What is extra-virgin olive oil?
What is extra-virgin olive oil?
Extra-virgin olive oil is the precious unrefined first result of cold-pressing olives to make a fruity liquid that contains less than one percent acid.
Extra-virgin olive oil is the most expensive olive oil variety, and it is best appreciated in salads or as a garnish to give preparations a final flourish. If you are using olive oil to cook, it's fine to use regular olive oil.
Greece is the #1 consumer of olive oil in the world and also the leading producer of extra virgin olive oils, which account for 82 percent of their olive oil production. The U.S. is not a member of the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC), which regulates olive oil standards worldwide, and the IOOC does not recognize the U.S. standards for extra-virgin oil.
There is much controversy in the olive oil world, with accusations of corruption and adulteration smearing consumer confidence and shedding doubt on the purity of so-called virgin olive oil.
When you want a dish to have quintessential garlic flavor that permeates each bite, mince it. You can mince with a knife, or a garlic press.
Either way, you need to free the individual cloves. To do that, press down on the head with the heel of your palm. Apply firm, even pressure so the cloves don't fly all over the place.
To peel an individual clove, cut of the hard stem end where the clove attached to the bulb. Either stop the cut just short of the skin on the other side and peel the skin around to remove it, or make the cut all the way through and squeeze out the clove. The older the clove, the easier the skin releases.
You can also peel it by setting the side of your knife blade on the clove and pressing down until you feel the skin release, though not hard enough to pulverize it, or the skin will get mixed in with the garlic.
To mince with a knife, smash the peeled clove with the side of the knife. Then just run your knife back and forth across the smashed clove, chopping as you go until it's as fine as you like.
If you don't want individual little pieces of garlic and have a press, just put the whole peeled clove (or cloves, if you can fit them) in the press and squeeze. Use your knife to trim away any clinging garlic.
Storing fresh herbs is a battle against the inevitable, but here are a few tips for keeping them alive in time for you to eat them up:
1 Set a bushy herb like parsley, cilantro, chervil, or mint in a shallow glass of water and keep it on the counter or in the refrigerator for several days, just like a bouquet.
2 Or, rinse it, wrap it loosely in a paper or dish towel while still damp, and place it (with or without a plastic bag covering) in the crisper or at the bottom of the fridge.
3 Sturdy herbs such as rosemary or thyme can be stored in paper or loose plastic (either keep it loose or puncture some air holes to let out moisture). Or you can simply hang them upside down in the kitchen, where they will dry slowly.
4 Do not manhandle delicate herbs like chives, tarragon or basil. Rinse lightly, wrap loosely in paper and place in a plastic bag in the crisper.
5 Fresh herbs should last about a week if stored properly. If you're at the end of your garden's season and you have a tons of herbs left unused, you can most herbs to have later in the year. Kalyn's Kitchen breaks down the best way to freeze basil, rosemary and thyme.
Reference: Marjoram vs. oregano (Cookthink)
Reference: How to make pesto (Cookthink)
Here's a fast, methodical way to dice a bell pepper. First, cut off the top end. (Once you're done dicing the full pepper, you can slice off the edges of the top to use.)Next cut off the bottom. Save it to slice or dice, too.Split the pepper from top to bottom with a single cut.Pull out the pepper's core, and discard it.Now just unfold the pepper like a book. Some peppers will break apart here, which is fine.Cut the pepper into sections along the white bitter ribs, which you'll want to remove. This way they're easier to get at with a knife.Hold the knife parallel to the cutting board and cut between the ribs and the red flesh below.Now you're left with relatively flat sectioned pieces of bell pepper. Slice them into thick or thin strips, depending on the size dice you want.To complete the dice, rotate the strips 90 degrees and slice them crosswise.
What does "high on the hog" mean?
What does "high on the hog" mean?
To eat high on the hog originally meant to eat the cuts taken from the loin and leg—ham, chops and loin—that were generally considered to be the best cuts of pork.
The phrase has come to denote eating well in a more general sense. One can be said to be living high on the hog during prosperous good times, but the phrase is also used to describe someone living extravagantly or beyond one's means.
Recipe: Pan-Roasted Pork Chops With Mustard-Caper Sauce (Cookthink)
Recipe: Pan-Seared Pork Medallions (Cookthink)
Reference: What is Boston butt? (Cookthink)
Reference: How to tie a pork tenderloin (Cookthink)
(Image courtesy of Wessels Living History Farm.)
Once a prize kept under lock and key in wealthy households, sugar is now ubiquitous and comes in many forms. Most commercial sugar is made from cane or beet root. Here's a look at the most common types of sugar used in the kitchen.
Granulated white sugar: White sugar is highly refined and made from sugarcane or beets. This all-purpose refined white sugar has small but fairly coarse crystals and is used to sprinkle on food, sweeten beverages, or add to dishes during cooking. Golden granulated sugar is a brown sugar made from sugar cane molasses that is similar but has a light brown color.
Castor (caster) or superfine sugar: This refined white sugar has fine crystals that dissolve more quickly than regular granulated sugar, making it a good choice for baking meringues. Golden castor sugar is made from unrefined cane sugar.
Brown sugar: Brown sugar is nothing more than white sugar that has been mixed with molasses to color it and give it a moist texture. Light brown sugar has less molasses than dark brown sugar. Brown sugar should not be confused with raw sugar, which has a similar color and taste but is actually the residue from processed sugarcane.
Turbinado sugar: A sugar cane extract that is made by steaming unrefined raw sugar. It has large crystals and a slight molasses flavor. It's a shade paler than brown sugar and can be substituted for brown sugar in recipes. We like to use turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top of muffins, cookies and scones. It holds its texture well and, when cooked, has a nice sweet crunch.
Demerara Sugar: True Demerara sugar is raw or partly refined sugar with large crystals, but some impostors are nothing more than white sugar stained with molasses.
Muscovado Sugar: This raw cane sugar comes in light and dark varieties and is used to make cakes and desserts.
Powdered, icing or confectioner's sugar: This sugar is made by reducing granulated sugar to a powder and mixing it with starch to prevent it from lumping up. It's used to decorate cakes and can also be used in making sweet dishes and baked goods.
Whenever you're planning to cook a big batch of greens (collards, mustards, kale, etc.), dedicate a couple of clean kitchen towels for their prep.
First, fill a large bowl with cold water and submerge the greens. Swish them around in the water, lift them out and repeat with another bowl of clean water. Then spread 2 large kitchen towels onto the counter, overlapping end to end. Lift the greens out of the water and shake them to remove some of the excess water. Then line the greens up on top of the kitchen towels and roll them up.
If you're not ready to cook them, just put the big cylinder of greens into the refrigerator — the moist towels keep them fresh.
what you should know
In the 1500s, Europeansfound turkeys in Mexico, domesticated them back at home and then repatriated them to America when they settled in the new world.
Our big, bland national bird was prized by Pilgrims and it's still the main event at our annual feast of shared blessings and family feuds.
party fowl Ben Franklin's suggestion that the national bird be changed from the eagle to the turkey was largely ignored, as was his cooking advice. For an "uncommonly tender" turkey, he recommendedelectrocution.
pilgrim's path Modern culinary wisdom holds thatbrining is the path to a perfectly cooked turkey, but Kim Severson points out that the pilgrims didn't brine.
caged bird Farm-raised turkeys may be too fat to fly, but lithe wild turkeys do just fine in the air.
feathered friend Big Bird's famous yellow carapace is made from dyed turkey tailfeathers.
what you need
Barbara Kafka's Roasting tells you everything you need to know about roasting a holiday turkey.
Make sure you don't overdo your bird with a "super-fast" instant read thermometer that's as bright red as a turkey wattle.
Pause to consider the meaning of Thanksgiving with Barbara Rainey's history of the holiday, meant to be read aloud to the family.
what you need
There's more than one way to cook a Thanksgiving bird: classically roasted,glazed with maple syrup, smothered with sambal or cider gravy, or garnished with chestnuts and mushrooms.
Turkey tenders replace veal in a lovely, lean saltimbocca.
A meaty smoked turkey wing replaces the traditional ham hock in a homey heirloom bean and rice dish.
Liven up leftover turkey by wrapping it into these crisp spring rolls or immersing it in a spicy mole poblano.
Featured: Take the stress out of Thanksgiving with a quick-cooking, no-carve deconstructed turkey that is more than the sum of its parts.
Find more turkey recipes at Cookthink.com. And if you haven't yet signed up for a free account at Cookthink, do it now!
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.
Whether it's visible or not, vegetables usually have dirt, dust and other residue on them. Here's an easy and thorough way to wash all kinds of leafy greens:
Grab a bowl large enough to easily hold the greens and fill it with lukewarm water. Submerge the greens in the water and shake them back and forth to dislodge or dissolve the dirt. Then just lift the greens out of the water so the dirt stays behind. Pour out the water and repeat with clean water until the water stays clear when you pull out the greens.
Vinegar is basically fermented wine. You know how that forgotten bottle of red takes on a thin, shrill quality when you neglect to drink it in a timely fashion? It's on its way to becoming vinegar. (The French word for vinegar, vinaigre, literally means "sour wine.")
Made since the Gallo-Roman era, vinegar gots its official stamp of approval when vinegarmaking was declared an official occupation in 1580 by Henri IV. It's a pretty simple process: vinegar is made using a bacterial process in which naturally fermented wine is converted into a weak acetic acid that lends vinegar its sour taste.
Vinegar quality depends on the quality of the ingredients from which it is made. There are many types of vinegar, which can be made from wine, spirits, Champagne, rice or honey. It can be infused with tarragon, raspberry and even rose petals.
Reference: The Vinegar Institute's FAQ
Recipe: Quick Pickled Cucumbers and Sweet Onions
Recipe: Balsamic Vinegar Sauce
