Innholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2019 i Cook's Country

PRODUCT TASTING ALL BACON IS special, but some small-batch artisanal bacon is extra-special—and priced accordingly. Since we last tasted artisanal bacons, more bacons made by smaller-scale producers have become available online. We were curious how our previous favorite, Vande Rose Applewood Smoked Artisan Dry Cured Bacon ($29.07 per pound, including shipping), stacked up against the competition, so we tasted it alongside six other high-end dry-cured bacons, all available online and priced from $8.00 to $14.75 per pound (shipping not included). We tried them plain, in our Southern-Style Green Beans, and in BLTs. What did we find out? We liked all the bacons we tried, but often in different applications. Some were great in green beans but too intense when eaten plain; others were good plain but got lost in a…

WE’VE ALL HAD the experience of not knowing what to order in a restaurant and settling on that velvety, creamy pasta that just sounds so good. You order it, you like it, and you go home satisfied. Also satisfied? The restaurant owner, because you’ve just helped the establishment’s bottom line more than you know. Restaurants make a killing on pasta. The food costs are low, and in most cases the preparation is relatively uncomplicated. Before service, a cook will have prepped all the add-ins and perhaps parcooked the pasta. Once an order comes in, all they have to do is finish cooking the pasta, toss it with the other ingredients in a hot pan, and then pile it all on a plate—simple. I wanted a foolproof recipe for a restaurant-quality…

AFTER A FULL day of cooking and tasting food at work, I usually have just a salad for dinner. But since greens and vinaigrette can take you only so far, lately I’ve been looking to broaden my horizons by trying various salads that are still heavy on the vegetables but a bit more substantial. Why not create a hearty salad in the test kitchen that I’d be happy to eat for dinner at home? Vegetables don’t get much heartier than potatoes, so I knew I’d use spuds for my salad. I got to thinking about other ingredients that I don’t usually add to my leafy greens and decided to give green beans a shot. And for a fresh, uncooked component that would add substance and sass, I chose halved grape…

ADOBO, THE POTENT, pleasantly bitter sauce made from dried chiles, plays many roles in the cuisines of Mexico and the American Southwest: marinade, braising sauce, baste, and tableside condiment for all kinds of meats. (In Filipino cuisine, adobo is something else altogether.) Making adobo should be relatively easy: Toast dried chiles to activate their flavor, soak them, and then pulverize them in a blender with vinegar, herbs, and garlic. The best versions are simultaneously complex and deeply comforting. I set out to make a recipe for chicken in adobo that was easy and tasted amazing. The recipes I found called for different chiles—chipotle, guajillo, ancho, arbol, and pasilla chiles were all in play. My tasters thought that chipotle (smoked-and-dried jalapeño) and arbol chiles brought too much heat to the party…

EQUIPMENT REVIEW FOR THE BEST cup of coffee, we always recommend freshly grinding the beans. Many home brewers use blade grinders, which feature rapidly spinning blades that chop the coffee beans into small fragments. To find the best blade grinder, we tested six models, priced from $14.96 to $21.95, using each to grind enough beans to make one, four, and 10 cups of coffee. We used the grinders to achieve fine, medium, and coarse grinds with both light-roasted and dark-roasted beans. We then asked six testers to operate each grinder and gauge its user-friendliness. When using a blade grinder, if you simply hold down the grind button, some beans end up overground, while others never come in contact with the blade. Experts recommend pulsing the grind button and shaking the…

THE GRILLING AREA at our Boston test kitchen sits next to a cruise ship terminal. This means that any test cook who grills on a Friday has a crowd of spectators eager to watch while they wait to set sail. It can be fun to have an audience when you’re expertly searing a thick-cut steak. Or it can mean that there are hundreds of people to bear witness when a beautiful 8-pound leg of lamb gets enveloped in menacing flames from the grill. I should know. It happened to me. I’d been thrilled to be assigned the task of developing a recipe for grilled leg of lamb. I love lamb’s meaty, mildly gamy flavor, especially the leg. This grand cut has an iconic figure, impressive enough for any celebration, but…

WHEN I THINK of chickpeas, my mind usually goes to the spice-rich flavors of curry or hummus. But recently at a neighborhood Greek restaurant, I was served tender chickpeas tossed with garlic and a tangle of wilted spinach in a vibrant, lemony, dill-scented broth. It was light, bright, and punchy. In an effort to re-create this enticing dish, I started by heating sliced garlic and red pepper flakes in olive oil in a large skillet until the oil was infused with flavor. Next, I added two drained cans of chickpeas before stirring in curly-leaf spinach one handful at a time, waiting for one portion to wilt before adding the next. Before serving, I spritzed the dish with lemon and sprinkled in a hefty ¼ cup of fresh dill. The dish…

THE MAKING OF some condiments, such as ketchup and mustard, is best left to the professionals (that is, the huge manufacturers who spend a lot of money on equipment to guarantee the consistent mass production of their condiments). But that’s not the case for mayonnaise: With just 10 minutes of measuring, pouring, and buzzing the ingredients in a food processor at home, you can create a light, creamy, flavorful mayonnaise or aioli that easily outpaces the stuff they’re offering at the supermarket. Homemade mayonnaise is an easy way to take your cooking—and your sandwich game—to another level. EASY HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE Serves 24 (Makes about 1½ cups) Do not substitute olive oil for the vegetable oil; the mayonnaise will turn out bitter. 1 large egg4 teaspoons white wine vinegar1½ teaspoons Dijon…

I LOVE BRINY, sweet, tender shrimp. And for me, one of their best uses is the bold, nuanced Louisiana dish called shrimp Creole. I wanted to make a rendition of this jazzy, saucy dish to serve two hungry diners on a busy weeknight. My research led me to recipes that called for Creole seasoning mixes containing 10 or more ingredients; homemade stocks that required sautéing, simmering, and then straining; and active cooking times measured in hours, not minutes. I was determined to streamline the process without sacrificing the punchy flavor of this classic dish—cooking for two is just as important as cooking for 20. I wanted a rich sauce base, the perfect amount of spice, and delicately cooked shrimp. I began with the traditional roux of butter and flour, added…

IN THE CONDIMENT world, yellow mustard is often considered the Robin to ketchup’s Batman, relegated to a supporting role on burgers and hot dogs. But it’s much more than a sidekick. Yellow mustard’s pungency and relatively low spice level make it highly versatile, ideal for adding tang and flavor to hot dogs, potato salad, barbecue sauce, marinades, salad dressings, and more. When we heard that our favorite yellow mustard from our last tasting had been reformulated, we decided to retest. We selected seven top-selling, nationally available products, priced from $0.08 to $0.44 per ounce. We included a low-sodium mustard from Boar’s Head since it was that brand’s only yellow mustard. We tasted each mustard plain and on pigs in a blanket. Mustard seeds are a cool-weather crop. Canada is the…

“These crunchy asparagus spears are just as fun to eat alongside barbecue as they are to use as a swizzle stick in a bloody Mary on Sunday morning. My mother made several versions and would adjust the herbs and spices based on her intended use.”—VEDA SCARPETTI, San Mateo, Calif. ASPARAGUS PICKLES Serves 6 to 8 (Makes 1 quart) Trim the asparagus spears so they are no taller than the jar you’re using. Depending on the size of your jar, you may have extra brine; the important thing is to make sure that the asparagus spears are fully submerged in the brine. 1 pound thick asparagus6 sprigs fresh dill1 bay leaf1½ cups cider vinegar1½ cups water⅓ cup sugar¼ cup kosher salt½ teaspoon black peppercorns½ teaspoon yellow mustard seeds 1. Trim asparagus…

Fond of Flavor When it comes to using fond, I’m confused. Won’t the dark bits make my pan sauce taste burnt? –Edward Merrell, Olympia, Wash. The browned bits that stick to the bottom of the pan when you sear meat are called fond—and they are packed with savory flavor. We understand that the degree to which the fond in the pan has browned can be worrisome, and it can be a problem if it gets too dark. Fond is the direct result of the Maillard reaction, during which proteins and natural sugars in a food are transformed by heat to create new complex flavor compounds. The flavorful browning on a pan-fried steak is a common example of this reaction, and so is the browning that occurs on a loaf of…

CHICKEN SALAD IS one of the world’s most versatile—and to me, most perfect—foods. While there are plenty of lousy versions out there (I’m looking at you, convenience-store sandwiches), the best versions are satisfying yet light, featuring plenty of tender chicken, a creamy and cooling mayonnaise-based dressing, and crunchy bursts of crisp, refreshing celery—just right for lunch on a warm day. A bonus is that chicken salad is endlessly customizable with ingredients such as herbs, pickles, spices, and hot sauce. My favorite kind of chicken salad is often called California-style: It features cubed—not shredded—chicken breast bathed in a creamy, herby dressing. Most recipes call for poaching the chicken in a covered pan on the stovetop to cook it gently and letting it cool before chopping and dressing it. But the problem…

ASK A PROFESSIONAL chef about the foods they crave and 99 percent of the time their answer will be something surprisingly simple and comforting. My favorite meal to make at home is chicken and rice. The version I grew up eating in North Carolina featured white rice that was softened and plumped with chicken stock and then tossed with tender pieces of shredded chicken. I remember it as a supremely savory dish boasting the clear, unambiguous flavor of chicken and little else. It’s just the kind of thing I want after spending long hours developing a recipe for a more complex dish. Yet this kind of simplicity can be difficult, but not impossible, to pull off. To learn how others have mastered it, I made five different versions of chicken…

Keys to the Perfect Texture THE GOOD THING about the battle between thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies and thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies is that nobody loses—when done well, both styles are great. So I was excited when my editor handed me the assignment of developing a recipe for the thin and crispy variety. A good thin and crispy cookie needs to live up to its name. Rather than having a range of textures, these cookies must keep a consistent snap. Just like a good potato chip, the best crispy cookie will be as crispy in the middle as it is at the edge. In researching existing recipes, I found that there were two common tricks for creating thin, crispy chocolate chip cookies. One option was to simply…

1. Rub with Paste Massage the spice paste into the lamb, cover the lamb with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for at least 12 hours. 2. Grill Low and Slow Set up the grill with hotter and cooler zones and grill the lamb, fat side up, over the cooler side until it’s almost done. 3. Sear over High Heat Move the lamb to the hotter side of the grill, fat side down, to create a flavorful seared crust. 4. Carve into Thin Slices Starting at the widest part of the lamb, thinly slice at a 45-degree angle toward the exposed bone end.…

IN A BAGEL shop, I’m a bit like a kid in a candy store—wide-eyed and greedy to try everything in sight. And for me, it’s not just the bagels but the cream cheese spreads, too. Oddly, even though I cook and develop recipes for a living, I’d never really considered making my own cream cheese spreads. It was time to turn that corner. I headed into the kitchen, rolled up my sleeves, and got to work on a basic garlic and herb spread (my favorite variety). I quickly found that it helped to let the cream cheese come to room temperature (about 30 minutes on the counter) before adding other ingredients. I auditioned a dozen herbs for the spread before my tasters and I landed on the full-flavored, fresh-tasting combination…

WITH EARTHY LENTILS, smoky Spanish-style chorizo, and a heady mix of garlic and warm spices, lentil and chorizo soup is one of my favorites. But there are days when I can’t bring myself to do the hands-on work involved: browning the sausage, sautéing the vegetables, frying the garlic and spices to bloom their flavors, and hauling out the blender to puree a portion of the lentils to thicken the soup. I began to wonder if all the work was necessary. Could I just toss all the ingredients into my slow cooker and come back a few hours later to find the soup I love? Though my initial attempts at doing so held some promise, they yielded soups that were one-dimensional and, for lack of a better word, a little boring.…

TO MAKE THIS CAKE, YOU WILL NEED: 1 cup pecans¼ cup (1¾ ounces) granulated sugar¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon water½ teaspoon table salt⅓ cup packed (2⅓ ounces) light brown sugar¼ cup bourbon1 recipe Bourbon–Brown Sugar Cake Layers*1 recipe Bourbon–Brown Sugar Frosting* FOR THE CANDIED PECANS: Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring pecans, granulated sugar, ¼ cup water, and salt to boil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until water evaporates and sugar appears dry, opaque, and somewhat crystallized and evenly coats pecans, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and continue to stir until sugar turns amber color, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer pecans to prepared sheet and spread into even layer. Let cool completely, about 10 minutes. Chop pecans coarse. FOR THE BOURBON SYRUP: Bring…

AS A LOVER of all things topped with gooey melted cheese, I found Philly tomato pie puzzling at first. It has a thick crust similar to that of Sicilian-style pizza. It’s sold by the rectangular slice like Sicilian-style pizza. And like all pizza, it has tomato sauce. But this Philly pie features no cheese. Though I initially wondered where the fun was in that, I’ve also never met a pizza I didn’t like. Philly tomato pie’s crust is thick and chewy-soft. The sauce is invigorating—sweet-tart and herby. This pie is generally eaten at room temperature. Cheese or no cheese, I was smitten at first bite and eager for a home version that would be no different. A South Philadelphia specialty (see “Beauty in the Basics”), Philly tomato pie evolved as…

THE AMERICAN TABLE Shake ‘n Bake seasoned coating mixes were originally introduced in 1965 by the General Foods Corporation as an easier alternative to fried chicken or fried pork chops. The original advertisements were staples during daytime television programs such as The Price Is Right and General Hospital; they featured child actors delivering the line, “And I helped!” Starting in the 1980s, the Shake ‘n Bake spokesperson was Ann B. Davis, who played Alice on The Brady Bunch, perhaps the most well-known fictional home cook in pop culture at the time. WE’VE ALL SEEN the Shake ‘n Bake box at the grocery store—the one that promises an extra-crispy, crunchy pork chop coating in just two simple steps. I grew up eating chops prepared with this product (just seasoned crumbs and…

TIME TO BUST a myth: English muffins are not hard to make at home. You don’t need special equipment or even much time to turn out English muffins that are fresher and better than any you’d buy at the supermarket. To develop the best possible recipe, I first had to survey existing recipes for English muffins. The basic process was this: Mix flour, yeast, salt, and milk, and then let the dough rise. Shape it into muffins, dust them with cornmeal, and let them rise again. Next, sear the muffins in a pan before finishing them off in the oven. But there was a lot of variance in the details among recipes. Some call for letting the dough rise in the refrigerator for two days to develop extra yeasty flavor…

“The cow is of the bovine ilk; one end is moo, the other, milk.”—Ogden Nash HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT Milk Paste Meatloaf, meatball, and some hamburger recipes call for panades—pastes of bread crumbs (or crackers) mashed with milk—to help keep the meat moist. This works because, when cooked, the starch in the bread absorbs water from the meat and forms a gel that holds on to moisture. Milk is our preferred liquid for panades because it adds richness and most cooks have it on hand, but our tests have shown that you can use broth, tomato juice, water, or other liquids in place of or in addition to milk. Busting a Milk Myth Some bread recipes call for scalding milk (bringing it to the verge of a boil, about 180…

FOR DECADES, MOST Americans regarded cauliflower as an afterthought—a fine (if bland) choice for crudités or for a side dish when steamed with carrots and broccoli, but that was about it. But with this vegetable’s recent surge in popularity, our eyes have been opened to newfound—and delicious—possibilities, most of them based on the enhanced appeal of roasted cauliflower. When it’s roasted, the sugars in this vegetable caramelize, turning the flavor nutty and sweet. I wanted to do my part in service of this once-neglected vegetable and literally dress it up in a compelling salad. I collected and prepared a handful of recipes for roasted cauliflower salads. Our favorite of the bunch, from acclaimed London-based chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi, was an herb-heavy salad that called for roasting two-thirds of a…

RESPLENDENT IN APPEARANCE but made up of humble parts, a sweet fruit trifle is equally comfortable as a casual weekend dessert or a showstopping holiday centerpiece. A trifle’s architecture usually goes like this: A layer of sponge cake or ladyfingers doused in sweet wine such as sherry or Marsala forms the base; it’s followed by a layer of fruit (often jam), a layer of rich chilled pastry cream, and a lathering of whipped cream. The layers repeat one or more times, depending on the depth of the vessel. Each layer sinks slightly into the next as the trifle grows taller, gradually melding the flavors and textures to form a delightful mess. With strawberry season in full swing, I wanted to create a trifle with strawberries as the star. To get…

WEEKNIGHT CHICKEN CAN get pretty boring. My goal was to liven up dinner while keeping it real on a busy weeknight: maximum flavor with minimal work and cleanup. My path to these goals went through South America—specifically, Peru. One of the test kitchen’s all-time favorite chicken marinades is inspired by the flavors of Peruvian roast chicken: mint, chile, lime, smoke, and spice. This complex, concentrated, and vibrant marinade comes together quickly in the blender, which only adds to its appeal. Here’s how it starts: You toss a seeded habanero chile in the blender along with a handful of mint leaves, olive oil, some smoked paprika and cumin for earthy depth, potent dried oregano, six whole garlic cloves, sugar, salt and pepper, and lime juice and zest. Can you almost smell…

8 Toasters 10+ Tests Measure toaster dimensions Measure slot dimensions Toast sandwich bread at 3 settings Time toasting 6 times Check exterior temperature while toasting Toast large slices of artisan bread Toast bagels Toast full capacity of bread 5 times Evaluate ease of use Empty and evaluate crumb trays Toast 365 consecutive slices in top 3 models IS YOUR TOASTER stuck in the 1950s, when all bread was white, skinny, and square? Today, Americans are buying bigger loaves of bread, and the slices don’t always fit in the average toaster. The last time we tested toasters, our winner, the Magimix Vision Toaster ($249.95), was unique for its one extra-long, extra-wide slot that fit any kind of bread, even bigger slices. It toasted evenly, using responsive quartz heating elements. It also…

Our Favorite Heinz Yellow Mustard Price: $1.99 for 14 oz ($0.14 per oz) Sodium: 60 mg Comments: We liked this mustard’s “nice sweetness” and “good acidity,” which gave it “some zing,” as well as its smooth texture and “old-fashioned,” “iconic” flavor. As one taster noted, it “tastes like classic mustard on a ballpark hot dog.” French’s Classic Yellow Mustard Price: $3.19 for 20 oz ($0.16 per oz) Sodium: 55 mg Comments: Our runner-up had many of the characteristics we liked: a “hint of sweet” and “acidic bite” combined with a “creamy texture.” Some tasters detected a slightly “earthy,” “herby” flavor when tasting the mustard plain, but it was less noticeable on pigs in a blanket. Koops’ Original Yellow Mustard Price: $5.95 for 18 oz ($0.33 per oz) Sodium: 60 mg…