Cookaholics Bulletin Board

A Proposal:

I think we agree that Cook's Illustrated's articles sometimes have significant value in revealing valuable cooking methods and techniques. It really doesn't matter if the "breakthroughs" are purloined or result from actual innovation. Every issue can bring some value to some cooks and occasionally they have new concepts to a lot of cooks.

While most of us have dropped our subscriptions, I think we should share the newly published concepts that are worthwhile. These may be gleaned from the Magazine or from the Website. The Website allows for review of each issue with notes on "Why This Recipe Works".

I no longer have free access to the website, having lost my ability to successfully give tip. I also no longer buy the magazine and our library doesn't have the mag.

How about some sharing of those good ideas that we can all learn from?

Tim

I'm game. I haven't dropped my web subscription yet, although I'm hard pressed to say why.

Here's their new one for oil poaching fish at home. They suggest using a small skillet, 10 inch, and heating 1/2 cup of olive oil in it over medium heat. Use it to fry aromatics, then when they are done, cool the oil with another 1/4 cup, Let it cool to 180 degrees, displace the oil by putting an onion half or inverted ramekin in the centre of the skillet. Place fish around the outside, "skinned side up" and spoon some oil over the fillets. The oil should be halfway up the side of the fish. Bake in a 250 degree oven, turning the fish once until it is done. The oil is then used to make a vinaigrette.


"WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
This restaurant-style dish requires a pot of pricey olive oil and promises super-moist, delicately cooked fish. Using a small skillet and flipping the fish halfway through allowed us to cut back to 3/4 cup of oil, which we employed to crisp flavorful garnishes and finally blended into a creamy vinaigrette."

Recipes included are for Miso-ginger vinaigrette (might be good for you, Fuzzy), sherry-tomato, and cilantro-jalapeño.

Sounds kinda good (although, if I'm eating fish for the health benefits, does this totally undo this prospect???).

 

I only discovered Cook's Illustrated about a year ago so a lot is new to me. The info below adds a new technique as compared to their November 1995 Perfect Prime Rib recipe.

Nov. 2011: The Best Prime Rib (at home)
The Problem
Restaurant prime rib recipes are virtually impossible to prepare at home. For one thing, even if a cook is willing to keep the meat in a low oven all night and most of a day, no home oven can reliably go below 200 degrees.

The Goal
We wanted to use our skillet and oven to produce prime rib with a crisp, salty crust that encased a large eye of juicy, rose-hued meat interspersed with soft pockets of richly flavored fat.

The Solution
We had one major decision made—the meat selection—before we even got started. In the test kitchen, our preferences for the exact grade and cut of beef are definitive: a prime first-cut roast for its supreme marbling and large rib-eye muscle.

To brown the roast in a skillet, it needed to be manageable and bone-dry. For the former, we cut the bones off the roast before searing and then tied them back on before roasting so the meat wouldn’t lose the insulation they provide. This method had two side benefits: The exposed meat on the bone side could now be thoroughly seasoned, and carving the finished roast required nothing more than snipping the twine before slicing—no predinner butchery required.

But drying the meat would take more than a few paper towels. Only air-drying it allowed its moisture to evaporate and made the skin extra-crisp. We prepped, scored, and seasoned the roast and let it rest in the refrigerator for 24 (and up to 96) hours before searing it. Not only did the exterior brown better (and faster), but the meat below the surface was beefier and much more tender, thanks to the salt we’d seasoned it with.

Restaurant chefs use their industrial ovens to cook their prime rib at a temperature low enough to keep it around 120 degrees, at which point the meat’s enzymes begin to tenderize it. But the lowest temperature our home oven would go to was 200 degrees, which would keep the meat above the ideal temperature. We needed to trick our oven, and we realized we could actually lower its temperature by simply turning it off. We ran a series of tests until we found the optimum degree of doneness the meat should be at when we shut off the oven. In the shut-off oven, the beef stayed in the 120-degree sweet spot far longer, giving the meat more time to tenderize.

Only one imperfection remained: The crust lost some of its crispness as it rested under a tent of foil after cooking. To quickly restore its crispness, we heated the beef under the broiler and used a ball of aluminum foil to lift the fatty portion closer to the heating unit.

Mock sous vide chicken (used in the May/June 2012 Chicken Salad)

"Our easy mock sous vide method guarantees supremely tender, juicy chicken."

To ensure that the chicken cooks through, start with cold water and don’t use breasts that weigh more than 8 ounces or are thicker than 1 inch.

4 (6- to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts , no more than 1 inch thick, trimmed

1. Dissolve 2 tablespoons salt in 6 cups cold water in Dutch oven. Submerge chicken in water. Heat pot over medium heat until water registers 170 degrees. Turn off heat, cover pot, and let stand until chicken registers 165 degrees, 15 to 17 minutes.

2. Transfer chicken to paper towel–lined tray. Refrigerate until chicken is cool, about 30 minutes. (This chicken was for chicken salad.)

Fran, thanks for sharing but I'm a bit confused how poaching a chicken is considered "mock sous vide". Maybe "mock" in terms of making fun of? It may be quite effective, which is great, but the whole approach of sous vide (in my humble layman's understanding) is limiting flavor loss by limiting exposure to liquid.

All that said, I may try this just for fun. Saves my ziplock freezer bags for other uses if it works well.

Steve,

You're absolutely right.

And, fwiw, I've done SV chicken for chicken salad, and it's just too tender, imo. The technique CI is using is closer to poaching than SV, and poaching is the technique I prefer for chicken salad.

Amy

P.S. Did I use enough abbreviations in that sentence?

Just goes to show how they want to make it available to any kitchen (as long as you're using the preferred pot) but don't quite manage. Lots of their "ethnic" recipes also carry this fatal flaw.

Hmmm, I just warmed up some brats in beer before grilling...I think that is more 'mock sous vide' than CI's tip. At least mine were inside plastic...er...collagen.

BTW, if there is anything that folks in the Upper Midwest can do culinary-wise, it's bratwurst. I can get so many good, locally made varieties here there is really no need to do it myself. Today's selections included green onion, wild rice, and (of course) bacon/cheddar.

No Knead Bread 3.0

Cooks Illustrated says in the May/June 2012 issue: No need to preheat the oven or dutch oven at 500 for 30 minutes as said in its Jan/Feb 2008 recipe for Almost No Knead.

Put the dough in cold oven and covered pot and set oven to 425. Do not start your 30 minutes timer until the oven hits 425. Bake with lid on for 30 minutes, then 20 to 30 minutes with lid off.

Per CI: The loaf rose just as high, and crust browned great.

I will try this next time. I always hate flopping the dough into a red-hot 500 degree dutch oven, and getting the hot lid off and back on. Parchment paper makes it easier, but it still feels like you are one wrong move from the ER. This should simplify things.