Macon-Cruzille/compulsive seasoning

K

Kay Bixler

Kay Bixler
This past week we drank Macon-Cruzille from Domaine Guillot-Broux. A 2007 chardonnay was terrific tasting rainwater light at first and then airing out into a fine wine with lots of aroma and weight. Some barrel smell but great balance and clean fruit. Then the 2007 red which is alleged to be gamay. It was delicate and juicy and if you told me it was actually pinot noir I would believe you. Nice mineral texture and fresh fruit flavor. We liked both these wines a lot and they were reasonably priced at just under $20.

We ate some nice food while drinking the above and I got to thinking about salt and pepper. I compulsively add it to everything I cook and so does everyone on the PBS cooking shows we watch. Season your meat, they chant, season your meat! But why? Salt I can understand but why is pepper so popular? Would you even notice if someone didn't add pepper to your sauce? Have you ever cooked a steak or a potato and not used pepper? Honestly I'm afraid to try.

Best,
Kay
 
I salt everything and at every point in the process.

With pepper I am becoming more judicious. Because pepper burns, I only add it at the end. For salads and cream-based dishes, almost always. For other things, sometimes I forget and hardly notice.
 
I had lunch a while back with a friend of a friend who is a minor entertaining/cooking celeb. She maintained that pepper was such a cliche, she never wanted to see it again and was giving it up.

But I've never had her cooking. Certainly there are other spices in the world.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
If you can find it, their red Mcon-Cruzille "Beaumont" is astounding.
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The red is great. 100% gamay. i only recently learned that red macon-cruzille is gamay.

and fyi, the '05 macon-cruzille perriers and the '05 macon-chardonnay are drinking wonderfully now!
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
If you can find it, their red Mcon-Cruzille "Beaumont" is astounding.
Click to expand...

Hipster. Sheeesh.

White pepper.
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VLM, non sequiturs are so hipster.

Everyone knows I don't cook.

And I should add, the "Beaumont" is old vines.
 
Cruzille is the ultimate backcountry Macon corner. Stayed there on our bike tour last summer. Boonie ville galore.
 
Kay, have you used Balinese long pepper? It's very aromatic and expresses a bit more heat than the small round tellicherry corns. I start practically everything I cook with a dose of it. Moreso than salt, even.
 
I season steaks, prior to grilling, sometimes with garlic and soy sauce, sometimes replacing the soy sauce with balsamic vinegar, sometimes with port dregs. In none of these cases do I use salt or pepper (though soy sauce does what salt does). Of course there is salt and pepper at the table.
 
well, "salt and pepper" don't exactly mean anything specific now do they? i prefer sea salt, or that pink stuff mined from sea level millenium 25k altitude peruvian flake. now that stuff elevates the meal.
 
A topic I often consider. I quite often use white chilli powder when a hint of heat is required. Prolonged contact with liquid makes pepper smell nasty to me, so I only use pepper at the end of preparing anything that's not dry.
 
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