1 February- Final Taste Test!

Today was the last day of class and the final taste testing. We did two taste test on our final day. The first one was the repeat of the intial mystery test that we did the first day of class. We tasted three chocolates. Chocolate #1 was identified as Dove the cheapest of the three. Chocolate #2 was identified as Godiva, which is owned by the Campbell's soup company. While chocolate #3 was Schaffenberger. The three samples we tasted were tempered chocolate in order to conceal the identity until the end. I enjoyed the taste of the tempered chocolate compared to the regular chocolate bars. The tempered chocolate had more of a thin, creamy texture. My favorite of the three mystery chocolates was chocolate #2, the Godiva. Here are the results from day one and today's popularity vote of the class:
                                              Jan 6th                             Feb 1st
#1 Dove                                    17                                      4
#2 Godiva                                   3                                      8
#3 Schaffernberger                     0                                      5
              
I thought the change in opinion of the class was telling of how everyone's perception of what 'good' chocolate has changed in the past month. I know I chose the sweeter Dove chocolate the first time, but when we did the taste test today the nutty rich flavor of the Godiva was much more pleasant than the overly sweet Dove. The Schaffernberger was a close second, but it was still a little to bitter for my tasting. However, maybe if I continued tasting the different chocolates, as we have done the past few weeks, I could develop my tastes to like the more bitter Schaffenberger dark chocolate

Looking back at how my tasting palate was before I began this interim class, I understand how tasting chocolate and cheese everyday can help develop one's culinary palate. I am not only more apt to try new variations or types of food, but I also have a wider vocabulary to describe the flavor of a food I taste. I believe Dr. Sloan describes it best when he said this class is a "loss of innocence." I don't believe I will personally be as happy eating a $1 Hershey's bar now that I know how much better chocolate can actually taste if you are willing to spend a little more. Quality, not quantity. This class actually has made me re-evaluate my relationship with food. I am so thankful I took this class. It has taught me so much about food and my individual taste preferences. I can't wait to try new foods and cook some new dishes for my and my husband. Thanks Dr. Sloan and Dr. Nowatka for the amazing, tasty interim!!

31 January- Final Cooking!



Today was the last cooking day of the class. The other team did a great job cooking Southern Comfort food. The menu included: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, green beans, buttermilk biscuts, peach cobbler, and sweet tea.  The mashed potatoes and peach cobbler were my favorite. The other foods were good, but I guess I am used to how my mother and grandma cook southern food, so it was different to see others ways it can be prepared. Overall I believe the team of cooks did a great job preparing a real southern meal.

30 January- Taste Test #12

Today was Vintage chocolate tasting day. We have done something similar with Cheddar Cheese, in order to determine how age affects the taste. The chocolate we sampled were: 2010 Gran Couva Trinidad (noon), 2009 Palmira Criollo Venezuela (3 o'clock), 2010 Palmira Criollo Venezuela (6 o'clock), and 2011 Gran Couva Trinidad (9 o'clock). I enjoyed the younger of the two chocolates. The older chocolates had a stronger aroma, but for some reason they lacked the intial bite of coco that I like in my chocolate. So, in my opinion, the fresher the chocolate the better. The bonus chocolate today was Vosges 62% Bacon chocolate, which I have seen in the Fresh market, but the taste was not what I was expecting. I was expecting the bacon to add a savoriness to the chocolate, like meat usually does to a dish. However, the chocolate just tasted over salty, but some people in the class really enjoyed it. I guess it once again comes down to individual taste.

The next part of the class was devoted to Vanilla tasting. I learned so much about vanilla extract, like: it comes from the bean of an orchid plant that is pollinated by humans, it is the second most expensive spice in the world behind safranin, and extract is made from soaking vanilla beans in alcohol. We tasted the four types of vanilla mixed in creme anglaise. The four we sampled" Tahitan, Mexican, homemade Madagascar, and Spice House Madagascar. The homemade was my favorite because it was the mildest. The Tahitan had a fruity, floral taste. The Mexican didn't taste like regular vanilla, it had a strong cinammony taste to me, and the store bough Madagascare was very similar to the homemade but more pungent.

27 January- Taste Test #11

Today was the Best of Varitels chocolate day. All of the samples were a sub-type of Criollo chocolate, and they were absolutely wonderful! The brand was Amedei and the different sub-types were Porcelana 70%, Chuao 70%, and "9" 75%. The Porcelana was definitely my favorite. It was smooth with a nice almond, nutty flavor. However, even though it was my favorite it was also the most expensive of the three, of course. The Chuao was not a creamy and smooth as the Porcelana, and it lacked the nutty flavor but had a slight fruitiness to it. The "9" chocolate was surprisingly the mildest of the three and had the least flavor to me. The brand of Amedei chocolate is roughly $100/lb. That is a crazy thought when you think about a $1 for a Hershey's bar, but after being given the opportunity to taste all these exquisite chocolates I completely understand someone splurging a little on a high quality dark chocolate like the Amedei. I think I may have found a new favorite!
Also with today's chocolate tasing we had a sample of chocolate covered expresso beans. I have had chocolate coffee beans before, but they were not this good of quality. I actually saved a few and took them to my mother, who is a bigger coffee than me, and she loved them! The brand of the beans was Santander chocolate. To say the least I was very expressed at how well they tasted.


Next, was student presentations. The first was the Wild Game presentation by Gaston and Josh, and they we able to provide us with samples of the wild game meat they discussed in their presentation. In the photo, the top left is the rabbit meat, the top right is the venison (deer) meat, and the big piece in the middle was duck meat. The bottom two are normal chicken and beef steak, so we could compare the wild game to what you buy in the grocery store.  I really enjoyed the venison. It was flavorful and tender. I also like the deer meat because it is very lean with very little fat. The rabbit meat was also very good. It was a little dry, but I enjoyed the gamey taste it had. On the otherhand, the duck meat had a very pungent gamey taste and a weird, spongy texture. I was really impressed with the wild game meat.

Today was also the last day of cheese, and we ended with wash rind cheeses. The four kinds tasted were: Talegio, Morbier Raw Milk, and Chimay. The Chimay had a sour, beer-like after taste and had a very stinky cheese aroma. The Talegio is white colored and taste mild like butter. I didn't particularly like the rind wash cheeses. I don't like the stinky cheeses. However, this class has taught me to appreciate them more.

26 January- Cooking #5

Today was my team's last actual day of cooking. We will be coming text Tuesday, but only to taste the Southern Cooking team's lunch. So Wednesday in class we were finally able to agree upon a more balanced menu after Dr. Sloan pointed out some of our weak spots. We took away one of our chicken dishes and replaced it with a rice dish and cucumber salad.

Aften and I volunteered for the bread because we had made the biscuts last time so we thought we could handle the Naan bread. However, after going to the store and coming back to our apartment to bake we realized just how different the Indian bread was from the buttermilk biscuts. The recipe itself was lacking a lot of descriptions. Because the yeast needed to rise for four full hours we baked the bread in our apartment the night before. We had to set the thermostat to 80 degrees in order to make it warm enough to allow the yeast to rise. So we sweated it out for this bread, but when we started to take it out of the oven we knew something was wrong with it. I have never eaten naan before, but the pictures online reminded me of pita bread. And as you can tell from the top picture, our product did not look like pita. We still wrapped it up and took it this morning to show Dr. Sloan and Dr. Nowatka. Dr. Sloan saved the day because he had bought the ingredients for a different recipe that only called for the yeast to rise for one hour. We were given the option to try Naan bread again or just scrap it from the menu, but we were determined to get this bread righ so we did it again and the product is in the picture believe. Aften and I received many compliments from Dr. Dunlap, so I believe it was a success the second try. The rest of our team cooked Chicken Korma which was delicious but I would have liked it a little spicier. Aloo gobi, which was a spicy potato and califlower dish that I got two helpings of it was so yummy. Cucumber salad, which balanced out the spicy meal with it's coolness. The Indian rice that was perefect with the Chicken Korma. Mango Lassi, which was the mango dessert smoothie that I also loved! Overall, this was my favorite meal because it seemed the most like a complete meal. Every dish really complimented the others. I definitely will try to cook Indian cuisine more often after this good experience today.

25 January- Taste Test #10

Today was a great chocolate tasting day because it was all the El Rey brand. The different samples are above in the photo: Bucare 58.5% (top), Mijao 61% (middle), and Gran Saman 70% (bottom). The Bucare was very milky and smooth with no coco bitterness. The Mijao was similar to the Bucare but had a little bit of a nice nutty taste added. Also, the Gran Saman had a woody, coco flavor and was slightly more astrigent than the other two. My favorite was actually my favorite, which is surprising because three weeks ago I probably would've picked the lowest percentage chocolate just because. Now I can actually distinguish the subtle taste differences,

The cheese for today was Bleu cheese. I believe Dr. Sloan and Dr. Nowatka planned that the best chocolate tasting be paired with the worst cheese tasting, just to balance them out. Dr. Sloan showed us a video of how bleu cheese is produced and after watching the video I was able to appreciate all the hard work that goes into it, but I was not able to appreciate the distinct bleu cheese taste. We tasted four different bleu cheese types: Valdeon, Stilton, American, and Cambozola. Of the four the Cambozola was the least of the evils. I enjoyed it the most because it reminded me of the double-cream cheeses we tasted. However, I don't believe I will be purchasing bleu cheese in the future. The Valdeon to me had the strongest flavor. It was crumbly and tasted too musky. The American was the milder one that was white in appearance with blue veins of mold. The Stilton, which has won many awards, was the kind of in between the Stilton and the American when it come to flavor intensity. The Stilton had a more yellowish appearance and was more salty than the others. I apologize for my picture. For some reason the lighting was bad when I tried to take the picture.

24 January- Cooking #4

Today was the "Cooking with Eggs" day for Team B, and I couldn't have been more excited. I am a fan of eggs and when Dr. Sloan revealed part of the menu in class the other day I knew I was going to really enjoy this cooking day!

Aften and I were assigned to make homemade Buttermilk biscuts. At first I was a little intimidated because I have seen my grandmother make homemade biscuts plenty of times growing up and it didn't look like a simple task. However, after reading through recipe Aften and I readily took on the challenge and in my opinion succeeded! Everyone told us after how nice and fluffy the biscuts had turned out. Below is a picture of Aften kneading the bread, which has to be the hardest/funnest part!

We tweaked the recipe we used to give it a little more clarity.

For 12 buttermilk biscuits, you will need:
1 stick unsalted butter
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1. Cut or grate butter and shortening into 1/2 inch pieces. Refrigerate until chilled.
2. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar baking powder, salt, and baking soda until well combined.
4. Add chilled butter and shortening to flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.
5. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Add buttermilk until well combined.
6. Place dough on lightly floured and knead for 8 to 10 minutes.
7. Roll dough into a cohesive 9 inch circle and 3/4 inch thick.
8. Cut biscuits using a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter.
9. Arrange on a baking sheet upside down.
10. Bake biscuits until they begin to rise, about 5 minutes.
11. Rotate pan and reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees.
12. Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.
13. Transfer to wire rack and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Then, ta-da! Homemade Buttermilk Biscuts!