Questions and Answers About Cooking
Questions and Answers About Cooking
Q: What are the best apples for baking?
A: Cortland, or Ida Redor Paula Red. You want a large apple that will hold its texture (and its flavor) during the long baking process. Apples that are good for applesauce, such as Macintosh, are useless for baking because they’ll turn to mush.
Q: Can you substitute baking soda and baking powder for one another?
A: Not directly. But baking soda—sodium bicarbonate—is a good leaven in pastries that contain acid such as buttermilk, sour cream, or yogurt. If there is little or no acid in a recipe and you want to use baking soda (or you’ve run out of baking powder), mix 1 teaspoon baking soda and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar. This works because cream of tartar is acidic and eliminates the need for additional acid in the batter. You can use this as a replacement for commercial baking powder—on a one-for-one basis—but you must work quickly once you combine wet and dry ingredients.
Why? Because this homemade baking powder is a single-action baking powder and begins to do its work the instant it is combined with liquid. Commercial baking powders are double-action; they partly begin to work when exposed to liquid, but another part works only when exposed to heat. You can see this: Little bubbles form between the time you combine ingredients and move the batter to the pan, but the batter continues to rise in the oven.
Commercial baking powder, therefore, is more effective than the homemade kind. But it isn’t necessarily more desirable because it has a distinctive flavor. (This is especially true of those containing aluminum.) It also becomes less effective over time. You should replace your baking powder, even if it isn’t used up, at least once a year.
Q: What sort of training do I need to become a professional chef?
A: If you want to train to be a practical chef—the kind of person who runs a hotel restaurant, a restaurant that’s part of a chain, a large catering operation, or anything corporate—it’s best to go to an accredited cooking school. They exist in almost every major metropolitan center and at many universities.
If you want to be a celebrity chef, however, all you need are ambition, personality, creativity, talent, about 15 years of hard work, and a lot of luck. The best way to start is to apprentice under an old-fashioned chef and stick with it.
Q: When I roast a whole chicken, what’s the best way of testing whether it is fully cooked?
A: To be sure, you need two methods: The first is an instant-read thermometer inserted into the meatiest part of the thigh; it should read at least 155 degrees (some people say 165 or more to insure perfect safety). The second is to make sure the juices in the cavity and at the bone joints run clear, not bloody (a touch of pink is probably okay). Usually, the thermometer is enough, and the second method just a precaution; it depends on your level of paranoia. In time, you will know when a chicken is done just by looking and touching.
Q: If a cake recipe requires three 8-by-2-inch cake pans, is it OK to use three 9-by-2-inch pans instead?
A: Yes—as long as you keep an eye on things; the cooking time will be significantly shorter, but as no cooking times are ironclad it should be fine.
Q: Does searing a large cut of meat such as tenderloin before roasting it really ‘seal in’ all of the juices and flavor?
A: Not at all. You can’t seal the juices in a piece of meat any more than you can seal the blood in your body (sorry, but it’s the best analogy). If you poke a hole, some of those juices will come out, and searing will do nothing to change that. (On the other hand, poking a hole is not the same as popping a balloon but more like cutting yourself; some juices will come out, but on the whole the damage will not be noticeable.)
However, searing—or browning, a more understandable word—adds flavor to foods, by creating complex flavors. So there is still a good reason to do it, if time allows. If time does not allow, it’s a step that can usually be skipped.
Q: If a recipe calls for dark brown sugar, can I substitute light brown sugar? Is there any real difference?
A: Absolutely you can substitute; the only difference is the amount of molasses they each contain. The flavor of dark brown sugar is somewhat more complex (and bitter, in the way that molasses is bitter), but not noticeably in most recipes. Remember that usually either is but one of many ingredients in a given preparation.
Q: Is there any advantage to using a cast-iron skillet rather than a regular or nonstick skillet?
A: Cast iron is inexpensive and lasts forever; it’s virtually indestructible. It has a couple of disadvantages, however: One, it is heavy, and, especially when loaded with food, requires strength to handle. Two, it is not nonstick until it develops the patina that comes with use. (You can encourage this nonstick surface to develop by washing cast-iron pans with little or no soap and wiping them dry; wiping them with a tiny bit of oil every now and then also helps.) But all in all it remains an excellent material for skillets and sauté pans.
Q: What exactly is ‘deglazing,’ and how does one do it?
A: If you’ve made gravy after roasting a turkey, you’ve ‘deglazed.’
When you cook meat, fish, or vegetables in fat—oil or butter, usually—some of the flavor (and, if you’re not using a nonstick pan, some of the meat, fish, or vegetable) stays behind in the pan. This flavor can be recaptured and turned into a sauce by adding a bit of liquid—typically wine or stock, but really any liquid, like juice, coffee, or even water—to the pan and stirring over high heat until the liquid reduces in volume a bit. (Another term for deglazing is ‘making a reduction.’) The resulting sauce can be enriched by stirring in a little butter or olive oil, but it isn’t necessary. Here’s a recipe, with plenty of options (from The Minimalist Cooks at Home):
Basic Reduction Sauce
Total time: 20 minutes
Makes about 2 cups
2 tablespoons minced shallot, onion, or scallion
3 cups stock or water
2 tablespoons softened butter or olive oil (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1. Remove whatever meat, fish, or poultry you’ve cooked from the roasting pan or skillet and pour off all but 1 or 2 tablespoons of the cooking fat (if there are non-fatty juices in the skillet or roasting pan leave them in there). Place the pan over high heat (use two burners if the pan is large). Add the shallot and cook, stirring, until it softens, about 1 minute.
2. Add the liquid and cook, stirring and scraping to loosen the brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Allow the liquid to boil for about 5 minutes, or until about a third of it evaporates. (This is a good time to carve the meat, if that’s necessary, as the boiling liquid need not be stirred except very occasionally.)
3. Turn the heat to medium-low and add the butter or oil, a little at a time, stirring well after each addition to incorporate it. Taste and season if necessary with salt and pepper, then serve with the meat.
There are several ways to add weight to a reduction:
Reduce 1/2 to 1 cup of wine, fortified wine, or fruit or vegetable juice to just a couple of tablespoons before adding the stock or water.
Make the flavor even stronger by stirring in a teaspoon or more of prepared mustard, horseradish, soy sauce, or other condiments.
Add minced fresh or dried herbs to the mixture along with the shallots: a few tablespoons of parsley or small amounts of sage, tarragon, or thyme are all good. You can also add capers, anchovies, chopped bell pepper, or minced garlic.
Q: What kind of consistency can I expect for gravy if I use flour and butter? Cornstarch?
Cornstarch is the easiest: A tablespoon or two of cornstarch, mixed with a tablespoon or two of cold water, and stirred into a cup of simmering liquid, will thicken it instantly (the more cornstarch you use, the thicker it will get) and without any lumps. Butter and flour is more difficult, because flour does lump. There are ways around that, but they’re much more complicated than using cornstarch. Or skip the thickening entirely, as it is essentially cosmetic; if it’s flavor you’re after, just stir in a little bit of butter.
Q: What are some tips for buying fish?
A: It can be simple: Good fish looks and smells good. If it smells bad, it can’t taste good. Some fishmongers at supermarket seafood counters may not allow you to smell fish before buying it. If this is the case but the fish passes the appearance test, you might consider buying it, opening the package on the spot, and—if the smell is at all off—handing it right back.
Steaks and fillets are best cut to order from whole fish. Whole fish keep better than precut steaks and fillets. In addition, cutting to order allows you to dictate the size and thickness of the steak, as well as to request fillets from the best-looking fish. Quality is probably a top priority for a store that provides this service.
However, most fillets and even steaks are cut from fish before they reach the fish counter. So here are a few general rules:
*Start with your eyes: The surface of the fish should glisten; it should be bright, clear, reflective, and almost translucent. Generally, you don’t want any fish whose surface appears brown, dull, opaque, or muddy. Remember, fillets and steaks should be
