Category - Understanding Recipes

pulling the pulled pork
Understanding Recipes

Pulled Pork Science

Have you ever wonder why you can pull pulled pork into a lot of tiny strands? Why it’s so different from a quickly grilled pork chop? Why it isn’t tough, but soft and tender (despite having been cooked for...

December 8, 2018
7 min read
Victoria sandwich with cranberry jam and icing sugar
Food History

Victoria sandwich – History & science of a cake

The Victoria sandwich is one of those bakes with a very rich history to it. It is believed to have been (one of) Queen Victoria’s favorite cake(s). It is a round cake of two layers with jam in the middle. As is...

November 11, 2018
4 min read
hot water crust pastry hand shaped
Understanding Recipes

Hot water crust pastry

If there’s one completely new thing I learned from the show Great British Bake Off, it’s hot water crust pastry. I had never heard of the term before watching the show. Although, looking back, I did have...

November 20, 2018
5 min read
Babka, half a circular babka swirled with chocolate
Understanding Recipes

4 ways to shape a bread with a filling

Bread can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. You can make a perfectly fine loaf from just flour, water, salt and yeast, shaped into a nice simple boule (or not shaped at all and just put into a baking...

November 17, 2018
7 min read
slice of instant pot cheesecake with some raspberries (2)
Understanding Recipes

Super smooth Instant Pot cheesecake

When cooking or baking, food scientists (that’s me!) like to disseminate their food and all what’s going on. So when you’re baking a cheesecake and it’s in the oven, you start thinking about...

September 26, 2018
4 min read
Understanding Recipes

InstantPot spare ribs

Spare ribs can take hours to prepare, whether it’s in an oven or on the barbecue. They slowly heat up and become tender and soft with regular basting and watching over the spare ribs. If it’s winter though...

December 8, 2018
4 min read
top view of nut caramel tart
Understanding Recipes

Caramel nut tart

Making a pastry that beats or rivals that of a pastry shop isn’t something that happens to me very often. I mean, a good cookie or muffin are doable, but those more delicate, often French, pastries, aren’t...

August 13, 2018
3 min read
bread shaped in a pan started the carving
Understanding Recipes

10 ways to shape a bread

Have you tried making a nice round bread, only to end up with a flat, deflated disk? It just wouldn’t hold its shape, despite your care. There are several reasons as to why this might have happened: you might not...

August 11, 2018
12 min read