Caramalisation

31 May 2011

This link is to a blog by Dorie Greenspan, who writes on baking. I have a couple of her books and use them regularly, so her take on matters is something I respect.

I did have to smile reading this blog becos the subject of caramalisation v's burnt is one that comes up often in cookschools. In the current series Rick is making a straight caramel, which he prepares in advance, puts to one side so it hardens, and then remelts at the last minute to drizzle over the top of the floating islands, so that it provides that needed balance of a crunch against all the smoothness of the meringue and the creme anglaise.

Professional chefs take their caramalisation to a stage further then most home cooks are brave enough too, becos they know that the further they take it, then the more flavour it will have, whereas those at home  fret about how close to burning it they are getting, and tend to stay shy of cooking it out as far as it can go. Or at least I do.

Every so often we get a negative comment from a customer about either our thin apple tart, which Rick likes to cook until its caramalised on the edges of the pastry. Some people intreprete that colour as burnt, whereas to our eyes it means caramalisation.

And likewise our caramel sauce that we use as I've mentioned previously, is made from a caramel base to which water and then cream is added. A Nico Ladenis recipe I believe.  The caramel is cooked out as far as it is safe to take it, meaning that it has bitter overtones and a complexity of flavour that simply doesn't appeal to some people who like the kind of caramel that you get from mixing condensed milk with more sugar and butter.

I've learnt not to swing into defensive mode, when someone critiques something like that. Their comments betray that they don't understand, and that is OK. Its not a question of us thinking we're right and they're ignoramuses becos they don't know what caramel is, but more that, everyone has a different perception - they sit somewhere different on the scale.

 And as the comments beneath the linked blog attest, there is no one simple answer. What is burnt to one person may not be to another. I know that it is a subject ( a bit liked corked wine) that generates alot of discussion between Rick and I, some of which is fairly robust!

And yet it probably shouldn't be - becos he unfailingly gets it right even when he takes it further than I may think is safe. And the reason I know that is becos of what my nose tells me. Burnt caramel has a distinctly acrid smell. Its impossible to miss, and thats when you throw it away and start again.

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