Archive: food facts

okay in my comment yesterday i said

"roux is made from the drippings in a meat pan. you make the meat and it's all the fatty bits left in the pan you heat it up add some flour. mix...you can also make a roux from just butter or oil."

but now i'm confused. how does the fond (stuff left in the pan after you cook) play into roux? My brain is trying to tell me that fond can be turned into roux. a dark roux is (according to epicurious.com) "made with butter, drippings or pork or beef fat."

but most of the things i find about roux, say it's just butter (or oil) and flour. white roux = barely cooked, blonde = some what cooked, brown = totally cooked down.

so why then do i think a roux has meats in it?

can fond be turned into roux?
or is it destined to become a pan sauce?

okay, so niki wanted to know what the difference between chowder and stew. i told her well i'm pretty sure chowder means the broth is thicker (although what's up with manhattan clam then?) and stew is based from some sort of stock.

but then we started talking about bisque and porridge. i was pretty sure that bisque meant seafood and porridge meant grains.

but i wasn't sure. so i turned to the internets (such as wikipedia) to find out. here's what i came up with..

CHOWDER:
Pretty much a thick soup. it's either thickened with flour or potatoes or crumbled bread (although in my morm's house it's probably cornstarch). Traditionally it contains veggies with fish or shellfish, but these days you can make it with just veggies. It's derived from the french word "chaudière" which means a large heavy pot used by fishermen. see the fisherman made the chowders.

BISQUE:
a soup made from shellfish. okay so what's the difference? well in bisque you puree the shellfish. you ground them to a fine paste and them use them to thicken the soup. also it's thought to be named for the bay of biscay, but could also be because the shellfish are "bis cuites" (cooked twice - once before getting pureed). oh and i guess now there are also veggie bisques.

PORRIDGE:
less like a soup and more like a runny rice or oatmeal. i imagine it to be edible for people without teeth. also traditionally used for morning meals. dictionary.com says: "soft food made by boiling oatmeal or other meal or legumes in water or milk until thick". see hearty warm food, especially for the teethless.

STEW:
more of a main course (unlike soups which are traditionally starters). veggies and meat are thrown into a broth and cooked. the pieces are usually large and that's what makes it a meal.

so there you have it. chowder, bisque, porridge and stew.

oh and wikipedia has a pretty great entry for porridge.