One of the properties that both molasses and corn syrup share is their resistance to crystallization. True, in rare cases molasses has been known to crystallize, though I’m betting it wasn’t blackstrap molasses that did it. There are simply too many long-chain sugars (not to mention all the other gunk) in blackstrap molasses to allow […]
READ ONThe most recent post on sorghum syrup made me realize something important: in spite of all the jabbering I’ve been doing about molasses and table sugar, I haven’t written a thing about how either one are made. It’s a slightly complex process, yet here it is in a nutshell: Sugar has of course traditionally been […]
READ ONI roused the wife and daughter before dawn this morning so we’d have a chance to see some of the pre-Derby training over at Churchill Downs. I see what these locals like about racing. Little Josephine Pastry demurred from patting a horse on the nose when a jockey brought one close, but then she’s two […]
READ ONI received an email yesterday from a reader wondering why, when molasses was such a widely available sweetner, did home cooks and commercial food makers switch over to corn syrup? A big reason is cost. Sugar syrup derived from sugar cane invariably costs more than sugar syrup derived from corn (more labor goes into it, […]
READ ONPecans are distinctively American nuts. Not only did they originate here, (somewhere in the central southern US), they’ve never really caught on anywhere else. It may be because the pecan isn’t all that distinctive as compared to the world’s other great nuts. It may be because it has a fantastically hard shell (the Algonquin word […]
READ ONIf, after Monday’s post about stale bread, you’ve decided to start a recipe collection, hop over to An Obsession with Food. It’s a stale bread smorgasbord!
READ ONOne of the advantages of the blogging software I use is its ability to display the way in which some people arrive at my site. Hit a button that says “Referring Searches” and I can see some of the word combinations that bring joepastry.com up on the big google lists. Some are relevant like “Dobos […]
READ ONA word to the wise on ciabatta: don’t let this bread overproof. Stick to a strict 30-minute timetable as the recipe suggests. I let mine sit for too long before putting it in the oven, and it developed too much gas. The result was a giant, brittle, hollow pillow. That’ll teach me to bake and […]
READ ONMaking ciabatta again today (God love the home office). I’m getting seriously addicted to this bread, though you need a lot of excess flour around to manage it, which leaves my kitchen looking like the aftermath of the pie fight from the movie The Great Race. Still, it’s got a flavor and texture I could […]
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