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Culinary Disputes: Tapenade Definition and Sugar Burning Points

3K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  saltydog 
#1 ·
So, how many time do you and your co-workers argue about terms, techniques, etc? Cooks are passionate, which creates intense arguments and disagreements.

First:
So we had a discussion at my work. I said tapenade HAS to have olives in it.
My co-linesman said it does not have to have olives, just some sort of fine chopped/minced vegetables, and spreadable.
So far, I have found the that olives not only have to be in it, but they MUST be the main/base ingredient!
I have no idea how this argument started.

Second:
They use regular granulated sugar for topping creme brulees. In my experience, Turbenado (Sugar in the Raw) is the ONLY way to do it. I told them that, and they said they never ever had an issue with regular granulated sugar in the past. This came about because employees where having trouble with burning the brulees to far. I tried to get them to try Turbenado but they were to stubborn. They said to find burning points of the sugars.
I found 265 for granulated
And 320-365 for Turbenado.

Input on either?

Other top of the head arguments:
Squeezing the liquid out of canned crab meat, yes or no? Why?
Tuna tartar, what season should it be offered(or should it be non-seasonal), why?
Duxelle: sweat mushrooms softley to keep a light color, or hard dark sear? Why?

I said No- to keep flavor, summer- I don't know why, and hard dark sear for a more complexe flavor. In the order.
Let's see some input and arguments!
 
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#4 ·
The original tapenade is olives (mainly), anchovies and capers.

But there are tons of of "tapenades" that have really little to do with tapenade. I guess we could argue all day whether or not it's correct to call them tapenade . . .

If I read on a menu "croutons with tapenade", it better be olives. But if I read "croutons with an artichoke-lemon tapenade", I won't be surprised if there are no olives.
 
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