It's All in the Ice.

Many of us take the role that ice plays in our cocktails for granted. There is more to ice than apparently just filling our glasses and chilling it. It is a fact that really cold cocktails taste better, as cocktails have a different flavour balance compared to wine or beer. When a beverage is served warm, there is a greater tendency for the alcohol portion to take over and make the beverage ‘hot’. Thus, the more the alcohol content, the greater the need for the beverage to be chilled so as to avoid the hot alcohol sensation. And since cocktails tend to have greater alcohol content than wine or beer, they need to be chilled even more.

A major misperception is that storing your drinks in freezers makes it chill better and thus taste better. Martini in a freezer is indeed cold but it fails where ice succeeds, that is, dilution. A bit of dilution goes a long way in making a drink taste smoother and more appealing. It is generally good advice to not chill your spirits as they need to be warm enough to melt the ice.

And lastly, and maybe most interestingly, the size of the ice cube can change the way your drink tastes. Smaller ice cubes tend to melt faster, therefore diluting the drink quicker. A drink will taste its best at the time it is served, and the longer you nurse your drink, the less flavour it will have when you finish. Using large ice cubes which have less surface area than a bunch of smaller cubes, will extend the freshness period of your drink. When large ice cubes melt, they release the water slower and your drink does not get ‘soggy’.

Ice plays a big part in making a good cocktails taste great, and using cold, fresh, large ice cubes is the best way to achieve this.

Ceramic Heaters.

Ceramic heating is fast becoming very common in food service applications. They are used in ovens, broilers, toasters, salamanders, food warmers and even chocolate warmers .The most common use is for food warming, whereby the food product does not require illumination as part of the food-warming process. Light can break down nutrients and can alter taste. The traditional method of heating is via tubular metal sheathed heaters or light bulbs.

There are many advantages to using ceramic heaters when compared with traditional heating elements. Ceramic heaters are 96% energy- efficient. They are impervious to splashes of cold water and will not shatter. Ceramic elements are moisture-resistant with a washable surface, and non-corrosive.

A ceramic heater is made up of a heat resistant wire fully embedded in a ceramic material, whereby the energy produced is transferred to the ceramic material which absorbs the heat and in turn emits it. The shape of the ceramics elements provides even heating over a wider area. The heat produced by the ceramic heating element can be easily controlled for sensitive products such as chocolates and cheese.

Ceramic elements can be easily cleaned to prevent grease or food built which can interfere with heating efficacy, cause smoking or burning and even harbor harmful bacteria.

What happened to the great expansion of “Sous Vide”

In 2009, Sous Vide, the process of cooking food within a vacuum bag in water held at a constant temperature, was supposed to be a grand awakening for all chefs, home cooks and housewives alike. Books by eminent chefs such as Thomas Kheller and Grant Achatz were flying off the book-shop shelves with each of these chefs defining in detail how they can cook anything in “sous vide” (Grant Achatz even has a youtube of himself cooking a whole turkey sous vide). So, with all the hype from all the big names and media attention surrounding their claims, the question that begs to be so resonantly asked is … “What Happened”!?

We should look at the mantra of “sous vide”, which is Season, Seal, Simmer, Sauce and Sear, then serve. The process in itself sounds daunting and difficult. With this approach to cooking there is the creation of a divide from what our parents had previously done for us while we were young. And believably, that is a hard practice to break. The hands-on approach in some terms may not be lost, but it is being redefined, and that will take time to change. We have already become very disconnected from our food as a people: apples from USA, avocados flown from Mexico, salmon from Norway etc. This was just taking it one step further.

For the commercial kitchen, where costs and efficiency are paramount considerations, sous vide makes sense, as it provides the chef with a new way of creating dishes without over-cooking and as such, able to produce a better product.

For the domestic scene however, it will be some time till people are ready to let go of smells associated with a turkey roasting in the oven for thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.