Knowledge Base > Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Can you discuss making mayo & sauces - cashews versus soy. Pros and cons?

— Julz Statler

Answer:

So Mayo's a little different on this from cashews. I haven't really made much Mayo from cashews. I have done different a ton of different sauces from them and I guess it made like an aioli from a cashew before but it's not quite the same consistency as a mayonnaise would be most vegan mayonnaise are oil-based and I've done it out of an aquafaba, you know before and oil as well. But you know just to be able to get the fat for the Mayo content typically is going to be an oil and conventional mayonnaise. It's going to be you know, they're adding an egg white to it with that to be able to get that male consistency. Quite honestly, I don't really use Mayo that much but now in the sauce end. I use cashews and soy all the time depending on what I'm looking to be able to do. So for those two in particular, you know, you're talking about basically fat versus not fat looking at cashews versus soy and those are two different ways to be able to deliver flavor. Now some things need a fat to be able to help deliver the mouth feel and the flavor profiles that you're looking for. Now for cashews. I might do something like a you know, like a bechamel or a white sauce for pasta or something like that. I can do an alfredo doing cashews same way, you know, but if I were to do a bechamel or like an alfredo with soy I would have to add a bunch of other things to it to be able to get the fat in the mouth some Sensation that I'm looking for out of an alfredo because in a traditional Alfredo, it's pretty much just all fat right we're looking at like a milk and a couple different kinds of cheeses are in an alfredo sauce. So if you're looking to recreate that vegan style, you're gonna need the fat and the cash you actually is a great substitute for something like that. Now, you know and soys there's a lot of other things to do with those too like for sauces a lot of times. I'm you know going to you know, I'm gonna use soy it might be something like a silken tofu. So a lot of people might do a cashew like Caesar dressing. Or I might do a silken tofu in that Caesar dressing instead. So using the same herbs, you know in the dressing, but I would actually use a silken tofu. Because then I'm getting the protein that I want to go to not getting a ton of fat out of it. I'm still getting a lot of the flavor profiles now do they carry the flavor of the herbs as much not as much but you just I typically try to use fresh herbs and I'm doing something like that. Like if I'm making like a Rancher, you know a caesar dressing. I'm gonna use fresh herbs in that to be able to make sure that the flavors really pop if I'm using something like a silken tofu. Pardon me. Now other ways that I'm actually using soy might be something like, you know, a an Asian style sauce using tamari or you know, a soy sauce or I'll show you or something like that. And those are things, you know, very different where you know, if you want to add cashew or something to it that flat the fat in it. Let's totally fine as well. But a very different flavor profile on each one of those so really what we're looking at is the mouth feel and how it can carry the flavors and both of those. I'm a cashews versus the soy so those are pros and cons kind of in different different ways there.
Dan Marek

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

rouxbe.com