I'll confess that I'm a bit of a skeptic when I come across very off-the-wall cooking tips that are supposed to blow my mind, so when I started writing here at The Kitchn, trying out some of these tips was really fun.
Here are 15 popular tips that we put to the test. Find out if they were duds or world-rocking techniques that we'll actually be using in our cooking!
Although I’m trying to make it less-so, it’s rare that I go out to lunch with friends. People tend to think that everybody in Paris sits around all day, eating dainty macarons and sipping a coffee at the corner café watching the world go by, while you’re all working away. But most of us are swamped like everybody else (including you), hurdling toward deadlines, waiting on hold to resolve problems, filing paperwork, or, as in my case, washing sinkloads of dishes. (Honestly, I don’t know where they all come from…)
So it’s nice every once in a while to just say, f**k it, ping a friend, and head out to lunch.
On my list of places to go was A Noste, the Basque restaurant and tapas bar of Julien Duboué. Upstairs is a full-on restaurant, and downstairs is a lively tapas bar which has, parked against one wall, a food truck. While my first inclination was to think the concept of an indoor food truck silly, the truck is actually a charming “grilling” station that turns out taloa (sometimes called talo, which at A Noste, is a pocket bread-style sandwich made with bread crunchy with cornmeal. I’ve seen taloa described as “skillet cakes,” which resemble Mexican-style tortillas, but at A Noste, they’re split and filled with everything from chorizo sausage to Nutella. (Which is for dessert.)
Ever since I heard about it, I’ve wanted taloa. So it was nice to have a rendez-vous with one. But like the frequent fermertures exceptionelles (closed for whatever reason), I was disappointed when the chalkboard outside said “Seulement à emporter” (to-go only). However when the server greeted us as we walking in the door, I asked if we could have one at a table if we ordered tapas, and he happily said “Sure!” One of the challenges in France can be getting people to go from “Non” to “Oui.” And either I’m getting better at it, or they are. Either way, it’s nice to find common ground.
Continue Reading A Noste...
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There are few things more warming than a mug of mulled wine in the depths of December. Exact recipes may vary, but they all include a common core of ingredients, each of which contributes something to the final flavour. This graphic examines some of the key chemicals that each ingredient adds into the mix, with more detail on each provided below.
Wine
The obvious place to start is with the ingredient which makes up the body of the drink. Red wine is essentially one big, pleasant cocktail of chemicals – like all alcoholic drinks, it contains ethanol, but it also contains a range of other organic compounds which influence its taste and colour. A class of chemicals called anthocyanins provide some of the colour, and can also interact with other chemicals in wine called flavonols to influence the wine’s hue. Some bitterness comes from another chemical group, the flavan-3-ols, whilst much larger organic molecules, known as tannins, impart astringency. There’s much more detail on the chemistry of red wine in this previous post on the site.
Oranges & Lemons
Citrus fruits are another key ingredient, and they have a large bearing on the flavour of the mulled wine. Orange peel alone contains a huge number of compounds: terpenes, tannins, saponins, and phenols, to name but a few of the compound classes that can be found therein. One compound, d-limonene, is a significant contributor to the aroma of oranges, and considerable amounts of it can be found in the rind of citrus fruits – it constitutes 98% of the essential oil obtained from orange peel.
Fruit acids also have a hand in the eventual flavour of the wine. These include compounds such as citric acid, which is responsible for the sour taste of lemons, ascorbic acid, more commonly known as vitamin C, and malic acid, which is found in much more significant quantities in apples.
Sugar
Most mulled wine recipes call for an appreciable amount of sugar, or, to give it its chemical name, sucrose. The particular arrangement of the sucrose molecule, and other molecules that taste sweet, for that matter, is the reason we experience a sweet taste when we eat it. The ‘sweetness triangle’ theory states that, for a molecule to taste sweet, it must have three key areas that are specific distances apart from each other:
To put it more simply, these features are thought to be necessary to make the molecule fit the receptors that detect sweetness on your tongue. In theory, the better a molecule fits the ‘sweetness triangle’, the sweeter it tastes!
Cloves
Cloves are one of the key spices required for the making of mulled wine, imparting a spicy, aromatic flavour. This is largely down to the presence of the compound eugenol, which makes up a large portion of the essential oil that can be extracted from clove buds. Other compounds present in smaller quantities include 2-heptanone, which has a fruity, spicy odour, and methyl salicylate, more commonly known as oil of wintergreen, which has a sweet and somewhat medicinal smell.
Eugenol also has a mild anaesthetic effect, which is one of the reasons that clove oil is occasionally used as a traditional remedy for toothache. This was explored previously in a past post on the site.
Nutmeg
Nutmeg is another spice commonly added to the mulled wine infusion. Sabinene is one of the main constituents of the essential oil, and contributes to the flavour, but a mix of other compounds are also responsible. These include members of a family of compounds called phenol ethers, which include safrole, myristicin, and elemicin. Myristicin actually lends nutmeg hallucinogenic qualities, but only in doses larger than those commonly used in cooking and mulled wine making. Allegedly, the effects of ingesting the nutmeg required are none-too-pleasant, so it isn’t an experience that comes recommended!
Cinnamon
Finally, the sweet, aromatic flavour of cinnamon is a key mulled wine constituent. Cinnamaldehyde, which makes up around 90% of the essential oil of cinnamon bark, is the main contributor to this flavour, and to the aroma of cinnamon. It has also previously been added to chewing gums, and research has shown it to have some antimicrobial effects.
By the way – a number of the compounds detailed here have also been featured in the 2014 Chemistry Advent Calendar. If you haven’t already, check it out here!
Compound Interest’s posts are kindly sponsored by P212121, chemical suppliers.
The graphic in this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. See the site’s content usage guidelines.
References & Further Reading
Just got to Sydney, Australia and spotted this Mini Urban Koala on the train. Can’t wait to explore this city! Also, I did a little interview with the friendly people at the Sydney based Backyard Opera that you can read here: http://www.backyardopera.com/-artist-profile-hombre_mcsteez.html#.VI1DWdRdbCQ
Cheers🍻 (at Hyde Park)
One of the most moving food reads I've encountered recently had little to do with recipes, but much to do with how food is a stand-in for compassion and empathy. Larry Lake writes about how, when his wife had cancer, everyone brought casseroles. When his daughter had mental health crises? Not so much.
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The hopes and dreams of your childhood are getting reignited when The Little Prince comes to theaters next year. Here's the first trailer, which is in French, but still somehow as universal as ever.
Have you by chance noticed how UGLY online discussions can be?
Look around Twitter, or Facebook, or anywhere people are interacting on the Internet. You will find plenty of ugly stuff:
Much effort has been expended trying to give online communities ways to minimize the ugliness. We have upvotes and downvotes and filtering and identity and flagging and moderation. (A notable recent example is that Jeff Atwood has created Discourse, a discussion platform primarily designed to help online conversations be more civilized.)
If you are interested in knowing how YOU can help make the Internet a nicer place to live, read on.
Obviously, the first thing is to not be ugly. But how?
Next time you are tempted to post something ugly, instead, post something "expressive".
Here's what I mean by "expressive": Behind the ugly thing you want to post, there is an emotion. Identify it. And express it.
An expressive statement starts with "I". It describes how you feel. In their basic form, expressive statements are short and simple. For example:
An expressive statement can (and usually does) include information about the situation that triggered the emotion:
An expressive statement is you saying something about you. It does not make statements about anyone else or their work. And it doesn't contain any ugly stuff. Putting "I feel" in front of something unkind doesn't change it from ugly to expressive. The following examples are not expressive statements:
At the very least, being expressive provides an alternative to being ugly. And sometimes, it accomplishes even more. Being real and forthright is usually a step toward good communication and shared understanding.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft released a lot of .NET stuff as open source. Online reactions to this announcement have varied greatly. Some (or dare I say, most) have applauded with vigor and joy.
Others have been, well, kinda ugly.
I'm sure the ugly responses have been frustrating for the folks at Microsoft. In the midst of trying to do something positive, they are receiving sarcasm and accusations of deceit.
Why is this? Why on earth would anybody see Microsoft's move as anything but positive? And even if they have a negative reaction, why would they be ugly about it?
Simply put, there are a lot of emotions in play.
Millions of developers are connected to the .NET platform. There is tremendous diversity, including countless use cases and a myriad of business goals. People have tied their personal and business success to .NET in a lot of very different ways. When the stakes are high, the emotions can be strong.
We should acknowledge the validity of the gamut of emotions people have about .NET. There are good reasons and plenty of history behind those feelings. Surely they give us license to focus on specific Microsoft program managers and call them names, right?
Actually, let's not. :-)
Instead, let's try something more expressive, like one of the following:
"I want to be optimistic about this move by Microsoft, but I am not sure I can trust them because of all the times I have felt disappointed about their announcements in the past."
"I have been worried for years about the future of the desktop parts of .NET. My business still depends on a good API for desktop UI. I wish Microsoft had open sourced Windows Forms too."
"I am worried that this move will increase the momentum of .NET at the expense of the platform I prefer."
"I feel frustrated because the .NET team did this instead of addressing the bug I logged."
That's the difference between being expressive and being ugly. Say how you feel. Make it about you.
Yes.
Dorky > Ugly
Broadly speaking, being genuinely expressive is always preferable to being ugly. Or to say it another way, being ugly (as defined by the context of this blog entry) is probably the worst thing you can do online, but in some cases, expressing the underlying emotion isn't going to be all that much better.
There is plenty of wisdom in what they taught you in kindergarten: If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything at all.
For example, suppose you go on Twitter or your blog and say "I don't like Zed Shaw". Are you making the Internet a better place by publicly saying that you dislike someone? No. But that expressive statement is a lot less bad than the more popular path of calling Zed names or criticizing his work. He's a smart guy, and he has done some great stuff, but his online interactions are sometimes rather polarizing. You don't have to like him. But when he does something that stirs your emotions, a reaction that says something real about you is a lot better than something ugly.
It is also important to note that not all emotions are appropriate for public expression.
For example, in the tech world, we have a disturbing trend of ugly situations involving online harassment of women. The important thing to understand about these awful episodes that behind every ugly posting there was an emotion. Would those situations have been less bad if each of those ugly postings had been replaced by a public expression of the emotion behind it? Strictly speaking, yes, being real would have been less bad than being ugly. But maybe only a little. For some of those feelings, public expression would still be pretty darn inappropriate.
Sometimes it is better to express your emotions privately. Tell a friend. Process your strong feelings with someone you trust.
And don't underestimate the value of just keeping your mouth shut.
My primary audience is software developers, so I'm mostly just trying to help people (for example) stop saying "NoSQL sucks" and start saying "I feel threatened by NoSQL because I've spent my career learning SQL."
But just in case it's not obvious, being expressive is a way to avoid being ugly in ALL kinds of conversations about difficult issues.
Race. Gay marriage. Immigration. Israel. Iraq. Syria. Drugs. Religion. Politics. Poverty. The list could go on.
In most cases, online discussion of any of these topics will turn ugly at an alarming speed. And in most cases, being forthright about what we feel is a better choice than saying something unkind.
If you practice the habit of being expressive instead of being ugly, congratulations, you are making the Internet a better place.
But if you want to do more, you can:
When you see people online being expressive instead of ugly, upvote them.
Being expressive is a courageous choice. There is vulnerability in saying what you feel. Name-calling is safer.
So when you see somebody choosing to be expressive instead of ugly, affirm their choice, even if [you suspect that] they have beliefs that are different from yours.
If you can do the previous two things, you are a hero. There really is no need to do anything more.
But maybe you want to be a SUPER hero. You want to be remembered as the Nelson Mandela or the Gandhi or the Mother Teresa of the Internet, someone who made every online community a nicer place just by entering it.
If you aspire to be famous for your good deeds, here is the third thing you can do:
See through the ugly.
When you see people online being ugly instead of expressive, look deeper:
All the suggestions in this article are difficult. This one is by far the hardest. It is basically unreasonable. It asks you to assume the best of someone when they are showing you their worst. Being a superhero isn't easy.
Our online discussions would be so very different if we were all more adept at dealing with our emotions.
In many cases, we could avoid saying something awful by taking a moment to identify the feeling that is driving us, and to express it in a forthright and genuine (and probably dorky) manner.
Try it.
On Friday Digital Einstein went live, bringing with it a treasure trove of Einstein letters, correspondences, postcards, and notes detailing the life of one of the world's greatest thinkers. As The New York Times reports, these are The Dead Sea Scrolls of physics and you can read them today for free.
