Guacamole

(Found inTexts)
For this typically Mexican recipe there are two main methods: smooth mashed avocado (made with a blender), or simple mashed avocado (made with a fork) with small pieces. And you can add, or not, finely diced tomato. You will find the first version (smooth) below.
November 26^th 2011293 K4.1 1 hour 25 min.

Mayonnaise

(Found inTexts)
Mayonnaise is a cold egg dressing, quite thick, served with many dishes, usually cold too: meat, fish, vegetables, etc.
February 16^th 2014806 K5 6 min.

Cooking sugar

(Found inTexts)
Cooking sugar, which is one of the basics of patisserie and sweet-making, is a delicate operation in which sugar is heated from 100°C or 212°F to 180°C or 356°F. Here is some information on this tricky subject. [Translator's note: the terms used below correspond to the French tradition, as often...
April 3^rd 2019485 K4.9 45 min.

One should always cover a pan while heating

(Found inTexts)
Tradition says: "One should always cover a pan while heating". In other words, if you heat water (or something else), it comes to the boil faster with a lid on the pan than without. True or false? Let's try the experiment...
July 25^th 2017109 K 15 1 hour 20 min.

Boiling potatoes in their skins

(Found inTexts)
Boiling potatoes has given rise to two sayings: 1) You should not peel potatoes before boiling. 2) You should not leave potatoes to cool in the cooking water. The first suggests that potatoes should be always cooked in their skins, to prevent water penetrating and making the potatoes go soft and...
July 25^th 2017610 K 34.4 30 min.

When to add salt to cooking water?

(Found inTexts)
Is it better to salt cooking water, for vegetables for example, at the beginning when it is cold or when it boils? I always heard that one should salt "after", when water is boiling, because if it is salted "before" it will take longer to boil. True or false? Let's try the experiment...
July 25^th 2017143 K4 15 min.

The avocado stone stops the flesh turning brown

(Found inTexts)
Tradition says: "if you leave the avocado stone in a purée or guacamole you have just made, it will not turn brown". True or false? Let's try the experiment...
July 25^th 201770 K 14.1

Veal Marengo

(Found inTexts)
Marengo made with chunks of veal, simmered long and slow in a tomato sauce with mushrooms and onions. This is a recipe with historical roots, named after one of Napoleon's battles, near Marengo in Italy in June 1800.
May 10^th 202349 K 2 hours 55 min.

Melting Epoisses on toast

(Found inStages)
Lightly buttered bread, a slurp of dry white wine, cured ham, sliced potato and a piece of Epoisse. A few minutes in the oven is enough to melt the cheese over the potatoes and crisp up the bread.
May 10^th 2014205 K 24.1 1 hour 30 min.

My best addresses...

Quite a few of you often ask me where I can find this or that? or is such and such a thing a good buy? or which brand is best for this or that? On this page, I'm going to group together my good addresses for suppliers of this or that product or utensil, and good books on the subjects that interest...
August 29^th 2023300 K3.9

bayleaf

Bay is a kind of laurel, grown as a shrub or small tree, of which the leaves are used, fresh or dry (other laurels are toxic). Bayleaves are used frequently in mediterraneen cooking.
August 29^th 202389 K4.2

The power of sayings and beliefs in the kitchen

One day, in the comments on the recipe for beaten egg whites, a young woman asked if you could beat egg whites stiff while having a period, as a friend had told her it wasn't possible. Sometime later another person commented that for mayonnaise it had been (get this!) scientifically proven that a...
February 6^th 201148 K4.4

One should cover a pan while heating?

You've probably heard it before: "Cover your pan, it'll boil faster", but is it true? Let's find out.
February 27^th 201527 K 13.4

The beautiful story of the croissants

As you may have already noticed, cooking, baking and pastry-making are full of stories or legends, usually very romantic, about this or that product or recipe. This is often the case for named recipes, for example tarte tatin, peach melba, paris-brest and many others, but it also applies to very...
October 10^th 201814 K5

The first breads of humanity?

I have already told you in a previous article the beautiful story of the croissants, but do you know what it is about the bread, who "invented" it, where and when? Well, you can imagine that recent discoveries, in 2018, have profoundly changed the history of bread.
February 16^th 20199,8025

Salt and yeast

Let's take a look at an old baker's legend: You may have already read that somewhere in a recipe that uses baker's yeast(bread, pastries, leavened doughs in general) it is often specified "Don't put salt in contact with the yeast, you'll kill it (the yeast)"! Well, that's a belief, and there are...
March 15^th 201969 K4.3

How easy is it to chop herbs?

Whenever you have fresh herbs - parsley, chervil, coriander, mint, etc. - to incorporate into a recipe, we tell you to chop them up. In this case, "chopping" means separating the leaves from the stems, keeping only the leaves, and chopping them more or less finely. It's not very complicated,...
September 12^th 20238,7485