Hi everyone, here's a strange one-

I am having a serious problem with the last few weeks of baking. I'm trying out all sorts of new recipes (cookies, breads from cooking sites like this one) and they ALL come out way too salty! At first, I thought it was my taste buds gone whacko, but my friend took 1 bite of the latest cookie and agreed. My food is inedible!! What is causing this? What am I doing?? HELP!

I am...
1) Using regular table salt.
2) Following recipes exactly. (not confusing measurements, etc)
3) Have had no problems with simple sugar cookies before, or breads, etc.....

Thanks

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Sunday, December 21, 2003 - 10:41 am: Edit

Taste what is in your sugar and flour containers, I'll bet one of them is contaminated with salt.

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Sunday, December 21, 2003 - 08:26 pm: Edit

Is the butter salted?

By Chillwit (Chillwit) on Sunday, December 21, 2003 - 10:06 pm: Edit

Unsalted butter, ChefManny.

I had just finished the bag of flour, so maybe that was contaminated, ChefTim. It was just so weird, but because I was paying such special attention to what/how I was cooking, I know it wasn't something I was doing.

Well, I'm off to the kitchen to make another batch of Cardamom Rolls <finger crossed>. I've tasted the flour and sugar, so far so good. I'll update, just to let you know what's happening.

Thanks!

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Monday, December 22, 2003 - 12:23 am: Edit

this is a joke, right?
someone,... please,... say this is a joke.
which one of one guys are "chillwit"

By Snuffaluff (Snuffaluff) on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 01:32 pm: Edit

not I. I bake a mean cake/cookie. :D

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 09:46 pm: Edit

hey snuff,
whats a cake/cookie?

"I know it wasn't something I was doing."
it never is.............

come on, which one of you guys is chillwit?
confess!, or I'll call the preacher in!!!. LOL.

By Chefrev (Chefrev) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 06:31 pm: Edit

Chillwit
Can you show us the recipe you had problems with?
Maybe we could see the proportions of ingredients and that'd give a clue as to what you did/didn't do.

Never mind Spike, he's a smart***.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 10:21 pm: Edit

so does chillwit work in a comm. kitchen or what?
theres no info in the info thingy....
where do you work?
are you the pastry chef? or the baker?
if everything comes out salty, then someone put salt into the one thing that goes into all of the recipes. The Flour. Thats if your using the same kind of flour for everything. All purpose
"I am having a serious problem with the last few weeks of baking. I'm trying out all sorts of new recipes (cookies, breads from cooking sites like this one"
all you have to do is rub some flour between your fingers and you should be able to see if theres salt in it. Or...try disolving some flour in a plate and see if grains are left. that would be salt.
I'm not trying to be a smartas*, I just did not get what the discussion was about, since it's all process of elimination. sorry

By Chefhdan (Chefhdan) on Wednesday, January 07, 2004 - 08:04 am: Edit

Hey Spike,

Isn't a NY style Black & White Cookie more af a cake than a cookie ???

World needs more smarta$$es because of the increasing # of Dumba$$es anyway!!!

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, January 07, 2004 - 11:42 pm: Edit

you know...........I've had this same bit*h with flourless cake.
If it does not have flour how can it be a cake.
It would be more of a pudding, No?
If a cookie, does not have the same ingreidents as a cake then it's a cookie, no?
I don't think size or thickness would have anything to do with it.
But.....this may be old school.
Hell....I may be old school
Sometimes I just can't figure this stuff out.
It makes my head hurt. LOL.
But I would like to know what chillywit does and where they work, 'cause thats Problems 101, and unless they are a beginer thats stuff you should know before you get the job.
N.T.T.B.A.Sas*(thats my new handle)

By Chefhdan (Chefhdan) on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 06:07 am: Edit

I give up
N.T.T.B.A.Sas* ?????
You'll have to e-mail me the answer

?? What's in a name..would a cake without flour taste less sweet....

ah yes... and... I'm literate TOO!
I guess the name doesn't really mater, just gives us a place to file the damn recipie!

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 01:32 am: Edit

not trying to be a smartas*
just so people know i'm not TRYING to pis* them off.

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Friday, January 09, 2004 - 09:02 am: Edit

That's a natural talent for you buddy?!?!?
Did you have to go to school for it or what?
Were you a fireman before or after you decided to cook?...Were you the firehouse Chef??????

By Chefhdan (Chefhdan) on Sunday, January 11, 2004 - 09:21 am: Edit

Hey Manny,
How much for a bucket of florida sunshine... It got to damn cold all of a sudden for my texas bones here in DC!

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Sunday, January 11, 2004 - 09:24 pm: Edit

very funny Manny, and yes I did go to school for it.
and no i was not the firehouse cook, chef.
i worked as a Pastry Chef in the day,at a hotel in Santa Fe, NM., sometimes took stuff to the f.house, which they all ate up.
and i became a Firefighter after becoming a Pastry Chef.
Pastry Chef...25
Firefighter...42

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Monday, January 12, 2004 - 06:07 am: Edit

Everybody is getting a cold these days!
I just got over one!
Spike, are you still fire fighting??? That's cool man! I thought they had an age limit to enter that, kind if like cops or the armed forces!!!!

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 08:56 pm: Edit

they do, i think its 45, maybe george knows.
he is a firefighter now, besides doing this.

By George (George) on Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 08:07 am: Edit

There is no defined age around here (LI NY) but annual physicals are required. Locally they are going to start requiring stress tests, over and above a normal physical, for older fire fighters, not sure what the cut off is.

BTW the AVERAGE age of active fire fighters in my department is about 45, with several folks in the 60's still on the front lines.

G

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Thursday, January 15, 2004 - 01:49 pm: Edit

Firefighter's ROCK !!!!!!!
(sauce)

By Adelie (Adelie) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 08:29 pm: Edit

Chillwit said:

If it does not have flour how can it be a cake.
It would be more of a pudding, No?

NO! A lot of Austrian cakes are made with no flour, just very finely ground nuts instead, and they are very definitely cakes, with dry (as opposed to pudding-y) crumby textures. Nut "flours" make wonderful cakes.

By Adelie (Adelie) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 08:31 pm: Edit

Ooops - that wasn't Chillwit, it was Chefspike - my most abject apologies for the misquote.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 11:28 pm: Edit

ok.
I'll answer this since no one here seems to understand.
flour---binder.
ground nuts---are what??, some solid and oil.
with cake you need a binder and something to make it rise like.....yes, baking powder, eggs.
right?
so if a cake has no binder flour--how can it be a cake?
we can call it cake, which I will do from now on cause this is making my head hurt and NO ONE here will EVER call it anything but CAKE no matter what it's made with.
Chef Rev I think brought up the fact that some cheesecakes are made with flour.
why in the world would anyone still add flour to a cheesecake recipe???

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 08:34 am: Edit

You always answer the nuts questions don't 'ya?????

By Chef_Mars (Chef_Mars) on Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 11:22 am: Edit

How about a cake of soap?
Its a cake, but has no flour?
How about the cake walk, which is a famous dance? No flour there best as I can tell. At one time in our history "cake" meant a prize or award.

Many times referring to a dictionary of the English language can be helpful in understanding and being sensitive to other people's quandaries.

By Cheftim (Cheftim) on Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 04:01 pm: Edit

Speaking of...

At the time that whoever-she-was (not Marie Antoinette) uttered the infamous quotation "let them eat cake" the word "cake" did not refer to the familiar dessert item that the modern-day French call le gateau. The operative term was brioche, a flour-and-water paste that was "caked" onto the interiors of the ovens and baking pans of the professional boulangers of the era. (The modern equivalent is the oil-and-flour mixture applied to non-Teflon cake pans.) At the end of the day, the baker would scrape the leavings from his pans and ovens and set them outside the door for the benefit of beggars and scavengers. Thus, the lady in question was simply giving practical, if somewhat flippant, advice to her poor subjects: If one cannot afford the bourgeois bread, he can avail himself of the poor man's "cake."

Words evolve.

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 12:42 am: Edit

Gentleman!...these are both very good examples but I'm sorry to say, a couple are somewhat untrue.
Shall I...?

"How about a cake of soap?
Its a cake, but has no flour?"....I believe this was in refrence to the size and shape of the soap. it ( the size, shape ) was very simular to what the bakeries used to sell. I think it became a bar in the early 1900's.
"How about the cake walk, which is a famous dance"
well, I've never heard of the dance but I know that at one time it meant that the task was going to be easy. Maybe the phrase came from the dance??
but, as intresting as this is, it still does not change the fact, hell we go through society calling women "ladies" and we know that not all are!
""Many times referring to a dictionary of the English language can be helpful in understanding and being sensitive to other people's quandaries.""....I love dictionaries! wish I used them more, oh and I'm not concerned with other peoples"quandaries", they want sensitivity, go see a theapist, I full up at the moment.
"""Words evolve.""".....how true, how true.
I'm thinking of some words right now that have evolved quite nicely!...and that "let them eat cake" i think came from some Queen in France when the poor people were revolting becuse of the price of flour, which was so exspencive that the bakeries refused to bake bread. again, i could be wrong.....

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 01:41 am: Edit

Cake.

To take the cake. To carry off the prize. The reference is to the prize-cake to the person who succeeded best in a given competition. In Notes and Queries (Feb. 27th, 1892, p. 176) a correspondent of New York tells us of a “cake walk” by the Southern negroes. It consists of walking round the prize cake in pairs, and umpires decide which pair walk the most gracefully. In ancient Greece a cake was the award of the toper who held out the longest. 1
In Ireland the best dancer in a dancing competition was rewarded, at one time, by a cake. 2
“A churn-dish stuck into the earth supported on its flat end a cake, which was to become the prize of the best dancer… . At length the competitors yielded their claims to a young man … who, taking the cake, placed it gallantly in the lap of a pretty girl to whom … he was about to be married.”(—Bartlett and Coyne: Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 64.)

You cannot eat your cake and have it too. You cannot spend your money and yet keep it. You cannot serve God and Mammon. 3
Your cake [or my cake] is dough. All my swans are turned to geese. Occisa est res tua [or mea]. Mon affaire est manquée; my project has failed.

So it was not a Cake Dance as much as it was a Cake prize. Oh and that cake was made with FLOUR!

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 10:03 am: Edit

Spike, your a poet and you don't know it!!!!!!!
Or do you???????....flour or not!!!!

By Chefspike (Chefspike) on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 09:05 pm: Edit

Brioche.

A sort of bun or cake common in France, and now pretty generally sold in England. When Marie Antoinette was talking about the bread riots of Paris during the 5th and 6th October, 1789, the Duchesse de Polignac naïvely exclaimed, “How is it that these silly people are so clamorous for bread, when they can buy such nice brioches for a few sous?” This was in spirit not unlike the remark of our own Princess Charlotte, who avowed “that she would for her part rather eat beef than starve,” and wondered that the people should be so obstinate as to insist upon having bread when it was so scarce.

ummm....bread riots.

By Chefrev (Chefrev) on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 10:15 pm: Edit

musta been really good bread!

Hey all, we're baaack!

Orlando ROCKS!

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 05:35 am: Edit

Where did you go? Let us know!

By Chefrev (Chefrev) on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 04:21 pm: Edit

Well, despite my whining, we stayed mainly with restaurants we could reach by iRide (only down Internat'l Dr.) or those in the parks. I don't mind eating at Pizzeria Uno, etc. You get what you'd expect.

BUT we were pleasantly surprised to enjoy eating at Alfredo's, the restaurant in the Italian section of Epcot! Gnocchi with nice garlicky Alfredo, veggies, and muchrooms! Lasagnette with meat sauce, and really good bread on the side. But the desserts sealed the deal! We had the sampler, with mini cannoli, chocolate mousse, mini tiramisu, and semifreddo. Very nice presentation and they were very rich and delicious.

At Universal Studios we ate at Jimmy Buffet's Magaritaville Restaurant. There were lots of tchachkis (sp?) on the walls, waitrons on stilts making baloon animals, and an exploding volcano over the bar. I know, I know ,but the food was very nice. Expensive but nice.

Manny thanks again for your suggestions! Next time we go we'll rent a car and explore more. Due to time and money constraints we didn't go far off the beaten path.

By Chefmanny (Chefmanny) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 06:00 am: Edit

Alfredo's is good but, you would of been happier with The Coral Reef in The Living Seas, and Margaritaville is a rip-off....it's a marketing machine! Like you said!
Glad you enjoyed the trip though, did you get to see much on International Dr.???
Vision Works (the upsidedown building), the COnvention Center; what a monster that is!

By Chefrev (Chefrev) on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 03:57 pm: Edit

I didn't even know the Living Seas had a restaurant attached to it. Will look for it next time. We basically saw Intnat'l Dr. up and down the strip, stopped a few places to shop. I was surprised how many shops were vacant in the strip malls we had remembered going to years ago. Ah, progress! Saw the convention Ctr. It's bleeping HUGE and that's only on the outside! Avoided Vision Works (Wonder Works?)as it was a little too young for us, and without the kids I had no excuse to indulge myself (and not at $20-some a pop either).

Good time, but will do my homework next time and focus on what we really want to see/do.

By Migraine8626 (Migraine8626) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 08:58 pm: Edit

This a old thread but how about a CAKE OF YEAST...You would think that would be the first thing that would come to a chefs mind discussing definitions on cakes or not cake...Hmmm (kind of like to be or not to be)...I personally think you all have to much time on your hands to debate a topic like this on a professional chefs forum…Maybe you should try the culinary schools forums...