Ask the A2K cooks!

Of course! I didn't think of that. Here I go again with my Northern-Hemisphere bias.

Not to worry, Thomas.
It's been so hot & oppressive in your neck of the woods I'm not at all surprised your thoughts turned to sorbet.
Anyway, it's the thought that counts, yes?

I bought white currants from a local farmers' market. They are absolutely stunning. I popped one in my mouth on the way to the car and had to spit it out. VERY tart and the few seeds in each one seem to take up most of the space inside the skin (little flesh). They have a crisp, but mild flavor. What do I do with them beside photograph them (which I have already done)?

eat them! i love love love currants -red, black or white.

mom also makes preserves - boils them with some sugar and spices which is a nice accompaniment (eh...) to meat dishes with cream sauce.... slovak stuff. would be nice with oatmeal too, i'd imagine.

third use is to use with berries in some simple sponge cake - always a good idea, with any fruit.

But it's wicked tart!

Lips puckering as I read.

Sorry, k, I don't have any brilliant ideas. (apart from lots of sugar/honey in whatever you do with them!)

Neat picture.
Plain yogurt, drizzled with honey, and your tartants.

The only thing I can bear thinking of in this heat (90F, 70% humidity) is: Make ice cream (sorbet). Of course, that destroys the texture.

In my old country, there are two standard usages of currants. One is to make cake: Swabian Traeubleskuchen consists of a short crust with a mixture of beaten egg whites, sugar, and currants on top. But you'd have to bear the thought of baking in this heat. The other standard usage is to simply add some of them to your Rumtopf. That changes their flavor, obviously, but it kind of preserves their texture so you can enjoy it in winter. The sour currants nicely counterbalance the Rumtopf's sugar.

mmmhhh, I love currants too! Ate so much of them in Germany - currant jam,
with sugar, with cream, currant pie....

Currants are very much an acquired taste.

The hamburgers always grew red and black currants. Invariably, some neighbour would get curious while we were harvesting and want to try some. Very few liked them. One became quite angry with hamburgboy for trying to slip her some medicine

ya notice the Germans and the Slovak telling you that they're edible - well, they might be if you grew up with them - and even then ... mebbe not

I think they're tolerable as a very minor note cooked/stewed with other deeply coloured berries.

Getting the seeds out of the stewed fruit is quite a project.

Oops---I noticed K's usage of the word "tart" and nodded approvingly while skipping over the part about her having to spit it out. More sensitive readers than myself would have taken this as a hint that she might not have liked the tartness. (Americans---pffft!)

Well, that definitely rules out the sorbet. I'd give the cake a chance because the baking and the sugar mellows the currants' acicity. And since littlek was concerned that high dosages of sugar may make her Rumtopf too sweet, a handfull of the currents would seem to be just the ticket.

currants in rumpot - yes! Do I split them? Seed them? Throw them in whole?

You just throw them in and let the osmotic pressure pull the juice into the rum.

A question about cooking corned beef (which I'm about to start doing any minute, using the slow cooker) ...
Why does every recipe for corned beef include (brown) sugar?
Is it for taste purposes, or does it serve some particular function?

Oh & another question, if it's OK ...
About saffron threads. Do they have a "use-by" date? I've had some in an air-tight container for quite a while, so I was wondering ...

Here's an Alton Brown Good Eats episode on how to corn your own corned beef. The sugar is usually used in the brine not the cooking process. He explains all the science behind his recipe.





Here's his recipe:

Corned Beef

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2007

Prep Time:
20 min
Inactive Prep Time:
240 hr 0 min
Cook Time:
3 hr 0 min

Level:
Easy

Serves:
6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

* 2 quarts water
* 1 cup kosher salt
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons saltpeter
* 1 cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces
* 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
* 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
* 8 whole cloves
* 8 whole allspice berries
* 12 whole juniper berries
* 2 bay leaves, crumbled
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 2 pounds ice
* 1 (4 to 5 pound) beef brisket, trimmed
* 1 small onion, quartered
* 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
* 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped

Directions

Place the water into a large 6 to 8 quart stockpot along with salt, sugar, saltpeter, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, bay leaves and ginger. Cook over high heat until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the ice. Stir until the ice has melted. If necessary, place the brine into the refrigerator until it reaches a temperature of 45 degrees F. Once it has cooled, place the brisket in a 2-gallon zip top bag and add the brine. Seal and lay flat inside a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for 10 days. Check daily to make sure the beef is completely submerged and stir the brine.

After 10 days, remove from the brine and rinse well under cool water. Place the brisket into a pot just large enough to hold the meat, add the onion, carrot and celery and cover with water by 1-inch. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and gently simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is fork tender. Remove from the pot and thinly slice across the grain.

damn. that sounds really good...

my yogi says no beef at all anymore.

(not even in the pickanick basket)

I make pot roast once in a while. It always smells good and tastes good. The problem is that the meat is always tough. I mean always. I've tried more cooking time. Less cooking time. Slicing against the grain. Slice with the grain. I even tried meat tenderizer.

Nothing works. I'd appreciate suggestions.

Meat tenderizers dont work except to turn the meat mushy. Stuff like Bromelain or papain can make a mess out of a piece of tougher beef.
SCid marinades work at first by unwinding the ribon protein and then, if mqrinating too long, the meat actually gets touger because all the unwound ribbon just collects and adheres to eah other in a tough knot.

Cooks in the south use buttermilk for a reason. Indian cooks use a lot of yogurt to tenderize goat.
SO, , as I understand, a dairy like buttermilk will release calcium which causes the meats own enzymes to come forward and tenderize the chunk.
A piece of beef , (I once wrote a chapter ina book and dictated it. IT was on industrial PCB's. The editor changed the PCB references to "Piece of Beef", and then asked me what that had to do with anything)


Keep your buttermilk or yogurt (No pina colada please) as a marinade with a little lemon and spices and this will do a better job than tenderizers or wine baths

A marinade couldn't hurt. I would also cook it in a slow (200-250 F) oven where the heat is gentler than simmering on the top of the stove.

Good suggestions, I like the buttermilk concept, and, yes, re low oven temps.