Home Fruits and vegetables Rotten but edible apples: how?

Rotten but edible apples: how?

Although it may be incredible or sound like something extravagant, The truth is that in gastronomy there are also those dishes whose visual appearance can be very deceiving. Because the Rotten apples but perfectly suitable for you to enjoy on the palate, they are present in some haute cuisine restaurants. The clearest example is found in Mugaritz, where the renowned chef Andoni Luis Aduriz raises creativity to the maximum exponent. For a few years, transferring the most surprising possibilities of the fermentation to the diner who wants to try a very different delicacy, curious as its ancient cooking technique. But how is this possible? We explain it to you.

Noble rot

In 2017 the aforementioned Basque restaurant added to its menu the dish called «Noble rot«, One of the most amazing and eye-catching dessert. The Rotten apples but edibles are the very essence of uniting antiquity with innovation in culinary techniques. Of the fermented foods that are in full trend of preparation at home (see the Kombucha or kefir) to more unexpected elaborations with whole fruit. From this latest fashion, the Mugaritz proposal was born.

Rotten apples
Noble rot / Photo: mugaritz.com

Your team of Research and Development (R&D) he looked for a way to get the recipe for a velvety apple, colonized by fungi. Specifically, the penicillium roqueforti and penicillium candidum they are in charge of generating a process that must be very well controlled. In order to avoid problems of food safetySince extreme fermentation carries its risks. Therefore, the following cooking method that we are going to briefly explain you should know how to handle it.

It is not a recipe that anyone can make without certain knowledge. There is a very fine line between what is a fungus without harmful effects and another that can cause health problems. Everything is in obtaining a safe food, controlling certain factors such as humidity.

This is how fermented apples are obtained

What the process does is transform the structure of the apple using its natural content of sugar and acidity. Thus, it manages to develop more complex aromas after a mixture of solid and liquid textures. If on the outside you see a velvety white apple with mold, inside you will find the filling that the chef who created this wonderful dessert wants to introduce. But, on the palate, you enjoy unique flavors, only generated by fermentation, such as lactic acid.

A fusion of textures and flavors worthy of haute cuisine with a technique spectacularly unbelievable. Would you dare to try the Rotten apples which, in fact, they are not? In Mugaritz there are already other dishes with fermented foods that make this restaurant a place of worship for this ancient method.

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