Alfredo Sauce
Donna D.
recipes. Does any one have one??
Thanks you changed my kitchen completely
Donna
Tom Jones
1 c fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 c heavy cream
1 stick of butter
heat cream and butter until butter is melted, stir
in 3/4 cup of the cheese, stir until smooth.
pour over you favorite hot pasta then sprinkle
with the rest of the cheese.
Donna D.
Steve Calvin
>
> When posting about soup brands some one mentioned you can make simple sauce
> recipes. Does any one have one??
> Thanks you changed my kitchen completely
> Donna
Sorry, no soup but it can't get too much easier than:
4 tb Butter
1/2 c Heavy cream
6 tb Parmesan cheese
1 tb Flour
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine ingredients in saucepan, cook & stir (DO NOT BOIL!) until it
looks and feels like Alfredo sauce.
--
Steve
Nexis
and a bit of butter, add in the parmesan and you are good to go!! And no
soup! lol
kimberly
Donna D. <ral...@usaor.net> wrote in message
news:p%oF3.1213$vU3.4...@news.sgi.net...
Goomba
>
> Donna D. wrote:
> >
> > When posting about soup brands some one mentioned you can make simple sauce
> > recipes. Does any one have one??
> > Thanks you changed my kitchen completely
> > Donna
>
>
> 4 tb Butter
> 1/2 c Heavy cream
> 6 tb Parmesan cheese
> 1 tb Flour
> Salt and pepper to taste
>
> Combine ingredients in saucepan, cook & stir (DO NOT BOIL!) until it
> looks and feels like Alfredo sauce.
AAckkkkkkk! NO flour!! We're not making a white sauce here. Flour has
NEVER been one of the classic ingredients.... it rates right down there
with the idea that you can get a good alfredo from a soup can....geesh
Take some hot fettuccine, toss with butter, cream, freshly grated
parmesan and a beaten egg (optional it some recipes it seems)grated
pepper and some minced fresh parsley. That's it.
Goomba
Donna D.
now. Thanks !!!!
Donna
Nexis wrote in message ...
>Aww heck Donna....it doesn't get much easier than Alfredo...Just heat cream
>and a bit of butter, add in the parmesan and you are good to go!! And no
>soup! lol
>kimberly
>Donna D. <ral...@usaor.net> wrote in message
>news:p%oF3.1213$vU3.4...@news.sgi.net...
DAPullin
Michael Edelman
It's okay. I'm calming down. The recipe is
"Fettucini Alfredo", not "noodles with alfredo
sauce". And as for:
> >Alfredo Sauce is simply
> >1 c fresh grated parmesan cheese
> >1 c heavy cream
> >1 stick of butter
almost....
> >heat cream and butter until butter is melted, stir
> >in 3/4 cup of the cheese, stir until smooth.
> >pour over you favorite hot pasta then sprinkle
> >with the rest of the cheese.
NONONONONONOO!!!!!! It's not a seperate sauce.
It's made by tossing hot pasta with the cheese,
butter and spices.
To make fettucini Alfredo, you toss hot fettucini
with butter, parmesan, and a little nutmeg and
pepper.
pud
>
> NONONONONONOO!!!!!! It's not a seperate sauce.
> It's made by tossing hot pasta with the cheese,
> butter and spices.
>
> To make fettucini Alfredo, you toss hot fettucini
> with butter, parmesan, and a little nutmeg and
> pepper.
Didn't the original recipe use triple cream? ergo the modern
addition of cream with the butter. :-). YMMV.
--
Mary f. <No Kitty! it's MY POT PIE!>
_ _
( \ / )
|\ ) ) _,,,/ (,,_
/, . '`~ ~-. ;-;;,_
|,4) -,_. , ( `'-'
'-~~' (_/~~' `-'\_)
It's a widdle,widdle, widdle pud (She's not big on sharing, is she?)
http://home.earthlink.net/~maryf
M. Smith
Michael Edelman <m...@mich.com> wrote in message
news:37E78AFC...@mich.com...
> NONONONONONOO!!!!!! It's not a seperate sauce.
> It's made by tossing hot pasta with the cheese,
> butter and spices.
>
> To make fettucini Alfredo, you toss hot fettucini
> with butter, parmesan, and a little nutmeg and
> pepper.
Interesting. Where did you come up with this?
According to Marcella Hazan, certainly a well regarded authority on Italian
cooking, she says in her first book, The Classic Italian Cookbook, "There
actually was an Alfredo, in whose Roman restaurant this lovely dish became
famous. Alfredo had a gold fork and spoon with which he gave a final toss to
each serving of fettuccine before it was sent to the table. Despite its
southern origin, this dish has now become a fixture of those Italian
restaurants abroad specializing in northern cuisine."
Ingredients are simple: homemade fettuccine made with 3 eggs and 2/3 lb. of
flour.
Sauce is 1 cup heavy cream, 3 tablespoons butter, 2/3 cups freshly grated
Parmesan cheese plus salt, fresh pepper to taste and a very small grating of
nutmeg (say 1/8 teaspoon or less.) All the butter is melted and added with
two-thirds of the cream and cheese in a pan and heated to thicken for a
minute or two. The pasta is then added and the remaining cheese and cream
are used to get the dish to just the right sauce consistency.
While there are some excellent pastas made with just butter and cheese, but
no cream, they aren't "Fettuccine all'Alfredo" as long as we can trace the
origin of this dish back to its originator.
This is kind of like Caesar salad. We know what the original recipe from
Caesar Cardini's restaurant in Tijuana in the 1920's consists of. Julia
Child interviewed Cardini's daughter many years back. There are endless
variations and imitations, many of which are very good but just not the same
as the original.
Now, you may like yours better - that's fine by me - but it ain't the
original.
Michael Edelman
>
>
> Didn't the original recipe use triple cream? ergo the modern
> addition of cream with the butter. :-). YMMV.
I seem to recall otherwise. Any cites, anyone?
Dimitri
Michael Edelman wrote in message <37E8EDC3...@mich.com>...
I believe the original recipe from Alfredo's calls for a European product
called "Double Butter" along with the cheese, nutmeg and a little of the
starchy pasta water. The resulting creamy sauce that is often mistaken for
cream in the recipe.
Dimitri
Computer Lab
<smith_ml@swbell-dot-net> wrote:
>
>Michael Edelman <m...@mich.com> wrote in message
>news:37E78AFC...@mich.com...
>
>> NONONONONONOO!!!!!! It's not a seperate sauce.
>> It's made by tossing hot pasta with the cheese,
>> butter and spices.
>>
>> To make fettucini Alfredo, you toss hot fettucini
>> with butter, parmesan, and a little nutmeg and
>> pepper.
>
>Interesting. Where did you come up with this?
>
>According to Marcella Hazan, certainly a well regarded authority on Italian
>cooking, she says in her first book, The Classic Italian Cookbook, "There
>actually was an Alfredo, in whose Roman restaurant this lovely dish became
>famous. Alfredo had a gold fork and spoon with which he gave a final toss to
>each serving of fettuccine before it was sent to the table. Despite its
>southern origin, this dish has now become a fixture of those Italian
>restaurants abroad specializing in northern cuisine."
[snip]
>Now, you may like yours better - that's fine by me - but it ain't the
>original.
Actually, it is. Marcella had to add cream to the recipe for us
Murricans 'cuz our butter doesn't have as much butterfat as the
Italian's.
--
Matthew Takeda
Spamblock in place: remove NOSPAM to reply
Computer Lab
wrote:
>THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ALFREDO SAUCE!!!!!!
>
Thank you Michael; I was just about to say that.
Maybe I should write a book:
"There is no Alfredo sauce...
...and there is no Caesar salad dressing"
PENMART10
>On Tue, 21 Sep 1999 09:41:16 -0400, Michael Edelman <m...@mich.com>
>wrote:
>
>>THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ALFREDO SAUCE!!!!!!
>>
>
>Thank you Michael; I was just about to say that.
>
>Maybe I should write a book:
>
Then you'd better co-author the eldleweenie comic book for the functionally
illiterate.
Of course Mr. Alfredo di Lello created a sauce (whaddaya think he created,
pasta topped with chopped liver?), just ain't a *basic* Mother Sauce, but it
certainly is a quite notable original variation of Bechemel, of which there
are many, all noteworthy original creations in their own right. BTW, Alfredo
di Lello ain't credited with creating fettucini, only the sauce which he plated
with fettucine.
fettuccine Alfredo
[feht-tuh-CHEE-nee al-FRAY-doh] [Epicurious]
"Roman restaurateur Alfredo di Lello is credited with creating this dish in the
1920s. The fettuccine is enrobed in a rich sauce of butter, grated parmesan
cheese, heavy cream and plentiful grindings of black pepper. *Other noodles may
be substituted for the fettuccine*."
More...?
Glossary of Sauces & Condiments
http://ecol.webpoint.com/food/cksauces.htm
Adobo | Alfredo | Barbecue | Bordelaise | Chile Bean | Chutney | Espagnole |
Fish | Hollandaise | Hoisin | Horseradish | Ketchup | Mayonnaise | Mole |
Mustard | Oyster | Pesto | Pico de Gallo | Salsa | Soy | Tabaso | Tahini |
Tamari | Tartar | Teriyaki | Wasabi | Worcestershire
Adobo A dark red sauce or paste made with ground chiles, vinegar and other
seasonings. Adobo sauce, which originated in Mexico, is used as a marinade, as
well as a serving sauce.
Alfredo A rich sauce made with cream, parmesan cheese and butter served over
pasta. Fettuccine Alfredo was created by restaurant owner Alfred di Lello in
the 1920s.
Barbecue Traditionally made with tomatoes, onions, brown sugar, garlic and
vinegar. Barbecue sauce is used to baste barbecued meat.
Bordelaise A brown sauce made with red or white wine, brown stock, bone marrow,
shallots, parsley and herbs. Bordelaise sauce originated in France.
Chile bean A paste or sauce made with fermented soybeans, dried chiles, garlic
and other seasonings. Popular in Chinese and Korean dishes. Known as kochujang
or kochu chang in Korean.
Chutney A spicy condiment containing fruit, vinegar, spices and sugar used in
East Indian cooking. Chutney comes in chunky-to-smooth, spicy-to-mild
varieties.
Espagnole Used as a base for dozens of brown sauces. Espagnole sauce is
traditionally made with rich meat stock, a mixture of diced carrots, onions,
celery and herbs sautéed in butter and a brown roux (a mixture of fat and
flour).
Fish A pungent and salty liquid made from various mixtures based on the liquid
obtained from salted, fermented fish. Fish sauce can range in color from yellow
or reddish-brown to deep brown and can be flavored with chiles or sugar. It may
be called a variety of names in Asian markets: nam pla (Thai), nuoc nam
(Vietnamese), patis (Filipino) and shottsuru (Japanese).
Hollandaise A rich, smooth creamy sauce made with butter, egg yolks and lemon
juice. Hollandaise sauce is used to add flavor and make vegetable, fish and egg
dishes visually appealing -- Eggs Benedict, for example. It must be served
warm.
Hoisin A thick, dark, sweet sauce made from soybeans, chiles and spices. Hoisin
sauce is used in Chinese cooking for marinades and basting -- Mu Shu Pork, for
example.
Horseradish A relish made from the grated, pungent spicy root of the
horseradish plant. Horseradish is served as a condiment with fish and meat
dishes. See wasabi.
Ketchup A thick, sweet sauce made with tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt and
spices. Also known as catsup and catchup. Ketchup is said to be derived from
ke-tsiap -- a spicy pickled-fish condiment popular in China.
Mayonnaise A smooth, creamy emulsified mixture of egg yolks, vegetable oil,
vinegar and seasonings. Salad dressing is similarly prepared but without the
egg yolks.
Mole A rich, dark sauce used in Mexican cooking. Made with a variety of chiles,
onions, garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, seeds and a small amount of
chocolate. The chocolate adds to the richness of the sauce without making it
too sweet. Chicken, turkey and pork can be simmered in this sauce.
Mustard
(prepared) A pungent condiment used to flavor foods. American mustard (also
called yellow mustard) is a mild mixture made with white mustard seeds, sugar,
vinegar and seasonings. Dijon mustard (which originated in Dijon, France) is
made with brown mustard seeds, wine, unfermented grape juice and seasonings.
Oyster A dark-brown sauce made with oysters, brine and soy sauce. The
ingredients are cooked until thick and concentrated. Oyster sauce is popular in
Asian dishes, especially stir fries.
Pesto An uncooked sauce made by grinding fresh basil, garlic, parmesan cheese
and olive oil into a paste. The term pesto is used to describe similar sauces
containing other herbs and nuts, usually pine nuts. Pesto originated in Genoa,
Italy.
Pico de Gallo A relish -- a hot, raw salsa -- made with fresh chiles, onions,
tomatoes and seasonings. Pico de gallo literally means "rooster's beak" in
Spanish. Salsa was once eaten with the thumb and finger, an action resembling a
rooster's beak.
Salsa The Mexican word for sauce. A cooked or fresh mixture of ingredients.
Salsa verde is green salsa typically made from Mexican green tomatoes, green
chiles and cilantro.
Soy A brown, salty sauce made from fermented soybeans and wheat. Soy sauce
comes in dark and light varieties and is used in Southeast Asian and Japanese
cooking. Japanese soy sauce is called shoyu.
Tabasco A spicy hot sauce made from tabasco peppers, vinegar and salt. Tabasco
is used to add zest to Creole dishes, chili and eggs. It was developed in
America by Thomas McIlhenny and is trademarked by the McIlhenny family.
Tahini A thick paste made from ground sesame seeds. Tahini is used in Middle
Eastern cooking to flavor dishes such as hummus and baba ghanoush.
Tamari A dark sauce with a distinctly mellow flavor made from soybeans. Tamari
is similar to soy sauce but thicker.
Tartar
(Tartare) A mayonnaise-based sauce made with capers, onions, shallots, dill
pickles, hard-cooked eggs or olives, lemon juice or vinegar, and seasonings.
Traditionally served with fried fish.
Teriyaki A dark sauce made with soy sauce, sake (or sherry), sugar, ginger and
seasonings. Used to marinate beef or chicken. Chicken and beef teriyaki are
popular Japanese dishes.
Wasabi
(Wasabe) A green, pungent and fiery flavored condiment made from the root of an
Asian plant. Wasabi is also called Japanese horseradish, and is mixed with soy
sauce and served with sushi and sashimi.
Worcestershire A thin, dark sauce made from soy sauce, tamarind, onions,
garlic, molasses, lime, anchovies, vinegar and seasonings. Worcestershire sauce
is used to season gravies, meats and soups. It was developed in India by the
English and first bottled in Worcester, England.
Sheldon
````````````
On a recent Night Court rerun, Judge Harry Stone had a wonderful line:
"I try to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out."
Dimitri
Michael Edelman wrote in message <37E8EDC3...@mich.com>...
>pud wrote:
>>
>
>>
>> Didn't the original recipe use triple cream? ergo the modern
>> addition of cream with the butter. :-). YMMV.
>
>I seem to recall otherwise. Any cites, anyone?
Try here for the original story
http://www.alfredos.com/about.html
And I do not see any mention of cream!
The Original Fettuccine Alfredo was created in 1914 because Alfredo's
wife lost her appetite during pregnancy. To restore
her appetite Alfredo went to his kitchen, mixed egg noodles with the
finest parmigiano cheese and butter and created a dish
even his wife couldn't resist. Of course, the rest is history!
Three generations have presided over the famous establishment in Rome and
all were named Alfredo. Mr. Guido Bellanca, a
restaurant aficionado in Rome, was a family friend and in 1977 he and
Alfredo II opened the first restaurant in the United States.
The restaurant opened in New York and was an instant success, making
Fettuccine Alfredo a household name in America.
Since then, Alfredo restaurants have opened with great success in Epcot
at Walt Disney World, Miami, and now in Boca
Raton. The restaurants outside Italy are owned and operated by Mr.
Bellanca and his sons. They are devoted to maintaining a
high standard of extremely authentic Italian cuisine and, of course,
preserving the only original Fettuccine Alfredo recipe.
[Back to Alfredo's Home
Page]
Regards,
Dimitri
M. Smith
Computer Lab <mct7N...@pge.com> wrote in message
news:37ee1792.13679788@news...
>
> Actually, it is. Marcella had to add cream to the recipe for us
> Murricans 'cuz our butter doesn't have as much butterfat as the
> Italian's.
Ummm... source please.
Interesting how people "declare" things to be true just by stating them
without reference. Even when they make no sense.
Your statement that our butter isn't as high in fat as Italian butter is
pure nonsense. Federal law requires the =minimum= butterfat content of US
butter to be 80% by weight. Most of the balance is water, easily evaporated
when heating the butter. Since butter has zero carbohydrates and only 0.5%
protein, butterfat and water is all that's left. Just checked the nutrition
panel for a Land-of-Lakes box of butter. The nutrition lable clearly states
that 99.5% of calories come from butterfat.
Are you saying that Italian butter is 99.6% butterfat? Maybe even 99.7%. Or
(gasp!) 99.8%?
Adding cream to a dish does not increase the percent of butterfat. The
highest percentage butterfat from commercially available cream commonly sold
is 35% to 40% butterfat. Adding cream to the dish actually =dilutes= the
butterfat content. It does not increase it, as you mistakenly state.
You might want to check the prior message from Sheldon. He gives the name of
the originator of the dish (Alfredo di Lello) from the 1920's. The person
who invented the dish used cream. I would think that counts for something.
I once had "Coq au Vin" at a restaurant that turned out to be fried chicken
with a white-wine cream sauce. Lots of people dramatically change classic
dishes without updating the original name. That doesn't make their continued
use of the classic name right.
You may like your creation without cream better, but it isn't Alfredo.
Nothing more complicated than that.
M. Smith
the cream issue in the original version of Fettuccine Alfredo. I visited the
posted "Alfredo's" web site and viewed their recipes as posted by the
current chef. I've always trusted Marcella Hazan's word regarding Italian
dishes, recognizing that any cuisine has variations among chefs. Have to say
I've always treated her as an Italian Julia Child and am disappointed that
she has apparently incorrectly described the original dish while citing the
original Alfredo, when the current non-family spokesmen for his own family
state differently. I plan to write her and inquire about this.
I say "apparently" since I am reminded of the long-time fight in
Philadelphia over which is the original "Bookbinder's" restaurant - the
original physical location or the later restaurant run by descendents of the
original family.
Have to say that the Disney World connection of Alfredo's and the
introduction of a non-family owner disconcerts me enough to question whether
I've really heard the whole story. Count me still as a cautious skeptic. I
don't swallow wholesale everything I read on the web.
However, my prior statements about American butter not being weaker in
butterfat content than Italian butter still stand. Similarly, my comments
that adding cream does NOT increase the butterfat ratio of the dish still
stand. This is patent nonsense.
Finally, I have had "compound butter" pastas with parmesan cheese and have
to state frankly that I prefer the cream version.
Hope this clears the decks as far as I am concerned.
Alan Zelt
>
> M. Smith wrote:
> >
> > I have to immediately acknowledge to everyone that I was apparently wrong on
> > the cream issue in the original version of Fettuccine Alfredo. I visited the
> > posted "Alfredo's" web site and viewed their recipes as posted by the
> > current chef. I've always trusted Marcella Hazan's word regarding Italian
> > dishes, recognizing that any cuisine has variations among chefs. Have to say
> > I've always treated her as an Italian Julia Child and am disappointed that
> > she has apparently incorrectly described the original dish while citing the
> > original Alfredo, when the current non-family spokesmen for his own family
> > state differently. I plan to write her and inquire about this.
>
> >
> > I say "apparently" since I am reminded of the long-time fight in
> > Philadelphia over which is the original "Bookbinder's" restaurant - the
> > original physical location or the later restaurant run by descendents of the
> > original family.
> >
> > Have to say that the Disney World connection of Alfredo's and the
> > introduction of a non-family owner disconcerts me enough to question whether
> > I've really heard the whole story. Count me still as a cautious skeptic. I
> > don't swallow wholesale everything I read on the web.
>
> >
> > However, my prior statements about American butter not being weaker in
> > butterfat content than Italian butter still stand. Similarly, my comments
> > that adding cream does NOT increase the butterfat ratio of the dish still
> > stand. This is patent nonsense.
> >
> > Finally, I have had "compound butter" pastas with parmesan cheese and have
> > to state frankly that I prefer the cream version.
> >
> > Hope this clears the decks as far as I am concerned.
>
> butterfat, and in fact milk in our country has much less butter fat in
> it. The milk I get from the dairy farmer down the road is about 4.5%
> butterfat, from what I learned from them our whole milk doesn't even
> contain that if you buy it in a regular grocer after it's been
> processed. I could be wrong, but We need our bakers here...Or I can
> contact Johnathan White of EFD (they are on the web
> http://www.creamery.com, I think?) about the butter fat in their butter,
> they sell it to normal people, but also to the upscale restaurants.
> Also, remember when alfredo was originally made, the pasturization and
> homignization wasn't around or wasn't what it is now. If you get milk,
> and then cream (which some will correct me on) you draw off the cream
> the next morning without it being processed, its incredible tasting
> comared to what you get in the regular grocery. Spend a day at a dairy
> farm, if you haven't had the opportunity, it's so special. I'm not
> saying I'm right, by any means, and If I'm not I'll certainly say so.
> I'm just pulling up memories late at night :-). I love the diary
> process, and these farmers work so very very hard for so very little.
>
> --
> Mary f.~~~
> |\\ /
> /,\\ /
> |,4-\ /
> '-~~_\ /_
> ( ; )
> ( ( ) )
> @__) (__@
> (My cats in heat, what's new with you?)
Mary,
this is Jonathan's comments vis a vis butter fat:
While most US butter is 80% fat, and European butter is 82%, our
butter is 86%,
making it the richest butter available anywhere! If you are saying
to yourself: "Oh,
my! More Fat! That's terrible!", then please read my article, The
F-Word, which
explains why fat isn't a bad word.
--
alan
Eliminate FINNFAN on reply.
"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and
avoid the
people, you might better stay home."
--James Michener
maryf
Victor Sack
> While there are some excellent pastas made with just butter and cheese, but
> no cream, they aren't "Fettuccine all'Alfredo" as long as we can trace the
> origin of this dish back to its originator.
Time for a repost again...
The dish in question is properly called Fettuccine al Triplo Burro
Maestose and is more often called Fettuccine all'Alfredo, after the man
who either invented or, more probably, just popularized it. You'll find
the original recipe in Cucina Italiana, published by Accademia Italiana
della Cucina. I have a German-language edition, but I'm sure there is
an English one, too. Once you make the fettuccine noodles as such, only
butter, parmesan cheese, and salt are used. Nothing else. Salt, BTW,
is used only in the water for boiling the fettucine. It is interesting
that great importance is attached to mixing in the cheese _before_ the
butter.
Fettuccine all'Alfredo is a dish that is probably even better known in
the USA than in Italy. This is possibly due to the fact that it was
made famous by such American stars as Mary Pickford and Douglas
Fairbanks Sr., who used to frequent the original Alfredo restaurant in
Rome.
'Alfredo' threads appear frequently on rfc. Here's what I wrote in two
of them (not verbatim):
The original Fettuccine all'Alfredo was (and still is) served with just
butter (a lot of it) and a sprinkling of parmesan. No cream, no milk,
no flour. Any other 'Alfredo,' including one served at Chez Panisse
(they use cream, as does Marcella Hazan, I'm sorry to say), is an
impostor.
I remember reading about the 'original' Alfredo in Reinhard Raffalt's
'Concerto Romano'. Alfredo di Lelio, after whom the dish is named,
first served it in 1914, in his first restaurant, Alfredo alla Scrofa,
located in via della Scrofa in Rome. It was prepared, it is said, using
his grandmother's secret recipe. Alfredo became known as _il Re delle
Fettuccine_, the king of fettuccine. After some years, he grew tired of
the business, and sold the restaurant to two of his maītres d'hōtel, who
already knew the recipe. Then he grew tired of his retirement and tried
to approach them again, but they wouldn't have anything to do with him.
Peeved, he opened another restaurant, Alfredo all'Augusteo (Ristorante
L'Originale Alfredo) and started to call himself _il Imperatore delle
Fettuccine_ and _il Vero_, the true one. Both restaurants still exist
and I remember eating in both. Both had by then become a bit of a
tourist trap, but both served very good fettuccine. The versions of
fettucine in both restaurants were nearly identical. At Alfredo alla
Scrofa, they don't make quite as much of their being the original
Alfredo's, it seems. At both restaurants, the preparation of fettuccine
was tableside and left nothing to imagination. No cream was used, but a
lot of butter.
An rfc correspondent of mine once made an interesting and probably valid
point that the use of cream in American restaurants for Fettuccine
all'Alfredo is necessitated by the generally inferior quality of
American butter. Since the cream is absorbed into the noodles, the end
result supposedly satisfactorily mimics the original. I replied that
I'd seen several mentions on rfc and elsewhere that Plugra butter which,
it seems, is available in a lot of places in the USA, is supposed to be
close in quality to European butter and could work well in the dish.
Never having tried it, I can't be sure, though.
Victor
Michael Edelman
>
> In article <37ed1658.13366020@news>, mct7N...@pge.com (Computer Lab) writes:
>
> >On Tue, 21 Sep 1999 09:41:16 -0400, Michael Edelman <m...@mich.com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ALFREDO SAUCE!!!!!!
> >>
> >
> >Thank you Michael; I was just about to say that.
> >
> >Maybe I should write a book:
> >
>
> Then you'd better co-author the eldleweenie comic book for the functionally
> illiterate.
> Of course Mr. Alfredo di Lello created a sauce (whaddaya think he created,
> pasta topped with chopped liver?), just ain't a *basic* Mother Sauce, but it
> certainly is a quite notable original variation of Bechemel, of which there
> are many, all noteworthy original creations in their own right. BTW, Alfredo
> di Lello ain't credited with creating fettucini, only the sauce which he plated
> with fettucine.
>
> fettuccine Alfredo
> [feht-tuh-CHEE-nee al-FRAY-doh] [Epicurious]
> "Roman restaurateur Alfredo di Lello is credited with creating this dish in the
> 1920s. The fettuccine is enrobed in a rich sauce of butter, grated parmesan
> cheese, heavy cream and plentiful grindings of black pepper. *Other noodles may
> be substituted for the fettuccine*."
>
> More...?
>
> Glossary of Sauces & Condiments
> http://ecol.webpoint.com/food/cksauces.htm
Cutting and pasting is not the same as having
knowledge. You have to *understand* what you're
cutting and pasting.
M. Smith
Alan Zelt <alzelt...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:37E9C9D6...@worldnet.att.net...
>
> While most US butter is 80% fat, and European butter is 82%, our
> butter is 86%,
> making it the richest butter available anywhere! If you are saying
> to yourself: "Oh,
> my! More Fat! That's terrible!", then please read my article, The
> F-Word, which
> explains why fat isn't a bad word.
I think there is a misunderstanding here about the butter-making process.
When butter is churned, almost all of the carbohydrate and the majority of
the protein is removed and winds up in the buttermilk, a now separate
product.
Butter is virtually all butterfat and water with a 0.5% smidgen of protein.
There is virtually no carbohydrate. Butterfat is composed of the following
fatty acids: palmitic, stearic, butyric, lauric and capric acids. Olieic and
linoleic acids are the primary unsaturated acids in butter.
When someone brags that their butter is 86% butterfat versus 80%, we are
frankly talking about nothing more than less than the amount of water
present. The amount of water in butter has nothing to do with the country or
origin or the breed of cows used, but rather how long the manufacturer
chooses to process the butter.
When butter is heated, the water evaporates. At this point, it really
doesn't matter where the butter came from. Its all butterfat with any
protein present precipitating out as a flocculent.
The only time the water content of butter plays any significant role in
quality is when it is not heated, or it is used in something like pastry
where it would affect the flakiness of the pastry.
All this brings me back to my original point that it is palpable nonsense to
suggest that cream was added to Fettuccine Alfredo to increase the
butterfat. Cream has half or less the butterfat content of butter, meaning
it dilutes the butterfat ratio. It doesn't increase it.
Shankar Bhattacharyya
>I think there is a misunderstanding here about the butter-making process.
>When butter is churned, almost all of the carbohydrate and the majority of
>the protein is removed and winds up in the buttermilk, a now separate
>product.
"Almost all of the carbohydrate and the majority of the protein" is a
fairly casual way to refer to the situation. Very nearly the same
proportion of both gets removed, essentially identical to the fraction
of the water that is removed. In US butter the final water content is
about 20%, so more than 2/3 of the water and hence the lactose and the
protein as well, gets removed. The remaining fraction is not entirely
trivial. It is not nutritionally significant, absent real allergies or
serious lactose intolerance. However, it is meaningful from a cook's
point of view. Strong heating of butter without initial clarification
produces very different effects from the use of clarified butter.
>Butter is virtually all butterfat and water with a 0.5% smidgen of protein.
>There is virtually no carbohydrate. Butterfat is composed of the following
>fatty acids: palmitic, stearic, butyric, lauric and capric acids. Olieic and
>linoleic acids are the primary unsaturated acids in butter.
If we are going to be that specific about it, let's include caproic,
lauric, myristic as well, plus a bunch of trans fatty acids at low
levels. You should look at the gas chromatographic profile of milk
fatty acid methyl esters.
>When someone brags that their butter is 86% butterfat versus 80%, we are
>frankly talking about nothing more than less than the amount of water
>present. The amount of water in butter has nothing to do with the country or
>origin or the breed of cows used, but rather how long the manufacturer
>chooses to process the butter.
True, but it matters to how it handles in real cooking.
>When butter is heated, the water evaporates. At this point, it really
>doesn't matter where the butter came from. Its all butterfat with any
>protein present precipitating out as a flocculent.
I defy you to make fettucine Alfredo under conditions which produce
any significant loss of water from the butter. There simply is not
enough heating after the butter goes in. You would wind up scorching
the pasta. Further, butter is an emulsion. It handles differently from
clarified butter, or butter dehydrated in other ways. Butter has a
certain velvety quality when used gently, which depends on the nature
of the emulsion. I do not claim that different butters would be
different in this application but I would consider it risky to assert
that they would not. Certainly I would not expect that a small
difference in butterfat content would make a difference but 80% fat as
gainst 86% fat is a significant change in the water content, enough
that the behaviour is likely to be functionally reflective of the water
content, not the fat content, even though the arithmetic says the two
ways of looking at it are equivalent. Further, once butter melts much
of the emulsion gets broken, so in a hot dish this is likely to matter
even less but it is still risky to claim categorically that the
composition oif the butter cannot make a difference.
>All this brings me back to my original point that it is palpable nonsense to
>suggest that cream was added to Fettuccine Alfredo to increase the
>butterfat. Cream has half or less the butterfat content of butter, meaning
>it dilutes the butterfat ratio. It doesn't increase it.
Not at all. Now, I have no opinion on why cream was added to the dish
or, for that matter, whether it was ever added or not added or any
such thing. However, you are doing your arithmetic wrong. Whether
cream raises or lowers the butterfat content of a fettucine Alfredo
does not depend specifically on the fat content of the butter itself.
It depends on the fat content of the fettucine Alfredo at the
pre-cream stage. If we are talking about heavy cream, which is almost
40% fat, the addition of cream to the dish will raise the butterfat
content as long as the fat content of the dish before the addition is
less than 40%. Since fettucine itself is essentially fat-free, to get
a fettucine Alfredo with 40% butterfat, using the default US butter
with 80% fat, you would need equal weights of cooked fettucine and
butter, ignoring, for the moment, the cheese.
What you may mean is that dding some butter is a more efficient way to
raise the fat content than is adding some cream.
However, I think you are being unnecessarily literal about all this.
When a cook says "to raise the butterfat", it may or may not mean that
the intent is to raise the level of fat in the product, as measured by
an acid hydrolysis, followed by extraction in a Mojonnier flask under
usual conditions. A cook may simply mean that the intent is to
accomplish something specific in terms of feel and texture. The cook
may even have some utterly loony ideas about what the underlying
compositional issues might be. Many do. I think it is still useful to
ask oneself what the cook means, rather than examining too carefully
whether the literal interpretation is technically defensible.
I would bet that adding a specified amount of cream would produce a
different effect, from a cook's point of view, than would the addition
of half the amount of butter, which is approximately equivalent in
terms of addition of fat but not quite equivalent in terms of
adjustment of net fat content. Setting aside the geeky distinction, I
think concentrating too closely on the technical issue misses the
point. The two would produce different effects and it really does not
matter that the cook has some silly theory about what is going on.
Now, I am all for getting the technical stuff right and, for the next
week, I will spend my time at a food geek conference with people who
talk as I do about the composition of food and obsess about getting it
exactly right. Certainly I have inflicted enough technically nitpicky
stuff on this newsgroup over time. It is still a good idea to look at
what a cook says and ask, "What is this really about?" rather than "Is
the food science right?"
If a poster were to make a sufficiently specific claim as a matter of
fact and if that claim were technically indefensible, I am probably
capable of going after said claim. Still, sometimes that is not the
point.
- Shankar
Autumn
> "Fettucini Alfredo", not "noodles with alfredo
> sauce". And as for:
>
> > >Alfredo Sauce is simply
> > >1 c fresh grated parmesan cheese
> > >1 c heavy cream
> > >1 stick of butter
>
> almost....
>
> > >heat cream and butter until butter is melted, stir
> > >in 3/4 cup of the cheese, stir until smooth.
> > >pour over you favorite hot pasta then sprinkle
> > >with the rest of the cheese.
>
> It's made by tossing hot pasta with the cheese,
> butter and spices.
>
> To make fettucini Alfredo, you toss hot fettucini
> with butter, parmesan, and a little nutmeg and
> pepper.
>
Also, I like to use romano/pecorino. Not authentic, maybe, but a
variation I like.
--
Autumn
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