Absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions (Part 1)

[Mallet]

I think the answer to that is that any pathogens on the poultry will most likely be present on the outer surface of the poultry rather than inside it. So all the surfaces in your kitchen that contact the outside of the poultry are potentially contaminated. When you cook the poultry, however, you sterilize its outer surfaces by bringing its temperature above 140F, and thus most likely kill any pathogens. But I think that is just a rule of thumb, and it is possible for pathogens to be present internally, in the meat, which will not be killed by a brief searing.

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While very true, this is a general issue with raw meats. It doesn't address why we shouldn't eat rare (inside or out!) chicken and what the difference is with another bird, like duck.

[Patrick S]

I think the answer to that is that any pathogens on the poultry will most likely be present on the outer surface of the poultry rather than inside it. So all the surfaces in your kitchen that contact the outside of the poultry are potentially contaminated. When you cook the poultry, however, you sterilize its outer surfaces by bringing its temperature above 140F, and thus most likely kill any pathogens. But I think that is just a rule of thumb, and it is possible for pathogens to be present internally, in the meat, which will not be killed by a brief searing.

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While very true, this is a general issue with raw meats. It doesn't address why we shouldn't eat rare (inside or out!) chicken and what the difference is with another bird, like duck.

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What makes you think that chicken and duck are any different, in terms of how they have to be prepared? Are you under the impression that rare duck is safe while rare chicken is dangerous? If so, why?

[Mallet]

I guess I thought that rare duck is safer because every cookbook I have insists that cooking duck breasts beyond medium-rare is a serious food crime (and I tend to agree), while it is common knowledge that chicken 'should' be cooked-through because of salmonella.

Thinking about it, I'm not exactly sure what makes duck different than chicken, hence, the original question . Maybe chicken are more prone to carrying salmonella? Maybe we should all be eating chicken breasts like we do duck (you go first ).

Edited March 31, 2005 by Mallet (log)

[Patrick S]

Thinking about it, I'm not exactly sure what makes duck different than chicken, hence, the original question  . Maybe chicken are more prone to carrying salmonella? Maybe we should all be eating chicken breasts like we do duck (you go first  ).

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I've eaten rare chicken before, but that was only because I can't grill worth a damn (I thought the chicken was done). That was before I discovered the joys of cooking thermometry.

To be honest, I don't really know of any hard data on prevalence of Salmonella etc in duck versus chicken, but I would suspect that the incidence is similar. Ducks and chickens are closely related species and both are typically raised in large-scale farms with plenty of oppurtunity for contact with pathogen-carrying droppings.

Edited March 31, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[chefworks91]

Here's my stupid question: Friends of ours just brought us a whole damn wheel of Parmesan Cheese from Italy. It is roughly the same size as the wheels on our SUV and will take us forever to eat. What is the best way to keep it in the interim? It would take up too much room in the refrigerator. Can it be frozen? How about the wine cellar - which we keep at 55 degrees F?

Any thoughts?

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You could always cut it up and send pieces out to all the Egulleters

[snowangel]

I have a bag of gizzards in my freezer. What do I do with them?

[scordelia]

I have a bag of gizzards in my freezer.  What do I do with them?

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You can deep fry them southern style, or you can make stock with them.

[fifi]

I have a bag of gizzards in my freezer.  What do I do with them?

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I use them for crab bait.

[Rehovot]

Maybe this has been asked/answered before, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.... How do you freeze cubed (uncooked) potatoes without them going brown? I want to just cube some potatoes and throw 'em in the freezer, then haul them out, defrost them, and have a fry-fest. But when I tried to thaw them in the fridge overnight, I had a ziplocked mess of brown, raw potatoes.

Should I soak them in acidulated water first? Or should I just cook them, and *then* freeze them?

There's gotta be a way!

[ChefCarey]

So, why is it called "corned" beef? Where's the corn? Seriously.

Someone explained it here once before but, um... I forget.

Thanks.

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Here, the word "corn" refers to the size of the salt crystals used to "corn" or cure the beef (or anything else for that matter.)

[ChefCarey]

In theory eGullet caters to people of all levels--as long as you eat you might be reading or posting here.  But I think that no matter what, there's always a level of intimidation in posting really simple cooking questions.

Sometimes it's just a case of having a little hole--a knowledge gap--in something really basic.  You might be a real ace as a cook but have some single simple embarrassing gap that you've never managed to fill.  Or sometimes it's the case that a user may be something of a "professional" restaurant patron and a total amateur at creating anything themselves.

I see this thread as an opportunity for people in this position to band together rather than hiding in the shadows.  Sure, you may be putting yourself out there, but you will be in good company!

I'm talking about the REALLY simple things--the things that can likely be answered with a yes or no, or maybe a few sentences.  Stuff you might have easily learned from Mom, if you'd listened, or Google, if you are a really really good searcher, or Home Ec. class if you hadn't taken Shop class instead.  But probably too damn simple for most cookbooks.

Okay, I suppose I'll have to take a stab at it, and then after someone answers another person can ask their "stupid" question in turn and wait for their answer (I'm putting "stupid" in quotes, because hey... you know that they say...  there are no stupid questions, only... oh, never mind).

When you boil pasta you sometimes get a nice sticky glutenous coating all over it--even if the pasta still seems al dente otherwise.  Does this mean that you did something wrong?  Overcooked it?  Didn't stir enough?  Had it boiling too furiously?  Bought bad pasta?  Should you be washing that coating off afterwards or just leaving it be?

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Just use more water and ample salt. Do not, as someone suggests below add any kind of oil to the water. This will coat the pasta with an oil slick and prevent the sauce from adhering to the pasta.

[jhlurie]

Okay, some ground rules. If questions have been asked and answered on page 1, I think we can procede on to later questions. Maybe ones from page 12 or 13.

Thanks, though.

[Kevin72]

Maybe this has been asked/answered before, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.... How do you freeze cubed (uncooked) potatoes without them going brown? I want to just cube some potatoes and throw 'em in the freezer, then haul them out, defrost them, and have a fry-fest. But when I tried to thaw them in the fridge overnight, I had a ziplocked mess of brown, raw potatoes. 

Should I soak them in acidulated water first? Or should I just cook them, and *then* freeze them?

There's gotta be a way! 

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I'd suspect the answer lies in either industrial, rapid freezing or treatment with some sort of bleach (sulfur dioxide) to preserve color, at least in the raw state. Acidulated water may help but then wouldn't you have a problem with the extra water in the potatoes making them mushy?

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Maybe this has been asked/answered before, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.... How do you freeze cubed (uncooked) potatoes without them going brown? I want to just cube some potatoes and throw 'em in the freezer, then haul them out, defrost them, and have a fry-fest. But when I tried to thaw them in the fridge overnight, I had a ziplocked mess of brown, raw potatoes. 

Should I soak them in acidulated water first? Or should I just cook them, and *then* freeze them?

There's gotta be a way! 

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If they're for frying, the potatoes should be blanched in hot oil first anyway, so do that, then cool and freeze. Frozen french fries sold in grocery stores are parcooked at the factory.

Another thought is to thaw raw potatoes in a bowl of water, so that they are not exposed to any oxygen. Just as you'd hold freshly cut potatoes in water to prevent browning. This is probably less than ideal though, since the freezing and thawing process will rupture cell walls.

Pat

Edited April 10, 2005 by Sleepy_Dragon (log)

[gus_tatory]

when you get a whole side of ribs to cut up, what is that flap of fat and skin under the ribs used for? is there a name for it? just curious...

[Pat W]

This is an absurdly stupidly simple sea salt question. I accidentally bought a container of coarse La Baleine sea salt. I'm not sure what to do with it. Do I go out and buy a salt grinder & use it for table salt? Do I use it as Kosher salt? Can I toss it in a pot of water when I cook pasta?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Pat W.

[Behemoth]

This is an absurdly stupidly simple sea salt question.  I accidentally bought a container of coarse  La Baleine sea salt.  I'm not sure what to do with it.  Do I go out and buy a salt grinder & use it for table salt?  Do I use it as Kosher salt?  Can I toss it in a pot of water when I cook pasta? 

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Pat W.

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You can really just use it as you would regular salt in cooking. You just want to make sure you are cooking something long enough for the crystals to dissolve. (It takes no more than a minute...but for table salt, I would grind it first.) Oh, if you are following a recipe, remember a tsp of rock salt weighs less than a tsp of the fine stuff. (More room between the crystals) so you have to adjust a little.

Oh, it is particularly nice sprinkled on steaks. Much more talented than that Morton's chick.

My question:

I have gotten good at cutting up my chicken, all but the breast part, which I always manage to shred. Is there a nice way of getting an intact whole breast off a chicken without having half the rib cage come off with it? I've read something about following the line of fat along the rib cage, but I'm still really sloppy.

Edited April 11, 2005 by Behemoth (log)

[carswell]

This is an absurdly stupidly simple sea salt question.  I accidentally bought a container of coarse  La Baleine sea salt.  I'm not sure what to do with it.  Do I go out and buy a salt grinder & use it for table salt?  Do I use it as Kosher salt?  Can I toss it in a pot of water when I cook pasta?

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Sure you can use it to salt cooking water, but you'll be throwing away your money since the pasta won't taste any different than if you'd used a less expensive salt like kosher. What you're paying for with sea salt is texture and flavour, both of which are lost when it dissolves. So use your salt as a garnish. Robuchon is an advocate of what he calls deep salting; for example, he salts his french fries lightly with fine sea salt as they come out of the fryer and with coarse sea salt just before serving. The larger grain gives a burst of salty flavour and a satisfying crunch. Try the technique on your next grilled steak. Coarse sea salt is also great spangled on foccacia just before baking.

[andiesenji]

My question:

I have gotten good at cutting up my chicken, all but the breast part, which I always manage to shred. Is there a nice way of getting an intact whole breast off a chicken without having half the rib cage come off with it? I've read something about following the line of fat along the rib cage, but I'm still really sloppy.

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I remove the legs and thighs and wings. Then I cut the back away, using poultry shears.

I then put the breast, meat side down on the cutting board and bend it outward until it is pretty much flattened and the sternum breaks.

Starting at the sternum, I use a thin-bladed knife to separate the meat where it is attached to the sternum. By this point, the breast meat should have been loosened from the ribs and can be pulled off in one piece on each side. You can also flatten it with the meat side up, whichever, it is the flexing of the ribs that looses the meat from them.

I learned this by watching the guys at El Pollo Loco one day while waiting for a large order for the office. I thought it was such a neat trick I tried it at home and it WORKED!

[Behemoth]

My question:

I have gotten good at cutting up my chicken, all but the breast part, which I always manage to shred. Is there a nice way of getting an intact whole breast off a chicken without having half the rib cage come off with it? I've read something about following the line of fat along the rib cage, but I'm still really sloppy.

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I remove the legs and thighs and wings. Then I cut the back away, using poultry shears.

I then put the breast, meat side down on the cutting board and bend it outward until it is pretty much flattened and the sternum breaks.

Starting at the sternum, I use a thin-bladed knife to separate the meat where it is attached to the sternum. By this point, the breast meat should have been loosened from the ribs and can be pulled off in one piece on each side. You can also flatten it with the meat side up, whichever, it is the flexing of the ribs that looses the meat from them.

I learned this by watching the guys at El Pollo Loco one day while waiting for a large order for the office. I thought it was such a neat trick I tried it at home and it WORKED!

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Thanks andie, I will try that next time.

As for the sea salt, carswell is absolutely right...I use kosher salt for everything in the kitchen, and generally save the sea salt as a kind of condiment for steak, potato chips and focaccia. I was mainly responding to whether it was okay to use coarse salt in cooking.

[savvysearch]

How much is a "pinch"? Is there some standard? I grab as much salt as possible with 3 fingers for a "pinch" of salt.

[Behemoth]

How much is a "pinch"? Is there some standard? I grab as much salt as possible with 3 fingers for a "pinch" of salt.

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Supposedly it is a little less than 1/8 of a tsp. but I like the three finger method better.

[snowangel]

How much is a "pinch"? Is there some standard? I grab as much salt as possible with 3 fingers for a "pinch" of salt.

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My grandmother would have told you a "tidge."

[Pat W]

As for the sea salt, carswell is absolutely right...I use kosher salt for everything in the kitchen, and generally save the sea salt as a kind of condiment for steak, potato chips and focaccia.

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Thanks everyone for the answers. This brings me to another question. Why do you many or most of you cook with kosher salt? Why is it better? And another, perhaps even more naïve question, are there any circumstances in which the old Morton's Iodized would be appropriate? (Other than salting the sidewalk after an ice storm)

Pat W.

Oops! I just found the kosher salt thread on another forum. Does anyone here have a favorite brand? It seems like there is quite a bit of difference between Morton & Diamond.

Edited April 11, 2005 by Pat W (log)

[andiesenji]

I like kosher salt because it is "sweeter" to me. However I am blessed with a lot more taste buds than most people (had one of those "ink-blot on the tongue" tests) so it may not taste so to you.

I also like sea salts that contain additional minerals. I have a large collection of various salts from all over the world.

Iodized salt has a bitter component to it. I am very sensitive to iodine so had to stop using it many years ago and began using kosher salt because I liked the way it tasted and to me it was easier to sprinkle on foods evenly using my fingers.

This is all a matter of personal preference.

Just tasting straight salt on your tongue is difficult.

I have found that the best way to taste a salt is to spread some plain bread with unsalted butter, cut it into squares, then sprinkle a bit of one type salt on one piece of bread and butter.