Archive for: what-is
Carob is a power made from the carob pod and is commonly used as a substitute for chocolate. Carob pods are dried and the pulp of the plant is roasted and ground into powder, which can be used in baking or to make carob chips, which are an alternative to chocolate chips. Carob is not as bitter as cocoa, although it has some background flavors in common with it, but it does have a distinctly vegetal note to it that takes a bit of getting used to.
Carob doesn’t contain any caffeine or theobromine, two mild stimulants found in chocolate, which means that it is popular with people looking for chocolate substitutes. It went through a period of being hugely in vogue in the 1970s, but is a bit less commonly seen these days. It also lacks the antioxidants found in chocolate, so people are much more likely to dark about dark chocolate as a health food than carob these days.
Still, carob is readily available in natural food stores as both non-chocolate carob chips and as carob powder. Both can be used in recipes in much the same way as real chocolate chips and cocoa powder can be, for a not-quite-chocolatey treat that uses no chocolate. It is worth noting, however, that carob chips will start to burn at a lower temperature than chocolate chips will, so keep that in mind if using them for a batch of cookies,
Semisweet chocolate chips are a standard ingredient in most bakers’ kitchens. They are the standard for baking chocolate chip cookies, one of the most popular homemade treats out there, as well as for many other baking applications. Semisweet chocolate is typically labeled as just that: semisweet chocolate. But as chocolate labeling gets more and more specific and consumers start to identify with cacao percentages rather than just names, that brings up the question of what exactly semisweet chocolate is.
Semisweet chocolate is dark chocolate, meaning that it is made with cocoa solids (cocoa butter and cocoa solids) and sugar, and typically includes vanilla and an emulsifier. There is no exact amount of sugar required to be called “semisweet,” but the name generally indicates that no more than 50% of the mass of the chocolate is sugar. This is opposed to “sweet” chocolates, where more than 50% of the mass of the product is sugar. “Sweet” chocolate is a pretty old fashioned term these days and only appears with a handful of products, such as German’s Sweet Chocolate.
The range of sweetness in semisweet chocolates is huge. Some brands are much sweeter than others, while some are much smoother. The same could be said of most dark chocolates. The thing that makes semisweet chocolate special is that it has a good balance of chocolate and sweetness that makes it exceptionally versatile and able to work well in just about all recipes, while milk chocolate can be too sweet and a very dark chocolate can overwhelm the more subtle flavors in a recipe.
Lemons, limes and oranges might be the first fruits to come to mind when we think of citrus, but there are many varieties of citrus out there and they all have unique flavor profiles. Yuzu is a citrus fruit that resembles a smallish yellow grapefruit, with a somewhat bumpy rind. They have a unique flavor that is both tart and acidic, like a lemon, but also very floral, like lemon or orange blossoms. The fruit bear quite a bit of juice, but tend to have a lot of seeds, as well.
Yuzu are extremely hardy citrus and can thrive even in very cold temperatures. This typically means that a yuzu tree will bear fruit earlier in the winter than other citrus fruits, but the yuzu do fine in milder climates (as long as you’re in a citrus-friendly area) as well and can have a growing season that lasts through spring. Yuzu are not commonly seen in most markets, and Asian markets are usually the best place to find them. They’ve been becoming more popular over the past couple of years and you can also often spot them at farmers’ markets amongst the other citrus.
Yuzu juice can be used in any recipe that calls for lemon juice, including pies, cakes and tarts. Citrus fans will love the complex flavor of the yuzu and like the way that it stands out from other lemon recipes.
Rhubarb is a thick, celery-like plant with red stalks that can grow to be more than two feet long. The red and green stalks are the edible portion of the rhubarb and the leaves, which contain oxalic acid, are not edible. The color of the plant can vary widely from an extremely dark red to a pale reddish-green. Hothouse grown rhubarb tends to be lighter in color than field-grown rhubarb, and has a slightly milder flavor to it, though all rhubarb is extremely tart and has a bright, lemony flavor to it. Rhubarb is seasonal and is typically available from April – June, although it can be grown in hothouses (also known as “forced” rhubarb) for a longer growing season.
Rhubarb is classified as a fruit in the US, although it is botanically a vegetable, and is often used in the same culinary applications as berries and other fruits are. Rhubarb is not usually eaten raw, and is almost always cooked, baked or stewed with other ingredients. Since it is so tart, it requires that a lot of sugar be used to balance its flavor and that makes it a popular base for pies, cobblers, jams and preserves, all of which can handle a lot of sugar. Because of its tart flavor, rhubarb is also often paired with other red fruits, such as strawberries, to lend some additional sweetness to it.
When choosing rhubarb, look for crisp, unblemished stalks and leaves that look fresh, not wilted. Although you do not eat them along with the stalk, the leaves are still and good indicator for freshness.
Crème fraîche is a thick, cultured cream that is very popular in France and is growing in popularity in the US. The cream has a slightly nutty, slightly tangy taste to it but is much milder and with a more distinct cream flavor than sour cream. It has a high fat content, a rich consistency that is somewhere between heavy cream and sour cream, somewhat like that of a creamy yogurt. Traditional crème fraîche is made by adding a bacterial culture to cream, allowing the cream to ferment and thicken slightly.
Crème fraîche is often referenced in recipes, both as a creamy addition to an almost-finished sauce and simply as a garnish for a bowl of soup. It is used to thicken sauces, enrich scrambled eggs and can be used in baking recipe to add tenderness, just like yogurt and sour cream can be. It is becoming more widely available, but is still not as easy to find as other dairy products are in the US. Fortunately, you can make your own version of crème fraîche by adding a small amount of buttermilk to slightly warmed heavy cream and allowing the mixture to sit and thicken for several hours, until the cream thickens. The homemade version doesn’t quite have the same tang and richness of the real thing, but it can be used in the same way and still makes a great addition to many dishes.
