"Baked Alaska" news and stories

Happy National Baked Alaska Day!

The origins of this dessert are convoluted: One French food writer claims chef Balzac was taught to bake ice cream in pastry by a visiting Chinese delegate at Paris' Grand Hotel; others say a chef at Delmonico's created it in honor of the U.S. purchasing Alaska from the Russians; yet another credits chef Jean Giroux of the Hotel de Paris in Monte-Carlo for the dessert.

What is certain is that the dessert started to appear in the 1800s, to the delight of many, including the British cookbook author George Augustus Henry Sala, who sampled the dish at Delmonico's restaurant in 1880. He marveled, "Imagine carrying the employment of ice to such an extent that it culminutes in that gastronomical curiosity, a baked ice!"

The "gastronomical curiosity" -- also known as a Norwegian omelette -- is still a hit today. Judge for yourself, by picking and baking a Baked Alaska recipe to your liking from the Food Network.

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Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• Baked Alaska isn't as fancy-pants as it might seem, even though it's being served at the Governors Ball.
• Marcela Valladolid, star of the Food Network's Mexican Made Easy, wants you to give chilaquiles a screen test.
• Wolfgang, Alton and Lidia are tapped to host the culinary Oscars.
• What is your headlining cooking oil?
• Do you have a D-list herb?
• The home-cooking big wigs at "America's Test Kitchen" get set to release a video-game adaptation.
• The sidecar is a sparkling marquee cocktail.

Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford (March 26, 1753 - August 21, 1814) was an American-born physicist best known for his work in the field of thermodynamics. A Loyalist during the Revolutionary War, he was rumored to be a spy for the British and ended up having to flee to Europe, where he spent most of the rest of his life.

But let's give the guy some slack, as he invented the pressure cooker, the kitchen range and the technique for making Baked Alaska (though the dish was not named until 1876 at Delmonico's in New York in honor of the newly acquired territory), as well as a double boiler and a drip coffee pot. Rumford Baking Powder is named after him, as it was invented by a professor in the endowed Rumford professorship in physics at Harvard.

Rumford demonstrated that beaten egg whites acted as a good insulator for ice cream. He called the resulting dish 'omelette surprise.' I'm gonna venture to say that 'Baked Alaska' has a nicer ring. So let's honor the Count today with some ice cream, sponge cake, and meringue. Here's a recipe.

Source

Are we tired of the Food Network shows yet? I have to admit, that as new shows pop up, I become a little more disillusioned with their programming. They still have some good shows, like Alton Brown's Good Eats, but I just don't know if I'll be able to forgive them for cancelling the original Iron Chef.

So where to watch food "tv?" Ctrl Alt Chicken is a series from internet video content providers, Revision 3. The "show" has ingredients and methods posted online, and downloadable video of their staff preparing the recipe. Ctrl Alt Chicken currently has two episodes, Chicken Cordon Bleu and Baked Alaska. The episodes are downloadable from the site in various formats.