Innovation

Standing Mixer

Herbert Johnson, an engineer for the Hobart Manufacturing Company established July 20 197, invented  the electric standing mixer. He was inspired by the sight of a baker mixing bread dough with a metal spoon and in 1908 he began experimenting with a mechanical counterpart. By 1915 they started selling eighty quart mixers to professional bakers and by 1919 it was available for the home. It received its name as the "kitchen-aid" because some executives' spouse claimed "all I know is it's the best kitchen aid I've ever had." Since then the name stuck and we still call standing mixers the KitchenAid today. The mixer started out weighing sixty five pounds and costing $189.50, comparable to about $2000 today. Now you can get one on the lower end of the price range for about $250. KitchenAids biggest competitor was Sunbeam's Ivar Jepson who made the MixMaster and sold it at a fraction of the price. However KitchenAid is still leading the market today. To put this in perspective, the hand held manual mixer was patented in 1856 by Ralph Collier, almost sixty years before the mechanical standing mixer and the first electric mixer was invented by Rufus Eastman in 1885, thirty years after the manual mixer and thirty years before the standing mixer.

The standing mixer falls into the innovation category of technology as well as process. Before the standing mixer was a handheld electric mixer and before that was the handheld manual mixer. Going from manual to electric was a large technological feat whereas going from handheld to standing was an innovation in process. The standing mixer provides the chef an opportunity to use both hands for other tasks while mixing batter or dough etc.Therefore, if one were to make a cake, the batter could be in the mixer unattended and simultaneously making the icing or filling.

For me this seems like a very useful tool as it would improve my efficiency, timing, and organization. As a chef I am sometimes unorganized and messy. This innovation helps me stay organized as I can be cleaning or doing prep while something is mixing in the mixer, and this I end up being more organized over all. It is also helpful in reducing the physical labour. Before electric mixers you had to manually mix or whisk which is exhausting when done for anything more than a short amount of time. By the time I have anything mixed or whisked my arm is too tired to do anything else and I need to rest or take a break before I can continue, however with a standing mixer there is almost no physical labour and I am free to exhaust my efforts in more valuable ways.

Thus the standing mixer is an innovation of technology and process.


Sources:

Mixer History - Invention of the Mixer. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/mixers.htm

About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.hobartcorp.com/about-us/

  

Cake With Breakfast - Is It Too Good To Be True?

According to The Telegraph and The Tampa Bay Times a recent study has shown evidence that eating chocolate cake with a regular breakfast can actually stimulate weight loss. However an article from Women's Health speculates that it is not so much the timing of eating the cupcake but simply that to have a little bit of something indulgent will keep cravings under control. Now this sounds way too good to be true so I intend to get to the bottom of this. I bought a half a dozen cupcakes and will be eating one with each breakfast over the next week. I will make classic breakfast dishes and then finish off with a cupcake for dessert. 

The fun thing about cupcakes is that you can have one of one flavour and then another a completely different flavour. For example, this article shows fifty different recipes for cupcakes!
http://www.food.com/slideshow/unique-cupcake-recipes-239

Day One - Toast with Honey...and a chocolate cupcake.

The first day I found it difficult to eat something so rich and sweet with my breakfast and almost found myself forcing it down instead of enjoying it. Throughout the day I did not notice too much of a change and ended up having a pretty large dinner however, I felt rather full afterwards and was not craving any other sweets throughout the day.

Day Two - Multigrain French Toast...and a vanilla cupcake

Day two I found myself more hungry than usual early in the morning. I had a vanilla cupcake which I liked more than my chocolate cupcake. Throughout the day I felt a little sluggish but not all that hungry - I must also take into account that I had to work the night before and thus was not able to get enough sleep. 

Day Three - Mushroom, Scallion & Brie Omlette...and a vanilla coconut cupcake

The vanilla coconut cupcake was delicious however it was a little frozen when my breakfast was ready so I threw it in the microwave and left it in a little too long. The icing melted off the cupcake a bit but I still ate it. By day three I was starting to feel a little sick of eating cupcakes, who  knew it was possible!

Day Four - Breakfast sandwich...and a chocolate cupcake

Day four was a struggle. I really did not want to eat the cupcake and felt as though I was forcing it down. I still ate the cupcake and for the rest of the day did not crave any sweets but still ate plenty of other unhealthy food. 







Overall I would say that this diet does not work. I normally would not eat something sweet such as a cupcake every day anyways and thus ended up eating way more sugar than normal without replacing it with anything else. I just ate a cupcake as well as my normal diet. I was not even able to do the full week of the diet because it was just too much sweets. I definitely do not suggest this diet however it was a fun excuse to eat cake.

Sources:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/research/the-chocolate-cake-diet-can-dessert-with-breakfast-really-help-you-lose/1214588

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9069276/Chocolate-cake-breakfast-could-help-you-lose-weight.html

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/let-them-eat-cake

Purchasing and Cooking Meat and Game

I chose to purchase a whole chicken. I chose the whole chicken because it was a family favourite growing up. I still remember venturing out to a farm just outside of town to get a couple whole free range chickens and then coming home and the house would have an amazing aroma for hours. So, when I saw the whole chicken I had to buy it. 

Somewhere around fifty billion chickens are farmed for their meat and eggs. The ones used for meat are referred to as broiler chickens. There are intensively farmed and free range chickens. In my opinion the free range chickens are worth the price bump. They are more plump and flavourful. Whole chickens are often roasted on the oven or on a rotisserie spit. Chickens are also in the same family as turkeys which are stuffed and roasted and then of course shared with family and friends. There are many other types of poultry including; duck, cornish game hen, goose, quail, pheasant and others. 

When buying the chicken in the store it is whole, cleaned, and without the organs or neck. However when I was young, and my mother would buy free range chickens and they would come with the organs and neck still inside. My mom would always cook the organs and feed them to the dog and roast the neck with the chicken and believe it or not, the neck was one of the best parts!

The recipe I have chosen to use is one my mother started and then I adapted over the years. It has always been a family favourite and is one I always make when I go home to visit. I call it the best chicken ever!

First things first, you have to brine the chicken. Get a big bucket that will fit the chicken with a little extra room and then add salt water - 1/4 cup pickling salt to 1 litre of water. Depending on the size of the chicken you will likely need more than one litre of water. Brine for about 4 hours.
7/8 lb Chicken2 Apples2 Onions2 Cloves of garlic1 Tall can (473 ml) of hard apple cider (cheap substitute - beer and apple juice)A couple leaves of sage
After the chicken has been brined put it in a roasting pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then cut the apples and onions in quarters or sixths depending on the size. Take 4 apple and 4 onion chunks and set them in the pan then stuff the rest in the chicken. Now slice the garlic lengthwise and cut 3 slits in the chicken going down the breast and one slit in each leg and stuff the garlic slivers into the slits. Then stuff some of the remaining garlic in the pan and some in the chicken. Next pour the can of cider onto the chicken (If you want a cheap alternative pour some cheap beer and apple juice on instead) and then chop up the sage and sprinkle it all over. You can also crack some pepper on top but don't bother with salt because the chicken was already soaked in salt!














Put the chicken in the oven and let it roast for about an hour and a half or until it is tender but not pink - the way chicken should be cooked, obviously you don't want undercooked chicken. Once it has cooked through let it sit out for 5-10 minutes. Carve it up, serve, and enjoy!

Pickle, Preserve & Ferment

For the pickling assignment I chose to do two different raw food products; green beans and mushrooms. We had some green beans lying around in the fridge and so I chose to pickle them after looking at a couple different websites and recipes, and the pickled mushrooms are an old family recipe.

Pickled Green Beans

2 1/2 pounds fresh green beans

2 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar

2 cups water

1/4 cup salt

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 bunch fresh dill weed

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Sterilize 6 (1/2 pint) jars with rings and lids and keep hot.

Trim green beans to 1/4 inch shorter than your jars.

In a large saucepan, stir together the vinegar, water and salt. Add garlic and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. 

In each jar, place 1 sprig of dill and 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Pack green beans into the jars so they are standing on their ends. Ladle the boiling brine into the jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the tops. Discard garlic. Seal jars with lids and rings. Place in a hot water bath so they are covered by 1 inch of water. Simmer but do not boil for 10 minutes to process. Cool to room temperature. Test jars for a good seal by pressing on the center of the lid. It should not move. Refrigerate any jars that do not seal properly. Let pickles ferment for 2 to 3 weeks 

Pickled Mushrooms
2 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 3/4 cups water

3 tbsp salt

1/3 cup chopped onions

2 1/2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns

5-10 chopped garlic cloves or more if you really really like garlic

pinch of tarragon

Wash and drain mushrooms. In a large pot, combine vinegar, water and salt. Heat to dissolve salt. Add mushrooms and bring to a boil. 

Once boiling, reduce to simmer, stir occasionally. While simmering, add to each jar (sterilized) 1 tbsp onion, 1/2 tsp peppercorns, as much garlic as you want, and a pinch of tarragon, or green dried things. Simmer 10-12 minutes, or until tender. Careful not to overcook, or they turn into rubber. 

Pack into jars: leave about an inch of space to the top. If you have more mushrooms to boil, don't add the brine until you're done packing all the jars. After you've run out of mushrooms, fill the jars with brine to 1/2" below the top of the jar (while still hot). Make sure all air bubbles are removed. Put the lids on, and tighten. Tighten again after the "pop". 

The Pickled mushrooms were very nice. They had a good garlic flavour and were all to easy to just pop into my mouth like popcorn. However the green beans were awfully salty. Unfortunately there were some nice flavours but they were overcrowded by salt. I believe my issue was trying to follow more than one recipe and thus I may have mixed up my measurements thus over-salting the beans. I would like to make them again in the future with one solid recipe because I enjoyed the crunch and spiced flavour in the beans, I was just not able to get over the overwhelming salt.

Week 6 - Fruit Hunter

• This week I visited St. Lawrence Market because it is a wonderful resource in downtown Toronto just minutes away from campus. During my stroll through the market the cherimoya caught my eye because I like that the skin looked like scales and it was rather large for a fruit. This fruit originates from the Annonna cherimola tree native to Ecuador and Peru and can now be grown in California. The season for this fruit usually runs from winter through summer and into the fall. This fruit is high in sugar and fiber, a good source of vitamin C and calcium and contains niacin and phosphorus. 300 grams of fruit has approximately 170 calories and I paid $5.99 a pound for mine.

When I purchased the fruit, I was unsure of what to expect. After cutting the fruit open I was no more sure. I did a little research and read that the easiest way to eat it is to just cut it open and spoon it out like ice cream. So, I cut it open and poked at it a little bit and it had a similar texture to an avocado. My first taste of the fruit reminded me of cotton candy due to its intense sweetness. The cherimoya reminded me of a mixture of sweet tropical fruits and I would be inclined to use it in a smoothie or dessert, however it is too sweet for my taste to eat on its own. Therefore, I might make a cherimoya sorbet. It is very sweet and has a strong flavour of its own and therefore does not need a lot of excess. Below is a link for a recipe.

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/cherimoya-lime-sorbet.aspx

Overall, it was a good experience; I enjoyed the flavour and am excited to try some new recipes that incorporate the cherimoya. 

Sources:
1. http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Cherimoya_944.php
2. Popenoe H, King SR, León J, Kalinowski LS, Vietmeyer ND, et al. (1989) Cherimoya. Lost crops of the Incas: Little-known plants of the Andes with promise for worldwide cultivation. pp. 228–239. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.

Sensory Evaluation Assignment

For my sensory evaluation assignment I chose to try octopus. I went to Volos Restaurant and ordered the grilled octopus. I love trying new things and have always loved seafood and so I was rather excited to try octopus. When it first arrived on the table the smell reminded me of being on an island. It was exotic, grilled, and held a hint of umame. Looking at the dish, the colour was a dark purple with some nice distinct grill marks which looked lovely on top of the bright green and red in the salad. The suction cups on the tentacles were slightly off-putting but I decided to taste it nonetheless. I poked at the tentacles and they were a little squishy but I cut off a piece and tried it. The tentacle was very tender and not at all chewy as expected, the octopus itself had a very strong seafood flavour and was accompanied with a savory sauce; a little sweet, a little salty and a little sour. There was also a slightly bitter element from the grilled charcoal flavour. The only item I can relate the octopus to is calamari, however calamari has a lighter flavour and a more rubbery texture. To this, octopus is very unique with its bold sea flavour and tentacles. Overall it was an excellent experience. I love trying new things and look forward to doing so in the future!

Library Assignment

The Recipe I found is a recipe for Risotto Bianco:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/rice-recipes/risotto-bianco-white-risotto

The reason I chose risotto is because risotto was always something I loved to eat but did not know how to make. Just recently I tried making Jamie Oliver's risotto recipe and it was delicious, Although it is a little tedious, I enjoy making it for my friends and they love eating it. The recipe was pretty easy to follow,  however some of the measurements are not legitimate forms of measurement and therefore take a little bit of instinct as well. The wild mushroom risotto recipe, another Jamie Oliver recipe, and is an excellent creamy, savory dish. However it is very rich so I try not to make it too often.