A Traditional Southern Meal

Today my team made a wonderful, hearty traditional Southern meal. On the menu was biscuits, fried chicken, string beans, smashed potatoes, mac and cheese, sweet potato casserole, and peach cobbler. I personally helped make the mac and cheese and smashed potatoes. The mac and cheese was a relatively easy recipe. We simply combined cooked macaroni with a cheese, milk, and egg mixture. We poured this into a baking casserole dish and then layered more cheddar cheese on top. This cooked in the oven for about 25 minutes. We made this first since it could be easily reheated in the oven right before serving.

The smashed potatoes were more fun to make, in my opinion. We cooked red skin potatoes and left the skin on. These were then mashed with butter, salt, pepper, and sour cream. We didn't have an exact recipe for this, so it was a bit of a guessing game. We would add some of the flavorings, taste it, and then see what else it needed. We made a ton of smashed potatoes and there was no one who didn't get their full share. This is the kind of recipe I could see myself making in the future since it was so simple. I loved the taste of the red skin potatoes instead of normal potatoes. I think it gave the dish more flavor, especially with keeping the skin.

The other dishes turned out very well. My favorites were the fried chicken, biscuits, and sweet potato casserole. The fried chicken was great and the guys who made it certainly had the technique down. It was flavorful and crispy without being too greasy. The sweet potatoes were almost like a dessert. They were baked with toasted pecans and brown sugar on top. It was simply delicious and I had seconds of that dish. The green beans were also tasty. I normally do no like green beans, but I liked these. They were extra mushy from being cooked in chicken broth. I normally hate the hard cooked green beans from the can or when steamed. The peach cobbler was pretty good, although it was a bit too runny in my opinion. I like thicker cobblers served hot with vanilla ice cream.

All in all it was a great meal and a great way to wrap up the cooking!

Vintages, Bacon, and Vanilla

Today's chocolate tasting was designed for us to compare the differences between the ages of chocolate. We tried the same chocolates from different production years to see if we could tell a difference in taste. I had a feeling there would be differences since environmental changes could impact the taste of the cocoa beans. Here were the results:
2010 Gran Couva - Trinidad - rich, potent cocoa aroma, fruity and floral finish
2011 Gran Couva - Trinidad - fruity, complex, dense, peanut flavor, vanilla, herbal, minty, bitter aftertaste
2009 Palmira Criollo - Venezuela - astringent, nutty, honey, bittersweet
2010 Palmira Criollo - Venezuela - not much flavor, mild, bitter, nutty, honey, sweeter than the 2009 version

The mystery chocolate for today was bacon chocolate. It was very salty, roasted, nutty, and crunchy. I didn't hate it but it wasn't my favorite chocolate we have tried. Many people in the class, especially the guys, absolutely loved it and wanted to know more about bacon products.

The next taste test we did was a vanilla taste test. You can't really eat vanilla plain and expect to like it, so we added it to a milk, egg, and sugar mixture to make it more palatable. I enjoyed doing this taste test because I thought that for the most part all vanillas were created equal. This was not the case, and I had preferences as to what I liked better. Luckily for me, the one I liked the most is the most common vanilla found in the United States. I am sure to have it again then!
Tahitian - fragrant, fruity, lingering aftertaste, sweet, most expensive and rare version
Mexican - creamy, stronger flavor, thick, alcohol aftertaste, like root beer
Madagascar homemade version - mild balanced
Madagascar (The Spice House) - thick, mild, tastes like vanilla ice cream, balanced, same flavor as the homemade version only stronger, my favorite

Tomorrow we go back to the kitchen for out final cooking day. We are tackling traditional Southern cooking with lots of hearty foods!

Nearing the End

On Friday, we tried a very expensive and delicious brand of chocolate: Amedei. We had the tasting squares, but I easily could have eaten a lot of more of this brand. The Porcelana 70% was one of my favorite chocolates I have ever tried. It was nutty, smooth, and balanced. It had a hazelnut flavor and reminded me of the taste of Nutella. It also reminded me of a type of chocolate I bought at a shop in Paris, Fauchon. The Chuao 70% was a little sour and had a vanilla, nutty, and fruity taste. It was made with pure chuao beans. The 9 chocolate was a 75% blend with an intense cocoa taste. It was rich and dark. It was not too bitter though and had a lingering chocolate aftertaste. None of these varieties were astringent.

The mystery chocolate tasting wasn't really a mystery given its appearance. We tasted Santander chocolate covered coffee beans. They tasted like a very rich coffee mocha, were crunchy, had a strong aroma, and gave me a boost of energy.

Friday's class also included presentations. One included a taste test on wild game. I have never eaten wild game before, and I had some interesting experiences with it:

- Venison - deer meat, tender, smokey, similar to steak only better, would order it again

- Rabbit - tough, kind of sweet, musty, rustic, hard to eat since it reminded me of the two pet rabbits I had growing up

- Duck - musty, juicy, unique flavor, gamey, not pleasant

The cheese tasting was our last one of the class, unfortunately. Also, unfortunately, it was not a very good array of cheeses in my opinion. I just really do not like stinky cheeses. All made my fingers smell bad.

- Taleggio - soft, stinky, sticky, tastes like sour milk, bad flavor grows as you eat it, grassy

- Morbier Raw Milk- STRONG aftertaste, musty, earthy

- Chimay - musty, sour, salty, bitter

The chocolate shop in Paris that reminded me of the Porcelana:

A Taste of India

Today's meal was Indian themed and was very delicious. I did not have to cook today but still got to enjoy the cuisine the ethnic food group made for us. Bernie Dunlap joined us as well to taste their creations! I had never eaten Indian food before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I am not a huge fan of spicy food, and I was worried it would all be too spicy for me. However, the group went light on the spices, so it was very palatable. I am now a big fan of Indian food as long as it is not spicy.

The meal included aloo gobi, chicken korma, naan bread, jasmine rice, cucumber salad and mango lassi. The chicken and aloo gobi went very well together and with the rice. The sauce from the chicken was also very good on the naan bread. I didn't expect the naan bread to be as good since it looked kind of bland. Yet it was surprisingly very flavorful and I could not get enough of it. The aloo gobi was just spicy enough to have a little kick but not too much as to make it unpalatable. I thought the potatoes could have been cooked a little longer, but the other vegetables in the dish made up for it. I felt the meal went together very well. It was a good balance between savory and sweet flavors. I was not as big of a fan of the cucumber salad. I felt it was too much yogurt and I don't really like cucumbers that much. It would have been better if it had included tomatoes or some more seasoning.

The mango lassi was a perfect finish for the meal. I love mangos and had to get seconds on this dish. However, it was also very rich, so you couldn't eat too much of it. I once heard that traditional Indian cooking includes some kind of yogurt-based dessert since the main course is usually very spicy. The yogurt helps cool your palate after the meal. By the time I had finished eating, I realized that I never took a picture of the food for the blog. I think that's a sign though of how delicious it was.

"El Rey" of Blue Cheese

Today's taste tests included El Rey dark chocolates. I expected to like all three of them a lot since I had liked other El Rey chocolates we have tried. However, that was not the case for all three of the chocolates:
- Bucare - 58.5%, hard to bite into, earthy, bitter, smokey, strong aroma
- Mijao - 61%, fairly sweet, vanilla flavor, creamy, more intense cocoa flavor, nutty, this was my favorite of the three and I think it is due to the extra cocoa butter added to this variety to increase smoothness
- Gran Saman - 70%, astringent, earthy, bitter, most intense, chalky, charcoal, fruity, this one did grow on me as I continued to taste it throughout class, but it was not my favorite

Our next taste test was a cinnamon test. I never knew there were so many different types of cinnamon and that the taste could vary so much. We tried the cinnamon on toasted bread croutons with butter, rather than eating the cinnamon raw. We also had to decide which cinnamon most closely resembled the Cinnabon cinnamon of which we had a sample of one of their cinnamon rolls. This was a very delicious taste test since cinnamon sugar toast has always been a favorite breakfast of mine. Here are the results:
- Ceylon - smokey, spicy, complex, "true cinnamon"
- Chinese Cassia - potent, tangy, ideal for baking
- Caigon Cassia - tastes most like a cinnamon stick or red hot, lingering aftertaste, strong bite
- Korintga Cassia - sweet, mild bite, smooth, my favorite

I picked the Cinnabon cinnamon to be the Chinses Cassia, but it was actually the Korintga Cassia. It was a hard taste test to do since the Cinnabon cinnamon is gooey and very sweet.

Before we moved onto to cheeses, Dr. Sloan had one last olive for us to taste that we didn't get to yesterday. It was an oil cured olive and looked like a prune... or something worse. The smell was absolutely horrible. Given my poor experience with olives the day before, I couldn't bring myself to try it. The smell alone was more than enough of an experience for me.

We then, thankfully, moved on to Blue Cheeses. We watched a video on the best blue cheeses that are made in Stilton, England. It's incredible how much time and care goes into making fine cheeses. I now understand why they are so expensive. Our taste test included one of the Stilton cheeses:
Valdeon - strong aftertaste, sour, bitter, musty, tasted like garbage, chemical taste
Stilton - creamy, not as strong of an aftertaste, salty
American - my favorite, least "blue" flavor, creamy, soft, salty, sour, weaker taste
Cambozola - softest, sour, flavor develops, creamy, moist, doesn't crumble

I am still not a blue cheese person; however, I did appreciate the Stilton blue cheese more than some others in the past. The only reason the American was my favorite was because it tasted the least like blue cheese. I don't mind it when it is mixed in with other things, like a salad or dish. I just do not like that strong, stinky taste plain.

One of the most exciting parts of class today was getting to plan our Southern cooking menu for next Tuesday. We had no trouble brainstorming possible dishes. Everyone had their family favorites. We ended up on this delicious menu:
- Biscuits
- String beans
- Mac and Cheese
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Mashed Potatoes
- Fried Chicken
- Peach Cobbler
- Lemonade and Sweet Tea

I can't wait to try all of this! Below is a picture of the cinnamon taste test. Yum!

Cooking with Eggs

Today's cooking lesson was cooking with eggs. We made a varieties of dishes that used eggs in various ways including fritadas, biscuits, quiche, ice cream, soufflé, and fruit custard tarts. My partner Kalle and I made the ice cream and helped with the chocolate souffle. The only time I had ever made ice cream before was the science class way of making it in a coffee canister. This was a much more professional way of making ice cream and it tasted better to. We also didn't just make your standard vanilla ice cream. We made bacon ice cream! At first, I admit I was totally disgusted by the idea of putting bacon in ice cream. I am not the biggest bacon fan, so I didn't think it would go well with the ice cream. However after tasting the final product, it was much better than I expected. I don't think I would ever choose to order or make bacon ice cream over some other flavors, but it was definitely tasty.

The ice cream used the following ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1.5 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1.25 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean (we used regular vanilla extract instead)

To add the bacon flavoring, we added:
5 strips cooked bacon
3/4 brown sugar sprinkled on the bacon while cooking
2 teaspoons dark rum

The first thing we did was to make the cornstarch thickening mixture by mixing 2 tablespoons of the milk and the cornstarch in a small cup. We then combined the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.

In a saucepan, we heated the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla until boiling. Boil for about 4 minutes, making sure the mixture doesn't boil over. Remove from the heat and add the cornstarch mixture. Bring back to a boil and let boil for another minute, stirring while doing so.

Remove from heat and gradually whisk the milk mixture into the bowl with the cream cheese. It's important to whisk this very well in order for the cream cheese to completely melt and combine into the milk mixture. Pour this mixture into a large zip-lock bag and put into an ice bath for about thirty minutes. Ours cooled quicker than this, so we only needed to wait about twenty minutes.

While it was in the ice bath, we cooked the bacon in the oven with the brown sugar on top. I have not cooked bacon in the oven, but found it was a very easy technique. We put a wire cooling rack on top of a cooking sheet, so the bacon grease would drip off as it was cooking. It took about 15-18 minutes to cook completely.

Next, pour the ice cream into the frozen canister and spin the ice cream maker for about twenty minutes. Add small pieces of bacon to the mixture while it is spinning. Every ice cream maker is different, so the timing depends on your model. You will be able to tell when the ice cream is thick and creamy and ready to eat. The ice cream will still be very soft at this point, so it is best when frozen for a while. We froze ours for about an hour, but at least four hours would be best.

After we put the ice cream in the freezer, we helped make the chocolate soufflé. I always imagined this dish to be extremely complicated, but it was actually very easy. And our souffle didn't collapse! It remained perfectly puffed until we served it. We probably could have cooked it for a couple minutes longer to make it a little less gooey in the  middle. However, it was extremely tasty and would be a dish to impress with! It was also good experience learning about to beat egg whites to make them fluffy and separating egg yolks from the whites. I have pictures of the souffle with the fruit tarts in the background!

Overall, this was a wonderful cooking experience. I am convinced now that making your own pie crust is the way to go. It wasn't very complicated and tasted a lot better than the store bought version. I also want to make the biscuit recipe again, because I think those were the best homemade biscuits I've ever had. They took less than 30 minutes to make too! I am excited to have made these recipes and to try them again soon.

Also, be on the lookout next Wednesday in the Herald Journal! Reporters came while we were cooking to write a story about us. The photographer took lots of pictures of Kalle and me making the ice cream. I hope they include one!

Around the World

Today's chocolate taste test included 75% dark chocolates made by the same company. Each chocolate was made from a cocoa bean from a different area:
- Caracas - Trinitario bean, very bitter, dark, astringent, earthy
- Venezuela - sour, nutty, persistent flavor
- Madagascar - criollo, astringent, gets sour as the taste develops, tart, fruity aroma
- Indonesia- ciollo, my favorite of the four, lightest in color and taste, creamiest, smooth, nutty, a little fruity

This test proves that the location where and the conditions under the beans are grown can have a large impact on the taste. The mystery chocolate test today was very raw, smokey, bitter, sour, and too intense for me. It turns out that this was 100% chocolate with cocoa nibs mixed in. It was not very palatable.

We next sampled different olive oils. I had no idea that olive oils had such a variety of tastes. We tried to match the four types of olive oils to their descriptions. I felt fairly confident in my decisions, but I got them all wrong. Either the woman who did this study was mistaken or my palate is just different. Here are the results though:
Bertoli - I said olive and peppery, but it was fruity and fragrant
L'Estornell - I said delicate and mild, but it was olive and peppery
Masserie di Sant'eramo - I said leafy, green, and grassy but it was delicate and mild
Bodia a Coltibuono - I said fruity and fragrant and it was leafy, green, and grassy.

The next taste test I was not looking forward to, because I strongly dislike olives. It's ironic because everyone in my family loves olives. In fact, I have an uncle that can't get enough of them. I clearly did not inherit this gene. Here was the lineup:
- Kalamata - spicy, sour, strong, sharp
- Ripe Black - bitter, acidic, sea food taste, juicy
- Nicoise - harder, bready, peanuty
- Queen - SOUR, salty, acidic, crunchy, tough, biggest in size, unbearable, awful, unpleasant, unpalatable etc.
- Manzanilla - sour, saltiest, vinegar, ripe

The olive test was soon redeemed by the cheddar cheese taste tests. These cheeses were nothing like the olives. They were delicious and I have confirmed my love of cheddar cheese. We watched a video to go along with this taste test on the town of Cheddar, England where the cheese was first made. The town seemed a little unreal, tucked away in the countryside where they make cheese the old fashioned way. I learned that cheddar cheese is not orange like many grocery store versions are. True cheddar cheeses are white. The orange coloring comes from dye. Here's what we tried:
Kerrygold- 3 year aged, crumbly, creamy, tangy, salty, strongest flavor
Cabot - 2 year aged, soft, mild, buttery, nutty
Boar's Head - 3 months aged, salty, tangy, strong flavor
Vermont Farmstead - 6 months aged, tangy, nutty, mild, sweet, and my favorite!

The quaint town of cheddar

The Miracle Fruit

After a day in the kitchen, we were back in class on Friday. Today's chocolate taste tests were of a high quality brand of Santander Dark Colombian chocolate made from single origin cocoa beans. We tried 53%, 65%, and 70% varieties. I expected the flavor of the three to be fairly similar, with it getting more intense as the percentages rose. However, each flavor was unique. The 53% was my favorite. It was smooth, melty, not too dark, and not astringent. It also had a hint of a vanilla flavor towards the end. This was one of my favorites we have tried so far. The 65% was bittersweet, had a slight astringency, and had an aftertaste that was acidic. It was my least favorite of the three. The 70% had a strong aroma and tasted a little fruity and nutty. It had a strong peanut aftertaste.

The cheese samples for today included Parmesan, Pecorino, and Myzinthra. The Parmesan was crispy, salty, crumbly, dense, and nutty. Fresh Parmesan is definitely has a stronger flavor than the parmesan out of the green sprinkle can. The Pecorino was sharp, salty, spicy, and tangy. The sheep's milk gave the cheese a potent flavor that was a little musty. The Myzinthra looked like chalk and didn't taste much better. It was chewy, dry, astringent, bland, and earthy. It is a Greek cheese that looks like a piece of dry wall. Needless to say, I won't be buying it any time soon.

We also did a vinegar taste test. I was intimidated by this test at first since I normally associate vinegar with strong, acidic smells. I couldn't imagine enjoying tasting it. Luckily the first red wine vinegar was fairly sweet and mild. It was acidic and had a lingering aftertaste. The balsamic vinegar had a potent flavor and was acidic and sour. It had a strong smell. The apple cider vinegar was the most sour and had the strongest vinegar flavor of the three. It was burning to taste and had a strongest smell. I learned that vinegars are often used in marinades since it tenderizes the meat.

The last taste test was the most unusual taste test we have done so far. We took these magic fruit tablets and let them dissolve on our tongues. The pill binds to your sour receptors on your tongue for a short period of time, limiting your ability to taste sour. After the pill dissolved, I tried lemon and lime to see if there was a difference. The lemon smelled acidic and felt acidic on my lips. However, it tasted perfectly sweet, like lemonade. The lime tasted sweet as well, like lime candy. The vinegar became more palatable and the chocolate was extremely sweet. The effects do not last too long though. By lunch time, my taste buds seemed to be back to normal. It was a very interesting experiment and shows how the absence of some flavors can change the taste of some foods entirely.

Cooking with Cheese

On Thursday, our much anticipated cooking day came! We cooked an entire meal using cheese as a component of each dish. The menu included a goat cheese mixed green salad, cheese buns, eggplant parmesan, cheese lasagna, and tiramisu for dessert. Kalle and I were in charge of the tiramisu. While studying abroad in Italy, my Italian host student made tiramisu for us using her family's recipe. I first learned what was in tiramisu and somewhat how to make it. Italians, however, rarely write down family recipes, so I could not recreate it in America. I was especially excited to get a recipe for it and practice it on my own.

The tiramisu basically has two parts: ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese. The ladyfingers are dipped in a coffee, espresso, and rum mixture and arranged in layers in the dish. The mascarpone mixture included egg yolks, sugar, salt, and heavy cream in addition to the cheese. We used the electric stand mixture to beat everything until it was light and fluffy. Each layer is dusted with cocoa powder before it goes into the fridge to cool. Due to the limited time frame, we actually put ours in the freezer for about 20 minutes before moving it in the fridge to speed the process along.

While it was refrigerating, I got to help some other groups with their cooking. I made the croutons for the salad and helped put together the lasagna. Since we were making such large amounts of food, some dishes require more than two people to help put it together. The meal, overall, turned out great. I especially enjoyed the homemade cheese buns, the tiramisu, and the eggplant parmesan. The lasagna was extremely rich. I was full after only a few bites. I really liked the tomato sauce that was on top of the eggplant parmesan and the pairing of the fresh mozzarella with it. It was definitely a successful meal and everyone left feeling very, very full!

A Whole New Take on Salt

Today in class, we did our daily chocolate and cheese tasting as well as a special salt taste test. We tried South American Varietal Chocolates today. The Pralus Chuao is made from the rare Criollo bean from Venezuela. It is very rich, is somewhat sour, and does not melt very well in your mouth. It is also a little earthy and tangy towards the end of the complex taste. The Pralus Bresil is a Brazilian chocolate made from the Forastero bean. It was creamy and the sweetest of the four chocolates. It had a coffee flavor to it as well. The Pralus Colombie was made in Colombia from the Trinitario bean. It was very dark, astringent, and rich and had a bold cocoa taste. The Pralus Fortissima was my favorite of the four. It melted the best and had a nutty, well-balanced, and milky flavor. It is made from a blend of Trinitario and Ciollo beans from Ecuador. It also had a vanilla aroma towards the end. The unusual chocolate we tried today was not my favorite. It packed a very strong peppery punch and had a smokey flavor. Turns out that it is made with pink peppercorns. I do not think spicy chocolate is for me.

The cheese tasting we did today was great. I loved all three of them: Asiago Fresco, Borough Market Cheddar, and Raciette Raw Milk. The Asiago was my favorite and was milky, creamy, flavorful, balanced, and sweet. The Cheddar was very sharp, salty, and tangy. The Raciette was the softest, melted easily, and had a mild flavor. It was buttery and makes a good fondue cheese.

The salt taste test was very interesting. I have cooked with Kosher salt before, and I think it expands the flavor of a dish, so I was excited to try different kinds. I was surprised to learn that we were using cucumbers in our taste test. The first three salts were placed on top of the cucumbers to make the salt easier to eat and taste. The Maldon salt was sour and tasted like the ocean. The Kavai Guava Smoked salt was my favorite. It was mild, sweeter, savory, and smokey. The Black Diamond salt had large, black grains and had a smokey flavor. I imagine that it would be good on grilled meats. The next three salts we tried on bread with unsalted butter spread on top. I think the bread and butter alone made these salts tastier. The Fleur de Sel was my favorite of the three on the bread. It was tangy, sweet, and flavorful. The Molokai Red was very potent, salty, and spicy. The Sel Gris was my least favorite on the bread since it was so crunchy and grainy. It tasted like the salt you put on pretzels.

All and all it was a good taste testing day. Tomorrow is our highly anticipated cooking with cheeses day. My partner Kalle and I are in charge of the Tiramisu. I helped make Tiramisu with my Italian host student while I was studying abroad in Italy. It is one of my favorite desserts, so I can't wait to try out a new recipe!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:

The chocolate we tried today was very high quality and rich. The Ambanja varietal was made from the rare criollo bean. It was very creamy, lighter in color compared with the others, fruity, and tart. It had kind of a bitter aftertaste. The Chicuri was made from the trinitario cocoa beam. It had a less potent cocoa flavor and was sweeter. It had a spicy smell to it but was pretty bland in flavor. The Sur del Lago chocolate was my favorite. It is made from a blend of criollo and trinitario beans. It was smooth and had a flowery aroma. I liked how the blends bring together different flavors than a pure chocolate would. The Quevedo chocolate is made from forastero and is the most common bean of the four. It was a little nutty and had a hint of vanilla or pound cake finish.

The Bad:

Today's cheese taste test were not very good to me. We tried surface-ripened cheeses. The Fromage de Chevre had a moldy rhine and was the hardest of the three. It tasted tart and a little like an animal. The taste reminded me of a farm. The Le Chevrot was the softest and had a strong, pungent goat cheese taste. It was musty and had a lingering aftertaste. It was way to goaty for me to enjoy it. The Robiola had a sour smell and taste. It was extremely salty and very potent in flavor. Overall, I think it's safe to say this variety of cheeses is not for me. I am going to avoid goat cheeses in the future.

The Ugly:

We also did a coffee tasting today. I put the coffee in the "ugly" category because of it's appearance. The way we prepared it, all of the coffee grounds were left in the coffee instead of them being filtered out. Therefore, it did not look very good with coffee grounds floating around in it. However, we slurped only a small part of the different Starbuck's brands of coffee, so you did not actually eat the coffee. The Sumatra coffee had the strongest smell and was extra bold. It was smokey and earthy in taste. The Guatemalan Antigua blend had a spicy smell and tasted nutty, peppery, and exotic. The Kenya blend had a potent flavor, had lots of grounds in it, was the most bitter, and was very complex. It was a bit sour too. It was hard for me to tell which one was my favorite. I think if I drank them with milk and sugar I might have better opinions on my favorites. It was interesting learning the professional cupping technique of tasting coffee.

The Tasting Continues

Today's chocolate line-up included dark chocolates and a mystery chocolate! We tried 62%, 70%, and 82% dark chocolate to see what our preferences were. I thought the 62% was the sweetest and 82% was the most bitter and had the strongest cocoa aftertaste. I preferred the 70% - it was dark but wasn't too bitter. The mystery chocolate was a different story. It tasted spicy and bitter. I did not enjoy the flavor at all and could barely eat it. I then learned that it was banana-cayenne flavored chocolate. I would never have guessed that anyone would put those two flavors together. Some people in the class like it better than I did, but I don't foresee myself buying it ever in the future.

Next up was different types of sweeteners. The dextrose had the most powdery look of the three and was the least sweet. The fructose was extremely sweet. Sucrose, or table sugar, was the middle level of sweet of the three. We then compared different types of honey as sweeteners. The buckwheat honey had a burnt flavor, was the darkest, and had a maple like flavor. It was my least favorite of the four types. The wildflower honey was the sweetest of the four and tasted the most like the honey I had tried before. It was plain and simple honey. The orange blossom honey was a little fruity, sour, and lightest in color. It had kind of a cinnamon flavor to it too. The tupelo honey was my favorite and was good on the bread. It had a hickory flavor and wasn't too sweet.

We also talked about sensation and perception when it comes to eating. People take in experiences bottom-up or top-down. Bottom-up means taking in stimuli and forming your own conclusions about things. Top-down means going into things with bias and experiences that will affect your perceptions. Using the top-down theory explains why we associate memories and things with smell and taste. Expectations can affect what we taste and think about certain foods.

A Chocolate Lunch

When we were first told that everything we would eat for lunch today contained chocolate, I was a little skeptical. After looking over the recipes though, I realized that I wouldn't actually taste all of the chocolate in each recipe. Once I had eaten the lunch, I realized that the only thing that tasted like chocolate was the chocolate Coke cake. Lunch consisted of a pear and walnut salad, eggplant, baked beans, mole chicken, flank steak, and Coke cake. It was awesome! I didn't participate in cooking today, but I definitely participated in eating. The spinach salad was one of my favorite dishes mostly because I love pears. The pears were marinated and heated in such as way that they were soft and flavorful. I would have never guessed the salad dressing used cocoa nibs.

I tried the eggplant next. I don't normally eat much eggplant, so I did not know what to expect. This was not my favorite dish on my plate, but it was still very good. The eggplant was soft, but not too soft and I liked all of the seasoning used on it. The baked beans were exceptionally good. I usually do not like baked beans at all, especially at traditional barbecues. However, the sauce the beans were cooked in made all the difference. I only took a little bit at first, but I soon when back for more once I realized how good they were.

Next came the meats. I thought the chicken mole was good and it was different than anything I've tasted before. I liked the outside of the chicken the best since that's where all the flavorful mole sauce was. The middle was not as flavorful, but was cooked well. The flank steak was surprisingly one of my favorite dishes. I normally always would choose chicken over stead, but the marinate and smokey flavor of the grilled steak was too good to pass up. I think cooking it on a grill outside instead of in the oven helped bring out more of the marinade flavor. I would have never guessed the marinate had cocoa in it as a flavoring. The savory use of chocolate was definitely a success.

Our team B has a lot to live up to when it comes our time to cook lunch next week. Mike Young, the men's basketball coach, is going to come join us for lunch, so our team is really wanting to impress him. We are going to be cooking with cheeses for our lunch. There are so many recipes that use cheese as an ingredient, so I do not really know what we will be cooking yet. I'm excited to find out though and start planning!

Salad, eggplant, baked beans, chicken mole, and flank steak

Coke cake

Motor Oil on Pancakes?

Today's class was a very educational experience on cooking and food photography skills. The Wofford photographer Mark came in to discuss taking pictures of food. He has done food photography professional and was very knowledgeable about the subject. He talked about using appropriate angles when taking pictures. For example, a pie may look best from a straight down angle while a layered piece of cake would be best captured looking up at it. As well, the lighting is extremely important and can affect the coloring of the food. He showed us how using shadows can make food look more dimensional and deeper in color. It is important to turn off your automatic flash on your camera so that you can stay in control of the lighting. He is also good about playing with the background of the picture. The background can help highlight the food or atmosphere.

It was surprising to learn all of the tricks to professional food photography. The point of the picture is to make the food look good. It doesn't matter if the food doesn't taste good. As a result, photographers will use substitutes to get better pictures. Shortening is used instead of ice cream since it won't melt as quickly under the hot camera lighting. As well, motor oil is used as syrup on pancakes to get a better color and consistency. Perfectly browned turkeys will often be completely frozen on the inside and only torched on the outside. I will not look at a picture of food the same again or feel bad when my food doesn't look as good as the picture did. It's actually a good thing that my food didn't turn out as good as the picture since the picture is not real food.

We also watched a video on knife skills. I have never worked with truly professional knives, so it was interesting to learn about all the different kinds and the proper way to cut. The main thing is to always cut at an angle and to cut in a fluid motion. This will help prevent you from having to press down too hard. I can hopefully put these new skills into action during the upcoming cooking days!

Our class also included the daily chocolate and cheese tastings. The chocolate tasting was all white chocolate today. I do not hate white chocolate, but I definitely prefer milk or dark chocolate. This was not my favorite tasting as a result. The Green and Black Organic White Chocolate had somewhat of a vanilla flavor, was very melty, and was also the sweetest. El Rey tasted the most like milk chocolate due to not all of the cocoa bring removed. It tasted a bit sour though and I didn't really enjoy it. The Michel Cluizel and the Amedei were both very similar in taste. The Michel Cluizel tasted better as it melted and did not have too strong of a flavor. Both were buttery and creamy. The Amedei was a bit nutty too.

The cheese tasting was my favorite so far. I enjoyed all four of them very much! The harvati cheese was not a pressed cheese, so it was airy. It was very flavorful though and kind of salty. The gouda was the creamiest, melty, and sweet. The manchego was the hardest of the cheeses and was my favorite. It is a Spanish cheese and has a smokey, nutty flavor. The fontina was probably my least favorite since it tasted a bit like normal provolone sandwich cheese. It was just too mild and unexciting to get my attention or make me want to serve it at a dinner party.

Tomorrow, I get to go eat a fabulous lunch cooked by the other half of the class. I'm excited to try all the recipes that incorporate chocolate in some way!

An example of some food photography:

COOKIES!

Today was my favorite day of this interim class so far, because we got to bake. Every cooking pair had a different cookie recipe, and then we got to try each of them to compare recipes. Kalle and I baked the 1-2-3 butter cookies. The 1-2-3 refers to the ratio of sugar, butter, and flour. We added a little bit of salt and vanilla to add to the flavor of the cookies, but other than that, these were the only ingredients. They are definitely called butter cookies for a reason though. For the four dozen we made, we used six sticks of butter. Paula Dean would have been proud!

Baking was extra interesting today since we used a large commercial kitchen at a local church. I'm not used to working in such large spaces or while others are baking as well. It was great to get to use the standing Kitchen Aid mixers and have access to all the equipment. It is a bit of a challenge working around other people and waiting for some of the cooking materials to be cleaned before you can use them. I enjoyed the experience a lot overall though!

Later that day, we picked up a collection of one of all of the cookies made. This was by far the best homework assignment I've ever had! After trying a bit or two of each one, my favorites became clear (as those were the ones I continued to eat!). I liked the oatmeal and brown sugar cookies the best. I knew oatmeal was one of my favorites, so this wasn't too surprising for me. This recipe was very chewy, sweet, and grainy. It tasted like they used honey as a sweetener. I have never had brown sugar cookies before, but I will definitely be making them again. They are extremely soft and chewy and have a strong molasses flavor. I do like brown sugar a lot (especially on oatmeal), so it makes sense that I would be drawn to this cookie.

The snickerdoodles, butter, chewy chocolate chip and triple chocolates would be next on my list. The snickerdoodles were very crispy and had a strong aroma with the cinnamon. The word "triple" does not adequately describe just how chocolately the triple chocolate cookies were. They had a cake-like texture and a very rich, cocoa aftertaste. They smelled like a box of cocoa powder. I don't think I could eat more than one of these cookies, but I still enjoyed the small amount. The butter cookies I was of course partial to since I made them. They tasted like shortbread cookies, but were softer when they were fresh out of the oven. I always love a good chewy chocolate chip cookie, so this melty one was very good to me!

Next on my list would be the peanut butter, sugar, and jelly. I don't really like peanut butter cookies to begin with, and it was too crunchy for my preferences. I prefer smoother peanut butter cookies. The sugar cookies were very crumbly and crispy and had a light flavor. I liked it much better when I added a little icing on top that I had in my apartment. The jelly cookie had a light flavor and was very soft. This was the last cookie I tried. I think that my full stomach may have prevented me from truly enjoying this cookie. I plan to taste each of these later to see if my preferences change at all.

I'm looking forward to future cooking experiences!

The Thin, The Fluffy, and The Chewy

Today's class started off with the standard chocolate tasting. I tried four different kinds of milk chocolates. The first Green & Black's Organic Chocolate was my favorite of the four. It was fairly thickly cut, mildly sweet, and very milky. The Michel Cluziel chocolate was the darkest of the four. It was a flavorful chocolate and melted quickly in my mouth. It did taste a little bitter though. The El Rey chocolate was my least favorite. It was the least melty and had an odd flavor compared to the others. The Amedei chocolate was thinly cut and was the creamiest. It was a little nutty too. This chocolate shows that we associate memories with food. When I first ate it, I immediately thought of the Advent chocolate calendars my family buys every Christmas season ever since I was very young. The chocolate had a very similar nutty flavor as the chocolate in these calendars that count down the days to Christmas.

We next jumped to a triangle beverage test. We received three cups with either Coke or Pepsi in them. I had to identify which one was different than the other two. I guessed correctly that the first cup was different (it was Coke) and that the other two were Pepsi. Pepsi is a lot sweeter than Coke upon initial taste, so they stuck out more. As well, Coke smells different than Pepsi. The Coke was easier to drink a lot of and had a sharper Cola taste. The carbonation levels seemed pretty similar to me; although some people claim the Coke is more carbonated.

The cheese tasting for today continued to be for soft cheeses. We tried feta, farmers, and goat. The feta cheese was tangy, airy, crumby, and salty and had lots of wholes in it. The farmers cheese was my favorite. It was creamy, had a mild flavor, was dense, and had a good consistency. I imagine it would be great on a sandwich or cracker. The goat cheese was extremely creamy and spreadable. It was kind of sour and had a strong aftertaste. It was my least favorite of the three. To further explore the flavor of the goat cheese, we tried it with honey and with lemon. The honey revealed the contrasting tangy and sweet flavors while the lemon brought out more of the tang.

The last part of the class we watched an episode of "Good Eats" from the Food Network. This episode was on chocolate chip cookies and how to achieve the kind of cookie you want. He went over how to adjust a cookie recipe to make them thin and crispy, fluffy, and chewy. Most of his adjustments were very straightforward and I can see myself easily trying them out some time. For example, thin cookies require using more baking soda and less baking powder. You can also try substituting more milk and fewer eggs to help the cookies spread more in the oven. Higher white to brown sugar ratio increases the crispiness as well.

To make the fluffy cookies (which I thought looked the best), he used more brown sugar and less white sugar. He also substituted shortening for butter since shortening melts at a higher temperature. This gives the cookies less time to spread out while baking. Using more baking powder instead of soda and using cake flour will cause the cookies to rise more. Chilling the dough will also cause the cookies to spread slowly.

The third melty cookies also looked very good. He melted the butter and used bread flour to increase the moisture absorption. The darker the sugar the chewier the cookies as well, because the molasses in the brown sugar will attract moisture in the air. Egg whites tend to dry out the batter, so he used just the yolks in some of the eggs. I found these tips very helpful and enjoyed the information the episode gave.

I'm very excited to be in the kitchen tomorrow and try out our new cooking gear!

Scharffn berger, neufchatel, mascarpone, oh my!

I furthered explored the tastes of various chocolates in class on Friday with a triangle taste test of Scharffen Berger milk and dark chocolate. I tried them three different ways: straight out of the wrapper, after breathed for two hours, and after heated in the microwave. This was a very high quality chocolate, and I enjoyed both the dark and milk chocolates. My favorite, for both kinds, was the heated version. The heated chocolate melted quickly in my mouth and was very creamy. The dark definitely had the most intense flavor after being heated and the milk chocolate had a high aroma too. The breathed milk chocolate was not as creamy nor as flavorful as the heated chocolate. The wrapped milk and dark was the most firm of the three types of chocolate. The wrapped milk melted in my mouth better than the breathed chocolate. The wrapped dark was the most bittersweet and had a lingering flavor in my mouth. We talked about how we naturally eat chocolate and how letting chocolate melt in your mouth can let you experience and enjoy the taste more than just chewing it quickly. After trying all the chocolates, my ranked order, overall, would be the same for both the dark and milk chocolate: heated, wrapped, and then breathed.

Before moving on to the cheese taste test, we discussed some food safety facts and tips. Food can face physical, chemical, and biological adulteration. The appearance and taste of food are not adequate tests for contamination. Pathogens need certain things to grow and an acronym can help us remember them. FAT TOM (food, acid, time, temperature, oxygen, and moisture). This is why food that is left out, instead of refrigerated, can go bad quickly. Some food experts say four hours is the limit for letting food set out. This time is cumulative though, so if you let food site out for an hour four different times, pathogens can develop in the food. 

Cleanliness is also extremely important while cooking. At a minimum, you should wash your hands before cooking, serving, and every time you change tasks. The kitchen sponge is often the dirtiest thing in your whole house. It provides pathogens all of the FAT TOM things it needs to grow. Dr. Sloan suggested cleaning contaminated counters with wipes, paper towels, or washable rags to avoid spreading pathogens. As well, the organization of your refrigerator can help keep your food safe. Always store meats at the bottom with chicken on the very bottom. That way if the meat drips, it will not ruin the rest of your food. Chicken is the dirtiest meat, so it should be below everything else.

After these lessons, I participated in my first cheese taste test. The test reminded me of my trip to Paris a year ago. The French eat such a variety of cheeses, and I loved trying all of the different kinds while staying there. I fell in love with Brie cheese and other spreadable cheeses on the French baguettes. Today we tried several kinds of soft cheeses. The fresh mozzarella reminded me of Italian food. It was the most firm cheese of all that we tried and was my favorite. My favorite kind of margarita pizza uses this mozzarella cheese and basil. I next tried the mascarpone cheese. It was very creamy and sweet. This cheese is used in cannoli. I enjoyed eating it on the bread to help counter some of the sweetness. The neufchatel cheese was thicker than the mascarpone. It had a much more potent flavor than any of the other cheeses and reminded me of American cream cheese. It was my least favorite on its own, but I imagine that it would be great on a bagel. I just couldn't handle its sour flavor on its own.

The next two cheeses were two variations on ricotta cheese: store-bought and homemade. The homemade ricotta had a mild flavor but was a bit too salty. I liked the texture of it better than the store-bought version. The store-bought was less flavorful and had a grainy texture. It was sweeter and softer than the homemade version. I think that with a little less salt, the homemade version would be very good. I still liked it better than the store-bought version though, especially when spread on a little bread.

These past two days have already helped me describe food better. I usually don't actively think about all the different flavors when eating. It is an interesting experience eating just to document the different tastes. I am excited to taste more cheeses in the future. I would also like to taste test different coffees to compare different roasts and preparations. I am getting very excited to start cooking next week as well! 

A Plate of Chocolate to Start

Today was the first day of the Interim class, "Developing Your Culinary Palate." I decided to take this class to learn more about the different flavors of food and how they can be purposefully used to cook better. As a senior, I am also hoping to learn some good cooking tips for cooking on my own next year. The first class began with a plate full of various types of chocolate and chocolate powders. It was a little overwhelming at first, considering it was 9:00 in the morning and I had just brushed my teeth. I was excited to learn some of the differences between chocolates though. I normally just group chocolate into two groups: good and very good!

Our first blind taste test was between three chocolates. They had been melted and reformed, so that they physically looked similar (no Hershey's imprint or anything to give the type away). The first chocolate was my favorite of the three. It was a darker variety, not too sweet, and fairly rich. The second type was more sweet and had a smooth texture. The last one was the least flavorful and had a bitter taste. My rankings ended up being 1, 2, 3. Ironically, when I took this same blind taste test last semester, my rankings were 1, 3, 2. I can blame the cold I currently have or the freshly brushed teeth for changing my results. The chocolate was in a different condition as well, so that could have affected my taste.

We then tackled more of the things on our plate while learning about the process of making chocolate. The next thing we tried was 100% chocolate. It was not sweet at all (it contains no sugar) and is very rich. I wasn't completely repulsed by it, but I would never choose to eat it. Many people in the class had a much stronger aversion to it than I did, so I might have a slightly higher tolerance for darker chocolate. The next 60% chocolate was much better. This is the kind of chocolate I would buy to eat from the store. I learned that it is 60% chocolate components (cocoa solids and cocoa butter) and 40% sugar, vanilla, salt, etc. This chocolate was not too sweet and had a strong, rich aftertaste. This was my favorite chocolate we sampled all day.

Next came the components of chocolate. The cocoa beans, at first, looked like chocolate covered espresso beans and kind of appetizing. However, they are very crunchy and bitter and not pleasant to taste. The cocoa nibs were a little easier to handle, but still not anything I would choose to eat. I would imagine that chocolate covered nibs would be good, since it would add some much needed sweetness. The nibs were crispy and got stuck in my teeth. I learned that these are used for baking a lot. The powders were not much better and would hard to sample since it stuck to my tongue. It even made me cough at first. The regular powder was bitter and should only be used for baking. Eating it with sugar made it a little more tolerable. The dutch processed cocoa was not as bitter and was more flavorful. With sugar, it was more reminiscent of regular chocolate you would eat.

At this point, only the white chocolate remained. I learned that food critics debate whether white chocolate is even chocolate at all. It contains no cocoa, only cocoa butter. Cocoa butter gives chocolate that smooth, fatty mouth feeling. As a result, white chocolate contains a lot of fat and has a shorter shelf life. The class discovered that mixing the white chocolate with the 100% chocolate was a tasty combination!

Finally, I sampled the coriander seeds in three different ways. First, I tasted them straight up. The flavor was very powerful and hard to handle. I thought that I was solely tasting the seed and didn't think it had any aroma. Next, we tasted it with our noses plugged. The once powerful, overbearing taste disappeared. I was simply chewing on something crunchy. It turns out that the taste almost completely comes from the aroma. Last, I ate it straight up and tried to describe it using the 4, 5, or 6 ways to describe foods (salty, bitter, sour, sweet, savory, and fatty). I felt like sour and bitter described the seeds.

The final taste test moved away from chocolate and consisted of red jello. I honestly had a hard time picking out the flavor of Jello because of the red appearance. I went with strawberry, but I didn't feel confident in my answer. Once someone suggested something acidic, I immediately recognized a lemon-lime taste. It turns out the Jello was lemon flavored. This just goest to show the strong visual cues we get from food!

Until next time!