Tag Archives: Culinary

Cookie Cutter

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Cookie Cutter

Cookie cutters are sweet additions to your kitchen.

  • Cookie cutters are somewhat sharp objects used in food preparation to easily cut an edible item into a specific shape.
  • Most often cookie cutters are used to cut cookie dough, although they can be used to shape bread, cake, vegetables, fruit and fondant icing, although this can depend on the material the cutter is made from.
  • ‘Cookie cutters’ are also known as ‘biscuit cutters’; while moulds, rather than cutters, were used from 2000 BC for shaping dough, and these were used by Ancient Egyptians.
  • Cookie cutters are most often used to make batches of shaped cookies that are to be consistent in shape and size, and are commonly utilised for special occasions or seasons, such as parties or Christmas celebrations.
  • Materials typically used to make cookie cutters include plastic, or a metal such as tin, stainless steel, aluminium or copper.

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  • Cookie cutters are generally used by pressing the cutter into a food, which typically cuts, but may also imprint, designs.
  • Before use, cookie cutters are often coated thinly with flour or oil to prevent them sticking to the food to be cut.
  • Cookie cutters are said to have originated as early as the 15th century, although as a result of the rise of shaped gingerbread cookies in the 17th century in Europe, there was an increase in demand for an easy way to shape the biscuit or cookie, making cutters more popular.
  • Cookie cutters come in numerous shapes and sizes, ranging from basic shapes like circles, to popular shapes like gingerbread men, and more intricate shapes like detailed snowflake designs.
  • Cookie cutters are popularly collected and clubs exist for enthusiasts, while some museums are dedicated to historical cutter collections.
Bibliography:
Audet M, Collecting Antique and Vintage Cookie Cutters, 2013, HubPages, http://hubpages.com/hub/Collecting-Vintage-Cookie-Cutters
Cookie Cutter, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie_cutter
Cookie Cutter History, n.d, Karen’s Cookies, http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Cutter-History_ep_136-1.html

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Chicken Nugget

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Chicken Nugget

Chicken nuggets are a favourite, but are they really made of chicken?

  • Chicken nuggets are a poultry-based food, that are generally small pieces of crumbed covered meat, and are eaten as a snack or part of a main meal.
  • Chicken nuggets are typically pieces of processed or ground chicken, or chicken breast meat, and the crumbed batter is often made of breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes or similar, or a wheat flour mixture.
  • The inventor of the chicken nugget was Robert C Baker, a professor of Cornell University, qualified in food science, who published the recipe in an academic paper in the early 1960s.
  • The cooking process of chicken nuggets generally involves deep frying, pan frying, or baking in an oven, while deep frying is more common in fast-food settings.
  • Chicken nuggets have been highly popularised in takeaway restaurants, especially the symbolic Chicken McNuggets of McDonalds, and the first nuggets to be sold by McDonalds was in 1980.

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Chicken Nuggets
Image courtesy of Andrea Parrish – Geyer/Flickr
  • To cater for vegetarians, some chicken nuggets are made without meat but instead use bean or vegetable substitutes.
  • Empire Kosher Poultry, a chicken producer in the United States, set the world record in 2013 for making and cooking the largest chicken nugget, which was almost a metre (3.3 feet) in length and weighed 23.2 kilograms (51.1 pounds).
  • Chicken nuggets are commonly bite sized or slightly larger, and are generally coloured yellow to brown on the exterior, and they are sometimes served with a sauce, of which a variety of flavours are used.
  • Traditionally, chicken nuggets are crude cylindrical shapes of meat, although they can be made into specific shapes, and they often have a slightly bumpy appearance.
  • Originally, the meat of many commercial chicken nuggets was said to be ‘mechanically separated meat’, a processed paste that uses scraps from chicken carcasses, although many companies now make their nuggets from chicken breast meat, or other ‘white’ chicken meat.
Bibliography:
Chicken Nugget, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_nugget
McKenna M, The Father of the Chicken Nugget, 2012, Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2012/12/robert_c_baker_the_man_who_invented_chicken_nuggets.html
What’s Really in that Chicken Nugget?, 2012, National Chicken Council, http://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/whats-in-those-chicken-nuggets/

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Chocolate Truffle

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Chocolate Truffle

Is your mouth watering from the thought of a chocolate truffle?

  • Chocolate truffles are confectionery sweets made primarily of a mixture of cream and chocolate, known as ‘ganache’.
  • The term ‘chocolate truffle’ is derived from the edible tuber fungus known as a ‘truffle’, which shares a similar appearance to the confectionery.
  • The internal part of a chocolate truffle is usually a soft ganache, that is generally coated or rolled in a covering of nuts, chocolate, icing sugar, coconut or cocoa powder.
  • While its history is uncertain, one tale of the chocolate truffle invention points towards the inventor as master chef Auguste Escoffier, from France, or one of his young workers, who in the 1920s, accidentally placed heated cream in a bowl of chocolate.
  • While traditionally chocolate truffles contain ganache, a heated and cooled chocolate and cream mixture, they sometimes consist of another filling, such as caramel, fudge, fruit, nuts or chocolate.
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An Assortment of Chocolate Truffles
Image courtesy of David Leggett/Flickr
  • In some areas, the 2nd of May is recognised by some people as National Truffle Day, and it is celebrated by eating chocolate truffles.
  • To make chocolate truffles, hot cream is poured over chocolate pieces; gently stirred; allowed to cool; and shaped into balls that are then coated; although ingredients and methods differ in various countries.
  • Despite its dubious origins, chocolate truffles are said to have originated in France, possibly existing as early as 1895, and created by Louis Dufour, while Antoine Dufour is believed to have popularised the confectionery through his shop in London, England.
  • Chocolate truffles are traditionally roughly spherical in shape, due to the ganache being hand rolled into balls, although they can be purchased as cubes, cones, and in other forms.
  • Chocolate truffles are generally considered a luxurious confectionery item, and they are commonly coloured either brown or white, depending on the chocolate used.
Bibliography:
Chocolate Truffle, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_truffle
The History of Chocolate Truffles, 2015, The Nibble, http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/chocolate/chocolate-truffle-history.asp
History of a Truffle, 2013, Asher’s, http://www.ashers.com/blog/2013/05/history-of-a-truffle/

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Sugarcane

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Sugarcane

Sugarcane is a sweet success.

  • Sugarcane is a group of grass species from the Saccharum genus, that belongs to Poaceae, the family of true grass; and sugar is extracted from the plants, that are usually grown for commercial purposes.
  • Sugarcane is a perennial plant, native to areas of southern Asia, that grows best in tropical habitats, and reaches heights of between 2 to 6 metres (6.5 to 19.7 feet) and a diameter of roughly 5 centimetres (2 inches).
  • Most commercially grown sugarcane is a hybrid that is generally a cross between the species Saccharum officinarum and Saccharum spontaneum, although there are a small number of other plants in the Saccharum genus that may be used for this purpose.
  • Sugarcane plants takes 9 to 24 months to grow to maturity, depending on the climate, and they are the raw material that produces 80% of the world’s sugar production, while the plants are also used for making ethanol, molasses, bagasse, rum and other products.
  • The majority of a sugarcane stalk is made of water, with up to three quarters possible, while up to 16% can be sugar, and the fibre content can be also be up to 16%.

Sugarcane, Plant, Sugar, Australia, Plants, Plantation,

  • Many sugarcane farms were formed across the world beteween the 1800s and 1900s, and slaves from various locations were used as the primary labour.
  • The fibres of the sugarcane plant can be woven into mats; used for papermaking purposes; and added to other fibres to make fabric.
  • Australia, parts of the United States, Asia’s India and Indonesia, the Pacific Islands and South America – including Peru and Brazil, are popular sugarcane farm locations, while in 2013, Brazil was the largest producer of the crop in the world.
  • The harvesting of sugarcane, which is accomplished by hand with a special tool or the use of a mechanical harvester, is done before the plant sets flower with its feathery tufts; and in many cases the crop is set alight beforehand to eradicate dangerous animals and leaves.
  • Sugar is produced from sugarcane juice located in the stalk of the plant, and is done through a milling process, which involves crushing, heating, cooling and refining.

 

Bibliography:
The story of sugarcane: paddock to plate, 2010, Cane Growers, http://www.canegrowers.com.au/page/Industry_Centre/Schools_module/about-australian-sugarcane/
Sugarcane, 2015, How Stuff Works, http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/sugarcane-info.htm
Sugarcane, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarcane

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Plum

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Plum

How tiresome, the picking of plums must be.

  • Plums are edible, fleshy fruit with a smooth skin, and contain a single pit or seed in the centre.
  • Plums grow on trees that have the scientific genus name ‘Prunus’, that is from the family Rosaceae, the family of roses, and most commercially available fruit comes from the Japanese ‘Prunus salicina’ and the European ‘Prunus domestica’ species.
  • The typical diameter of a plum reaches 3.5 to 7.6 centimetres (1 to 3 inches) and they are roughly spherical in shape.
  • Plums are generally quite juicy, with flavours that vary from sweet to tart depending on the species and variety.
  • Plums are commonly eaten raw, although they can be dried, juiced, pickled and cooked, the latter often in desserts; and the dried versions are known as ‘prunes’.

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  • The skin of plums can be coloured pink, yellow, red, purple, green or almost black, while the flesh can be white, yellow, red or green.
  • The growing of plums for domestic purposes has been evident across Europe and Asia for approximately 2000 years.
  • China produced approximately 6.1 million tonnes (6.7 million tons) in 2013, the most in the world, compared to the worldwide production of 11.5 million tonnes (12.6 million tons).
  • Plums are high in vitamin C, and are good sources of vitamins A and K, as well as fibre.
  • There are more than 2000 varieties of plums in the world, and they are usually individually picked at the best possible time, by hand.
Bibliography:
Plum, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum
Plums, 2011, Fresh for Kids, http://www.freshforkids.com.au/fruit_pages/plum/plum.html
Plums & Prunes, 2015, World’s Healthiest Foods, http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=35

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Canola Oil

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Canola Oil

Light in colour, light in taste…. canola oil.

  • Canola oil is a version of oil used in cooking, that is extracted from the seeds of specifically bred plants of the Brassica genus – Brassica juncea (leaf mustard or mustard greens), Brassica napus (rapeseed), and Brassica rapa (turnip rape or field mustard).
  • ‘Canola oil’ is also known as ‘canola’ and was named by the Western Canadian Oilseed Crushers Association, originating from the words ‘Canada’ and ‘oil’.
  • Canola oil originated in Canada, in the 1970s, and the plants were developed by Canada’s University of Manitoba and the government department, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
  • In 2014, the European Union produced the most metric tons of canola or rapeseed oilseed in the world, with a quantity of more than 21 million tons, while Canada produced almost 18 million, out of a total worldwide production of more than 71 million tons.
  • Canola oil is extracted by pressing and heating the oilseeds, after which the meal of the seeds is separated from the oil; and the meal is frequently used to feed animals like pigs, cattle, fish and poultry and can also be used as a fertiliser.

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  • Canola oil is commonly used in cooking dues to its high heat tolerance and low level of saturated fat, and it is often used in baking; applied to the surface of pans to prevent food sticking; and used for frying food.
  • Canola oilseeds contain approximately 44% oil, with 23 kilograms (51 pounds) of seed, creating approximately 10 litres (2.6 gallons) of oil.
  • Canola can only be classified as such if it has erucic acid quantities of less than 2% present in the oil, while the glucosinolates that exist in the dry meal must be less than 30 micromoles for each gram.
  • Canola oil is commonly used as the main ingredient in shortening, margarine and salad dressings, and is also found in plastics, machinery lubrication, cosmetics and ink for the printing industry, among others.
  • Despite theories that canola oil is not healthy, the product is typically high in vitamin E and vitamin K, and it is believed to be one of the healthier cooking oil options.
Bibliography:
Canola, 2015, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola
What is Canola Oil?, 2015, Canola Info, http://www.canolainfo.org/canola/
What is Canola?, 2014, Canola Council, http://www.canolacouncil.org/oil-and-meal/what-is-canola/

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