Prepping Ahead - Yea or Nay?

[Fernwood]

6 hours ago, Porthos said:

I regularly grate 2 lb blocks of sharp cheddar divided into 8 oz portions. They go into quart Ziplocs and get frozen. We pull them out one at a time to keep in the fridge. We've been doing this for years. There are four adults in our household at the moment but even when it was just my DW and myself we went through the cheese fast enough for mold to never be a problem. Right now we're also grating 2 lb blocks of Monterey Jack. All of this grating is done using a food processor. I do have one timing requirement for when to grate. I want an empty dishwasher so that I can immediately rinse off the parts of the food processor and get them into the machine.

 

@Porthos, If you're grating rather than shredding with the food processor, does that mean you are using the steel blade, rather than a disc?  Does the Monterey Jack grate nicely that way?  The kind I usually get is significantly softer than cheddar and I feel that it might get clumpy, but I'm just speculating.

Edited July 20, 2017 by Fernwood
Improved identification, streamlined punctuation (log)

[Porthos]

I use the Cuisinart DLC_837TX Medium disk. I cut the cheese so that it fits down the smaller tube within the pusher and apply constant pressure.

 

The jack just works so-so. In general I am grating that for others. Jack is much messier to clean up after.

[scubadoo97]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I prep most anything involving knife work or arithmetic before the mai tai.

 

 

Good advice.  I have to admit to having had a couple pours of whiskey before nearly losing my right index finger tip while using the mandoline.  Now I always use a Kevlar glove when using that hellish device.  Been a long time since I had a knife accident 

[lindag]

4 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

 

Good advice.  I have to admit to having had a couple pours of whiskey before nearly losing my right index finger tip while using the mandoline.  Now I always use a Kevlar glove when using that hellish device.  Been a long time since I had a knife accident 

 

I actally got a bad cut and bruise on my knuckle while wearing a no-cut glove.   I was slicing a hard sweet potato and my hand slammed into the blade.  So much for 'no-cut'.

[scubadoo97]

Thanks for the warning!!!

[rotuts]

I( do almost all knife-work before I start cooking

 

i.e. work with heat

 

for individual meals.

 

I use pyrex bowls for all the cut up stuff.

 

One thing Ive always done in the past is

 

I do more work in the kitchen no matter what

 

so there is less to do when I sit down :   on the plate.

 

Id never serve a boiled / steamed lobster   , clams in shells etc

 

lobster is de-shelled in the kitchen and then something is made w all the meat and innards

 

I have used scallop shells for a presentation of course

 

indeed id  rather cut the fresh corn off the cob and cook it some how than

 

eat it off the cob.

 

even for an outdoor BBQ

[kayb]

4 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I prep most anything involving knife work or arithmetic before the mai tai.

 

Wise choice.

 

[rotuts]

if you were to count sous vide ............

 

a lot of my meals start w a re-therm of a ( vast batch ) of ( frozen )  SV items

 

that's one of its finest attributes for me.

Edited July 21, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[Porthos]

Not a wonderful photo but enough for you to see, at the top of the bag, how the grated cheese holds up to being frozen.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I always prep ahead for stir fry. Everything! The chopping/slicing of meats and vegetables, assembly of all ingredients ready to go into the hot pan, including mixing sauces. I do this when I'm ready to cook the dish, though, so I'm not cold storing the prep. Stir fries are enough stress to get everything the right texture and doneness with everything prepped already.

 

I do like to cook a one pot soup sometimes, where you render the broth from meat and bones first, then leisurely chop your veggies to add starting with the longer cooking ones first and ending with the delicate ones. This is a very relaxing, no stress meal to cook for me as I enjoy chopping, but not so much time pressure.

 

I like to wash lettuce at least an hour before using it, especially in summer when our cold water out of the tap is not very cold at all. I shake off excess water, put it into a clean produce bag and put it back in the fridge to chill and absorb the water to become crispy, cold and delicious. I leave the leaves whole and tear into bite sized pieces at the last minute. I don't wash it too far ahead, though because lettuce keeps better on an intact head with the leaves carefully pulled from the outer layer. I do not understand bagged salads at all. Exception: spring mix, but that needs to be used pretty quickly.

 

Some things, like green split pea soup actually improve if you think to make them the day before. The texture thickens and the flavor improves. 

 

I don't chop veggies or tear lettuce for future meals, I think the quality degrades quickly, but I have the luxury of time.

 

I will marinate some meat preps overnight in the fridge occasionally. 

 

My favorite onion rings call for mixing up flour, salt and baking powder, dredging your rings, then mixing the flour mixture up with an egg and buttermilk or milk. Then you dip the pre-dredged rings into the batter and let them drain and semi-dry on a rack over a baking sheet. The recipe calls for further dredging in bread crumbs, but since I don't like a lot of breading on rings, it perfect for me to skip this step. They are like tempura rings and so good. I need to make some soon, as very few restaurants can make an onion ring I like.

 

Most of my prep ahead involves making a batch of something that's more than I can eat, eating a serving that day and freezing the rest for later dinners. That has to be something that freezes well like chicken cacciatore. Even then, I add freshly prepped green peppers for the reheat, because I don't think they fare too well in the freezer.

 

Of course I cook only for myself and have time. In restaurants or other institutions where a lot of people need to be fed and where time is money, I realize the prep ahead is the only way. They have a lot of turnover of ingredients too, and the good ones probably only prep ahead for that day's service, I would think.

 

When I entertained, I would do everything ahead that I could think of as close as possible to the time of the event and doing the items I judged would suffer least by storage first. Nothing wrong with prepping ahead as long as you can still serve a fresh quality end product. This is from a person who mixes salad dressings in batches for the salad with no leftovers, though. I am so spoiled.

[liuzhou]

12 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

I always prep ahead for stir fry. Everything!

 

Standard practice. There is no other way. Everything cooks too quickly to be messing about chopping something when half the ingredients are burning or at least wildly over-cooking. But just before cooking.

Edited July 26, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

5 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Standard practice. There is no other way. Everything cooks too quickly to be messing about chopping something when half the ingredients are burning or at least wildly over-cooking. But just before cooking.

 

 

Yeah, you would not have been pleased to be present and a victim of my first attempt at stir fry. 

 

In my defense, this was 42 years ago and with Betty Crocker as my guide. Don't get me wrong, Betty was way ahead of her time for international cuisine, but between her failure to stress the importance of pre-prep and my inexperience ... well, you know. Lesson learned.

[TdeV]

On 7/20/2017 at 4:28 PM, Fernwood said:

 

@Porthos, If you're grating rather than shredding with the food processor, does that mean you are using the steel blade, rather than a disc?  Does the Monterey Jack grate nicely that way?  The kind I usually get is significantly softer than cheddar and I feel that it might get clumpy, but I'm just speculating.

 

 

@Fernwood, I have always cut Monterey Jack or Mozzarella into large chunks (which will fit in the feed tube) and put those in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. Then the cheese is hard enough to shred well with the Cuisinart medium shredding blade. Give the blade a quick rinse under hot water to remove any stuck lumps and put as is into the dishwasher.

Edited July 31, 2017 by TdeV
Clarity (log)

[Porthos]

@TdeV Thanks for the "chilling the jack" suggestion.