us, a pudding is a custard-type concoction. […]
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