It is Pi Day. Because of the date, 3.14. Of course, pi, the number, is infinite. But it begins with 3.14. Then it goes on and on: 3.1415926535897932384626433….
I know. Everyone makes “pie” jokes today.
But I won’t do it. Instead, I offer you some baking tidbits.
1. Let’s start with our cheap friends in England. I’m not saying all of the English are cheap. But they have ancestors who certainly were.
Here is a little secret about me. I love Yorkshire pudding. But originally, Yorkshire pudding was served early in the meal. The purpose of serving Yorkshire pudding as a first course with thick gravy was to stifle the diners’ appetites with inexpensive ingredients. That way, they wouldn’t eat as much of the more expensive meat in the next course. Fill up on the starches, boys.
2. Here is a word I just learned. Onomatopoeic (or onomatopoeia). It describes a word that sounds like the thing it represents. So buzz sounds like a bee. Bang sounds like an explosion. Splash sounds like something hitting water. Okay. We got it.
Apparently, there is a very popular chocolate biscuit, baked in Japan, called the Pocky Stick. This name comes from the sound the biscuit makes when you snap the said biscuit. Pocky Stick. They look like straws. Hence, the “stick” part of the name.
At any rate, I’m just glad I’ve never ordered the Poo-Poo Platter at a Chinese Restaurant. They say the Poo-Poo platter is a large, shareable appetizer plate piled with a mix of fried or bite-sized foods. But I’m not chancing it.
3. I haven’t had cake in quite some time. And to tell the truth, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted Red Velvet Cake. A lot of people sure seem to love it. Well. All this time, I thought it was red because someone splashed a big bunch of Red 40 food coloring in the mix. But that is not the case. Traditional red velvet cake gets its signature red color and velvety texture from a chemical reaction. It happens when the unprocessed cocoa powder, acidic buttermilk, and basic baking soda all come together. The red. The velvet. Viola’.
4. And now to finish with my favorite bakery item of all. The pretzel.
Okay, let’s step back to a moment to my OCD and my need for being clean. Now. Let us consider lye. Lye is all about cleaning. It is in soap, and drain cleaners, oven cleaners, and more.
And now back to pretzels. Pretzels get their unique flavor and color from being glazed with sodium hydroxide. That is lye. They are glazed with a solution of lye before baking. Good, clean, delicious pretzels.
I love a good baking story. And what better day to discuss baking than on Pi Day (3.14)? Not to be confused with Pie Day. That’s right. National Pie Day passed us back in January, on the 23rd.
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“Baking is both an art and a science. The trick is knowing when to let each one take over.”— Paul Hollywood
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“A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.”— Elsa Schiaparelli
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“The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all days.”— Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
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