by Jenise » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:22 pm
The other day I needed to take a dish to a New Years Day party, so I diced a slab of store bought duck liver and truffle pate and put it in a pile with a diced gelatin I'd made out of apple juice and fresh chopped chives and dill. The combination is beautiful to look at and reduces the fattiness both visually and on the palate of pate alone, plus it also makes it possible for people to serve themselves without creating a grotesque mess on the platter of the type that makes party food look like hazardous waste after just five customers (and why I never serve dips to large crowds.)
Working with the gelatin somehow jogged the memory of the Cooks Illustrated meat loaf recipe in which the writer decided that the ultimate was achieved by adding 1/4 tsp of gelatin to the loaf to coagulate and therefore hold in more of moisture.
I remember reading it and thinking that's what bread crumbs are for. I also wondered how 1/4 tsp could really be enough. But then, I never use gelatin to do anything except make cold gelatins. Did anyone who read the same article try that? Does anyone else use gelatin in warm preps? And further, could one use powdered gelatin in a sauce to approximate a demi glace kind of mouthfeel?
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov