• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1061 0

begin to collapse, and the cheese will slump, eventually pooling into a thick liquid. The ease with which a cheese melts has to do with its moisture content. Creamy, moist cheese, like Brie, will melt when barely warm (about 130°F); firm cheeses like Cheddar or Swiss start to flow at about 150°F; and hard, dry grating cheese such as Parmesan won’t show any signs of softening until it gets over 180°F. Some cheeses, like fresh goat cheese, queso blanco, and paneer, will not melt at all, which means they will not lose their shape during grilling.

F. Grilled Dough

Although it is possible to bake on a grill, the process is problematic and the results are often unpredictable. The only exceptions are flat-breads, like pizza, pita, and naan, which are the right dimension to cook through without scorching, are firm enough to balance on a grill grate, and have the right textural stretch to benefit from a crispy skin speckled with char.

* * *

Like all dough, flatbread dough is a mixture of flour and liquid. Flour is composed of two elements—starch and protein. When you add liquid to wheat flour (the principal flour used in baking), the starch expands, giving the dough bulk, and the protein activates, giving the dough structure. The longer you mix the dough, the greater the activity of the protein (called gluten) and the sturdier the finished baked good will be.

The development of gluten can be positive or negative, depending on what you are baking. In bread baking, gluten is essential. It gives bread a chewy consistency and traps gases produced by yeast, which make the bread rise. To encourage gluten development, bread bakers follow three basic guidelines:

• Use high-protein, low-starch flour (bread flour).

• Move the dough as much as possible to encourage the formation of protein bonds.

• Don’t add fat or anything else that will interfere with protein bonding.

Glutinous dough stretches well and holds its shape. When it is placed over a fire (direct medium heat for flatbreads), gases trapped in the layers of gluten will expand, causing the dough to bubble and rise. The rim of grilling pizza dough rises higher than the center because it is not held down by sauce, cheese, and other heavy ingredients. Thin flatbreads, like pita, will tend to form a pocket in the center, because their thinness allows for only a few bands of gluten. As the trapped air bubbles expand, there is no place to go, so they merge into an inflated central pocket. Thicker grilled flatbread, like naan (page 343), will have a more even distribution of bubbles.

Although cakes and pastries can’t be baked on a grill, they can be warmed and toasted. Because these products tend to be sweet, it is best to use medium-low or medium heat to keep them from burning. It may also be helpful to toast delicate cakes and pastries on a grill screen or some other perforated pan to keep them from crumbling while still exposing them to flame.

Chapter 4

Mastering Your Flavors

A. SEASONING

B. RUBS

C. MOPS

D. BRINES

E. MARINADES

F. GLAZES AND SAUCES

A. Seasoning

Most recipes are identified by their seasoning, such as (you fill in the blanks) “lemon-rosemary grilled ________,” “________ with fragrant chile rub,” and “________ with wasabi butter.” Yet the way a dish is flavored is its most superficial and mutable aspect. A burger is a burger is a burger—that is, until it becomes a burger with Szechwan peppercorns, a mole burger with spicy black beans, or a blue cheese burger flamed in brandy. Nothing has changed about the ground beef in these burgers, how they are formed, the way they are grilled, or the temperature at which they are done cooking. Ninety-nine percent of what makes them hamburgers has remained unchanged, but what a difference that 1 percent of flavor makes.

* * *

Most seasoning comes from the aromatic parts of plants. We call them “aromatic” because the bulk of flavor perception comes through the nose. The perception of flavor comes from two areas of receptors. Taste receptors in the mouth receive five components of flavor: sweet,