About George De Pasquale

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• Comment on Griffin's answer…

  1 0 Right, well, first off what a great article! Second, John, just adjust the water to where it needs to be, as someone else said here, it's not going to hurt anything. Bakeries use pre-mixes all the time- if it woks for you and keeps you in the kitchen and out of Mc Donald's i'd call that a win. George De Pasquale commented about 1 month ago

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  Making roux: Some tips, please?

  1 0 I can't answer to the GF alternative but if you understand what you're trying to do maybe it will point you in the right direction. The way that "gluten" plays into this is by virtue of the relationship of the amino acids in wheat flour to the flavor forming reactions when you cook it. If I were you I'd put away the gluten free "flour" mixes and experiment with gluten free flours milled from actual grains, like teff. But here's some stuff I'd be thinking about if I were in your shoes: The point of a roux is to thicken the sauce and add flavor. It does this by using fat and low heat to separate the starch granules in the flour, making them available to absorb the liquid you are about to add. When the starches absorb the liquid they swell- a lot. If you don't separate the starch granules you won't have enough available to absorb the liquid and the sauce will be lumpy and thin. I don't see why this wouldn't work with any flour milled from grain, but you'd have to dig into it a bit. OK? so many (initially) unbound starch granules is one goal. You don't have to fry flour for that, you can use any starch. Then there's flavor. You heat the flour in fat-voila- maillard reaction, responsible for that light fried/toasty flavor characteristic of southern cuisine. But here's the rub- there are hundreds of such reactions (all yielding different flavors and colors) depending on the material or combinations of materials you're heating and how you're doing it. So rice flour, although starchy, won't brown the same way as wheat flour and won't taste or look the same either. Straight starches such as tapioca (and actually even white rice flour) are going to be very low (or devoid of) sugars or amino acids and you won't get the maillard reaction, so no browning, no toasty flavor. Maybe try sweet rice flour? You're not doomed, you just might not need to fry flour to achieve the same effect. Thickening properties and flavor profile are your goals. Not necessarily making a roux- capisci?- thick sauce with a background fried/toasty flavor is what you want, not necessarily fat and flour in a frying pan. Good luck hope I didn't confuse you!!! George De Pasquale answered in Cooking Tips & Tricks 3 months ago Answer, comment & read 5 more answers »

• Comment on George De Pasquale's answer…

  0 0 Exactly- it's that "conversation" you have with the food while you're working with it that I think is so inspiring. It's something you don't get from chucking a pre made package of stuff into the microwave! Thanks for the comment! George De Pasquale commented 3 months ago

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  How long can bread dough rise before baking?

  2 0 The direct answer to your question is that yeast won't actually "die" as long as you keep supplying it with food and refreshing its environment by expelling the toxins around it, but I don't think that's actually your question. Indeed the bread will have more flavor- or more complexity of flavor- if you preferment some of the dough, but there are a few basic rules that will make life much better for you. Of course you could take a class (shameless plug) or follow a book- there are many, but a couple of basic rules: Since this is such a complex process and so open to nuance, I'll just stick to the question of preferment. YEAST: Any kind of yeast is fine, but it MUST be still sealed and still before the expiration date when you use it. If you decide to use instant (rapid rise) yeast, use half as much as the amount you use for active dry. Instant must be mixed into the dry ingredients before you add the water. Active dry must be soaked for ten minutes before using. The water should be warm in either case (blood warm, as they say). PREFERMENT: Rather than forcing the final dough into a super long fermentation, it's a better idea to preferment a part of the dough for a long time and then add that to the rest of the dough. So: take about a third of the total flour, a third of the total water, and an eighth of the total yeast and mix those together. This can rise uninhibited (covered, room temp) for ideally 12 hours or up to 24 hours, not much longer than that. Then mix that pre fermented sponge into the rest of the recipe, following the instructions on the recipe. Remember you've stolen some water, flour and yeast from the total recipe so adjust accordingly. PRIMARY FERMENTATION: I'm not a fan of fermenting at cold temperatures but it can make baking bread more friendly schedule-wise. When your final dough is mixed the dough temp should be mid-seventies. Cover and let rise until 1 and a half times its original volume, knock it back and let it rise again to 1.5 X the original volume and you're ready to shape it. If you're committed to slowing it down in the fridge, it's much much better to do so as a shaped loaf rather than as a bulk dough, for reasons I won't go into now. If you decide to do that, the shaped loaves go into the fridge right after you shape them. Then let rise as normal and bake. Hope this helps. George De Pasquale answered in Cooking Tips & Tricks 3 months ago Answer, comment & read 3 more answers »

• Comment on George De Pasquale's answer…

  0 0 Yes you should worry. You can eat them hot obviously but it's lunch you should worry about. I'll let Russ explain the details (he's so much better at it than me) but basically you should bring your eggs down to 40º within 6 hours and keep them there until you eat them. A lunch bag with blue ice is in order. You will eventually get sick eating room temperature eggs. George De Pasquale commented 5 months ago

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  Is it really necessary to wash your hands after cracking eggs?

  4 0 Shell eggs are rife with salmonella. Not washing your hands could cross contaminate the other food with salmonella from the shell. So yeah you should wash your hands. And when you crack the egg the egg could pick up the salmonella so that's partly why eating raw eggs (as in ice cream or mousse or caesar dressing) can be dicey. I know the rationale (I've heard it a million times) - people have been eating ice cream forever and no one's gotten sick yet. It's a lame argument. People get sick all the time- they just don't think it was the ice cream. BTW organic does help a bit- the chickens are healthier- but not enough to discount the possibility of contamination. After all, think about where an egg comes from (sorry). And the argument of home versus commercial kitchen is also not logical- your home just as friendly to pathogens as a commercial kitchen. So my advice is to follow the processes you learned in the restaurant. George De Pasquale answered in Cooking Tips & Tricks 5 months ago Answer, comment & read 4 more answers »

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  What can you can?

  2 0 No. You don't want to kill anyone. Jam works because you're pasteurizing the stuff and the inherent properties make it food safe- the pH is low because of the acid content of the fruit and the sugar also is acidifying. So no pathogens will grow and the acid in the fruit will actually help to reduce the population of pathogens. Fermentation (for example kraut or kim chee) also works because of the acidifying effect of fermentation. But pasteurization of the mole (or anything) will merely kill what's present in the food at the moment you pasteurize it. If you inoculate it again (by not being absolutely sterile in your processing or by allowing possible contamination via a bad seal, for example) you can grow a culture of dangerous microbes. Very dangerous microbes. Therefore you have to follow much more rigorous processing steps, involving close control of time and temperature and using a pressure cooker. Rather than give you a process here (and not sleeping because I may have left a step out) I suggest you go to the USDA website and search for the National Center for Home Food Preservation, where there will be guidelines for canning all kinds of food. George De Pasquale answered in Cooking Tips & Tricks 6 months ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

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  making sauerkraut in mason jars. do you vent the lid?...

  2 0 I make sauerkraut in a crock that I bought online that was designed for it. Works great and if you like sauerkraut (and also kim chee and pickles) this is definitely the way to go. In general though, even though I've never made it in mason jars, you have to keep the cabbage covered with the brine- weighting it down with a plate or something is critical. Obviously there's a lot of gasses produced so you have to have some sort of vent. (It also does this weird "breathing" thing but I can't really explain that). The crock I have has a water seal around the lid so the effect is a lot like the water seal used in wine or beer, where the gasses can bubble through the seal but no air can get in. I think this would be important so that you're cultivating the right microbes in the kraut without contaminating it with random microbes from the air. If you check out a brewing supply shop you'll probably find something more suitable than mason jars that will be safer as well. George De Pasquale answered in Cooking Tips & Tricks 9 months ago Answer, comment & read 3 more answers »

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  Is there such a thing as grape pie?

  5 0 For 4 cups of grapes try using 1/3 cup of sugar, a little lemon juice ( maybe a tablespoon), and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch for the filling. Mix 1 tablespoon of the sugar with the cornstarch. Halve the grapes and mix them with the rest of the sugar and the lemon juice and let them sit for half an hour. Make the crust, line the pan with the crust, mix the cornstarch mixture thoroughly into the grape-and-sugar mixture and fill the shell. Of course all this depends on how big your pan is, how many grapes you have, etc. Bake it in a 400º oven for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375º and finish it off, about 30 minutes. The grapes will get quite juicy and almost jam-like. When I did this last year (I have concord grapes in my yard) I baked it without a top crust. Maybe if I did it again I would use a top crust. Just to be safe you might want to put the pie pan on a sheet pan. Surprisingly good stuff. George De Pasquale answered in Other-Food & Drink 10 months ago Answer, comment & read 3 more answers »

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  Creative uses for caramelized onions?

  2 0 Oh My God pissaladiere hands down! You can use a store bought pizza crust or make your own pizza dough, brush it with olive oil, coat the crust with onions, dot the thing with oil cured black olives, anchovies (yes I said it) arranged nicely and sprigs of thyme ( or leaves if you prefer). Bake in a hot oven preferably on a preheated pizza stone. Its one of the reasons your on this planet. George De Pasquale answered in Cooking Tips & Tricks 10 months ago Answer, comment & read 7 more answers »

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