Category Archives: Culinary

Macadamia Nut

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Macadamia Nut

Don’t be ‘a hard nut’.  Add these macadamia nut facts to your collection.

  • ‘Macadamia nuts’ are also known as ‘macadamias,’ Queensland nuts’, ‘bush nuts’, ‘queen of nuts’, ‘maroochi nuts’, and ‘bauple nuts’.
  • Macadamia nuts are seeds that are from one of four species of macadamia tree, that are all native to Australia, in the eastern parts of northern New South Wales and southern and central Queensland.
  • There are two species of macadamia nut that are poisonous, but the toxin,  cyanogenic glycoside (cyanide), can be removed by parboiling the nut.
  • Macadamia nuts have a very hard, woody, brown shell which reveals a cream coloured nut when cracked open, that turns golden brown when roasted.
  • Macadamia nuts became known to the British by Alan Cunningham, a botanist from England, who discovered them in 1828 in Queensland.

Macadamia, Nut, Food, Culinary, Australia, Ten Random Facts

  • Australia is currently the top producer of macadamia nuts in the world, and the first trees grown, primarily for commercial purposes, were planted in an orchard in the 1880s, near Lismore, New South Wales, Australia.
  • Macadamia nuts are cracked open when the nut is somewhat dehydrated, and to test for its readiness, the nut will usually rattle in the shell when it’s time, due to the nut growing smaller and detaching itself from the shell.
  • Macadamia nuts are very high in thiamine, manganese and fat, and also contain quantities of many other vitamins and minerals.
  • Some people are allergic to macadamia nuts, that can sometimes cause a fatal reaction, and they are also poisonous to dogs.
  • Macadamia nuts are traditionally eaten raw or roasted, as well as being grounded into butter, covered in chocolate and included in nut mixes and baked goods, and the oil from the nuts is sometimes used in skincare products.
Bibliography:
Macadamia, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadamia
What are macadamia nuts?, n.d, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-macadamia-nuts.htm

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Coriander Seeds

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Coriander Seeds

Coriander seeds are actually fruit!

  • Coriander seeds are used as a spice to flavour cooking, and are also known as ‘dhania’ and ‘coriandi seeds’.
  • Coriander seeds are the fruit of an annual herb that grows up to 50 centimetre (20 inch) high.
  • Coriander seeds are believed to be native to the Mediterranean and Middle East areas.
  • Coriander seeds are from the family Apiaceae, the family of carrots and parsley, and come from the plant that has the scientific name of Coriandrum sativum or common names ‘cilantro’, ‘Chinese parsley’ and ‘Mexican parsley’.
  • Coriander seeds are often used in curries, as well as in the spice mix ‘garam masala’, and is commonly found in dishes particularly from Southeast Asia to Africa to the Middle East.

Coriander Seeds, white, spice, fruit, Ten Random Facts, Bowl,

  • Coriander seeds are high in manganese, calcium, magnesium and iron.
  • Coriander seeds have the flavour of lemon citrus and nuts, and they generally help thicken the sauces that they are usually found in.
  • Coriander seeds are commonly used ground or whole, roasted, dried or fresh.
  • There are different varieties of coriander that produce different sized coriander seeds, and they range from 1.5 to 5 millimetres (0.06 to 0.2 inches) in diameter.
  • Coriander seeds have been used traditionally for medicinal purposes to treat a wide variety of ailments and they are said to have anti-diabetic properties.
Bibliography:
Coriander, 2006, OzPolitic, http://www.ozpolitic.com/gardening/coriander.html
Coriander, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander

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Clove

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Clove

Cloves add another interesting flavour.

  • Cloves are the unopened and dried flower buds of the clove tree, Syzygium aromaticum, that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae.
  • Cloves are native to some of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, and one of the biggest producers of the spice now is Africa’s Pamba Island.
  • Cloves appear to be small nails, and the name comes from Latin ‘clavus’, meaning nail, and they are sometimes used with an orange to make pomanders.
  • Cloves are popularly used as a spice in dishes of meat, curry, marinade and fruit, as well as baked goods, commonly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
  • Cloves contain the chemical eugenol, which produces approximately 85% of the strong flavour.

Clove, Brown, Whole, Ten Random Facts, Bowl, Australia, Spice, Flower bud

  • Cloves have been used in some cigarettes and can be used to repel ants.
  • Cloves and their oil are sometimes used in medicine as a painkiller for toothaches.
  • In the 1600s and 1700s, the Dutch East India Company had a monopoly on the growing and trading of cloves in Indonesia, and in 1770, Pierre Poivre, a French horticulturalist, secretly obtained some seedlings from the spice trees from Indonesia, which he eventually introduced to the islands of Mauritius and Réunion.
  • Cloves are very high in manganese, and they also contain vitamin K and vitamin C, as well as small quantities of other minerals and vitamins.
  • Cloves can be bought ground or whole, and the ground spice loses its flavour quickest.
Bibliography:
Clove, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clove
Cloves, 2014, The World’s Healthiest Foods, http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=69

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Chocolate Brownie

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Chocolate Brownie

Do you like your chocolate brownies fudgy or cakey?

  • Chocolate brownies are a cooked, sweet food that resembles something between a cookie and a cake, and are presented in the shape of a bar or a square.
  • Chocolate brownies often have the texture of cake or fudge, and can have additional nuts, frosting or icing, cream, chocolate chips or the like.
  • Chocolate brownies are generally made with flour, butter, eggs, cocoa powder or chocolate, and sugar.
  • A chocolate brownie is often served by itself as a snack or dessert, with ice-cream, cream or icing sugar, often as snacks with tea, milk or coffee.
  • It is believed that cake like chocolate brownies were first made by one of Chicago’s (USA) chefs from the The Palmer House Hotel, in the 1890s, for American Bertha Palmer, as a lunch box snack for ladies, originally containing walnuts and using apricot glaze.

Chocolate brownie, brown, packet mix, cooked, Slice, Single, Ten Random Facts,

  • It is rumoured that chocolate brownies were made due to a mistake of either placing chocolate in a cookie batch, no flour in batter, or no baking powder in batter.
  • Chocolate brownie recipes were first published in 1904, in two different American published cookbooks, with slight variations in the recipes, one of which was called ‘Bangor Brownies’.
  • If the chocolate brownie ingredients are altered slightly by removing or substituting the chocolate with another ingredient, it is known as a ‘blondie’.
  • Although the origin of the name is uncertain, ‘chocolate brownies’ may have come from the characters of the 1887 book ‘The Brownies: Their Book’ by Palmer Cox.
  • Chocolate brownies quickly became popular, and have remained a common treat, and their popularity has spread to a number of other nations in the world.
Bibliography:
Chocolate Brownie, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_brownie
Martin C, Brownies: The History of a Classic American Dessert, 2012, History Scene, http://www.ushistoryscene.com/uncategorized/brownies/

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Cumin

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Cumin

Cumin: a humble little spice that will improve your cuisine.

  • Cumin is a historical spice that comes from a plant of the same name, native to parts of the Mediterranean, Middle East and India, which is from the family Apiaceae, the family of carrot and parsley.
  • ‘Cumin’ is also known as ‘cummin’, ‘jeera’, and ‘jira’, and the plant’s scientific name is Cuminum cyminum.
  • Cumin seeds are ridged and are a yellow-brown colour, 3 to 6 mm (0.1 to 0.23 inches) long, which are visually similar to caraway seeds, and they have a peppery, earthy and citrus flavour.
  • What is known as black cumin, comes from a different, but related plant known as Bunium bulbocastanum, or the unrelated plant, Nigella sativa, both of which have a different flavour.
  • Cumin was used in mummification processes in Ancient Egypt, and in the Middle Ages, cumin was used to symbolise love and faithfulness.

Cumin, Ground, Yellow, Powder, Ten Random Facts, spice, Cummin,

  • Approximately 70% of the world’s cumin (270,000 tonnes or 300,000 tons per year) is produced in India, and is also the main exporter of the spice, although the country also uses all but 10% of what it produces.
  • Cumin seeds are used mainly as a spice, either grounded or whole, in soups, gravies, pickles, bread products, and spice mixes, especially curry powder, as well as bird food.
  • Cumin has been used for medicinal purposes, and is sometimes used to treat muscle cramps and problems in the digestive system, such as vomiting and appetite loss.
  • Cumin has a relatively high content of iron and is a good source of manganese, calcium, vitamin B1 and phosphorus.
  • Cumin was historically very popular among the Greeks and Romans, due to it being a good replacement of pepper that was expensive at the time.
Bibliography:
Cumin, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumin
Cumin seeds, 2014, The World’s Healthiest Foods, http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=91

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Vegemite

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Vegemite

“Happy little vegemites.” – Slogan.

  • Vegemite is a healthy black-brown food spread made primarily from yeast extract, as well as malt and vegetable extracts, with the addition of salt and flavours.
  • Vegemite was invented by the Australian chemist, Cyril P Callister, in 1922 in Melbourne, for the Fred Walker Company, later owned by Kraft, and is now the property of Mondelēz International.
  • Vegemite qualifies as a savoury foodstuff, and is popularly used as spread on products such as bread or toast, biscuits and crumpets, often with cheese, lettuce, tomato, butter or avocado, and as a flavouring in dishes like soup, stew and casseroles.
  • Consumers buy approximately 22 million jars of Vegemite each year, and the spread is one of a number of similar products, including Marmite of New Zealand, Britain and South Africa, Promite of Australia, Cenovis of Switzerland and Hefeextrakt of Germany.
  • Vegemite is very high in a range of B vitamins, although it is best spread thinly, as the taste is quite salty, and it can taste a bit like malt, as well as being a little bitter.

Vegemite, Yeast Extract Spread, Food, Black, Dark, Container, Ten Random Facts

  • The name ‘Vegemite’ came from a chance competition in 1923, with prize money of 50 pounds, that was equivalent to $3,527 in 2010, and was named by Hilda and Laurel Armstrong.
  • The spread was renamed ‘Parwill’ for a time, a name from its new slogan ‘If Marmite… then Parwill’, due to lack of sales, but it was changed back to ‘Vegemite’ for the same reason.
  • Vegemite lacked popularity until 1937, when a limerick competition with substantial prizes caused the product to become more well known, and it was later used to supplement the Australian army’s nutrient intake in World War II, and within a decade of the competition, the product was used in 9 out of 10 homes.
  • Vegemite was, in 1984, Australia’s first product to be commercially and electronically scanned using a barcode at a checkout.
  • Vegemite has been sold in various sized glass jars, porcelain jars, tins, tubes, pots, plastic cups, portion control packaging, and a number of reusable containers, and the product has been combined with cream cheese to produce a product called ‘Vegemite Cheesybite’.
Bibliography:
Vegemite, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite
The Vegemite Story, n.d, Vegemite, http://www.vegemite.com.au/pages/the-vegemite-story.aspx

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