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Brupie's Profile

Website: http://Iwuzthinking.blogspot.com

Location:

About: Currently exploring grocery stores in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area.

Favorite foods: East African, Korean

Last bite on earth: Korean BBQ with many pickled side dishes

The Ten Most Recent Posts By Brupie

From Talk

Roasting Green Coffee at Home

Yesterday I picked up some green coffee beans at an Ethiopian grocery. I roasted and brewed a coffee pot's worth. I used a Turkish coffee maker, but have heard of people using hot air popcorn makers. Does anyone have any experience with this?

The Ten Most Recent Comments By Brupie

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

I agree with a number of comments here, esp. about how adding salt during the cooking process is different than at the table. Although salt is salt chemically, different processes yield different shapes of crystals and determines whether salt adheres to food or bounces off.

Besides preferences and conditioning to different amts of salt, there is a decided range in human sensitivity to seasoning. What I taste may be quite a bit more or less sensitive than what you taste. No cookbook could ever account for all of this, your best bet is cooking to your own or family's tastes.

From Talk

Ghetto Drinks

I think it's sad that ghetto drinks & drinking stories has more comments than just about any other tagline I've seen. Yeah, that Popov stuff was nasty. Good times.

From Serious Eats

14 Granola Brands Taste-Tested Head-to-Head

What about Cascadian Farms? You're illustration shows 10 packages, but you said that you sampled 14. What were the other four? Thanks.

From Talk

You either love it or you hate it...

Non-Koreans divide or unite around Kimchi. Personally, I love it with Korean barbeque and all the little side dishes.

From Serious Eats

50 Cent Suing Taco Bell

If you change your name to 50 Cent, I think you give up certain rights to the use of your name. It will be a sad day for free speech if he gets a dime. Oops! I hope that's not been taken too!.

From Recipes

Essentials: Pie Crust

Pie is a wonderful thing.

Pie crust recipes seem to foster butter/lard debates. I like butter, but I've had excellent crisco crusts too. What is forgotten is the flour. The above recipe lists simply "flour." Protein level is a critical element, and if you reach for your bread flour you are bound to be disappointed. Higher protein flours (like bread flour) result in tougher crusts that are harder to cut.

Use all-purpose flour, perhaps even lower the protein with something like Wondra gravy flour. Since learning the lessons of flour protein levels from Cookwise by Shirley Corriher, I've been much happier with all my baking.

From Serious Eats

Blogwatch: Eggs Cooked in Muffin Tins

I'm not sure how "novel" this is. Ever look at the egg in an Egg McMuffin? I don't know what they use at McDonald's, but I bet it looks a lot like a muffin tin. And cheddar cheese, bacon or ham. I don't want to be a drag, but I think we're re-inventing a wheel here. My favorite always has been with sausage.

From Talk

falafel mix

If you're avoiding frying strictly to avoid fat, this won't be of help, but you may try brushing the patties with melted butter before putting in the oven. The butter will help with browning, flavor and surface texture. Essentially, you're doing a superficial frying. Let me know how it turns out.

Responses to Comments by Brupie

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

Oh dear! Salt can be tricky for a new cook, in all the ways others have mentioned. I hope I can add a little :)

When a recipe calls for "salt to taste" it means taste it first, then if you think a little salt would help, add some, "because most people who have tasted this recipe like a bit of salt with it."

I break "rules" all the time, mostly regarding seasoning; I encourage new cooks to experiment, too--except in baking where precise measurements are much more important. As I eat a lot of raw foods, it's easy for me to pick up a cucumber, tomato, radish, celery stalk, lemon, orange, cantaloupe or watermelon and just take a bite. From there I can choose salt, pepper, vinegar, cheese, etc. or nothing at all. But my taste preferences will likely be different from yours. Say I'm making chicken broth: I add a lot of onions and celery, plus lemon juice--those nearly negate the need for salt.

Salt is one of my favorite seasonings (and crucial in preserving), but because I like the look, feel and taste of the expensive or imported ones (Maldon is my most affordable), I save it for garnish and wouldn't (i.e., can't afford to) put it in pasta water. In fact, I don't always put salt in pasta water, and maybe I should, but I got on a low salt kick and perhaps I just got lazy. The few times I cook pasta it's almost always in leftover veggie water, or with a bouillon cube (which is mostly salt), or some variety of seaweed.

By switching to a larger grain/flake size, I've found I use less salt--a goal one should consider, especially if you eat processed foods and/or don't read labels. If you've been eating "fast foods," you probably have developed a love for salt, but for the wrong reasons. Take French fries--ever tried oven fries? Slice (leave the peel on), toss with olive oil, a pinch or two or three of coarse salt and freshly ground pepper (add rosemary, yum!); cook until the texture appeals to you. Serve with dips or eat as is. They don't become nasty overnight like fast food fries do.

Depending on the soil, fertilizers, water conditions, etc., my celery may taste very different from my neighbor's. I'm no nutritionist, but excess sodium in many American's diets can cause health problems, as can sugar, fat, and other stuff that is OK in smaller doses, but devastating in larger amounts.

I hope these comments give new cooks some confidence :)

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

In Maine we have an old adage that Lobster should be cooked in water that is as salty as the sea. In fact, when we're down on the beach, the water that fills the pots is indeed from the Atlantic itself. I learned when I moved to Oregon that the same holds true for Crab.
When I lived in Brooklyn way back when, I had the luxury of being invited at least once a week to join her quite large family for dinner. Pasta was always served. She explained to me one night that the reason her pasta was so good was that the water she boiled it in was as salty as the mediterranean.
But for other dishes, I have to agree with the majority that taste as you go works best. That said, everything benefits from some salt prior to service. It helps to bring out all the natural flavors.

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

Hey Chefhorn - I don't use a blackberry, there are no subways where I live, and both my thumbs were lost in a horrible 'vagina dentata' incident years ago.

But it does sound like a challenge to type that way.

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

was there any salt in the venti latte?

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

Hey FastFoodCritic - let me see you 1 thumb a response via a blackberry on a bumpy subway while holding a venti latte and see if you fare better!

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

You guys are brutal.
Peace, love and salty.

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

Ha ha ha ha ha, Chefhorn!

But you forgot to mention that each of the people's tongues who will be tasting the final dish have to be individually measured to be sure the tastebuds are in the right places and extant then they must be swabbed and tested by the CSI Team for chemical sensitivities!

Only then can the correct salting process of the dish continue.

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

deidcated
guidlines
your're
aluminium
percisly
infered
tomotes
excell
coorespnding
maches
caled
factos

@Chefhorn -- A quick glance of those two posts reveals at least 12 misspellings of simple, common words. Perhaps before you criticize others with such smart-ass comments, you should at least how to spell above a 4th grade level.

Now excuz me, my chikon pot pye is redy to eet. Hav a nize daay.

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

Heat a 1/8 inch thick, 99.9% pure aluminium ,10 inch saute pan to percisly 412F (use an infered surface probe calibrated to your exact elevation for accurate results) next measure the sugar content of the tomotes. Using the following excell spreadsheet, find the coorespnding cell that maches the brix content and add exactly the amount of salt caled for. make sure the the salt has less than 2% dissolved minerals...

THATS why you specific salt in recipes, because the factos that govern it's usage are so variable that it's impossible to specify..

From Serious Eats

Why Don't Recipes Include Salt Amounts?

In a forum deidcated to 'serious foodies' I am amazed that so many people dont realize that recipes are not blueprints... they're guidlines. You probably should be reading Rachel Ray's site if your're too timid to make a judgement call on something as basic as seasoning...

Add salt - taste - ask yourself, "is this better than before?" if yes then add some more - repeat until the answer is 'no' then stop.