Innovation: Nicolas Appert the Father of Canning

The "father of canning," Nicolas Appert was born in France in 1749. He was a confectioner and a chef who experimented for years with the idea of placing foods of all kinds into glass jars, sealing them and boiling them to cook and preserve the contents.

Nicolas Appert. Courtesy of: www.nndb.com

Early in the 1800s, the Napoleonic Wars were taking place and France needed a way to get more supplies to their soldiers. The government offered a 12000 franc reward for an innovative idea that could preserve food and Nicolas Appert had his chance. He submitted his canning idea and by 1810 had been awarded the money which he used to build a canning factory.

Appert's first "can." Courtesy of: en.wikipedia.org

Eventually, glass was replaced by tin or iron cans (developed by Phillipe de Girard) which held up better during shipping, although can openers were not invented until later so one had to smash them with a rock or hack them open with whatever was available. After the war, the process spread throughout Europe and the world.

One of the first tin cans. Courtesy of: www.foodincanada.com

In the early days of canning the development process was very slow and transporting the food was even slower, so the war ended before the process was perfected. As an added twist of fate, Nicolas Appert's canning factory was destroyed by invading soldiers in 1814.

Depiction of an early canning factory. Courtesy of: en.wikipedia.org

I found it interesting that Nicolas Appert used a primitive sort of pasteurization without knowing it. Louis Pasteur eventually demonstrated that the heat was what killed harmful microbes. Canning was definitely a huge innovation. It allowed people to preserve foods much longer and transport it easily without compromising the freshness.

In the present day, we have the ability to combine processes like freeze-drying and canning to preserve foods like never before. Cans from hundred-year old shipwrecks have been tested and deemed edible..although I won't be the first in line to try it.

The food in these was apparently edible after 100 years. Courtesy of: sluglines.blogspot.com

The canning process has affected me in the same way it has affected many others. Sometimes, you're too tired or lazy to make the tomato sauce so you just grab the canned stuff. Canned tuna can make a delicious tuna salad sandwich. Or maybe sweetened evaporated milk boiled in the can to make dulce de leche. Way to go Nicolas!

Dulce de leche. Courtesy of: crumbsfood.co.uk

(Information sourced from en.wikipedia.org)

Worst Vegetarian Ever

I was not excited about the prospect of giving up meat for a week. I thought about it after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma last summer, but never committed to anything. I eat meat with most - if not all - of my meals so I decided the easiest route would be to try a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. I figured I would just replace meat with lots of cheese, yogurt and other protein rich dairy products and legumes.

Things started out well. I ate a breakfast similar to the one pictured above for the first 2 or 3 days. Sometimes I would have a bowl of cereal, yogurt or fried eggs with it as well. Homemade granola bars were a nice snack between breakfast and lunch too.

Lunches were often eaten at school. Cheese pizza, muffins or croissants from the student cafe or a trip to St. Lawrence Market. Before the diet, a trip to the market meant a massive sandwich with cheese and several different cold cuts on freshly baked bread. Since that wasn't an option I looked around for a few minutes until I found a place selling pasta. I decided to try the cheese ravioli.

Even though it was a large portion and extremely tasty, I still felt that something was missing. Of course something was missing. The meat.

When it came to dinner I was pretty lucky. My mother is vegan and my sister is a vegetarian so it was a simple thing to ask them for a few of their favourite recipes. Actually having time to cook after school meant I was able to make some really tasty, meat-free dishes. Again, no matter how good they were, the meals just seemed to be incomplete without meat.

Kale salad

Pecan-parmesan butternut squash

One of my favourites was actually a caesar salad topped with tofu. The tofu was shaped, seasoned and pan fried into imitation popcorn chicken. It was so good that once I tried it I didn't stop eating (even to take a picture)until it was gone.

Another snack option

It was probably all in my head, but the lack of meat was starting to give me cravings that I seemed to try and fill with sugar. It started innocently enough; a little brown sugar on my cereal or some honey on apple slices..but by day 3, I was snacking on cookies and apple pie between meals...and then this:

A few strawberries with my whipped cream

I had tried to coordinate my diet with vegetarian week in Concepts class. Once I realized we were making sushi in Foods of the World (which I had to taste of course), I made a switch to the pescetarian diet. I like to think the decision to switch was out of my hands but I also had some arctic char left from class that I really wanted to deep fry.

Tempura arctic char with homemade tartar sauce,
falafel bites and hand cut fries

At the end of the week I was getting bored of fish. I noticed that before switching to the pescetarian diet my meals had a larger variety of flavours and textures. Overall, I think I could do it long-term if I truly had the desire, it would just take a while to get over the cravings. The first day after the diet ended, I was very excited to barbecue something and ribs were on sale so I tossed a couple racks on and made some sauce.

Ribs and rice

I think it is very important as a chef to have menu items that appeal to vegetarians. It is a large and fast growing market and having both meat proteins and vegetarian options seems like the best way to increase traffic. As for me, I always taste what I cook and eating any meat regardless of how little means you are not a vegetarian. As you can see above, I am definitely not continuing with any sort of diet.

Hug a Farmer

When I first read about this assignment I knew right away what farm I was going to visit. For a few years now, my parents have taken part in a CSA (community supported agriculture) program at Willowtree Farms located just west of Port Perry.

Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pears, acorn and butternut squash, Brussels sprouts and garlic from the farm share (Oct.2014)

 Willowtree is a family run farm that was established in 1969 as a dairy farm by the McKay family. By 1980, they were growing strawberries and selling them at farmer's markets and by 1993 they had sold their dairy cows to focus on beef cattle, fruits and veggies.

Willowtree's roadside sign

Unfortunately for me, the farm closes down for the winter season and I was unable to meet in person with anyone from the McKay family since they were in Honduras. However, I was able to correspond through email with Kelty, the daughter-in-law of Rod and Marlene McKay. I learned that their main stance toward farming is land stewardship, protecting the environment to ensure future generations can also farm it sustainably.

The market at Willowtree - buried under snow

Although they do not practice organic farming, they practice sustainable farming with a focus on soil conservation (crop rotation, using manure instead of synthetic fertilizers), waste management and alternative energy projects such as solar arrays on the roof of the barn and the use of waste corn or barley in an outdoor furnace to provide heat. They do not use GMO's and their livestock are raised grazing on grass, hay and grain which is grown on site.

Romanesco cauliflower - I had never seen one of these until it showed up in the farm share back in October

What I have learned from this is that it is a great feeling to know exactly where your food is coming from and how it is being grown.

Cooking Meat and Game - Short Ribs

The butcher shop I chose to visit was Bruno's Signature in Pickering. This is where I go for most of my meat and poultry needs because they have excellent quality and service standards.


Racing against time to get there before they closed, I forgot my key

While browsing, I didn't see anything that was completely unfamiliar to me, although there were plenty of cuts that I don't cook very often. I'm sure some of the stranger cuts like pig tails may be available as well but its understandable that they wouldn't be on display. I chose between two items I rarely cook, beef shanks (which I didn't feel too inspired about) and beef short ribs (I usually go for pork back ribs). I cooked short ribs for the first time in class a few weeks ago and really enjoyed them, and with my fathers birthday approaching I figured I'd make them for his birthday dinner. Another time I would really like to experiment with making my own bacon with pork belly.


AAA short ribs

Short ribs are found mainly on the rib and plate primal cuts, but the square-cut chuck also has short ribs. I decided to buy them and find a nice braised short rib recipe, since they benefit from a long cooking time at lower temperatures. When I asked the butcher about how he would cook them he responded that he would probably cook them on a grill or barbecue. That's how I normally cook pork ribs when I have them, but with the temperature outside at -10 Celsius, that was definitely not happening. As I finished paying I made a mental note to find a really great recipe, because at $12.99/pound it would be a shame to mess them up. Given the price, I would probably sell an 8 ounce portion for $22-25 assuming a food cost of around 30 percent (It would come with side dishes as well allowing you to jack up the price a few bucks). Of course it could be more economical if you did your own butchery or had a butcher friend hook you up with a deal.


Well worth the price

When searching for my recipe I went to a book that my mother has had since before I was born. Inside Nellie Lyle Pattinson's "Canadian Cook Book" I found a recipe for Braised Short Ribs Chinois and decided to go with it.

Me with my recipe

The recipe involves marinating the ribs for 5-6 hours in a mixture of dry red wine, olive oil and lemon juice. After marinating, the ribs are to be browned in a small amount of fat in a pan and placed in an oven proof pan or dish. The pan can then be deglazed and the liquid added to the ribs along with the marinade, browned mirepoix, herbs and seasonings. It then goes into the oven at moderate heat for several hours. Once tender, the ribs can be wrapped and placed aside while adjusting the consistency and seasoning of the sauce. I also plan to make saffron pilaf, cooked green beans and carrots as a side. Any leftovers I will thinly slice, reheat in barbecue sauce and eat on a homemade bun for a nice quick snack. I expect it to take 8-10 hours from the time I begin marinating until the time I take my first bite, so a dish like this may be tricky to make in a fast paced restaurant environment. It could be done, no doubt, but it would require a lot of preparation as well as a good knowledge of your predicted number of covers and the expected sales mix.

Eggs & I

Me with an egg and my "key." Go Leafs!

The first time I made soft boiled eggs I decided to wing it. I mean they're just soft boiled eggs right? I should have checked the Gisslen. One egg cracked immediately when I placed it in the water, two of the three were undercooked, and the one that seemed promising was destroyed as I tried to peel the shell. So I broke out Professional Cooking for Canadian Chefs by Wayne Gisslen to see what I did wrong. The method I chose involved bringing a pot of water to a boil, then reducing the heat to a simmer and placing room temperature eggs carefully in. Having the eggs at room temperature makes them less likely to crack when placed in the the boiling water. Cold eggs were my first mistake. A cooking time of 3-4 minutes is also recommended for soft boiled eggs, however I suspect the water temperature dropped when I put the cold eggs into the small pot I was using. Water temperature was my second mistake. I think it was the frustration of the first two mistakes that led me to destroy the final egg because I used the method described in the book for peeling it, under running water while it was still warm. In the end I cooked two more eggs the next day. One for five minutes, the other for six. They turned out great although the six-minute egg may have been closer to the medium-cooked stage.

The five-minute egg

The six-minute egg

I think the method I used would work for large quantities too, as long as you had a large enough pot and a way of getting a lot of eggs in and out at the same time.

I didn't know of any dishes that specifically required soft boiled eggs, so I just put salt and pepper on them and ate them for breakfast with pancakes and sausage. Below is a video of my meal coming together in 40 seconds, and a picture of my final plate (minus half the sausage that I already ate).

I know what you're thinking..I put the maple syrup on after I took the picture

The Holidays

I love the holidays. Friends, family and food. That's what it is all about.

Homemade mozzarella sticks

Brioche rolls..lacking a bit of colour but still delicious! 

Gingerbread - before it was topped with custard
 

Shortbread just like Grandma used to make

One of the easiest desserts to make ever

Midnight snack..homemade frozen pizzas

Pound cake..gotta have dessert after a midnight  snack!