Let's come up with a recipe

December 29, 2012 8:08 AM

Cheese lovers and good cooks, how do you suppose he did this? It looks straightforward - and amazing! But I want to be sure I'm not missing something.
posted by tizzie to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

My guess...

• refrigerate brie
• heat oil. I'd probably go with an oil that wouldn't over-shadow the taste of the brie. Canola or some vegetable blend. While peanut oil is great for deep frying, I'm not sure how the taste would mingle with brie. ymmv.
• slice brie immediately after removing from fridge. don't allow it to soften.
• fry til golden
• eat
posted by Thorzdad at 8:18 AM on December 29, 2012

Sounds good, but I would probably say slice before you refrigerate. It will make the slices stand on their own better.
posted by Night_owl at 8:29 AM on December 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

He's got an "ask" form -- you should see if he'll share the secret (and let us know!).
posted by theredpen at 8:58 AM on December 29, 2012

Looks great, but I have no idea how to do it.

If you haven't already done so, send him an email . Aside from the contact page (softgrunge.com/#ask). There is contact info in the Whois lookup - whois.net/whois/softgrunge.com. And judging from the address, it is the author.
(not putting the address here just to keep it out of google indexing)
posted by lampshade at 8:59 AM on December 29, 2012

Response by poster: I sent him a note on the contact form - CUTE dog! Let's see w hat happens. Thanks everyone so far!
posted by tizzie at 9:07 AM on December 29, 2012

Don't cook this in a small saucepan like he did. You risk the cheese stewing and just make the business of turning it harder. Cook it in a skillet you have preheated. You need some oil, but go easy. You don't need much at all. A mere wipe.
posted by MuffinMan at 10:15 AM on December 29, 2012

I would say freeze the cheese then slice then fry at high temp, sort of like a mozzarella stick only not.
posted by fiercekitten at 10:59 AM on December 29, 2012

If I were going to do that, I'd get the cheese good and cold like everyone is saying, but I'd also ever so lightly dust the slices with flour before I fried them.
posted by gauche at 11:23 AM on December 29, 2012 [3 favorites]

Nothing to add, except to say that I'd probably dust them with powdered sugar when they came out of the fryer and then I'd serve them with some berry jam.
posted by ColdChef at 12:19 PM on December 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bulgarians have a typical dish (as children we would order it often in restaurants) that is very similar to what you linked to – except with the cheese used is not nearly as soft. We've tried to make it at home and failed miserably as the cheese melted and ended up at the bottom of the pan.

I looked it up on a few Bulgarian websites, and here are some tips that the majority of posters seem to agree on:
- slice your refrigerated cheese, then freeze the pieces for at least and 30 up to 60 minutes
- to make sure it stays whole while frying, dip it in cold water, then dip it in egg beaten with 1 tbsp of cold water, and then in a very thin layer of instant mashed potatoes
- if you don't want to use enough fat to completely submerge the cheese, use a spatula to turn it very gently (i.e. no forks that could puncture the thin breading layer)

- some people use a dusting of breadcrumbs instead of instant mashed potatoes
- some people dip in in the beaten egg for a second time and then fry it
- it appears that in restaurants the cheese is not frozen but kept soaked in ice water until someone places an order
posted by halogen at 1:17 PM on December 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

You don't want to freeze the cheese solid-- cheese is an odd enough substance that it doesn't always react well to freezing, and can result in an unpleasant or undesirable texture (crumbly, runny, etc.). You can certainly use the freezer to firm it up, but I wouldn't go more than 30 minutes in there for that amount, maybe 6oz (~180g) of cheese.
posted by Sunburnt at 6:35 PM on December 29, 2012

Response by poster: Never heard anything back from my inquiry. I think Thorzdad's original answer may be the approach I'll take. Muffinman, I'm not sure I know what you mean by "stewed." Aren't we going for sort of a "fried ice cream" but classier approach - so I think it does require deep frying. Hmmmm.
posted by tizzie at 7:11 PM on December 29, 2012

Best answer: I think you might have missed his answer, tizzie; he described the method here.
posted by neushoorn at 3:36 AM on December 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I did miss that - thank you, neushoorn. His answer is still a little less specific than I'd hoped, but I'm sure it's more of a learn-by-doing thing. If I try this tomorrow, I'll post a link to photos. I might dust the slices in cornstarch. That's a method I learned in a Chinese cooking class that improves the fry-ability of tofu cubes.
posted by tizzie at 11:53 AM on December 30, 2012

Response by poster: OMG, a total disaster. Melted cheese in a foaming kettle of grease. Completely inedible. Did anyone else try it?
posted by tizzie at 10:51 PM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Just 3 photos: The cheese before, the cheese after, the pan. Any theories on what went wrong are welcome. Do you think the canola oil I used was not hot enough, or too hot? I tested it by throwing in 1 inch pieces of string cheese until one fried correctly.
posted by tizzie at 6:28 AM on January 4, 2013

I haven't had a chance to re-create it yet but I think I'm going to use a commercial brie like Président because it has a more solid texture due to it's factory-made nature.
posted by fiercekitten at 11:20 PM on January 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Let us know how it goes, fiercekitten.
posted by tizzie at 11:39 AM on January 11, 2013