Cooking Tips & Tricks
A roux? A slurry? Beurre Manie?
How and why would you use these to thicken a soup, sauce, or stew? I still have nightmares thinking about calling 30 seconds out from a meal being delivered to the pass and knowing my sauce would never thicken to the right consistency in time. A good...
What is the Maillard reaction?
Brown food tastes good. Put simply, the Maillard reaction occurs at 250F and above, and is a when the amino acids and sugars in food react to the heat. The most obvious sign of the reaction is the browning that happens to food. The...
Why does a pita puff?
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a few volunteers come and make pitas with me for our meal. We made 120 pitas, which were then served with roasted spiced chickpeas, a lemon dill sauce, and an arugula salad with pickled radish and onions. So...
Do you love al pastor tacos?
Al pastor tacos come directly from Lebanese immigrating to Puebla, Mexico. Without going down a huge historical rabbit hole, these immigrants left due to the fall and disintegration of the Ottoman empire. If you've ever seen the way the meat is cooked for the taco,...
Chickpeas? Garbanzo Beans? Where did these two names come from?
Let's start with the chickpea. The Latin word cicer refers to the plant family of legumes. Actually, ancient Roman scholar Cicero got his name from the word cicer since his family grew legumes on their farm. This word then led to "Pois Ciche"...
How does no knead bread work?
Gluten is a structural protein that has an elastic texture and is often (but not only) found in grains. When water and certain grains mix together, strands of gluten begin to form. Now, gluten can form in two ways; through time or manually through agitation. For...
What are tomatillos?
These tiny little unripe-looking tomatoes are indeed part of the nightshade family and can be referred to as the Mexican husk tomato. If you've ever worked with a tomatillo you'll know that underneath the husk the fruit is quite sticky. That stickiness comes from...
Are flatfish actually flat?
Okay, this isn't exactly mind-blowing, but we've sanitized our meat in the grocery store so much that we never really come face to face with whole fish or animals. Yes, flatfish are flat, and what might be weirder to conceptualize is that both of their eyes are on the...
What are molasses?
Growing up in my NJ American Italian household, I didn't have a lot of exposure to molasses. I think my first time even hearing about it might have been from reading some Mark Twain novel. However, the product's importance and impact on American history (and the slave...
What is saffron?
Saffron comes from a flower called the crocus sativus, and is the stigmas of the plant. This is why it's incredibly expensive, as each plant only has a few stigma, and to cultivate 1kg of the spice requires over 100,000 flowers. Actually, the flowers only bloom for...
