Reader Veggie asks if it’s possible to substitute butter for shortening in flour tortillas. The answer is yes, and I expect butter would give flour tortillas a very nice warm and toasty flavor, though it won’t be anything like what most people are accustomed to. A down side to using butter is that it’s 17% […]
READ ONIt didn’t even occur to me until I was putting this post together that these might seem a little well-done to some of you. But I like deeply toasted tortillas. Store bought tortillas usually sport a few polite light-tan spots on them. I view those as the flatbread equivalent of par-baked bread loaves, meant to […]
READ ONPeople call me the Digression King, but I don’t often digress from my normal content-du-jour into my other pet interests…like music. Today I’m making an exception because I haven’t been able to stop listening to a new bluegrass band by the name of Trampled by Turtles. Ever since I moved to Kentucky I’ve been cultivating […]
READ ONThe Mexican-style tortilla has such a long history, it’s almost impossible to write anything about it. It’s safe to say that something very similar to today’s corn tortilla dates as far back as corn itself, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 years. But the technique — of creating a grain-based paste or gruel and cooking […]
READ ONTalk about a change of gears that’ll practically give you whiplash, this week I’ll be making an Austrian cake called a rehrücken. Why on earth would I want to do that? For one because I’ve been wanting to try it for ages, and for two, because I feel as though I’ve been neglecting German-speaking Europe […]
READ ONI wish there was a way to somehow transmute humble corn meal into the masa harina that’s needed for corn tortillas, however there’s really no substitute. Corn masa (dough) comes in two forms: ready made dough which is sold in tubs and is only available in larger cities with established Mexican communities, or dried instant […]
READ ONReader Laura further suggests that a sous vide cooker would be a great place to culture yogurt. Indeed so. Great thinking, Laura — keep’em coming!
READ ONFlour tortillas get a bad rap, widely thought of as “Americanized” tortillas, but they are a staple in many regions of Mexico. Yes they contain fat and yes they contain white flour, but then so do more than a few commercial yeast breads. Combined with some rice, beans and a few pieces of pan-fried plantain, […]
READ ONReader Laura writes, calmly: What!! No pastry application!? Sir, I quote from your own blog: The first method simply involves slowly melting previously tempered chocolate at a perfect 89 degrees Fahrenheit (the melting and forming point of the ideal “Beta V form” cocoa fat crystal), maintaining it at that temperature, then applying the chocolate as […]
READ ONReader Nicole writes, helpfully: Congratulations on your new toy! Reading your description of the precise temperature control made me wonder – do you think you could use this to pasteurize whole eggs? If the eggs sit in 140 F water for long enough for the yolk to reach that temperature and stay there for 3 […]
READ ON