Why is cream in carbonara considered such a sin?
I tried it and it tastes better than without cream. So why shouldn't I use it? Is it considered correct to make food taste shittier over concerns of 'muh authenticity'?
It's harder to make it taste great without cream because your techniques have to be more advanced but ultimately it's better for it to leave the cream out. Same with alfredo.
A lot of italian cooking depends on having high-quality ingredients as well. It's natural that a carbonara or alfredo made with kraft parmesan instead of the real thing won't taste as good, and swapping bacon in for guanciale is likewise a mistake.
>>7098281
Your way of thinking is literally Jack Scalfani tier.
It only tastes better to you because you're a fat amerilard who is used to greasy fat and cream
Authenticity is passe, the current trend in food is farm to table. We are far more concerned with using high quality, locally grown ingredients that are in the spirit of the original dish than recreating a dish using ingredients specially flown in from thousands of miles away.
I'm ambivalent about farm to table myself but seriously you're fighting about last decade's food fashion.
>>7098299
What the hell is that supposed to be?
>>7098322
Fine, use wisconsin parm and organic bacon. It stil doesn't need cream.
I'm convinced everyone who thinks it tastes better with cream have never tried the method of using just egg yolks and pasta water without the whites. With parmesan, that gives you the GOAT creamy texture and flavour that just cannot be topped
Not using creme is a meme I'm pretty sure. Just use it.
>>7100513
Why was Hannibal so perfect? Should have invented a 4th star just for him
>>7098281
>Is it considered correct to make food taste shittier over concerns of 'muh authenticity'?
Yes, yes it is.
Now bear with me here, I have a good point to this I swear.
If you're cooking privately or domestically it doesn't matter, anyone that says otherwise has a stick up their ass. The problem comes when you cook professionally, X is X it's not X+Z, it's not X+Y, it's not X+W, it's X, people come to a place and look at your menu and expect X they don't expect your bastardization of it.
That isn't meant to imply bastardizations are bad, bastards can be good, look at Jon Snow, everyone loves that scruffy looking corpse. It's just not what people came to buy, it isn't what you advertised, you're not selling what you said you'd sell. It's why authenticity is important. If I go to a Mexican restaurant and ask for Carnitas and get seasoned ground beef, I'm going to get pissed regardless of how good that ground beef is. They're not Carnitas and that's what we agreed you'd serve me.
There are of course exceptions, this is just a rule of thumb. There are plenty of chefs and restaurants that thrive on putting their own spin on traditional recipes. I'm just trying to explain why you should appreciate "authenticity" and the importance it plays in the general setting of the restaurant industry. Also as a note, there are a few cuisines round the world that are really touchy and *should* be cooked as "traditionally" as possible, Mexican and Italian are two of them. That isn't to say don't change it up ever just that you should use more discretion than you normally would.
>>7098322
What you say is restaurant dependent, as what I'm saying is too.
>>7100513
This tbqh. Cream is alright in carbonara, but well made yolk carbonara is the best texture you can get.
>>7100540
If it involves cream or scrapple its a shit meme
>>7100573
This honestly. Went to a popular Italian restaurant and ordered carbonara. I already was weary because it said it had chicken in it, but I forgave it. Then the plate comes out and it's basically spaghetti chicken alfredo with bacon.
I fucking hate American (insert culture here) watered down restaurants. Yet they are always the popular ones cuz none of the fat fucks around me know any better.
>>7098343
This is the recipe for the aids virus.
>>7098293
>swapping bacon in for guanciale is likewise a mistake.
why
that's not a case of it just being a straight up inferior product
>>7098315
yeah cause eggs and olive oil are so much better
>>7099378
who cares what it 'needs'
>>7100573
i would imagine that for several decades and in most of the USA if you ordered carbonara you would expect cream. expectations vary depending on where you are, authenticity seems like a simplification but it clearly isn't when you realise that regional variation is as much a part of the 'authentic nature' of something as its ostensibly 'original' recipe.
http://www.antonio-carluccio.com/Spaghetti_alla_Carbonara
It tastes the best without cream.
>>7101687
>haughtily dismisses people who "get it completely wrong"
>proceeds to use egg whites
>omits the addition of pasta water, literally Italian pasta cooking 101
Also, that spiel about the origin of carbonara is very dubious. In truth no one can say for sure where or how it arose
>>7101802
egg whites isn't getting it completely wrong. pasta water isn't necessary it's just a common technique.
The whole debate is dumb as fuck, carbonara was and is made with cream even in Italy. The cream-is-the-devil thing only started in the 1980s-90s when Italian cooks wanted to be different from the French for the heck of it and cream got declared unitalian.
>>7102015
> carbonara was and is made with cream even in Italy.
this, i find it infuriating when italians deny this, i've seen it myself a thousand times, and often they're using this uht panna bollocks as well.
>>7101802
I was told it arose in the late 40s/early 50s in postwar Italy thanks to loads of imported american foodstuffs (ie, eggs, cream, bacon, etc.)
Dunno f it's true though.
A good carbonara should consist of three ingredients.
Pasta
Carbonara sauce
Knorr Chicken Stock Pot
If you EVER go into an Italian restaurant, and they can't show you these three essential ingredients, get the FUCK out of there.
>>7100573
Great post.
I had some bastardization green tomatoes in a hipster upscale BBQ joint. They were sliced in thick wedges, were battered in sweet custardy eggy flour &corn batter that puffed and not a touch of crispness (that was something like french toast tasting prolly had vanilla in it), and served with a dipping sauce of blue cheese and tasso. All with cajun seasoning on top. Give me a break! Talk about fusion that should anger any southerner who had a grandmother slice them and panfry with nothing but a dusting of cornmeal and crystal hot sauce to stick.
As far as chain restaurants and their bastardized restaurants go, it's about short order nuking and having that stuff stay nice throughout a shift. No one is going to make short order alfredo or carbonara out of love, and clean the pan all day, not even Romanos.
>>7101988
>egg whites isn't getting it completely wrong
They have the taste of water and the consistency of snot. They add NOTHING to your carbonara
Whites are only decent when fully cooked and seasoned to shit
Any thinning function they have in carbonara is fulfilled ten times better by pasta water
>pasta water isn't necessary it's just a common technique.
Yeah salt and pepper aren't strictly necessary either but your pasta will taste worse without them
Adding pasta water thins down the yolks, adds creaminess, makes the sauce silky smooth, and helps bind the sauce the pasta
>>7104364
that's great and all but it has nothing to do with 'getting carbonara right'. it's just your own preference and technique.
