KitchenSavvy

Cream of Tartar vs Tartar Sauce

Are Cream of Tartar and Tartar Sauce the same thing?
--Helen

Seeing this question made me think of a Before and After category puzzle on Wheel of Fortune where the answer is "Cream of Tartar Sauce."

No, they are not the same thing.  Cream of tartar is a dry white powder that is actually finely ground tartaric acid.  The chemical name is potassium bitartrate and the formula, for those who care, is KC₄H₅O₆.  It is found as a sediment in the making of wine (see Crystals in Wine).  Cream of tartar has three main uses in the home kitchen -- to stabilize egg whites when they are whipped (see Beating Egg Whites - How Cream of Tartar Helps), in candy making to help reduce the formation of crystals in boiling sugar, and as a leavening agent when combined with baking soda (see Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder).

Tartar sauce is a mayonnaise-based condiment most frequently served with seafood.  Typical ingredients, other than the mayonnaise are chopped dill pickles, capers, lemon juice, vinegar, onions or shallots, and various herbs and seasonings.  Here is my recipe for homemade tartar sauce which I like to serve with crab cakes:

Homemade Tartar Sauce

	1/3	c	Mayonnaise
1		tsp	Lemon Zest
1		tbsp	Fresh Lemon Juice
	1/2	clove	Garlic, minced
1	1/2	tbsp	Chopped Caper Berries, rinsed and drained
1	1/2	tsp	Chopped Fresh Chives
2		tsp	Chopped Fresh Cilantro or Tarragon
			Salt and Pepper, to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together and refrigerate, covered, for at least one hour for the flavors to meld.  Quantities can be adjusted to suit your taste.

I like to zest the lemon and mince the garlic using a micro-plane since that way they mix right in without any chunks or stringy bits, but both can be done with a knife if you prefer.  Also, I prefer the larger caper berries to the non-pareil size, although any size would work.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered, nor can we guarantee we will answer questions immediately
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Onion and Carrot Salad 'a la Grecque'

In cooking, a la Grecque means "in the Greek style" and usually refers to food that is served in a sauce made of olive oil, lemon juice, and seasonings such as fennel, coriander, sage, or thyme.  The following recipe is derived from one originally published by Jacques Pepin.  I like this as a summer or fall salad, since it is best when made with freshly harvested vegetables.  Vidalia onions can be substituted if you prefer a milder flavor.  Also, you can omit the lemon juice and just use ¹/₄ cup of white wine vinegar.

A good olive oil that you would use for cooking can be used for the first ¹/₃ cup, but you might use a finer, fruitier olive oil for the finish.

Onion and Carrot Salad a la Grecque

	1/2	c	Dry White Wine
2		tbsp	Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
2		tbsp	White Wine Vinegar, or to taste
	1/2	c	Water
	1/3	c	Olive Oil
	1/2	tsp	Whole Black Peppercorns
1		tsp	Coriander Seeds
	1/2	tsp	Dried Thyme
	1/2	tsp	Fennel Seeds
2		tsp	Salt
3			Whole Bay Leaves
	1/4	tsp	Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1	1/2	lb	White Onions (6 to 8 medium)
1		lb	Carrots (6 or 7 large)
	1/4	c	Olive Oil, to finish

1. Julienne the carrots into sticks about 2" X 3/8" square (5 cm X 1 cm square).
2. Peel the onions, and then cut each lengthwise into 8 segments (like an orange).
3. Bring the wine, lemon juice, vinegar, water, ⅓ cup of olive oil and all of the spices to a gentle boil in a large saucepan.
4. Add the carrots and cook, covered, for 6 minutes.
5. Add the onions and cook, covered, until the vegetables just start to soften, about 3 or 4 more minutes.
6. Allow to cool to room temperature and then transfer to a non-reactive container and refrigerate for at least one day or up to a week.
7. Just before serving, stir in the last ¼ cup of olive oil.

Accompany with fresh bread and a glass of the same wine that was used in making the salad.

Note that since most of the liquid remains in the serving dish, this recipe is less oily than it seems.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Pork and Pear Tajine with Dried Apricots

My lovely wife was recently on a painting trip to Portugal, Spain and Morocco.  You can check out some of her watercolors here.  While in Marrakesh, she really enjoyed the Moroccan foods and returned home not only with some great new spices for me to play with, but also a request that I try making some Moroccan food for her.

My initial experiments were dismal.  Even if you are able to read a recipe and have a sense for it, sometimes that's not enough.  After trying a few tries at recipes from books I found at the local libraries, and getting feedback from Pat on what worked and what didn't, I started to get some idea of how the Moroccan food should taste.

To supplement my spices, I had gone shopping at a local store that has a wide variety of ethnic ingredients.  There I found green cardamom pods and cinnamon bark.  A soon as I smelled the cardamom pods, I knew they were going into something special.  They have a wonderful flowery note that black cardamom lacks.

Then one day I had some pork tenderloin which I thought would make a good tajine.  For some reason, I had it in my mind that I wanted to do a pork and pear combination.  After some searching, I found three recipes, each of which had something, but was missing something else.  There was a Moroccan pork recipe that didn't use a tajine or cook in that fashion, a pork tajine that didn't have pears, and a pork and pear recipe tajine that didn't use any of the spices that appear to be related to Moroccan cooking.  What to do?  The answer was obviously to combine the best of each of the recipes, put a little personal spin on it and see what happened.

The result is my Pork and Pear Tajine with Dried Apricots.  I make no representation as to its authenticity.  In fact, since Morocco is largely Muslim, I expect a pork tajine is somewhat of a travesty.

Enjoy.

Pork and Pear Tajine with Dried Apricots

Serves 2
¼	C	Cilantro Leaves -- loosely packed
1	Tbsp	Flour
1 ¼	Tsps	Ground Cumin
1	Tsp	Paprika
¼	Tsp	Salt
¼	Tsp	Fresh Ground Black Pepper
¼	Tsp	Saffron Threads – divided
¾	Lb	Pork Tenderloin -- silver skin removed, cut diagonally into 3/4 inch slices
3	Tbsps	Olive Oil
½	Med	Onion -- diced
2	Cloves	Garlic -- minced
1	Tsp	Fresh Minced Ginger
1	C	Chicken Broth
2 or 3		Green Cardamom Pods
2 ½	Inches	Cinnamon Bark -- or 1 small cinnamon stick
1		Firm Fresh Pear -- Peeled, sliced into six wedges with core removed
6		Dried Apricots

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Set aside a few cilantro leaves for garnish and rough chop the rest.
3. Tie the cardamom pods and cinnamon bark together in a piece of cheesecloth so that they can be easily removed before serving.
4. Place the flour, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper into a plastic bag. Crumble in half of the saffron threads. Mix. Put the pork slices into the bag and shake to coat. Remove the pork from the bag, shaking off excess flour mixture.
5. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan or stovetop-safe tajine dish over medium-high heat.
6. Cook the pork slices, turning once, until lightly browned on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
7. Lower the heat to medium and sauté the onion in the remaining oil, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes.
8. Add the garlic, ginger and remaining saffron threads and cook about 30 seconds longer. Sprinkle any leftover flour mixture over the onions and stir.
9. Add the chicken stock and stir to thoroughly mix.
10. Return the pork to the pan, add the chopped cilantro and bring the mixture to a simmer.
11. If necessary, transfer the mixture to the base of a tajine.
12. Add the cinnamon and cardamom pods.
13. Arrange the pear wedges and dried apricots decoratively around the dish.
14. Cover and cook in the oven for 40 minutes, turning the pear wedges over after about 25 minutes.
15. When done, remove the cinnamon and cardamom pods and garnish with the reserved cilantro leaves.
16. Serve with couscous.

I don't recommend replacing the green cardamom with black, as the result will not be as tasty, and the black cardamom may overpower the dish.

If you don't have a tajine, the dish can be made entirely in an ovenproof pan with a tight fitting lid.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Now That You Ask ... or Substituting Agave Nectar for Sugar

I frequently receive questions from readers about how to change a recipe.  They may want to substitute ingredients, reduce calories, or make  the recipe "healthier" in one way or another.  The problem is, they send me the question without the recipe they are hoping to change and expect me to somehow be able to know the context.  Think of it like calling a restaurant you have heard about and asking, "How do I get to your place?"  You know that the first thing they are going to ask is, "Where are you now?"  They can't tell you how to get from here to there unless they know where here is to begin with.

For example, I recently got this question:

I have a cake recipe from Georges Perrier, Le Bec Fin, Philadelphia, that uses 1T baking powder and 1 tsp baking soda with 3/4 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup good quality bourbon (Bourbon spice cake).  It's delicious as formulated.  I am substituting agave nectar (a low glycemic index liquid sweetener) for the sugar, which also requires reducing the liquid in the cake by 1/3.  If the target ratio is 1/2 tsp baking soda to 1 c buttermilk, and baking soda is four times as strong as baking powder, then presumably I need 2 cups of acid, not the 1.25 cups of the recipe??  I'm worried about reducing the liquid that much.  The other liquid is 3 eggs, easy enough.  Any suggestions?

Now, I'm not about to publish the recipe, or tell people that so and so eats vast amounts of Bourbon Spice Cake, any more than the new restaurant is going to take out billboards telling everyone your address, but it would sure help understand the context in which the question is asked.  It might even allow me to test my suggested fix in the kitchen to be sure I'm on the right track.

Without the recipe, the best I can do is assume some common reference point -- "Drive to the front of City Hall, and then go right six blocks to highway 16 ..."  Of course, those kinds of instructions may be way out of your way, and may not really help if you live in Podunk and I'm in East Eyebrow.

So, having no mile markers to tell me where the recipe is coming from, what can I say about the above question?

1. General recommendations are to replace the sugar with about 2/3 the volume of agave nectar.  Since agave nectar is supposedly sweeter than sugar, you need less of it.
2. Because agave nectar contains water, most substitutions require that you reduce the other liquids in the recipe.  Depending on what type of sugar is being replaced, the amount may vary between about 1/4 and 1/3 of the volume of agave nectar used. 
3. If you are replacing liquid sweeteners like honey or corn syrup, the ratios and the changes in amounts of other liquids may vary.
4. Substitution guidelines recommend reducing the oven temperature by 25°F (12°C) and increasing the cooking time slightly.

If your recipe, for example, calls for 1 1/2 cups of white sugar, then you need to use about 0.666 X 1.5 = 1 cups of agave nectar.  You also need to reduce the amount of other liquid in the recipe by 1/3 of 1 cup.  Now comes the problem, where to get that third of a cup of liquid.  If you take out 1/3 cup the bourbon, it's no longer going to be much of a Bourbon Spice Cake.  If you take out the 1/3 cup from the buttermilk, you may need to reduce the amount of baking soda by a proportional amount, just over half the total, but there may be other ingredients that are reacting with some of the baking soda, so you may not need to reduce it by that much.  If you reduce the number of eggs, then the structure of the cake may change.

There could be two other ways out of the conundrum about how to change the amount of liquid.  One depends on knowing the entire recipe.  Start by working out the ratio of flour to liquid in the recipe, remembering that butter is around 20% water by volume, each whole egg contains only about 3 tablespoons water (the rest is protein and fat), and that the buttermilk is between 1% to 2% fat.  Armed with this information, you have another option, which is to increase the amount of flour in proportion to the amount of excess liquid in the agave nectar.  A typical spice cake might have around the same weight of flour as liquids, so compensating for 1/3 cup too much water could just as easily be dealt with by increasing the amount of flour in the recipe by 5.3 ounces weight or around 1/2 cup.  Chances are that adding a half cup of flour wouldn't be right either, since that would change the ratios on spices, etc., but adding a 1/4 cup of flour and reducing the liquid by 2 tablespoons could very well work out, maybe without even needing to change any of the other ingredients.

Finally, you could cut the buttermilk by the required amount, in this example 1/3 cup, and then add buttermilk powder to replace it.  Since buttemilk powder is used in a 1 to 4 ratio with water, adding 4 teaspoons of buttermilk powder would compensate for the amount of real buttermilk taken out and should balance the recipe back up.  The water from the agave nectar will make up for the liquid lost in reducing the amount of real buttermilk used.

All of this assumes that the cake contains 1 1/2 cup of white sugar in the first place, which I don't know for sure. 

The point is a) messing around with the balances on ingredients can be fussy work and b) without having the whole recipe, it's hard to know how to change it.  The more information you give about where you are starting from, the easier it is to tell you the directions to get where you want to be.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Mirepoix Ratios

Hi, Can you tell me if the 2 : 1 : 1 ratio of onions to carrots to celery in a mirepoix is by weight or volume? Thank You.

--Pat C

Interesting question! 

The Culinary Institute of America gives a ratio of 8 ounces of chopped onions to 4 ounces each of chopped carrots and celery for a basic Mirepoix, so they are using a 2 : 1 : 1 ratio by weight.

However, Larousse Gastronomique gives the ratio of vegetables as 100 g (4 oz) of onion, 150 g (5 oz) of carrots, and 50 g (2 oz) of celery.  The USDA gives weight for one cup, chopped, of each of these vegetables as follows:

Onions	160 g
Carrots	128 g
Celery	101 g

Using those numbers, the volumes of the ingredients would be about 2/3 cup of chopped onions, 1 cup + 2 tbsp of chopped carrots and 1/2 cup of chopped celery.    In this recipe, the carrots are dominant and nearly double the onios.  Neither by weight or volume is it close to the stated ratio.

The gold standard for home cooks is The Joy of Cooking.  According to the 75th edition, a mirepoix has one onion, one carrot, and one celery rib.  Again according to the USDA, a medium onion weighs 110 grams, a medium carrot weighs 61 grams and one medium stalk of celery weighs 40 grams.  All of the numbers are for the edible portion only.  That would be a ratio close to 2 : 1 : 0.67, by weight.  By volume it works out to 2/3 cup, 1/2 cup, and 6 tbsp, respectively.  Again, not too close to the 2 : 1 : 1 proportions either by weight or by volume.

So, where does all of this leave us?  As a general guideline, use twice the weight of diced onions as you do carrots and celery in making a mirepoix. However (and isn't there always a 'however'?), this is only a guideline.  Depending on what you are making, you may want more or less of any ingredient.  For a tomato sauce, you might choose to up the amount of carrots to compensate for the acidity of the tomatoes.  For a lighter dish, you might want to reduce the amount of onions so as not to overpower other flavors.

I also vary the amounts depending on the vegetables themselves.  If I'm working with the outer stalks of a head of celery, I may reduce the amount because I know those stalks will be stronger flavored and more bitter.  Similarly, when my father-in-law sends home onions, I use less of them because I know his onions are strong!

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

A New Hollandaise Method

For most special occasions around our house, whether it's Christmas, a birthday or an anniversary, we have Eggs Benedict for breakfast.  The recipe is pretty straightforward.  Toast and butter English muffin halves, top with ham or Canadian bacon slices and a poached egg, and nap the whole thing with Hollandaise Sauce.  That is, straightforward except maybe for making the Hollandaise Sauce, which can be a bit fussy.  I have had it turn out runny, I have had it separate on me while cooking, and I have had the eggs poach too firm while I was trying to make the Hollandaise.

Today for Valentine's Day I was inspired to try a different method, recommended by Jennifer McLagan in her book Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes, and based on Harold McGee's book The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore.

The traditional method requires cooking the egg yolks and liquid(s) over a double boiler, mixing in the butter slowly like as if you were making a mayonnaise, and then cooking until it is thickened.  Depending on the recipe, you may use melted butter, or cold butter out of the fridge, cubed and added one piece at a time.

The method McLagan uses is brilliantly simple.  Put everything into a saucepan over medium heat and whisk until its done.  At first the butter will soften and melt into the other ingredients, and then after a few more minutes the eggs will thicken.  In order to control temperature and avoid having the residual heat in the pan overcook the eggs, I continued to whisk while I put the bottom of the saucepan into a bowl of water to cool it off.  The method is incredibly simple, the results were as good as any Hollandaise I have ever made and the timing worked perfectly.  Just as I finished cooling the saucepan down, the eggs finished poaching and it was time to assemble the dish.

So, here's the recipe in detail:

3			Egg Yolks
2		tbsp	Fresh Lemon Juice
	1/4	tsp	Salt
			Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste
	3/4	cup	Cold Unsalted Butter, cut into about 12 pieces

Prepare a bowl of cold water and have it close by.

Whisk the egg yolks, lemon juice and seasoning together in a saucepan just until they are evenly mixed.  Break apart the pieces of butter and add them to the pan.

Place the pan over medium heat and whisk.  If the butter is melting too fast, you may need to lower the heat.  The intent is to have the butter melt and blend into the yolks without puddling on top.  Continue to whisk, being sure to work into the corner of the pan.  In a minute or so, the sauce will start to thicken.  Continue to cook until it clings to the whisk and would coat a spoon, about another minute or two.

Place just the bottom of the saucepan into the bowl of cold water and continue to whisk for another minute until the the pan has cooled down somewhat.  Taste, and if necessary adjust the amount of lemon juice or seasonings.

Since I was poaching eggs at the same time, I found it convenient to put the yolks into the pan, and combine the lemon juice and seasonings in a small dish until I was ready to make the Hollandaise.  If you combine them too soon, there is a chance that the acid and salt will cook the proteins in the eggs while it is sitting, like a ceviche.

If you are using salted butter, reduce the salt in the recipe by half or more.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Solving Runny Tzatziki

Here's my problem.   I love tzatziki but every time I make some, it ends up so runny you could almost drink it with a straw.  It is too runny for dipping pita or vegetables in.  How can I make it thicker?

--Gail

Tzatziki is a traditional Greek dish made by combining yogurt, crated cucumber and other ingredients.

There are two things you can do which will likely solve your problem completely.  The first is to very thick Greek style yogurt.  If you can't find Greek style yogurt, you can make a good substitute by straining regular yogurt. To do that, place a paper coffee filter into a strainer, place the strainer over a bowl large enough that the bottom of the strainer is at least 2 inches (5 cm) above the bottom of the bowl, and then pour the yogurt into the filter.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours and up to overnight.

Depending on how long you leave the yogurt drain, it may be reduced by about half the volume and there will be about the same amount of yellowish liquid.  The longer you let it sit, the firmer your tzatziki will end up.  If you are straining the yogurt overnight, then after a couple of hours pour off the liquid in the bowl.  Drained yogurt is sometimes referred to as yogurt cheese.

Even if you are using Greek style yogurt, you may still want to strain it to make the final result even firmer.

The other trick you can try is once you have peeled, seeded and grated the cucumber, toss it with some salt and then place it into a fine sieve strainer and let it sit for an hour or so.  The salt will drain excess liquid out of the cucumber.  If you don't do this, the liquid will still come out of the cucumber only it will thin out the tzatziki once it is made.

Other ingredients that you might put into your tzatziki include garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and mint.  Here are the ingredients that I use.  You may vary them according to your own preferences.

1	1/2	c	Strained Yogurt (see above)
1			English Cucumber
	3/4	tsp	Salt
	1/4	tsp	Fresh Ground Pepper
1		clove	Garlic, finely grated
1		tsp	Lemon Zest, finely grated
2-3		tsp	Lemon Juice
2		tsp	Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4-5			Mint Leaves, finely chopped	(optional)

Make the strained yogurt, as described above, starting with 3 cups of regular yogurt.  It will reduce to the desired amount.  I prefer to use a full fat yogurt because it gives a better mouthfeel, and because some of the flavors in the garlic and lemon zest are fat soluble so it enhances the taste of the final dish.

Peel, seed and grate the cucumber, using the fine toothed side of a box grater.  Toss with the salt and strain as described.  If you prefer a chunkier texture, you can use the coarse side of the grater or finely dice the cucumber instead.

Blend all of the ingredients together.  Taste and adjust all of the flavors as desired.  Refrigerate for at least an hour and preferably a full day.  Remember that the flavors will meld some as it stands, but that the garlic may become stronger.

Serve with pita wedges or vegetables,  in gyros or as a side with other Greek foods.

Oh, and a final hint.  If you are making your tzatziki by whizzing everything in a blender, quit doing it that way.  The blender will only encourage more liquid to come out of both the cucumber and the yogurt and will make the end result too uniform in both texture and flavor.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Caramelized Onion, Chevre and Fig Tart

I love cooking with caramelized onions. They have a rich, complex flavor which is suited to many applications. They are the basis of dishes like classic French Onion Soup and and Pissaladiere. Caramelized onion can also be used stews and braises, in making bread and as a complement to meat. 

On a recent trip to France, we discovered a natural affinity for chevre cheese and figs so, bringing these flavors together, I invented the following recipe.

Caramelized Onion, Chevre and Fig Tart

Amount		Measure	Ingredient
2		Med	Onions
1	1/2	Tsp	Olive Oil
	1/2	Tsp	Salt
3	1/2	Oz	Chevre Cheese, unripened
3		Tbsp	Fig Jam
18			Mini Tart Shells

1. Peel onions, halve and slice into 1/8th inch slices. Place in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and let sit for 5 - 10 minutes.
2. Heat a sauté pan to medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the sliced onions. Sprinkle on the salt.  Toss. Cover and allow to steam down, 10 - 15 minutes, being careful to reduce the heat if they start to brown.
3. Remove the cover, and continue to cook the onions down, stirring frequently and progressively reducing the heat as they brown, until they are evenly softened and browned to a mahogany color. The volume will be greatly reduced. Allow to cool.
4. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C)
5. Place tart shells onto a cookie sheet. Give the caramelized onions a rough chop just to remove any long pieces and then divide evenly among the tart shells. Divide the chevre evenly among the tarts, spreading it, if possible, to cover the onions. Top each tart with 1/2 teaspoon of the fig jam.
6. Bake tarts for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges of the tart shells are lightly browned and the jam is bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving.

In place of the second step above, you can toss the onions with the salt and then microwave on high for about 15 minutes until they soften and reduce to about three quarters their original volume.  Place the onions and any liquid into the oiled pan and proceed as in step 3.

As they caramelize, the onions will reduce down a much smaller volume, as shown in the following pictures.

Raw Onions		The Same Onions After Being Caramelized

In these pictures, eight large yellow onions, about 5.3 pounds (2.8 Kg) were caramelized, resulting in about 2 1/4 cups (530 ml) of finished product.  The two onions in the recipe should yield about 9 tablespoons, or about 1/2 tablespoon per tart.

Don't spend extra to buy sweet onions for caramelization.  By the time you are done, the sharp sulfur compounds will have cooked off completely, so use the least expensive onions you can find.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Simple Pleasures - Figs St. Antoine

On our recent trip to France, Pat and I stayed at a lovely converted farmhouse just south of Avignon, called Mas St. Antoine, operated by Kerrin & Keryn Webster, who describe themselves as "Two kiwis making a life in Provence."  It was late September and their fig trees were covered with fruit ready to be picked.

Kerrin suggested we top them with a piece of chevre and grill them on the barbecue.  The next day, we set out to find some nice, unripened chevre.  The Mas also had huge rosemary bushes, at least by Saskatchewan standards, four or five feet in diameter.  That night, we picked some figs, cleaned them, topped them with a slice of the cheese and then sprinkle on some rough chopped rosemary.  Onto the grill they went, over medium-high heat, for about four minutes.  The time was basically as long as my nerves would stand cooking them before I thought they might be burned on the bottoms.

To accompany the figs, we sliced some baguette, toasted it on the grill and then drizzled on a good splash of fresh olive oil.

What a wonderful appetizer, with the slight tang of the chevre balancing the sweetness of the fresh figs.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Going Up in Smoke

In a posting recently, you mention cold smoking.  Can you please explain the difference between cold smoking and hot smoking?

Thanks

--Shawn

Traditionally, smoke was used to cure and meat, fish or other foods to help prevent spoilage.  Nowadays, smoking may also be done simply to add flavor or complexity to foods such as cheeses or vegetables.

Cold smoking adds flavor and helps to preserve meat without cooking it.  Typically, cold smoking is done in a temperature range of around 70°F to 90°F ( 21°C to 32°C), depending on what kind of food is being smoked.  Because the temperature is so low, equipment for cold smoking usually has a firebox where wood is burned and the resulting smoke is routed into a separate chamber where the food is placed.  Because the temperature is so low, the meat or other food isn't cooked, but the smoke accumulates on the surface and penetrates into the outer layer of the food.  Cold smoking may be combined with other techniques like salting or brining to further help preserve the food.

In hot smoking, the firebox may be integral to the smoking chamber or attached directly to it.  The temperature of the smoking chamber will usually run between 140°F to 180°F ( 60°C to 80°C).  Hot smoke foods may be eaten immediately, as in traditional barbecue, or may be cooled down to be eaten later, as happens with some forms of sausage.

In either case, the food is either hung or placed on racks in order to maximize the surface area exposed to the smoke.

For something different, try taking your favorite blue cheese, cold smoking it for about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on taste, and then mixing it with equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream to make a dip for vegetables.  You can play with the flavors even more by adding a little cumin or curry powder to the mix.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com



Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward