hoppyhoppyhippo
Well-Known Member
Mine are relatively simple ones that I've given the most of.
First off patience is a virtue. Same idea as with Brewing. When you're cookign bacon, if you want perfect bacon cook it over a pretty low heat (30% or so) and just let the bacon fat do it's job. Unless you're sprinting out the door or running a restaurant, no need to rush it. When you do you dont' get perfectly crisp bacon. Also for bacon as well, frequent turning reduces the bubbling effect of bacon which also makes it crispy. For burgers, steaks, chicken, etc, the meat will let you know when it's time to flip it. Especially with fattier foods. You shouldn't have to fight with your burgers, when they're ready to be flipped or pulled off they'll come off with no fight.
My second is dome your cheese. I do this for burgers and grilled cheese all the time and sometimes for eggs as well. Doming is taking something large to cover your food and basically steam it. When I make grilled cheese I don't add water or anything but I cook it under a dome and no matter what kind of cheese I use it comes out melty like lava. With a burger I cook it on side one then flip, add cheese and dome, the doming melts cheese perfectly. Some places claim for burgers the doming makes it juicy, I don't buy that too much. You can also if you want add a little bit of water to steam the burger a bit, doesn't wreck the texture but melts the cheese super fast.
For fries, always do the double fry method. I know it's messier, but it's worth the results. Also cut and soak your fries for a minimum of a half hour in ice cold water. I like to if I'm making fries for dinner cut them early in the morning and soak for 8 hours or so. Helps reduce the starchiness and make a crispier fry. Another great tip for crispier fries (especially for the second fry) is to not over fill the pot. Doing that drops the oil temp faster and can result in less than desirable crispiness. Another positive to this way is say you have a few fries cooking faster than others, they're easier to watch and maintain then if you have 2 or 3 times the number of fries in the pot.
Next tip I'm tinkering with right now but I've been happy with my early results. For me this is the perfect scrambled eggs.
First - Scramble the crap out of your eggs. Feel free to add a little milk or water to lighten them but if you whip them enough they'll be light without the added liquid.
Second get a pan under medium high to high head and have a burner with no heat (just easier in case you have to put the pan down in case of emergency) melt some butter or other fat in the pan so the eggs don't stick. Put the pan under the high heat at about 10 seconds or 20 seconds or so. It's really a looking thing but if time helps it does. The whole time the eggs are on stir the pan with a rubber spatula (if you're a messy stirrer may want to use a pot) when eggs are creamy but still cooked pull them off the heat add a pat of butter and salt and pepper. Also can use heavy cream in place of butter. Butter does 2 things, first is it adds more deliciousness to the eggs, second it helps stop the eggs cookign so you don't get over cooked eggs. More important than mimicking the style I'm tinkering with, is to not salt your eggs until they're cooked through. I'm also a fan of putting cheese in when you start cooking the eggs so they get amazingly melty.
Last tip I stole from Mario Batali, when you're cooking pasta, first use a timer because the people at Barilla, etc. spent a ton of money on research into their proper cookign temps. And the second part is cook one minute under al dente, and then add the cooked pasta (plus a ladle or so of pasta water) to your sauce and let them come together.
Well what kind of tips does everyone else have? I'm sure I'll remember more down the road.
First off patience is a virtue. Same idea as with Brewing. When you're cookign bacon, if you want perfect bacon cook it over a pretty low heat (30% or so) and just let the bacon fat do it's job. Unless you're sprinting out the door or running a restaurant, no need to rush it. When you do you dont' get perfectly crisp bacon. Also for bacon as well, frequent turning reduces the bubbling effect of bacon which also makes it crispy. For burgers, steaks, chicken, etc, the meat will let you know when it's time to flip it. Especially with fattier foods. You shouldn't have to fight with your burgers, when they're ready to be flipped or pulled off they'll come off with no fight.
My second is dome your cheese. I do this for burgers and grilled cheese all the time and sometimes for eggs as well. Doming is taking something large to cover your food and basically steam it. When I make grilled cheese I don't add water or anything but I cook it under a dome and no matter what kind of cheese I use it comes out melty like lava. With a burger I cook it on side one then flip, add cheese and dome, the doming melts cheese perfectly. Some places claim for burgers the doming makes it juicy, I don't buy that too much. You can also if you want add a little bit of water to steam the burger a bit, doesn't wreck the texture but melts the cheese super fast.
For fries, always do the double fry method. I know it's messier, but it's worth the results. Also cut and soak your fries for a minimum of a half hour in ice cold water. I like to if I'm making fries for dinner cut them early in the morning and soak for 8 hours or so. Helps reduce the starchiness and make a crispier fry. Another great tip for crispier fries (especially for the second fry) is to not over fill the pot. Doing that drops the oil temp faster and can result in less than desirable crispiness. Another positive to this way is say you have a few fries cooking faster than others, they're easier to watch and maintain then if you have 2 or 3 times the number of fries in the pot.
Next tip I'm tinkering with right now but I've been happy with my early results. For me this is the perfect scrambled eggs.
First - Scramble the crap out of your eggs. Feel free to add a little milk or water to lighten them but if you whip them enough they'll be light without the added liquid.
Second get a pan under medium high to high head and have a burner with no heat (just easier in case you have to put the pan down in case of emergency) melt some butter or other fat in the pan so the eggs don't stick. Put the pan under the high heat at about 10 seconds or 20 seconds or so. It's really a looking thing but if time helps it does. The whole time the eggs are on stir the pan with a rubber spatula (if you're a messy stirrer may want to use a pot) when eggs are creamy but still cooked pull them off the heat add a pat of butter and salt and pepper. Also can use heavy cream in place of butter. Butter does 2 things, first is it adds more deliciousness to the eggs, second it helps stop the eggs cookign so you don't get over cooked eggs. More important than mimicking the style I'm tinkering with, is to not salt your eggs until they're cooked through. I'm also a fan of putting cheese in when you start cooking the eggs so they get amazingly melty.
Last tip I stole from Mario Batali, when you're cooking pasta, first use a timer because the people at Barilla, etc. spent a ton of money on research into their proper cookign temps. And the second part is cook one minute under al dente, and then add the cooked pasta (plus a ladle or so of pasta water) to your sauce and let them come together.
Well what kind of tips does everyone else have? I'm sure I'll remember more down the road.