I like the thickest T bone can find. I know that the two halves of it have somewhat different cooking requirements and that the bone and how the meat shrinks a bit when cooking can make getting a good sear tricky, but it’s just such a big showy steak that I love it and I really enjoy gnawing on the bone. It’s one of my go-to “wife is out of town, time to treat myself and throw table manners out the window” dinners.
Most of the time I go for strip steaks, I think they’re probably about the best bang for your buck steak there is (and are basically half of what makes up my beloved T-bone)
Sear them up in the cast iron with some clarified butter, some fresh herbs, salt & pepper, or maybe Montreal steak seasoning.
Probably the tastiest steaks I’ve ever had were some humble chuck steaks, but that’s one that kind of needs the full sous vide treatment to really shine. If you’re willing to put in the effort they’re amazing, otherwise they’re just a few steps above shoe leather.
Normally I smoke a turkey, duck, or pork roast. But this year we have canceled Thanksgiving and probably will Christmas too. Just not enough funds to justify the cost of a big dinner for 3 people.
Definitely feel that. I just got a little ham steak and some sides I’m doing just for me this year. Not doing anything for Xmas. I’ll be recovering from a surgery, yay!
I can taste a huge difference between iodized salt and kosher salt. The former has a strong metallic taste that makes the salt flavor overwhelming. It’s easy to use too much. It’s easier to control the taste with kosher salt.
They don’t taste different but they have different levels of saltyness for the same weight/volume because the crystals are shaped different. The shape also affects how they dissolve and spread out over your food.
Table salt is tiny crystals that dissolve quickly for mixing in to sauces or soups.
Sea salt is wide thin flakes, it’s good for when you want to coat the top of something evenly like a sea salt caramel.
Kosher salt is large crystals that dissolve slower, it’s good for drawing moisture out of meat or veggies via osmosis (the original purpose of kosher salt is to remove blood from meat to make it kosher).
They’re all salt. They just behave differently due to crystal size. Kosher salt forms a better crust than table salt, because it doesn’t just absorb into the meat.
The difference was pretty pronounced in buttered popcorn. But the ingredients were popcorn, butter, salt. The only thing I noticed really was a difference in grain size (which basically affected his salty it was), not grain flavor (except for iodized, that is distinct. Never again, not even in an emergency. Not ruining my popcorn again).
Another important factor is how you add salt to food. I, and many other people, salt my food exclusively by picking up a pinch of salt from a bowl and putting it on/in whatever I’m making. Iodized table salt doesn’t work for that cause you can’t really get a good pinch. Different brands with their different sizes of crystal are also going to get pinched different. Typically, I use mortons kosher salt, but I’ve also used diamond kosher as well. When I used the diamond, I undersalted everything cause it’s fluffier than the mortons. I think a given volume of diamond kosher contains half the mass of iodized table salt.
I don’t mean to polish my knob, but I am doing a vegetarian menu this year that blows those insipid recipes out of the water. I guess I should start a foodie website and rake in that sweet-sweet ad revenue from click-bait.
(Totally being sarcastic)
Here’s the menu:
Velouté de Châtaignes (creamy fresh chestnut soup)
Spanish tortilla with homemade saffron aioli
My grandmother’s green bean hot dish (excellent, not your basic beans+soup+canned fried onions mess at all)
Roasted root vegetables with garden herbs (rutabagas, etc, with sage and rosemary from the garden)
Winter salad with buttermilk dressing (updated Waldorf)
Fresh corn soufflé
Onion-Mushroom-Roquefort-Walnut tarte tatin (centerpiece dish)
I LOVE your fixed version of green bean casserole—I make the Bon Appetit version every year at Thanksgiving.
I vaguely remember my mom making a god-awful casserole with halibut, a mayo-based sauce, and cheddar cheese. I think she called it halibut supreme? I’d be interested to see if it’s even POSSIBLE to make that edible.
Thanks for the trauma, my mom did Tuna Casserole. Canned tuna, some kind of creamed condensed soup, topped with potato sticks. I had actually suppressed this memory.
I can’t really see a way forward with those ingredients.
I actually grew up on a good version of tuna casserole. We never used the condensed soup or potato sticks, we made a bechamel and topped the dish with parmesan and breadcrumbs. My parents did some weird things when trying to use up leftovers, but I will give them credit for refusing to use the canned/premade versions of a lot of things.
"Slavic soup" - a potato cream with bits of sausage and/or meatUsage of soy sauce and the name hint me that this is a local (Paraná) adaptation of some Polish soup brought with the immigrants. Lovage and chives are my own take on it. 2 servings. Sour cream can be made at home by mixing a cup of 20% fat milk cream with 1 Tbsp of yoghurt, and leaving it to ferment for ~12h at room temp. You can also use unsoured cream “as is”, if you want - it’s up to you. * 500g potatoes, peeled, diced - preferably creamier varieties * 1 cup of beef broth * [OPTIONAL] A small piece of lovage leaf * some veg oil * 100g of some random meat. Softer beef cuts, bacon, Krakow sausages, salami, or… really, whatever you like. Cut it into thin strips. * half onion, diced * 1 Tbsp smoked paprika * 1 Tbsp soy sauce * 2 Tbsp ketchup; don’t sub it with tomato paste * Salt and black pepper to taste * 100g sour cream or 20% fat milk cream. * [OPTIONAL] chives, for garnish 1. Cook the potatoes and [OPTIONAL] the lovage in the beef broth until the potatoes are really soft. 2. In another pot, while the potatoes are cooking, use the veg oil to cook the meat of your choice. The actual step depends on the meat; for example if using salami you don’t need to do much, but if using beef you’ll likely want to brown it a bit. 3. Add the diced half onion and the smoked paprika to the pot with the meat. Let it cook until the onion is soft. It takes a bit of time, use low fire and stir occasionally. 4. At this rate the potatoes should be soft already. Discard the lovage, and blend the potatoes alongside the beef broth. Then add the blend over the meat and onion mix. 5. Add the soy sauce, ketchup, salt, pepper. Let them dissolve, taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary, let it boil a bit. 6. Turn off the fire and add the cream. Mix it well and, if using chives, sprinkle them over it.
cock-a-leek - chicken with leeks, rice, and carrotsI got this Scottish recipe from a site, tweaked it to my tastes, and here it is. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just simmer the chicken and leek leaves for 1h20min instead on step 1. * 300g chicken, including bones (important) - thighs and legs work well for this * 2 leeks, including the green part, washed; cut the white part into 1cm thick slices * Salt and pepper to taste * 1 carrot, peeled, grated * 1/2 cup of long-grain rice, washed * parsley to taste 1. Put the chicken and green part of the leeks in a pressure cooker, with enough water to cover them (half litre should be enough). Cook them together for 30min or so, or until enough to have the meat falling off the bones. 2. Discard the green leaves and the bones, both did their job already. Shred the meat with a fork, and send it back to the pot. 3. Add to the pot salt and pepper. Taste it, and use your judgment to know if you should reduce it or leave it as is. Add a bit more salt than you think that it needs, since you’re adding rice and vegs to it later. 4. Add rice. Simmer the thing for 10min or so. 5. Add grated carrot and the white part of the leeks. Keep simmering until the rice is soft. 6. Garnish with parsley.
Other soups that I’ll share as requested:
borscht/barszcz - mostly following Polish recipes
lazy lamen using fish, cabbage, and carrots
kabocha cream with chickpeas
agnolini or cappelletti in brodo (note: I use store-bought dough for this, but I can share the broth itself)
LMAO, it does seem to be having a moment. It happens a lot I’ve noticed. Some restaurant chain will make something and it’s popular so everyone else copies and tries to replicate. Right now it’s Taco Bell’s dipping tacos and birria is now everywhere. I’m Korean and have noticed gochujang is a popular sauce I see everywhere now.
I’m not sure that smoking alone will do it sadly. The rendered fat just runs through the meat still. I have tried smoking it with varied success, but after responding to another comment I realized my lesser success may have been tied to a shorter smoke time. There is still hope and will combine both methods.
For the tips on making homemade mayonnaise, I would skip all of what this article says and just use an immersion blender to simplify things. I don’t have to wait for my ingredients to come to room temperature and the blending cup it comes with has the measurements etched on the side so I know how much oil I’ve added. I’ve never had a problem and it takes about 2 minutes or less this way. Also, rather than using it to toast a grilled sandwich, I’d rather dip my grilled cheese sandwich (grilled with butter) in garlic mayonnaise.
Mix the first four ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let it sit until it gets foamy, about 5 minutes. Then add the olive oil and salt. Turn the mixer on low (with dough hook) and slowly add the flour. When it starts coming together, turn it up to medium low and let it go maybe 5 minutes or so, until the dough is pretty smooth and it’s cleaned itself off the sides of the bowl.
Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm spot for 90 minutes.
Melt the butter and put half of it in a 9x13 pan.
Punch the dough down and shape it into a rectangle to fill the pan. Put it in the buttered pan and cover with another tbsp of melted butter. Cover and let rise another hour.
Preheat oven to 475 F.
Uncover the dough, and if you want, you can score the dough with a knife to make little indentations showing you where to cut later.
Bake until it’s golden across the top, about 13-15 minutes.
Immediately brush with the remaining melted butter. Then use as much topping as you’d like.
The topping was about 1.5 tbsp of Parmesan, 1/2 tbsp onion powder, a tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp oregano, and 1/2 tsp basil. This makes what ended up being too much topping, so I’d reduce everything a little or just don’t use the whole thing.
As others have reccomended here, get a filter thing, or a cold brew maker. It doesn’t make the brew better, but it makes cleanup so much easier. Which is good if you’re making it regularly.
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