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Food: Science and Recipes

Information on the science of food and recipes.

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Science

This section is a hodgepodge of information: what tastes go together, methods of preparing food, etc.

Maceration

Sprinkling sugar over fruit helps to draw moisture out due to its hygroscopic properties, creating a syrup that the fruit then soaks in. The fruit also becomes softer in the process—the longer it macerates, the softer it becomes.

Liquids, such as juice, wine, liquor, liqueur, or balsamic vinegar, can also be used.

Recipes

Link:

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

Notes

Ground Beef Casserole

Link: Ground Beef Casserole

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 °F and grease a 9x13 baking dish.
  2. Boil penne in a large, salted pot of water for 10 minutes (it should be slightly underdone so it doesn't get mushy).
  3. Add oil, beef, and onion to a skillet. Sauté over medium-high heat, breaking the meat up as you go along, for 10 minutes. Once it gets going, stir in the garlic. Spoon out excess fat if needed.
  4. Stir in the marinara sauce and warm through. Give it a taste and season with salt & pepper as needed.
  5. Drain the pasta and pour it into the baking dish. Pour the beef mixture over top and then toss until it's combined with the pasta. Top with an even layer of the cheese.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes, uncovered, until the cheese is nicely melted. I then broil it for a few minutes (optional) to brown the cheese up a bit. Serve immediately.

Notes

Some recommendations from the friend whom I cooked for:

The lacking feature was texture. The flavors used were robust, but the pasta penne is airy and open to sauce, which you didn't use in this dish.

So two potential fixes, one or both: Choose a different pasta for a more dry dish. Penne is preferred with a sauce. Try a rotini or farfalle (bowtie) as those can work better with a ground meat. Shells is also good, but may be too small compared to the meat. Add another larger ingredient to buff up the substance. Chunks of mushroom, zucchini, or red bell peppers can elevate the dish without changing the flavor too much.

Lemon Blueberry Crumble

Link: Lemon Blueberry Crumble

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 °F.
  2. Grease 9 x 13-inch baking pan with baking spray.
  3. Whisk together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and lemon zest.
  4. Cut the butter and egg into the flour mixture and use your hands to crumble the mixture. Dough will be very crumbly.
  5. Pat more than half of the crumble mixture into the prepared pan. Set aside about 1 cup or more for the crumble topping.
  6. Toss together the lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and blueberries until well combined.
  7. Pour the blueberries mixture on top the crumbled crust in an even layer.
  8. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs mixture over the blueberries.
  9. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the top and sides are golden. Allow cooling at room temperature before cutting them into bars. Serve at room temperature, or chilled if you like.

Notes

This was very forward on the lemon, probably too much. I would dial back the zest amount by half-ish and try again.

Apple Cobbler

Link: Apple Cobbler

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 °F
  2. Toss apples in lemon juice
  3. Add brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla extract and mix until apples are well-coated in seasoning
  4. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
  5. Mix in cold butter until butter pieces are pea-sized
  6. Add milk and stir with spatula until all of flour is moistened
  7. Add topping over apples
  8. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over topping
  9. Bake 45 min
  10. Cool for 10 min

Notes

This was super easy and difficult to mess up, besides the flour-butter mixing. A food processor could probably be used for this step. I used ~3 lb of apples in a 9x13" pan and 4 lb is definitely the move. Vanilla ice cream is a must!

Italian Cream Cake

Link: Italian Cream Cake

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 °F. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or butter it up.
  2. Mix together butter and sugar until smooth.
  3. Add in egg yolks one at a time, mixing with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer after each egg, until blended.
  4. In a small bowl mix together buttermilk, vanilla extract and baking soda.
  5. Add 0.5 cup of flour at a time, and 0.25 cup of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat this process until all the flour and buttermilk is added. Blend well with hand mixer or stand mixer each time you add an ingredient.
  6. Gently stir/fold in the pecans, sweetened coconut, and beaten egg whites, until well blended. Pour batter into prepared baking dish.
  7. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
  8. Reduce heat to 225 °F degrees, and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely. (I didn't reduce to 225 °F and instead just pulled it out after 40 min—everything tasted fine, so this step seems optional.)
  9. Mix together butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and 4 oz of powdered sugar.
  10. Mix on high until smooth and add more powdered sugar. Continue this process until the box is empty and frosting is completely smooth.
  11. Frost the cooled cake and top with coconut and pecans and serve.

Notes

This turned out well. The amount of frosting is probably a bit excessive with how thick of a layer it forms. The cake itself was quite moist and not too sweet. The frosting was not too forward with cream cheese, but was pretty sweet.

Chicken Marsala

Link: Chicken Marsala

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Mix flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture and brush off any excess.
  2. In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat.
  3. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown.
  4. Turn over chicken and add mushrooms and wine.
  5. Cover skillet; simmer chicken 10 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Notes

I fucked this up bad. First, I read 0.75 inches thick for the chicken breast, not the specified 0.25... oops. I think this is the root of my problems. I kept the thick chicken simmering in the mushroom/wine mixture for a long time while it actually cooked up to 165 °F, but you know how liquid works at high temps... it evaporates. And so when I finally pulled the cover off the skillet, I was met with charred chicken and mushrooms. Fuck. So, lessons learned: thinner chicken slices and lower heat. I could also probably add some chicken broth.

I will probably watch a video next time instead of just reading text...

Strawberry Shortcake

Link: Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Quarter strawberries, then sprinkle up to 0.25 cups sugar over them and stir to begin the maceration process. Cover and place in fridge.
  2. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  3. Mix the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and whisk until combined.
  4. Cut the in cubed butter into the dry ingredients and pulse until coarse crumbs form.
  5. Pour buttermilk on top.
  6. Fold everything together with a large spoon or rubber spatula until it begins to come together. Do not overwork the dough. The dough will be shaggy and crumbly with some wet spots.
  7. Pour the dough and any dough crumbles onto a floured work surface and gently bring together with generously floured hands. Have extra flour nearby and use it often to flour your hands and work surface in this step.
  8. Using a floured rolling pin, flatten into a 0.75 inch thick rectangle as best you can. Fold one side into the center, then the other side. Turn the dough horizontally. Gently flatten into a 3/4 inch thick rectangle again. Repeat the folding again. Turn the dough horizontally one more time. Gently flatten into a 0.75 inch thick rectangle. Repeat the folding one last time. Flatten into the final 0.75 inch thick rectangle.
  9. Cut into 2.75 or 3-inch circles with a biscuit cutter or glass. (Tip: Do not twist the biscuit cutter when pressing down into the dough.) Re-roll/flatten any scraps and cut more circles until you have around 10-12 biscuits.
  10. Arrange close together on a parchment paper or silicone baking mat lined baking sheet. Make sure the biscuits are touching.
  11. Brush the tops with 2 Tablespoons heavy cream or buttermilk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
  12. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown on top. Remove from the oven, then cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before assembling.
  13. Whipped cream: Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until soft-medium peaks form, about 3 minutes.
  14. Cut the biscuits in half and top with strawberries and cream.

Notes

My whipped cream was way too runny and this was probably the worst part of the dish. I used the beater attachment on my hand mixer, but it specifically called for a whisk. I'll have to purchase some of these.

The strawberries never got the juices I was promised, despite sitting in the refrigerator for 1.5 hours or so.

Biscuits were a pain in the ass to form because of how dry they were. Eventually it got better after much kneading and combining together, but I wonder if a bit more buttermilk would help?

Banana Bread

Link: Banana Bread

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure: (Note that this recipe is designed for an 8x4 pan.)

  1. Set oven to 350 °F
  2. Mash bananas in large mixing bowl. No chunks should be left.
  3. Mix in melted butter
  4. Mix in baking soda and salt
  5. Mix in sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract
  6. Mix in flour. Make sure no flour is left on bowl—it can get trapped at the bottom!
  7. Butter pan
  8. Pour batter into pan
  9. Bake 55-65 min

Notes

0.5 cup sugar is probably a bit on the low side for most people. 0.75 cup sugar is probably a solid bet.

A bit more butter wouldn't be a bad idea for extra moistness.

Basque Cheesecake

Link: Basque Cheesecake (Tarta de Queso)

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Heat oven to 400 °F
  2. Line 9-inch springform pan with two large crisscrossed sheets of parchment paper. This was kind of a pain-in-the-ass, so I suggest overlapping outside of the pan, transferring them in together, then folding as needed while in the pan. I still didn't get it perfect. More practice...
  3. Add the cream cheese (2 lb / 32 oz) and granulated sugar (1.3 cup) to a large mixing bowl and use a handheld mixer on medium speed until the batter is smooth
  4. Add the eggs (5 total) one at a time, beating on medium-low speed until each egg is combined before adding in the next
  5. Add the cream (1.25 cup), vanilla extract (2 tsp), salt (1 tsp) and mix on low speed until evenly combined
  6. Sprinkle the flour (0.25 cup) evenly over the batter (it helps to sift it through a fine-mesh strainer to prevent lumps) and mix on low speed until evenly combined
  7. Pour the mixture into the parchment-lined pan and smooth out as needed.
  8. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
  9. Transfer the cheesecake to a wire baking rack and let it cool completely to room temperature
  10. Remove the sides of the springform pan, peel back the parchment, and cut

Notes

Overbeating the batter can cause too much air to enter and a puffy cheesecake. If overbeat, letting the batter sit for some time then tapping the bottom of the bowl can alleviate this. (This seems like a good idea regardless.)

Salad 1

This is literally the best salad I've ever had. And I don't say that lightly!

Recipe

Ingredients:

Procedure:

  1. Combine all ingredients into a bowl
  2. Top with dressing

Beef Wellington

A famous dish that is a lot easier to make than people expect. A great addition to a holiday meal. Pairs well with vegetables. I went with roasted asparagus, mashed potatoes, and red wine and it was a hit.

Recipe

Ingredients (recommended amounts in parentheses):

Procedure:

  1. If using store-bought puff pastry, follow the de-thawing instructions on the package.
  2. Set oven heat for 4xx °F and set up center rack.
  3. Season the beef with salt, pepper, and thyme leaves (optional). Set aside or wrap in saran wrap and place in the refrigerator for extended period of time.
  4. Dice up shallots, garlic cloves, and mushrooms (these three ingredients make duxelles) into fine pieces. Heat up pan on medium-high heat, add olive oil and butter, then add the shallot, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until golden brown and most of the moisture has evaporated. (Note: this may be longer than expected!) Leave duxelles to cool.
  5. Sear beef tenderloin by placing on pan. Ensure even searing on all sides, including the end caps. To maintain its cylindrical shape, butcher's twine can be tied beforehand. Immediately brush the now-seared tenderloin with dijon mustard on all sides and let rest for a couple of minutes while continuing on.
  6. Roll out the puff pastry if it is not large enough to fit around the tenderloin. Lay out the pieces of prosciutto on the puff pastry, then evenly spread the duxelles on top. Leave an inch or so on all sides.
  7. Beat an egg and add a tablespoon or so of water.
  8. Place the rested tenderloin on the puff pastry-prosciutto-duxelles sheet, then tightly roll the tenderloin. Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet, tie the sides off and brush the entire "log" with egg wash. Make sure the seam side is down! Cut slits on top of the log to allow steam to escape.
  9. Place log into oven for ~25 minutes and cook to medium rare. (Note: if you cook any more than medium rare you will be visited by the Beef Wellington Police and taken to a secret torture prison to learn about your wrongdoings.)
  10. Allow log to rest for 5-10 minutes after removing from the oven.
  11. Enjoy!

Notes

See Also