Cooking liquids are great for making sauces. Whether stock or the liquid from some poached meat (basically stock), these liquids are full of flavor and should be considered when a sauce is needed. Sauces, however, are (almost always) more viscous than the aforementioned liquids, so these liquids will need thickening. Stocks can be reduced so … Continue reading Quick Note: Cooking Liquids and Sauces
Say, for instance, that a recipe calls for the use of chicken or beef stock, and you don’t have any—what do you do? Quit, obviously. You are swine and do not belong in a kitchen, you worthless pile of elephant dung. In most cases, you may simply use water and compensate by being a little … Continue reading The Art of Substitution: Stock
Soups. Every now and then, we hear about someone who “doesn’t like soup.” This is preposterous. The notion that one can so succinctly dismiss the entire range of available food befuddles and vexes our open-minded little noggins. Yes, the entire range of available food! Anything can become soup! Anything! It won’t always make it … Continue reading Potato and Leek Soup
We’ll spare you the puns and the periphrastic descriptions this round—there’s no knead for all of that. Sorry… There is something about bread that people find intimidating. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that mixed flour, water, salt, and yeast enters an oven, and by some witchcraft, exits a baguette, or ciabatta, or boule (she … Continue reading No-Knead Bread—a.k.a The Gateway Bread
Recipe 4 cups milk (half-and-half if for ice cream) 200 g sugar 8-10 egg yolks 1 vanilla bean, split What the French call crème anglaise is a highly versatile sauce that is often used as the rich base for ice cream and other such custards (the inclusion of eggs technically makes most ice creams “frozen … Continue reading Crème anglaise (English Cream)
Many of you have been asking about how crystallization works and how it factors into ice-cream making. . . ok, fine, no one asked about it. Just keep quiet and pretend that you did. Hoarfrost (water-vapor crystals) on glass (http://my.opera.com/FrogBoots/albums/showpic.dml?album=440907&picture=6150169) The “ice” in “ice cream” is the result of the water in the milk … Continue reading Crystallization: How it Works + Ice Cream
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