The Quintessential eG Kitchen Tips/Trucs

[ScoopKW]

There are no "secret" cooking tips. But there are lots of "secret recipes."

You'll find that people are usually generous in their advice on how to cook. Less so on the exact items and quantities used. (Although I don't subscribe to the that idea. You're not going to make a dish like me. Simply because we're different people, with different equipment and different philosophies on what makes for "yummy.")

What is it that's giving you problems? I guarantee you'll have 10 good tips by day's end.

[butterscotch]

Frozen butter + coarse box grater = nice, uniform bits of butter for flaky pie crust or biscuits.

Great idea for a thread. I love passing on tips when I get them.

Mine for chocolate chips or any chocolate, vanilla, or carmel flavor drop cookie. Or brownies. Butter cookie sheet as generously as you can and sprinkle some small flakes of salt on it before dropping the cookie dough. You can adjust to get just the right amount of salt and crisp before getting into the chocolate goodness. Amazing.

The frozen butter- do you grate it staright into the flour to prevent it from coming together? Ice bowl it?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

For any flake pastry, and particularly for pie crusts, have all ingredients as cold as they can possibly be. Lard/butter/shortening? Frozen and grated into the flour. Water? As close to 0 C as possible. Flour? Pull it out of the freezer just before working with it. Rolling pin? Freeze it solid. I use a marble one. Sure your hands freeze too, but the crust that comes out of this process will be amazingly flaky and tender.

In most white bread recipes, you can substitute up to 1/4 of the recipe in specialty flours without affecting the gluten too badly, but boy do you get a better flavour. (I say most, because this doesn't work so hot for baguette or for brioche. There are specific baguette recipes for bean and pea flours.)

If you can't find malt extract, using "coffee substitute" at the rate of 1 tsp (about 1/10 oz) to every 5 lbs of flour will produce almost the same result vis a vis crust browning without bittering the bread too much.

Zucchini disappears into chocolate cake and leaves it beautifully moist in a way that you can't acheive with corn syrup alone.

[Keith_W]

My no. 1 tip for cooking: measure everything.

All quantities should be measured by weight, not volume, and certainly not "a pinch of this". It is acceptable to say "to taste".

All food should be cooked to temperature, not time. I will make an exception for pressure cooked foods, or foods where you have to observe changes in texture to tell if it is cooked - e.g. boiling pasta, or stir fried veggies.

... but that is about as much subjectivity that creeps into my cooking

My pet hate are recipes that have been "housewived" - e.g. measuring flour in cups, telling you to use "6 eggs" ... have they forgotten that flour varies in density, and eggs come in different sizes?

[cbread]

None of these are even close to secrets but...

Not my idea, but definitely one I'll try out for myself, at this other thread are ideas for making a thick garlic paste that keeps well in the freezer and is convenient to use.

I'd note that a tiny amount of Hickory smoke flavor base in cooking liquid helps to quickly add a smoked flavor to an item. The smoke flavor I've used is identified as "Hickory Smoke on a Malto-Dextrin Base" from Spice House. I'm sure many other suppliers offer similar products. It's pretty concentrated. A tiny pinch adds a lot of flavor and aroma to the food. The kitchen smells wonderful too.

I'm using broths, juices and stocks as cooking liquid instead of plain water and adding things like garlic to further add to flavor.

[Blether]

From Aidells & Kelly's Meat book, to paraphrase, "always pre-salt meat" - and they're right, IMO.

Or this again:

"... try simplifying a recipe which calls for rather a lot of ingredients down to the barest essentials. You may well find that the dish is more pleasing in its primitive form, and then you will know that your recipe was too fanciful. If, on the other hand, the dish seems to lack savour, to be a little bleak or insipid, start building it up again. By the end of this process, you will have discovered what is essential to that dish, what are the extras which enhance it, and at what point it is spoilt by over-elaboration. This system is also useful in teaching one how to judge a recipe for oneself, instead of following it blindly from a cookery book".

.. and the related "Let's just have an omelette and a glass of wine" and the originator's explanation of the phrase.

[ScottyBoy]

My no. 1 tip for cooking: measure everything.

Whoops, I'm doing it wrong...

[annabelle]

If you're going to quickly pan-fry a piece of meat, heat the pan and sprinkle it with coarse salt before putting in the meat. It won't stick and develops a lovely crust.

Cookie doughs should be made ahead and refrigerated overnight or for up to two days before baking. They hold their shape better and have a deeper flavor.

Add gluten flour to bagel, pizza, and pretzel doughs to give them a chewier bite.

Edited September 16, 2011 by annabelle (log)

[andiesenji]

If you can't find malt extract, using "coffee substitute" at the rate of 1 tsp (about 1/10 oz) to every 5 lbs of flour will produce almost the same result vis a vis crust browning without bittering the bread too much.

What is coffee substitute?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

If you can't find malt extract, using "coffee substitute" at the rate of 1 tsp (about 1/10 oz) to every 5 lbs of flour will produce almost the same result vis a vis crust browning without bittering the bread too much.

What is coffee substitute?

Here at least, it's 35% black malt, 30% crystallized mollasses, 20% wheat (of some sort; not specified. I suspect it's toasted whole wheat kernels which are then ground up), and 15% roasted bean flour. That's Kauffe brand instant coffee substitute, which is wickedly hygroscopic stuff. I keep it in a vaccum-lidded jar.

ETA - I would never actually drink this stuff, btw. However it does have a very pleasant roasty-bittery-malty smell that I find quite attractive and that works very well with whole-grain breads.

Edited September 16, 2011 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[JAZ]

What is coffee substitute?

Here at least, it's 35% black malt, 30% crystallized mollasses, 20% wheat (of some sort; not specified. I suspect it's toasted whole wheat kernels which are then ground up), and 15% roasted bean flour. That's Kauffe brand instant coffee substitute, which is wickedly hygroscopic stuff.

Andie, it sounds like Postum, but I'm not sure that's made anymore.

[ScoopKW]

Andie, it sounds like Postum, but I'm not sure that's made anymore.

If you find a sealed jar, there are people who will buy it on eBay for $100-200.

[Norm Matthews]

Read the recipe all the way through before you start. Measure everything out before you start cooking. Have all the cookware and utensils out and nearby. Most common mistake I think is trying to cook something in a skillet over too high heat. Some of the best cooks in the world don't use scales to measure, but know how much is the right amount from long experience and by tasting as they go.

[ScoopKW]

Read the recipe all the way through before you start. Measure everything out before you start cooking. Have all the cookware and utensils out and nearby. Most common mistake I think is trying to cook something in a skillet over too high heat. Some of the best cooks in the world don't use scales to measure, but know how much is the right amount from long experience and by tasting as they go.

Agreed, mise is EVERYTHING. Mise is the difference between an "easy money" day and "dans la merde." Mise is more than just having a stack of towels and some bowls at the ready. It is a mindset -- a zen yoga jedi kung-fu mindset.

Before work, I show up one hour early. I drink coffee. And I visualize how my day is going to go. Even if I don't exactly know what I'm doing that day, I know what kitchen I'm in, so I know basically what's going to happen. I visualize the entire day's events, while chugging coffee. And then I get up, put my game face on, go to work, and rock 'n' roll. And when I'm cooking at home, same thing. I don't care if I'm cooking for 1 or 5,000. There's no difference.

Mise is the paddle that keeps you out of sh-- creek.

[Crouton]

I couldn't disagree more about not salting raw meat before cooking it. Nonsense, I assure you.

[ChrisZ]

If you're enjoying this thread, then check out Harold McGee's newest book - Keys to good cooking. It's got over 500 pages of this sort of thing.

[andiesenji]

Andie, it sounds like Postum, but I'm not sure that's made anymore.

If you find a sealed jar, there are people who will buy it on eBay for $100-200.

I wonder if I could use ground, roasted chicory. I have a pound I ordered on a whim a while back.

[ScottyBoy]

I'm going to go ahead and get on board with the salting before cooking. I do it even while I bring the meat to room temp long before I cook it. It will sweat a little but it shows that the salt has started to soak in.

[Crouton]

I don't think any chef worth his weight in salt would only season meat after it was cooked... worst advise you could possibly give an aspiring cook.

Edited September 17, 2011 by Crouton (log)

[Norm Matthews]

A chef once told me that if you salt food early on then it tastes seasoned. If you salt it afterward, it just tastes salted.

[gfweb]

I salt early and touch-up with more at the end.

I keep a jar of bacon fat in the fridge. A bit gets added to salad dressing, potatoes...and anything else that has some fat in it.

I sneak a little dijon mustard into many sauces. So little that you don't know its there, but there's a back-of-the-tongue flavor that rounds out the taste.

Tomato paste gets browned.

I salt and pepper chocolate chip cookie dough. Adds depth.

[Norm Matthews]

Anchovy paste adds great depth to salted foods.

[Mano]

Re: salting, one of the absolute best pieces of advise I received as a home cook was, "Judicious use of salt during each step of preparation seasons the dish. Salting before eating tastes like salt."

[andrestorrubia]

Soak fish in a 5% brine for ~10 mins before cooking. I've learnt it from here: http://blog.khymos.org/2011/04/01/tfp-2011-sous-vide-master-class-part-2/ (head to the FISH section)

[andrestorrubia]

Re: measure & salting. I don't recall the book's name where I read it but I think the amount of salt to be added to any (non-salted) food was about 0.5% of the total weight.