That's an excellent idea, djsunkid. And very generous of you. Cooking is one of my favourite things. Usually when I decide I want to make something special it's a whole day event. I make a big deal of shopping for all the select ingredients and so on. I'll keep this thread in mind for when I have a question.

Hey Chef djsunkid??
Why would I want to bother, preparing stock, be it chicken, beef, of otherwise, when the CAN reads, "stock", on the label already?
Is it because, stock-enhanced water is easier???

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Looking forward to it.

How about you share your favorite recipe with us? Maybe somethin' to impress the lady-friend with?

How long does it take to thoroughly microwave a 20 lbs Thanksgiving turkey?

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oh man - microwaved turkey. that takes me back.

Seriously though- I'd like to be able to chop like a pro chef. You know, like an onion in 5 secs flat.

Yay cooking!

Read a great bit on How to turn cheap "Choice" Steaks into Gucci "Prime" Steaks recently and I will give it a try tonight with a carnivorous friend.

Would be great to hear little tricks and tips like that from our own djsunchef

Let's see... Choggie's stock question is definitely worth an entire article. The pros and cons of homemade stock, what to look for and what to avoid pre-made stock, and a discussion of the necessity or not of stocks in the home. Bottom line for me is that I hate canned stock, and I make homemade stocks very rarely.


Karaidl
Microwaving Turkey is a pretty dubious idea to say the least. It is certainly possible, but it is not as simple as just time*weight.

According to my McGee, the dynamics for oven roasting are weight to the 2/3rds power per time, or thickness squared per time.

There are a few things you have to appreciate about microwaving- cooking things properly in the microwave is a complicated and subtle process, and misunderstood by most chefs. Firstly, microwaving is neither moist heat nor dry heat cooking. The microwaves directly excite the all the molecules in the food that are approximately the size of water molecules. This is why the microwave is so efficient at reheating already cooked food.

For cooking things from raw, on the other hand, there are a number of reasons why a microwave oven is less than ideal. Because the energy is able to penetrate a few centimetres into the flesh, it is impossible to get a nice crispy skin. By the time the skin is at a correct temperature to render the fat properly, the meat beneath it has already lost so much moisture that it is impossible to remain crispy.

If your heart is really set on trying it, I wish you luck, and my best advice is to buy a meat thermometre and check the internal temperature every few minutes. And watch out for flaming turkey. You'll want around 175 degrees fahrenheit for your turkey.

Dag
The first thing you need for pro-chef like knife skillz is a sharp chef's knife. I prefer an 8 inch Henkel for most of my chopping, but the santoku knives seem to be gaining quite a lot of popularity in the kitchens where I've worked.

There was a terrible, terrible video about sharpening knives on the sift a while back- one of my first downvotes, actually, but in my rant about how much I hated it, I linked to this article about how to sharpen knives properly.

Knife Maintenance and Sharpening By Chad Ward is an absolutely fantastic resource, and actually is the place where I learned how to sharpen my knives.

Here's a big secret though- good quality knives aren't all that expensive! You can pick up a yellow handled Henkel at a kitchen supply store for less than $20. Your knife will be wicked sharp.

I think there was a video on the cooking channel that showed how to properly cut up an onion. Ah yes- Knife Skills 101 My feelings on that video are mixed, which is why I haven't upvoted it yet, but it's handy to know the right steps. For one thing, I think I remember disagreeing with him on what exactly constitutes a "small dice", but I'll have to watch it again to remember precisely.

After that, it's just like getting to carnegie hall- Practice, baby. Practice.

maatc
ooh, I got a bunch of tips like that. that is a fun article, which I definitely have some comments on.

OK! Good first round, I'll be posting my article about Stocks in the next day or so. Keep the questions coming!

Oh sure, skip me.

He dinna skip you MG, he knows that you more than likely, don't have the skills or apparatus to render one of his faves....he's having to check some remedial publications, for something with lots of melted cheese and what not......!!

Well, I guess it's a good thing that my girlfriend's favorite food is cheese!

I'd be happy to weigh in as well djsunkid - chef for over 15 years here. I tend more towards the baking though... line cheffing was not my thing (though I did it some)

ON stock: buy the "better than boillon" brand - it's reduction in a jar. The reason canned stock is so terrible is because it's mostly FAT and very little actual flavor. Except for that lovely flavor of aluminum.

MG: Sorry! I am also pondering your question, I have a few recipes in mind. I will return to that in a short time.

Wow... I wasn't expecting an answer. Now I have so many other questions...

What is the best way to prepare human flesh?

Human flesh cooks much like pork. It doesn't need to be aged as long as beef, once the blood is drained out, 6-8 days of aging in a cool room is sufficient. Because humans are omnivorous, the flesh is a bit drier and tends to be tougher- it is best to select vegetarian or vegan humans for consumption.

Obviously the more tender cuts such as the loin will be prefered, but be sure to cook to an internal temperature of at least 150 degrees fahrenheit or medium. The larger muscles such as the glutes tend to be stringy, and can benefit from brining. These cuts are best for slow, moist heat cooking such as in a stew or a braise.

Because the federal government of most countries does not inspect human meat, be sure that your supplier is reliable and sanitary, and selects only the healthiest humans for harvest. As with all mammals, humans should be in a relaxed state when slaughtered, as adrenaline in the muscles converts the sugars into atpdepletes the muscles lactic acid after death which has a bitter taste causing a tougher meat which spoils more readily.

Last year, my girlfriend and I tried Alton Brown's Brine Turkey recipe...Man oh man, it was so good. If you haven't brined a turkey I recommend you do. It is fan-freakin-tastic.

This year we are going to my sister's, which could be bad... Apparently, she is ordering a precooked organic Turkey(does anyone know anything about this??) and then she is going to reheat it in the oven. It sounds like a terrible idea to me, but what do I know. It has prompted my dad and my other sister to politely suggest that we should make the turkey, but my sister is a little bit of control freak.

Any thoughts?

MH

Here is the recipe we used

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_8389,00.html

uhhh, the subject is human flesh at this point mycrofthmmsm, and its obvious he knows what he's talkin' about....sounds like marinatin' worked out for ya...hey sunkid, how long should long pig be smoked, and with what woods??

Was that a Freudian slip, MH? "Man on man"?
I think the proper expression is "Man OH Man"

lol.

Oh J. You know you are never going to live this down.

Question: Pig is to pork as Human is to ?

I.E. what is our meat called?

There's no currently common euphemism for the flesh of humans. Maybe we should have a contest to come up with one.

is there somewhere i can go for my mature cheddar cheese addiction?

"Maybe we should have a contest to come up with one."

Just pick a word that is non-NSFW that has a sexual connotation -- like BEEF or PORK. ;-)

We brought back a ton of Pecorino from Italy - mostly well aged. What are good uses of it?

MH is man on man, and winklers' on to peckerinos, What happened to my question about long-pig smoking???!!!

Long-Pig.....Human, this works fine, no contest needed.....

OK DJ,

Here's my question - How do I make the perfect Crème brûlée? I'd like to know about the ingredients, cooking techniques and how to carmelize it just right. I've seen the little torches (butane I'm guessing) and wondering if there is a preferred brand and other uses in the kitchen for them.


Sc

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>> There's no currently common euphemism for the flesh of humans. Maybe we should have a contest to come up with one.

>> Just pick a word that is non-NSFW that has a sexual connotation -- like BEEF or PORK. ;-)

I vote for "Plug".

Man I sure could go for a plug steak.

How are those plug chops doing?

"Last year, my girlfriend and I tried Alton Brown's Brine Turkey recipe...Man oh man, it was so good. If you haven't brined a turkey I recommend you do. It is fan-freakin-tastic."

@MycroftHomlz, We've use the same recipe for Turkey brine for 3 years and it's very very good. I've never seen turkey so juicy. We've bought a huge white bucket w/ a lid, but I've seen the guy on tv use a big football sports drink dispenser/cooler to hold the bird and brine. We might try that this year.

OH and human flesh should just be called "man". Man steak, country fried man, boiled man, roast man, manwhich, man jerky, man stew.... Man, it's what's for dinner!

'OH and human flesh should just be called "man".'

Yea, right, and have all the feminists ticked off that we gave human flesh a male name? I'm going with plug.



On another sub-thread, does anyone else get turned off by the term brine? It just doesn't have that sound of something tasty to me.

Why, what a *quality idea!

Awarding djsunkid with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by intangiblemeg.

So DJ seriously... I need to know. Have you or any every heard of ordering a Turkey precooked? And should I be worried that it will taste like cardboard?

Another vote for AB's brined turkey recipe - fantastic stuff. Caveats -- it cooks faster than your normal bird, and the 500 degree high temps may cause copious amounts of smoke in dirty ovens!

Yeah I noticed that too...but do you know anything about the precooked birds???

I am getting scared.

Mycroft, precooked turkey could be okay... depending upon how she reheats it. Problem is, if the meat's already cooked, reheating will dry it out (as you've guessed) HOWEVER one can reheat meat without (too much) drying by a nice slow steam. Cover it with foil, toss some stock in bottom of roasting pan and bring heat up to 250. Be sure to put turkey into cold oven and have stock slightly warm to start with. Still don't want to heat too long as even steam will over cook the meat and it will be grainy. The best thing to do is to pour some fat over the turkey while its reheating.

brined turkey is truly wonderful but we deep fry our turkeys here. Hubby uses the injection method of marinating

I heard the deep fry is the ultimate...

I would deep fry and brine if there was any justice in the world.

Brining makes the turkey too wet for deep fry (water + boiling oil = trip to emergency room) which is why we inject marinade.

It truly is Teh Bestest.

Hello I have a question about flavor. I am no chef but I do know my way around
a kitchen. I made a Potato soup that is okay in flavor but it lacks a richness
that I desire also it is on the bland side. This is how i prepared it.
I cooked almost a half pound of bacon. removed the bacon from the pot. I added
3 cloves of minced garlic, 1 large onion finely diced, 3 carrots shaved then chopped, 4 celery stalks almost minced. I cooked those until onions almost clear. then added 3 tablespoons fresh parsley and 3 tablespoons fresh chives.
I added 1/2 stick of butter. once melted and bubbly I added 1 cup of flour 1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper. Once flour was browned i slowly added 3 cups Heavy Cream , 1/4 of a brick of cream cheese 2 large spoons of sour cream.
once all that was integrated I slowly added 6 cups of Chicken broth. Then cubed already cooked to tender potatoes. For good measure I added in some velveta cheese and the crumpled pieces of bacon. I was not happy with the richness as it seemed somewhat bland.
What could I have done to give it a nice pop. Thank you for your help as this is my father in laws favorite soup and it is hard for me to get him to eat anything at all. As his care giver I need to make things that will help him gain weight and be appealing to him.

I would try one or two of the following:

thyme
nutmeg
shallots
leeks

I am not sure about the nutmeg. Leeks might be a good idea. You should definitely consider adding more salt as your first step. You have all the elements of a well balanced dish (although I would reconsider the velveta and go with a sharp cheddar or something more robust, a manchego or some other hard cow's milk cheese) so you should just need to tweek it here and there. Try fresh herbs instead and add them at the end.

I put nutmeg into all cream-based sauces and soups... it's just a favorite of mine. If you put it in at the beginning and only use a little spot of it (probably 1/4 teaspoon would be fine) it brings a "homey" feel to the dish and brings out the sweetness which in the case of cream bases is a nice rounding out. I too wouldn't use Velveeta but the only replacement in this case would be cheddar or bleu because hard cheeses need to be added slowly and at high temperature in order to fuse properly. In this recipe, hard cheese (Parmesan, Romano, Gruyere, Asiago) would most likely stay seperate in the dish and coat the bottom of the pot. Not only that but I'd suspect it would take over teh flavor of the soup. A bit (1/2 cup?) of cheddar or bleu might be a nice addition though.

If added correctly, as you say, a nice robust cow's milk should bring a lot to the party. Asiago is nice call though, but it should be used in combination with another cheese.

Say she tops it with a hard cheese at the end and browns it in the oven. That would be very nice.