TheBanyanTree: Is there a food chemist in the tree?

[Pam James]

By the way, we're all 'fine'.  It's a fine line of whining...  While my
roof has some missing shingles that caused rain to drip through my bedroom
ceiling onto my bed, at least I have a house.  The sink was clogged and the
AC was clogged, but at least I have a house...

The dog and cat were amazing with all the travel and things are in one
somewhat bruised piece!!

But there is so much destruction around us.  My house may be livable, but I
feel so broken for so many others.  I made a salted caramel ding dong cake
to bring to work today.  We need cake for our souls.

Meanwhile, Julie, did you notice that will all those wonderful words she
wrote regarding kosherness, she did well and distracted us from ever
actually laying eyes on the original recipe in question?!?!  Did you
notice?!?  :-D

love you all!

On Fri, Sep 21, 2018 at 2:06 PM <tobie at shpilchas.net> wrote:

> Friday morning, September 21, 2018
>
> Well PamJ,
>
>         In the midst of being evacuateeing by the evacuatingors, you
> thought about whipped egg whites?  DAMN! You are a better evacuatisher than
> I was.  We are reading and hearing about the hurricane outside of the
> evacuatedness area with our canned goods and blankets ready to send.  It
> was a long time ago now that we were evacuatled from our home in 1991 when
> the east bay hills fire swept through. That was the biggest news at the
> time until hurricane Andrew blew in and wiped out OUR news cycle.  If you
> watch the news on any form of media they guide us from disaster to disaster
> — quickly.  There’s enough for everybody! Move along folks! Something to
> see somewhere else.  Sympathy lasts in short blasts only and only for so
> long before the pvblic wants something either lighter or much much
> bloodier.  Evaculate them all!  In fact, I think there should be some
> serious evacuablitations going on from the Kavanaugh hearings, talk about a
> disaster area.
>
>         Are you all safe now? Are you resettled and dried out?  The dog?
> The cat? The budgie? Report to us when you can.
>
>         And as for the Parvice:  I made up that name and that’s why you
> never heard of it.  Also, you whip up the whites first, then slowly drizzle
> in the sugar until they’re stiff.  Only THEN do you throw in the fruit.
> And yes, you throw it in all at once, not folding or drizzling or speck at
> a time.  And, Lo!, they whipped for fifteen minutes! Whipped they for
> fifteen minutes as the cubit flies. (I have not tried to make cubit
> parvice).  When I first read the recipe, I thought, "This is a typo. No one
> whips for fifteen minutes." (I never saw 50 Shades of Grey). But the
> fifteen minute rule proved correct. Something magical happens in the last
> five minutes.  Poof!  Maybe two gallons of parvice from measly beginnings.
>
>         As for Chopped.  I watched that thing with my mother a few times.
> It bothered me.  Why does everything have to be a competition where someone
> wins and others are beaten down (unlike egg whites and adolescents in Jr.
> High School who are beaten up)?  For some reason, I don’t like rooting for
> someone and zinging eye darts at someone else.  I also don’t have the
> jealous gene. Maybe it’s connected.  So this kid keeps kosher and
> substituted for dairy in a meat dish, right?  I do that all the time.
> Fashioning meals that do not mix the meat and dairy can be challenging.
> For instance: no beef stroganoff in our house.  And you can’t do something
> fancy to almond milk to make it rich like that.  So you use margarine for
> butter (feh — is okay only if cooked and hence disguised) and coconut milk
> or nut milk for regular milk, or you do as the vegetarians do in
> substituting tofu or ground nuts, etc. for meat.  I can’t imagine a kosher
> chef working in a non kosher restaurant and being fine with it.  See, it’s
> not just separating the dairy from the meat in the final offing.  If you’re
> REALLY serious about kashruth, you have separate cooking utensils, separate
> pots and pans, separate plates, separate sinks, separate dishwashers, for
> "who’s" sake. And if your milkhic plate gets violated by a lamb chop, the
> plate must be kashered (made kosher again).  There are pages and pages and
> pages of discussion on how to do this.  Here is a bit from Rabbi Fried of
> the Texas Jewish Post in their, "Ask the Rabbi," column.  (We’re confused
> too and have to ask.)
>
> "The Torah clearly outlines how one renders vessels kosher if they have
> been used for non-kosher food: Whatever was used directly on an open fire
> must be passed through fire to remove the absorption, whatever was used
> with boiling water should be immersed in boiling water, etc. (see Numbers
> 31:21-23). Entire chapters in the Code of Jewish Law are dedicated to the
> intricacies of various types of vessels and how to “kasher” them, render
> them kosher."
>
>         The only reason I copied that is not so you could all keep kosher,
> but to demonstrate why it would be highly unlikely for a kosher chef to
> work in a non kosher kitchen.
>
>         AND IT’S MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW.
>
>         That’s why I’m going to shut up.
>
> Thanking you all for your forbearance,
>
> Love,
>
> Tobie
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Sep 21, 2018, at 5:39 AM, Pam James <pamjamesagain at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Tobie,
> >
> > Please forgive my tardiness in replying, but 5 days ago when you
> originally
> > inquired, I was really busy being an evacuatee (evacuator?  I'm going to
> > hear the correct term and smack myself for not being able to grab it
> > mentally this morning!!) in Georgia, escapee these nasty flood waters in
> > eastern North Carolina!!
> >
> > Anyway....  I like to fancy myself a bit of a baker over here, but I'm
> not
> > nearly bright enough for any part of chemistry, so I'm stumped!  And,
> I've
> > never even heard of Parvice or non-Pareve, but that could also be a
> result
> > of the non-brightness, or my ignorance of Judaism or kosher eating.  Or
> > even knowing if I've used the correct expressions to express myself!
> >
> > (But here's a side note - we watched an episode of "Chopped" while I was
> at
> > my daughters, and it was with 10 and 12 year old chefs.  I was incredibly
> > impressed!!!  Anyway, one of the kids 'kept kosher' and didn't use cream
> > with some kind of meat sauce she was  making, and it made  me wonder...
> Do
> > professional chefs cook to please their customers, or to keep in line
> with
> > their religious beliefs?)
> >
> > Meanwhile, I can't comprehend the part about whether you are making
> > meringue with the fruit  mixed into the whites and THEN whipping the crap
> > out of it, or doing all that whipping and then folding in fruit?  I
> always
> > treat egg whites so delicately so nothing will hinder the whipping...
> >
> > So, not only do I not have a great answer, I leave with a bunch more
> > questions!  Although like Julie, I'd love to try making it myself!!
> >
> > Late thought... how many answers can there be??   Moisture levels?
> Natural
> > sugar content?  Some kind of pectin levels?  You've already investigated
> PH
> > levels.....  interesting!
> >
> > Pam
> >
> > On Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 10:33 PM <tobie at shpilchas.net> wrote:
> >
> >> It’s Sunday here, still the 16th of September (my least favorite month)
> >>
> >>
> >> Say folks,
> >>
> >>        I am puzzled. Some would say I am perplexed. But we’ll leave that
> >> to Spinoza.  I am trying to figure something out to do with cooking.
> And I
> >> am doing that while the dinner is waiting to come out of the oven (some
> of
> >> it is on the stove, some in the fridge).
> >>
> >>        I make a thing for Jewish holidays that I call, "ParParvicevice".
> >> That’s an abbreviation for Pareve (pronounced: PAR-veh) Ice Cream.
> Pareve
> >> is the middle ground for the "do not mix meat and milk" Godly edict.
> You
> >> know, from the biblical commandment: do not boil a calf in its mother’s
> >> milk.  (Yes. A great part of Kashruth has to do with that little
> sentence
> >> in the Torah. See, we have a 5,000 year old case of OCD and here we
> are.)
> >> ANYWAY.  Parvice is a non-dairy ice cream that can go with either a
> milchik
> >> meal or a fleyshik meal (milchik = dairy — fleyshik = meat). Pareve, as
> I
> >> said is the in between. It can go with either in a meal.  Fish is also
> >> pareve. Go figure.  Ask a vegan.
> >>
> >>        Honest, this Parvice is astonishingly good.  It’s like eating a
> >> sweet cloud.  I make it with whipped egg whites and usually berries.
> >> Imagine a cloud of strawberries you can consume, not too calorious
> either.
> >> Okay.  So here’s where the food chemist comes in.  For some reason,
> berries
> >> of any kind (so far) : strawberries, raspberries, blueberries,
> cranberries,
> >> blackberries, etc. work beautifully. The egg whites and sugar whip up so
> >> that two measly little egg whites makes almost two whole gallons of
> >> parvice.  BUT. If I try this with other fruit, it doesn’t work.  Well,
> it
> >> will kind of.  But it’s denser and won’t fluff up.  It’s an intense work
> >> out.  Good, but not what I aimed for originally (though I’ll say that
> the
> >> chocolate Parvice knocked my socks off, so dense and chocolatey).
> >>
> >>        So what is it about berries and the whipped egg whites.  It’s the
> >> only difference in the recipe.  When it’s berries, it works.  When it’s
> >> other fruit: stone fruit, pineapple, mangoes, anything else, and it
> doesn’t
> >> fluff up.  What’s in berries that reacts with the rest of the
> ingredients?
> >> Tell me and I’ll give you the recipe.  You yourself will have your socks
> >> knocked off for one fraction of the calories and zero fat.
> >>
> >> Tobie
> >>
> >> and the dinner calls me
> >>
> >> "Might makes right."     Old proverb
> >>
> >> "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."    Matthew
> >> : 5:5
> >>
> >> "Make a fist."     Phlebotomist to patient
> >>
> >>
> >> Tobie Shapiro
> >> tobie at shpilchas.net <mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net>
>
> "Seek and Ye shall find."     Old proverb
>
> "The truth shall set you free."    Old proverb
>
> "What you don't know can't hurt you."    Old proverb
>
> "Ignorance is bliss."  Old proverb
>
>
>
> Tobie Shapiro
> mailto:tobie at shpilchas.net
>
>
>
>