Tuesday, September 25, 2012
9/25: Week 4 Stocks, Sauces and Dressings
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. This week we learned the processes behind making several kinds of stocks, sauces, and dressings. We learned about emulsions and the units made us three kinds of dressings to show us the different types of emulsions (temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent). We also made butter, mayonnaise, and cooked salad dressing (like Miracle Whip) as more examples of permanent emulsions. Most of this lab was tasting the differences between several commercial and homemade products like hollandaise sauce, marinara, espagnole, and chicken veloute. Next week we'll be doing a lab all about starches. There will be a wide variety of foods made, so come hungry!
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Today we made different sauces and stocks. My favorite had to be the blender hallandaise sauce because it had the best texture and taste. Also I realized the noticable different between canned tomato sauce and homemade. I now prefer homemade because the canned was very sugary and garlicy tasting.
ReplyDeleteKayleigh Palmer
It was interesting to see how many things can be made in our lab at one time! We had everything from mayonnaise to new england clam chowder. My unit made a commercial hollandaise sauce using a mix and then we made hollandaise sauce in a blender using egg yolks. When making the blender version, we accidentally spilled the clarified butter and had to improvise with another version of the butter with the help of Chef. It actually turned out great!! I learned that improvising in the kitchen can lead to great things- what a happy accident!
ReplyDelete-Barbara Trunk
In making the sauces and stocks today, I was surprised at how straight forward it was to make salad dressings. My group made the creamy italian dressing and it was very simple to make with everyday ingredients. I was also surprised by how much of a difference there was between the commercial sauces and the homemade sauces. I noticed a big difference especially when tasting the marinara sauces. While the homemade one was smooth, creamy, and full of flavor, the commercial marinara sauce didn't compare taste or texture wise to the homemade sauce.
ReplyDeleteLindsey O'Neill
Today my group cooked salad dressing by adding flour, water, egg, vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, salt, mustard, and oil together. However, what I learned was that although these ingredients may combine to make a tasty sauce, how these ingredients are combined affects the taste, texture, and color of the concoction. My group mistakenly added all of the ingredients together at once into the pan of boiled flour and water, instead of adding each ingredient individually. When making a cooked sauce, it is important to add each ingredient individually so that they can disperse evenly throughout the mixture. Once the product is stirred until smooth, then you can add another ingredient and mix it until that product is smooth. The continuous stirring and smoothing of the mixture and slow addition of the ingredients is one factor in what helps the final product become an aesthetically pleasing salad dressing.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Morgenstern
I enjoyed this lab because I liked how we were able to make our own product, and then compare it to the commercial product. It was interesting to analyze the differences of texture, colors, and most importantly flavor between each product. The unit who made the homemade marinara did an awesome job! It had great texture and in my opinion better flavor than the commercial product. Also, although my unit did not make a salad dressing, I never realized how easy it is to actually do. The next time I have salad at a meal I am planning to use one of the recipes from the lab manual!
ReplyDeleteCassandra Raugh. Nutr 120. Section 002. Unit 002
ReplyDeleteToday's lab was interesting. I always tell my group that I have no experience whatsoever in the kitchen. Right now with as much as I work, I either eat cliff bars on the go or grab n go. So this class is a whole different experience for me. My group made butter today out of heavy whipping cream. Who knows why I didn't know that whipping heavy cream at a high speed made butter, but I didn't. So to see my group member whipping this cream, seeing the thin water layer start to pull from the solids, and then actually taste the butter on the bread in class was pretty neat. I ended up eating the majority of the butter for my group and then more back in the kitchen. Who doesn't love some good home made butter. Definitely something I'll use in the future. So this was the highlight of my lab and overall learning experience today. I also loved the soups and all of the homemade soups tasted way better than the commercially prepared soups. I'm missing out by always eating on the go with this stuff!
Today's lab surprised me. I normally do not like salad dressings. In fact, I'd rather eat salad plain than have anything on it because I am that picky when it comes to dressings. Today, however, I decided to try all of the salad dressings. Lo and behold, I liked every single one of them- even the creamy ones that normally gross me out because of the thick texture. This lab also confirmed what I already knew when it comes to my preference for sauces. Being Italian, I am used to my family members making homemade marinara sauce every Sunday. So, I obviously disliked the canned version and loved the homemade one. I was rather surprised, however, how quickly sauce can be made considering I am used to my family members making it an all-day event. The only products that we made that I really did not like were the different hollandaise sauces and the soups. I did not care for the hollandaise sauces because I am not a huge fan of eggs. On the other hand, I think I would have liked the soups, but the potatoes were raw. So, that was a little disappointing to me. Overall, though, I really liked everything we made today, and I am willing to try new things to be surprised by even more foods that I thought I didn't like.
ReplyDeleteIn lab today, my unit and I made a creamy Italian salad dressing by mixing vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano with oil in a blender. I was surprised by how simple it was to make and how much it looked like a creamy Italian dressing you might get served in a restaurant. Before we made it, I also didn't believe that it would be able to look and taste creamy without any dairy and taste just as good as a store bought brand with so many fewer ingredients. I'd never made salad dressing before, so I'm really glad we did this lab to see how easy it is. I can't wait to experiment at home by trying different herbs or a different kind of vinegar.
ReplyDeleteLab today was so fun! My unit got to make a Semi-Permanent Emulsion of Creamy Italian salad dressing. We finished pretty quick since we had already had a demonstration earlier from Chef Branstetter. Tasting it was the best part! If I had a salad dressing as good as the one we made today, I will eat salads everyday! I learned also that most of the sauces, (i.e. hollandaise) are better off homemade than commercially made. Overall great lab!
ReplyDeleteI was really glad I had the opportunity to be able experience this lab. It was good for be to be able to try all of the different types of sauces made, because I have never tried any of the sauces before, with the exception of tomato sauce. I was most surprised by how much I enjoyed the hollandaise sauce because seeing the list of ingredients that were mixed to make this sauce made me wary. It was also interesting to find out that I enjoyed the homemade tomato sauce and espagnole sauce better than the commercial sauces. But at the same time I enjoyed the commercial made hollandaise sauce better than the homemade.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Albert
In todays lab, I learned so much about creating new dressings. My unit made the Hollandaise dressing which was really good and didn't expect to like it as much as I did while cooking. Overall my favorite sauce that I tasted was the homemade marinara sauce. It had perfect texture and was totally different from the other sauces. This was by far the best lab and I enjoyed tasting all of the sauces!
ReplyDeleteMy group was in charge of making the hollandaise sauce. We prepared the commercial version and blender version. We were uncertain how the blender version would turn out but we ended up doing a great job! I had never tried hollandaise sauce before so it was great to have the opportunity to. The blender version turned out great but I enjoyed the taste of the commercial version much more. I also got to try a lot of other foods I never have before, like the Manhattan Clam Chowder and the New England Clam Chowder. Everyone did a great job with their recipes and everything was delicious!
ReplyDelete-Paige Edwards
This week, my group worked on making Marinara Sauce. I had no idea how difficult this could be with seasoning and getting the correct flavor into the sauce. It was a very interesting project and intense with finishing it on time. In the end, the sauce did turn out okay and it was a fun project. I also enjoyed trying all the other dressings and sauces made, especially the clam-chowders. A very fun week!
ReplyDelete~Kevin Welsh~
On Wednesday, my group made New England Clam Chowder. For such a simple recipe it tasted pretty delicious. I would rather take the time to make this myself than buy Campbells or Pregresso
ReplyDeleteThis week our group was responsible for making blended mayonnaise. I thought it turned out very well, and I was informed that one student enjoyed it so much that she had a whole spoonful of it. Our group was honored. Everyone else did a great job as well. My personal favorites were the Veloutte and New England clam chowder.
ReplyDeleteToday's lab was pretty interesting to say the least. My group was in charge of creating homemade Espangole from scratch and comparing it to a commercial product, which ended up being gravy. It came out really well and was EXTREMELY simple to make.
ReplyDeleteEveryone else's lab results blew the comparison away. Flavor was robust and it felt like a person created it and not a "machine".
Corbin Rogers
I have been hounding myself to make my own dressing for forever now. I would rather prepare something from scratch than go out and buy it, given reasonable time constraints. And dressing are beyond reasonable. After yesterday's lab, I am kicking myself in the butt for not doing it yet. The only problem is, I see some dressing chilling at the grocery store and I just want it because it sounds soooo good. So now I have too many dressings, maybe more than pairs of shoes.. But probably not.
ReplyDeleteAs for the other recipes presented in lab, I wasn't really surprised that I typically favored the 'from scratch' version of each thing, except the tomato sauce. I still very much liked fresh tomato sauce but it was more like a soup to me, I much more preferred the commercial tomato sauce because of its texture and thickness.
Kayla Meier
This session of lab has really been amazing. It was definitely my first time cooking something which I could not even pronounce properly. My group made the Espagnole and it turned out better than we expected. Due to time constrain, we had to cut down our cooking time which would ultimately affect the final product because the sauce would not have sufficient time to thicken. However, upon putting them in the respective bowls and leaving it on the counter, it thicken by itself and it tasted really good (to me at least)
ReplyDeleteWe also prepared a commercial beef broth which seriously smelled and tasted a lot like junk and as one of my groups member said, "it looks like dog food!" Seriously, I'm not going to deny that at all but we still had to serve them and apparently nobody touched that either ;)
I'm glad my group and I had the chance to cook and make this sauce possible.
- Jessica Ng
I am so glad I learned how to make such a delicious homemade salad dressing in lab this week. It's something I have thought about a million times, but never got around to doing. I will definitely be using this recipe frequently, its so easy! And might even experiment with different ingredients and create my own recipe!
ReplyDeleteRachel Benowich
I found the homemade salad dressing to be really good. It was really easy to prepare and something that I would love to make at home. I also thought it was really interesting when we made the hollandaise sauce too. I could not believe how quickly the one hollandaise sauce separated and it was very horrible once it had hit that point. I also wound up liking the commercial sauce better than the homemade one. I find it very interesting that I would like that one better when you natural inclination is to think that you would like the homemade one.
ReplyDeleteI liked the atmosphere of this lab A LOT! Even though it's still only September, for some reason I was transported to Thanksgiving Day. I guess it was a combination of all the rich smells, the bustle, and using an ancient beater (like my grandma's) to make the butter. It was nice. :)
ReplyDeleteI also discovered during this lab that I don't like Hollandaise sauce! But the Espagnole and tomato sauces made in the lab came out great! Thanks for everyone's hard work!
I had a lot of fun in this past week's lab. I liked the fact that we did more in the kitchen today, because I love to cook! My group made the Manhattan Clam Chowder. I've never had it before, but I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed it after we made it!
ReplyDeleteIt was also really nice being able to try everything that we made, especially since it was more of a variety than the previous few weeks.
I do feel like I'm learning techniques, even though I consider myself a good cook. I'm curious what we will do this Tuesday!
This lab gave me the opportunity to try sauces, stocks, and dressings that I have never tried before because I didn't think that I would like them. Surprisingly I found that I like homemade Hollandaise sauce, homemade Italian dressing, Espangnole, and Manhattan clam chowder. The homemade butter was very good as well. I refused to try the mayonnaise because I absolutely despise it. It was my units job to make the classic Hollandaise sauce. During the first attempt we made an error because we took to long to add the water to the bowl of whisked egg yolk so the egg was turning into scrambled eggs. Another error we made was that the bowl placed over the pot of bowling water was touching the water which probably contributed to the fast cooking of the egg. With a little help from the instructor, the second attempt of making the sauce was very successful. This lab definitely taught to me to have patience when cooking.
ReplyDelete-Sabrina Stewart, 120
I enjoyed this lab because it taught me how to make a vinaigrette. I always wanted to try making one but never quite found a recipe that I seemed to enjoy. I will definitely be making this from now on! I want to experiment with different vinegar as well.
ReplyDeleteThis week, I realized how easy and delicious it can be to make items that my household commonly buys prepared. The dressing was particularly delicious, and so easy that I don't see myself ever buying dressing in a container again. I'm always interested in how to be environmentally conscious in the kitchen, and if I can avoid using the wasteful packages of dressings and other sauces with such minimal effort, I'll feel good about my food and its reduced impact on the environment.
ReplyDeleteThis week we make stir fry vegetable, I love it, it looks good and tast good.
ReplyDeleteI learned that we as a society tend to gravitate to the already prepackaged condiments and foods that we would assume to be hard or impossible to make on our own. After lab I realized that this is not true and that it is rather easy to make some of these condiments (sometimes under 30 minutes!). These condiments also taste a lot better when they are made fresh than when you get it from the package.
ReplyDeleteI had always made my own balsamic vinegar dressing but now I know several tricks to use so that I don't have to shake it every time! I also learned how easy it is to make different dressings, dips and sauces and how much better it is to make your own because then you can control the ingredients that you add (salt,sugar,etc.). Most of the stuff we made tasted better than the commercial brand too. I liked how we were able to use fresh ingredients and didn't have to worry about preserves since we were eating it right away!
ReplyDeleteThis lab was very interesting and new for me! My unit made Manhattan Clam Chowder and I never knew there was any other clam chowder besides New England. I initially was opposed to trying it because I am not a fan of New England Chowder. As we made the chowder, I came to realize that it was not nearly as thick as the other kind and it looked more like a stew. I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out and it was delicious! I also found the Bouquet Garni to be such a neat way to add the herbs and spices without having big bay leaves floating around in the chowder.
ReplyDeleteMy mom loves to make stir fry chicken at home and, I hate to say it, but something is always wrong. The sauce is just never thick enough and my family always complains why the chicken and vegetables are not soaked in a more gel-like sauce. Today I have finally figured out the answer to this question that has been haunting my family for years because of this lab. The reason for why my mother's concoction of soy sauce is very thin is because she does not slurry the sauce before mixing it in with the other ingredients. Instead she just pours soy sauce over the cooked vegetables and serves it. Now, for the next time she or I makes it, I will know that the proper way to geletanize the sauce and make it thicker is to slurry it.
ReplyDeleteI found the salad dressings particularly interesting today in lab. Previously I had thought that homemade salad dressings were just a mixture of oil and herbs and did not take into account how it is mixed. I had always wondered why my aunt's homemade salad dressings separated after a while of sitting into two layers. Now I understand that if you mix the ingredients in a mixer and add the oil slowly this can actually make the mixture permanent. Personally this would make salad dressing more appealing when used the next day because it would not have the separation of layers, one looking like a thick fat layer. In addition, I have several herbs in my herb cabinet like Herb de Province which I do not use often, but would like to experiment with in an salad dressing. If I use an herb like this I may be able to spread the flavor around better than before. Overall, I found it very interesting that by simply blending and adding slowly can change the whole state of the dressing and in my opinion maybe even taste better.
ReplyDeleteThis week my group made Hollandaise sauce. I thought it was delicious compared to the commercial Hollandaise sauce! I was shocked to know there was a difference between temporary and permanent emulsions, like salad dressings. My mom makes an Italian salad dressing at home that you constantly have to shake up, but maybe I can show her how to make it a permanent emulsion so she won't have to shake it up as much. I really enjoyed this lab because I learned a couple new things and I love to try homemade foods.
ReplyDeleteYvonne DeLancett
This week my group made New England Clam Chowder. I was shocked at how easy it was to prepare! And it tasted delicious! I'm certainly not buying canned New England Clam Chowder ever again. I can't wait to learn how to make more fresh soups as well as other great meals.
ReplyDelete-Emma Beidler
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ReplyDeleteMy group made Hollandaise sauce. I could not believe how easy it was! I took us only a few minutes to make. I was shocked that a sauce so tasty could be so simple. I will make sure to make this again next time I make eggs benedict!
ReplyDelete(Sorry I had to submit this comment today but I was having trouble submitting comments and had get Susan Becker's email to figure out what was wrong with my computer- fortunately two of my classmates helped me after class and I was able to figure it out. I hope this is okay!)