Curious Cook

Curious Cook in the New York Times: The tastes of salts

In my first column of 2011 I write about the blizzard of specialty salts that now come our way from all over the world, and describe two recent academic studies that examine whether different salts actually do have distinctive tastes.

A few additional points for which there wasn't room in the column:

A new start for Curious Cook

I've been mostly offline since the end of last year to take care of urgent family matters. It's been a long winter, and I'm very glad for the return of spring and all that it signifies. I've cleared out my backyard jungle and planted a garden. I'm writing again. I'm getting back in touch with fellow curious cooks. And I've freshened up this site, which I hope you'll find easier to navigate and use. My thanks to Eric Case and Michael Sippey for the many long hours they put into this webscaping!

Curious Cook in the New York Times: Making Candies in the Microwave

In my last Curious Cook column for 2010, I write about the advantages of cooking down candy mixes in the microwave oven, which is more forgiving in several ways than the stovetop. I also give recipes for nut brittle, New-Orleans-style pralines, and saffron-flavored Turkish delight.

 For any home cook who enjoys candy-making or would like to give it a try, I strongly recommend Peter Greweling's recent book Chocolates and Confections, in the Culinary Institute of America's "At Home" series (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).  His Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner (Wiley, 2007) delves deeper into the technical details.

And for an eye-opening review of just how complex the chemistry of candy syrups is, take a look at the review cited below.

 

Zapping the holiday candy

I’M not a big candy eater, but around the holidays I find myself longing for a few pieces of chewy Turkish delight. Despite the name and exotic rose-water flavor, it’s among the humblest of confections, made from just cornstarch and sugar. But it takes me back to the first Christmas I can remember, when the grandmother I hadn’t yet met, who was Indian and lived in England, sent me a box. For me it still carries the taste of strangeness and confusion and wonder.

I also don’t make candy very often. But when I do it seems the most magical branch of cooking, one that needs little more than plain white powder to conjure up such different marvels as glassy lollipops, opalescent ribbons, smooth creams, crumbly fudge and rich brown caramel.

Curious Cook in the New York Times: What heat does to the flavors of cooking oils

In today's Curious Cook column I write about what happens to the flavors of cooking oils when they're heated, and about the value of paying attention to oil flavor. It turns out that delicious and pricey extra-virgin olive oils lose much of their  aroma in the pan. And stale, rancid oils are less healthful than fresh oils. I also mention the dismaying finding of researchers at the University of California at Davis that many American consumers prefer the flavors of defective olive oils to the flavors of high-quality oils--probably because they seldom get the chance to taste good oils!

Due to an editing error, the print edition of the column misstates the identity of the taste panel that tested the set of olive oils before and after cooking. It was the research panel of the University of California Cooperative Extension program, not a taste panel at U.C. Davis or its Olive Center. The web edition of the column has been corrected.

Is it time for an oil change?

WHAT'S the best oil for everyday frying? Some markets where I shop offer more than a dozen oils, from argan and avocado to tea seed and walnut. I'd long figured that the choice is a matter of taste and price. I usually use canola oil because it's neutral in flavor, a good source of omega-3s and inexpensive. Like soy oil, it costs about a dime a tablespoon, whereas extra-virgin olive oils can run well over a dollar.

Partisans of the olive maintain that a high-quality extra-virgin oil brings its special flavor and health benefits to foods cooked in it. More recipes now suggest it for frying and other high-heat techniques, not just for last-minute drizzling. But does it make enough difference that it's worth a tenfold premium in price?

Pine-nut mouth: Clues from Denmark

For almost a decade now there have been anecdotal reports of people suffering from disturbed taste sensations after eating pine nuts. The symptoms take a day or so to develop, and are usually described as persistently bitter, metallic sensations that spoil the taste of all foods. In most cases they go away after a week or two.

Several European investigations have failed to find a cause for pine-nut mouth, but the Danish food ministry may have cracked the case.

Curious Cook in the New York Times: Baked baking soda for pretzels and noodles

In today's column I write about the un-acids, ingredients that are alkaline and give unusual flavors and textures to a small but significant set of foods that includes pretzels, tortillas and tamales, Oreo cookies, and ramen-style noodles. Baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, is a weak alkali and not good for much more than leavening baked goods. But a brief baking in the oven converts soda into soda ash, sodium carbonate, a much stronger alkali and a good substitute for lye, which is so strong that it's best handled with gloves and goggles.

For old-fashioned flavor, bake the baking soda

ACIDS are invaluable mainstay cooking ingredients. Lemon and lime juices, myriad vinegars and sour salt, or citric acid, can brighten and balance the flavor of almost any food. But what about their chemical opposites, the un-acids? These are the alkalis, and they're a different story.

The only alkali that most cooks have ever used is baking soda. And about all we do with it is pair it with a neutralizing acid to make carbon dioxide bubbles that leaven pancakes or baked goods. We never use it as a flavoring. It's a mineral, like most alkalis, and it tastes bitter and soapy.

In fact there are a number of equally distasteful alkalis that still manage to create distinctively tasty foods, and they're becoming easier to find. Even lye, an alkali strong enough to double as a drain cleaner, is now sold online and in specialty shops in food-grade form for making pretzels.

You may draw the line at cooking with a corrosive ingredient best handled with gloves. On the other hand, baking soda is too mild to produce the particular flavors and textures that lye can. But thanks to the simplest chemical magic, you can cook up a more muscular and versatile alkali from your cupboard. You just bake the baking soda.

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.