[Sca-cooks] Favorite Healthy period dishes, recent study on vitamin absorption

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Mon Aug 14 14:42:52 PDT 2006


On Aug 14, 2006, at 4:53 PM, grizly wrote:

> There is a certain gelatin release going on here as well, when you  
> consider
> the your beef and the number of birdies that are being cooked in this
> recipe.

True, especially in the case of recipes calling for certain cuts of  
beef or veal (i.e. shoulder, shank, etc.)

> The dense fat and gelatin would tend to generate a certain texture
> that would be like a really dense sausage/forcemeat, I would  
> think.  The
> gelatin and fat rendered from the birds would surely add caloric  
> intake, but
> more importantly, mouthfeel.  That rich, decadent mouth texture is  
> hard to
> replicate when pulling the marrow and suet out.  It can be done,  
> but it
> takes an effort if one is looking to recreate the same dish without  
> the fat.
> The yolks, if smashed, would tend to be emulsifiers and binders  
> along with
> the other stuffe.
>
> What do you use currently to maintain the textural similarity in  
> this or
> other dishes, or is that taken as an accepted change as a result of  
> fat
> decrease? (asking to gather info and not as a challenge to the  
> practice)

You're asking me, right? ;-)

I'd cut down the fat to somewhere near 10%, make sure the meat is  
chopped and not ground, and either include some high-connective- 
tissue meat like chuck or shank meat (some late recipes might  
advocate something like a boned-out pig's foot, boiled and chopped).  
Maybe in a pinch I'd add a concentrated, salt-free stock or other  
gelatin source (this is apparently a Shanghainese trick for dumpling  
fillings -- boil your meat with a piece of skin -- this would be  
pork, of course -- take the meat out when it's tender, cool, chop,  
reserve, and add it back to the stock which you have continued to  
cook down to a small amount of gelatin).

But, again, I wouldn't see any of this, and certainly not simply  
leaving stuff out, as not changing the recipe, until I had  
established why they were there and what they were supposed to do.

Adamantius


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