Burnt offerings
BURNT, CHARRED, CARAMELISED - TASTY OR A CANCER RISK?
Last night we had roast beef for dinner with roast vegetables and I miscalculated the cooking time, so that I ended up with these pathetic, very unappetising looking burnt offerings. I have to say the parsnips were actually quite nice though. The rest weren't too good though. Anyway the phrase 'burnt offerings' popped into my head so I thought to explore its derivation and also to look into burnt food. And I do mean burnt - not barbecued.
So first of all the derivation - it comes from the Bible of course - the Old Testament - and refers to the practice of offering God totally burnt sacrifices. Apparently at the time of the first and second Temple there were twice daily burnt offerings. The entire animal was burnt to ash although the skins were given to the priests. This is what God decreed. It says so in the Bible. What did they do with the skins I wonder? I suppose they were tanned or treated and made into clothes. All a bit barbaric, but then everybody did it in some way or other back then. The gods ruled the world and if you wanted them to help you you had to appease them and give them things. Which made me wonder how modern day Jews have got around this, because I presume it is there in the Bible as law. At what point did they decide that animal sacrifice was wrong. Jesus said it was, but that's Christianity not Judaism.
Today, you could say the tradition is continued in the barbecue. Not that we are appeasing any gods with a barbecue, other than the men in our lives. I'm not a huge fan, mostly because we seem to burn it. Perfectly barbecued food is just yummy. I think my first encounter with barbecues was in America - massive steaks and corn on the cob, but even better were the skewered meats we had in Yugoslavia on those camping holidays. But then we discovered that cooking meat over a fire causes cancer! Well yes burning meat or fish does indeed produce cancer inducing chemicals, but unless you eat burnt barbecue food all the time and it's very burnt I think the general opinion is that you are unlikely to do a great deal of damage. Since most of us don't barbecue that often, and since the aim is not to burn the food anyway I guess we can say it's OK. And I've just remembered the potatoes we used to wrap in foil and put in the bonfire night fire. Even though they were wrapped in foil, they got burnt on the outside. That was a once a year treat thought. Like all things - moderation is the way to go.
But what about the fashionable charred, smoky, caramelised trend? I found this article in The Guardian which sums up the 'foodie' attitude.
"These days, “burning” or charring food is a fashionable thing to do. It’s as though we’re unlearning all we’ve come to know. Some chefs go as far as turning certain ingredients to ash to give them a very bitter taste, which is said to pair well with fattier foods. For cooks in the Middle East, however, burnt and charred ingredients are simply part of their repertoire; paired with a cooling yoghurt and some uplifting spice or herbs, it’s just the way things are done ...
We use this method of cooking to add a depth to a dish, be it gentle caramelisation to release sweetness, or a more intense process to create a subtle smokiness.
Taken still further, charring can create bitterness, which is where it gets interesting. It’s at this juncture that yoghurt and spice can come into their own if introduced. The yoghurt mellows the burnt or charred flavour so that it becomes more rounded, and the spice (or fresh herbs) ramps things up in an aromatic direction"
Claire Lattin, The Guardian
Which got me to thinking whether I ever deliberately burn food and I could think of just two things I do. One is when I want to peel capsicum. You grill them until the skin is burnt and blistering which means that it will peel off easily. It also imparts a distinct smoky flavour to the capsicum. The other is baba ghanoush - the famous middle-eastern dip, for which you burn the aubergine. And yes they are tasty.
Then there is burnt butter - a well-known French and Italian sauce for pasta, fish and various other things. It's not quite burnt of course - just cooked to almost burnt and this gives it a nutty taste. And also, still in Europe, there is caramelisation - well what is toffee and fudge but caramelised sugar - indeed all manner of caramelised desserts. I think I like the flavour of caramel in my desserts rather more than chocolate in fact. And on the savoury side there is the super trendy caramelised onions or onion jam or marmalade.
And then there is smoked food. It's a way of preserving things after all. Think smoked salmon and other fish in particular. Some hams are smoked. And poultry too. Well all kinds of meat. No doubt you can smoke vegetables. Although smoking food began as a way of preserving it it's now mostly a luxury food. And extremely delicious it is too. And then there's the Weber a rather more delicious way of barbecuing to my mind, because the meat doesn't seem to get as burnt through - but then that's probably just a matter of skill. But yes - look out for those cancer inducing chemicals in your smoked salmon and salami.
Going back to my burnt offerings of last night. I just overdid it. They should indeed have had a bit of charring, or caramelisation on the edges, but not as much as there was. Interesting isn't it how the word burnt when applied to food can mean a good or a bad thing, depending on what it refers to? Smoked, charred, burnt, caramelised - all very trendy words that can easily be used in a negative sense too.
