cooking

Foams are everywhere in nature, and widely used in industrial processes as well. Inevitably, innovators in the culinary realm, hungry for inspiration, have made foams part of their palette as well.

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In almost any pantry, pickles are a staple. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables are preserved using salt and acid, although the classic cucumber has become ubiquitous enough to earn the simple default name of "pickle." Pickling is a preservation technique that dates back to ancient history. Every culture has its own version of the pickle, ranging from Mexico's pickled jalapeno pepper to Korea's kimchi. Pickles are often used as a flavor accent, garnishing a meal rather than acting as the main focus.

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One of the ways that we know for sure that spring has sprung is the appearances of ramps on the trails and at the markets. Ramps, Allium tricoccum, are also known as wild leeks, ramson, and ail de bois. They appear in the springtime in deciduous forest areas from South Carolina to Canada and as far west as Missouri and Minnesota. West Virginia in particular is known for its celebration of this seasonal delicacy. Ramps grow in patches in cool shady areas with moist soil rich in organic materials. They begin to appear in late March and can be found through the end of May.

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Explosive activity continues at Alaska's Mount Redoubt. I paid homage to the Alaskan volcano by concocting a dessert named for the 49th state in my Brooklyn kitchen.

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As nanotechnology continues on its journey toward world domination (or at least linguistic overuse), it's time to stop for dinner. Techniques for creating low fat "nanofoods" sound only mildly less gross than currently used products like guar gum. And how's this for reassuring? "Some nanofood products, like nanosalt, are probably safe."

Also in today's links, nurses called "Doctor," researchers called frauds, and more.

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Most chefs will tell you they only need a sharp knife and a hot pan to make a great meal. Of course, if you want to go beyond a great meal and start pushing the limits of what food can be, you might need some extra gear. That's where food technology guru Dave Arnold and renowned international chef Nils Noren come in.

Arnold, who our own Ted Allen called the food world's answer to Q from James Bond, finds or builds the machines, and Noren (a former executive chef at Aquavit and current Vice President of Culinary Arts at The French Culinary Institute) brings in the cooking chops needed to design the dishes. Together in this new Popular Science video series, Arnold and Noren team up to highlight different pieces of equipment that have made their way out of laboratory and into the kitchen.

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Two of the main challenges when cooking green vegetables are retaining the verdant hues and emphasizing the fresh flavors on the palate. The battle against browning is often fought by blanching, which has the unfortunate effect of leaching much of the vegetable's flavor into the cooking water. We were looking for a better way.

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Agave juice was known to native Mexicans as "honey water." Agave plants tend to be most familiar as the basis for tequila, although agave nectar is gaining ground in home kitchens as a wonderful alternative to traditional sweeteners. Agave nectar is made mainly from the juices extracted from the core of the agave plant, most often from blue agave, agave salimiana, agave americana and agave mapisaga. There are many other wild agaves that can also be utilized. The different species produce nectars of varying flavors.

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Vinegar is one of those ingredients that people don't think of as often as they should. It is mostly just seen in salad dressings and pickles, which is a shame, because there is a whole world of flavor there just waiting to be tapped into. There are often times, especially during the holidays, when there is leftover wine after a festive dinner. Many of us will cork the bottle, with or without various safeguards to preserve the contents, and set it aside for the next day.

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