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[0:37] Who will I be waiting? Dave, you're on. Cooking issues. Cookie issues radio. Dave Arnold, coming to you live from Germany, where I'm at the Berlin Cocktail Conference. I have Nastasia sitting in the studio in Brooklyn. He's there in the Dodgers? Hi, Dave. Hey, yeah, so uh, this uh, this radio show is being literally phoned in phoning it in from Berlin on my iPhone. So if I click or pop. Yeah, you'll know you'll know why. And uh, Nastasia, thanks so much for putting uh, Phil Collins on as our intro music today. They couldn't find your song. Yeah, so, you know, everyone likes Phil Collins every now and again. So that's, that's, uh, perfect. everyone has 2 ears and a heart, Dave. Exactly, exactly. All right, all right. So, listen, so, uh, Nastasia, can you read the numbers instead of having it in front of me and for some reason, I cannot commit it to memory? Yes, if you want to call in and ask questions to Dave, who's in Germany, the number is

[1:42] 718-497-2128-718-497-2128. I would really like it. Someone from Germany, called New York to ask me a question, mom, in Germany. see if we can see if we can get that going. Um, and we'll be here uh, live for the next uh, 45 minutes or

[1:58] so, and uh, meanwhile, I'm going to take some email questions. So, uh, one of our uh, favorite uh, blog readers, Schinderhannes, wrote actually from Germany, but not from Berlin, uh, and he says, uh, uh, wait, wait, where's, oh, he said, why are the 2

[2:13] most uh, important beverages in Germany, beer and apple juice, beer for

[2:17] adults and apple juice for kids? Do so rarely in cocktails, and do you have any good recipes for these ingredients? Shinerhana, this is an excellent question. Um, The problem with apple juice and cocktails is that apple juice is relatively diluted.

[2:30] So most cocktails that are produced in bars, and therefore also most recipes that are written for

[2:34] them, are based on the idea that you're going to make a drink and then dilute it with, uh, you know, chill it and dilute it with ice. Now, the problem is, is that if you're using apple juice, By the time it's chilled, uh, and diluted, it's just much too watery. So you don't have, you're not going to have enough, uh, alcohol in it, and you're also not going to have enough flavor of the, of the apple juice. And so I think that's the reason why um, there aren't that many drinks using it. Now, of course, the solution to this is to, um, is to chill your, uh, drinks beforehand, right, or mix them cold and then chill them down so that when they're mixed together, you don't have to dilute it a lot with, uh, with ice. A really good technique. It's actually freeze the ice cubes in, uh, freeze the apple juice into ice cubes and then shape with the frozen, uh, apple juice. And this way, as it's chilling and diluted, you can get it really cold, the same as a standard cocktail, about -7 Celsius. But, uh, as it's diluting, it's diluting with apple juice, uh, and this technique works really well and something we do a lot. I like, um, I like, uh, apple juice and whiskey. I think it's really good. When we use apple juice, though, we're often making our own apple juice and we'll, uh, we'll juice it with, uh, some ascorbic

[3:43] acid, that's an antioxidant, so that the apple juice steak stays, uh, clear. I mean, sorry, it stays green and or yellow, if it's yellow apple or red, if there's a lot of red skin, and then, but it doesn't oxidize. The important part, and then often we'll clarify it, uh, and and mix this. So we do a lot of work with that. We've done Apple and tequila. We've done Apple and and bourbon. Most of the time we, we, we're only doing the apple juice and the spirit because we tend to use very high quality, uh, apples, uh, and we really want to show the flavors

[4:11] that, that, uh, of the specific apple. Most apple juice ones it's allowed to oxidize and clarify traditionally uh the taste uh differences are muted somewhat. So that's one of the reasons we like to do it fresh and uh, some of our favorite apples

[4:23] are uh, actually it's kernel, which is an old English variety. I saw the Spitzenberg, which is an old American variety. Um, but, you know, you know, any local variety that you like, assuming it has, you know, a high enough acid

[4:34] balance, is, uh, a good acid sugar balance, you can use, and of course, you can correct acid sugar with, uh, malic acid, which is the acid from apples, or you can, uh, you know,

[4:43] obviously you can add more, more sugar to it. Uh, which regards beers. There is like a there are a whole bunch of cocktails based on beers. They're just not seen as off, uh, uh, these days, like, you know, shandy's. We do a lot of really old school hot beer cocktails where, uh, we'll use, uh, like a beer, uh, usually an ale, and, uh, and like either a brandy, uh, or

[5:07] sometimes, uh, whiskey, and then we'll flame it using, uh, our red hot poker, which can basically, uh, it

[5:14] can ignite the drink. You don't really need to ignite it, but you need to get, uh, something hot, like a hot

[5:18] stone, or, or just very hot, uh, implement with it, like with a, with a lot of thermal wallop to

[5:23] it, to give the kind of burned flavors, uh, that are really characteristic of those old style drinks.

[5:28] Uh, and I really like to do that. I don't have any good modern beer recipes off the top of my head for cold cocktails, but they've become extremely uh, popular in certain bars over the past uh, 3 or 4

[5:40] years, uh, in the states, and I, I, I think you're going to see a return to more beer based cocktails in the future, especially in restaurants that have, um, uh, they don't have a liquor license, right?

[5:50] So they can't serve liquor, but they can serve wine or beer. And so these places do a lot of interesting work with wine based cocktails and uh beer based cocktails. But unfortunately, I don't have any uh, good recipes right off the bat. Uh, what do you think, Styles? Do you think that's a good answer or no? Yeah, I think that's a good answer. Have you been drinking a lot of beer out there? Uh, I've had some beers, so there's a characteristic beer from Berlin called Berlin Weiss, uh, that is, uh, they sweeten it, the one I had with uh,

[6:17] Woodruff, uh, syrup, so it's green. It's just like big goblet of green beer and it's a little sweet. So I couldn't drink a lot of them, but whenever I go somewhere, I like to try the characteristic, uh, beverage of the area, but the, the person I ordered from

[6:30] a Toby that it was, it was mainly a ladies drink, but I did enjoy it. I did enjoy it, so it was, and I have been drinking, drinking quite a bit of beer. We have a collar. Oh, we have color? Hello, caller, you're on the air. Hi there. I'm Colin. I'm living down in Washington, DC. And uh, Recently, I've been trying to make, I've been making sweet grass vodka for quite a while. I've got a sweet grass bash. I've just been usually just soaking it for a couple days, but when I saw the, uh,

[7:01] nothing to use with the EC canister. I tried doing some with uh, you know, pressure, pressurizing with some nitrous oxide and trying to sort of blast some of the fresh, grassy flavor out. But something kind of curious happened. Uh, when I did it, I used, you know, same concentrations I usually do. Uh, and, but it's pressurized it with 2 charges. Uh, let it sit for a couple minutes, about between 2 and 3 minutes, let the gas

[7:35] out, and it didn't look too heavily colored. It was like very, very lightly, so I let it sit overnight in the fridge. Like you do, and, you know, it kind of looked the emerald thing that it usually has, but it's now been like maybe a week

[7:51] later, and whereas the regular stuff will be, you know, still this kind of emerald

[7:57] color. This stuff has turned very tawny, very almost like uh, watered down coffee or tea color. And, and what was your favorite? Wait again, I couldn't hear the very 1st part. What was that? what was the flavor again? I couldn't hear uh sweet grass. Oh, sweet grass. Okay. Um, yeah, kind of like. All that. I mean, I would bet, right? Like my guess, just off the beginning, and I don't know whether that, the main question, is the main question about the color? Yeah, but color, also the flavor profile is a little different. There's like, usually it's kind of very vanilla-y and grassy. They're still, they're kind of like grassy vanilla thing, but there's also a more, I don't know, almost like brandy cherry

[8:39] thing that's not usually there. Uh, so I was just wondering if, you know, it's kind of the chlorophyll is getting blasted apart, and that's what caused it to change color, or if you got any, you know, ideas about what might be going on. Yeah, I mean, I would almost guarantee that you're breaking some cells when you're doing it, and thereby releasing some

[9:01] enzymes, the enzymes are getting to work, uh, busy oxidizing and creating some of those brown flavors. I mean that would be my guess. Now, I think that, you know, uh, it's, it's definitely true,

[9:11] so, like, uh, for instance, when I'm doing an herb that Noah has a tendency to go brown, when I do it, I'm, I'm trying to be as careful as I can and use not, uh, herbs that aren't bruised, and also to not, um, and to not shake it real

[9:24] hard. I just swirl it around when I use those because I want to minimize breakage. Yeah, okay. But, also, uh, you know, we've had some luck, but not great luck. doping it with a little bit of an antioxidant. The problem is it's also then going to add acid, so it's going to change the flavor, like ascorbic acid. You can use sodium metabisulfite instead as an antioxidant, but I haven't tried it, so I can't talk about its efficacy. Now, the difference in flavor between the two. I think you have 2 different things going on. Uh, and I, again, I can't really judge, like, which one is, uh, is working, and by the way, for people who don't know what we're talking about, go on to cooking

[9:58] issues.com, and look up, uh, I guess, infusion, uh, and I, ISI, or EC, and you can

[10:04] see, it's this technique where we do very rapid infusions of flavor in, uh, in whipped cream makers, and, uh, you know, for me, it's really, it's really a good technique, because it allows us to do something, um, that we would normally use a vacuum machine to do, which is very expensive, and you can do it, you know, fairly easily, and you can do it at home,

[10:22] you can do it in a bar. It's friendly. Um, but uh, the flavor, the flavor profiles are different than they are with the traditional infusion that takes a long time. And so I think, um, not necessarily better or worse, just different. So, the, I think it's true that you're going to extract different flavors using this technique, uh, then you would, um, using a traditional, uh, longer

[10:44] tech, right? I think the longer product stays in there, the less the difference is going to be. But I also think you're probably getting some flavor chase based on vaccination. Don't you think so? I think that the actual oxidation is going to change the flavors. What do you think? Yeah, yeah, I think so. This is almost, you know, in a in a pleasant way. So I was a little bit, I was just curious if, uh, yeah. Now, I guess it could be something enzymatic too, kind of breaking, breaking things down a little different. But, uh... Well, as soon as something oxidizes, right? I mean that's the thing I think people don't, people, so when you add something like a, like an antioxidant, like ascorbic acid, for instance, too, and we're talking a little bit about this in the, in the

[11:19] last, uh, question, when you add something like this, Uh, you know, yes, you're preventing oxidation, which is a visual cue that something's going on, but it also radically changes the taste. You know what I mean? I mean, that's why apple juice, for instance, doesn't brown apple juice doesn't taste like fresh apples is because it's gone through this oxidation procedure. It's not just that it's been heated, although that opportunity, and it's not

[11:39] just it's been clarified, but the actual oxidation, where it goes brown, is changing the characteristic flavor of fresh apple into the characteristic flavor of

[11:46] the of the apple juice. So I think you might have some of that going on. And I think you also might have just perhaps a different extraction of things from it in general, you

[11:55] know? Yeah. So are there some other instances where you notice that oxidation has maybe actually like improved

[12:01] flavor? Because, uh, or is it generally a negative trend that you've, uh, I mean, I think it depends. People really like um, uh, apple juice. Do you know what I mean? And so oxidized apple juice. I mean, it's not what I'm shooting for, so I tend to go, uh, try to make it taste as fresh as possible,

[12:19] but again, oxidation there is not, uh, bad. It just, it's just different. We normally associate it as being negative because we're used to, uh, we're used to it being a negative characteristic, and for instance,

[12:29] in things like pesto, and I think most herb oxidation, like like basil oxidation, and cilantro oxidation, has very characteristic flavors, and

[12:37] we, we, we kind of shun those flavors, and so it takes on a bad name, but there's nothing inherently bad about oxidation.

[12:43] I think I might have told the story once on the on the cookie issues before, but I'll say it again real quick. There is a, you know, I'm pretty sure I said it, but that, you know, Reese's peanut butter cups, which I won't use their name, but it's Reese's peanut butter cups,

[12:54] they, uh, they're characteristically oxidized, the fads oxidize a little bit in the peanut butter, and that's the characteristic taste of the Reese's peanut butter cup, and if you actually put oxygen scavengers in the packaging so that it doesn't oxidize a little bit, nobody thinks it tastes like a Reese's peanut butter company

[13:09] more and they don't want to buy it. So, it's, um, you know. yeah. oxidation, it, it, you know, it's, it's all in the eye of the, of the eater or in the mouth of the eater. guess. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. I hope that answered your question. Thanks for calling in and uh you just post something to the blog if you have more results with the sweetgrass because I'm interested we haven't used any uh sweetgrass infusion. So uh, so yeah, yeah, I'll call in. Um, uh, wants to have some more systematic stuff, I'll put it together and show you guys. But thanks for your help. Very good. Thank you. All right. take a break. We have, what? We should take a break. All right, so we're going to our 1st break and we're going to come back live from our 2 continent cooking issues from New York and from Berlin.

[13:57] All the time I was searching nowhere to run too. It started me thinking. Wondering where I have to make my life. And who'll be waiting? Asking all kinds of questions. To myself. But never finding the answers. Cling at the top of my horse. No one listening. All this time I still remember everything you said. This much you promised. How could I ever fall in? You know I love you, but I just... Dave, you're on. Hey, welcome back to cooking issues, coming to you live on the Heritage Radio Network every Tuesday, even when I'm in Germany. Uh, so we're coming to you live as, like I said, Stasi's on the studio in Brooklyn, uh, at Roberta's Pizza,

[15:11] and uh, I'm in the Berlin Cocktail Conference in Berlin. So, uh, Duncan from Sacramento Writes Inn. Oh, by the way, call in your questions. We're still here for about another half hour or so, Nastasia, give them the number. 718-497-2128. 718-497-2128. All right. Duncan writes in from Sacramento and says he's been trying to make a stable foam from beer. So we've had a couple beer questions, if I like to say, all these questions are working together today. I think it could be interesting to do a beer mousse or deconstruct a black and tan. However, I've not been able to get a dent and stable foam. Pegan hasn't worked, and I'm not sure Jella would set up well in the presence of alcohol. Now, Duncan, if you're looking to do a traditional mousse style texture with gelatin. I guarantee you, gelatin will set, uh, the beer. Fine. First of all, beer's not that high in alcohol. And so it will affect it a little bit. You might have to use a little more gelis than you would normally use, but it's definitely gonna work. I've done gelets of champagne many times with gelatin and it works fine. If you want to make uh, not a mousse, but just something as dense and foamy, uh, get a really good result. Uh, I will steer you to the same technique as Sam Mason. Uh, formerly of uh, Atlas WD 50 and Taylor Restaurant, uh, currently has a bar is named for some

[16:22] reason because Germany has escaped me. He uses a product called methocell, uh, F 50, which is a methocellulose product that

[16:29] is, uh, basically can whip anything into a, a moose. Not a moose with a foam, but like that, you know, not quite as dense as shaving cream, but much denser than your normal foams that you make, like an egg white. like an egg white meringue. And in fact, we use it to dehydrate uh, foams into meringues. And I think we have a recipe somewhere on the blog. Stasi for that, for SSD and the hydrocolar problem? Yeah. And so, and so he famously made a Guinness foam using a methocell F 50, and it makes a nice, dense, stable, um, like a little bit thicker than the head on

[17:02] a Guinness, but like of that kind of nature. And so, yeah, that's a really good technique. Another one that you can use, uh, if you don't like, uh, methal cell, uh, you can buy them at the cell. I think a, a retail, I think in the sanctuary's website, and um, some people have a little bit of a gripe with methyl cell, because, uh, it's one of the only things we use. Not, um, quotes all natural. It's not a chemical that is natural. It's modified cellulose pro- uh product. So then uh people have a problem with that. Sometimes we'll use, uh, something called versa whip, which is basically, uh, they have a soy based

[17:36] versa whip, which is soy protein, uh, as a whipping agent, and they have, uh, uh, caseine, milk based protein versus whip. They even also get, I think, at both of those flyers. And those can whip things into a denser foam. I find verse one to be difficult to use. I think method cell, F 50, and remember, F 50, don't get a different method cell. F like frank 50. Uh, that one I think is really easy to use, it whips up like an egg white. Uh, you might have to add a little bit of a thickener, uh, like, I don't know, sand

[18:04] tang gum or maltedexin or something to the to the beer to get it to warm up nicely, but uh, should work. Dave, we have a caller. Oh, we have a caller? All right, call her on the air. Hello, my name is Derek. I call. I wrote in a couple weeks ago about a question about velvety meats. Oh yeah, yeah. Anyway, thanks a lot for the answer. was great. Um, I had another question I wanted to ask about today, which is, you mentioned

[18:31] a uh, a week or 2 ago, something I've heard before about, um, cooking sous

[18:36] vide, that as long as you sear it, you're basically safe because the inside of the meat is basically sterile.

[18:42] But I had to give this a 2nd pot last week when I got a piece of monkfish and found some worms crawling out of it.

[18:49] I wanted to ask about dealing with parasites. And if you had some, uh, cause those obviously, you know, aren't only on the surface, but I know they're easier to kill than a lot of bacteria, but I

[18:58] wonder if you could address safe dishes with those and how you might build out doing it. All right, that's an interesting question. you pick monkfish, which obviously is full of parasites, also codfish, full of parasites. Uh, worms. I mean, luckily, I don't know about muffish, but the ones in codfish aren't going to infect you, but they're incredibly disgusting. You know what I mean? Um, and the, um, you know, and in general, but the, the, the same thing holds true for traditional cooking and SUV there. So, and so our discussion is basically, when you're, when you're cooking something sous vide, often, we don't cook things um, enough to pasteurize them, enough to kill all the bacteria that's present, right? Uh, and the reason we don't is often if you cook something that long, the texture can be uh, ruined, right? So that's true on uh, certain beef muscle cuts like uh, uh,

[19:46] tenderloin, like filet, I think if you cook it long enough to pasteurize it, or temperatures where you're going to pasteurize it, that you can, you can damage

[19:52] the, uh, the texture, but it's definitely true on fish. You really, it's very hard to cook most fish, so that they're pasteurized because, uh, you don't ever really want to get them in general, up to the temperatures, they could pasteurize them, and even when you do, you don't want to hold them there that

[20:05] long. exceptions like striped bass can take those kind of temperatures, but, uh, so, uh, so you don't tend to patrize them. Now, on something like, contain the parasite, like codfish or a monk, the, the fact of the matter

[20:16] is that we're doing a traditional cook, you're also probably not getting the internals up high enough to be any different than you would in sous

[20:23] vide, because uh, but you are overheating, you are really fearing the outside and killing it.

[20:28] So, I think my point with safety and sous vide is that uh, I don't think it's any less safe than the traditional method. Does that make sense at all or no? No, that makes perfect sense. Um, do you know what it does take? I know that a lot of these worms and things can be killed just by freezing

[20:44] or as much lower temperatures than a lot of bacteria and such, so I assume that generally makes it safe. So unless I'm making sushi out of it, it's probably okay. Does that sound about right? Yeah, if you buy a sushi braids, 1st of all, like there's different, there's obviously there's parasites in fish that will infect you and those are the ones that they get rid of by uh freezing it. So anytime you're going to buy a sushi grade fish, it's been frozen to kill off those parasites, right? So what you're dealing with a sushi grade product, you're you're good to go. Um, with regards to, like, the worms on a big piece of codfish, let's say, my, I have to go research because I have research. My recollection is that those are merely gross and not harmful. But, um, yeah, I, I'm not going to swear on. tell people that, you know, on the radio because I haven't looked into it, but, um, but I also think that they're, like you said, I think they're probably fairly easy to kill, and that if you're, you know, but the, I, that's why, like, I'd be a little worried about doing super low temperature work on a fish that's

[21:43] gonna have a lot of parasites, um, because then, you know, you, you know, you might get one of those suckers wriggling out of the plate, and that would be, that would, you know, customers running out, like free

[21:52] meals. You know, it'd be, it would be a nightmare, you know, a huge nightmare. Um, and yeah, we've all seen like worms coming out of cod or out of monkfish. they're just there. You know what I mean? And so, like, for instance, the famous low temperature cod recipe, extreme low temperature cod recipe, uh, is uh, by uh, Juan Rocca, uh, from the, uh, the sous vide book that came out a number of years ago in Spanish, which is, you know, uh, you know, one of the 1st books I'm going to need, a really good book, uh,

[22:19] stars, you still there? I heard it click. Yeah, I think the other guy. Yeah, dropped off. All right. Uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's, uh, sorry I have to do this. in Germany. But that, that recipe is uh, famous, but um, it was mistranslated as cod, so people basically said that they, they were heating

[22:35] Codges, extremely low temperature, like 100 Fahrenheit. Uh, and in fact, it was salt cod, where all of the, uh, that was reconstituting

[22:41] salt cod bakalao, and so, you know, all the worms were obviously killed. But anyway, what do you think, Saz? Is that a good answer? I think that's a good answer, Dave. Too bad we lost the guy. Hopefully that helps. I know. hopefully that helps. So don't get a 2nd question, which is you've been trying to learn with cast iron. He's been having trouble with food sticking intermittently, and he says, as far as he can tell the pan of season, but sometimes I'll much, uh, will stick to

[23:03] it, and sometimes they won't. Well, I think this. I think I can't see your pan, obviously, because I'm in Berlin, but the, and you're in Sacramento. But, um, things can look seasoned, but they're not really seasoned as well as if they had

[23:15] been, uh, seasoned for years and years of use. So the, the initial seasoning isn't really enough to make something kind of bulletproof

[23:21] non-stick. First of all, nothing's bulletproof nonstick. But I think what's probably happening is you probably have a couple of high spots in the pan, that can cause adhesion, and then once it adheres, it, it, it adheres pretty well to that

[23:31] point, and so maybe you didn't get a coating of oil, uh, over one particular section or dried out, or somehow you got adhesion to the pan, and

[23:40] the more you use it, the less and less it's gonna stick. Uh, and you know, especially these newer cast iron, they're, they're rougher and surface. I tend to find that you know until you build a really good season on them. They're not really, uh, you know, even though some people theoretically think that the roughness is

[23:54] going to help you in non-stick, uh, phenomenons. I don't, I don't happen to be one of those people who, who believe it. I mean, I think there's been a lot of discussion on that on the blog if you look at the blog on the this. I think it's called, what you call it, South, you like heavy metal, the science cast iron or something like this. Yeah, I haven't researched it recently, but you know, my, my thoughts fresh from the research are, are in that post, if, uh, if anyone wants to go back and and look at it. Um, Chris Anderson writes in and uh, he says he enjoys the show, which we appreciate, right? I'd appreciate that. And he says, what is the correct ratio and making a simple syrup? Every recipe I find seems to have a different proportion of sugar to water and does the dilution depend on the application. Uh, and then, and then he goes It has a question about the shelf life of this syrup, uh should be stored in the fridge, et cetera, et cetera. Will that make the sugar crystallize? And he's noticed that when he infuses things into it like lavender or lemongrass. It tends to last, uh, not very long before it starts to mold on the top, uh, and then sugar seems to last longer. Can you extend the shelf lights, et cetera, et cetera. These are all interesting questions. First of all, let me start by saying that there is no correct, there's no correct, uh, simple syrup recipe, like there's all different ratios that you can use, and uh, what's, but,

[25:02] but, uh, particular recipe isn't going to taste the same as what the writer

[25:06] intended, unless you use the same proportions that they asked for. So, I tend, and we at the school tend to use what's called a 2 to one simple syrup, and everyone makes a

[25:17] different. In a bar, in a bar, uh, place, they tend to make their syrup based on

[25:20] volume because they don't have scales, they have cup measures. So they'll, they'll make simple syrup based on volume. Now, luckily, standard American granulated sugar weighs about

[25:30] close to the same as water on a volume basis, just lucky. So they, they, you know, a weight simple syrup and a, uh, and a volume simple syrup are about the same when made with US granulated sugar. Now, uh, in a bar, they tend to make one to one simple syrup because they're not heating it even. They using super, actually, they're using super fine syrup, which is going to make it sweeter because it's denser. So eraser I just said. But they're using super fine sugar, which, uh, which dissolves very quickly, and they're stirring it because they don't necessarily have a heat source right there, and they want to be able to make their simple syrup without heat. So they tend to make a one to one simple syrup, uh, and they tend to do it by

[26:08] volume, and they tend to, with super fine sugar. So, like, that should be, like, that's if a bar recipe just says simple syrup one to one, that's probably what they mean. Um, now, uh, another reason that bartenders tend to use uh, a lighter syrup like that is because it pours a lot faster and you leave a lot less syrup in the bottom of your

[26:24] jigger. The downside of it is that uh, that simple syrup also adds a lot more water for an equivalent amount of sweetness, so it can throw off the dilution in recipes

[26:33] uh, in certain recipes. I tend to prefer to add sugar in the form of sugar and make a denser simple syrup. So when usually unless I say otherwise, my simple syrup is 2 to one, 2 parts

[26:44] of sugar to one part water by weight, and then heated until it dissolves and then allowed to cool

[26:50] down. Uh, and when I need it in a hurry, I do a 4 part. I do 4 parts, uh, sugar, to one part water, heated soil dissolves, and then I throw ice cubes to show it down quickly, and that's how I make it. Now, The more sugar you put in a simple syrup. Uh, the, uh, the more sugar you put in simple syrup, the less chance you're

[27:09] going to get of mold developing, a one to one simple syrup is definitely going to mold over time. If you store it in the fridge, it's not going to mold over time. Uh, I don't think I've never really had them go moldy in the fridge. Um, but, um, yeah, then you have to devote storage space to it in, in the fridge. A 2 to one simple sugar probably won't mold as much. It will still mold if it's outside and you keep it in the in the fridge as well. Now, you might get some crystallization in your 2 to one, but you're not going to get that much crystallization

[27:35] into 2 to one. I wouldn't worry about it so much. Um, Now, when you're confusing the syrup, the question, uh, whether or not, you know, what kind of shelf life you're going to get out of it.

[27:44] A lot depends on, and by the way, if you have to leave your simplest here about, uh, because, you know, whatever, you don't have free space or whatever, if you're going to keep it for a long period of time, if you, you know, once a week, just, you know, bring it up almost to the boil and let it drop down again, you're going to, you're going to kill the mold in

[28:02] it, and you get to extend the shelf life again, because it's not going to get unsafe on you. Now, when you're doing an infusion, uh, something, uh, you know, like an herb or whatnot, you're probably getting more, uh, water and

[28:12] dale depends. If you're going to boil the, the thing that you're infusing with the, with the sugar, right, then, uh, you know, you might be killing some stuff into it, but you're probably introducing some, some spores and whatnot, some mold into it,

[28:23] and, um, you're probably also giving it more of a substrate to act

[28:28] on. So that might be one of the reasons that you're getting more spoilage. I haven't um, researched any specific, you know, mold inhibitors, although that's an interesting question. Maybe we should look into it, Stazi. But, uh, I think you're going to definitely increase the life of those things by putting them in the fridge, and I don't think that any crystallization,

[28:45] uh, definitely not on a one to one, and even on a 2 to one, I've had 2 to one in my fridge for months,

[28:50] and you know, you'll get a couple of crystals around the bottom of it, but not a huge, huge deal.

[28:55] Um, so in terms of consistency. I I don't think there's a best or a worst. There's what fits your cooking style best. We have both one to one and 2 to one around. It's all about being consistent from time to time. Right, we need to take a break, Dave. telling me. Oh. All right, so we're taking a break coming back with the last segment of cooking issues, you still have time to call in.

[29:27] on my Just hold on to that feeling. We both know we've been here before. We both know I

[29:44] can find. Hold on my heart. Because I'm looking All your shoulder. Don't rush in this time. I'm sure I'm

[30:12] my heart Throw me a lifeline I'll

[30:23] keep my place for you. Somewhere deep inside. It's all my heart. Tell her to be patient. Okay, Dave, you're on. All right, welcome back to Cookie Issues. Uh, doing it to you in 2 Time, then. in Berlin and we're in New York. Uh, so some time to call in, stop. What's number again? 718-497-2128 718-497-2128. So, uh, Jay wrote us and asked us a question about uh, protein in

[31:10] flowers and uh, and he, uh, he or she, this is Jay, referenced uh, McGee, Harold McGee.

[31:16] And so rather than answer this question, I'm just telling you, Jay, I'm going to wait because Harold McGee's actually going to come and teach a class in less than 2 weeks,

[31:23] uh, what are the dates again, Natasha? October 21st and 22nd. That's Thursday and Friday. Right. So Harold McGee is actually coming to the French culinary. All day, all day. 2 day class. He's coming to teach the Harold McGee class. We probably put something up on the blog uh in advance of it. But anyway, I'm going to be spending some quality time with him, and you can too, if you want. There are still spots. uh go to the uh FCI website. Frenchculinary.com and look for the Harold McGee lecture series. But, uh, I'm gonna spend some quality time with him and he is really up on, uh, these kinds of things and has done a lot of research. So, nostalgia, I'm going to put the, the, the protein question, uh, flour protein question down as a

[32:02] whole because I want to give Jay a better answer, uh, when we're hanging with McGee. All right. So, um, Now, uh, we have a question. Uh, let me see if I can find it. Uh, and the thing is, uh, when I cook for my, this is uh, Teddy, Teddy DeVico writes

[32:19] in, and says, when I cook for my family, my dad, do not eat salt or any food that contains salt. So I have to cook salt, uh, cook well without salt for him. I still cook for the rest of my family with salt. He does not believe that salt can make food drastically better, but I tell him it does. Why does salt makes food taste better? Uh and is there any way to make food taste good without salt? Uh, uh, by the way, Teddy does not think it is possible. Uh, so, uh, uh, you were right. it's not possible. Uh, it turns out that, uh, Tom, I don't know whether your dad, uh, dislikes salt or whether or not

[32:51] he, is, you know, one of the, you know, a few people that is actually sensitive to salt from a,

[32:56] a blood pressure, uh, situation. But, I mean, salt, sodium chloride is, uh, is 100% necessary to, uh, your survival as a human being. Okay? So you know, your neurons don't work without sodium. Like, you know, we don't work. There is no life, uh, for us without sodium, and we don't make it ourselves. We have to take it in. In fact, mammals, uh, and other things, even humans, although there's some controversy about how it

[33:23] works because, uh, no, there's some controversy. But we have what's called salt appetite. So other than thirst where you're like, I'm thirsty. I need liquid. The only other thing that works that way is salt where there's like, you have a salt, uh, apple, these mammals, dude, whether or not humans have the same kind of salt, uh, salt thing that, that, uh, primates

[33:43] do this, you know, up for questions. So salt is definitely something you need. But you don't necessarily need to sprinkle salt on things, because food that you eat naturally contains uh more or less salt, depending on what it is, naturally in the product, meats have a certain amount of salt in them, uh, because they come from

[33:58] animals and animals contain sodium. Um, but, you know, natural mineral waters contain, sometimes a good bit of salt in them, depending on which one you choose, how there's plants that grow, like, uh, for instance, uh,

[34:08] sampir, or sea beans grows on the, on the seashore, and it has so much salt in it that I don't, I don't even need to add

[34:13] salt to my salads, when I make it with that, and I like salt a lot. Uh, so, you know, definitely um, you know, you're always consuming salt. Uh, it's just a question of whether or not you add salt. So then the question is, well, um, you know, do you, do you need to add salt to food and for me, yes, you know, you do. So, for instance, the classic food that sucks without salt, it's bread, right? And so, you know, everyone in the world loves Tuscan cuisine, myself included. I love it, except for the bread, it's horrible. Right, Stasi? Come on, the bread's horrible. No, we've had this discussion. I don't mind it. It's horrible. Stasi thinks that you can sprinkle salt on Tuscan bread and all of a sudden make it real bread. I completely disagree because I have baked breads where you accidentally forget to put the salt in. How many out there does this happen to? You forget to put the salt in, and then you pray that you can make it better by adding salt. Here's why you can't, because 1st of all, salt's not throughout the dough, and 2nd of all, the salt actually affects the texture because it affects the way the gluten works. And so you'll notice that the crust on a on a saltless bread. The reason Tuscan bread looks like crap on the outside. It's that sallow looking crust is because they don't have salt. And the reason the texture is not as good is because they don't have salt. And the reason it doesn't taste good is because, can you guess why, Nastasia? It doesn't have salt. Right, because it doesn't have salt. And you can't fix those problems just by sprinkling salt on the outside. That's like rolling a turd in sequence. You know what I mean? It doesn't work. Um, Now, uh, it, you know, so another place where salt is, you know, uh, often useful, not just from a taste

[35:45] standpoint is with meats, because salt actually increases the uh, water binding capacity of meat. So the, uh, you know, when you brine something, you're actually ensuring that it's going to be juicier

[35:55] by uh, applying some salt to it uh, beforehand. So it's actually performing a functional characteristic there. Now, the vast majority of the, of the, you know, huge sodium intake. By the way, like our grand great grandparents generation ate a boatload more salt than we do because they had to eat everything preserved or had to eat more preserved things than we

[36:13] do. And in fact, they were more heavily salt and preserved meats were more heavily salted. In the old

[36:18] days than they are now because now, uh, we have, uh, refrigeration. I just read a scholarly paper. I forget what it is. I can't reference it, but they said that nothing more drastically reduced the salt intake of the

[36:28] population, uh, in general than the, than the refrigerator because now all of a sudden we didn't need to salt anymore. So this, a modern idea that we consume so much more salt now, because of processed foods

[36:39] in quotes, that, than we used to, is absurd, because salt used to be, like, everywhere. Everything was salted down to preserve it. Uh, you know, prior to the advent of, uh, refrigeration. So, uh, so we love salt because we need it. It also makes things taste delicious. you know, So, salt affects uh, 1st of all, you don't need the salt a lot. you don't need to make something salty to have the salt uh have a beneficial effect. Like, for instance, a little bit of salt and a drink, even if you can't taste the salt, it's

[37:10] gonna round out, uh, the flavors, it changes your perception of aroma. So when you add salt to a broth, it's actually changing the aroma of the broth, because it

[37:18] alters the way the volatiles are basically, like the amount of them they're captured allows things to release, the release come off and you actually get a stronger impact of volatiles in the aroma.

[37:28] Uh, you know, it tends to be synergistic, so it makes other things taste better. Uh, without even necessarily having the perception of salt, and they try to get around that by adding, uh, things like MSG, which can also increase the palatability of something without adding a lot more salt, although, uh, gram per gram, MSC adds, uh, about 13rd of

[37:47] sodium, that, uh, salt does because we usually get mono- monosodium glutamate. doesn't add as much salt per gram as, uh, uh, sorry, as much sodium per gram as salt does, and it's the sodium people are worried about, by the way. Most of the flavor comes from the sodium. The chloride is kind of usually along for the ride, right? Um, so, uh, but the other thing about MSG, even though it does have sodium, you typically would use a lot less MSG, then you would use salt because it's more

[38:13] potent. Um, so anyway, I mean, it's a long way. I've, you know, I totally answer this question. We have kind of like, but I think it all depends. Yeah, what's what's wrong with his dad, right? Like if for health reasons or if he just doesn't like salt. I mean, yeah, I mean, there's got to be some people that don't like salt. There's only like one or 2 groups of people in the world that are known to not add any salt.

[38:37] I always forget what they are. It's probably like, it's probably like some like, like Innuit culture or something like that. But again, they're eating like, you know, whale meat out of the out of the ocean. I don't even remember where they're continuing. I just made that up, but there's very few cultures in the world that don't use salt, and it's because if stuff tastes good, You know what I mean? Um, and uh, maybe I'll do some more research on it and talk about it at, at a,

[38:59] a later point. And he says on another note, what do I think of uh, Grant Agis's aviary bar? Grant Agens, uh, as most of the readers will know, is the chef at, uh, Alinia, which is a, a very, very fine restaurant. I've eaten there twice, had an extraordinary meals out there. I have not been to the bar. Is it opiate trust, you know? I have no idea, no. I do not know if it's open. I hear they've had some YouTube videos up, so maybe, maybe they are, but

[39:24] I'm sure whatever grant does is going to be good, but I just haven't, uh, tried it yet. Now, uh, yeah, one more question from, who's this one? Steve. Uh, and by the way, Steve uh, says, PS, thanks for, are talking about the issues of tall cooks. Uh, we're trying to get uh, Mark Ladner, right? Natasha uh. Well, maybe we'll, I'll just get his, why don't you get his comments separately and we'll just say what he said. How about that? That's good. Yeah. So yeah, so we can we can do that. But he's basically, he's a, he's a physicist, and he's interested in ice, and he was just talking about something really cool, which is he makes spherical lenses out of

[40:07] ice, so he can start fires outside. That's pretty cool, right? Yeah. Yeah. So basically, you know, he says that, you know, you could basically with your hands, just take a block of ice and smooth it out. Uh, you know, you know, heating it to make a decent enough sphere to light a fire, uh, using it, which is, I think that's pretty cool. Id like to try that. Um, but so you're wondering about the, the problems of making clear ice because you need clear ice to make these, these lenses. Uh, and he, um, you know, he's talking about the difficulties in

[40:39] it, and, uh, have we talked about clear ice on the radio at all, stuff here or not? I feel like we did or maybe you touched on it a little bit, but not in depth. Yeah. So basically, back in the day, uh, prior to, you know, uh, mechanical refrigeration, most ice that uh, was used in, uh, in restaurants, bars, or in ice houses, was harvested from, uh, lakes and

[41:02] rivers in the wintertime, was sawn out in big blocks, and they kept in huge insulated ice houses for use throughout the year.

[41:09] Now, the benefit of this kind of ice is, uh, that it's formed in thin layers,

[41:13] as, you know, Steve mentioned. I mean, he knows much better than I do because he's a uh, synthesis, but it forms in thin layers, and um, what happens with forming in thin

[41:21] layers, is that uh, the impurities in it, gas, and any other actual dissolved impurities, don't get integrated into

[41:28] the uh, crystal, the crystal matrix of the ice. So when you're freezing in your, in your, in your freezer, here's what happens. You have an ice cube tray, it starts to freeze on the bottom. The impurities are getting concentrated in the center as as are the dissolved gases. And then at a certain point, the top of your ice cube freezes over, and then the inside, 1st of all, expands as it freezes, because

[41:47] it expands as it freezes, and all the impurities are there, and the gas is there, and you have a big,

[41:51] like messy, you know, cloudy, you know, ball in the middle of your ice cube. You know what I'm talking about, right? Right, right, yes. Yeah, right. So that's what's happening. So lakes and lakes, that doesn't happen because you're depositing thin layers that are constantly being

[42:05] washed and the layers are built up and they're totally clear. And Steve points out, that's the same way icicles were formed, which is why icicles are also clear. So I guess you can maybe make a good lens out of that. The problem with doing it at home. is uh, is that it's just not easy, even just de-gassing your ice cube phase in a vacuum machine isn't going to necessarily, it's not going to give you clear ice because the top will freeze over as the inside expands and breaks the crystal structure and

[42:31] reforms. You'll get parts that are that are cloudy. Uh, also, um, doing it just difficult or, using the stilled water won't solve the problem. The only way to really solve it is the way that the climb belt, climb belt is the

[42:44] ice uh manufacturers that make the machines for ice carvers, right? So ice carvers require clear ice. Uh, and so, uh, bartenders just started using this, what they call it, climb bell eyes, which is very clear, and it basically works like a lake upside down.

[42:59] They make sure that the freezing happens from the bottom of the cube up, and they keep the water circulating on the top, so that the top can't freeze over, and as it's built up slowly over the course of

[43:09] a day or so, because it takes, I forget, like, between 24 and 48 hours, to freeze one of these £200 blocks and climb out, like, as it's freezing slowly up, none of the impurities are

[43:18] incorporated, and they're concentrated in the water that's on top. And at the end, they just terrain that, uh, the, the impure, crappy water off the top and they're left with a block of perfectly pure crystal ice.

[43:30] And so that's how it's made. Now, it's difficult to do at home, um, you know, unless you have like an anti-griddle and, you know, a chest freezer, but it's not something you can just kind of do in your

[43:41] freezer, but, uh, the good news is, is that, uh, you know, clear ice looks amazing, and it's the only one that you can really carve well because it, it's very easy to

[43:51] carve and it doesn't shatter. It's not really going to make your drink taste better. So that's the good news. Anyway, Stasi, how we doing on time? We're doing fine. I think we have like 2 minutes left, so say something. 2 minutes left. All right. So, so, uh, I will, you know, relay, uh, what it takes to get stopped in the Dusseldorf airport in between

[44:13] flights and have basically a full body cavity search. So yeah, don't, yeah, yeah. So don't leave your job at a cooking school after you do a demo with your folding box cutter,

[44:25] which by the way, like everyone in the world should have a folding box cutter in their pocket at all times. Like, in fact, the thing I hate most about traveling is that I can't have my folding box cutter with me unless I know where I can get blades for it.

[44:36] So anyway, I go to JFK, which is our airport in New York. I take the box cutter out of my pocket and I just card the blade and put the empty box cutter, sans blade back in my pocket because I don't feel like I'm a human being unless I have a box cutter in my

[44:48] pocket, right? So the, and you know, this probably says something bad about security in New York. I showed him the empty box cutter, I'm like, hey, it's a box cutter without a knife. What the problem? They're like, hey, right, what's the problem? Let me through. I show up in Germany and Dusseldorf, and I have to go through security again. I showed them, I was like, you know, it's got kind mess, you know, there's no, no knife in there, right? But then they took, they literally took apart everything, including my shoes, everything I own, took everything

[45:14] apart to look to see whether I had stashed a blade somewhere with my box cutter. And then they're looking through it and they see a box that I brought, so I'm doing a cocktail demonstration here where we're testing a temperature and I'm doing basically a recap of the tails of the cocktail that I did with

[45:29] Ebbing Clem, and you can go see that on our blog about the cocktail science post. So he finds this box with all these wires coming out of it and he, and he's, he's looking at me a little more than

[45:38] cross-eyed, and then, and my German, by the way, is not so good. And then after that, he, uh, he finds a, um, I'm, you know, studying organic chemistry again, boning up on it, and I have a chemical model set in my thing, and he, he sees chemistry, wires, and a dude with a box cutter, who I'm clearly disheveled, you know,

[45:59] for my flight, and so that's what it takes. That's what it takes to basically, you know, get the full smackdown in the Dusseldorf airport. So this has been your, uh, your intercontinental cooking issues episode. Thanks to Harris radio for making it happen. Thanks to Acme Fish. Thank you, Nastasia, and we'll see you next week. It's time to be patient. has

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