Category - Making Food

Comparing processes
Deconstructing Recipes
How Food Works
Using appliances & tools
peanut shelled and unshelled
Comparing processes

Deciding whether & how to roast nuts

Walking into a kitchen or production location where nuts are being roasted tends to be a delight. The air is full of nutty, caramelly aroma’s. Taking it one step further and burning those nuts deftly removes all...

February 10, 2020
6 min read
dropzak
How Food Works

What is Dutch liquorice (drop)?

In the past decade or so I have lived abroad in several countries. One of the aspects of living abroad is sharing (or telling about) the food from where you’re from. The Dutch stroopwafels (syrup waffles) so far...

January 17, 2020
7 min read
jaggery, panela, evaporated cane sugar
Making Food

Jaggery (evaporated cane sugar) manufacturing

Humans have been sweetening their foods for thousands of years. Whether it’s through honey, natural sugar syrups such as maple syrup, or by using sugar beet or cane sugar, it’s all done to sweeten our dishes...

January 3, 2020
8 min read
stack of brown butter almond tuiles
Deconstructing Recipes

Brown butter is a flavor bomb for cookies

You can make a great cookie with sugar, butter and flour (that is, shortbread), you can make a delicate crispy almond tuile by adding some egg and almonds. But, your tuile (and a lot of other cookies as well!) become so...

December 18, 2019
5 min read
chicago style deep dish pizza
How Food Works

Science of Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

If you’ve never been to Chicago, chances are small you have come across Chicago-style deep dish pizza. It’s a pretty regional phenomenon and personally I haven’t seen it outside of the city, whereas in...

November 3, 2019
8 min read
decaffeinated coffee benas
Making Food

How coffee beans are processed

Long before that steaming cup of (Turkish?) coffee stands in front of you, or even before you buy that bag of coffee beans, your coffee beans have been through quite a bit. From plant to farmer to processor and finally...

October 22, 2019
8 min read
pie made with brick pastry
Making Food

Science of Brick pastry & Warqa

The more you learn about different cuisines, the more similarities you can see between them. So, when recently learning about brick pastry, which is a very thin dough cooked on a flat griddle, I quickly learned that a...

November 29, 2019
4 min read
bowl of choux pastry puffs with craquelin chocolate
Deconstructing Recipes

How craquelin on choux pastry works

Have you ever seen those profiteroles or cream puffs with a speckled decorated top? The pattern on top almost looks like dried out earth, with a lot of cracks and spaces in between the darker spots of decoration? Note...

November 12, 2019
6 min read