It was Nigella who made boiling bacon in Coke famous in the UK, and she says you should never use Diet Coke. She's not diabetic, though, so she can shut up.
I did this on Christmas Eve, and the results were pretty good. I took a nice ham, stuck it in my biggest pot, added two litres and a bit of Diet Coke, some apple juice, and lots of cinnamon and black pepper, brought it to the boil, and simmered for about an hour. Then I fished it out, put it in a roasting tray, poured a few spoonfuls of the cooked Diet Coke mixture over it, covered it in foil, and roast it for about an hour, removing the foil for the last twenty minutes or so. Then I left it to cool overnight.
Like I said, the results were very good — but not good enough. The ham is exceedingly delicious, but not all that Cokey. I don't just want a little hint of Coke flavour around the edges; I want lots, right through. I don't think this is a result of using Diet Coke instead of Coke: I did this with Coke once before, with similar results. Part of the problem may be that the recipe is designed for bacon, and I'm using ham: ham is denser than bacon, so might be more resistant to permeation by the liquid. The other problem is simply that Coke isn't strong enough.
So here's my plan for next time.
I'm going to use at least twice as much Diet Coke, and reduce it before using it. And I'm going to leave the ham sitting in the liquid for a whole day before I turn the heat on.
I shall report back.
Update:
This one's looking controversial. James at Arcanus Maximus says that the Aspartame in Diet Coke breaks down.
To clarify aspartame when heated breaks down into methanol, and other chemicals. At best it wil lose it's sweetness. At worst, it might become toxic chemicals. The end result is debated. It is best not to use it in cooking at all.
I have several family members who are diabetic so I understand the dangers of sugars as well. In the ham recipe the sugars are meant to caramelize and form a crust. I doubt diet coke would do that. The acid and other flavors would also improve the taste and tenderness. At best diet coke I suspect would add little to the flavor, but I have no clue. I haven't tried it.
I have to say that nothing toxic appears to have occurred, but I haven't submitted the ham for chemical analysis or anything: for all I know, havign eaten a few slices of this stuff, I'm going to die a few days earlier than I had been going to. But I doubt it. Coca-Cola are well aware that Coke gets used in recipes. If cooking Diet Coke were seriously dangerous, their lawyers would have stuck warnings all over the bottles by now.
But James is right about the crust: there isn't one, not that that bothers me: it's the flavour through the meat that concerns me. And he appears to be right about the sweetness: there's not much. As I said before, the ham is still delicious, but, next time, I'm going to try adding a load of Splenda, too. Still plenty of acids and other flavours in Diet Coke, though, and they appear to have had some effect.
If you don't have some good health reason to avoid sugar, use Coke. It probably gives better results and might not kill you.
Another update:
Estelle has emailed to say that she reckons that aspartame does break down into something dodgy:
Nigella may have said not to cook the ham in
diet coke because it is not healthy. I have a degree in chemistry and I have
read a little about this matter: it is unhealthy to cook artificial sugar.
Well, I'm not dead yet, but, if I may say so, buggeration.
Back to the drawing board.
6 comments:
A bad idea
This is a problem because aspartame breaks down when heated; that is why you can't buy any products that need to be heated with it, and why you shouldn't add it to hot foods/baked goods etc. Squander should look for a soda made with Splenda (sucralose). Diet Rite in the US is. I am not sure about in the UK.
Hi, James.
We need to decide where we'll have this debate: your blog or mine?
Anyway, like I said over at your place...
Aspartame breaks down into what? How dangerous is it? What does it do?
The problem with using Coke is that it's full of sugar, and Vic is diabetic. Large amounts of sugar can completely screw up her immune system for days, weeks, or months at a time, leading to chest infections, pneumonia, loss of eyesight, gradual destruction of internal organs, etc. So broken-down aspartame's going to have to be pretty bloody dangerous before we switch to Coke.
Cheers.
Cooking meats with Coke is not so much about them being made sweeter as much as the way the ingredients in Coke tenderizes the meat (as well as the carmelizing already mentioned). You can stick a ham and some Coke in a slow cooker for a day, or use it with pork or chicken, and the meat is really yummy. It's funny watching how Nigella poshed up what is really white trash cooking.
Have you tried cooking with moles - Mexican cooking sauces? They are have a similar effect as Coke, and the recipes may be easier to adjust for a diabetic diet than substituting Diet Coke is. You can use moles with porks and chicken and they are very, very good.
- Carrie at Broom of Anger.
I love the idea of cooking with moles. They're so cute.
I use the Nigella ‘fat’ coke recipe to good effect but if I want to cut sugars down I do as below. I guess you know soon as you use apple juice your upping sugars in your recipe but also diluting any coke flavour. Nigella uses cola as a sweet & smoke sort of cheat, so you could try root beer, dandelion & burdock or water with liquid smoke.
A few day’s ago I cooked a large ham in water with 2 dessertspoons of good strong instant coffee, others flavours in your case cumin, I used a handful of peppercorns, a onion and two dessert spoons of dark brown sugar, you could use molasses or treacle . I don’t finish mine off in the oven anymore because for me it looks nice, but doesn’t add much to the cook, if anything it dries it out. Great results and my family preferred it to fat coke method.
I use the Nigella ‘fat’ coke recipe to good effect but if I want to cut sugars down I do as below. I guess you know soon as you use apple juice your upping sugars in your recipe but also diluting any coke flavour. Nigella uses cola as a sweet & smoke sort of cheat, so you could try root beer, dandelion & burdock or water with liquid smoke.
A few day’s ago I cooked a large ham in water with 2 dessertspoons of good strong instant coffee, others flavours in your case cumin, I used a handful of peppercorns, a onion and two dessert spoons of dark brown sugar, you could use molasses or treacle . I don’t finish mine off in the oven anymore because for me it looks nice, but doesn’t add much to the cook, if anything it dries it out. Great results and my family preferred it to fat coke method.
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