Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Lisa - Our Director of Recipe Development, Diane Unger, says that the recipes were tested in an 8 quart Instant Pot as well and that the times were the same as in the 6 quart Instant Pot, so you should be good to go! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Mildred - If you are making recipes that call for flour by weight (which we highly recommend!), you can just use the weight called for in the recipe. When we did testing to determine our standard weight for 1 cup of a variety of flours we didn't find a huge difference among bread flour brands. For Milk Street recipes, we consider 1 cup of bread flour equal to 137 grams. But, we always call for weights in our recipes anyway. For recipes that call for a volume measurement it's a little bit trickier since the weight of flour is determined by how it's measured. Some people measure using the dip-and-sweep method, others use the spooning method. These methods and how heavy-handed each person is affects the weight of the flour. To determine our standard weights we had dozens of people measure flour and took an average of those measurements. Since weighing methods and standards vary by recipe author, you can't really transfer the weights from one recipe to another. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C. #

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi John - I'm not sure what you've tried, so it's hard to make suggestions about ingredients and technique. I think a yeast-based dough rather than a baking powder dough is going to give you better rise and texture. Also, a good naan recipe will have fat in it, usually in the form of dairy and, specifically, yogurt. The fat in the dairy serves to impede gluten development. This, in turn, yields a much softer-textured dough. Assuming you've got a tender dough already, there are a few areas where things could be going wrong. How are you measuring your flour? We recommend measuring by weight, especially in baking and bread-making. By using volume measurements, you could be adding too much flour causing the dough to be dry. Second, are you rolling out the naan (and rolling too thin)? This would yield a more crisp, bread-like dough. By rolling you deflate some of the air the yeast has produced in the dough. We prefer pressing out and forming pizza dough and flatbreads by hand to ensure they stay light and airy. Have you tried our flatbread dough? I use this all the time for flatbread-style pizza and I think it could be the right style of dough. I'd probably divide the dough into four pieces rather than two to turn it into smaller naan. Cook the dough on a pizza steel or in a cast-iron skillet and brush with melted butter after it's cooked. You may want to replace some of the water in the dough with olive oil to add a little more richness. It may take some experimenting, but I think it could be a good place to start. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Deborah - You can search the website for recipes by clicking the small magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the web page. The Milk Street Store has its own search field on that page. Let us know if you are still having trouble and we can help guide you through. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Carol - I spoke with the recipe developer, Julia Rackow, and she had this to say: It may be the brand of orecchiette. Some orecchiette is simply thicker than others. I just did some digging and De Cecco orecchiette (which we used during testing) cooks in 9-10 minutes, while Barilla cooks in 12-13. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it would definitely make a difference in the IP. The headnote says that any pasta, orecchiette or otherwise, with a 10 minute cook time works, so you can double check your packaging to see if it's in a different range. The pasta took so long after the lid came off because of the low water level. It doesn't need the extra water in a closed environment, but with the lid off, the low water level would make it take longer. I hope that helps. Let us know if you have any more questions!

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Jan - While the oranges and caramel are in the fridge, the caramel will settle on the bottom of the pan. The caramel does not harden in the fridge because it's already pretty loose (we add orange juice to it after it cooks) and continues to loosen in the fridge as some of the juice releases from the oranges. After the oranges and caramel chill, the instructions say to remove the oranges from the baking dish with a slotted spoon and transfer to individual dishes. After you remove the oranges you rewhisk the caramel sauce (to combine the caramel with the juice that has released from the oranges) and pour some of it over the oranges on the individual serving dishes. I recommend serving it in bowls with some plain greek yogurt - the caramel sauce is great on top of the yogurt! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Shary - you can definitely search by ingredient in our search field. For example, if I search for "shrimp" every recipe that calls for shrimp appears in my search. Unfortunately, I cross-checked the results on the website with our internal database and I can't find a recipe for a dish with shrimp, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms. We do have this recipe for Fregola with Shrimp and Tomatoes and Spiced Shrimp and Tomatoes with Fresh Mint. These both have tomatoes and shrimp, but not mushrooms. Sorry I can't find what you're looking for. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Donna - We asked Christopher Kimball this question and you can find his answer here. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Jim - First, it's not unusual to see some dark residue when you wipe a seasoned carbon steel or cast iron skillet with a paper towel. I don't think it's the heat of the oven however I think Christopher Kimball would probably argue it's your seasoning method. See here for his recommendations on seasoning and cleaning carbon steel. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Manoj - This sounds fantastic. We love Red Boat fish sauce too. Thanks for sharing! Best, Lynn C.