[Sca-cooks] More on Creme Brulee

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Nicolas Steenhout wrote:
>
> Ruadh,
>
> Thank you for the URL's.
>
> I must be daft, or extrmely sheltered...  Most of these sites actually use
> cream in their Brulee, brown sugar as a crust, and no starch at all for
> thickening.  I can honestly say that in 15 years of cooking professionally,
> including in some fairly "high range" places, I've never come accross it
> prepared that way.

I've never encountered it with any type of starch (I remember your
earlier reference to creme patissiere causing me to raise the eyebrows a
bit), although I've seen numerous written references to using brown
sugar, even though I've never used anything but granulated white sugar.
Has anybody mentioned, BTW, that large cremes brulee can be browned in
the broiler (association via the salamander, originally a hot iron plate
used for exactly this type of job, now an eye-level, wall-mounted grill
or broiler), and that the sugar should form a caramelized, crackling
candy finish that cracks when you tap it with your spoon?

> I have ordered it a couple times and found it entirely too liquid, come to
> think of it, it was likely prepared this way.

Thickness is an issue of properly cooking the custard, in many cases
(issues include both proportions and temperature), but another
possibility is that a perfectly cooked, almost gelid, delicate custard
can curdle and break while the "brulleeing" part is done. And yes,
adding starch will, to some extent, alleviate this problem, but cooking
it perfectly will, as well, and the final product is much more delicate.

> Perhaps just a question of how one is used to it.  Dunno.  <shrug>  I'll
> stick to what I know in this case (which is not to say I won't try new
> stuff :-} )

I figure, I know almost nothing, so the thing to do is try almost
everything. But then I was only a professional cook for _10_ years ;  ).
Although I may conceivably have collected some extra combat pay in those
fewer years. Hard to say, though.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98