They Ain’t What They Used to Be
Reader Michael writes: We were sitting around talking about why pastries from bakeries are nowhere near as good as they used to be. It came to me that it may have something to do with lard vs...
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Th Kitchen Yeast Myth
Lots and lots of preferment and starter questions these days as industrious home bakers gear up to make Christmas panettone, stollen and other festive breads. One question keeps recurring and it is:...
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Good Lard is Where You Find It
There’s a lot of lard on the average hog, though admittedly not nearly as much as there used to be. Demand for leaner and leaner pork over the years has yielded pigs with less fat on them than your...
View ArticleHow important is “premium” butter in laminated dough?
That question from reader Lee, and I'm glad he asked. I'm not normally one to get all choosy with ingredients. As I've said many times before — often to my detriment in terms of reader feedback —...
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Conflict Resolution in Woody Woodpecker
Not being much of a fan of The Powerpuff Girls or My Little Pony (apologies to any bronies in the audience), I feed the girls on a steady diet of classic cartoons come Saturday morning. Looney Tunes...
View ArticleGeeks’ Corner: The Miracle of Xanthan Gum
I just had to pull the Joe Pastry train off to the side tracks for a moment to extoll the virtues of a truly amazing ingredient: xanthan gum. Oh sure, people demonize it, but usually without bothering...
View ArticlePastry Cream Conundrum
Reader Helen writes with a very interesting problem: I’ve had a pastry cream disaster that remains a mystery to me. I’ve been making it with no problems for a long time. Just made 4 batches 2 weeks...
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Pre- and Proto-Puddings
The word "pudding", it's thought, comes down to us from the Latin word botellus which basically means "sausage." Boudin is how the word occurs now in French. Pudim is the Portuguese version, pudín the...
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Making Bialys
Bialys back in their turn-of-the-century heyday in Bialystok, Poland were very large, very flat affairs covered from one side to the other with chopped onion. After a few decades in New York bialys...
View ArticleWhat are amaretti?
Some people call them cookies, these days it's hip to refer to them as "macarons", but really they're little almond meringues that are flavored with almond. Macaroons is probably more like it. I first...
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