I bought an entire 40-pound (18.144kg) wheel of Gouda from Beemster out of Holland. I immediately cut it in half and dipped one half in cheese wax to put in my aging cabinet, and I'm still working on the other half a wheel. It was absolutely worth every penny. The half I'm eating now is aged three years, I'm taking the other half to 8 years. Grana Padano is great. It's a nuttier and slightly sweeter than your standar Parmesan. Not quite as firm either. Good stuff all around.
Yeah but it's so worth it if love cheese as much as I do! I make my own, and have bought whole wheels of Gouda, parmesan, Gran Padano, and big blocks of the oldest cheddar I can find. I've got 6 pounds of a 15-year-aged cheddar that sells for about $99 USD per pound. Cheese is good. Cheese is beautiful. Cheese is the true key to Heaven!
Was thinking this. Love that Mike was pointing it out, lol. But I was also imagining that each staff member received a wedge to take home. That would take up a quarter of the wheel right there probably.
We use the Caul fat quite extensively in South-Africa. We call it netvet in Afrikaans, well because it looks like a net. The most traditional use is to wrap spice lambs liver in netvet and braai it over woodfire coals. This is called a skilpadjie, which means tortoise in English, because the wrapped lambs liver looks like a tortoise shell. This has given rise to many different skilpadjies. We also wrap stuffed pieces of steak or chicken breast with netvet and braai them over woodfire coals.
All the years I lived there and I never heard of netvet. Is it a regional recipe? I do miss the decent braais and potjies! Also babootie, bunny chow... so much good food in SA 🙂
As a Hong Konger, I am so excited to see you try out Cantonese steamed fish! It is absolutely my favourite dish growing up and its taste is unbeatable with all the freshness of the fish and the beautiful aromatics in hot oil. It is a must-have dish during festivals and family reunions!
Cantonese cuisine is so good at bringing out the best of the ingredients and letting all the parts shine at the same time. Wonderful to see a shoutout here
Greetings from South Africa. a Must try is making balls of minced and seasoned beef liver covered with caul fat. This then gets put on the braai (BBQ) and gets to be crispy and golden brown. Fantastic flavor. We call it skilpadtjies (tortoise) as the caul fat resemble a tortoise shell.
Love that Ebbers is such a food nerd, and expands our knowledge of food outside the usual! We get to expand our knowledge of other cultures, and experience how the global community enjoys food in ways different to ours. The history of fish and chips with vinegar is a great conversation topic, so I'm going to memorize it so I can share it with others. Thank you, Sorted Food!
The Philippines also has their own version of escabeche since it was colonized by the Spaniards, usually the fish is Tilapia that is first deep fried, while the sauce is sweet and sour sauce
I love how modern-day f-slur was once traditionally a bundle of sticks and/or a british meatball with caul fat. I live in the midwest of the United States, so hearing the word threw me for a loop, haha, but I understand that word has many many many meanings behind it. Great video, boys!
I work in Wales as a butcher and it's a popular dish here. Having a f box, and explaining what it is to Americans who walk into the shop. Because to them it's daunting to see that word is all caps on a sign. The dish is genuinely delicious as well and it used all scraps, off cuts or bits and bobs from the shop. So it stops food waste massively. Also, as someone who is LGBT it makes me chuckle a little as the shocked faces and people asking how to pronounce it
From what I've learnt, in the 16th century, peasant women would be "faggot gatherers" meaning it was their job to gather sticks and stuff for the fire they would cook on. Eventually, this got shortened to just "faggot" and started being used as an insult. If you were called a faggot, you were seen as a poor woman or old man. Then, because of the sterotype that us gay people are more effeminate, people started calling us faggots because of its link to poorer women. America then just took the slur and ran with it
Escabeche is very popular in Puerto Rico. Although we do fish escabeche, the most popular escabeche dish is guineos en escabeche (green/unriped banana escabeche). We also make yuca (or any root vegetable, for that matter) escabeche.
Steamed fish with green onions, and ginger is such a comfort food for me. Growing up this is what I love aboit chinese food. Its sinple but ao amazingly delicious.
Caul fat is also used in Romania for a dish around Easter time - it's called "drob" and it's sort of a meatloaf which is made with different boiled and ground lamb organs (lungs, liver, heart), herbs (green onion, green garlic, dill, parsley, etc) and binded with eggs and lard. That is then put in the caul fat and baked. It's delicious but really only made for Easter
Same in Serbia - lamb offal mixture with some rice, wrapped up in caul fat and baked. We just call it lamb sarmale. But 'drob' is here also archaic word for intestines of any kind.
Not sure if Ben is 100% on why we use vinegar on Fish & Chips - but he is right about the idea of batter frying fish coming via Jewish migration as they fled persecution, primarily in modern day Russia and Ukraine as well as other parts of Eastern Europe (with the majority eventually heading to the USA). To meet Jewish religious dietary requirements families would make a simple batter, fry fish up before dusk on a Friday for Shabbat, let it go cold and the batter more or less kept the fish fresh, wherein they'd peel off and discard the batter before eating it. As this became more popular, stalls were set up selling it, and when non-Jewish customers, particularly in London, found these stalls they just assumed it was to be eaten as is (particularly with lingering cultural norms of eating fish on a Friday linked to Christianity). Turned out they loved it, eventually the idea got refined, paired with fried potatoes (Chips) and the Chippy was born. It's actually a similar story to how Mushy Peas came to be common on these menu's as Fish & Chips started as a cheaply available, easy to make meal for the poor and working classes in Victorian times, as indeed were slow cooked rehydrated peas - and why so many staples at a chippy have their roots in lower class communities, compared to say a Sunday Roast or Full English which has its roots in the upper classes.
Just a quick correction: the introduction of fried Battered fish was done by Sephardi Jews arriving from Spain and Portugal via Netherlands. However the first fish and chip shop was opened by Ashkenazi Jews.
We still eat fish in vinegar (usually herring, both naked and battered) in Poland - just visit your nearest Polish shop and ask for "ryba w occie". Lots of people in the west think it's a Jewish idea but the truth is using vinegar this way was and is still popular in Central and Eastern Europe, Jews just took it with them as they were moving more west.
Interesting. As meats spoil almost instantaneously in the tropics, I can’t wrap my head around tartare, carpaccio, etc. But caul fat usage in cooking, now that’s something I’m familiar with as an Indonesian. One of my favorite dishes is _sate buntel_ which is minced meat wrapped in caul fat and then skewered with bamboo sticks. 🤤
I am so happy you guys featured cantonese food I have steamed fish very often and it was a pleasant surprise to see the distinction here because normally chinese food gets grouped altogether! Good stuff
Caul fat is also used in Peshawar in Pakistan for patta tikka/patta dana. lamb is wrap in the omentum and then salted and cooked over an open flame. it used to be something for special guests but now it's much more commonly available and it's delicious!
Perhaps you could do a episode on high end vinegars. I don't have a clue about high end vinegar and why or how you would use them. I'm very curious. I hope you do decide to do a high end vinegar. Please. 🙏
As someone who grew up with that style of steamed fish, it was really cool seeing such genuine appreciation of it. It's delicious, but I'm not used to seeing people love it this much! Great video as always!
Love these videos, thanks crew! Having watched cooking shows my whole life, I feel I've seen most every type of ingredient. This and the pretentious ingredients videos always let me learn something new I've never seen.
That was again a wonderful insight into the many, many ways that people have used ingredients and cooking methods to make good things even better. Thank you!
We wrap rice and sheep liver and other intestines in caul fat and cook it with broth in the oven... it's traditional easter dish in Bulgaria. And it's delicious.
Caul fat is being used to make liver in South Africa. Very old recipe. Either by having minced liver with onions and everyone's favourite secret spice etc wrapped over a patty of liver and barbecued or baked called skilpaadtjies (little turtles) or used in sausage format where it is called pofadders (puff adders). Quite quirky names.
Love the new technique videos! 😊I hope one day you will get a South African biltong kit try different lightning, spices will impact the moisture levels over the course of a few episodes since it takes a few days.
You probably realized that their vinegar cooked fish is very similar to South African Curry fish, which is cooked in a vinegary curry sauce. And obviously South Africans use caul fat in Skilpadtjies.
Would love to see a video centered around Norwegian dishes/ingredients, some brunost (brown cheese), smalahove (sheeps head), Raspeballer (potato balls), reindeersausages and other reindeerdishes. Just remember to get an ostehøvel (cheese slicer) if you're gonna do something with the brown cheese as it is very sweet, and may have too intense a flavor when not in a slice. Also when is the next A-Z around the world video?
Norwegian food is mostly garbage. There's a reason you don't hear anything about it outside of Norway. The supermarkets here have a very poor selection, and people mostly eat meat and potatoes during the week, and fake tacos on Fridays.
The second cooking technique from Spain (Escabesque) is also common in southern Italy and it's called "carpione". Usually is done with pan fried veggies or chicken breast cut in thin slices and covered in flour, eggs and breadcumbs. Also, we add some onions and other herbs as well!
we do the fish oil technique at home, though we use much less oil, as it can cause the bottom half of the fish to be overly oily when you get to it. also you just heat in a frying pan and pour it from there, save washing up a ladel aftewards.
Uhh the hot oil over aromats exists pretty much across most Chinese cuisine. Not just in Cantonese or Szechuan (which are the styles that seem to be the only ones known in the west), but also Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu covering the 'Eight Big Culinary Cuisines', as well as smaller ones as well. So I think Barry deserves full credit on this one 😁
The Escabeche technic is used in Denmark. It is a classic way of preparing herring for a lunch table. Vinegar, sugar, water and onion combined with spices like dill, juniper and/or bayleaf. Server the marinated herring on rye sourdough bread with raw onion and accompany it with a snaps. In the Easter holidays alot of families are coming together for a lunch, and eating this dish.
In South Africa we have a very similar fish dish but we put curry spices in the vinegar and call it pickled fish. And we actually mostly eat it over Easter break We also use caul fat for something called skilpadjies which translates to baby turtles. Which is caul fat over lamb offal amd then we grill it over the fire. Ever single braai has to have at least a sixpack of skilpadjies.
@@michaelsaayman2802I am going to have to argue with you :) Skilpadjies should be a solid slab of liver and netvet only, cooked on a braai and served with salt and Tabasco (or similar). Well those are the one's I prefer. Damn, now I want to braai!!!! 🤣🤣
@@michaelsaayman2802different recipes, same basic concept. Every family has their own skilpadjies recipe. My family uses minced kidney, liver and chopped up bacon in ours.
Could you do an episode about dehydrating foods? Learning how to make jerky at home and what meats make the best jerky etc. Or maybe something similar to the baby/tinned food and they have to make a dish out of all dehydrated ingredients.
In Switzerland we traditionally use caul fat from pigs to wrap a sort of round saussage called 'Adrio' in German or 'Atriau' in the French speaking regions. Did not know that it is also used traditionally in Britain.
I haven't seen someone cook with caul fat since the early days of the Food Network, when it actually had cooking shows and many of them focused on high end French cuisines. Shout out to anyone else raised on Cook Like a Chef and the Japanese Iron Chef!
Mythical Kitchen and Tasting History have cooked with it a little bit. Weirdly enough, both of them used it to cook their own versions of some type of Ancient Roman hamburger.
Not sure it's been covered before on this channel, but squirrel fried fish from China is absolutely crazy! Seems like it'd be a nice challenge for Kush to do, too...
The third one (the caul fat) in Saudi we use to wrap a lamb liver with it and grill it and this will add some sort of fat to the liver and prevent it from drying.
That Spanish escabeche is great as a tapa with crusty bread, i love watching the English at the tapa display as your two guys initially said they didn’t think they would like it but once tasted it was great, i know i shouldn’t but can’t help butting in and saying try it you may be pleasantly surprised. If you want to make just letting the vinegar pickle it use anchovies placed in olive oil vinegar chopped garlic and parsley delicious as a light meal in summer. I’m South African married to a Spaniard her mom use to make a delicious amount of different tapas. The cooked one is made with large sardines or fillets of mackerel.
omg I'm so blown away over the lace fat! Worked with it tons of times making Icelandic blóðmör and lifrarpylsa (blood pudding and liver sausage) but just cut it in pieces to put it into the sausages and pudding! I must try this!
there is a way to make meatballs from chaozhou 潮州牛肉丸 where you beat the meat with steel rods and the meat is pulped this way and the balls are smacked against the mixing bowl until it becomes bouncy and then its put in a broth or such. but it makes it a crunchy springy flavorful meatball.
In South Africa, we use Caul Fat in a dish called "Skilpadjies". It is Lamb's liver (with spices) wrapped in Caul Fat, then cooked over a "BBQ" (Braai). The fattiness of the Caul Fat, dripping on the coals, creates the most amazing aroma.
Fried and vinagered fish is common also in northern Italy: sarde in saor are a fenetian dish of sardines first floured and fried, then marinaded with onion, vinager, and raisins. In Lomnardy we have pesce in carpione, which is similar but made with freshwater fish, with more herbs and no raisins. In Naples instead a common antipasto is zucchine a scapece: sliced, sun-dried courgettes which get fried then marinaded with vinegar and herbs.
We also use lamb "lace" fat in Morocco, specifically for wrapping pieces of parcooked seasoned liver (paprika, cumin, and salt), skewering them, and grilling them until the fat is mostly rendered! Eating the grilled lace is optional, but it basically protects the liver from overcooking and gives it an amazing rich mouthfeel :) It's then eaten with warm bread (in a sandwich format sometimes) and accompanied by mint tea! It's mostly consumed as street food, or most commonly during the eid el adha period, we call it boulfaf
I've used variations of the hot vinegar and hot oil. The hot vinegar is great on shrimp with a little different technique. Hot oil is used to make Chinese chili oils. Also hot oil is poured over Chinese noodles with aromatics on top.
I knew all of these from watching Iron Chef [the original not the American spin off] it's crazy what you can pick up from that show; and so much inspiration. If these boys had a marathon they'd pass all of Ben's quizzes!
Just saw this video now. As a Capetonian expat from South Africa, we make Pickled Fish for good Fridays meal. This reminded me so much of that very Dish, eaten with hot Cross Buns all over SA over Easter.
When mentioning escabeche Ebbers forgot to mention Jamaica's escovitch. It's very popular. Esp when made with king fish or red snapper. & I can attest it's absolutely delicious.
Yay for battuta! It's great with white truffle as you said, but it's delicious just with grana/parmesan or porcini mushrooms. I tried one with Amanita caesarea (royal agaric) and it was simply divine.
Off topic a bit.. but before I found sorted foods, id never have had this thought process. Ok my Bolognese is too sweet from the tomato and carrot, but I'm happy with the salt level.. I know, let's add lemon juice. It was so good -.-
We have something like escabeche in Poland too. It's usually fried herring, marinated in hot distilled vinegar with onion and peppercorns. Delicious. It is quite punchy.
I'm glad you finally did an episode that addressed the oil over aromats technique since previously Kush said some pretty mean things about the technique! I wish he was on this one to at least realise how wrong he was!
There are recipes using caul fat going back to ancient Rome. "Isicia omentata", meatballs wrapped in "omentum" (caul fat), is one of the recipes in the cookbook of Apicius (1st century CE).
Caul is an amazing ingredient. My old restaurant, we used to wrap aged venison(turned into mince) in it for for amazing burgers. And it's waste product so it's a dirt cheap form of fat, that also seals things in. The chinese method at the end should be done with lard if you're wanting to recreate it properly. Typical aromats being spring onion, garlic, ginger, chili, ground pepper. Another technique I've done for fine dining. Amazing stuff lads, people should know more of these techniques, especially given how simple they are.
We catch lots of mackerel at times of the year, my mother makes the escabeche as soon as we start catching them and there was always a large tray full in the fridge for about the 2 months the fish were here, we loved it.
Waiting for the Grana Padano cheese episode. Starter - 2 ingredient cheese puffs. Grana Padano grated, mixed with egg white, formed into balls then deep fried. Salad - Grana Padano cheese Ceasar salad. Main - Grana Padano cheese souffle Cheese course - Parmesan. Dessert - Grana Padano cheesecake...
Wow, I am familiar with 2 techniques: the escabeche since I live in Peru and we pronounce the E at the end. And the last one with the hot oil to finish the fish! My dad used that technique to finish the steamed fish like that. We also use it to "cook" the chopped ginger and scallion sauce for a poached chicken dish we have.
If anyone wants to try the fish technique at home, I highly recommend using steamed Blue Cod (If you have access to it) It was one of the only ways I'll eat fish as a kid - The other was deep fried with chips.
Chinese steamed fish prepared that way (steamed with soy, rice wine and palm sugar) is my absolute favorite meal in the world, and actually very easy to do at home!
Lightly steamed bok-choy, drizzled in light soy sauce, minced garlic and julienne ginger then lightly covered in the really hot oil. You must try it. So simple and so delicious.
That’s so interesting, the escabeche. Here in California its Mexican influence has turned escabeche into pickled jalepenos, carrots and radishes. Like an Italian giardinera but with jalapeños.
In Jamaica we do a fried fish, usually snapper, that is then covered in a vinegar, onion and carrot sauce and we call it escovitch fish!! It is a beach staple here, we love it!
In South Africa we take lamb liver and combine it with the caul fat to make skilpadjies. I am a heretic and I like to cook them in an airfryer so they cook through while retaining their shape and moisture. Absolutely delicious.
I assume we will be seeing Grana Padano cheese in every video from now to eternity to use up that massive wheel 😂
You've guessed it! 😆
I bought an entire 40-pound (18.144kg) wheel of Gouda from Beemster out of Holland. I immediately cut it in half and dipped one half in cheese wax to put in my aging cabinet, and I'm still working on the other half a wheel. It was absolutely worth every penny. The half I'm eating now is aged three years, I'm taking the other half to 8 years.
Grana Padano is great. It's a nuttier and slightly sweeter than your standar Parmesan. Not quite as firm either. Good stuff all around.
I said the same thing... 🤣🤣
I mean I'm not mad if it is. It's amazing.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂too funny! It was the most enormous wheel of cheese wasn’t it 😮😮😮
"What's this cheese?" 😂😂😂 There is only one cheese for the next 5 years!
Yup, you're right..... it was a silly question from Mike 😂
Yeah but it's so worth it if love cheese as much as I do! I make my own, and have bought whole wheels of Gouda, parmesan, Gran Padano, and big blocks of the oldest cheddar I can find. I've got 6 pounds of a 15-year-aged cheddar that sells for about $99 USD per pound. Cheese is good. Cheese is beautiful. Cheese is the true key to Heaven!
@@DeathMetalDerfwhat's the texture like on a 15 yr old cheddar? Most I've had was 5 yr old
@@SortedFood Good time to teach Barry how to make parm fritti crisps. I still remember what he did in the spaghetti bolognase video..
Was thinking this. Love that Mike was pointing it out, lol. But I was also imagining that each staff member received a wedge to take home. That would take up a quarter of the wheel right there probably.
We use the Caul fat quite extensively in South-Africa. We call it netvet in Afrikaans, well because it looks like a net. The most traditional use is to wrap spice lambs liver in netvet and braai it over woodfire coals. This is called a skilpadjie, which means tortoise in English, because the wrapped lambs liver looks like a tortoise shell. This has given rise to many different skilpadjies.
We also wrap stuffed pieces of steak or chicken breast with netvet and braai them over woodfire coals.
All the years I lived there and I never heard of netvet. Is it a regional recipe? I do miss the decent braais and potjies! Also babootie, bunny chow... so much good food in SA 🙂
@Electrowave , it is very well known in the Afrikaans community.
@@theobekker6023 Maybe it wasn't as popular back in my day ;-)
I adore skilpaadjies
As a Hong Konger, I am so excited to see you try out Cantonese steamed fish! It is absolutely my favourite dish growing up and its taste is unbeatable with all the freshness of the fish and the beautiful aromatics in hot oil. It is a must-have dish during festivals and family reunions!
They are even serving steamed fish in Fairwood now! Haven't tried it but I should.
Guys when are we going to have A-Z global challenge? Please continue 😊
Me, too! We’ve been waiting for “I” for months now.
Yes!
Long overdue. What's the hold up @sortedfood?
IIRC, the next I is Indonesia, don't know why the episode is not out yet
YES please, this was one of their best series ever
14:06 - love getting a shoutout from Ebbers ✌️✌️💅💅
🤣🤣🤣
Beat me to it, damn. ❤️🌈™️
I scrolled down to see if anyone had commented on it yet. Glorious.
Beat me to it come onnnn
Us, bestie. 🎉
That grana Padano is gonna keep sneaking into every video till the new year, isn't it? 😂
Probably the next 5 years worth of videos TBF 😂
@@SortedFood Remember to store it properly! Moldy rinds are my least favorite part of this cheese... Sad when it happens.
@@SortedFoodI think should give all of the staff a block to put on their fridge, so all of the In the Fridge episodes will include it in the future.
The trailer for the event... ending with "with cheese"... hmmm.... 😅
New Year 2029!
"What kind of cheese is this?" "Grana padano." Makes sense since you guys have 83 lbs of it to use.
I love this because you can learn both about food history and cooking techniques at professional restaurants.
So glad you enjoyed it :)
Cantonese cuisine is so good at bringing out the best of the ingredients and letting all the parts shine at the same time. Wonderful to see a shoutout here
Great, now I have "Edible Clingfilm" repeating in my head, to the tune of Elanor Rigby
Barry was on it the whole time; continuing to have earned that apron, well done man!
Greetings from South Africa. a Must try is making balls of minced and seasoned beef liver covered with caul fat. This then gets put on the braai (BBQ) and gets to be crispy and golden brown. Fantastic flavor. We call it skilpadtjies (tortoise) as the caul fat resemble a tortoise shell.
14:06 the representation I didn't know I needed.
happy pride lol
Love that Ebbers is such a food nerd, and expands our knowledge of food outside the usual! We get to expand our knowledge of other cultures, and experience how the global community enjoys food in ways different to ours. The history of fish and chips with vinegar is a great conversation topic, so I'm going to memorize it so I can share it with others. Thank you, Sorted Food!
We don't have vinegar in fish and chip shops, we have "Non-brewed condiment"
The Philippines also has their own version of escabeche since it was colonized by the Spaniards, usually the fish is Tilapia that is first deep fried, while the sauce is sweet and sour sauce
I love how modern-day f-slur was once traditionally a bundle of sticks and/or a british meatball with caul fat.
I live in the midwest of the United States, so hearing the word threw me for a loop, haha, but I understand that word has many many many meanings behind it.
Great video, boys!
Lighting up a fag might mean very different things too depending on where you live.
I work in Wales as a butcher and it's a popular dish here.
Having a f box, and explaining what it is to Americans who walk into the shop.
Because to them it's daunting to see that word is all caps on a sign.
The dish is genuinely delicious as well and it used all scraps, off cuts or bits and bobs from the shop. So it stops food waste massively.
Also, as someone who is LGBT it makes me chuckle a little as the shocked faces and people asking how to pronounce it
down with the english language
From what I've learnt, in the 16th century, peasant women would be "faggot gatherers" meaning it was their job to gather sticks and stuff for the fire they would cook on. Eventually, this got shortened to just "faggot" and started being used as an insult. If you were called a faggot, you were seen as a poor woman or old man. Then, because of the sterotype that us gay people are more effeminate, people started calling us faggots because of its link to poorer women. America then just took the slur and ran with it
It's annoying how words loses all meaning because of the USA...
More in Max Miller's wheelhouse, but a number of ancient Roman dishes are wrapped in caul fat and cooked.
That's where I first saw/heard about caul fat
Escabeche is very popular in Puerto Rico. Although we do fish escabeche, the most popular escabeche dish is guineos en escabeche (green/unriped banana escabeche). We also make yuca (or any root vegetable, for that matter) escabeche.
Steamed fish with green onions, and ginger is such a comfort food for me. Growing up this is what I love aboit chinese food. Its sinple but ao amazingly delicious.
Caul fat is also used in Romania for a dish around Easter time - it's called "drob" and it's sort of a meatloaf which is made with different boiled and ground lamb organs (lungs, liver, heart), herbs (green onion, green garlic, dill, parsley, etc) and binded with eggs and lard. That is then put in the caul fat and baked. It's delicious but really only made for Easter
Same in Serbia - lamb offal mixture with some rice, wrapped up in caul fat and baked.
We just call it lamb sarmale.
But 'drob' is here also archaic word for intestines of any kind.
We have a similar dish in South-Africa called Skilpadjie, it is minced lamb offal with spices cooked over an open fire
What a nice thing to sat from Mike while Baz cuts a perfectly cooked piece of lamb
"Ohh Kush has cooked that, hasn't he"
Caul fat was also used to create the eggs in the movie Alien.
Ooooh interesting!
If you get any Cypriot Sheftalia sausages they're encased in caul - they're lush BTW and available in the UK
Thank you!! That fat looked *so* familiar and I couldn't place where I'd seen it before.
Ya beat me to it 🤪 just watched some behind special effects
Not sure if Ben is 100% on why we use vinegar on Fish & Chips - but he is right about the idea of batter frying fish coming via Jewish migration as they fled persecution, primarily in modern day Russia and Ukraine as well as other parts of Eastern Europe (with the majority eventually heading to the USA). To meet Jewish religious dietary requirements families would make a simple batter, fry fish up before dusk on a Friday for Shabbat, let it go cold and the batter more or less kept the fish fresh, wherein they'd peel off and discard the batter before eating it. As this became more popular, stalls were set up selling it, and when non-Jewish customers, particularly in London, found these stalls they just assumed it was to be eaten as is (particularly with lingering cultural norms of eating fish on a Friday linked to Christianity). Turned out they loved it, eventually the idea got refined, paired with fried potatoes (Chips) and the Chippy was born.
It's actually a similar story to how Mushy Peas came to be common on these menu's as Fish & Chips started as a cheaply available, easy to make meal for the poor and working classes in Victorian times, as indeed were slow cooked rehydrated peas - and why so many staples at a chippy have their roots in lower class communities, compared to say a Sunday Roast or Full English which has its roots in the upper classes.
Just a quick correction: the introduction of fried Battered fish was done by Sephardi Jews arriving from Spain and Portugal via Netherlands.
However the first fish and chip shop was opened by Ashkenazi Jews.
Thanks for clarifying. I'm Jewish, very knowledgeable about our heritage (or so I thought!!) and I had no idea what Ben was referring to!!
We still eat fish in vinegar (usually herring, both naked and battered) in Poland - just visit your nearest Polish shop and ask for "ryba w occie".
Lots of people in the west think it's a Jewish idea but the truth is using vinegar this way was and is still popular in Central and Eastern Europe, Jews just took it with them as they were moving more west.
Interesting. As meats spoil almost instantaneously in the tropics, I can’t wrap my head around tartare, carpaccio, etc. But caul fat usage in cooking, now that’s something I’m familiar with as an Indonesian. One of my favorite dishes is _sate buntel_ which is minced meat wrapped in caul fat and then skewered with bamboo sticks. 🤤
We do escabeche in Jamaica as well but we call it escovitch! We make the vinegar and put it in the fridge and put it over so much--it's so good!
I am so happy you guys featured cantonese food I have steamed fish very often and it was a pleasant surprise to see the distinction here because normally chinese food gets grouped altogether! Good stuff
That Grana Padano is going to be everywhere for a while I take it. going to be having a lemon meringue pie with a garnish of hard cheese.
Caul fat is also used in Peshawar in Pakistan for patta tikka/patta dana. lamb is wrap in the omentum and then salted and cooked over an open flame. it used to be something for special guests but now it's much more commonly available and it's delicious!
Perhaps you could do a episode on high end vinegars. I don't have a clue about high end vinegar and why or how you would use them. I'm very curious. I hope you do decide to do a high end vinegar. Please. 🙏
As someone who grew up with that style of steamed fish, it was really cool seeing such genuine appreciation of it. It's delicious, but I'm not used to seeing people love it this much! Great video as always!
I remember asking a friend from HK what was her favourite dish in Cantonese cuisine and she immediately named this!
That fish and chips origin story blew my mind 🤯
14:06 Love you too Ebbers
Love these videos, thanks crew! Having watched cooking shows my whole life, I feel I've seen most every type of ingredient. This and the pretentious ingredients videos always let me learn something new I've never seen.
I'M SO HAPPY WE ARE HAVING AN EPISODE THAT UTILIZES BEN'S STRENGTHS. (AKA- His Super Geekiness) ❤❤❤
That was again a wonderful insight into the many, many ways that people have used ingredients and cooking methods to make good things even better. Thank you!
We wrap rice and sheep liver and other intestines in caul fat and cook it with broth in the oven... it's traditional easter dish in Bulgaria. And it's delicious.
Wow, that sounds amazing!
Caul fat is being used to make liver in South Africa. Very old recipe. Either by having minced liver with onions and everyone's favourite secret spice etc wrapped over a patty of liver and barbecued or baked called skilpaadtjies (little turtles) or used in sausage format where it is called pofadders (puff adders). Quite quirky names.
Love the new technique videos! 😊I hope one day you will get a South African biltong kit try different lightning, spices will impact the moisture levels over the course of a few episodes since it takes a few days.
You probably realized that their vinegar cooked fish is very similar to South African Curry fish, which is cooked in a vinegary curry sauce. And obviously South Africans use caul fat in Skilpadtjies.
EARLY! We're SO back! Love the geography lessons and fun food facts! Been feeling under the weather! Thanks For this! This will help me heal😊😊😊😊
Feel better soon 😁
@@SortedFoodThanks ❤️❤️❤️
Would love to see a video centered around Norwegian dishes/ingredients, some brunost (brown cheese), smalahove (sheeps head), Raspeballer (potato balls), reindeersausages and other reindeerdishes. Just remember to get an ostehøvel (cheese slicer) if you're gonna do something with the brown cheese as it is very sweet, and may have too intense a flavor when not in a slice. Also when is the next A-Z around the world video?
Scandinavian in general! :) Very few videos with Norwegian, Swedish and Danish dishes or ingredients!
Norwegian food is mostly garbage. There's a reason you don't hear anything about it outside of Norway. The supermarkets here have a very poor selection, and people mostly eat meat and potatoes during the week, and fake tacos on Fridays.
Have they ever tried that smelly fish in a can?
@@WeAreThePeople1690 If you mean surstrømming, then yes they have tried it a couple times
@@emilia7669 Because they are mostly shit.
No offence.
Only cuisine worse than Scandinavian in Europe is Dutch.
14:05 what I hear when I come to the test kitchen as a surprise guest
The second cooking technique from Spain (Escabesque) is also common in southern Italy and it's called "carpione". Usually is done with pan fried veggies or chicken breast cut in thin slices and covered in flour, eggs and breadcumbs. Also, we add some onions and other herbs as well!
Thank you for showing off the Cantonese style of cooking. It’s def a centrepiece type of dish, but something that you can achieve at home
we do the fish oil technique at home, though we use much less oil, as it can cause the bottom half of the fish to be overly oily when you get to it. also you just heat in a frying pan and pour it from there, save washing up a ladel aftewards.
Uhh the hot oil over aromats exists pretty much across most Chinese cuisine. Not just in Cantonese or Szechuan (which are the styles that seem to be the only ones known in the west), but also Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu covering the 'Eight Big Culinary Cuisines', as well as smaller ones as well. So I think Barry deserves full credit on this one 😁
The Escabeche technic is used in Denmark. It is a classic way of preparing herring for a lunch table. Vinegar, sugar, water and onion combined with spices like dill, juniper and/or bayleaf. Server the marinated herring on rye sourdough bread with raw onion and accompany it with a snaps. In the Easter holidays alot of families are coming together for a lunch, and eating this dish.
It's also traditional in Britain- we call it soused herring
In South Africa we have a very similar fish dish but we put curry spices in the vinegar and call it pickled fish. And we actually mostly eat it over Easter break
We also use caul fat for something called skilpadjies which translates to baby turtles. Which is caul fat over lamb offal amd then we grill it over the fire. Ever single braai has to have at least a sixpack of skilpadjies.
Skillpadjies made with minced liver, bacon and cheddar cheese in the caul fat is staple starter for a braai in the Western Cape where i Live.
@@michaelsaayman2802I am going to have to argue with you :) Skilpadjies should be a solid slab of liver and netvet only, cooked on a braai and served with salt and Tabasco (or similar).
Well those are the one's I prefer. Damn, now I want to braai!!!! 🤣🤣
@@Karma-qt4ji 😀
I half expected Ben to mention skilpadjies when he was talking about how caul fat is used in other cuisines...
@@michaelsaayman2802different recipes, same basic concept. Every family has their own skilpadjies recipe. My family uses minced kidney, liver and chopped up bacon in ours.
Could you do an episode about dehydrating foods? Learning how to make jerky at home and what meats make the best jerky etc. Or maybe something similar to the baby/tinned food and they have to make a dish out of all dehydrated ingredients.
Caul fat is also used in Şeftali which is a type of Cypriot kebab that is amazing :)
I really enjoyed your post today. It took me back to the times I enjoyed most at cooking school.
That's so lovely to hear 😊
the hot vinegar method also used in Jamaica with allspice berries (Spice of Life BBC)
In Switzerland we traditionally use caul fat from pigs to wrap a sort of round saussage called 'Adrio' in German or 'Atriau' in the French speaking regions. Did not know that it is also used traditionally in Britain.
We have also buttered fish (often sardine) in vinegar dish in Japan 🇯🇵
I haven't seen someone cook with caul fat since the early days of the Food Network, when it actually had cooking shows and many of them focused on high end French cuisines. Shout out to anyone else raised on Cook Like a Chef and the Japanese Iron Chef!
Mythical Kitchen and Tasting History have cooked with it a little bit. Weirdly enough, both of them used it to cook their own versions of some type of Ancient Roman hamburger.
Not sure it's been covered before on this channel, but squirrel fried fish from China is absolutely crazy! Seems like it'd be a nice challenge for Kush to do, too...
The third one (the caul fat) in Saudi we use to wrap a lamb liver with it and grill it and this will add some sort of fat to the liver and prevent it from drying.
I am spanish and died every time Ebbers said escabeche that way 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm not Spanish and it made my ears bleed
Yes, using fr€nch pronunciation on Spanish words is just horrible.
Don’t be obtuse. The word originates from Persian yet I don’t hear you pronouncing it in the proper Persian or Andalusian-Arabic way either.
Interesting perspective, got me thinking!
That Spanish escabeche is great as a tapa with crusty bread, i love watching the English at the tapa display as your two guys initially said they didn’t think they would like it but once tasted it was great, i know i shouldn’t but can’t help butting in and saying try it you may be pleasantly surprised. If you want to make just letting the vinegar pickle it use anchovies placed in olive oil vinegar chopped garlic and parsley delicious as a light meal in summer. I’m South African married to a Spaniard her mom use to make a delicious amount of different tapas. The cooked one is made with large sardines or fillets of mackerel.
we normally dont pour over all the hot oil from the ladle, probably 1/4 th/ 1/2 of that big ladle and works perfectly fine too.
omg I'm so blown away over the lace fat! Worked with it tons of times making Icelandic blóðmör and lifrarpylsa (blood pudding and liver sausage) but just cut it in pieces to put it into the sausages and pudding! I must try this!
I wasnt this fast for a long time to see a new Video, hyped as always
A very common application for caul fat in south caucasus is to wrap liver in it and grill.
there is a way to make meatballs from chaozhou 潮州牛肉丸 where you beat the meat with steel rods and the meat is pulped this way and the balls are smacked against the mixing bowl until it becomes bouncy and then its put in a broth or such. but it makes it a crunchy springy flavorful meatball.
It is not Cantonese only! We (Shanghainese) do this at home as well for steamed fish! We usually only do it with ginger and spring onion.
In South Africa, we use Caul Fat in a dish called "Skilpadjies". It is Lamb's liver (with spices) wrapped in Caul Fat, then cooked over a "BBQ" (Braai). The fattiness of the Caul Fat, dripping on the coals, creates the most amazing aroma.
We use caul fat to wrap each meatball. We compared them with and without. Caul fat wrapping seems to improve the moisture and tenderness 😅
Afrikaans dish we braai "lewer en netvet" which is minced spiced liver wrappen in lace fat.
Fried and vinagered fish is common also in northern Italy: sarde in saor are a fenetian dish of sardines first floured and fried, then marinaded with onion, vinager, and raisins. In Lomnardy we have pesce in carpione, which is similar but made with freshwater fish, with more herbs and no raisins. In Naples instead a common antipasto is zucchine a scapece: sliced, sun-dried courgettes which get fried then marinaded with vinegar and herbs.
We also use lamb "lace" fat in Morocco, specifically for wrapping pieces of parcooked seasoned liver (paprika, cumin, and salt), skewering them, and grilling them until the fat is mostly rendered! Eating the grilled lace is optional, but it basically protects the liver from overcooking and gives it an amazing rich mouthfeel :) It's then eaten with warm bread (in a sandwich format sometimes) and accompanied by mint tea! It's mostly consumed as street food, or most commonly during the eid el adha period, we call it boulfaf
I've used variations of the hot vinegar and hot oil. The hot vinegar is great on shrimp with a little different technique. Hot oil is used to make Chinese chili oils. Also hot oil is poured over Chinese noodles with aromatics on top.
I knew all of these from watching Iron Chef [the original not the American spin off] it's crazy what you can pick up from that show; and so much inspiration. If these boys had a marathon they'd pass all of Ben's quizzes!
Just saw this video now. As a Capetonian expat from South Africa, we make Pickled Fish for good Fridays meal. This reminded me so much of that very Dish, eaten with hot Cross Buns all over SA over Easter.
Puerto Ricans will also do green bananas al escabeche (guineitos al escabeche) -- delicious.
Great video!
When mentioning escabeche Ebbers forgot to mention Jamaica's escovitch. It's very popular. Esp when made with king fish or red snapper. & I can attest it's absolutely delicious.
Now that does sound delicious!
He should have done that instead because he might not have tried to pronounce it as French.
Yay for battuta!
It's great with white truffle as you said, but it's delicious just with grana/parmesan or porcini mushrooms.
I tried one with Amanita caesarea (royal agaric) and it was simply divine.
Off topic a bit.. but before I found sorted foods, id never have had this thought process.
Ok my Bolognese is too sweet from the tomato and carrot, but I'm happy with the salt level.. I know, let's add lemon juice.
It was so good -.-
Did the A-Z country cooking series get canned? I absolutely enjoyed it....
Definitely gonna try 2 and 4. Good stuff!
We have something like escabeche in Poland too. It's usually fried herring, marinated in hot distilled vinegar with onion and peppercorns. Delicious. It is quite punchy.
Sounds delicious! 😋
Ebbers was just waiting to ask that question at the end. Such a great video. Lol
Me, and all other italians listening to them saying "batuta" multiple times, and automatically going "Ah baTTuta!" when Ben mentions Italy 😂
would love to see you guys try more Cantonese cuisine!
I'm glad you finally did an episode that addressed the oil over aromats technique since previously Kush said some pretty mean things about the technique! I wish he was on this one to at least realise how wrong he was!
There are recipes using caul fat going back to ancient Rome. "Isicia omentata", meatballs wrapped in "omentum" (caul fat), is one of the recipes in the cookbook of Apicius (1st century CE).
Caul is an amazing ingredient. My old restaurant, we used to wrap aged venison(turned into mince) in it for for amazing burgers. And it's waste product so it's a dirt cheap form of fat, that also seals things in. The chinese method at the end should be done with lard if you're wanting to recreate it properly. Typical aromats being spring onion, garlic, ginger, chili, ground pepper. Another technique I've done for fine dining. Amazing stuff lads, people should know more of these techniques, especially given how simple they are.
We catch lots of mackerel at times of the year, my mother makes the escabeche as soon as we start catching them and there was always a large tray full in the fridge for about the 2 months the fish were here, we loved it.
14:06 You use it in things like WHAT lmao
As a gay Brit, the reaction of non-British people when they hear us say that type of food is... mwah. Chef's kiss. One of the best joys of life.
Waiting for the Grana Padano cheese episode.
Starter - 2 ingredient cheese puffs. Grana Padano grated, mixed with egg white, formed into balls then deep fried.
Salad - Grana Padano cheese Ceasar salad.
Main - Grana Padano cheese souffle
Cheese course - Parmesan.
Dessert - Grana Padano cheesecake...
Wow, I am familiar with 2 techniques: the escabeche since I live in Peru and we pronounce the E at the end. And the last one with the hot oil to finish the fish! My dad used that technique to finish the steamed fish like that. We also use it to "cook" the chopped ginger and scallion sauce for a poached chicken dish we have.
Can you guys make a range of fondue dishes. Your wheel of cheese could be a nice base for a cheesy fondue 😆
If anyone wants to try the fish technique at home, I highly recommend using steamed Blue Cod (If you have access to it) It was one of the only ways I'll eat fish as a kid - The other was deep fried with chips.
Chinese steamed fish prepared that way (steamed with soy, rice wine and palm sugar) is my absolute favorite meal in the world, and actually very easy to do at home!
Lightly steamed bok-choy, drizzled in light soy sauce, minced garlic and julienne ginger then lightly covered in the really hot oil. You must try it. So simple and so delicious.
Caul fat is also used as the "casing" of shieftalia, the traditional Cypriot sausage/meatballs!
That’s so interesting, the escabeche. Here in California its Mexican influence has turned escabeche into pickled jalepenos, carrots and radishes. Like an Italian giardinera but with jalapeños.
In Jamaica we do a fried fish, usually snapper, that is then covered in a vinegar, onion and carrot sauce and we call it escovitch fish!! It is a beach staple here, we love it!
In South Africa we take lamb liver and combine it with the caul fat to make skilpadjies. I am a heretic and I like to cook them in an airfryer so they cook through while retaining their shape and moisture. Absolutely delicious.