Cook\'s Country - 2019-04-05

ASK COOK’S COUNTRY

by Cecelia Jenkins

Aerating Butter

Why do cake or cookie recipes often call for butter and sugar to be

creamed to a light and fl uff y texture, not just combined?

–Gus Sheehan, Auburn, Miss.

Creaming butter and sugar is a mixing technique that does more than just com-

bine the two ingredients. It also aerates (or forces air into) them; this is known

as mechanical leavening. As the sugar granules are forced into the fat, they

leave millions of microscopic air bubbles in their wake that lighten the dense,

paste-like mixture’s color to a pale yellow and transform its texture. When

heated in the oven, the air bubbles expand to create volume that gives baked

goods height. Skipping this step would result in the butter melting, leading to a

more tightly packed, fl atter, denser baked good.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Creaming butter and sugar adds air to the mixture, which

results in taller baked goods. If you skip the creaming step, your cakes and

cookies will likely turn out squatter and more dense.

GENTLY MIXED

Dense and yellow

FULLY AERATED IN MIXER

Fluff y and pale

Colorful Eggs

At my local grocery store, I recently saw eggs that had blue shells. Do

these eggs taste diff erent from regular white or brown eggs?

–Ross Julian, Haverhill, Mass.

To see if blue-shelled eggs tasted diff erent, we made three batches of scrambled

eggs—one with only blue-shelled eggs, one with only brown-shelled eggs, and

one with only white-shelled eggs—and tasted them side by side.

Overall, tasters didn’t notice fl avor diff erences among the scrambled egg

samples. The only notable diff erences were visual: The blue-shelled eggs had

yolks that were smaller and more orange, so they produced yellower scrambled

eggs. The blue-shelled eggs we bought cost about three times as much as regu-

lar brown- or white-shelled eggs.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The color of an egg’s shell is not indicative of the egg’s fl a-

vor; the fl avor of eggs is mostly dependent on freshness and the chicken’s diet,

while shell color is typically determined by the bird’s breed.

Fond of Flavor

When it comes to using fond, I’m
confused. Won’t the dark bits make
my pan sauce taste burnt?

–Edward Merrell, Olympia, Wash.

The browned bits that stick to the bot-
tom of the pan when you sear meat are
called fond—and they are packed with
savory fl avor. We understand that the
degree to which the fond in the pan
has browned can be worrisome, and it
can be a problem if it gets too dark.
Fond is the direct result of the
Maillard reaction, during which
proteins and natural sugars in a food
are transformed by heat to create
new complex fl avor compounds. The
fl avorful browning on a pan-fried steak
is a common example of this reaction,
and so is the browning that occurs on a
loaf of bread.
The fond left behind in a cooking
vessel is a gold mine of fl avor. The clas-
sic way to harvest fond is to add liquid
(usually water, wine, or broth) to the
pan and stir. The moisture and stirring
motion release the stuck-on bits, which
then dissolve into the liquid; this pro-
cess is called deglazing. The darker the
fond, the more pronounced that cara-
melized fl avor will be. But your sauce
will taste bitter if the fond has black-
ened. Fond should be caramel-colored
to dark brown; if the fond is getting too
dark, add a little water to the pan and
reduce the heat slightly.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Fond equals fl avor
as long as it is dark brown, not black.
But a few black bits of fond here and
there generally won’t
ruin a pan sauce.

A TALE OF

TWO FONDS

Above: perfect

Below: taken a

smidge too far

Suca-what?

I saw a product called Sucanat

in the sugar aisle of the gro-

cery store. What is it?

–Terry Bevard, Storrs, Conn.

As its name, which is short for

sucre de canne naturel, suggests,

Sucanat is an unrefi ned, natural

cane sugar made from minimally

processed sugar cane juice. It has

a deep molasses-like fl avor and a

tannish-brown color. Since it is

less processed than granulated or

brown sugar, it retains additional

vitamins and minerals and its

granules are irregular in size

and shape.

With more fl avor and color

than granulated sugar, it can take

some getting used to when used

in baked goods, especially in ones

where neutral granulated sugar

is the star (e.g., sugar cookies).

Additionally, it is slow to dissolve,

giving some baked goods an

odd speckled appearance and a

gritty texture. We found that it

is necessary to grind Sucanat

into a fi ne powder using a spice

grinder prior to baking with it to

ensure that it incorporates into

doughs or batters and to elimi-

nate any grittiness.

Sucanat is a registered

trademark, so it is a fairly reli-

able, consistent product across

brands. You can fi nd it in many

well-stocked supermarkets and

natural foods stores or online.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Sucanat is a

minimally processed sugar made

from sugar cane juice; it has an

assertive molasses-like fl avor and

a dark brown color. It retains

some of the nutritional value that

is processed out of granulated

sugar. Because Sucanat granules

are irregularly shaped and slow

to dissolve, we recommend

grinding it before using it in bak-

ing recipes.

MINIMALLY PROCESSED

Sucanat has large granules and

deep molasses-like fl avor.