Cooking

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Anne - Our Korean-Style Spicy Pork is actually a bulgogi recipe. Even better, it's from our new cookbook, Cookish, which means it comes together in a snap with a few flavorful ingredients. Hope you like it! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Glover - We get this question a lot and Christopher Kimball and Sara Moulton did a great breakdown on canola and vegetable oil in this link. At the end of the article there is also a link to our testing on high-heat cooking oils with surprising results. Our favorite for high-heat cooking, and the one that consistently had the highest smoke point, was grapeseed oil, which is made from grape seeds, a byproduct of wine-making. Safflower oil—made by extracting oil from the seeds of the safflower, a cousin of the sunflower—was the second-most durable. And the biggest surprise: olive oil. Though extra-virgin olive oil is ill suited for high-heat cooking (we prefer it for off-heat applications such as vinaigrettes and for a finishing drizzle of flavor), we were impressed by how hot we could get refined olive oil. Avocado and refined coconut oil would be fine for a sauté over medium heat, but I wouldn't use them for high-heat searing or sautéing. Safflower, grapeseed, vegetable and canola are all in the same basic category. We like grapeseed or safflower, since they don't produce the "off" (sometimes described as "fishy") flavors that canola and vegetable oil do. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi John - Browned onions and caramelized onions are two different things. Caramelized onions are generally cooked for a longer time (1/2 hour or so) over lower heat. This yields sweet, soft onions that are great on a burger, pizza, or sandwich. Browned onions are usually quickly cooked and yield crispier, slightly more bitter onions. A couple of key things for properly caramelized onions - make sure to use a large enough pan. If the pan is too small, the moisture released from the onions will not evaporate and the onions won't caramelize. Second, don't overcrowd the pan. Again, if there are too many onions, the moisture won't evaporate and the onions will brown unevenly. For browned onions, we generally cook these over medium or medium-high. Everyone's stovetop is different so our "medium" in a recipe may align more closely with your medium-high. If you find they aren't browning in the time called for in the recipe you can either cook them longer until they start to brown or increase the heat (or both). Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Joshua - I assume you are referring to our Lasagna Bolognese recipe? We haven't tested this with homemade noodles, but I would probably follow the directions for soaking the noodles, but wouldn't soak them for the full 10 minutes. Just enough to moisten the noodles so they don't absorb too much of the sauce. Again, we haven't tested this in our kitchen, but that would be my advice based on the recipe notes. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Larry - It actually is probably the altitude. The key factor is declining air pressure at higher altitudes. Falling air pressure lowers the boiling point of water by just under 1 degree Fahrenheit for each 500 feet of increased elevation. The lower boiling point means water will cook off more quickly, and at a lower temperature. Therefore, certain moist-heat cooking methods, boiling and braising, for example, can take up to 25% longer to properly cook food at altitude than at sea level. Next time I'd continue cooking until a knife or skewer inserted in the meat meets little or no resistance. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Joshua - We haven't explored making our own bacon at Milk Street, but we would recommend Meathead Goldwyn's recipe, which you can find here. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Craig - Even if you add more acid to your mayonnaise it's impossible to know if it's enough to prevent bacteria growth in the mayonnaise. Although it's probably not going to be instant food poisoning, I'd still recommend only keeping homemade mayo for a week or, at most, two. The only way to safely extend the shelf life of homemade mayonnaise is to use pasteurized eggs. Some higher-end stores carry pasteurized eggs or you can try to pasteurize eggs yourself at home. There are several methods for home pasteurization - sous vide, microwave, or stovetop - which involve slowly heating the egg yolks to 160 degrees before making the mayo. Because this \may\ cause the yolks to thicken and not properly emulsify, you may need to add some water while heating to keep them more fluid. It may take a bit of trial and error, but you could then store your mayonnaise for about a month. Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

What a great story, Ron! Thanks so much for sharing. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Anthony - I don't think you need to season in advance and could make the meat texture a little wonky. Simply seasoning it prior to sealing should provide enough salt that, over the course of the 36 hours, it will be pretty well-seasoned. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Craig - I will pass along your recipe suggestions to our Food Editor and our editorial team. Thanks for the suggestions! In the meantime, have you tried our Raspberry-Pistachio Meringue? Not quite a trifle, but it \does\ have that crunchy element you are seeking and I think you could easily add some cake and custard to it to make it seem more trifle-like. Might be worth a try! As for flatbreads, we have several in our database: Piadina - https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/piadina Middle-Eastern Style with yeast - https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/flatbread-pizza-dough Middle-Eastern Style with baking powder - https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/yogurt-flatbreads-with-flavored-butter Each of these has topping suggestions that accompany the recipes. We are constantly on the hunt for new recipes we can introduce to our readers, so we will continue to search for flatbreads as we travel around the world. Thanks for writing! Best, Lynn C.