Marbles On Tv

[flanco]

I was watching Andrew Zimmern on Delicious Destinations last night and they were doing Buenos Aires. One of the chefs was making Dolce Y Leche which involves cooking cream and sugar for two hours till it becomes a brownish thick paste. The chef said that his mother always put marbles into the cooking pot to keep the mixture from sticking to the bottom. First time I heard of cooking with marbles.

[Steph]

Neat. First I heard of it in modern times. Heard old references.

[Steph]

So I guess there's not much to fear with having glass balls in that hot liquid?

I'm paranoid. I might want to try stone agates or steelies instead.

[SirCray]

Yeah I'd be too worried about eating melted glass.

[kbobam]

I like it!

Overall, I can't cook worth a lick.

But I've taken a little extra time trying to learn the

best way to make a few things that are important to me.

One of these is Hollandaise Sauce.

That requires the extra step of heating the sauce in

a Pyrex measuring cup which is immersed in a pot of hot

water. Makes all the difference in the world.

Have to guess that the marble technique for dulce de leche

is another approach to 'even-out' the heat for a

similar 'slow-cooking' process.

Steph, my gut guess is that agates might be fine, and

could possibly add some worthwhile minerals. But please

don't quote me on this, and for that matter, don't do it!

The 'steelies' would worry me even more!

[flanco]

Don't think they would get hot enough to melt. Could possibly shatter though. He was using what looked to be cats eyes.

[ann]

Or you could try the alternative method, where you put an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan, add water, and boil for a certain amount of time (a while, as best as I remember). If it doesn't blow up, sending metal shrapnel all over the kitchen, you have an exquisite can of dulche y leche.

I only got away with doing it once when I was a kid. The can didn't blow up but my mother did when she discovered my - - - science experiment.