And, finally, the last video shot in the breakaway kitchen by the great Henry Hopkins.
I think most domestic cooks underplay the role of sweetness in making great food. There is nothing worse than tasting something excessively sweet when you’re not expecting it, but a lot of food can be improved by adding minute quantities of some complex sweetener like agave syrup, good artisanal honey, maple syrup, palm sugar, date sugar . . . and then there are the sweeteners that really elevate, like ginger syrup and jaggery syrup, both of which are demonstrated here.
Have I missed any? Let me know if you have a favorite sweetener, and your thoughts on sweetening!
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Don't forget Middle Eastern sugars! Pomegranate molasses, grape molasses, mulberry molasses, and the malty delicious carob molasses. (All taste great with tahini, by the way.)
Ditto!
Yes, and date molasses, too! For some reason I think of pom molasses not as a sweetener but as an overall fruit bomb
we just took back these massive globes of golden brown palm sugar from indonesia. it tastes incredible
Holy crap, I remember those globes. WHY aren\’t they for sale here? Incredible.
the homemade sorghum molasses my next door neighbor makes, using a horse powered press sometimes, or an recycled engine older than his depression surviving daddy. simmered in a metal pan with baffles, reducing until it gets the the end and is let out into clean canning jars by a little metal pipe stirred constantly by a group of participating neighbors with wooden paddles they made for the job. WHenI asked Jerry how he knows hte end pan is ready to bottle- he said "when the bubbles are as big as a rabbits eye". Its amazing in baking.. .moist, sweet and hearty flavor, much like honey in its effect on dough or other sauces.