I’m nibbling one of these wonderful Salted Chocolate Cookies as I type this post, smearing chocolate on my keyboard with wild abandon.

You are in for a treat.

These Salted Chocolate Cookies are sophisticated, ever-so-chocolaty and wonderful on a cool fall evening with a shot of brandy.

We all know that quality chocolate brings us pleasure and enhances our moods, but why (and how) does salt enhance the whole chocolate experience?

First, salt  intensifies the body’s ability to taste the sweetness of sugar. Salt triggers our taste buds to make them more receptive to sweet flavors and to suppress bitter tastes.

Secondly, salt adds texture to our foods. This is particularly true if a large-crystalled salt like Maldon or fleur de sel is used.

Finally, salt adds a layer of contrasting flavor to chocolate’s sweetness. Salt enhances the aroma of chocolates and other foods, too.

Food experts extol the affect of salt on foods. According to food expert Harold McGee in his acclaimed food reference book On Food and Cooking, salt “is the only natural source of one of our handful of basic tastes, and we therefore add it to most of our foods to fill our their flavor.” Samin Nosrat, the hot new cookbook author (Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat), devotes 38 pages of her bestselling book to a discussion of the effect of salt on foods.

History has borne out the importance of salting food, too. The flavor-enhancing properties of salt transform the taste of foods so significantly that governments have turned to salt as a revenue source, an act that has sometimes sparked rebellions. Remember that government salt monopolies and salt taxes led to revolution in France and inspired Ghandi’s salt march to Dandi.

Today, there are a number of salts available to cooks. Among the choices are granulated, iodized, flake, Kosher, unrefined sea salt, fleur de sel and flavored and colored salts. If you look for them, you can find some pretty fancy salt curators on line. Seasalt.com, for example, sells artisanal salt collections composed of salts collected around the world–even a “Snowflake Pacific Northwest Salt” with a texture similar, they advertise, “to freshly fallen snow.” Wow!

My favorite salt of the moment is Maldon. I once took a cooking class where the instructor mentioned that one of her chef friends carries an elegant little box of Maldon in her purse to use on her meals when she is away from home. That, of course, piqued my curiosity and I bought my first (of many) boxes of Maldon. It turns out that Maldon has been made in England since 1882. It is crunchy and wonderful. Here is a link to a very well-done video from the Maldon company: Maldon Salt.

This recipe is adapted from a NYTimes recipe that appears here.

Cue the music.

Wild celebration here.

Juliet is salsa dancing down the hall and I’m wearing a silly party hat. This month marks Blue Cayenne’s fourth birthday.

Here we are writing our 315th blog post. Who knew?

Thank you for reading this blog and thank you to those of you who have given us words of encouragement. Particular thanks go to those who have served as recipe tasters for Blue Cayenne (Sarah and Gene, you know who you are!), to Marion Sutton who is Blue Cayenne’s biggest fan and promoter, and to Al Nomura, my patient and talented photography mentor. It turns out that it takes a village to sustain a food blog.

Here is a great celebratory cake: Brown Butter Cake With Bruised Pears And Walnuts. The brown butter flavor in this cake is definitely worthy of an important celebration. The cake is moist and almost puddingy (is that a word?). You will definitely want to try this one!

This recipe was adapted from one that appears on the James Beard Foundation site here.

With the advent of fall, those fresh, plump, sweet strawberries that graced market displays mid-summer are hard to come by. So, if you haven’t already gotten your strawberry fix for the year, here is an idea: Roast your strawberries. The roasting deepens the flavor of even second-tier berries.

For an added pop of flavor, drizzle a bit of your best balsamic vinegar over the strawberries before you roast them. The syrupy balsamic sweetens the berries.

Balsamic, by the way, has been made for about a thousand years, although the term balsamic vinegar wasn’t widely used until the 18th Century. Originating in the Modena and Reggio Emilia regions of Italy, early balsamics were the product of very limited craft production. Their cost and scarcity kept the vinegar mostly on the tables of the nobility where it was valued as a specialty vinegar suitable only for those rarefied nobles with exquisite palates. At the time, the vinegar was known as Noble’s Vinegar to distinguish it from the Commoner’s Vinegar that was consumed by the rest of the region’s population. Interestingly, it was Napoleon’s armies who changed that dynamic when they invaded Modena in 1796 and subsequently pillaged the estates of the region’s nobles. In the process, precious kegs of Noble’s Vinegar were “liberated” and sold, thus spreading awareness of the vinegar across Europe.

What makes balsamic vinegar so special? The production process is lengthy and the amount of balsamic produced is relatively small. Balsamic is made from grape pressings that are boiled and reduced to a syrup. The syrup is then aged (and its volume reduced) for at least twelve years (more for the really good stuff) in a succession of wooden kegs–chestnut, cherry wood, ash, mulberry and juniper–with each wooden keg adding a bit of distinctive flavor.

Here is an interesting short video that describes the process of making balsamic: How Balsamic Is Made. If you are a curious foodie (and who isn’t?), this video is worth your time to watch.

Why are some balsamics so expensive? The price of balsamic reflects the length of time that the balsamic has been aged. Amazon is offering a bottle of Giusti 100 for a whopping $975.93. The Giusti has been aged for at least 100 years and the label is engraved in 24-carat gold. (The Giuseppe Giusti Company is the oldest vinegar producer in the world. They opened their doors in 1603.) It’s a 3.4 fluid ounce bottle. That’s $287 per fluid ounce. Wow!  That’s a bargain, by the way. Another site is selling the same bottle for $1199.99.

Here is an excellent Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream recipe.

Balsamic Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream

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Ingredients

For the Strawberries
• 1 pound fresh strawberries
• 4 T. balsamic vinegar
• 4 T. sugar
For the Vanilla Base
• 1/2 to 3/4 C. granulated sugar
• 2 C. cream
• 1 C. half and half or 2% milk
• 1 t. pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste

Instructions

1. Pepare your fresh strawberries by washing the berries, removing the green stems, and drying the berries. Toss the berries with the sugar and balsamic vinegar and place the berries on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake at 300 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove the berries from the oven and cool.
2. Once the berries have cooled, blend them until you they are smooth (or coarsely chop them). Be sure to scrape any remaining balsamic glaze into the berries. Put this berries in your refrigerator overnight to allow the flavors to bloom.
3. The next day, stir sugar, cream, and half and half (or milk) together with the vanilla. Add the strawberries to the cream mixture. Process in your ice cream maker according to the directions for your machine. (As an alternative, you can stir some sliced or chopped fresh strawberries into the batter before your process your ice cream.)

Nutrition

Calories

2646 cal

Fat

74 g

Carbs

371 g

Protein

27 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

214

https://bluecayenne.com/exquisite-palate-balsamic-strawberry-ice-cream

This ice cream recipe was adapted from one that appears on the Barbara Bakes site. You can find it here:Barbara Bakes.