Absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions (Part 2)

[ElsieD]

11 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Yes. It's Cantonese rice wine of cooking quality, rather than for drinking. The Chinese on the front label reads 廣東米酒 (guǎng dōng mǐ jiǔ) in Traditional Chinese characters as still used in Hong Kong, Taiwan and much of the Chinese diaspora. The reverse label repeats this, but in the simplified characters used in the Chinese mainland.  

 

This refers to Guangdong, the Cantonese speaking mainland province opposite Hong Kong. Kwangtung is the Cantonese pronunciation for Guangdong (the Mandarin name). Mujiu is literally rice wine.  It is not vinegar (unless it's been there a vey long time).

 

The wine is mainly used in marinades and sauces with some Cantonese dishes.

 

 

Thank you.  As you can see it has an expiry  date of 2016.  I didn't think vinegar expired.  Should I be tossing it?

[liuzhou]

@ElsieD

 

I just noticed the expiry date of October 2016! It is now 8 years over that, so it may well be vinegar after all. I'd bin it. It was never intended to be vinegar.

 

 

 

Edited November 18 by liuzhou (log)

[ElsieD]

7 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

@ElsieD

 

I just noticed the expiry date of October 2016! It is now 8 years over that, so it may well be vinegar after all. I'd bin it. It was never intended to be vinegar.

 

 

 

Thanks again.  Down the sink it goes!

[rotuts]

its also salted .  dump it just for that .

Edited November 18 by rotuts (log)

[TdeV]

When does miso expire? There's hardly any gone out of the container; sometime in the summer I put some on eggplant, tasted okay; but it's really old.

[rotuts]

I have two miso's :

 

 

the on on the R is from Tj's , and I refrigerate after opening.   

 

the packet says it expires 6 / 25 .

 

the left came from MarketBasket .   I have not opened it yet.

 

it does not say anything on the packet about expiring at all .

 

it does have these number on  the back :  5512 044.

 

miso has so much salt in it , as the idea was to preserve via salting

 

it might not expire as such for some time.

 

might not kill you , in the distant future

 

but might taste less interesting.

Edited November 20 by rotuts (log)

[TdeV]

Do you mean "might taste LESS interesting", @rotuts ?

[rotuts]

thank you.  corrected.

[BeeZee]

Miso, if you use a clean utensil to scoop it out of the package, lasts a VERY long time in the refrigerator. Commercially packaged stuff is fine for a year.

[scubadoo97]

“it was always the braising cuts I shopped for most aggressively”

 

Same here but now we eat very little red meat

[SLB]

You know how dry rubs on meat like ribs always appear to have been applied with a heavy-hand, looking like 100% coverage?    Why do people do this with as strongly-tasting meat as beef?  Is this actually necessary?

 

[Smithy]

4 hours ago, SLB said:

You know how dry rubs on meat like ribs always appear to have been applied with a heavy-hand, looking like 100% coverage?    Why do people do this with as strongly-tasting meat as beef?  Is this actually necessary?

 

 

My guess, and it's strictly a guess, is that it's a matter of taste. If you like the seasonings in the rub and think they strongly complement the meat flavor, you'd add a lot. I find that not all beef has a lot of flavor, incidentally, so the rub may be more necessary for certain cuts.

 

An example, drawing from the sauce side: my husband loved the flavor of barbecue sauce, and he tended to drown his pork and beef in barbecue sauce even as he claimed to like the meats themselves! I find that most barbecue sauces overwhelm the meat they're on unless they used sparingly. Clearly, our mileages varied.

[SLB]

I'm the same as you re barbecue sauce, I can't stand it when I can't taste the meat.  Also, pasta.  I like what turns out to be a very small amount of pasta sauce.

 

And, since it's pie season -- I hate it when I can't taste the fruit because of all the sugar.  HATE IT!

 

I'm sensing a trend here . . . .

 

Thank you.

Edited November 23 by SLB (log)

[MaryIsobel]

For a few years I have been makinig oven baked chicken wings with the baking powder method. Start them low to render the fat and then crank the heat to get them crispy. Terrific results - you would think they were deep fried. When it is just my husband and I, I toss them in a Franks/butter solution - aka Buffalo wings. I have also done a honey garlic sauce. Now for my question. My son-in-law (T1 diabetic since childhood) eschews anything with sugar in it but doesn't care or Buffalo wings. His go-to is salt and pepper wings. Simple right? Not exactly. At what point would I salt and pepper them and how do I get that mixture to stick to the wings? This is the method I use for cooking the wings: https://www.recipetineats.com/crispy-oven-baked-chicken-wings-honey-garlic-sauce/#wprm-recipe-container-20701

[FauxPas]

2 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

 His go-to is salt and pepper wings. Simple right? Not exactly. At what point would I salt and pepper them and how do I get that mixture to stick to the wings? 

 

I notice that some salt is added with the baking powder coating, could you try upping the salt a bit and also adding in some pepper at that point? Or salt and pepper just before turning the heat up? Aren't the wings a bit wet at that point with the rendering? (I have never done the baking powder method, so I might be missing something with these suggestions.) 

 

I have the little Cuisinart Steam Convection oven and I do salt and pepper wings all the time in it.  I mix the wings with some olive oil, arrange on a rack and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I use steam bake at about 325 - 350F for 20 -25 mins and then turn them over, sprinkle with a bit more S & P and cook for another 20-25 mins. Mike likes his wings crisped and brown so sometimes I cook a bit longer than those times. All I can say is that we love these wings and have them frequently. 

 

I guess, if you wanted to, you could try my method and add a pan of water to your oven to add some steam - in whatever oven you usually use? 

 

But not sure this is of any help to you, sorry!  🙂

 

 

[FauxPas]

4 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

His go-to is salt and pepper wings.

 

Strangely enough, we were planning wings tonight so here are some photos. I have a bit of hot sauce on the side for my wings and Mike has a ranch dressing for his veggies and wings. We call these S&P wings. We love them, folks we have served them to seem to like them also. But I really think the steam oven does a great job. 

 

 

 

 

[Dave the Cook]

On 11/22/2024 at 10:07 AM, SLB said:

You know how dry rubs on meat like ribs always appear to have been applied with a heavy-hand, looking like 100% coverage?    Why do people do this with as strongly-tasting meat as beef?  Is this actually necessary?

 

 

On 11/22/2024 at 2:49 PM, Smithy said:

My guess, and it's strictly a guess, is that it's a matter of taste. If you like the seasonings in the rub and think they strongly complement the meat flavor, you'd add a lot. I find that not all beef has a lot of flavor, incidentally, so the rub may be more necessary for certain cuts.

 

Rubs are typically used on proteins that are headed for a smoker, where they will cook for a long time at a low temperature. In  my experience, there are two reasons a heavy hand is used when applying them:

1. Many people, including some professional pitmasters, believe that a thick layer of rub will promote the formation of bark, the dark, often rough surface that develops on long-cooked proteins. These people are wrong. Bark will form with simply smoke, heat and time. At best, rubs flavor the bark. That makes it sound like rub makes a negligible contribution, but this is a misapprehension. A good rub is like a signature, although many competition judges ignore bark.
2. Smoke, heat and time tend to diminish many of the flavors that are often found in rubs. In other words, if you want some, you have to start with a lot. In addition, a great proportion of many rub recipes are mild, even neutral flavors like the plain (not smoke, not hot, not even really sweet) paprika your nonna used to decorate deviled eggs, which are used mostly as fillers. This makes them sound useless, but they serve the important purpose of more evenly distributing flavorful components throughout the application.

[Dave the Cook]

On 10/18/2024 at 11:07 PM, Shel_B said:

I use dried, roasted garlic with some frequency, often in combination with fresh garlic.  It imparts another flavor profile to the dish.  I don't see it as different from using any dried herb or spice, nor do I see it as a substitute for fresh garlic. It's it's own thing.

 

To quote* the late, great Paul Prudhomme:

Quote

I sometimes call for fresh garlic and onions and garlic and onion powders.  I've experimented with this dual system and found that the combination of the powdered ingredients in the seasoning mixes and the fresh in other steps of the recipes makes the final effect more balanced and interesting.

* Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen, p 22

 

[rotuts]

I completely agree w @Dave the Cook

 

I also consider rubs to have two , very different components , best treated independently :

 

1 ) Salt 

 

2 ) herbs and spices .

 

Aaron Franklin   ( Franklin BBQ fame , and Author of BBQ books , PBS series , and MasterClass )

 

said this about Pork Shoulder :  paraphrased :  ' it can handle ( a lot of ?? ) Salt '

 

and his rub had  Paprika  ( sweet ) .  he pointed out it was  not used for flavor , but for color.

 

want to really understand Rubs ?  

 

Take him as your guide.

Edited Monday at 10:39 PM by rotuts (log)

[pastameshugana]

One of the things about heavy-handed rubs is that it always seemed to me they had the potential of limiting the smoke influence on the meat. I'm sure it's actually minimal when you consider the molecular sizes/etc., but one of those things that sticks in my head.

 

On the other hand, I can't fathom the heavy BBQ basting that many do while smoking. In essence, you are now just smoking the sauce, rather than the meat. Or at least it sure seems that way.