Brooklyn Beckham, the nepo baby of former soccer star David Beckham and ex-Spice Girls Victoria Beckham, has officially abandoned his profession as a photographer to focus on being a young chef. He's really leaning into his newfound career aspiration, and standing by one unconventional, albeit strange, cooking technique.
On Wednesday, Beckham took to Instagram to share photos of himself preparing a pot of what appeared to be bolognese sauce with a wine cork floating at the top. "Daddy day care," Brooklyn captioned the photos, which were posted to show off his puppy in a crossbody sling.
Many keen observers (including us at Salon Food), however, were fixated on the loose wine cork. "Is the cork added flavour?" asked one curious follower. Similarly, another follower wrote, "Only here for the comments pointing out the cork."
Beckham later defended his hack on his story, posting a screenshot of a Feb. 2016 article titled "Let's Talk Food: Wine corks ensure more tender octopus" from Naples Daily News. Specifically, he cropped and highlighted the text that read, "The addition of wine corks added to the cooking liquid ensured a more tender dish."
The full article, written by Doris Reynolds, focused on the preparation of octopus around the Mediterranean. In particular, Reynolds wrote that she has "found several recipes for octopus and was amazed that most of them included wine corks in the instructions." There's, of course, no mention of beef, veal or pork — the main meats in bolognese sauce.
Beckham's hack certainly piqued our interest at Salon Food, which is why we did some extra digging to figure out whether it's valid or just a bunch of baloney. To help us in our investigative pursuits is Celine Beitchman, Director of Nutrition at Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, who delved into the hack and shared some tips on how to safely incorporate it into your cooking.
"Most of the corks that are used in winemaking are produced in Portugal. And wine corks are naturally occurring substances. They're wood and they come from a very special tree," Beitchman said. "And I think, just historically, Portugal was one of the main sources to have it and it was a big part of their industry."
That's why so many old-school chefs in both Portugal and southern Italy add wine corks to their octopus because the natural enzymes in the cork draw out moisture from the mollusc's tendons and help tenderize its meat. As explained by Pike Place Market's Fresh Blog, an octopus must first be thoroughly washed and dried before it's braised in a stockpot for 30-60 minutes, depending on its size. The braising process involves the octopus simmering in water, a cup of white wine, a pinch of salt, pepper, herbs and spices and your handy cork.
Despite the hack, the blog noted, "While proponents of the cork method believe adding a cork to the pot is key to tenderization, your safest [bet] is to frequently test the Octopus meat. Use a knife to pierce a tentacle every 15 minutes or so. You'll know the octopus is tender when the knife easily goes in."
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There are no recipes for using a wine cork to cook and tenderize meat, but Beitchman speculated that the hack "might have some mild effect if the meat is ground down really fine."
"It's all going to depend on how long the cork is soaking and how much liquid is there to allow the cork to infuse," she added. "Because, if you look at the picture of Beckham's Instagram shot, it's like the cork is sort of floating on the surface. And when I look at that, as a chef, I'm not quite sure how that's really infusing fully into the mixture."
Beitchman also said that corks that are high in tannins — which form the basis of structure in red wines and add its bitterness, astringency and complexity — can possibly soften some of the muscle fibers in beef and pork. That's why wines with high levels of tannins are commonly enjoyed with thick cuts of steak to help balance the fattiness of the meat and enhance its flavor.
So, does cooking your bolognese sauce with a wine cork really result in "a more tender dish"? There's no clear-cut answer, but it doesn't hurt to experiment and channel your inner chef in the kitchen. If you do decide to add a cork to your bolognese, Beitchman recommended using a cork that's hygienic, sterilized and food safe. Avoid using synthetic corks or plastic corks.
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