The best tasting chicken I think I’ve made was when I didn’t know what to use as a rub and went with Zatar, then smoked the chicken over cherry wood. Zatar tastes downright amazing.
I’m currently out but I get that request every now and then. To the non-veg folks, it’s a common request from vegetarians and it tastes really good. Like a cheesy-buttery popcorn in a strange way. Hell, now I need to get some more yeast.
Being a dutiful Asian, I slow-cooked a beef brisket for corned beef and cabbage yesterday.
And today, I raced out to the grocery store at lunch and bought the ingredients for a Reuben sandwich. It’s sooooo tasty, which is a good thing, because I’ve got enough corned beef for Reubens the rest of the week.
None really. We just had Irish on the brain and wanted to make shepherd’s pie. Unless drinking counts as a connection, because we certainly did that along with it.
I would like low-carb sweet snacks, like cookie-sweet. They probably don’t exist, but I would like them. Anyone? I have to do better about my carb intake.
I’ve done low-carb before and it’s possible, but you have to be willing to either add artificial sweeteners in some way or stick with things that are naturally sweet, which have varying levels of insulin response as well.
If you’re okay with sweeteners, there are a number of recipes and even mixes you can buy for things like cake, cookies, cheesecake, brownies, and even homemade ice cream. Did I mention cheesecakes? There are a lot of them.
If you aren’t okay with sweeteners then options are very limited. Berries provide a sweet-like taste and are good with some cream. Bananas are similar but go light on them. Cinnamon has the effect of tricking your mind into thinking something is sweeter than it is.
It’s been some time since I did low-carb but there were a ton of no bake style pan deserts, some were very much like cookies. At the time I did try a couple of cookie recipes but just never found one that I liked. I’m fortunate in that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. The ones that got me by when I did were old recipes: mock danish, low-carb “candied” pecans (EDIT: not almonds,) homemade ice cream using sweetener.
My suggestion would be looking at sugar alcohol-based sweeteners. As Skipper mentioned, these can have varying impacts on your blood sugar level, and in addition can cause stomach discomfort in some. Erythritol (Stevia) is probably your safest all-around bet. Here’s a decent easily-digestible (heh) article on the various types;
Erythritol is wholly separate from Stevia. But I understand your confusion because they are often paired up lately as this bit from Wikipedia can attest:
Erythritol is commonly used as a medium in which to deliver high-intensity sweeteners, especially stevia derivatives, serving the dual function of providing both bulk and a flavor similar to that of table sugar. Diet beverages are made with this blend, thus contain erythritol in addition to the main sweetener.
The fake candied pecans are pretty decent for that. Low carb works well when you play the strengths of it, those being you can have more fat in a serving than normal and that satiates hunger really well. So snacking on a nut covered with cinnamon and artificial granulated sweetner just sort of works.
EDIT: Just an edit to add that since there are quite a few recipes now for low carb or paleo style diets, you should match what sweets you do like with a recipe to mimic or replace part of the taste in some way. There is a book or three out there that recommend just that when it comes to converting your diet to lower carb: replace with something similar so that the food memory you have transfers to the new object.
It’s used in some commercial sweetener preparations that also use Stevia. Stevia is a plant. It’s like you’re saying, “erythritol is used in tomatoes.” :D
Edit: I guess it’s a genus of plant, and we’re referring to an extract from a particular species, but it still made me chuckle a bit to think of it as above.
But anyways, erythritol isn’t in Stevia and doesn’t come from Stevia. They just put 'em together a lot for their particular sweetener mix. But that sweetener mix wouldn’t be just “Stevia”, it would be some other thing. The most common one being “Truvia” by Coca-Cola.
I was going to answer with the same thing Dan did. I don’t know if they are generics or not but I’m sure we’ve bough Stevia powder and Stevia drops, marked as exactly that. Not under a brand name, per se.
EDIT: Looked them up, they are semi generic but do have a brand name, kinda.
Stevia In The Raw
and
Wholesome Organic Stevia
They tend to pair it with a bulking agent because it’s super sweet. Erythritol though is its own thing. That is a sweetener blend, and I think it’s specific to TruVia?
Covered in Stevia in the Raw’s FAQ:
Stevia In The Raw® is a zero–calorie* sweetener, which consists of stevia extract and a bulking agent (dextrose or maltodextrin). The stevia is extracted from the sweetest part of the stevia plant leaf (stevia rebaudiana Bertoni). It is then purified to create a sweetener that is 300 to 400 times sweeter than cane sugar. Because the stevia leaf extract is so pure and sweet, it requires blending with a bulking agent so that it can be conveniently measured, poured and used as a substitute for sugar or other caloric sweeteners.
In our Packet Product, the pure stevia leaf extract is blended with dextrose, a carbohydrate derived from corn, to produce the zero-calorie sweetener we call Stevia InThe Raw®.
Dextrose is noticeably less sweet than sucrose.
You guys are confused for a reason. When Stevia started to get popular and got FDA approval, manufacturers rushed out their own things, and branding got real stupid.
No I believe you for sure. It gets even more confusing when taking brand names into account for sweetners when you need say, a baking sweetner or one that works well by volume measurements, etc. “Splenda,” in granular form is still way too sweet in comparison to the same amount of sugar. I’d be happy with a 1 to 1 sweetner in those occasions. Even Stevia In the Raw isn’t quite the same. (Yes I know they say it is 1 to 1 measurement, it still isn’t quite the same. In my opinion that equates to an overly sweet addition.)
The unfortunate fix is that I just use less sweet additions to cook. And while that may sound like, “hey that’s AWESOME,” it is not. Sweet is a major sense as part of our taste goes. -Balance- is key in regards to cooking and some sweetness is needed in a lot of dishes to round out or balance other flavors.
