On Food and Cooking

Happily, dehydration also intensifies and alters flavor by disrupting cellular structure and so promoting enzyme ...

sea cucumber by soaking in water, then simmer them until tender. They do the same with shark fins, which ...

into a paste, and with a variety of enrichments and flavorings: in the north, often butter and mustard; in ...

transformation: it preserves them long and gently enough for enzymes of both fish and harmless salt-toleran ...

sometimes lime (calcium carbonate), and later lye (pure sodium hydroxide, at the rate of about 5 ...

the standard treatment was to split and salt the fish, and lay them out on rocks or racks to dry for sev ...

several changes of water. Perhaps the best- known preparation is the Provençal brandade, a paste made by pounding ...

flavor, at once fishy, meaty, and cheesy. Such herring are eaten as is, without desalting or cooking. Tw ...

between 60 and 86ºF/15–30ºC. The fish can then be sold as is, or the fillets repacked in ...

fermentation (p. 235) and had a strong smell. By the 18th century, it had evolved into a lightl ...

myosin in the muscle fibers, and thus gives the flesh its compact tenderness. Lox, most familiar as a delica ...

thousand years ago in the freshwaters of southwest China and the Mekong River region. It then spread to the coa ...

fermented fish products, and Europeans a handful. These include the original sushi, which was not a pristin ...

30%, and sealed in a closed container for from one month (for pastes) to 24 months (for sauces). Fish pa ...

Some Asian Fermented Fish Products This chart gives an idea of the great variety of fermented fish ...

Thailand Plaa-som (cooked rice) Plaa-raa (roasted rice) Plaa-chao (fermented rice) Plaa-mum (papaya, galangal) ...

Japanese narezushi, the original form of modern sushi (p. 207). The best-known version is funa-zushi, made wi ...

lakes, and coastlines, who landed many fish but had little salt and few barrels. The solut ...

The smoking of fish may have begun with fishermen drying their catch over a fire when sun, wind, an ...

covering up — a scent trail. When rail transport reduced the time from production to market in the 19th ...