• TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    2 days ago

    Last night, I watched Chinese Cooking Demystified’s most recent video where they trace the history of mapo tofu to the best of their abilities. It was a fascinating watch where they had a particular recipe incarnation that defied their old definition of proper mapo tofu. At the end of the video they note how it’s transformed over the years noting that there’s an obsession these days for an authentic way of preparing dishes often using this point as a reason to criticize a dish. They aren’t against criticizing a dish, but call for specific ciriticisms such as flavor balance or shape which is important in Chinese cuisine.

    So I went looking though some critiques looking for something about how cream makes it too heavy or hides the flavor of this ingredient or that. What I found was something more exciting. This academic did a quick historical gloss of carbonara and found that several iterations of early carbonara included cream and other taboo ingredients like butter. It wasn’t standardized into its canonical form until the 1990s.

    Growing up in a traditional household, my parents never worked from recipes, but regularly made delicious dishes beloved by their friends and family members alike. Technique, ingredients, and interests ruled the day. Knowing how to bring out the flavors of the ingredients you had on hand to match each other made delicious food. And the lanes for dishes were much wider because the ingredient lists weren’t as rigid. Obviously, a biriyani without rice be confusing if you dared serve it. But do you need kokum or can you use lemon juice? Is a carbonara still a carbonara with cream, with bacon instead of guancole, vegetarian? I don’t know. Maybe I care less about the words coming out of my mouth than the food going in it.

  • tacosplease@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 day ago

    Fuck the original recipe. I’ve never had better Alfredo or Carbonara than cooking the sauce myself using garlic, heavy cream, parmesan, and a bit of cornstarch slurry to help keep it from breaking.

    Either that or we can give the cream version a different name and acknowledge it as a better dish than traditional Alfredo.

  • udon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    2 days ago

    At least he didn’t suggest that health insurance should use a deny, delay, and defend strategy for insurance claim payments

  • Dagnet@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    Call me a sinner but I love cream in my carbonara. Im ok with it having another name tho, that way people wouldnt get angry

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    Huh. It’s never occurred to me to put cream in carbonara, always just thinking of it as the bacon and eggs pasta, don’t think I’d like it literally creamy; but I will put a pat of butter in cacio e pepe, to help it emulsify, and was just reading about how that is some sort of heresy too.

      • Rinox@feddit.it
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        Original Alfredo is pretty much an American invention. There is a restaurant in Rome that makes “pasta al burro e parmigiano” but that’s pretty much it. Americans took the dish, put cream and shit in it and gave it that name. They can keep it imo.

        In Italy pasta Alfredo is more of a meme than anything else, and “pasta al burro” is made pretty much only when you are sick.

        • taiyang@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          I don’t add cream, but I make ‘alfredo’ as a milk sauce from butter, flour, lots of parm, and milk.

          But I also add milk to my espresso, even if I do use an Italian Moka pot. They have a warrent for my arrest as we speak, lol.

          • Rinox@feddit.it
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 days ago

            So you just make pasta with bechamel and parmigiano and drink caffè macchiato. You’re fine, really.

            Aside from the fact that, imo, there are better sauces for your pasta, you are not doing anything egregious, plus you can call Alfredo whatever you want. Nobody knows what it means anyway.

            PS: coffee made with a moka pot in Italy is just called coffee. Espresso is made with an espresso machine that works at high pressure.

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    i first read this comic as saying “ice cream in carbonara” and thought the injuries were justified. but after rereading it i’m not so sure anymore

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Cream or better crème fraîche makes a very good sauce when you melt it onto the carbonara IMO.

  • BruceAlrighty@lemmy.nz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    20
    ·
    2 days ago

    Italians and food are the worst. Let people enjoy what they want and stop acting like you’re top shit.

    • Delphia@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      I get especially annoyed when people act like because their great great grandparents on one side of their tree were Italian that they have some innate knowledge of pasta and sauce.

      Like even if nonna learned from her nonna and you learned from her, theres still a non zero chance that great great nonna was a SHIT COOK.

    • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      You can enjoy what you want, just don’t name it as something already stablished. Of ypu say you are doing a beef BBQ and suddenly you bring chicken saying “yeah we do beef with chicken in this house” is as stupid as someone adding extra ingredients into a dish and not changing the name.

      • BruceAlrighty@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Dishes evolve, the name stays.

        It’s not NoCheeseanara but you’ve put cheese in it, so your analogy is bad. If you said you were going to do a bbq and bought chicken Instead of beef that would be fine.

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        You know, that would be pretty bomb, what with the extra crispy crust it would form.

        I’m not even joking. I mean, a little, but it’s also true.

  • dan00@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    “Ppff my pasta trick, walmart can section 346-aisle 96-shelf 215b between shampoo and dog food, is great! I love the taste of asbestos and lead with poorly mixed ingredients i found at the last moment in the garden.”

    Gnam 😋