by David Salerno | Apr 4, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks, Culinary Anthropology
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...
by David Salerno | Mar 10, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks
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...
by David Salerno | Mar 10, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks
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...
by David Salerno | Mar 10, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks
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...
by David Salerno | Mar 7, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks
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...
