Cook's Illustrated 113
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E 2011
ST R A E D Easy Braised Turkey Peect Lght & Dark Mea Bonus: Great Gravy
Guide to Pfect Hoday Cookies Best-Ever Prime Rib The Secret? 200-Degree Ove
Ultimate sta aa Boognes Throw Out he Dai
Testing Knife Sets What Do You Ge for $700
Farmhos Vgta Soup Deep Flavor Wthout Meat
Chrss v Showsor Tsg Hgh-d Brs osd Brsss Sros grss wh S wwwCookuaecom
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77 8
TT November Decembr
2 Notes from Readers BY ANDREA GEARY & DAN SOUZA
Quick Tips Quick and easy ways to pefom eveyday asks like keepng cookies fes fes and tanspoting pes. BY SHANNON FREDMANN HATCH
6 Oven-Braised Turkey Roast tukey is te nom today but ealy Amecan cookbooks oen ecommended anote cooking metod. We wondeed i maybe tey knew someting wot leanng. BY ANDREW JANIGIAN
8 Te Best Prime Rib op ces ces say at at 8 ous in a 120-degee oven is te oute o pme b pefection. So wats a ome cook to do? BY DAN SOUZA
Roasted Brussels Sprouts Wat would i take to ceate tende, nutty-tasting Bussels spouts in just one pan? BY ANDREA GEARY
I I Eas iken s Cicken tgs plus te blast of a boile equals undecooked meat and cae skin. o ensue tat bot elements cooked evenly we etougt te equation. BY ANDREW ANJIGAN
2 Farmouse Veetable Soup Rcly lavoed vegetable soup s no poblem wen o ave e o ss ove stock. Fo a weekng veson, we needed o get ceatve wit weekn pant staples BY LA N LA
6 Hoy Cookies Mde Simple Step ep-- by by-- step guidelines fo cookies tat look tei oliday best BY KEITH DRESSER
8 Past wih Broccoli Rab an Sausge o fine-tune tis classc combnation, we fist needed to tame boccoli abes bitte edge BY RAQUEL PELZEL
9 ParisBrt We knew tis sowstoppe Fenc desset was bo elegant and delicious Now we can say is elable as well Y ANDREW JANIGAN
22 Crtg rs Ginrsnaps Wats te secet to gngesnaps tat combine bold s p ice flavo and eal snap? o begn wit, tees gettng id of all tat moistue BY ANDREW ANJIGIAN
2 Holiy Crarry Cte Fo a standout sauce, we needed to do moe tan just finetune te swe sweett ettat at classic BY KEITH DESSER
2 T Pro it Knif Sts Nne peces of matcing cutley, plus a block fo easy stoage? It could be a bagan a ip-o BY SA McMANUS
8 Br Wen it comes to butte, wete o not a band s a fancy ig-fat Euopean-style may not matte as muc as ow its wapped BY AMY GRAVES
ith 14 Utimae Ra alla Bolonese 3 BY ANDREW JANJIGIAN & DAN SOUZA Ou goal was te icest, most savoy intepetaton of ts famous meat sauce. But ow many meats did tat equieand would te daiy ave to go?
32 quipment r BY HANNAH ROWLEY, AMY GRAVES, LISA MMANUS
BY BRYAN ROOF
& DAVD PAIO
FRENC STRIES To cte plmie pu pt i foe foe e cut into oubl e pi
ral an prin ked wit h ugr ugr Mille-feuile inc e pu pt ptry ry tcke tcke wit pt cm an ge ge C old butte r incorporte incorporte i nto yete yete ough cte the f textu of the cissant. Pin au chc/at i varition on the cint tht cll for tucking cho colte into te ogh The fla ct o chaussns aux pmmes ("pple i ppe i chieve by (isage, kneing metho i n which ough n butter ae ae mea with the heel of the han Obong clai me with pte cux, pteike ough ough of flour boili ng water wate r bter bter an e The hol low ptrie a fle wit ptry cm n toppe with gnche Tae au cin contin tngy tngy emon-cu li ng whie te aux i ho h fit toe fit toe with mete jey n rrnge t t ptry ptry cm The cho colte ganache exterior o dome au chc/at hie layer of chocolte moue n liqueroake gnoie cke COVER (pp) Robe Papp ; BAK COVE ( ) John Burgoyne Burgoyne
COOK'S Founder and Editor Editorial Diretor xutive Editor, Magazines Exeutive Editor Tstt Kithn Diretor Ts Managing Editor Senior Editors Assoiate atures Editors Copy Edito Assoiate Editors
Assistant Editors Exeutive Assistant Assistant Test Test Kthen Direto Senior Kithen Assistants Kithen Assistants Exeutive Pdue Pdu Contributing Editors Consulting Edito Siene Edito
Crsper Kmba Jack Bisp Jn Wugby Amana gee Ern McMurrer Rebecca Hays e Dresser Lsa McManus Byan R Ezabe Bmze Danee S Onge Ne Beram Anrea Geary Ay Graves Anew Jangian Yvnne Ruper Dan Suza Hanna Crwley Sannn Fmann Hac aze Ser ra Crsne Grn Gna Nsc Mery MacCrac Lea Rvner Mara Eena Dega Ena Gue Anw S i Messa Baln Sepane Sener Maew Car Dawn Yanagar Yanagaraa Sc Bueeman Guy Crsby, PD
Onlinn Managing Edito Dav yel Onli Onlin Edito Kae Masn Grzymwsk Onlinee Assistant Editors Erc Grzymwsk Onlin Video Operations Manager Media Pduer Assoiate Editor/ Editor/ Camera Camera Operator Assistant Edtor/ Edtor/ Camera Camera Operator
Mar Levne er annenbaum exanra Purnaras Nic Dauas esse Pren
Design Diretor Art Diretor, Magazins Dsigner Art Dirto Dirtor, Marting/W Assoiat A Dirtors, Maretineb
my Klee Jue B nsey m Crsne V Erca ee y ee Desig esignners, Marting/We ana Naar Mara aanen aanen Sta Photographer Dane van cere Online Photo Editor Seve Kise
Vie Pr Presi eside dent nt,, Mareting Cuation Diretor Ciulaton & Fulllent anager Patnership Mareting Manager Mkt Custoeer Servie Manager Custo Customr Servi Servie Reprsntativs
Davi Mac Dug Wcns Carre Hran Pamea Puprus
acqueine Vaer essca ma Mgan Ryan
Retal Saes & Maretng Manager Emiy Lgan Cient Servie Manager, Sponsorship Baey Snyer Pdution Diretor Pjet Managr Pdution & Tra Coordinator Asset & orflow Managr Pdution & Imaging Spealists
Guy Rcr lce Carpener ae Hux Anrew Mannne uy Bmqus Heaer Dube Lauren Peapece
T ehnoog Dretor Systems Administrator Syst Le Developer owreAhitet Sowre Pet Manager Sow Business Anayst Senior Wb Pu P uton oordinator
Rcc mbar Marcus Waser Sc mpsn Rber Marnez Micee Rusn Weny seng Evan Davs
VP New eda Pro Prout Deveopment Barry ey Soal Mea anager Sep Yu
Amrc' W
an a ve rea1 rea12.500 500--squ quare are f k khen l ld jus ud o Bon I hom 's's nt magnes an s e wray esinan mr an tree zen es cks e an ckware speciass
Ameca Am eca ' 'ss T es es
Our mssn is es recpes ver an ver agan un we uneran w an wy ey wrk an un we arve a e bes ver sn We as es kicen equpmen an supeae ngien n sear brns a er e bes vaue an perrance Yu can wac us wr by uning n ec's est tchen (wericasescencm) n pubc eevisn
hief Finania Or Saryn Cab Hun esoues Diretor ee Sa pir Publity Debra Bre PRNE N HE US
TT November Decembr
2 Notes from Readers BY ANDREA GEARY & DAN SOUZA
Quick Tips Quick and easy ways to pefom eveyday asks like keepng cookies fes fes and tanspoting pes. BY SHANNON FREDMANN HATCH
6 Oven-Braised Turkey Roast tukey is te nom today but ealy Amecan cookbooks oen ecommended anote cooking metod. We wondeed i maybe tey knew someting wot leanng. BY ANDREW JANIGIAN
8 Te Best Prime Rib op ces ces say at at 8 ous in a 120-degee oven is te oute o pme b pefection. So wats a ome cook to do? BY DAN SOUZA
Roasted Brussels Sprouts Wat would i take to ceate tende, nutty-tasting Bussels spouts in just one pan? BY ANDREA GEARY
I I Eas iken s Cicken tgs plus te blast of a boile equals undecooked meat and cae skin. o ensue tat bot elements cooked evenly we etougt te equation. BY ANDREW ANJIGAN
2 Farmouse Veetable Soup Rcly lavoed vegetable soup s no poblem wen o ave e o ss ove stock. Fo a weekng veson, we needed o get ceatve wit weekn pant staples BY LA N LA
6 Hoy Cookies Mde Simple Step ep-- by by-- step guidelines fo cookies tat look tei oliday best BY KEITH DRESSER
8 Past wih Broccoli Rab an Sausge o fine-tune tis classc combnation, we fist needed to tame boccoli abes bitte edge BY RAQUEL PELZEL
9 ParisBrt We knew tis sowstoppe Fenc desset was bo elegant and delicious Now we can say is elable as well Y ANDREW JANIGAN
22 Crtg rs Ginrsnaps Wats te secet to gngesnaps tat combine bold s p ice flavo and eal snap? o begn wit, tees gettng id of all tat moistue BY ANDREW ANJIGIAN
2 Holiy Crarry Cte Fo a standout sauce, we needed to do moe tan just finetune te swe sweett ettat at classic BY KEITH DESSER
2 T Pro it Knif Sts Nne peces of matcing cutley, plus a block fo easy stoage? It could be a bagan a ip-o BY SA McMANUS
8 Br Wen it comes to butte, wete o not a band s a fancy ig-fat Euopean-style may not matte as muc as ow its wapped BY AMY GRAVES
ith 14 Utimae Ra alla Bolonese 3 BY ANDREW JANJIGIAN & DAN SOUZA Ou goal was te icest, most savoy intepetaton of ts famous meat sauce. But ow many meats did tat equieand would te daiy ave to go?
32 quipment r BY HANNAH ROWLEY, AMY GRAVES, LISA MMANUS
BY BRYAN ROOF
& DAVD PAIO
FRENC STRIES To cte plmie pu pt i foe foe e cut into oubl e pi
ral an prin ked wit h ugr ugr Mille-feuile inc e pu pt ptry ry tcke tcke wit pt cm an ge ge C old butte r incorporte incorporte i nto yete yete ough cte the f textu of the cissant. Pin au chc/at i varition on the cint tht cll for tucking cho colte into te ogh The fla ct o chaussns aux pmmes ("pple i ppe i chieve by (isage, kneing metho i n which ough n butter ae ae mea with the heel of the han Obong clai me with pte cux, pteike ough ough of flour boili ng water wate r bter bter an e The hol low ptrie a fle wit ptry cm n toppe with gnche Tae au cin contin tngy tngy emon-cu li ng whie te aux i ho h fit toe fit toe with mete jey n rrnge t t ptry ptry cm The cho colte ganache exterior o dome au chc/at hie layer of chocolte moue n liqueroake gnoie cke COVER (pp) Robe Papp ; BAK COVE ( ) John Burgoyne Burgoyne
COOK'S Founder and Editor Editorial Diretor xutive Editor, Magazines Exeutive Editor Tstt Kithn Diretor Ts Managing Editor Senior Editors Assoiate atures Editors Copy Edito Assoiate Editors
Assistant Editors Exeutive Assistant Assistant Test Test Kthen Direto Senior Kithen Assistants Kithen Assistants Exeutive Pdue Pdu Contributing Editors Consulting Edito Siene Edito
Crsper Kmba Jack Bisp Jn Wugby Amana gee Ern McMurrer Rebecca Hays e Dresser Lsa McManus Byan R Ezabe Bmze Danee S Onge Ne Beram Anrea Geary Ay Graves Anew Jangian Yvnne Ruper Dan Suza Hanna Crwley Sannn Fmann Hac aze Ser ra Crsne Grn Gna Nsc Mery MacCrac Lea Rvner Mara Eena Dega Ena Gue Anw S i Messa Baln Sepane Sener Maew Car Dawn Yanagar Yanagaraa Sc Bueeman Guy Crsby, PD
Onlinn Managing Edito Dav yel Onli Onlin Edito Kae Masn Grzymwsk Onlinee Assistant Editors Erc Grzymwsk Onlin Video Operations Manager Media Pduer Assoiate Editor/ Editor/ Camera Camera Operator Assistant Edtor/ Edtor/ Camera Camera Operator
Mar Levne er annenbaum exanra Purnaras Nic Dauas esse Pren
Design Diretor Art Diretor, Magazins Dsigner Art Dirto Dirtor, Marting/W Assoiat A Dirtors, Maretineb
my Klee Jue B nsey m Crsne V Erca ee y ee Desig esignners, Marting/We ana Naar Mara aanen aanen Sta Photographer Dane van cere Online Photo Editor Seve Kise
Vie Pr Presi eside dent nt,, Mareting Cuation Diretor Ciulaton & Fulllent anager Patnership Mareting Manager Mkt Custoeer Servie Manager Custo Customr Servi Servie Reprsntativs
Davi Mac Dug Wcns Carre Hran Pamea Puprus
acqueine Vaer essca ma Mgan Ryan
Retal Saes & Maretng Manager Emiy Lgan Cient Servie Manager, Sponsorship Baey Snyer Pdution Diretor Pjet Managr Pdution & Tra Coordinator Asset & orflow Managr Pdution & Imaging Spealists
Guy Rcr lce Carpener ae Hux Anrew Mannne uy Bmqus Heaer Dube Lauren Peapece
T ehnoog Dretor Systems Administrator Syst Le Developer owreAhitet Sowre Pet Manager Sow Business Anayst Senior Wb Pu P uton oordinator
Rcc mbar Marcus Waser Sc mpsn Rber Marnez Micee Rusn Weny seng Evan Davs
VP New eda Pro Prout Deveopment Barry ey Soal Mea anager Sep Yu
Amrc' W
an a ve rea1 rea12.500 500--squ quare are f k khen l ld jus ud o Bon I hom 's's nt magnes an s e wray esinan mr an tree zen es cks e an ckware speciass
Ameca Am eca ' 'ss T es es
Our mssn is es recpes ver an ver agan un we uneran w an wy ey wrk an un we arve a e bes ver sn We as es kicen equpmen an supeae ngien n sear brns a er e bes vaue an perrance Yu can wac us wr by uning n ec's est tchen (wericasescencm) n pubc eevisn
hief Finania Or Saryn Cab Hun esoues Diretor ee Sa pir Publity Debra Bre PRNE N HE US
EDITORIAL
TH AM L THG
wo years ago, om and Nate seeded down a sma ed near the brook, just past the pg ot an d rght across from from the upper ed where we keep the nda nebacks. t was two weeks before dee season and om mentoned that at exacty 417 every day, a age doe, foowed a mnute ater by a very catous buck, made her way out of the woods and down nto the ed. he next day sat wth my back aganst a sugar mape and tmed t, and sre enough, at exacty 4:17, there came the doe and the buck. Evenng aer evenng, t was the same od thng. Ever ugust, on the rst day that oers the promse of atna whsker of wet eaves and hms, a chance patch of hoar ostom jumps p and taks about where we w put or tree stands ths year and the rst buck sghtngs, racks covered th fet. Summer gves up a of a sudden, the evenngs fade sooner, and the nght s darker and more pressngno pressngno zephyr ksses on a warm breez e. he sgar-dusted sgar-dusted ed dough of Od Ho me Da y s behnd us and we march through potato and honey harest, pumpkns on the porch, thorn bushes and beages poundng aer rabbts, snowshoes and snowfas, days and nghts n sugarhouses,
trucks stuck n md, the pantng he veterans. he bght red 1949 of potatoes, beans, and corn, and Farma. he coupe on horseback. then tackng up the horses for the he cheese oat. d whatever Juy 4 parade. crazy enr Jed has thought up. Some mght say that fe has few He was the Cat n the Hat hs surpses f yo ve ong enough year drvng a brght red Sess car. accdents, marrages, brths, deats, few years ago, took three uck, no uck, bad coee, coee, dr spes, of my kds up SE Corners Road, ozen ppes, a cod LaBatts on a where grew up. f you know hot day, and Parker House Ros just where to ook for t, thee on hanksgvng. But then your sts the pretest sma waterfa neghbor drops o a haf cord of n Vermont, hden n a stand of Chritopher Chri topher Kimball dred, spt oak. turkey shows pnes. t the otom s a sm up on fermented appes at poo, t by sg crces of sun, the country store. sevenpont buck appears on overshadowed by the rushng sound of the fas. t the st Snday of huntng season, just a hunded was a perfect match n memor bt mrored how yards uph. neghbor tes you about hs secret much had changed. shng hoe n the Green ve. hey're unexpected few months back a neghbor took me asde moments bt part and parce of everday vng. and o ered a few words of kndness . Her manne Watchng our town's anna Od Home Day was a tad derent than usua more persona, more parade, am on the ookot for the famar. he focused. She had thought hard about what she bearded drummer wt te be ncon face. he was about to say and wanted her words to mke bagppe band om Cambrdge. Young kds and a derence. hey dd. t was a l face wth dogs, faces peerng down from the hgh cabs of an uar ar message. Words o kndness at te retrucks. he musce cars. he oat wth someone rght tme can be somethng truy new, not the sttn on a toet (a popuar theme n our town). same od thng.
O KNOW? All prouct reviewe b America' Tet Kitchen home of Ck's Illustrated an Cks Cuntry magaine magaine are inepenentl c hoen re reear earhed hed an eviewe e we b o ur eitor. We bu prouct for teting at retail l ocation and o not accept un olicite a mple for teting. We o not accept or receive pament or conieration from prouct manufacturer or retailer. Manufacturer an retailer are not tol in avance of publication which prouct we have rcommene We lit uete ue te ource for recommene prouct a a convenie nce to our reaer but o not endo re pec ic retail er.
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N T E S FR R EAD E R S AN DR EA EAR DAN SOUZA the Bte out of Radcchio I love the deep red color of radiccio in a salad but my family coplains tat it's too bitter. Is there any way to tae it? MABEL HOWARD GARDEN CITY, N.Y
�Ricchio owes its characteistically biter edge to naraly occurring checa copounds released when the vegetable is cut or cheed. Hoever because these bitter compounds are water soluble you can tone don the bitterness by soking the cut leaves in ater. er testing at vaous tie interals we found that a soak o at least 30 minutes was nec essar to tame the vegetable's bite. To tone it down even more e cut the radcchio into ne shreds efore soaking as the greater amount o exposed surace area allos more o he itter compounds to leach out. That said we like the sharpness of this let tuce and sck to giving it just a quick rinse to presere its bite before incorporating it into recipes. We nd that radiccho's bitterness helps alance avors particularly in salads that contain rich igredients such as cheese or nuts or seet components like uit
that goat butter has a uc ilder avor than goat cheese but stll retains enogh tang and grassiness to set it apart o co butter hen spread on bread. Most tasters loved s "barnyard qaiythough soe couln't get past the butter's reseblnce to shortening. The sutle avor derences eteen goat butter ad cow buter were lost hoever hen e used the to saut carrots. There as one surprising rea in ch goat butter reay shone: utter cookies. The utter's lo melting temperare gave cookies an extra tender sandy textre. This is because he elted fat is ale to ore eectively coat the proteins in the our resultng in less hydration and less gluten developentand a cooke tat's ore delicate nd "short. Plus tasters loved ho the slight anginess o the goat butter sered as a counterpoint to te cooke's seetness. Sti th te Liert Goat Butter e tasted sellng for about $10.99 per 250-gra package (te eqivaent of mnaly ore an two 8tablespoon sticks) e'll save it for special occasions. Clabbered Milk Direcions or aking a butter sustitute by adding leon uice to ilk lays call for letting te ixtre sit for a hile Cn I skip this rest if'm short on tie or is it iportant? MOLLE SLLVAN DRHAM, NC
SSERTVE
EASER-GOG
Fnely cutting radccho and then soakng t n water tames some of ts bte.
Goat Butter I love goat cheese so I was intrigued hen I recently spotted goat buter at m local cheese shop Can it e used in the sae ay as butter ade om co's il? RACHAEL ROBERTSON ABUQERQE, NM
�The rst ting e noticed hen e unrapped our goat utter as its translucent wte color quite dierent o the yelow of co's-i butter. The erence is due to the fact that goats tansorm he eta-carotene i heir diets into coloress vitai A, we cos do not. Goat butter and co butter have very siilar fat content but goat utter's erent fatt acid strctre gives it a loer melting point and kes it soer at room temperare. or taste e ound
"Clabbered il is idely recommended as a substitute for butte in baed goods. The usual approach is to stir lemon juice into ilk ( 1 tablespoon per cup) and let e xture sit for 10 inutes to "claber (or cken) before proceedig wth e recipe. But aer following this ethod and closel obserg hat transpired we discovered that clabbering ilk doesn't give it e soot tick consistency of butterilk. Sa curds ored lost instantl but aer a 10-inute rest ost of the milk ad not tickened t all. d ore it ing sil didn't give claered mil the consistenc o utterilk. It turns out that hen leon juice is added to ilk the citric acid changes the electricl charge on e dairy's casein proteins causing e to coaguate tightly into clups. On the other hand the Lactobacius bacteria added to milk to produce coercial utterilk remove soe of the sugar olecules bonded to the proteins allong the to or a gel hat gradualy ecoes thicer over tie. So does iting aer treating il th lemon uice ipact its baing properies To nd out we made ultiple batches o iscuits and butter K
I R E
panckes one set w clabbered il that had rested for 10 mnutes nd one set in hich e mixe te milk into e batter immediatel aer adding the lemon juice. o te biscits nd pancakes ere virtually identical in appearance avor and texture Our conclsion Aing lemon uice to lk sim ply acidies it along eavenng n te aer to do its jobthe sae role plaed by uttermJk Snce ts chnge happens ieately you can safely skip te resting tie. Nut Butters Peanut alergies have becoe so comonplace. Can I substitute other nut butters for peanut butter in cookie recipes? HOWARD CHO MD SAN CARLOS, CAF
�To nd te ans er to your question e sbsti tted alond butter and cashe butter te two most comonl available "alternative nut butters for peaut butter in chewy peanut butter cookies Since e could ony nd the unsalted we buped up e salt in our reipe to copensate. The cashe utt er cookes ere very siilar in textre and appear ace to hose made it peanut butter but the cashe avor as so sule at it as easy to iss making this nut a poor standin for peanuts. The alond butter cookes fared orse The aond skins ade the cooies taste noceably bit ter and he cookies aso spread ore than the pea nut and cashe counterparts looking coparavely at and unattracve. It s out tat alonds contai not ony slighty more at tan peanuts ad cashes (hich share a siilar fat percentage) but also a uch higher propor on of unsaurated fat. Because unsaturated fat has a loer elng point than te sarated CASH EW BUTTER kid cooies made it BLADER alond buter are more ud aown e to spread efore heir structre is set. n a nutshell If you're concerned about pea nut alergies look for cookie recipes specically A L O D B U T T E R designed for nut LATTER uters. A rect sus Nether cashew nor amond ton th cashew or butter works wel as a almond utter won't drect substtute for peanut butter n a cooke ece. produce he sae reslts.
Artichokes on Acid I've ways been taught tat to keep artichokes om darkening they must be stored in lemo water as soon as they are cut and then also cooked in lemon water Are both steps reay essential? And w vin egar work just as well?
HAT IS IT? I pcke up th is pecul irlooking contrption t grge sle for few bucks The seller thought it ws kitcen tool C n you tell me how it might hve be en use?
JANE NCKLEY
ARA BOSS
BREWER MANE
ARRSBR PA
�hen the cell wals of artichokes (as well as avocados apples and potatoes) are cut or crushed ezmes i teir tissues are exposed to the air and react with polhenols producing black- or brown colored pigments tat mar ei appearance. Contact th an acid w sow rate of this browning. We found that vinegar (hich is high in acetic acid) and parsley (which is igh in ascorbic acid) each mized darkenig when added to cooing water However lemon juice proved more eective than either of these substances This is because lemon juice cotains both ciric and ascorbic acids which together not ony slow the enzymatic reacion but aso limit its activit in the rst place. for whether soaking cut artchokes in lemon uice before cooig is also necessar to prevent tem om browng the answer is no. Since browning occurs ony on surfaces where the ssues re rup tured te acid's impact is imited to cut areas dug a precooking soak Adng leon uice to the cooking water is far more iportat many more ces of the archoke w burst i te boiling water potentialy creatng browning throughout te vegetable
A QU C K P E E L E R Ths old-tme tool sks apples n a flash
Lemon juce n the cookng wate nhbts the enmatc eacton that causes bwng cut atchoks
clinginess That said if plasicizers or aditives were present in a plastic wrap tey would i ndeed be more likely to migrate into warm fatt foods Not oy are many plastic additives more soluble in fats and oils ta in water but sma molecules in general migrate at much higher rates at elevated temperatur es The bottom line: hie there is no evidence to suggest that the newer reformulated lasic wr aps leach harml compounds into food keeping the wrap at least nch om food surfaces eate any potentia risk. nother solution is to use parch ment aper for direct surface contact as we do in the test kitchen for puddings and custards.
Is it safe to place plastic wrap rectly on te sur face of swarm fatt foods sch as puddings or past creams?
entle iant I've started seeing eormous bulbs of "elephant garlic at my supermrket Can I use it just like regula garlic?
T LEO
TOUT LEO
JUNE REDFORD
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MONROE CONN
ARY ARCA CARLESTON SC
�For an answer we consuted Daniel Schidt an associate rofessor in the Department of Plastcs Egineering a e Universit o Massacusetts Lowel e explaied that in the ast plastc wraps were made wth one of to tpes of pasticpolvinyl choride (PVC) or polviylidene coride (PVD)aong wit compounds known "lasticizers tat enhanced heir iginess and stretchiness. However heath concerns associated ih these lastics as well as may plasicizers ave ed most manuacurers o switc to polyehylene which requres no plascizers at te expense of some
Despite te name elepant garlic is not actuay garlic. Thog bot aromatics are pat of the alum genus t1ey belong to ieret species Elephant garlic belongs to mpeloprsum, the same species as leeks; grlc is om the species stvum. And whie at rst glance elephat garlic might look lie garlic on steroids (it's two to three times larger) closer exami naton reveals some dierences C onventiona garlic heads can boast as many as 20 cloves but elephant garlic never has more t about six ad its cloves have a yellowish cast To see ow their tastes compared we made l VMBR
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our item is n ntque fit peeler invente by lmer Lupton of Bltimore Mryln in 1 50 The mish ms of cst -iron ger irect s rotting ble roun fruits positione on sttionry trient Much of the mechni sm ws originll y encse to ie the workin g prts but tose pnels likely me of woo re long gone A C-clmp secures the peeler to countertop or self As the ptent sttes the object of the invention ws to provie new n improve vegetble or fruit peeler or prer tht will b e com pct esy to keep cen n snitry n cpble of being mnufcture eonomilly The ptent lso escribes porbility s gol By toys stnrs were not sure th com pct n p ortble re ccurte escriptors But wen we trie it out this mchine i work extremely well i n spite of its ge I t skinne pples n peches s fst s we coul line them up
nd garic-potato soup using regular garlc i oe batch and te sae amount of elepant garlic i nother Raw in aoli the elephant garlic ad a ild garic oon avor This weak avo virtually disap eared when it was simmered i sop asts mc preferred te sharper more puget taste o regla garlc in bot recipes. It turns out that elepat garlic produces the same avo compounds as egular garlic when it's cushedas wel as those prduced by onions and leeks jus less f eac tpe Te psot is that elephant garic does't tast as ott as ts alum cousins. In short: lepant garlic is ot a sbstt or true garlic. If yo wat milder gari avor se less of the rea st.
ELEPAT
COVETOAL
Elphant galc s b g n statue bu t small n flavo We'll stck wth the gula knd. E YR QETI We will povide
comp limenty on eye subsciption fo ec lette we pnt end you inquiy, nme, ddess, nd dytime teleone numbe to Notes fom Redes, ook's ustrted Box 70589, Bookline, A 027, o to NotesFomRedes @ Ameicsestitcencom
Quick T ips C O M P L E D B S H A N N O N F R E D M A N N H A T C H
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No More Dried-Out Cookes It's a derent knd of hoi day rushtryng to eat an entre tn of so, chewy cook ies before they grow stale and harden. Dissatsfed wth the o common techniques for keepng cookes moststoring them wth apple pieces (which can mpar o -favors) or read slces (whch are bu)Lum Pennngon of Sada, Coo., came up th a new way Sh e sls ayers o flour torllas and parchment beween the layers of cookes The tortillas ft tdily i nto the tn, wher ther mosture keeps ooki es so for dys
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I . Tre the bottom of ooke t n on sheet of prhment pper Cu t out the irle nd repet s needed yer prhment tortl prhment nd then yer of ompetey ooled ookies 3. Repet unti the tin s fu endng wth yer of ookies Have Cpces or Pe, Wl Tavel Rr i crrir i c o rsori oos, Rm of io, Cif., os rs i moo smr s. Ccs i sy isi, i cs i, ro (i fm oom o o) scrs i .
Smart Cooe Shpng E iz of o ro, ss., os' c of cooi scoo s i y of si ro i cooi o. s qrrc msr (q o 4 soos) i iis i ccori o sir siz .., for soos).
A onstc Sltion for Chopping Cnded Ginger The sti nteror of ndied gner mkes hopp ng t hore Wht does n't l ng to the knife umps together on the uing bord Angel l ot of Quny Cf stors er ndied ginger in ippe rok bg i n the freeer When she needs bt for ook ng s he pu s out the britte froen gnger nd breks t i nto piees with her me t tenderier
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SEND S YO TIS We will povide a complimentay oneyea subsc pton fo eac tp we pint Send you tip nae, and addess to
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ooks ustrted Bo 70589, Bookline , A 07, o to Quckps@Amecasesttcen.co m. K S
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reezing is a grea way o psee bacon , bu if is frozen ino a soid sab, is im possible o remove jus a few sic es when need ed. I nsead of roing slices ino cyinders befo frezing hem, Jon ahan May of Los ngeles, aif., uses his wrapping mehod , which keeps he srips fa.
pasic spaua is a mu s wih a nonsick pa n o preven a scrached surface. Over ime, however, he oos edge can mel ino an uneven, rough i p. nne wh of ugene, Ore., has a simp e soluon: S he uses a vegeabe peeer o shave o he si nged pasic and reso an even edge.
Gttng Grp on Coong Spry cs ri c of coo i sr i or or rs s c sir s ri oosmo of Oom Ci O. ci o som rc io. c rr c. No s s o si ri o osic sr.
ontrol Yor mprng emperinhe process of gradua ly increasing he emperaure of a hea sensiive ingedien ( such as es or dairy) wih ho iqu id o avoid breaking or curdinusua y requires a mea suring cup and a seady hand. Michael Goodwin of ayland, Mass., uses a urkey bas er. er su cking up ho iq ui d ino he baser, he c an conro he speed a which i is mixed ino he cool ingedi en wih a gene squeeze. baser is aso easier o grasp han a full measuring cup whie simulaneousy whisking wih he oppos ie hand .
Ensrng Mmm Extrction Wr s's mi mris or cori c Ar Ki o Qic ss. s is mo o xrc o cos of r sr . s f o r co ro rsss i i or i si cos o oom of r c si i .
Short-Ordr oqt Grn When making soup receny, harles hrisiansen of Melrose, M ass., d iscovered ha he had no cheesecloh o bund le he herbs for a bouque garni. In sead, he decided o ry an oldfashioned mehod has faen ou of favor: wrapping he he rbs in leek greens. H e found ha his worked so wel he may never go back o ch eesecoh. 3.
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I. rim wo leek greens o 6 inc hes ong and rinse horoughy. Lay on e green fla and place he des ired herbs insi de. . over hem wih he remaining green. 3. Tie each end closed wih buchers wine, leaving he wine ong on one end. he wine can be ied o he han de of he po o faci liae easy removal of he bu nd le .
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I . Pace a singe sic e of bacon on one end of a 1 2 by 1 6inch piece of waxed paper. od he paper over he bacon, hen op wih anoher sice. . oninue fodng and sacking in an accordon fashion 3. Pace wrapped s ices in a zipperock bag and freeze uni ready o use .
Ove-Baised ukey Roast turkey is the norm toda, but early American cookboos often recommended another cookng method. We wondered if maybe they knew sometng worth earning. B A N D R E W J A N J A N
oast turkey has become syn hans: I' need to keep the thighs bove onymous wit Tnsgiving, e mm empee for issolving but many ealy American collagen long enough for ost of i to cookbook authors acually turn into gelatnbut not so long tha the advocaed a very ifferent mehod: breast ded ot. cooking the whole bird (or its parts) Paying it safe, I died the oven tem in liqud in a covered po set over an peraure to a ve gentle 275 degrees open e. Braising, aer all, would have nd put he turkey pats in. Without the been uniuely suite to the tough wild insuatng eect of he backbone an the breas, the ighs and drumsticks came up fowl put on te table in tose days, as hours of simmering would hve broken to their ideal tempeaue of 175 degees a te same me hat he breas eaced down the dak mea's chey connective tissue and urned it meltingly tender. its idea 160 degees: about four hous Bu i's also a teri c way to c ook oday's later. Bo tpes of meat were ver tender mass-produced domestic turkey. Since and juicy. Even te otermost layes of the tempeaure in the po can never te breas were mois an succlentn feat wen osng. Sl, rise bove he boiling point of water amost as good as the turkey asted, monopozing 212 derees, the method is inheenly genle, minmizing te risk of dring ou the oven f o four hous dung the hodays the breast. On top of tha, simmering the was something I wante to avoi. pieces n broth creaes a avor exchange Wondeing what wod happen if! took between he meat and the liuid, giving the opposite tack ad crake he het a lot the trkey a lavor boost and producing a higer, I prepped a new bach of tukey rich, eady-made grav. (The only trade pats an brased tem in a 400-degree oven. That got thngs movg fo sueit o I could think of migh be lessthan crisp skin, but it was a compromise I was The favorful raising qud for he ukey is hckened o make a rich gravy. took more than an hor fo the me willing to make for supremely tender, o come up o temperaurebut e resuls juicy meat. Bras ing parts insead of a whole bird of the coong method down. First, I arranged te were markedly infeio. Toug te center of the makes the situation even more advantageous, pars sin side up in a roasting pa. (The traitiona breast was still juiy, the outer layes we re dre out providng extr a insurance t h he w hite an t he vessel fo braisinga covere casserole o Duch an te thigs, whe most, were tou. The hgher dark meat cook at a more eve n ae. oven was out, as al the parts would never t in one heat was obvously to blame. Because the ui was layer.) I added about 5 cups of cicken brohjus going at a rapid boil, he cooking me sped up and, But I knew tat a sccessl ecipe would require moe tan just stickng some parts in bro, cover enoug o come abou treequarers of e wy as a result, e collagen in te ghs did't ave a ing them up, an placing the whole thing in e up te sides of he thigs. Then I covered te pan cance to suciently break down. And espite te ighty t alinum foil. oven. Conra to what you might expect, sim fact that the temperate inside te covere roast The oven temperature was a more complicaed n pan was lted to 212 degrees, t was s hot merng mea in u is no guarantee of juiciness. mtter. The curous thng abou braising is tat enough to d out the exteror of the breast. hen In fct, if cooked too long o at te wrong tem I cecked, I foud that te eat ust elow the peatue, baise meat can dr out just as eadily espite he fact hat te meat is sttin in lu, it as roasted mea. Te rc would be to nd e never cuay bsorbs oisture. On e conrar, suface of te breast ad clibe a goo 0 degees opa coog ie a oven epee n nce s usce bes rec roun 1 egrees, ger a is cener. just the rigt ingrediens o add deeper complexi ey begin o conrac wrng out juices. Bu Te compromise soluon was 35 degrees. A to te meat. wen te mea in he po has a lot of collagen, his this temperature, basing too a reasonable o sriveg reaction is mitiged by a second reacon: ours, urng whc e te collagen in he thighs Beteen 160 an 180 degrees, the colagen apidly s ha a chance to beak own into gelan, while Braising te takes Tey parts ae reaiy available at e supermaret, dissolves into gelatin, wic hen holds on to some te beas mea r emaine relatvey moist. Sll so I woldn't ave to boter ith any butcering of te juices sueezed om he muscle bers. If I could't get te super-juiciness of the low-ad myself. I assembled enough bonein, snon breasts, enough collagen dissolves, it lends somehng an slow-cooed batch out of my eaand I knew o juiciness o e e. Te calenge in braising a eat inocing brg into e euaon. dmscks, an s o total aound 10 pounds turey, owever, is te dar meat as a good per batcenough to fee a cowd of 10 to 12. I'd been avoiding te extra step unl now but was Before I gured out the nittgri of wat would bi of collagen we te breas meat as alos well aware of its benets Salt in a brne soluon none. In oe wods, I ad a g issue on my go in te baising uid, I waned o get te basics denatues e mea's proteins, maig em beer K
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ST E P BY STE P
H OW B R A I S I N G C R EAT E S J U I CY, FLAVO R F U L T U R K EY- P L U S R I C H G RV
onrary o wha you migh expec, is possie for raised mea o urn ou dry. o guaranee mois juicy mea we rine he urkey and cook i in a ow oven.
. RI N E Brining h e urkey
. ROWN o oos com
3. ADD LQI D o ens ure
pars in waer, sa, and sugar no ony ensu es ha he ouer ayers of he reas don dry ou during cooking u aso seasons he mea horoughy.
pexiy and e nd roased favor o he mix rief y rown he urkey par s i n a 500- degree oven aong wih he aromaics and favorings.
a concenraed raising iquid pour I cup of wine and 4 cups of roh ino he panjus enough o pariay sumee he m ea.
able to hol d o to ther mosture. I t also thoroughly seasos meat. Per our usu approach, I also amped up the avor of the soluo by strrg some sugar. Fally, both the breast ad the dark meat were supe r jucy ad teder.
RAIE over he pan wih 5. AKE RA Making
parchmen and foi and hen raise geny in a 325 degree oven uni he whie and d ark mea are cooked hrough aou wo hours.
mxture smmer utl it tckeed to glossy gravy. Wit1 ts juicy, rch meat ad sumptuous gray, brsed turkey s wort celebrag. approach so goodad so talormade for turkeyshould be as much he stu ofleged s t1e roasted brd.
Taking tock Now that e meat was perfect, t was me to adess the turkey's salo s. I had o expectaos, of course, that y crisp s as the cards, but some browg as a must. Not oy would t mprove the look of the sk, but t would also add avor that would make ts way ito the brasg lqud. Serg the peces the ove befoe addg te qud ould be the most ecet method, so I craked he heat to 500 degrees, brushed aother batch of turkey pats wth melted butter, and roasted them u they were lghtly taed. That took about 20 mutes, aer whch I poured the chck e broh to the p ad retured the meat to a 325-degree ove. Some ofthe color washed away dg the log brase, but the rch, roasted avor that t added to the broh ade for a worthy compromse. I wast shed yet: The brasg lqud stil eeded some weakg. I started by sappig out 1 cup of the chcke broth for hte wiea classc trick for addg bright sweetess to a p sauce. o ther roud out the avor, I tossed chopped oos, ceer, carrots, d garlc wit melted but ter ad arrged tem i he pa before placg the prts o top, browg the whole lot a hot ove for about 20 utes. The avor was much mprovedbut I did eve better by addg pepper, eaves, yme, parsey, ad a of ura savor ded porc mushrooms to the aromacs before browg them. Best o a , s te vors of the brasg lqud mproved, so dd he avor of the turkey tse t remaed was to tur ths rich brsg lqud to gravy. Oce the urkey was cooked, I let te pts rest while I skmed the lqud ad used some of e avo fat to roduce ode o . The I whsked a fe cups of the liqud ad let the
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Istead of dumstcks d thghs, you may use 2 hole leg qurters, 1 to 2 pouds eac. The recipe also ork th turkey breast aloe; i step , reduce te salt ad sugar to cup each d te water to 4 quarts. If you re brsg kosher or self basg tukey parts, sip the brg step d stead seaso he turkey prts th teaspoos of slt. y Sal and peppe up suga (5 - o 7pound wole bone-i n ukey beas, immed pounds ukey dumsks and gs, m med onons, opped eley ibs, o pped as, peeled and oppe d gal loves, peeled and used bay l eaves spgs fes yme spigs fes pasley oune ded pon musoms, nsed ablespoon s unsaled bue, meled ups low-sodium ken b up dy wie wne
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2 6
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ablespoons all-pupose flou Sal and peppe
. TH TU Dssolve cup salt d sugar 2 gallos cold water lrge coter. ege re ece rie, cover, d reger ate for 3 to 6 hours. VMB R
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gravy from he ichfavoed raising iqu id is easy: rain he iq uid use some of is fa o make a roux add ack he iq uid and simmer uni hickened
2 Adjust ove rac to loermiddle poso ad heat ove to 500 degrees. ove uey om bre ad pat dr i paper toels. oss oos, celer, carrots, galc, bay leaves, yme, prsley, porc, ad 2 tabespoos buer i le rosg pa; arrage eve ayer. rus ey pieces h remai 2 tabesoos buer d seo pep per. Place ukey peces, sk side , over vegetables, leavg at least /4 ch beee ieces. ast ski is lhy broed, about 20 tes. 3 move pa om ove rede temera ure to 325 degrees. our bro d e ound urkey peces (it shold come abot eequter ofay up legs ad tighs). Place 2 by 6ic piece of parcmet paper over urkey pieces. over rost ig p tghtly t aumm foi. Re overe roasg p to ove ad coo breas rester 6 0 degrees ad ghs regster 75 erees, % to 2 hours. Trasfer tuey to c bod, tet loosely it foi, d et rest for 2 tes. . TH G S vegetabes ad lqud om roasig p rogh e mes ser set lrge bol. ress solids ac of spaa to extract as much iqud as possible. iscd egeta bles. Trsfer lqid to fat sepator; o to sele, 5 mutes. sere 3 tabespoos fat d measure out 3 cups brisig iqid (resee remn brot for other use). Heat reserved fat i med sacep over mediumg eat. Add o d oo, s o statly, ul our is drk golde bo d t, aout 5 miutes. Wisk i 3 cus brisi iqd d brig to bol. Reduce heat to edimlo d simmer, stirrig occasioy, u ra is ick a reduced to 2 cups, 5 to 20 miutes. ove gra om et ad seso i sat d eper to tte. 6 ae turkey d see, si sepat.
Watch drew Braise It Vdeo avalable FREE fo 4 mons w ww . C oo k s l l u s a e d . o m d e c
e Best rie ib Top chefs say that 1 8 hours in a 1 20-degree oven is the route to prme rib erfection. So what's a home coo to do? B DAN SOUZA
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chef friend of mine recently sere me a slice o pime ib as close to b ee peecion as anyting I've ever tase. It featured a crisp, salt crus encasing a large eye of juic y, rose -ue d meat intersersed with so ockes o ricly avore fat. Te meat ad the buttey textue of teerloin but the eeness of a chuck roastan the usual gay ban of overcooke meat under the suace of he cust was pactically nonexisent. I fou myself reasse ssing my ex pectai ons for this pr imo c ut an aske my ien for is recie. While he wouldn't divulge all the details, he did iec me to e for mula on which he ase is ow: famed Bris chef Heson lumental's ecipe for "Steak (translation: a two-ib oas from wic e cuts steaks) , publise in is ok In Search ofPerfection To say tat Blumenal goe s to extremes for is rime rib woud be an unerstate ent. The recipe breaks dow as fo lows: Sear te exterior o te roast wi a lotorch; place te meat in a peeated Scoring the fat cap efore cooking the roast heps the salt to 120-egree oven unti te internal em penetrate the meat and encourages rendering. perature its 120 degreesad ten hold it tere fo 18 ours. (You ead at rigt: 18 ous.) oast, I patte te mea and seasoned it wt a Finaly, pull te meat out o f te oven, let i t res, andl of coarse slt. Ten came te st hurdle: ow es to repicae te eects of a bowtorc. sce it into steaks, and pan-sear te slabs unt crsp. Tis exact approac was ou of te question. For Blumental lastsears meat th ths instument ecause its inense eat ouput (over 3,0 00 degrees) one thing, eve n if a cook was g to keep te immediaely starts to render fat an rown he meat in te oven all ght and most of a day, no ome oven can relialy go below 200 egrees. But exerior while leaving te meat beneath the surface vrtually untouce (ence the remarkaly thin gray it di ve me so me ideasan an ieal to srive for. and) . My optons wee a ot oven or a sklletan neiter was ideal. Ovensearing at 50 0 degrees was Prima ear I a one maor ecision aee meat easy but a too slow; by te tme the oast got som e seeconbeore I even got state. In e test ecen coo, a goo a nc o meat beow te sur kitche, ou peferences for e exac gae an cut ace ad tuned asen. Unacceptable. Meanwile, a of beef are enitve: a prme stcut roas fo is blazing-o skiet seared te meat faster, ut eveny sureme marlig an large rbeye muscle. (For bowing a three-one roast i a 12-inc pa was oe iormaon on pme ri b soping, see "Cattle cumbesome, to say e leas. I ad a quick x to he unweliness roblem: Rundup, page 31.) A I would wit any oe I cut t e bone s o te oas b efore seaing o make t easier to maneuver te meat in the skile and Watch It Step by Step e te tem bac on eore roastg so e meat Video available FREE fo 4 mons a woul't ose te insulato tey prove, whc www.Cooks ll lu saed.omde helps the roast cook more evenly. I even scovered o side benets to the method: Te exosed meat ' COK S
I LLUST RATED
on te one side coul ow e horoughly seasoned, an carng te ised roas requred nohg more than snping te tne before scigno prene utcher reqired. But getting a eep ser on the roast (even wen I skiped brownng the bone sie) sti took 10 minutesnot ecause the an wasn't hot ( it clocked 450 egrees) but ecause even aer I ha carey lotted it , the meat srigt out of the package was still damp. That meat that the surface irecty uerneat my roast coun't rse aove 21 2 degrees ( te boig point of water) un he moisure had evaorated. I dn't need a otter an. I needed drier meat. Forunately, ts was famiiar territor. We rou tiney air-dr poultr to aow its mosture to evaporate, making the skin extracrisp. en I took the sme ack ere, prepping and seasong aother roast beore moving it into the idge for a 24hour rest before searing, te exteror dd idee brown ette (an faste) than it ad in my prev ous attempts. But ta wasn't the only perk. The meat elow the surface was beee d much more tender, ad I had the cominaion of sat an me a chance to penetrate eep to hank for it. into the meat, salt eance te ee avor we dissolving some of te proteis, yielding a buter tener roas. In act, I oun a e longer I et te roast situp to 96 ours i advancete eeer, juicie, an more tener te resuts. (I f! le it sit any longe tan 96 hours, however, I rse desiccang the exerior. ) I also scored the arge swaths of fat on te exterior, gave te sat a ead start on the meat ad encouraged rendeg.
Rapid Aging Things were roressn iceyt sll ha a ome oven to reckon w. Thee was goo reason for Blumenthl's incredy long cooking time an increbly low temperature. By gently ising te temperaure o te mea an ten ong i at 120 degrees for all tose hours, he was clevery maipulating to actve enzymes in the meat: capains and cathesis. We the meat is hel around te 120degree mark, these enzmes work at a api pace to break down connectve ssues and tenerze the meat. (Tis tenderizig eec is equvaen to agng the beef for amost a ont.) Sce it was impossie o use e same met my conveonal ome oven, I ocuse my eorts on ning another way to kee my beef cose to 120 degrees for as ong as I co l.
Steakouse Prime Rib at Home
EQPE E
High-endresauran chefs i ke Heson Bumenhal urn ou prime ri b has crisp on h e ouside and gorgeously rosy from cener o edge. or simi lar rsus, we used nohing more han a ho s kill e, a reguar home ove-and a few ricks.
al-mouned magneic knife srips sore knives wihou demanding precious drawer or couner space, pus hey can accommodae our onges knife. (ven our favorie universa knife bock fais o fu y she ahe a 1 2-i nc h b ade.) However, if he srip can secu re a ypica range of cuery--inch chefs, 1 2-inc h sicing, 0-inch serraed, boning, and paring knives, aong wih kichen shearsi isn worh hanging. e preferred srips ha sreched a eas i nchesbu magneizaion from end o end proved jus as imporan. Some le ; o inch of nonmagneized, unusabe space on each side, and one modes inerspersed agnes required direc pacemen of he blades, es hey side precariously. Our winner, he Messermeiser 6 V-inch Bamboo Knife Magne, hed knives securey in pace, didn nick bades, and was he ony srip wih more han inch of cearan ce beween he wal and he kn ives, keeping our knuckles scrape free. or compee esing resuls, go o ooksl lusraed.com/ dec . aizeh Sierra
Magneic Knie Strips
PER-CHEF APPROACH
O R WAY
LOWTORC TE EAT
ALT AND EAR Saing he roas
Basing he roas wih he inense h ea of a boworch jump-sars is exerior wih ou subjecing he inerior o any hea.
and hen rfrigeraing i un covered for a leas a day (and up o four) no only season s he mea horoughy bu aso dr ies o u is exerior for beer browning. Searing he super-dry roas in a bazing-ho skile develops a nice hick crus.
ROAT AT 0° Using a speciaized ulra-low emperaure ovenand eavin g he roas in i for 1 8 hoursproduces rosypink, uraender resuls.
ROAT AT 00° Roasing he mea as ow as a conveniona oven can go and hen s huing o he hea and eing i ni sh i n a urnedo oven produces incredib ly ender and eveny cooked mea in abou 4 o 5 ho urs.
The lowest my oven would go was 200 degrees, so I set te dial there and popped in another salted, seared roast. en the meat hit 125 degrees (mediumrare) almost four hours later, the crust was decent and the interior wel seasoned and rosy om center to edge. But the texture wasn't ideal: more lke run-of-the-ml sip steak than like prime grade rib eye. I wasn't sure what to do next. Then it occurred to me that I actually did have a way to lower the temperature of my oven: I cold urn it o. I ran a ser ies oftests, shutting o the oven when the roass t vaous degrees of doneness. The mac number tued out to be ll degrees, my tusy rbe thermometer indicag exactly when he roat had hit the target temperature. This was a break through technique. In the shut-o oven, he beef stayed in the enzyme sweet spot longer, about an hour more to reach 120 for rare. I then took it ut of the oven to let t rest a nd to allow the exuded juices to be drawn back into the meat. Tha to the rast's he size, te meat stayed at an idea sering temerate for more than hour, vng me plen of time to cook or reheat side dishe s.
earing Question Only one imperfection remained: The crust had lst some of its crispness as it rested under a tent of foil. A quick stnt under te broler before sering was all it took to restore itwell, amost all of it. o esure tat te fatt ortion at the to of te ribs got enough exposure to the heat, I roled up the iece offoi I'd used to tent the roast into a ba ad sandwiched it under te ribs to elevate the fat. that was e was to sn the tine, i te meat om the bones, and sce it ito he %-inch thick slabs. Ths prime rib was truly the king of a rastsa eep-colored, substantia crust encasing a roy-ink ceter. A mking it took thing mre than a humbe skilet and regular old oven.
B PR RB
RV 6 8
Look for a roast with an untrimmed fat cap (ideally inch thick). We refer the avor and texture of prime-grade beef, but choice grade work as wel. (Se e page 3 1 for more informaton on pre rib shopping.) To remove te bones om the roast, use a sharp knife and it down the length of the bones, following the contours as cosey as possible until the meat is searated. Monitorng the roast wth a meat-probe thermometer is best. If you use an instantread thermometer, oen the oven door as ittle as ossible and remove the roast om the oven while takig its temperature. If the roast has not reached the correct temperature in te tie range specied in ste 3, heat the oven to 200 degrees, wait for 5 mnutes, then s hut it o, and coninue to cook the roast until it reaches the desired temperature. For our ee recie for MustardCream Sauce, go to Cooksll ustrated. com/dec 1 1 .
2
(7-pound) rs-cu bee sanding rb as bones), mea removed m bones, bones reserved Koser sal and pepper easpoons vegeable ol
. Using sharp knife, cut sits in surface layer of fat, sace ich art, in croshatch atter , being care to cut down to, but not into, meat. Rub 2 tablespoons salt over entire roast and into sits. Pace meat back on bones (to save sace in reigerator), transfer to arge ate, and reigerate, uncovered, at east 24 hours and u to 96 hours. 2 Adjust oven rack to midde positon and heat oven to 200 degrees. Heat oil in 12-inch skiet over high heat uti ust smoking. Sear sides an to of roast (reserving boe) unti broned, 6 to 8 VMBR
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AN TOH E E RE I TER moo Kif o: B K M 1 6 Pric: $50 Comms: his srip oers ampe room for ve knives p us a pair of kichen shears. was easy o insa and cean, and he bamboo surace was genle on bades.
inutes total (do not sear side where roast was cut om bone). Place meat back on rbs, so boes t where they were cut, nd let col for 10 minutes; e meat to bones wth 2 lengths of wie between ribs. Transfer roast, fat side u, to wre rack set in rie baking sheet and season wt eer. oast unti eat registers l l degree, 3 to 4 hours. 3 Turn o oven; leave roast in oven, ening door as little as ossibe, until ea registers about 120 degrees for rare or about 125 degrees fr edum-rare, 30 to 75 inutes longer. move roast om ove (leave roast o big heet, tent osey wit aiu foi, an et rest for at least 30 minutes and u to 5 minutes. Adjust oven rack about 8 iches om broier element and heat broier. Remove foi om rast, form into 3ich ball, and ace under ribs to eevate fat ca. Broi unt to of roast is we browned ad crs, 2 to 8 mnutes. 6 Transfer roast to carving board; cut ne an remove roast m rbs. Sce eat to %-nch-tck sces. Seaso wt coarse sat to taste, ad sere.
ea Goo Roaste Bussels out hat woud it take to create tende nuttytastin Brusses sprouts in j st one pan B AN R EA EAR
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russets sprous are in dire need of a new publicis. The rs order of business should be o ge e word ou a is vegeabe doesn' have o ase oerly bier or sulros. Like e membes of he crcifer family (wich also includes broccoli, cab age, and usard greens), Brusses sprous are rc in avor precursors a reac wi he eg eable's enzymes o produce pungen new com ounds when e sprous are cu, cooked, and even eaen. Bu when e spros are handled jus righ, s pungecy akes on a ny sweeness. The probem is, achievig perfec resus is usu y a o-pa process To ensue ha he ineriors of is dense vegeable ge sucenly ender, e srous ae rs blanced or seamed, followed by roasng or pan-searing. The laer process ighly criss he ouer eaves and creaes he nice brown ng a mellows e sprous' bier kick. Bu when Brussels sprous ae par of a olday feas, is o sep approach is a lile oo ssy. Coud I ge he resls I waned using jus one sep? I decided o skip e pan-searng, since one bac in a 2nc skie barely maes enoug for four eople, and I waned my sprous o feed a crowd. sng seeed lke a beer echnque o lay i. I rounded up a lle over 2 pounds of sprous enoug for six o eg peoplelooking for samesize specimens abou inces long. W arcooking rled ou, he obvious rs sep was o alve he sprous, wich would help ensure a ey cooked rough and would creae a a surface for browning. I hen ossed em in a bowl ih a bi of olive oil, sal, and eppe. To maximize browning and o jump-sar cook g, we oen prehea e baking shee before roasng vegeables. I did precisely s, placing e srous cu side down on he o see, wc I en pu back in a 00-degree oven. Bu when I pulled e vegeabes o 20 minues laer, ey were , cey, ad eve n burn in spos on he ousde, we raccay crunc on e se. Sg a co bakig see dd' elp maers, and rng down e ea merely mean ha i ook a ie longer for he sprous o reach e same unsaisfaco sae. To preven e ouer eaves om drng ou oo uc before e cener acieved he dea
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ender-rm exure, seemed clear a I needed o inroduce moisure ino he equaion. I wondered if jus coverng he sprous wi aluu fo as hey roased would rap enoug sea o do he rick. Once agai, I arrangd he sros cu side down on he bg see, bu hs ie I covered he pan ghy fol before placing i n he oven. er 0 minues, I reoed e foi so a e sgy so ened sprous cold brown and ge us a lile crisp. er 0 nues more, e Brussels sprous wee perfecy browned on e ouside. d undercooked on he inside. Ad a b and chey around. I relucanly consdered lowering e oven eperaurebu a woud aos cerainy increase he cookng e, an I waned a side sh ha would be done wen y rkey nised resng. Te soluion was as simple as ossng he sprous wi a ablespoon of waer aong wih e oil and seasonings before I pu e in he oven. Covered in foi, each halved sprou aced like is own lile seam chaber, hoding on o a ny bi of waer o nish cooking is erior even as is ouside begn o brown. The resus were perfec: ender, swee nsides and caramelized exeriors. Now a I'd made perfecly cooked Brssels sprous in one easy se, I devised soe quick varia ons. They cod sow ohei image maeoer no jus during e hoidays, bu year long. R BR P R
RV 6 TO 8
Ifyou ae buying oose Bussels sprous, selec hose a are abou l nces long. Quaer Brussels sprous longer han 2 inches; don' cu sprous shorer han l inc. 2!
pounds Brussels spus, rmmed and alved ablespoons olve ol ablespoon waer Sal and pepper
Adus oven rack o uperiddle posion and ea oven o 00 degrees. Toss Brusses sprous, oil, waer, % easpoon sal, and easpoon pepper n large bowl un sprous are coaed. Transfer sprous o rmed bakig see and arange so cu sdes re facing down. 2 Cover shee igy i auu fo and roas for 0 mnues Rmove foi and connue o cook unl Brssels sprous re we browned and ender, 0 o 2 minues longer. Transfer o serg plae, season wih sa ad epper o se, and see .
I R
We foun d a way to turn each sprout into its own itte steam chamber. R BR PR WIH GR R P P P R F K PR
e Brssels sprous roas, ea 3 ablespoons ove o in 8 -inc skile over meum hea unl shimer ng. Add 2 minced galic cloves and easpoon red pepper akes; coo unl gac is golden and agran, abou inue. Rmove o ea. er ransferring sprous o plaer, oss wi garlic oil and season wi s ad pepper o ase. prikle wi 4 cu graed Paresan ceese be fore serving R BR PR WH B P
Whle Bussels sprous roas, cook 4 slces bacon n 0inc skille over mediu ea unil crisp, 7 o l inues. Using sloed spoon, ransfer bacon o paper owellined plae and reserve ablespoon bacon fa. Fnely cop bacon. Aer ransferring sprous o plaer, oss w 2 ablespoons olive oil, resee acn , coe ac, ad cu e chopped oased pecans. Season wih sal ad pepper o ase, and serve. R BR PR WH W
Transfer roased Bussels sprous o plaer and oss wih 3 ablespoons eled unsaled buer, l ablespoon lemon juce, and 3 cup nely copped oased walnus. Season wi sal nd pepper o ase, and serve.
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Eay icen gs Chicken thighs pus the bast of a broier equas undercooed meat and charred skin o ensure that bot eements cooked eveny, we rethought the equation. AN D EW ANJI IAN
hen I need chicken dinner on the y, chicken thighs are what I turn to most. They're more a vorl than lean breasts, meatier than drumsticks, and , thanks to the ir uniform siz e and thicness, less prone to overcooking, which elimiates any need for brining or salting. The onl catch? The fat undeneath the skin that helps keep the meat moist during cooking oen leads to abby skin. I wanted to come up with a quick recipe or thighs sheated in crackling skin witout sacricing the succulent, tender meat. Folowig the l ead ofmost recipes, I wen t straight to the broiler, arranging the tghs kin side up on a baking sheet and sliding them into the oven. It dd't tae more than a fe minutes for the skin to tart brownng-which unfortunately meant that by te tme the meat was lly cooked, the skin was carred on top, with a abby underbelly. We've had luck gettng poultry skin to reder ore qicky by poking it th a skewer before cook g, so I punctured about a dozen holes in the skn of each thigh and tried again. Improvement? Yesbut not enogh, as the chicken still emerged blackened. I had wo problems: On one hand, I needed a way to ore slowly rende the skin; on the other, I needed to crisp te sknbut not until te meat ad coe up to the right temperature. High teperatre oasng, nstead of broiing, seemed ke the most logical way to more thoroughly render the ski's fat without sacrcing browning. So I dialed te ove temperature don to 500 degrees. This produced skin tat was nicely brown but stl not rendered enough. Lowering te temperature to 450 degrees helped wth rendering, but te skin was now spottily browned. There as no getting around it: hese to problems required to separate soluons. Then I ad an idea so logic I was surprised I hadn't thought of it soone. y not roast the thighs skn side down on a preheated baing sheet? That way, the sheet would concentrate heat onto te i nd el t brown. I ave t a sot, rtzn te tighs ith vegetable oi spray ad roasing them sn side down on the rack coest o the ove oor (and te heang element). While his succeeded in producig juicy meat and nicely rendere d skin, I had a ew roblem: Because te skin was now sitting in rendered fat and juices, it wasn't crisp enough. I knew I could do better-and I had a hunch that te broler mt e my tmp cad. About 20 minutes into the roasng me, I puled
the bakng sheet ou of the oven, preheated the boier, ipped the thighs skn side up, and then slid them back onto the midle rack, where they'd crisp up a little more gently tha tey would on a higher rack. That did te rick: The meat emered succulent and juicy under a layer of cracky, deepl broned skin. Best of , the process took ony about 30 minutes. To take e r advantage of my oven tech nique , I placed a packet of garlic on the midle rack we the chicken roasted and used it to whip up Roasted Garlic Salsa Verde as the meat rested. V - R H H G H
SEES 4
For best results, sible fat om the thighs. Use a heavdut baking sheet and ly preheat the oven and bg sheet befoe addng te chicken. The ccken ca be sered plan or wit Roasted Garlic Salsa erde. For our ee recipes for Roasted Shaot and Mint Cutney ad Roasted PoblanoCilantro Salsa, go to .Cookslustrated.com/dec .
w
8 \
(6- o 8-ounce) bonen ccken igs, rmmed easpoons sal Pepper Vegeable oil spray recpe sauce, oponal ( recipe ollows)
. djust oven racks to midle and owest posi tions, place rimm ed bakng sheet on lower rack, and heat oven to 450 degrees. 2 sing metal skewer, poke skin side of chicken thighs 1 0 to 12 times . Season bot sides of thighs wit sat and pepper; spray skn lightly with vegetabe oil spay. Place tighs skn side down on preheated baing shee. Retrn baking sheet to boom rack. If preparin g sauce, plac e foil packet on midle rack. 3 Roast chicken until skin ide is beginning to brown and meat registers 160 degrees, 20 to 5 mute, rotat a ad, preparn sauce, removing foil packet aer 10 minutes. Remove chicke om oven and heat broiler. . he broiler heats, ip chicken skin side up. Broil chicken on mide rack until skin is crisp and well browed and mea registers 1 75 degree s, about 5 minutes , rotang pa as neede d for even browning. Transfer chicken to plater and let rest for 5 miutes. e ccke s retng, ns sauce, f usng. Sere chcken, pas sing sauce eparately. V B R
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Saring he highs skin side d own hel ps heir fa reder before hey are fipped and c risped ude r he roier. R GR VR
MAKES ABOUT v, CUP
ead garlc, cloves separaed, un peeled ablespoon plus \ cup olive ol 2 ablespoons lemon juce cup res arsley leaves 2 ancovy ll es, rins ed and paed dry 2 ablespoons capers, rinsed \ easpoon sal V easpoon red pepper lakes
. Wile oven preheats, os garlic cloves ad 1 tablespoon oil in bowl. Cover bol ad icroave until garlic is soened, 2 to 5 minutes, stirrig oce alay through. Place garlic in center of 12ich square of aum foil. Cover wit ecod 1 2ich square of foil; fold edges togete o create packet about inces square. Roast packet as directed in OvenRoasted Chicken Thighs recipe. 2 Squeeze garlic cloves out of skins. Process gar lc, lemon uce, asley, acoves, caers, ad sat in food processor untl coarsely chopped, about 5 seconds. Add remainng cup ol and pepper es; pulse unil combined, scraping bowl as necessar.
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Farse Vegetbe Soup Richy favored vegetabe soup is no probem when you've fussed over homemade stock. For a weeknight version we needed to get creative with pantry saes. B LA LAM
interime is soup ime, and also he me of year when our crispe drawers are overowing wih cod-weather vegetables like carots, poatoes, leeks, cabbage, and turnps. That combinaton of produce would seem to have all the makngs of a satis in vegetable soup, bu my atempts oen urn ou lackluster. The problem s ie: Te best soupsvegetable or otherisesar wit a rich, llbodied broth tat seres not only as he soup's chef component but also as its avo foundaion, and I usually need the week end to make a good one. Some recpes call for adding a litle meat o te broth to beef up avor, but 's hardly a short cu. Many of the most avorl cuts are also soe of the toughest, and they take hours to turn tender Cured meats such as baco or paceta aren' he answer eiher, snce hey impart smoky or dis tinctve tases that I someimes don't ant n a vegeable soup. Rther tn sideline rusic vegeable Shortcut soup as a lazy Sundayaernoon projec, I wated to pack all the earhyrch avor and depth of a longsimered sock into a recipe ta only took about an hour's oil. That nrrowed my focus to a soup based on prefab broth.
It Takes Two urous to see how much mleage I could ge out of siply doctoing commercil broh and tossng in veeables, I thew ogeter a est bac in wic I sweated leeks, carrots, ad celer i a few pats of butter; added saple romatics like crushed garlic, a fe sprgs of esh hyme, d a bay leaf; ad or s of veeae broh. I smmered ts ase for mnutes, straied ou te sods, then strred in small chuns of poato d turnp as ell as chopped geen cabage, and le ever tn cook un the vegeables were just teder. My tasers ad no complaits abou the vegetables
Watch Lan uil e Soup Video availale FR for 4 mons a www.Cooks ll usraed.omde
technques hep uild rch coplex favor n a hurry
t1emselves Their avors worked well together, and the crily cabbage leaves oered crisptender crunch. Nor could I grpe abou e time or labor ivolved, bot ofwch were mm. But here was no denying tat te soup felt thin, in terms of both avor and body.
sciENcE
The good ews was tat we' ee ee eore. A few years back te test kchen deveoped a recpe for quick beef and vegetable sou and leed that the mos eecve way to ge big avor a hu is to bolser the peb broth h ingredien rch in avorenancg umami, te tste n Asin cusine that describes savor most "mea avor. Amog the inedens a the top of e list were soy sauce and mushrooms, so I sarted my esng there, "seasonig one pot wth a few dashes of the salt Asi coet and another h 2 arge pieces of ied porcin, he latter known for their abii o ed tese, erthy dept. The mpovemen each bach was obious but so isucien Wle both avor boostes proded subte deph, te commercialbr tase sl prevailed. I hesiay added a lite more of each gedient to the po in subsequen batches. But just as I'd fered, the soy and musooms began to revea themselves, puig the brots squarely ino the Aan and mushroom soup camps, respecvely. Clearly soy sauce and mushooms were mperfect solutions on their own, bu I had ye to the together. I worked up anoher bac of soup, this time limting myself o 2 easpoons of soy sauce and just a few of the died musroom slabs, hch I shed out of te broth just before seing. To my delght, the mpac of usng bot1 ngredets was far beer tan I ever would have imagied. The soup suddeny ook on a savor dept and compexit that had prevously been missing. Te only proble was that I coudn' relably epeat he resuts. Somemes the soup tured out a ttle less avor; other tmes it tasted a bit too musroomy.
Building Savory Favor On he Double
To rap up savory avor n our Farh ouse egetae an d Barley Soup we tried adding ua oosters ke soy sauce and porcin ushroos and ade an neresng dscover We ound tha usn ess of oth nredentsversus more of ust one or the otherhad a powerful pact on avor ere's why: Soy sauce contains hgh leves of naturay occurrng avorenhancing co pounds caed gutaaes whie ushroos are rch n lavor apiing copounds known as nucleotdes Used together the two coponds can oost savory uai-ke avors exponen taly Teir eect s even ore pronounced wen the rato o glutaates to nuceotdes s very hgh (Studes suggest that an eecve rao s 5 5. Of course we coudn't easure exactly how uc of each copound was akng t nto the pot so we tinkered wth the aount of soy and porcini we were adding unti we it it ust right COK S
I US RAED
+ GLUAA$ NUCLO$ = BG SAVORY FLAVOR Due to the snergstc eect of ther deret flavorenha ncng compounds, sall amounts of both so sauce and pon mushoms ad up to a more pfound mpact on flavor than a greater amount just one of these ingredents.
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It occurred to me that the issue was he rie mushroom pieces, hch can v a lot in sze. I wodered if i would work better o grin he ie orcii to a poder an then measure out a set ount to a o e pot, instead of rehyratng whole slices i the sou. This tured ou to e a great sluti: Aer expermenting wth amounts, I fud a eaps f e prcini power, along wt e 2 tesps f sy sace I'd aready been addng perfectly enanced savry avor. (For more iformatio o te tande eec of tese avor enhancers, see "Builing Savry Flavor On the Double, page 2) The roth as now so good, even found tha I could sustitute aer for a good bit of the store bought broth to eliminate any vestige of heavily cooked commercial avor. The aciity of a litle white wne (adde along th te rs batch o vegeables) 1rther improved he pt, as id te las-miute irductin of oen peas, a splash of es leon juice and a s cpped parsley.
Body Buide rs Flavorwise, I was in pret go shape. The bigger hurle was te sup's lack of body. Te vegetales themselves were substanal, and rog-choping (rather han n eicing) tem amped up ter heatiness, but even e sarchy potatoes n't o much to thicken the brot. I tought abot aing iry but realized that the fat would dull the avor o he broth that I'd ust orked so ard to bul. I stted ipping roug sme ris cookbooks, recallig tat a colleague had meined eaing some stellar vegeable sous wile in Irelan, an I stumbled on a ieresng idea ading oatmeal to the sop. I found ths gal trick for bulking up he roth charming i theory, but it didn't play out as I'd hoed. Tasters complained that eve though he dish took o a certain uttiness, he chewy oats turned it ino a vegeable- eav guel. Noeeless, I liked the idea of blkig up the soup wih a grain and immediately rne my attention o a more obvious coice barley. I aded 1 cup of te earl vriety o he pot j ust as poured i he liquis. The beads were partally plumpe by te ime I was ready o add in e poaoes, turni, and caage, and hey wee perfectly al dene about 0 minutes later, hen he soup as reay to e sered. This as exactly the he and substance hat soup eededwell, almos. fe f my tasters weren't keen on letting me wrap up testing eore getg aoher imenson o f avor ad ic ness into the ot. I had a olout iea tha I'd come a cross in one of the Irish cookbooks nishng the soup h avored butter. ol be a usul adtio for sure. Sill, I hel out hoe hat sirring in a ollop at he tale oul conbte not only burs of esh avor (lemo and esh yme seeme like goo, soupbrgtening m-s) u also the plus body that only dair can give iou he clig, avor menig eec of mil or cream. en I caugh
y asters sneking n ea ollo o eir ols, I e ha I' i gh. t last, a sc, lloe vegeable so hron ogeer i er n or a eve nee a sec o mea o ase hey a sasg FRH VGEB BRY P
SEES 6 TO 8
We preer a adc, oe he we sh as sauvignon lc or hs rece We loe e icess ae by the LemoThye Be r, e so ca lso e gse wh s aco, cle che ceese, or croos or or ee rece or Here Crotos, go o w Coolsae.o/e
Ya ounce dried poini mushoms 8 sprigs fresh prsley plu s tblespoons chopped 4 sprigs fresh thyme by lef 2 tlespoons uslted butter Y2 pounds leeks, white nd ight green prts siced Y2 inch hick nd wshed thoughly 2 crts, peeled nd cut into Y2-inch pieces 2 celery rib s, cut into !in ch pieces cup dry white wine 2 tespoons soy suce Slt nd pepper 6 cups wter 4 cups lowsodim chicken bth vegetble t Y2 cup perl brly grlic clove, peeled d smshe Y2 poun ds uko Gold pottoes, peeled d cut into V2inch pieces turnip, peeled nd cut into %in ch pieces Y2 cup s chop ped green cbbge cup fzen pes tespoon lemon j uice Grin porcii se ger ey resele e el, 10 o 30 seos Measre o 2 easpoons orii oer; reseve eer or othe use. Usng ice we, ie oeer sley sigs, tyme, an ay lea 2 el e n large c oven over em hea. lees, caros, ele, e, soy sace, 2 easpoos sl. Coo, sr oasoy, l lqi has evaorae cele is soee, ao 0 mnes. 3 d waer, bo, ley, porn oer, he bunle, and garlc; nrease ea o g d g o bol. Reuce heat o emlo a sier, ily covere, for 25 mnes . d poaoes, ri, caae; re o simm er and cook nil arley, oaoes, rp, a aage are eer, to 20 inues Remove ot om heat a remove he n dle. Str in peas, lemo e, an coe psley; seaso i sl a eer o ase ee, assg LemonTye te sepaely F M F R
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EQUIPMENT TESTING
Vegetable Cleavers Rectanguar Asian vegetable ceavers have a straighter edge that unlie curving Western stye nives stays in contact with food as you cut ostesi by streami ning vegetable prep. Aso whereas meat ceavers have thic heavy blades and a blunter edge for hacing through bone these b lades are thin and tape red. We foud to types Chine se-style bu ilt i e a sim meat ceaver and shorter apanesestyle which resebles a squared-o santou. We tested seven nives ($30 to $ 1 90) dic ing onions mincing parsley sicing potatoes and quartering butternut squash. Taer heavier Chinese cleavers were easier to guide through lae vegetabes as their he did most of the wor. But they were too unw iel dy for some testers o preferred the smaller lighter apanese bades. Spine width also proved imp ortant Simmer bades glided t hrough food; thic er bades tore instead of si ced . Our favorite was the MAC apanes e Series 6Ynch apanese egetable Cleaver. Weighing less tha ounces wit h a .9m ill imeter spine it was ligt sharp and nimbe. We dont con sider this tool a replacement for an all-purpose Westernstye chef's nife but its a peasure if you chop a lot of vegetables . For c omp ete testing results go to . Cooslllustrated.com/dec . Taizeth Sierra
TOP CHE MAC J ie 62I c J Ce M: U6 Pic: $9 Cet: This smal lightweight ceaver as razor sharp and easy to control. t sliced trough butternut squash more eortlessly than heier Chinese cleavers did.
WAT A DRA WUTOF Ci C Kie M: 4688-2 Pic: $797 Cs: The heaviest at neary 1 3 ounces this last-place nifes thic b ade d raed through food.
H
AKES 6 TABLESPOONS
tlespoos unslted butter soend tespoo minced fresh thyme tespoon inely grted lemon zest pus ! tespoon jce inch st 6
Come igreies n bol.
Ultimate Ragu aa Bolognese Or goa was the richest, most savory interpretation of this famos meat sace B t how many meats i tha t reqirean wo the airy have to go? BY B Y
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I made several more batches, addng a st of agu alia Bolognese, the heart nced sage to the meat-consdered an essenta meat sace natve to the north component by some sourcesand ng varos ern Italan cty for whch t s roportons of all ve meats untl I landed on an named, has always been a sm easy l l rato of the ground beef, pork, and veal and ple concept-bt wth a lot of complca 4 ounces each of pancetta and mortadella. Some of tons to hamper ts smplcty. Despte ts the other classc Bolognese recpes I'd consulted ndsputed Bolognese pedgree, there speced hat the ground meat shold be cooked are contess "authentc nterpretatons only untl t oses ts pnk color, lest te brownng on record. Whle ground b eef s the lead to toughness. But I found the textural com common startng pont, many versons promse to be far subtler than the avor benet of add ground ork and oen veal as well. a good sear. I also decded to gnore radon and Others supplement the ground meat add e meat to e pot before te sotto. tot th nely chopped salumi usually pan the nterference of mosture om the vegetables, cetta or proscutto. Some recpes call for I could get a mch better sear on the meat, pls rghtenng the ragu wth crushed toma sautng he vegges the meat s' render ed fat blt tes; others ean toward the drer, more up even rcher avor. concentrated depth of tomato paste. One Wat gave me pase was a more mnor complant: verson may call for whte wne, another nely choppng the pancetta and mortadella. It was for red-some may ca l for no wne at all . tedous work, so I called on m food processor to Cookng tmes range from 90 mnutes take over. The job was lterally done w e ush of to 3 hours. a button. In fact, the aplance worked so ecentl Bt he most controversal pont of that I also pused e soto components before all? a. Dependng on whch source satng hem n the meats' rendered fat. ou consult, mlk and/or cream s ether A itte geatin gives this sauce a siy gossy teture despite the brd. ac of ong-siered coagenrich I moved on to the next major decson: te best essental component, lendng ther knd of tomato product to use. The recpes I'd rchness and sppsedly tenderzng the lngcooked meat, or t has no place n the sauce learned to make t1e dsh n Bologna, and crea read dd't help narrow thngs down-I'd seen not ncluded. everthng om he cshed tomatoes I had been hatsoever. In other words, what consttutes " real were Those clesplus the test ktchen's lbrar of usng up untl now, to sauce, to paste. One sorce ragu Boog nese s largely a m atter of nterretaton. The only thng that a Italan cooks seem to agree Itala cookbookswere enough to get me started I consulted even suggested at tomatoes were not n s ts: The end prodct shoud be hea and rch on my own daee Bolognese. I was determned orgnally part of he sauce. That dea remnded me bt nt clong, t a velvet texture that lghtly to make my verson home cookendly and yet sat that I lked the unobtrsve texture of tomato paste clngs to the noodles, ad tomatoes should be a bt sng to even the most dscrmnang Itala palate. n de Magstrs's verson, so I added a health dollop to te pot, and then let te mxure go. Once the plaer n hs show. The true st s he meat. fond had taken on a dee rust tone, I poured a few I'd never felt stongly about the dar ssue myself, e Meat of te Matter nl receny, when I sapled a Bolognese sauce I started wt1 a test batch tat I made by Date de Mass, a Iala chef Boston cobbled based n de Magstrs's Te Moer o Al Mea Sauces t a bg folong. Hs verson was by f te mea verson, loadng p the pot w est, most complex verson I'd ever had I was so taken the components of te avor base, For the meatiest-ever ragu aa Boognese we did n' t stop at groun d beefor t at aske or a readon o e recpe. or soio coppe carrot, celer, even at por and vea To boster the sauce's cope savory favor e Two ponts stoo out. Frst, he used a whoppng sx and onon), followed by ve df paced in pancetta ortadea and chicen ivers too. Gun meats: grond beef, pork, and veal; ancetta; mort ferent meats. (I asn't sure I really e adelia (bolognalke Italan del meat); and, to my needed the chcken lvers, so I le them ot or te tme beng.) I surpse, chcken lvers. Second, de Magstrs stood sqarely the nodar camp, clamng tat when he then strred n cshed tomatoes. I let t all s1mer, covered, for a cople of hours. The result was Gun Hw t Add S Meats acceptal rch and laor, bt I Bee Video available FR for 4 mons a stll had a good bt of teakng to www.Cooksl l sraed. omde do, t bot1 te ngredent lst and Ciken Me ves te technqe.
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U D N G A M E AT Y, S AT N Y-T E XT U R E D B O O G N E S E STEP BY STEP big glugs of red wine, delazed te pan by scraping up e browned bits t a wooden spoon, and let the sauce sim mer gently fo te better pat of two hours. en the sauce was nearly done, I boiled some pasta ad tossed e nooes he rau. Flavorise, he sauce was in 3. DE LAZE the pot with 4 TIR in the p ureed chicen COOK the ground meats; . ADD the soritto and good shape: rich and complex sweat it unti soened and then wine; stir in the broth pus the ivers for subte but rich taste. add depth by sauting the and, thanks to the ne and chopped mortadea pancetta add concentrated tomato favor boom ed geatin to deveop tomato paste, baaced with uurious siy teture. and sage in the rende red fat. in t he form of tomato paste. just enough acidiy. But as my tasters noted, this rau had a textural aw: Its consistency And yet while canned brot plus gelatin nicely % pound gund veal as pebbly, dry, and not particularly saucelike. % pound gund pork solved te texture problem, e sauce still lacked a certai dep ad rounness of avor. Fortuately, I ablespoons m ined fres sage Vevet Undergun d (6-oune) an omao pase There was oe element o f de Magistris's recipe sill had one card le to play: chicken livers. They'd 2 ups dry red wine tat I had ovrlooked in my earlier attempts: Just seemed superuous to me at rst, but I wondered if Sal and pepper before the long simmering step, he laled some nely chopping em and tossing tem in at te e nd pound pappardelle or agliaelle pasa homemade brodo (or broth) into the ragu, repeating might get at e complexty I was aer. That ey Parmesan eese, graed, or serving te step ice more durig coong to misten e did-but according to my tasters, eir e ect was a bit to strong. Pu reeing em in e fod processor reduced sauce . I suspected that the brodo-and e . Combine chicken bro and beef brot m tecnique of addng the brodo in stages-had an worked much better; this way, teir rich, gamy avor bowl; sprinkle elatn over top and set aside. Puls impotat eect on the texure of Bolognese . Besides incorporated seamlessly into e sauce. Though my sauce could hardly et ay more onion, carrot, and celery in food processr uni boosting the meaty avor, e bone s used to make the broth give up lots of gelatin as they simmer, perct, I jst couldn't push away e ought at nely chopped, about 0 pulses, scraping down bowl which renders the lquid glossy and viscous. The kept sneaking into my head: at would happen as neede d; trasfer to separate bwl. Pulse panceta more e bro reduced in the Bolognese , e more if e sauce inclded a litle dairy? made one last and moradella n nowempy fod prcessr uni savor and satiny it became. But homemade bro batch, ading 1 cup of along w te bro. nely chopped, about 25 pulses, scraping don bowl was out of the queson for me. Simmering bones for But when my tasters sampled tis latest version, e as needed ; transfer to second bowl. Process chicken hours on top of making e ragu was just to much consensus was unanimous: Dair muted its meaty livers in nowempy food processor unl pureed, avor, and ey liked it better wiout. about 5 seconds; rasfer to tird bowl. ss; I'd have to make do w commercial bro . Wiout dair, I knew at some Itaian cooks out 2 Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium No surprise here: The ragus made wi store bought bro didn't measure up to e Bolognese tere would not consider my recipe auentic. But high heat until smmerng. Add beef, vea, and made w homemade bro-especially in regard no atter: The sauce was undeniably complex, rich pork; cook, breaking up pieces w spoon, unil to texture. I stated brainstorming other ways to tasting, ad lusciously sil. And besides , how could all liquid has evaprated and meat begins to sizzle, mic e velveiness contributed by he elati in any version be Bolognese tout a lite conroversy? l to 1 5 minutes. Add chopped pancetta mixture and sage; cook, sirring equently, until pancetta is rea brodand reazed at e answer was right in R G BG raslucent, 5 t 7 minutes, adjustng heat to keep ont of me: powdered gelan. It's a trick we've used MAKES ABOUT 6 CUPS fond om burning. Add chopped vegetables ad to lend suppleness to al beef mealoaf and vscosiy cook, stirring euently, unl soened, 5 to 7 in to beef stew-two qualities at I was lookig for in my ragu. I prepped multiple batches of e sauce, This recipe makes enugh sauce to cat 2 pounds utes . Add tomat paste ad cook, s g constntly, bloomng varng amounts of gelatin-om 1 tea of pasta. Leover sauce may be eigerated for up until rustcolored and agrant, about 3 minutes. to tree days or frozen for up to one on . Eiht 3 Sir in wine, scraping pa wt wooden spoon spoon all te way up to a whopping 8in a com binaion of caed beef ad ccken bro ( 1 cup teaspoons of gelan is equivalent to one ( 1ounce) to loosen fond. Simmer untl sauce has ickened, each) before proceedng e re cipe. Every batch box f elan . f you can't nd ground veal, use an about 5 minutes. Stir in bro mixture and return to simmer. Reduce heat to low and cook at bre was an improvment over e gelanee ragus, but adiiona % pound f ground bee simmer unl ickened (wooden spoon should leave e powder's eect as relavely subte unl got up up low-sodium iken b trail when raed through sauce ), about 1 / hours. into te her aounts, whch rendered e sauce up beef b . Str in pureed chicken livers, bring to boi, and ultaslk. That settled it: ight teaspoon it was. 8 easpoo ns unf lavored gelain remove om heat. Season wi salt and pepper to I had one more ought about e caed bro: onion, opped oarse taste; cover ad keep warm. Since e avor an d body of the canned stu harly large ar, peeled and opp ed oarse Brig 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. equaed at of a real brod, wondered if e reduc Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring elery rib, opped oarse tion step was really doing at much for e sauce. ccasionally, untl dente . Resere % cup cooking 4 oun es panea, opped fine One sidebyside test gave me my aswer: The batch water, en drain pasta and reurn it to pot. dd 4 ounes moradella, opped into which I'd added all e broth at once boasted 6 ounes iken livers, rimme d half of sauce and cooking water t pasta and toss to st as much meatiness and body as e one w combine. Transfer to serg bowl and sere, passing ablespoons exra-virgin olive oil te staggered addions. It also ished cooking in pound 85 p een lean gund beef cheese separately. about 90 nutes. 0 V M
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Hoiday Cookies Made Smple Basc buer cookes are the perect tempate or decoratngprovded you start wth a dough thats ta ormade or rong cung and embeshng oow these gudenes o cookes hat ook the hoday best RGJ Rong out the ough s u uay tc bunes an the typ ca outong mo fo rakes for tough cookes
WHY THIS DO UGH S FOOLPRF: �We use just enough butter for tenernes an ch fvo �Supene sugar make for tght compact crumb �Cam cheese a subt e tang an nce t oer than buer hen ch lle t makes th ough eaer to l out � "revere creamng methon hch the btter s beaten nto the four n ugr rther than reme th the sugarmkes for fatter cooe tht re eer to ecorate
P R D AY C K I E
MKES DZEN ES
DO l dough between sh eets of pahme nt paper tckng to the counter an ng the ough caues t to arm up an become tacky To prevent t n to the ron pnro t beteen to arge peces of parchment paper D O N ' T ski the chill aer ling Co t ough cut more ceany than ough thats so S e the bottom pece of parchment th the ro e ough onto bakng sheet to keep t fat an refrgerate unt rm I mnutes DO ini ize scraps ut hape cose together tartng from the outse an orkng your y to the me When makng arge n a cookes e aternate cutters as e stamp to use a much ouh as poble DO peel away dough scrapsnot the co okie
e mal sptua to trp aay the ough scra ps from aroun the cookes Wth excess oug out of the y t s eaer to ceany the cookes a n tranfer them to a bakng s heet D O N ' T re ore than one Dough crp y be pcke nto ba an rerole one tme orkng the ough any more l eveop too uch g uten an pouce tough cookes ake sure to ch the ogh agan before ro ng n agan before cuttng
The ppe sks o f ough can b e gerte for up to e ays or en for up to one m onth f fen et the dsks tha n the frgertor for hour befo us ng 2
ups ( 1 2 ous p pos ou
up (5 ou s s pi sg \ easpoo sa 1 6 abspoos usd bu u o si i pis d sod 2 easpoos vai 2 abspoos a s sod
I In bo of stan mx er tte th pe ttch ment mx flour sugar n at on o pee unt co bne about 5 secon Wth xer unn ng on o buer I pece t tme cont nue to nt xtu ooks crumb y an s ghty et bout nu te onge vnl a an ceam cheese an mx on o nt ogh just begns to form ae c um p bout econs Remove bo from mxer kne ough by hn n bo for to turn to form r cohve s Trn out oh onto conteo v n h t nto o nch sk ra ech n tc r n rererte unt ough rm but meabe bo nute . jut oven rack to me poton het oven to 35 egrees Ro out ough k to even nch thcknes c e roe ough on bkn heet n refr erate unt rm abot mnute enhe repe th econ sk 4 Workng t h rt porton of roe ough c nto des shape ung cooke cutter n pc hape on pachment paperne bak ng hee acn g them bot I nch e apart Bake unt t oen bn abo I 0 mnute ottn bakng heet hy throuh b kn tme epeat th secon porton of roe ogh Coo cookes on ack to room teeatue
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ATC la in und Cuttrs 1 1 ie t), $ 1 o tter the hape oo cooke ctter hou be mae of meta th thn sharp cuttng ege an rone to th ont ct nto yor han as you re
VLLRTH kie Sheet, 49 ur fvorte roomy th h nes o n the ho rt ses hc h makes t esy to e c ookes o
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Medium-S ized Ofset Spatula (7.75-nch), $8 Use medium sized oset sptula for trans-
ferrng cooke to an om the cooke sheet
W LTON nge d Spatula 4 nch, 4.79 Smaer veron oer b etter contro for spreang cn on cooke
FNTE'S French Roling Pin with Taered Ends, 699 h tere hap e of th moe proves p enty of f t rong u face t the center of the p n th n rroer ege for ey hn ng
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Wth the rgh technques decoratng cookes wth co ored gaes n derent paterns s an easy way to create professon a-ook ng resuts
A-PURPE E GAZE
AES CUP
To coo sr drps of food coorng nto he gae u nt t raches the desd n For a crus-favord gae subsue orange emon or m e juce for the m k. The ge can aso be favod wth Y teaspoon of your favorte etrac 2
2
Tree Ways to Gaze �ed For a smpe
�Pe To appy more
�Pt Use a sma pan
smooh coa dre a te gae n he center of he cooke and hen spread ou n an even ayer us ng the back of a spoon or a sma ose spaua
nrcate deta work s uch as dots or nes ppe the gae drecy onto he cooke a homemade parchmen pp ng bag or a sma pastry bag fted wth a sma -nch
brush o app y deren coored gaes to a cooke whout overappng or to n an
ups (8 ounes) onfeoners' sugar ablespoons lk ablespoons rea eese, soened
Whsk a ngredens ogether un sm ooh Spread gae onto compeey cooed cooke s e ga e dry competey abou 30 mnues before servng
Gussying p Gaze Cookes �D By appyn g dots of a conrastng
Ees Pace decoratons n the gae whe
� Once a gae has been a pped o
coord gaze on op of another gae and drag gng a toohpck or thn skewer carefu y through the center you ca n creae a varety of paterns and desgns
t s s so ; once he gae dres t w a ct ke gue. n addon o the usua decoratng opons consder cnnam on candes jey beans crushed peppermn candes gum drops and chocoae mo rses
a cooke sp rnk e wth coored sugar For he most even dstrbuton hod your hand abou 2 nche s above the work suace cess sugar can be brushed or geny shaken o when he gaze s dry
Make a Pament Piping Bag We nd ha he s open ng of a homemade parchme n bag works jus as we as a sma p p ng bag a drawng th n nes (and better han the usua aernave o a pasry bag a pperock bag whch s bes reseed for ess de cate pp ng) ou can aso make severa o hod derent coored gazeswth no need for washng out between uses
Co lor You r Sugar oored sugar s easy to make a home and oers many more coor opons than the grocery store does
. Pace Y cup of
. Wh ong sde of range Fod 2-nch square of
parchmen paper n haf on dagona Usng knfe cu t n haf on fod nto 2 tranges
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facng you fod botom rgh hand pont up and under gvng haf tws un t meets rnges top po n
3 Hod ng hose ponts ogether wrap e-hand pon around outsde of cone un a 3 ponts are perfecy agned Tape or sape pons togeher
. To ensure even
4 Use scssors to s np very
sma hoe n p on of cone
coor push the sugar hrugh a ne-mesh sraner. Sprad the sugar n a pe pae and e t dry competey.
�Messree
�tter t Pts
�Te Bx Ts
To smp he mu-handed job of ng a pp ng bag pace the bag uprght n a a rnkng gass before ng. The gass aso makes a good restng pace for he bag wh e you are decorang.
Ungaed cookes requre a te surface prparaon to ensure hat embeshmens w stck. We recomme nd ghy msng or brushng he sur face of the dough w th water befor appyng decoraons.
Decoratng cookes u suay means jung a coec ton of tny trmm ngs To keep he ems cos e a hand and neaty oraned we corra each one n he ndvdu a cups of a mun pan.
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Pasta with Brocco abe and Sasage To f et e th s cass c co at o , we f r st eeded to ta e rocco rae's tter edge 3 B RAQEL EZE �
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f each region in Itay can be said to have a signature dis, then orecchiette with broc coi rabe is he one most oen associated with the southeastern regio of Puglia Itaian-American versons frequenty add sau sage to create a satising stdy in contrasts: te richness of te meat taming te peppey rabe Pued together with a generous heping of garic, a dash of hot pepper akes, a goss o f sauce, p us a shower of grated Pecorino, it's one of those quic, satising, one-pot meas that are invau abe as part of a wnter weeknigt repertoire. That's not to say that the dish is infaibe A in ay mariage of dissiar ersonaities, the rea tionship takes esse to work properyand it's te broccoi rabe that reqes te most attention Most recipes agree that rabe reqes pretreatment to tae its bitter edge, but they dier in teir soution: Sauting, banchng, and boing are a common I gave each method a go, nshing the rough chopped staks in the skilet with the rendered sausage fat and aromatics before mixing tem with te meat an tossing the o components ith the ighty sauced pasta he rabe pretreatments produced remarkaby dierent resuts, ith tasters ovehelmingy preferring the tenderrm bite of te greens that had been simpy sauted Teir intensey btter avor, however, eeded some work I started by dog some rabe research to under stand why te waterbased teatments had soened the vegetabes sharp edge A it turns out, broccoi rabe is rch in avor precursors that reease ungent bitter componds caed isothocyanates when the vegetabe is ct Expos ng te rabe to boiing water inactivates tese acrd compounds I wondered, tough: Since we preferred te mer texture of the sauted rabe, was a pot of boiing water neces sary, or coud I cut t ha step and get by wit ading just a spash of waer to te skiet? I had my answer aer oe tes, as he boied an ghty pan-steamed greens tasted virtay identica Good news: I'd ot ony eiminated the wait time for the brocco water to boi but aso saved mysef the troube of wasing another pot In fact, I ddn't need to ntroduce any addiona iquid to the ski et; the water e cinging o the rabe aer washing was enough to render it cisptender
Making uesda Night Dinner Video available FR for 4 mons a w ww . Co o ks l l l u s ra e d . o m d e
A I turned to etuning te dish itsef, I con sidered one of my taster's mider criticsms that te arge ( 1 to 3inch) rabe pieces were cumping togeter in the pasta No probem: I simpy choppe te staks into sma ( %nc) peces But whie tis remeded the cumpig, it reintroduced the rabe's bitterness I shoudnt have been surpised: The more te vegetabe was broken down, te more o its bitter compounds were reeased Taking a step back, I tried baancing te rabe's biterness by weaking te oter ingredents The obvious testramping up e sausage, garic, an pepper akesid't so much roun out the avors as add e ad heat I had more uck with the sauce: Just as I had been doing, I added a lade of the pasta cookig water to the pa (the stachy lqud eds body to te sauce and heps it cng to the pasta), but his tme I poured in 1 cup of cicken brot aong with it and reduced te iqui to about 1 cup This gave te sauce more depth I ther enriched it wth a pat of butter and some grated Pecorino Deney betterbut sti not qute there Then I remembered at in y research I' see mny recipes for broccoi rabe sau ted t a mashe anchoy paste, a step tended to end sube ept I foowed sit, mshig a coupe of ets wt som e ove oil and a drop of esh emon jui ce and wiskg the mixtre ito the reduced sauce before tossng t ith the reseed asta, ge, abe, and cheese ( sat anchovies i the mix, I swapped e supersat Pecorino for mider Parmesan) at did it: Each bite was bod but baanced, ith an addicvely bitterbut not sydge Best of, aer tesng more than 40 pounds of rabe, I'd taken one of my standrd week night pasta recipes and made it even easier to prepare P BR RBE D UGE
SEES 4 O 6
Its iporant at some water sti cigs to te rabe aer washing to hep it steam durng cooking Our preference is to ma e this dsh i orecchiette pasta, but sii and campanee aso work we For our ee recipe for Pasta wit Broccoi be, aisis, ad Pie Nuts, go to Cooksustratedcom/dec
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an ovy fill es, rinsed 4 ablespoons exravirgin olive oil ablespoon lemon j uie 4 garl loves, mi ned pound oreee pasa Sal 8 oun es o alia n sausage, asings removed, O K
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u no !n piees easpoon red pepper flakes pound bol rabe, rmmed and u ino !n piees up lowsodium i ken b ablespoons unsaled buer oun e Parmesan eese , graed ( up) , plus exra for serving
. Usi ng fork, smea r ancovies on cutn g bor ito nform aste (you shoud ave about 1 tea spoon) Combne achoy paste, 1 tabespoon oi, emo uice, a 1 teaspoon garic n bow; set as ide 2 Brng 4 qarts water to boi in age ot Add pasta a 1 tabespoon st ad cook, srng oen, ti a dente Resee 1 cup cooking water, en rain pasta and rern it to po t 3 Wie pasta cooks, heat 1 tabespoon oi in 12inch onstck skiet over mediumigh heat, unti simmerng Add sausage and cook, sg oen, uni browed and cooked troug, 2 to 4 minutes Using sotted spoon, ransfer sausage to aper towelied plate Leave reere fat skilet . skie to medm hea, a remanig 2 ablespoons oi, remaing gic, nd pepper aes; cook, strring oen, unti agrant, 1 to 2 mintes Increase eat to hg ad add al of brocco rabe; cook, stirig oen, ui just ed, abou 1 mn te Ad remiing broccoi rabe a 2 teaspoon sat; cook, stirring oen, util crisptender, 2 to 3 miutes ransfer brocco rabe to coaner set in bow Do not wash ske Brig broth and cup pasa water to boi i nowempty sket over g ea Reduce ea to medium and smmer unti reduced o about 1 cup, 4 to 6 miutes Remove skiet om heat ad whisk in resered anchoy mixture and butter Ad sauce, reseed broccoi rabe, sausage, ad 1/2 cup Parmesan to asta ad toss to combine Ad remaing cook g waer as eee to aus consise ee mediatey, pssing remaing Pmesa separately TECHNIQUE
PREPPIG BROCCOLI RABE To trm brocco rabe cut o the tough bottom V n ch of the stas.
aris-Bres We new this showstopper French dessert was both eegant and deicious Now that we've perfected its various components, we can say it's reiabe as we B A R E J A A
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ars-Brest s a showstopper des sert wth a rather curous hstory. To make t, a arge rng of pte ,. a chouxthe same pastr used to make cars and cream puss ed wth hazenut prane pastry cream and then sprnked wth chopped amonds and powdered sugar. ts qurky name dates back to 1910, when an enterprs ng baker whose shop was ocated aong the route of the ParsBrest-Pars bcyce racea ,200kometer journey from Pars to the cty of Brest, n Brttany, and back agannvented the dessert to honor the cycsts. Hs creaton was n the shape of a bcyce tre, compete wth a pastry "nner tube a recent nventon at the tme . Despte the rony of assocat ng a caoreaden, decadent confecto wth grueng feats of athetcsm, Pars Brest cake was an nstant ht n France. In ths cout, the dessert has acheved a certan cut stas as a Chrstmas Eve specat. t maes sense, ecause f you're ookng for a hoday dessert, t's hard to beat tender pastr ed wth prne avored cream. What's more, athough Lookg for the lt ate Chrstas ve dessert? Look o frther. t ooks as though t woud take a profes sona past chef to create t, the dessert s acy Don Pte assembed from reatvey easy-toprepare eement s, Snce t was both the ackbone of and the conter each of whch can be made hours or days advance. for the PrsBrest, the pastry dough was where I That sd, I ew that comg up th a fooproof started my testng. Creatng pte a choux s a par recpe was gong to requre a bt of athecsm of my tcury rewrdng process because ts so easy and own. The recpes I rounded up n my research te resuts re so dramatc. To make t, mk, water, om such cunar umnres as Jua Chd, Aan grauated sugar, an butter are brought to a sm Ducasse, nd Perre Hermyeded "whees of a mer, -purpose our s strred n to make a paste, shapes ad szes, some consderaby more wobby and hen t s cooked brey before eggs are y than others. th severa, he pas rng was crusty whpped nto the hot mxture. he dough s pped and toug; other rngs were so tender that they out through a pastr ag nd then baked. Leavened eter coapsed upon coong or were smpy unae by steam one, the dough pus up, creatng a crsp, hoow she surrounng a tender, eterea g to contan the g. Mny recpes dspensed wth the nnerbe past rng, ut t seemed ecessary of so dough . I was awre om my tesng tat for pastr ths ar ge, t woud te some work to acheve to gve the dessert both structure and stature. he prae cream presented chaenges as e: I ddn't ust he rght bace beeen a toocsp she ad want t to be overy rch, yet I needed t to be sturdy one so tender that t woud sump oce removed om the oven. enough to stay put the pasr hen t cme me to Sce a choux past recpes use the same sx sce. The prane pastea puree of toasted hazenuts ngreentsmk, water, butter, sugr, eggs, and ad caramezed sugarwas straghorard enough, but I new I'd need to make sure that even he most st! worked up a spreadsheet to compare te carmephoc cook woud be abe to prepre t reatve ratos of each component n te vrous recpes I'd tested. he derences were cer. he condenty. i B R
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recpes that ede d the crspest, most rgd pastes ced for the addton of extra egg whtes nd ony sma mounts of Egg whtes gve the past strucre, whe ad egg yoks both cotan tenderzng fat nd protens. er testng severa raos of my own, I evenay ded on a dough made wth cup of whoe eggs (even stdard arge eggs sometes var n sze, nd exact proportons were essenta, so I coun't just ca for three arge eggs) and hf that amount of both water and hes e measuremens yeded the baance of tenderness and strength that I was ookng for. o add crunch to the tender past, I spred t t chopped hazenuts before bakng t. Wt a reabe dough n hand, I begn to sort out the best way to bake my re and ner be. Choux pastr s tcay bked n three stages. Startng the doug n a hghtemperature oven qucy gener ates stem that nates the pastr. The oven temperature s then owered and the pastr s cooked unt the exteror s we browned nd y set. Fnay, t s removed om the oven, sced open n spots to hep reease mosture trapped n ts nteror, and then returned to a urnedobut stwarm oven wth ts door propped openan essenta step that prevents the pastry om coapsng by drng t out. f I'd been makg a snge tay of sm, sme sze crs or cream pus, ths method woud have worked e. But when bakng two sets of rngs, one thck ad oe narrow, t was unworkabe: The arger te never competey set, whe the narrow
A Race Tat Takes te Cake he crealled pastry kow as ParsBrest was cated to hoor the ParsBrestPars bcyce racea ,200kloeter race ro ars to rest, rtty, ad back aga Over the years, clary ares Jl a Chd to Aa Dcasse to Perre Her have pad ho age to the evet ( rst orazed 8 ) wth ther ow versos of ths rch yet etherea dess ert.
Creating Cris Gingesnas Whats the secret to gigers aps that combie bo d sp ce avor ad rea s p? To begi wit , t eres geig rid o a that moistre. B
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weetened dough spiced with ginger has been around since medieval times, but the term "gingersnap wasn't coined nti the 19 th centur. To my mind, this nomenclature should have settled once and for all the quest ion o f whethe r a ginger cookie should e crisp or chew 've never doubted that "snap speaks to a cooie that breaks cleanly in half and crnches with every bite "Snap also sms p assertive ginger avor and heat But most gingersnap recipes that I've tried don't live p to the name Once you get past their britte edges, the cookies turn s and chew In fact, the ony giger snaps 've had that acually snap come om a box But these cookies aways fall short on avor, acking sciently bold notes of ginger and spice I wated eshly baked ngersnaps with a crackly top and a tetre to riv the store-bought kind, but with latral giger avor and lngeing heat
Sa Judgmet
hese cookes keep ther cru ch for up to two weeks whe
I started ith the best of all of he awed stored an artght cotainer recpes I'd tredone that at least ielded a cooie that boasted crisp edges Like most giger I ed to te sgar st I knew that brow sugar snap rcipes, t called for creaming btter and brown was a double-edged sword. It contributes rich, molas sgr (preerred to wite suga for its caramel-like sesy avorbut also creates cheess in cooies ndertone) i a stand mixer and the whipping in This is because brown sugar is even more hygoscoic eggs, molasses, and vanilla and incorporating the than granulated sgar, atracg moisue durig bag Swtchig to granulated sugar did poduce a d igrediets (our, bakig soda, salt, and ground ginger) You then chill the dough uni rm, form it crspier, less chey cooe, bt the loss of avor was't ito bls, and bake worth it My only choce was to cut back on the sweet I ondered if transforing this cookie om ener I found that slashing the bro sugar alost in mainly chew to cunchy could be as straighorward hafom 2 to l 4 cupsresulted cookies no ce s ctng down on moisture opted not to tiker ably ier d cruncher abeit not yet wohy of their t the molasses sice the cookies wouldn't be eponyos "snap ) Rducg the sugar also aowed tre gersnaps without its peasanty bitter, smo te ger avor to move to te ore edge d wt just a sige egg and a yolk in the O to he btter, which is about 16 ercent recipe, the idea of adjusting the egg amount ddn't water Usig less butter (I went om 12 tablespoons seem promising either That le me wit just to to lO tablespoons) dehydrated the cookies a bit, potenal moisure sources to work with: the bron but new problems emerged thot ample fat, the sgar and the btter dough resed to spread as it baked leaner, More important, tese cookies did't taste as good It occurred to me that if browned the buter, I'd See How to ae Snappy eimiate some o its water while keepig its at Video available FR for 4 mons a (nd creatng rcer, nutt avor) O course, is w ww C o o s l l u s r a e d . om d e meat hat I coul no longer cream he butter wh te sugar, so I tried whising the browned K
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butter ih the sugar I was pleased to nd hat his lowermosture dough yielded considerably rmer cookes, ad te subtle utt taste of he browed utter turned out to be an ideal backdrop for he nger Eang creg seemed to have helped matters, too: Since I was o longer whipping nto he doug, the cooie cumb was more densely acked and rmly textured ut a was not perfect: The ceter of the cookie was sl a ltle too moist and dn't have the crackly top I wanted Previous experiments in he test kitchen gave me an idea for creating craces: icrease the leavening In te net series of tests, I gradualy uppe the bakig soda The ntenional overdose caused the cookies to rise draacay but then colapse, leavg attacve ssures o her surces er expeiment g wh varing amouts of bakng soda, I setled on a ll 2 teasoos, which created nice deep cracks wihout impating ay soapy avor (See "Loading p on Leavenng for more inormation) I ound that the overdose had sever oher posive eects: better brownig (ad hereore a eve icher taste) and cookies hat were crisper, since the cracks i he dough were allowing more moisure to escape Though tese cookies were geg close, they still dn't have quite he clen, deive snap of he box kind, so I moved o to cosider he oher maor vriable: the ove By reducig he tempera ture om 35 to 3 0 degrees, I nearly doubled the overall bking tie, which aowed the gingersnaps to gradually (and y) d out without burning I also trasferred the cookies to a wie rack imedi ately aer baing, which allowed to crclate and stea to escae om eir udeides At last, my cookies trned out ad cracky cisp to the core
SCENCE
Loadin g U p on Leavening Usig a full teaspoos of bakig soda i our cookie dough nstead of the mo ypical Y to I teaspoon not oly helped cate desirable ssus in the al cooke but also helped t dry out Bakng soda s a alkali e substace that weakens the glue (the e work of pteis that gives most bake goods their stctu) i a dough or bae Weaker glute m eans a mo pous stuctu m which ar bu bbles and mostu ca bu It also mea s that the dough will collapse aer i nital rise n the ove leading to cracks that also allow mo mostur to escape
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UTTING THE SNA IN GINGERSNAPS
3 Place 1 sheet on upper rack and bake for 15 mnutes . Te allak of ggesap cooke texteg cchae dow to oe key facto dryg ot te dogh Aer 1 5 m inutes, transfer par tally baked top sheet to lower rack, rotatng 180 degrees, and place second sheet of dough balls on upper rack. Connue to bake unt cook es on loer tray just begn to darken arond edges, 10 to 12 mtes longer. Rmove lower ROWN THE TTER CT ACK ON SAR TRN DOWN THE STAER THE AKIN sheet of cookes and sh OEN Bakg te cookes tte s 6 percet wate. The ow sga i o ecpe akg each tray o the top ack upper sheet to lower rac and owig it efore wsk g it ods o to wate eve ae a low (300degree) ove gves efore ovig t to te coo le contine to bake until cooes it te sgar es ad lor the dog aple te to gad otto ack ceates sses akg. O solto? Use jst begin to daken arond edges, eli ates oste. I ! cps allyt tooghlydy ot tat allow oste to escape 15 to 17 minutes. Slde baed cookes, sl on parchment, to wre rack ad cool completely GGERAP ack Dow before seing. Cool bakng sheets slghty nd repeat MAKES 8 / NCH COOKES There was jst one gtch. When I baed two sheets at step 3 th remanng dough balls. once, ony the cookes on te upper rack developed a unformly cracked top, he those on the oer rack Fo r the best results, se esh spces. Fo r ecency, T M : Doug ca be regerated for form e second batch ofcookes e te st batch p to days or ozen for p to 1 mont. et doug sported smoother facades (pus less crispness) , despte he amped-p leavenng. tating te sheets hay bakes. And no , the teaspoons of baking soda s not stand at room temperate for 30 mnutes before shap tough bang so that each one got me on te top a mstake; t's essenta to gettng the right texture. g. Let ozen dough ha ovegh before proceed rack dd't prove the stuaton, suggestng tat ng wth recpe. Cooled cookes can be stored at room 2 V u ps ( 1 2 V ounes) all-purpose four te cracks ere produced ght at the begnng of emperatre for p to eeks n aght contaner. 2 easpoons bain g soda baing, hen the heat radiating don from te top V easpoon sal of te oven caused the cooes to rse and fall rapdly. TASTIN Molasses 2 ablespoons unsaled buer The sheet on te loer rack was partially shelded 2 ablespoons gund ginger om te oven's heat by te sheet above, casng ts olasses is ade y ol g the jce of sgacae or sgar easpoon gund inna mon cooes to expand more gradaly, whch resuted n eets ad te extractg sgar cystals tog cetr ! easpoon gun d oves soother tops. I could just bae the sheets one at a fge. oe stages of o li g (ad extracto) ay follow to ! easpoon pepper e on the top rackbut tat ould take forever, prod ce a ceas gly ites e flavo A st ol typcally Pin ayenne ven that my recpe as geared towad an exra-large coespods to ild o "arados olasses; a secod ! up s paed (8% ounes) dar bwn sugar batch (I wanted to have plen o f cooes on had for oil podces a style soeties called "fl l ; ad a thi d ! up molasses the holdays). The soltion proved as simple as stag ceates ackstap te ost assetve ad ite olas 2 ablespo ons fnely graed fres ginger gerng the bakng: I popped one tray onto the upper ses We led o t lac kstap fo ts ovepoweg flavo large egg plus large yol rack for 1 5 mutes un ssu res formed, moed t to (ased o pevios tastgs) ad sapled ve atoal V up V ounes) granul aed sugar te lower rack to nsh baking, d then placed te ads ote styles pa ad i o Ggersaps ecpe. second sheet of cookes on te upper rack. (We tasted oy s lfed vesos.) sk our, bakng soda, and sal together in The st tig e dscoved is tat descptve aes o bol. Heat butter n 10nch sklet oer medum laelsicldg "ld "orgial "fll ad "ost Te Sce Is Rght t the texture an d appearance of my gngersnaps heat nil melted. Loer heat to medmo and ae ot a elale dcato of ow the rght where I wanted them, all that remaned as contue to cook, swrlng pan freqenty, untl olasses tastes A ad laeled " ild to punch up ther rather mld avor. Doublg the foamng subsdes and butter s just begnnng to ated aog te stgest fo flavor aount of ded ginger as an obvous statng bron, to 4 mnutes. Transfer butter to large Bt we also fod tat we t coes pont, as as ncooratng eshly grated gnger. bol and hsk n grond gnger, cnnamon, cloves, to akig t does't ate wat ol asses yo y (as log as it's ot Wa spces seemed appropate here, an d I fooed pepper, and cayene. Coo sghtly, abot mnutes. the lead of many other recpes by ncorporating cn Add bron sugar, molasses, and fresh ginger to lackstap). We s apled staght naon and cloves. But I anted yet another layer of butter mixture an d hsk to combne. Add egg and soe ads tasted "t o "lke coee gods t akg heat. I perused the spce cabnet once more, landng yolk and hsk to combne. Add our mxture and eowed ot tei deeces; all on cayenne and black pepper. The cobnation lent str unt jst combned. Cover dogh tghty t te cooes a judcos but lngerng heat. Fnally, to plastc rap and reigerate untl rm, about hor. ve ads wee eqa lly acceptale 2 Adjust oven racks to upper-midde and loer i cookes. Tasted pla Be Rait ake the spces really sng, I bloomed them n te mdle postons and heat oen to 300 degrees. Lne All Natal Uslpred browned butter, the hot fat helpng to ly release bag sheets wt parchment paper. Place gran olasses i ld lavor was o A BR BALA the spces' pungent aomatc compounds. Be Rabbt All Natual a nshing toch, I rolled the balls of dough lated sgar n shallo bakg dsh or pe plate. Dvde favoite fo ts "caaelized Unsulphued Molasses granulated sgar before bakg o provde a dough nto heapng teaspoon porons; rol dogh "spcy taste or coplete Mld Flavo has a ch nto -nch bls. orkg n batches of O , roll bals tastg eslts go to sweet exteor fol to the spcy nterors. At last, I'd caamelzed taste that found he gngrnap a d n rang nappy sug oa. Evey spae dough bals on prepared Cooksll statedco dec I I . stuck the ght note bakng sheets, 0 dough bals per sheet. Haah Cowey between btte and sweet textured, snappy-avored, and a snap to make. V M B R
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Hday ranerr tne or a standout sauce, we needed to do more than ust fne-tune the sweet-tart cassc KET DRESSER
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here will always be a place at my Thanksgivng table for sauce ade wth just cranberries, water, and granulated sugar accorng to te nstructons on the back of the cranberry bag. Wth its sweet tar avor and soft elled texture, ths noss condmen s a e wa y to cut the rchness of the roast trkey, mashe potatoes, ad gravy. But when I want a sauce wth more dmeson and sharpness-wheher as an accompanent for turke or for ore robustly lavored, fatter cuts of pork, lab, r gaeI nd the optons for a ressedup sace disappointng. Usually these saces incorporae just one more avor note, and typcally it's sweet . N t what I had in mind. A I cast aout for deas, I reaed that I was look ng for somethng it the coplext of an Indan chuey, wch, n addion to feaurg slowcooked uits, boasts vinegar, aromatcs, and spces tha gve he jammy relsh kck ad savor. I began by ng of an aromatic element that would add tat subte savor qual to the sauce. Garlc and red onion, both common addtions n Indan cheys, seemed too potent. I settled n mlder shallot nstead. For an assetve ut to pr th cranberries, I choppe up tart ranny Smth apples. Fresh gnger was the perfect choce for ncrporatng spcness. I mxe a of these ngredents in a pot with he cranber res, sugar, ad a ltte salt. Because I ddnt want an overl potent xture, it seemed uwse to itro uce the vnegar tpcally added to chutney to the to tart ts. I pted nsead for water as the ony lqd, smmering the mxure ntl the cranberres and apples had cmpletely broken own, about 20 mntes. The resultng chutney wasnt terrble, but overl, t lacked coplexit. Also, the shallot and gnger were a lttl e too prominent. I wanted to keep my recpe relatvely short, so developng depth va a bunch of addtonal ngred ents was out. Bt what aot my decisin to omt vnegar? Indian cooks must have a good reason for ts nclson n chutney. Hoping that t cder inegar wold enlven the cranerrapple mxture, I expeimented wit usg it to replace some o f the ater, ly settg on swappng 1 cup ofwater for 4 cup of cder vinegar. To my surprse, rather than ang te sauce overly sour, the cder negr let
Creatng Punch, Savor, and Zng Vido availabl FR or 4 mons a www.Cooks l sradcom/dc I I
both bghtness and ept, helpg to pu te avors back to bance. Aer cosulng our sc ence eitr, I learned that te acetc acd vnegar reacs wih pectn n the cranberres durg cookng, reducg the viegars potency we preserg ts lvely taste For even more dept, I traded te graulated sgar for olasses y brown sugar. Finaly, I sened te shallot and gnger n ol along wit soe sat before addig te other ngredients, whch drew out ore f ter avor nuances whle sultaneously tonng down their harsh edges. Now I close to he chun sauce that I had imagied, ut I had advertenty created a proble. hile tasters apprecated he concentrated avors o the sace, ny issed e esh pop of he backf thebag verson, whch coks for just 0 nutes. solved he problem by sierg half ofthe cranber res th the oter ngredents for the 20 iutes and reserig the other half untl the last ve inutes of cokng This created a jalke ase doted with so but stil ntact erres at retaned their zig. The textral cntrast gave e the dea for one last teak: I ixed 1 cup of mnced crstalzed gnger into te chutney along with the cranberres at the end f cking, adding a slght, pleasng chewness. I used ts cncept to create four mre versons. In additio to sweettart avors, they all had a t of punch, a bt of slowcooked savor, a bt f fresh zngand a whole l ot of coplety. R B R RY U Y P P
to high ad rng to sier, srrig to dsslve sugar. Add 1 cups cranberres nd apples ; retrn to sier. duce heat to mediulow ser, strrng ccasonaly, utl canberries have aost completely broken down an mixue as thickened, about 5 mintes. 3 Ad remaing cup s crnerries and crstallized ginger; contne t sier strig occasonally, until just eginnig t urst, 5 to 7 nutes. Trasfer to serg bwl ad col for at least hur efore sering. (Sauce can e reiger ated for p to 3 days.) PY RRRY UY
Increase l to 2 teaspoons and sustte stemed and seeded red bell pepper cut into %nch peces and 2 seeded and nced jalapeos fr esh iger n step l . Increase cookng e step to 5 n utes. Increase water to % cp and ot apples and crstallzed ginger. RBRRY UY D GD R
Increase ol to 2 teaspoons and subsitute cored fennel bulb ct nto 1/4 nc pieces ad 1 teaspoon fennel seed for esh giger in step . Increase cook ng tie n sep to 5 mnutes. Increase water to cp, ot apples , ad sbstitute 3 cp golden rasins for crstalzed gin ger.
D RYZD GGR
MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS
R B R R Y R G U Y
f usg ozen cranbees , thaw the before coong.
Stating with 2 oranges, remove for 2inchide srps zest om orange, then peel bot oranges a reove segments. Set asde zest and segments. Increase esh gnger t 4 teaspoons and add tea spon yeow musard seeds to oil together t esh gnger step l Increase water o % cup and add orange zest and segments t po wit cranberries n sep Ot appes and cstallized gnger.
aspoon vgabl oil sallo, mincd 2 aspoons finly grad frs gingr V aspoon sal / cup war \ cup cidr vingar cup pacd bwn sugar 1 2 ouncs (3 cups) frs or zn cranbrris 2 Granny Smi appls, pld, cord, and c ino \ -inc pics Vl cup mincd crysallid gingr
eat ol n medum saucepan ver edium eat nt just shmering. Add shallot, esh nger, and salt; cook, strrng occasonally, unt shalot has soened, to 2 minutes. 2 Add water, vinegar, and sugar. ncrease heat OOK
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Reove two 2ichwide srps zest o lemon then peel and reove segents. Set asde zest and segments. Subst tute 2 teaspoons chopped esh rosema for esh gnger. Subsitute peeled Bos pears cut nto 1/4ch peces fr apples ad oi crstallzed gnger. Add leon zest and segents to pot wth cranerres n step 2.
The role wit Knife ets Nine pieces of matching cuter, pus a bock for eas storage It coud be a bargainor a rip-off. - B Y L S A M c M A U S
W
e can't help but be skeptical about knife block sets. As with cook ware sets, their biggest selling point has always been the num ber of pieces the manufacturer can cram into the package, not the uselne ss or quali of the blade s themselves. Most colections are loaded not oly ith superuous pieces but also with ones that are impractical or even useless. In the test kitchen, e've always maintained that there are just thre truly essential knives: a ches knife, a parig knife, and a serrated bread knife. Beyond that, a boning knife, a slicing knife ( for caring meat ), and a go od pair ofkitchen shears can make certain tasks easie r. But aytig other than tese si x pieces is ller. At the same time, we know that there are occa sions (pcularly during gi-giving season o r when you're outng a kitchen om scratch) when an attacve, al-in-one set of cutleromplete th a block hat keeps eveg neatly housed and within easy reachould be a nice convenience. Hoping to nd that we'd been a bit hast in our cycism, e went shopping and retred to the test kitchen ith eight block sets that contained anywhere om six to ne pieces and spanned a broad price spectrum: $97 al the way up to nearly $700. We old evaluate these sets against one another as we against an a a carte selecon of our test kitchen favorites. Our criteria would be as follows: how comfortable the pieces were to use and how well each performed; how many pieces in te collection ere essetial and how many extraneous; and of the extraneous stock, how much of it was actually usel. If the right package was out there, we'd glaly give t ur stamp of approva.
The Big hree
he good news was that al but one o f the ches ives i te sets boasted our preferred leng of 8 inches, and ve out of the eight scored well. hey were eas to handle and slipped eortlessly through food as we worked. he poorly perform ing specimes had a common aw: heir blades were a little thcker tan was idea, and they tended to cushrather tha cleanly sliceoions and to buise pasley as we minced. he qualit of the paring knives, however, was less impres sive. Half ofte blades were too wide or ungainy, which made te meticulous task of apple paring feel dicey. hen we'd singled out the wo we liked best, they ed out to be none oher tha our reigng favorite ad our est Buy, respecvely. wo sima blades also t our cteria, with slim, pointed, slighty exible blades t hat measured iches or less, proviing added precisio ad contol . Meawhle, blade length turned out to be the sigle most importatand detmentafactor for the serrated bread kives. were too short (8 or 9 inches) to saw a 10inch-ide bread loaf into even slices. We wondered if maufacturers were includ ing models shoter than the standad 1 0inch size because a longer blade would sck out of the woode block's slots, but we were wrong: en we slid our favorite 10inch model !om Wsthof ito the hole vacated by the 8 inch version icluded in the brand's set, it t completely. We guedad more than one kife company executive admttedthat there was another reaso for including shorter models: price. Smaer knives cost less to roduce. Block sets ae not compied stricty accorng to thei uselness to con sumers, tey told us, but to meet pice ceings set by retailes, who wat te maximum number of"pieces in a block at an atactve pice. (And by the way, the block itself always couns as one of the "piec es. )
The only way to assess the ecacy of a se t was to put each piece through the p aces. First, we singled ut the core blades om each setthe ches, bread, ad paring knivesad went about our everday tasks. e iced onions, minced herbs, and brke do a whole chicken with each of the ches ives . e sliced lage, cus loaves and then diced so onder bread with the serrated bread knves (the latter test would reveal the ives' abiit to make ce cus wtout squishing the food). We peeled, quartered, ad cored apples with te paing ives. Later, we'd exaine he other pieces to see if the oered any adtional vaue to the set or if they simply took up space .
hen came te other half of the equation: sotig troug the extra pieces, the most common of whh was a "ut e. "Ult s a seemingly generic indust term for any blade bigger tan a paring knife and smaller tan a ches knfe (usually measurng betee 2 and 62 inches). We also found "sandwch, "tomato, and "citrus knves and oter single-task blades, all about the same size as the utility models. Some were serrated and some weren't, but al were too short to cut across lager pieces of ut without sawing. What's more, those with sawtooted edges pped delicate tomato skin
he st (and Worst) of th Rest
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Trimmed Size, Trmmed Cost Kfe afactrers rotely shrik dow kves block sets to l ower prodctio costs Wsthof icldes a 8 ch versio of or favorit e I 0ich bread kfe its set; th e shorter lade was oveheled whe ctt a bg, crsty loaf of bread
FULL-LENGTH BREAD KNFE
SHORTCHANGED BREAD KFE
ad tore lemon skin so that agrant oil spritzed out in the process. Clearly, these models were expend able, but just to conrm that the realy were useless, we repeated the tomato and lemon-slcing tests it each set's corresponding ches knife. No suses In eve case, the allpupose ches knfe outper formed te special tool. In fact, we found ve few extra knves in ay of the sets that weren't rendered redundat by one of
See e Knives in Action Video available FR E for months a w ww . C oo k s u s a e . c o m/ ec
ese core knves. Though the pontedtpped car ng knves ncluded n two of the sets were perfectly nctonal neter one dd a beter job cuttg up roast beef or roast chcken than the ches knfe already n hese sets. It was e same stor w te - to 7nch santoku or nar blades that cae n any of e sets. These Asannspred knves were nce to have around for vegetable prepspecally te Global nakr whch eortessly cleaved rough onons leons and tomaoesbut dd ey do ang the ches knfe coldn't? Not really. Most of e sets ncluded hnng or socalled sharpenn steels. Though tese eal rods don't actually sharpen at all-ey spl realgn a bent cutng edge to make t straght agan and ore eectve at cuttgey are usel tuneup devces. The ony proble? W e ecepton of professnal chefs most people don't now how to properl use e rds. (We ddn't deduct ponts for ncludng steels however. ) The ony eamples of tuy usel etras n e sets were slcng knves ktchen shears and bnng ves. In all but one set e bonng knves made removng small bones om raw eat and peelng away stps of tough siverskn easy. But most ofte
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
collectns ncluded awed odels f slcng knves and shears. The Vctornox set came w a slighty tooshrt ( nch) verson of ur favorte ( 2nc h) roundtpped slcng blade tat peels o tnner re rm slces tan a ulker ches badeand all e oter odels were way too short at 9 nches or less. ne odel was als dsadvantageusly sharp tpped. (Ponted tps wedge nto e meat frcng you to saw back and forth to nsh te task.) Four of e eght sets came wt shears bt only one pair (our favorte o Shun) sported e lng super sharp blades and comfortable handles at made cuttng e backbne om a chcken feel ertless.
"Utility Knie: Useul or Useless? ay kfe sets coe wth assorted "tity kives a catchall ter for ay blade too big to be a parg kfe ad too sall to be a che's knife. Despite their ae these kves are ostly seless ller iclded oly to blk ot a set.
PARING Perfect for jobs requrng precson an cont
Not a Great Deal In e end our testng conred our suspcon that yu are uch better o shoppng for knves a la carte; that way you get nly what ou really need . If yu must have a set tse b Wsthf ($379.99) and Vctorino ( $ 8 9 . 9 5 ) contaned wellconstructed knves and ore of the types that we found most usel . B ecause tey also con tan sme knves that we ddn't nd to be e b est leng or stle or at we found nonessental we recommend em wth reservatons.
UTILITY Not goo for muc
C H F'S Muttasker ta t can mnce sce an co
Test Kitchen a a Carte Knie Set
his "allstar set of test ktche favorites (all bestclass wiers past tests) fts neatly to or favorite versal kfe block by Bod desged to hold any varety of blades secrely ts est of plastc sticks. Best of all at $334.5 ths deal collecto costs less tha ay prepackaged ke block sets. (or a eve less expesve optio a sevepiece collecto tat icldes Best Bys ca be had or jst $ 1 89.95. o see a lst of those expesve kives go to w.Cooksl strated.co dec I .)
3 ,-INCH PARING KN FE
U STOF C odel 40 $39.95 A essetal ke for handheld tasks sch as peelig ad trg frt ad vegetables he short (less tha 4 iches for better aglty) straight blade; sli shape; ad pointed tip oer precsio ad the hadle is cofortable
f 8ICH CHEF'S KNIFE
1 2NCH SLICN KNIE
CTOR IN OX Fx Ege Sg/ Cvg Kfe odel 4745 $49.95 his oderately heavy kif e has eo gh he ad rigid ty to ake straght cts wth jst eogh flexibi lity to he thi tapered razorsharp bl ade is oer log ad w de allowig t to draw throgh a lare roast i oe stroke.
CTORINOX Fx odel 40520 $29.95 Ths basc expesve blade has cosstetly bested ay copettors over the yearsve those costg p to eight ties as ch. Its sharp sli blade crves getly at the tp for good rockg oto d rig chop pg ad ts coortable oslip hadle ad excellet overall balace ake t a kitche workhorse.
6INCH BONING KNIFE
0INCH BREAD KNI E
0 KITCHE N SH EAS
U STHOF C Be Kfe M od el 4 5 I $09.5 hs wellbalanced kife wt deeply tapered serratos hadles with exceptoal ease ad cotrol eve for le es. Its I 0ch blade saws throgh the best crstiest loaves jst as easly as t delicately sl ces so breads tall sadwches ad ecrb ed cakes.
.
CTO R NOX Fx 6 Sg Bg Kfe Fexe odel 405 1 3 $1 9.95
KNIF E BLOCK BODM B ve Ke B odel I 089 $44.95 Ulke traditioal kife blocks with slots for specic blades versal odels ae "slotless raes. hs copact box s flled w ith a est of spaghetilike plastc rods tat accoodate ay arseal of ctlery. he rds are attached at te base ad c oe ot for easy cleag i the dishwasher. TOAL COST:
$334.65
Wth a oslp grp ad a arrow straght blade this kfe reoves te sallest boe s (or bits o f slverski) wit precs o ad coplete cofort. rectly balaced wth eogh flexib lity to aever ard tght joits.
SN C Ke Se odel 20 $35 haks to 9ch razorsharp blades (oe with e croserraios the other wth deep grooves) t hese shears ake breakig dow a ch cke feel eortless. he large rbbery hadles are co ad the blades are syetrcal for both rght ad lehaded se. Blades coe apart for easy cleap .
une Up Your Knife Skis C ot or nw onn ooing soo and ta a FR I F TUTORAL at .TstitnSoo.om
K s
L L U R A
6
GOO *** I ** OO *
TESTING KIFE BLOCK TS
We tested eight knife bl ock sets assessing their perormance ease of use and usefulnes s against one another as well as against our a carte colectio n of test kitche favorite knives Sets appear below in order of prfeence All were purchased onlie and sources for recommended kives are on page 3
PERFORMANCE
HGHY RECOEDED
We copard each coponent (or the clos est equivalents) with its counterpars in other sets on a variety of tasks con sistent with its intended purpose We diced onions inced parsley and c ut up whole chic kens with chefs knives; sliced lare crsy loaves and cubed a stac of Wonde r brad slices with bread knives; and peeled qu artered and cored apples with paring knives When they were incuded we used kitchen shear to cut the backbone fro a whole chicken; boned a whole chicken and reoved silerskin fro short ribs with b oning knives sliced lemons and toatoes with utiliy citrus or tomato knives; and caed and s liced roast chicken and roast beef wth caing and sl icing knives
TET KTCEN C K ( 7 )
EAE OF E Block design and knife shape size weight and bala nce were assessed on how coforable th ey felt and how easy they were to use
EFLNE Ratings of good fair or po or were assigned based on how useful we found each included ite If another knife could be used in stead and/or peormed the task beer points were deducted Sets that incuded severa ones sential blades were down graded
EAK LNK We tallied te nuber of poorquality versions of essential pieces as well as redundant or unnecessary pieces
CRIERA
Total rce $3365
E S E R S C O M M E N S
erformance * * * Ease of Use *** Usefulness ***
See page 26
erformance Ease of Use Usefuness Weak Lnks
* * V ** ** o 8
We were eager to try this set featuring our favorite paring kife ad a sho rer versio of our favorite 0inch bread kife The results were mixed The parig ad boing blades fared admi rably but the 8-ich bread kife could't slice through a large loaf the shears were wimpy ad the caig kife extraneous
erformance Ease of Use Usefulness Weak Lnks
**V ** ** o
While the kives in this set performed well an d very few were fille r there was so mething that seemed cheap about it T he slots chipped as we sld the kives i ad out makig the set look wor right away The bread and slicing kives were sharp but a bit short
erformance **V Ease of Use * * Usefuness * * Weak Lnks o 9
These solidly costructed razor-edged kives geerally performed well That said even at 9 iches the bread kife couldn't handle large loaves The sti parer was like a mii chefs kife which made it hard to pee a apple The utility' kife was useless At this price every compoet should be essential
erformance ** Ease of Use * Usefulness * Weak Lnks o 9
While some b lades (particularly he imble parig kife) shone in tests this set's two utility kives ad satoku were easily outper formed by the chef's blade o idetical tasks The bread kife was too short ad the block's fiish chipped a little aroud the slots with repeated use
erformance ** Ease of Use * Usefulness * Weak Lnks 6 of
Most of these s leek apaese blad es were agile but may were also uecessary two utility kives a extra parig kife a carvig kife ad a 5 V-inch akiri blade for vegetable prep The bread kife lacked at least a ich of ecess ary engtha feature that we also missed o the curiously short chef's kife
erformance * * Ease of Use * Usefulness * Weak Lnks 6 of
May pieces i this set were udehelming The thickerbladed chef's kife was just adequate requirig extra pressure to chop the bread kife ot oly was stumpy but also squished so bread whe slicig The parig/ boi g kife was tiy ad the util ity kife rippedrather tha slicedomato ski Oe bright spot the excellet -ich parig kife
erformance Ease of Use Usefulness Weak Lnks
* * * o 6
This set is a dud The handles were uncomfortable ad the blades uiformly cluky The tooshort read ife struggle through g loaves the parig kife was too heavy for precisio tasks ad the utility blade was utterly dispens able The oly decet blade the satoku
erformance Ease of Use Usefulness Weak Lnks
* * * 8 of
These cadycolored steel blades came suspeded i a clear acrylic holder While the edges were relatively sharp miced food clug to the supposedly nostick blades ad the smooth h adle s were slippery We fo h chef's ife awward the brea ife short and the parig kife sti ad dull The other five knives in the set were expedable
R E C O M E D E D W T H R E S E R VAT O S
WU TOF C 8P Dx K Model 8420 $3999 3 V-i ch pari g -ich boig 8ich chef's 8-ich bread
8-ich carvig Sharpeig steel Shears 7-slot wood block
CTORNOX 7P Rw K Model 4604, $ 899 3 -ich parig 6ich boig 8-ich chef's 8-ich bread
0ich s licig Sharpeig steel 6-slot wood block
N C 9P K Model MS09 0, $699.9 2 V -ich b ird's beak 3 V-i ch parig 6-ich utiliy 8-ich che's 9-ich bread
9-ich sicig Sharpeig steel Shears -slot bamboo block
OT RECOEDED
MEERMETER M E 9P K Bk Model E/30009, $3 .94 3 V -ich parig 5ich scalloped tiliy 6-ich utility 7-ich satoku 8ich chef's
9-ich bread Sharpeig seel Shears 6slot wood block
LOBAL 9P K Model G88/9 ST, $66 .9 3ich parig -ich parig 5 V
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