Cream is made by skimming the layer of butterfat from the top of milk before the milk is homogenized. Varieties of cream are defined by how much milk fat they contain. Creams with less fat are fine for coffee, but they can’t be heated or whipped. Cultured creams (sour cream, crème fraîche) break down when heated, and are best drizzled or dolloped after you've finished cooking a dish.
The spectrum of cream from lowest to highest butterfat content:
Half & Half: A mix of half whole milk and half cream. No whipping. No heating.
Light Cream: AKA Table Cream - Usually contains 20% milk fat. No whipping. No heating.
Crème Fraîche, Mexican Crema and Sour Cream: The cultured creams. No whipping. No heating. Cultured creams have sour undertones that differ from the silky sweetness of creams that are not cultured.
Light Whipping Cream: Has more milk fat (30-36%) than light cream. Whips into soft peaks. Heats nicely, too.
Heavy Cream (aka, Heavy Whipping Cream): 36-40% milk fat. Can be whipped into stiff peaks. Heats to a silky, rich thickness.
Recipe: Pappardelle With Creminis, Cream And Sage (Cookthink)
Recipe: Cream Of Broccoli Soup (Cookthink)
Reference: What do I do with leftover heavy cream? (Cookthink)
How much salt should I add to a pot of boiling water?
How much salt should I add to a pot of boiling water?
The wisdom about how much salt to add to a boiling pot of water is vast and varied.
Cooks will recommend anything from 10 to 50 grams per liter. Traditionally, it is thought that salty water helps green vegetables hold their color and makes pasta water boil more quickly, although both theories have their naysayers.
French culinary guru Joël Robuchon always adds two giant pinches of gros sel to a pot of boiling water for pasta or green beans with his pudgy and knowing fingers. He tells us that salting the water is our only chance to flavor pasta and help the vegetables stay bright. And while both pasta and vegetables will need additional salting after they're cooked, they will need less than if you neglect to salt them during the cooking process.
What's the point of covering a pot of water you've set to boil?
What's the point of covering a pot of water you've set to boil?
A watched pot never boils? Well, put a cover on said pot and it will boil before you know it, even right before your very eyes. Putting a cover on a pot of water you've set to boil is one of those time- and energy-saving tricks that is so obvious that it just may take years for it to dawn on you.
Covering your pot will trap heat, prevent evaporation, build pressure, and get your water boiling faster. Just remember that once you remove the lid, it will take the water a moment to return to a full boil.
Onion slices are versatile. In quick-cooking dishes, they stay distinct enough from the other ingredients that they don't permeate every bite as diced onions would. In longer-cooking dishes, they have enough surface area to turn soft and brown, but their natural shape and length keeps them intact.
To make contoured half-round slices, first cut the onion in half through the root.
Next, slice away the both ends of each half and pull away the onion's skin. Since the ends hold the slices together, cutting them off frees the slices to fall into individual pieces.
Starting on one side of the onion with the knife at an angle, make slices as thick or thin as you like.
Rotate the knife around the contour of the onion, bring it closer to perpendicular to the cutting board as you go.
An egg wash is a well-beaten egg that's often mixed with a bit of water, milk or salt.
Egg wash is applied with a pastry brush to unbaked bread dough, pie or pastry crust to seal the dough and to give it a glossy finish once it comes out of the oven.
Egg washes can also be made with egg whites or egg yolks only, and whether you add water, milk or salt to the mixture can affect the final look and texture of the dish. Different recipes may call for different sorts of egg washes, and you can experiment to see which one works best for you.
An egg wash can also be brushed on the edges of wonton wrappers to seal dumplings or on the edges of ravioli to seal them before poaching.
How to slice mushrooms with an egg slicer
How to slice mushrooms with an egg slicer
There's more than one way to slice a mushroom. But if you're working with mushrooms about the size of an egg (like creminis or buttons) consider using an egg slicer; it'll help you make a pile of consistently-sized slices in no time. Here's how:
After you rinse and dry or brush your mushrooms to remove any dirt, trim away the very bottom part of their stems. Open the blades of the slicer and orient the mushroom the way you'd like your slices to go.
Then just slice down as you would with an egg.
You should end up with nice even slices.
If you're in the market for an egg slicer, look for one with two blades -- one for slicing and one for quartering.
Poaching, simmering and boiling are at heart identical cooking methods that in practice yield a variety of results. All that distinguishes one from the other is that each marks a different temperature stage in the process of bringing water to a boil.
As a pot of water heats, the water molecules near the bottom of the pot warm up first. As they get hotter, they move faster. Eventually, they move fast enough to rise toward the surface of the water, where they displace the cooler molecules up above, forcing them to fall to the bottom of the pot, where they in turn are heated and begin to rise.
Ultimately, the water gets hot enough to vaporize the molecules at the bottom of the pot into steam. Because steam is less dense than water, it rises, causing the surface of the water to swirl. This slight movement on the surface of the water is the visual sign that the water is ready for poaching (between 170 and 180F).
When enough steam forms, bubbles at the edge of the pot begin to break through the surface into a simmer (180 to 190F). When bubbles undulate across the entire surface of the water, it is said to be at a gentle boil (210F). And in just 2 more degrees, the surface of the water will break turbulently, cascading with large vigorous bubbles. This stage is called a rolling boil.
It is possible to stop the progression to a rolling boil by reducing the heat as the visual signs for poaching or simmering approach. You know you've got the burner just right when the water maintains the signs of any stage for a full minute. When you add food, the water temperature will drop, but don't turn up the heat. The water should return to the proper temperature within a minute. If it does not, you may have overcrowded the pot with too much food.
How to boil water at high (and low) altitudes
How to boil water at high (and low) altitudes
We tend to think of the boiling point of water as a constant 212F (100C), but that temperature is only the amount of energy it takes to boil water at sea level. As elevation rises, the amount of air pressing down on the surface of the water decreases, and the less energy it takes to make the water boil, with the result that the water boils at a lower temperature.
The lower temperature of boiling water at high altitudes causes several changes in how food cooks:
• Boiling pasta, potatoes, beans, and other starchy foods takes about 10 percent longer for every 1,000 feet (305 m) of elevation.
• Braised meats are more succulent, because less moisture is squeezed from the coagulating proteins at a lower simmering temperature, but they may need slightly more time to cook.
For every thousand feet (305 m) of elevation, the boiling point reduces by about 2F (1C). Even a low-pressure weather front can lower the boiling point, or a high-pressure front could raise the boiling point by a degree or two.
The following chart shows how a change in altitude affects the boiling point of water and the cooking of common ingredients:
Altitude Above Sea Level
Boiling Point
Vegetables (increase cooking time by)
Stewing and Braising (increase cooking time by)
Roasting (increase cooking temperature by)
3,000 ft
206°F
20 to 30%
30 minutes
10 to 25°F
5,000 ft
202°F
40 to 50%
1 hour
20 to 30°F
7,000 ft+
198°F
60 to 70%
2 to 3 hours
30 to 50°F
If you go in the opposite direction, below sea level, there is more air sitting on the surface of the water and the boiling point goes up. Since there is not much dry land that lies below sea level, increasing the boiling point of water by increasing atmospheric pressure most often happens artificially in a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers speed up cooking by trapping the steam escaping from boiling water, thereby building up pressure on the surface, and raising the boiling point.
In a pressure cooker, the combination of the increased temperature and air pressure forces heat into ingredients faster, thereby reducing cooking times by as much as 70 percent. Soaked dried beans can take as little as 10 minutes to cook through in a pressure cooker. A pot roast that would braise for 3 hours using conventional cooking methods will take less than an hour in a pressure cooker. Because there is less evaporation in pressure cooking, the amount of liquid used for a soup, stews, or braised meat should be reduced by about 60 percent.
Sauerkraut is easy to make at home; it mostly requires cabbage, salt and time.
First, clean and core the cabbage.
Next, finely shred the cabbage to about the thickness of a nickel.
The key to good sauerkraut is controlled fermentation; this is acheived by cool temperatures and lactic acid-loving bacteria. Your hands and the container need to be immaculately clean so that the cabbage does not pick up bacteria that may rot it instead of fermenting.
A large, enameled stockpot is a good place to make sauerkraut should you lack a wooden barrel or a piece of glazed crockery. The heavy metal will help to keep the temperature steady and the enamel will prevent the salt and lactic-acid brine from reacting with the metal. Under no circumstances should you use a bare metal pot to make sauerkraut, as the acidic brine would leach metals out into the cabbage.
After thoroughly coating the shredded cabbage with salt and layering it into the crock of your choice, make sure that there is enough brine covering the cabbage. (This may take an hour or so for the liquid to leach out of the leaves and cover the future sauerkraut.) A little extra brine may be made from boiling water and salt, cooled and then added to the shredded cabbage before covering the whole assembly with plastic wrap and a heavy plate. The plate will serve to keep the mixture submerged so that fermentation is undisturbed.
After a few weeks of fermenting at 50F, the finished sauerkraut is a pale, creamy color and full of rich, briny flavor. It is recommended that sauerkraut is rinsed and drained before use to control the salt levels in the dish.
Sauerkraut is a classic fermented dish popular in Germany, France and all over northern and central Europe that was invented as a way to preserve cabbage over the winter.
Fresh sauerkraut is high in vitamin C and was frequently taken on long sea voyages by European explorers to help prevent scurvy.
The version that is most popular in the U.S. involves very thinly shredded cabbage. It is salted to draw out its juices and then sits in the resulting brine for 4 to 6 weeks as it cures and ferments. The bacteria that ferment the cabbage help to turn the sugars in the leaves to lactic acid, which imparts the distinctive taste.
There are many variations on the sauerkraut theme, including using red cabbage for a bright pink result and adding various spices to the brew. Caraway seeds and juniper berries are traditional additions; black peppercorns and slices of apple are also found in many recipes.
Reference: How to make sauerkraut
What kind of cabbage can I use to make sauerkraut?
What kind of cabbage can I use to make sauerkraut?
You can use any kind of cabbage to make sauerkraut: green, red, savoy, Napa or any other variety and in any combination.
Since different varieties of cabbage have different colors, flavors and textures, the resulting sauerkraut will reflect that. For example, Savoy cabbage is firm, so a sauerkraut made with it will hold together more than a sauerkraut made with Napa cabbage, which is softer. A combination of red and green cabbage will lend your sauerkraut a pink hue.
If you like, you can even toss in vegetables like carrots and Brussels sprouts, and aromatics like onions and garlic for different flavor combinations. The possiblities are endless.
What does it mean to caramelize?
What does it mean to caramelize?
Well, two things, actually.
When it comes to dessert, caramelizing means to heat sugar until it liquifies and turns gold to dark brown depending on its temperature (around 320 to 350F on a candy thermometer). Custards such as crème brûlée are caramelized by sprinkling them with sugar and placing them either under a broiler or salamander or by torching the sugar until it forms a brittle burnt crust. Caramelizing can also technically mean to coat a mold with caramel so that it acts as a glaze when a custard or other dessert is turned out (as in crème caramel or flan).
We also use the word caramelize to describe what happens when we brown meat over high heat to draw out its natural sugars and create a flavorful crust. Vegetables with a high natural sugar content, such as onions, carrots or turnips, can also be caramelized by sautéing them in butter and a bit of water to prevent burning. Fruit such as apples or figs can also be caramelized by sautéing them in butter before sprinkling them with sugar, which gives them a lightly caramelized glaze.
