What Is the Best Food Produced En Masse?
Kimchi. Photograph by Robyn Lee
Economics professor and popular blogger Tyler Cowen sparks a lively conversation on his site, Marginal Revolution, about which foods can be produced en masse without significantly compromising quality.
Indian food, produced en masse, sits relatively well, especially the non-meat dishes and the ground meats. It can sit and stew for a long time. Chinese food, which usually should be cooked at high heat and served immediately, wares about the worst. Barbecue can do fine, if it is cooked properly to begin with (not usually the case, however). At Chipotle the carnitas are pretty good and they are cooked sous vide at a distance and then reheated in the restaurant.
But the top prize goes to Korean vegetable dishes, many of which are fermented and pickled in the first place. Natasha and I catered our wedding party with Korean vegetables (and a bit more, including some cold meats) with no loss of culinary value.
The concept of fresh kimchi is kind of oxymoronic, but as a commenter points out, how lovely it will be when a dinner party guest raves, "Mmmmm, this kimchi is so FRESH!" Other honorable mentions go to cured meats, cheese, sushi, and McDonald's burgers. [via Anil]
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5 Comments:
Fresh kimchi isn't really oxymoronic. There are fresh kimchis that are hardly fermented. Also, even the fermented kind, you don't want overly ripe. The vegetables should still be a bit crisp and somewhat fresh tasting. Anything too fermented is used to make kimchi jigae (kimchi stew).
bionicgrrrl at 9:07PM on 03/03/09
Sushi made en masse? Are you certain?
In terms of stuff that won't lack for quality against the original quantity, I'd have to put in a plug for most mayonnaise-based pasta or chicken salads. Coronation chicken, particularly, benefits from allowing the curry powder time to mix well with the other ingredients. I'm not saying that they don't lack quality, I'm saying they don't lack for quality against the original.
But as for food that's both objectively good as well as just as good scaled up a few multipliers would be things like soup, roasts, and fried foods that can be eaten cold, like scotch eggs and fried chicken.
shoneyjoe at 10:41PM on 03/03/09
Easy answer. Italian. Make a gigantic pot of marinara and then create three or four meals with it, then put the rest in the freezer for later. We make four or five big pots of sauce every winter and enjoy dozens of Italian dishes with it.
reger60 at 11:26PM on 03/03/09
Problem with Italian, at least pasta in red sauce is that pasta doesn't keep. You cannot create giant vats of spaghetti, it turns into nasty mush quickly. It's not something that works well in bulk.
So sure, you can make the sauce ahead, but that's it.
peekpoke at 12:54AM on 03/04/09
When you do a bunch of catering, you figure out pretty quickly what can be made up ahead in a batch and what needs to be an a'la minute process.
Pretty much all of the ancient preservation methods (fermented things, pickled things, chutneys, conserves, preserves, aged things, cured things, oil-preserved things, etc.) come into play here.
As mentioned above, stewed/braised things, like pulled pork work well. All kinds of soups, stocks, sauces and vinaigrette are really ideal for large-batch make-ahead.
Pastry doughs, bread doughs and tortillas also freeze well.
Rice can be parcooked and held for a while. Veggies can be blanched and then chilled down to be quickly heated and tossed in sauces just before service.
missginsu at 11:33AM on 03/04/09