Help w/Carrot Pecan Burgers

[Sharon in Colorado]

I'm trying to go through everyone's favorite recipes posted in a thread a while ago. Just made the Carrot Pecan Burgers and didn't like. There was a very strange flavor to it, can't put my finger on it. Not sure what I did wrong, or if I even did anything wrong. Hubby said it had a funny taste that most of my 'raw' stuff tasted like. He thinks it's the nuts and dehydrating that make them all taste so weird.

Also did the curry sauce and the 1 clove of garlic made it way too strong. It overpowered and killed the essence of the sauce.

It gets frustrating to try new recipes that aren't cheap (cost of nuts usually) and they end up tasting funny. I don't understand why so many recipes are hit and miss. I mean they are really great or just the opposite. Not trying to harp on them, just don't get why certain ones can turn out so bad.

From the way people were raving about this one, I was hopeful.

[SamuelWilson]

My suggestion on tackling this problem...

Step 1, taste each volumizing ingredient individually to make sure they are ok, so that would be tasting carrots, pecans, mushrooms, onions

Step 2, taste test oil, and then add each spice/season ingredient one at a time until you locate what is giving it the funny taste you don't like. So you would add cilantro, then do a taste test. Next you would add fennel and then do a taste test, and so on and so on...

Once you find the thing you don't like, then just leave it out.

Another tip is to make small quantities to test before you go for the full size recipe. This way if you make a mistake, you still have the remaining ingredients to try it again.

[kmik]

Samuel has such a great idea! Perhaps your oil turned or something? My brother got some hemp oil after me raving about it, and then he complained that it was awful and he couldn't put it in his smoothies. When I finally got to go visit him, I smelled it and realized it was bad. Don't know why he couldn't figure that out... I guess just because this was his first time using it.

But all that to say, maybe your using something you didn't always use before? And you just assume it's supposed to be like that? Hopefully the taste test will help you narrow it down.

I've had people be not as crazy about these burgers as me... but no one's ever completely disliked them!

[Punky]

A lot of good points in the previous posts.
Perhaps your nuts have gone rancid slightly giving an off taste; or the oil,
etc...esp. if your husband said a few of your dishes had an off taste.

Taste is also very subjective...I love the carrot pecon burgers,
but they do have an exotic flair with the spices in them that some people
might not care for,
and esp. with the curry sauce. Also garlic mellows a little after it sits (takes the bite out...same as onions),
and different cloves have different strengths.

Sorry you were disappointed and spent the time & $$ to make them.
That is frustrating.


:( It's happened to me before too....

[tvillemom]

I have to agree with this. One recipe I made had Caraway seed. ICK!! :eek: I don't remember where I got the recipe, just that it was some kind of bread or something. It was so bad, I know I HATE the taste of caraway seed, and will probably NEVER use it again. Maybe it was just one particular spice, or maybe some certain ingredient was bad (even an off tasting onion?) I try to taste each fresh ingredient to make sure it's good....before I put it in my recipe. RAW has taught me that my recipe will ONLY be as good as each individual ingredient!! Hope this helps!
Wendi

[Sharon in Colorado]

Thanks for the tips. Now that you mention it, it did have a sort of rancid flavor, could have been from the pecans or the olive oil. The pecans were fairly strong and I bought them in a pinch from a regular grocery store instead of the health food store, where they are generally better.

I do love curry though, so I don't think it was the curry that did it. I used fresh cilantro and parsley, and anise seeds instead of fennel (I believe they are the same thing)....can't figure out what else it could be.

I was really looking forward to that sauce too. Next time, I'll just shake a bit of garlic powder instead of adding an entire clove.

The dog liked them though. So they didn't go to waste entirely.

[Crystal Rose]

Dear Sharon,
I've been having success with these for some reason. I don't know exactly why. Possibilities: I started substituting zucchini for the mushrooms. Be sure and not use too many or too few carrots. I use plenty of the spices (actually twice what is called for of the fennel and the curry). And I taste as I go (ex: maybe add more Celtic Sea Salt; I also add a little cayenne pepper and a dash of garlic powder and a splash of agave syrup).

Then for the curry sauce, I've been using the recipe for the Oriental Sweet & Sour Spicy Sauce & Dressing (P. 473 in Alissa's book). To me, it actually tastes more like a curry sauce (it actually looks yellow!). The actual "curry sauce" was not to my liking as much because of the raisins in it.

Hope this helps. Other than that, I can't think of anything else off-hand; other than the tips people have already suggested.

This has turned out to be one of my very favorite recipes and lastnight tried it on the pasta marinara (broken up) and it tasted just like spaghetti & meat sauce. Yummy.

Let me know how it goes.

vicki
Certified Living on Live Food Teacher
P.S. The shape of them, and not leaving them in the Dehydrator too long makes a difference too. Shape: in other words, not too thin, cuz then you lose all that wonderful taste. I started making them thicker and they're way yummier.

[Kris]

Sharon,

Are you having this weird taste problem with all your dehydrated goodies? This was happening to me in the beginning when I first started to experiment with my new dehydrator. Everything, and I mean every single thing, that I made came out tasting odd, and with a weird bitter aftertaste. Even if the pate or cookies or nuggets or whatever tasted great going into the dehydrator, it always was rancid tasting on the way out.

The trick for me has been to start my food dehydrating at a temperature much higher than 105. I usually put things in at 125-130 for the first few hours, and then turn down the temp once it gets going. I feel quite confident that the internal temp of the food never goes that high, as dried food is quite different from cooked food. I used to try dehydrating in my oven, and the result was always slowly cooked food rather than dried food, so I do know the difference.

Also, I live in a very, very humid place (on an island in the Pacific Northwest) and I find that a combination of a higher temperature and a longer drying time has solved this problem for me. But I feel your pain, as it is extremely frustrating to put a lot of time and effort and money into making delicious, healthy, raw recipes, only to have them go bad on you.

Hope that helps! :D

[Punky]

Sharon,

Are you having this weird taste problem with all your dehydrated goodies? This was happening to me in the beginning when I first started to experiment with my new dehydrator. Everything, and I mean every single thing, that I made came out tasting odd, and with a weird bitter aftertaste. Even if the pate or cookies or nuggets or whatever tasted great going into the dehydrator, it always was rancid tasting on the way out.

The trick for me has been to start my food dehydrating at a temperature much higher than 105. I usually put things in at 125-130 for the first few hours, and then turn down the temp once it gets going. I feel quite confident that the internal temp of the food never goes that high, as dried food is quite different from cooked food. I used to try dehydrating in my oven, and the result was always slowly cooked food rather than dried food, so I do know the difference.

Also, I live in a very, very humid place (on an island in the Pacific Northwest) and I find that a combination of a higher temperature and a longer drying time has solved this problem for me. But I feel your pain, as it is extremely frustrating to put a lot of time and effort and money into making delicious, healthy, raw recipes, only to have them go bad on you.

Hope that helps! :D

Great ideas Kris.
I know Dr. Gabrial Cousens recommends dehydrating at higher temps at 1st
than bringing it back down after the 1st couple of hours.
That's what they do at the Tree of Life Cafe. I would have to look up the actual temps, but Kris's recommendations sounded similar to what I read in his book/or website.
Sharon, I noticed you lived in Colorado...could the altitude effect
cooking things at all???

[rawpriestess]

My tastes keep changing, so old recipes I used to love just two short months ago, don't taste as good to me now, but when I was eating cooked they tasted great.

So, if you are eating 100% raw, or some raw some cooked, or mostly cooked, your tastes will vary.

I don't add salt to anything, so when something has salt or Braggs (which I don't use anymore) in the recipe, I KNOW it will be way too much for me, so I just leave it out, but Dragggon who still eats some cooked, likes salt, so he just adds it when it is on his plate, otherwise it is pretty tasteless to him.

I love lots of spice, and sweet, but a dash of salt will up the sweetness in almost any thing, so if I am making a nut milkshake, I add 1/2 the sweetener, and a dash of salt (remember I don't really use much salt at all) and that makes it really sweet, because the salt makes your taste buds expand, or explode or something, it tweeks them into thinking that you are getting more spice.

Also, ALL food tastes better warmed or at room temperature, like say ice cream, the first bite is great, but as you eat it, it has no flavor, unless you are drinking something warm with it, because your tongue gets numb.
Same with hot foods, or really warmed or spicy foods.

So, you really need to understand all the nuances of food flavor combining and temperature and texture to see what works together.

That is why I always make any new recipe in it's exact measurements, before I start tweeking it. Because the chef has gone to alot of trouble to make it perfect.

However, I have tasted some truly repulsive recipes in my day, and that is simply a fact of chef-dome.

NOT all recipes will everyone love, some people like beets, others like cauliflower, some people like okra, others like nori, I know what I like and don't like, which comes with tons of mistakes made in the kitchen.

The only way to be sure is to try lots, and make lots of mistakes.

If you can't afford to toss out lots of foods, I've actually rinsed out the food in a collander, to get out the spices, but keep the veggies and nuts before, so there is a way to salvage some of the food.

I also think the very best thing you can do, is to have raw potlucks with others, and plan on what people will bring, get a group together, where different people make different recipes and then try them all, or better yet, go to a great raw cafe, and sample tons of food, everyone gets two bites on their plate, or 1/4 recipe or whatever depending on the people involved.

But as far as tastes are concerned, once you understand the tastes that you like, you can pretty much tell if you will like a recipe.

Take a look:

1 cup almond milk
2 dates (pitted)
1 T olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamom

This recipe is really good eggnog (whithout the egg and without the nog) it is my recipe

Here is another one, not so good

1 cup filtered water
1 T coconut oil
1 T agave nectar
1/4 cup coconut meat
1/4 tsp cinnamon
sprinkle of nutmeg on top

Now, why isn't this as good?

Take a look at the amount of oil--and what kind it is, and the amount of sweetener, and the spices, basically this is a very thin, watery, drink.

The other is rich and thick and creamy.

They are both for eggnog.

So, when looking at a recipe, look at the amount of spices, to oil ratio for the taste, and the amount of oil to liquid for the texture in a drink, or veggie to nut ratio for the texture in a pate'

It does take some practice but can be done.

I can look at most recipes, and tell you what is wrong with them, or what needs to be fixed, but only because I started catering at 14, with my next door neighbor, one of my many wonderful jobs I had as a teenager, thank Goddess, I looked older :)

[Sharon in Colorado]

Hey Guys thanks for all those great suggestions.

When I first got my dehydrator about 4-5 years ago, I lived in Southern California and everything did taste yucky. The things I've been most successful at is my golden flax crackers. It may be because there are no nuts (just seeds) and little to no oil in them and I just developed a knack for making the things.

Yes, it is rather dry here and the air is rather thin. Baking has to be altered but I never thought about dehydrating. I'm not so sure that's the issue though as I have been using the dehydrater quite a bit and never had any problems.

I'm almost afraid to try the recipe again, as this is exactly what happened with Elaina Love's Cinnamon rolls. I attempted those things 3 times and they still weren't palatible (sp/?) to me.

I'm going to move on to the Calzone which seems to get hands-down raves (please someone PM me if this wasn't the case or if there's something I may need to pay attention to)...

I really loved the enchiladas and the strawberry crepes, never had a problem with those.

[Sharon in Colorado]

RP I see how tastes are different. For instance I would much rather prefer the coconut oil to the olive oil in an eggnog type drink. But in a cracker or other savory recipe, I'd go with olive or grapeseed oil.

I also do usually add a pinch of salt to something that is sweet. It seems to bring out the sweetness. Likewise I add a little sweetener to a savory dish, as it tends to do the opposite. It's sort of Boutenko-esque, with all the nuances of flavors going on.

When I do my own raw creations, I taste along the way as you do.

In the case of the recipe in the OP, I just pretty much followed the directions because I figured it was tried and true. I think it may have been my nuts though.

[RawFoodieMom]

Sharon, which thread are you getting these fave recipes from? :p

[Sharon in Colorado]

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7466&highlight=favorite+recipe

[RawFoodieMom]

Thanks Sharon. LOL, it's so funny, I went to bookmark it only to discover that I already have it bookmarked, DUH. I think I've become a raw-recipe-bookmarking addict. I need to stop bookmarking recipes and actually make some, hey there's a concept! LOL. :D

[Sharon in Colorado]

You are welcome. I also bookmarked all of the recipes (in my book I tagged them) and am making my way through them. I'd like to find a few things to add to my raw recipe repetoire that my family will be willing to eat, just to add to the fruit and salads they already eat. And with the kids, the veggie recipes are a little harder to get them into.

We do juice, smoothies, fruit and sometimes cereal in the morning. The afternoons are sort of a free for all, sometimes raw and other times not. I keep wondering - if I have to go off cooked cold turkey, is it doing them any good to allow a little cooked? I don't think one day they are going to exclaim "I'm ready to get off cooked now!"....this is just prolonging their addiction, no? Oh - sorta got off track here.

I may have to go back to the crepes. They do like that. We did the pesto mushrooms and they were good but on the heavy side.

[Ariannah]

I made up a batch of carrot pecan batter earlier this morning and it's getting dehydrated for supper time. What helped is tasting to make sure the pecans are fresh, then making sure the whole works is a smooth paste (I blended it for quite a while in the food processor). So far I really liked the burger dough, and I hope the family likes the burgers themselves. I used a tiny amount of celtic salt instead of braggs (or nama shoyu), portabella instead of button mushrooms, and carefully adjusted the seasonings as needed.

I'll update to see how/if our family likes it. I did like the batter a lot.

~Ariannah~

[Ariannah]

I'm considering this a success! My DH, DD15, and DD7 loved the burgers. DH and DD7 enjoyed the curry sauce. My DS11 didn't care for it too much but didn't mind it smothered in the sauce. I loved the curry sauce too. I'm glad I read the thread before making it, because I only put a tiny garlic clove in it, and the flavour was amazing! It thickened as it sat for only 15 minutes. The burgers shrank to "nugget" size, so they wound up dipping the nuggets in the sauce. I will double the recipe next time I make it, which will most definitely be soon. I'll be making these burgers a staple for us, as they are not terribly expensive to make.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Glad you had success with it! Well, I pulled mine out yesterday to show some folks at my Thanksgiving Workshop and it had mold ALL over it. I've never seen anything like it. I'd been giving it to my dog Ruby for doggy treats and she loved them.

So yes, something had to be bad in there. Or maybe I should have stored it in the fridge.

On the other hand today I tossed a bag with leftover Caramel Cookies in it. They are several months old, brought them over when we moved here, and they definately weren't hard but there was no mold on them at all. Not wanting to take any chances, I tossed them anyway.

[Punky]

<<<Or maybe I should have stored it in the fridge.>>>

I would definately store these in the frig! they are too moist not too.
Things like flax crackers, fruit leathers are safe to keep in the cupboard
from my experience, but anything with moisture even though dehydrated
needs the frig or to be frozen for later use.

[surfergrrl]

i have tried several recipes and ALWAYS halve them to save on cash in case we don't like them (or they ferment the way a muffin recipe did one timebefore i learned to turn the dehydrator up high first and then regulate it downward to prevent fermenting).

also, i look the recipe over and see if there are any ingredients I/we don't like and substitute something else compatible. i loved someone's suggestion to use celery instead of the bragg's because that's one of our NO or use far less flavors.

what a learning curve!

[kmik]

OK, I've made this recipe at least a half dozen times... I love Carrot Pecan burgers! BUT... I wanted to make them for Thanksgiving, so I started on them yesterday, I was being so careful to follow the recipe, because I wanted them to be perfect... but they just didn't look right. This morning I took them out of the dehydrator... still not right... I tasted them, they were horrible!!!! So all morning, I'm trying to figure out what went wrong. Perhaps the carrots were a little old, I used portabello mushrooms, those weren't the freshest either. But still didn't seem to be enough to make them not look and taste right....

Then it hit me... I didn't put any pecans in my carrot pecan burgers!!!! I don't know how I missed that! LOL, if my screen name was "Stupid" perhaps one of you could have warned me :rolleyes:

[Punky]

OK, I've made this recipe at least a half dozen times... I love Carrot Pecan burgers! BUT... I wanted to make them for Thanksgiving, so I started on them yesterday, I was being so careful to follow the recipe, because I wanted them to be perfect... but they just didn't look right. This morning I took them out of the dehydrator... still not right... I tasted them, they were horrible!!!! So all morning, I'm trying to figure out what went wrong. Perhaps the carrots were a little old, I used portabello mushrooms, those weren't the freshest either. But still didn't seem to be enough to make them not look and taste right....

Then it hit me... I didn't put any pecans in my carrot pecan burgers!!!! I don't know how I missed that! LOL, if my screen name was "Stupid" perhaps one of you could have warned me :rolleyes:

LOL Kmik!
NO you are not stupid! I think the fact that you have *5 FIVE 5* kids
says it all.
How you keep up with 5 is beyond me! ;-)

[kmik]

:) Thanks Punky! (but who says I keep up with all five of them :eek: )

[Lady Green Jeans]

kmik,

My inlaws still laugh to this day (20+ years ago) that I brought the pies for Thanksgiving. Toasts were made and the dinner (sadyly it was SAD at this point) was perfect. The pies were brought out and garnished with freshly whipped cream and served--the first bite was to be taken and....horrors! I remembered I did not put sugar in the recipe.

Like I said--legendary.

Kathy