[Sca-cooks] 15th C. Ottoman Bulghur w/Chestnuts
Lilinah
lilinah at earthlink.net
Thu Sep 20 18:23:44 PDT 2007
Katira wrote:
>That made me laugh! Sometimes the simplest thing gets the most incredible
>praise. I fixed plain scrambled eggs and had someone ask me what I had done
>to make the best scrambled eggs she had ever tasted. The secret was just a
>little water to lighten them up, just like my mom used to do. I also
>sometimes use milk or cream or sour cream but plain water does the job too.
Personally, what one cooks eggs in makes a difference, too.
At many if not most ordinary restaurants these days, they use
butter-flavored oil. This does not taste like butter. It tastes like
artificial flavor and it's nasty (in my opinion, of course; others
may like the taste).
At home, many people use margarine. That, too, is artificially
flavored, besides often having an unpleasant "mouth feel".
Then there are vegetable oils, which in the US are pretty denatured
and often rather tasteless. Better i suppose than artificial flavor,
but certainly doesn't add to the flavor of the eggs. And an awful lot
of people, at least those whose kitchens i've been in, keep their
vegetable oil on the counter, often near the stove, where it becomes
rancid. But if one doesn't realize that's rancid, one may think
that's how it's supposed to taste.
Or maybe they're used to "Pam"-like spray-on pan lubricants and/or
non-stick pans (which do "leak" into the foods).
So if someone has mostly been eating eggs cooked in any of the above
and you used real butter or a good quality fresh oil, they may have
noticed an improvement in flavor.
And, to keep on yakking, i won't eat at the local Denny's (can't
speak for others, since i won't eat there) because the eggs taste
unpleasant - i know it's the eggs themselves because i can taste the
not-fresh artificially butter flavored oil separately.
So if you used good eggs, and your guest was used to lesser quality
eggs, that, too, could make a difference.
As i said in a previous long message, the quality of the ingredients
makes a difference, and the quality stands out especially in simple
dishes where there aren't a lot of additional ingredients.
Running off at the keyboard again,
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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