Curious Cook in the New York Times: Tender octopus

In today's Curious Cook column, I write about what makes octopus tough, and ways to make it tender.

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Katsanidis, E. Impact of physical and chemical pretreatments of texture of octopus (Eledone moschata). Journal of Food Science 2004, 69: S264-67.

Kier, W.M. and M.P. Stella. The arrangement and function of octopus arm musculature and connective tissue. Journal of Morphology 2007, 268:831-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmor.10548


Moral, A. et al. Muscle protein solubility of some cephalopods during frozen storage. J. Science of Food and Agriculture 2002, 82: 63-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.1088

Hurtado, J. et al. Morphological and physical changes during heating of pressurized common octopus muscle up to cooking temperature. Food Sci. Technology International 2001, 7: 329-38.

Curious Cook in The New York Times: Ice creams, flaky and chewy

In today's Curious Cook column I write about ice creams that offer textural alternatives to the standard smoothness. One, fromage aux épingles, or "cheese with pins," is a 240-year-old French oddity; the other, salepi dondurma, or salep-thickened ice cream, is a traditional Turkish favorite.

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Here's my translation of M. Emy's recipe for prickly ice cream, from his L'Art de bien faire les Glaces d'Office, published in Paris in 1768. Emy's alternative name for the dish implies that English ice creams were routinely coarse-textured.

Cheeses with pins, or in the English style

One calls these cheeses with pins, because the mix only receives a single freezing; one puts it liquid into the mold and freezes it without either moving or stirring it. This causes the parts to separate, the more watery part freezing first and making these fibers [filets] of ice, which one calls by the ice-maker's term "pins." One makes these cheeses with pins using all mixtures of fruits or uncooked creams that are served in cups, but never with cooked creams.

The way to make them. Prepare whatever mixture of raw cream or fruits you like; when it's ready, and above all not too rich, place in a cheese mold, then place this mold in well crushed ice, reinforced with salt or saltpeter. Leave it alone in this state for three or four hours without moving or stirring; just take care that it be well packed with ice. At the end of the time unmold it. One finds in these cheeses fibers of ice, which one calls pins.

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The most readily accessible account of the stretchy, chewy Turkish dondurma is Eric Hansen's, at

http://dir.salon.com/story/travel/feature/1998/11/17/feature/index.xml

In the column I describe making a version of dondurma with guar gum. The quantity I call for, one tablespoon guar per quart mix, is about 1% guar by weight. According to the papers noted below, the genuine version is made with about 0.8% salep by weight, and salep is between 20% and 60% glucomannan. So a half-tablespoon guar per quart mix would be a closer approximation to the gum concentration in Turkish dondurma.

Kaya, S. and A.R. Tekin, Effect of salep content on the rheological characteristics of a typical ice cream mix. J. Food Engineering 2001, 47, 59-62.

Farhoosh, R. and A. Riazi. A compositional study on two current types of salep in Iran and their rheological properties as a function of concentration and temperature. Food Hydrocolloids 2007, 21, 660-666.

Curious Cook in the New York Times: Potato chips

In today's Dining section of the Times I write about potato chips: the sounds they make, the music that has been made from them, and the forces that shape them.

My source for those shaping forces was Paul Green, a professor of plant biology at Stanford, and a friend. Paul died in 1998. In the column he became "Mr. Green." When I find a near-perfect chip and think of him, I don't think of Mr. Green, I think of Paul.

For helping me understand and explain the physics of chip shape, I thank two people who worked with Paul as postdoctoral fellows: Jacques Dumais of Harvard University and Sidney Shaw of Indiana University. Of course the simplifications and approximations are my doing, not theirs.

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Kim, S.-E. et al. Development of a method for the musical expression of cognitive food taste. Food Sci. Biotechnology 2005, 14, 738-42.

Zampini, M. and C. Spence. The role of auditory cues in modulating the perceived crispness and staleness of potato chips. Journal of Sensory Studies 2004, 19, 347-63.

Green, P. Transductions to generate plant form and pattern: An essay on cause and effect. Annals of Botany 1996, 78, 269-81.