Clarified butter is butter from which water and milk solids like protein and sugar have been removed to leave pure milk fat. As the name implies, it has a radiant clarity. As the proteins have been removed, it can be heated to frying temperatures without burning.
Clarifying butter is simple. If you gently heat butter in a pot, this is what happens:
The milk fat becomes liquid.
The water content begins to evaporate, gently bubbling to the surface.
The light whey proteins form a foam on the surface. Once the water content has been driven off, this foam dries and forms a crackly skin.
The heavier casein proteins coagulate and fall to the bottom of the pot.
I admit that this post sounds like something from Martha Stewart or Canadian Living. I’m okay with that, because I love making these crackers, especially at this time of year.
Did you know that almost any loaf of crusty bread can be turned into a cracker?
For a fine, uniform texture use dense breads like European rye. For an elegant open texture use bubbly breads like ciabatta or baguette. The trick is figuring out how to slice them thin with the tools you have on hand, which is especially difficult for the open-textured breads. If you partially freeze the loaves you should be able to slice them cleanly with a serrated knife, or a meat slicer.
Today I made hot chocolate using chocolate. It was the first time I had ever done that.
I grew up drinking hot chocolate made from prepared powder that came in little packets. The baggies had tiny, desiccated marshmallows in them that rehydrated when combined with hot milk. There was usually a portion of the talc that failed to dissolve and accumulated on the bottom of the mug. (Yum!) The drink tasted mildly of bad chocolate, but mostly it tasted like milk.
It first occurred to me that one could make hot chocolate from chocolate when I read The Polar Express, in which children are served hot chocolate “as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars.” That caught my attention. … Continue reading.
Though whipped cream has been around for hundreds of years, it took two relatively modern inventions for it to become as common as it is now.
One is the wire whisk. Before this tool was invented, cooks used cumbersome bundles of sticks or straw. More important for the future of whipped cream, though, was the invention of the mechanical cream separator. The traditional way to separate cream from milk is to let the fresh milk stand for several hours. Fattier bits will float to the top, and the cream skimmed from the surface will typically be about 25% fat. Mechanical separators use centrifugal forces and are able to produce cream with a … Continue reading.
It’s advent, which means there will be a post on Button Soup every day between now and Christmas.
The Button Soup advent calendar lets me write at length about important holiday traditions. It also forces me to complete the dozens of half-written, unpublished posts that have accumulated on my computer and in my brain.
I say this without exaggeration: I hold stuffing as one of the greatest culinary traditions of the New World. I know the British and French and many others make similar dishes, but stuffing, or dressing, is an indispensable dish for the Thanksgiving table. Technically it is an accompaniment to the turkey. I often have to remind myself of this.
So. What is stuffing? Stuffing is bread. As the name implies, it was originally crammed into the cavity of poultry, absorbing the juice and fat exuded from the bird during cooking. While this method is still common in Canadian homes, it is giving way to “stuffing” that is prepared in a casserole instead of a bird. There are two reasons for … Continue reading.
The Dough. I take for granted that you already know how to make a superlative, flaky pie dough. If you don’t, this pie dough is a good start, but you should probably add a handful of sugar to the mix.
The Filling. The first important consideration for the filling is the variety of apple to be used. High acidity and firm, crisp texture are key. Of the common commercial varieties, Granny Smith is probably the best, but there are lots of varieties growing within the Edmonton city limits that make good pie. Sweetness, of course, is also desirable, but we can balance the tartness of the apples with sugar. Look … Continue reading.
Resinous herbs can easily handle lights frosts, so this time of year we still have a good deal of thyme, rosemary, and other robust herbs in the garden. Thankfully there is an entire repertoire of methods to preserve them before the snow falls. You can collect them in large bouquets and hang them in your kitchen to dry, for instance. Or make salted herbs. Or pack them into a jar and pour vinegar over them. This past week I racked a couple gallons of cider vinegar from a healthy vinegar crock, so herb vinegar seemed the best way to save our thyme.
The aromatic components of herbs are called essential oils. They more closely resemble fats, ethanol, and … Continue reading.
This is possibly the dorkiest thing I’ve ever written.
In some respects Canadian culture is a grab-bag of European and American attributes. Nowhere is this mash-up more complicated than the blend of metric and US units that every Canadian uses in daily life.
I estimate that every day at work I do about 57 unit conversions in my head. I know, for instance, that 8 fluid ounces is a good portion of soup for an individual, and if I need to make soup for 10 people, I’ll need 80 oz. But the can of tomatoes that I will turn into soup is labelled 2.84 L. 80 oz is 10 cups, which is 2 1/2 quarts, which is roughly 2.5 L, … Continue reading.
A few years ago I waxed eloquent about mulled wine as a way to use up leftover wine and appreciate exotic spices.
Since then mulled wine has been fully supplanted by mulled cider in my house. I’ve been pressing cider in increasing quantities, and the abundance of cheap, delicious apple juice has pushed wine further and further from my thoughts and my dinner table.
What I am appreciating most about mulled cider is its adaptability. After fermented apple juice, every other possible ingredient is optional, so the drink can be tailored to the moment.
If I’m using dry cider from last fall I’ll add some honey for sweetness and body, but if I have cider fresh from the press I … Continue reading.
The personal website of Edmonton chef Allan Suddaby
Clarified butter is butter from which water and milk solids like protein and sugar have been removed to leave pure milk fat. As the name implies, it has a radiant clarity. As the proteins have been removed, it can be heated to frying temperatures without burning.
