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Ask Alton Brown How Food+Heat=Cooking
This week's Slashdot interview guest is Alton Brown, host of the popular cable TV show Good Eats. This is a "reader request" interview in the wake of the surprisingly popular Slashdot review of Alton's book, I'm Just Here for the Food. Please post your questions below. we'll send 10 of the highest-moderated to Alton, and post his answers when we get them back.
If you and Emeril were doing battle in Kitchen Stadium, Who would win? ;-)
What would be the best way for someone to cook say late at night when he's just coding all he really can, but does not want to wake anyone up?
I'm rather tired of bowls of corn flakes.
Winmac.
Mac. You can kill me. But two more will take my place.
like the salt keeper, the plunger measuring cup, the trippy wisks...
What is a decent way to serve up a hot dog, that is delicious, different and retains some of the barehandedness that makes so much of american cuisine so much fun!!!
I very rarely hear other cooking shows, critically analyze different cooking lore and legend. How did you start getting interested in the science behind cooking? Did you learn it just because it helps you makes better food, or have you been a long-time cooking geek? (see normal /. definition of geek) Do you use the Internet very extensively for research about the science of cooking?
If you were to arrive in a new city, without any knowledge of local dining, where would you eat and why?
What is your favorite sit-down resteraunt and What is your favorite fast food resteraunt? If you were on death row what would you choose as your last meal?
One question I've had for a while...if cooking is basically a chemical reaction, and chemical reactions can be reversed, does that mean that there's a chemistry of "uncooking?" Imagine the untapped millions of $ available to you if you can show people how to unburn their pot roast!
I've noticed that some people seem to be naturally better cooks than others.
I've know several people that follow a recipe very exactly. The food they create just doesn't turn out very good.
Personally, I'll use a recipe as a guideline and use rough estimates. Most of the time, my meals turn out pretty well.
It's as if a intuitive sense is needed.
How does someone learn/teach this skill?
Laugh at my ignorance while I learn Rails - a Real ne
2) a Desert Island
3) Sally Struthers
Which would it be?
Why is it that no matter what you're cooking, salt makes it better? Desserts, meat, vegetables, etc.
How Jaded Are You?
As a vegetarian, I'm compelled to ask this: Have you seen a trend in recent years of more vegetarians, or more dishes made without meat? Time magazine had a recent cover story about this, and my feeling is it's becoming a more important part of everyones lives, yet whenever I catch a cooking show on TV it lacks making many vegetarian dishes.
:)
I sort of compare it to Microsoft talking to a lot of my friends: there is a lot of misinformation out there, and you simply don't need to support a "big evil company" just like you don't need to eat the flesh of animals.
Mod this as you feel appropriate
Here's what I want in a meal. If I'm like other geeks, and I think I am, they'll be interested too:
- Easy to prepare in bulk, hard to screw up
- Made from cheap ingredients I can purchase in bulk and that keep more-or-less indefinitely
- Leftovers are robust and reheatable in the microwave
- Healthy and tasty
My best recipe so far is two gallons of chili made in a big slow-cooker. Do you have any other suggestions?
Do you keep a database of your recipes or do you use the old fashion method of dead trees?
So, I'm a student here in the U.S., eating way more fast-food than I should, watching a population around me that is fatter than what we have in Europe. What do you think about the so-called junk food, and the people that eat it? Are you or would you get involved in campaigns that aim to educate people about what they eat?
Wait wait, WHAT? You can HEAT food? Hot damn! I'm writing this down... no more frozen taquitos in the middle of a 16-hour coding binge for me!
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
I myself am a decent enough cook, however, I don't know how to teach her to cook, as I am a horrible teacher.
So, my question to you is this...
How can a pretty bad cook learn the essentials of good cooking?
This is a great question!
Although if he's anything like most geeks,
He'll do a bunch of research before hand. If there was not time for that, I bet he'd simply ask around (thats how I found some great barbeque in Kansas city (not that thats hard, but the first two places I was "directed" to sucked.))
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
What are the main differences in the types of yeast used for making bread, versus the types of yeast used for making beer? Could someone, for example, take a beer yeast culture and make a decent sourdough from it?
How's my programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL
From the /. review:
Back to the grill, he's removed one of the plates on the side of his grill and fitted it with a piece of tailpipe. Then, when he's grilling, he sticks a hair dryer in the tailpipe and uses it to whip the coals into an inferno. Which might explain why he gets his oven mitts from the hardware store in the form of welding gloves. When talking about ovens, he describes how he builds an oven out of firebricks, and how he uses a large terra cotta pot to cook a chicken in his oven. It's all in the name of even heat distribution. He's also not above rewiring his electric skillet to provide a greater range of temperatures. You know you've read something good when the author includes a mini-disclaimer to the effect of "if you try this at home kids, I and the publisher are not responsible."
Okay, well, he's apparently fairly cool.
As for the question: how does he come up with these rather novel cooking methods? Is it trial and error (and, if so, what errors)? Does he have any sort of physics background? Or does he just wake up at 2am and think what a wizard idea it would be to use a hair dryer as a catalyst for his cooking?
I have a rather small kitchen, but love cooking. The downside is that I have a lot of gear all over the place, usually because I really need it. What would you recommend as a "required list" of tools (utensils/appliances) that people should have in their kitchen?
As a well known chef, people must assume you have a refined palate and discerning tastes ... but do you ever get a crazy cravin' for a Big Mac? Do you have a secret lust for a particular type of junk food?
Having watched your show numerous times, it is easy to see you have a genuine "geekness" about you. As a fellow member of the tribe, I always find it interesting to see how you explain so many things with the science behind the matter rather than just explaining it away with "Because that's the way it's always been done.". My question to you is this, have you always been a cerebrally inclined individual? Have you faced many hurdles in the cooking world due to your pursuit of the science and taste and not the tradition?
Why is it that everytime I want to watch your show, Emeril is on instead?
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
A lot of your show is dedicated to the Science of cooking, and to the underlying physics of food. Your Grandmother (in a really cool episode about biscuits) demonstrated a wicked amount of Artistic Skill, the "look and feel" of food preparation. Do you have any thoughts about the balance of Art and Science in cooking?
One discussion I haven't seen: I consider the most important multitasker in my kitchen to be a knife, mainly my 8" chef's knife. What advice do you have for choosing a set of knives? Which knives do you consider the most important in food prep? Do you sharpen them yourself or have them sharpened at a shop?
Thank You
Chris
With all this talk of heating foods, I was wondering what your feelings are on the World Health Organization calling an emergency meeting to discuss the recent studies on heating carbohydrates. These studies found high levels of the carcinogin acrylamide when carbohydrates are heated in a certain way, such as by frying potatoes or baking bread.
Do you think this will affect your cooking recommendations in anyway?
Where is it approprate, and how might I use it best? Or why shouldn't I use it at all?
Why is it that the recipes from Good Eats belong to the Food Network, and they post so few of them? How much editorial control do you have over your Web Content and would you do things differently if you had the option?
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
I read an article about Ming Tsai (the wonderful host of East Meets West) where he noted that, after his show became popular, he came under enormous amounts of pressure to open resteraunts across America a la Emerill. He turned down the offers, and I was wondering if you have come under the same pressure and what is your feeling towards opening up resterants capitalizing on your celebrity.
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
Seeing that all geeks love Iron Chef, I have to ask, would you be willing to go against an Iron Chef? If so, which would you pick??
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Listen up brothers and sisters, come here my desperate tale.
I speak of our friends of nature, trapped in the dirt like a jail
Vegtables live in oppression, served on out tables each night
This killing of veggies is madness, I say we take up the fight
Salads are only for murderers, cole slaw's a fascist regime!
Don't think that they don't have feelings, just cause a radish can't scream.
I've heard the screams of the vegetables, watching their skins being peeled.
Grated and steamed with no mercy.. how do you think that feels?
Carrot juice constitutes murder.. greenhouses prisons for slaves!
It's time to stop all this gardening.. let's call a spade a spade.
...
I'm a political prisoner, trapped in a windowless cage
'Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips, by killing five men in a rage
The Arrogant Worms
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When is the entire series going to be available on DVD? Or perhaps more seriously, what plans are there to expand on the current three DVDs, which admittedly cover classics, but leave us wanting more? (I have to have a copy of the oatmeal episode, just for the haggis recipe; not that I want to MAKE haggis mind you, but that was some inspired scripting)
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
Something I've found as a newbie chef is that a good 75.32% of good cooking is good shopping. What tips do you have for finding good, fresh ingredients? Where the heck do you get fresh herbs etc. in a smallish town?
Mr Brown,
I think that the most interesting part of your show to this audience is your emphasis on the science of cooking, from discussion of protein (such as in your angel foodcake episode and your recent souffle episode).
But the other difference in Good Eats is the great emphasis you place on the parts of cooking, that is the elements at a more abstract level, such as use of heat, individual ingredients (which is the topic of many of the shows) and methods of cooking (such as the right way to mix and fold).
This all makes Good Eats interesting for us geeks out there who want to understand the science, but also helps us non-cooking geeks become literate in the supermarket and kitchen.
What gave you the idea to present cooking in this way and do you have any suggestions for other resources that present food and food preparation in the same way?
- Serge Wroclawski
Thanks for coming out with a show (and a cookbook) that finally tell me why I should cook in a certain way rather than just telling me that I should do it.
Many of your recipes tend to be a high in fat (for example, deep fried mac and cheese). How often do you eat food like that? Do you worry you'll die of a heart attack by age 45?
Thanks for the shows, I really enjoy them.
I watch your show quite a bit, and one thing, and in one show (the souffle one) you mention that most plastic has a similar structure to fat, so fat has a tendency to stick to it. My question is where do you get your scientific info? Do you have a background in science to find this out yourself, or do you have friends who have a chemistry background that gives you chemical reasons why cooking is done the way it is?
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
Given that your show has covered subjects ranging from eggplant (which most children hate) to gelatin (c'mon, there's always room for Jell-O!), you obviously have a wide variety of foods that you enjoy to prepare and eat.
Are there any specific foods, however, which you expressly *DO NOT* like? Where the preparation is particularly odious, or where the cooking itself is tedious, or where you just plain don't like the taste?
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
I've seen just about every episode (more than twice, my wife will vouch for that), and I know that the first question of cooking tools is usually quality. But, a close second is always multipurposity (yeah, I like making up the goofy phrase or two). Even those of us with significant kitchen budgets have a hard time acquiring a good collection of tools. What makes your top ten (or twelve, or twenty-two) list for essential, mutlitasking cooking tools?
Heck, what are the ten things that should be in my fridge and pantry at all times?
Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals discuss logistics.
Your interest in science as related to food is obvious, but are you a geek for other things as well?? What other technology / science to you follow, and are you a Slashdotter by any chance (or will you become one now??
Department of Homeland Security: Removing the rights real patriots fought and died for since 2001
(or How Can I Make Use of this Seemingly Useless Information from College)
Anthropologists working with communities that practice cannibalism have reported that individuals can more-or-less peg a persons origin based on how they taste - presumably through their diet.
How much variation in flavor can you get in chicken, beef, etc. just through the animals diet?
Additionally, what is it in the makeup of the meat that makes the smell so distinctive. What makes beef taste like beef and chicken like chicken? I would think that beef flavored chicken would be quite a hit for the environment.
Could you change the color scheme on your website so that I don't go blind while trying to read it?
"And like that
Hello! I actually watched your very first show about steak here in PBS, it was the first thing in my life that made me interested in cooking. Every time I watch an episode of Good Eats, I always end it wanting to go cook something.
I had a technical question, we always see these shots coming out of refrigerators and ovens. Do you actually have little windows in the back of your appliances or are those props built up for the shows? I always assumed they were props but you never know. Also, is that really your house you shoot in? I love the Magritte hate with chicken painting.
Your book covers searing, grilling, roasting, frying, boiling, braising, brining, and microwaving ... but not baking. Did it not fit, or are you saving it for the next book, or what?
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Can you give us some recipes that are
,we use it to raise our monitor up a few more inches )
1. Cheap ( half the geeks in the world are unemployeed since the bubble burst )
2. Fast to cook ( We aint got time to spend on some fancy meal, we got programming to do )
3. Easy to make ( Give us a manual on C no problem, give most of us a cook book
Personal Website
Not to short circuit your question, but those are available on his web site. I think he calls them Essentials. He's at www.altonbrown.com.
Karma: Professionally Doomed (mostly affected by inability to keep opinions to self)
Consider two cooks/chefs, both having practiced their art for 30 or 40 years. Both receive rave reviews from those they serve and both have a wide repertoire to choose from. One is a 50 year-old grandmother and the other is chef at a 5-star restaurant. Do you think there is a difference between the cooking of a 'classically trained' chef and an ordinary person who has simply cooked for long enough to 'know their way around the kitchen?'
I consider in particular that a lot of chef schools and restaurants emphasize learning certain basic skills such as chopping onions and making sauces (or at least they use the student chefs as cheap labor to accomplish those uninteresting but important kitchen tasks), whereas a person teaching a child or grandchild to cook might just dive in to a complete meal. So, do you think cooking philosophies matter, or even exist as a useful way to differentiate chefs and/or cuisine?
I love cooking, and I love eating. What is your take on how often / how much to eat? There's the traditional "3 meals a day" we all grew up with, and various other toughts on the subject like the "six small meals a day" and "one huge meal in the AM, and just a few snacks the rest of the day"
What's your take... how often do you eat a day, or do you not "plan" eating, and just eat whenever hungry or at non-structured intervals?
Department of Homeland Security: Removing the rights real patriots fought and died for since 2001
Dear Alton,
I just came back from a trip in the great hinterlands of Minnesota, so this question is spawned from recent culinary experience:
If you were sent out to the middle of nowhere and had some time to prepare for the trip, what sorts of equipment would you take along and what dishes would you prepare? For the sake of keeping it simple, let's say you had to cook a brekfast and dinner over a campfire. What would you make to really wow your fellow campers using as few ingredients and as little equpiment as possible?
Thank you,
-AP
This question is probably better worded as:
I've just graduated from college and have moved out into an apartment. I really want to take the time to cook good food, but I don't have all the equipment. I'm also nearly broke paying back my college loans. I've put away $300 to start building my dream kitchen. What do you recommend I purchase so that I can make some good eats? I already have the stove and microwave. What else?
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
Other than your book/show. How would you recomend learning to cook. Books and other things welcome. (Not to be a chef, just feed myself healthy and tasty treats for the regular 9-6er.)
;-). And usually it's pull out George F. throw some unmarinated frozen (oops forgot to defrost)chicken on it and place on some rice and peas.
I've only seen your show once (Angel food cake), but I was immediately taken up with your approach to cooking. It immediately seemed that this was how I should learn. IMO to cook is to be able to take a number of food items and to create a decent meal. I can't do that. So many books, cooking shows, etc don't understand the truly beginner chef. How do I "stir" this best etc. etc. My girlfriend laughs at me that I asked her how to cut some vegetable... but the thing is that certain foods DO have certain ways to cut them. It was a breath of fresh air that you were EXACT and explained WHY. I don't have time to cook every day and learn the craft. I'm hungry NOW!
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
Alton - I can't help but notice that your kitchen has quite a bit of high-end Viking appliances in it. I'm in the process of designing the kitchen for my new house, but doubt if my budget will allow for such high-end appliances. What features of the Viking appliances are the most important to you, and which are just "nice to haves?" For example, after the millionth cleaning of the undertrays on my range, I'm sold on the idea of sealed burners. I also find it difficult to get a low enough heat on my burners to simmer a delicate sauce, so I'm sold on the idea of at least one low-BTU burner. What else should I be looking for in my Viking-like but not quite Viking appliances? And are there benefits to going with a cook top and wall oven as opposed to a range? One more: I'm considering going with a gas cooktop and an electric convection wall oven - thoughts? Ok, one more: any thoughts on Advantium "cook with light" ovens?
Karma: Professionally Doomed (mostly affected by inability to keep opinions to self)
You got into cooking via a theater degree and television work; an unconventional path, but you're an unconventional guy.
How did that background lead to a geeky approach to cooking, with lots of molecular diagrams and discussions of physics?
(I use "unconventional" and "geeky" as compliments, and hope you take them that way. You and Nigella Dawson do the most distinctive, and most enjoyable, cooking shows I've seen, each in its own way.)
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There are a lot of people out there that only know how to cook one dish, but in your opinion, what one dish do you think EVERYONE should know how to cook to perfection? Personally, I grill a pretty great steak, and the secret to it is pretty easy ... so I'd say grilling meats, but I'd like to know if there's something else you'd consider to be crucial to everyone's cooking arsenal.
I know that your show touches on the science behind the cooking, but episodes tend to deal with only one specific food (and granted, many ways to cook it). What I'd love to see is a set of instructional videos that give an overview of basic kitchenology, like build the perfect kitchen piece by piece, or what the different methods of heating food are, etc. Have you ever considered releasing such a thing?
I applaud episodes like "Good Milk Gone Bad" and "The Other Red Meat" that focus on lower fat and cholesterol foods. But many of your recipes call for butter, oil, cream, and other less than healthful foods (even bacon grease!). What do you think about some of the substitutes out there, or using ingredients like applesauce to replace butter?
Thank You
Chris
It doesn't surprise me to see you here. I've thought for a long time that the scientific bent of your show had geek appeal, and I certainly enjoy it. What are your interests outside of cooking?
Now... on to, perhaps, one of the more unusual questions you might receive. This question deals directly with how heat affects food.
Specifically... I live on the slopes of an active volcano. One of the things we like to do for fun is cook game hen and pork loins in the hot lava itself. First, let me describe our process, and then our question.
To cook a game hen we first season and then wrap the hen in about 10 Ti (or banana) leaves. These protect the hen from actually burning.
Next we find an active surface breakout of lava. We use a shovel (we also are wearing kevlar gloves that can withstand 2000 degrees of heat) and get a good shovel full of red lava. We place this on the ground a distance from the flow. We then position the Ti-wrapped hen in the middle of the blob of lava and cover it with another shovel full of lava. We try to leave a small opening to the Ti leaves, for steam to escape (or we can potentially have a steam explosion).
Now, the question. The lava is initially at 2000 degrees when we start cooking. After about 15 minutes it has cooled to around 850 degrees (outside of the rock - we read this using an infrared pyrometer). After about 45 minutes the outside is about 450 degrees. At that point we hit the rock with the shovel to open it. Only a few of the Ti leaves will remain uncharred. We remove those and the hen is then very moist and delicious.
How is it possible, using a heat source at 2000 degrees (that granted, gets cooler over time) that it still takes 45 minutes to cook the game hen? We would have thought that the cooking would have been near instantanous - but repeated experiments at various lengths of time reveal that it takes exactly as long in the lava, as in an oven.
If you would like to view pictures of this process... click here.
Aloha
I look forward to this season's forthcoming episode on homebrewing. (Beer, guys, not electronics.)
Can you please say a few things about how you feel about beer: drinking it, cooking with it, brewing it yourself?
("Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.")
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It's my understanding you used to work at an ad agency or other type of marketing gig. Do you use some of the same creative juices to come up with some of the parodies and themes for the show?
E.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
As someone who knows several people who get headaches from it I can tell you this: MSG is crap.
It serves no actual usefull purpose that cannot be found elsewhere. Its crap.
Only a bad Chinese resturaunt would use it.
It's crap.
It doesn't belong in food.
Had to ask this one since the other vegetarian post was moderated out...
I'm not a vegan or vegetarian, but my wife and several acquaintances are. There's quite a bit of selection in the frozen foods section, and you've certainly covered several recipies that are at least vegetarian (the tofu episode was, certainly, inspired). I'd like to be able to cook a meal that would be tasty for all palettes without using the ingredients the vegan crowd would find objectionable.
Are there some fundamental steps to preparing tasty, vegan-friendly meals in the way of getting meat substitutes and seasonings to work in harmony? Are there ingredients that significantly enhance popular vegetarian fare that typically don't make it into the dish?
Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals discuss logistics.
Many of the answers to some of the questions asked so far can be found at www.altonbrown.com and also at (especially check the FAQS on this site).
I mention this because I'd like to see slashdot add to the internet's collective pool of Alton Brown knowledge, not repeat stuff that we already known.
Not a food question, but I'm curious:
Your show seems to have production values similar to other cooking shows, but I get the impression that the same, ah, practical approach you have to cooking was taken to production. ("Ok, this is just him and some camera guy in his home kitchen.")
How many people does it actually take to produce Good Eats, how much money is that, and who exactly owns and runs which parts of that operation?
I think this is the kind of question Alton loves to answer.
Recipes always call for you to boil cold water. I'm too impatient for that. I like to start with hot water. I can imagine that an old water heater would let the water sit there for a while, and might get extra "junk" in it. I bet newer ones circulate the water better. Plus, I'm boiling the friggin water anyway. There's not going to be any live bacteria in it.
Can I please continue to boil hot water?
PS. I still want to see you do a standing back flip like Jamie Oliver.
RICE KRISPY TREATS
You should check out "Alton's Essential Elements" from his web page, which is his top 25 kitchen tools. It includes a lot of the ever-famous tools from the show, including the Lodge cast iron skillet and the probe thermometer.
pronoblem
Dear Alton,
I'm convinced your show, Good Eats, is one of the best things on television. I was hoping you could tell us more about how you got the idea to shoot a show in the first place, how you decided to put a scientific slant on things, and where you would like to take Good Eats in the future?
Thank you,
-AP
I missed the end of that one. How did it end?
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Cooking has obviously been around in some form for ages, and the technology behind it has evolved some... What in your opionion are the most important recent (10 years? 20 years?) innovations in the art/science of cooking? What are the worst?
One of the reasons why I like your show so much is that you take the time to go into the science behind the food.
How much atonomy and decision making power do you have in deciding the topics for your shows? Has the food network ever told you that a particular show was a bad idea?
Keep up the great work!
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
And displayed neatly, I might add... hey, sue me. It must be a good question if he's answered it already :)
Amateurs discuss tactics. Professionals discuss logistics.
Also, I recently received Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions and so far it really does have some great tips. But, one thing I was hoping it would touch on is completely absent: how to organize the kitchen. I'm not talking about food prep. or cooking, but just where the "tools-of-the-trade" go. I do not have a lot of cookware or dining-ware, but what I do have is very disorganized. Any thoughts?
Good cookbooks. "Joy of Cooking" (I prefer 2nd ed) is very good on the essentials. Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" likewise. Her "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is excellent.
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I have been a huge AB fan since my first chance to brine a turkey, never missing an episode. Now, I could have sworn I saw mention of an episode on microbrewing on his website, but it's not there any more, and the episode never aired that I could see. Wazzup with that? Will this "lost classic" ever see air?
I've recently re-discovered how much fun cooking is, along with the advantage that not only is the food generally better that way, I get the additional advantage of being able to experiment with food styles that you just can't generally get in restaurants or out of a grocery store. My current "experimental theme" is Medieval European food (which I like because of it's unique flavor set and "free-form" cooking style [at least, compared to modern "books of recipes".])
I've noticed in a couple of your fine shows that you've repeated the silly fallacy that the style of food uses spices so often because "the meat was all rotten and they were trying to disguise the taste."
My question, then, is in two parts:
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Hi Alton,
Saw your "cast away" episode. I thought the part where you described 'chemically cooking' food with acid's was particularly interesting.
Is this generally as safe as cooking with heat? Where can I learn more?
Dave Leimbach
I, as many Slashdot readers am a corporate employee (I specifically am a contractor) and many times we end up eating fast food or resturant food frequently. With the exception of cold server foods that we can bag and take to work with us I have found that many foods that we "Re-Heat" tend to greatly disappoint when they are re-heated. Do you have any suggestions on foods that re-heat well and retain a fair amount of taste and texture (excluding soups) or do you have advice on better ways to re-heat food in a microwave?
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
For instance, why do smoked meats stay moist and tender instead of drying out? Why do smoked meats have a pink color near the surface - almost appearing uncooked? Is cooking with smoke really carcinogenous?
News for the CFD community http://www.cfdreview.com
You still didn't spell "cognitive" right. Dummy.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
You've written a book (which I now own a copy of, naturally). Shirley Corriher's written a book (which I also own a copy of).
Will Deb Duchon, Nutritional Anthropologist, also be writing a book, and if so, when will it come out (and if not, who do we mope at to encourage her?)
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Hi Alton... Love your show. Bought your book. Please write more of them.
:)
Now the question:
I just remodeled my kitchen. It's not all that big, but the one thing I really want in it is one of those huge 8 burner gas stoves - DCS, Dacor, Viking, something like that. My question is what benefits or drawbacks are there from using a 'commercial residential' model as opposed to something more conventionally residential, like a GE Spectra? Venting and space are not problems. (Natural Gas all the way - no electrics - I have an electric now and just like the way gas cooks better - and I think a gas oven produces better bread). Oh, and love your show.
I watch exactly two television programs. NFL Football and Good Eats.
I have three questions.
I learned a long time ago that I enjoyed cooking more than anything else. Part of that is that, being a geek, I live in a digital world, and the analog act of cooking is very soothing. While I will complain loudly at standing in a line longer than ten minutes, I've often spent HOURS on my feet in the kitchen cooking for holidays, and went to bed that night blissfully calm.
In the US today, with rampant McCuisine and dual income families, the concept of cooking has been shoved to the back burner, so to speak. Eating is something you do, not something you enjoy. Even worse, good food is, for many, something you go get, not something you do in your own kitchen.
So, riddle me these questions three...
1) What can be done about the dumbing down of american cuisine? Your show is a spectacular start, but there simply arent enough of them. You actually make other shows irrelevant. I'm no longer content to see the "How" without also getting the "why?" Short of "Good Eats 2", what can be done to teach americans what good food is?
2) You're living the life I'd kill for. You were a Video guy who left to go to culinary school. I'm a web guy who would give anything to do the same, if I could figure out how to pay the mortgage and feed the three kids in the interim. I have taken the path of self education. Your book is, quite honestly, a textbook that should be required reading for anyone who wants to cook. I'm waiting for my copy of McGee's On Food And Cooking, what other resources do you recommend for someone who is very serious about culinary education, but doesn't have the resources for an immersive culinary school?
3) Your equipment recommendations, so far, have been dead on. My Magnum pepper mill is a dream, My lodge cast iron has a seasoning my grandmother would have been jealous of, and Spring loaded tongs have been a fixture in my kitchen since before you did your PBS shows. But I have yet to find a source for your Jomac gloves, and I am still patiently waiting for the Plunger and Plunger Junior to go on sale at Your Site. Hook a brother up, to steal a Nicholson line, "Where does he get these wonderful toys."?
Oh, and I'll slide in one more question. What subjects are on tap for next season?
Why is it surprising that a book about food would be popular on Slashdot? Think about it...
11*43+456^2
Alton, about a year and a half ago at the suggestion of a friend's gourmet cook mother, I bit the bullet and made the upgrade from grocery store McCormick type spices and dried herbs to those carried by Penzeys Spices.
There has been an amazing improvement in everything I cook. Everything from McCormick really is bland dust next to its Penzeys equivalent. (No, I have no affiliation of any sort with Penzeys, just a recent convert).
So where do you go for your dried herbs and spices? Better yet, where do you recommend your viewers & readers buy reasonably priced quality herbs and spices?
Thanks!
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Maybe after reading a book like that, and I'm Just Here for the Food, I'll have learned enough to know that I know nothing. Only then will I be able to snatch a pebble from Julia Child's hand.
BTW, great TV show, great book!
Move on. There's nothing to see here.
I took a neuroscience class last fall and I can answer your question. There are definitely G-protein coupled receptors in the mouth for detecting more than just "salt, sweet, sour, and bitter." In fact, IIRC, sweet and bitter both rely on similar (GPC) receptors, whilst sour and salt rely on ion channels. The name of this taste is called "umami." What you're tasting is the neurotrasmitter glutamate. The dangerous part of MSG is the sodium ion, because sodium is necessary (neurons cannot fire without it) but people generally get too much of it anyway.
IIRC, neuroscientists haven't yet figured out all of the different receptors in our mouths. The basic idea is that each one provides a benefit to survival: sweet = high carb, sour = citrus (?), bitter = poisonous, salt = need salt, umami = good protein source (?), etc.
BlackGriffen
I'm going to college soon. If by some miracle i get an apartment, what are some things you recommend that are simple, filling and nutritious to make with the most basic of gear?
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
What I generally do when I'm trying to cook something unlike anything I've cooked before is, quite literally, do a google search for the name of the food and "browse" through a few recipes that happen to be online until I get a feel for proportions and technique. Then I just go for it. Noodles, for example, came down to "An egg to about a cup (or in my case, about a double-handful) of semolina flour, with optionally a little water and/or oil to get the right texture. Mix. Roll. Cut. Boil. Eat."
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Most kitchen shows these days are obviously supported by corporate sponsors - whose business apparently depends on pressuring people into buying needlessly specialized gadgets for the kitchen. I'd like you to comment on the possible tension between presenting reliable, affordable advice to people and getting enough advertising dollars to keep afloat.
Ideally there would be no tension: You promote "Good Eats" and that will surely increase the number of home cooks out there and keep the wheels of the industry turning!
Thanks for giving us such a great show,
Joe and Allison.
Is this the promised end? Or image of that horror? KING LEAR
First, a few facts:
Tongue experiments:
Try eating some very, very rich plain tomato sauce. After you swallow, you can taste a lingering flavor on the back of your tongue. It's kind of an earthy, savory, meaty flavor. That's the naturally occuring glutamate in the tomato. A minute later, place a few crystals of monosodium glutamate on your tongue. You will taste the exact same earthy, savory flavor from the MSG.
After you've identified the flavor, you'll be able to easily taste it in mushrooms, good parmesean cheese, meat broth, and milk. If you've ever have miso soup in a Japanese restaurant, you can definitely taste it from the natural seaweed in the dashi broth.
The caveat:
Some people have been shown to react negatively to monosodium glutamate (it is not an allergy). It's a very small percent of the population. Saying MSG is bad for everyone would be like saying peanuts were bad for everyone because some people are allergic to peanuts.
A few references:
FDA MSG - Safe
FDA - Some MSG Findings
Chart of glutamate naturally occurring in foods
Society for Research on Umami Taste
1. When trying to pan-fry things, the books recommend leaving the food in place without moving for a few minutes to develop the fond. Unfortunatly for me, I always end up with burnt bits and an hour of scrubbing my All-Clad pots. For poaching, it's recommended to cook in liquid at the target temperature, because then the food will never overcook. Can you do the same thing for pan frying, or will you never develop a fond? Or to put it another way (aka the geeky slashdot way,) what's the magic temperature for the Maillard reaction?
2. Because I'm a typical indentured serf with long work hours, I cook enough food on the weekends that I can bring my dinners to work and microwave them. But I'm having problems with Roux-based sauces, as after a night in the refrigerator, they turn to gelatenous blobs instead of creamy sauces (This may be a result of using home-made chicken stock.) What's the best way to reconstitute a sauce?
Do you have any recommendations for foods or meals for college students? We have lots of eating to do, but little time to cook with, so our recipes must be quick and easy and often aren't that good. Are there any recipes that come to mind that would be good for this? I do a lot of rice/beans, but those grow weary over the months...
My greatest recipie irritant is I am _not_ cooking for a small army. Generally how does one scale down a recipie without losing it's fundamentals.
Or, how does one cook for one?
"Remember, any tool can be the right tool." -- Red Green
I've noticed that many good cooks also know which cooking books to buy, so here goes:
Other than your own books (of course), which
books/writers do you recommend to learn new cuisines from?
Han-Wen Nienhuys -- LilyPond
Once upon a time on your website, you did a very small review of Tony Bourdain's book on Typhoid Mary and mentioned that Tony "writes better than he cooks." What was that? Is there some sort of rivalry brewing? A bad dinner at Les Halles? I'd love to hear the background story.
Here's one my wife and I came up with. We buy a bunch of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, throw some in a crock pot, cover with Pace Picante sauce and turn the crock pot on low. I think we let it cook for 6-8 hours. We get the medium Pace Picante sauce. Do not get hot unless you are a glutton for punishment. We used to serve the chicken over noodles until we started the Atkin's Diet"
It's said that one should never trust a thin chef, but with all the recent attention on the failure of low-fat diets to prevent obesity and its complications, where do you weigh in on the whole low-carb way of eating?
The point to it is: there is not need to MSG.
While a similar, naturally occuring checmical exists doesn't mean a 'synthetic' is a good choice. (synthetic as in: Not naturally occuring in foods, used for some godawfull reason not having anything to do with good cooking).
By the way, for me, anything with MSG tastes like it has a 1/2lb of salt. Not kidding. 'course, to me pure, white sugar has a metallic flavour. Maybe I'm just strange.
On the other hand, naturally occuring forms in food don't bother me, or anyone I know.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm fully aware that 'I know people who get headaches' isn't scientific. I also know that MSG isn't usefull in good food under normal conditions.
But hey, you want to eat it, go ahead. Me, I'm not a fan.
The wife and I are huge fans of your show but there is one thing we notice from time to time that we've always wondered about. For instance, your country ham recipe specifies that the ham is done when the interior temp hits 140 degrees. However,
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/ham.htm
states that "cook-before-eating hams must reach 160 F to be safely cooked before serving." I know those bad boys have been salt cured but I would still be worried about trichinosis. Your "done" temperatures for meat are often lower than what the food safety people would have them be. This is a long winded way of asking "What is your approach to food safety?" You look pretty healthy to me so I'll assume you know something those government fussbudgets don't but I'd feel better about trying out some of your recipes if I knew what that was.
Long as we're onto slow-cooking and fun with starch, try "Soubise". (Frogspeak for "onions and rice".)
1) 2 big-azz yellow onions, about a pound's worth. Slice 'em.
2) 1/2 cup rice. Boil for 5 minutes. You don't want the rice cooked.
3) 1/2 to 3/4 sticks of butter. (4-6 tbls.)
4) 1/2 tsp salt.
5) 1/2 cup whipping cream. (Or you can get away with milk, but I like it with cream. )
5) a few slices (1/4 cup) of swiss cheese.
Melt butter in crock pot or casserole. Toss in onions and salt until coated with melted butter and starting to soften. Toss in rice.
Bake mucho-slowly for an hour or so (easy enough - you can't overcook this :) at 300F. The onions disintegrate, leach out their water, turn insanely sweet, and flavor the rice. (Should be nice and yellow, not brown, when done baking.)
Take out of oven, nuke milk to warm, and toss in the milk. Stir in the cheese. Nice and creamy.
(If you wanna make a sauce, you can puree this and call it a sauce soubise.)
I find it also makes a great side dish all on its own, just heaped out of the dish. You can also sprinkle the top with cheese and bake a layer of cheese onto it. Or stir in some fresh parsley along with the cheese. It's versatile stuff.
If you're a carnivore (I am), it's also great with a splash of gravy or anything really thick and rich, like what you'd get if you pan-fried a steak and made a sauce out of the juices, or sauteed a pile of mushrooms. And it's just plain awesome with a big hunk of roasted or braised game or a leg o' lamb.
This is actually my father's favorite food question:
If you had to give up one of the two foods which would it be: onions or tomatoes?
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I'd say pick a type of food you really like and learn to make it. Heck, the whole reason I know how to cook now is that many, many years ago, I had a conversation with my mother that went something like "Mom, will you make some cookies?" "No, I'm busy." "Well....can I?"....
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Frozen Ding-Dongs?
Popeye's Chicken?
Deep-fried Twinkies?
It seems that in todays culture, everybody is on some diet or another. For example, I'm currently on the Atkins, while my wife is on the Suzanne Somers program. This tends to frustrate us when preparing meals. And when we have guests over, it can include vegans, ovo-lactos, omnivores, and just plain picky eaters.
What resources do you use and/or suggest using (such as good substitutions for common ingredients that work well across a range of diets) when preparing full meals for dietary-challenged folk?
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Hey, if she comes with pots, pans, and a full kitchens worth of utensils, for $300, sounds like a bargain to me.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
Most of us have meals that are, well lacking, due to the 10 minute cooking constrait that a lot of us find ourselves on. Any reccomendations for foods that can be cooked quickly and without a lot of mess, but that don't cause us to lose our girlish figure or our tastebuds due to lack of work? Bonus points for high reheatability.
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Do you ever just completely blow a dish? Experience, I'm sure, makes your mistakes different than mine; but do you ever just taste soemthing you've cooked and say "God. What did I do to that?
Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
Perhaps you should search the re-runs pages at Food-TV. He did an episode for squid entirly "on location" at a beach tailgate party.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Perhaps it's all the time spent watching NFL (shudder) - but how can you say American cuisine is 'dumbing down?' How can you say people don't care about what they eat? Yes, 'Colonel McBurger Pizza Taco' has sold leventy-zillion 'value meal deals', but paralleling that is an equally rapid increase in the quality and variety of food (both in restaurants and groceries). I offer the following examples of how American food is anything but 'dumbing down':
1. The post-Prohibition recovery of American viticulture, and the general improvement of wine quality in general; (no more Ripple!)
2. I can buy morels, prosciutto, tomatillos, good bread, taro root, radicchio, and organ meats in my local grocery store;
3. 'Asian Cuisine' no longer implies Mai-Tai's with little umbrellas served in a coconut shell;
4. The Food Network;
5. Williams-Sonoma is in every metro area of 100,000 or more, it seems. Yes, it's pretentious and expensive - but it's there.
6. Microbreweries.
'Dumbed down'? No. American cuisine is now at its most brilliant - and it's getting better.
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
Do you have any suggestions for all the geeks out there on how or what to cook that makes us look good to our geek girls while not being too hard to accomplish? Ie, how to pick a wine and use it in a recipe or how to cook something with veggies that look good to a woman and yet aren't rubbery? Geek girls dig these things from what I hear. :)
Mr. Brown,
In the interest of comedy and safety could you tell us of some of your experiments that didn't quite make it to the screen or page?
Hi Alton,
I always hear "Use a non-reactive pan for this".
But what exactly is the "reaction" in a reactive pan and how does it affect the food your cooking?
Also what materials make up non-reactive and reactive cookware?
Thanks.
The more you want, the less you have.
Give me a break, that stuff's for toddlers. If you guys want some REAL hot sauce, go to CaJohns. It's 10 minutes away from my apartment in Columbus, and these guys are for real. Sauces are extremely hot and tasty, and the employees are cool as hell. I recommend ANY of the "Kaboom!" salsas, and my favorite sauces are Krakatoa (the #1 seller), Liquid Stupid, and Harold's Dangerously Hot. My brother's favorite is actually a parady one, "Sir Fartsalot", which is jalepeno-based. I just didn't like the taste, and it was too weak for me. I'll stick to the red-savina habenero peppered-powered sauces. They win tons of awards, and for good reason.
Warning - Now THESE sauces are for "glutton for punishment"s... and they have a few hotter ones too. Never have I had so much flavor and spice together. Sometimes one drop is all that's needed for a boom.
Good hot sauce like CaJohns will make any bland food taste good.
Berto
seeing as this is a science and technology related site, I figured I'd try to relate my questions to this topic. Ok, so here goes.
I know that's technically two questions, but they're kinda related. Also, thanks for having such a great show, I have learned a lot from you, and look forward to reading your book!
today is spelling optional day.
I think I've read a quote from you that says the strangest thing you've ever made was yogurt from your wife's breast milk. If this is true, I think I'd like to hear the story of how you came up with this idea...
One of my biggest, most irksome things aobut my kitchen is that most of my knives are either bought at Wal-Mart, or else rescued from the Salvation Army. NOw, I'm not wanting to spen $500 and up for a knife set, but if I am looking for something that will cut very easily, and last a good, long time inbetween being sharpened, what am I needing to look for? Is Japanese cutlery still very much superior to American steel these days, or are they even? Are there certain materials to avoid?
Along that same vein, I use teflon pots and pans when I cook. But when I watch the food network, I almost constantly see stainless steel, non coated stuff. Why? What am I doing wrong that might cause me to be abusing non-coated pans? What's the advantage ot stainless steel?
Thanks!
What are your biggest influences, both as a chef and as a television producer? Seems to me your show has the frenetic pace of The Electric Company, the hands-on experimentation of Mr. Wizard and a secretive Abby Hoffman "Steal this cookbook" style of hints & tips, combined with the chemical correctness of Shirley Corriher and a certain culinary curtness that avoids a lot of the over spicing and excess ingredients of, say, B. Flay. What chefs interested you in a career in a telecuisine, and what's your flavor of non-cooking TV?
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Entropy marches ever onward. The 2nd law of thermodynamics makes it very difficult to uncook a pizza, unbrew a beer, or unspoil a banana. All of that disorder isn't reversible.
Of course, if you bury the rotten banana under a banana tree then you could get a fresh banana from the tree eventually... but that new banana would only be partly made from the rotten banana - other material would have gone into its construction.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
As hard as I try, I just can't come up with a good way to cook Soylent Green, can you give some advice on the subject.
I'll be in line all day on tuesday for some, but I'll check for an answer after curfew...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Nope, no sig
What is up with the use of the phrase "cook until done"???
Seriously, err, what is 'done' per say? I end up cooking hamburger meat for ~20 minutes or so until it is brown all over, what does 'until done' mean exactly? In each particular case?
I end up cooking scrambled eggs until they are all stuck to the bottom of the pan and have to be scrapped off, or until they are smoking and burning up to a crisp.
Why to so many cook books never actually describe what 'until done' is for each particular type of food? Even better, why not a more analytical cookbook that says "keep turning them every 3 minutes for about 10 minutes, a minute or so less if you like your meat rare or a minute or so more if you like it extra-well done"
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Meat is a bad conductor of heat. You even said yourself that it cools down pretty quickly, and within twenty minutes is down to an oven-like temperature. I bet the meat chars on the surface, and the charred flesh just doesn't conduct that heat very well, and the heat is dissipating out into the air. As for the leaves, the water content is probably protecting them, providing a steam wrapper.
Now if you had that hen inside an insulated oven at 2000 degrees, it might be a different story.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I have a High-Definition system and love it, but there's one thing missing - an HD cooking show. You really seem to be into having a show that looks different than all the other cooking shows. Any possibility of making at least one demo show in HD? Marc Cuban's HD-NET would show it.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Mr. Brown, let me say how much i enjoy your show. and you book. i just gave a copy to my sister in law as a gift and she loves it too. My question is how do you feel about the move toward genetically engineered foods. are you in favor of it and do you see, if it continues, new metods of preparing genetically engineered foods in the future?
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost.
A few weeks ago, while trying my hand at french pastry-making, I nearly set fire to my oven as an overflowing tray of oil and melted butter (don't ask) splashed all over the red hot elements, generated copious amounts of acrid smoke, and threatened to ignite. I'm sure that with as much cooking experience as you have, you've seen many hilarious kitchen accidents.
What are the most memorable accidents, or acts of blatant stupidity, that you've seen or taken part in during cooking?
What, exactly, is the science and process behind making good and wholesome gravy?
Seriously, Alton - my wife yesterday, when I mentioned that this was going to be an "Ask /." interview, told me that she wanted to pay YOU $1000.00 (US) to come over to our house to teach her how to make gravy. I am almost ready to front that amount, too.
It seems like every time we have tried to make gravy, it either never thickens, or we get paste. It seems like a simple thing to do - leave some pan drippings (and the grungy gunk too - flavor bits!), add a tiny bit of flour, mix and brown to create a nice roue (or however that is spelled), then add some milk, and perhaps a little more flour to thicken (salt, pepper, and spicing to taste).
I think we managed ONCE to create a real gravy.
So Alton, my question is:
HOW DO YOU MAKE GRAVY???!!!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Hi Alton, Can you tell us about some of your most memorable, instructive or whacky kitchen disasters?
The good folks at Cook's Illustrated did some research into this when they did their basic pasta recipe. The end result is that they found that there were no detectable taste differences between pasta cooked in water coming from the hot water or cold water taps. The hot water does cut a few minutes off the boiling time (like 3-4), so they actually recommended it as a technique. They didn't mention the lead issue discussed in some other posts, but I have a hard time believing that this would be a problem in a house with a reasonably modern plumbing system and water heater.
BTW- like Good Eats, Cook's Illustrated (the magazine, the website and their cookbooks) is an *excellent* geek cooking resource. They employ the scientific method in trying to develop the "Best Recipe" (the title of their main cookbook) for each dish they make. When they attack a recipe, they will research many cookbooks to learn about how something generally is made, and then will experiment with different ingredients, techniques and measurements to find the best outcome, based on the feedback of their tasting lab. Where there is interesting food science to explain, they'll do so, much like Alton. Of course, it's not entertaining like Good Eats is, but you will learn a *lot*, and everything I've made from their recipes has tasted great and been relatively foolproof.
Alton,
I love your show, even though I can't cook. Can't. As in "genetically incapable". As an example, I once burned spaghetti noodles. As in, on fire.
What's the worst mistake you've ever made, in food preparation?
Education is the silver bullet.
My wife is a wonderful woman, but has a phobia about cast iron pans. I cannot seem to convince her to let a cast iron pan "season" like it is supposed to. I scrub it out with kosher salt as you are supposed to, but she insists on putting that sucker in the sink and scrubbing it with a Brillo pad to get it "clean"...totally ruining the seasoning.
What can you say to her to convince her that a well-seasoned cast iron frying pan is healthy?
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
OK, my question for you is I want a recipe for pot stickers. I just want a down to earth recipe that doesn't require too many synapses. Thanks.
Oh yeah, when I saw you on your book tour (the AB North American Tour) I asked you if you knew where you got the spherical molds for the jello eye ball halloween recipe. I was wondering what ever happened there. Anyways, great job on the Book and the Show.
Rick
When emeril is "on", he's on. But frequently he drags. The show drags. Its not entertaining.
The Naked Chef adds storyline- while you may be completely bored with his trip to the shore with his little cousin and annoyed by the video montage of his band playing, he's got something to keep you going.
Alton has a good mix of vignettes in a quick-cut style.
But that emeril. Sometimes he says funny things. Sometimes he says the exact same thing in the same way and its just not funny. Look at his sit com. That's why it blew chunks. Oh, and he uses WAY too much fat, butter, and sausage. I mean, it's dessert, for crying out loud!
Now that, coupled with the fact that he's always on just gets to me. Yep, I like him better than Bobby Flay and Martha, but I think he's over exposed.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
My list includes:
Microwave popcorn
Breakfast cereal
Applesauce
Cottage cheese
Rasberry Yogart
(Note that the above *dont* necessarily need to be lowfat)
V8 Juice (original, goes great with popcorn IMO)
Top Romen
Instant mashed potatoes
Ravioli (can)
Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (freeze bread or it rots fast)
Salsa & Chips
When I was single, I lived off of this stuff and still enjoy it.
And, it is reasonably nutricious.
Table-ized A.I.
A friend of mine told me about the night after drinking like a fish in China, he was BLORTED. (lets just pretend thats a word and move on...)
So this girl he knows says "Drink this." and its this almost saturated salt and water solution. Its thick and gross, but he downs it.
A little while later he felt spry and energized.
She said it was some type of malaria medicine.
You need to re-hydrate FAST. Salt helps retain water. I like the combination of Excederin (a little caffeine kick to get you going, but unfortunately also a diuretic!), water, and some salty food. Maybe some rice with pork sung!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
When you went to your culinary school, what was the most difficult technique you learnead? Is there an easier way to do it that is "good enough"?
Question for Alton: Is it really true that you made butter from breast milk?
No, this isn't some sort of troll... I heard from his own mouth (at the San Jose book signing) that he had tried making butter out of breast milk after his wife had a baby, but I'd like to hear more behind the story
Your current book seems to have a very clear theme aptly described in the sub-title "Food+Heat=Cooking". On the inside it's very well organized along the various lines of applying heat to food, but this leaves out a lot of potential food topics.
What are your plans for other book themes?
In America, dinner usually means MEAT. The meal is usually focused on a meat main dish. I have a basic cooking textbook made for use in culinary schools. It has the unflattering (but scientifically accurate) description of the two basic ways to cook meat: with dry or moist heat. The object of dry heat cooking is to cook the meat until it reaches "the desired degree of coagulation," (temperature) and the object of moist heat is to cook "until the connective tissues have sufficiently broken down." Hitting one of those marks will generally mean achieving "good cook" status with your guests. Screwing it up usually means disappointing people.
What would be the first lesson for any beginner to master as a main meat dish, or what's the easiest way to make sure it's done (but not overdone) when you serve it?
--- Nothing clever here: move along now...
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
Favorite Question?
What would CowboyNeal Do?
I really hate signatures, but go to my website.
What are the wierdest things that you've eaten? Did you enjoy them? If you were to eat them again, what ideas for preparation do you have?
:)
Thanks for the show, the book, and all of the hard work that you've put into both. You've helped my interest in cooking and food science to grow.
I know that most of the chili cook offs that I've seen, there are no beans allowed.
Oh, and as my mom's placed first a few times at some local contents, I'll give you all a little secret -- alcohol helps to meld the flavors faster, for those times when you don't have a week to let it sit in the fridge. Add a beer into your next 2 gallons of chilli. [As you're putting it in a slow cooker, you might want to back off whatever other liquids you're using, to make sure you cook off the alcohol].
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
After all, there are some things that benefit from a slow cooking time. Scrambled eggs are one of the best examples -- a nice, slow cook in a slightly warmed cast iron skillet will give you some of the creamest eggs you've ever had. After watching the smoked salmon episode of Good Eats, I wouldn't be suprised if AB had tried cooking eggs with a hair dryer.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Well, okay, I guess 'minimalist's not quite the right word, but they limit the subject length here.
I know in the back of your book, you recommend certain tools and equiptment for cooks, however, many of the people here are apartment dwellers, or might even be in a college dorm with a shared kitchen, where they don't have much space for storage, or they move on a regular basis, making that cast iron set a royal pain.
Besides the obvious needs for a decent pot for boiling pasta/potatoes/whatever, and a good pan for sauteing/pan frying, what would you insist on having around, if you were in that situation?
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Bobby Flay is an asshole.
_sig_ is away
i can't speak about scrambled eggs, but regarding meat, here are two suggestions:
1) use a meat thermometer. seriously. or, even better, a probe thermometer that you can keep outside of your oven/grill/broiler
2) learn what a piece of meat cooked to your ideal temperature feels like to the touch.. cook a steak to medium rare and touch the top-center.. remember the way it feels, and then the next time you cook, just touch it every now and then until it "feels" right. It works wonders.
a few other things:
it's very difficult for a cookbook to give precise times involving meats, or anything else really, because there's so much variation. Your burger may be 7 ounces instead of 5, and 1" thick instead of 3/4" thick. All those possible variations lead to huge difficulties in setting a precise time.
Also remember that, unless you're using a gas grill/broiler/whatever, there's going to be some noticeable variation in the temperature of your cooker. If you use normal charcoal briqs, your grill will not burn anywhere near as hot as if you use hardwood charcoal.
One final pair of tips: cook your meat to about 5 degrees cooler than you actually want it, and let it sit off the heat for 5 minutes before you serve it. In those 5 minutes you'll achieve two things: the temperature of the meat will rise about one degree each minute, cooking it to perfection, and the juices inside the meat will have time to settle, so when you cut into the meat they won't pour out all over your plate. You'll end up with a perfect, juicy piece of beef, or lamb, or whatever.
-gleam
this
High Fiber Diet
Dietary fiber is the part of a plant that provides and maintains the plant's structure. Cellulose, hemicellulose, polysaccharides, pectins, gums, mucilages, and lignins are dietary fibers. These fibers are unrelated chemically, however, they all have one thing in common -- they can't be digested by the human body. For this reason, they can help correct disorders of the large intestine (colon), and keep it functioning normally. Therefore, it is important to increase the amount of fiber in the diet.
cpeterso
Either way, when you heat the sauce the gelatin should dissolve, and the flour should loosen up again. But if you're heating a thin layer in the microwave it may dry out a bit -- try making the sauce thinner than you want it ultimately, and/or do some of the "don'ts" from the gelatin show. (fresh pineapple or papaya, for instance) Heating the sauce separately will help too, as you can beat it into submission with your fork, and make any liquidous adjustments prior to application.
The roux has to have fat coating and insulating the flour grains from each other, otherwise you get paste. You need about equal volumes of flour and fat. The flour will go to gelatine as soon as it encounters water so you need to use one of 3 methods:
1) mash flour and butter (in equal parts) together an d add lumps of this mixture to the hot juices. The butter will do the job for the flour and you get a thickening sauce. Nice for blonde gravies for fish and poultry.
2) pan-cook your roux with oil or butter before you roast. This way you can control the color of the gravy and the flavor, by toasting the flour to a darker color. If you use butter in this method, you need to wait till it stops bubbling before adding the flour (this is the water cooking off -- it'll go lumpy if you rush it).
3) skim some fat from the juices and make the roux -- this is what you're trying to do but I'm betting that you don't have enough fat, or you have too much watery liquid. So skim the fat, mix fat and flour (in another pan or the same one) and add back to the juice. This gets the most authentic flavor, but taste first -- if the fat got too hot it can be a bit acrid, in which case fall back to the other methods.
In any case, you must then cook the sauce to a boil, to bloom your flour. It should get thick enough to stick to a spoon, and will thicken more as it cools. If it's not thick enough, more roux is needed. The darker the roux, the more you will need.
I realize I'm not a master chef (or even a really decent cook).. but here's what I do with Ramen noodles...
I heat the water in a large bowl in the microwave (a coffee maker with no filters or grounds or anything would work too).
I open up a bag of noodles, and take out the seasoning packet, then crunch up the noodles in the bag, and pour the little baby noodles into the bowl of hot water.
Add 1 or 2 slices of preprocessed cheese, by tearing up the slices and dropping them into the bowl (I prefer Kraft American and Swiss cheese, but go with what you like).
Cover the bowl to keep steam from escaping too much (I use a DVD case, since I have lots and lots of them next to my computer where I eat)... let it sit for a few minutes until the cheese is good and melted and the noodles are soaked thrhough. Then add the seasoning packet, and a few drops (or a lot of drops) of tabasco, stir well, and enjoy!
The cheese makes it into a nice and creamy soup, instead of flavored water with noodles. (:
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
..why do men crave ceral at midnight?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Overclock your machine, and put the heating/cooling induction piping into the top surface of your case... Then, fry an egg with your Athalon 1.2@2.4...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Most cooking shows don't nearly go as much into the science of cooking as your show does. I dare say I've learned more chemestery and physics in your show then in college or high school. Do you feel it is because the chefs don't know/understnad the science, don't want to diminish the "art" with the science, or don't think their audience is interested/capable of understanding the underlying science?