How can I keep from crying while chopping an onion?
How can I keep from crying while chopping an onion?
Is it possible to avoid crying when you're chopping an onion? Home remedies range from the unattractive (breathe through your mouth and put carrots up your nose) to the suggestive (light a votive and do it underwater). Most remedies aim to keep the sulfuric acid in onion juice from floating up into your eyes and triggering the tear ducts.
Some eyes are more sensitive to the acid than others. Dipping two halves of an onion in white vinegar will remove some of the sulfuric acid, but doing so may compromise the onion’s flavor. Goggles will keep onion acids out of your eyes and keep you from tearing up. However, goggles will also fog up in a steamy kitchen. (Plus, goggles in the kitchen? Really?)
At Cookthink, we believe it’s all right to cry. Crying means you’ve got a fresh, potent onion on your cutting board.
You might try opening a window or turning on an exhaust fan. Cutting the root end last also seems to cut down on the crying. Or just get in the habit of making onions the last ingredient you prep before cooking, so you don’t have to linger too long in the onion-infused space above your cutting board.
Vidalias and other sweet onions are less likely to make you cry, because they contain more water and less sulfuric acid. So mild that you can bite into one like an apple, the Supasweet onion might make crying while chopping a thing of the past.
What's the difference between white and brown eggs?
What's the difference between white and brown eggs?
Don't judge an egg by its shell. Whether an eggshell is white or brown is determined by the breed of the hen who laid the eggs. It has absolutely nothing to do with taste or nutritional value.
The only time you may want to consider the color of the eggs you're buying is around Easter and Passover time, since white eggs work better for dyeing and decorating purposes.
Measuring freshly ground black pepper
Measuring freshly ground black pepper
When a recipe calls for "freshly ground black pepper," it usually does so without suggesting an amount. In the instructions of the recipe, you’ll be told to "sprinkle [something] with freshly ground black pepper" or "generously season both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper" or "add freshly ground black pepper to taste."
In general, this makes sense. Cooking with black pepper is one of those things you just get a feel for as you spend more time in the kitchen. And descriptive measurements like "sprinkle" and "generously season" are hard to screw up: a light sprinkle is not going to be drastically different from a heavy sprinkle.
Still, we've been keeping track of pepper amounts for a while now, because we want our descriptive measurements to be more or less the same from recipe to recipe. How much pepper do we mean when we write "generously season?" What is the ideal amount of a Cookthink "sprinkle?"
And of course, there are times when it helps to have an exact amount for freshly ground black pepper. For certain casseroles and papillotes -- dishes that can’t be tasted for seasoning as they cook -- it's nice to have an exact baseline amount of pepper so that you don’t have to tweak it too much at the end for taste.
The problem is that it’s near impossible to grind accurately into any measuring spoon smaller than a tablespoon, and few recipes call for that much pepper. So how do you measure freshly ground black pepper?
One easy way is to go by turns of the grinder. I’ve carved an “X” onto the side of mine, a short and simple model with three settings: coarse, medium, fine.
I set the grind to medium and made 8 full rotations into a small bowl. Using a 1/8 teaspoon, I shoveled the ground pepper into another 1/8 teaspoon. Too much. I started over and stopped at 4 full rotations. It was a little light, so I made another full turn and got an almost level 1/8 teaspoon with 5 total rotations of the grinder.
I did the same for 1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon and 1 teaspoon. I got the results you’d expect:
1/8 teaspoon = 5 full rotations
1/4 teaspoon = 10 full rotations
1/2 teaspoon = 20 full rotations
1 teaspoon = 40 full rotations
I repeated this in both the fine and coarse settings, and found them close enough to the medium not to worry too much about it.
So are these measurements helpful? In writing and testing recipes, yes. In practice, probably not, though I have often wondered, while standing over a stew grinding away, just how much pepper I’m adding. Now I know. - Chip
How to make spiced lamb kebabs
How to make spiced lamb kebabs
Try something different at your next summertime barbecue by serving these spicy lamb kebabs with tzaziki sauce and pita bread. Just watch this video by Handmade TV to learn how to make them.
what you should know
Unsalted butter is always equally unsalted, but salted butter is never quite salted the same.
The NaCl uncertainty is the main reason we prefer to use unsalted butter when we cook. Often that salt can subdue the sweet flavor of butter. (Unsalted butter is often labeled as "sweet butter.")
salt conversion In most recipes, the little extra salt will go unnoticed. Still, as a general rule if a recipe calls for unsalted butter but all you've got is salted butter, cut 1/4 teaspoon of salt per stick of butter (1/2 cup) you use.
stick it up Salt acts as a preservative for butter. Tightly wrapped in foil and stored in the fridge, salted butter can last for five months, while unsalted butter lasts about three before going stale. (Spot stale butter by slicing into the stick; the outside will be darker than the inside.) Then again, many people don't store butter in the fridge to begin with.
cooking with butter Sometimes, when you want a nuttier flavor, you'll want to let the butter's foam subside. But butter has a low smoke point, so be careful using it as your cooking fat. It'll burn easily. Clarified butter, or ghee, has a higher smoke point (and also makes a tasty dipping sauce for crab, lobster and anything else).
roux-dimentary Butter forms the foundation for countless classic sauces and thickeners, including béchamel, beurre manié and roux.
what you need
Have you ever wanted to make fresh butter at home? This traditional butter churn is based on the famous Dazey churn from the early 20th century.
You can also make a small batch of butter by putting cream in a jar and shaking it for a long, long time until you've shaken it solid.
The water-cooled crock owners we know swear by the constant supply of creamy, spreadable butter they keep on their tables.
Other butter lovers who shun the refrigerator prefer the classic rectangular butter dish.
what you do
Sage and butter are absolutely delicious together. How delicious? Try this rich and pillowy tortellini with sage brown butter and parmesan to find out.
Steamy Kitchen likes to top her slow butter- braised asparagus with parmesan and sea salt. With that savory finale, you definitely don't need salted butter.
Drizzling roasted sweet potatoes with cilantro-lime butter gives them a burst of tart richness.
Salted butter might interfere with the complex sugar-spice interaction in these orange-scented popovers with cinnamon-orange honey.
These better-for-you whole-grain flapjacks from hogwash are made with quinoa, millet and flaxseed. After using butter to grease the pan, you can afford to use a little extra on the cakes themselves.
Coconut & Lime's worked out one of the fastest and tastiest cinnamon bun recipes out there.
Flat-leaf parsley vs. curly-leaf parsley
Flat-leaf parsley vs. curly-leaf parsley
Italian, or flat leaf, parsley has flat leaves as its name suggests, and many cooks prefer it for its more pronounced flavor, as it contains more essential oils than the curly leaf variety.
Curly leaf parsley is most often used as a garnish to add color to plates of monochromatic food or to dress up seafood displays.
While parsley is generally used for its leaves, parsley stems actually contain more flavor. Finely dice them and add to stocks, sauces, sautés and other preparations for added taste and vitamins.
Recipe: Barbara Kafka's Parsley Soup (Cookthink)
Recipe: Tortellini With Tarragon, Chives And Parsley (Cookthink)
Parsley used to be a gross-looking garnish on the side of your plate. Now, we think of it as one of the best go-to herbs to work into your cooking. It adds a bright but relatively neutral herbal flavor to almost any dish.To prep it, first rinse and shake dry the leaves. Hold the bouquet at an angle with the leaves against the cutting board. Run your knife down the side of the bouquet to slice away the leaves. It's fine to remove some of the tender stems along with the leaves.Now just run your knife back and forth across the pile of leaves, chopping them as coarsely or as finely as you need to. The closer to the end of the cooking you plan to add the parsley, the finer you'll want to chop it. But since parsley's so tender it's usually okay to keep the the chop coarse.
Chopping is probably the most common way to prep an onion. Chopped onions show up in anything that needs the basic, earthy pungent flavor that onions give. Chop them larger for longer-cooking dishes like stews and rustic soups, and smaller (call it a dice if you like) for anything from salsas to sauces to ragouts.
To start, cut the onion in half through the root. The root itself will help keep the onion together for chopping
Rotate the onion 90 degrees and cut off the papery end (not the root end). This will make the skin easy to peel away and discard.
Peel back the onion's papery skin. It's often easiest to peel away the first layer of the onion along with the skin.
Make a series of diagonal cuts (roughly 45 degrees) into the side of the onion. Keep more space between the slices for a large chop. Make the cuts closer together for a small chop or a dice.
Now make a series of horizontal cuts to finish shaping the chop or dice.
Finally, rotate the onion again and slice crosswise against the checkerboard pattern you made in the onion. The chopped pieces will fall away from the onion.
