How it works

  Have you ever thought about sitting down for a delicious snack of a bag of flour? No? Doesn't the idea of scooping spoonfuls of the stuff into your gob get you all excited? Of course not, which is weird considering how much of the stuff you eat. This highlights how some ingredients are structural, others are flavoursome and some are both. 

  Adding flavours makes sense and often is simple trial and error but understanding how to achieve structure and texture is not quite so straight forward. My feeling is that an underlying understanding is really useful so passing that on is my next mission. Pay attention as this could get a bit technical, especially as I'm making it up as I go along.

It's that table again

  Let's start with flour, which, as you know, is powdered grains. As a thought experiment, instead of thinking of porridge as stewed oats, (or whatever grain you use), think of it as thickened water. The more oats you add to the water, the thicker it gets. Flour is a thickener, but better than that, if you heat it until most of the water disappears, you end up with something chewy like a roti. Keep the heat on and it will dry completely and end up like a Jacob's cream cracker and we've been doing that for ages.

  Think of flour as structural. If there's gluten and it's been activated it may have an even more interesting structure but flavour wise it's pretty bland and will need something to make it a bit more palatable as it's going to be pretty cloying after a little chewing.

  Though there are many more sophisticated accompaniments, the simplest and, (arguably), the most satisfying has got to be butter. The enjoyment comes more from the texture than the flavour but it's the effect of fat on the tongue that gives it the mouth feel we love. Butter get's focused on tomorrow so come back then for more. You may even get a picture of something other than my sodding table.

  

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com