From Henry.Poras@ctp.com Thu, 29 Mar 2001 14:27:27 -0800 From: Henry Poras Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 14:27:27 -0800 Subject: RE: why is short bread "short"? / Re: OT -- Friday Recipe was: Or Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain If I can remember back to what I read in a book by Bernard Clayton Jr. (if anyone is in to breads, pastries, ... get his books immediately. I can rave more later), pie crust can be made short or long. When making the crust, you mix the butter and flour, often using two knives to cut up the butter. The idea is to coat small pieces of butter with flour, not to mush it together. When baking the crust, there are little explosions of the butter kernals releasing water vapor which is held in by the flour. This is what gives you a flaky crust. Larger pieces of butter (a long crust) is flakier, more delicate, and more likely to get soggy than a short crust. I am assuming (for no real reason than I feel like it) that short bread is similar in this respect to short crust. I can check The Science of Food and Cooking when I get home and see if there is anything there. Henry -----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 2:57 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Oracle Books on Audio Tapes I still like the elegant and decorous christmas holiday chocolate pastries they have in spain (catalunya) that are designed to look exactly like t*rds (feces), sometimes including exquisitely crafted little flies made from sugar crystals. Anyway, instead of sending any more "cultural enricment friday" stuff, I would instead like to ask why is short bread "short"? I can't RTFM since my old, worn out "Joy of Cooking" is at home, somewhere in a box in the garage... we just moved. thanks, ep On 29 Mar 2001, at 11:00, Ruth Gramolini wrote: ... > I love shortbread. Bring it on! > Ruth -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Eric D. Pierce INET: PierceED@csus.edu Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru@fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Henry Poras INET: Henry.Poras@ctp.com Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru@fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).