Vinegar in Re: [Sca-cooks] Tart crusts

[Nick Sasso]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Generys ferch Ednuyed" <generys at blazemail.com>

> I use vinegar in pie crusts too...I read somewhere that it makes
them
> flakier, so I started doing it (it doesn't change the flavor).  I
haven't
> actually tested it to see if indeed it *does* make them flakier, but
when I
> read it it made sense (the vinegar inhibited gluten formation,
IIRC)...
> Generys

In the ongoing battle between Flaky and Tender in pastry, vinegar
enhances the tender portion of the program, I believe.  Flaky is
enhanced by the little pockets of steam that release from chunks of
butter trapped in the dough/gluten layers.  Gluten should help the
flakiness by trapping the steam, but inhibits the tenderness as it is
rather stiff.  Shirley O'Corrigher and Alton Brown both do pieces on it
in "Cookwise" and TV show episode respectively.

It really is a Zen sort of thing:  the quest to find the balance and
know the tools to move the balance to where one wants it.  I just want
to make a crust that isn't flaky cardboard :o(  Hot hands, and fingers,
have made pastry a real challenge for me when I don't want to go to the
Pilsbury boxed stuff.

pacem et bonum,
niccolo difrancesco