Recipes/Cooking Tips/Storage Tips
- In its purest and most basic form, cooking is using heat to manipulate moisture in food. Whether it is Searing (locking in moisture), Poaching (drawing out moisture), or Braising (both), your job as a cook is to use heat to move that moisture around and create something delicious.
- There are 4 states of food as it relates to temperature. 1. Frozen. 2 Room Temperature. 3. Warm. 4. Hot. Do not add cold water to a boiling pot of risotto (unless instructed to do so in a recipe) or vice versa.
- All frozen meat should be defrosted in the refrigerator. Depending upon the size of the cut ( 1 lb of Hamburger meat will defrost more quickly than a 4 Pound Whole Chicken) take the meat out 24-48 hours before you plan to cook. Defrosting meat in the refrigerator allows the moisture to re-integrate into the meat (since it has been locked up during the freezing process). NEVER, EVER defrost meat in the microwave. I will start to cry if you tell me that you did this and your food, and taste buds, will never forgive you. The best thing to use your microwave for is to kill the bacteria in your sponge, that's about it.
- Take meat out of the refrigerator approximately 1-2 hours before you plan to cook it. This allows the meat to reach room temperature. This further allows the moisture content in the meat to reach an optimal state for cooking. Taking something cold out of the Fridge and throwing it on the grill is a surefire way to end up with a piece of meat that is burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.
- Large cuts of Meat (Beef Roast, Pork Tenderloin, London Broil, etc) or Whole Chickens/Turkeys should be allowed to "Rest", covered lightly with tinfoil on a cutting board or platter, for approximately 10-20 minutes after they come out of the oven, or off the grill. This allows the final stage of the re-integration of moisture to take place. So, instead of having a plate full of juice and a dry piece of chicken, you have a juicy piece of chicken and a (relatively) dry plate.
- When Grilling, flip food once! Do not stand by the grill and flip your hamburger/steak every 30 seconds. Every time you do, you are losing more and more juice and drying the poor little guy out. Let it lay. Your food will taste better, trust me.
- There is a reason that all (gas or electric) grills have a High, Medium, and Low setting. Use them! Don't just turn the grill up to High and scorch the living daylights out of your food! Some things are cooked on High, some on Medium, some on low, and some via indirect heat (like ribs). Patience is a virtue. Instead of making it a race to see how quickly you can cook the meal, focus on making it as delicious as possible. This might mean an additional 6 minutes out of your life. Will you miss them?
- For large pieces of meat (Whole Chickens/Turkeys, Roasts, Tenderloins, etc) use a meat thermometer. This is the simplest and most fool proof way to make sure it is cooked just the way you like it (or how it should be, either way). If you are an experienced cook, a trick which always works for me is to take the meat out about 5 degrees before it is at the desired Temperature (so if you want it at 170, take it out at 165) and cover it tightly in the baking pan with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 20 minutes. The meat will continue to cook while it rests in the pan and you will have delicious and juicy meat every time.
- Always play to your audience. Cooking (and Eating) is a personal experience. If you ask a chef how they would recommend a Steak being cooked, he/she would tell you Medium Rare 99 times out of 100. If you ask most people how they like their steak, you will get a myriad of different answers, from Still Cold to Burnt to Dust and then cooked some more. Know who you are cooking for and you will always have happy faces around your table.
- Please remember that the taste of meat from a local farm is delicious, but may be different than what you are used to from a super market. It might be a bit tougher or won't be as fatty as mass market produced meat (in some cases). There might be more juices in the meat and in the packaging. This is because it was free range, had access to clean water, clean air, clean food, and was raised humanely. It is significantly healthier for you and full of vitamins and nutrients you will not get from super market meat. Get used to this taste. It is natural and far superior to factory farmed meat.
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