SC - Art/Sci results

[Mike Young]

"Alderton, Philippa" wrote:
> 
> Awright, A, please explain the "monter au beurre" technique. The way you're
> describing it, I might actually LIKE real Alfredo- the versions I've had in
> the states rather remind me of wallpaper paste, and considering I really
> like pasta, butter, and cheeses, I think I'd like this.
> 
> Phlip

Awright, I will. You know (collectively, not necessarily personally;
this _is_ a mailing list) those Elizabethan recipes that speak of
beating in a piece of butter, usually to finish a sauce by adding some
body and/or thickness? That's basically what we're talking about.

In English the term would be "mounting with butter", and it refers to a
specific way of melting it, a little at a time, so that the fat and
water/milk solid phases of the butter remain in an emulsified state. The
safest method is to have a saute pan or sauce pan with your sauce in it,
and place a small piece (start with maybe 1/2 a teaspoon), and swirl it
around, either with a tool of some kind, or just by swirling the pan, so
that, as the butter melts, it mixes into the sauce. When the first piece
melts and incorporates completely, you add another, and repeat, until
the sauce is as thick as you want it to be. In theory you can get water
or other liquid with enough butter melted in to be about as thick as
mayonnaise. Professional chefs (who are often insane, in my experience)
tend to simply add several gigantic chunks of cold butter to a boiling
sauce and stir until it is incorporated. It works, most of the time, and
is much faster, but I wouldn't recommend the technique for anyone
lacking experience and confidence, until you've done it the hard way a
few times first.

This basic technique is pretty much what's used to make the classic
traditional Loire Valley fish sauce, beurre blanc, and other stuff like
beurre rouge (butter in a red wine reduction) and real English melted
butter sauce, from back in the days before it was all flour-thickened nastiness.

For Fettucine Alfredo, the _hot_, freshly cooked pasta is put in a
mixing bowl _before_ all the sub-boiling water has drained off it, and
the pasta is tossed with [much] slightly softened butter, and finally,
finely grated parmaggiano cheese. Salt is optional, depending on how
much was added to your cooking water; pepper is nice too. The real trick
of getting just the right amount of hot water in the bowl to keep the
butter from melting into grease and water, and the other trick of not
going to answer the phone, chase a dog (sorry, Phlip, I know you too
well) or anything else in the midst of tossing the pasta and forming the
sauce is something acquired by experience.

The overall quality of the dish is as good as the quality of the
ingredients, generally. You need decent butter to pull this one off, and
I would strongly advise against using Romano cheese instead of Parmaggiano.

It will, of course, raise your cholesterol count by about 30 points for
a while after eating the stuff.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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