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How To Fry Chicken
Fried chicken, done right, is one of the best things to eat on earth. It's all about the proportions—crunchiness: juiciness: chewiness: savoriness. And this ratio hits golden proportions with the wing, lots of crunchy peppery surface area and sweet succulent meat.
The study of fried chicken began for me in 2007 during discussions, observations and eating with chef Dave Cruz at Ad Hoc in Yountville, CA, as we worked on the book Ad Hoc at Home. While Ad Hoc's method of flour-buttermilk-flour is not unique, their trial and error experimentation with various methods (including sous vide), proved to them and to me, that this method is indeed superlative.
That was 2007, and I've since fried a lot of chicken. My recipe is in Click to Continue Reading
Also posted in american regional cuisine, Donna Turner Ruhlman Photography, Main Courses, Recipes, Technique Tagged food photography, fried chicken, recipe, twenty 33 Comments
The Potassium Effect: Important Ratio
Yesterday the NYTimes covered an important health ratio: the amount of potassium relative to the amount salt you consume. While the article by long time health reporter, Jane Brody, leads with the obvious (excessive salt has proven to be a health risk, according to yet another major study), and the headline writer reinforce the obvious ("Sodium-Saturated Diet is a Threat for All"), the article recognizes that everything is about balance and notes the important role potassium-rich foods play in countering salt's negative effects. "The researchers found that while a diet hight in sodium—salt is the main source—increases your risk," Brody writes, "even more important is the ratio of sodium (harmful) to potassium (protective) in one's diet." This was pointed out to me this summer by Mark Bitterman, author of a great book called Click to Continue Reading
Also posted in aromatics, Food Politics, Food Safety, food science Tagged Mark Bitterman, salt 23 Comments
Do-over: Charleston, Eve, & Grits
One of hard things about writing books is that they are in constant flux and then they are permanent. Thanks to the organic nature of blogs, I can make amends.
When I was at the Culinary Institute of America, one of my best and favorite teachers was Eve Felder, who taught Garde Manger. She was the Cheshire Cat of chefs, perched high on stacked stools, who taught us that "Cooking is alchemy, cooking is magic!"
And she was right. Righter than I knew, in fact.
I'm heading to her native city, Charleston, South Carolina, and so she's been on my mind. When I wanted to do a butter-poached shrimp for Ruhlman's Twenty, I naturally wanted to pair it with grits. Who did I call for grits finesse ...
Also posted in american regional cuisine, Appetizers, aromatics, chefs, Food Writing, From Scratch, Recipes, Seafood, sidedishes, Technique Tagged Charleston, CIA, Eve Felder, shrimp and grits, South Carolina, twenty 22 Comments
Pig Ear and Parsley Salad
Even James, the guy who handed me a bag of 20 pig ears, gave me a funny look. "What do you do with 'em?" It's not obvious, even to farmers, not in America. It wasn't obvious to me till I had my first one several years ago at Michael Symon's Lola, fried crispy on the outside, gelatinous and chewy on the inside, their richness offset by the sweet-sour heat of pickled chillis. Michael said he'd had a similar reaction when he'd first had one from Mario Batali. Where did Mario first have them? "The ears were a prized part of eating whole suckling pigs on weekend lunches in Segovia, Spain, near where we lived in Madrid throughout high school," he said in an ...
Also posted in Appetizers, Butchery, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork!, Recipes, Salads, sidedishes, Technique Tagged ear, Fergus Henderson, Jennifer McLagan, Mario Batali, Michael Symon, pig's ear and parsley salad, pork, recipe Comments closed
How To Prepare a Simple Crab Boil
By far the best meal of the summer was our crab boil during our week in Ocracoke. And like many “best” meals, it was unplanned, a surprise, a gift we were smart enough to take advantage of. Donna has pals from her native Port Washington, NY, who have houses here, one of whom owns a popular restaurant on this lovely barrier island off the coast of North Carolina (a ferry-ride away from Cape Hatteras). So she found us a swank house on the water where we and friends and Donna's sister and nieces could frolic.
In the grass beside the house was an old crab pot. In the house was my sun-averse pal Lester. In the fridge, was a beef heart.
As the sun set, Lester lowered the ...
Also posted in Main Courses, Recipes, Seafood, Technique Tagged crab boil, North Carolina, seafood, summer Comments closed
Beer Vinegar/Food As Solace
Three years ago on this date, a Saturday, Donna, my mom, I, the kids, our dear friend Stu, and the dog spent the morning standing vigil as my father succumbed to the lung cancer. Mom had gone to the farmer's market and gotten corn and she and I stood at the kitchen island plowing through a dozen and a half ears, butter dripping off our chins. My dad, Rip, hadn't been conscious since very early in the morning, 3 am, Donna and I on the bedside, holding his hand. Realizing the end was truly near, he wanted our assurance that I had indeed returned his library books. I had. "We love you, Dad, we're going to be fine, don't worry, everything's going to be OK." By eleven a.m., he breathed sporadically. I hoped he could hear ears of corn being ...
Also posted in Memories, Recipes, sauce, Writing Tagged beer vinegar, dad, Jonathon Sawyer, Michael Symon, reflection Comments closed
Salt Sense
Bob del Grosso sent me the link to this article in Scientific American on salt by Melinda Wenner Moyer and I read it with a sense of finally. Increasing evidence that nobody really knows what they're talking about when they're talking about salt, except that it has different effects on different people. Given that its fundamental to our existence (without it we literally die) and that it helped to create both stable stationary societies and world travel (food preservation and therefore surplus in a community or on a ship), our main failure would be to undervalue its importance and power. It is powerfully good and useful; but also, anything so powerful can be used harmfully (as in our processed foods).
Since there is ...Also posted in aromatics, Article, food science Tagged Bob del Grosso, low sodium, Marion Nestle, Melinda Wenner Moyer, nobody knows, salt Comments closed
The “No Nitrites Added” Hoax
During a recent phone call with the excellent Elise of simplyrecipes, Elise wished aloud that I would address the nitrite issue directly. “Trader Joe’s carries it! Go look. Is there one near you?”
Indeed there is, and indeed they sell at least two products pitching themselves as a “healthier” bacon because they don’t add sodium nitrite. This is as odious as those sugar laden granola bars trumpeting “No Fat!” on their label—food marketers preying on a confused consumer who has been taught to fear food because of harmful additives (such as the recent, apparently genuine, Red Dye 40 warnings).
Full disclosure if you don’t already know: I am a vocal bacon advocate, and one of my books, Charcuterie, ...
Also posted in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork!, Rant, sausage Tagged bacon, celery, Charcutepalooza, charcuterie, green vegetables, know what you eat, nitrate free, nitrates, nitrite free hoax, nitrites, rant, Salumi, sodium Comments closed
Veal Salt
Veal stock is an amazing elixir because it enhances the flavors around it without imposing its own flavor. It adds depth and body to food, but only to liquids, soups, stocks and sauces. My call for innovative uses of veal stock changed that with Josh Kantor's veal salt (see the other winners here).
Josh Kantor is a 21-year-old senior economics major at Occidental College in Los Angeles and part-time garde manger at Hatfield’s Restaurant. I'll let him elucidate.
by Josh Kantor
The inspiration behind the veal salt was the many foods I love crisp that I couldn't enhance with veal stock: fried chicken, popcorn, or the original motivation: french fries. I am a sucker for the ...
Also posted in aromatics Tagged innovative, Josh Kantor, utilization, veal salt, veal stock, veal stock contest winners Comments closed




















