My first thought without even reading your post was grapefruit sorbet so the grapefruit idea sounds good to me. I would try it out first though with the tea to find out if you like it.
Chilled citrus sections served in orange halves with mint garnish is very attractive.

Oh I hate to say this, but be careful of the people who come to your meeting. I have acid reflux and citrus (esp. grapefruit) are on the forbidden list.

It's called "know your friends".

Grapefruit is also forbidden with a lot of medications.

When I think palate cleanser, however, I think of something fairly bland, rather than acid. Acid is refreshing, and will cut through fats, which is why it's good in apposition to rich, heavy dishes, but it can also confound the tastebuds. Citrus sorbets have an essence of acid flavor without being highly acidic. Tea is also a really strong flavor.

There should be enough acid in the champagne to do that job. Soda does it well too, for the non-drinkers, so maybe something mild really is called for.

Chilled rice balls make excellent palate cleansers. Marble sized ones, not big enough to have substance.

How about thin slices of pear soaked in lemon and parsley water, and chilled?

Unless you were looking for something to excite the palate rather than reset it? Because I think that's what the tea-grapefruit would do. I haven't done that, but I'm thinking with Thanksgiving foods, which have deep earthy flavors, that might be a thing. If so, experimenting ahead of time should be dead easy. Maybe do some apples as well as citrus in case some can't partake?

Lemon sorbet

I found this on line:
Food-tasting professionals commonly use crackers with water to cleanse their palate between samplings. Barb Stuckey, author of âÂÂTaste What YouâÂÂre Missing: The Passionate EaterâÂÂs Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good,â reports that plain crackers are the best food for cleansing the palate, as they do not have strong competing flavors. Additionally, researchers of a 2009 study published in âÂÂChemosensory Perceptionâ reported that table water crackers, a crispy and thin cracker composed of water and flour, are an effective palate cleanser after eating spicy, cooling, fatty, bitter, astringent or sweet foods.

But most restaurants I've been in serve lemon sorbet. Do you really have to make it yourself? Haagen Dazs makes a good one.

Oh gosh, Annie, I'd be run out of town on a rail, LOL! Although maybe if I bought the sorbet but added something exotic and trendy to it. Chia, Kale, White truffle oil? Just kidding. Maybe. I could see adding basil or something!

Our cooking club actually cooks (and our book club reads, too!), which I am very much grateful for (did you ever read Hhireno's rant about her cooking club? LOL)

Tibb, I don't have an ice cream maker.

Beachlily -- - good point .. i should at least have an alternate

Bumble - love the presentation idea. Wonder if I can do it in clementine!

Pllog, You make a good point. I think what I really want to do, is serve something that cuts through all the richness, either as a counterpoint between tastings or between the meal and desserts. To me, that is citrus. I think it will fool around with it, and also do another fruit for the reasons mentioned.

I"m confused. Why do you need to make it? You can buy lemon sorbet.

Btw, you don't need an ice cream maker to make sorbet.

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 16:30

Tibb -- It's a cooking club, so we only serve things we make. For us, it's kind of the point. Even for something like this.

As for making it without an ice cream maker...
See my original post:
"and don't want to risk alternate methods not to mention transport not to mention it is November in New England."

You didn't ask about the champagne cocktail, but may I suggest a French 75? It is my absolute favorite cocktail with a champagne base.

.5 oz Fresh lemon juice
.5 oz Simple syrup (one part water, one part sugar)
1 oz Gin
3 - 5 oz Champagne
Garnish: Lemon twist
Glass: Champagne flute

Add all the ingredients except the Champagne to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake well and strain into a Champagne flute. Top with the Champagne and garnish with a lemon twist.

What about sliced English ("seedless") cucumber on Breton crackers? If you soften some cream cheese, add a just a hint of parsley and tarragon and dab it on the crackers to hold the cucumber slices on (and keep the cukes from wetting down the crackers)? You can "fancy" up the cucumbers by running the tines of a fork lengthwise all around before you slice it.
Edie

Ahah! Given your purpose, I think the tea scented citrus slices sound great! It seems to me that just soaking them in strong tea would do it, though you could use an infusing needle if you want to work that hard. :)

Do you think, perhaps, the dish was actually made from yuzu? It's like a tart mandarin.

Maybe call it an intermezzo? That takes away the expectation of water crackers or rice balls. :)

Ediej209, what's a Breton cracker?
Here, they have what's called "un trou normand" - a Norman hole - it's basically a glass of Calvdos that they down in one! That shakes up the palate. Having said that, a little Calva in a small glass with a little lemon sorbet on top is a lovely palate cleanser.

Islay_corbel, Breton crackers are fairly thin crackers that don't have much flavor on their own which lets whatever you are serving them with be the "Star of the show". I find them at our local Kroger grocery store. Or Ritz crackers work also.
Edie

IC, Breton is a brand name (as is Ritz) for what used to be called a "butter cracker" though it is actually made with oil. Breton is a Canadian brand from Dare Foods, so one may presume the name was originally a local reference. Nowadays, they're sold all over the world, including Europe.

Bretons are very plain, tasting more like a water cracker, and are known for standing up well to spreading cheese or topping with wet or greasy ingredients to make quickie canapés. Ritz, made by Nabisco (originally National Biscuit Company) are brittle, flakier and salty, and have more of a buttery-esque demeanor. In the UK they're licensed to be made by Mondelez (i.e., Mondelez pays Nabisco to be able to make their crackers). I don't know if they're exactly the same or not.

Perhaps what we call "cracker" is called a "biscuit" where you live. Nabisco got their name from crackers that were called "biscuits" at the time. "Biscuit" originally meant twice cooked, as in biscotti, so our "cookies" and "crackers" seem more likely as biscuits, than the handle-as-little-as-possible-dough quick rolls that we call "biscuits" now, which are prized for being fluffy, light, airy, and flaky, and are at their best warm out of the oven. (Biscuits, inexpertly made, are the opposite of light and fluffy, and in an old song "rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine" with their heaviness.)

Clementine Granita?

Here is a link that might be useful: Clementine Granita recipe

Thanks for the explanations! Bretons here don't get breton crackers - that cracked me up!
I suppose your biscuits are what we call scones. A bad one is pretty deadly LOL
Those clementines look tempting!

I've just looked up the Breton cracker and it's what we call a cheese biscuit. The English eat cheese with crackers whereas the French eat cheese with bread.

IC, our "biscuits" are sometimes likened to scones, but I haven't ever had a scone that was anything like a good baking powder biscuit. Biscuits are airy and salty and rich, and are often served with gravy (meat drippings sauce, or a peppery white cream sauce), or buttered like any roll. The good scones I've had, even in England, are much shorter (short dough, not height), denser and sweet, and served with jam (though, yes, you could put butter and jam on either). I think there may be a textural similarity in the crumb. Both can get kind of gluey in the eating, and have flaky gluten lines... Okay, a biscuit is a salty white scone?

There's another kind of biscuit which I forgot to mention. It's more like a butter pastry cut in a circle, with distinct layers that peel off.

Olychick, that Clementine granita looks delish!

----+----

Edit: Sorry, Mtnrdredux. I didn't mean to hijack. Tough, come to think of it, mini-biscuits, if they were still airy and easy on the salt, might make a brilliant palate cleanser. Or drizzled with a grapefruit tea compote. ;) I once saw something similar (though on a hardier bread) which was a 25â sized split roll with fruit spread and a chilled pansy. It was very pretty, and, I believe, a very delicate flavor.

Another direction for intermezzos might be something like cucumber spears with flavor dots (cashew cream, balsamic reduction, pesto, red wine reduction). A cucumber cup filled with chilled ratatouille or chopped nut paste. Caponata and crackers. A white course with hearts of palm and enoki mushrooms braised in garlic and white wine, topped with chopped macadamia nuts.

This post was edited by plllog on Wed, Nov 12, 14 at 17:53

Hi,

Thanks everyone. I love that clementine granita, so cute and looks yummy. But I will be travelling to the host's home with this dish and I don't want to have to worry about granita. I did go to that site and found another good contender, clementine slices in simple syrup with cinnamon sticks.

Pllog, no hijack worries, it's all good!

In any event, I really wanted citrus because it is in season, and because, more than anything I want to cut through the richness of all the side dishes people are making (bread puddings and gratins and cream soups etc etc). A brace of citrus is called for!

I tried simply poaching some (very yummy) fresh pink grapefruit sections in earl grey. It didn't knock my socks off.

I did find one exotic recipe along those lines, fwiw:

However, the gelatin and malt is a bit too too exotic (though we DO like exotic in our cooking club, to be sure). So instead I am going to serve this dish, in very, very small glass parfaits:

http://guiltykitchen.com/2012/02/17/yogurt-panna-cotta-with-early-grey-grapefruit-jam/

PS BBSTX, thanks for the recipe. Why "75"? Makes it sound so cool!

The 75 is from the size of a French gun. 75mm. Guess what I am fixing myself right now? A French 75. I'm testing a tip I recently saw that you can get champagne to bubble again by dropping in a raisin. I'll report back after the cocktail hour. ...well, actually after dinner.

Don't have too many BBSTX, you may be pressed into service hanging those botanicals!

Oh my, I had forgotten how potent French 75s are. They might not be appropriate for your gathering where people will be driving. The ONE I had tonight was quite tasty, but quite strong. The champagne was still bubbly, but I don't know if that is attributable to the raisin or my handy-dandy champagne bottle stopper.

All this is Greek to me, but, taking my direction from previous suggestions, could something be done with pears? grated fresh ginger? I was thinking along the lines of seasonal but not citrus, and remembering some experiments of my own.

I made the panna cotta and grapefruit/marmalade recipe linked above, served it in tiny glasses as an intermezzo, and it was delish. The panna cotta recipe is very nice. I could not find Liberte in 0% plain; in fact i have never seen that. I used Fage 2% plain.

Someone else made a lovely side dish that was light and somewhat of a palate cleanser, so I thought i'd post that too.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shaved-Kohlrabi-with-Apple-and-Hazelnuts-51214700

What else did y'all have?

Hi Bbstx,
I opted to make the pomegranate champagne cocktails, since they seemed more holiday -y. I used a Wms Sonoma recipe w Grand Marnier. Good, not too sweet. If you like it sweet, there is a punch version from Martha Stewart that adds in pear nectar to make it sweeter⦠Sounds good, but I wasn't going for sweet.

Here's the rest of what people made:
Cream of parsnip soup with crispy Chestnut garnish
Roast spatchcock turkey
Bread stuffing made with sausage and cranberries
Gratin of sweet potatoes with leaks
Crème fraîche spoon pudding
Cranberry chutney
Acorn squash rings with brown sugar and garlic
Sweet potatoes with brown sugar and pineapple
Brussels sprout salad with avocado and pine nuts
Cornbread with fennel and cranberry
Orange cranberry sauce
The above-mentioned Apple kohlrabi salad, and my pannna cotta grapefruit marmalade intermezzo

And for dessert, honey apple pie, and orange cranberry cheesecake

Our cooking club always does such a wonderful job and we have some of the neatest themes, too⦠It's a lot of fun. The other thing I like about it is it brings people together who otherwise wouldn't necessarily know each other ��" everything from new moms to retirees. Usually ladies only except for a barbecue night and an annual clambake.

Oh, wow! That is a fantastic list of dishes.

The Pomegranate Champagne cocktail looks great! Such a pretty color.

Oh, wow! That is a fantastic list of dishes.

The Pomegranate Champagne cocktail looks great! Such a pretty color.

It was quite yummy. It isn't really organized, people just make what they want so we do get some duplications, but then we also usually email around what we are thinking about doing ... Never had a bad meal in the 4 years I've been part of it.

The grapefruit marmalade pannacotta sounds perfect.

The whole list sounds yummy. I think it's fantastic that the members actually do the cooking and show up. Even better than the good food are the good people who make it possible. :)

Yes, the whole list sounds yummy!

Now that the event is over, I hope it's not rude for me to hijack with a "palate cleanser" question. When does one need a palate cleanser? My feeling, and correct me if I'm wrong, is it should be used to separate dishes of a significantly different flavor family. Like say you have potstickers for an app and leg of lamb for dinner (ok, I wouldn't and I hope you wouldn't either!) a palate cleanser might soften the blow. But in the case of mtnrdredux's party I'm thinking the palate cleansers were nice but not needed. Thoughts?

By the way, I'm asking for a practical reason - I'm in the beginning stages of planning a "tasting menu" holiday meal and trying to determine what clashes versus what would work with the help of palate cleansers. This is somewhat foreign to me.

I make fennel apple salad, with a lemon juice olive oil dressing, I just love it! Reminds me of that kohlrabi salad. Definitely a palate refresher, and fennel is good for your digestion! But a grapefruit earl grey marmalade sounds really lovely. I'm not supposed to eat citrus fruits but I cheat! So far I have lived to tell the tale.

FOAS, a palate cleanser is for restoring the palate to neutral after eating something very flavored or very rich. It's meant to be subtle so the tastebuds have to work at sensing the flavor. That's what helps them go back to neutral. What Mtnrdredux ended up with is more on those lines than some of the suggestions. Pannacotta is cool and refreshing and usually mild in flavor. The grapefruit provides a hint of sweet, more refreshing and cool, and some acid to cut through the richness of the holiday foods.

You shouldn't need--or want--a palate cleanser on a tasting menu. That is a planned menu of small dishes to taste--not a tasting menu as in what shall we order for the wedding. :)

Instead, as you suggested, you should arrange your dishes so that the flavors flow from one to the next, building in boldness. The whipsaw thing is a factor, and what you describe -- softening the blow -- is a good strategy if you don't have a more organic way to progress. That intermediate dish shouldn't be rice balls, though. Not the kind of bland and cool of a true palate cleanser. Tasting menus tend to be a lot of food anyway, and adding pointless starch isn't a great choice. If you're going in that direction, maybe a vegetable course that has a proper amount of flavor for its place in the middle.

Think of it as a crescendo, starting quiet and smoothly getting louder, and you won't go wrong.

Pinkmountain,

Do share the recipe, I love fennel, and you are right, so good for digestion. One favorite salad of mine is fresh fennel with sliced dried apricot and pistachios over baby greens with a citrus vinaigrette.

I'd love to hear more about your tasting menu, Food. It sounds like a fun endeavor.