Taste IS Subjective.

Last week at work a customer was served a batch of onion soup that was burnt and overloaded with black pepper.

After receiving the complaint I heated up a new batch for them. Upon tasting the properly made, yes it’s tasted exactly right, they commented that it was bland and flavorless.

The active ingredient in black pepper that causes pungency is piperine. Piperine is a alkaloid that works by activating the heat and acidity sensing ion channels in pain sensing nerve cells.

What does all this mean? Well the first batch of soup gave the customers a faux heat and chemical burn on their tongues preventing them from tasting any food that followed the first batch of soup.

Why is this of importance? Well it shows that taste is not just subjective based on the diner’s culture, upbringing and past experiences but also what was in their mouth five minutes ago. So, because of this when building a multi-course meal this should be on your mind not just as a cook, but also as a diner to better enjoy your experience at whatever establishment you are patronizing.

Obviously none of this excuses the cook in question who didn’t taste his god awful soup.

I Want a Freaking Taco Truck!

Can Philadelphia please get some decent street food. The dining renaissance started by Stephen star and being continued by Garces and Vetri is wonderful, if you have a 9 to 5 and make a decent living at it. I however am a poor cook. All I want is a taco truck, like those common to Mexico city and Oakland.

I’ll even give you the formula. The truck is open for lunch. That’s it. Two cooks are hired to serve them up, and keep track of sales and forecasting. Hell, give them a bonus for sticking to your yield percentages.

On Saturday or Sunday, when the truck is closed, you stew a ridiculous amount of pork, press tortillas, pickle red onions, and prepare other garnishes that will hold for the week, so your two employees can focus on selling your tacos instead of chopping veg.

That’s it, you serve one thing, you do it really, really well, and I come by for lunch everyday.

Someone just do it already.

Inspiration

I stumbled upon a beautiful picture of pistachios I took when I was testing out my new iPhone.  I feel inspired to use them just from the picture.

Mayonnaise

Having always been interested in food writing, about a week ago I asked a good friend of mine to throw me out a topic for discussion if I was to ever create a food blog. She replied “mayonnaise”. I’m sure the topic has been done to death, so can I realistically add valuable new content and perspective to the favorite sandwich emulsion? Well thats really for you to judge isn’t it? I will write about it because frankly I enjoy food, writing an mayo.

Mayonnaise

Now I could go into the history and competing stories of it’s invention, but those are much better left to wikipedia. What really interests me about mayo is it’s similarity, and differences, to my favorite of classical sauces, hollandaise.

What makes the two emulsions different? They are both emulsions of egg yolks and oil and flavored with acids in the form of vinegar and lemon juice. Mayonnaise however will not break and hollandaise is only stable in a narrow range of temperature, which coincidentally, is the best temperature range for growing harmful bacteria.

Hollandaise has two major differences. First, the emulsifying agent, egg yolks, are cooked while they are whipped to incorporate air. This creates a lighter, “fluffier” texture than mayonnaise has. Second, the fat is butter. Butter gives hollandaise a wonderful buttery (imagine that) flavor, but is composed of several fats that freeze at different temperatures. Both of these result in a sauce that breaks easily.

Many, more talented chefs, before me have created hollandaise flavored mayos. I’m not treading on new ground here. My goal is discovery, exploration and inspiration for their own sakes. What I have been wondering is how different oils will change the consistency of mayonnaise. Can I use bacon fat? Can I treat an oil like a stock and give it several flavors, then make a mayonnaise out of that oil. Prevailing wisdom say I can, but what are the limits?