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The dessert is a popular dish and an important part of the national cuisine of both countries, and is frequently served during celebratory or holiday meals such as Christmas dinner.
The dessert is a popular dish and an important part of the national cuisine of both countries, and is frequently served during celebratory or holiday meals such as Christmas dinner.

Spanish people do not know what this dessert is.


==History==
==History==

Revision as of 13:42, 10 October 2009

A pavlova garnished with strawberries, bananas, kiwifruit and cream.

Pavlova is a meringue dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Ánna Pávlova. (Russian: А́нна Па́влова).[1] Colloquially referred to as "pav", it is a cake of meringue with a crispy crust and soft, light inner.[2] The name is pronounced /pævˈloʊvə, pɑːv-/, unlike the name of the dancer which was Template:PronEng.[3][4][5]

The dessert is believed to have been created to honour the dancer during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. Where it was created and the nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years, but research indicates Guatemala as the source.[2]

The dessert is a popular dish and an important part of the national cuisine of both countries, and is frequently served during celebratory or holiday meals such as Christmas dinner.

Spanish people do not know what this dessert is.

History

All currently available research suggests the recipe originated in New Zealand,[6] and as for the Anzac biscuit,[7] the earliest known books containing the recipe were published in New Zealand.

Keith Money, a biographer of Anna Pavlova, wrote that a New Zealand chef in a hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, created the dish when Pavlova visited there in 1926 on her world tour.[8]

Professor Helen Leach, a culinary anthropologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, has researched the pavlova, and has compiled a library of cookbooks containing 667 pavlova recipes from more than 300 sources. [9] Her book, The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History, contains a timeline of pavlova history which gives 1935 for the first Australian pavlova recipe and 1929[2] for the recipe in the rural magazine NZ Dairy Exporter Annual.[1]

A "Pavlova Time Line" also appears on the Australian website "Australian Favour" and gives an even earlier date, 1926, when Home Cookery for New Zealand, by E Futter, contained a recipe for “Meringue with Fruit Filling.” It wasn't named but the recipe was similar to today's Pavlova. [10]

It has been claimed that Bert Sachse originated the dish at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth, Australia in 1935.[11] A relative of Sachse's wrote to Leach suggesting that Sachse possibly got the 1935 date wrong, but Leach replied they wouldn't find evidence for that, "simply because it's just not showing up in the cookbooks until really the 1940s in Australia." Of such arguments Matthew Evans, a restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald said it was unlikely a definitive answer about the pavlova's origins would ever be found. "People have been doing meringue with cream for a long time, I don't think Australia or New Zealand were the first to think of doing that," he said.[12]

Preparation and consumption

Pavlova is made by beating egg whites (and sometimes salt) to a very stiff consistency before folding in caster sugar, white vinegar, cornstarch, and sometimes vanilla, and slow-baking the mixture to create the meringue.[13] This makes the outside of the pavlova a crisp crunchy shell, while the interior remains soft and moist. The pavlova's internal consistency is thus completely different from that normally associated with meringue, having more of a soft marshmallow texture.

A homemade pavlova decorated with pomegranate arils and Chantilly cream.

Pavlova is traditionally decorated with a topping of whipped cream and fresh fruit of sweet/tart flavours, such as strawberries and kiwifruit, or passionfruit and banana or berries and peach slices.[14] Raspberry is a popular topping in the United Kingdom, with the tartness of raspberries contrasting with the sweetness of sugar. Factory-made pavlovas can be purchased at supermarkets and decorated as desired. A commercial product is available that includes pre-mixed ingredients for baking the meringue shell, requiring only the addition of water and sugar.

Leftover decorated pavlova can be refrigerated overnight, but the dessert will absorb moisture from the air and lose its crispness. Undecorated pavlova can safely be left overnight in the oven in which it was baked, to be decorated in the morning.

New Zealand advertising campaign

In 2007, insurance company NZI ran a humorous television advertisement [15] highlighting historic New Zealand icons adopted elsewhere, including the pavlova and Phar Lap by Australia. NZI's parent company is Australian owned.

World's largest pavlova

Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum in Wellington, celebrated its first birthday in February 1999 with the creation of the world's largest pavlova, named "Pavzilla", cut by the Prime Minister of New Zealand of the time, Jenny Shipley.

Further reading

  • Leach, Helen M. (1997). The pavlova cake: the evolution of a national dish. In Harlan Walker (ed.), Food on the Move: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1996 (pp. 219-223). Devon, England: Prospect Books. ISBN 0-907325-79-3.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Boylen, Jeremy (reporter) (2004-08-20).Pavlova George Negus Tonight, Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  2. ^ a b c Leach, Helen, The Pavlova Story, 2008
  3. ^ Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. ISBN 1-876429-14-3
  4. ^ Orsman, H.W. (ed.) (1979) Heinemann New Zealand dictionary. Auckland: Heinemann Educational Books (NZ)
  5. ^ Dictionary.com, "pavlova," in Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Source location: Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pavlova. Available: http://dictionary.reference.com. Accessed: 26 April 2009.
  6. ^ Pavlova palaver, by Susette Goldsmith, New Zealand Listener (reviewing The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History, By Helen Leach)
  7. ^ http://www.ecook.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/featurearticles/pi_articleid/57 ANZAC biscuit origin reference
  8. ^ Pavlova, History of Pavlova
  9. ^ Pavlova palaver, by Susette Goldsmith, New Zealand Listener (reviewing The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History, By Helen Leach)
  10. ^ Australian Flavour, Pavlova Time Line
  11. ^ Pavlova palaver, by Susette Goldsmith, New Zealand Listener (reviewing The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History, By Helen Leach)
  12. ^ "Antipodean palaver over pavlova". BBC News. 2005-07-19. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
  13. ^ http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/004356pavlova.php Pavlova Recipe
  14. ^ http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/FOOD_IS_ART/pavlova_howto.html Contains Pavlova Toppings
  15. ^ Someone always wants to steal your stuff!!! on YouTube