Jack Burke

Sensory Results

Last week’s lab was a lot of work, with numerous dishes needing to be made as well as many ingredients that needed to be used. Our lamb was cooked very nicely, with an achievement in getting that medium-rare that chef wanted. I really liked the crust of the lamb, as it countered the juicy interior of the lamb. The risotto and cabbage each were delicious in that they were seasoned very well and also cooked each to perfection. The risotto was right at al-dente, while the cabbage had just a little bit of a bite so as to not be complete mush.

Our Corn Bisque was one of my favorites, despite having an overwhelming amount of curry flavor (haha) which while was nice, would definitely not be pleasing to anyone who doesn’t like curry. I added some jalapeños to the onion while sautéing, and this added a nice spice to the soup.

Our gnocchi was somewhat pleasant, however I cut my gnocchi too large so they were slightly tough in texture (like puddy). I tried to make a sauce using excess ingredients chef had given me, and I wanted to do a variant of a tomato sauce. The sauce did not come out well as I had hoped. While the consistency was good and smooth, the flavor was off due to the use of too many roasted tomatoes. I will definitely know to fix this before making another tomato sauce.

Evaluation of Techniques

Our method this week was making gnocchi, which I really enjoyed getting to be in the process of. Despite cutting my individual gnocchis too small, I really loved getting to watch the process of making the dough, and the process of cutting, cooking, and serving the gnocchi. I found an online method of using a piping bag to pipe and cut small gnocchi, which I would be interested in trying soon (Morocco 2013).

Our ingredient this week was rack of lamb. I really loved this ingredient because not only was ours cooked nice and medium-rare, the crust was perfectly crisp and seasoned well. It added nice texture to the lamb, while also adding an extra boost of flavor.

Conclusion

For next week, I would love to improve on my attention to flavor combinations, and working hard to make sure ingredients are getting complemented and not overwhelmed.

All-in-all, I really appreciated the hustle of this lab, and hope to use my mistakes from last week to better our lab this week.

Works Cited

Morocco, C. (2013, January 23). The easiest gnocchi technique the world has ever seen. Bon Appétit. https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/cooking-tips/article/the-easiest-gnocchi-technique-the-world-has-ever-seen