Random Food Questions Thread

[mordecai]

i've never heard a clear answer on this...in general, do you need to refrigerate homemade pickled food in jars before you plan on eating it? or at all?

 

[Piobaire]

Pickled eggs and pickled "moose dongs" (slice of some horrendous, mystery meat, factory produced emulsified sauage) are two things I survived for years on during my bar days.

 

[foodguy]

Originally Posted by indesertum

peeling hard boiled eggs are so easy. you just peel a little bit of the ends off then blow/squeeze the egg out of the shell
with freshly cooked hard-boiled eggs, just empty the pan of hot water, pour in cold water and shake the pan so that it cracks the egg shells lightly. peel real easy that way. also, older eggs are easier to peel than new ones (greater air space).

Originally Posted by mordecai

i've never heard a clear answer on this...in general, do you need to refrigerate homemade pickled food in jars before you plan on eating it? or at all?

theoretically, a pickle should be able to be held at room temp. i think i'd refrigerate anyway.

 

[ChicagoRon]

Originally Posted by foodguy

theoretically, a pickle should be able to be held at room temp. i think i'd refrigerate anyway.
I'm going to agree with that, especially since a small error in canning could invite botculism

 

[Dedalus]

What do you guys think of putting a steak in the oven and letting it get to 120 or so, and then pan searing it at the end?

 

[speedfreak]

Originally Posted by Dedalus

What do you guys think of putting a steak in the oven and letting it get to 120 or so, and then pan searing it at the end?

Wouldn't do it. If you first put in the pan and sear it, you can keep it in the oven until it is good to your taste. You can directly check with your fingers how firm the steak is and thus how well it is done on the inside.

If you now however first put in the oven, you would need to anticipate when to take it out, since it will get additional heat in the pan.

 

[Dedalus]

My thinking is from this post on prime rib from Serious Eats. If you can anticipate when to take it out of the oven before pan searing, couldn't this translate to steaks? I think sous vide steak follows a similar process, no? "So great, you may be thinking—you can sear first or you can sear after, and it makes no difference. What's the big deal? Well the big deal, as some of the more astute readers may have noticed in the timing above, is that if you are starting with a completely raw roast, in order to get a well-browned crust, it takes around 15 minutes in the hot pan, during which time, the meat under the surface on the outer layers of the roast is busy heating up and overcooking, just like they did when roasted in a 400°F oven. On the other hand, in order to get a well-browned crust after the prime rib has roasted, you need only around eight minutes in the pan. Why is this? It all has to do with water. In order for the surface of a roast to reach temperatures above the boiling point of water (212°F), it must first become completely desiccated. When searing raw meat, about half the time it spends in the skillet is spent just getting rid of excess moisture before browning can even begin to occur. You know that vigorous sizzling sound when a steak hits a pan? That's the sound of moisture evaporating and bubbling out from underneath the meat. On the other hand, a prime rib that has first been roasted has had several hours in a hot oven, during which time the exterior has completely dried out, making searing much more efficient, and thus giving all but the very exterior of the meat less of a chance of overcooking." EDIT: Oh, apparently Cook's Illustrated covered this once before, just have to heat the steaks to 90 in a 275 oven and then pan sear. http://www.cookography.com/2007/pan-...hick-cut-steak

 

[foodguy]

this seems like typical cooks illustrated "there must be a more complicated way to cook something really simple". i'm a charter subscriber, chris kimball is a good friend, but sometimes the way they tie themselves in knots in order to have something to write about makes me crazy.

 

[SField]

Originally Posted by foodguy

this seems like typical cooks illustrated "there must be a more complicated way to cook something really simple". i'm a charter subscriber, chris kimball is a good friend, but sometimes the way they tie themselves in knots in order to have something to write about makes me crazy.

+1 their techniques make my head hurt. And their illustrations suck.

 

[foodguy]

it's compelling, in a macgyver kind of way. except that usually, all they have to do to escape is open the fr*gging door.

 

[SField]

Originally Posted by foodguy

it's compelling, in a macgyver kind of way. except that usually, all they have to do to escape is open the fr*gging door.

They often use more steps than one would in fine dining. When I cook for myself at home, it's far less complicated than most of the **** that they do.

 

[mordecai]

Originally Posted by SField

And their illustrations suck.

ouch. you think so?

 

[Johnny_5]

Originally Posted by SField

+1 their techniques make my head hurt. And their illustrations suck.

Was it cooks illustrated that used a paper towel to make a French Omelette? That was pretty ridiculous.

 

[SField]

Originally Posted by mordecai

ouch. you think so?

I haven't spent much time looking but there have been quite a number of them where I'm just like wtf? Just take a ******* photo.

 

[Rambo]

I'm a CI fan and love the way they lay out the recipes. Of course, I'm a nerd, so it appeals to me in a sort OCD anal-retentive way.