Testing Global Cooking Techniques we’ve NEVER tried before | Sorted Food 

Thanks!

You need to soak the corn husk first to make it more malleable, then you fill them in. You should use coarse salt for baking to prevent the food from getting too salty.

Seeing Barry melt the brush made me wonder: how much cooking equipment gets broken in a week at the Sorted studio?

I'm always impressed with how willing and engaged of a student Mike is. Not that the others aren't, but Mike always seems to ask questions and really engages with whatever they are learning about.

Didn’t expect to see 돌솥(stone pot) here! It is indeed a quite commonly used kitchenware in Korea. We use it for making bibimbap but because stone bowl has excellent heat retention we also use it a lot to serve loads of different kinds of traditional soup/stew (i.e. doenjang jjigae, kimchi jjigae etc.) Most restaurants in Korea serve boiling hot stew in these stone bowls and the food will stay hot/warm throughout your entire meal. Great content as always guys - can’t wait to see more! 👍🏻

As someone from a Hispanic family and whose favorite food is tamales a great alternative that we've found is using coffee filters instead of corn husks if you can't get them

Ben talking about rubbing Barry in lard has true ‘comment of the week’ vibes. 😂

As a Texan I have been dying to see y’all’s reactions to Tamales. They are a Christmas staple at my family’s house and people get so protective over who has the best recipes. There are 4 seasons here crawfish season, summer, hurricane season and tamale season.

Tamales are usually served still in the husk and they're common in the US, so I immediately recognized them. I always turn my leftover turkey from Thanksgiving into tamales. Makes the leftovers both go faster and more freeze friendly rather than having a massive chunk of turkey hanging out in the freezer.

I used to make salami and other cured meats for a living. Biltong is unique because it doesn't get cooked at all. Jerky is cured, cooked and then dried, but biltong is just cured and dried. It's tricky to make because beef contains microbes that are harder to kill. I can't, in good conscience, tell anyone to try making cured products at home unless they have the right equipment (pH meter, water activity meter, etc) to measure their product and ensure safety. EDIT: also, very traditionally, biltong was made of wild venison, which carries its own issues.

When we were having a bbq in the bush we used to get mud from just below the water line at the local river. We would thickly coat unpeeled apples and potatoes in the mud and chuck them in the fires coals. Once the mud started to crack after drying out we would get them out of the coals break off the mud and have baked potatoes and apples. My Dad said it's natures tin foil. Those and his billy tea were always a treat.

I am a South African I just want to say thank you for sharing two of my most loved home foods with the world .

As an South African. We seriously love our biltong. Great job guys and thanks for representing S.A.

Costa Rican here. Tamales back home are made with plantain leaves instead of corn husk. I believe that type of tamal is more like the ones from Mexico.

South African here! Love that you guys discussed biltong. My husband is a hunter and I often make venison biltong at home. The ingredients in your spice mix are spot on! But the ratios are a bit higher than what we use. I'm not sure about what everyone else in SA uses, but our recipe has way less of each spice/ingredient per kg of meat, except the salt. We also dip ours in a vinegar and water bath after it cures overnight to remove some of the spice and salt before we hang it to dry. We dry ours in a little "cellar" with a fan and sometimes a lightbulb. We also make cabanossi sausage from warthog, and sometimes droewors (the sausage you refer to) from venison. Awesome to see biltong represented on a channel we love 👍

This was actually well researched and respectful of all cultures presented with absolutely no hint of ignorance or racism usually found on food shows. Refreshing take on the discovery of foreign food. Well done guys. Thumbs up 👍

Happy to see that South Africa made it in an episode 😅🇿🇦

I grew up in Colorado USA and now live in Arizona USA. I love to make tamales but I always soak the corn husks in hot water to soften them before trying to fill and roll. They need to be dried off but roll very easily.

Most South Africans have at one time or another made biltong from scratch, we have. I much prefer the wetter variety, between the wet and dry versions you did, and with less fat. The sausage is known as "dry wors" - wors being the Afrikaans for sausage. Love it.

So cool to see some South African stuff on the channel, love checking my country get some recognition! Biltong is so nice, and droewors ( the sausage ) is defiantly one of my favourite snacks!

So glad biltong is finally represented! There's a South African pub in SW London which does incredible South African food - you should check it out! I'll be honest though - that biltong looked really bad. It shouldn't be that dry. However, love the representation!

Biltong is an all round South African favourite. Everyone has there own way of making it but your spice mix covers all the basics. I remember my mom preparing whole batches for each year in a baby bath and the smell of coriander wafting through the house. It's not supposed to stink!! The wet biltong is my favourite to snack on. Dry biltong can also be ground up and is delicious on buttered bread with white pepper... Yum! 😋😋😋

From a South African, we eat biltong at absolutely any opportunity. We even have shops dedicated to it! It is a staple of South African life. It also is not as difficult (or unsanitary) to make as Ben makes it out to be! Essentially you need a wooden box with good ventilation and a heat source like a light bulb, and you can make it yourself at home.

As a hispanic from the U.S., it's so cool seeing these British lads try our cuisine. I love seeing my people's food being enjoyed across the pond!

Anytime I watch the guys try Latin food, I'm always so shocked. Its definitely a culture thing, as I'm in the USA, but getting authentic Latin food has to be difficult in the UK.

I am current University Student, I am on my 2nd Year, Sorted has helped me a lot whilst budgeting for food, cooking different meals so I don't get tired or bored of cooking and most important of all; avoid wastage as much as possible. Thank you Sorted!!! Can you please do meals that a University student can do e.g. easy, quick, not many ingredients needed and one pot perhaps.

I love looking at different cultures foods so this series is made for me!!! Been loving all these videos lately too

As a South African I'd love to see some more of our recipes!

Glad the boys got to try some biltong and droëwors, the best type of cured meat and something jerky will never match 😂🇿🇦

I'm a South African. I made my first batch of biltong when I was 14. Everyone here eats biltong almost daily. Every grocer has sections just to dry meat and you never need to visit a butcher although they do it best. The variety is also unbelievable to foreigners visiting...almost every decent sized town has shops dedicated just to biltong and you can find 50+ different variants from shark to bacon to chicken and find what you love. I like a straight wet-ish droewors and chutney wheels. I encourage you to visit and do an episode on just biltong and I promise you, the culture will astonish you. Just pick a random town and ask a local where the biltong shop is or just walk into a Pick & Pay and you'll find something worth the trip.

As a Brit with a Mexican girlfriend, I laughed SO hard when she said "You can't get more white than being impressed by corn husks." XD

I love the "don't try this at home" speech with the biltong, while every South African can almost make it instinctively as soon as they are allowed in the kitchen. I'm also always amazed that people from other countries consider lamb "gamey" or describe biltong as having a funk. In SA that is exactly what you go for. If you can't taste the Karoo bush the lamb has eaten, you bought some crappy quality lamb 😉

As a proud South African who lives on Biltong, its awesome seeing a technique we take for granted being showcased here. I make my own biltong, and although you guys have the basic spice blend correct (which is like a starter point) we have so many alternates from different levels of spice by adding chillies and different spice blends to sweeter spicing etc example one of my favourites to make uses lemon pepper

If you want real biltong you need to choose a cut with a fat cap on it! Making biltong at home is super easy and really has very little danger to it - just use good quality fresh beef. As a South African living in Europe I've been making biltong at home for ages and never run into issues (it is a staple in our snack diet, like crisps in the UK). Another great version is to cut thinner strips and coat them in chilli powder to make a spicy "chilli bite" alternative.

Masa for tamales is generally a different grind than masa for tortillas.

As a South African... i almost had a stroke when i saw you put the biltong into the oven

South African here! Biltong is our pride and joy. We’re a very big hunting country, so we usually after hunting season have biltong and droëwors (the sausage) hanging outside in our garages, not our ovens😂 childishly excited to see you guys try it!

as someone who always has tamales in the freezer and gochujang in the fridge, i loved this episode! it was quite interesting to see them be so unfamiliar with corn husks and tamales (since i am in the U.S.)

As soon as I saw the corn husk, I knew it was gonna be tamales.... it made me giggle they were so perplexed by them but I had to remind myself, I live in Texas and half my family is Mexican descent. Not many abuelitas in the UK selling tamales every winter.

Shout-out to the Sorted team from South Africa 🙌 That cured sausage is what we call droewors which literally translates to "dry sausage" and if that wet piece freaks you out Baz there's a type of biltong called geelvet biltong which has still has most of the fat cap from a piece of meat and is hung and cured until the fat goes yellow and basically runs down your chin when you bite into it 😂 Never been a fan myself but a lot of the older Afrikaans Ooms (Uncles) and the proper Boere (Farmers) enjoy it!

You guys actually sprung for the extra long Korean spoons! I'm Korean and my Dad passes over every spoon in the drawer and uses those for everything! And those dolsat stone bowls are also used to make Korean stews (chigae) that come boiling to the table.

I love how open and genuinely appreciative (whilst still being honest) they are with food from other cultures. Such a breath of fresh air!

So great to see some South African stuff. You get some amazing biltong drying kits that lets you dry it without using a spare room or your oven. So Mike no need to stink up that room again. You can use a wide variety of spices for biltong. Chilly bites is a favourite for many people here. Some of the butchers here in South Africa have been making biltong from wagyu meat as well. Extremely rich flavour but very addictive. Jamie will absolutely love it.

That closing blooper has to be one of the best ones to date

This is amazing! I love the way u highlight cultures and foods around the world. That said... as a latina, the way Ben said Nicaragua made me laugh in the middle of my lunch break hahaha Nice effort ebbers

What I love about this channel, these guys and their team is how on one hand, they are willing to push limits on traditional ways foods are cooked all over the world (i.e. paella burrito) but also their willingness to revisit, relearn and re-educate on traditional ways at the same time.

El Salvadorian, Honduran and Guatemalan sometimes use banana leaves as well as a substitute in place of the corn husks. My mother would use margarine instead of lard to help tone down the fat content. It makes the corn mixture a bit lighter and softer. As long as you have a good mixture in the tamale, you won't notice the difference. You guys are making me miss home! Great video as always!

I'm from a corn heavy area with a large Mexican population. I instantly knew the corn husks for tamales. I laughed a little at Mike trying to eat it.

Please do more of these global cooking techniques! This was great.

It’s never a good idea to watch SORTEDFood when you’re hungry! 😫

This is your sign to soooooak your tamale husks, I beg you! Max Miller's Tasting History episode on Tamalés is a great reference with some background on the food itself! Many Indigenous like the Diné (Navajo) put juniper ash in their Blue corn mush to nixtamalize it before eating. Top it with wojapi and it's the booooomb!

I enjoy using my Dolsot for my bibimbap. Similarly (yet different) if people want some more Korean cookingware they can try a Ddukbaegi (also spelled Ttukbaegi) for soups, stews, and more.

Try making appams in a traditional Indian appam pan! Its my favourite thing to make. The pan is special because its shape enables you to make appams that are slightly gooey in the middle but crispy on the edges. You have to ferment the batter overnight but it is so so easy. You just mix coconut milk with rice flour, yeast and sugar.

We do Biltong all the time at home. There is no need for all the condiments. Keep it simple. We cut our beef in strips, generously sprinkle the bottom of a plastic container with vinegar, then liberal Kosher salt and crushed roasted coriander. Then you put a layer of beef over it and repeat the vinegar, coriander and salt layers. Cover if with Cling Wrap and leave in fridge overnight. Next day, remove the biltong and put in dehydrator on its lowest setting. After three to four days your biltong will be ready. You won't find more authentic tasting biltong than this.

I’ll happily play “find the carrot with Ebbers..” 😘

Laughed so hard when Mike bit the corn husk! It just goes to show that where you live and travel can really determine which cultures you’re exposed to and or learn about. More than half the time I have no idea what European dishes they’re referring to but usually always recognize items from the American and Asian countries.

As an American, I sometimes forget that Sorted is halfway across the world, then they pull out corn husks and don't immediately know that tamales are coming. So interesting how we exposed to these cultural staples.

My mother started growing a turmeric plant some time ago, and she found a recipe for an Indian desert called "patholi" that is cooked in turmeric leaves. I'm sure we didn't do very well with it, but what we made was good, and cooking in turmeric leaves gave the food a really nice flavor. Also: when I was in China I had grilled lotus root that was really good -- I don't suppose grilling is a novel cooking method, but lotus root is definitely not common in western cuisine. There's a yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepalum) that grows in southeast Alaska that I've been told has a tasty root and seeds that can be popped like popcorn. I've never tried it myself because harvesting from aquatic plants sounds really complicated and I don't live near enough any of them to get ready access, but I absolutely want to try it!

Ben is such a Parent with the Normals by making them eat vegetables in new and interesting ways 😂

It's really interesting to see how the tamales were tied in the Cuban manner, also in Central America banana leaf is what is used to wrap the tamales. Corn husk is middle and northern Mexico and some of the islands.

As a South African I am proud to see Droë Wors and Biltong being showcased here on Sorted. Makes me proud. But yes this has been done for hundreds of years. And you don't get anything beter or comforting as this

This makes me feel so fortunate I’m from places in the US where tamales are sold door to door by wonderful Mexican families

Hi, I am from South Africa, Thank you for the representation but we would never just eat the dry biltong. the wetter one is normal the ones we eat as snacks or you would find on tables at parties or as part of a cheese platter. if it becomes too dry we would normally use it in dishes like creamy biltong soup or something that can rehydrate it and where it can impart its flavour to the dish. Biltong is one of South Africa's national snacks and it is super delicious.

As a South African who constantly makes his own biltong and droewors (dry sausage), it is so amazing to see the guys from sorted showcasing a massive part of our culture

This channel always helps me to realize the different cooking styles around the world and how some are much more accessible than others and to be kind when someone hasn't tried something before. Like the tamales, I live in Texas and immediately was like "oh come on guys!" But then held myself back by remembering that in the UK it probably is a really difficult to find traditional Mexican/Latin American foods there. Glad the guys liked them!

I'm from South Africa and I have been watching you guys religiously since day dot. Balsamic is not a very traditional ingredient for biltong (red wine vinegar instead) and definitely a lot of crushed coriander seeds. Ben, there aren't ranches in SA, there are farms 😉

Love seeing Korean food culture getting featured beyond the KBBQ fad! Y'all should really try the steamed egg dish (gyeran-jjim) that also gets served in dolsot's too - that's actually a common side dish with KBBQ, so I guess you can't really get away from that anyway haha

When I was a teenager, the first time I was put in charge of the Sunday roast, I did salt baked lamb (because I was a pretentious weirdo I guess) but it’s totally worth the effort. It is absolutely delicious.

Love this! For future reference, the husks are usually soaked for a while in order to make them more maleable for wrapping

The first one got me excited. I love bibimbap. The second one was a no brainer for me as a resident of Texas. Corn husks are available all over here. Tamales are an art form here.

When i was working in kitchens, a lot of the chefs I knew used wine fridges to hang their curing meats because they often have a way of controlling the humidity

I’m so proud of this episode!!! I’ve been a fan on this channel for four years and finally there’s biltong. I’m South African living in South Africa 🇿🇦! Love you guys !

Kudos to whoever came right in with the tea towel and whipped that too hot bowl off the heat. Quick reactions. Well done!

South African here. Our biltong was made much simpler. Long pieces of meat soaked in a vinegar bath that contained salt & pepper for about a day. Dipped in roughly crushed coriander & Bob's your uncle. Hang & enjoy in about a week. The drier pieces would be game - hanging up in a fridge for a couple days. Same process & here is the difference - you tear game with your teeth. Man what a pleasure biltong brings. 😁😍

Biltong comes in different variations of dryness from super crackly dry like crisps, to the more moist one like you tried, including different spice blends from mild to chili and also sticks of dried sausage 'boerwors',different thicknesses etc. It's a snack to accompany beers, barbecues, it can be stewed- basically rehydrated in a fashion- & from different types of animals e.g beef to game. You have to try more variations and most probably you will get hooked on one of them be it salty,thick,thin, chili,salty,peppery you name it.

I love seeing SORTED exploring different cuisines in different ways and not just through one single ingredient or dish! After being a fan for 10 years, it's so cool to the content evolve from mainly British/European food to now being truly a global food channel.

I very much appreciate you doing closed captioning for your videos. You always upload just before my lunch break at work and I don’t want the volume on out of respect for other people around me. I’ve watched your videos enough that I know each of your voices well enough for my brain to read the captions in your voices, ha!

I'd love to see the Sorted Food team do a New Zealand style Hangi (earth oven) one day. It's an unmistakable smokey/earthy flavour.

7:29 - Tamales are a BIG thing in Texas, as expected. I can find the husks and Masa at any grocery store, and they're not expensive. In the late 90's, I worked for a major airline as a reservations agent, and one of my co-workers would bring their mom in every Friday, having taken orders on Tuesday, and they would spend very late Thursday into Friday morning, making them. My friends and I would go together and just order 12 to 24 depending on how many of us would be in office, and I have to say, best lunch of the week every week. If you guys get back to Texas and are in DFW, let me know, I know some amazing Tex-Mex and Mexican dining on the west side of the metroplex.

My family (From the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) has a old family recipe where we salt bake a huge slab of beef. It involves the full salt crust - wrapping in foil, and eventually cooking it under a mound of dirt with coals.

As a Latinamerican, watching the corn husk part was so cute and funny. We use masa literally everyday and wrapping things in corn husks seems so normal. Using cornhusks is also important for the flavor of tamales and/or bollitos

This is one of my favorite videos now! What a really cool concept for a video!

Biltong is a South African pastime, literally, some types can take hours to chew. We also have some cool flavors these days, my favorite is honey and chili, wet biltong mixed with honey, and chili flakes, AWESOME!

I'm half Panamanian, and steaming tamales in a banana leaf is the traditional method. Make the filling first, then as it cools use the broth/juice from your filling as the main liquid to season and flavor the masa as it gets to the right consistency (add water or salt as needed), fill large banana leaves in the same way done in this video (to the brim, lots of filling, juuust enough masa to cover it all), fold over the banana leaf like a large sachet in a rectangle, boil the water in your steaming pot, and once there are enough made steam the tamales until the masa is decently firm. Also in Panama 🇵🇦 it's more common to use yellow corn masa rather than white to add a sweetness. The masa is made from boiling white rice and dried yellow corn kernels that have had the outer skins removed (by repeatedly smashing them and rinsing off the skins that float to the top of the bowl used to wash the corn until no more float to the top) for several hours. Once the corn is fully engorged and tender, drain all of the water and put the mix through a grinder to desired "grit" level for your masa. Warning ⚠️ boiling for several hours also means periodically stirring or there will be stuck/burnt bits at the bottom of your pot that ruin the flavor.

For the bibimbop in the hot dolsot(?), when you are done eating, you pour some water into it then the residual heat is still hot enough to cook the rice even further, make it into Noo roong ji (누룽지), which means brownish crispy rice. What the water does is actually it soaks the rice grains making them effortlessly come off of the bottom of the dolsot, you save the time and energy for washing the dolsot without worrying about the rice grains that are stuck to the bottom so hard.

Barry with long hair looking FIRE

In Chile during summer when corn is at it best we make something called Humitas. Is like a tamale but it uses fresh grated corn, that is mixed with fried onions (with spices). The mix is put inside corn leaves and cooked in water and salt. It's the best summer food. You eat it hot with tomatoes, you can also add sugar just before eating but that is a controversial point lol

In Germany there is a special technique of cooking with a special type of cooking equipment called the "Römertopf", which could be translated to "Roman Pot". Supposedly the romans used baked clay pots in their cooking, so this is where it is derived from. Before use you have to put the pot into water, so it can soak it up. The food in the pot is cooked in the oven through the steam the clay pot gives off. This method of cooking became popular in Germany in the 1970s but has fallen out of fashion for quite some time now. Mostly the "older" generation still uses them from time to time.

I really appreciate this video! it's really nice to see cooking techniques that people may not be as aware of. Can't wait for more!

Where do I join the fan club for Barry's hair?

Oh watching them attempt to make tamales makes me giggle. When I go over my Mexican friends houses, I’m always relegated to opening the husks. I’m not allowed to stuff/roll then 😂

As someone who is korean, currently living in Japan, it does always make me smile when someone goes absolutely nuts as I put a dolsot straight onto the burner and watch it start to go off like a small haejangguk-scented volcano.

I loved this, really like it when you share from different countries. One thing we used to do in Norway a long time ago was smoke food by lighting a fire inside hulled trees

Love the episode! The tamales were missing the key step of soaking your husks. However, I must admit that I’m distracted by Barry’s hair. I’m trying to embrace it! “Man Bun Baz”….”Barrette Barry”….”Man-Bob Barry”…I am hoping that an appropriate nickname will help me accept the new hair style (or perhaps lack of style).

I've been eating tamales since I was born, and I'm really mad that it took me this long to classify them as a dumpling.

Look, guys... You gotta respect them so much for the whole production and editing. Honestly, you are all amazing Sorted Food Family.

As a South African, I am happy to see Biltong here on Sorted! So, you get a special cabinet (really just a big plastic box with a bulb for heat and fans for ventilation) called a 'Biltong Maker' - it's great for making Biltong and the sausage (called 'Droewors' aka 'Dry Sausage'. You also get the sausage as 'Boere Wors' aka 'Farmers' Sausage' that we cook over hot coals barbecue style - called a 'Braai'. You can buy the Droewors 'wet' at many butchers and then cure it yourself (just hang it up in a Biltong Maker for a couple days and you're done). My family goes hunting now and again, and then the whole house ends up hung with Biltong and Droewors all over. It's really nice to have a whole bunch of delicious Biltong available. Biltong is sold nearly everywhere here as a major snack, and I've not really ever heard of someone getting sick from eating it since all you have to do is make sure that you marinate and cure it properly first. The strong spices, vinegar and salt helps a great deal to prevent issues and if you can keep insects and the like away then you should be good. Take note our climate down here is a lot warmer than in Britain though and the heat plays a big role in the proper curing of the meat!!!

As a Nicaraguan, Ben's botched pronunciation of my countries name made me burst out laughing hahaha. That aside, you guys should try making some larger tamales using banana leaves. Look up Nacatamal for example. It's the kind of tamal most eaten here. They are large enough that one usually is a whole meal. Usually eaten for breakfast. But people throughout central america have many other types of banana leaf-wrapped tamales.

As a Texan (non-Hispanic native, though), it made me happy to see Mike and Barry enjoy their tamales and salsa that much.

After watching this video, I purchased the bowls and made Bibimbap for my family. To say they loved it is an understatement. Thank you so much. I have learned from all of you. Keep up the amazing work guys.