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Veggie Nibbles	Hugh 2009-01-28 11:21:00 UTC
It seems to be a month of running across tips for cooking vegetables in new, interesting and scientific ways. First up, I finally got around to testing out the New York Times’ “The Minmalist” column on microwaves, in which he alleges that they’re arguably the best way ever to cook vegetables. And, indeed, he’s not lying. Cooking a bundle of asparagus on a plate with a little water and a cling-film covering, after two minutes they were intensely flavoured, fully cooked, but still incredibly crunchy, as opposed to the slightly droopy asparagus that you’ll often get boiling or steaming. Try it – it works. I’m trying aubergine next. Secondly, Paul’s blog article on mashed potatoes produced some very useful discussion, including a tip from the Lab Cat - You can make your potatoes more floury by storing in the fridge before using them. The cold temperature causes the starch to be converted to sugar so they taste sweeter too. This conversion is, as far as I know, reversible. It’s stuff like this that makes me think that molecular gastronomy still has a long way to go before the plateau of productivity. I never knew that. I know there are interesting reactions that happen with tomatoes in the fridge (don’t put tomatoes in the fridge. It deactivates a lot of flavour compounds). What else hasn’t been widely spread? What other complex chemical reactions in food are we still to discover, that we can use for day-to-day cooking? There’s a lot more than spheres and foams out there. Finally, the lovely people from Ideas in Food have been experimenting with green vegetables and the cooking therof, with the exciting result that it’s possible (more or less) to cook green veg sous-vide without losing the green colour. Very cool. Check out their experimentation – you don’t even need a water bath.
Dougal Stanton \| 2009-01-28 11:57:46 UTC It’s actually recommended you don’t chill your potatoes below about 8 degrees because the sharp increase in fructose is correlated with an increase in carcinogens when cooking. The effect in humans of acrylamide is still uncertain.
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-01-28 16:15:36 UTC Hervé This interestingly wrote in this new blog (http://hervethis.blogspot.com/2009/01/pourquoi-manger-des-tomates-en-hiver.html ) that you can’t grill vegetables like you cook meat and expect the same kind of taste (coming from the products of the Maillard reactions) because vegetables lack aminoacids which are a key reactant. He then suggests to add a source of aminoacids, such as meat juice or gelatin.
SpudTater \| 2009-01-28 23:05:43 UTC @Matthieu: is this why goose fat is so fantastic? Also, can we gather from this that mushrooms are high in amino acids? googles… it appears so.
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-01-29 07:28:27 UTC SpudTater: I don’t know, what is supposed to be so fantastic in goose fat?
SpudTater \| 2009-01-29 08:35:22 UTC @Matthieu: any type of root vegetable, pretty much. I’ve done a mixture of potatoes, carrots and parsnips, which is lovely.
pajh \| 2009-01-29 18:50:55 UTC Seconded on the goose fat. Just because Nigella says it doesn’t mean it’s automatically wrong. Goose fat is awesome. Presumably any meat-based fat would have similar effects—-cf. the insistence on beef dripping in the Yorkshire pudding recipe. The stated reason for using goose fat (and dripping, IIRC) is that it has a higher smoke point so you can get it hotter. The fact that it’s made of MEAT doesn’t hurt matters, though.
SpudTater \| 2009-01-29 19:50:32 UTC This comment appears to be spam and has been blocked. If you believe this is in error, please contact info [at] kamikazecookery.com
\| 2009-01-30 05:07:18 UTC
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-02-02 07:38:13 UTC Animal fats such as suet are made of lipids (the actual fatty component) and of support tissue, which are holding the fat in the body, and are made, among other things, of proteins. The problem with the proteins is that they burn at a lower temperature than the lipids, which makes it impractical for cooking at high temperature. Raw fat is therefore processed in order to extract the lipids. This can be done by simply heating the fat slowly for several hours: the lipids melt and float over the support tissue, where they can be skimmed. You can experiment with this in two ways: 1. Take bacon, remove the red bits and keep the white ones. Put the white bits in a frying pan and cook, first gently to melt the fat out of the bits, then at higher temperature to get the fat to react with the support tissue. 2. Take a pound (or half a pound) of butter, put it into a small pan, and heat. It will first melt, then foam (the 20% of water in the butter is evaporating when the temperature reaches 100 °C). When the temperature reaches about 150 °C, the proteins will react with the fat and the lactose and make brown bits, which will release tasty molecules. The trick is to keep the temperature at 150 °C, otherwise these bits will burn. You can do this by adding some water which will cool down the preparation temporarily. When you are satisfied with the result, pour it throug a sieve and use it whichever way you prefer. Hervé This refers to this as ``hazelnut butter’’.
Hugh \| 2009-02-02 13:02:39 UTC Hmm – another good reason to buy a point-and-shoot infrared thermometer. Thanks – interesting.
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-02-02 18:37:18 UTC I would advise against the IR thermometer. The measurement depends on the reflectivity of the surface you are trying to measure, and the affordable models have only 2 or 3 settings, such as “white”, “black” and so on. For measuring the temperature of clear water in a stainless steel pan for example, I’m not sure they would be the best kind of instrument. What’s wrong with the digital thermometer you used in Episode 7? I’m doing all my cooking with this and it works like a charm.
Lab Cat \| 2009-02-03 02:54:23 UTC Carcinogens appear to form in food only if you cook them above 100 C. Boiling shouldn’t be a problem in this respect. I wrote about that here Also pure fats and oils such as pumpkin seed oil will not contain enough amino acids to give flavor. It is do with the way the oils are removed from the seeds, they end up being almost 100% oil. However, fats and oils undergo oxidation during cooking which leads to Maillard type flavors being formed. Amino acids accelerate the reaction. Vegetarians (of which I am one) can marinade their veggies in a mixture of soy sauce and herbs – soy sauce is very rich in Maillard reaction products. Or yeast extracts are a great way to add flavor. Mushrooms are high in amino acids and are delicious grilled.
Hugh \| 2009-02-03 16:05:10 UTC Soy sauce undergoes a Maillard reaction? Cool – didn’t know that. That explains a lot… Is that true of any other similar sauce products? I’m guessing there might be something to barbecue sauce?
Lab Cat \| 2009-02-03 17:51:45 UTC soy sauce – the good ones that aren’t just salt is basically a solution of Maillard reaction products. Worcester sauce is too, but if it contains anchovies, sadly NOT vegetarian. I am not sure about barbecue sauce – I guess is depends on the ingredients. I usually make my own with hot sauce, soy sauce, tomato paste and various herbs. Miso is another way to get lots of Maillard reaction products.
Oakley sunglasses \| 2011-08-09 02:55:27 UTC This comment appears to be spam and has been blocked. If you believe this is in error, please contact info [at] kamikazecookery.com

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Veggie Nibbles	Hugh 2009-01-28 11:21:00 UTC
It seems to be a month of running across tips for cooking vegetables in new, interesting and scientific ways. First up, I finally got around to testing out the New York Times’ “The Minmalist” column on microwaves, in which he alleges that they’re arguably the best way ever to cook vegetables. And, indeed, he’s not lying. Cooking a bundle of asparagus on a plate with a little water and a cling-film covering, after two minutes they were intensely flavoured, fully cooked, but still incredibly crunchy, as opposed to the slightly droopy asparagus that you’ll often get boiling or steaming. Try it – it works. I’m trying aubergine next. Secondly, Paul’s blog article on mashed potatoes produced some very useful discussion, including a tip from the Lab Cat - You can make your potatoes more floury by storing in the fridge before using them. The cold temperature causes the starch to be converted to sugar so they taste sweeter too. This conversion is, as far as I know, reversible. It’s stuff like this that makes me think that molecular gastronomy still has a long way to go before the plateau of productivity. I never knew that. I know there are interesting reactions that happen with tomatoes in the fridge (don’t put tomatoes in the fridge. It deactivates a lot of flavour compounds). What else hasn’t been widely spread? What other complex chemical reactions in food are we still to discover, that we can use for day-to-day cooking? There’s a lot more than spheres and foams out there. Finally, the lovely people from Ideas in Food have been experimenting with green vegetables and the cooking therof, with the exciting result that it’s possible (more or less) to cook green veg sous-vide without losing the green colour. Very cool. Check out their experimentation – you don’t even need a water bath.
Dougal Stanton \| 2009-01-28 11:57:46 UTC It’s actually recommended you don’t chill your potatoes below about 8 degrees because the sharp increase in fructose is correlated with an increase in carcinogens when cooking. The effect in humans of acrylamide is still uncertain.
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-01-28 16:15:36 UTC Hervé This interestingly wrote in this new blog (http://hervethis.blogspot.com/2009/01/pourquoi-manger-des-tomates-en-hiver.html ) that you can’t grill vegetables like you cook meat and expect the same kind of taste (coming from the products of the Maillard reactions) because vegetables lack aminoacids which are a key reactant. He then suggests to add a source of aminoacids, such as meat juice or gelatin.
SpudTater \| 2009-01-28 23:05:43 UTC @Matthieu: is this why goose fat is so fantastic? Also, can we gather from this that mushrooms are high in amino acids? googles… it appears so.
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-01-29 07:28:27 UTC SpudTater: I don’t know, what is supposed to be so fantastic in goose fat?
SpudTater \| 2009-01-29 08:35:22 UTC @Matthieu: any type of root vegetable, pretty much. I’ve done a mixture of potatoes, carrots and parsnips, which is lovely.
pajh \| 2009-01-29 18:50:55 UTC Seconded on the goose fat. Just because Nigella says it doesn’t mean it’s automatically wrong. Goose fat is awesome. Presumably any meat-based fat would have similar effects—-cf. the insistence on beef dripping in the Yorkshire pudding recipe. The stated reason for using goose fat (and dripping, IIRC) is that it has a higher smoke point so you can get it hotter. The fact that it’s made of MEAT doesn’t hurt matters, though.
SpudTater \| 2009-01-29 19:50:32 UTC This comment appears to be spam and has been blocked. If you believe this is in error, please contact info [at] kamikazecookery.com
\| 2009-01-30 05:07:18 UTC
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-02-02 07:38:13 UTC Animal fats such as suet are made of lipids (the actual fatty component) and of support tissue, which are holding the fat in the body, and are made, among other things, of proteins. The problem with the proteins is that they burn at a lower temperature than the lipids, which makes it impractical for cooking at high temperature. Raw fat is therefore processed in order to extract the lipids. This can be done by simply heating the fat slowly for several hours: the lipids melt and float over the support tissue, where they can be skimmed. You can experiment with this in two ways: 1. Take bacon, remove the red bits and keep the white ones. Put the white bits in a frying pan and cook, first gently to melt the fat out of the bits, then at higher temperature to get the fat to react with the support tissue. 2. Take a pound (or half a pound) of butter, put it into a small pan, and heat. It will first melt, then foam (the 20% of water in the butter is evaporating when the temperature reaches 100 °C). When the temperature reaches about 150 °C, the proteins will react with the fat and the lactose and make brown bits, which will release tasty molecules. The trick is to keep the temperature at 150 °C, otherwise these bits will burn. You can do this by adding some water which will cool down the preparation temporarily. When you are satisfied with the result, pour it throug a sieve and use it whichever way you prefer. Hervé This refers to this as ``hazelnut butter’’.
Hugh \| 2009-02-02 13:02:39 UTC Hmm – another good reason to buy a point-and-shoot infrared thermometer. Thanks – interesting.
Matthieu Weber \| 2009-02-02 18:37:18 UTC I would advise against the IR thermometer. The measurement depends on the reflectivity of the surface you are trying to measure, and the affordable models have only 2 or 3 settings, such as “white”, “black” and so on. For measuring the temperature of clear water in a stainless steel pan for example, I’m not sure they would be the best kind of instrument. What’s wrong with the digital thermometer you used in Episode 7? I’m doing all my cooking with this and it works like a charm.
Lab Cat \| 2009-02-03 02:54:23 UTC Carcinogens appear to form in food only if you cook them above 100 C. Boiling shouldn’t be a problem in this respect. I wrote about that here Also pure fats and oils such as pumpkin seed oil will not contain enough amino acids to give flavor. It is do with the way the oils are removed from the seeds, they end up being almost 100% oil. However, fats and oils undergo oxidation during cooking which leads to Maillard type flavors being formed. Amino acids accelerate the reaction. Vegetarians (of which I am one) can marinade their veggies in a mixture of soy sauce and herbs – soy sauce is very rich in Maillard reaction products. Or yeast extracts are a great way to add flavor. Mushrooms are high in amino acids and are delicious grilled.
Hugh \| 2009-02-03 16:05:10 UTC Soy sauce undergoes a Maillard reaction? Cool – didn’t know that. That explains a lot… Is that true of any other similar sauce products? I’m guessing there might be something to barbecue sauce?
Lab Cat \| 2009-02-03 17:51:45 UTC soy sauce – the good ones that aren’t just salt is basically a solution of Maillard reaction products. Worcester sauce is too, but if it contains anchovies, sadly NOT vegetarian. I am not sure about barbecue sauce – I guess is depends on the ingredients. I usually make my own with hot sauce, soy sauce, tomato paste and various herbs. Miso is another way to get lots of Maillard reaction products.
Oakley sunglasses \| 2011-08-09 02:55:27 UTC This comment appears to be spam and has been blocked. If you believe this is in error, please contact info [at] kamikazecookery.com