0°Button Soup
I am a cook in Edmonton, Alberta. I am interested in food's relation to culture, so my posts often digress from the ingredient or dish at hand to its significance to personal or regional history.
Recent Blog Posts
English Bangers
One of the reasons I love teaching sausage-making classes is that I often learn something from the students. There was a time when I assumed “banger” was just the British dialect word for sausage, and that it didn’t necessarily imply anything about the ingredients or techniqu...
Published at Button Soup
One of the reasons I love teaching sausage-making classes is that I often learn something from the students. There was a time when I assumed “banger” was just the British dialect word for sausage, and that it didn’t necessarily imply anything about the ingredients or techniqu...
Published at Button Soup
Chicken Sausage
Chicken sausages with mashed potato and squash, braised red sauerkraut, apples, and gravy Every Saturday the owner of Sunworks Farm is at the Strathcona Market griddling his chicken sausages and doling samples to passers-by. I’m usually wary of chicken sausages. They’re often d...
Published at Button Soup
Chicken sausages with mashed potato and squash, braised red sauerkraut, apples, and gravy Every Saturday the owner of Sunworks Farm is at the Strathcona Market griddling his chicken sausages and doling samples to passers-by. I’m usually wary of chicken sausages. They’re often d...
Published at Button Soup
Fermented Chili Paste
With so many peppers coming from the garden and fermentation on the brain I wanted to try my own fermented chili paste. My recipe is very much like sambal in terms of ingredients and consistency, though sambal isn’t usually fermented. Korean Gochujang is a fermented chili paste, but it al...
Published at Button Soup
With so many peppers coming from the garden and fermentation on the brain I wanted to try my own fermented chili paste. My recipe is very much like sambal in terms of ingredients and consistency, though sambal isn’t usually fermented. Korean Gochujang is a fermented chili paste, but it al...
Published at Button Soup
Austrian Fruit Cake – Obstkuchen
Kuchen (“cake”) and Obstkuchen (“fruit cake”) can refer to many different desserts and pastries in Austria and Germany. By Austrian fruit cake I am referring to a very simple, very common preparation of a dense but tender cake that is topped with seasonal fruit befor...
Published at Button Soup
Kuchen (“cake”) and Obstkuchen (“fruit cake”) can refer to many different desserts and pastries in Austria and Germany. By Austrian fruit cake I am referring to a very simple, very common preparation of a dense but tender cake that is topped with seasonal fruit befor...
Published at Button Soup
Green Plums Cured like Olives
Right off the hop: I stole this idea from Ben Staley. He made “Green Plum Cured like an Olive” at Alta (RIP) and it really blew my mind. Not sure if he is serving these at Yarrow or not. After my meal at Alta I talked to Ben briefly and asked how he made the plum olives. If I reme...
Published at Button Soup
Right off the hop: I stole this idea from Ben Staley. He made “Green Plum Cured like an Olive” at Alta (RIP) and it really blew my mind. Not sure if he is serving these at Yarrow or not. After my meal at Alta I talked to Ben briefly and asked how he made the plum olives. If I reme...
Published at Button Soup
Plum Jam with Japanese Plums Prunus salicina
Can you make plum jam with Japanese plums? Of course! However as we’ve discussed several times this season, when you cook the flesh of Prunus salicina some powerful sour flavours develop. Out of hand the flesh of a Japanese plum is so mild you might consider dialling back the sugar for...
Published at Button Soup
Can you make plum jam with Japanese plums? Of course! However as we’ve discussed several times this season, when you cook the flesh of Prunus salicina some powerful sour flavours develop. Out of hand the flesh of a Japanese plum is so mild you might consider dialling back the sugar for...
Published at Button Soup
Drying Japanese Plums Prunus salicina
A bowl of dried Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) var. Ptitsin. No process better demonstrates the difference in “behaviour” between European plums (Prunus domestica) and Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) than drying. Whereas typical grocery store prunes made from domestica are soft...
Published at Button Soup
A bowl of dried Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) var. Ptitsin. No process better demonstrates the difference in “behaviour” between European plums (Prunus domestica) and Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) than drying. Whereas typical grocery store prunes made from domestica are soft...
Published at Button Soup
The Surprising Flavours and Behaviour of Japanese Plums – Prunus salicina
Last summer I posted about our Japanese plum trees, and how we had harvested a few plums from each tree the last two summers. This year we got our first appreciable harvest, so I have finally been able to play around with how best to store, cook, and preserve the fruit. There is almost no use...
Published at Button Soup
Last summer I posted about our Japanese plum trees, and how we had harvested a few plums from each tree the last two summers. This year we got our first appreciable harvest, so I have finally been able to play around with how best to store, cook, and preserve the fruit. There is almost no use...
Published at Button Soup
Chicken Harvest
Last week I helped with a chicken harvest for the first time. My parents-in-law had raised twenty eight birds to maturity on their property in Lac St. Anne County. The chickens were killed with an axe to the neck, severing the head. After a couple minutes of twitching the bodies were held ...
Published at Button Soup
Last week I helped with a chicken harvest for the first time. My parents-in-law had raised twenty eight birds to maturity on their property in Lac St. Anne County. The chickens were killed with an axe to the neck, severing the head. After a couple minutes of twitching the bodies were held ...
Published at Button Soup
Kosher Pickles
I had heard of kosher pickles many, many times in my life, but always assumed that they were just pickles that were, well, kosher, as in approved for consumption in Jewish dietary law. Turns out that is not the case, and kosher pickles are actually a particular style of pickle, one that is natur...
Published at Button Soup
I had heard of kosher pickles many, many times in my life, but always assumed that they were just pickles that were, well, kosher, as in approved for consumption in Jewish dietary law. Turns out that is not the case, and kosher pickles are actually a particular style of pickle, one that is natur...
Published at Button Soup
