Milk Street RecipesAsked Aug 28, 2020 by sheekha D.
I get that pizza dough requires dry toppings, but we still like sauce on the pizza. can we bake the crust without putting anything and then halfway we top it up with sauce and cheese?
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Sheekha - I spoke with Christopher Kimball - who created the recipe - and he said the following, "No, it won’t work. You really have to keep anything moist off the top to get a crispy top crust - moisture will ruin it even halfway through." Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.
Read MoreAsked Aug 28, 2020 by Kate R.
I've been cooking a lot less meat, and have been stretching to boost flavors, and one of the things I've found that can work is adding tea in the background. However, as I've moved from meat to more meat substitutes or alternative protiens (eggs or cheese instead of meat or meat-subs, for example,) I've begun to have difficulty balancing the flavors, ie I use a green and everything gets too vegetal and a bit metallic, I use a smoked black and the tannins become very apparent. Do you have any tips I can use to fix this? It's also generally when I do Asian-style noodle dishes, and I would like to branch out in ways that are not well...really obvious (making a barbecue sauce for a bean and nut "meat"loaf with a lapsang souchong base, or a mushroom sauce with an addition of a pu-erh, for example.)
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Kate - My advice would be to continue to use the tea, but just use less. Start by cutting back by 1/2 and work your way up until you find a flavor balance that works for you. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.
Read MoreAsked Aug 28, 2020 by Karen J.
Can you provide instructions for the Jollof Rice with Shrimp for those without an instapot? Thank you!!
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Karen - That recipe was based off a stovetop version we developed for one of our other cookbooks. You can find the stovetop version of the recipe here. The stovetop version doesn't call for shrimp, but you can easily add it when you add the peas at the end. The residual heat in the covered pot should cook the shrimp through during the 5 minutes it sits. If you find they aren't quite ready, just heat the pan over low to finish cooking them. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.
Read MoreAsked Aug 27, 2020 by Anthony Z.
In one of my last discussion posts, I mentioned how much I had come to value seasoning meat (beef, chicken, pork) twenty-four hours in advance. But now I am starting to wonder if it is necessary/valuable for some of the extended sous vide cooking times.
For instance, let's say I am going to cook a chuck roast sous vide for thirty-six hours. Is there still a benefit to seasoning the meat twenty-four hours ahead of time? or am I accomplishing the same function simply by means of the length of the sous vide bath?
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.
Read MoreAsked Aug 24, 2020 by Susan L.
I made your Pour in the Pan Pizza in your last magazine. FAB U LOUS!!! I'll be making it again and again. At any point can the dough be frozen and saved for other times to top and bake?
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Susan - I checked with Diane Unger, the recipe developer and our Director of Recipe Development and, because this dough is so wet, she doesn't advice freezing it. Best, Lynn C.
Read MoreAsked Aug 23, 2020 by Craig B.
Greetings Milk Street,
I do request you develop some trifle recipes and grilled flatbread recipes for your upcoming issues. I used a trifle recipe for July 4th from another source, and while it was very good. It lacked a crunchy element. Something like a homemade nut brittle or second sort of crunchier cookie would have been nice. As for grilled flatbread, I am going to try some recipes from other sources next month, including one developed 15 years ago, but I am sure you could come up with something more up to date. Middle Eastern, Greek, Adriatic, and Italian flavors would be the sort of grilled flatbread recipes I would prefer the most. I am sure some Indian subcontinent inspired grilled flatbreads would be fantastic too. Thank you and Regards,
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.
Read MoreAsked Aug 22, 2020 by Craig B.
Greetings Milk Street,
I would like a stovetop version of the chickpeas and Swiss chard recipe. I just saw an instapot version. I suppose the stovetop version would need to you soaked chickpeas, but what other changes would I need to make. Swiss Chard and garbanzo beans are two of my favorite ingredients, and I would hate to be unable to make that dish. Thanks
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Craig - Glad you found it! In case others are searching for it as well, here's the link. Best, Lynn C.
Read MoreAsked Aug 22, 2020 by Amy T.
Hi Milk Street team - are you doing some kind of experiment with recipe writing? Your use of metric vs non for both dry and wet ingredients seems to be all over the place, even within a single recipe. Why not consistently just show both with one in parentheses? I find myself more and more taking your English measurement and pouring it into a bowl or cup on my scale and annotating the book/magazine, esp. for baking. It would also be helpful for dough recipes to put the Kitchen-Aid speed in parens when saying things like ‘ low or medium low’. KA 2/3/4 would be helpful (of course if KA isn’t on-board with the reference or another sponsor has an issue, I guess you can’t. ). Thanks!
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Amy - I spoke with our Recipe Editor, Dawn Yanagihara, and she asked me to pass this along:
Thank you for your note. We’re always trying to improve our recipe style to make our recipes easier to follow, and we admit that in the early days of Milk Street we may not have been very consistent about metric weights and volume measurements. Just to be clear, we give metric weights along with volume measurements in only baking recipes because weights are more precise and help ensure success in recipes that are sensitive to variance in ingredient amounts; sweet recipes that do not involve baking use only volume measurements. Our kitchen uses metric weights when developing baking recipes but also tests with volume measurements to ensure good outcomes either way.
As for your suggestion about specifying speeds on KitchenAid mixers—we try as much as possible to not be brand-specific when it comes to kitchen equipment. We hope that regardless of the brand of appliance, cookware, bakeware or utensil, our recipes turn out so well that you want to make them again and again.
Happy Baking and Cooking!
Dawn
Read MoreAsked Aug 21, 2020 by Susan B.
Hello, I’m so grateful to Milk Street for having a wonderful cooking school in Boston. The last caramel I made was Milk Street’s recipe, Caramel Oranges: the simple magic trick of turning oranges into dessert. It was an exciting moment at Milk Street Cooking School where I tried this first hand, and yes it came out wonderfully. I’ve made this recipe several times with success, since.
In trying the Salt & Pepper Butterscotch recipe my first mistake may have been to assume there was some wiggle room in choosing the exact moment to take the caramel off the heat and add 4oz of water. My 6oz, 1.24 cups sugar mixture went from a sludge-like clump where it remained for awhile, then suddenly changed to liquid, and a black smoking tar so darn fast!
My second mistake I think was subbing moscavado in, because I was out of dark brown sugar in the recipe.
Third although my saucepan is All Clad, it may not have been the right choice for equipment.
in this recipe:
# SALT AND PEPPER BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING
Instructions:
In a large saucepan over medium-high, cook the butter and sugar, stirring, until vigorously bubbling, then continue to cook for 1 minute...
I could not get past the few seconds where my sugar and butter mixture was in a clump, then very briefly liquid and suddenly smoky black bubbles, let alone allowing it to stay in the bubbling state for one minute.
it took 3 highly dramatic tries, setting off the smoke alarms twice, and using 75% white sugar and 25% muscavado sugar to land results that were edible, which I finished up the recipe with.
The result was predictable too sweet as it lacked enough of the bitter notes in dark brown sugar, but edible.
each time it the caramel darkened more when I added the water to it. Lastly the consistency of my caramel after adding the water was very liquid, and barely thickened at all at this point., as you can see,
49334A6D-36F8-4EFE-AAFB-9F5AF7DC65EC.jpeg
An overly sweet, watery, burnt colored, dark brown liquid. And this was my best batch.
I’m so grateful for any tips you may have. If you rely on a particular sauce pan you’d like to recommend I’m interestingly to know more.
Thank you,
Susan.
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Susan - I spoke with Rebecca Richmond, the recipe developer, and she thinks it may have to do with the Muscovado sugar. The larger grains of Muscovado sugar (as compared to dark brown sugar) will take longer to dissolve and may be burning before they can fully melt. Likely due to the fact that there is more molasses in Muscovado than dark brown sugar. I would also try lowering the burner down to medium heat. It will take a little longer to reach the bubbling stage, but it will give you a bit more insurance against burning. You have a little bit more control over the speed of cooking and, in the event your stovetop runs a little hotter than ours, this will adjust for the temperature difference. I hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.
Read MoreAsked Aug 21, 2020 by Steve S.
The recipe is for 6-7 lb chuck roast at 325° for 2 hrs + 1-1.5 hrs.
How much would cooking times be reduced if making half recipe, so 3 - 3 1/2 lb roast? thx
Answered by Lynn Clark
Hi Steve - Since it's the size of the pieces of meat that matters more than the volume when it comes to cooking time, it's probably going to take close to the same amount of time to cook the pieces until they meet no resistance. I'd follow the recipe but start checking the meat a little early. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.
Read More 
