Encyclopedia Archives: M

Microplane zester

Microplane zester (mahy-kroh pleyn zest-er) noun

microplane zesters

Image: Dédé Wilson

While the name Microplane® is trademarked, it has become a term used generically within the culinary world to describe a grater that looks like a traditional woodworker’s rasp, and rightfully so because that is where the design originated.

The story goes like this: A Canadian housewife took one of her husband’s woodworking tools into the kitchen and discovered that it produced light fluffy orange zest with minimal effort. By the mid-1990s, Grace Manufacturing, located in Arkansas, had created a business of turning this traditional woodworking device into a must-have kitchen tool. The line started with one zester/grater, which had a specific pattern of holes. The brand has since branched out and makes Microplane® tools of varying shapes and sizes in spice, fine, coarse, extra coarse and ultra coarse versions as well as one with a star-shaped hole, one that creates ribbons and another that they call a large shaver (which can make Parmesan curls). The company still makes woodworking tools as well.

Made from surgical stainless steel, the razor-sharp holes allow for very precise grating. The holes are so sharp that it is easy to remove just the colored zest of citrus without touching the white pith beneath, as so many classic box graters do. As Microplane® describes it, their holes are created chemically; ferric chloride etches the holes, while most graters have teeth that are stamped out and are not nearly as sharp. The sharpness of Microplane® graters allows for use with very hard as well as soft foods.

Other companies have come out with similar tools, specifically Cuisipro, which calls theirs Surface Glide Technology™ and has a patent pending. They have their own shapes and styles and the holes and grating surface areas do, indeed, look and act similarly to Microplane®.

microplane-zesters

Image: Peter Muka

While the name Microplane® is trademarked, it has become a term used generically within the culinary world to describe a grater that looks like a traditional woodworker’s rasp, and rightfully so because that is where the design originated.

The story goes like this: A Canadian housewife took one of her husband’s woodworking tools into the kitchen and discovered that it produced light fluffy orange zest with minimal effort. By the mid-1990s, Grace Manufacturing, located in Arkansas, had created a business of turning this traditional woodworking device into a must-have kitchen tool. The line started with one zester/grater, which had a specific pattern of holes. The brand has since branched out and makes Microplane® tools of varying shapes and sizes in spice, fine, coarse, extra coarse and ultra coarse versions as well as one with a star-shaped hole, one that creates ribbons and another that they call a large shaver (which can make Parmesan curls). The company still makes woodworking tools as well.

Made from surgical stainless steel, the razor-sharp holes allow for very precise grating. The holes are so sharp that it is easy to remove just the colored zest of citrus without touching the white pith beneath, as so many classic box graters do. As Microplane® describes it, their holes are created chemically; ferric chloride etches the holes, while most graters have teeth that are stamped out and are not nearly as sharp. The sharpness of Microplane® graters allows for use with very hard as well as soft foods.

Other companies have come out with similar tools, specifically Cuisipro, which calls theirs Surface Glide Technology™ and has a patent pending. They have their own shapes and styles and the holes and grating surface areas do, indeed, look and act similarly to Microplane®.

In the top image, you can see several styles. Top to bottom: a Microplane® nutmeg grater that also contains storage for the whole spice; a Cuisipro grater with an orange top; the original Microplane®; a small red-handled Microplane® spice grater; a mini Microplane® zester. Below you can see the light, fluffy orange zest created by the original Microplane® tool. Note how the orange has not been grated down to the white pith.

microplane-orange-zest

Image: Peter Muka

Bakepedia Tips

  • These tools are very sharp and should be used with care.
  • Because Microplane® tools create such light, fluffy citrus zest, the zest measures differently from zest that has been created with a traditional box grater. Some recipes will tell you what kind of grater they have used. We use Microplane® zester/graters in the Test Kitchen all the time and will state in the ingredients that we are calling for “finely grated orange zest.” Zest created with a box grater is usually coarse.

 

References

  1. http://us.microplane.com/
  2. http://cooking.cuisipro.com/
Continue Reading •••
Posted in

molten chocolate cake

molten chocolate cake (mohl-tn chaw-kuh-lit, chokuh-, chawk-lit, chok– keyk) noun

molten-chocolate-cake

Also Lava Cake. A single-serving cake featuring an outer shell of warm, tender, dark-chocolate cake surrounding a melted, semi-liquid chocolate center. They are often unmolded, which makes cutting into the molten center more dramatic, but they are also sometimes served in the ramekins in which they are baked.

The recipe appeared in Jean-George Vongerichten’s 1998 book Cooking At Home with a Four-Star Chef (Broadway Books) and, indeed, he claims to have invented the recipe and his version helped popularize the dessert. (This origin seems unlikely, however, as a similar dessert called “chocolate fondant” had been made for years in Europe). The version with “molten” in the title was very popular in the 1980s in upscale restaurants, eventually spreading throughout the U.S. in many different versions as well as presented in other cookbooks. The dessert can now even be found in chain restaurants and in the freezer section of some supermarkets. Some versions are flourless and more soufflé-like; some are eggless. Others use a cake batter that naturally produces the molten center with a bit of under-baking, and some recipes add a ganache center to ensure the textural contrast. They can even be made in the microwave, as with our Microwave Molten Chocolate Cake.

Vongerichten’s original recipe contained butter, high cacao and high cocoa-butter content dark chocolate, eggs, extra yolks and a bit of sugar. The only flour used was to coat the ramekins.

Image: Flickr

Continue Reading •••
Posted in

mace

mace [meys] noun

mace

The lacy covering (aril) surrounding the nutmeg seed. Consumers don’t usually see it in the unprocessed form, we most often find it grated in jars. Mace is a bit sweeter and milder than nutmeg. The mace is the red lacy covering in the photo.

Continue Reading •••
Posted in

meringue

meringue [muh-rang] noun

meringue

A mixture of beaten egg whites and sugar.

You will find soft meringue covering pies, such as in lemon meringue pie; adrift on a pool of custard sauce such as in the classic dessert, Ile Flottante; as a basis for Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream; or as a main component of angel food cake. Hard meringue takes the form of cookies; dessert shells such as Pavlova to hold ice cream and/or fruit; or discs, sometimes with ground nuts added, in which case they technically become dacquoise and Japonaise.

There are three main types: French, Swiss, and Italian. The French meringue is uncooked, the Swiss is heated in the top of a double boiler, and Italian is made with simple syrup that has been brought to a high temperature (such as 248° F for Italian Meringue Buttercream).

An acid such as cream of tartar, or sometimes a little lemon juice, will often be added once the eggs have been beaten to the frothy stage. The acid helps stabilize the proteins in the egg whites and creates more stable foam. The classic French unlined copper bowl accomplishes the same task: the proteins react with the copper, which provides some stabilization.

 

Bakepedia Tips

All meringues depend on egg whites beaten to an increased volume, and this can only be accomplished if you have scrupulously clean tools and not even a speck of egg yolk in your whites, so take care when separating your eggs. Our test kitchen has not had good results from purchased egg whites. Even when the label says that the product is 100% egg whites, they do not whip up well.

When making a hard meringue (cookies, Pavolva, discs) the recipe will call for low oven heat, typically between 200° F and 275° F, and a long baking time. The aim is to dry the meringue, which results in the desirable crisp texture. Some older recipes recommend drying out the meringues overnight in a turned off oven, but this was due to the presence of a pilot light, something most ovens lack at this point.

Once baked and cooled, hard meringues must be stored completely dry and airtight. It really is best to prepare them as close to the time of dessert presentation because truthfully, they do not store well. Some commercial kitchens use silica gel packets inside airtight containers to keep meringues dry. These are the non-edible packets you sometimes find in food containers or even packed with footwear and other non-food products.

Continue Reading •••
Posted in
Skip to toolbar