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Food Lorists
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French chef based in Ireland. Love Food, Love Cooking, Love to know what's going on, 'd love to teach it.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'questions on food'
Commercial Stocks
Now, just a quick word about commercial powdered stocks, bouillon paste and other meat extracts. The father of these mass-produced meat extracts was Justus Von Liebig famous inventor of the theory that searing meat seals in the juices, which is, now,...
Sauces
In my next few articles, I will be looking at what makes the difference between a good cook and a not so good one: sauces. Hundreds of thousands of them exist; they represent the gastronomic culture of a continent, of a country. Henry Babinsky, Frenc...
French Sauce Terminology & Classification
Before starting this list of the classic French sauce, I would like to do a little of brief about the three men who set the standard for all Chefs: Marie Antoine Careme, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and Georges Auguste Escoffier. Marie Antoine Carê...
What means: Bleached Flour?
Unbleached flour has become a quite common description on baking recipe. Whether it is in cookery books or blogs, it always sounds healthier. Isn't it? So, what is the antagonist of unbleached flour made of and why is it, that bleached flour sounds l...
Why Almonds Don't Taste Like Almond Flavouring?
I don't know if you have noticed the difference in taste between the delicate nutty flavours of the common domesticated almonds and the very strong, distinctive flavouring of almond extract. I got curious and decided to investigate. This is the resul...
Chocolate Cools the Mouth!
Maybe you might have noticed yourself, but well-made chocolate leaves a refreshing sensation in your mouth. It is a quite unusual characteristic for such a rich food: as it melts it cools the mouth. This has been explained by the fact that the stabl...
Dough and Batter part II
In dough and batter part one, I tried to describe the most common ingredients found in baked and pastry products and how they interact with each other. In part 2 I short listed some common dough and batter recipes and summarized their representative...
A Broad Survey of the Beneficial Effects of Chemicals in Fruits and Vegetables
It is well understood that some chemicals in fruits, vegetables, herb and spices can affect various aspects of our health. There is a very broad survey of a very rich and complex subject.Prevent oxidative damage to important molecules in the body :...
Cancer and Cooking meat
A report about a technical Food and Agriculture Organization study "World agriculture: towards 2015/2030" published in 2002, shows that meat consumption in developing countries, has risen from only 10 kg per person annually in 1964-66 to 26 kg in 19...
Freezing egg yolks
"Is it possible to freeze egg yolk?" Was the very interesting question raised by Karin in her comment on "storing eggs". As the answer is a bit too long to post as a comment there is an add-on to the post on "storing eggs". It is possible to store eg...
Storing Eggs
What is the best way to keep your eggs? Well, everybody seems to know the optimum way to store its eggs, in the fridge or at room temperature, on their side, blunt end up or down or I even heard of people washing their eggs before putting them in the...
Do chillies and pepper make holes in our stomach?
A few years ago my Mum was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer. At the time her practitioner advised her to avoid the consumption of spicy food and avoid seasoning her food with pepper, telling her that they would increase the irritation of her stomach li...
Why does fresh fish remind us the smell of sea air?
One of the characteristics of a fresh saltwater fish is its distinctive smell of seacoast air. Why is that? The Ocean aroma of the seacoast comes from compounds called bromophenols*. These molecules are synthesised by algae and some primitive animals...
Why is there seasons for fish and crustaceans?
We are familiar with seasonality for fruits, vegetables even milk. But Seasons for fish and crustaceans, it is not that obvious. Why can it be considered that a particular fish, shellfish or crustaceans has variations of qualities because of the natu...
Cold Cooking !!!
Throughout my years cooking in Ireland I encountered quite a lot of customers who would send back marinated fish dishes such as the 'mackerel' recipe that I posted on my blog, complaining that it was raw.I always ask myself why is this. I decided th...
