Welcome to Collected Wisdom's gourmet kitchen, where we're busy working on our favourite recipe – cook au vin. In other words, if you're the cook, drink enough wine and you won't give a damn what the food tastes like.
THE QUESTION: Why is vanilla (or other flavouring) the last ingredient that recipes specify is to be stirred into the mixture? Carol Olchowski of Ottawa wants to know.
THE ANSWER: “In the case of vanilla extract, it is added at the end because the extract is made using alcohol and direct heat could cause evaporation,” writes Alexandra Turnbull of Toronto, who has an MA in food studies.
But vanilla is not always added at the end, she says. When it is added will depend on the type of vanilla you are using and the mixing method being employed. For instance, vanilla beans are often added earlier in the recipe so their flavour can thoroughly infuse the ingredients.
Judy Stoffman of Toronto has a rather different take on the matter.
“As a former assistant managing editor of Canadian Living, the food-obsessed magazine, I have considerable experience in editing recipes,” she writes.
Adding flavourings to a recipe last is simply a convention of recipe writing, she says. Recipes are written with the main ingredients – the ingredients with the largest volume – first and the smallest ingredients at the tail end.
“Thus you begin with, say, three cups of flour, one cup of sugar, half a cup of butter all the way down to a teaspoon of vanilla extract and half a teaspoon of cinnamon. The instructions then work through the list of ingredients, more or less in order. At what point you add the flavourings has no affect on the taste of the finished dish.” Hmm. Does CW sense something of a culinary contretemps cooking here? Dare we say it, a Thriller in Vanilla? Stay tuned.
THE QUESTION: Continuing in a culinary vein, Amy Dickson of St. John's wants to know why we can buy beef stock, chicken stock and vegetable stock at the supermarket, but not pork stock.
THE ANSWER: “The makers of stock cubes – and spice and herb mixes, for that matter – tailor their products to their perceived markets in various countries,” writes Gail Rayment of Cobourg, Ont. “Obviously, they do not see Canada as a market for pork stock cubes, but Knorr makes them for the British market, and when I visit I always bring a few packs back.”
HELP WANTED
- Have the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ever won a six-number lottery? asks
Bernard McGrath
of Gibsons, B.C. In fact, have any six consecutive numbers ever won a lottery? David Wain
of Cavan, Ont., says it seems that all types of track races – foot races, horse races, car races, speed-skating races – are run in an anti-clockwise direction. Why?- Considering that a declaration of war between two countries is usually done in the name of the head of state, writes
Ted Dilkens
of Windsor, Ont., would it be legally possible for one Commonwealth country to declare war on another when the head of state is the same person, namely the Queen?
Send your questions and answers to wisdom@globeandmail.com. Include your name, location and a daytime phone number.
