Category Archives: Culinary

Doughnut

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Doughnut

Doughnuts are delicious delicacies.

  • Doughnuts are also known as ‘donuts’, and are edible food items that are flour based and are traditionally a round shape.
  • Doughnuts can be made from a cake-style dough, or a yeast-like dough, and are typically eaten as a dessert or sweet food, often as a snack.
  • Doughnuts are primarily made of a deep fried dough mixture that typically uses wheat flour and a combination of other ingredients, like eggs, milk, sugar, oil, and sometimes yeast.
  • Doughnuts often contain up to 20 to 25% oil, and are typically covered with a sweet flavouring such as icing or glaze, chocolate, syrup, or sugar that sometimes has cinnamon added.
  • Doughnuts are most often disc shaped, with or without a hole, although shapes can vary, and the hole is said to have been introduced so that the doughnuts cook more evenly and one is not left with a doughy centre.

Doughnut, Donut, Wheat, Rings, Confectionery, Food, Ten Random Facts, Australia, Plate, Three, Some,

  • Doughnuts without holes often contain a filling such as custard, a sweet condiment like jam and/or cream, although sometimes a savoury filling is used.
  • The ‘holes’ of doughnuts, typically cut by a puncher, may be coated and sold commercially, however they are often made from small balls of dough to look like ‘holes’.
  • Fried dough mixtures similar to doughnuts originated in both Ancient American and Eurasian societies; while modern versions are often said to have been based on the Dutch ‘oliekoeken’ (oil cake).
  • The first known printed doughnut recipe is from 1803, and those with holes are often said to have been invented by American sailor or captain, Hanson Gregory in 1847, although there are various versions of the story, and the truth of the matter is not known.
  • America’s Canada is the largest doughnut consumer in the world, and they have the most commercial outlets for the snack, per person.

Bibliography:

Chavey E, Doughnuts: A definitive history, 2014, Mr Breakfast, http://www.mrbreakfast.com/article.asp?articleid=8
Doughnut, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut
The History of Doughnuts, 2011, Toriavey, http://toriavey.com/history-kitchen/2011/06/the-history-of-doughnuts/

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Sorbet

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Sorbet

Sorbet is a simple but exquisite dessert.

  • Sorbet is a culinary dish often made and eaten as a dessert, and it is commonly used as a palate cleanser between courses, particularly in France.
  • Sorbet is typically made of sugar, ice and a flavouring, such as juice or puréed fruit or vegetables, or alcohol.
  • ‘Sorbet’ is also known as ‘sherbet’, although the two are notably different desserts, with the latter usually containing dairy.
  • The origin of sorbet is uncertain, however it likely originated from a cold dessert made from snow that Ancient Romans consumed in the first century, or a similar dessert from Asia.
  • Sorbet is often used as a low-fat and dairy-free replacement to ice-cream.

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  • ‘Sorbet’ is possibly influenced by the term ‘sorbire’ or ‘sorbere’, meaning to ‘eat and drink simultaneously’ in either Italian or Latin respectively, and likely comes from the Turkish word ‘serbet’.
  • Sorbet, although often sweet, can be piquant, and flavours like tomato, celery, beetroot, pea, and capsicum are not uncommon.
  • Sorbet has a fairly smooth, icy texture, that easily melts in your mouth.
  • Sorbet comes in a variety of colours, that usually reflects the flavouring ingredient that has been used.
  • Depending on the main flavouring ingredients, sorbet can contain significant to low quantities of carbohydrates, and very few or many vitamins and minerals.

 

Bibliography:
Sorbet History, 2009, Sorbet.com, http://www.sorbet.com/sorbethistory.html
Sorbet, 2010, ifood.tv, http://www.ifood.tv/network/sorbet
Sorbet, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbet

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Nonpareils

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Nonpareils

Nonpareils are not just decorative, but fun too!

  • Nonpareils are edible, ornamental items used typically on confectionery and sweet food items, and are popular on desserts and children’s party foods, such as buttered bread or cupcakes.
  • ‘Nonpareils’ are also known as ‘sprinkles’, ‘hundreds and thousands’ and ‘100s & 1000s’, particularly in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
  • Nonpareils are very small, spherical in shape, and coloured brightly in numerous colours.
  • ‘Nonpareils’ sometimes describes confectionery items, like chocolate discs, or ‘freckles’, that are covered with hundreds and thousands.
  • Nonpareils originated as early as the 1690s, and are used in a recipe from the United States in the early 1700s, for the purpose of decorating a wedding cake.

Nonpareils, Hundreds and Thousands, 100s & 1000s, Sprinkles, Gluten Free, Colourful, Color, Assortment, Many, Reflection, Ten Random Facts, Food, Confectionery, Decoration

  • Nonpareils are generally made from sugar, starch and colour, and are difficult to replicate in household kitchens, requiring much skill and equipment.
  • Nonpareils were originally a neutral white in colour and coloured ones were available in the early 1800s in the United States.
  • Nonpareils became less popular in the mid 1900s, due to the introduction of the softer, rounded rectangular prism replacements called ‘sprinkles’ or ‘jimmies’.
  • The word ‘nonpareils’ originates from the French word meaning ‘having no equal’ and the confectionery has its origins in sugar coated seeds and nuts known as ‘comfits’.
  • Nonpareils are commonly available in supermarkets and grocery stores, though they have been available commercially as early as the 1840s.

 

Bibliography:
Nonpareils, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpareils
What are nonpareils?, 2014, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-nonpareil.htm
I. Day, Sugar-Plums and Comfits, 2003, Historic Food, http://www.historicfood.com/Comfits.htm

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Candied Fruit

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Candied Fruit

Candied fruit prevents fruit from spoiling – and tastes good too!

  • Candied fruits are food items, in particular fruit, that have been preserved by a sweetener, usually sugar.
  • ‘Candied fruit’ is also known as ‘crystallised fruit’, ‘frosted fruit’, ‘glacé fruit’ and ‘glazed fruit’, although the candying processes may vary among the terms.
  • Candied fruit is typically candied by letting fresh or rehydrated fruit boil, and then sit in sugar syrup, and the sugar content of the syrup is gradually increased each day.
  • Candied fruit can take from a few days to many months to become completely candied, and dried fruit will achieve this outcome faster.
  • The candied fruit method causes the water to be extracted from the fruit and replaced with sugar, and this creates a type of pressure that repels some microorganisms that helps to preserve the fruit.

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  • Cherries are the most commonly candied fruit, and other fruits include oranges and their peel, mandarins, figs, melons, and pineapples, and lemon peels, chestnuts and ginger are also often candied.
  • Candied fruit is typically sold and stored in airtight containers, so moisture cannot spoil the fruit, and it is popularly used in desserts and baked goods, most notably in fruitcake.
  • Candied fruit is said to have originated from the Middle Eastern Arabs, as an important banquet food, which spread into Europe most likely in the 1500s.
  • Of all candied fruits, limes are one of the most difficult to successfully candy due to the chemicals in the rind, and usually the process is only achieved in commercial settings.
  • Candied fruit is approximately 80% sugar, and usually contains small amounts of fibre and manganese.
Bibliography:
Candied Fruit, 2011, Cooks Info, http://www.cooksinfo.com/candied-fruit
Candied Fruit, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candied_fruit
What is Candied Fruit?, 2014, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-candied-fruit.htm

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Barbecue Sauce

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Barbecue Sauce

Do you like barbecue sauce?

  • Barbecue sauce is a sauce or condiment used for flavouring food items, and its use and recipe varies in different regions and countries.
  • ‘Barbecue sauce’ is also known as ‘barbeque sauce’ and ‘BBQ sauce’.
  • Some barbecue sauces are designed to be used to marinate or baste meat cooked on a barbecue, as well as flavouring other foods.
  • Barbecue sauce typically has the primary ingredient of at least tomato paste or vinegar, depending on its purpose with an addition of sugar or molasses, spices and sometimes liquid smoke.
  • One of the first commercial barbecue sauces was made in Georgia’s Atlanta, in the United States, and was available for purchase in 1909.

Barbeque Sauce, BBQ, Barbecue. Condiment, Commercial, Bottled, Australian, Homebrand

  • Barbecue sauce is typically red-brown to dark brown in colour.
  • Barbecue sauce is commonly sold in bottles in supermarkets, and is often similar to ketchup or tomato sauce in its taste and use.
  • Barbecue sauce originated from the culinary practice of marinating, combined with the barbecue method Native Americans used to cook their meat.
  • Barbecue sauce was probably invented in America from the 1400s – 1600s, and was later developed in Europe.
  • Some barbecue sauces have a very high content of sodium, are a good source of manganese, and have a significant quantity of vitamin A and potassium, as well as other vitamins and minerals.

 

Bibliography:
Barbecue Digest: The secret history of BBQ sauce, 2012, Eatocracy, http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/07/09/bbq-sauce/
Barbecue Sauce, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbecue_sauce
Goldwyn M, The History of Barbecue Sauce, 2012, Amazing Ribs, http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_articles/history_of_bbq_sauce.html

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Choko

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Choko

Do not choke on these choko facts.

  • A choko is the fruit of a vine with the scientific name Sechium edule, that is a perennial and grows vigorously.
  • ‘Chokos’ are also known by eighteen other names, including ‘cho-cho’, ‘pear squash’, ‘mirliton’, ‘chayote’, ‘vegetable pear’ and ‘christophine’.
  • Chokos are native to Mexico, in southern North America, and they were later grown in Europe, other parts of America and Australasia.
  • Chokos are from the family Cucurbitaceae, the family of gourds, and the fruit of the plant, as well as the leaves, roots and seeds are edible.
  • Chokos are typically shaped as a pear with significant ridges and are a mid to light green colour.

Choko, Green, Gourd, Vegetable, Australian, Wrinkled, Ten Random Facts, Chayote

  • Chokos have a length ranging from 10 to 20 centimetres (4 to 8 inches) and are usually used as a vegetable and peeled before cooking.
  • Chokos are most often cooked, although they can be eaten raw, and are typically used in stir-fry, relish, soup, salads, seasoned or as side vegetables, and can also be used in baked goods.
  • It has been commonly suggested that the apple pies of Australia’s McDonald’s fast food outlets contain chokos, however, this is incorrect.
  • Chokos are high in folate and are a good source of vitamin C and manganese.
  • Chokos can positively affect the cardiovascular system and limit inflammation, while the leaves can be made into a tea for medicinal purposes.
Bibliography:
Chayote, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote
Choko, 2014, Burke’s Backyard, http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/2001/archives/2001_archives?p=1320

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