Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat Highlights
Apr 29
April 29th, 58227
Salt can take a while to dissolve in foods that are low in water,
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the green beans will absorb some salt from the water as they cook, seasoning themselves from the inside out. They'll also remain more vibrantly colored because the salt balance will keep magnesium in the beans' chlorophyll molecules from leaching out.
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But taste potatoes that were simmered in salted water for a little while before being roasted—they'll taste completely different from those salted after cooking.
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As the intern I was given the task of gingerly lifting each of the twelve layers on each of the one hundred pieces of lasagna to sneak a few grains of salt into each one. After that, I've never underseasoned a lasagna.
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does the olive oil smell like a box of crayons, candle wax, or the oil floating on top of an old jar of peanut butter? If so, it's rancid. The sad truth is that most Americans, accustomed to the taste of rancid olive oil, actually prefer it. And so, most of the huge olive oil producers are happy to sell to us what more discerning buyers would reject.
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Another good everyday oil is the Kirkland Signature Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Costco.
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Once you find an olive oil you love, take good care of it. Constant temperature fluctuations from a nearby stove or daily brushes with the sun's rays will encourage olive oil to go rancid, so store it somewhere reliably cool and dark. If you can't keep it in a dark place, store olive oil in a dark glass bottle or metal can to keep light out.
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the word crispy sells more food than almost any other adjective. Crisp foods stoke our appetites by conjuring up past experiences.
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Few things can retroactively ruin a meal like a puddle of grease left on an otherwise empty plate.
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To begin with, it's the only animal fat made without killing an animal.
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Melted butter, then, is a broken emulsion, hardening as it cools, never to return to its former miraculous state.
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First, as soon as you suspect that you are on shaky ground, stop adding fat.
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Sugar and acids such as buttermilk or yogurt also discourage gluten from developing.
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There was something to these oil cakes. I flipped through my mental recipe box and realized that many of my favorite cakes, including classic carrot cake and olive oil cake, are made with oil instead of butter.
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Baking soda and powder don't introduce any new air bubbles into a batter. They simply help expand, via the release of carbon dioxide gas, air bubbles already in place.
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Cut fruits and vegetables will retain their natural color if coated with a little acid or kept in water mixed with a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar until they are ready to cook or eat.
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cook onions until they're tender before adding any tomatoes, wine, or vinegar to the pot.
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When cooking beans or any legumes, including the chickpeas for hummus, a pinch of baking soda will gently nudge the bean water away from acidity toward alkalinity, which helps them cook more evenly and become tender.
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dousing cooked beans with vinegar or vinaigrette sort of "uncooks" them, tightening and toughening the skins a bit.
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Doughs and batters leavened by baking soda should also have an acidic ingredient such as natural cocoa powder, brown sugar, honey, or buttermilk. Baking powder, on the other hand, already contains powdered tartaric acid and doesn't need an external source of acid to react.
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A few secret drops of lemon juice will produce creamier, more tender scrambled eggs.
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If it's chewiness you're after, wait as long as possible into the process of dough-making to add acidic ingredients.
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Acid also helps break down collagen, the main structural protein found in tough cuts of meat.
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Balsamic vinegar isn't always acidic enough to dress a salad on its own, so spike it with red wine vinegar.
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Sauce, and in fact most condiments, are sources of both acid and salt.
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When aspiring chefs ask me for career advice, I offer a few tips: Cook every single day. Taste everything thoughtfully. Go to the farmers' market and familiarize yourself with each season's produce. Read everything Paula Wolfert, James Beard, Marcella Hazan, and Jane Grigson have written about food. Write a letter to your favorite restaurant professing your love and beg for an apprenticeship. Skip culinary school; spend a fraction of the cost of tuition traveling the world instead.
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As I traveled, I noticed that in every country, whether I was watching home cooks or professional chefs, and whether they were cooking over live fire or on a camp stove, the best cooks looked at the food, not the heat source.
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Boiling water is one of the most invaluable tools in the kitchen. It's a simple way to gauge temperature without a thermometer. If you see bubbles roiling in a pot of water, you know that it's reached 212°F. At this temperature, water can kill pathogenic bacteria and pathogens.
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as long as food is wet and giving off steam, its surface temperature probably isn't hot enough to allow browning to begin.
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The same phenomenon will cause meats with large quantities of fat such as prime rib or pork loin roasts (or those sitting in fat, such as any of the confits mentioned above) to continue cooking slowly even when pulled from the heat.
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When making potato chips or fries, use starchy, older potatoes and rinse them of excess starches after slicing until the water runs clear. Only then will your fried potatoes emerge from the hot oil crisp but not burnt.
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When cooked to an internal temperature beyond 140°F, the proteins within tender red meats will coagulate entirely, expelling water and yielding tough, chewy, overcooked steaks and lamb chops. Chicken and turkey breasts, on the other hand, don't dry out until temperatures surpass 160°F.
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Let all meats—except for the thinnest cuts—come to room temperature before you cook them.
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When food is exposed to smoke, it absorbs the sweet, fruity, caramel, flowery, and bready flavor compounds. You'll see—nothing else compares to the flavor of true wood smoke.
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At the heart of good cooking lies good decision making, and the primary decision regarding Heat is whether to cook food slowly over gentle heat, or quickly over intense heat. The easiest way to determine which level of heat to apply is to consider tenderness. For some foods, the goal is creating tenderness, while for others, it's preserving innate tenderness. In general, foods that are already tender—some meats, eggs, delicate vegetables—should be cooked as little as possible to maintain their tenderness. Foods that start out tough or dry and need to be hydrated or transformed to become tender—grains and starches, tough meats, dense vegetables—will benefit from longer, more gentle cooking. Browning, whether for tender or tough foods, will often involve some form of intense heat, meaning that sometimes you have to combine cooking methods to get the different results you're after on the surface and within.
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Set the average home oven to 350°F, and it'll heat up to about 370°F before the heating element shuts off. Depending on how sensitive the thermostat is, the temperature might drop down to 330°F before the heating element switches on again. Open the oven door to check on the cookies, and cool air will rush in as hot air escapes, dropping the temperature even more. Once the thermostat is triggered, the temperature will head back to 370°F, with the cycle continuing until the cookies are done. The amount of time the oven actually spends at 350°F is negligible. If your oven is miscalibrated—and most are—then 350°F could mean anywhere from 300°F to 400°F, before the heating cycle even begins. It's all mind-bogglingly imprecise.
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The aim of cooking with gentle heat is always the same: tenderness. Use gentle cooking methods to allow delicate foods—such as eggs, dairy, fish, and shellfish—to retain their moisture and delicate texture. Let gentle heat transform the dry and tough into the moist and tender. Choose among intense heat cooking methods (apart from boiling, which is intense in its own way) when seeking to brown food. When carefully applied to tender meats, intense cooking methods lead to brown surfaces and moist, juicy interiors. For tough meats and starchy foods, combine these methods with gentler ones, in order to achieve the desired browning on the outside and allow low heat to do its gradual work within.
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Depending on whom you ask, the temperature of simmering water can range from 180°F to 205°F. Look at the pot—is it barely bubbling like a just-poured glass of your favorite sparkling water, beer, or champagne? If so, then cheers—it's simmering.
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Fish poached in water, wine, olive oil, or any combination of the three will emerge with an exceptionally tender texture and clean flavor.
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The difference between the two methods is minor: braises involve larger pieces of meat—often on the bone—and minimal cooking liquid, while stews are made with smaller pieces of meat cooked with chunky vegetables, typically served together in the plentiful cooking liquid. Greens, dense vegetables, stone fruits, and tofu also lend themselves well to braising.
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Every cuisine around the world has devised ways to turn cartilaginous, bony, and sinewy meats into delicious braises and stews. This is true of Italian osso buco, Japanese nikujaga, Indian lamb curry, French boeuf bourguignon, Mexican pork adobo, and Mr. Strand's pot roast.
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Because it liberates the cook from last-minute demands, this kind of cooking is ideal for dinner parties. Braises and stews make for excellent leftovers and freeze well, too. With its basic technique, braising can be the most effortless path toward deeply flavorful food.
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Boil everyday vegetables such as turnips, potatoes, carrots, and broccoli and dress them with good olive oil and flaky salt. You'll be pleasantly surprised by their pristine simplicity.
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I've found that vegetables with higher water content, like asparagus and perfect little haricots verts, carry over more than denser, less watery ones, so pull them from the pot just before they're done. Root vegetables, such as carrots and beets, won't carry over even if you beg them to so always boil them until they are tender throughout.
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Instead of piling hot veggies in a bowl, spread them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to prevent overcooking.
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Partially blanch denser vegetables such as cauliflower, carrots, and fennel on Sunday and keep them on hand for the coming week, ready to reheat and brown in the pan or oven at a moment's notice.
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Once you've grown familiar with the cooking times of various foods, you can stagger multiple ingredients into a single pot of water to save yourself time and a pan.
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When skimming fat from a braise or stock, pull the pan askew on the burner for a moment—as one side of the pan calms and cools, the boiling action will force all of the fat and scum to collect on the side of the pan away from the bubbles.
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Steam little potatoes in the oven by placing them in a single layer in a roasting dish, seasoning with salt, and adding aromatics—a sprig of rosemary and a few garlic cloves will do. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan, and tightly seal it up with aluminum foil. Cook until the potatoes present no resistance when pierced with a knife, and then serve with flaky salt and butter or garlicky aïoli alongside hard-cooked eggs or grilled fish.
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Combine steaming with the browning that comes from intense heat in a method I like to call steamy sauté.
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Mirepoix, the aromatic combination of onions, carrots, and celery at the root of all French cooking, is typically sweated, rather than sautéed or browned, in an effort to prevent coloring.
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single-vegetable soups such as English pea, carrot, or Silky Sweet Corn Soup, whose recipes are identical: sweat onions, add the chosen vegetable, cover with water, season with salt, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and remove from the heat.
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A note on stirring: it tends to dissipate heat. So, stir regularly when you want to keep food from browning, and stir less often to let browning take its course.
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Whichever form of frying you're undertaking, the temperature of the oil should be right around 365°F. (Just think, I wish I were eating fried food 365 days a year! to remember the right temperature for frying.)
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Oven temperatures fall into four general categories: low (175° to 275°F), medium-low (275° to 350°F), medium-high (350° to 425°F), and high (425°F and above). Within any one of these categories, food will cook in more or less the same way.
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To achieve the most powerful oven spring, leave the oven door shut for the first 15 to 20 minutes of high-heat baking. After the proteins in the dough have set and the basic structure has formed, you can turn down the heat to prevent burning and ensure that the food cooks through.
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To make juicy, oven-dried tomatoes, cut small, flavorful tomatoes such as Early Girls in half. Pack them snugly onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, cut side up. Season them with salt and a light sprinkling of sugar, then slide them into an oven set to 200°F (or lower, if possible) for about 12 hours, checking on them once or twice along the way. You'll know the tomatoes are done when none of them is soupy or wet. Pack into a glass jar and cover with olive oil and refrigerate, or freeze in a resealable plastic bag, for up to 6 months.
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The tops will be slightly dry and leathery, while the bottoms will be golden and moist, as if they'd been pan-fried. Any roasting food will suffer from this sort of uneven browning—unless it's cooking on a wire rack and air can circulate beneath it. For even browning, always use a wire rack.
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Make 400°F your default temperature for roasting vegetables, but know that it will change based on the size of the vegetables, their density and molecular makeup, as well as the depth and material of your roasting pan and the amount of food on the tray or in the oven.
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Start roasts in a hot oven (about 400 to 425°F) and then gradually decrease the temperature in 25°F increments after browning commences, until done.
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Once fat begins to render, cook meat at temperatures below 375°F—the smoke point of most animal fats—to prevent repeatedly setting off the smoke alarm, or worse.
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rule of thumb for cooking a large roast is once its internal temperature hits 100°F, it'll start climbing at a rate of about a degree a minute, if not faster. So if you're aiming for medium-rare, around 118 to 120°F, then know that you've got about 15 minutes before it's time to pull. Large roasts carry over about 15°F, while steaks and chops will carry over about 5°F, so account for this any time you pull meat off the heat.
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I do it all the time with my Crispiest Spatchcocked Chicken: I brown it breast side down in a cast iron pan, then flip and slide it into the oven to halve the time it takes to roast a chicken.
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