Hail Culinarians,
Let’s get things rolling with our first serious topic…
I saw this on Facebook last night. George Takei had posted it. I strongly encourage folks to go read it.
10 of the Most Common Cooking Mistakes You’re Definitely Making
NOW…. here’s my take on it….
Yes folks, seasoning and resting your meat is ACTUALLY A THING…. you should do it every single time. I used to just throw the steaks on the gas grill outside and let it go. Fast forward to me actually having a clue (and the tragic loss of a BBQ grill, I now use a Foreman Grill in the kitchen… more on that later), Every single time we do steaks I sprinkle just a smidge of salt and just a smidge of pepper from our grinders onto both sides of the steaks. On the Foreman, closed for 2 minutes… yes I do set a timer… and then pull them off immediately and let them rest for 3-4 minutes while we dress our baked potatoes. We now enjoy the best tasting steaks in the world, rarely using steak sauce, that is cooked to a perfect medium rare. For those using a BBQ grill, it would be 2 minutes per side then rest. That covers #3, #4, & #5 on their list….
Now to #9 and #10. Oil smoke point and pre-heating a pan. I’ll be the first to say that while I have a basic understanding of smoke point and how it effects things, I’m still learning.
Smoke point is important because, as the article states, when oil gets too hot it starts breaking down and can release nastiness into the food. Depending on the kind of oil you’re using, this can be VERY dangerous.
Lets go on a tangent here…. remember your oils folks… extra virgin olive oil (often referred to as EVOO) is NOT FOR COOKING… this is a salad oil and has a very low smoke point. Virgin olive oil is ok for cooking but may leave an olive like flavor behind. Virgin olive oil is also being more and more labeled to show it is good for cooking. My Filippo Berio olive oil says “For Sauteing & Grilling” while my blue light special EVOO says “great for dipping and pouring”.
I have had people ask my why I don’t use canola oil as it is healthier. My personal view is that there is no such thing as a canola plant… never has been, never will be. Canola is a artificial vegetable oil derived from the rapeseed plant and rapeseed oil. They couldn’t call it rapeseed oil because rapeseed oil is not very useful as a food product due to its bitter taste and the fact that is is used as a fuel and steam engine lubricant. The Canola Council of Canada (responsible for both producing and naming canola oil) says that canola oil is considered safe for human consumption, while rapeseed oil is not. I am not disputing this, I’m just saying that to me its still artificial and I don’t care to use it when there are plenty of natural alternatives.
I’ve started using sunflower oil for a lot of cooking where I don’t want flavor transference. I use olive oil for certain things. My favorite cooking fat to use is a high quality butter or clarified butter.
Pre-heating your pan is extremely important too folks. Have you ever seen a recipe that says to NOT pre-heat your oven? pre-heating your pan does the same thing. It brings the pan up to your cooking temperature so you are working to prevent time/temperature control abuse. It also prevents nasty food. If you put some oil in a pan, turn the burner on and immediately put your food in the pan, your food is going to absorb a lot of that oil before it ever gets to the point of actually cooking. If I did that when I pan fried some cod the other night, we would have ended up with very oily soggy fried fish.
The only thing that I think I might have added to this list is knife skills. I recently had a couple of opportunities to teach some knife skills to folks. The one thing that I got the most feedback on was how to hold your knife. So many people hold a chef’s knife in what is called a “hammer grip” this is so unsafe as it allows for the knife to roll and become dangerous due to a lack of adequate control. One of the best methods to hold and utilize a knife is called a “pinch grip”. A pinch grip is where you hold the blade between your thumb and forefinger, gently wrapping the remainder of your fingers around the handle. I’m probably going to do a little video on this in the near future, because I feel so passionately about it. Keep an eye out for that.
Until then, keep cooking, keep having fun, and keep on keeping on.
May the food be with you…
P.S. Please feel free to comment, ask questions, or share something yourself. Just keep it nice. I will gladly answer questions (or find the answer) and who knows, your comment might spawn another post.