Desserts II

American Desserts

In this country there is a list of the top ten desserts. I found it on one of my research sites and was surprised to see Fudge at the #1 spot with Cheesecake at #10.

I did my own survey and found the following favorite desserts, mainly by age group:

• By far, Apple Pie was the #1 dessert, unless you're a small kid and then its a toss up between Pop Tarts and candy bars;
• The little older kids favored Jell-O and especially chocolate pudding;
• Ice cream was number one among the twenty-somethings;
• While the thirty-something declined to answering anything at all, but secretly like flavored water.

Also of note, cakes of all kinds, from carrot to chocolate scored very high, as did brownies. Cupcakes received honorable mention.

What is your favorite??

Dad

Desserts

Definitions

Dessert

1. To clear the table; French
2. Fresh Fruit as a last course of the meal;
3. British Something sweet served after the last meal of the day and all of the plates and silverware from the last meal of the day have been cleared away.

Trying to discover the beginning of desserts is guesswork at best, since I couldn't find anything written or even referred to anywhere I looked.

Given that situation my guess would be that the first use of having something sweet to end off a meal would have started with the Neanderthal people and would have been something simple like an apple or a few grapes.


Coming up the line, the Chinese would be my next best guess, with India right there as well, due to the fact that their meal usually has several different and distinct tastes.

So ending off with something like Tong Shuie (sugar water) also known as Sweet Soup, would not be a bad guess.

What is clear is that everywhere I looked I did not find even one society that didn't have something sweet used as a dessert. Even in the Arctic where a dish called Akutaq which means "something mixed", and consisted of various berries mixed with fat from seals and/or walrus, into a sweet paste, was part of their diet as well.

It is also certain that wheat flour plays a major part in not only present time desserts but in ancient times as well; an example would be the Khanom Bu-ang of Thailand, crispy pancakes spread with coconut cream, folded over and shredded coconut added.

There are toppings other than coconut but the above is the ancient one, so ancient in fact it was used in exclusively in religious ceremony.

Mochi: (rice cake), where the cooked rice is pounded into a paste and then formed into whatever shape you like, but usually rectangular.

Mochi has a subtle sweet taste but to the Western tongue the taste may be perceived as bland due to the large amount of sugar in Western desserts.

These rice cakes are prepared and eaten year round but take on a special role for traditional holidays in Japan, especially New Years day.

Another Japanese dessert called hama-biri mocha translates to "flower petal mochi" dates back to the mid 1800s. Mochi flavored ice cream is also a popular dessert in Japan.

In India, due to the fact that Sugar Cane has been cultivated for 3000 years, desserts are an important part of the Indian diet.

One such, called Halva, is prepared in two ways: the first is flour based and the second way is nut based, mixed into a butter. Peanut butter is an example of this. The flour based is fried in a sugary syrup.

The vastly more interesting thing about Halva is that it is prepared under different names and some added ingredients in 33 countries.

There is even a Star named after it called 518 Halawe.

In the upcoming posts I will be concentrating on desserts common to the Americas, Mexico and Canada.

Dad.

Last of Breads

As I mentioned at the start of this subject, there are so many varieties of bread produced around the world, I would just highlight the ones most common to the Americas and parts of Europe and Canada; Canada because it is known to be the "breadbasket of the world" due to its seemingly unending wheat fields and immense production of said wheat.

The common denominator of bread is that wheat flour is the primary ingredient and with this as the base, the addition of yeast, a little salt for flavor, water, then kneaded (mixing of ingredients so that they become as one; usually with the hands or by use of an electric mixer) and let sit to rise, then in the oven till golden brown and you have the basic loaf of bread that has become the number one food source added to the world supplies of food, even ahead of Rice at number two and Noodles which includes the various pasta's of Southern Europe, at number three.

Adding sugar or other sweeteners or spices to the basic formula gives us such staples as donuts, cakes, pie dough, cookies etc., etc. But these are not commonly recognized as bread so I haven't highlighted them under this subject.

I'm currently researching desserts and will at least mention the sweet dough products, but I am amazed at what I'm learning about desserts of the world and I am sure that you will be also.
Dad

More on Breads II

Definitions:

Yeast: Micro-organisms of the Fungus family.

Wad:  Any small mound of a soft substance; Example: "The items came packed in wads of cotton; or, "He used a large wad of chewing gum to blow bubbles".

Maize: Better known as Corn. It is a grain plant native to Mexico and domesticated by them approximately ten centuries ago.

Tortilla: A wad of processed corn kernels, unleavened, flattened and fried on a hot griddle of thin steel.

Note: Processing of Maize/Corn is done by soaking the kernels in a bath of lime water until the skin of the kernel comes off, the remaining is then ground, formed and cooked. Failing to do this soaking step will cause sickness in humans, this is due to the fact that with the skin of the kernel now gone, the vitamins, primarily B3 (Niacin),  and Amino acids, are now able to be fully incorporated in cooking and aid digestion.

Lard: Pig fat. Boiled long enough to remove the fatty parts that cannot be dissolved; the remaining water is then boiled off, leaving the liquid, now soft, whitish fat, highly prized by Chef's for use in
baking and frying meats, adding a superior flavor.

Yeast Bread:  As noted in the definitions yeast is a living micro-organism and was probably first discovered by the Ancient Egyptians. The first use of yeast in flour to make bread is also loosely credited to the Egyptians. Prior to the use of yeast, the breads of the time were flat and hard when
fried. After the discovery and much trial and error, the raised dough gave us bread in light fluffy loaves as we know it today.

Sourdough: Produced by adding Lactobacilli, a bacteria that produces lactic acid and it is this that gives the flour its sourness and ultimately sour dough bread. It also lasts, unrefrigerated for a very long time. Sourdough and Yeast Bread are so old that trying to figure out when or by whom it was first produced is sheer speculation. But it is, by far, the most successful food product ever created.
The way Yeast and Sourdough is made

today is much the same as in ancient times. 

The making of the sourdough starter is simply flour and water and because wheat contains both yeast and lacto-bacilli it can be let raise and then formed into loaves or fried or baked and still set aside a small, uncooked portion, for starting the next batch of bread or biscuits.

Cornbread: This particular bread is so well known and used that saying anything more about it would be wasted effort. It does, however, lead us to a form of this bread described below.

Cornpone: You have probably heard the name and wondered about it, unless you are from the South or Native American of that region. Cornpone is made from Cornmeal dough, that is made with enough water to make a paste-like dough with no milk or eggs added to the mix and then formed into a thick patty and fried in a hot cast iron frying pan that has had lard or bacon drippings added.

Hushpuppies: Another cornbread based staple, also prevalent in the south, the hushpuppies are made with corn meal, buttermilk instead of water, salt and sometimes chopped onions, formed into flattish ovals and deep fried.

 I spent some time in the south and enjoyed hushpuppies with fried fish, usually Bream (pronounced Brim) and catfish on occasion. Quite delicious.

Dad
                  
               

More on Breads

Pancakes

It is hard to wrap your wits around the fact that the venerable pancake is a bread.

Examination of stone age tools, dating back 25-30 thousand years ago, show bits of ground wheat grain. Since there were no ovens or pans, any wheat based food would have to be eaten raw, boiled in bark bowls, or cooked on flat hot rocks.

Bread is basically ground wheat or other grain such as rye or maize as invented by the Mayans of South America. But for the early humans of Europe, it was primarily wheat grain that was used; add water to make a paste, add a bit of salt if available, flatten it and fry it on the hot rock and there you have bread. What they may have called it is anyone's guess but for us, it is bread.

These flat cakes were the first hot cakes. Many years later add a bit of  baking power and another bit of Baking Soda; mix it into a batter and the modern hot cake is born. The pan, in pancake comes with the iron age and the making of pans and other utensils. Pancake batter contains both baking powder and baking soda, the key to making light and fluffy and somewhat thick pancakes is to lightly mix the batter and let it sit for about ten minutes before spooning it out onto the hot pan. This gives the leavening time to infiltrate the batter and you can see the batter rise slightly.

Beer Bread

During the late middle ages in London, the water was so polluted that beer was used almost universally as a substitute. Beer was also used to replace water in making bread and beer bread was born. It is still in use today.

The alcohol is almost all evaporated off by the time it gets to the table to be served up with dinner.

Open a can of your favorite beer (If your beer is unfiltered and yeast is still present in a cloudy coloring you won't have to add yeast to your dough) and let it sit overnight and go flat. It will give you much added flavor in the finished product.

Dad.

Breads

Breads

One of the oldest foods known to man.

Consider what has to happen to get a loaf of Bread.

It is a mix of ingredients; It  has to be Cooked or Steamed; The ingredients have to be in a certain proportion to make it happen and it has to be timed properly to be fully cooked but still tasty.

Getting to the point of "Tasty" must have seemed like magic to the person or persons eating it for the very first time. And the Cook? Probably elevated to high priest/priestess. Maybe even Shaman or Medicine Man.

It comes in hundreds of varieties, and is created in almost every country on earth. The exception is Antarctica and the Arctic all the way south to where permafrost ends.

The Polar region did not know fruit or grains of any kind due to the lack of plants that produce these things. So farming or picking wild grains, nuts, fruits was and is impossible. Importation of ingredients for bread and later, the advent of Greenhouses, ended the lack of obtaining the necessary grains used in Bread making in the far north.

I have concentrated this series on Bread to only the varieties grown and eaten in North America and Mexico.

Definitions

Flour:

1. the grains of wheat or corn, primarily, that are dried and ground to a very fine powder.

Bread:

1. A mix of flour, water, salt and in most cases, a leavening substance.

Leaven:

1. A substance that causes fermentation of dough (a mix of flour and water) to expand.
   
   

Ferment:

1. A group of living organisms such as bacteria, mold, yeast, etc.

Examples of fermentation:

1. Yeast that converts sugar to alcohol.
2. Yeast or bacteria (such as in sourdough) That causes dough to expand and rise and adds flavor.

Sourdough:

1. Uncooked but fermented dough set aside for, and used, as a starter leaven for the next batch. No fresh yeast is needed after that first batch is made.

Egg Wash:

1. 2 eggs with 1/2 cup milk and flavored with a quarter teaspoon of vanilla and beaten with an egg beater till frothy.

Plain Bread, White or Wheat

White bread is wheat flour bleached to remove the yellow brown color of natural ground wheat and is cut to 1/2 inch slices, packaged and sold by the one and half pound package, aka, loaf.

Wheat bread is the same as white but without the bleaching.

The bleaching agent most often used is a mix of bromine and potassium.

Texas Toast

The history of Texas Toast is a little clouded, except for the Texas part.

The story I know of was that an order of bread delivered  to a Dallas Restaurant had some that were sliced too thick  for the toasters so an enterprising cook simply buttered  both sides and grilled it and promoted the idea to the customers that it was a new menu item called Texas Style Toast (you know, "everything is bigger in Texas?)

Obviously it caught on and as time passed the middle word, style, was dropped.

All of that makes a great story but when I was researching the trail drives and Chuck wagon food, I found that cooks, when they ran out of biscuits, would whip up what was left of the flour, add water and a pinch of salt, flatten it in a pan and fry it over coals. It became known as Fry bread and Pan fried bread.

But in the here and now, Texas Toast is simply a loaf of White Bread, sliced twice as thick as in the standard loaf and the top is weighted down during fermenting and baking so as to make a square loaf.
To make the toast, simply butter both sides and fry it, both sides, till golden brown in your frying pan.
It goes great with honey or Jam/Jelly.

French Toast

Prepare an egg wash and soak two slices of Texas Toast bread on both sides and fry as in Texas Toast above.

When golden brown on both sides, it is done and served up with maple syrup. Add a couple of fried eggs, bacon or sausage and you have the almost perfect breakfast.

Spices VII

Watercress

Definitions

1. Cress: Any plant of the Mustard family, especially watercress.
2. Watercress: A cress of the mustard family usually found in clear Running Streams.
3. Tart: Sour Watercress is one of the oldest plants eaten by humans. Related to Garden cress, Mustard, Radish, and Wasabi.

This plant makes the grade as Herbs/Spices due to the distinctive sharp but pleasant taste that is also somewhat tart.

Uses

Its uses are mostly in the Salads arena. But its tartness also lends flavoring to Seafood such as Crab salad and another would be a bed of watercress with Grilled Salmon or fresh Tuna steak laid on top.

There is also this interesting soup: Watercress pureed in a blender with potatoes and onion then simmered in a pot of Chicken or Beef Broth with a little milk added.

This herb is high in Vitamins and Minerals and is a good anti-oxidant.

Wintergreen

My first thought about this herb was to skip it because it has so little Culinary use. But since my primary intention in creating this blog was to inform, I realized that I had mistakenly left out a definition that is common to several of the herbs that I've already presented - I will remedy that now.

Definitions

1. Wintergreen: A plant or tree that stays green all year round; Especially in winter.
2. The leaves and berries of the wintergreen plant.

Note:  The name Wintergreen was at one time used to include all such plants/trees that stayed green in winter. But that was centuries ago. As time went on, Wintergreen by itself was found to have so many uses it became necessary to give a more generic name to trees and plants that had that property and that was how and when "Evergreen" came into use and still is.

Culinary Uses

The primary usage for Wintergreen is to flavor Chewing Gum; Mint Candies and Tea.

The Wintergreen tea has been used by Native American Tribes for probably centuries, but not as a food source but as an agent of relief from aches and pains; headaches and various kinds of sore throat.

The reason this tea worked so well is due to the properties within the Wintergreen plant; It contains Salicylic Acid, a component of what we know as Aspirin.

The berries of the plant are used, through the water distillation process, to obtain wintergreen oil. The oil uses are mainly topical (applied to the skin instead of taking it orally, ie, by mouth); Some, but not all of the applications are: Arthritis, obesity, poor circulation, and hypertension.

It also flavors toothpaste and mouth wash; Listerine for example; Chewing gum as mentioned above and in soft drinks.

Note: The oil is also toxic if overdose occurs; One ounce of oil is equal to 170 aspirin tablets. Enough to put a hurt on one.

Waterpepper


Definitions

1. A plant of the polygonaceae family; 
• From Greek: poly--many and goni--joint.
2. Node: The stem which has one or several joints that are swollen and have leaves growing from these nodes.

Uses

This plant, although it is native to North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand is primarily used by the Japanese. They cultivate the plant and its leaves to be used as a vegetable and young, red sprouts are served up with sashimi ( raw meat or fish sliced thin).

They also chop the leaves very fine, add vinegar and a bit of cooked rice. This sauce is then used to flavor freshwater fish dishes.


Wormwood

Definitions

1. From the Daisy family and related to sagebrush. 
2. Spirits: Distilled Alcohol without added sugar.

Uses

Liquor mainly, especially Absinthe and as a flavoring in some spirits. In Absinthe, the alcohol content is anywhere from 90 to 150 proof and no sugar added. It comes out a pastel green color and is commonly known as "The Green Fairy".

Also, as noted in the Sassafras Post, and because of the banning of the Sassafras root in the making of Root Beer, Wintergreen combined with Black Birch Bark is the current substitute flavoring.
During the middle ages Wormwood was used to add spice to Mead which is fermented honey and water.

Wrap up

I put aside these next three spices/herbs because they are the three most expensive and definitely the king of spices.

Marjoram

There is nothing more to add about Marjoram since I wrote about it an earlier post. I did not mention at that time that it is the third most expensive of spices and herbs.




Vanilla


Vanilla is of the Orchid family and in this case the Mexican species. It is the second most expensive due to the fact that it so labor intensive; the orchid it comes from shares a symbiotic relationship with It's pollinator, the Mexican Bee. In other words, one cannot survive without the other. That was in the late 1500's.

This fact was made clear when the Spanish tried taking it to Europe and thought that just any old bee would do, but they were wrong and the cultivation of the orchid was a failure.

But, in the 1800's on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean a 12 year old slave boy discovered a way to hand pollinate the flower and that fact added so much labor to the cultivation process that the price of vanilla went up and up.

It is the most popular of all the spices and is found in every kitchen, commercial or home.

Saffron

Definitions 

1. Crocus sativas: A flowering plant in the family of Iris.
2. Corm: an enlarged, fleshy, bulbous base of a stem, as in the Crocus.
3. Carpel: The female part of a flower that produces seeds and fruit.
4. Stigma, plural- Stigmata: The receptive tip of a carpel.

Saffron 

1. A crocus having purple flowers.
2. The orange colored spice which are the dried stigmata of the Saffron Crocus. 
• Each flower produces 3 stigmata; each about an inch to 3 inches long. Each plant produces up to 4 flowers.

The Saffron plant is no longer found in the wild. It has been known and used for at least 2700 years.
The reason it is no longer found in the wild is probably due to selective breeding of the flower to grow longer stigma, since that is the only culinary use, ie, dried stigmata.

Besides use of the honey sweet, but hay like flavor, of the ground stigmata it is also used as a clothing dye.

One of the more common use is in the coloring of foods giving a luminous yellow orange color.

It is used in Italian Risotto, in Spanish Paella (pie ay a) and the Bouillabaisse of France. Used also to make the prized Golden Ham from Tuscany.

The Saffron spice is by far the most expensive of all herbs and spices due to the fact that there is only the amount of stigmata per flower as noted above.

Thus, one pound of stigmata requires the harvesting of between 50,000 and 75,000 flowers.
The cost of that pound can be as much as $5000.00 dollars.

I hope you have enjoyed and have become more informed about that spice rack. I know I have enjoyed the research and writing each of the posts.

Dad

Spices VI

Cinnamon
Definition:

1. Cinnamon Verum...true Cinnamon
2. Cinnamon Zeylanicum...derived from the original name Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Cinnamon.
3. Saigon Cinnamon...a different species of Evergreen tree and the bark that when dried, rolls up cylinder like, and when ground becomes the Cinnamon we are accustomed to. This variety contains a higher essential oil content than true Cinnamon.

Uses:
Primarily a garnish for such foods as fruit salad and some soups and Broth. But where it really shines is in Baked goods, and who hasn't had their mouth watered by the mere smell of a hot Cinnamon sticky bun.

Sassafras 
Definition:

1. A species of tree which is a variety of the Laurel family.
2. The leaves and root of this tree.

Uses:
The leaves, when dried and finely ground, are used as a thickener with flavor, unlike corn starch which also thickens but has no flavor of its own. In Louisiana, the Creole dish, Gumbo, uses the spice as both thickener and flavoring.

The other, and far more popular use of Sassafras is its root. The root is used to make Root Beer, up to 1960 that is. At that time it was banned by the FDA due to tests done on Lab rats who when given large dosages of Sassafras Tea or Sassafras oil developed liver damage. In the late 1970's the FDA banned the tea as well. But that ban was overturned in 1994.

The current making of Root Beer and it's distinct flavor, is obtained by a mix of Wintergreen and Black Birch bark.

Savory
Definition:

1. Pleasant in taste and smell.
2. A plant related to Thyme and Rosemary with aromatic flowers and leaves. The dried leaves of the plant are used as flavorings.

Uses:
The dried leaves are used to flavor beans, stews and in Romanian cooking it is used to flavor their Stuffed Cabbage dish. The plant can be very useful as an ornament plant in the garden. Plucking a small amount of leaves, drying and then chopping them fine and used for flavoring in addition to leaving the bulk of the plant decorating the garden. The plucked leaves will grow back.

A small pinch of the dried leaves steeped in hot water with black tea will give the tea an unique flavor.

Tarragon
Definition

1. Also know as Estragon, is a species of plant in the Sunflower family native to Eurasia and North America.

Uses
It is used in both foods and Medicines.

There are a few species of Tarragon  but the preferred is French Tarragon. The aroma and taste has a hint of anise to it.

The chopped and dried leaves are used as a rub on Chicken and Fish, but my favorite use is as an oil and vinegar mix: Fill a small jar with white vinegar; add a few fresh and slightly bruised leaves and let sit overnight in the frig. When you are ready to add to a salad pour about an inch in the bottom of a cup and add about 3 inches of oil, shake well and voila... a delicious oil and vinegar dressing. Keep the vinegar bottle in the frig for future use. It lasts a very long time due to the preservative properties of the vinegar.

Thyme
Definition

1. A leafy plant of the Mint family with uses in Foods, Medicine, and in Ornamental Gardens.

Uses (Culinary):
Native to Southern Europe, North Africa and North America, especially upstate New York. Although Native to Southern Europe, it was the Romans who spread it throughout Europe and England. They used it to flavor cheese and some liquors and also to deodorize rooms.

It is the one spice used in the making of stuffing for the Turkey that reminds me, wherever or whenever I am of the Holidays, and especially Thanksgiving. and Christmas.

Turmeric

Definition

1. A species of herb of the Ginger family, Native to Asia. It is the root of this plant used in cooking.              

Uses       
The root is of the creeping root variety, as are asparagus, ginger, hops, and in flowers such as Lily of the Valley and the Iris to name two.

                  
An interesting observation is that when the root of the plant is cut in half, the inside resembles the cylinder of a Revolver.
        
The root is dried, ground powdery fine and is then ready for use as a flavoring spice. The aroma of this spice us unlike any other that I could compare it to, but reminds me of a slightly earthy but fresh flower garden.
       
It is one of the primary ingredients in Indian Curry for the flavor and more obvious, the color it gives the dish.

It is also used in soda's, baking, some dairy products including ice cream and when you run across yellow popcorn--that yellow color is the Turmeric. And guess where yellow mustard gets it's yellow color.

And of course, in curry powder.

Caramelizing onions, turmeric and oil gives you the starter ingredients for Beef stews and soups, and as a rub on steaks.

Another interesting use is that in Europe the Turmeric is used as  a substitute for the wildly expensive Saffron.

There are many other uses for this herb, including folk medicine remedies, Religious Ceremonies and Rituals and is even a part of a Hindu Wedding Ceremony. Very, very old and interesting spice.

Dad