Category: Pastry

Baked Alaska has been variously known as a “Norwegian omelette” and a “Swedish Omelette”, mostly on the Continent. The dessert has as much to do with Scandinavia as it does Alaska, but then they’re both pretty cold, also.

As you’ve no doubt guessed already, meringue is a terrific insulator. It’s made of thousands upon thousands of tiny bubbles, and each one of them works like a little air gap, slowing down the transfer of heat from the oven to the ice cream. Still air, you see, doesn’t move heat very well.

Thus meringue is great at putting the hammer down on convective heat transfer, i.e. movement of heat via air flows (or liquid flows). It’s not so good at preventing the other two major modes of heat transfer: conductive (objects of different temperatures in physical contact with one another) or radiant (electromagnetic radiation). The good news there is that most of the heat transfer that occurs in a home oven is of the convective kind. Clever fellow, that Rumford guy.

I get more questions about génoise than about any other type of cake. I understand that. Génoise batter can be tricky stuff. Oh not because the technique is difficult to master. The steps are mostly pretty easy. The danger lies in over-whipping.

It took me years of on-again, off-again génoise making to understand that the degree of whipping and the height of the rise only correlate up to a point. Once you pass it, more whipping begets less volume, even a complete and utter failure (fall). Why?

Under exactly what circumstances would an American-born British loyalist who fled North America and subsequently relocated to Bavaria introduce a dessert to Thomas Jefferson? It’s a darn good question. As far as I know, Rumford never returned to America after he left in 1776. Jefferson, on the other hand, traveled extensively in Europe in the 1780’s. Interested as Jefferson was in the sciences, it’s certainly possible he encountered Rumford there. However by Rumford’s own account, he didn’t invent his “omelette surprise” until about fifteen years later. So Rumford said:

Omelette surpirse was the by-product of investigations in 1804 into the resistance of stiffly beaten egg whites to the induction of heat.

Not Alaska, that much I know for sure. That name was invented, probably in America, around 1900. It appeared in print for the first time in the 1906 edition of Fanny Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cookbook. Why was it named for Alaska? Not because Alaska was admitted to the union at that time as some people claim (that wasn’t until 1959). No, it seems the Alaska part simply seems to be a trendy — at least at that time — reference to something cold.

So OK, the questions just keep on coming: why do athletes eat raw eggs? That from reader Nan. I’m not sure athletes eat/drink eggs like Rocky anymore, however I do know why eggs are considered a “perfect” protein by many nutritionistas. It has to do with their so-called “bioavailability.” It’s a long word but the idea behind it is simple. The food world is full of different kinds of edible proteins, but the degree to which the body can break them down and use them varies. Some proteins break down very inefficiently in the digestive tract, the result being that not all the nutrients they contain (specifically their nitrogen) can be absorbed. The most “perfect” proteins are those that give up the most nutrients. Egg proteins are 97% bioavailable which is, you know, a lot.

I’ve received quite a few emails asking about egg safety since I began this grand digression a week ago. Though I don’t want to get too deep into the subject — there are baked Alaskas to make — I do have a few thoughts. I can remember being amazed and disappointed when, back in the […]

In light of the Gay Girl in Damascus blogging scandal and the Lez Get Real blogging scandal, I think it’s high time I came clean about my real identity. I’m ashamed to admit that in reality my name is Jane Meat and I work the grill station at a Ponderosa Steakhouse in Newark, New Jersey. I know it’s all a gigantic shock. I just wanted to be loved…is that so wrong?

I spent so much time blathering on about eggs I never got to bake the Alaska, and now I have to leave town! Back Monday to try it again! – Joe