American cooking terms I am clueless about - please patronise me

Chipotle is a smoked/fire-roasted ripe jalapeño pepper.

Vidalia onions are large, white, very mild and sweet onions. They are grown around Vidalia, Georgia. In Washington, we have the competing Walla Walla Sweet onion. They make the very best onion rings.

Poblano and ancho are types of chiles. I'd have to look them up, but I think the poblano is a mild, dark green, medium sized chile that is stuffed, breaded, and fried to make chile rellenos. I think anchos are smaller and hotter. But maybe not.

Succotash, to me, means sweet corn kernels and lima beans, boiled together. Stuff I wouldn't eat as a kid, and wouldn't make now. That might be some tasteless midwest concoction, and real succotash something completely different.

How to make liquid smoke:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1439/549431595_62ed51a146_o.jpg

Jaq, you are the greatest, god bless the fact that you're in a different time zone to me and therefore answer when I ask a ridiculous question late at night.

Love your artwork too.

In the States you seem to have lots more varieties of things like chillies. I wonder what there is in the UK that we have more varieties of than anywhere else? Apples maybe? (I think we have like 3,000 types or something, or maybe I'm grossly exaggerating).

You do know that Americans prefer the spelling to be "patronize", right?

(See, I was being patronising to you on purpose since you asked. I normally wouldn't have done that.)

PP - ha ha, thanks. Obviously the UK style is the ONLY way to spell it though *joke*

More varieties of chilli = obv. because of climate, I wasn't posing this as a mystery or anything.

It's late, I'm tired and ineloquent.

jaq pretty otm re: succotash

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/84/241241526_2a661c14b9.jpg?v=0

i took that picture of my old roommate's shelf because i was so shocked that anyone actually kept cans of succotash in their cabinet!

grits are a coarse corn meal, cooked with water like cream of wheat or oatmeal, into a pasty white sludge that is delicious when you add butter, salt, pepper, cheese, whatever you want. big in the southern us.

add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter add butter

heh, thanks hejira - I'm home today due to feeling like crap; how is it possible thinking about cooking takes my mind off a queasy stomach?

Canned succotash though = double extra grossness. I have never understood why people would mess up two perfectly good stand-alone vegetables (see also: peas + carrots - why????)

back to your list

hominy is flint corn (what is generally ground into cornmeal/polenta or used for animal feed/corn oil) that has had boiling lye poured over it. The kernels soften, swell and the outer skin loosens and peels off. It tastes like wet popcorn to me. Comes in yellow and white varieties. I thought grits were made of hominy that had been dried and then ground up, but that could be wrong.

And the last thing - adobo. this is a mexican sauce, tomato based, vinegary, garlicky, seasoned with herbs like oregano and possibly epazote. The chipotles I usually buy are canned in adobo sauce - the flavors all work really nicely together.

i think you can make grits from hominy but you don't have to

Are grits always white tehresa? That's the only kind I remember ever seeing, but my grits exposure has been slim.

i have never had not-white grits (that is, pre-addition of flavoring agents) and i lived in south carolina for 18 years, but who knows?

I have seen yellow grits, but only where boutique-milled grains are available, not among the big brands.

Wow, you guys sure like you some varied corn products.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling your best Jaq. I'm like you in that it takes a hell of a queasy stomach to put me off my food - there's always something I crave.

Also, thanks for the info - I had to look up epazote too. Adobo sounds amazing though; we obv. don't have well-developed Mexican stuff over here (although the Indian food more than makes up for it for me).

Succotash sounds like food that grandparents might eat. Tehresa's friend's shelf looks suspiciously like mine, with the many types of dried lentils and pasta balanced precariously and held in place by heavy stuff at the front.

Adobo is also the spanish word for seasoning or marinade and is thus often used as the name of a caribbean spice mixture made from thyme, oregano, coriander, cumin, and pepper, among others.

I really liked succotash as a kid.

We grow a lot of corn in the US. Also, every commercial processed food seems to be required to have high fructose corn syrup in it.

every commercial processed food seems to be required to have high fructose corn syrup in it

Thank Secretary of Agriculture (1971 - 1976) Earl Butz for that. He pushed hard for subsidies for anything that could be made out of corn and soybeans.

Ok, is Half & Half a typical American thing? It's just less procent fat, right? About 12 procent? Could I mix cream (higher in fat percentage) with milk? See, I wanna make chocolate ice cream. :-)

I don't know about it being an American thing, but it probably is. It's really light cream, like you say, between 10% and 15% fat (half of standard US cream). Absolutely you could just mix up milk with cream and have the same thing.

Oh, I thought half and half was our equivalent of semi-skimmed milk. What do you guys call semi-skimmed milk then? (you're gonna tell me you call it "semi-skimmed milk" aren't ya?)

By that I meant "your equivalent of our semi-skimmed milk"....

No, we'd call it "halfvolle melk". Hah! But I'm a Dutch speaking twit I am. ;-) So I could use half-skimmed or even uh... the fattier one (non-skimmed?) milk then? Would it matter much what I use? It's for an ice cream. I wouldn't of course use a high fat cream, but opt for either a heavy milk or a very light cream. I just reread the recipe and it seems a bit difficult (for me) as I have never made a curd (?).

We call the fattier one "full fat" (or at least I do).

Why do you say you wouldn't use a high fat cream for your icecream? My first instinct would be not to use anything low-fat as you don't want the mixture to split when you heat it before you add it to your egg yolks (unless you're using a different method I guess).

Icecream is much less of a problem to make than you might think - egg yolks and sugar creamed together, add infused hot cream and flavourings, freeze, churn, freeze. The mixture separating (the "scrambled egg effect") is the only real risk.

Well, I tend to slavishly (well sort of) follow the recipe. If I see taht they use a lower percentage of fat, would the ice cream not turn out completely different? Or maybe just creamier? I'm dense when it comes to cooking.

Just googled and apparently I can use semi-skimmed milk instead of half&half. You guys were right. :-)

Yeah, it probably would turn out completely different, and as I'm a novice icecream maker myself I'm not someone whose advice should ever be heeded. I'd just follow the recipe if it were me too, and I'm totally cavalier when it comes to following recipes.

There's Whole Milk, 2% percent Milk, and Skim(med) Milk (in descending order of fat content)

adobo is also the national dish of the philippines. it's made with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, lots of crushed black peppercorns, and bay leave all simmered for a long time. if you have a cold, i suggest boiling up a batch with extra pepper and inhaling the steam as it cooks.

(bay leaves, not bay leave)

American dairy products r thin and weird compared to other countries.
Skim milk (0.5% or less butterfat)
1% milk
2% milk (this is what most people drink/use)
Whole milk (3.5% butterfat)
half and half (10 - 18%)
cream (18% - 25%)
whipping cream (25% - 32%)
heavy whipping cream (36% minimum)

When I make a custard base or a Philadelphia ice cream, I generally mix the two dairy products we keep in the house - whole milk and heavy whipping cream. Generally, 2 cups of each, which ends up being around 20% butterfat by volume. I've made ice cream with just heavy whipping cream - it's very velvety and smooth, but leaves a real feeling of fat coating your mouth. There's also a product in the US called ice milk - it's too full of ice crystals to my taste and thin tasting.

Lauren is adobo used with a particular meat? I've never had any Philippine dishes.

pork is the standard, i think, but chicken is fairly common as well from what i've seen. it's very easy to make. you should give it a try! if you google for recipes, you'll find loads. there are a ton of variations.

I've made Bittman's Chicken Adobo a couple of times, it's dead easy.

Mm, thanks G00blar, that looks like a reason to keep our grill....

The word "butterfat" is great.

Adobo sounds tasty - I love cooking with vinegar. I make chicken vindaloo quite often and it's incredibly tasty; sear some chicken off in a pan (I always use cast iron) then pour an obscene amount of vinegar over, like half a pint. Let it bubble down before continuing and it's amazing. Mind you, I am a huge fan of vinegar for about a million things.

i used regular white vinegar when i made pork adobo, but if you've got an asian grocery nearby then you can get filippino vinegar which has slightly less acidity. there's a coconut variety that i'd like to try - i think it would make things interesting.

Coconut vinegar sounds incredible!

i know! i don't know how coconutty it actually is, though.

so intriguing!

We tried a new hole-in-the-wall mexican place last night (which was really good, not your traditional fare, things called gigante huaraches with stuff like mushrooms and epazote on top), and spotted Kusina Filipina next door, which will be our next big food adventure.

I LOVE HUARACHES!

Coconut vinegar doesn't taste at all like coconut meat; it's very mellow with a hint of milky/woodiness, sort of like how the outside of a coconut smells. Sometimes it's sold with honey mixed in, which makes it good for stuff like finishing sauces but too sweet for adobo or any of the usual vinegar jobs.

adobo is also the national dish of the philippines. it's made with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, lots of crushed black peppercorns, and bay leave all simmered for a long time. if you have a cold, i suggest boiling up a batch with extra pepper and inhaling the steam as it cooks

while this is indeed true, canned Chipotle chiles come in a tomato based sauce called adobo that is unrelated. just thought i'd throw that in there since i see other chiles on that list

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/485335688_0829ea369e_m.jpg

this is a huarache i had recently.

I have a bottle of coconut vinegar (Datu Puti brand, same as my cane vinegar), and there's something about it that's really offputting. I don't like it at all. Maybe I'll do a taste comparison to see if I can describe what the problem is.

Did you ever open that durian jam? Inquiring minds want to know.

No, I am a big chicken. It's been sitting on the counter for months, taunting me.

...I will open it tomorrow morning. OUTSIDE.

I had a bite of durian ice cream tonight. What a noseful of garlic and sulphur. Mr. Jaq said it was better than that popsicle you guys tried. I don't think it's a taste I'm eager to acquire.

Is it true that when they put durian in a can you can still smell it through the metal?

I know it's supposed to be a delicacy and all, but seriously, is it worth the hassle (except as a novelty to say you've tried it) when there are loads of kinds of fruits which don't make you want to barf when you get within 10 metres? Like, do people actually eat it regularly in its native countries? I've never tried it myself so maybe there's an aspect to it I'm missing.

I've had dried durian and it didn't seem worth the effort. It wasn't vile, but it wasn't particularly nice either.

I think if you live where it doesn't grow natively, it is just a novelty. If I lived where it was plentiful, I'd probably snarf it up in season just as I do cherries and marionberries here. Reading up on it, the texture of a ripe one sounds lovely, and there are so many varieties and all with subtly different flavors and odors. Also, I would say that while the odor was really strong, the flavor wasn't unpleasant at all. So, kind of like a truly stinky cheese experience.

Back to the American side of things - today I brought a bright orange cheese sandwich for lunch, with extra dill pickle chips - mmmmm. Needless to say, my first UK cheese and pickle sandwich was NOT what I expected :)

Well, I tried the jam. The smell was actually not overwhelming -- somewhere between pineapple and roadkill. The taste is lingering unpleasantly in the back of my throat, but it's not the worst taste ever. It would take cash money to get me to eat more.

The important thing is that I don't turn away from trying new flavors, so thanks for sending me the jam, Jaq!

Ha ha, yes, pickles are not pickles the world over. Conversely, when I first started to read American literature I wondered why everyone would have a pickle on a burger, then when I realised I went "oh, you mean gherkins!" and everything made sense again. Personally I'm not a fan of the UK cheese and pickle experience. I go the colonial route instead and have chutneys (or at a pinch lime pickle, the king of pickles).

Rock Hardy, you are very brave.

I was really tempted to by a durian fruit in Chinatown before we left, but figured that would probably be the worst possible food to eat in a van. :(

-- Jordan, Tuesday, June 26, 2007 5:00 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

It seems like yellow grits are maybe more available here (the midwest) than white grits? Also addition of cheese + hot sauce are key.

and butter

i think someone sprayed the construction wall outside my house to remind me of my roots.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/454626876_1edbaf59c0.jpg

Oh, classic!

ok after all the grits discussion i had cheese grits as my choice of side with pulled pork tonight. yum!