What are the ways of classifying bread?

Question

What words and dimensions are used to describe bread and their recipes?

I realize describing bread is subjective, I'm only looking for common words to describe bread.

Answer

As for judging crumb, my favorite two terms used by German Meister Bakers are juicy (saftig) and woolly (wollig).

The first, praise for tarter breads such as sour rye; the second for toast bread and lunch rolls.

An unflattering term would be cotton (Baumwolle) for flavorless and dry fluff.

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Parmesan Crusted Steak - Replace olive oil with honey

Question

I've recently been making a parmesan crust for my steaks, the recipe I'm using calls for olive oil on the steak itself, before cooking. It works well for the crust, but its hard on the grill, cause the oil starts an oil fire, which chars the steak quicker than I'd like, giving us tougher meat.

I'm thinking of substituting the olive oil with honey, still allowing the parmesan crust to stick, and add a little flavor, but avoiding that oil-based flame from charring my steaks.

Any suggestions to any other ingredients, or cautions against using honey?

Answer

If you're trying to avoid char, then switching to honey or any sugar is probably in the wrong direction. Sugar burns...quick.

I'd recommend three things overall specific to this crust:

1. Use less oil. If your oil is dripping off in buckets and causing significant fires - you've got too much. Just try a light brushing on the meat.

2. Use a different oil. EVOO isn't recommended for grilling mostly because of it burning at lower temps. It turns black, kinda nasty, and loses all its good flavor if it goes too long, too high. You can try extra light olive oil or really just a more standard canola or peanut oil.

3. Use the lid on your grill. A real fire in your grill consumes oxygen fast. If you leave the lid off, it can burn for much longer. With the lid on, fires are much much shorter. I'm an avid fan of grilling with the lid on and I never knew why people complained of flair ups till I did something with the lid off, its a lot worse for flair ups.

A general steak tip, especially for something like this with a crust - make sure your steaks are at room temperature before they go on the grill. If you're starting with a cold steak, you're going to have to grill it longer and there's a much greater risk to burn the crust.

Also, consider a quick sear on each side over direct heat till your crust gets the color you want, and then move it off to indirect heat to finish.

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Non-cow's milk replacement for Parmesan cheese in Genovese pesto

Question

My family loves Genovese pesto and we'd started making our own (with varied success). One of our number has been diagnosed as intolerant to cow's milk. This rules out pretty much all shop-bought varieties, so we now have to take the homemade route seriously. To help us out, please can you suggest non-cow's milk cheeses that we could use instead of Parmesan?

Answer

Finding a non-cow subsitute for parmesan is a difficult task - Grana, the closest, is made from cow milk as well so it's no good.
You can try using Pecorino which is made from sheep milk, and has a slightly stronger flavour.
I've never tried it personally, but it's not rare in some regions of Italy to make pesto with pecorino, so it's definitely worth a try!

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How do you make Yorkshire Puddings rise?

Question

Has anyone got a foolproof recipe for Yorkshire Puddings? With the one I have they never seem to rise properly.

Answer

While using a hot oven and keeping the tin hot while filling are both critical elements, equal concern needs to be taken with making sure that your batter is at room temperature. If the eggs and milk aren't room temp to even slightly warm, then it will take a significant amount of heat to simply warm the batter in the pan before significant steam can build for their expansion.

You can warm eggs quickly by placing the whole egg (in shell) in a bowl and covering with hot water from the tap. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes and you'll have room temperature/warm egg. Milk can simply be microwaved to warm only slightly or you'll cook the eggs.

You might also try using bread flour. Here in the south all-purpose flour has a lower gluten content than most other all-purpose flour in the US and it's also bleached to weaken the gluten content that's there. I've recommended to guests of mine that have had issues with popovers not rising that they try bread flour and I've heard positive responses following the use of bread flour. Bread flour will also have a bit more flavor and produce more browning from the additional protein.

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Salads that are made of tomatoes, onion, chilli, coriander, salt and lemon?

Question

Recently I've been making salads that are made of tomatoes, onion, chilli, coriander, salt and lemon. Then, I eat them with bread. I have no idea where this recipe is coming from. Any suggestions to make recipes with these ingredients?

How can I improve this recipe or make variations?

Answer

So, you're making a pico de gallo salad?

Throw some fresh garlic and fresh lime juice in there. It's delicious and will prevent salmonella poisoning, which is surprisingly common with uncooked salsas.

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Principles of full flavour in dishes

Question

I have become interested in learning how to cook better, and how cooking works.

I prepared a dish, a kind-of pie made from tortillas as the base and top, with potato, feta cheese, sauteed soft rings of onion, mushrooms, garlic and spinach in olive oil with pepper as the filling ingredients, and baked until crispy. A pretty simple recipe. A lot of my meals so far seem to be based on this base of onion, mushroom, and garlic.

When eating the dish, I found that certain ingredients on their own were too much, mainly the spinach (bitter) and feta cheese (overwhelming), and that certain combinations of the ingredients were good, potato and feta, or onion and garlic, but when I ate full slices (ie. containing nearly all ingredients) they all faded into each other and lost sharpness and therefore seemed bland

I know without going into the specifics of my preparation of these ingredients, it may be hard to come up with suggestions, and this is a very general question but I am trying to understand the bigger picture of combinations of tastes, and cooking techniques to make food that tastes really good, so I am wanting suggestions of further ingredients, or techniques to refine this base, and add more flavour and quality to my dishes.

I appreciate any input or suggestions.

Thanks

Answer

One of the most important things to consider when designing a dish is the balance of tastes in the dish: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. Remember that certain tastes can combine with each other to cancel each other out, enhance one another, and sometimes even create new tastes. Here are three rules of thumb that should help:

1. Sweetness can complement and even suppress bitterness. As an example, think of beer.
2. Saltiness, in general, enhances the other tastes, and can often be masked by them. Sweetness, for example, can suppress saltiness and, at the same time, saltiness can enhance sweetness. That's why many baked confections contain salt. Also, that's one reason why a classic pairing for salty feta cheese is sweet watermelon.
3. Sourness/acidity can make fatty foods seem less fatty. That's one reason why fatty meats are often served with vinegar-based sauces.

It is important to think about what each ingredient contributes to the dish in terms of taste, flavor, texture, and color. If two ingredients are serving the same purpose, then chances are you don't need one of them. In your specific case, here is what some of your ingredients contribute in terms of taste:

• Feta: Salty.
• Onion: Sweet.
• Mushrooms: Umami.
• Spinach: Bitter and slightly sweet.

The other ingredients are mostly just adding flavor and texture, which may not be necessary in your case. Also, keep in mind that the oil, feta, and tortillas (assuming you are using flour tortillas) all contain fat, so you may want to bump-up the sourness a bit. Also, if you found that the spinach was too bitter, you could offset it by reducing the amount and perhaps caramelizing your onions a bit more to add sweetness. You could also add some balsamic vinegar to your onions as they caramelize which will both make them sweeter and also add some acidity.

As a final suggestion, make sure to write everything down! That way, then next time you try this recipe you will know (1) how much of each ingredient you used before, and (2) what ingredients you'd like to alter.

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