The residents of Devon and Cornwall don’t agree on much generally, but least of all where food is concerned. A couple of years ago I discussed the ongoing row between those two English counties on the crucial question of pasty crimping: side or top? With issues of that magnitude on the table it’s no wonder there’s so little intermarriage across county lines down that way.
READ ON“The Great Googa Mooga” is going to hit Prospect Part in Brooklyn this weekend, a sort of Lollapalooza of food with music attached. You know “food-tainment” is pushing the boundaries of, well, taste when star chefs, pricey appetizers, wine and hog butchery can draw crowds on a rock n’ roll scale. Livy, the Roman historian, famously remarked that the glorification of chefs was a sign of a culture in decline. I hope that was one of his throwaway lines, otherwise I’m deeply concerned with the plight of Western civilization. Thanks to reader Catherine for the hat tip!
READ ONReader Mark asks:
Any chance you’d be able to expand on what clotted cream is, and why it doesn’t seem to be something that can be purchased in the US? Is it practical to make at home? Just doesn’t seem one can have a proper scone w/out some clotted cream to go with it.
I would be delighted, Mark! Most people think they call it “clotted” cream because that’s the way your arteries look when a Devon creamy tea is over. I’m not saying that isn’t true, but it’s not technically correct. “Clotted” or “double” cream is made via a process that’s unique to Devon, Cornwall and a few regions of southern Asia and the Middle East (where the end product is known as Malai or Kaymak). But how exactly does it work?
READ ONQuick: what’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone says the word “scone”? Other than sawdust, I mean. Right: English tea. Or more specifically, the ritual of English afternoon tea. Erroneously called “high tea” here in the States (probably because of the formality that’s associated with it), the meal is actually, technically, “low tea.”
READ ONThese scones are the kind I remember from my college days in Devon when I, along with the other overcoat-wearing nihilists from the University of Exeter’s philosophy department, would descend on a local tea shop and munch cream-covered scones from delicate china plates set on doilies. The universe might have been impersonal and meaningless but the butterfat content was high. You’ll need:
READ ONLast week it was MCA of the Beastie Boys, this week a legend from another generation went down. The man was Donald “Duck” Dunn, who was second only to the great James Jamerson in the pantheon of R&B bass players. But whereas Jamerson was the house bassist for Motown Records, Dunn held down the low end down in Memphis at Stax.
READ ONI know, I’ve done scones before, but they were American scones. Those aren’t really scones in the British sense. Oh right, then I did those Aussie pumpkin scones, but those aren’t British scones either. More like American biscuits. Which I should probably point out aren’t like either Australian or British biscuits. Those are more like American cookies. Which is not to say that no one makes cookies in Britain, they…
Hang on, I’m getting all confused now. This is going to be a short week for me, I’d better not get my little brainpan smoking already. I’m just going to put up a recipe…
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A classic bombe is made from pig iron and gunpowder ice cream and sponge cake. However the filling need not be ice cream to still qualify as a frozen bombe. Here I’m using frozen mousse for the interior which is an easier thing for the home cook to produce, even though it is a little extra rich. (Not always a bad thing).
Reader Susan writes:
READ ONI can’t decide whether I like white chocolate or not. I like the very first taste of white chocolate when it hits my tongue and it’s initial flavor is sensed…then it’s all down hill from there. White chocolate does (to me) what milk chocolate seems to do to me; it’s components coat the tongue and the sensation of it’s flavor goes into overload that cannot be washed away! Is that sensation because of the amount of fat in the cocoa butter? What’s the deal with white chocolate?
Good question, reader Leeza. Pretty much nothin’. White chocolate has zero cocoa solids, which are the essence of chocolate flavor. The only thing that comes from the cocoa pod that’s found in white chocolate is cocoa butter, which has no flavor of its own (sometimes it does have a residual chocolate smell, though the type you find in most bars has been deodorized).
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