The battle of Minorca, and making mayo with a stick blender — Minorca is a small island well-placed in the western Mediterranean that has one of the world’s most impressive natural harbours. Together, these features gave it a strategic importance that saw it fought over for control by many peoples in its history. …

How to slice an iced cake to protect left-overs — In 1906 a gentleman scholar was confronted with a significant problem for his wife and himself — how to cut a round cake to serve two people at afternoon tea, and preserve the remainder for the next day in good condition. The classic method is to cut it into wedges…

What happens in an oven when it’s set to do one or the other — Were the potatoes in that image baked or roasted? We ‘bake’ a cake, but ‘roast’ a chicken. I wonder why that is, given that both are put in an oven at around the same temperature. And what do those bake/roast settings on the oven knob mean anyway? Not much really…

Keeping them light and crispy — There are hurdles to overcome for a crispy edible batter. The problems are that the batter itself has to dry-out at just the right time, and it must not absorb either oil or water, despite being cooked in oil from the outside, and blasted with water (steam escaping from the…

Have them pre-soaked and frozen — The need to soak the dried beans ‘overnight’ before cooking can be a nuisance at times. But, it turns out that the soaking step can be separated from the cooking step by weeks to months — soak a large batch, rinse, drain, portion and freeze. The frozen beans can be…

The blender technique — For centuries it has been known that decanting — allowing a wine to be in contact with air for a period — improves a red wine. A whole industry and wedding-gift business has sprung up as a result, from carafes to various devices (typically expensive) that ‘assist’ the process. …

How it works and some methods — Why brine meat proteins? To slightly season, to increase water retention during cooking and to plump dry meats. In high doses, salt draws moisture out of meat and is perhaps the oldest means of preservation. However, at low doses, salt can do the opposite and increase the water-holding capacity of…

And some ideas for brussels sprouts — The cruciferous (brassica) family boasts the cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, broccolini, brussels sprout, savoy, kohirabi and mustard greens. Humans started to genetically engineer these variants from one weedy Mediterranean plant, the mustard plant (brassica oleracea) 2–3000 years ago. The brussels sprout is a relative newcomer to the family, and records…

For flavour — We burn food routinely for flavour — a crispy grilled (or barbecued) lamb chop or seared steak for example. Mostly it is animal proteins that we treat this way. But not entirely — burnt toast for example. …

And an different method for carrot soup — As with most vegetables, carrots are full of water. It may seem improbable but at 88%, the water content of carrots is slightly higher than that of full cream milk and comparable to oranges. It is just stored differently; vegetables lock water in their structure very effectively. For example, these…

Naming, discovery and science — One in 4 people eat chilli daily; but are they eating chilli, chile or chili? And, why peppers? The word is regional and historical. The plants are native to South/Central America, and the word ‘chilli’ was the Latin translation from the Aztec Nahuatl language (an oral language). It has become…

How to tell the difference — The featured image shows cassia, not cinnamon Cinnamon is one of the world’s cardinal spices, appearing across multiple cuisines and finding sweet and savoury applications. But if you cook in the West (particularly the English-speaking West), the odds are that you are not cooking with cinnamon, but rather with cassia. …

Freeze filtering — Let’s say we want to clarify a stock and produce a clear flavoursome consommé. Traditionally, this is achieved by adding an egg-white mixture to the stock, and slowly heating it. With heat, the egg proteins unravel and reconnect to form a very loose ‘gel’ that traps large molecules (impurities) but…

Culinary considerations and methods — As the fridge magnet may say, “I love cooking with wine; sometimes I even put it in the food” — a quote variously attributed to WC Fields or Julia Child (but perhaps neither). There is evidence for the intentional consumption of fermented alcoholic beverages going back to the late stone…

Basics and methods — Crunchy, crispy, crackly are sounds and textures much appreciated in our food. The terms don’t have agreed scientific definitions, although there may be differences in the frequencies of sound they produce (for example crispy making higher-pitched sounds than crunchy) but there is no consensus. Our mouths can interpret a remarkable…

It’s manufacture and health — Bacon is one of those ‘indulgent’ foods that has been widely consumed despite decades of finger-wagging by the nutrition police. It has the reputation of being high in fat (saturated), salt (sodium), cholesterol and carcinogens (byproducts of curing and smoking). None of these stand up well to scrutiny. Bacon is…

A guide — Some reasons for home-curing bacon are: 1) ketogenic dieters may eat a lot of bacon, and so industrial-processed store-bought bacon should come under scrutiny; 2) store-bought bacon usually contains sugar; 3) home-cured bacon is made in one piece, and so can be cut for different purposes (e.g. …

It’s manufacture and health — Bacon is one of those ‘indulgent’ foods that has been widely consumed despite decades of finger-wagging by the nutrition police. It has the reputation of being high in fat (saturated), salt (sodium), cholesterol and carcinogens (byproducts of curing and smoking). None of these stand up well to scrutiny. Bacon is…

Safety of wood or synthetic — The kitchen is a domestic microbe’s playground (well ahead of the bathroom for example). The kitchen sink, dishwashing sponges, linen towels and cutting surfaces can be teeming with microbes. In the US, about 200,000 cases of food-borne illnesses occur every day. Most of these illnesses have a domestic origin rather…

Taking it apart to put it back together again — One-pot cooking is a universal (well, at least worldwide) cooking method. It creates something nutritious and satisfying by using a simple technique with minimal technology. As such, it has a deep tradition and is embedded in our culinary history (and probably our DNA), evoking homely and comforting memories. Nothing wrong…