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‘Culinary Traditions’ Category

  1. The Ever Elusive “Egg Batter Dough”

    November 25, 2020 by ThePieMan

    What is a Batter? What is a Dough? And, what is an Egg Batter Dough?

    Batter and Dough seem to be mutually exclusive, a batter is liquid and pourable, whilst a dough is malleable, and usually holds its own shape. There are exceptions, such as high hydration doughs, but in essence this is the delineation.

    With this foundation, it would seem that and egg batter dough is a nonsense. Yet an egg batter dough is at the very heart of the making of Australia’s iconic snack food, the Chiko Roll.

    A batter also has two forms, a) its used in its own right inside a form or allowed to spread as a distinct product goal, and b) as a coating for deep fried foods, either alone on its own or in conjunction with some form of breading, to act as a crisp coating and barrier to oil when fried.

    It is this second use that is of interest to us, as the Chiko Roll had a thick paste-like casing that enrobes the filling and provides structural stability to the roll. In essence, this coating is a batter. Yet, its handling and shaping is clearly characteristic of a dough, more akin to that of a pie crust, yet on analysis it is clearly not a fat shortened paste. Nor is it a leavend “soda” bread or yeast dough. Finally it has none of the mouthfeel characteristics of a pasta dough.

    So what IS this Egg Batter Dough? Three Words: three different arrangements (with and without punctuation) – Egg Batter Dough; Egg-Batter Dough; and Egg Batter-Dough.

    Egg-Batter Dough: what is this? A dough that is essentially an egg batter that has been stiffened until it can be worked like a dough? Plausible!

    Egg Batter-Dough: what is this? There is no trace as far as I can find to such a culinary beast, and the two words, by themselves occupy the opposite ends of a spectrum. Then to this should we then add egg? It makes no sense.

    An Egg Batter contains, flour egg, and water or milk. The eggs are normally separated, and then folded into the rest of the ingredients. the batter may also contain added seasonings and flavourings depending on whether it is sweet or savory.

    The problem with a stiffened batter is that the additional flour and working in order to obtain a “strong” paste that can be worked, rolled, cut, and shaped to keep its form, by necessity knocks the air out of the batter that had whisked egg whites in either soft or stiff peaks, folded in.

    This project is still ongoing. It is a thorny problem, because the very classification of the pastry casing of the Chiko Roll, does not, in and of itself, make any sense.

    This truly is not rocket science, and the casing was “invented” by a boilermaker. So, it is easy to overthink the problem, or is it? It is clear that there is no such thing anywhere else in the world as an, “Egg Batter Dough” other than the pastry casing used for making Simplot’s Chiko Rolls and Corn Jacks.

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  2. The “Humble” Chiko Roll.

    June 22, 2017 by Villa Tempest

    In my ongoing research I keep moving forward, or at least try to. Recently I’ve been reviewing my notes on producing an Egg Batter Dough, going back to basics, and looking at what is a batter and what is a dough. Essentially they fall on either side of a continuum of similar products. Chief differences relate to stiffness AND Mixing Method.

    Up until now I’ve been focused on the ingredients and how to combine them without actually trying to understand where this item fits into Australian culinary tradition, or on the continuum that lies between Crepe at one end, and Bread at the other.

    So what is it, this, CHIKO Roll?

    Essentially, it is a meat and vegetable filling, coated in a batter/dough/paste and deep fried.

    That is, it is a Risole, or a Croquette. A mighty big one.

    How did McEnroe make the mental leap from, “Spring Roll” (Chinese Egg Roll) to Croquette? What a question that is...

    Now, as for the filling there’s not much mystery there and we’ve discussed that at length in an earlier posting. The mystery is however is in the dough.

    Is it pastry? Like empanada, or Pyroghi. Is it breaded? Like a croquette. Is it a yeast, egg leavened, or chemically leavened dough? Like Pâte à Choux, fritter batter, or soda bread. Is the dough firm, or thick and juicy? Like pasta dough, or corn dog batter. Is it breaded? Like fried risoles, schnitzel, or tempura.

    So many questions.

    I believe that the dough is a firm dough, leavened with egg, and breaded with fresh, fine, dry breadcrumbs. Their coarseness is dictated by the, “hand painted ends,” which is a fancy way of disguising the fact that the ends are, dipped in egg wash and then in bread crumbs.

    But!!!

    Is the rest of the roll also breaded?

    Texture. Surface texture is the key.

    I believe that the roll IS fully breaded, but then, it is rolled and rolled, and rolled to impress the crumb into the dough and to dust off anything loose.

    Now, the dough… Oh what a traumatic line of inquiry that is! We know now, that fried risole dough is short crust pie pastry, which is then dipped and breaded before deep frying in very hot oil. However, CHIKO Roll dough is not a pie/pasty paste. That’s a fact.

    Could it be a very thick batter that is then lightly rolled in bread crumbs before frying? The inner texture of the dough does not reflect such a method, as you’d expect to find bread crumb granules dispersed into the batter coating, and inspection does not bear such observation out.

    Fried Pasta Dough? Unfortunately the short answer is its too dense. Again, the CHIKO Roll casing is somewhat dense but it doesn’t have the textural qualities of a pasta dough.

    So, what then?

    It is my belief that the casing is a dough/paste made initially with medium to hard peak egg whites, folded into a well rested flour water egg yolk batter, which is then lightly folded with extra flour to make a soft to medium firmness dough. It is not kneaded or worked extensively, and very likely, uses a low protein flour. The dough is left to rest to allow any gluten bonds to relax. It is either rolled before or after, the rest, so that it is ready for making rolls.

    The filling is applied very cold and in a firm consistency to the dough. The dough is rolled up in a continuous roll, then washed with egg wash, rolled thorough a breadcrumb shower then over grating to shake off loose crumbs. further rolling consolidates the bread crumb into the surface of the dough. The roll is then portioned and the last step is, perhaps completed manually – dipping the ends in egg wash and breadcrumb before being sent off to the baking and frying line.

    What does all this mean, for the home enthusiast?

    Make your filling. Roll it up firmly (like boudin) in plastic wrap and chill it well. Roll out your dough, put the filling in, roll it up and carefully seal the egg washed seam. Dip the roll in egg wash and then lightly roll in very fine, dry bread crumbs. Dust it off, roll it again but don’t egg wash, in bread crumbs, dust and then dip and coat the ends. Fry in very hot oil until golden for immediate use, or until biscuit and then cool and freeze until ready to use.

    Make no mistake, getting the dough right is an important aspect. There is no recipe here, yet, because I haven’t sorted it out yet. However, if you are an expat, are overseas, have a desperate urge to make a CHIKO Roll kinda dish because of nostalgia, for God’s sake, don’t use Spring Roll Wrappers! You’d be far, far better off, taking a loaf of unsliced white bread, cutting off the crusts, cutting it lengthwise and then rolling the slices very thin with a rolling pin, and use THAT flat bread as your casing for a CHIKO roll. Its much, much closer to the real thing.

    Cheers.

     

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  3. Culinary Traditions underpinning the development of Australia’s Chiko Roll

    November 11, 2016 by Villa Tempest

    The Chiko Roll is an iconic Australian fast food item. Essentially it is a savoury pastry roll filled with a meat-vegetable-cereal filling and deep fried. Here we examine the history behind the Chiko Roll and explore the culinary traditions that underpin it development and creation.

    History

    There are many sites on the web redistributing various versions of the history and development off the Chiko Roll, most can be summed up by this Museum Display case caption:

    “The Chiko Roll is an old-fashioned fast food which is still sold in shops today! It was first sold at the Wagga Show over 50 years ago. Wagga was the birthplace of the Chiko Roll. The inventor? A Bendigo boilermaker named Francis Gerald McEnroe. “He made his first rolls on a small hand-fed sausage machine. They were made of boned mutton (lamb), celery, cabbage, barley, rice, carrots and spices. This combination was then wrapped in a thick egg and flour dough, then fried. Both ends were hand-painted.” (source)

    … and according to, Wikipedia …the font of all modern internet wisdom, the story (the mythology? the legend?) goes like this:

    “In 1950, McEncroe saw a competitor selling Chinese chop suey rolls outside Richmond Cricket Ground and decided to add a similar product to his own line. McEncroe felt that the Chinese rolls were too flimsy to be easily handled in an informal outdoor setting, and hit upon the idea of a much larger and more robust roll that would provide a quick meal that was both reasonably substantial and easily handled.“

    So, where did he start? What were the origins and culinary traditions that informed this boilermaker and allowed him to develop a roll so popular, yet so baffling, still to this day, to the public and to professional chefs alike?

    Culinary Traditions

    First, a summary: Francis Gerald McEnroe was a Bendigo boilermaker, that apparently sold fast food items at football matches, saw in 1950 something called a, “Chop Suey Roll,”  decided to make it better and revealed this deep fried savoury pastry roll to the public at the Wagga Show.

    According to Cooks Info:

    “The Chiko factories make as one long roll which is cooked, then sliced, then pastry ends are added, then the rolls are fried a second time.”

    So, let’s start where most people don’t, with the pastry.

    Deep Fried Pastry

    In “The English & Australian Cookery Book” by Edward Abbot (apparently Australia’s first published cook book, 1864) on page 17 under section VI – Frying, Abbot refers to Veal Rissoles and states to:

    “Mince and pound veal fine; grate into it some remains of cooked ham. Mix them together with béchamel sauce; form into balls, and inclose each in pastry. Fry them of a nice brown.”

    Veal Rissoles

    A more contemporary (to McEnroe) reference comes to us by way of a Recipe for, “Pastry Rissoles” (Self Help Recipes and Household Hints. 1932. New Zealand. p67) in which we are entreated to:

    “Roll out pastry and cut into rounds, place a little of the mixture on each. Damp the edges, fold over and brush with egg and dip in breadcrumbs or finely broken vermicelli. Fry in deep fat.”

    Thus, it would appear that fried pastry was a commonly known culinary concept in both Australia and New Zealand even from the earliest days.

    Pastry Rissoles

    Why a Roll?

    Well, we know that sausage rolls have existed for quite some time, apparently McEnroe, felt his market niche was in a fried roll, so making a Chiko Roll, inspired by the Chop Suey rolls of his competitors was possibly a better option to that of trying to make a better, baked, sausage roll.

    But wait, what is this “Chop Suey Roll,” that has been mentioned? Is it a spring roll, or an egg roll? What exactly, and who made them?

    From the Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Labour and National Services, in the book, “Standard Recipes for industrial cafeterias and other large food services” (1957, p97) Chop Suey is a mix of stewed meat and rice. (boned veal, fresh pork, celery, onion, stock; cooked rice.)

    Chop Suey

    It would appear then, that a Chop Suey Roll was a typical Chinese Spring/Egg Roll with Chop Suey as a filling. But wait, there is another roll of interest to us, and this one gives us almost all the ingredients for the filling as well as the dimensions for the final roll, oddly enough.

    Also from “Standard Recipes” (pp112-113) we are given a recipe for “Cornish Rolls” which incorporates a firm sausage of minced meat, stock, carrots, turnips, swedes, cooked potatoes, parsnips, onions, salt, pepper, flour-water thickening, short or flaky pastry, and coloring. The pastry is rolled out to 6”-8” wide and length to suit a standard sheet pan. However, the pastry is filled cold, rolled pinched, baked and cut to serving size. It also mentions that cooked meet can be substituted for raw.

    Cornish Rolls

    So, we sort of have a contemporary method here, plus ingredients close to what McEnroe is said to have used, but its missing the barley, cabbage and celery. In addition to this, it seems that McEnroe modified the pastry dough to include egg, perhaps to improve the frying characteristics of the dough. What ever he did though resulted in a dough of extraordinary and distinctive character.

    The Filling

    Disregarding the modern Chiko Roll ingredient list for now, let’s revisit the story – “mutton (lamb), celery, cabbage, barley, rice, carrots and spices.”

    Compared with the filling for Cornish Rolls, there’s turnips, swedes, potatoes or parsnip included, some missing ingredients. Why these particular ingredients and why put them in? The rice, I think is a tilt at the Chop Suey in the Chop Suey Roll.

    Next, if we take a look at a recipe for “Lancashire Hot Pot” (Standard Recipes, p102) we find the ingredients include: stewing meat, haricot beans, barley, onions, leeks or celery, cabbage, carrots, turnips, swedes, salt, pepper, potatoes, and stock.

    Lancashire Hot Pot

    Now, consider “Scotch Broth” (Standard Recipes, p53) with includes: mutton shanks, mutton broth, pearl barley, flaked oatmeal, carrots, onions, turnips, celery (if available), salt, pepper, and parsley.

    Scotch Broth

    All of these recipes have their own typical home equivalent, so it is not unreasonable to consider that the Chiko Roll was originally a stripped down Lancashire Hot Pot – Scotch Broth combo with rice tipped into the mix, and made along the lines of Cornish Rolls. Thus we have mutton, pearl barley, rice rather than oats, onions, cabbage, celery, carrots (for color), salt, and pepper; whilst omitting most of the other root vegetables and the haricot beans.

    Spices

    Salt is often treated these days as a separately listed ingredient. Salt and Pepper, in the past were often called Seasoning for simplicity. But what about other spices? A common additive for soups and stews in Australia was, Worcestershire Sauce. In our recipe for “Chop Suey” (above) it is mentioned that, “Worcestershire Sauce may be added as an accompaniment if desired.”

    Thus, it is not unreasonable to conjecture that it is also used here to add something to the filling mix.

    Observations

    The Chiko Roll has a long and distinguished pedigree in Australian and New Zealand cuisine traditions, traditions built on a backbone of a British heritage. There is no doubt that the Chiko Roll was a new twist on original favorites, combining several different dish formulations together in a response to perceived flaws in the Chop Suey Roll. As a result, McEnroe created, what is now undoubtedly one of Australia’s most iconic foods, keeping alive, what is otherwise a forgotten food tradition, that of the fried, pastry rissole.

    The Chiko Roll, undoubtedly, is no rissole, nor is it a White Australian knock-off of a Chinese snack. Instead, it is a fried variation on a baked, Cornish Roll, using the ingredients common to it, Lancashire Hot Pot, and Scotch Broth. A hearty, fried savory dough item that springs from a long culinary tradition common to the United Kingdom and it Colonies. This iconic Australian food item deserves our respect, and not our bemused, mystified derision.

    So next Australia Day, include the Chiko Roll in your food menu and take a moment in silent respect for Mr. Francis Gerald McEnroe, the genius that is the Chiko Roll, and the humble food traditions from out of which this culinary star was born.

    References

    1. Museum of the Riverina. “The Gold Chiko Roll.” Wagga Wagga City Council. Published 5 June 2007. Web. Accessed 11.11.2016. <http://museumriverina.com.au/collections/highlights/the-gold-chiko-roll#.WCWH6zuBOkp>.
    2. Wikipedia. “Chiko Roll.” Revised 20 September 2016. Web. Accessed 11.11.2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiko_Roll>.
    3. Oulton, Randal. “Chiko Rolls.” CooksInfo.com. Published 17 September 2006; revised 12 März 2010. Web. Accessed 11.11.2016. <http://www.cooksinfo.com/chiko-rolls>.
    4. Abbot, Edward. “The English & Australian Cookery Book” London, UK. Sampson Low, Son and Marston. 1864. Reprint. The Culinary Historians of Tasmania. 2014.
    5.  Johnstone, Kathleen B., Self Help Co-op.  “Self Help recipes and household hints.” Wellington, NZ. George W. Slade Ltd. 1932.
    6. Department of Labour and National Services. “Standard Recipes for industrial cafeterias and other large food services.” Melbourne, Au. Commonwealth of Australia. 1957

     

    Citation

    Tempest, Tsc. “Culinary Traditions underpinning the development of Australia’s Chiko Roll.” VillaTempest.de. Published 11.11. 2016. Web. <https://www.villatempest.com/2016/11/11/chiko-roll-culinary-traditions/>

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  4. The Search Goes On – Egg Batter Dough for Chiko Roll & Corn Jacks

    March 9, 2016 by Villa Tempest

    I’ve previously approached this topic, reporting my trials into finding the secret to the ever elusive method of making the dough wrapper for that well known, loved and maligned, Australian deep fried snack, the Chiko Roll.

    Much of the history and preparation info is summarized at Cooks Info which is a little more sensible and tempered than some of the outlandish recipes being postulated, like this one from Food.com – I mean, seriously? Spring roll or wonton wrappers? Come on! Asian sauces & spices?!?!

    Let’s not go there, but get our heads back in the game. First, It is NOT a Chiko Roll recipe if one is advocating the use of Spring Roll wrappers. That so many do highlights just how difficult it is to get the dough of the Chiko Roll right. What is the true mystery of the Chiko Roll? Well, it ain’t the filling, its the dough!

    (Addendum: here”s a more recent site that make a credible attempt at the dough. – 06.2016)

    Now, according to a  more reputable source than most blogs, including this one  😉 we get the following description of how it was originally made:

    “He made his first rolls on a small hand-fed sausage machine.  They were a concoction of boned mutton, celery, cabbage, barley, rice, carrots and spices.  This combination was then wrapped in a thick egg and flour dough, then fried.  Both ends were hand- painted.“

    Next, over at the Cooks Info site we get this description of more current practices:

    “The Chiko factories make as one long roll which is cooked, then sliced, then pastry ends are added, then the rolls are fried a second time.“

    Kind of like this Finger Spring Roll maker, but with different dough:

    Looking at the other end of the world and another similar roll like product, we have this preparation of Cannelloni:

    And then there is this method:

    So why are we looking at these anyway? The reason is simple, different doughs have different tensile strengths and their thickness impacts on the way they bake or fry. The modern Chiko Roll seems to be first baked to set the dough, frozen and then deep fried at point of sale. None of the videos above give an indication of how the ends are applied to the roll, or when in production that might occur.

    Before we get too carried away, we need to look at the dimensions of a Chiko Roll: weight – 170g, length – 20cm (8″), diameter –  4-5cm (2″); cooked dough thickness is approx. 4-5mm thick. Now, if we go back to the original description where the dough was filled with a sausage stuffer, we must confront some questions:

    • Were the dough casings made before filling or after, and if before how were they kept in shape to be successfully filled? I have previously tried to make dough tubes, semi-bake them using cannoli pipe forms – it was a disaster and the texture was all wrong.
    • Was the filling extruded into fixed lengths then frozen before wrapping the dough around the frozen filling? I tried that too, the dough wrapper kept expanding and became loose around the filling.
    • Why 20 cm long? Why 5 cm diameter? I suspect the dough was rolled out using a hand operated pasta dough roller, the filling extruded from a sausage stuffer into lengths and then placed down the length of the dough sheet and the sheet folded over and sealed before being cut into approx. 20 cm lengths (the length of a cooks knife blade, also happens to be roughly the length of two hands held together side by side.)

    Now, the, “egg batter dough.” I’ve also asked this question a dozen times before and every trial so far has produced the wrong texture. I’ve tried plain egg with flour and salt,no egg, adding baking soda, just using egg yolk… you get the picture, nada, zip, alles kaput!– just another way to make fried bread dough.

    Recently however, I was browsing through one of my mum’s old books, a post-war era gem from the Victorian Housewives Association and it described an method for making a batter for coating fish, the method was not something I was familiar with nor did I expect the results it produced. The concept is simple, separate the yolk and the white, beat the white to stiff peaks and fold it back into the thicker batter then allow it to rest for an hour.

    There are two take home points in this, often in baking we use beaten egg whites to incorporate more air into a batter, cake mix (especially) or bread type dough. The second point is the resting of dough or batter for an hour or so. We now know that this resting allows the starch to fully hydrate which then cooks more evenly, insufficient hydration of starches in flours results in what is referred to as a “floury taste” something especially disliked in a gravy.

    What is clear from all of this is that the Chiko Roll Egg Dough is a batter pastry dough. It is well aerated when cooked and has a chewy, spongy texture. It is definitely not  a soda bread dough. So, where does this lead us?

    1. two stiff egg batters: both with beaten egg white, one with yolk, one without; made to the raw consistency and feel of a soft pasta dough or pie base. Well rested before use, perhaps 12-24 hrs.
    2. two processes to explore effects of heat on dough texture: one, biscuit bake the fresh rolls; two, blanch fry the rolls.

    So far its been quite the odyssey so I look forward to these next steps. Once this is close to right, then things like Corn Jacks are an interesting sidestep – Corn Jacks appear to be rolled before cooking, in coarse Semolina, to texturise the surface and give a slightly different look to the more or less naked look, of the Chiko Roll.

    Stay tuned, and we’ll get back to you on our progress. Watch this spot. Cheers.

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