Norm Matthews

I do have a good exhaust system. It is a mini version or home version of what restaurants use by code but you still get grease splatters. I have spatter screens and they help but there are still grease spatters. I don't see any way to avoid it but you don't have to let it build up. I clean the stove top after every cook session and do an even more thorough cleaning, getting the walls, floor and counters every Sunday afternoon. It is not a lot of work if you keep up with it. It takes an extra 5 minutes a day and 20 minutes on Sunday.

Well this one was honest.. honest mistake probably. Speaking of Kroger's meat dept. They had some very white stuff in foam trays with plastic wrap over them with the label: Pork, the other white meat. Lean and healthy. It was pure pork fat.

I cant recall all of the details but I once bought a package that was labeled Texas (something) Dinner for two. It was enough for one-me, not two hungry people. It had included some sausage, shrimp, corn and other stuff. It said something like 120 calories per serving on the front. Inside the package, the sausage was packaged separately and the information about that shot the 120 calories claim all to pieces. On the back of the outer package, in very fine print, it said servings per package: 10

Sometimes I make tacos with carnitas meat, chopped. I also have a Mexican roast beef that can be shredded and used in the meat but most of the time I use ground beef, chorizo, onion and refried beans for the meat filling. Others have posted good seasonings- With the ground beef mixture I use Spanish Gardens from Kansas City. My son's GF is half Mexican and she prefers that taco seasoning too.

Although I have had it for years, my KitchenAid mixer changed the way I cook the most. Now I don't even think twice about making mayonnaise, bread, cake batters, whipping cream or egg whites. I just turn on the machine and it does all the arm and elbow grease work for me. I was surprised at how much I use a flat whisk my son gave me a few years ago. I can whisk stuff in a square sided sauce pan and use it as a spatula in a teflon skillet among other uses.

I believe KitchenAid is now making one too. I'd go with that one because I am afraid an aftermarket, off-brand version might void any warranty you have on the mixer.

There is a good recipe and directions for breakfast sausage at http://www.stuffers.com/

However salt does preform an important function in cooking and which kind-particle size- how much, and when it is used that can make a big difference in final results.

My mistake. I misread the name. Bitterman it is.

There is a new book out about salt. It is called: Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral by Mark Bittman. It outlines history, varieties, methods of manufacture and proper use. In the book he mentions 5 rules for using salt in cooking. They are: 1. Eat all the salt you want as long as you are the one doing the salting” Eliminate processed foods and salt drops dramatically. 2. skew the salt toward the end of food preparation 3. Use only natural, unrefined salts” These salts provide better flavor and greater nutritional value 4. Make salting a deliberate act.” Break out of the salting habit-”think of salt as an opportunity rather than routine. 5. Use the right salt at the right time...Finishing with salt alters the surface of ingredients chemically. Salt added during cooking affects the flavor or food and stimulates taste buds.

Ideal poaching temp for fish is approximately 140º. Any higher risks overcooking. At around 140 in an electric skillet, the fish won't overcook. Controlled temperature poaching is one advantage of sous vide so that is an argument in favor of cooking at temperature but simmer and boil are simpler and easier to see than measuring. Wine, water, salt and stock combined does not boil at the same temperature as plain water. Water does not boil at high elevations at the same temperature as sea level. If you want to go to the extra trouble of measuring a simmer or boil then go ahead. I just find it a bit of a bother to go to the extra step. It really isn't all that critical at what temperature you boil pasta or simmer a chicken stock.

After I peel and cut a pear in half and remove the core with a melon baller, I use a small potters loop tool (from a ceramic supply store) to take out the tough part running from the core to the stem. It makes a nicer looking round cut for serving the pear half (as with ice cream and raspberry sauce).

Temperature of the liquid can vary according to relative elevation and what other ingredients may be in the water for flavor.. such as court bouillon. The terms describe the degree of activity the liquid has. Poach is hot, below boiling. Then there is simmer, slow boil, boil, and rapid boil. The activity of the liquid is determined by the amount of heat applied and length of time needed for the condition described.

Japanese rice wine is sake. I don't know what Chinese rice wine is called but dry sherry is often mentioned as a substitute in 'Asian' style recipes. You could use what you got to deglaze your pan, then cook it down to a syrup and use other ingredients to make a sauce.

It sounds to me like you got a cooking wine instead of a drinking wine like sake. I suppose you could use it in place of salt for t times until you use it up. If it has alcohol, it isn't a total loss even though you say it does not have much flavor itself. Alcohol is a solvent for food flavors that other solvents, (water and oil) don't bring out. Alcohol is a great flavor enhancer for tomatoes. Vodka sauce does not have much flavor in the alcohol but brings out the alcohol solvent flavors of tomatoes. You could use it for things like that.

My cutting board is cantilevered so that it sticks a little higher and over the edge of the sink where the disposer is located so that I can sweep the garbage off the board and into the disposer ( I know I should save it for compost or stock but I don't). My stove is directly behind me so when I have too much stuff on the cutting board to transfer with my hands, i turn around, pick up the skilled and hold it under the overhand of the cutting board and scoop the contents off into the pan.

I use cookbooks that present entire meals and those give me ideas for what to serve together even though they aren't all in the same meal in the book, I can pick from categories. The three books that help me plan for sides are Julia Child and Company, The Best of Beard and Culinary Artistry.

You are probably using too much leavening. According to Shirley Corriher, a rule of thumb is to use 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder for each cup of flour or 1/4 tsp. baking soda. But is is variable. If your pan is larger, you will need less baking powder because the batter will be thinner than if in a smaller pen. One thought is that the original recipe may have used single acting baking powder while most of what you get today is double acting.

What I usually do is put the ingredients in a small jar, close it with a one piece mason jar lid and shake it vigorously. It works for me. I use what I need and put the rest in the refrigerator until next time.

I have a question. If you want a cheese sauce why not just do a variation on a Mornay sauce?

I do the Alton Brown method by lining a rimmed baking sheet with foil, put it in a cold oven, turn it to 400º and check after 20 minutes. Thick bacon takes a little longer, really thin bacon takes a little less time. I pour off the fat and save it for cooking and drain the bacon on paper towels. ps I didn't know it was A. B.s method though. I once saw Emril do it the same way.

One of the favorite BBQ joints in KC is Oklahoma Joe's This rub is really good. I use it all the time. Put it on the pork the night before and wrap in plastic, then foil and refrigerate. Next day let come to room temperature before putting it on the BBQ or the grill. Oklahoma Joe's Rib Rub 2 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon white pepper 1 teaspoon black pepper 1. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt, onion powder, white pepper and black pepper. 2. Store in a covered container at room temperature! Note, A variation is to rub beef short ribs with vinegar before applying the rub.

It makes a great deal of difference if you happen to be using a different brand of flour than the person who wrote it. Humidity does not make a significant difference but flour does. Professional bakers use weight to measure flour for accuracy but they buy the same flour every day and in large quantities. Home bakers will have a different situation. Some flour, even if they are all purpose flours will have different protein content. You can't tell by reading the label because they all round off and don't give a true idea. Here are some hypothetical examples. What if you are using a tried and true white bread recipe that someone provided you and you measure all the ingredients exactly to within .01 of a gram. If you use Martha White All Purpose and the original used Gold Medal AP flour, you are going to have a sticky mess when the other flour will have given you a good dough. What if you knead the bread for three minutes and the original person kneaded for six? What if you both knead for the same period of time but your way does not maximize the development of a smooth and elastic surface as well? Whose is going to rise higher? What if the room in which you let the bread rise is cooler than the original? What if you yeast is not as fresh and as active? What if your oven thermostat is not accurate and you are baking the bread hotter than you think you are? Then there is the issue of converting recipes. Use the amount that works for you. Don't go to some site and see how much flour is supposed to weigh and substitute that for cups. That is just changing one approximation for another. Here are a random sample of sites that tell you how much a cup of all purpose flour weighs. http://www.veg-world.com/articles/cups.htm Flour (all-purpose, white,self-raising, etc) 4 oz 110g http://www.erikthered.com/flwm.html 1C =113g http://www.preparedpantry.com/how-to-measure-flour-convert-cups-ounces.aspx 1C = 4.25 oz ( 1oz = 28.35g so 28.35x 4.25= 120.49) http://allrecipes.com//HowTo/baking-ingredient-conversions/Detail.aspx 1C.=4.5 oz= 127.58

It would be nice if everyone could post the original recipe alongside the converted one because a recipe in grams and ml takes away the opportunity for many -if not most- people to try the recipe when they don't have the proper equipment to measure in such a manner.

Just to get things perfectly straight, mass is not volume. They are different. Mass is the amount of matter in an object. Volume is how much space it occupies. The ratio of these two is density (= mass / volume). A marshmallow and a pebble might have the same mass, but the marshmallow has a much larger volume and lower density than the pebble. Weight and mass are often confused because we typically use scales to measure both of them. But weight is not mass. Weight is the force exerted by the earth's gravity on an object. In a fixed gravity environment, weight is proportional to mass, which is why we can measure them using the same tool. If we took the marshmallow and the pebble to the moon, their mass would remain the same, but their weight would be lower than it is on earth. You are right. I was wrong on that account.