Curious Cook

Curious Cook in the New York Times: For more aroma, just add water

In my July 28 column I write about water as an ingredient that can enhance the flavors of strong spirits, cocktails, high-alcohol wines, and coffee. Added water has little or no flavor of its own, but it boosts the aroma of alcoholic drinks by diluting the alcohol and loosening its hold on aroma molecules, and makes delicate coffee aromas more noticeable.

Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club in New York has created a number of "inverted drinks" in which a spirit plays the supporting role to a lower-alcohol wine-based ingredient, rather than the usual other way around. Try her Intro to Aperol and also her Madeira Martinez, which is now one of my favorite cocktails.

Curious Cook in the New York Times: Aging, aerating, and uncorking wines

In this month's Curious Cook column I report on an instructive tasting and conversation with wine chemist Andrew Waterhouse and retailer and connoisseur Darrell Corti. We talk about storage temperatures, how much a wine can be really be changed between opening and sipping, and a simple way to get rid of cork taint.

Curious Cook in the New York Times: Band-Aids, Shiraz Wines, and the Essence of Pepper

In this month's Curious Cook, I write about some really bad pommes pureés, the sometimes strange flavors of white pepper, and new research on Shiraz wines that revealed the key to pepperiness.

There's an error that crept into the printed column during the editing, and a number of interesting facts that didn't make the cut. More on these in my next post.

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Wood, C. et al. From wine to pepper: rotundone, an obscure sesquiterpene, is a potent spicy aroma compound.  J. Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2008, 56: 3738-44 .    http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf800183k  

Curious Cook in the New York Times: Of mice and wine, and rice

In today's dining section I write about the surprising connection between an obnoxious off-flavor in wines and the prized flavor of aromatic rices.

Check back in a couple of days for more news about rice.

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Snowdon, E. et al. Mousy off-flavor: A review. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2006, 54, 6465-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf0528613

Progress in sparkling wines: bubbles and flow

A progress report from Gérard Liger-Belair, the world authority on wine bubbles, and his quest to define the ideal glass for enjoying the effervescence of champagne. Bubbling really stirs up a glass of wine, and if you're going to etch a glass to generate bubbles, you'll need to adjust the pattern to the glass shape.

Curious Cook in the New York Times: Absinthe and champagne

In today's dining section I write about a recent analysis of the fact and fiction surrounding absinthe and its distinguishing ingredient, wormwood. And about the latest from the bubble laboratory of Gérard Liger-Belair, deep in champagne country. And what happens when you mix absinthe and champagne.

Anyone who enjoys sparkling wine will love Professor Liger-Belair's informative and poetic book Uncorked: The Science of Champagne, published by Princeton University Press in 2004.

Lachenmeier, D.W. et al. Absinthe: a review. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 2006, 46: 365-77.

Liger-Belair, G. et al. Modeling the kinetics of bubble nucleation in champagne and carbonated beverages. J. Physical Chem. B 2006, 110: 21145-51.

Liger-Belair, G. Et al. Champagne experiences various rhythmical bubbling regines in a flute. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2006, 54: 6989-6994.

Organic vs. conventional agriculture: stressed syrah grapes

Stress on our food plants may be hard for the plants, but good for us. Scientists are now studying the biochemical effects of agricultural practices in great detail, and one consistent finding is that plant stress--from insects, heat, sunlight, water and mineral deficiencies--can induce plants to produce higher levels of antioxidants and other phytochemicals that may be good for human health. Organic agriculture, with no pesticides or mineral concentrates, usually exposes crops to more stress, and its produce is usually higher in phytochemicals. Now, in a study of syrah grapes grown near Chateauneuf du Pape in southern France, French scientists have found higher levels of antioxidant anthocyanin pigments in the conventionally grown crop. They attribute this to the possibility that, because the grapevines were already severely stressed by heat and drought, the spraying of pesticides constituted an additional, chemical stress. If this theory is correct, then pesticides may sometimes contribute more to human nutrition than just higher crop yields and less expensive produce.

Vian M.A. et al., J. Agric. Food Chem. 2006 54 (15) 5230