Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2018 i Cook's Country

Hot Water Cleaning –Jeff McDonald, Latham, N.Y. To make sure my cutting boards are really clean, I boil water in the kettle and pour it over my wooden and plastic boards when I wash them. The hot water inhibits bacteria and works wonders on things like beet stains and lingering garlic and onion odors. Waffle Wiz –Rosemary Hogan, Nashville, Tenn. For a fun spin on breakfast, I use refrigerated cinnamon roll dough to make fast, easy “waffles” for my kids. I heat the waffle iron, lightly grease it, and place individual portions of the dough in the four quadrants of the iron. Minutes later, the “waffles” are cooked through and golden brown. I then spread on the frosting, which melts into the indents for a delicious treat made in no…

DESPITE WHAT MANY restaurant menus may lead you to believe, “carnitas” is not a catchall term for any pork taco filling. The chefs at Carnitas Uruapan in Chicago brought this into sharp focus on our recent visit, showing us their cooking technique, which makes use of an ingredient common in many traditional recipes: lard (see “Forty-Plus Years of Pork Perfection”). The rendered and clarified pork fat perfumed the air with a savory aroma and produced beautiful results. At Carnitas Uruapan, cooks submerge chunks of well-marbled pork in a vat of hot lard. The heat from the bubbling fat gently cooks the interiors of the chunks while it lightly fries the exteriors. The result is soft, rich pork with an unparalleled meaty flavor. As a lover of all things pork, I…

WHEN I WAS a kid, my family always celebrated milestone moments or special occasions with dinner at Il Villaggio. This Italian American restaurant, which was discreetly tucked into a northern New Jersey strip mall, might not have been well-known beyond my hometown, but its rendition of pasta e fagioli (or as we called it, “pasta fazool”) made me swoon. It was deeply but gently savory, thick and hearty, and studded with creamy beans and soft little pieces of pasta—so good that I used to order one bowl as an appetizer and a second bowl for my entrée. In Italy, every region has its own version of this pasta and bean soup, and versions vary greatly in America, too. Variables include pasta (fresh or dried; long noodles or short shapes), beans,…

I AM ALWAYS looking for new vegetable side dishes—especially around the holidays. So when a friend recently made me dinner, I paid particular attention to the green beans she served. The tender beans were lightly browned and draped with soft, sweet caramelized onions, with crunchy bits of bacon sprinkled over top. After just a few bites, I knew two things. One: This green bean dish would be making an appearance on my holiday table. Two: I wanted to develop a recipe for it so it could appear on your table, too. I scrounged up a few recipes for green beans with onions and bacon and cooked them for my hungry colleagues, who were far from impressed. And with good reason(s): Leathery green beans, crunchy onions, and flabby bacon were hallmarks…

THERE’S NOTHING BETTER than a fresh bagel—a dense but soft interior surrounded by a chewy exterior. But many bagels fall short on two important physical challenges: fitting into a toaster and creating a sandwich that you can actually fit into your mouth. We set out to find a work-around and, after a few clicks online, came across the idea of bagel bread. The promise was simple: a sliceable loaf with all the qualities of a fresh bagel, including that signature chewy exterior. The versions we saw were adorable, like a stack of bagels turned sideways. And following existing recipes, which called for boiling separate chunks of yeasted, risen dough (boiling is a necessary step to create the chewy texture and firm exterior of a great bagel) and then lining those…

Keys to Rich, Dark Gravy When we want a dark gravy, we either add a little tomato paste with the flour or cook the roux until it darkens. Both of these techniques add deeper flavor to the gravy. Roux is always cooked to a specific shade that can range from white to blonde to peanut butter–like and beyond. In simple terms, a roux is just flour whisked into an approximately equal volume of butter or oil and cooked for a minute until the flour loses its raw taste. Roux intensifies in flavor and darkens as you keep cooking it, but it also loses thickening power. Gravies at a Glance Roast Beef or Pork Gravy Remove meat from roasting pan and pour fat and juices into fat separator. Heat fat in…

EVERY ONE’S FAVORITE part of the Thanksgiving meal is the side dishes. But rather than stick to the tried-and-true options, I like to throw a couple of curveballs to keep things interesting. This year, it’s an intensely flavorful side dish that I first encountered at the annual Cochon de Lait Festival in Mansura, Louisiana, six months before Thanksgiving (see “Bayou Bash”). Cajun-style rice dressing is a meaty, superflavorful side dish made year-round in Louisiana and served at small, homey dinners and big gatherings alike. The recipe details change from kitchen to kitchen, but the basics—rice, ground meat, and chicken livers—stay the same. (Don’t worry. This dressing doesn’t taste strongly of liver; this ingredient simply adds a signature savoriness.) I knew that this dish would bring a fresh, energetic note to…

I LOVE MAKING pies of all kinds. For that reason, I volunteer to make some of my favorites every Thanksgiving for my family’s big gathering. And every Thanksgiving I find myself scrambling at the last minute to get the pies made. Sure, sometimes I’m organized enough to make the pies a day ahead, but let’s face it: The day before Thanksgiving isn’t exactly devoid of other tasks to accomplish. What if I could make a pumpkin pie, baked and all, a week or more ahead? Many friends and coworkers said it couldn’t be done because homemade custards tend to split into mush once thawed. Store-bought frozen pies, on the other hand, use industrial-strength emulsifiers and stabilizers that prevent the custard from splitting but make the texture weird and spongy. Freezing…

IF SWEET POTATOES sometimes get a bad rap, one reason is that cooks often combine them with cloying ingredients (such as brown sugar or marshmallows) that intensify this tuber’s natural sweetness—there’s no need to clobber something sweet with more sweetness. I wanted to create a simple recipe for mashed sweet potatoes where the potatoes’ earthy flavor shared center stage with their sweetness. And while I was at it, I wanted to come up with some flavor variations that would suit any mood or occasion. The test kitchen has developed several recipes for mashed sweet potatoes over the years; aside from the classic boiling, a few even call for cooking the potatoes in the oven or microwave. But for the sake of simplicity, I’d stick to developing a stovetop method. My…

I LOVE HOW cornbread’s subtle sweetness complements the punchy flavors of white chicken chili. Could I create a straightforward recipe for white chicken chili with cornbread—cooked in one pot—that was fast and easy enough for a weeknight? We have developed several versions of white chicken chili over the years, so I had a good idea of the basic framework of the recipe. I started my testing with the chicken, pitting bone-in chicken thighs that I seared, braised, and shredded against meat picked from a supermarket rotisserie bird. My tasters didn’t have a preference, so I went with the rotisserie chicken for convenience. To build a savory base of flavor, I softened chopped onion and poblano chile in a Dutch oven and then stirred in garlic and cumin. Next I added…

WE LOVE EGG noodles in soups, casseroles, and as a base for dishes such as beef stroganoff. They differ from “regular” dried pasta by virtue of their deeper yellow color and slightly savory flavor from the addition of eggs. They are most commonly found in a broad, loose corkscrew shape. We tried seven top-selling products, selecting “wide” or “broad” noodles when available, since that’s what our recipes call for most often. We sampled the noodles boiled and tossed with butter, in chicken noodle soup, and in tuna-noodle casserole. Ultimately we can recommend all the noodles, but there were some factors that set our favorite apart. The first was shape. Though all the noodles are sold as “wide” or “broad,” our lineup ran the gamut from thin, wispy corkscrews to long,…

TO DEFINE THE croque monsieur (loosely translated from French as “Mr. Crunch”) as a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich is to vastly understate it. This big bistro favorite—two slices of butter-brushed bread toasted up crisp and layered with sweet, salty ham; creamy white sauce; and plenty of nutty Gruyère cheese—is beautiful to behold and so rich, runny, and substantial that it requires a fork and knife to eat. The traditional method calls for griddling the sandwiches individually, topping them with cheese, and then sliding them under a broiler to finish, but we wanted four sandwiches all at once. And we wanted to keep the crunch in the croque and not allow the sauce to turn everything soggy. All good sandwiches start with good bread, and after auditioning baguette, sourdough, and others, we…

THE AMERICAN FAVORITE chicken-fried steak has a crunchy coating similar to that of, well, fried chicken. But steak Milanese, its more refined cousin, has a crunchy bread-crumb coating that’s more akin to that of chicken Parmesan. (The term Milanese—meaning “from Milan”—covers a broad range of foods that are breaded and fried.) To take it over the top, this quick-cooking entrée is often served with a bit of lemon and a tangy butter sauce. I set out to develop a recipe for this crunchy, meaty, satisfying dish that would be fast enough for a weeknight. I started with the steak, visiting a local butcher shop to sort through all the options. I filled my cart with every cut I could envision pounding and frying: eye round, flap meat, top round, rib…

NOT TOO LONG ago I heard a friend of mine wax nostalgic about her grandmother’s brandy-braised chicken. It was a wet, cold day; I was hungry, and all her talk about this “heavenly” dish was torture. When I asked her for the recipe, she said she didn’t have one, just memories. When I pressed her, she could only repeat, “There was crispy-skinned, succulent chicken in a lovely brandy sauce with garlic, caramelized onions, and thyme.” Seeing her plaintive look, I knew what she was asking: Could I help? Determined to help my friend and resurrect this lost dish, I prepared a few promising recipes for my kitchen colleagues to taste. The results were disappointing: soggy skin; dry, stringy meat; and almost none of the sweet, perfumed complexity of brandy in…

WHEN IT COMES to eating the Thanksgiving turkey, my family has a preference for white meat. That suits me fine, as it means there’s always plenty of rich, silky dark meat for me. But this year I decided to put my own preferences aside and roast just two turkey breasts for the family. The turkey breasts would be a breeze to carve, and I wouldn’t have to face the usual challenge of bringing the white and dark meat to perfect doneness at the same time. The white meat of a turkey breast is less flavorful than the dark meat, so I’d need to crank up the flavor. And since it’s lean, I’d have to take care in the cooking to not dry it out. I was confident I’d be able…

ON THE ROAD On the second day of the Cochon de Lait Festival in Mansura, Louisiana, I weave through a sea of Cajun cooks to a group of men wielding stainless-steel canoe paddles over a gigantic iron kettle. Jimmy Armand is focused on tending to a mixture of ground meat, vegetables, and rice that is heavily perfumed with bacon grease and pungent with pork liver—the foundation for Cajun rice dressing. He seems to be in charge of the operation and explains, “All them ingredients are having a marriage right now.” Armand says that the mixture, which he calls “yum-yum sauce,” needs to be in perfect balance before the rice is stirred in. He offers me what he calls a “pocket sandwich,” spooning some of the “yum-yum” onto a slice of…

A PIE SERVER is essentially a pointed spatula designed to cut, remove, and transport pie slices. We previously tested pie servers, but with new models on the market, we decided to retest. We selected six, including our previous winner from OXO, and sliced nearly 40 pies to find the best model. A pie server’s blade design determined how effectively it cut and removed slices. One dull-edged model couldn’t easily slice into thick crusts or the firm, nutty top of a pecan pie. A model with a nylon blade bowed outward instead of driving straight down into a pie. The best servers had rigid stainless-steel blades with serrated edges. But cutting slices is only half the equation. Next we had to remove them, and it wasn’t always easy. Two servers were…

STUFFED BONELESS, SKINLESS chicken breasts should be fantastic, but they’re often not. The filling usually tastes steamy, and the chicken itself tends to be dry and flavorless. In creating a recipe for stuffed chicken breasts for two, I wanted to overcome these challenges and make a tasty dinner that was worth the effort. I made a few versions that were stuffed with deli meats, cheeses, and combinations of punchy ingredients such as mustard, olives, pickles, and even sauerkraut. All these fillings were fine, but I really wanted to keep things simple, and one idea kept popping into my head: pesto. Besides being easy to make, it would provide bright flavor and beautiful color to the dish. I started by making a thick pesto of fresh basil, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts,…

REALLY GOOD HOMEMADE stuffing isn’t particularly difficult to make (we’ve developed many recipes here in the test kitchen), yet Americans still spend $258 million on packaged versions each year. Part of the appeal is speed—it can be ready in minutes—and the rest is nostalgia. To find out which store-bought stuffing is best, we identified six top-selling brands, focusing on products made with white bread or a mix of white and whole wheat. Each company sells several flavor options, so we held preliminary tastings to identify a favorite from every brand. Our final lineup included two chicken-flavored stuffings and four “traditional” or “seasoned” options, priced from $1.65 to $4.14 per package ($0.21 to $0.41 per ounce). We prepared each on the stove according to the package directions and asked panelists to…

For the best results, use a mandoline to slice the apples paper-thin. TO MAKE THIS CAKE, YOU WILL NEED: 24 tablespoons (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 3 cups (12 ounces) confectioners’ sugar2 tablespoons heavy cream2 teaspoons vanilla extract⅓ teaspoon salt1 recipe Salted Caramel Filling*, cooled2 (9-inch) Applesauce Cake Layers*2 Fuji, Gala, or Pink Lady apples, cored, quartered, and sliced very thin2 tablespoons granulated sugar2 tablespoons lemon juice FOR THE FROSTING: Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Reduce speed to low and slowly add confectioners’ sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt. Whip until sugar is moistened, about 1 minute. Scrape down bowl and add ½ cup caramel filling. Whip on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down…

I just bought a birthday cake at a fancy bakery, and I saw them pulling cake rounds out of the freezer in the back of the shop. Is this just for convenience, or does freezing do something good for the cake? –Wanda Lovering, Chesterland, Ohio Being able to make a cake ahead of time and freeze it sounds pretty convenient, especially around the holidays. But to find out if freezing negatively affects cakes, we baked, wrapped, and froze individual cake layers that we made from boxed mix and with our White Layer Cake recipe. We also made, wrapped, and froze our Easy Pound Cake. After one week, we pulled the cakes from the freezer and thawed them at room temperature for 4 hours. A few tasters actually preferred the frozen-then-thawed…

THE MINIATURE BURGERS known as sliders (popularized by the White Castle hamburger restaurant chain) satisfy a lot of cravings in just a few bites. Tender, beefy burger? Check. Soft, steamy roll? Check. Gooey melted cheese and sweet browned onions? Check and check. So why don’t more people make sliders at home? It might be the perceived bother of shaping and cooking lots of little burgers versus fewer larger ones. Since the burgers are so small, it’s extra-important that they’re all the same size to prevent any runts from overcooking. To efficiently and precisely portion and shape the patties, I used three common kitchen tools—a digital scale, a zipper-lock plastic bag, and a clear pie plate. After weighing out a dozen 2-ounce balls of ground beef (1½ pounds of meat) on…

FRIED CHICKEN IS part of the fabric of Cook’s Country. Between all the regional styles, the recipes passed down through generations, and the memories of gathering around a table with loved ones and fighting over the drumsticks, fried chicken has a cultural and emotional resonance few foods can match. But, for better or for worse, many of us crave fried chicken more often than we’re willing to put in the time and effort to make it. I wanted to find an easier way to get that crunchy, deeply seasoned exterior and juicy meat we all love—without deep frying. This meant using the oven instead of the stovetop. Many oven-fried chicken recipes (including some of our own) instruct the cook to coat the chicken pieces in bread crumbs before baking them.…

I LOVE EATING a juicy, ripe pear plain out of hand, but I find them more enticing when they’re roasted until they’re tender and creamy inside and lightly caramelized outside—the browning enhances the fruits’ floral essence. I wanted to create a salad built around the sultry appeal of roasted pears. After spending a few hours researching recipes in our cookbook library, I assembled five promising versions of roasted pear salad and presented them to my colleagues. These recipes were fine, but none of them blew us away. Also, they all used the oven to roast the pears. But since the oven can be in high demand around the holidays, I wanted to see if I could achieve the same result in a skillet on the stovetop. Through trial and error,…

WHEN DONE RIGHT, an apple turnover is equally as good with a warm cup of coffee and your morning newspaper as it is alongside a scoop of ice cream for dessert. These handheld pastries have a ton of appeal—puff pastry dough folded over sweet apple filling and baked until golden brown, flaky, and crisp. I wanted to create a recipe for apple turnovers that were as easy to make as they were to eat. I got my bearings by preparing a few not-so-easy recipes that required making puff pastry from scratch. While the homemade pastry was great, it was way too much work—especially because we know that supermarket frozen puff pastry dough is really good. It bakes up with flaky, crisp layers every time. It was an easy choice to…

WHEN I WAS a kid, my mom made corn pudding every Thanksgiving. This rustic, soufflé-like casserole highlights the gentle flavors of corn and cream. But her recipe relied on corn muffin mix and canned creamed corn. I wanted something fresher. My first move was to kick the cans to the curb and use frozen corn, which is still convenient but tastes better than canned (when fresh corn is in season, this dish is all the better for using it). Buzzing some of the corn kernels with cream in a blender made a silky, sweet, corny base. To replace the corn muffin mix, I combined cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, and a touch of baking soda to help with the puff. Plenty of sour cream and butter, plus an egg for structure,…

I GREW UP thinking stuffing was a combination of mashed potatoes and bread. Yes—double the starch. Perhaps not surprisingly for such a thrifty, clever dish, that version has Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish roots. I was able to collect a handful of recipes for this dish, which is fittingly called Amish potato filling (not stuffing). When we sampled the full range of recipes I’d found, one thing was clear: Too much potato could overwhelm the dish, making the bread soggy and muting the other flavors. I wanted a creamy potato filling with browned, crunchy bread on top for satisfying textural contrast. Most of these existing recipes called for leftover mashed potatoes, but I wanted my recipe to start from scratch. Grabbing a saucepan, I got the potatoes simmering (Yukon Golds, which…

I’M ESPECIALLY FOND of the saucy, flavorful mini meatballs called cocktail meatballs. These bold little treats are often made in (and served from) a slow cooker to feed a hungry crowd. The best ones are sweet, spicy, savory, and fun to spear and eat with a toothpick at a party—preferably with a favorite beverage in your other hand. But many versions of these meatballs disappoint. This became apparent to my test kitchen colleagues when I prepared and presented six slow-cooker versions that led to comments such as “rubbery,” “way too sweet,” and “cue sad trombone noise.” The worst of these initial test recipes called for just three ingredients: frozen beef meatballs, grape jelly, and barbecue sauce. No wonder these meatballs underwhelmed with their rubbery texture and lack of freshness and…

8 Skillets 8 Tests Fry consecutive eggs with no fat until they stick—up to 50 eggs Make French omelets Make scalloped potatoes Have three users make scrambled eggs Heat to 400° on the stove, and then plunge into an ice bath Bang on a concrete ledge three times Scrape a metal spatula across the surface 50 times Repeat the dry egg challenge AN 8-INCH NONSTICK skillet might look like a toy next to a 10- or 12-inch version, but these pans are perfect for making two fried eggs or an omelet and for toasting nuts, spices, seeds, bread crumbs, and garlic. We studied the market and chose eight pans to test, including one made by OXO, the maker of our winning 12-inch nonstick skillet. Our lineup featured two kinds of…