Definitions of technical terms used in the log.
Cooked until it still has a slight bite in the centre. Pasta wants be al dente. Risotto rice bound for arancini needs to be, because it cooks a second time in the fryer.
Spooning or brushing fat over something as it cooks. It carries flavour and colour to parts the heat can't reach on its own: butter over a grilling lobster, miso brown butter over a charred cabbage.
Used in: 10 Lobster (grilling), 31 Brown Butter Miso Cabbage
A short dip in boiling water, then straight into iced water to stop the cooking. It sets the colour in herbs and greens, which is why the herb oil ends up so green.
Used in: 06 Herb Oil
Cooking something slowly, fully submerged in fat, at a temperature too low to fry. If the oil is bubbling aggressively it's too hot. The odd lazy bubble is what you're after.
Entry: 24 Confit Garlic · Used in: 34 Focaccia
The inside of a loaf: the holes and the texture, as opposed to the crust. An open crumb (big, irregular holes) is what you want from a wet dough and a patient prove.
Used in: 04 Parisian Baguette, 34 Focaccia
Preserving meat or fish with salt, which pulls out moisture and keeps the dangerous stuff at bay. The salt ratios mean more here than anywhere else in cooking: weigh them properly.
Used in: 02 Tuna Mojama, 35 XO-ish Sauce
Adding liquid to a hot pan or roasting tray to lift the stuck-on brown bits. Those bits are concentrated flavour, scrape them up and keep them.
Used in: 30 Proper Chicken Stock
Fat and liquid persuaded to hold together as one thick, glossy sauce: mayonnaise, béarnaise, a proper dressing. Add the fat slowly and keep everything moving. If it splits back into its parts it can usually be rescued, so don't bin it.
Used in: 18 Béarnaise Sauce, 30 Proper Chicken Stock, 32 Mayonnaise, 37 House Dressing
Two meanings depending on what's in the bowl. With a batter, combining gently with a spatula to keep the air in. With a wet bread dough, stretching one side up and over itself: a lazy substitute for kneading that builds strength between rests.
Used in: 04 Parisian Baguette, 26 St John's Madeleines, 34 Focaccia
Stock reduced hard until it sets like jelly in the fridge. A spoonful does more for a pan sauce than anything you can buy in a jar.
Used in: 30 Proper Chicken Stock
The weight of water in a dough as a percentage of the flour weight. Higher hydration means a stickier dough and a more open crumb. Resist the urge to add flour, wet hands solve most of the handling problems.
Used in: 34 Focaccia
Flaky sea salt from Essex, and the only finishing salt used in this log. Crush it between your fingers over the finished dish. Fine salt is for pasta water and seasoning as you go, Maldon is for the end.
Used in: 01 Wild Garlic Butter, 06 Herb Oil, 07 Burnt Corn Sea Bream Tartare, 15 Porchetta, 21 Proper Roasties, 34 Focaccia, 36 Dinner Party Salad, 37 House Dressing
Salt-cured, air-dried tuna loin, a Spanish staple. A sort of tuna ham: sliced thin it delivers the same deep savoury hit as anchovy or parmesan.
Entry: 02 Tuna Mojama · Used in: 35 XO-ish Sauce
Pressing fruit or herbs in the bottom of a shaker or glass to release their juice and oils. Press and twist gently rather than pulverise: smashed mint turns a drink bitter.
Used in: 22 Eastern Standard
A French pre-ferment: equal weights of flour and water with a pinch of yeast, mixed the night before and added to a dough in place of using yeast directly. All it needs is time.
Entry: 05 Poolish (pre-ferment) · Used in: 04 Parisian Baguette, 34 Focaccia
Leaving a yeasted dough to rise before baking. Slow and cold (overnight in the fridge) builds more flavour than fast and warm. Bakers also call it proofing.
Used in: 04 Parisian Baguette, 05 Poolish (pre-ferment), 34 Focaccia
Melting the fat out of meat slowly on a low heat, so it ends up in the dish rather than chewy in the meat. Rushing this step is why cheap cuts get a bad name.
Used in: 23 Reverse-engineered Ragu
Flour cooked into melted butter until it forms a smooth paste, the thickener behind béchamel, Mornay and most white sauces. Cook it for a minute or two first so the sauce doesn't taste of raw flour.
Used in: 12 Truffle White Sauce, 16 Mornay Sauce
The fifth taste: deep, savoury, moreish. Parmesan, anchovies, dried shrimp, cured ham and MSG all carry it, and some of the best condiments in this log are little more than vehicles for it.
Used in: 02 Tuna Mojama, 31 Brown Butter Miso Cabbage, 35 XO-ish Sauce