K I T CH E N N O T E S j B Y S T E V E D U N N , A N D R E A G E A R Y, A N D R E W J A N J I G I A N , L A N L A M & A N N I E P E T I T O k
How to Care for a Wooden Salad Bowl
WHAT IS IT?
Years of exposure to oily salad dressings can leave a wooden salad bowl with tacky, rancid residue. Here’s how to make it new again—and keep it that way. –A.J.
It may resemble an early 19th-century surgeon’s tool, but this implement is actually a sugar nipper, a tool that was used to break down a sugarloaf for household use. Before sugar was sold as cubes (1843) or in granulated form (1853), it was sold in hard cones called sugarloaves that were developed by Venetians. Sugarloaves were extremely hard and were diicult to break apart: Shopkeepers would likely have used a hammer and chisel to break of pieces from a larger loaf for customers to purchase. At home, a pair of nippers like these would be used to “nip” the sugarloaf into a more usable form. Small pieces could be dropped into a cup of tea or further broken down into granulated sugar using a mortar and pestle. To test our nipper, we ordered a few sugarloaves from SUGAR The Shop at Monticello, which stocks NIPPERS Jefersonian-era replicas. While we’re happy to live in the age of granulated sugar, the nipper made short work of breaking of some small pieces of sugar to sweeten our afternoon tea. –S.D.
TECHNIQUE
TO REMOVE STICKY BUILDUP: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat
oven to 275 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and set wire rack in sheet. Place bowl upside down on rack. Turn of oven (don’t forget this step or bowl might burn) and place sheet in oven. Within minutes, oils will start to bead on surface of bowl. After 1 to 2 hours, oils will run of bowl and onto sheet. Once bowl appears dry, remove sheet from oven and wipe down bowl with paper towels to remove any residue. (If bowl is still sticky, repeat baking process.) TO RESEASON: Whenever bowl becomes dry or dull-looking, reseason it: Use
paper towel to liberally apply mineral oil, which won’t turn rancid like oils used in salad dressings, to all surfaces of bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes, then wipe away residue with clean paper towel. TO CLEAN AND MAINTAIN: Use mild dish soap and warm water to clean
well-seasoned wooden bowl. Always dry bowl thoroughly after cleaning. Never put bowl in dishwasher or let it soak in water, as it will warp and crack.
THE BEST WAY TO FOLD
1. In large, wide bowl, whisk
2. Add remaining whipped com-
3. Pull spatula toward you,
4. Once spatula has been lifted
5. Rotate bowl quarter turn
approximately one-third of whipped component into denser base component until just combined.
ponent. Using lexible rubber spatula, start in center of bowl and cut through both components to bottom of bowl.
scraping along bottom and up side of bowl to edge.
out of mixture, rotate it so any mixture clinging to blade falls back into center of bowl.
and repeat folding process until components are just combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
COOK’S
ILLUSTRATED
30
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN BURGOYNE
When folding an aerated ingredient, such as whipped cream, into a dense mixture as in our Chocolate Semifreddo recipe (page 21), we irst whisk in part of the aerated component to lighten and loosen the dense ingredient before folding in the rest of the aerated ingredient. We found that this lightening technique gave our inished semifreddo a smooth texture and roughly halved the number of folds required to combine the whipped cream and custard (30 folds versus 57). Follow the steps below for eicient folding. –A.P.
