Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi - Thanks for writing to us! Our recipe for Cuban-Style Pork Shoulder with Mojo Sauce calls for a 4 to 5 pound pork shoulder with a total roasting time of about 3 1/2 hours. That translates to about 40 minutes per pound for a 5-pound pork shoulder. For a 7-pound roast that would mean between 4 to 5 hours of roasting time. Given the larger size of the meat, I would also definitely recommend allowing the salt mixture to sit on the meat for the full 24 hour period. And don't forget to double the herb-garlic paste ingredients! Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Lizbeth - The toothpick test is a popular technique to tell when a cake is done, but i agree it can be a bit unreliable. Fudgy chocolate cakes and rich carrot cakes are considered fully baked while a few crumbs are still attached to a toothpick or tester. I usually pull all cakes out of the oven while there are still a few crumbs attached to a cake tester or toothpick since, due to carryover cooking, the cake will continue to bake. A better test of doneness is to touch the top of the cake in the center. If the cake feels firm and springy to the touch, the cake is probably done. If the batter sticks to your finger or the cake doesn’t spring back, it’s not. If you do want to take the temperature of your cake, first ensure that you don’t take it too soon. The hole made by the thermometer could affect the rise. Close to the end of the baking time take the temperature in the center of the cake (making sure you don’t hit the pan bottom). For most cakes you’re looking for 200-205 degrees. For lighter angel food cakes or sponge cakes, a temperature between 205-210 degrees is better.  Thanks for writing in! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Eileen - Thanks for purchasing from our store. We can't get enough of that Pistacchiosa Spread. I love it straight out of the jar, but it's even better spread on toast with a little honey, sea salt, and ricotta cheese. We haven't developed an ice cream recipe with it yet (we should!) but David Lebovitz, who has been a guest on our radio and TV shows, made a gelato using a similar spread. It's not the exact same brand we sell in our store but it's probably a good place to start. David is not only a friend of Milk Street but he wrote a book on ice cream, so we would consider him a pretty reliable expert! Here is a link to his recipe - https://www.davidlebovitz.com/pistachio-gelat/. Good luck and let us know how you like it! 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

Hi Ramona - Unfortunately, I think it's pretty difficult to reheat steak without overcooking it. The most successful method I've found is to reheat in a low oven (200-250 degrees) and then sear quickly in a hot pan. This can take at least 30 minutes, however, and the steak can still become a bit dry. Since I don't really mind cold steak on a salad, I often make our Thai Beef Salad using leftover steak (assuming it is simply seasoned with salt and pepper) when I'm looking for a quick, no-cook meal on a hot summer day. Hope this helps and thanks for writing us! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Elizabeth - Lucky you! The sundried tomatoes that you got in Sicily aren't all that different than the ones that are packed in oil. The ones packed in oil are dried the same way - either using the oven, a dehydrator, or in the sun - and then added to oil that may also include additional flavorings like garlic and herbs. Because of this, the flavor may not be as potent as the ones that are simply dried. In general with sundried tomatoes, a little goes a long way. You could try substituting some of the grape tomatoes in our Sicilian Trapanese Pesto with some rehydrated sundried tomatoes. However, you may find that you need to add extra cooking water as the sundried tomatoes won't have as much moisture as the grape tomatoes. Our food editor, Matt Card, makes a fantastic Pasta con Fagioli with sundried tomatoes from our recipe for White Beans with Rosemary and Thyme in our Sunday Cook series, which features recipes to cook on Sunday from which multiple recipes can be made during the week. You can find all of our Sunday Cook features by searching "Sunday Cook" on the website. Capers packed in salt are actually much more flavorful than those packed in a vinegar brine. Rather than tasting the vinegar, you get the caper's natural, floral flavor. To use, rinse in water and then, depending on how much salt you want in the dish, soak them for up to 15 minutes to draw out the salt. Taste them as you go to gauge saltiness keeping in mind that as you soak you are losing some of the caper's flavor as well. These capers would be best served raw in a salad to maintain their fresh, floral notes. Thanks for writing to us! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Lily - We love using preserved lemons here at Milk Street. They add a briney, yet tart, depth to a whole host of dishes. In fact, Milk Streeters love them so much our favorite, Casablanca Market Preserved Lemons, are currently sold out of the Milk Street Store. Because conventional lemons are easier to find, we did not test our Lemon-Saffron Chicken (Tangia) recipe with preserved lemons. So my recommendation is to experiment! I would start with one or two small preserved lemons, chopped fine. Add them at the end, off the heat, as you would the zest and juice called for in the recipe. From there, you might want to experiment with adding some preserved lemon with the spices and the remainder off the heat to add different layers of flavor. Since preserved lemons are not quite as tart or sour as fresh lemons, you may want to add a little bit of fresh lemon juice at the end as well to brighten up the flavors. I hope this helps and happy cooking! 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 Lynn Clark

Hi Fei - Since we have not tested this recipe in the oven it is hard to give a definitive answer on time, temperature and results. Especially with a recipe that we're baking with yeast. My first question would be - why would you prefer to do it in the oven? One of the best characteristics of this bread is its deeply browned, crispy crust which is achieved, in part, by cooking over direct heat. The other element here is steam. The bread is covered for a little more than half of the cooking time, which not only helps the bread cook through, but also creates steam. As bread bakes, its outer layer (crust) eventually reaches 180°F. At that point, the starches on the surface burst and then harden to a crackly consistency. Steam hitting the bread’s surface facilitates this process. You could certainly try to do this entirely in the oven either in a cast iron skillet or on a baking steel. However, I doubt it would be anywhere near the same as the version we've developed. I'm guessing a relatively hot oven would be necessary to get any browning - probably 450 degrees? As for timing, I think it would be best to temp the bread to determine when it's fully baked. For a bread like this we recommend 210 degrees on an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread. Again, we haven't tested this so I am just making guesses. Good luck and thanks for writing to us!

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Jason - I actually make our Chiang Mai chicken on the grill all the time. It's a great alternative to standard American BBQ chicken on a hot summer day. I grill it using indirect heat - the same basic method as the Lemon-Lime Lacquered Chicken - but because the Chiang Mai chicken calls for leg quarters and breasts, rather than chicken parts, the cooking time will be a bit longer. Just make sure to temp the chicken (160 degrees for the breasts and 175 for the leg quarters) and you should be good to go. I do usually grill it over the hot side of the grill at the end to get the skin crispy, but I am comfortable with a little bit of char on the skin. This only takes a couple of minutes since all of the fat has rendered during the slow, indirect cooking process. You do need to keep a close eye on it, though, because it definitely can burn due to the glaze. For recipes with fish sauce, as long as you are doubling all of the ingredients it should be fine to double the fish sauce since everything should still be in proportion and balanced. However, you can always add some and taste as you add more until you feel happy with the flavor. I highly recommend Red Boat brand fish sauce and we carry their aged version, which has really complex flavor that has mellowed during the aging process, in the Milk Street Store. You can read about it and purchase it here: https://store.177milkstreet.com/products/blis-barrel-aged-fish-sauce. Thanks for writing us!