A HARTE APPETITE: COOK 'EM, DANNO

A little knowledge of culinary chemistry can solve the mystery of why some chocolate chip cookies are crisp and others are soft

"The corpse exuded the irresistible aroma of a piquant, ancho chili glaze enticingly enhanced with a hint of fresh cilantro as it lay before him, coyly garnished by a garland of variegated radicchio and caramelized onions, and impishly drizzled with glistening rivulets of vintage balsamic vinegar and roasted garlic oil; yes, as he surveyed the body of the slain food critic slumped on the floor of the cozy, but nearly empty, bistro, a quick inventory of his senses told corpulent Inspector Moreau that this was, in all likelihood, an inside job."

That sentence is one of several recent winners in the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest which challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. But bad though it may be, it serves as a reminder of just how far the genre of the culinary mystery has come since the days of Rex Stout's heavyweight detective Nero Wolfe. The popularity of contemporary writers like Diane Mott Davidson and Michael Bond (who writes deliciously about culinary sleuth Monsieur Pamplemousse and his dog Pommes Frites) testify to the fact that some of us enjoy reading cookbooks like novels and vice versa.

And why shouldn't we? After all, both detectives and cooks are often confronted with mysteries: for the former it's a question of "whodunit?" and for the latter it may be a question of why the souffl fell or the cake failed to rise.

Fortunately, there's help for solving those food mysteries from Anne Gardiner and Sue Wilson, two Canadians who have collaborated on a book and Web site called The Inquisitive Cook. Of course, not all food mysteries (like what's really in Spam) are penetrable, and others (like why grandmother always cut the ends off the ham before she baked it) don't require a Sherlock Holmes to solve. (Turns out she didn't have a big enough pan!)

But as Gardiner and Wilson demonstrate, an understanding of the fundamentals of food chemistry can explain many culinary puzzles.

For example, why do some recipes call for both baking powder and baking soda, and what's the difference between them anyway? Both leaven baked goods by chemical reactions that generate carbon dioxide. But baking soda is an alkali and it needs acid to work. That's why a recipe will usually contain some acid ingredient if it also calls for baking soda. But if the proportion of acid and baking soda are not balanced or, worse yet, if there is no acid at all, you'll wind up with a disaster. So you couldn't use regular milk in place of buttermilk in your pancake batter and expect good results. Instead, you'd need to sour the milk by adding a tablespoon of vinegar.

Baking powder, on the other hand, contains its own acid. In fact, the double-acting kind contains two, one that reacts with liquid and another that reacts with heat. This makes it especially useful for batters which must stand for a while before baking. Sometimes a recipe calls for both baking soda and baking powder because the amount of soda needed to balance the acid ingredient doesn't provide enough leavening for the amount of flour used, so baking powder is added to provide a boost. (Generally you need 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 cup of an acidic ingredient for each cup of flour.) For example, a banana bread recipe might take this approach because overripe bananas contain less acid than ripe ones (a pH of 7 vs. one of 4.6), weakening the baking soda reaction. But don't think that you can achieve extra high muffins and breads simply by adding a little more baking powder. The reverse is true. Too much leaven overinflates the batter and causes it to collapse.

A little knowledge of culinary chemistry can solve other food mysteries as well. For example, why are some chocolate chip cookies soft and others crisp? It has to do with the ingredients and baking procedures. Soft cookies have a high moisture content, rely on margarine or shortening which spreads less than butter, and bake at a higher temperature for a shorter time. Crisp cookies exhibit a low liquid to flour ratio, use butter and bake at a lower temperature so they take longer to brown and, thus, dry out more in the process.

Why does the typical sauce recipe instruct you to saut onions separately before adding other ingredients like tomatoes, even if the dish will require further cooking? That's because tomatoes are acidic and will prevent the onions from softening if you cook them both at the same time. Similarly, if you add the typically acidic molasses-based sauce to baked beans before they've softened, they never will. On the other hand, adding the sauce after the beans have had a chance to soak and soften will firm them up and keep them from getting mushy.

How can meat that's cooked in moisture still be dry? That's because even though the connective tissue in meat begins to dissolve at temperatures as low as 175 degrees, high heat shrinks muscle fibers and squeezes out juices which makes the meat tough. Thus a gentle simmer rather than a boil is better for braising and stewing.

Why do muffin recipes tell you to stir the batter only until the ingredients are just moistened? Because the more you stir the batter the more gluten you develop and the tougher your muffin. Gluten is an ingredient that's formed when liquid is added to flour, and it's needed in yeast breads to give the dough elasticity and strength. But if you want tender muffins you need to downplay its characteristics. Low-protein flour, like Martha White brand, develops less gluten than high-protein flours, further enhancing tenderness. That's why it's always been the choice of Southern cooks for biscuit making.

Why should you never beat egg whites in a plastic bowl? Because grease can adhere to it and the whites won't foam if there is even a trace of fat in them. Why is the surface of packaged hamburger bright red when inside it's brown? Because it contains myoglobin, a pigment that stores oxygen and becomes brighter when exposed to air. The plastic film used by the supermarket is pervious to oxygen just for that reason. Why should you store onions and potatoes separately? Because onions emit gasses that make potatoes deteriorate rapidly. Why should you add sugar to applesauce only after the apples have been cooked? Because if you do it sooner the apples, in accordance with the principle of osmosis, will hold their shape and merely poach rather than stew. Why does food seem to have little taste when you have a cold? Because flavor is mostly dependent on odor. Pinch your nose, and an apple and a potato taste the same.

Solving mysteries such as these help us improve dishes and avoid disasters. The result is recipes like the following. And there's not a red herring among them.

Banana-Pecan Muffins

Though adapted from a recipe by Diane Mott Davidson, whose novels such as "Dying for Chocolate," "The Cereal Murders" and "Killer Pancake" have earned her the title of foremost practitioner of the culinary whodunit, the only mystery about these muffins is how they achieve high taste and low fat at the same time.

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

5 teaspoons baking powder

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 cups mashed overripe banana

1/4 cup oil

2 eggs

1 and 1/3 cups skim milk

2 cups pecans

Directions:

Whisk together dry ingredients. Whisk together wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients just until moistened. Add nuts. Spoon into greased muffin tins to 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes until brown.

Versatile Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe, adapted from Shirley O. Corriher, makes a thin, crisp cookie, but as she reveals in her book, "CookWise," there's no mystery in how to alter it for soft cookies as well. Simply substitute shortening for the butter, use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder in place of the baking soda, leave out the milk and corn syrup, replace the sugars with 1 cup brown sugar, add an egg and use cake flour.

Ingredients:

1 cup toasted pecans

10 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream butter and sugars until fluffy, add corn syrup, milk and vanilla and beat thoroughly. Combine flour, salt and soda and mix in to butter mixture. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Drop tablespoons of batter onto greased cookie sheets and bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes or until just starting to brown. Cool slightly before removing from sheets.

Szechuan Spinach Saut

It's a real mystery to me why old recipes for spinach call for as many as thirty minutes of cooking. Today we know that heat decomposes chlorophyll, the green pigment in leaf cells, destroying its color. So green vegetables, especially spinach, should be cooked quickly as in this recipe, adapted from Sharon Tyler Herbst's sophisticated but uncomplicated book, "Cooking Smart."

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon hot-pepper oil

2 garlic cloves

1 fennel bulb

2 pounds spinach

1 cup sliced radishes

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Ingredients:

Mince garlic and combine with oil in skillet or wok and cook over medium-high heat until it sizzles. Remove stalks from fennel, trim bulb and dice. Add to pan and cook, stirring often, 3 minutes. Add spinach and cook just until wilted. Add radishes and sesame seeds, toss and cook 1 minute, season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

A Harte Appetite is now on the air. Listen every Saturday at 11:59 a.m. following "Whad'ya Know" on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Send suggestions for this column to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.