I’m just going to get even nerdier on the subject of essential oils and flavor this week, so those of you who’d rather I did something else — like actually make some lemon curd or something — better bug out now. Writing about plant toxins yesterday got me thinking, notably about alkaloids (the bitter compounds […]
READ ONIt would be delightful to think that essential oils are simply gifts from nature to humankind. Sensuous, stimulating compounds concocted by Mother Gaia solely for our enjoyment. Indeed when you think about where essential oils are most commonly employed (in cuisine, in aromatherapy and massage) it certainly may seem so. Yet if the natural sciences […]
READ ONA good question. Extracts contain essential oils, though not in pure form. Just how diluted an extract is varies from essence to essence, though almost all extracts consist of an essential oil dissolved in alcohol. Why alcohol? Because as the old adage goes: oil and water don’t mix. Essential oils are, well, oils (sort of, […]
READ ONI started talking a bit about essential oils last week, but got so distracted blathering on about trans fats that I never really discussed them. But then there’s no time like the present is there? Essential oils are, as the name implies, liquids that constitute the essence of a plant or fruit’s flavor. They’re not […]
READ ONIf you were reading Joe Pastry a few weeks ago you may remember a short post on the subject of so-called “nutraceuticals”, or commercially prepared foods with pseudo-medicinal benefits. My joke at the time was of course the cookie that cures cancer, yet a front page article in the New York Times yesterday made that […]
READ ONBotanists have a very tough time plotting the evolution of citrus fruits. They’ve been fiddled with by humans so much the past few millennia it’s impossible to figure out which are the “original” fruit and which are the “cultivated” varieties. The trouble is citrus of one type is so easily grafted onto another. You can […]
READ ONIt’s fish for dinner tonight (actually some very nice looking whole trout I found at the fish market), which brought another of lemon juice’s many uses to mind (albeit non-bakery). It’s one of natures great aroma killers. Again, it’s the acidity that’s important, not the flavor. Citric acid has a lovely way of converting a […]
READ ONO knobby blob, Yellow, round and waxy, What bittersweet wonders await Beneath thy sunny zest? Ouch. Better not give up my day job (and anyway, Pablo Neruda had this covered a long time ago). If you’ve ever been inside a walk-in in a real pastry kitchen one thing will certainly strike you: how many dang […]
READ ONA darn good question. Especially good when you consider that to the untrained eye lemon curd closely resembles any number of lesser flour- or cornstarch-thickened lemon fillings, fillings that form the basis of many (especially commercial) lemon tarts, lemon-filled doughnuts, fruit pizzas, cakes…yadda and yadda. Not to say that these types of preparations don’t have […]
READ ONIt’s later winter here in the Northern hemisphere, and that means citrus. My hands-down favorite in that department is lemon, and what better way to enjoy a little lemon than with plenty of butter, sugar and eggs? Lemon Curd I know it’s technically considered a sauce, but I could eat it with a spoon. In […]
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