THE NIBBLE Gourmet News & Views
Trends, Products & Items Of Note In The World Of Specialty Foods
Read all of our content on TheNibble.com, the online magazine about specialty food.
Archive for Tidbits (Food Facts)
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March 7, 2008 at 3:27 pm
· Filed under Fish/Seafood/Caviar, Tidbits (Food Facts)
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Identity crisis? The fish is variously called daurade, dorade, porgy, sea bream, tai, zeebrasem…. |
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Daurade: When you see it on a menu, doesn’t it sound elegant and exciting? Would it sound as exciting if it were called porgy or sea bream? We think not. We bring it up because a reader wrote to ask if daurade referred to the fish or the preparation. It’s a fish. In France, daurade refers to Sparus aurata, the gilthead seabream, a member of the porgy family. Daurade, also spelled dorade, is ubiquitous in France, where there are four varieties: gray, pink and marble dorade, known by their coloring, and royal dorade. The “royal” is so named because it has a gold-yellowish bump between the eyes that, with imagination, can be considered a crown. While “royal” also has the firmest flesh, the flesh of all varieties is delicate and can fall apart if filleted. Thus, monsieur le daurade is often cooked and served whole. |
| The Japanese black porgy is a different species (Acanthopagrus schlegelii), as is the American porgy (Lagodon rhomboides). The flesh is firmer, so you’ll find daurade fillets in America (sometimes it’s flown ove from France, sometimes it’s porgy—because daurade sounds a lot better), and tai sushi and sashimi (tai being the Japanese word for porgy). No matter what part of the Sparidae fanily it comes from, you can tell from its teeth that the daurade/porgy is a carnivore (if you don’t like the eyes staring up at you from your plate, wait until you see those choppers). Those teeth help it feast on other fish, oysters and mussels (hey, save some for us). While the flesh can be delicate, the flavor of the fish is not shy. Cook it with lemon, wine, garlic, tomatoes, rosemary—any of your favorite hearty herbs and spices work. Learn more about fish, fisch, pesce, pescado, poission, etc. in the Fish, Seafood & Caviar Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. |
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February 14, 2008 at 4:19 pm
· Filed under Snacks, Tidbits (Food Facts)
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| What exactly are “kettle chips,” such as those made by Boulder Canyon, our Top Pick Of The Week (see the previous post)? Let’s start at the beginning. Potato chips, invented in 1853 in Saratoga, New York, were originally called Saratoga chips. Chips got soggy quickly in the days before vacuum packaging (or even airtight bags), and needed to be purchased fresh. By the 1920s, every town in the U.S. had its own chip maker, or “potato chipper.” The chip maker sliced up potatoes and fried them one batch at a time in a small kettle. The continuous fryer was invented in 1929, creating tremendous economies of scale and driving most of the small, kettle cookers out of business. By the 1940s, automation had evolved to change much of America’s artisan food production into mass production, including potato chips. Potato farmers bred the natural sugars out of potatoes to accommodate mass production, because the natural, variable sugar content required individualized attention to know when the batch was done. The result: Chips like Lay’s and Wise, which sell many millions of bags a year, but are only a shadow of the former gustatory glory of the potato chip. |
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The right chip is not just a good snacker: It creates sexy hors d’oeuvres. Photo courtesy of Kettle Brand chips. |
Today’s “kettle chips” are a return to the thicker, small-batch chips made with top ingredients (you can use some of the best brands to construct fancy hors d’oeuvres, as shown in the photo). While today’s “kettles” are fryers much larger than the original stovetop kettle, they are still small in comparison to mass-produced chips.
- Read more about potato chips in the Snacks Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
- Read the history of the potato chip (you’ll learn how the potato chip bag was invented—a technology breakthrough of the time)
- Fry your own kettle chips with this recipe. |
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February 10, 2008 at 11:50 pm
· Filed under Chocolate, Special Sweets, Candy, Tidbits (Food Facts)
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What’s the difference between “chocolates” and “confections?” Is a “chocolatier” or chocolate shop the same as a “confectionary?” A confectionery (also spelled confectionary) is a confectioner’s shop—more popularly called a candy store or sweet shop. A chocolatier (a French word, pronounced cho-co-la-tee-YAY) is both the chocolate shop and the person who makes the chocolate. While both of these words are commonly used in American chocolate circles, the French words for confectioner, confiseur, and candy shop, confiserie, are not.
- The term “confection” refers to all candies and sweets, including candy bars, candied nuts, chocolate, fudge, hard candies, licorice, lollipops, marshmallows, marzipan, nougat, mints, toffee and other products, from cotton candy and candy canes to gum drops and gummi bears.
- The term applies to snack items, so any baked goods and ice cream sold at a confectionery are included. |
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 Nougat (from Burdick Chocolate) is a confection. |
So…if chocolate is a confection, what’s the difference between a chocolate shop and a confectioner’s shop?
- A chocolatier is a chocolate specialist, and generally makes some or all of the chocolates sold on the premises.
- While a chocolatier often makes marshmallows, marzipan, toffee and other confections, most of what is sold is chocolate-based or chocolate-coated.
- In a confectionary, you’ll find a balance of sweets, of which only a portion are chocolates.
Read more about chocolate in the Chocolate Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine. If you want to find the confectionery, you’ll have to look in the Candy Section and under Cookies, Cakes & Pastries. |
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