maui420

after eating at other steak places, my favorite would have to be ruths chris. ive checked out their website and it seems they have a really hot broiler that can sear a steak good. 1400+ i think? i get a cowboy ribeye, medium, pittsburg done. the steak comes out with a nice crispy, not burnt, texture but still leaving the meat medium.

yea, i am having trouble with the larger peieces of chicken. a thick chicken breast or drumstick cooked at 360 for 17mins will surely burn, especially when dipped in milk. the skin looks perfect at the 7-8min mark. pass that, it starts to get dark/burn. in the fried chicken thread in the cooking section, there are some people who boiled their chicken briefly. i wonder if somehow in the popeyes process they do something similiar. or if they fry the thick peices at 325, but at that temp, the skin wont be crispy right? i want to get to the bottom of this! that day when i fried the chicken, i did a few without dipping in the batter. after letting the chicken sit in the cajun seasoning for a few hrs, i dipped it in a spiced mixture(flour, garlic powder, cayenne, oninon powder, paprika, baking powder) and let it sit some more in the fridge until the spiced flour looked 'wet'. this method seemed to give the chicken a more crunch with much less mess. The chicken looks great Maui. Since my last post I've learned a few more things about the process. 1- According to my source, although the seasoning used at Popeye's is labeled as Cajun seasoning, she thinks it is plain cayenne and extremely hot, so much so that some employees need to wear masks when applying it. 2- The seasoned chicken is held overnight before battering and frying. 3- The chicken is dipped in the pancake batter very swiftly, so as to not loose too much of the seasoning. As I said in my original post, I've only tried this recipe on wings. The reason is that frying at 350* in about 3" of oil, The batter starts to get too dark after about 8 minutes. Frying larger pieces such as thighs and legs would not cook thoroughly before getting to dark. My source doesn't have an explanation for this. They cook all pieces at 360* for 17 to 18 minutes. So maybe it's in the flour or the batter. Go finger?! ←

of course it is and is pretty darn expensive. i grabbed the first cajun seasoning they were selling at acme. it was either the fancy gourmet mccormick stuff or the generic plain jane looking stuff. i will definitly check out the tony's and zatarains. thanks!

hi thanks so much for the recipe. i tried it last week and it was pretty good. i think next time ill add a little more salt and a tad bit more cayeene or hot suace to the mix. i also think i went a little on the chicken with cajun. therefore yesterday i bought myself one of those large containers of cajun spice from sams. here are my pics. i will try again in a few days until my body gets over the fried food feeling! my favorite knife to chop things up

hi, there are no rules/laws in the netherlands for selling food?

oh yess.....a nice fatty ribeye + bone cooked crispy burnt medium is the best!

i was able to try out the roast corn at the wildwood bbq fest. it was pretty good. i guess my main concern with that is a steady supply of super sweet corn.

yea im thinking about that to, specialize in kabobs cooked on a wood fired grill with pecan and oak. keep the meat refridgerated, marinated, assembled, and cook and finish on the grill close to order time(probably take about 20mins to cook thoroghly). what ever is not sold(the meat in the fridge), i can use the next day. unlike bbq, that cooked meat would have to be tossed since it wont be as fresh. kind of like bahama breeze kabobs( meat with vegies etc...) forgive my bad spelling.

i will have to check that out. thanks for the reply! i always get a craving about once a month, to get a spicy keilbasa on a toasted roll packed with saukraut, relish, onions, mustard, and ketchup.

thats funny you say that because all the food that i listed are my favorite! lol i am very confused. one day i see myself sticking to bbq, the next day its garlic shrimp, the day after its french fries and chicken wings etc.. heck i even have a passion for carrot and chocolate cake thanks to the threads over in the baking section. =). .ive spent maybe the past yr or two working on the few things(or should i say many) i like to eat. searching for recipes, tweaking them, making sure the food is cooked just right, and having plenty of bbq's over the summer to 'test' things out with all the friends and friends of friends. the best feeling is when you meet a friend's friend, and they say, "oh your the guy who makes some really good food, i heard about you..." i guess i get a kick out of that because i feel 'happy' when cooking and serving people. the food business is where i totally see myself. in the end, one day, my wife and i would like to own a small cafe and breakfast place or a small food takeout specializing in something. but before that happens, ill need to work my current computer job and hope to get some profit and practice with a food trailer. i have a long road ahead.

hi, thanks for the reply. the majority at columbus seem to be white, spanish, some asians and blacks. i am not sure about the income level, maybe average? i know that the asian and spanish kabob stands, there is always a line. if the income level is average, i question how much people would be willing to spend on a good quality lunch. the guy who served bbq, was he/she any good? my plan would be to cook the bbq the morning of, store in a holding oven, and finish the ribs and chicken on the grill right before serving. how many customers do you think he was able to serve a day? is 100 considered a lot? 1)I was going suggest this as well as waffles and ice cream sandwiches, funnel cakes, fries, milk shakes and lemonades.. There is money to be made in serving sugar and water at a ridiculous mark up.. 2)Mexican corn and taco truck.. Make breakfast burritos and at lunch make tacos.. 3)I think copying the basic menu of a New Brunswick Grease Truck would certainly be a good thing as well.. I have a couple years of flea market experience.. I use to have booths and sell to vendors at the Englishtown Flea Market.. There was a semi decent BBQ Truck that did a lot of business.. There was always a line, half because of the people, the other reason was the guy was painfully slow.. Besides that truck , there really was just a few run of the mill "roach coaches", serving basic cuisines.. We would all show up to get table space around 5 am.. At this time we would get breakfast.. So there were Bacon egg and Cheeses.. Taylor hams and cheese, hamburgers, coffee, fries... Then the same truck would start serving lunch to the crowds arriving... So if you are planning on making a full day out of it, you should make a breakfast menu too.. So the waffle idea might work for breakfast and lunch.. Also, I dont know who frequents the Market over there.. The race or ethnicity of the customers or income levels.. ←

same here. so far the only seafood ive ordered off of a truck/trailer was from kauia HI, the shrimp truck lady. now that was good and well worth it.

haha, everyone i know always mentions the tube sock guy. well, the tube sock flea market was one of my planned places to setup shop. i also would like to setup anywhere that is nice, like a real farmers market, outdoor events, parades, festivals, fund raisers, etc...

when you mean portable, do you mean where people can order and walk around with it? yes, that is also whats in my mind. how many people actually would want a meal at the flea market where they have to sit down or stand still to enjoy. if i go the meal route, i will have to set out some small tables or somthing.

hi thanks for the reply, oh your not being rude at all, the more i get to think the better off ill be. here in NJ, some counties want the food trailer/truck to be working out of a certified comissary where other can have the truck/trailer be the commisary, just as long it is inspected and everything meets the laws, regulations, etc... i plan on setting myself apart from the other vendors by not only the food but also by an image. that image being cleanliness, presentation, etc...i think cleanliness alone would be a big help and that my trailer would be brand spanking new.

yup, there are no better wings than the ones served stright out the fryer dipped in buffolo wings sauce and crispy as heck.

wow, thanks all for the quick replies. i also forgot to add fresh cut fries to the list.

do well? i am planning my future food business and am pretty well....excited and undecisive of what food id like to specialize in. i want to have a specialty, a name, a following...you know, the small popular food joints that show up on good eats food channel. ive already did my research on licenses, permits, locations, equipment, process, recipes, etc...now i just cant decide on what to serve. my favorites that i would like to serve are....... something seafood related. something like garlic shrimp scampi like what they serve over in hawaii, lobster rolls, etc... fried chicken and chicken wings bbq. ribs, pulled pork sandwhiches, chicken quarters grilled kabobs. chicken, pork, beef, vegatable everything i plan to serve, i plan on using the best tasting ingredients and cook them as perfect as can be. at the columbus flea market i know that there are plenty kabobs, spanish food, and fried chicken. so what does egullet think? thanks

hi, i was wondering what cuts of meat to use for pork and beef kabobs? i know pork loin is used, but is there a better/fattier/tastier cut? for beef, i know people use tenderloin, but that can get a little pricey. will sirloin be ok to use for the large picnics? is there a better cut? thanks.

hi wendy, thanks for the reply! answers: 1. Yes, you can get a big difference between using melted or softened butter in any/ almost every recipe. When you mix together a cookie or cake often you need to whip air into it and that effects volume and texture. If your butter is melted it won't take whipped air. We intentionally use melted butter and not soft in other recipes. So stick to which ever your recipe calls for. 2. Sifting ingredients was begun years ago when the quality of our ingredients weren't as good as they are now. So you can get away with not sifting in many recipes. Personally, I think it's added to too many recipes unneccessarily. BUT occasionally it will be important and it will strongly effect your recipe, so you can't ignore sifting all the time. Theres a huge difference in measuring items that have or have not been sifted, so you might be measuring too much of an item if you didn't sift it when the recipe told you to. 3. When you refridgerate a cake it changes it's texture. Usually making the item firmer. Sometimes the item goes back to it's fresh baked texture after it comes up to room temp. and sometimes it doesn't. A firmer cake is far easier to frost then a delicate freshly baked cake. But a fresh baked butter cake will not taste the same after it's been refridgerated..........so it depends. AND if your icing/frosting is stiff or light and easy to spread then that effects which way you need your cake to be. Some cake recipes tell you to freeze the still hot cake. Sooooo there's not one answer to this question. Typcially, chilling in the cooler won't hurt your product, even if it isn't ideal for that baked good. ←

hi, my wife and I will be vacationing there in a few weeks and im trying to get a list of what are the 'must' eats. im hoping to check out any brick oven bakeries and pizzerias. also any place that serves really good wine. any recommendations? thank you!

1.is there a big difference in using softened butter vs melted butter in terms of making chocolate chip cookies, basic cakes, and other things. well in what cases would it make a difference? 2.since ive been baking, i never shift the dry ingredients. when i combine all the dry ingredients, i take a whisk and whisk the bowl to make sure all the dry ingredients are dispersed equally. should i shift? 3.after i bake a cake, is it better to leave it at room temp to cool, or can i place the cake in the fridge before i ice? 4...

my favorite food to deep fry other than chicken and fries, are RIBS with the popyes coating. the fat becomes like a pork grind with flavor.

thanks all for the replies. another question, at what temp do you fry large batches of chicken? i know it cant be 375, maybe around 325 for 20-25 mins? chicken wings at 375 take around 12-14 mins for a nice crunchy cooked wing. for larger pieces, the outside will burn before the insides get cooked.

my wife and I have plenty of BBQ's over the summer. typically anywhere from 30-50 guests. things i have learned. 1. dont set out the whole dish and try to keep chairs as far away from the food area as possible. lol. (one time i fried around 10lbs of chicken wings, i had a few friends sit around the plate like its a wing bowl. i was mostly upset because not all the guests had gotten a plate yet!) 2. put trash bags/cans in high traffic areas. i guess its not common sense to throw away your plate/cups when your done? 3. its nice to have most food in some type of disposable. like chicken/ribs/ salad/etc.. placed in a alumminum pan. that way it can gostright to the trash, or stright into the fridge after the party. 4. have fun! worry about the mess the next day...i try to remind myself party = fun, not stress, even though it really annoys me when people leave their trash around!