Cookware

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Steve - I don’t see any disadvantage to using a scraper mixer blade. I might stop the mixer once to confirm that it’s not leaving any unmixed bits on the bottom or sides, but these things do a pretty good job of getting the scraping done for you. I think it’s probably going to work pretty well. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Richard - Some of our recipes converted to the pressure cooker - plus many more new pressure cooker recipes - will be available in our new cookbook, Milk Street Fast & Slow, due in April 2020. Look for it in the Milk Street Store in early April! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Tamara - Carbon-steel pans are relatives of cast-iron cookware. Both are made from iron, but cast-iron contains slightly more carbon, giving it a rougher surface and more brittle structure. Carbon-steel pans, with more iron and less carbon, are lighter and their surface is smoother, especially the case as compared to modern cast iron pans. Vintage cast iron tends to be smoother and more similar to carbon steel. Cast iron will get a bit hotter than carbon steel but will take longer to heat up and cool down. So, for recipes or foods that require quick temperature changes - maybe a recipe where you're searing skin-on fish and then lowering the temp to finish cooking it through - a carbon steel might be a better bet. Whereas for quick, hot cooking - searing a steak or charring vegetables - a cast iron pan is a little better. Both will behave pretty similarly if used in the oven. A carbon steel pan is great for sautéing vegetables or making stir fries without a wok since it's surface gets ripping hot but it's a bit lighter than cast iron making it easier to lift and shake around. All of that being said, I would say they are pretty interchangeable under most circumstances. Hope that helps! Best. Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Marissa - First I would say, "don't mess with perfection!" :-) If you are loving the way your bars and breads are turning out, I would keep doing what you're doing and continue baking them in your glass pans. Glass is an insulator. This means that it's slower to heat up but will hold heat longer. This is why it's taking longer to bake your brownies and banana bread than recipes suggest. The downside is that it takes longer for the center to cook so the edges may overcook before the center is baked through which can cause the sides to rise higher than the center. I find that, especially with baked goods, personal preferences are wildly varied. So, while most experts and professionals would say that a metal pan is the preferred choice, you may prefer results in a glass baking dish. If you do decide to make the switch to metal, choose a light-colored aluminum pan which will offer more consistent heating and browning. Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Madeliene - I checked in with the recipe developers who worked on our Durotherm recipes and they said they can be modified to traditional cookware. In some cases, our Durotherm recipes are the same as the corresponding traditional recipe whereas in others we had to make some key changes. Was there a particular recipe you were hoping to make? It might help me pinpoint what changes to make in that particular recipe. Let me know! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Maureen - First, let's talk about steeling (also called honing) vs. sharpening. Although the Chantry Knife Sharpener is marketed as a sharpener, it is really a honing device made up of two butcher's steels. Unlike sharpening, which removes metal from the edge, steeling is really aligning the edge in a less aggressive manner. A properly steeled edge has the knife edge in alignment so the edge cuts in a nice fine line. Because its purpose isn't to remove metal from the edge, it cannot take a dull edge and refine it to a new sharpened edge. Steels will re-align an already sharp blade but won't actually sharpen a dull blade.The purpose of the Chantry Steel is to keep your knives sharp so you don't have to sharpen them as frequently. Ideally you would periodically send your knife to a professional to sharpen or use a whetstone and then maintain the blade using your Chantry or a honing steel. Either way, you can't use the Chantry (or any other single-slot knife sharpener) on Asian knives. Asian knives require a different honing angle than European chef's knives. European knives are honed to 18 to 20 degrees whereas Asian knives are honed to 15 to 17 degrees. At Milk Street we recommend the Kitchen IQ Angle Adjust or the Chef's Choice Pronto Pro for easy at-home sharpening of different styles of knives because they offer different slots for different honing angles. Thanks for writing in! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Joshua - The best part of the Danish Dream Cake is the broiled topping - it's got a gooey layer hidden beneath a crunchy, caramelized topping - but the only way to achieve that perfect topping is using a broiler. The only pan option for this cake is an aluminum (not nonstick) 9 x 13 baking pan. I see these a lot in discount stores for under $10 or you can purchase one online for about $15 (they even come with a lid to keep the cake fresh). Trust me, it's well worth it for this cake! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Richard - I apologize for missing your question! A ceramic tart pan is great for taking a tart or quiche right to the table since it doubles as a stunning serving dish. Just know it will be a bit more difficult to serve that first slice since it doesn't have a removable bottom. However, pans without a removable bottom are particularly good for crustless quiches since the filling won't leak out through the removable bottom. Our recipes are developed in a standard 9" tart pan, which has a capacity of about 4 cups. The Emile Henry Slim Tart Pan capacity is 1.7 quarts, or 6.8 cups. Therefore, the recipe ingredients would have to be multiplied by 1.7 to accommodate the larger capacity of your pan. However, it's always tricky when converting recipes for baking so you may find that some tweaks to this conversion might be necessary. Another thing to consider - stoneware conducts heat more slowly than glass or metal so the baking time may be longer and you may not get as much browning on the bottom of your crust. Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

We don't do equipment reviews here at Milk Street but we couldn't live without our food processors! A food processor is great for prepping vegetables, grating cheese, chopping nuts, and making doughs. The food processors we use at Milk Street are in the 10 to 14-cup capacity range. This size is great for large-quantity pestos, like our Peruvian Pesto, and for shredding vegetables like the carrots in our French Carrot Salad. A small food processor (under 6 cups) is technically considered a food chopper, rather than a food processor. This means it will be able to chop small amounts of vegetables, make sauces, dressings, marinades, and bread crumbs, but will not come with a slicing or grating blade (like we use for the French Carrot Salad) and the work bowl will be too small to make doughs and larger volumes of sauces. If a food chopper does meet your needs, you'll want to look for one in the 3 1/2 - 4 cup range that includes a feeding tube for best performance. There are only a few out there that have a feeding tube in this size range and you should be able to find one for $40-$50. In order to get all of the features of a true food processor you would need to go up to at least an 8-cup capacity food processor. Personally, I have an 8-cup food processor which is considered pretty small by most people's standards. Sometimes I have to work in batches, but it generally performs most tasks I need it to and includes a slicing and grating disk. I think this size would still be under $100 and doesn't take up too much space on the countertop. Good luck and thanks for writing us! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Chris Kimball

The easier method is to place a tablespoon or two of oil in the pan before heating and when it starts to ripple AND JUST STARTS TO SMOKE, the pan is ready for sautéing. Use an oil with a relatively high smoke point - I prefer Grapeseed oil as my go-to cooking oil although a refined olive oil will also have a high smoke point (roughly 450 degrees). All that being said, I do not preheat my pan when cooking garlic or onions - I prefer gentle heat which I think draws out the flavor better and avoids burning. I avoid canola oil since I find that it has a slightly fishy flavor. And, you are correct, heat levels for stovetops are completely meaningless. Barbara Lynch, a local Boston chef, once told me to LISTEN to the food as it cooks - that is the best way to judge heat level. Onions need a gentle sizzle whereas searing a steak will be louder and more aggressive. Two other suggestions. Make sure that the bottom of your pan is perfectly flat otherwise the oil will pool around the perimeter. This makes the pan unusable. Second, use enough oil. Hot oil will coat the food much better than the metal of the skillet, creating more even cooking.