Cooking For Geeks Part 11

Mechanical Leaveners Mechanical leaveners work by trapping air within a liquid-usually by whipping egg whites, egg yolks, or cream-or by generating steam from water present in the food.

Unlike biological or chemical leavening methods, which rely on the chemical makeup of the food to generate air, mechanical rising techniques rely on the physical properties of the food to hold air. Because of this, mechanical leaveners can't just be added to a dish without considering the impact of the moisture or fat that they also add, which can throw off the ratios between ingredients such as flour and water or sugar and fats.

Note"Cream the b.u.t.ter and sugar" has nearly three million exact-phrase matches on Google, and plenty is written about the microscopic air bubbles that the sugar crystals drag through the b.u.t.ter when creamed. When you see a recipe call for creaming b.u.t.ter and sugar, use room-temperature b.u.t.ter-it needs to be plastic enough to hold on to the air bubbles but soft enough to be workable-and use an electric mixer to thoroughly combine the ingredients until you have a light, creamy texture.

Egg Whites Whisked egg whites are the Styrofoam of the culinary world: besides acting as s.p.a.ce fillers in cakes, waffles, and souffles and as "insulators" in desserts like lemon meringue pie, when overcooked, they taste about the same as Styrofoam, too. All metaphors aside though, egg whites are much more forgiving than many cooks realize. With a little attention spent on understanding the chemistry and a bit of experimentation, egg-white foams are easy to master.

NoteA foam is a mixture of a solid or liquid surrounding a dispersion dispersion of gas; that is, the gas (usually air) is dispersed through the liquid or solid, not in a single big cavity. Bread is a solid foam; whipped egg whites are a liquid foam. (See of gas; that is, the gas (usually air) is dispersed through the liquid or solid, not in a single big cavity. Bread is a solid foam; whipped egg whites are a liquid foam. (See Buying Food Additives Buying Food Additives in in Chapter6 Chapter6 for a description of colloids.) for a description of colloids.) The key to understanding egg whites is to understand how foams themselves work. Whisking egg whites turns them into a light, airy foam by trapping air bubbles in a mesh of denatured proteins. Since regions of the proteins that make up egg whites are hydrophobic hydrophobic-literally, water-fearing-they normally curl up and form tight little b.a.l.l.s to avoid interacting with the water. But when whisked, those regions of the proteins are slammed against air bubbles and unfold, and as more and more proteins are knocked against an air bubble, they form a layer around the bubble and essentially trap it in the liquid, creating a foam that's stable.

Oils-especially from egg yolks or any trace oils present in the whisking bowl-prevent egg whites from being whisked into a foam because they're also able to interact with the hydrophobic sections of the proteins. Water and sugar don't interfere with the formation of protein-based foams for the same reason.

Once the air bubbles are encapsulated by the proteins in the egg white, it takes quite a bit of effort to get them to break. Exposing the whites to any oil before whisking is a problem; even a trace amount of fat from a small amount of stray egg yolk will interfere with the creation of the foam. But once the eggs are whisked, they're much more resilient. Try this experiment: whisk an egg white to soft peaks, then add teaspoon (5g) olive oil and continue to whisk. It might surprise you how long it takes before the oil starts to noticeably interact with the foam, and even then, that the foam remains mostly stable.

What Should You Whisk Your Egg Whites In?Definitely not plastic. Copper bowls work best; a clean stainless steel or gla.s.s bowl is fine.Plastic is chemically similar enough to oil that oil molecules stick around on it and are impossible to completely remove. Whisking egg whites in plastic bowls doesn't produce as good a result because there's enough oil lingering on the surface of the bowl to interfere with the development of the foam. (Of course, it's fine to whip cream in a plastic bowl; more fat isn't going to interfere with the fat-based foam structure.)When you use a copper bowl, trace amounts of copper ions interact with the proteins in the egg whites to make a more stable foam. It's not a subtle effect: egg whites whisked in copper bowls are definitely easier to work with. Copper bowls are expensive, but if you find you're whipping up egg whites a lot, it's probably worth breaking down and spending $40 on one.For more occasional use, most of us have stainless steel or gla.s.s bowls on hand, and those are fine. While these materials won't help with the egg-white foam by adding copper ions, they also won't hold on to problematic fats. Cream of tartar is commonly used as a chemical buffer-any time you see a recipe calling for egg whites to be whisked and you're using stainless steel or gla.s.s, "auto-complete" it with a pinch of cream of tartar ( teaspoon [ teaspoon [g] per egg white). Don't use cream of tartar in a copper bowl, though; it'll interact with the copper.Try an experiment: whisk three whites in a plastic bowl, three whites in a stainless steel or gla.s.s bowl, and, if you should happen to have a copper bowl, three whites in a copper bowl. Take a spoonful of the resulting foams and smear it on a cookie sheet to compare the difference between the foams.[image]Egg whites whisked to stiff peak in a stainless steel bowl (left) and a copper bowl (right), smeared on a cookie sheet to show the difference in texture.

Meringues Egg whites, when whisked and combined with sugar, turn into a sweet, airy mixture suitable for folding into heavier bases, bringing a lightness and sweetness. Of course, sugar and egg whites are pretty good on their own-meringue cookies are nothing more than egg whites and sugar that have spent a little time in the oven. The sugar isn't just for taste, though; it helps stabilize the egg-white foam by increasing the viscosity of the water present in the foam, meaning that the cell walls in the foam remain thicker and are thus less likely to collapse. Net result? The meringue is better able to support the weight of anything you add into the foam.

Stirring and WhiskingWhen whisking, think about the goal. If you're trying to whisk air into the food to create a foam, such as whipped cream or whipped egg whites, whisk-preferably by hand!-in an up-and-down circular motion, catching and trapping air. If you're trying to mix ingredients together without necessarily adding air, whisk in a flat circular motion. This is especially important for dishes like scrambled eggs, where incorporating air actually reduces the quality.I prefer whisking things by hand. Why? Electric beaters won't work in as much air before the foam is set because of the motion of the beaters. Also, when whisking, avoid tiny little stirring motions. This is true for stirring almost anything, whether you're holding a whisk or a spoon. Sauteing vegetables? Either get in there like you mean it, or don't touch them; just let them sit so that they brown. Likewise, when whisking foams, get in there like you mean it and whisk some air in there!Once you've got the motion down, how do you know when it's done? It depends on the recipe. If it calls for soft peaks, the foam should still be supple and pliable, but if it calls for firm or stiff peaks, the foam should hold and set its shape; stiff peaks should be firmer and glossier than firm peaks. (See Making Whipped Cream Making Whipped Cream in in Chapter1 Chapter1 for more photographs of cream whipped to various states.) for more photographs of cream whipped to various states.)When it comes to folding egg whites into a batter, as long as you're using a whisk or spatula-not an electric mixer-you can be a bit more vigorous than conventional wisdom suggests.[image]Soft peak stage: the foam stays on the whisk but the peak falls over.[image]Firm and stiff peak stages: the foam maintains its shape and can be sculpted.French and Italian MeringueThere are two general forms of meringues: those in which the sugar is directly added as the egg whites are whisked (French Meringue), and those in which the sugar is dissolved before the egg whites are whisked (Swiss and Italian Meringue-we'll cover Italian here, but they're similar). The French version tends to be drier (sugar is hydroscopic, sucking the moisture out of the whites-this is why it increases viscosity) and also grittier; the Italian version has a smoother, almost creamy texture.French MeringueIn a clean bowl, whisk 3 egg whites to soft peak stage.Add cup (150g) of sugar-preferably super-fine sugar-one tablespoon at a time, while continuously whisking. If using regular sugar, you'll need to whisk longer to make sure the sugar is entirely dissolved. To check, roll a little bit of the meringue between two fingers (it shouldn't feel gritty).Italian MeringueCreate a simple syrup by heating in a saucepan cup (100g) sugar and cup (60g) water to 240F / 115C. Set aside.In a clean bowl, whisk 3 egg whites to soft peak stage. Slowly pour in sugar syrup while whisking continuously.Meringue CookiesTo make meringue cookies, start with either egg-white meringue recipe. Optionally fold into the meringue whatever ingredients you'd like-ground almonds, chocolate chips, dried fruit, cocoa powder.Using a spoon or piping bag, portion the meringue onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in an oven preheated to 200F / 95C for a few hours, until they freely come off the parchment paper.[image]No piping bag? No problem. Put your filling in a large resealable bag and snip off one of the corners. You can use Italian meringue as a topping on desserts as well.[image]Chocolate Port CakeOne of the great things about this chocolate port cake-besides the chocolate and the port-is the recipe's wide error tolerances. Most foam cakes-those cakes that rely on a foam to provide the air-are very light (think angel food cake). The reason this recipe is so forgiving is that it uses a foam without trying to achieve the same lightness.You'll need a small saucepan, two clean bowls, a whisk, and a round baking pan or springform pan, 68 / 1520 cm.In the saucepan (over a burner set to low heat), melt and mix together, but do not boil: - cup (125g) port (either tawny or ruby) - cup (114g) b.u.t.ter Once b.u.t.ter is melted, turn off heat, remove pan from burner, and add: - 3 oz (85g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces to facilitate melting Leave the chocolate to melt in the port/b.u.t.ter mixture.In two bowls, separate: - 4 large (240g) eggs Make sure to use a clean gla.s.s or metal bowl for the egg whites, and be careful not to get any egg yolk into the whites.Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.In the bowl with the egg yolks, add: - 1 cup (195g) granulated sugar Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until thoroughly combined. The yolks and sugar should become a slightly lighter yellow after whisking for a minute or so. Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk/sugar mixture and whisk to thoroughly combine.Using a flat wooden spoon or flat spatula, add to the chocolate mixture and fold in (but do not overstir!): - cup (100g) all-purpose flour Then fold in the egg whites in thirds. That is, transfer about a third of the whisked egg whites into the chocolate mixture, mix together, and then repeat twice more. Don't worry about getting the whites perfectly incorporated, although the batter should be relatively well mixed together.Grease your cake pan with b.u.t.ter and line the bottom with parchment paper, so as to make removing the cake from the pan easier. Transfer the mix to the cake pan and bake in an oven preheated to 350F / 175C until a toothpick or knife, when poked into the center, comes out clean, around 30 minutes.Let cool for at least 10 to 15 minutes, until the edges have pulled away from the sides, then remove from pan. Dust with powdered sugar (you can use a strainer for this: place a few spoonfuls of powdered sugar in the strainer and then jog it with your hand above the cake).Note - When working with chocolate in baking, don't just subst.i.tute, say, 80% bittersweet chocolate for a semisweet bar. In addition to differences in sugar, the two types of chocolate have different quant.i.ties of cocoa fat, and recipes that rely on the fat level will need to be adjusted accordingly.

Optimal Cake-Cutting Algorithm for N N People People[3]If you grew up with a brother or sister, you're undoubtedly familiar with the technique for avoiding fights when splitting food: one person divides it, and the other person chooses. ("You can halve your cake, and eat it, too!") But what to do if you have more than one brother or sister?There is a solution, but it's a bit more involved. Here's the algorithm for cutting a round cake for N N people. It's not perfect-don't use this for negotiating land divisions after minor land wars-but when it comes to a table of kids and a large chocolate cake, it'll probably work. (If you find yourself cutting cake for hardcore math geeks, however, I suggest reading up on the literature. Start with An Envy-Free Cake Division Protocol- people. It's not perfect-don't use this for negotiating land divisions after minor land wars-but when it comes to a table of kids and a large chocolate cake, it'll probably work. (If you find yourself cutting cake for hardcore math geeks, however, I suggest reading up on the literature. Start with An Envy-Free Cake Division Protocol-http://www.jstor.org/pss/2974850-and plan to be at it for a while.)Only one person actually does any cake-cutting, and that person can either be a cake-eater or just a referee. Start with the cake in front of you, along with a knife and N N plates. Proceed as follows: plates. Proceed as follows: 1. Make a first cut in the cake, as normal.

2. Explain that you're going to slowly hover the knife above the cake while moving it clockwise around the cake, just like someone thinking about how big the next slice should be. Anyone-including the person cutting the cake-can say "stop" at any point to declare that they want a piece that size, at which point, that's where you'll cut the next slice.

3. Slowly move the knife above the cake until someone calls stop.

4. Slice the cake and hand the person who called stop the new slice. Continue with step 3 with the remaining cake eaters. (To be clear, anyone who calls "stop" is now out of the negotiation and doesn't get to call it again.) 5. When you're down to just one last person, cut the cake wherever he or she likes, which may leave a leftover piece.

One of the nice things about this protocol (a protocol is similar to an algorithm, but allows for accepting user input after being started) is that it allows people who for whatever crazy reason want small slices to do so, and gets them out of the way at the beginning, meaning if somebody else wants a larger slice than an equal N N division would allow, they get more cake and can eat it, too. division would allow, they get more cake and can eat it, too.If someone is being greedy and wants a too-big piece, they'll end up getting the last slice-which will normally be the largest slice. If two or more people end up being greedy, though, they could allow the referee to reach the end of the cake by never calling stop, in which case I suggest eating the cake yourself. There's no guarantee that this protocol will satisfy everyone-just that the honest actors are protected from the dishonest ones.[image]

Egg Yolks If Eskimos have N N words for describing snow, the French and Italians have words for describing snow, the French and Italians have N N+1 words for describing dishes involving egg yolks. A number of these dishes use egg yolks to create light, airy foams by trapping air bubbles.

Egg yolks are much more complex than egg whites: ~51% water, ~16% protein, ~32% fat, and ~1% carbohydrates, while egg whites are only protein (~11%) and water. In their natural state, egg yolks are an emulsion.

NoteAn emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that are immiscible-that is, unable to mix (think oil and water). Mayonnaise is the cla.s.sical culinary example. Egg yolks are an emulsion, too: the fats and water are held in suspension by some of the proteins, which act as emulsifiers-compounds that can hold immiscible liquids in suspension. For more on the chemistry of emulsions, see Colloids Colloids in in Chapter6 Chapter6.

Like egg-white foams, egg-yolk foams trap air with denatured proteins that form a mesh around air bubbles. Unlike whites, though, the only way to denature the proteins in the yolk is with heat; the optimal temperature for egg-yolk foam creation is 162F / 72C. Too hot, though, and the proteins coagulate, leading to a loss of air and affecting the texture.

Extra LeaveningSome recipes rely on more than just one method of incorporating air into food. Some English m.u.f.fins and Chinese pork buns, for example, use both yeast and baking powder. Waffle recipes often call for both whipped egg whites and baking powder. And some mousse recipes call for both whipped egg whites and whipped cream. If you find that a recipe isn't turning out as light as you'd like, look to see if other methods of leavening can be added. If a recipe doesn't rely on chemical leaveners, adding a small amount of baking powder is usually a safe bet. Or, if the recipe has eggs, try separating some of the eggs, whisking the whites, and folding the egg-white foam into the batter.[image]Simple White Wine and Cheese SauceThis sauce needs very few ingredients and not much in the way of equipment-a whisk, a bowl, and a stovetop-making it an easy impromptu dish even in an unfamiliar kitchen. (For more on sauces, see Bechamel Sauce (White Sauce) Bechamel Sauce (White Sauce) of of Chapter3 Chapter3.)The only tricky part is preventing the eggs in this sauce from getting too hot and scrambling. If you have a gas burner, this can be done by moving the saucepan on and off a flame set to very low heat. Position yourself so that you can hold the pan with one hand while whisking with the other; you'll need to move the pan to regulate the temperature. If you have an electric burner, use a double-boiler instead: fill a large saucepan with water and place the saucepan with the mixture inside it.In a saucepan, separate 3 egg yolks, saving the egg whites for some other dish. Add cup (60g) white wine and whisk to combine.Once you're ready to start cooking, place the pan over the flame or in the water bowl bath and whisk continuously until the egg yolks have set and you have a frothy foam, about two to three times the volume of the original. This can take 5 to 10 minutes; have patience, it's better to go too slow than too quick.Add 2 to 3 tablespoons (2030g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve on top of an entree such as fish with asparagus.Note - White wine is quite acidic, with pH levels around 3.4 (Chardonnay) to 2.9 (Riesling). Since acids help prevent egg yolks from coagulating under heat, the wine actually helps protect against coagulation. (Pour yourself a gla.s.s; that'll help, too.) Zabaglione (Sabayon)This dish is easy, but it does benefit from a few practice runs. Luckily, the ingredients are cheap!Zabaglione is the dessert equivalent of white wine and cheese sauce, made by whisking wine, sugar, and egg yolks over low heat; it's essentially a foamy custard, but without the milk. And, like the white wine and cheese sauce, this is a great recipe to have tucked away in the back of your head.Measure out cup (60g) Marsala wine and set aside.NoteMarsala-a white wine fortified with extra alcohol-is traditionally used in zabaglione, but you can use other alcohols, such as Grand Marnier, Prosecco, or port.In a saucepan, separate out the yolks from 3 eggs, saving the whites for something else (meringues!). Add cup (50g) sugar to the yolks and whisk to combine.Place pan over heat, following the directions for the white wine and cheese sauce. Pour in a tablespoon of the Marsala and whisk. Continue adding the Marsala a tablespoon or so at a time, whisking for a minute between each addition. You're looking for the egg yolks to froth up and foam; the heat will eventually set the egg yolks to make a stable foam. If you notice that the egg yolks are scrambling, quickly pour in more of the Marsala to cool the mixture down; it's not ideal, but it'll prevent you from having an entire dish of sweet scrambled eggs on your hands. Once the sauce begins to show soft peaks, remove from heat and serve.Traditionally, zabaglione is served with fruit: spoon a small portion into a bowl or gla.s.s and top with fresh berries. You can also store it in the fridge for a day or two.Strawberry or Raspberry SouffleYou're probably wondering what souffle is doing in the section on egg yolks, right? After all, it's the egg whites that famously give souffles their rise. I have a confession to make. I make my fruit-based dessert souffles by making zabaglione. (I am so never going to win a James Beard award-the Oscar of the culinary world.)Preheat your oven to 375F / 190C. Prepare a 1 quart / 1 liter souffle bowl-which will hold enough souffle for two to three people-by b.u.t.tering the inside and then coating it with sugar (toss in a few spoonfuls, then rotate the dish back and forth to coat the side walls).Prepare the fruit:Fresh strawberries, raspberries, and white peaches work exceptionally well; wet fruits such as pears can work, but the water may separate while cooking, so start with berries. Rinse and dry the fruit. If using strawberries, hull them; if using peaches or other stone fruits, quarter them and remove the pit. Reserve about cup-a small handful-of the fruit for placing on top of the cooked souffle. Prepare a second handful of fruit, again about cup, for cooking by slicing it into small pieces; cut strawberries into eighths and peaches into very thin slices. (Raspberries will fall apart on their own.)Make zabaglione:Start by making a zabaglione: whisk the 3 egg yolks with cup (50g) sugar over low heat and add cup (50g) of kirsch-cherry-flavored brandy-instead of Marsala. (Save the egg whites for whisking.) After adding the kirsch, add the fruit that's been sliced into small pieces and stir, thoroughly mas.h.i.+ng in the fruit. You don't need to actually cook the egg yolks until they set; you're just looking to stir and whisk them until you have a frothy, warm, soft foam. Set aside while preparing the egg whites.Whisk egg whites, fold, and bake.Whisk the egg whites to soft peak stage, adding a pinch of salt for taste. Fold the egg whites into the fruit base and transfer the mixture to the souffle bowl. Bake in an oven until the souffle has risen and the top is browned, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and place the souffle dish on a wooden cutting board. Dust with powdered sugar, place the reserved fruit on top (slice strawberries or peaches into thin slivers), and serve at once. If you're in informal company, it's easiest to just set the souffle in the center of the table and hand everyone a fork to dig in.[image]You can use this same technique with the white wine and cheese sauce from the previous page to make a savory souffle.

Whipped Cream Unlike eggs, in which proteins provide the structure for foam, cream relies on fats to provide the structure for a foam when whipped. During whisking, fat globules in the cream lose their outer membranes, exposing hydrophobic portions of the molecules. These exposed parts of the fat globules either bind with other fat globules or align themselves to orient the stripped region with an air bubble, forming a stable foam once enough of them have been aggregated together.

When working with whipped cream, keep in mind that the fats provide the structure. If the cream gets too warm, the fats will melt. This is why whipped cream can't be used to provide lift in most baked goods: the cream will melt before the starches and gluten in the flour can trap the air. Be sure to chill your bowl and the cream before whisking.

NoteWhipping high-quality cream increases its volume by about 80%, while whipped egg whites can expand by over 600%!

[image]

Percentage of fat in dairy products. If the cream doesn't have enough fat, there won't be enough fat globules to create a stable foam.

Michael Chu's Tiramisu[image]PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF MICHAEL CHUTell me a little bit about your background and how you started your blog, Cooking for Engineers (at http://www.cookingforengineers.com).I am an engineer in my professional life, but I developed recipes on my own. "Developing" sounds grander than it really is. I would try out recipes and then the ones that I really liked I would keep and then tweak so that I would like them more. Friends would come over to watch TV; at the time we called them "Family Guy Nights" because we would watch the television show Family Guy Family Guy. I would be cooking and writing down my recipes when I found something I liked. I started using Blogger, and at some point I decided I would post a recipe. I took pictures of me making salsa and then I posted that recipe. My friends liked it and so I just thought, "Oh, well, maybe this is a good way to share my recipes." A lot of people started to come and look at the recipes, and it just kind of blew up from there.One thing I notice about your posts is the number of variations you go through. Do you think people have a fear of trying variations when they go into the kitchen?I think a lot of times people don't like wasting food. There is a whole culture where wasting food is something that you don't do. I totally agree with that, but when you're trying to learn how to do something it's inevitable that you will make mistakes. There will be some waste; that's something people shouldn't shy away from. When you're trying a new fancy dish for the first time and you've never used the ingredients, you might use too much.For example, Vietnamese fish sauce is a wonderful ingredient, but if you use a little bit too much it ruins the dish. What do you do at that point? If you eat it you might be turned off from fish sauce for the rest of your life. There is a lot of food waste that goes through my kitchen. There wouldn't be as much if I weren't running Cooking for Engineers, but it's really important to experiment. It's one thing to read a cookbook, but once in a while it's important to deviate and try something completely new.[image]Time and activity bar chart for the Original Tiramisu.Sometimes, these mistakes can be expensive; you might ruin your pot. Sometimes they will reveal something awesome. In some recipes, you're told to be sure to not burn the garlic, but then if you experiment and do overcook the garlic, it becomes these little crispy bitter pieces that work really well with certain types of vegetables. People want to get it right the first time. Part of that is due to not wanting to waste the food or the money, but the other part is they haven't gotten to the point where they're enjoying doing it over until they get it right.Have there been any particular recipes whose success has caught you off-guard?Tiramisu is the recipe that launched Cooking for Engineers. I posted the tiramisu recipe, and three days later I was getting maybe 100 page views a day on that article. Enough people saw it that I got attention from Slashdot, which wrote an article about this new cooking website geared toward geeky people. Boom, I got a lot of readers.h.i.+p. So much so that I had a little trouble keeping up with the number of people who were looking at the web pages on the little server that I was running on.The tiramisu recipe that we have on Cooking for Engineers is a bit more simplified than many of the other tiramisu recipes. I spent a lot of time developing it. I wanted to come up with something that inexperienced cooks could do without extra steps, so I came up with a method where the cream is mixed in with the Mascarpone cheese to produce the lighter, fluffier texture. I modified the amount of ingredients so that it was well balanced. The tiramisu recipe is probably one of the best we've ever tasted, and very simple to make. It's called "simple tiramisu." After the success of the simple one I included one that was closer to what the original tiramisu was as well, to let people compare them.For photographs and step-by-step directions, see Michael's site. The two recipes are located at http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/26/Simple-Tiramisu and and http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/60/The-Cla.s.sic-Tiramisu-original-recipe.[image]TIRAMISU RECIPES USED BY PERMISSION OF MICHAEL CHUTime and activity chart for Simple Tiramisu.NoteCream whippers-canisters that can be filled with a liquid and then pressurized with gas (usually nitrous oxide)-are also a form of mechanical leavening. The gas dissolves into the liquid and then, upon spraying, bubbles back out of saturation, foaming up the liquid. From a structural point of view, foams created this way are entirely different from foams created by whisking: instead of a 3D mesh of surfactants holding on to the air bubbles, the air bubbles are essentially just in suspension. This is why hand-whipped cream is more stable than whipped cream from a can. For more on cream whippers, see Cream Whippers (a.k.a. "iSi Whippers") Cream Whippers (a.k.a. "iSi Whippers") in in Chapter7 Chapter7.Chocolate MousseCompare the following two methods for making chocolate mousse. The egg-white version creates a creamy, dense mousse, while the whipped cream version creates a stiffer version.

Chocolate Mousse (Whipped Egg White version) Chocolate Mousse (Whipped Cream version) In a saucepan, heat cup (120g) of whipping or heavy cream to just below a boil and turn off heat. Add 4 oz (115g) of bittersweet chocolate that's been chopped into small chunks.

Melt 4 oz (115g) of bittersweet chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Add 2 tablespoons (28g) of b.u.t.ter and 2 tablespoons (28g) of cream and whisk to combine. Place in fridge to cool.

Separate 4 eggs, putting 2 of the yolks into the saucepan and all the whites into a clean bowl for whisking. Save the other 2 yolks for a different recipe.Whisk the egg whites with 4 tablespoons (50g) of sugar to soft peaks. Whisk the cream, chocolate, and yolks together to combine. Fold the whites into the sauce.Transfer mousse to individual serving gla.s.ses and refrigerate for several hours-overnight, preferably.

In a chilled bowl, whisk 1 cup (240g) of whipping or heavy cream with 4 tablespoons (50g) of sugar to soft peaks.Make sure the chocolate mixture has cooled down to at least room temperature (~15 minutes in the fridge). Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mix. Transfer mousse to individual serving gla.s.ses and refrigerate for several hours; overnight, preferably.

Note.

Note.

- The egg whites in this are uncooked, so there is a chance of salmonella. While it's rare in chicken eggs in the United States, if you are concerned, use pasteurized egg whites.

- Try replacing the 2 tablespoons of cream with 2 tablespoons of espresso, Grand Marnier, cognac, or another flavoring liquid.

What About Steam?While steam doesn't involve mechanically trapping air as the other methods in this section do, it's still a physical process by which air is introduced into food. Most of the recipes given so far also rely on steam generation as part of their leavening; few baked goods truly rely on only one method for providing lift. Try this popover recipe, which is a cla.s.sic example of a baked good leavened by steam.PopoversTraditionally, these are made in specialized popover cups, which are narrow cups with a slight slope to them and that have some heft to them, giving them good heat retention. You can use m.u.f.fin tins or ramekins instead.Whisk together in a mixing bowl or blend in a blender: - 1 cups (380g) whole milk - 3 large (180g) eggs - 1 cups (180g) flour (try half AP, half bread) - 1 tablespoon (15g) melted b.u.t.ter - teaspoon (2g) salt Preheat both the oven and the popover cups or m.u.f.fin tin at 425F / 220C.Heavily grease the popover cups or m.u.f.fin tins with b.u.t.ter: melt a few tablespoons of b.u.t.ter and put a teaspoon in the bottom of each cup. Fill each cup about to full with batter and bake. After 15 minutes, drop the temperature to 350F / 175C and continue baking until the outside is set and golden-dark brown, about another 20 minutes.Serve at once with jam and b.u.t.ter.Notes - How does gluten affect the inside and crust of the popover? As an experiment, make two batches of the batter, one with either cake or AP flour and the second with a higher-gluten flour. Fill half the cups with one batter and the other half with the second batter and bake them at the same time to eliminate the potential for differences between runs.

- Try adding grated cheddar cheese or Parmesan cheese for a savory version, or sugar and cinnamon for a sweet version. You can also pour the popover batter into a large cast iron pan (preheated), top with sliced fruit such as pears or peaches, and bake to make a large, tort-like breakfast pastry.

- Don't peek while these are baking! Opening the oven door will drop the air temperature, causing the popovers to drop in temperature and lose some of the steam that's critical to their rise.

David Lebovitz on American Cooking[image]PHOTO OF DAVID LEBOVITZ USED BY PERMISSION OF PIA STERNDavid Lebovitz was a pastry chef at the renowned Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California for over a decade. Since then, he's written several well-received books on desserts. His blog is at http://www.davidlebovitz.com.What was working at Alice Waters's Chez Panisse like for you?Chez Panisse is a great place to work. Money is no object when it comes to sourcing ingredients, and it's a great training ground for cooks. The restaurant really supports the owners and the other cooks, who are very, very interested in producing good food. Once you're in that environment, it's hard to leave. You go somewhere else and you're working with a bunch of line cooks that just care about who won the game last night and how fast they can cook the steaks on the grill so they can get out and go drink beer.The whole idea of Chez Panisse is to find good ingredients and do as little to them as possible. When we had beautiful fruit, we would often just serve a bowl of fruit or a fruit tart with ice cream; or if we had really good chocolate, we would make a chocolate cake, but it wasn't a cake that was highly decorated, it didn't have a lot of technical swoops and things. Chez Panisse is all about flavor. A lot of the fancy stuff doesn't taste good, so we were more concerned with flavor.I had dinner last night at a fancy restaurant. They brought this chocolate mousse and there was tapenade on the side. Someone was, like, "Olives: it would be really cool on the plate!" But if someone tasted it? Disgusting. I just wanted to go into the kitchen and say, "Have you guys tasted this food? Because it's stupid."You had worked at Chez Panisse for years before taking culinary training. What surprises did you run across in that culinary training?I wasn't expecting things not to taste good. I took a course in making cakes in France, and I thought, "We're going to make cakes that are delicious." It actually was making mousses with gelatin and with fruit purees from the freezer, and everything was like sponge cake, gelatinized fruit puree, and decorations. It was interesting, and I learned something, but those skills don't even translate to what I do. Even if you use fresh fruit, it's just not the best way to use it. I'm an ingredients-based cook.I did go to chocolate school and that was great; I learned a lot about chocolate, how to work with it, how to manipulate it. Once again, I'm more interested in finding wonderful hazelnuts and in rolling them in chocolate, rather than opening up a can of hazelnut paste and making chocolates out of it.What would you recommend to somebody who wants to learn how to bake?The best thing they can do is just bake. The thing about baking is it's very recipe-oriented. If you want to learn to make a pound cake, you just make a recipe, and the longer you go, the more you see how things work, how you can change things. You can add an egg yolk to make things richer or subst.i.tute sour cream for the milk in the recipe.A lot of bakers are very precise, and we do have a reputation, especially in the professional world. A chef once said to me, "Why are you guys all so weird?" There are a lot of strange people in the pastry world, because we are very precise, we do like to go in our own little world, and we're very a.n.a.lytical people in general. We think a lot about things, whereas a line cook, it's a lot of brawn; it's big, bold flavors; it's roasting meat; it's frying vegetables; it's grilling. Those are ways of coaxing flavor out, but pastry is a much more delicate thing, it demands a lot more care, a lot more softer skills.This is probably s.e.xist, but a lot of women work in pastry for that reason, because a lot of women are very sensitive. I've always worked in women-owned restaurants, except for one, which was interesting. I never was aware of the whole "macho" thing-the way the guys would talk and treat people-until I went to other restaurants. I read these kitchen memoir books about s.e.xual hara.s.sment and stuff, but to me, it's about the food.When you're working on a pastry, how do you go about getting unstuck when it's just not coming out the way you want it to?If you knew how to get out of that, you wouldn't be in there in the first place. I develop recipes and write books, so I'll be making things, I'll make them over and over again, and if I'm really stumped, I have a decent network of people who can help me. I might write to a friend who is a bakery cooking professor and say, "I'm trying to make persimmon pie; have you ever made it?" and he'll be like, "Oh, persimmons have a chemical in there that prevents this from happening, and try doing this..." Bakers are sharers, so we do have a loose-knit community. Also, a lot of baking is science. If I make a cake and I want it to be moister and higher, I just have to sit down with my calculator and work it out.How do you know what the formula is for working it out?There are printed formulas, which some bakers use. But I'm not so good with math. Michael Ruhlman wrote a wonderful book on ratios, but my brain isn't wired to think that way. So I just make things a million times, until I get it right.So yours is a much more try-it-and-see approach, as opposed to sitting down and trying to figure out the optimal formula?Yeah.A lot of people are very a.n.a.lytical about cooking, and they want to know how things work. It's a different method. It's like a lot of Europeans wonder why Americans won't give up their measuring cups and spoons, which is a terrible way to cook. It's inaccurate and leads to people doing all sorts of weird things.Americans like to hold measuring cups and spoons; it makes us feel good, so we're not going to give them up. Cooking is a visceral thing, a lot of people like to overa.n.a.lyze recipes. They're like, "Can I make this cake without the quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract?" and I'm like, "Okay, well, think about it, what do you think?" A lot of people don't know, because they're overa.n.a.lyzing the recipe. They're not stupid, it's just that they're not, I don't know what... It's like, "If I let 5% of air out of my tire, can I still drive?" "Yes. Better if it's full."Why do you think Americans overa.n.a.lyze recipes?That's the big question nowadays. Everyone's trying to figure out why are Americans scared to cook? I think that Americans are in this weird s.p.a.ce now where they want to be told what to do; they want to have a recipe; they want an authority to tell them that this is the recipe, don't change it. We spent eight years under Bush and n.o.body questioned what he did for four and a half years. Everyone just wanted to be told what to do rather than say, "Wait a minute, look at the facts!" A recipe might say bake a chicken for an hour, and someone will write and say they baked it for an hour, and it was too dry. Well, your chicken was probably four pounds instead of six. There's only so much stuff you can put in a recipe.Where do you think this fear of failure comes from?That's something I haven't been able to figure out, because everybody makes mistakes. A lot of people look at food magazines and the pictures are beautiful, and they're like, "Oh, mine doesn't look like that!" Well, you don't have a team of food stylists and a camera and a photographer lighting it right. The best piece of pie is not supposed to hold together with 2 sides that are perfectly smooth. The best chocolate chip cookies are not the ones that look perfect; they're the ones that are full of oozy chocolate chips that are gus.h.i.+ng all over the place.Why did you start your blog?The site was started in 1999, when my first book came out, because I thought-famous last words-I thought it would be a good way for people to get in touch with me in case they had problems with the recipes. You don't want people saying the recipes don't work; you'd rather have them write to you and say, "I made this cake and it didn't work; what did I do wrong?" Now it's like, "I made Bill Smith's chocolate cake and it didn't work; what did I do wrong?"I have a recipe-actually, it's in the oven right now-for a cake that has one egg in the whole cake; that's the only fat in it. Some woman wrote me-she's trying to eat less fat-what could she replace the egg with? I'm like, one egg yolk? That's 5 grams of fat for 12 servings. Somebody actually asked that, and then I wonder how these people go to the bank every day, get their driver's license, pay bills, write a check, and work. What's going through their minds?I'm not quite sure I follow you there.Those kinds of things seem common sense to me. Somebody who is concerned about eating an eighth or a twelfth of an egg yolk because they're on a low-fat diet? I don't understand that thinking. If the recipe had six egg yolks or four egg yolks, maybe I could see it, but it's a cake, and it's like saying, "I don't like chocolate; how can I make these chocolate chip cookies without chocolate?" It's like sorry, that's what it is.I just read that book, French Women Don't Get Fat, French Women Don't Get Fat, because somebody had it at their house and I borrowed it. I was reading it, and I was like, "Oh. My. G.o.d." They pa.s.s on this myth that French women eat a certain way, that they drink half a gla.s.s of champagne only once a week. The book sold millions of copies in America based on something I don't consider necessarily to be true. There's a lot of fat women here. [David lives in Paris.] Everyone's asking me what I think about that book, and I'm like, ask the one who wrote it. Do you really think French women don't eat junk food and don't smoke their brains out? Wake up. It's like French people saying, "Don't all Americans carry guns?" I'm like, "Yes, when we're born, they put a gun in our hand. When you're two, everyone gets a gun in America." because somebody had it at their house and I borrowed it. I was reading it, and I was like, "Oh. My. G.o.d." They pa.s.s on this myth that French women eat a certain way, that they drink half a gla.s.s of champagne only once a week. The book sold millions of copies in America based on something I don't consider necessarily to be true. There's a lot of fat women here. [David lives in Paris.] Everyone's asking me what I think about that book, and I'm like, ask the one who wrote it. Do you really think French women don't eat junk food and don't smoke their brains out? Wake up. It's like French people saying, "Don't all Americans carry guns?" I'm like, "Yes, when we're born, they put a gun in our hand. When you're two, everyone gets a gun in America."I think there's a certain cultural gullibility that we have in both directions, both Americans dealing with people with international backgrounds and being in other countries and talking about Americans. I was at a Thanksgiving that was 18 international students from Harvard's Kennedy School and I started talking about the ghost of Thanksgiving past, present, and future, where the ghost of the turkey that you had previously eaten would show up. These international students just ate it up. They totally believed that this was part of the American "story." I was like, "Really, no, this isn't true guys; I'm completely pulling your leg." It's amazing how much cultural misunderstanding there seems to be about these things. I wonder what cultural differences there are in learning how to cook?Well, French people, and this is a generalization, because it's not necessarily true for everybody, but they're much more relaxed about how things look. Americans jumped on the fast food wagon in the 50s and 60s, whereas the French jumped on it in the 90s and now; so they're losing that whole connection with homemade things, but they still are closer to it than we are. It's not unusual to go to someone's house for lunch and they made a quiche; whereas, in America, you'd be like, "Oh my G.o.d, I can't believe you made that, you made the crust, you made the filling, you chopped the vegetables?" That's changing here [in France]; everyone is eating frozen food now.Is there any sort of cultural backlash against that from part of the French community?Not yet. Americans have seen our cuisine decline and are now interested in farmers' markets and all that stuff, whereas the French didn't fall as far as we did. They're like, "Everything at the market is local, and is fresh." I'm like, "Well, everything's from Morocco, look at the box." To which they say, "Oh, well, it's not like America."But you're saying Europe is actually becoming more like America, in that sense?Yeah.What do you think of people who really feel like they need to have the most up-to-date technical equipment and toys?Well, that's an American thing. I go back to America and everyone has wine refrigerators, and they're filled with Kendall Jackson Chardonnay. If you have good wine, you don't put it in one of those refrigerators, because they have compressors that shake, which is bad for wine. Unless you have a very good wine refrigerator that doesn't shake, you're better off without it. It's funny to see people who have wok burners and wine refrigerators and all that stuff in their house. A lot of people want to have the illusion of cooking; they want to have all these bottles of olive oil wrapped up on the counter in baskets and things, but on the other hand, do they really need all that stuff?It sounds like one piece of advice you would give to somebody is to not obsess over equipment?Yes. You don't need every saucepan in the world, you need like three. For me, having a mixer is very important; for me, having an ice cream machine is important. But you don't need a panini grill; you can use your skillet and just put a weight on top of it, something like a can of tomatoes, and there you have it.[image]PHOTO OF DAVID BY KRISTIN HOHENADEL/APARTMENT THERAPY: THE KITCHN

[3] Technically, a suboptimal pie-cutting protocol Technically, a suboptimal pie-cutting protocol

Chapter6.Playing with Chemicals.

MANKIND HAS BEEN ADDING CHEMICALS TO FOOD FOR MILLENNIA. Salt is used both as a preservative (curing meats, inhibiting bacterial growth) and as a flavor enhancer (masking bitterness). Acetic acid, a key component in vinegar and a byproduct of some strains of bacteria, turns cuc.u.mbers into pickles and cabbage into the Korean dish Salt is used both as a preservative (curing meats, inhibiting bacterial growth) and as a flavor enhancer (masking bitterness). Acetic acid, a key component in vinegar and a byproduct of some strains of bacteria, turns cuc.u.mbers into pickles and cabbage into the Korean dish kimchi kimchi. And citric acid in lemon juice brightens the smell and taste of fish by neutralizing the amine compounds that can create that "fishy" smell as the tissue breaks down.

In recent history, the food industry-the collection of businesses that farm, distribute, prepare, and package the foods we eat-has developed a number of techniques to help perishable foods last longer. Refrigeration slows down bacterial growth, "modified atmosphere packaging" (MAP) displaces oxygen to reduce oxidation and r.e.t.a.r.d the growth of aerobic bacteria, and chemical food additives extend shelf life, fortify foods, and aid in ma.s.s production. These same chemicals are also used to create entirely new types of foods, including many candies, and as key ingredients in some techniques of an entirely new kind of cooking given names such as molecular gastronomy molecular gastronomy or or modernist cuisine modernist cuisine.

By definition, food itself is made up of chemicals, of course. Corn, chicken, and bars of chocolate are just big piles of well-structured chemicals. For our purposes, we'll consider a food additive to be any chemical-a compound with a definable molecular structure-used in food that by itself cannot be harvested directly from nature without further refinement or processing.

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In this chapter, we'll take a look at cooking techniques that use food additives, both traditional and modern. Some recent culinary techniques rely on chemical stabilizers, gelling agents, and emulsifiers to create new types of dishes. We'll cover these chemical-based techniques in the second portion of this chapter. Even if you're not the type who wants to use chemicals to make foams, to "spherize" liquids, or to turn liquids into gels, understanding how food additives work and what they do makes recovering from kitchen errors quicker and decoding ingredient lists easier.

One of the largest challenges facing commercial food preparers is extending shelf life while maintaining the taste, texture, and appearance of foods. To reduce costs, speed up manufacturing, and increase the shelf life of products like vegetables and baked cookies from days to months, industry relies on chemicals.

Take a look at the food additives used in a certain popular cream-filled chocolate cookie: - Baking soda (a.k.a. sodium bicarbonate) - Speeds up manufacturing by immediately giving rise to a dough or batter (via chemically reacting to release carbon dioxide) so you don't have to wait for the rising action of yeast.

- Cornstarch - A thickener, also used as a stabilizer. (Cornstarch is derived from corn but is sufficiently processed, filtered, centrifuged, dried, and treated with acids that it should be considered a food additive.) - Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin [B3], reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [B1], riboflavin [B2], folic acid [B9]) - Fortified with micronutrients that are removed during the processing of white flour. The FDA requires that white flour be supplemented with B vitamins (to prevent various deficiencies) and iron (to prevent anemia, a low red blood cell count).

- Salt (a.k.a. sodium chloride) - Used to mask bitterness, to improve flavor, and in some cases to act as a preservative.

- Soy lecithin - An emulsifier, used to prevent oils and water from separating. If you were following a recipe for a cream filling, it would likely call for egg yolks, which are around 10% lecithin, as an emulsifier.

- Vanillin (artificial flavor) - Used as a flavoring agent, vanillin is the primary component of natural vanilla extract and is responsible for the majority of vanilla's flavor. Vanillin has the molecular formula C8H8O3, regardless of whether the source from which it is derived is "natural" or "artificial."

Some of these items-baking soda, cornstarch, and salt-might not strike you as food additives, either because of their "natural" origins or their long history in the kitchen. But even baking soda arrived only relatively recently on the food scene, when in 1846 John Dwight and Austin Church figured out a commercial method for manufacturing it.

Food additives are used for the following purposes: - To preserve nutritional value (preventing the breakdown of food) - To address dietary needs (via fortification, such as the addition of iodide in table salt) - To extend shelf life or stability in order to keep the food enjoyable longer (e.g., treating apricots with sulfur dioxide to preserve color) - To aid in manufacturing, processing, or transportation-that is, to address issues caused by scaling to ma.s.s production (i.e., keeping larger volumes of food consistent) Most commercially prepared food products use food additives for more than one of these purposes. In the cookie example just cited, baking soda speeds up manufacturing, cornstarch and soy lecithin aid in the manufacturing process, salt and vanillin improve flavor for enjoyment, and flour is fortified to address dietary needs.

Food additives have gotten something of a bad rap in recent years. The politics, economics, and trade-offs of a food supply that is necessarily driven by economics are well beyond the scope of this book. For now, keep in mind that food itself is chemical, and to cook is to cause chemical and physical reactions.

Just as there have been food additives that were once thought safe but turned out to be dangerous (e.g., red dye no. 2), there are "natural" items-foods from the earth-that pose their own risks without human processing (e.g., hydrocyanic acid in raw lima beans, which is neutralized by cooking). The source of a chemical-natural versus man-made-should not be your sole distinguisher of safety. No one would argue that hemlock or botulinum toxins-both "all natural"-are things you should be adding to your midnight snack.

NoteTaste tests done by America's Test Kitchen have found that most pastry chefs are unable to discern the difference between natural and artificial vanilla, much to the chefs' embarra.s.sment.

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Traditional Cooking Chemicals Before getting into modern industrial chemicals-chemicals that began to routinely appear in food only after World War II-let's take a look at some traditional food additives and the chemicals and chemistry behind them: salt (sodium chloride), sugar (sucrose), acids and bases (citric acid, lye), and alcohol (ethanol).

Salt Ahh, salt: responsible for the salvation of many a food (or is that salivation?). The oldest seasoning in use, in small quant.i.ties it helps reduce the bitterness of foods and enhances the other flavors in a dish (for a discussion of the gustatory system, see Taste (Gustatory Sense) Taste (Gustatory Sense) in in Chapter3 Chapter3). In larger quant.i.ties, it can be used chemically to preserve food (dry and wet brining) as well as mechanically to alter how foods cook (salt roasting).

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Salt crystals.

IMAGE COURTESY OF NASA.

From a chemistry perspective, salt is an ionic compound composed of a cation from a metal or ammonium and an anion from an acid. In solid form, salt is a crystal of atoms arranged in an alternating pattern based on charge: cation, anion, cation, anion, arranged in a 3D checkerboard pattern.

Our tongues detect one kind of salt, sodium chloride, as being "salty." Sodium chloride (common table salt) is made up of sodium (a metal, and one that in its pure form happens to react violently when dropped in water) and chloride (chlorine with an extra electron, making it an anion). Other salts can register as different tastes. Monosodium glutamate, for example, triggers our taste receptors for umami. In water, the salts dissolve and the individual ions are freed, and they are then able to react and form bonds with other atoms and molecules.

While at first glance the chemistry of salt may not seem important to everyday cooking, it's helpful to understand the basics of how it works when preparing and cooking food. Here's a quick refresher on a few chemistry definitions that'll pop up throughout this chapter. (Finally, a use for that high school chemistry!) Atom - Basic building block of matter; these are the elements listed in the periodic table.

Molecule - Two or more atoms bonded together (where "or more" can be millions). H = hydrogen atom, H2 = dihydrogen molecule. = dihydrogen molecule.

Cation - Any positively charged atom or molecule (i.e., one that has more protons than electrons).

Anion - Any negatively charged atom or molecule (i.e., one that has more electrons than protons).

NoteCations and anions can be a single atom (Ca2+) or anything from a small molecule (NO3) to a really large one, such as alginate (composed of many thousands of atoms).Osmosis and SaltApplying salt to the outside of fish causes osmosis, which is the physical process of a solvent pa.s.sing through a membrane to equalize the concentration of solute on the membrane's other side.In animal tissue, salt (the solute) is unable to penetrate the cell walls (the membrane) present in the tissue, so water (the solvent) leaves the cells in order to equalize the differences in concentration. (The process of equalizing osmotic pressure is called diffusion diffusion.) If there's a large enough difference in solute concentrations, at some point plasmolysis occurs-the cell structure collapses-and if enough water leaves the cell, the cell dies.From a food safety perspective, the amount of salt necessary to cause sufficient plasmolysis to render bacteria nonviable depends on the species of bacteria involved. Salmonella is unable to grow in salt concentrations as low as 3% and Clostridium botulinum Clostridium botulinum dies at around 5.5%, while dies at around 5.5%, while Staphylococcus Staphylococcus is hardy enough to survive in a salt concentration up to 20%. is hardy enough to survive in a salt concentration up to 20%. Staphylococcus Staphylococcus is not a common concern in fish, according to the FDA, so food safety guidelines consider salt solutions of ~6% sufficiently safe (except for those in an at-risk group) when curing fish. is not a common concern in fish, according to the FDA, so food safety guidelines consider salt solutions of ~6% sufficiently safe (except for those in an at-risk group) when curing fish.

Dry brining Beef jerky, salmon gravlax, sausages, hams, prosciutto, and corned beef are all cured using salts, typically sodium chloride (table salt) or sodium nitrate, which gives foods like salami a distinctive flavor and pinkish color. Besides adding flavor, salt preserves these types of foods by creating an inhospitable environment for microorganisms (see the section Foodborne Illness and Staying Safe Foodborne Illness and Staying Safe in in Chapter4 Chapter4).

Salt curing has been used for centuries to preserve fish caught at sea, and it's also something that you can easily do at home. Surrounding it with a sufficient quant.i.ty of salt draws moisture out of food; this is called dry brining. But salt doesn't just "dry out" the food (along with any bacteria and parasites). At sufficient concentration, it actively disrupts a cell's ability to function and kills it, rendering bacteria and parasites nonviable.

NoteThis killing ability isn't limited to just foods. For an adult human, the lethal dose of table salt is about 80 grams-about the amount in the saltshaker on your typical restaurant table.Overdosing on salt is reportedly a really painful way to go, as your brain swells up and ruptures. Plus, it's unlikely the ER physicians will correctly diagnose the cause in time. (Paging Dr. House.) Wet brining Wet brining-the process of soaking meat in salted water-can be used both to add flavor and to reduce water loss during cooking.

As an experiment, try doing an A/B test with brined and nonbrined pork chops. Does brining change the weight loss during cooking? Using a gram scale, weigh a pork chop prebrining, post-brining, and after cooking, and compare the percentage weight loss to that of a "control" pork chop that is cooked without having been brined. You may also want to test how brining changes the flavor. If you're cooking for others, enlist them as tasters. Cook both brined and nonbrined pork chops, serve a portion of each to everyone, and see what preferences your tasters have.

Salmon GravlaxIn a bowl, mix together: - 5 teaspoons (30g) kosher salt - 1 tablespoon (12g) sugar - 3 tablespoons (12g) finely chopped fresh dill - 1 teaspoon (4g) vodka - 1 teaspoon (2g) crushed peppercorns (ideally, use a mortar and pestle) On a large piece of plastic wrap, place: - 1 pound (450g) salmon, washed and bones removed; preferably a center cut so that its shape is rectangular Sprinkle salt mixture over fish and ma.s.sage into salmon. Wrap fish in plastic and store in fridge, flipping and ma.s.saging twice a day for a day or two.Store in the fridge and consume within a week.Notes - Note the use of vodka as a solvent. Try subst.i.tuting other spirits, such as cognac or whiskey. And in place of dill, try using coriander seed, loose tea leaves (e.g., Earl Grey or Lapsang Souchong), shallots, or lemon zest. The Scandinavians traditionally serve salmon gravlax on top of bread with a mustard dill sauce.

- You can subst.i.tute other fatty fish for the salmon and obtain a similar texture. What happens if you try tuna?

- Curing inhibits most common bacterial growth but does not prevent all types of bacteria from growing. Avoid serving this to anyone in an at-risk group. This recipe is a bit heavy on the salt-6% by weight-to err on the side of safety. You can reduce the saltiness by rinsing the finished product in fresh water, followed by recoating it with dill and ground pepper to restore some of the flavor. For food safety issues related to parasites, see the section How to Prevent Foodborne Illness Caused by Parasites How to Prevent Foodborne Illness Caused by Parasites in in Chapter4 Chapter4.NoteFor an extremely technical guide to curing fish and potential pathological hazards, see http://www.fda.gov/Food/ScienceResearch/ResearchAreas/SafePracticesforFoodProcesses/ucm094579.htm; for a more practical guide, see http://www.cfast.vt.edu/downloads/fstnotes/salting.pdf.

- Salt curing-as is done in salmon gravlax-is the first step in making lox. After curing, lox is also cold smoked, which is the process of exposing a food to smoke vapors that have been cooled down. You can approximate the flavor of lox by adding liquid smoke to the rub (see Liquid Smoke: Distilled Smoke Vapor Liquid Smoke: Distilled Smoke Vapor).[image]You can remove the skin from a piece of fish by placing it skin-side down on a cutting board and carefully running a knife along the surface between the skin and flesh while using your hand to keep the fish from sliding around.

Pork Chops Stuffed with Cheddar Cheese and Poblano PeppersBrined pork chops are a good example of wet brining. This is also one of those dishes that's both tasty and easy.In a container, mix 2 tablespoons (60g) salt with 4 cups (1 liter) of cold water. Stir to dissolve salt. Place 2 to 4 boneless pork chops in the brine and store them in the fridge for an hour. After pork chops have brined, remove from water and pat dry with paper towels. Lay out the pork chops on a clean plate to allow them to come to room temperature.Create a filling by mixing together in a bowl: - cup (40g) poblano pepper, roasted and then then diced, about 1 pepper (see notes) diced, about 1 pepper (see notes) - cup (40g) cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack cheese, cut into small cubes - teaspoon (3g) salt - teaspoon (1g) ground black pepper Prepare the pork chops for stuffing: using a small paring knife, make a small incision in the side of the pork chop, then push the blade into the center of the pork chop. Create a center cavity, sweeping the blade inside the pork chop, while keeping the "mouth" of the cavity-where you pushed the knife into the meat-as small as possible.[image]Stuff about a tablespoon of the filling into each pork chop. Rub the outside of the pork chops with oil and season with a pinch of salt.NoteYou'll have leftover filling. It's better to make too much than risk not having enough. Save the extra stuffing for scrambled eggs.Heat a cast iron pan over medium heat until it is hot (about 400F / 200C, the point at which water dropped on the surface sizzles and steams). Place the pork chops in the pan, searing each side until the outside is medium brown, about five to seven minutes per side. Check the internal temperature, cooking until your thermometer registers 145F / 62.8C. Then remove the pork chops from the pan and let them rest on a cutting board for five minutes.NoteYou can pull the pork chops from the pan before they reach temperature and let the carryover bring them up to 145F / 62.8C, but make sure they do get up to this temperature. You should also verify that your thermometer is calibrated correctly and that you properly probe the coldest part of the meat.To serve, slice the pork chops in half to reveal the center. Serve on top of rosemary mashed potato