/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Some questions I have:

What is the best way to remove the earthy taste of the softer (e.g. russet) potatoes? Is it best to just soak the potatoes for a bit before you use them?

Frying with flavored oils:
I usually use plain peanut oil to fry my chicken, but is there a distinct flavor difference in using some admixture of flavored oils (like sichuan, scallion, or chili oil)? If so, what proportion is ideal?

Great idea. if I had any decent techniques to share I'd do so here, but sadly I don't know anything worth telling as far as I know.

I always leave some change in the car to purchase a McChicken

>>10768010
soak in water, discard water. repeat a few times.

as for the flavored oils: don't use them for deep-frying or shallow frying food in oil. You use them in situations where the oil itself will be consumed, like dressings or as finishing oils for stir-fries. think of flavored oils like a sauce not a "cooking oil".

>>10768018
If you mean to improve your cooking, any observations you have are useful to someone. Here are some questions to get your noggin joggin:

(1) What was the last dish you made? Did you notice any peculiarities in its texture or taste? If you made it next time, what would you do differently, and why do you believe you'd do it that way?

(2) Do you have a favorite restaurant? How would you describe their food as different from what you are able to make? Are there limitations in its replication? How do you make it at home?

(3) You hear of an interesting ingredient, but are not sure how to properly source it. What's the best way to buy it? What's the best way to use it?

>>10768037
The deep frying part is understandable, but basting fried eggs in flavored oils is delicious.

>>10768063
1.
>Bacon Mushroom Quesadillas
>Texture of the tortillas was greasier than it should've been - the tortillas were a bit semi-translucent with bacon fat when they should've been closer to a solid golden-brown with browner spots - still overall crispy but not quite where I wanted them
Is the heat too low or is the fond from cooking the earlier ingredients creating cool spots on the pan? Should I be deglazing with lime juice and reserving that for something else/washing or switching out the pan in between preparing that? Should I be adding more fats to the pan? Should I be rotating the quesadilla around to make it more evenly cooked?

>>10768037
>>10768010
I used to think you needed neutral oil, but frying with seasoned oil honestly made a huge improvement to my cooking. You need to pick the right things, and you end up having a few jars hanging around, but if you get it right it's just extra flavour.

Here's an old recipe that adds a piece of ham and some butter to the lard for frying chicken. Chinese and Indian restaurants make batches of oil flavoured by deep frying vegetables and spices, then use it for cooking. I save the oil from making crispy onions to make things like grilled cheese, stir fries, or starting some pasta sauces.

>>10768110
If you're making a quesadilla, you want to start with a mostly dry pan. evenly rub whatever fat you're using (lard, bacon fat, etc.) on either side of the quesadilla. Some tongs and a paper towel is usually enough to clean if you want to use one pan.

If you are having trouble getting even browning, use a heavier bottom pan, something like cast iron. There should be no need to rotate it.

I've never heard of deglazing mushrooms with lime juice, and to be quite honest I have no idea what you'd use that in.

>>10768110
IMHO the semi-transparency is the sign of a good tortilla.

>>Is the heat too low
doubtful
>>or is the fond from cooking the earlier ingredients creating cool spots on the pan?
Also doubtful, but clean your damn pan before making quesadillas. You want a clean pan. If your cooking was uneven the most likely culprits are a shitty thin pan and/or not enough oil or butter
>> Should I be deglazing with lime juice and reserving that for something else/washing or switching out the pan in between preparing that?
Deglaze when you make pan sauces or stewed dishes. There's no point in deglazing when making quesadillas; if you have any fond at all you're doing something wrong.

>> Should I be adding more fats to the pan? Should I be rotating the quesadilla around to make it more evenly cooked?
Probably, and yes.

>>10768134

>>10768037 here. I'm all in favor of cooking with flavored oil, but not in the case of fried chicken. It's not that it doesn't taste good, but rather the problems are:
1) if you've flavored your entire batch of deep fry oil, you either have to throw it out (Wasteful) or everythign you cook is going to taste the same. It's less wasteful and more flexible to keep your deep fry oil neutral flavored.
2) There are nearly always better methods of introducing that other flavor to your food anyway. I find that marinading meats before cooking them adds more flavor than using flavored oil does. It also doesn't have the disadvantage listed above. Likewise you can add those other flavors via toppings or sauces rather than the oil.

That said there's certainly nothing wrong with using flavored oils. I reserve duck fat, bacon dripping, etc to cook with. But for my deep frying oil? No, I'm not going to flavor that.

>>10767997
what are good brands of alcohol to use when cooking? Tried making stew with that shitty $7 "willow oaks" or whatever from walmart. garbage in, garbage out. but at the same time I dont wanna use my quality drinking alcohol for cooking.

on that note, when I use vodka in my batters/pie crust, does it really matter how the vodka tastes? the alcohol is evaporating as intended, and its not like I taste the hawkeye in the final dish

>>10768177
The flexibility concerns are a good point. definitely more efficient to emulsify the oil into a sauce. In fact, I'm gonna try making mayo out of some of my flavored oils and see how that goes.

moreover you want to be patting the chicken dry after it comes out anyway, because thats when it absorbs the most oil. the less oil in the final product, the better

>advanced
but a master is not a master of the difficult or show but a master of the basics.
I teach people to cook by going over the basics and showing even easier ways to do basic tasks and showing how simple it all is. Whats even considered advanced?

>>10767997
Sear chicken breast before letting it slowly heat through to cook the inside. Tender and juicy every time with a nice exterior.

>>10768209
You aren't wrong, and if it's any consolation, I chose "advanced" over "master" for more or less this reason.

Useful cooking knowledge is spread so thin over /ck/ and mcdonalds shitposts that I thought it'd be useful to put committed cooks in one place. The goal is to attract posters that want to improve their cooking or want other to improve their own. i.e. advancing

>>10768136
Ok, got it, reserve and rub it. And I wasn't sure about the uses either.

>>10768143
>IMHO the semi-transparency is the sign of a good tortilla.
Generally I agree with that. It was more that the spots where the tortilla remained semi-translucent weren't as crispy as the rest of the quesadilla.

Also the fond was from cooking the quesadilla toppings (mushrooms, onions, garlic, and bacon.) I don't have multiple pans that are appropriate for cooking them so I was preparing the ingredients in the same pan and then cooking the quesadilla right after, as opposed to waiting for the pan and the ingredients to cool to clean it. The deglazing idea was less about sauce and more about loosening the solid matter on the pan enough that I could get most/all of it off with a paper towel before adding the quesadilla.

>>10768208
Mayo is a great example of a good place for flavored oils. So is making roux for gumbo or sauces, and dressing.

>>10768209
You can reduce nearly any recipe into nothing more than basic techniques 99% of the time. the only complicating thing might be that some dishes require precise timing or doing a lot of things at the same time. That comes with experience.

>>10768228
That's not advanced. That's the basic, standard, method for pan-cooking just about any piece of meat (Steak, chicken, pork chop, fish filet)

>>10768235
If you have a habit of cleaning your pans with water or something while they're still hot, this would explain why you arent getting an even brown. The quick changes in heat warp thin and shitty pans.

Dont put water into the pan, but moisten the paper towel instead.

Yeah, that makes sense. I do use fried onion oil for deep frying other savoury things, but that's a pretty universal flavour. I've only really bothered to make a batch of more specific oil when I'm cooking big batches of stuff.

That said, if someone in the thread happens to be planning to fry a shitload of something, here's a Chinese seasoned oil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQBdvoOkn3E and an Indian one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxydx87kpas

>>10768272
Forgot to reply >>10768177

>>10768235
>>10768110

If you want something to comprehensively improve your cooking, read "Keys to Good Cooking" by McGee. very useful kitchen reference starting out.

>>10768192
The 'ol rule of "use booze that's good enough to drink straight" has never done me wrong. I tend to default to the following:

gosling's black seal rum, wild turkey 101 bourbon, "devil's cellar" (Chile) for red wine. Schmitt Sone (german) or chicken run for white wine. There's nothing special about these, they're just the best I've found of the readily available cheaper brands in my area. I use 7-year shaoxing wine, and for sake I'm totally at the mercy of whatever my local asian market stocks. For mirin the best I can find is Takara. Real mirin must be purchased like alcohol. The fake shit you don't need ID to buy is indeed shit. For port I buy "Messias". Oh, and Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry. Yeah yeah, I know sherry lovers look down on it but it's perfect for cooking with.

For vodka in batters the cheap stuff works fine, I've always used bottom shelf and have never been able to taste anything "off" about it.

>>10768255
I tend not to which is why I was asking about the deglazing. So moisten the paper towel instead, I get that, but it seems insufficient to get the bacon fond off of the pan which was why my thought process was something like:
>just loosen the fond off with an acid
>make a shitty pan sauce
>toss or reserve shitty pan sauce
>bottom is easier to clean w/ paper towel
>re-add fats, letting them get back up to temp
>add quesadilla

But overall the morals I'm learning here are:
>buy a separate pan for preparing ingredients so there's no reason to do dumb shit to prevent unnecessary problems
>add fat differently or use more

>>10768310
Oh and:
>rotate the pan more or use cast iron

>>10768293
Wow, this thread is already a lot more productive than I though it'd be. Guess this was a long time coming to /ck/.

But yeah, my asian market stocks only that shitty king jyozo mirin. They're a thai market, so their raw ingredient selection is fucking top notch except for the japanese ingredients. Should probably just import that shit or something.

>>10768027
kek

Mix some butter into your boiled peas to make them extra yummy.

>>10768310

Another reason to use a cast iron pan, IMO. Properly seasoning the pan requires leaving behind that little bit of fat, which gives it a natural non-stick coating called a patina.

Yeah, you can use a separate pan, but you can do it it with one regardless.

to make perfect rice:
>Put amount of rice in pot
>put water till its over it
>put on med heat
>cover
>let it cook through till theres no more water left but dont fucking burn it like a retard
>taste it
>if its still hard just add more fucking water and do the same thing till its done
>only idiots buy fucking rice cookers

>>10768452
>if its still hard just add more fucking water and do the same thing till its done
retard
>put x amount of rice and 1.5 times the amount of water in a pot with a lid
>bring water to boil and lower the heat immediately
>let it cook on low for 10minutes
>take it from the heat and let it sit with a lid on for 10more minutes
always perfect on the first try.

>>10768834
According to America's Test Kitchen, rice actually needs roughly it's weight in water. The excess water needed is to compensate for evaporation. They recommend using a tight fitting lid, always using the same pan to cook your rice and testing various amounts of liquid until you find the amount of excess water that evaporates each time while giving you the best results.

>>10768452
What? You don't buy a rice cooker because rice is difficult to cook, any more than you buy a kettle because water is difficult to boil.

>>10769061
>implying most people here can boil water without hurting themselves
This is the fast food board, dummy

I had a eureka the other day.
I've made my fair share of roux, but never on a large scale. I was making gumbo last week, did 1.5c flour, 1c oil, 1/2c butter.
Mixed er all up. cooked until nicely browned, but I was not satisfied with the consistency, was basically oily layer over flour substrate, yeah I was constantly stirring and my ratio was 1:1.
>heres my point
When any liquid was added, it hydrated the flour and it instantly turned the roux into the proper consistency somewhere between tomato sauce thick and pudding thick.
Figured that was the case all along, but sharing that info for those that didn't know.

>>10769298

>>10769305
The issue was using a large proportion of oil instead of butter. No water in the oil, but there is water in butter.
My initial thought was that all the water would evaporate of it if it was all butter, but I now know it would have incorporated into the flour readily.

>>10768452
Well I must be an idiot then.
Thing is perfect 100% of the time, no fucking around, dump rice dump water, when it Clicks its done. Its very convenient, and no more washing than if I did it in a pan.
Also, I can use it to steam things. Kind of nice.

>>10769315
That's interesting, there are a lot of stew / curry recipes that go the opposite way, and say you should cook it until the oil separates, so you know the water has cooked out.

>>10769298
Yep. Adding water at high temps gelatinizes the starch, gives you material to start building the emulsion around. I abuse the same concept when making, say, scallion pancakes. Adding boiling water to flour causes the starch to bloom and the gluten to harden instead of forming chains. You get a crispy, flaky, tender pancake instead of hard and chewy suffering.

I have invented the pork belly-garlic method for making any vegetable awesome. Just put some cubed pork belly in a pan (about 60 g per portion), put a lid on it and cook on low heat for 20-30 minutes, until most of the fat has rendered out. Remove the lid and turn the heat to medium to brown the meat. Now add minced garlic and fry it in the rendered fat for a minute, then add your vegetable along with salt and ideally MSG. Fry until done.

>>10768452
Welcome to technology, gramps.

>>10768010
Put peeled/diced/sliced potatoes in a bowl, keep them under a running tap for a few minutes until the water is clear

>>10772512
Yeah, that sounds way quicker than just changing out the water so often.

>>10772447
Does that really not brown the garlic? Garlic is usually added at the end as a fragrant, like scallions chives or ginger.

>>10768010
>>10772512
>>10772841
If you prep your potatoes at the start (for your mise), they should be hanging out in cold water until just before you're ready to use them to prevent oxidation (unless they're thinly sliced). Two birds, one stone.

>>10772844
It's basically garlic oil, right, so the garlic would get browned. You don't necessarily have to mince it if you want to remove the garlic (and even pork belly) from the pan before adding the vegetables. Larger slices might take slightly longer to infuse, but you'd be able to take them out and get the same effect. Might depend slightly on the amount of rendered fat you have to work with. One reason why it's good to save/reserve drippings.

>>10769298
If you're thinking of a 1:1 fat/flour roux, it should be equal parts by weight. Your flour/oil/butter ratio needs to take into account the different weight of the ingredients.

>>10767997
Pouring from the bottle like that is a good way to get 3rd-degree burns. Always portion into a small container, and pour from that.

>>10767997
A few beginner things that tripped me up:
Baking cookies, they'll be surprisingly soft when you take them out, they firm up as they cool.
Making mayonnaise, it gets thicker the more oil you add, so don't worry if it seems too loose at first. Also it helps to "activate" the egg yolk first by whisking it a bit.
Whisking cream, it seems like nothing much is happening for a long time, but it changes very rapidly at the end, so slow down as soon as it does.
Kneading bread, it might seem stupidly sticky at first, but it really becomes more manageable if you keep at it. Giving up and letting it sit for an hour or so helps too.

Whenever I'm microwaving something that's thick and stir-able, such as a tub of mac n' cheese, I only cook it for half the recommended time, remove and stir, then return it to the microwave for the remaining time necessary.

I have recently gotten into salt curing meats (48 hours) before cooking. What are some other long-prep cooking methods? I love the idea of having something prepared and its just getting tastier, it's always in the back of my mind. What are some other long methods?

>>10768834
>1 cup rice
>2 cups chicken stock/white wine mix
>Bring stock to boil in pan
>Add rice
>Cover and turn to low
>Wait 15 mins
>Perfect rice

>>10768332
most Japanese don't even use real mirin because of the cost and rarity, many of the people making it have stopped or gone out of business over the years, if you use a decent sake and a fake mirin and at least try to avoid the ones that are pure corn syrup then it will be at least decent

>>10774164
off the top of my head:
brining
marinating
smoking
dry aging

Discarded pizza boxes are an inexpensive source of cheese.

>>10774164
>>10775559
Sous vide, too. Short rib or brisket, you can leave in the water for 2-3 days before it hits peak tenderness.

I'm trained in classical Japanese cooking (Tokyo). I can share a few specialized techniques that is used almost exclusively in traditional-style restaurants.

So I guess in response to >>10768209, I would say that "advanced" can mean techniques with more applicability in a commercial/professional kitchen?

1. Use sake liberally to give your soup or braised dishes a distinctly "authentic Japanese" flavor profile. It functions to give the dish more body, and to mask any impurities much more subtly than adding ginger or green onions. One of the most advanced dishes in the Japanese soup repertoire is "ushio," which is a clear broth made from fish bones and sea kelp, traditionally seasoned only with sea salt and sake. The difficulty of the dish comes from finding the perfect balance between saltiness (sea salt), savoriness (sea kelp), and body (sake, fish broth).

2. When preparing a simmered or braised dish that consists of multiple ingredients, always pre-cook (steaming, braising, simmering, blanching) the ingredients separately before putting them together. This is done mainly for 3 reasons-- the ingredients with longer cook times are less likely to crumble (ex. peeled potatoes), you can exercise a higher degree of control over how much of the "sauce" the ingredients absorb, and it'll be easier to plate.

3. Many types of common Japanese fish tastes better when rested. Unless you're serving "ike-jime" (live flesh, brain dead) where texture is prioritized over flavor, sashimi should never be "fresh off the boat." Notable exceptions are the faster fish like skipjack tuna (katsuo), saury (sanma), mackerel (saba), and eels (which should be butchered live). When resting whole fish, make sure you remove the head, guts, and clean out the blood without cutting into the flesh. When resting fillets/loins, wrap it in a sturdy paper towel, a clean cotton towel, then a saran wrap, and pack it with shaved ice in an icebox with drainage.

>>10775800

con't

4. If you're interested in adding "umami" to your dishes without resorting to MSG, try using sea kelp stock, as opposed to katsuobushi (bonito flake) stock. The reason is that sea kelp keeps indefinitely (in fact, it "ages" well), while katsuobushi is much more expensive, and goes off in a little as a day once exposed to air. Sea kelp is also more neutral and therefore universally compatible with any cuisine. However, if you're planning to use sea kelp commercially, never follow a random recipe, and always experiment with it first. Sea kelp vastly differs between the countries of origin. Cheap sea kelp has very little "umami," and it can imbue off-putting flavors and colors to your stock (over extracting) in less than an hour of room temperature steeping, while the most expensive Japanese sea kelp (ma-konbu) needs to be soaked overnight before its flavor comes out.

5. Always have a stainless steel knife sharp and ready. You never know when you have to cut white onions, tomatoes, or citrus. (I guess this only applies to traditional Japanese cooking >.>)

6. Homemade "panko" tastes better than the commercially available dried panko. Just put a loaf of Wonderbread in a food processor until you reach your desired fineness.

7. If you want to make your tempura batter extra crispy without resorting to frying powder, add soda to your batter. This is especially useful for take-out tempura.

8. Braised dishes should be cooled in an icebath, and then re-heated before serving.

>>10768400
>advanced cooking techniques
Wew

i think this thread will ultimately prove how shitty the people here are at cooking
anyway what do you even call advanced tecniques? most of those need dedicated tools to be executed, it's hard to do advanced stuff at home because you have shitty stuff

>>10775880
i guess that soda bit makes sense. i'll try that next time, thanks

>>10775880
More of these please. And got any tips for flavoring with soy sauce? I always put to much or too little and can't get the flavor balance right unless I supplement with salt. Should I start adding a ratio of sake to it?

>>10767997
We should actually start with basic cooking techniques first, considering what roams this place these days. If we can only get a handful to drop their fast food addiction it would be a massive win.

>>10767997
More a basic bitch technique than "advanced" but this helped me:

When I first started in a kitchen, I had problems with temperature control. We used butter in our pans but because I kept my pans rocket hot for quick turn around on eggs, I'd always burn the goddamn milk solids, and the little black bits would get stuck to said eggs, which obviously wasn't ideal ("it's pepper" only worked like, once. Yes this was a very shitty kitchen)

So I learned to make a ghee, or cook down my butter. I'd drop my block for the day in the pan on medium high heat, and let it melt down. Then, you let it foam and brown, but just keep cooking. The milk solids will begin to break down and blacken, and the butter will foam again. But just keep cooking.

Finally, you'll be left with a pan of amber-gold oil with little black bits in it. Take it off the heat and strain into a container of your choice, with cheese cloth (or coffee filters). Discard the solids, you're left with this golden oil which has a nutty, buttery taste; all the flavor of melted butter and a MUCH higher smoke point. What you've essentially done is cooked out everything in the butter that wasn't lipid, and the resulting substance (which can be called a ghee, depending on how long you cook it) won't burn on high heat, tastes like toasted butter, and keeps for much longer.

You can use this to fry... well, basically anything you'd cook in a pan with butter

>>10774164
>What are some other long-prep cooking methods?
anything involving fermentation, like pickling.

>>10775613
I'm both amazed, disgusted and amused by this post.

I tried to make hash browns once, but the potatoes in the pan either never got crispy, or went straight to burned and stuck to the bottom of the pan. I don't remember the recipe I was following, but it specified a certain amount of butter to coat the pan with prior to frying. Would more of a coating have taken care of it? A lower heat?
Hash browns were one of the first things I tried to make when I started cooking for myself a few months ago, but I haven't tried again since the first time. I'm afraid to waste all those potatoes again.

>>10776618
If the inside of the food was raw while the outside was burnt then your heat was too high.

>>stuck
you either didn't use enough butter or oil, your pan was dirty to start with, or you tried to flip the food before the bottom layer was done cooking.

Most important thing for hash browns is to make sure you get rid of all the excess water first. They are easier to cook on a good nonstick surface. Don't use a stainless pan if you're a noob. Use nonstick or well-seasoned iron.

>>10776618
>>10776639

>Most important thing for hash browns is to make sure you get rid of all the excess water first

this, you want to get them as dry as possible. Peel and Shred your potatoes, rinse in water to get rid of excess starch. Dry them, then squeeze in paper towel.

>>10776793
if you have a potato ricer it does a great job removing water. Grate your spuds, put 'em in the ricer, and squeeze out the excess water.

add a bit of baking soda to your sauteed onions
they will brown quickly and turn into a cream,

>>10776298

Thanks :)

When flavoring with soy sauce (regular koikuchi Kikkoman or Yamasa), these are the most commonly used ratios:

Soy sauce : mirin : stock

1:1:5 (tempura dipping sauce)

1:1:6 (braising)

1:1:8 (braising seasonal dishes)

3:5:7 (braising toppings for rice dishes)


The point I'm making here is that straight soy sauce is almost never used to season anything. There will always be some mixture of mirin (or sugar) and stock. If you look at the ingredients list of any commercial "liquid tsuyu / all purpose Japanese seasoning," the second ingredient is usually corn syrup or sugar of some sort.

One extremely useful soy sauce based seasoning is "happoudashi."

1000 cc soy sauce : 1000 cc mirin : 50 g katsuobushi

De-alcoholize the mirin by bringing it to a simmer and lighting it. When the flame is gone, add the soy sauce, bring it to a simmer, add the katsuobushi, remove from heat, let it rest for 5-8 minutes, strain, and let it rest in the fridge for a couple days.

The resting in the fridge step is essential in removing the sharpness of the soy sauce. I know some soba shops in Japan would let their sauce rest for up to half a year!

You can add sake for more umami, or sugar for mellowness.

If you're using fake mirin, you can skip the de-alcoholize part.

>>10777264
Capped all your posts. We need more of this. How was culinary training? Do you feel like it was worth the time/money/effort? Do you enjoy your career?

>>10774164
Kek

>>10777440

As far as earning power goes in the states, you'd definitely make more money as a sushi artisan, than as a traditional cook. Sushi is much more specialized, but it also means that you work with an much more narrow range of ingredients. Yes, sushi restaurants do have "fish of the day" types of menus, but traditional Japanese restaurants are expected to have weekly menus with 8-12 courses.

An inside joke amongst traditional cooks is that a sushi itamae (chef) is good at sushi, but a washoku itamae has to be good at everything. Or how sushi itamae only needs two knives (yanagi, deba), while we need a dozen different knives (2 yanagi for sashimi, tessa for pufferfish, deba for large fish, mioroshi deba for special fish, ko-deba for smaller fish, unagi-saki for eel, honekiri for Pike conger scoring, kiritsuke for steamed cakes, usuba for katsuramuki and chopping, mukimono for garnishing and carving, gyuto for kabocha, etc.)

Of course, modern sushi itamae in Japan are becoming multidisciplined and are proficient in multiple knives, and purists like Ono Jiro are becoming increasingly rare.

Back on topic though, one tip to making brown rice sushi is to let it fully sprout before cooking, and mixing in glutinous rice.

Mixing different types of rice is a very common technique for making edomae sushi. Most famous sushi restaurants in Japan use a blend of old crop/new crop, while non-sushi traditional restaurants rarely blend their rice.

>>10767997
More of a decorative technique than a culinary technique, but I make pulled sugar sculptures for parties/gifts every now and then. It's just sugar, water, lemon juice and food coloring. Silicone baking sheet helps.

Lately I'm producing more and more often foods that have a more restaurant-ey flavor. Tastes that I want to achieve, but never knew how. Like a sweet flavor without using any kind of sweet ingredients. Now I seem to manage it occasionally, but fuck it if I know how I did it. It drives me nuts.

Just today I made an ordinary chili. Yet there was some sort of creaminess to it that was great, but I have no clue how it got there. I only used some sunflower oil, nothing that could remotely produce such a creamy taste afaik. I never had it taste like that before, but I hope I can do it again.

Since I don't think I did anything special, I wonder whether advanced techniques are often just as simple as perfect timing. Which of course isn't simple, but still.

>>10775800
Quality post. I do a lot of japanese cooking, and I'm trying to perfect my miso soup. I hope you frequent this board cuz Ill have plenty of questions in time.

>>10774164
like other poster, anything that involves fermentation. homebrew, kombucha, kraut, pickled turnips, kimchi.

also you can make cheese ofc with rennet. incidentally, you can use the whey from the cheese making process to feed fermentations. so yeah, look into those

>>10776428
Save those brown butter solids and crumble them into polenta cakesor a mayo as they impart a nutty butter flavor into whatever without as much fat as adding straight butter

I use them to make brown butter millet cakes alot and they level up a cheap grain into a decent side for salmon or pork

>>10778338
Just keep at it eventually you familiarize yourself with the ingredients throughly and can indentify what adds what to the dish and how the creaminess might have been the fat from the ground beef or the aquafaba (bean juice) from your beans if you didn't soak then that long

>>10776407
OP here, Ill probably just name them improvement threads or something else from now on. Im glad I didnt end up calling it master chef because Im sure people wouldve been a lot more vocal lol. see >>10768234


>>10776428
This is a good post, even if you may not think it's "advanced." Temperature control is an important skill. After all, the only thing you truly control in the kitchen is what mixes where and how hot is it for how long.

>>10778477
Honestly this is a good thread like that guy from Houston that did regular cookalongs with his cat it is actually informative content and good for discussion. Best advice I can give the people starting to cook or even get better at cooking is to start a small journal of what you made and keep as good notes as you feel but in higher end kitchens the adage is taste everything and write everything down. The ones that have a small pad them are always the ones that eventually advance to sous chef or leave for better opportunities the ones that don't typically stay line cooks for their careers as for home kitchens it's pretty much the same, writing down notes helps alot, I got good just by writing down shit as I went along or right afterwards.

>>10778423

If you're making regular miso soup where you're only using one kind of miso paste, the single most important factor is perfecting the dashi. Once you nail down your dashi, you can treat your miso merely as seasoning.

In upscale restaurants miso soup is made to order. We always keep "dissolved miso," which is miso paste mixed with a little dashi and pushed through a sieve. Using dissolved miso allows us to make minute adjustments to the dish, as opposed to whisking clumps of miso every time.

Miso soup gets much more complicated when you have to serve "akadashi," which is a blend of red miso (haccho, Sendai) and white miso (kuge/saikyo), in addition to nikiri mirin or sake. Akadashi is served at the end of a meal with rice, and this is where the chef truly shines.

>>10778541
Haha, thanks. When I post the next thread I'll post some resources, a general faq and some books etc. to get started. Obviously it'll be small and unrefined at first, but it'll grow over time.

>>10778603
Yeah, I haven't started convoluting the miso pastes yet as I am trying to get a decent dashi. You said elsewhere that konbu gets better with age, but the katsuoboshi is not usable for very long. I've had my current pack for about 5 months, and it is rather hard to source here. Am I better off omitting it as an at-home chef? I have konbu (probably cheapo), dried mushrooms (shiitake, but Id like to know what others are good), and iriko.

What is a good rule of thumb for weights between these ingredients? I remove the black guts from the iriko lest it gets bitter, though Im not sure if I should take out just the intestines or parts of its head too.

I would also like to make furikake with the leftovers, though I cant seem to get that thin crisp to the pieces after glazing in some soy sauce and putting it in a dehydrator. Next time I'm going to try putting in the raw leftovers and evaluate the texture.

>>10778657
huh?

>>10778665
haha, sorry, I assumed you were >>10775800

>>10774164
Safely? 48 hours will cure salmon lox but that's about it. I just started a pork belly for bacon 1 week ago and it needs another week. My corned beef takes 2 weeks. An amerilard brined ham takes a couple weeks. You can do semi-dry fermented sausage like summer sausage or pepperoni within 48 hours. Other than that, tell me what meat you cured in 48 hours, I'm genuinely interested.

Veg wise sauerkraut takes about 30 days, fermented pickle cucumbers take 5 days and fermented hot sauce takes 30 days.

>>10778657

Iriko is definitely a better option than katsuobushi, but do keep in mind that iriko too, can go-off rather quickly for a dried product. Removing the head and guts is good practice, but it's not quite necessary if you're "cold brewing" your dashi. I find that the safest way to make easy dashi is to let the ingredients steep in cold water overnight in the fridge, almost in the same method as cold brewing coffee. This is especially true if you're not using katsuobushi, where bringing it to at least 90C is necessary to fully bring out the aroma.

A good ratio for miso soup is 1 miso : 15 dashi.


For dashi, I prefer to think in terms of percentages... for example:

1000 cc water : 40 g konbu : 3 g iriko

would translate to dashi with 4% konbu and 3% iriko.

The point I made in an earlier post is pretty important... about how you need to experiment with the konbu that's available to you. Cheap sea kelp barely gives out any flavor while turning your stock instantly green, while aged, grade 1 ma-konbu or rishiri-konbu must be soaked for hours to fully extract its flavor. A somewhat simplified indication of good quality konbu is how thick it is. If you can rip it apart with your hands, you can probably get away with soaking it for less than an hour in room temperature.


If you really want to be the aficionado to experiment with truly authentic Japanese flavors (or if you have a food blog and want to attract views >.>), you can buy a katsuobushi shaving box "kezuribako," or "katsuobushi kanna," and shave the flakes from whole dried bonito loins. Aged bonito loins last indefinitely in cool, dry conditions, while non-aged bonito loins last a few months in similar conditions. Very few restaurants in Japan do this, and they usually do this only for select customers (less than 15 a day). You can buy all of these in various Rakuten websites, and they do ship it internationally.

>>10778768

>1000 cc water : 40 g konbu : 3 g iriko

Correction... 30g iriko.

I have this technique where I take cold, raw meat, and I heat it up over fire, usually in a pan. It usually changes color and consistency depending on how long you leave it on the fire.

>>10778768

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2xYtH5zejw

>>10778806

This is an example where a ramen chef and a traditional Japanese cook would conceptualize flavors differently...

Bacon really is an amazing ingredient, it has strong aroma, umami, and taste, but I don't believe it has much applicability as "dashi" in a Japanese sense.

Since this is an "advanced" cooking techniques thread, I should point out that the moment Mr. Chang adds soy sauce and mirin to the product, it becomes tsuyu, not dashi (stock).

>>10778842

roger that, it just made me think of when he presented that technique at a conference as a new idea.

>>10778842
I had an old chef that made a Bacon apple dashi using dried kombu, appkes that I believe we're unspecified and a house made bacon of the restaurant if I remember correctly it was served with a chicken protien. I would have to dig up the recipe but I remember apple juice in the dashi as well, this guy wasn't traditionally trained in any Asian cuide just like the flavors and used them alot it wasn't a knockout dish but I remember the flavors were tight maybe it just needs sweetness/tartness to balance out the unami/smokiness (the house made stuff had a strong hickory to it)

>>10778768
どうも。ちょうとう日本語が分かってる。ろくに料理をググられる。Youtubeでビデオを分からないのがたくさんあるけど、いい仕方だ。日本語で料理の本が便利なの?Would be useful for gathering books and I've needed an excuse to practice my japanese as you can tell.

>>10778876

https://www.amazon.co.jp/だしの基本と日本料理―うま味のもとを解きあかす-柴田書店/dp/438806002X/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?__mk_ja_JP=カタカナ&qid=1529368257&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=だし%E3%80%80本

This is a great book that has pretty much everything you need to know about dashi.

It contains both anecdotes from the top restaurants in Japan, as well as research done by major companies like Ajinomoto (inventor of MSG).

If your Japanese is more advanced, 手前板前 is a great blog/informational site for both basic, and the more obscure, archaic techniques in classical Japanese cooking.

What's an idiot proof way to get a sharp knife on whetstones? I am able to raise a burr, though it doesn't really catch my fingers when I use the three finger test. Even if I hone it directly from that burr, I still cant get an edge sharp enough to cut hair.

>>10779517

You really have to show us a picture of your knife...

I personally never had a problem with getting my knives sharp, BUT my main problem was sharpening it without breaking down it's form. I guess it's because most Japanese trained cooks are so used to sharpening knives at a low, chisel type edge, even our double edged knives (gyuto, petty) become nearly single edged. This kind of sharpening makes our knives really sharp at the cost of durability.

So my answer to you would be that you may be sharpening your knife at an incorrect angle...

>>10774164
I'm making sauerbraten soon - I'm starting the prep tmr (Tues) and plan to actually cook the dish on Saturday - so we're looking at four days of brining in a mix of vinegar, water, wine, and spices (most importantly cloves and juniper berries). I'll then roast it in the oven for about three or four hours, and serve it with rotkraut and shupfnudeln.

>>10777440
Please post the cap for posterity's sake

Butter makes everything taste better. If a recipe calls for a certain amount of butter, add double that amount.

>>10779609
>sauerbraten
There's a lot more to the recipe. Enjoy!>>10779609
>serve it with rotkraut and shupfnudeln.
Be careful your kraut isn't mimicing the sourness of your sauce. Also, your starchy side should be useful for sopping up the delicious gravy you'll be making for the meat.

how do I practice flipping things like pancakes and omlettes without making a mess and wasting food? is there a trick to getting it to flip all the way over? I always end up with it folded in half when I try.

>>10780387
You can practice tossing food by placing something like dry beans or a potholder in your pan and tossing. But there's really no perfect substitute for real food. Just accept the fact that you're going to make a mess the first couple times. It's no big deal, the cost in potentially wasted ingredients is negligible given the skill you're learning.

>>10767997
don't use cheap wine, especially with dishes that have fewer ingredients or rely on the wine as a major component. the most expensive part of a dish for a restaurant would've been the wine. many modern cheap wines are mechanically produced which will leave a very peculiar and often awful taste behind after cooking. it's ruined a few sauces i've done and made a massive difference. the "cook with the wine you drink" rule would work i guess, but people have different tastes so i wouldn't commit to that and the reduction of the wine alters the flavor and can bring out shit you wouldn't normally taste.

>>10778187

those are beautiful. can you post the technique for making the red one?

1.) You can cut an energy drink into 3~ separate drinks with the use of a water filter.

2.) An emptied teabag can work well if you want to season a braise or whatever without getting your seasoning and herbs all over whatever it is you're trying to cook.

3.) Use a wooden utensil in lieu of elbow grease. Wood won't scratch your shit nearly as bad as metal, and is much sturdier than plastic.

4.) Heat is better than hot water at cleaning.

5.) The purpose of using water and heat with your noodles is to heat up the noodles and hydrate them at the same time, but you can just hydrate your noodles without using heat by leaving them in water. If you're going somewhere for sometime and you want to eat as soon as you get home and you're living on a budget then you can just leave your noodles in some water and they'll soften up over time.

6.) Coffee makers really can boil ramen, hotdogs, and make tea. Probably eggs as well, haven't tried.

7.) Place your finger over the mouth of the pour top of your bottle of oil to better control the amount of oil you're using without being Walter White or spilling to much.

8.) Beer at any temperature is good for braising, but spirits are a much more concentrated amount of pure alcohol and are thus more volatile so keep that in mind in respect to cooking for extended periods of time with it.

9.) Try not to waste anything you don't have to. Scraps of any vegetables or meats you clean and use can be frozen for making a broth/stock at a later time that can be used for a completely different flavor of noodles or soup that you make next time around that will come with an entirely new level of vitamins and nutrients to boot.

10.) If your produce is about to go bad in the fridge just freeze them. They'll last you more than a month.

11.) Fruit and bread, if stored appropriately, can last you more than a month without hardly any noticeable changes.

12.) 'Rotten' bananas are perfectly suitable for breads, pies, mug-cakes, or pancakes.

>>10781195
sure! I'll try to draw illustrations so it's better to visualize.

I follow the basic sugar sculpting instructions on the leaf whatever website. For maximizing transparency (making it look glassy more than silky), I don't fold the slightly cooled mass of sugar like I would for the other flowers.

>>10781478
Pic related

>>10778796
Oog! Grog like

>>10781484
>>10781478
Pretty cool shit senpai. The cuteboys, traps, and sissies will love this.

>>10781484

thanks so much. this is an artform i've never really thought about, and as a visual artist who is trying to educate myself more about cooking, this is really interesting. i'm gonna do some reading about this. are there any sites or books that you found particularly helpful?

>>10781508
I had been sculpting and working with ceramics from a young age, so when I read about this (and wanted to make a special edible corsage for my prom date), I just looked up the instructions on how to make the sugar mixture base (any pulled sugar recipe online) and simply made it.

I know that's not really helpful, but hopefully the illustration helps. I'm pretty sure you can find vids on youtube on pulled sugar flowers.

>>10781536

what's the most complex thing you've made?

>>10781508
I've made them every now and then for parties and dinners, but it's been a few years since I made them. If I end up making them again, I'll take pics/vids of the process and make a thread.

>>10781542
The most complex thing? a 2 foot tall Eiffel tower, probably. But it looked like ass and I didn't take into account how hygroscopic (water-absorbing) the sugar was and made it waaay ahead of time, so by the time it was put on display it was already starting to look like a HR Geiger-esque amber colored flaccid tapering raccoon penis.

I experienced challenges keeping the sugar as transparent as possible when I was making the red roses (I'll look up more pics if u want) because even slightly stretching it can cause the air bubbles and sugar to form long crystalline fibers that work in the same way as the fibrous structure in tiger's eye stones to have a silky luster.

>>10781545

i will keep my eye out for that. i'm off today and i was planning to make a new dish but i think i might experiment with this instead after watching some videos. i'll post my attempts if i end up doing it and my attempts aren't too pathetic.

>>10781559
I know raccoons have penis bones so flaccidity kind of works differently for them, but ya know what i mean. figure of speech.

>>10781562
I'll post my shittier ones right now to inspire you.

>>10781559

yeah i'd love to see more pictures. how long do the sculptures usually last?

>>10781581
It's really only supposed to be made right before viewing, then eaten or destroyed. Unless you keep it in a climate controlled humidity controlled environment completely devoid of moisture, the surface gets sticky and gooey from absorbing the moisture in the air.

That having been said, the date kept the thing around for about a month, and said it was pretty much fused to her desk. Blondes, man.

>>10781581
pics related

>>10781618

shit man i would too. that's a really thoughtful gesture.

i am so glad you posted in this thread. my main thing is animating but i haven't made anything in a couple of years since i've just been burnt out and uninspired. this is a really exciting medium. it's kind of weird how comparatively little information there is on it though. there are some instructional videos, but not an overwhelming amount like i thought there'd be. just a lot of short videos that treat it like a gimmick. i think it could be a really conceptual medium.

>>10781650
(im the sugar guy)
holy fuck, i animate too! specializing in game design and sprite animation. i guess artists of various mediums are always drawn towards trying new stuff out.

>>10781650
look up chinese blown sugar art. once you get the feel for it, you can do a lot with it. be patient tho because it does have a steeper learning curve

>>10767997
>I am currently compiling a list of useful literature on cooking technique and cuisines, so discussion of this is also encouraged.
post list, and I'll post mine

>>10781650
that animation bit kind of got me worried. kinda suss...
FUCK OFF NSA, I AIN'T TRANSLATING SHIT FOR YOU, LEMME 4CHAN IN PEACE

>>10781836

hah man that's super weird. i mostly do 2d after effects animation. i guess it kind of makes sense - animation usually isn't an artist's first art form and i feel digital animation especially takes someone who's willing to experiment. i got into art school because of my painting and then never took a single painting class while i was there, just dabbled in time-based stuff until i settled on animating. sugar sculpting will be a bit of a challenge for me since i was never really much of a sculptor but at least i have a little experience in it so that could prove helpful. still man what a coincidence

>>10767997
Please thoroughly dry out and truss your birds before cooking them

This is a good thread, well done /ck/

Velveting is a useful trick. Marinating in a mild alkali, like egg white or baking soda, tenderises meat, which is how you get that particular texture from Chinese restaurants.

>>10781559
i like you anon you aight

>>10781817

i went to tj maxx and they didn't have the proper tools so i ordered a silicone mat and candy thermometer online. i see in a lot of videos, they use blowtorches. do you find hiving one necessary?

once i get a handle of it, i want to make a candy raw steak and decrepit old man head

>>10768063
Great questions.

1) I've got my hands on a small Weber propane grill so I've been experimenting. I tried a random rub/seasoning for some grilled zucchini. It called for butter, lemon, and a assortment of seasoning. Two mistakes I made was quartering the zucc instead of halves. And I used too much butter. I prefer my grilled vegetables with a bit more of a bite, and they came off a bit overdone, gonna pull them off quicker. Butter lemon is an interesting combo, but it wasn't ideal.

I would pull the dry seasoning out of the rub, and just do something simpler. Oil, lemon, garlic, whatever fresh herb is around, leave them a little under. What oil/fat do you think would be best for zucchini at a high heat (400~500) on a gas grill?

>>10783520
Honestly I've never used a candy thermometer, and wasted a lot of sugar and time in the process, but it also gave me the ability to eyeball things very very accurately. The only essential tools i'd suggest for hobby-level sugar sculpting would be a silicone mat. Blowtorches don't heat things as evenly so u might be better with a heat gun (plus the heat gun doesn't need to refuel on gas cartridges)

For making the human head, you'd want to get a wooden straw to blow a sphere (kind of like blown glass). Metal straws would be sturdier but a lot of them conduct heat very quickly and you might get burned.

>>10778665
fuck off with the "instagram challenges"
youre worse than reddit.

>>10784772

???

>>10778757

It was a whole chicken, just completely wrecked with salt for 48 hours, but then I thoroughly washed it for 10 !minutes, then cooked it fully. Maybe cure was the wrong word?

With this method, you have a stable salinity throughout, it tastes different then well seasoned meat. It is just a perfect saltiness.

Calling the chicken "cured" was maybe a mistake, but really this produces the best chicken I have ever had, just don't add salt again at any point and it will be perfectly seasoned.

>>10785640
And let's say actually 5 minute wash. You want the actual salt to be completely gone, rub the meat even, then its ready to cook.

>>10776618

I just made hash browns for the first time this morning, I got a russet potato and shredded it using the largest holes on my grater. I took a palmful and pressed it between paper towels until it felt dry and dropped it into a medium-high heat pan with plenty of oil. I seasoned with salt and pepper and flipped it once, only when the top layer of potato shreds was clear.

I did encounter your problem of simultaneously burnt AND uncooked potato but I found that adding oil between hash browns did the trick. I also may have lowered the heat I can't remember. But they came out near perfect, I was surprised since it was my first time making them. They were nicely browned, crisp on the outside and warm and soft on the inside.

>>10776428
Good post. Thanks.

>>10785640
I've heard that called "dry brining", if I'm understanding correctly.

>>10778757
I'm not the guy you're replying to, but the recipe in pic related for Tasso (cajun style ham) calls for only a few hours of curing packed in salt, followed by smoking. It's not a whole ham leg like most hams, rather it's cut into pieces first.

butchering a rabbit for roulade

>>10787614

>>10787297
Ok, not gonna argue with Ruhlman as I've used some of his recipes and they're fine. This site which I use for a lot of my recipes uses a 2 day cure when the pork is cut into strips, but they do say you need a minimum of 1 week brine if you go whole pork butt. Anytime you cut the meat small and you're not fermenting it, the cure period will be much shorter, so I guess my assertion wasn't qualified properly.

https://www.meatsandsausages.com/hams-other-meats/tasso

>>10787614

I love that drink sitting in the corner (I do that when I'm alone in the kitchen too).

>>10768293
This is awesome, thanks man.

>>10787638

That was one of the comfier prep sessions.. got in early by myself to knock a bunch of those out. Coffee shop right next door always hooked it up bigtime..

Was a good gig

start by cutting organic oranges into thin slices
layer them into a relatively flat but wide container
pour over boiling sugarwater (ratio of 1:1 sugar/water)
cover with foil so the oranges are completely covered in liquid
let it sit for at least a week, longer is good

bring to a boil portwine/ any red wine, add lots of christmas-y spices like piment, cinnamon, bayleaf
add oranges and mainly orange infused sugar liquid
put foil again so its covered nicely, no air get in


let sit for weeks, in fridge for instance

bring to boil again
sieve very thoroughly, put in disposable plastic container
freeze

after frozen, somehow make it smooth (put in blender or something, when i made this i had special machine to turn frozen stuff into creamy stuff by blending


this is by far the tastiest sorbet/ ice i've ever had, incredibly flavorful

trying to recreate this right now, last time i made this was at work 3 years ago so its maybe not exactly like this but yea

>>10788111
Mulled wine sorbet? That's genius, who came up with that one?

>>10781650
Haha, I'm glad I made this thread.

>>10781823
My dayjob takes up most of my time, but I've been skimming through a bunch of ebooks to try getting a general feel for them. Will post next thread.

>>10784089
To get something crispy in general, you need to use very high heat for a short amount of time. Think searing cooked meat with a blowtorch. The reason for this is:
high heat, long time => burnt.
low heat, long time => the water content of food is boiling and breaks it down (mush)
low heat, short time => are you even cooking?

Pat the zucc dry with a paper towel first (the less water that can boil the better, same with making hash browns). Then you want as little oil as possible. A light rub. Your oil, which is hydrophobic and has a higher boiling point, is there to separate the flame from the water, to basically ebb the heat. If you want more oil to taste, add it after not before.

Not sure if that's strictly true scientifically but it makes sense to me. Stir fries follow these principles.

I don't know how advanced a technique it is, but I have some rudimentary advise for meat, specifically porkchop and steak type cuts of meat. It's helpful to let the meat come to room temperature before seasoning, and adding a small dab of olive oil or some other oil before seasoning will help it stick to the meat. Then after you've cooked it for however long you prefer, let your meat rest about 5 or 10 minutes. This is to let the muscle that was opened up by the heat contract more and thus hold in more of the fat/moisture. If you've ever cut into a steak straight off the grill and hit a huge blood pocket, letting your meat rest will help prevent that. Again, this is hardly advanced level stuff, but I still think it could be helpful.

>>10788974
Another tip kinda like this is letting your eggs get to room temp. They're way easier to work with, especially if you're baking.

I'm so glad this thread is exists, thank you c:

>>10783208
Thanks anon. U should try making sugar sculptures too.

boiling ground beef for tacos sounds like a bad idea but it makes for the best taco bell style texture

Not sure if this is advanced, but I have no idea how Chinese restaurants get their chicken to have the "sliced" consistency (like the right photo). Do they use a meat slicer? I can only make chunks using a knife (like the left photo).

>>10789640

Do you mean chicken breast strips?

>>10789640
Have you tried not being a pussy, holding the protein with your non dominant hand, and then cutting it with your dominant hand into the sizes you want? Pretty basic shit.

>>10789640
Your knife isnt sharp enough. Buy a quality knife sharpener, get your knives sharpened, or learn to sharpen by hand. The weight of the blade should do most of the work. If you are sawing haphazardly, that is way more dangerous due to slippage.

>>10789640
As someone who works in a Thai restaurant, we use this automatic... mandoline like meat slicer thing.

>>10789645
Lmao are you implying that Chinese restaurants slice all that chicken by hand? It comes from a factory that way. It’s doable by hand at home though. You need a sharp knife, if it’s dull it will only be able to saw off chunks like the person in question is doing.

>>10789640
You fuckin slice it.

>>10789657
No, why would I be implying that from what I posted; it's just a simple task to slice chicken up. most american chinese restaurants just boil and then microwave their chicken anyway which is why it's usually rubbery garbage; the good ones know what to do.

1) If you don't have poultry shears to butterfly/spatchcock your chicken, garden shears will work.
2) Washing rice in separate container then transferring to the rice cooker pot will prolong the teflon coating's lifespan.
3) I don't know if this actually makes much of a difference, but I make some deep cuts in chicken/fish I marinate for faster/deeper flavor.

>>10789708

>3) I don't know if this actually makes much of a difference, but I make some deep cuts in chicken/fish I marinate for faster/deeper flavor.

Legit technique, especially in Japanese cooking. We call it 隠し包丁, or "hidden cutting."

The secret to perfect grill stripes

>put oil in a little bowl
>dip folded paper towel into oil
>stroke the metal with towel, it must be full of oil but not dripping
>put meat on direct heat, leave a free equally big space on grill
>the stripes will need around 30 seconds or less to form
>turn meat 90 degrees on the spot and wait another 30 second period
>oil the free spot in the meantime time
>flip and repeat process
>enjoy perfect X commercial grade stripes

Use the method on all slow cooked meats after they are cooked, like ribs. If using on raw meats you need to wait longer for the meat to let go off the metal before turning it 90 degrees

>>10781813
do you think /agdg/ is a good place to dev?
be honest

snorting cocaine off the board you use for raw chicken gives an incredible high

>>10789816
>in Japanese cooking. We call it 隠し包丁, or "hidden cutting."
I love that someone thought the idea of scoring food needed a badass name.

>>10790633
japs do that all the time
have never appreciated a culture so hell bent on solemnity and ritualistic behaviours
I'd like to know one day why that is like that

>>10790653
We call it 装飾, or "embellishment."

>>10790658
See, I don't even know if you are fucking with me, I could see that being a thing in japan

>>10768010
The best flavoured oil is used oil imo. After I'm done making a bunch of Katsu I'll usually reserve a cup or so and filter it through two oil pads so that it's free of most particles. Next time I fry I just mix it in with fresh oil in the pot and it gets rid of that neutral oil taste you usually get from freshly fried food.

>>10790809
I wouldnt be surprised if its enabled by their script. The syllabary is small, but they have a huge selection of kanji.

>>10788351
it just kind of happened while using the oranges for something entirely different

can anyone give me a good chocolate recipe? Something that doesn't taste like sock such as most recipes

>>10790809

A lot of terms used in classical Japanese cooking are like that. Many native Japanese people wouldn't even know them. These are few of the countless examples:

English - collloquial Japanese - kitchen Japanese

Rice paddle - Shamoji - Miyajima (name of an island that produces rice paddles)

Purple yam - Satsumaimo - Marujuu (shape of the emblem of the Satsuma clan)

To cut [sashimi] - kiru (literally to cut) - hiku (to pull) (because pulling sounds less violent than cutting)

To halve - waru/hanbun night kiru - watasu

Washroom - bennjo/toilet - jimusho (literally office, because you don't want to say washroom in the kitchen)

There are some terms with multiple meanings, like ataru 当たる. In colloquial Japanese, it can mean to win, hit, touch, but in the kitchen, it can mean to taste, grind in a mortar, grate, or to sharpen your knife.

/"Weeb" talk

>>10791422
Makes sense. English-speaking kitchens have their own jargon, as do other professions or specialties.

>>10790058
I personally prefer a 45 degree turn for the nice diamonds

>>10781422
I don't usually consume energy drinks other than coffee and tea. But I'm curious, please explain.

>>10789640
>everyone getting snooty and shouting this guy down for suggesting it might be a meat slicer
>someone with actual firsthand experience says "yeah, it's basically a meat slicer"
Low point of the thread.

>>10767997
Actual cooking, solid advice, sharing experience... Well done, OP, it's like it is 2009 again on /ck/!

>>10791422
that's actually pretty cool

>>10790209
Depends, man. I'm going for an internship on the west coast, and hopefully network and meet like-minded developers. There's way too many people who have a little bit of experience w coding/lev design/music/animation and think they're the shit, while they have no product whatsoever, not to mention how hard it is to find people with an excellent work ethic.

C'est la vie.

>>10792048
>>confusing the concepts of "restaurants use meat slicers" with "you must have a meat slicer to do it"

Both sides were correct.

>>10792839
>>10790209
meanwhile i'm sugar sculpting and watching colours of magic

>>10775613
lol

>>10792853

i just got my sugar sculpting supplies today. hopefully i'll get around to trying something out before i have to leave town. it's funny cause they actually immediately came in handy - i had them sent to my work since my neighbors steal my mail and i could not find a single probe thermometer so it was awesome to have a shiny new one right there. meant to be

>>10767997

This is basic as fuck, but I can divide my grilling history into the time before I started butterflying my chicken breasts and the time after I started butterflying my chicken breasts

I have a bunch of coworkers (actuaries) that make enough money to eat out everyday for lunch during the work-week. I want to host a dinner party to make them realize "wow, Ive been eating like shit."

Except I've kinda grown jaded by the fact that I cook so often and know what good cooking looks like... My question is this: What dish(es) should I make to have the biggest impact? I want to leave a lasting impression, right. So my best guess is a course that emphasizes fresh ingredients, balanced flavor, and an engaging texture.

Best case scenario they get so absorbed with their food that they won't talk as they eat.

>>10793415
Of course this implies that I am willing to learn new dishes.

As an aside, I personally cant talk while I eat. I can really focus on only one thing at a time, holding a conversation or tasting my food... Anyone else feel the same?

>>10793435
No

>>10793415
Look up how to make anglottis (they are like mini ravilois). Make them with fresh pasta dough assuming you have a pasta press that's all that's needed for angos. Stuff the angos with homemade ricotta (all you need is milk, buttermilk and a lemon for juice)protip: if you keep the temp low for the milk it won't scortch and you ricotta cheese will be lighter it will take longer but just let it be at low-med heat until the whey under the curd looks like discolored light gray cloudy color that's when you know you got all the curd the milk will give you. Mix in a little boursin cheese too for flavor/seasonings and richness. Look up on YouTube a sauce called a burre monte practice it a little bit as it takes a little experience to be able make, it is an emulsion of water (usually pasta water) and butter and is easy enough to do at the right temperature (getting that proper takes some practice but it can be mastered within an hour or so). For the pasta sauce do that sauce except switch out the pasta water with carrot juice (bought or self juiced) that's been reduced to concentrate the flavors (reduce to 25% or so of it's original contents for the sauce). Serve it with razor thin carrot slices (long ways so you have ribbons) that are dressed with lemon juice, salt and olive oil with some oniony green like pea shoots or arugula over the top. It is a light but filling dish of fresh ingredients (for meit is a staple of spring/early summer) the angos can be made and frozen off well ahead of time (filling freezes well by itself too) so the prep isn't intense and has a balance of flavors. In your position that I'd what o would serve as none of the steps involved in making it are all that complicated to explain and some of it can be prebought (like the carrot juice and the ricotta) but beyond the pasta press it doesn't require any massively special equipment and even then a rolling pin would suffice if needed.

If you are a poor grad student or poor person in general eating some variation of stir fry most nights, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and your favorite wet sauce is all you need to take meat + veggies to the next level. Be generous with the onion powder and garlic powder.

>>10793609
This is a good post. I've made some ricotta myself, though I havent tried using buttermilk yet. I use it plenty for making chicken and pancakes because its super cheap in the US. Everyone is scared of fats because it has the word fat in it!

>>10793651
Maybe not "advanced," but clearly advanced becomes relative rather quickly. Seasoning and learning to adjust seasoning is such a fundamental skill that I've written it into next thread's FAQ.

I'll cover it later, but it's worth mentioning that you should try small portions of a dish with a certain spice blend and pay attention to spice storage conditions.

Mines pretty simple, i like putting gram cracker in my meat when i make burgers or meatloaf. It makes the meat more sweet

>>10779517
As someone else mentioned you need to know the angle of your knife. And for starting out you can order really cheap angle guides to help you out

>>10780387
Make sure your pan is oiled well so nothing sticks. Make sure your omelette or pancake has cooked enough on one side before flipping. Go forward and straight back. Don't actually try to "flip"

>>10791452
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diner_lingo

>>10794418
The secret to perfect burger meat is mixing 30% to 50% organ meats into it such as liver or heart.

Not only is it healthier, but people will be amazed at how complex thw flavour becomes.

>>10783074
https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/07/chinese-velveting-101-introduction-water-velveting.html

>>10787636
does anyone know if i can eat my week long cured pork belly after baking it in the oven on low? or do i really need to bake it first? some say because it was not dry aged that there could be bacteria in it?

>>10794550
>people will be amazed
Until you tell them what they're eating.

>making vegan muffins (not from recipe)
>Whole wheat flour, vegetable oil, yacon syrup, pan seared sliced nuts, raisins
>Always comes out soggy and spongey on the inside, hard/burnt on outside
>Idea.jpeg.tar.gz
>Increased the oil in the mix by a lot for more even heat distribution and better browning, barely stir the fixture at all so the gluten doesn't elongate, turn the heat way down to like 320 so the inside cooks through.
They came out perfect and fluffy.

i'm italian and my favorite pasta dish is "aglio, olio e peperoncino" (garlic, oil and chili pepper). it's a traditional recipe here in rome, it's very quick and it's perfect as a late night/early morning meal after a night out partying or drinking. it's a simple dish, but since it only has 4 ingredients (parsley is not included in the name for some reason) it leaves no room for mistakes and the line between a good ao&p and a bad one is thin. i've been making myself this dish at least once per week for the last two years and i think i've gotten to a point where i can't improve it anymore without betraying the traditional recipe (italians are bitchy about traditions, you already know that).

1 clove of garlic every 2 people. peel it and slice it in half. remove the green sprout if present. pour oil in a pan, roughly a tablespoon per person. if you have a pan specifically made for sautéing pasta it'd better, if you don't it's fine. a wok would do too. now put the garlic in the oil and make sure it is completely covered by it. the more oil above the garlic the better, so if by adding more oil you think you're bout to pass the 1 tb oil per person quota, find a way to tilt the pan so that the garlic is covered. now turn the heat on on the minimum and let it sit for about 20ish minutes. meanwhile, start taking care of the pasta. put some water in a pot. as soon as the first tiny little bubbles start to form, toss in a couple of parsley branches. when you see the water is getting a greenish shade, remove it. be aware that the essential oils of parsley may be toxic if assumed in large quantities and may cause abortion in pregnant women. chop some other non cooked parsley leaves as finely as you can and put them aside.

>>10796383
about the chili peppers: if you have them fresh it’s fine, but dried ones are better. in any case, do the old “hot water/cold water trick” for extra color and then chop it roughly. now go back to the garlic and try crushing it with a wooden spoon, it should turn into puree pretty easily. if it does, turn the heat off and throw the peppers in the pan. if it doesn’t, let it cook some more. if it crushes and sticks to the spoon, either the heat wasn’t low enough, or you didn’t cover the garlic the right way, or the garlic you used is just shit. at this point the water in the pot should’ve been boiling for a while, you should have salted it generously and actually you should have already put the pasta in. spaghetti are highly recommended, if not mandatory. you should cook it for 3/4 of the time it says on the box. when you’re just about to reach that point, take some pasta water and put it in the pan with the oil and the garlic and the peppers, turn the heat all the way on and when it starts to boil and sizzle, toss in some of that parsley you chopped earlier. tilt the pan and stir vigorously until the garlic is completely melted and formed a cream with the oil and the water. now take the pasta out of the pot, put it in the pan and start stirring and sautéing, while adding small amounts of pasta water regularly when you feel it’s drying up, and until the pasta is cooked (al dente obviously). plate the pasta and sprinkle some more parsley. serve piping hot.

>>10796383
>>10796388
but porcoddio aglio olio is not advanced cooking

>>10796388
No cheese? That pasta seems perfect for grated Pecorino Romano.

>>10796388
>the old “hot water/cold water trick” for extra color
Can you expand on that one a bit? I've not heard of it.

>>10797171
I'm not that guy, and I've never heard of anything by that name, but I think he's talking about blanching vegetables in boiling water and then immedietely dunking them in ice water. That makes the colors of green veggies extra vibrant and is a common technique. I don't know if it works for other colors or not.

>>10767997
Got a couple, first is more curiosity.

What IS reasonable to freeze if you were running a restaurant since I see many complaints about freezing most anything, and where would be best place to find general guides on food storage and management?

As a student (UK) I have to make do with electric hotplate type stoves everywhere I've lived, and anywhere with gas stoves tend to be family sized homes or out of my budget. I generally make use of thick bottomed stainless steel pans, a cast iron skillet and a stock pot for when the scraps have piled up, and it can be a struggle at times. Is there any advice for making the most with what I've got, when I'm used to cooking with gas at my family's?

>>10797266
>Freezing
You can logic this out in your head. The problem with freezing is that if bursts the cells in meat and in produce which makes the juices leak out (this is called "drip loss") and fucks up the texture. Ideally, you would never freeze meat, poultry, or produce that will be served in a situation where the texture matters. However if those foods would be used in a stew, soup, etc, freezing is OK. If you intend to juice fruit or veggies you should freeze and thaw them beforehand; the freezing will actually help you get higher yields.

>>Cookware
It sounds like you're already doing what you can. The best you can do to approximate the higher power of gas is to preheat the fuck out of a thick-bottomed pan and rely on the stored-up heat. A few things I can think of:
-replace the coils on electric ranges. Over time they will warp, and that means they won't sit flat against your pan. This makes them less effiicent. New coils can help. Also make sure that the drip pans underneath the coils are clean. they should be bright and shiny chrome. If not, clean or replace them. Shiny wil reflect heat back into your cookware. Dirty will not. you might also consider buying a portable gas burner, or portable induction hob.

>>10797309
>Freezing
That make sense, I feel pretty dumb. I've read that some fresh restaurants keep frozen meat and poultry as a stop-gap against missed deliveries.
How often do bulk fluids like stock and sauces get frozen, or is it also a bad idea; coming from the no-texture angle?

>Cookware
Thanks for the advice. Thankfully they're full round plates rather than coils and are covered to the top drip plate, so pans sit flat. I'm not finding issues with high heat, more the lack of flexibility (only so many heat settings) and how slow it is to bring up to heat and how slowly it lose heat - going from high to med or low is like keeping it at full on gas for an extra 5 minutes. Next place I'm moving into's got an induction hob, and I'm pretty nervous about getting to grips w/ it.

>>10797385
Stock is very often frozen, there's zero loss of quality. Many sauces can be frozen too. (basically, most "wet" foods do well when frozen). However some sauces like hollandaise are delicate emulsions and those will get fucked if you freeze and reheat them.

Freezing meat as a hedge against missed deliveries is common too. Freezing doesn't ruin meat, but it does result in a loss of quality. At low-end places the meat will always be frozen.

>>cookware
If you're needing to cool things down faster than the hob will on its own, just take the pot off the heat entirely. If you need it to cool down faster then you can set the pot on a damp towel, in a water bath, or even transfer the food inside to a cooler container. There's not much you can do about heating up faster though, you just have to be patient.

>>10797266
I think most complaints about frozen food in restaurants are really proxy complaints about buying in ready made food and presenting it as house made, it's less to do with freezing itself being a problem. Every restaurant is going to keep some things on ice. If you're considering working at or running a restaurant though, check out your country's food safety certification, even a perfectly accurate guide won't cut it legally if it's not recognised.

Working on electric is a pain, but if you've got those four hotplate tops and enough space, leave a spare one on high with a pan on if, then you have the option of quickly searing something / bringing a pot back up to temperature without having to wait five minutes.

>>10789640

as a chinese boi

that picture is wrong my man... they both look like cheap american shit

pic related is a hunan style

>>10797644
>>10789640

and this is a sichuan style

Great to see this thread still up, I really really like you guys!
Tomorrow, I'll practice flambéing (is that the English word?) for the first time, I want to Master it and start with something easy like Crêpes Suzette. Any tips on that? Only thing I know is that things with 40 vol-% alcohol will not burn but that's just about it...

>>10797644
Is it cooked with authentic Chinese gutter oil?

>>10797668
You want the alcohol warm to keep the flame going, so give it a second to get hot again before you try to light it if you're doing a showcase thing. If you're ladling a whole bunch over something at the table, it helps to warm the ladle over a flame for a minute or so, but keep a wet towel handy to smother it in case you spill anything.

>>10769328
I paid 5 bucks for my rice cooker and it saves me a lot of hassle. People can fuck off with their stupid opinions because it doesn't make the rice taste any different

>>10796392
it's not advanced. it just tastes a lot better if made with some extra care

>>10796673
people here tend to avoid any type of cheese for this recipe. the sweetness of garlic and oil, the hotness of the peppers and the freshness of parsley create this perfect balance that another ingredient would disrupt, especially one with such a strong and peculiar taste like pecorino. but this is just a) my opinion, b) my personal preference, c) the way people make it where i live (yes, tradition again, boring).
in other regions of italy they add pecorino, ricotta, breadcrumbs, anchovies, capers etc.
it's a simple recipe which means it's very open to experimentation, but in my opinion it's actually pretty hard to find another ingredient that can compensate the others and really elevate this dish to something else without tasting too blatant. it would be like adding an ultra modern steel and glass roof to a greek temple or historical building; chances are it may work beautifully but there's still the risk of it looking like something that was done just because. (pic related, you decide)

>>10797171
it's exactly what >>10797186 said. in my experience it works with vegetables that have a lucid peel (tomatoes, chili peppers, bell peppers...)

>>10794418
That's intriguing.

>>10795536
Fecal streptococci can grow in high salt concentrations. Maybe not straight up dry brine, but certainly liquid brine.

>>10791368
Coca beans and milk. Throw in some sea salt and caramel.

>>10792033
Well the flavor is so fucking strong, you can filter most of the energy drink out into multiple drinks before it turns into a watered down mountain dew left out overnight, but from my memory it worked pretty well.

You just filter one energy drink through a regular Brita and then just put water through it after each filter. So, pour energy drink through filter, then glass of water, then repeat until your energy drink comes out close to nothing. I did it with a regular Monster and it pissed my mom off to hell and back.

You can regenerate water filters by passing citric acid dissolved in water through it. 1 tsp in 1 l water, pass through it once or twice, then once with 1 l of either regular or distilled water. Citric acid is dirt cheap in most stores and it saves you a lot of money. Still, I wouldn't use the same filter more than three times unless you want your water full of bacteria.

>>10788111
Are you on about a packojet?

>>10799367
I gotta admit I'm still confused.

>>10799367
lol, if you're diluting energy drinks literally just buy $4 worth of caffeine powder

>>10775800
So I just made some sweet azuki paste, and it doesnt really have that beautiful red color I picture of it. What step is most important for color in the process?

>>10777264
This is awesome, thanks man.

Any good books on cooking theory/tools/techniques? Not a cook book, but something more like this thread.

>>10803048
The classic is McGee's On Food and Cooking. It's fairly brief on techniques, but if you're interested in the actual mechanisms and reasons behind cooking processes, it's a great read.

>>10793136
the way to do it without a thermometer is just paying very very very close attention to the bubbling/checking for the sugar not carmelizing.

but that's kind of like learning how to use an invisible abacus. impressive and useful in case there's no electricity, but kind of pointless with the presence of technology.

post pics anon, would love to see your progress.

>>10803048
Modernist cuisine

>>10776618
Fuck butter. Use oil, and get the oil hot before you drop in the potatoes at like medium high heat. If you’re hand grating, you need to get more water and starch out. First I soak them in the fridge for 24 hours, strain them, and then let them dry on 3-4 paper towels with one on topfor an hour or two. If you don’t want to do that, just by the frozen kind, and follow my directions. Don’t overuse the oil, but too much is better than too little. One tsp should do for a 6 inch skillet. When you toss in the potatoes, make sure to get an even coating on the Browns, and then use a spatula to form a nice “cake” by firmly pressing down without smashing. After a few minutes you’ll notice a nice brown on the other side; flip like you would an egg if it’s a small enough portion, or just turn it over with your spatula so the browned side faces up.

I like to reduce heat to low and cook it for like half the time on the other side. This lets it keep some moisture and gives it a nice texture, while still being crispy.

>>10780387
You don’t actually “flip”
Anything. Jerk the pan forward quickly, then even more sharply backwards. Let the concavity of the pan do the work.

This same technique really changes the game if you’re gonna flambé or toss pasta in a sauce.

>>10768010
Why would you want to?

>>10778338
If you had meat in the chili, beef fat can be quite creamy.

>>10768063
1. Coconut rice.
Yes, I made it with both glutinous rice and jasmine rice.
I would just use jasmine, I liked the texture better and it was easier to work with.
I wouldn't do anything differently because I write down ingredients while I'm cooking and under-season out of the gate, add as I go. My recipes are roman numeric until finished.

2. Yes!
I don't fucking feel like making it. I don't fucking feel like making it at home or at work so I don't bother. Stop asking.

3. Amazon, usually. If I don't know how to use it, then I wouldn't buy it...?

I just made my very first Hollandaise sauce. First attempt, immediate success. How?
That god damn Chef John, that's how. He's a fucking genius.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPKWYM8-YgY

>>10767997
If you need to cool a sauce or something liquid down really fast, put it in a proportionately big stainless bowl and swirl it around. The heat will diffuse rapidly. Also works for testing the viscosity of a sauce or soup at room temp. Also how you make the caramel cage

>>10804819
The one bowl thing is brilliant, easily the best way to make emulsified sauces by hand. You can do the same thing with custard, dump everything in to a pot cold and bring it up to temperature, just whisk the yolks with a splash of milk to break them up before you pour the rest in.

>>10804992
This doesn't work at all.

>>10768293
Do you know what the point of diminishing returns is for using higher quality alcohol? I know using good wine is better than using shit wine which is better than using "cooking wine". But where do you personally draw the line where spending more on higher quality would not improve the dish more than the expenditure?

>>10789640
I work prep at a mid/upscale chinese restaurant.
yes we use a slicer on the meat.
trim chicken breasts, stack them bottom to bottom on a sheet tray, freeze, let thaw a bit, slice them at about 1/4" thickness, then chop flat strips to desired thickness.

take chicken and mix in a basic batter (water, cornstarch+little oil)
deep fry it in the blanching wok for about 4 minutes on 75% heat
let it cool and refrigerate
blanch in water with the other ingredients in the dish (usually 4 color: carrot, onion, red and green pepper)
then cook in wok with desired sauce

>>10809460
Not that anon, but there's usually four price ranges for alcohol, the budget stuff for alcoholics, the middle of the road usuals, the "fancy" versions of those, and then the madly expensive stuff that's half actually good and half just veblen good. For cooking, I think the middle of the road stuff is preferable, because it's reliable and not overly distinctive.

>>10808431
it works every time i've done it what are you talking about?

>>10789640
Slicer and a bit of freezing. Or some skill. Or any combination of the above

>>10809460
I've experimented with that a lot.
You absolutely do not want to use cheap or "bottom shelf" alcohol. If the wine or booze has any bad tastes that will only get concentrated as you cook with it. "Cooking wine" is a no-go as well, it's nearly always far too salty.

I normally use wine that costs about $10-15 a bottle for most cooking. I keep a bottle of fancier port around ($30-ish a bottle) but I only use a splash of that at a time. For Chinese cooking I use a 7 year old shaoxing wine that costs about $20. Examples of liquor I cook with are Wild Turkey 101 bourbon, Gosling's Black Seal rum, Gran Mariner red ribbon, etc.

For Japanese I use Takara mirin (roughly $9/bottle). It is miles better than the fake shit from the supermarket but honestly I would buy a better one if I could find a reliable source in my area. For Sake I'm very much at the mercy of what my Asian market happens to have in stock, and that changes often. I try and buy those small "single serving" bottles because Sake does not keep well and there's no way I'd use up a full-size bottle before it goes off.

I have experimented with more expensive wines but I was only seeing a very very small improvement in flavor for having spent a lot more money.

>>10809581
Wait, you claim your restaurant was mid/upscale and you didn't deep-fry to order? And dishes were cooked with pre-made sauces rather than adding aromatics individually to the wok and then thickening at the end with cornstarch slurry?

That's not "upscale" you twat, that's cutting corners worse than the average American-Chinese place.

>>10793415
>>10793435
post pics after pls

My secret technique is this cookery book right here.Unless you are a professional chef (and to be fair, even if you are) this book will change things.
It's completely amazing. At the start has all the classic recipies you should know anyway, then a bunch of fancy stuff if you ever want to throw a dinner party. BUT that's not the good part.

The GOOD part is it goes in depth for the next 3/4 of the book on cookery skills & techniques, unit conversions, seasonality and, my personal favourite, flavour pairings for basically every ingredient you could ever want as well as advice on each & every one of them. Even on the occasions where they don't have the super niche ingredient in there, it has general advice for others of the same catagory (for example Basa was a variety of catfish).I literally cannot recommend this shit enough, just pirate it if you want idgaf, get it right now for the flavor pairings alone.

>>10811995
I have that book. It's not bad, but it's basically a simplified version of pic related.

The Professional Chef is a much better buy IMO.

>>10812017
I like how it's literally from the basics upwards, so even the most pleb neet like myself can create nice food from pretty much anything. I'll download this book though

>>10811995
>>10812017
>>10812050
We should try to make an official /ck/ reading list/reading flow chart. If there already is one, I sure haven't seen it.

>>10811307

What do you use Sake for? If it's for heavier, miso based dishes like koi-koku or any kind of nikomi, salted Chinese rice wine that sells for $5 /750 ml is more than sufficient.

If it's for straight sauces like nikiri, or for delicate dishes like a suimono, US made Gekkeikan works fine.

I don't know any restaurant in Japan that uses anything more expensive than キクマサ ピン tier. I know plenty of "chefs" in the states that are deluded enough to use Ginjo though.

>>10810822
I just tried it again and it literally just doesn't work. You're full of shit, kill yourself.

>>10812946

...

>>10810822

Just... don't answer to this guy man...

Either way, I do believe that cooling is an underrated skill. My main job in what was the equivalent of an assistant saucier in Japan was to cool a dozen different sauces/stocks of varying consistency, while managing your ice bath and ice stock. You absolutely need to stir both your product, AND the ice bath to get through your tasks. Especially if it's oily, or thickened with starch.

One thing I wish we had in Japan that is pretty commonly used in the States is the Carslie Cool master, or equivalent. It would've made my life so much easier.

>>10767997
if you wanted to be super duper advance you could use a hand held acetylene torch, I'm sre you would get anal after

>>10812927
>What do you use Sake for?
My most common use is making tare for teriyaki dishes. I've also used it in marinades.

>>Gekkeikan
that's what I often end up with, works fine. Sometimes it's Sho Chiku Bai. Sometimes it's other brands whose names I can't read. I wasn't trying to imply that I wanted something higher end. My point was that I don't really have a consistent brand that I use because my local market seems to roll dice with respect to what they order in. They don't keep a consistent selection except for some of the higher priced (Ginjo and Daiginjo) brands, which are a) too expensive and b) come in too large bottles for my needs.

>>10813146

Nah man, I wasnt implying anything about you :)

I was just saying that a lot of people, especially "higher end" Japanese chefs use Ginjo instead or regular because are under the wrong assumption that it'll make their dish smoother.

>>10812017
I want to pick up a copy of this, older editions are much cheaper on ebay. Is it like a school textbook where newer editions are negligible or should I get the newest one?

>>10767997
put a thin layer of mayo on one side of two slices of bread and slap those bad boys down on the skillet
wait until they get nice and golden brown then flip them over and put a thin layer of basil pesto on one slice then put your cheese on
put them together and dunk them in tomato soup for a 10/10 grilled cheese experience

added bonus: make some beans to put in your canned tomato soup along with a little garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika, etc. for some faux-chili tasting tomato soup

>>10813913
Mayo is certainly overlooked as a butter sub for grilled cheese. Id encourage anyone to just make it homemade, it's not that hard once you understand the emulsification.

Separate note, I had an idea for making better stir fry. First off, proper stir fry has a crunchy texture to it. It is unmistakeable. The key to this is high heat, which means smoke. Western kitchens are generally not designed to ventilate smoke, and densely populated areas will usually have electric coils over gas stoves because of the fire hazard. I've heated cast iron skillets indoors to no avail. There is still too much moisture in my stir fry.

So my idea is this. I also own a dehydrator, and if I leave my stir fry ingredients in there for some time before I cook, I'm sure that I'll have a much easier time making stir fry with the lower heat. I can accomplish the char on my meats, but I cant get it hot enough without choking and setting off the fire alarm. I think this will fix that problem. I'll update with details when I try it.

>>10813894
Older editions are fine--it's not like the recipes for bechamel, etc, have changed. They're also available on Amazon. I've given many copies as gifts, I've paid about $10-15 or so for ones in nice shape.

>>10814257
>>Stir fry
I think the dehydrator will leave you with fucked up textures.

Tips:
1) don't use frozen meat or veg. Freezing breaks the cells in food and makes them leak out juice. Fresh only.
2) As you already know heat is king. If you're doing it with an electric stove then don't use a wok, the heat transfer between the flat hob and the round wok sucks. thick heavy pan, highest heat setting. Preheat the fuck out of it. Better yet, do it outdoors with a wok over a charcoal or gas grill, or a propane burner aka "turkey fryer".
3) It's normal to get some moisture in the stir-fry. You thicken it at the end of cooking by adding cornstarch slurry.

>>10814257
>but I cant get it hot enough without choking and setting off the fire alarm
To be honest, at home without a proper vent, we just choke and set off the fire alarm. Swing a damp tea towel around over your head to clear it out afterwards.

Getting just the outside dried out with the dehydrator sounds like it might work though, I'd be interested to hear results.

>>10814476
Yeah, Im using a cast iron skillet which gives the best results without a wok. I live in a downtown area and dont have access to outdoor grills cooking :(.

Ive preheated the skillet until its smoking and I soak a paper towel in oil to get it started. You're probably right about the texture, because at some point it becomes "jerky" right. Im going to experiment with different timings and see how it affects the texture with pork to start out.

I'll post my favorite technical bits in a second, but my real hobby is trying to figure out how to translate restaurant foods to a home cooking format. A lot of times we see our favorite chain foods using ingredients and tools we don't have readily available in our kitchen, and often times certain chain recipes have nasty ingredients you can do away with. A couple favorites of my discoveries include:

-Diner toast. The secret is that the line chef is probably not using real butter, it's probably margarine, you're probably not buying whole sale brand bread, nor do you have a salamander or industrial toaster with professional heat control. The closest I've come to authentic diner toast is to get a standard white bread and coat it in a VERY thin layer of mayo before toasting. Mayo is a combo of whipped oil (much like margarine) but the addition of eggs helps give the toast that crispy outside, chewy inside feel.
-Fried rice. Really good fried rice requires 3 things; butter, aged rice, starch. Don't use incredibly fresh, wet, hot rice. You'll burn yourself and the rice will be mushy. Instead, use either left over rice or pre-make the day before. It'll dry out a little and it won't over cook. Mix in about a half tablespoon of corn starch per cup of rice and coat before pan frying in garlic butter. It's the best way to ensure you have max flavor without mushy, unpleasant granules.
-The best fried chickens are only lightly battered. All this talk about buttermilk and corn flakes really can't compare to a pot of hot peanut oil and proper seasonings. Leave the skin on, and pat the pieces down to dry thoroughly. Your one and only coating should be one part seasoning to three parts flour to one part potato starch. 375º oil for 10 minutes and you're golden. Make sure to stay between 300-325 while frying.

Best technical advice I can give:

-Get a good set of knives and take care of them. Sharpen as needed and hone before each use.
-Cast iron is your friend, and everyone saying it's not is a stupid git using theirs incorrectly. A good cast iron will last you forever and will always provide even, consistent heat without lasting damage.
-Joy of Cooking is a 100% necessity for any chef. It's got everything you need to know about how to work your way around a kitchen and prepare just about anything. Master chefs and amateurs alike use it, so don't think you're "above it" because it's been in print for almost 100 years.
-America's Test Kitchen is an amazing resource, so use it.
-Don't buy one trick pony items. A knife can do everything an avocado cutter can. A pot can cook rice just as good as a rice cooker. You don't need clutter in your kitchen from things that have a job another thing can do better.
-Salt cure your steak. Trust me, it's better. 48 hours is fine but 72 is better.

>>10814844
You're right about using yesterday's rice, but fried rice with butter and corn starch sounds bizarre. If you're trying to recreate the restaurant taste, it's just a shitload of seasoned oil.

>>10814959
I actually learned that technique from the Chinese family next door, and I was floored. Apparently corn starch and potato start are used in basically everything they fry because it helps keep the rice from absorbing all the fat. Also, the butter helps brown the rice unlike light oils.

>>10814967
That's weird, my family never use butter to fry, most of my aunts can't even stand the smell. Corn starch, sure, but fried rice doesn't need it to get colour if your pan is hot enough.

a sharp edged piece of metal to cut food into smaller bits. heat to make the food more digestible. salt to make it more palatable. i got lots of great techniques.

>>10814967
>>10815028

I'm not speaking from an elitist standpoint when I say this, but from a practical perspective. These 2 posts show why it's necessary (if it's not already implied) to State the context of these techniques, whether it's a technique for home cooks or professional cooks.

An authentic Chinese restaurant, at least the ones I have staged at in Tokyo, do not adulterate the rice before putting it on the wok. It's not even necessary to dry it out. I've made perfectly good fried rice that isn't starchy, separating grain by grain from hot Japanese rice that's been sitting in a warmer for 2 hours.

There are a few key factors, but the most important is wok size and heat. And it's very hard to use and heat a sufficiently large wok in a home kitchen.

Example of what a SMALL wok station would look like at a Chinese restaurant.

ttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LzcTE6Xx5fA
(video starts at 0:54)

The best home kitchen method is to fry 1 bowl of rice (200-250 cc) at a time so that your product remains sufficiently dry thoughout the cooking process, in my experience.

Here's a good demonstration of cooking fried rice on a GRIDDLE (med-high temperature) that should give you an idea of why you don't necessarily need HIGH heat (these griddles typically operate at 400- 450F in Asian cuisines), as long as you can expel the moisture quickly.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7TSYNboumXQ


Please don't misunderstand me when I say that home kitchen and commercial kitchen techniques are different. I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm merely stating that as professional cooks, we should be aware that some techniques mentioned in this thread, like adding corn starch to your rice or dehydrating your fried rice toppings, are 'original' techniques, and not commonly used traditionally/professionally.

>>10815374
Thanks anon, that was interesting.

>>10815206
Take your sense of humor back to the 70s where it belongs.

How long should I keep chopped potatoes in the oven for

HELLO HELP THE POTATOS ARE ALREADY IN THE OVEN HOW LONG I KEEP THESE MFERS IN HERE FOR

FUCKING HELP
HOW LONG
POTATO
IN
OVEN
FUCKKKKK

>>10814257
use your refrigerator, don't use a dehydrator, because that'll go too far and probably fuck up the texture, especially if it uses heat. refrigerator air is dry, so experiment and leave your rice in there uncovered overnight. should dry out quite a bit. you can use a similar principle with skin on meats, i like to leave whole chickens in the roasting pan in the fridge overnight so the skin drys out

Fuck you assholes I ended up burning my potatoes because of you
>>10816717
Especially you eat a dick you saw my posts and didnt help

>>10816557
Silly anon, /ck/ doesn't move fast enough to reply in real time. Sorry about your potatoes.

How much coriander do u usually use to get a good leche con tigre for ceviche?

>>10817898
>bunch of mexic*nt words i can't read
wrong board retard!!!
>>>/int/