I bought an entire 40-pound (18.144kg) wheel of Gouda from Beemster out of Holland. I immediately cut it in half and dipped one half in cheese wax to put in my aging cabinet, and I'm still working on the other half a wheel. It was absolutely worth every penny. The half I'm eating now is aged three years, I'm taking the other half to 8 years. Grana Padano is great. It's a nuttier and slightly sweeter than your standar Parmesan. Not quite as firm either. Good stuff all around.
Yeah but it's so worth it if love cheese as much as I do! I make my own, and have bought whole wheels of Gouda, parmesan, Gran Padano, and big blocks of the oldest cheddar I can find. I've got 6 pounds of a 15-year-aged cheddar that sells for about $99 USD per pound. Cheese is good. Cheese is beautiful. Cheese is the true key to Heaven!
Was thinking this. Love that Mike was pointing it out, lol. But I was also imagining that each staff member received a wedge to take home. That would take up a quarter of the wheel right there probably.
We use the Caul fat quite extensively in South-Africa. We call it netvet in Afrikaans, well because it looks like a net. The most traditional use is to wrap spice lambs liver in netvet and braai it over woodfire coals. This is called a skilpadjie, which means tortoise in English, because the wrapped lambs liver looks like a tortoise shell. This has given rise to many different skilpadjies. We also wrap stuffed pieces of steak or chicken breast with netvet and braai them over woodfire coals.
All the years I lived there and I never heard of netvet. Is it a regional recipe? I do miss the decent braais and potjies! Also babootie, bunny chow... so much good food in SA 🙂
As a Hong Konger, I am so excited to see you try out Cantonese steamed fish! It is absolutely my favourite dish growing up and its taste is unbeatable with all the freshness of the fish and the beautiful aromatics in hot oil. It is a must-have dish during festivals and family reunions!
Greetings from South Africa. a Must try is making balls of minced and seasoned beef liver covered with caul fat. This then gets put on the braai (BBQ) and gets to be crispy and golden brown. Fantastic flavor. We call it skilpadtjies (tortoise) as the caul fat resemble a tortoise shell.
I love how modern-day f-slur was once traditionally a bundle of sticks and/or a british meatball with caul fat. I live in the midwest of the United States, so hearing the word threw me for a loop, haha, but I understand that word has many many many meanings behind it. Great video, boys!
I work in Wales as a butcher and it's a popular dish here. Having a f box, and explaining what it is to Americans who walk into the shop. Because to them it's daunting to see that word is all caps on a sign. The dish is genuinely delicious as well and it used all scraps, off cuts or bits and bobs from the shop. So it stops food waste massively. Also, as someone who is LGBT it makes me chuckle a little as the shocked faces and people asking how to pronounce it
From what I've learnt, in the 16th century, peasant women would be "faggot gatherers" meaning it was their job to gather sticks and stuff for the fire they would cook on. Eventually, this got shortened to just "faggot" and started being used as an insult. If you were called a faggot, you were seen as a poor woman or old man. Then, because of the sterotype that us gay people are more effeminate, people started calling us faggots because of its link to poorer women. America then just took the slur and ran with it
Interesting. As meats spoil almost instantaneously in the tropics, I can’t wrap my head around tartare, carpaccio, etc. But caul fat usage in cooking, now that’s something I’m familiar with as an Indonesian. One of my favorite dishes is _sate buntel_ which is minced meat wrapped in caul fat and then skewered with bamboo sticks. 🤤
As someone who grew up with that style of steamed fish, it was really cool seeing such genuine appreciation of it. It's delicious, but I'm not used to seeing people love it this much! Great video as always!
Cantonese cuisine is so good at bringing out the best of the ingredients and letting all the parts shine at the same time. Wonderful to see a shoutout here
Perhaps you could do a episode on high end vinegars. I don't have a clue about high end vinegar and why or how you would use them. I'm very curious. I hope you do decide to do a high end vinegar. Please. 🙏
Love these videos, thanks crew! Having watched cooking shows my whole life, I feel I've seen most every type of ingredient. This and the pretentious ingredients videos always let me learn something new I've never seen.
Escabeche is very popular in Puerto Rico. Although we do fish escabeche, the most popular escabeche dish is guineos en escabeche (green/unriped banana escabeche). We also make yuca (or any root vegetable, for that matter) escabeche.
That was again a wonderful insight into the many, many ways that people have used ingredients and cooking methods to make good things even better. Thank you!
Steamed fish with green onions, and ginger is such a comfort food for me. Growing up this is what I love aboit chinese food. Its sinple but ao amazingly delicious.
we do the fish oil technique at home, though we use much less oil, as it can cause the bottom half of the fish to be overly oily when you get to it. also you just heat in a frying pan and pour it from there, save washing up a ladel aftewards.
Caul fat is also used in Romania for a dish around Easter time - it's called "drob" and it's sort of a meatloaf which is made with different boiled and ground lamb organs (lungs, liver, heart), herbs (green onion, green garlic, dill, parsley, etc) and binded with eggs and lard. That is then put in the caul fat and baked. It's delicious but really only made for Easter
Same in Serbia - lamb offal mixture with some rice, wrapped up in caul fat and baked. We just call it lamb sarmale. But 'drob' is here also archaic word for intestines of any kind.
The Escabeche technic is used in Denmark. It is a classic way of preparing herring for a lunch table. Vinegar, sugar, water and onion combined with spices like dill, juniper and/or bayleaf. Server the marinated herring on rye sourdough bread with raw onion and accompany it with a snaps. In the Easter holidays alot of families are coming together for a lunch, and eating this dish.
That Spanish escabeche is great as a tapa with crusty bread, i love watching the English at the tapa display as your two guys initially said they didn’t think they would like it but once tasted it was great, i know i shouldn’t but can’t help butting in and saying try it you may be pleasantly surprised. If you want to make just letting the vinegar pickle it use anchovies placed in olive oil vinegar chopped garlic and parsley delicious as a light meal in summer. I’m South African married to a Spaniard her mom use to make a delicious amount of different tapas. The cooked one is made with large sardines or fillets of mackerel.
The Philippines also has their own version of escabeche since it was colonized by the Spaniards, usually the fish is Tilapia that is first deep fried, while the sauce is sweet and sour sauce
In Switzerland we traditionally use caul fat from pigs to wrap a sort of round saussage called 'Adrio' in German or 'Atriau' in the French speaking regions. Did not know that it is also used traditionally in Britain.
Not sure if Ben is 100% on why we use vinegar on Fish & Chips - but he is right about the idea of batter frying fish coming via Jewish migration as they fled persecution, primarily in modern day Russia and Ukraine as well as other parts of Eastern Europe (with the majority eventually heading to the USA). To meet Jewish religious dietary requirements families would make a simple batter, fry fish up before dusk on a Friday for Shabbat, let it go cold and the batter more or less kept the fish fresh, wherein they'd peel off and discard the batter before eating it. As this became more popular, stalls were set up selling it, and when non-Jewish customers, particularly in London, found these stalls they just assumed it was to be eaten as is (particularly with lingering cultural norms of eating fish on a Friday linked to Christianity). Turned out they loved it, eventually the idea got refined, paired with fried potatoes (Chips) and the Chippy was born. It's actually a similar story to how Mushy Peas came to be common on these menu's as Fish & Chips started as a cheaply available, easy to make meal for the poor and working classes in Victorian times, as indeed were slow cooked rehydrated peas - and why so many staples at a chippy have their roots in lower class communities, compared to say a Sunday Roast or Full English which has its roots in the upper classes.
Just a quick correction: the introduction of fried Battered fish was done by Sephardi Jews arriving from Spain and Portugal via Netherlands. However the first fish and chip shop was opened by Ashkenazi Jews.
We still eat fish in vinegar (usually herring, both naked and battered) in Poland - just visit your nearest Polish shop and ask for "ryba w occie". Lots of people in the west think it's a Jewish idea but the truth is using vinegar this way was and is still popular in Central and Eastern Europe, Jews just took it with them as they were moving more west.
omg I'm so blown away over the lace fat! Worked with it tons of times making Icelandic blóðmör and lifrarpylsa (blood pudding and liver sausage) but just cut it in pieces to put it into the sausages and pudding! I must try this!
Love the new technique videos! 😊I hope one day you will get a South African biltong kit try different lightning, spices will impact the moisture levels over the course of a few episodes since it takes a few days.
You probably realized that their vinegar cooked fish is very similar to South African Curry fish, which is cooked in a vinegary curry sauce. And obviously South Africans use caul fat in Skilpadtjies.
Love that Ebbers is such a food nerd, and expands our knowledge of food outside the usual! We get to expand our knowledge of other cultures, and experience how the global community enjoys food in ways different to ours. The history of fish and chips with vinegar is a great conversation topic, so I'm going to memorize it so I can share it with others. Thank you, Sorted Food!
We have something like escabeche in Poland too. It's usually fried herring, marinated in hot distilled vinegar with onion and peppercorns. Delicious. It is quite punchy.
If anyone wants to try the fish technique at home, I highly recommend using steamed Blue Cod (If you have access to it) It was one of the only ways I'll eat fish as a kid - The other was deep fried with chips.
We catch lots of mackerel at times of the year, my mother makes the escabeche as soon as we start catching them and there was always a large tray full in the fridge for about the 2 months the fish were here, we loved it.
The cantonese fish is one of mu fave dishes growing up. As for the Escabeche… in the Philippines, we don’t pickle it… we have sour tomato sauce that we simmer the fried fish in. As for the ceviche… there is a connection between the ones in the Philippines and the Americas… according to a source the use of citrus actually came from the Philippines via the Galleon trade. They didn’t use citrus before then in the Americas for ceviche… and now in the philippines we use coconut or rice vinegar. Also one thing to try… if you can find it… is tomato vinegar. My dad’s former company used to be the only local producers of tomato paste in the Philippines and they made tomato vinegar out of the left over product. It is amazing
Would love to see a video centered around Norwegian dishes/ingredients, some brunost (brown cheese), smalahove (sheeps head), Raspeballer (potato balls), reindeersausages and other reindeerdishes. Just remember to get an ostehøvel (cheese slicer) if you're gonna do something with the brown cheese as it is very sweet, and may have too intense a flavor when not in a slice. Also when is the next A-Z around the world video?
Norwegian food is mostly garbage. There's a reason you don't hear anything about it outside of Norway. The supermarkets here have a very poor selection, and people mostly eat meat and potatoes during the week, and fake tacos on Fridays.
Chinese steamed fish prepared that way (steamed with soy, rice wine and palm sugar) is my absolute favorite meal in the world, and actually very easy to do at home!
Two points of interest. In South Africa we traditionally have a curried pickled fish that in some ways remind me a bit of that hot vinegar of fish concept. Secondly, in South Africa we use caul fat often, especially for a traditional food called 'Skilpadjies'.
I am so happy you guys featured cantonese food I have steamed fish very often and it was a pleasant surprise to see the distinction here because normally chinese food gets grouped altogether! Good stuff
Cantonese steamed fish is amazing especially when a particular restaurant uses their proprietary soy sauce. It’s amazing poured over rice and eaten together with the fish
A traditional summer/Christmas y (yeah, deal with it) dish in Buenos Aires is Eye of Round of Steak escabeche (of course it had to be beef) with pepper corns, bay leaf, onions and Carrots.
One thing you can do with the caul fat is covering an hamburger patty (slightly ticker than a normal one is better) and cook it. The fat from the membrane will season the meat and make it amazing
Always wild to hear British people say the f-slur in common speech, I know it means something completely different but always throws me through a loop lol
To be fair it's also a slur here, but the context of it is very easy to get. Smokers also use "fag" as cigarette, you'll hear "I'm off for a fag" all the time in British pubs. Unfortunately, many wiseasses will use the fact it has different meanings as an excuse to repeat it, probably because they think they're really funny.
I've always had the Cantonese steamed fish in Hong Kong with hot soy sauce mixed with oil ladled over instead of just oil, prevents it being so slimy and adds the saltiness needed
Caul fat is also used in Peshawar in Pakistan for patta tikka/patta dana. lamb is wrap in the omentum and then salted and cooked over an open flame. it used to be something for special guests but now it's much more commonly available and it's delicious!
I decided to try your cooking app while my MIL visited. She hates me and my cooking, so I had nothing to lose. She begrudgingly had seconds of the leak and pancetta pasta. Normally, she brings leftovers from home and eats that instead. 😂😂😂 5/5⭐️
Ebbers you are also only half correct with China. You may only know the technique through the cultural exchange at the port city of Hong Kong but the technique is from central China in which hot oil is used to extract flavor and aroma from aromatics and chilis to finish dishes. This done not only to fish dishes but also to noodles and meat dishes.
When making a meatloaf the Caul Fat is really delicious instead of bacon wrapped around.. that and of course bay leaf can really make something as simple as meatloaf into a super delicious treat! :-)
Caul fat is being used to make liver in South Africa. Very old recipe. Either by having minced liver with onions and everyone's favourite secret spice etc wrapped over a patty of liver and barbecued or baked called skilpaadtjies (little turtles) or used in sausage format where it is called pofadders (puff adders). Quite quirky names.
We wrap rice and sheep liver and other intestines in caul fat and cook it with broth in the oven... it's traditional easter dish in Bulgaria. And it's delicious.
Either as a chef walking the normals through a recipe or just giving the team a recipe card, maybe a cooking challenge where half of the recipe's instructions are in the dish's country of origin's native language? Obviously with key things like temperatures and cook times left alone so you're not just making something not food safe.
Just to point out, given that it's Spanish, you shouldn't pronounce escabeche as if it were a French word. More escabecheh, the ch strong like in change. Same with the ch in ceviche
I want to see you make Hardtack and Pemmican! Old foods that enabled huge historic events. Could even make a series considering how many of those there are.
Why am I not surprised the Cantonese dish involved drowning things in oil. 20 years living in Asia now and I so miss fresh dishes rather than everything being so heavy and oily.
Off topic a bit.. but before I found sorted foods, id never have had this thought process. Ok my Bolognese is too sweet from the tomato and carrot, but I'm happy with the salt level.. I know, let's add lemon juice. It was so good -.-
Ebbers is my spirit animal. When i am working, i am always lecturing the site personnel to try and make therm better maintenance people. Because everybody should know this stuff, it's your JOB. I always learn new stuff on the cooking channels i watch, because i WANT to learn. I WANT to see new ways of doing something to food. Because? I like to eat, and everybody needs to eat. So why not at least understand why the food you are eating is good or not so good.
In South Africa we have a very similar fish dish but we put curry spices in the vinegar and call it pickled fish. And we actually mostly eat it over Easter break We also use caul fat for something called skilpadjies which translates to baby turtles. Which is caul fat over lamb offal amd then we grill it over the fire. Ever single braai has to have at least a sixpack of skilpadjies.
@@michaelsaayman2802I am going to have to argue with you :) Skilpadjies should be a solid slab of liver and netvet only, cooked on a braai and served with salt and Tabasco (or similar). Well those are the one's I prefer. Damn, now I want to braai!!!! 🤣🤣
@@michaelsaayman2802different recipes, same basic concept. Every family has their own skilpadjies recipe. My family uses minced kidney, liver and chopped up bacon in ours.
I learnt to cook predominantly in a little game keepers cottage in the middle of a wood on an old wood fuelled Victorian range. This episode brought back the memories of cooking everything wasting nothing. There are two items that have forever left me traumatised. 1. Being asked to stir the pot of boiling brawn only to see a eyeball rise to the surface and stare back at me! 2. My grandfather getting a microwave when my grandmother had a stroke and was in hospital. He raved about the marvels of it as the home care came and warmed his meals. Sounds great until he decided to warm his faggots in the thing …. They exploded! Just thinking of the blooming things brings back the memory of exploded burnt chunks stuck like concrete to the brand new microwave! Thank you for reminding me of this …
I'm glad you finally did an episode that addressed the oil over aromats technique since previously Kush said some pretty mean things about the technique! I wish he was on this one to at least realise how wrong he was!
Far more hygenic to chop beef rather than mince it, if it is going to ate raw I was always told. The bacteria is only on the cut side of the hand choppped meat, where as if you mince it, there is by far more bacteria present because of the multiple cutting action.
