Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Tatoosh,

Best guess: they do something to the butter to preserve it while shipping it across the Pacific.

Yes, I am sure that is the reason, though I wish I knew just what they are up to with it.

End of the roux story. I tried the pressure cooker roux as mentioned. Interesting to play with if you need larger quantities of roux but only semi-successful. The jar of "PC" roux, when stored in a fridge, goes rock hard and needs an ice pick to be use. Once heated, it will soften though.

The commercially available butters in the Philippines can be used for roux with an effort. I purchased the Queensland butter, thinking it referenced the Northeastern province of Australia. But that is not so. A closer inspection of the can showed it is from New Zealand too. Still, I wanted the can so I could have a unique "butter container" for my clarified butter. It is a bit more expensive than the standard butter here, and I was hoping that translated into a higher quality.

To clarify it took two or three cycles of warming, skimming, draining and cooling. It lost about 15 percent volume due to water content. I did accumulate a nice little bit of milk solids from the process for use on other items like popcorn or maybe on my french toast in the morning.

I never got either the regular or this premium butter to become truly clear. They remain somewhat cloudy. Straining them through fine muslin, if I had any, might fix that. But the butter is useable for my roux requirements. And it was a nice lesson for my assistant and bro-n-law who is in culinary school here. Plus, now that clarified butter is on hand, I may indulge the family in eggs Benedict.

Now, wikipedia says Eggs Benedict are named after a hung-over Wall Street broker, but I prefer to think they are named after the great American general and traitor, Benedict Arnold since the sauce turns on me rather quickly and with so little warning. In cooking school we made it, would break it and repair it. No problem. Once I walked out of the schools doors, it is as if the culinary gods stole that ability back. Still, as a young teenager in the Midwest, I remember the first time I ate Eggs Benedict, and I thought the earth moved. I had no idea eggs could taste THAT good.

So school break is coming for the in-house culinary assistant and we may start baking English muffins again, this time with a higher purpose in mind.

Tatoosh

Tatoosh,

Again, if Hollandaise is a PITA for you, you probably don't have a good set of instructions for making it, or wrong proportions. Lemme see if I can dig up the recipe I generally follow ...

special

Fuzzy,

This is my turn to teach.

Tatoosh, shall we start a new discussion?

Tim

Tim,

All yours ...

I am always all ears to learn something new. Thanks Tim, you have my complete attention.

I did make this a number of times in cooking school and thought I had the bugger down, but since leaving there I've found otherwise. It is such a handy sauce to have since you can transform it so many ways. Plus my young culinary student in-law is due to learn this one and I always like to be able to show him "how it's done" when possible.

Tatoosh