My daughter loves to cook (makes a mom so proud :) ). She was making dinner and put a stick of butter in a sauce pan and then put the pan on the flame while pulling out the rest of her ingredients. While her back was turned, the butter slowly melted. When she returned to her pan, there were three distinct layers of butter in the pan. “Ewe, Mom what happened to the butter?” she groaned. Apparently she’d never noticed this before. This was a teaching moment (we parents love teaching moments).
What she was seeing were the elements of creamy butter all separated out.
First = The top foamy layer of water and milk. This is undesirable when clarifying butter and should be skimmed off the top with a spoon and thrown away.
Second = The deep yellow layer of the prized butterfat. This is the stuff you want to keep (pour this out into a small dish or bowl) for sautéing and cooking.
Lastly = The milk solids. This stuff will be on the bottom and burns easily – even at low pan temps. Throw this away, too.
Left with just the lovely yellow butterfat to proceed with, she completed her mirepoix like a pro. Dinner is now cooking in the slow cooker and we’ve completed another lesson in the culinary school of hard knocks.
Try clarifying your butter before starting your next sauté. See if you don’t agree that it leaves a cleaner, buttery taste on your vegetables while browning more evenly and with less smoke.
Eat Well,
Dawn
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
A Salted
A girlfriend called me over the weekend to ask my opinion about the different salts called for in a recipe she was going to make. OK...most everyone else I know can tell you that was her first mistake. Starting out a sentence with, "So what do you think about…” will land you in a 20 minute chat about the topic. Her question was valid though and it was important that she understood; she wanted to know the difference between regular table salt and kosher salt.
While all refined salt is sodium chloride, all salt is not the same. To start, some salt is mined from ancient seas - taken out of the ground. Other salt is made by drying beds of salt water. Salt, like the kind mom had on the table, has iodine added. Iodine is part of the hormone that regulates your metabolism. Iodine is found in food that comes from the sea or is grown in areas that were once under the sea. For people living in the Great Plain states and away from sea water, Goiter (a disease of the thyroid gland resulting from iodine deficiency) used to be a terrible problem. So salt, which everyone used daily, was fortified with iodine.
Table salt has a granular shape to it. It packs well with other grains in the measuring spoon, so table salt is heavy. Because of its shape, it also takes longer to dissolve on your tongue, leaving the impression that it is “saltier” than other kinds of salt.
What other kinds of salts are there you ask? Well, just about one for every region of every country that is or ever was, by the ocean or sea. But Kosher salt is different. While kosher salt is usually Kosher, as in prepared according to Jewish dietary laws, that’s not why it’s called kosher salt. It’s flat, flake shape is perfect for curing meat, or koshering. Its flakiness means it takes less to fill up a measuring spoon, so kosher salt is light. Kosher flakes hit the tongue and dissolve quickly leaving the impression it is less salty than other kinds of salt.
So back to the difference in the recipe. If the recipe calls for kosher salt and all you have is table salt, reduce the amount of salt you are adding by 25%. 1 tsp kosher = 3/4tsp table. Funny thing is, salt is subjective anyway. I always season my food before I bring it to the table, however I place salt cellars on the table just in case.
After 20 minutes on the phone I think I forgot what the original question was. We ended up talking about the new waffle pan I just got. She asked me what I thought about it and…
Eat well.
Dawn
While all refined salt is sodium chloride, all salt is not the same. To start, some salt is mined from ancient seas - taken out of the ground. Other salt is made by drying beds of salt water. Salt, like the kind mom had on the table, has iodine added. Iodine is part of the hormone that regulates your metabolism. Iodine is found in food that comes from the sea or is grown in areas that were once under the sea. For people living in the Great Plain states and away from sea water, Goiter (a disease of the thyroid gland resulting from iodine deficiency) used to be a terrible problem. So salt, which everyone used daily, was fortified with iodine.
Table salt has a granular shape to it. It packs well with other grains in the measuring spoon, so table salt is heavy. Because of its shape, it also takes longer to dissolve on your tongue, leaving the impression that it is “saltier” than other kinds of salt.
What other kinds of salts are there you ask? Well, just about one for every region of every country that is or ever was, by the ocean or sea. But Kosher salt is different. While kosher salt is usually Kosher, as in prepared according to Jewish dietary laws, that’s not why it’s called kosher salt. It’s flat, flake shape is perfect for curing meat, or koshering. Its flakiness means it takes less to fill up a measuring spoon, so kosher salt is light. Kosher flakes hit the tongue and dissolve quickly leaving the impression it is less salty than other kinds of salt.
So back to the difference in the recipe. If the recipe calls for kosher salt and all you have is table salt, reduce the amount of salt you are adding by 25%. 1 tsp kosher = 3/4tsp table. Funny thing is, salt is subjective anyway. I always season my food before I bring it to the table, however I place salt cellars on the table just in case.
After 20 minutes on the phone I think I forgot what the original question was. We ended up talking about the new waffle pan I just got. She asked me what I thought about it and…
Eat well.
Dawn
Monday, February 14, 2011
Ya' Gotta' Have Heart
This weekend, I was reading interesting Valentine’s Day food facts. Did you know:
• It didn’t become a romantic holiday until the Middle Ages.
• It was removed from the Roman calendar in 1969.
• Over 35 million heart-shaped, chocolate boxes are sold each year for the big event.
• Over 8 billion conversation hearts are purchased in the two weeks prior.
At any rate, my children gathered around me ready to continue our Valentine project. We’ve been baking giant heart-shaped sugar and gingerbread cookies to decorate and give away on Valentine’s Day. That’s when it hit me, that Valentine’s Day isn’t about the chocolate (ok, well maybe just a little) or the Sweathearts candies (I do love reading the sayings), but rather about gathering with the one (or ones) you love to celebrate that love.
With all the turmoil going on in the world today, don’t ‘cha think we could all use an extra generous dose of love? I think this Monday would be the perfect time to tell those who are close to us that we love them (only HR appropriate Valentine’s at work of course). Let’s all call mom (mom’s love that kinda stuff), dad (dad’s love it too, they just don’t show it like mom does), grandmas/grandpas/brothers/sisters, BFFs, all those really special people in our lives. A hand made card (or cookie or chocolate) can make someone feel extra special.
At Specialty’s we even have the CookieGram feature to send that someone (or someones) a special online cookie credit (www.specialtys.com/cookiegram.aspx).
My research also revealed that The International Committee for Relatively Pointless Abbreviations and Badly Misspelled Acronyms (SPUDS) has just released a new, internationally approved list of abbreviated signoffs perfect for this holiday. They include:
ooo = hugs
xxx = kisses
OOO = big hugs
XXX = big kisses
oo = hugs for everybody but you
OO! = big, excited hugs
xx@ = kisses and earlobe nibbling
zzz = snoring
yyy = anything that occurs between kissing and snoring
Well, back to my cookies. The egg whites are separated, there’s powdered sugar all over the place and several more batches of Royal icing to whip up. Our Specialty’s Family sends everyone a virtual hug (because everyone needs a hug) and we wish everyone a heartfelt Happy Valentine’s Day!
OO!
Dawn
• It didn’t become a romantic holiday until the Middle Ages.
• It was removed from the Roman calendar in 1969.
• Over 35 million heart-shaped, chocolate boxes are sold each year for the big event.
• Over 8 billion conversation hearts are purchased in the two weeks prior.
At any rate, my children gathered around me ready to continue our Valentine project. We’ve been baking giant heart-shaped sugar and gingerbread cookies to decorate and give away on Valentine’s Day. That’s when it hit me, that Valentine’s Day isn’t about the chocolate (ok, well maybe just a little) or the Sweathearts candies (I do love reading the sayings), but rather about gathering with the one (or ones) you love to celebrate that love.
With all the turmoil going on in the world today, don’t ‘cha think we could all use an extra generous dose of love? I think this Monday would be the perfect time to tell those who are close to us that we love them (only HR appropriate Valentine’s at work of course). Let’s all call mom (mom’s love that kinda stuff), dad (dad’s love it too, they just don’t show it like mom does), grandmas/grandpas/brothers/sisters, BFFs, all those really special people in our lives. A hand made card (or cookie or chocolate) can make someone feel extra special.
At Specialty’s we even have the CookieGram feature to send that someone (or someones) a special online cookie credit (www.specialtys.com/cookiegram.aspx).
My research also revealed that The International Committee for Relatively Pointless Abbreviations and Badly Misspelled Acronyms (SPUDS) has just released a new, internationally approved list of abbreviated signoffs perfect for this holiday. They include:
ooo = hugs
xxx = kisses
OOO = big hugs
XXX = big kisses
oo = hugs for everybody but you
OO! = big, excited hugs
xx@ = kisses and earlobe nibbling
zzz = snoring
yyy = anything that occurs between kissing and snoring
Well, back to my cookies. The egg whites are separated, there’s powdered sugar all over the place and several more batches of Royal icing to whip up. Our Specialty’s Family sends everyone a virtual hug (because everyone needs a hug) and we wish everyone a heartfelt Happy Valentine’s Day!
OO!
Dawn
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