Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

We aren’t a health food company so, if I’m honest, we don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about food additives. That being said, we are definitely proponents of buying fresh, local ingredients whenever possible and using high quality products that you can afford. I’m not sure where you’re located, but I would recommend seeking out a local farm to see if they make their own fresh dairy products. If not, for buttermilk, I know Kate’s Fresh Real Buttermilk from Maine and Organic Valley Low-fat Buttermilk do not contain carrageenan. The organic food industry in general is making a push to eliminate carrageenan from products labeled "organic" so more and more companies are removing it and/or replacing it with gellan gum. I would certainly look to organic producers for carrageenan-free products. A little background on carrageenan: Carrageenan is an extract from red seaweed called Irish Moss. This edible seaweed is native to the British Isles where it’s been used in traditional cooking for hundreds of years. It’s natural gelling ability makes it a common thickening ingredient in the commercial food industry. Here is an excellent article from NPR that explains some of the controversy on its purported toxicity:  https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/12/12/504558025/carrageenan-backlash-why-food-firms-are-ousting-a-popular-additive.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi William – Thanks for contacting us! I assume you are referring to our recipe for Lemon Lime Lacquered Grilled Chicken (Inihaw Na Manok)? Recipe here: https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/lemon-lime-barbeque-grilled-chicken-inihaw-na-manok-filipino If we were simply intending to use the marinade as a sauce with the same texture then, yes, we would have to cook it to kill any residual bacteria that may have been present from the raw chicken. However, at Milk Street, we are all about layering flavor and doing it as easily and possible. So, the reason we cook the marinade in our recipe is because we want to use those same ingredients (vinegar, ketchup, soy, garlic, bay, and lemon-lime soda) to flavor the chicken in another way. Rather than make an entirely new sauce to baste and serve with the chicken, we simply reduce the marinade to get a thick basting liquid and sauce. Doing so also creates a slightly different flavor profile than our marinade. Overall, the flavors are more concentrated - the sauce is sweeter, tangier, and saltier than as a marinade alone - so we are creating layers of flavor with the same ingredients. Because we are using this thick, sweet sauce to baste the chicken as it cooks, we cook the chicken over the cool side of the grill, using the ambient grill heat to cook the chicken through. Then we give it a quick blast over the hot side to brown it. This ensures the sauce won’t burn before the chicken cooks through. Indirect grilling is our go-to method for grilling chicken (or really any protein) where the surface would burn before the meat was cooked to the proper temperature.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Scott - we don't have a recipe at Milk Street that calls for Boursin cheese and Wondra flour. Perhaps it's from another source? Good luck in your search! 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.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Samantha - Only salt penetrates meat. Ground spices, sugar, citrus zest or any other seasoning besides salt just rest on the surface. You may taste them when you take a bite, but that’s just because it’s on the exterior. Salt, on the other hand, separates into ions—sodium and chloride—when it hits meat, which can work their way to the center, altering the protein so that it can better hold onto moisture and also amplifying flavor. Sprinkle a spice rub on right before cooking for good texture and a flavorful crust, but don’t expect it to do anything more. The spice rub for our Coriander-Orange Skirt Steak includes salt. You could keep the salt separate from the spices and apply it in advance to "dry brine" the meat if you wanted. Cuts 1" thick or less (such as skirt steak) really only need an hour or two for the salt to fully penetrate. Then apply the rest of the spice rub right before cooking. Thanks for writing us! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Chris Kimball

For TV, we do use new stuff (although I would love to use old stuff since that is what everyone else uses). That being said, Bar Keeper's Friend does work pretty well. I do find that adding water to a skillet with stuck-on bits and simmering the water works well. Enamel cast iron will never regain it's clean white interior but then it looks like you really cook! (Staub offers dark interiors which will not discolor readily.) Cutting boards will get stains but I have now converted to wood cutting boards. Like the feel of a knife on wood and any stains are part of the charm - I use a dark wood board. Otherwise, buy plastic boards and throw in dishwasher. However, thinner plastic boards always warp and become useless. Yes, we should do a video on cleaning - good idea! Try 1 TBSP of chlorine bleach per gallon of water for sanitizing plastic boards (although the dishwasher or hot soapy water is also fine).

Answered by Chris Kimball

Oddly enough, I have neighbors in Vermont who eat raw rhubarb like celery - just sprinkled with salt. For the rest of us, try a pickled rhubarb recipe - here is a recipe from Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/04/pickled-rhubarb-stalk-recipe.html

Answered by Chris Kimball

Not really - food will stick to stainless steel. BUT, you should check whether the bottom of your pan is perfectly flat - over time, most skillets will start to warp, developing a high spot in the middle. This means that the oil or butter will end up around the perimeter and the center will be dry. Another trick is to be sure to use enough oil - if you watch a wok-chef, they use a lot of oil in cooking and very little of it actually ends up in the food but it keeps the food from sticking. If your skillet is warped, throw it out and buy a new one but do not put a hot pan into a cold sink or cold water - that's the cause of warping.

Answered by Chris Kimball

Go to FOOD52 for a very good discussion of bacon cooking methods - https://food52.com/blog/23779-how-to-cook-bacon-best-way-make-bacon-in-the-oven-skillet I have tried all of these methods and although there is a lot of enthusiasm for the microwave method (very crispy, it's true) I agree that the taste is off. The rimmed baking sheet method is the winner hands down but takes longer. I have also tried adding water to the skillet and this does give you a slightly more evenly cooked result but still not perfect. However, the smell of cooking bacon on the stovetop is a critical part of the process for me so I stick with a large cast iron skillet and use medium-low heat. Maybe not the best method but it does get people out of bed in the AM.

Answered by Chris Kimball

You are correct - when purchasing pots and pans it is better to buy a fully clad pan where the internal metal - aluminum or copper - is encased in the outer aluminum and it reaches up the sides of the pan as well. This is especially important for sautéing for example. With a pressure cooker, most of the cooking is being done under pressure where this is not an issue. In addition, the overall weight of the cooker and the thickness of the metal is important. This particular Kuhn Rikon model (they have been making pressure cookers for over a half century) is very heavy and solid. With thinner construction, you should worry about the inside perimeter but with a thick, heavy pan you are much less likely to get hot spots. We have tested this pan here at Milk Street, by the way, and have not experienced any hot spots or burning on the bottom of the pan, even around the perimeter. The big issue is whether you want an electric pressure cooker or stovetop. We feel that electric models do a poor job sautéing and the metal is not nearly as thick as with a stovetop model. You can also consider an instant pot which is a pressure/slow cooker combo, but you are not going to get the serious, heavy-duty functionality of a good stovetop pressure cooker (although you do get the benefit of a timer and other controls).