Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Charred Cabbage


In college we played the game "can we fry this?" Now we are playing "can we char this?" Flavor-wise there's a subtle difference between burning and charring. Burnt food has that bitter undertone that ruins the flavor of something you expect to be perfectly cooked. Purposeful charring deepens that burn into something that creates a flavor of its own. It has an odd richness to it and while the bitterness is still there, it is somehow tempered by the deep flavors that develop during the prolonged application of heat. We put a head of Savoy cabbage into our blistering hot wood fired oven and deliberately charred the exterior. Because a head of cabbage is very dense, the insides covered a full range of textures. The blistered exterior flaked and blackened and there was a clear demarcation line between the inner and outer layers. The beauty of this process is that it now allows us to bring everything together. More to come...

1 comment: