Brooklyn Beckham defended cooking pasta sauce with a wine cork in the pot, but an Italian chef said there's 'no evidence' it works
- Brooklyn Beckham defended his decision to cook a bolognese sauce for pasta with a wine cork.
- After he was criticized, Beckham shared an article saying wine corks can ensure "a more tender dish."
A great bolognese includes ground beef, pancetta, onions … and a wine cork?
So says aspiring chef Brooklyn Beckham, who shared an Instagram picture of himself whipping up the pasta sauce on Wednesday.
Beckham's followers were quick to spot a wine cork floating on top of the pot. And many were very, very confused.
"When someone told you to 'put a cork in it Brooklyn,' they meant…stop talking," one person wrote.
"Only here for the comments pointing out the cork," another added.
Their criticism didn't go unnoticed by the eldest son of Victoria and David Beckham, who frequently posts videos of himself cooking on Instagram.
Beckham, 24, took to his Instagram story to share an excerpt from an article that read: "The addition of wine corks added to the cooking liquid ensured a more tender dish."
The excerpt is from a February 2016 article written by Doris Reynolds for Naples Daily News called, "Let's Talk Food: Wine corks ensure more tender octopus."
In the article, Reynolds details how, in her quest to cook a great octopus dish, she was surprised to find multiple recipes that "included wine corks in the instructions."
"Experts have argued about this method but most chefs and those who regularly prepare squid and octopus swear that there are enzymes in the corks that ensure a more palatable dish," she wrote. "Other experienced chefs also use wine corks when cooking such meats as short ribs and other tough meat."
Reynolds' article does not mention pasta or bolognese sauce, and Italian chef Barbara Pollastrini told Insider that adding a wine cork to a bolognese won't do anything to help soften the meat.
"The problem is that people trust this food influencer and are without any knowledge," she said. "The only way to have a fantastic ragù is to cook it for at least three hours. This is the only way to have soft meat."
Pollastrini doesn't believe that the wine cork method ever works, even when it comes to cooking octopus.
"No evidence exists that octopus softens its meat by boiling it with cork," she said. "The real reason the fishermen (called polpari) of the South put corks in their enormous pots where the octopus was cooked to be sold on the street is that the cork was attached to a string to which the octopus was tied while cooking."
"The floating cork allowed the fisherman to find the octopus immediately, without much searching in the pot of boiling water," she added.
If you're looking for a great bolognese recipe, we love Gordon Ramsay's version with sausage or Ina Garten's favorite weeknight recipe.
Representatives for Beckham did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.