Tag Archives: Culinary

Katsuobushi

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Katsuobushi

Foreign food, like katsuobushi, is quite interesting.

  • Katsuobushi is a Japanese food product of fermented, smoked and dried fish, such as bonito or most commonly skipjack tuna.
  • ‘Katsuobushi’ is also known as ‘okaka’, both Japanese words, as well as ‘dried bonito’ and ‘dancing fish flakes’.
  • Katsuobushi is commonly used in Japanese cuisine to make soups and sauce, or more specifically, broth, as well as a garnish or topping that imparts flavour to the dish.
  • Katsuobushi has a savoury taste, and the product includes fungi that is part of the fermentation process.
  • Heat emissions and steam can cause Katsuobushi to move as if the substance is alive, and it is often used decoratively on hot foods for this reason.

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  • Katsuobushi can be bought either in blocks or as shavings, often in sachets, in a coarse or fine version, and it is typically pink to brown in colour.
  • Katsuobushi is made by filleting the fish, boiling and smoking the fillets, sun-drying them and spraying them with moisture-absorbing fungus, and letting them ferment, while the entire process takes many months.
  • The final product of Katsuobushi, before shaving, is generally a very dry, hard block that looks similar to wood, and weighs over 80% less then the original fillet, and once shaved it resembles wood shavings
  • Katsuobushi is available in fine or coarse flakes, while the larger flakes generally have a stronger taste and are bulkier.
  • Katsuobushi was first made in the 1670s, in Japan, while a more modern version was brought into use by 1770.

 

Bibliography:
Fujita C, Dried Bonito, 2009, The Tokyo Foundation, http://www.tokyofoundation.org/en/topics/japanese-traditional-foods/vol.-15-dried-bonito
Katsuobushi, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuobushi
What is Katsuobushi, 2014, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-katsuobushi.htm

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Worcestershire Sauce

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Worcestershire Sauce

Worcestershire sauce must be the most mysterious condiment out there!

  • Worcestershire sauce is a condiment in the form of a liquid, made primarily through the process of fermenting.
  • ‘Worcestershire sauce’ is also known as ‘Worcester sauce’ and, in Spanish, ‘salsa inglesa’, meaning ‘English sauce’.
  • Worcestershire sauce is most often used as a flavouring in beef and other meat based dishes, Caesar salad and hamburgers, as well as cocktail beverages.
  • Worcestershire sauce is typically made of anchovies, garlic, spices, molasses and onion, as well as a mixture of other ingredients that often includes vinegar.
  • Although its history is uncertain, Worcestershire sauce is said to have been first invented by English pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins, in England’s Worcester, in Worcestershire,  Europe, and it was sold commercially by them by the year 1838 under the Lea & Perrins brand, now the most popular brand in the world.

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  • The initial Worcestershire sauce made by Lea and Perrins is said to have been very strong and unpleasant and therefore placed in a cellar, however, years later it was tasted and discovered it was pleasant after fermenting.
  • Worcestershire sauce is high in sodium, iron, potassium and vitamin C and it contains many other vitamins and minerals.
  • It is widely accepted that the Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce recipe is derived from an Indian condiment, that the Englishmen tried to replicate for an acquaintance who had visited or lived in the country.
  • Worcestershire sauce is commonly available in supermarkets and is usually sold in bottles, under various brand names.
  • The list of ingredients, but no method, of the original Worcestershire sauce by Lea & Perrins was first uncovered in 2009 in a rubbish bin, and the document now resides in the Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum.

 

Bibliography:
Docio A, History of Worcestershire Sauce, 2013, British Local Food, http://britishlocalfood.com/history-of-worcestershire-sauce/
Smallwood K, What is in Worcestershire Sauce and Why is It Called That?, 2012, Today I Found Out, http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/10/worcestershire-sauce-called/
Worcestershire Sauce, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcestershire_sauce

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Breakfast Cereal

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Breakfast Cereal

Remember to eat some breakfast cereal for a healthy start to your day!

  • Breakfast cereal, also known as ‘cereal’, is a processed grain-based food, usually eaten during the morning, often as the first dish of the day.
  • Breakfast cereal can be eaten both cold or hot, with milk, fruit, yoghurt and sometimes sweeteners added, and it is generally considered as a healthy breakfast option, however, some ready-to-eat cereals are high in sugar.
  • Read-to-eat breakfast cereal has been the subject of a constant increase in popularity, and over 500 cereals or variations have been manufactured throughout the world.
  • Porridge, a type of breakfast cereal, has been eaten since ancient times, and is made of ground, chopped or rolled oats, rice, corn, barley, semolina, wheat or other grains.
  • It is likely that the 1863 Granula breakfast cereal produced by a nutritionist from the United States, James Jackson, was the first to be invented, although the item required a period of soaking before consumption, making it impractical.

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  •  Breakfast cereal was originally scooped from large barrels for each customer, and around the late 1800s it started to become prepackaged in boxes that helped to increase its popularity.
  • Breakfast cereal was popularised around the late 1800s by the American, John Kellogg, a physician and the cofounder of Kellogg’s, along with his brother William, as well as Charles Post, a salesman who became a cereal manufacturer after visiting Kellogg’s sanitarium.
  • Breakfast cereal is available in a wide variety of shapes and colours, but is typically flaky or grainy in texture, and is generally brown to orange in colour, depending on the ingredients.
  • Breakfast cereal often has a high content of fibre, as well as many added vitamins, although some cereals contain a substantial quantity of sugar.
  • Breakfast cereal can be targeted specifically towards adults or children, and is often more sophisticated and healthy for adults, but sweeter, bright and more colourful for children.

 

Bibliography:
Avey T, What’s for Breakfast? Discover the History of Cereal, 2012, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-of-cereal/
Breakfast Cereal, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_cereal
History of Cereals, 2014, Ceereals, http://www.ceereal.eu/asp2/why_breakfast/l1.asp?doc_id=420

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Cream of Tartar

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Cream of Tartar

Do not take an overdose of potassium with richly filled cream of tartar.

  • Cream of tartar is a white compound of powdered potassium acid salt that is derived from tartaric acid.
  • Crystallised cream of tartar forms inside barrels of fermenting grape juice and sometimes in bottles of wine, that have been cooled at 10°C (50°F) or lower.
  • Cream of tartar is often used for culinary purposes as a stabiliser, to boost the volume of egg whites and their resilience to heat; to keep the fluffiness of whipped cream; to stop crystallisation of sugar based liquids; and to stabilise colour enzymes of vegetables so that they keep their colour.
  • Cream of tartar is often used to make baking powder as well as in salt replacements that require limited or no sodium.
  • Cream of tartar is a combination of potassium, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in the chemical makeup of KC4H5O6.

Cream of Tartar, Powder, White, Acid, Potassium, Ten Random Facts, Culinary, Australia

  • ‘Cream of tartar’ is officially known as ‘potassium bitartrate’, and is also called  ‘potassium hydrogen tartrate’, ‘potassium acid tartrate’ and ‘monopotassium tartrate’.
  • A mixture of dissolved cream of tartar in either an acid solution or water can be used for cleaning; the former for metals including aluminium, brass and copper and the latter for most other objects.
  • Cream of tartar was originally made in wine barrels, until a modern method was produced by CW Scheele, a chemist from Sweden in 1769, and characteristics of the substance were documented in 1832 by Jean-Baptiste Biot, a French physicist.
  • Cream of tartar is very high in potassium, so consuming large quantities of the powder can lead to potassium-related illnesses such as hyperkalemia, and women that are pregnant and elderly people should be careful about ingesting it.
  • ‘Tartar’ of ‘cream of tartar’ has been used since the 1300s, and is originally from the Greek word ‘tartaron’, and later the Medieval Latin word ‘tartarum’.
Bibliography:
Cream of Tartar: What is it anyway?, 2012, Huffpost Taste, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/cream-of-tar-tar_n_2322569.html
Potassium Bitartrate, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_bitartrate
What is the History of Cream of Tartar?, 2013, Innovate Us, http://www.innovateus.net/food/what-history-cream-tartar

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Croissant

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Croissant

Do you eat croissants for breakfast?

  • Croissants are puffy bakery food items that are typically flaky and buttery in texture, that are usually tan or light brown in colour.
  • Croissants are said to have been derived from a yeast-dough pastry named ‘kipfel’, in Austria, Europe, that may have its origins as early as the 1200s, although it is possible that they did not exist until the 1600s.
  • Croissants are mainly made with butter and a bread like dough containing yeast, and can be filled and flavoured with numerous foods including chocolate, nut, ham, cheese, dried fruits and apple
  • Croissants are traditionally crescent in shape, but can be spherical or cylindrical, and the typical shape is said to have originated from the Austrian kipfel.
  • Croissants are popularly eaten during breakfast, commonly sold as a type of fast food, and are often sold frozen so that they can be thawed and heated at home.

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Croissants
Image courtesy of Zdenko Zivkovic/Flickr
  • There are many legends regarding the history of the croissant, and the most popular is that it originates in the late 1600s, when bakers created crescent shaped pastries based on the Turkish flag, due to the Turks having been defeated by their enemies.
  • The term ‘croissant’ was named after the French word for ‘crescent’, referring to the traditional shape.
  • While the origin of croissants is uncertain, they were probably introduced to France in the late 1830s, by officer August Zang from Austria, in a bakery that he owned and was located in France’s Paris, in Europe.
  • Croissants are typically made by folding butter into dough, rolling the dough into sheets, and then continuing the folding and rolling process known as ‘laminating’, before cutting and rolling into a crescent shape and baking in an oven.
  • Croissants have significant quantities of sodium, selenium, folate and thiamin and are also high in fat.
Bibliography:
Croissant, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croissant
Origins of the Croissant, 2009, The Hungarian Girl, http://thehungariangirl.com/2009/08/12/history-of-the-croissant/
Olver, L, FAQs: Bread, 2014, Food Timeline, http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbreads.html#croissants

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Can Opener

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Can Opener

How would you open a can, without a can opener?

    • Can openers are tools, typically used to open cans, usually in a culinary environments like the food industry and domestic situations.
    • ‘Can openers’ are also known as ‘tin openers’, and are often made of metal such as stainless steel, or plastic, although the cutter is generally metal.
    • While preserved food in cans dates back to the mid to late 1700s and the process became successful, patented, and popular in the early 1800s, can openers were not invented until approximately 50 years later, and were most likely not invented earlier due to the heavy thickness of the iron that the cans were made from.
    • Can openers replaced the common hammer and chisel method of opening a can, and were first invented around the 1850s with a leverage mechanism shaped like a claw.
    • Modern can openers typically involve a sharp metal rotating disc that cuts through cans when moved along the edge.

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  • William Lyman, an American inventor from Connecticut’s Meriden, in the United States, is said to have invented the first can opener with a rotating wheel, in 1870, and it is this basic principal which most modern designs use.
  • Early can openers were originally quite dangerous to use, and this problem was fixed by an improved cutting technique and design.
  • Electrically operated can openers were not popular when first invented in 1931, but they were redesigned in 1956 by at least two different companies of which only one became popular.
  • Can openers often use a scissor like mechanism with two handles that pivot and close two discs onto the can, one of which rolls around the can, and the other cuts, both of which move due to the user turning a protruding handle.
  • Can openers have become less essential due to many cans now having their own ring pull lid or pull open top, that easily opens the can without a special tool.
Bibliography:
Can Opener, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_opener
The Can Opener Wasn’t Invented Until 48 Years After the Invention of the Can, 2012, Today I Found Out, http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/06/the-can-opener-wasnt-invented-until-48-years-after-the-invention-of-the-can/

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