Food • Page 664

I'm going Thanksgiving grocery shopping with my mom. Pray for me.

 

Don't forget the turkey

 

I've got my office fighting about whether or not cereal is soup and also if oatmeal is a soup

 

Erin's there so there'll be a turkey no doubt

 

I'm happy that these videos excite people about food and cooking, but I'm sad because videos like these so often teach people the wrong way to do things.

 

That's why we need your vlog

 

How so?

 

Okay, I found some videos that show some silly mistakes. They aren't focused on maximizing flavor, which is what I really care about.

1. Black pepper burns very easily, especially when it is ground finely and then cooked at an extremely high temperature like in this video. Put your pepper on a steak as soon as it is done cooking. This is a minor issue, many well known and respected chefs put pepper on the steak before they cook it, but you can taste a difference and trust me, it tastes better when the pepper isn't burnt.
2. They cook the steak in reverse here. I would cook the steak in the cast iron skillet first, then move it to the oven to slow roast it, until your desired temperature. This gives the steak a longer period of time to absorb the garlic herb butter that was basted over the meat in the pan. It will also slightly reduce the amount of time a steak needs to rest.
3. There's too much oil in the pan. We are searing the steak, not deep frying it. It's unnecessary, especially when you're adding butter.
4. They didn't let the steak rest properly. When they first slice into it, you can see the juices running out of the meat. When they first slice the steak too, it looks like it's closer to medium-well than medium rare. I wonder if they cooked multiple steaks and then switched them, because the doneness looks different in different shots.
5. This is nit-picking, but no one serves their steak with fried herbs on the side. No one is going to eat that.

Here's what I mean when I say they don't care too much about flavor... or even texture.
Baking your eggs instead of poaching them is easier, but it ruins the texture in my opinion. A poached egg is a beautiful thing. Also, that canadian bacon is going to have a lot less flavor than if they had quickly seared both sides of it and then kept it warm somewhere while the rest of the cooking as being done. If I made you two pieces of canadian bacon, the one that was seared would taste so much better than the one that was baked. Just like how the poached eggs would be so much softer than the ones that were baked in the oven. Also, I know this is personal preference, but get that vinegar away from my hollandaise. Give me the classic preparation with only lemon juice. Also, add some cayenne pepper, it really makes the hollandaise have a kick to it that's much more flavorful and interesting than just black pepper.

They're teaching you technique here that isn't very good. They wait to season the food that's cooking until everything is already in the pot. That's when you should be adjusting the seasoning, not seasoning it for the first time. As soon as that onion goes in, you should be adding a pinch of salt to it. Also, garlic burns very easily. I would always add garlic last to any preparation. It cooks quickly and burns shortly after that. Now, unless the only option they have is cooked chicken, any chicken noodle soup or any soup period will taste better when you cook the meat in the pot you're making the soup in. Ideally, everything would be cooked in a time frame where everything is just cooked enough, but not overcooked. I would cook chicken in the pot to brown it, if I had chicken bones, I would throw those in too. If I had a whole chicken, even better. Once the chicken was cooked, I'd pull it out and reserve it on the side. Then I'd cook those veggies in the leftover chicken fat, add the garlic last, then deglaze with stock, but some sort of alcohol would be ideal. I'd also opt for chicken stock over chicken broth. I'd simmer that until the vegetables are tender, but still have their bite. Then I'd add in the chicken, bring it up to a simmer, and add the egg noodles until they're cooked and serve. I'd also consider adding some lemon zest, fresh herbs (which this recipe is greatly lacking). Everything about the recipe seems to say that all of its components are overcooked and under-seasoned. If you're using already cooked chicken, add it at the end. Just because you're cooking a meat in a liquid, doesn't mean that meat won't dry out. Honestly, if I have leftover chicken, I take some crusty bread, mayo, arugula dressed in some white wine or sherry or champagne or any type of vinegar, add some fresh cracked pepper, the leftover shredded chicken and go to town.

Wow, I wrote way too much.

 

haha, you did write a lot, but I agree. I think it's safe to say the videos are for Entertainment 1st, and Taste 2nd (hence the pun in the name). Your expertise shows, do you work as a chef, or with food in some capacity professionally? or is it simply a passion?

Another guess is that their target audience is people that need something simple to follow along with, sort of a 'base instruction' channel before people can graduate to a Jamie Oliver/Ramsey type video.

 

i know i know too little about cooking when both this and the videos themselves seem 8000 leagues above my league

 

What if the hair is clean? like if you shampoo A LOT

 

Depends on the hair's source...I presume.

 

All floor hair is bad hair regardless of cleanliness.

 

They're definitely more concerned with making things look nice than actually cooking. I personally think people would be better off watching some gordon ramsay videos on youtube. I do see what you mean though. I do like the videos because they get people excited about not eating processed garbage, but there's so many basic things they should do very differently.

I'm a nerd and I'm passionate about food. I've worked in a few restaurants and I read constantly about cooking. Constantly. Professionally, I work in the financial services industry now. I always try to push my cooking though, everytime I make a dish I want to make it better than the time I made it before. It's a challenge to me and I'm basically never ever happy with anything I make. My girlfriend takes leftovers to work sometimes and I'm amazed that she wants to eat what I sometimes consider to be a disgusting disaster haha.

 

Start off slow! I started cooking in college and the food I made was nasty. Really, really awful. I would boil cuts of meat in butter and a1 sauce haha.

 

I'm in a VERY similar spot, working in banking but am passionate about making the best dish I can and appreciating the ingredients throughout the process. I have a wife and 3 kids with the palate of a gold fish, so I literally never get to cook what I want but I would give about anything to have the opportunity to cook for others. Looking forward to Thanksgiving for that reason while I watch my family eat nothing but mashed potatoes and white turkey meat while the rest of the fam scarfs down my bacon wrapped brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes.

 

Get a meat thermometer and cook for temp instead of time. That'll be the biggest contributor to quality food imo. That's when I started making the transition to being confident in what I make as opposed to leaving the dish to 'chance' based on my stove timer.

 

cooking for others is either really tough or really great. My girlfriend loves to cook with me, so I am blessed. She doesn't like some basic things like carrots, but I feed them to her anyway and she's always like: these are really good! But when I bring up the idea of making them to her, she is against it haha. How picky are they?

And those Brussels sprouts sound amazing.

 

Exactly. The only time I use a timer anymore is to set a minimum time for when I want to start checking things.

 

you wat

 

I would try to cook beef and make it tasty haha. There might have been a1 involved.

 

If we order pizza, it has to be half cheese...if we go out to eat, the kids menu has to have mac n cheese...if I give them the choice of a pastrami Panini for lunch or a frozen burrito, they choose the frozen burrito. It's that bad. It probably stems from them only liking 3 kinds of baby food when they were a year old, and us giving into every time they said 'blah' at something they didn't like. Never really started out building different tastes, but I have no idea if that has anything to do with it...my 7 year old shouldn't even be alive with how little he eats.

 

Woman Arrested After Presenting A Slice Of Pizza As Her ID At A Bar

 

owned