Category Archives: Culinary

Macaroon

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Macaroon

Don’t get macaroons confused with macarons!

  • Macaroons are usually wheatless sweet snacks that are quite similar to cookies, and they are generally suitable for those requiring a gluten-free diet.
  • Macaroons are primarily made of  sugar, whipped whites of eggs, and coconut and/or almond flour, and they are usually baked in an oven.
  • Macaroons can be dipped in chocolate, or contain or be decorated with glacé cherries, jam or nuts.
  • The term ‘macaroon’ it said to come directly from the word ‘maccarone’ or ‘maccherone’, Italian for food with a ‘paste-like appearance’, in reference to almond paste, which was the traditional base ingredient.
  • Macaroons are often confused with the popular macaron, and although they have similar ingredients, the two sweets are vastly different in appearance, though some people use the terms interchangeably.

Macaroon, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Food, Culinary, Confectionery, Coconut, Chocolate Dipped

  • The texture of macaroons can be rough and uneven, especially if they are made with coconut, and they are generally raised in the centre; while macarons usually have a smooth and even appearance, and are sandwiched together with a creamy filling.
  • Macaroons became popular and favoured by Jews due to the snack’s unleavened nature, meaning it can be enjoyed throughout the Passover period.
  • It is thought that macaroons originated from Italy, perhaps as early as the 700s to 800s, and the food likely spread to France by the 1500s.
  • Coconut varieties of macaroons are typically high in fat, carbohydrates and manganese.
  • Macaroons have also been known as ‘mackaroons’ and ‘maccaroons’; and different countries have their own particular variations of the food.
Bibliography:
Erdos J, Macaroon vs. Macaron: Two Very Different Cookies With a Linked Past, 2013, Food Network, http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2013/05/macaroon-vs-macaron-history-and-recipes/
Macaroon, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroon
Pister J, A Brief History of Macaroons, 2016, Kashruth Council of Canada, http://www.cor.ca/view/442/a_brief_history_of_macaroons.html

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Blackberry

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Blackberry

Remember those days when you could skip out to the woods and pick some blackberries?

  • Blackberries are a fruit often considered a berry, even though technically speaking they aren’t, and various species originated in parts of America, Asia, Europe and northern Africa.
  • Blackberries grow on a variety of plant species from the Rubus genus, that comes from the family Rosaceae, the family of roses.
  • Blackberries’ are also known as ‘bramble berries’, ‘brambles’, and ‘black-caps’, although this name is technically reserved for referring to a raspberry variety coloured black.
  • Although similar to a raspberry, a blackberry can be distinguished by its stem’s habit to break at the branch when ripe, unlike its cousin, which breaks at the fruit.
  • Wild varieties of blackberry plants will typically contain sharp prickles that have have the ability to rip through thick fabric, although many commercially grown varieties have been cultivated to not feature any.
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Blackberry
Image courtesy of threelayercake/Flickr
  • Usually blackberries will contain nutritious seeds and they form in small druplets that make up the fruit.
  • In 2005, the United States was the largest producer of blackberries in the world, producing approximately 31,840 tonnes (35,100 tons).
  • Blackberries are commonly eaten raw or cooked, often in desserts, and they can be made into jam, or used to flavour wine and jelly.
  • Blackberry fruits are typically a purple or black colour, and they are usually a red colour when they are not yet ripe.
  • Blackberries are very high in vitamin K, vitamin C and manganese, as well as fibre, and they are contain many other vitamins and minerals.
Bibliography:
Blackberry, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackberry
Blackberries, n.d, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, http://www.almanac.com/plant/blackberries
Worldwide Production of Blackberries, n.d, Berry Grape, http://berrygrape.org/files/newsletters/blackberryworldwide.pdf

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Pancakes

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Pancake, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Invention, Food, Culinary, Crepe, Wheat,

These pancakes are hot fresh from the pan.

  • Pancakes are a flat food item, typically made by frying a type of batter, though variations can be made with a dough mixture.
  • Pancakes typically consist of wheat or other grain, in addition to milk and eggs, sometimes with the addition of sugar, butter, or flavour like vanilla.
  • ‘Pancakes’ are also known as ‘flapjacks’, ‘hot cakes’, ‘hoe cakes’ or ‘griddlecakes’, and thin ones are usually known as crêpes, while variations from countries around the world will usually have a different name.
  • Pancakes are often eaten in combination with ice-cream, honey, maple syrup, jam, cream, lemon juice and sugar, meat and/or fruit pieces, and sometimes fruit, vegetables or meat can be added to the batter prior to cooking.
  • Different cultures have their own forms of pancakes that use various ingredients or methods to make them, though the finished product is typically cream to gold in colour and is roughly circular or oval in shape.

Pancake, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Invention, Food, Culinary, Crepe, Wheat,

  • Shrove Tuesday, or ‘Pancake Day’ as it is sometimes called, is the day before Lent on a religious calendar, particularly in English speaking countries, and the day will often involve the consumption of this popular food.
  • In early times, flat grain-based food items, similar to pancakes, were thought to be cooked on hot rocks, while the Ancient Greeks, and the Ancient Romans to an extent, would cook something comparable to our modern style ones, and these were known as ‘tēganitēs’ or ‘alia dulcia’ and often eaten with honey.
  • Pancakes are commonly served as a breakfast or brunch dish, though they are sometimes served as a dessert, or they can be part of a main meal, and they can have a savoury or sweet flavour.
  • Pancake batter is usually poured or spooned onto, and cooked on, a griddle, frypan, or other flat based cooking surface, and once the batter starts bubbling during the frying process, it is typically flipped over to cook and brown the other side.
  • Some people have what is called ‘pancake syndrome’, where flour contaminated with mites will be cooked in the food, notably in tropical and subtropical areas, causing anaphylactic reactions upon consumption, and to avoid this issue, the flour can be stored in the refrigerator.
Bibliography:
Pancake, 2016, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake
Pancake Syndrome (Oral Mite Anaphylaxis), 2009, US Natural Library of Medicine, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3651046/
Rupp R, Hot off the Griddle, Here’s the History of Pancakes, 2014, The Plate – National Geographic, http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/21/hot-off-the-griddle-heres-the-history-of-pancakes/

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Condensed Milk

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Condensed Milk

Condensed milk is as compact as they get.

  • Condensed milk is a liquid used as a cooking item, produced from milk that has had the majority of the water content evaporated through a vacuum and heating process.
  • The phrase ‘condensed milk’ typically refers to ‘sweetened condensed milk’, while the term ‘evaporated milk’ usually refers to the unsweetened variety.
  • Sweetened condensed milk consistency is thick and oozing, rather than the typical flowing behaviour of milk, and it has a very sweet, creamy taste, while the unsweetened version is more like milk in flavour and viscosity.
  • The Tartar people of Europe and Asia, are said to be the first people known to remove water from milk to increase volume per container, and would add water to use it at a later stage – a practice observed by Marco Polo, on his travels in the 1200s.
  • Condensed milk is typically sweetened through the addition of sugar, after the milk has been evaporated; and the product is commonly sold in either tin cans or tubes, and is readily available in supermarkets.

Condensed Milk, Can, Homebrand, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Sweetened, Culinary, Food

  • American Gail Borden Jr. was the first to invent condensed milk that was commercially viable, in the 1850s, though attempts had been made as early as 1809, by Nicolas Appert of France.
  • To make sweeten condensed milk, roughly eleven parts of sugar are added to nine parts of evaporated milk, meaning that the product consists of 45% sugar, or sometimes more.
  • Sweetened condensed milk is most often used in desserts, such as chocolate dishes, pies, cakes and sweets, as well as coffee.
  • As a ration included in American soldier packs by the mid-1800s, condensed milk began to rise in public popularity, as war veterans returned home with knowledge of this new food.
  • Sweetened condensed milk has high quantities of protein, riboflavin, calcium, phosphorous, selenium and fat, and it has many other vitamins and minerals.

 

Bibliography:
Condensed Milk, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensed_milk
Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences 2nd Edition, Four-Volume set, 2011, Academic Press, Google Books, https://books.google.com.au/[…]
Gail Borden, 2016, Today in Science History, http://todayinsci.com/Events/Patent/CondensedMilk15553.htm

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Pistachio

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Pistachio

Pistachios do not need a nutcracker – the nut cracking is already done for you!

  • Pistachios are an edible, ovoid nut, encased in a shell, and are native to some Middle Eastern countries, as well as some neighbouring countries in Asia and Europe, and they have been cultivated for thousands of years.
  • The pistachio plant that the nuts grow on, is generally a small tree with the scientific name Pistacia vera, from the family Anacardiaceae, the family of cashews, which also includes mangoes and pink peppercorns; and once ripe, the nuts are shaken from the tree as part of the harvesting process.
  • A single pistachio tree can reach up to 10 metres (33 feet) in height, and can produce approximately 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of nuts over a period of two years, and one year is generally a high yield year, while the other year produces a lower quantity of nuts.
  • Pistachio nuts are small, generally ranging from 1.5 to 2.2 centimetres (0.6 to 0.87 inches) and weighing roughly 1 to 2 grams (0.03 to 0.07 ounces), with the shell intact.
  • When ripe, the hard shell of pistachios will commonly crack and split halfway while still inside the hull, which is removed after harvesting, allowing access to the edible kernel without the use of a nut cracker.

Pistachio, Nut, Shell, Kernal, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Tan, Food, Culinary, Green, Red

  • The shells of pistachios are naturally coloured a pale sandy brown, however they may be artificially coloured green or red, a tradition first begun when hand pickers were used, to disguise any handling damage; while the kernel and its skin is usually a green to purple colour.
  • Generally, pistachios are eaten raw or roasted, often as a snack; are occasionally added to desserts or used in baked goods, or added to icecream or chocolate; and they are commonly purchased already salted.
  • Iran, in the Middle East, was the greatest producer of pistachios in 2013, producing more than half of the world’s annual quantity, with 478,600 tonnes (527,566 tons), while it is said that China is the greatest consumer at 80,000 tonnes (88,185 tons) annually.
  • Along with causing reactions in those people who are allergic to tree nuts, pistachios are susceptible to a mould that can be dangerous to human health, if not harvested quickly and correctly.
  • Pistachios are very high in vitamin B6, thiamine, copper, manganese, phosphorus, protein, fibre and fat, and they contain many other vitamins and minerals.

 

Bibliography:
Pistachio, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistachio
Pistachio Nuts Benefits, Side Effects, Nutrition Value and Facts, n.d, Seed Guides, http://www.seedguides.info/pistachios/
Some Physical and Mechanical Properties of Pistachio Nut, 2007, National Centre for Agrarian Sciences, http://www.agrojournal.org/13/02-12-07.pdf

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Suet

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Suet

Suet is not always easily obtainable, and is not interchangeable.

  • Suet is a food item derived from the fat of animals such as sheep and cattle, and when fresh it is a white colour.
  • Suet is typically the hard fat from around the animal’s kidneys, and is unlike other fat found on the animal, so other animal fat alternatives should not be used.
  • Suet can be an ingredient in pastries and deep-fried dishes, an ingredient in traditional Christmas puddings and others, as well as fruit mince, and it is often found in traditional British recipes of this kind.
  • Suet is used to create a light and spongy texture in food, due to its higher melting temperature that helps to build structure and creates pockets of air in the partially cooked mixture, and as such, it is best if it is not substituted with any other fat.
  • If temperatures exceed 45° to 50° Celsius (113° to 122° Fahrenheit), suet beings to melt, a temperature higher than most other fats, and it starts to solidify at temperatures between 37° and 40° Celsius (98.6° and 104° Fahrenheit).

Suet, Meat, Leg, Trivia, Ten Random Facts, Meat, Fat, Christmas Pudding

  • As suet is an animal product, it needs to be stored in the refrigerator, or frozen if long storage times are required, and for cooking purposes, it is usually grated or minced before adding to a recipe.
  • Suet can be made into bird feed, often in the form of tallow, and has been made into soap, leather cleaners and lamp fuel in the past.
  • Suet is very high in cholesterol, fat and calories, which has led to its use in the diets of some explorers in history, to contribute to the large energy intake needed in freezing weather conditions.
  • Among the first mentions of suet as an ingredient, was a recipe of a pudding cooked for the members of Cambridge University in 1617.
  • Vegetable shortening and frozen butter can be used as a somewhat passable alternative for suet; however the flavour will differ, and the texture is likely to be more dense and oily.
Bibliography:
Akis E, How To Replace Suet in Christmas Pudding, 2012, Times Colonist, http://www.timescolonist.com/life/how-to-replace-suet-in-christmas-pudding-1.10199
Carter K, Suet, Part two: What it is, What it isn’t, and What to Look For., 2013, Savoring The Past, http://savoringthepast.net/2013/01/21/suet-part-two-what-it-is-what-it-isnt-and-what-to-look-for/
The Secrets of Suet, Shredded and Otherwise, 2010, Pacdon Park, http://www.pacdon.com.au/2011/01/03/the-secrets-of-suet-shredded-and-otherwise/
Suet, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suet

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