Dan Souza asked: “What’s the difference between bread and ice cream?”
Ask Paul: What Is the Difference Between Bread and Ice Cream?
Good tricky question!
Bread and ice cream are only occasionally seen together—those occasions being ice cream sandwiches and a surprisingly delicious rye-bread-infused ice cream that I learned to make from Francisco Migoya (author of Frozen Desserts and Modernist Bread) and have never forgotten. It’s not like you’d confuse one for the other. They are both wonderful foods with more differences than similarities.
Until you take a look at their internal structure. For, as you well know, Dan, bread and ice cream are both foams.*
The leavening in bread inflates thousands of tiny gas bubbles during the rise, turning a stodgy, solid dough into a porous, light, eatably soft structure, which baking then sets in place. Without that unsung ingredient air, bread would be hard to bake and too dense to eat (except as crackers).
Ice cream gets its air whipped in by the churning process, which makes it soft enough to eat. Half a pint of ice cream may be air (called “overrun” in the business); more expensive ice creams or gelati tend to contain less air, maybe 35 percent. Without air, ice cream would be a tasty treat that you would cut with a knife and chew off the cone.
Other culinary foams are more obvious: whipped cream (air held by milk fat), meringues (air held by egg whites), marshmallows (gelatin), the head on your pint of beer (dissolved protein from the malt). Mousses and soufflés, too, and even puffed rice and popcorn: Examine them under a microscope, and they turn out to be starch-based foams.
Swiss cheese? Arguable.
* The word “foams” got a lingering connotation from the work of avant-garde chef Ferran Adria starting in the mid-1990s. As part of his tireless experimentation with textures in food, he discovered that putting a savory sauce in a whipped cream whipper turns it into a savory foam. It’s a good technique, but it’s become shorthand for silly frothy culinary play..
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Start Free TrialAbsolutely the best chicken ever, even the breast meat was moist! It's the only way I'll cook a whole chicken again. Simple, easy, quick, no mess - perfect every time. I've used both stainless steel and cast iron pans. great and easy technique for “roasted” chicken. I will say there were no pan juices, just fat in the skillet. Will add to the recipe rotation. Good for family and company dinners too. I've done this using a rimmed sheet pan instead of a skillet and put veggies and potatoes around the chicken for a one-pan meal. Broccoli gets nicely browned and yummy!
Absolutely the best chicken ever, even the breast meat was moist! It's the only way I'll cook a whole chicken again. Simple, easy, quick, no mess - perfect every time. I've used both stainless steel and cast iron pans. great and easy technique for “roasted” chicken. I will say there were no pan juices, just fat in the skillet. Will add to the recipe rotation. Good for family and company dinners too.
Amazed this recipe works out as well as it does. Would not have thought that the amount of time under the broiler would have produced a very juicy and favorable chicken with a very crispy crust. Used my 12" Lodge Cast Iron skillet (which can withstand 1000 degree temps to respond to those who wondered if it would work) and it turned out great. A "make again" as my family rates things. This is a great recipe, and I will definitely make it again. My butcher gladly butterflied the chicken for me, therefore I found it to be a fast and easy prep. I used my cast iron skillet- marvellous!
John, wasn't it just amazing chicken? So much better than your typical oven baked chicken and on par if not better than gas or even charcoal grilled. It gets that smokey charcoal tasted and overnight koshering definitely helps, something I do when time permits. First-time I've pierced a whole chicken minus the times I make jerk chicken on the grill. Yup, the cast iron was not an issue.