Sweet Potato

I was looking for something completely unrelated in "On Food and Cooking" and I came across the section on sweet potatoes. Mcgee states that at 57C an enzyme in the potato is activated that converts the starch to a sugar called maltose. This process stops at 75C when the enzyme is denatured. This explains why sweet potatoes will ooze syrup and have a completely different quality when cooked slowly in an oven as opposed to moist cooking methods. According to the book some varieties convert up to 75% of their starch to maltose.

So lets cook a sweet potato around 62-65C for a long time and see what happens. Eventually in theory up to 75% of the starch will be converted to maltose syrup. The sweet potato will confit itself without any additional ingredients. Maybe we could collect the syrup and use it for another application. Whip it with versawhip, whipped sweet potato.

Musings: My Best Friend's Wedding

It was recently brought to my attention this movie takes place in Chicago, where Julia Roberts plays a food critic.

The first scene takes place at Charlie Trotter's where a much younger, thinner Charlie Trotter tells one of his chefs, "I will kill your whole family if you don't get this right."

Pheasant Sausage

380g breast meat scrap without skin
330g pork belly
208g Pheasant leg meat with skin
181g foie gras
105g salumeria pancetta
105g smoked bacon
81g pheasant or chicken livers
30g Jack daniels whiskey
30g sauvignon blanc
200g dark and golden raisins
15g cider molasses
26g sage leaves
1 clove garlic
1g thyme leaves

Chop the sage leaves very fine and set aside with the raisins.

Toss the remaining ingredients together with the seasoning and rest 1 hour. Grind everything together through a fine die. Fold the raisins and sage leaves into the ground meat. Stuff via normal procedure. Cook the sausages sous vide or poach at 60C.

Seasoning per KG:
12.5g salt
2g sel rose
2g pepper
1g quatre epice