I'm Just Here for the Food (54 page)

grilling directly on natural chunk charcoal coals

Master Recipe (searing)

Slaw, Roasted Beet and Broccoli

Slow-cooker cookery:

Posole

Split Pea Soup

Smith, Jeff

Smoked and Braised Beef Short Ribs

Smoke points

Smoking

cardboard box smoker for

smoke making elements for

Soda water

Software
see also
Ingredients

Soufflés

Soups:

Roasted Tomato

Split Pea

stock in

Sources

Soybean oil

Spareribs

Sparkling water

Spatulas

Spencer, Percy

Spice House

Spice mixes, commercial

Spice rubs

application of

Beef

Chicken

choosing

Fish

Haste Makes Paste

proportions in recipes for

Rub Number

salt and

Spices

buying

grinding

peppercorns

rules for

storing

toasting

whole vs. ground

Spinach, in Get Breakfast

Splatter guards

Split Pea Soup

Spray bottles

Spring water

Sputnik paradigm

Stainless steel bowls

Stainless steel cookware

fond and

10-inch fry pans

Stainless-steel knives

Stamped knives

Standing rib roast

Dry-Aged

Starch:

for gravy

thickening and

Staub

Steaks:

Blue Butter for

Cube, à la Salisbury

cuts of

filet of tenderloin, butterflying

Flank, Marinated

grilling experiment with

serving sliced vs. whole

skirt, grilling directly on natural chunk charcoal coals

Skirt: The Master Recipe (searing)

Steam

pressure cooking and

Steamed dishes

Cauliflower and Broccoli

Eggs, Hard-Cooked

Fish, Whole

Onion Custard, Sweet

Ramen Radiator

Savoy Wraps, Savory

Steamer baskets

Steaming

equipment for

Master Profile for

Short Form guidelines for

Stephen, George

Stevens, Patricia Bunning

Stewing

transformation of collagen to gelatin in
see also
Braising

Stews:

Beef Stroganoff

Chili

Posole

Stir-frying

Stock

cooling

defoaming

freezing

ingredients for

in pan sauces

simmering

straining

uses for

Stock pots

Stroganoff, Beef

Stuffings, for turkey

Substitutions:

of equipment

of ingredients

Suet

Sugar Snap Peas with Spicy Lemon Dipping Sauce

Sunflower oil

Surface tension

Sweating aromatic vegetables

Sweet-and-Sour Tofu

Sweet Onion Custard

Sweet potatoes:

grilling

immersion-frying strips of

Tropical Mash

Swiss chard

with Garlic and Tomato

T

“Table” grills

Table salt

Tapioca

Taste, of warm vs. cool foods

Taylor, John Martin

Teflon

8-inch fry pans

possible health hazards of

Temperature:

safety concerns and
see also
Thermometers

Tempura (Batter Up)

Tenderizing, acids and

Tenderloin (beef cut)

Terra-cotta pots, roasting chicken in

Thawing

Thermal coasting

Thermometers

frying/candy

grilling and

instant-read

meat

oven

pop-up

probe

Thermoworks

Thickeners

for gravy

starch chemistry and

Thorne, John

Times, in recipes

Tofu:

Bar-B-Fu

sauté scampi-style

Sweet-and-Sour

Tomato(es):

Green, Fried

Red Onion Jam

Roasted, Soup

Sauce Rosie

Slow-Roast

Tongs, spring-loaded

Tortillas

Towels

paper, draining fried foods on

Toxins

Trager, James

Trans fatty acids

Transporting food, safety concerns and

Travel

Tres Amigos

Trichinella spiralis

Triglycerides

Tropical Mash

Trout, Miller Thyme

Tuna Steak, Blackened

Turkey

basting

brining

and Fig Breakfast Meatloaf

pop-up thermometers in

Roast

stuffing for

Typhoid Mary

U

Unilids

V

Vanilla

Veal:

bones, for stock

shanks

Vegetable(s):

Batter Up

blanching

cooked vs. raw

Marinated, Salad

for pressure cooking

safety concerns and

see also
specific vegetables

Vegetable shortening

Ventilation

Vermont Butter & Cheese Co.

Vinaigrettes

as marinades

Mignonette

Volume equivalents

W

Walnut oil

Water

bottled, types of

brining and

as deglazing option

filtering

frying and

hard and soft

heat and molecular structure of

microorganisms and

surface tension and

see also
Blanching; Boiling; Poaching; Simmering; Steaming

Water conversion

Wax beans, in Marinated Vegetable

Salad

Weber grills

modification of

Websites, food-related

Weight equivalents

Welding gloves

Well water

Whisks

White Clam Sauce

White Lily Foods Co.

Wine:

Champagne, in Mignonette Sauce/Vinaigrette

deglazing with

poaching in

Wontons, Artichoke and Feta

Wood:

burning

chips or chunks, smoking and

Z

Zip-top freezer bags, marinating and brining in

Zucchini and Carrots with Garlic and Ginger

Epilogue

Unless you’re one of those folks who check out the ending of a book first, you’ve probably plowed through almost three pounds of paper to reach this spot. Thanks for sticking with it. I hope it didn’t take as much work to read as it did to write it.

In the end, I certainly don’t expect you to remember every manic message contained herein, but there are a few things I hope you take away for the long term.

Although the act of cooking involves a great many things, at its core it’s about the marriage of food and heat. Being a good cook means understanding the food enough to know how to apply that heat. Do you deliver a massive dose via cast iron or do you dole it out slowly via water in a warm oven? Therein lies the core question of cooking. Everything else is secondary.

Just as voltage is but one factor in determining the potential of an electrical current, temperature is but one factor in determining the potential of heat. The mode of transmission, radiation, conduction, and convection are as crucial to the equation as the temperature itself. That’s why you can stick your hand inside a 500° F oven but not into a pot of 200° F water.

Searing is, in the residential milieu at least, the fastest way to get heat into food. The primary goal: browning via the Maillard reaction (for meat) and caramelization (fruits and vegetables). Depending on their size and shape, target foods may be seared until done or finished by another method. Since searing takes place in a dry pan, no flour or other coatings should be employed. Certain spice rubs, however, are definitely allowed.

Don’t fear the fryer. Since it takes a lot less energy to bring a pound of oil to 350° F than it does to boil a pound of water, fat is an amazingly efficient cooking medium. What’s more, frying adds flavor because it delivers enough of a thermal punch to create browning, something water just can’t do. And remember, when done correctly, most of the cooking fat stays in the pan. What constitutes correctness?

• The temperature of the cooking fat must be kept high enough so that the water under the surface of the food boils. Miss this mark, and fat will invade the food with a vengeance.

• Don’t crowd the fryer.

• All excess dredge or batter should be removed prior to frying.

• Once cooked, fried foods must be thoroughly drained.

Buy yourself a grill that can be controlled. Better to load it up with burning charcoal and choke it back via air control than not to have enough heat to begin with. Lubricate grillables with only enough oil to give the seasoning something to hold on to. This is less than you think. If the grill grates are dirty, the grill is useless. Grill by zone. Most foods, be they animal or vegetable, fare best when moved between areas of direct and indirect heat. Buy good charcoal and use a chimney starter so that you can add burning coals to your fire. I’ve never believed in adding cold charcoal to an existing fire.

When pan frying, you’ll rarely need as much oil as you think. What looks like a pitiful puddle in an empty pan will rise considerably once the food moves in.

A successful sauté depends on high heat, a small amount of oil, and constant movement. Pan crowding is the number-one problem facing the sauté. Work in batches if you’re in doubt. Remember, if you see liquid bubbling in the bottom of the pan, you’re not sautéing, you’re boiling. And since water-type liquids can’t move past 212° F, your food won’t brown no matter how hot the pan was when you started.

Water is tricky stuff. Don’t turn your back on it.

Despite new “smart” appliance designs, it’s still darned difficult to maintain a constant and gentle simmer on a cook top. So whenever possible, I move my simmerables off the stove and into the oven. Evaporation is inevitable, so keep hot liquid nearby to maintain the liquid level.

Braising is nothing more than simmering something that’s been seared in as little liquid as possible. Maintain food-liquid contact by cooking in the smallest vessel possible or (my favorite) an aluminum foil enclosure set inside another pan. Cooking in aluminum is perfectly safe (yes, even when acidic foods are concerned), though foods cooked in foil should be removed from the foil as soon after cooking as possible.

Due to the way in which collagen converts into gelatin, meat braises and stews are always better the next day. I know of no exceptions.

Buy a pressure cooker, read the instructions, and then use it often.

Homemade stock makes sense—and sense is what I like making best.

If there’s something left in the pot when the cooking is done, there’s a sauce waiting to happen. The same goes for leftover marinades—just make sure you always bring them to a boil before serving.

If you’re using flour to thicken a sauce, remember that it won’t thicken until the liquid in question reaches a boil. Cornstarch thickens at much lower temperatures, as do arrowroot and potato starch.

Give your microwave oven another chance.

Buy the biggest cutting board your sink can accommodate.

Unless it’s got a rapid-cool section, your refrigerator was designed to keep things cold, not make them cold. So don’t expect it to chill a pot of hot soup and keep everything else in it out of the danger zone.

Buy a pair of spring-loaded tongs and don’t pay more than ten bucks for them.

Thermometers are tools, as are your tongue, nose, and fingers. Your brain is also a tool, so don’t run with scissors (or knives), and think before you cook.

Now you know, and knowin’s half the battle.

—GI JOE

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the works of those who inspired this one—as well as those the author just couldn’t have done it without.

Professional

John and Matte Thorne: food writers (
Outlaw Cook
provided the spark for just about everything I’ve done); Shirley O. Corriher: food teacher and writer (her book
Cookwise
is the best of the last decade); Harold McGee: food-science deity (every time I thought I was breaking new ground, I found his footprints); Patrick Matecat: chef and darned fine teacher; New England Culinary Institute: darned fine culinary school; Sother Teague: chef and brother in arms; Stacey Geary: editor (on my end); Marisa Bulzone: editor (Stewart, Tabori & Chang); Michael Kann: chef and writer; Athalie White: marketing manager; Paul Nuesslein: recipe tester; Eileen Opatut: Food Network program director—a wonderful client; Dana Popoff: producer of
Good Eats
; Tamie Cook, culinary director of BeSquare Productions.

Personal

DeAnna Brown: wife (behind every writer there’s...)/executive producer of
Good Eats
; Zoey Brown: daughter/beacon of light; Matilda: dog; Steve Markey: friend since forever; Phyllis Sauls: Mom and recipe tester.

Random

W. Shakespeare: dead but good writer; Coffee: beverage; Knob Creek Bourbon: ditto; Little Debbie Nutty Bars: delicious treat; Beef; Apple Computer: manufacturers of the Macintosh G4 powerbook on which book was written; Steely Dan: band/source of good vocabulary words; Airstream: makers of fine travel trailers and my office; All Clad Cookware: who have given me free stuff and lots of it; Lodge Manufacturing: sole keepers of the American cast-iron flame; Weber: makers of the best charcoal grill known to man; General Electric: most of the recipes herein were tested in and on their Profile gas range, a very reliable piece of ordnance indeed. Thanks to BMW and Triumph motorcycles for saving my life.