[Sca-cooks] Herbed Baked Goat Cheese Salad recipe

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

>>         I'm curious - why would they have you roll the cheese into 
>> balls, coat it, then flatten it back into disks?  Most goat cheese 
>> I've seen has been in cylinders, so why not just cut disks and coat 
>> them without rolling into balls?  It seems to me it would be easier 
>> and allow for more even coating.
>>
>> Sandra
>>
> My guess is to get some of the excess moisture worked out of the 
> cheese and, perhaps, to make it clear to some folks that if it goes 
> out of shape as a flat disk, that is ok.  That sounds silly I know, 
> but many people are not advanced cooks and take literal interpretation 
> of recipes.  If the recipe read "slice roll into 12 disks then roll in 
> herbs and then into melba crumbs..." and if the disks went out of 
> shape (it is easier to roll a ball that a disk) into a ball shape then 
> would they know to flatten the ball back into a disK?


Actually, I think it's for aesthetic reasons.  I've made patties of goat 
cheese coated in glazed pecans.  When I sliced it, as you might imagine, 
it made a very hard-edged disk rather than a pretty little patty.  I 
tried to manipulate it to tidy it up, and it crumbled.  It was also hard 
to coat the edges with the pecans without the patty breaking.  Not at 
all the attractive presentation I've seen in restaurants.  I think the 
squashed ball method will be much more effective.

-Magdalena

-- 
Tara Sersen Boroson

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it for himself. - Galileo Galilei