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Absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions (Part 2)

Pontormo

By Pontormo
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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted

Since acquiring a blast freezer I've been accumulating bags of vacuum sealed frozen fish -- steaks and fillets.  I'd like to grill some of these fish portions.  What is the best way to go about it?  Thaw first, or grill from frozen?  Or something else?

 

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Since acquiring a blast freezer I've been accumulating bags of vacuum sealed frozen fish -- steaks and fillets.  I'd like to grill some of these fish portions.  What is the best way to go about it?  Thaw first, or grill from frozen?  Or something else?

 

 

 

I think that depends on the type of fish and thickness. Thinner ones from frozen can yield a juicy nice result but steak style hhmmm - again depends on fish. For me sometimes thawing completely releases moisture more than I want so a "half-thaw" is better. As always - to taste.

Edited by heidih (log)
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MokaPot

MokaPot

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Since acquiring a blast freezer I've been accumulating bags of vacuum sealed frozen fish -- steaks and fillets.  I'd like to grill some of these fish portions.  What is the best way to go about it?  Thaw first, or grill from frozen?  Or something else?

 

 

 

What kind of fish? Like @heidih said, it also depends on the thickness. Unless really thin, I don't think I'd cook from frozen. Also depends on your tolerance for raw or rare fish. For salmon or tuna (and maybe some other kinds of fish), I would prefer rare.

 

Not trying to be dense, but what exactly do you mean by "grill"?

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, MokaPot said:

 

What kind of fish? Like @heidih said, it also depends on the thickness. Unless really thin, I don't think I'd cook from frozen. Also depends on your tolerance for raw or rare fish. For salmon or tuna (and maybe some other kinds of fish), I would prefer rare.

 

Not trying to be dense, but what exactly do you mean by "grill"?

 

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/158072-philips-avance-grill/

 

Salmon, swordfish, bluefish, tuna.  How many millimeters is really thin?

 

 

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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AlexandraLynch

AlexandraLynch

Posted
Posted

I've had good luck with using James Beard's recipe for cooking fish. 10 minutes per inch thickness, double if frozen.400 degrees. 

 

I spray a cast iron pan down with oil, put the frozen filet on it, mist it with more oil, sprinkle thickly with seasoning (usually a blend from Penzey's)  and then shove it in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  It's never failed me.  I will add that I cook fish for other people. I grew up inland and am a supertaster and just really don't like it much. 

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Toliver

Toliver

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Posted (edited)

A belated thank you to everyone who responded regarding my country ribs issue.

A local grocery store had them on sale so I thought I would attempt cooking them again.

I put a nice spice rub on them, placed them in a  tin foil-lined pan with tin foil on top and baked them for 2 hours at 275°F 

Then I took them out of the oven and slathered them with BBQ Sauce. I put them back in, uncovered, for another hour.

They were so tender I could have shredded them with just a blunt spoon. They were not dried out, they were not tough. They were just perfect. Plus, the BBQ sauce ended up caramelizing which made them even more delicious.

Thank you eG! You rock! :D

Edited by Toliver
eliminated a redundancy (log)
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Smithy

Smithy

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21 hours ago, Toliver said:

A belated thank you to everyone who responded regarding my country ribs issue.

A local grocery store had them on sale so I thought I would attempt cooking them again.

I put a nice spice rub on them, placed them in a  tin foil-lined pan with tin foil on top and baked them for 2 hours at 275°F 

Then I took them out of the oven and slathered them with BBQ Sauce. I put them back in, uncovered, for another hour.

They were so tender I could have shredded them with just a blunt spoon. They were not dried out, they were not tough. They were just perfect. Plus, the BBQ sauce ended up caramelizing which made them even more delicious.

Thank you eG! You rock! :D

 

Huh. Maybe I'll have to try that cut again. Yours sounds delicious! Thanks for reporting back on it!

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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robirdstx

robirdstx

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23 minutes ago, TdeV said:

I'm rendering duck fat at very low temp on the stovetop. Is it safe to shut off the heat, leave the pan on the stove overnight, and continue the rendering in the morning?


If it were me, I would allow it to cool a bit and then refrigerate it until I was ready to finish the rendering.

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ElsieD

ElsieD

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44 minutes ago, TdeV said:

@Anna N uses her sous vide bath to defrost something frozen.

What would be the right temperature to defrost frozen ground meat? Steak or chicken?

For how long?

 

Thanks for asking.  I've often wondered the same thing.

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Anna N

Anna N

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45 minutes ago, TdeV said:

@Anna N uses her sous vide bath to defrost something frozen.

What would be the right temperature to defrost frozen ground meat? Steak or chicken?

For how long?

Well I have the Joule and It will not let me set a temperature less than 20°C. So that is where I set it. As for the amount of time required you’ll have to make your own judgment. For a pound of ground meat I would suggest checking it after one hour. I don’t think I would attempt to defrost a whole chicken this way! Chicken thighs probably take between one and two hours depending again on how many thighs you are trying to defrost. To be on the safe side I would not attempt to defrost anything that requires much more than two hours. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

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blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, TdeV said:

@Anna N uses her sous vide bath to defrost something frozen.

What would be the right temperature to defrost frozen ground meat? Steak or chicken?

For how long?

 

For this purpose, I want cold water circulating, no heat. The lowest temp my Anova can be set to is 41°F so that's what I use.  

My "cold" tap water isn't particularly chilly so I add ice to get the bath temp down in the low 40's to start.  My bath is set up in a small cooler so it holds the cold temp pretty well and I can depend on it staying in a safe zone. 

The time is going to depend on how big and what shape your hunk o'meat is.

If I'm sure I'm going to cook something right away, particularly something small that will thaw quickly, I'll go ahead with warmer water but if it's going to sit any length of time, I keep it chilly.

 

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TdeV

TdeV

Posted
Posted

I have the Joule too. Not as smart as the Anova, apparently.

Also I have an Auber PID scientific controller which will as low as 40°F and a dumb slow cooker, both of which I was going to give away. I wonder if I should now . . .

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haresfur

haresfur

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Posted

I just defrost at 55 C or whatever temperature I consider "done". That way it doesn't sit in the danger zone for bacteria growth.

 

If you are going to set it at 20 C, you might as well put it out on the counter, imo. (ok water is better than air for transferring heat into the food.

It's almost never bad to feed someone.

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted (edited)
17 minutes ago, haresfur said:

I just defrost at 55 C or whatever temperature I consider "done". That way it doesn't sit in the danger zone for bacteria growth.

 

If you are going to set it at 20 C, you might as well put it out on the counter, imo. (ok water is better than air for transferring heat into the food.

If I intend to sous vide something that is frozen then of course I will just put it in at the temperature I hope it ultimately reaches. But we are talking of things that we are going to cook in ways other than sous vide and need to get them safely and quickly defrosted. At least that is what I am talking about!

 

edited to add: since the object is frozen when put into cold tap water to defrost it is at a much lower temperature than the 20°C that I am allowed to set on the Joule. So it stays in the safety zone for a very long part of the hour to two hours that it takes to defrost. 

Edited by Anna N (log)
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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Smithy

Smithy

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One root system, two bulbs or lobes. Typical for a shallot. My question is: is this one shallot or two?

 

20201101_132125.jpeg

 

Not that it matters, it's all I have today, but I just realized I don't know the answer. I'll never forget the time when I used 3 heads of garlic in a sauce when the recipe called for 3 cloves of garlic! :blink: I've come a long way since then, but clearly I don't know everything. :) 

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Kim Shook

Kim Shook

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Smithy said:

One root system, two bulbs or lobes. Typical for a shallot. My question is: is this one shallot or two?

 

20201101_132125.jpeg

 

Not that it matters, it's all I have today, but I just realized I don't know the answer. I'll never forget the time when I used 3 heads of garlic in a sauce when the recipe called for 3 cloves of garlic! :blink: I've come a long way since then, but clearly I don't know everything. :) 

I have no clue and that's exactly why I detest recipes that call for: 1 apple, sliced or the juice of one lemon.  GIVE ME THE AMOUNT.  I don't even care if it is in US or Metric - anything is better than one of something that can be almost any size!

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Kim

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Anna N

Anna N

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55 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

My question is: is this one shallot or two?

In my house it would depend. If it was the last  shallot that I had and I had no reason to think I would need more in the near future, it would be one shallot. If, on the other hand, it was the last shallot in the house and I had plans to make something else calling for a shallot then I would consider it two shallots. My point being it probably won’t make much difference to anything whether you consider it one or two. 😂

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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JoNorvelleWalker

JoNorvelleWalker

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Smithy said:

I'll never forget the time when I used 3 heads of garlic in a sauce when the recipe called for 3 cloves of garlic!

 

Oh you did that too!

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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