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Double_J

Favorite Recipes from The Joy of Cooking?

Also, I love their trick of putting some minced onion into the cheese sauce for Mac and cheese. It's amazing how much it changes the flavor for the better.

Favorite Recipes from The Joy of Cooking?

Split pea soup and bolognese.

Best Kept Secret Steak

Hangar.

Cheetos Pasta...experiment success.

@Mr.Nick: the cheese melts but it doesn't emulsify into the liquid. It's the same concept as putting a cheese rind into a soup - the flavor goes into the broth but the solid basically stays together.

A Big Big Bag of Spinach

Eat as much as you can in a relatively healthy way but then break down and use up the rest in creamed spinach. It's almost impossible to make too much creamed spinach.

I forget the name of it, but there's also an italian soup that's almost like egg-drop but has spinach in it. It's delicious.

Cheetos Pasta...experiment success.

Modernist Cuisine at Home has a pretty intruiging receipe for sauceless Mac 'n cheese that I have yet to try. Since the flavor components in cheese are water soluble, you can make cheese flavored water by soaking cheese in a hot water bath for a while and then straining off the solids.

Then you just cook regular pasta risotto-style in the cheese water (i.e., basically just use the amount of water that the pasta will absorb). I'm not sure how it compares to your Cheetos pasta (really cool, by the way) but I've been meaning to try it for a while now.

As a bonus, you can bake the leftover cheese solids to make cheese crackers.

Friday night dinner @ home - Brainstorming a new tradition?

Keep it simple and quick. Despite what "Top Chef" might have taught you, 3 hours isn't actually a ton of time if you include the need for a shopping trip. You'll probably have something more like 90 minutes to actually cook.

Also, you might want to put out a feeler for how 'recreational' the league is. If it's "surburban softball" recreational, there's a strong chance that the BF will come home on his way down from a couple of beverages (or he might just be too physically tired to appreciate an elaborate meal, etc.)

I've always like the idea of cooking Friday night dinners at home but could never really make it a constant thing since we would either get out of work too late or were just too tired after a full day at the office. Fridays are for letting a restaurant do the cooking. Weekends are for cooking at home!

How can I get flavor out of split peas without salt?

IMO, a relatively heavy and savory soup like split pea (one of my favorites!) really needs salt to bring out it's best. Elsewise it just tastes flat.

Kind of like bread or potatoes made without salt - you don't think a small amount of salt in the recipe makes a difference but it really transforms the end dish.

I second all of the recommendations above - try adding acidity or sweetness to see if that works though to be honest, I would totally shift gears and move more towards a fresh spring pea soup where it's more natural for sweetness to be the prevailing top note instead.

BIG HAM EMERGENCY

I agree with the above that that a cut that big won't really get tender without a significantly longer braise. On the other hand, if the recipe calls for a long slow roast (e.g., 325F for 4 hours), then it might not need to be fall apart tender after the braise since it'll get more tender during the roast.

If starting from a cooked ham, you went too hot too long and it's toast.

Close the gas bbq lid or leave it open?

Lid closed and the grill acts like an oven. Lid open and it acts like a stove. If it's a cut of meat that you would theoretically start on the stove and finish in the oven to get to a desired doneness, close the lid. If it's a piece of meat that you'd normally cook only in a pan on the stove, then it's OK to keep the lid up.

Generally, the only time I cook with the lid open is with really thin cuts of meat or other things that don't require time to cook/heat all the way through (e.g., smallish shrimp or getting a quick sear after cooking a steak sous vide).

In my opinion, the real potential of the grill comes only once you learn how to cook over indirect (or low) heat with the grill cover closed. This is really the only way to thicker cuts or bone-in/whole chicken (and is the only way to achieve a non-carbonized candy glaze when using a sweet BBQ sauce). Doing a q

Storing Knives

Magnetic strip - just be careful with how you put it back on when you're done with it (i.e., back edge first).

Also, if mounting under a cabinet, watch out for clearance since the top of your longer chef knives will extend quite a bit above the strip and many cabinets have braces on the bottom of them that extend lower than the rest of the cabinet body. If you tend to keep one of your longer knives directly underneath one of those braces, you'll run the risk of perpetually banging the tip into the underside of the cabinet body. Unfortunately, I know this from experience.

Another piece of common sense I had to learn through experience...if your knives will be stored pretty close together on the strip, store your knives from shortest to longest with the sharp edge always pointing towards the longer knife so there's less chance you'll catch the blade of one knife with your hand while reaching for the one next to it on the rack.

gochujang sauce uses

Mix with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and honey for a Korean wing sauce. I'm pretty sure they had a recipe for it on this site.

Pho vs. Ramen-Which would you choose?

Ramen - compared to the versions of pho that I've had it just tends to have more savory unctiousness to it.

Pho feels a bit fresher because of the basil, sprouts, jalapenos and lime added at the table but ramen gets my vote as the comfort noodle soup of choice (right after roast duck noodle soup from most Chinatown noodlehouses, but that wasn't one of our choices).

Vermecelli in my Belly!

Rice vermicelli are the only noodles that should be used in pancit. (at least according to my mom, which pretty much makes it true for me).

Ask a Bartender: What Cocktail Should Disappear Forever?

I would like to order a variation of a long island iced tea that has appletini, mojito, and a blended slushie drink as the key ingredients.

loose sausage, cooked or not?

It'll cook properly. Just keep the pieces on the smaller side.

I prefer to put it on the pizza raw and let it cook with the pie.

Tipping: My latest conundrum

I still tip at these places if there's a mechanism to do so via a tip jar or place on the check since most of the ones near me are non-chain small businesses and I appreciate the fact that the owners/operators are working their butts off for usually not a ton of money and every penny counts.

Don't get me wrong, they still have to be pleasant to deal with and treat me well as a customer but overall I like to help them out in any way possible. I'll usually do the same when I order take out.

"Wok" should I do?

IMO, the wok only really shines at high heat for stir fries, otherwise results would likely be very similar to what you're already producing out of the skillet.

Saute your proteins in smaller batches and par cook your veggies (I usually steam broccoli and such in the microwave) and results should usually be pretty acceptable.

how to brown a pizza in a microwave

Despite what some manufacturers might want you to believe, the microwave can't brown foods since it's main mechanism of action is steam.

Just use a frying pan (on the stove, not in the microwave). It only takes a few minutes.

Bad Food Anger

There is nothing more disappointing than underseasoned or otherwise bad fried chicken.

It doesn't really make me angry but I cry inside.

Homemade Condiments You Keep on Hand

Pickeled red onions for me. They last pretty much forever in the fridge and work with so many dishes (especially in salads, as a side for any roasted meat, or on pizza).

The next ingredient trend..any predictions?

I think we're due for a cyclical return to simple cooking methods and preparations. Expect to see everything cooked in/over a wood burning heat source (which would pick up on the smoke trend idea quite nicely).

Ditto the thoughts on pickles. Also, hush puppies and/or other fritter variations.

Round vs. Oval Stewpots

There's probably a slight difference in the way that they cook but I doubt it makes a noticeable difference in everyday use.

I tend to lean towards round for no other reason than I find them easier to store and work with on the stovetop (e.g., burner placement, stirring, etc.)

Meatballs sans veal

Use the Frankie's meatball recipe from this site - it's outrageous and uses 100% beef (though pork makes everything better). I've also adopted that recipe base for turkey burgers, meatloaf, etc. since it always stays nice and moist.

The secret is using soaked white bread, eggs, and dry bread crumbs as the meat binder.

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Breaded cutlet. Eat plain, in a sandwich, or make chicken parm.

Alternatively, sous vide them to about 142F. They'll stay nice and juicy. Slather on some barbeque sauce and torch to brown or finish with a bread crumb & cheese crust in a skillet.

Roasts - rest time impact on carryover?

A quick question on roasting meat and resting time - I always let my roasts rest for at least 30 minutes before carving and count on about 5 to 10 degrees of carryover during the rest, depending on size.

If I know that I'm going to finish the roast early and give it a 60 minute rest instead of 30 minutes, will the carryover impact be more than I'm used to?

In other words, is 30 minutes the point at which roasts will generally hit their 'terminal' temperature or will temps continue to rise with a longer rest?

Better to...

Get a 'boring' meal on the table prepared via traditional means 10 times out of 10 or to risk a spectacular crash and burn by trying an as yet unproven (but potentially better) cooking method for an important part of an important meal?

Discuss.

Speaking for myself, I will be butterflying my bird this year before roasting but can safely say that grilling, confitting, steaming(recommended by Jacques Pepin in the NY Times), or turduckening will not be anywhere close to my radar screen this Thanksgiving.

What's your appetite for holiday experimentation and risk? Any good stories to tell?

Sous Vide Smells?

I've been playing with my new SVS for the past few weeks - definitely worth the hype. That said, I've cooked beef a few times and experienced an odd odor every time (both while the bags were in the bath and after I took the beef out of the bags). It didn't really smell bad, it just smelled a bit metallic and chemically. The smell only seems to manifest with beef - pork and chicken have been fine and odorless as you'd expect them to be.

Seasonings or marinades don't seem to make a difference. Food safety isn't an issue as I've been following the existing charts religiously. All instances were cook-serve, so no problems with cooking or storage. All beef tasted normal despite the smell.

Anybody else experienced this? I've found a few references on the internet for off-smelling beef that sounds very similar to what I'm experiencing but no real answers.

My thoughts on what could be causing it:

1.) Beef is the only ingredient I've cooked for longer than 3 hours. I wonder if the bags that come with the SVS machine release sort of odor after an extended period in the bath? Also, it seems odd that I'd be able to smell the food through the bags while still in the bath so maybe the bags themselves are generating the smell.

2.) All beef was previously frozen before being prepped for the SVS. All in vacuum packs directly from the butcher and defrosted at safe temps in the fridge. I put them into the freezer pretty much directly from the butcher case but I wonder if they might have begun to spoil before they ever hit the deep freeze. I've used beef this way in non-SV applications before and never noticed a problem - I wonder if the long time in water tends to magnify a spoilage issue or if the smells created by other high heat cooking methods have been masking it?

3.) The smell is just the smell of beef. I'm just not used to it because other cooking methods tend to hide the smell.

Thoughts?

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