Ideas in food: Great recipes and why they work

366 Pages·2010·1.58 MB·English

by  Aki Kamozawa

Copyright © 2010 by Aki Kamozawa and
H. Alexander Talbot
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by
Clarkson Potter/Publishers,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com
CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER
with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kamozawa, Aki.
Ideas in food / Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Cookery. 2. Chemistry. I. Talbot, H. Alexander. II. Title.
TX652.K325 2010
641.5—dc22 2010017633
eISBN: 978-0-30771974-4
Printed in the United States of America
Book design by Claire Naylon Vaccaro
Illustrations by Jonathan Correira
Jacket design by Evan Gaffney Design
v3.1
For Aunt Marie
and Grandma Kitty,
our two biggest boosters,
and Amaya,
our greatest inspiration
CONTENTS
Introduction
IDEAS FOR EVERYONE
Seasoning and Preserving
Bread
Pasta, Gnocchi, and Risotto
Eggs
Dairy
Fruits and Vegetables
Meat and Seafood
IDEAS FOR PROFESSIONALS
Hydrocolloids
Transglutaminase
Liquid Nitrogen
Carbon Dioxide
Acknowledgments
Further Reading
Sources
Index
INTRODUCTION
We both love food. It’s as simple as that. We love to eat and we love to cook,
and we’re lucky enough to be able to draw on those passions in our professional
lives. This book is the result of years of eating, cooking, and studying food. We
know that to take our food to the next level, we need to understand what’s
happening beneath the surface of what we experience in the kitchen. We enjoy
juxtaposing science and creativity in the kitchen to create great food. We’ve
learned to be methodical in our experiments with new ingredients, techniques,
and equipment in order to maximize our results.
Our business, Ideas in Food, is about sharing our passion for food and
experience in the kitchen with other food enthusiasts who want to push their
boundaries and learn more. We are lucky enough to work with chefs and food
companies from around the world in both educational and creative capacities.
Our classes and hands-on workshops on cooking, whether in groups or one on
one, are open forums for ideas, and while we present solid techniques and
information, we always learn something new from everyone we work with. The
crux of our philosophy in and out of the kitchen is that there’s always something
more to learn. This book describes many of the things we’ve discovered thus far.
We are comfortable walking into a room of skeptics. Our workshops are
tailored toward each person or group, either focusing on an overview of
ingredients and techniques or targeted to specific goals. In these sessions, we
often face a mixed group of people, some of whom are excited about learning
more and others who are dubious about the validity of what we have to offer. It
is our job to illustrate why a deeper understanding of food and the ways in which
it works are so important. Knowledge allows us to improve flavor, efficiency,
and functionality in the kitchen. In a nutshell, it enables us to cook better.
What we find most interesting is how often people are opposed to the idea of
something new simply because they are unfamiliar with it or because they’ve
heard of it only in a negative context. We remember clearly when as kids we
started reading the labels on candy boxes. Sightings of xanthan gum and
carnauba wax often led to dramatic exclamations about the fact that we were
eating car wax and other chemicals. Everyone remembers the story about Mikey
and the Pop Rocks that exploded in his stomach when he ingested them with
soda, right? The idea that manufactured foods can be dangerous to our health is a
common one. Some of them, like trans fats, actually are. Still, even naturally
occurring ingredients like salt, sugar, fat, and caffeine come under fire on a
regular basis.
Many of the concepts that we teach in our workshops have been around for a
long time. They were originally developed and tested extensively for the food
service and food manufacturing industries, have proven themselves to work, and
are now making the leap into restaurant and home kitchens. The big change is in
the quality of the ingredients used and the inspiration of the cooks using them.
Making cheese at home, for example, is not a new concept by any stretch of the
imagination, but understanding how and why it works is. This information frees
us to explore what’s possible in our kitchens. Something as simple as adjusting
the cooking temperature of a braise or flipping a steak as it cooks can make a
huge difference in the final results. Appreciating why we do this and how it
affects the meat allows us to improve our results. A better grasp of the
ingredients and what happens when we use them is pivotal.
Our job is to strip away the hype and fantasy and talk cold, hard facts. We use
the ingredients carrageenan, agar, and transglutaminase, for example, because
they work. They allow us to gently manipulate the textures of our food and make
it a cut above the ordinary. Rice bran oil is perfect for frying because it has a
high smoke point and a clean neutral flavor. Gone is the smell of traditional fryer
oil. Melting cheese slowly over low heat keeps it from breaking and gives far
more pleasing results than melting cheese at high heat. No-knead bread requires
minimal effort but lots of time to achieve the desired results. These are things we
know to be true because we’ve tested them in our kitchen so you don’t have to in
yours.
The biggest barrier to using ingredients is unfamiliarity. You have to use
something in order to understand how it works. We’ve spent hours and hours
failing miserably with these ingredients. That means we can show other people
how to use them, and perhaps more importantly, we can explain what happens
when these ingredients aren’t used properly. We all know that you learn more
from the things that go wrong in the kitchen than from successes. Since we are
intimately acquainted with most of the ways these ingredients and techniques
can and will go wrong, we can help you figure out how things went awry and
show you how to avoid the pitfalls in the first place.
So what is cooking? In our kitchen it’s about great ingredients, well prepared
to the best of our abilities. The rest is philosophy, creativity, and individual
expression. With a handful of knowledge we exponentially increase our chances
of enjoying a delicious meal.
We divided this book into two parts for ease of use. We believe that anyone
can use both sections, but the part for professionals utilizes ingredients and
equipment that require a little more of an investment of time or money from the
home cook. We hope that everyone will read both sections and that we will
inspire people to be a little more daring in their own kitchens.
IDEAS
for
EVERYONE
This section is focused on ideas for everyone. The ingredients are ones we all
have in our kitchens and tend to take for granted. Why make vinegar? Because
we can make something delicious with unique and exceptional flavors that is not
available in stores. You could just let your leftover wine ferment on the counter.
But understanding the science behind the process and having a path to follow
allows you to produce consistent results and create new interpretations, like
maple vinegar. Creativity requires a process. We are sharing our discoveries
about kitchen processes so that you can take them and create new things in your
kitchen.
In this section we build a foundation by covering ingredients and techniques
that will be familiar to almost everyone. Many of the topics were inspired by
questions that people have asked us over the years. Some are questions we’ve
asked each other. Asking questions helps us all become better cooks. A great
meal can be as simple as scrambled eggs but they should be the best darned
scrambled eggs you can make. We’re going to tell you how to do that and why
our method works.
Many of the ideas may seem basic. Upon reflection, though, it’s clear that a
lot of mystery is still associated with many standard ingredients. Most of us
know how to cook an egg. But how many of us have actually considered what is
happening to the egg as it cooks? How does brine work to add flavor and
moisture to your food? What is steam leavening? How does sourdough work?
Why is lactic acid important to your starter? The answers to these and many
other questions are in this section.
Cooking provides an opportunity for us to be both scientists and artists. We
like to try new things just to see what will happen. The worst result is that we