Interesting Little Things That We Have Done Forever

[MaryIsobel]

2 minutes ago, chromedome said:

I'm at about the same usage level for my household of two. And we're not cocktail drinkers at all.

At least 50% of our Caesars are "virgin." They are such a flavouful cocktail, that I honestly have a hard time discerning between virgin and the real thing.

[MaryIsobel]

21 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

It doesn't make much sense to me either and personally, I don't consider cucumbers to be a bitter vegetable. I wonder if they have ever tried it with bitter melon.

I think any bitterness in cucumbers comes from the skin. 75% of the year, I buy English/Hothouse cucumbers and we eat them skin and all. When we are priviledged to have garden cukes, sometimes the peel is bitter, so that is the only time I peel cucumbers.

 

[SLB]

I don't understqnd the cucumber thing either, and I am agog to report that I've found it to actually work.  Could be a fluke, but I was losing it over the bitter CSA cucumbers.  And then it vanished when I started trimming ends and rubbing. 

 

Anyway.  The old timey thing I still do for nostalgia alone is scrape the surface of steaks with a dull knife.  To remove, you know, dirt. 

 

[**I think the concern is that the butcher, or store, is selling you an item has fallen on the floor]. 

 

As I was taught:  if you rinse it (like we do with chicken), you will rinse away the beef juices.  Hence:  scrape.

 

I also clean my greens for a long time in heavily salted water, much longer than is actually required for today's market greens. 

 

One flank of the women's side of my ancestry meticulously removed the green leafy aspect from 100% of the veins of collard greens.  Repeat:  ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.  No veins.  None.  Not in any single leaf of green.  

 

I do not do that anymore . . . .

 

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by SLB (log)

[NadyaDuke]

When I’m browning hamburger meat in a skillet, I always salt the pan and then add the meat, because that’s what my dad did. Works fine but no better than salting after I’m sure.

 

My husband and I have an ongoing debate about whether French toast should be made from a recipe.  When I left home, I carefully copied down my father’s recipe with its ratio of eggs, milk, sugar and optional vanilla. But the first time I pulled it out my husband laughed because he learned the winging it way of making it. We’re still debating it philosophically but in practice I wing it or he does. I still have the recipe card though!

 

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

9 hours ago, kayb said:

I use a paring knife to peel potatoes, and a vegetable peeler for carrots, because Mama did.

My father watched me peel potatoes with a paring knife and commented wryly that he couldn't afford me as kitchen help.

[Tropicalsenior]

38 minutes ago, NadyaDuke said:

I always salt the pan

I had forgotten that but that was a trick that I was taught years ago and the purpose is not so much to salt the meat as to keep it from sticking in the cast iron skillet. Works best when the skillet is screaming hot.

[heidih]

10 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

My father watched me peel potatoes with a paring knife and commented wryly that he couldn't afford me as kitchen help.

Yes I came up with the knife towards me. My knife expert husband would swear and leave the kitchen. No blood ever shed.

[Tropicalsenior]

42 minutes ago, NadyaDuke said:

still have the recipe card though!

Years ago, one of the restaurants that I worked in made their French toast with pancake batter and eggs with just a touch of cinnamon. Best French toast I've ever had in my life and I still make it that way. It's about a quarter of a cup of pancake batter to two eggs.

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, SLB said:

think the concern is that the butcher, or store, is selling you an item has fallen on the floor]. 

Now that I think about it, I can remember my mother scraping the steaks. And they did all their own butchering. And then she would beat the living daylights out of it with the back edge of a butcher knife. I had no idea what a rare steak was until I left home.

[Maison Rustique]

19 hours ago, Darienne said:

 

 

Oh, one thing.  I keep reading about how if you ever get to the second bottle of Worcestershire sauce (Lea and Perrins and pronounced, if you please, 'wooster') , you are very unusual.  Well, we must be on our tenth or eleventh by now.  It goes into salad dressing.  That is one thing my Mother did. 

 

Mom used "wooster" sauce a lot and so do I. I must have gone through dozens of bottles in my lifetime. I'll have to try it in salad dressing.

[BeeZee]

My Dad, when cutting canteloupe, would rinse the cavity after he halved the melon and scooped the seeds out. Don’t know why, and I am sure I did that when I started out on my own, but no longer do.

[liuzhou]

What size of bottle are you all talking about?

 

Lea and Perrins comes in various sizes ranging from 150ml to 4 litre bottles. So one bottle a year doesn't really mean much.

 

Thanks to @Dariennefor pointing out the correct pronunciation! I cringe when I hear 95% of people on  YouTube or television programs mangle their mouths trying to pronounce it incorrectly!

 

Perhaps surprisingly, 'Wooster' sauce became very popular in China during colonial times, especially in foreign controlled Shanghai. This prompted local companies to recreate it. I regularly buy the main leading brand. It is indistinguishable from L&P's version. It comes in 630ml bottles and I get through about one a year. I can also get the original.

 

 

Apart from more normal uses, I also use it on scrambled eggs!

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[Darienne]

3 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

What size of bottle are you all talking about? Lea and Perrins comes in various sizes ranging from 150ml to 4 litre bottles. So onebottle a year doesn't really mean much.

 

Thanks to @Dariennefor pointing out the correct pronunciation! I cringe when I hear 95% of people on  YouTube or television programs mangle their mouths trying to pronounce it!

 

Perhaps surprisingly, 'Wooster' sauce became very popular in China during colonial times, especially in foreign controlled Shanghai. This prompted local companies to recreate it. I regularly buy the main leading brand. It is indistinguishable from L&P's version. It comes in 630ml bottles and I get through about one a year. I can also get the original.

 

 

 

Apart from more normal uses, I also use it on scrambled eggs!

 

We buy large whenever we can find them.  Never tried it on eggs...must do so.  

[Tropicalsenior]

I can't say that I use a lot of it but it is something that I will absolutely not be without. They make several versions here but none of them come close to the original L & P Worcestershire. As for pronunciation, I've heard that it is one of the most mispronounced words in the English language. Don't know why because once you have heard the correct pronunciation it is one of the most unforgettable.

[Kerry Beal]

Using the potato water in the gravy. And I've peeled those potatoes with a paring knife!

 

I recall attending the Heartland Gathering in Kansas City - I think it was @edsel who was making the retrograde potatoes that were all the rage at the time - peeling wasn't happening fast enough with a peeler. I think it was at least a 5 kg bag I peeled in a couple of minutes with my paring knife - of course the waste was horrifying!

 

Totally off topic but I ran across this in the report when I was trying to find something about the potatoes and it touched me - 

 

@jgm posted this when describing her discussion with the reporter from the Kansas City Star who spent the weekend with us -

"When talking to them, I found myself struggling to find words when trying to describe how eGulleters tend to develop a fondness, respect, and attachment to each other, despite the fact most of us have never met. I tried - and didn't really succeed - to describe what it's like to belong to this group, and how on fortunately rare occasions that we lose a member and find ourselves grieving deeply for someone we've never laid eyes on. We share each others' joys, failures, and accomplishments, and we get to know each other in ways that people in other online communities often don't. We learn from each other, challenge each other, and share the misery of various culinary disasters and frustrations. But I just couldn't find a way to describe how all this really works. I guess what it boils down to, is that eGullet isn't about food. It's about people who love food. We understand that food is more than fuel for the body; it's also nourishment for the soul, and we connect with each other on that level. 

I probably should just leave it at that.  

Jenny"

[Tropicalsenior]

29 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I tried - and didn't really succeed - to describe what it's like to belong to this group

Oh, tell me about it. My friends and family just do not understand how an online group can become true friends if you don't ever see each other. I tried to describe the support, the humor, the shared interests and the wealth of knowledge that this forum represents and other people just don't understand. Those that only use the other social platforms can't imagine one like this with never a bad word or snide criticism of other members. That's why I like to start topics like this, to get to know all of you better.

Yvonne

Edited February 21, 2022 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[lindag]

I've bought this a few times.  Gives a nice flavor to my Ceasars and pretty much anything else.

[liuzhou]

59 minutes ago, lindag said:

I've bought this a few times.  Gives a nice flavor to my Ceasars and pretty much anything else.

 

Vegetarian Wooster Sauce?

Sacrilege!

[Tropicalsenior]

30 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Vegetarian Wooster Sauce?

Sacrilege!

If you don't like that, you probably won't have much use for this recipe.

[MaryIsobel]

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

What size of bottle are you all talking about?

 

Lea and Perrins comes in various sizes ranging from 150ml to 4 litre bottles. So one bottle a year doesn't really mean much.

 

Thanks to @Dariennefor pointing out the correct pronunciation! I cringe when I hear 95% of people on  YouTube or television programs mangle their mouths trying to pronounce it incorrectly!

 

Perhaps surprisingly, 'Wooster' sauce became very popular in China during colonial times, especially in foreign controlled Shanghai. This prompted local companies to recreate it. I regularly buy the main leading brand. It is indistinguishable from L&P's version. It comes in 630ml bottles and I get through about one a year. I can also get the original.

 

 

Apart from more normal uses, I also use it on scrambled eggs!

 

285 ml is the standard size that I buy several times a year. Always L&P

 

[liuzhou]

Forgot I had this.

 

Lea and Perrrins' Wooster sauce with Chinese labelling as sold in China. Told ya it's a thing here.

 

 

And yes, it's real.

[kayb]

L*P is my choice too, though I'll take French's in a pinch. I use it in lots of soups and stews and sauces. Bloody Mary's, of course. Meat loaf, meatballs, hamburgers.

 

[Maison Rustique]

23 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Using the potato water in the gravy. And I've peeled those potatoes with a paring knife!

 

I recall attending the Heartland Gathering in Kansas City - I think it was @edsel who was making the retrograde potatoes that were all the rage at the time - peeling wasn't happening fast enough with a peeler. I think it was at least a 5 kg bag I peeled in a couple of minutes with my paring knife - of course the waste was horrifying!

 

Totally off topic but I ran across this in the report when I was trying to find something about the potatoes and it touched me - 

 

@jgm posted this when describing her discussion with the reporter from the Kansas City Star who spent the weekend with us -

"When talking to them, I found myself struggling to find words when trying to describe how eGulleters tend to develop a fondness, respect, and attachment to each other, despite the fact most of us have never met. I tried - and didn't really succeed - to describe what it's like to belong to this group, and how on fortunately rare occasions that we lose a member and find ourselves grieving deeply for someone we've never laid eyes on. We share each others' joys, failures, and accomplishments, and we get to know each other in ways that people in other online communities often don't. We learn from each other, challenge each other, and share the misery of various culinary disasters and frustrations. But I just couldn't find a way to describe how all this really works. I guess what it boils down to, is that eGullet isn't about food. It's about people who love food. We understand that food is more than fuel for the body; it's also nourishment for the soul, and we connect with each other on that level. 

I probably should just leave it at that.  

Jenny"

We had just moved here to KC when the gathering took place. I had the tickets purchased and then we had a huge water disaster and had to spend that weekend trying to deal with rescuing soggy unpacked boxes of treasured items, dealing with the responsible party (Culligan), etc. We didn't get to attend any of the events and I've always been so sorry about it. I keep hoping there will be another one of these days.

[paulraphael]

When my grandmother died in 2005, part of my inheritance was an unopened bottle of Wooster sauce. 10 oz size. It followed me across town when I moved in with my girlfriend. We finally finished it a year or so ago. And I like the stuff!

[paulraphael]

A couple of old kitchen habits it took me years to kick ...

 

Tempering egg yolks when making a creme anglaise or custard or French ice cream. There is no point to this. I spent a long time trying to rationalize this step, since every pastry chef on earth repeats it. I came up with nothing. So now I throw the yolks in with all the other cold ingredients and just heat until it thickens. 

 

Preheating pans when doing things like sweating onions. You're not browning them, so why bother? When I make something like tomato sauce now, I use the sauce pan as my prep container. Diced onions go right into the cold pan. Add olive oil, cook on medium-ish heat until they've softened up.