Stump Your Fellow Members

I think all of us are here to learn ourselves and educate others, not stump one another. I have been doing this 45 years and learn something new daily, and am happy that I can answer some questions of younger culinarians.

Etamine, what is it?

An open weave cloth used for straining stocks and sauces....

This is kinda of difficult to do in an age when Google is a verb.

Prior to the availability of gelatin what ingredient was used to make old world foods like blancmange and panna cotta?

Hint: this ingredient can be Kosher but not vegan.

Luc H

Ahhh.... Luc, would that be "Visaga" (spelling?)---the dried spinal column fluid from the sturgeon, also used in "Couillbilac"

?

Foodpump, you are so close!!!
Unfortunately I cannot find any references of the words you proposes in google.

I grant you that yes, it is extracted from sturgeon and other fish as well.
Luc H

Don't have my trusty "Larousse" beside me I'm at work, waiting for the ovens to warm up--just enough time for a coffee and a few minutes on line. Besides I hardly every use google anyway.

Lets see , spinal fluid... or is that spine marrow of the Sturgeon?.

Couillbilac ( I can't spell it anyway..) to the best of my knowledge is a Russian dish, basically of whole salmon on bed of rice, rice bound with sturgeon visaga, and covered with puff pastry and baked.


In any case here's a question which you, Luc, probably know anyway:

On the ingredient list in most chocolates (bulk couveture) the item "Soy lecithin" come up. How much of this stuff (in %) is actually in the chocolate, and what is it's purpose?

Lecithin is an emulsifier. It's purpose is to assure that the different fats that constitute chocolate stay blended together. Cocoa butter, unlike hydrogenated fats, is not uniform and a blend of fats of different hardness. Lecithin makes sure they stay blended and that the fat crystals remain stable once the tempering is achieved. Lecithin essentially helps protect chocolate during prolong storage and temperature variations during storage. It helps delay (prevent) chocolate blooming (powdery graying which is fat crystals that have melted, leached and disorganized).

On average lecithin is added at below 2% (usually around 0.5 to 1%).
In Canada, emulsifiers cannot exceed 1.5% by weight.
other emulsifying ingredients that have similar effectiveness to lecithin and are accepted in Canada are:
mono-glycerides and mono- and diglycerides,
hydroxylated lecithin,
ammonium salts of phosphorylated glycerides,
polyglycerol esters of interesterified castor oil fatty acids,
and
sorbitan monostearate.

Lecithin is commercially extracted from soy (hence commercially cheap) but it is also found in eggs. It is the emulsifying work horse in mayonnaise making (in conjunction with some emulsifying agents found of mustard seeds).

Probably every commercial chocolate made in the world contains some sort of emulsifier. One just needs to read labels and choose what to avoid. I can say that the least <processed> emulsifier ingredient is in fact lecithin. It is a simple extract. All others mentioned above are a by-product of a chemical reaction in some way.

Luc H

Foodpump... should I wait to give the answer to my quiz?

Ahhh, that's another angle that I didn't know about, thanks Luc.

From the books I've read, I understood that lecithin is added in amounts of under 1/2 % to combat viscosity. Normally lecithin is used as an emulsifier, but in very small quantities has the ability to "thin out" chocolate. The expensive chocolates (ie Cluizel) do not contain this (lecithin), but add more cocoa butter to combat viscosity. (the make-up of a cocoa bean has anywhere from 52-54% cocoa butter) In many of the couvetures a "thinner" consistancy is desired when enrobing confectionary.

The ingredient that does what you are explaining are sorbitan monoesters (i used to sell the stuff). When melted it makes compound chocolates flow very thin without affecting the hardness when cooled. (lecithin can do that somewhat but sorbitans are much better at it).

here is a site of ingredients for compound chocolate from a company I know. It explains the function of their ingredients.
Chocolate & compounds - Danisco A/S

Luc H.

Mannitol is found in sugarless gums. What other major way is it used?

doc

Baby laxative?

....no, seriously.

Answer: Source Wikipedia: Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swimbladders of fish (especially Beluga sturgeon). Prior to the inexpensive production of gelatin and other competitive products, isinglass was used in confectionery and desserts such as fruit jelly and blancmange.

Luc H.

Hey Deltadoc,
was laxative the correct answer?

Here is another question:
which one of the following three baked products is different then the other 2 and does not belong and why?
Biscotti, Zwieback and *Biscuit.

Clarification: the name should say it all. *(by the way, biscuit is a French word that means cookie but in the US it is a simple quick bread (flour, baking powder, milk, etc..). Be it the French or US word, the question above is still valid).

Luc H

Correct!!!
Biscotti, Zwieback and Biscuit (in French) all mean baked twice: Bis means 2 in Italian and French and Zwie in German and, Cotti, back and cuit mean cook/bake.

I my example only Biscuit either in French or US is not baked twice.(although I have found some references in French that bake cookies twice to make them dry like social tea biscuits).

Baking twice can dry a product to the point that it will not mould for lack of available water. It is an old preserving technique.

Luc H.

well, it could go a couple of different ways on that cheese.

Mozarella and ricotta are usually not full milk cheeses so that could exclude goat cheese (though that's potentially a broad category)

Or you could reverse that and exclude the ricotta as the only whey cheese.

Or you could exclude the goat cheese as not coming from cows, though true mozarella would come from bufallo.

Depends where you want to place the dividing line.

uhmmm, not to cut the ole Senf too fine here,,,,

but german two is zwei
zwie is not zwei.
zwieback is defined as biscuit;rusk;bun

But, in my experience living in Germany, most Germans will tell you it means twice baked. There's enough dialect and accent to account for that pronunciation, such as in Schwaben. I heard things there i wouldn't have even thought was German, particularly from the older generation.

Phil

My German is very limited but I based my question on this Wikipedia definition (and now noticed I made a typo above as you pointed out)
Zwieback is a type of crispy, sweetened bread, made with eggs and baked twice. The second time it is baked it is sliced first, producing crispy, brittle slices that closely resemble melba toast.[1] Zwieback is commonly used to feed teething children.[1]

The name comes from German zwei, meaning "two", and backen, meaning "to bake".

reference: Zwieback - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Luc H.

oops! my bad. <zwie is more modernly a chemical component....>

as I dug deeper, one reference to old middle high german does show "zwie" = "twice"! also "zwi"
and a reference as a translation from italian biscotti!

if it did come north from italy, the transposition is still valid today as swiss-german and german-german often disagree with the ie-ei 'rules' albeit more in slang than "proper language" - whatever that is.

german-german "ie" pronounces "e" and "ei" pronounces "i" but swiss and swaebische dialects uhhh, get creative . . .

there is no question that "it" - however spelled - is a double baked / baked toasted / pick a combination...

oh, Phil - I am the older generation and lived on Bodensee which is definitely "a schwabbie place" <g>

I never made it to the Bodensee, rather I was mostly along the Neckar.

Phil

Yes, it is a popular baby laxative especially in Italy.

It is also a popular "cut".

doc