Don’t understand why a specific ingredient is a part of your recipe? Have no clue how to handle an ingredient? Or are you curious as to what happens to an ingredient in your application?
Then these posts are written for you! For a wide range of ingredients we investigate why they’re used (e.g. why add sour cream or zucchini to a cake), and just what they do in your application.
Knowing this will put you in a great spot for determining substitutions, whether it’s because of diet, costs, or availability of ingredients. We believe understanding your ingredients is the key to good cooking and food manufacturing!
Previous step: all these ingredients started out at a farm!
Tried making light and fluffy wheat-free bread? Or accidentally over-kneaded your scones? If so, you’ve ‘met’ a unique group of proteins: gluten. These molecules can form amazing, elastic networks. We’ll have a look at how and when they do so!…
Sometimes it’s amazing how a small process step can make such a big change in a food. Merely heating some butter, until it turns brown transform a yellow/white solid fat into a flavor bomb. It’s promoted from being just another…
Ice cream made with just 2 ingredients, made without using an ice cream maker, or even a stove? Real ice cream? Yes, you can make ice cream using only cream and sweetened condensed milk, in just 3 simple steps. Since…
Every year in August/September our pear trees give us a good supply of pears. They’re not the pretties, but sure are tasty. We have two types: Conference and Doyenne du Comice and once they start coming off that tree we…
It’s not the most common baking ingredient, but it shows up here and there. You might have come across it if you’re into baking cookies or cakes of a Northern European origin. Or, if you’re looking for gluten-free alternatives. It’s…
For years I’d been making a family recipe for brown bean soup with a packet of dried oxtail soup, not thinking much about it. The soup always turned out great, with a lot of flavor. Never did I think twice…
Whenever you’re popping corn, whether it’s in a microwave, or on the stovetop, your ears play a crucial role. At the start, the kernels are quiet, not a lot of going on and at some point, your start hearing popping…
Always looking for a new experiment, I decided to try my hand at some black bean brownies the other day. Looking for a fun variation on brownies, and having some left-over sweet potato, I ended up making sweet potato-black bean…
Just because you are allergic to milk, use less dairy milk out of concern for the environment doesn’t mean you can’t eat pancakes anymore! It so happens, pancakes don’t really need (cow’s) milk. They’re actually very flexible regarding the type…
Not that many years ago, my only reference to carrot cake was a Dutch joke. It involved a baker and a rabbit, who does not like carrot cake, though makes the baker think he does. In all honesty, a carrot…
Once you’ve decided which of the many rice dishes you want to cook and once you’ve decided which specific rice variety to use, you’ve got another decision to make. How to cook your rice? And, just as importantly, should you…
This is a guest post by Karen Rutherford founder and editor-in-chief at the Cakedecorist. I was making cheesecake the other day and thought it could do with a strawberry sauce on top. So, I set out to boil down my…