Bag of Beans

Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
by Bill Buford.
Anchor Canada, 2007

In Heat, Bill Buford, a writer for The New Yorker, leaves his job to become a cook at Babbo, a top Italian restaurant in Manhanttan. Buford has written a clear and interesting account of his struggles to learn his way in a fast-paced and demanding kitchen as a professional cook, and really brings to life the environment and the personalities of the people that he works with. Eventually, as he becomes more confident in his abilities and his passion for cooking grows, he is drawn to Italy by the desire to learn authentic Italian cooking techniques, including the butchering of meat. As he studies under some of Italy’s masters, we are also treated to a sentimental overview of the history and traditions of Italian cuisine. Bill Buford’s memoir is a well-written, fascinating book and I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 8/10

Links:

• Amazon.ca
• LibraryThing

This article gives some interesting tips on making the most of your caffeine intake.

A landmark 2004 study showed that small hourly doses of caffeine (.3mg per kg of body weight [approx 20 mg per hour; thanks digg!]) can support extended wakefulness, potentially by counteracting the homeostatic sleep pressure, which builds slowly across the day and acts preferentially on the prefrontal cortex (an area of the brain thought responsible for executive and “higher” cognitive functions).

• Link (via Lifehacker)

Popular Science has a great article and gallery of some of the tools used in molecular gastronomy.

A kitchen equipped for “molecular gastronomy”—gourmet cuisine as cooked by Mr. Wizard, basically—is all about the tech. Devices that wouldn’t be out of place in a chemistry lab fill the kitchens of some of the world’s most adventurous chefs, enabling far-out dishes like whipped-cream pancakes, lobster sorbet (shells and all) and meat-flavored mushrooms. Wiley Dufresne, head chef at one of molecular gastronomy’s Meccas, WD-50 in New York City, is so protective of his machines that he wouldn’t allow them out of his kitchen to be photographed for this piece, insisting that we get our own. And so we did.

• Link (via Boing Boing Gadgets)
• Article
• Gallery

Check out these fantastic cakes posted on mental_floss. The Super Mario cake is simply beautiful:

• Link

This blog post has some nice photos and comments on a molecular gastronomy tasting menu at one UK restaurant. It sounds like quite an experience.

On Sunday night the GF and I ate at L’Enclume in Cartmel. We signed up for the “Underground Menu”, advertised as “No holds barred, no deviations” and running to as many as 26 courses. The chef Simon Rogan is possibly the most innovative chef in the UK, pushing forward concepts and ideas in molecular gastronomy more than anyone except Ferran Adria. It’s safe to say that I was more excited about this meal than anything I’ve eaten since the Fat Duck.

• Link (via Boing Boing)

This site takes pictures of the fast food you actually get at the counter and compares them to the promotional images.

Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.

• Link (via Boing Boing)

Use this handy site to calculate how much caffeine you’ve had.

• Link (via Lifehacker)

We have a new record for the world’s hottest chile pepper.

In fall of 2006, the Guinness Book of Records confirmed that New Mexico State University Regent’s Professor Paul Bosland had indeed discovered the world’s hottest chile pepper, Bhut Jolokia.

Bhut Jolokia, at 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), is nearly twice as hot as Red Savina, the chile pepper variety it replaces as the world’s hottest. A New Mexico green chile contains about 1,500 SHUs and an average jalapeno measures at about 10,000 SHUs.

• Link (via Boing Boing)

Related:

• The Hottest Sauces in the World

This article examines some of the myths and facts surrounding coffee and your health. For example, recent studies indicate that drinking coffee may reduce your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes, and could also protect you from Parkinson’s disease.

In the interest of coffee drinkers everywhere, here are the latest thoughts from leading researchers about coffee and whether it can enhance—or not—our health. We are “spilling the beans” on who should and shouldn’t be drinking coffee, especially if you suffer from certain conditions.

• Link (via Digg)

This article at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories contains some interesting tidbits on cashews.

Anyway, while we eating them, we were asked if we knew why you can’t get cashews in the shell. We had no idea. Actually, we’d never thought about it. But, come to think of it, you can get almonds, walnuts, pistachios, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, chestnuts, pine nuts, pecans, and even macadamia nuts in a shell, but not cashews.

Why? It turns out that the cashew shell is toxic. However, that raised the question of what a cashew looks like in its shell. Again, we had no idea. When we found out, we knew more people should see it. Weird looking, isn’t it? And caustic, too!

• Link

This looks like a good howto on pan roasting your own coffee beans.

The only way to understand a coffee is to roast it. Depending on how far you roast a coffee it can have a strikingly different flavor and body in the cup once brewed.

Typically speaking the lighter roasts will have more origin character (the beans actual flavors rather than roast induced flavor) and acidity with a muted body or mouth feel. However if you stop the roast too soon before the roast has fully developed the coffee will have a sour and/or grassy flavor. A hint of sourness in some coffees in my opinion can be a wonderful thing, but too much and well…YUCK!

Medium roasts can create a balance between the sometimes raw, aggressive origin character and the intense carbony roast flavors. Medium roasts will also have a heavier body than lighter roasts.

Darker roasts will have a pronounced roast flavor which are often carbony, pungent and sharp. Most of the beans flavor will have been replaced with roast flavors and body is usually at it’s heaviest. But roast too far and the coffee can be destroyed, with a thin body and an ashy, charcoal and/or burnt rubber taste!

• Link (via MAKE: Blog)

Does this sound like a good idea?

A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive.

• Link (via Slashdot)

This page catalogues the most intense sauces ever made.

This page is an attempt to list the hottest sauces in the world. To give you an idea of their heat - Tabasco sauce is rated at 2,140 scoville units while Blair’s 6am is up to 16,000,000!

• Link (via Digg)

For all the coffee-lovers, here’s a way to roast your own beans.

In today’s How-To we’ll cover converting a popcorn popper… into a home coffee roasting machine. If you love coffee like we do (and we have a feeling ya do), try upgrading your beans by roasting your own. Roasted coffee can go stale within a week or two, which is exactly why freshness is of the utmost importance when it comes to your brew. Plus, high quality green coffee beans are generally half the price of roasted, and can be easily stored throughout the year.

• Link

This is a nice set of photos of miniature people-figures apparently living on items of food.

This is an extremely detailed guide to sharpening your kitchen knives for optimal performance.

Knife sharpening is not difficult. It is not shrouded in mystery. With a little knowledge, a little geometry, a couple of tricks and some inexpensive tools, knife sharpening can be fairly easy and extremely rewarding. At the very least it’s a great skill for the toolbox. You’ll come away from this clinic with a better understanding of edges, steel and how to maintain your knives yourself. Or, if you decide to send them out, you’ll know how to make sure you’re getting what you want – and what you pay for.

Mmmm…fat.

Nutritionist Philippe Besnard of the University of Burgundy in France has found that the 10,000 taste buds on the tongue seem to include a type that specifically responds to the flavor of fat. If confirmed, it would be only the sixth known type, joining those that sense sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory (also known as umami).