Vinegar in Re: [Sca-cooks] Tart crusts

[Generys ferch Ednuyed]

Well, maybe if you used either frozen forks, or a frozen pastry cutter,
you'd get the dough colder in initial blending? Do you have a marble you can
chill (I scored one for half price, and I **love** it... ) ?  OOh, I just
had an idea - don't know if this would work or not, but what if you got
gloves? Like a new, clean pair of those heavy latex dishwashing gloves? Not
only could you chill those slightly before wearing them, but it'd insulate
the crust from your warm hands?
Just thinking out loud,

Generys who has cold hands anyway, but puts them in cold water for a minute
before playing with pastry...


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Sasso" <NJSasso at msplaw.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 10:04 AM
Subject: Vinegar in Re: [Sca-cooks] Tart crusts


| ----- 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
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