(egg cracking)
(egg sizzling)
- Hello, welcome to SORTEDfood.
This is Chefs Versus the Internet.
And today it's all about carbonara.
(upbeat music)
Representing the chefs here at Sorted
it's Ben Ebbers Ebbrell.
And today representing the community on Reddit,
It's our most normal of normal's, Barry.
- I'll take it as a compliment.
- They're each gonna knock up a recipe
using the tips that they've collated
and then our other normal Mike
is going to blind taste test both
to see which one he prefers.
Boys start cooking
in 3, 2, 1 carbonara.
- I'm gonna start with the thing that stood out most to me
in the Reddit comments, was the choice of meat.
Usually at home, I would just use pancetta,
apparently guanciale is where it's at.
It's traditional, it's cured pork cheek
and it's already coated in delicious pepper,
so it has all the flavours necessary
to make the ultimate carbonara.
And I cut a sliver of it and chop it into big chunks
into a cold pan and let the fats render.
- The internet and the Reddit community
absolutely nailed the tradition.
So I'm breaking a few rules to show you how in the UK
at Sorted we can get pretty much 95% the way there
with a few cheats.
That said, pancetta is another cured pork belly
that is often used in Italy and can be used for carbonara.
It's just that the guanciale, the jowl,
is probably more traditional.
- So from the off
you're splitting off in different directions.
- Look at that!
This is why it's so important to render down.
And that's why you don't need
any oil in the pan to start off with
because, well, look at that.
- So whilst the difference of cured pork product
is a thing in my recipe I'm actually starting
with one of the spices, the black pepper.
One of the key ingredients in a carbonara.
I'm taking black pepper corns and I'm just toasting
and roasting them off in a dry pan.
At which point I will grind them up.
Black pepper was like an iconic spice in the Roman empire.
And it's the reason that the dish from Rome
is also side by side with something like cacio e pepe.
- Okay, time to get my pasta on the go.
Hot water into a pan with a tonne of salt.
I think it's like 10 grammes per litre
is what you need in there.
The other tip I've got was to warm up your bowl
at this point with some hot water as well.
Because a warm bowl is important,
'cause when you put the sauce into it later on,
you don't just seize up in a cold bowl.
- Oh, good tip.
- Not mine, theirs.
- In the chef's corner,
also agree a warm plate is important.
We've got a plate warmer.
- Oh!
Not all of us have plate warmers at home Ben, or augers.
- Barry, are they paperclips?
- This is where Reddit surprised me again.
I thought carbonara had like
relatively normal spaghetti in it, but apparently not.
You need
spaghettino.
Which is really long pasta.
So that would be normal pasta,
that is spaghettino.
You want the pasta to get coated in an amazing sauce
and you want the slurp
to be the longest slurp you've ever had.
- This is proper "Lady and the Tramp" pasta.
- [Barry] Yeah sure why not.
- Like Barry, I'm also adding my pork pieces
into a relatively low heat pan and gently bringing it up.
How long are you cooking your pasta for?
- About seven minutes?
But to be honest again, never cook it just until al dente.
- About seven minutes.
- Mhm I heard that, yeah.
- But I'm not putting the timer on.
I just know when pasta's done.
Onto the sauce, I'm going for two eggs
and one egg yolk for extra creaminess.
And again, use the finest eggs you can get.
Cause you want that vibrant yellow colour as well.
- Ebbers what you're doing with your eggs?
Freezing them?
- I know it's getting a bit late in life.
(all laughing)
So I'm also using three eggs
for my double portion of pasta.
I'm doing two egg yolks and one egg.
So a really subtle difference.
For me, if you go just egg yolk,
it can be quite a claggy result.
So by adding in the whole egg, it is looser.
So that we can focus on the subtle differences
in method between the two,
I'm gonna let Barry crack on with his, then I'll do mine.
But in the meantime, I'm gonna grate two different cheeses,
pecorino, and parmesan, equal quantity of each into my eggs.
And whisk it up.
- My sauce is ready to go.
I've got my pecorino romano,
and my eggs and black pepper in there, mixed up.
I've drained some of the fat
from my guanciale into a bowl.
I'm gonna add a little bit of that fat into my egg mix.
And I'm also gonna try to melt my parmesan very slightly.
Over, it's a bummer isn't it really,
over this for a little bit before I take my pasta out.
I want it to break off as I pinch it.
When I bite it, have a slight bite.
The pasta done.
Out of the water.
Doesn't matter if you carry some of that water
over into the pan.
And this pan has been off the heat as well
for the last minute or so.
So it's cooling down, it's not piping hot.
- So no colander, you're not draining the pasta.
- No, the water is a good thing.
It helps loosen up the sauce later on.
And I can always a bit more water later on as well.
Mixy, mixy mixy.
The other tip people are screaming at me saying,
do not put it in a hot pan
otherwise it definitely will scramble.
So you wanna let it cool down, ever so slightly.
And then keep it moving, so it doesn't scramble on impact.
Now we're going in, I hope.
- [Host] It's got a good slop to it.
- Good slop.
Pan is a good temperature, so I'm happy with that.
Yeah, that's perfect, look at that!
Let's get rid of my hot water.
Hot, hot, hot.
- It was hot about 10 minutes ago.
- And then next trick is a ladle.
- Bit of pecarino to finish.
And its as simple as that.
- [Host] Beautiful.
- [Announcer] The thought of having to cook
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- Ebbers taking any tips from Bars,
or are you still confident in what you were doing?
- Very, very similar, but I'm gonna show you a few things
that we think make it super simple.
If you haven't got the knack to do it the traditional way,
we're gonna get there with a few like simpler cheats.
Some safety nets.
The first one being I'm gonna cook it
in about five centimetres or so
of heavily salted water in a large frying pan.
That way all of the strands of spaghetti
can go in all at the same time.
And what you don't get is those bits sticking out
that don't quite cook.
They cook at 10 or 15% less than the rest of the pasta.
- That's weird.
That's not right is it?
- What will also happen is because there is less water,
you'll actually get more starch into it.
Which means when you make your sauce at the end,
you get even more of that richness.
Every pasta cook will tell you to make sure
it's rapidly boiling as well.
I'm not gonna bother because if you're cooking quickly
then actually all you need to do is rehydrate the pasta
and then cook it.
You don't necessarily need the absolute heat
from the very first second.
- No, I'm not comfortable.
I'm not comfortable standing next to you, in that kitchen.
I'm gonna stand here from now on.
'Cause that's, you've gone too far there Ben.
- So Ebbers, what you haven't explained
is what pasta are you using?
- I'm using dried spaghetti.
So there is also this perception that fresh pasta is better.
I think for some things 100% it is,
for this dish, no.
Use a good dried pasta.
In the grand scheme of this dish,
I think spend the money on quality eggs and quality cheese,
and quality pancetta.
The pasta can be pretty basic.
Don't be shy of the pasta water.
You also want a good amount of it in with your pasta.
That is well seasoned and gives you all of the safety net.
Now, as you're mixing with the pork fat
and making that wonderful kind of emulsion
around every single strand.
Take from a hot pan into your sauce
- Oh, oh, oh, oh.
- If you need to cook it out, you can always go back in.
But then over a very low heat to cook it out.
And don't be afraid of potentially even more pasta water.
- Oh really?
Bones.
- Ebbers likes it sloppy.
(Barry laughs)
- Pasta of the people, I'm not swirling mine,
I'm just whacking it on the plate.
Don't over garnish, but a little more parmesan.
A little more pecarino.
And a little more fresh black pepper.
That's mine.
- [Host] Beautiful.
- The safety net of a carbonara.
(intense music)
- Right, Mike in front of you,
you have two bowls of carbonara.
What we'd like you to do, is blind taste test both of them
and tell us which one you prefer.
- Okay, I'm gonna call this A,
because of right to left as you guys are seeing it.
(Mike sniffs)
Instantly cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese.
Mm.
Oh, that is delicious.
The pasta has a lovely bite and feel very peppery.
That is tasty.
I'm getting cheesy.
I'm getting saucy.
Sometimes if you don't do a carbonara right
it's almost a bit dry.
I'm getting the silkiness.
I'm getting a bacon fatty flavour.
Oh, that pepper is punch-alicious.
- Move on to B.
See if there's any differences.
(Mike grunts)
(group laughing)
- Oh, the pasta is even more al dente.
Oh, it's different, creamier.
Much creamier, cheesier, less peppery.
In A the bacon-y fattiness
goes throughout the entire of the dish.
Whereas B, you kind of need to get the meat in the mouthful
to experience the true flavour.
And then it's completely different, right?
It's absolutely delicious.
Slightly creamier and saltier.
Slightly more subtle and the pepper is amazing in that one.
This is so hard.
They are both incredible.
- What I would say, great palate.
- Really good palate. - He's picked out
pretty much all the differences.
- Yeah.
- [Ben] For good and for bad.
- I think my favourite is A.
- Remove your blind fold.
(dramatic music)
- Oh, they look the...
Oh no, this is thicker.
- So Mike, I can reveal you picked A,
and A was cooked by...
Let's wait for the tense music to build up.
Camera shots back and forth.
The chefs.
- Well played.
- One for Ebbers.
- The challenge here is it's not necessarily
the most traditional, but arguably the easiest-
- I was baffled- - in the UK.
- When I picked that I genuinely thought
that was the normal's plate.
Which is where I was like,
oh, we are given another one to the normals.
Honestly, both exceptional.
That was my favourite.
You need to grab a bowl and get in.
Come on in.
- Thank you very much.
- You got half and half in each bowl.
- Okay.
- See what you think guys.
- Actually, that pepper is everything.
You've got that warmth.
Toasting your pepper comes off
and using a pestle and mortar.
Nice little touch.
- They are two very good dishes.
Well, as someone who's previously started
an international incident
based on cooking a traditional dish-
- Oh no! - in another country,
you'll notice that I haven't offered an opinion
on which one my favourite is.
So there are three British idiot's opinions
on what makes the best carbonara,
but we'd love to know from you.
Are they right?
Would you go traditional?
Would you use Ebber's tips?
Would you use your own?
Comment down below, let us know.
- And we'll put the recipes in the link down below,
so you can go and try the details of either one
or combine the two or do it your way.
- Do you think that maybe this was the best one?
It was just 'cause Barry made it.
- It could have been that.
But I hope you- - Comment down below.
(Mike laughing) Let us know.
- Mike usually avoids carbs in normal life.
- And cheese.
- No, not since I got married mate.
- [Barry] Oh, okay, that's what it is.
- Nah, she's locked in.
(group laughs)