Because they’re sweet. Next to sugar beets, carrots contain more sugar than any other vegetable. Being root crops, they have a longer seasonal availability than fruit, and once harvested can be kept longer. No wonder then that carrots have played a starring role in a number of sweet preparations over the centuries, at least when […]
READ ONOh sure, reader Nora, ask me a hard question on a Monday! I’m barely awake and I’m supposed to talk physics! All right then, but be prepared: if I don’t make sense, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. People who are actually knowledgeable about physics, please check me. You amateur photographers out there […]
READ ONLet’s have a show of hands. You? You? Yeah, me too. I’ve never liked it. I think it’s because I’m old enough to remember life in the early 70’s, when carrot cakes were believed to be healthy alternatives to conventional layer cakes. I suppose if you made them the way the hippie folk of the […]
READ ONIt’s been a long and demanding week, friends, but the missus arrived back home over the weekend. I was relieved, but not nearly to the degree that my young daughters were. They were well tired of being sent to school looking like 1930’s-era Dust Bowl survivors. What can I say, I’m not skilled at laundry […]
READ ONReader Chana asks: I was just reading this post on invert sugar (which I have never used). My question: why use gelatin in sorbet, etc. if glucose sugar will do the trick? Do they do the same thing? I’ve never used gelatin, either. It tends to be an animal product (i.e., not kosher), although I […]
READ ONTeachers’ conferences are interfering with life as I know it this week. The missus is off to a conference in Philly and young Josephine’s school is off most of the week. Which leaves yours truly as Mr. Mom on a near full-time basis. Carrot cake came out of nowhere but it seems like a fun […]
READ ONReader Rick wrote in over the weekend with this comment: I was very interested by your post on sorbates in ice cream, especially the comment that it’s the food makers that have to list all the additives in the ingredients they use. If I understand you correctly, if I made a commercially distributed carrot cake […]
READ ONI wasn’t going to answer any more of these online, but two questions from last week have been eating at me, no pun intended. So I think I’ll just post answers and be done with it. This one from reader Neil: …despite what you say, you obviously don’t care much for the whole food movement. […]
READ ONYou want a sorbet that shows off the best features of autumn’s most elegant fruit? Pear sorbet is your ticket, friends. Like most fruit sorbets, the preparation is very, very simple. Cut up about 2.5 pounds of ripe pears into 1″ chunks and put them in a medium saucepan. Add half a cup of the […]
READ ONReader Jeff writes: In addition to slowing fats from becoming rancid, antioxidants are also used to maintain color in fruits that have a tendency to discolor – or oxidize – when cut. Apples, bananas, and stone fruit are all commonly treated with vitamin C, either as a dip (for cut fruit) or blended into a […]
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