cooking @ home

©2008 Harry Kenney

You should know how this goes by now if you’re a long-time reader. If you’ve just stumbled upon this site then welcome! And here’s the dirty low-down: This is where you the surfer asked questions without actually asking me. You — or, I should say, “they” — placed search terms in the various engines and found themselves at my site. And through my server logs I found what they were searching for.

While most found the answers they were looking for, some did not, and it is to those I do my best to answer their “spoken yet unspoken” question. Besides being, I hope, somewhat helpful, there’s also a bit of “comedy”, namely in the weird searches people will do as well. So first the helpful hints stuff and then — for dessert, so to speak — at bottom are the weird and funny searches (and a snappy rejoinder or two). Enjoy.

“can I do a twice baked potato the night before the party?” – Good question and the answer is a good party planner tip. Be sure and check out my recipe on Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes, btw. I would bake the potatoes the day before. Do the scooping out and mixing of ingredients and then put them in the refrigerator covered in plastic or gently piled into a large container. Then the day of the party, they’re ready and all you all have to do is the second bake. And they’ll taste very fresh. In short, yes, with twice baked potatoes you can do the initial bake the night before and the second bake the day of. I would not bake them three times, that is I would not do both bakes the night before and then a heat up the day of the party, it will not taste as fresh and would probably taste a tad soggy.

“true Italian hoagie ingredients” – Quick tangant first. Wikipedia seems to be going down the drain more and more. Just for fun (though lately disgust) I check them out when doing research. Now, I’m from Philly. I know what’s in a real Italian hoagie. I have no reason to “research” it. But, as with the Philadelphia Cheesesteak, I sometimes get curious as to what “crapola” people come up with. Anyway the ingredients list at Wikipedia includes proscuitto. Are you kidding me? At $5 per 4 ounces, hoagies would run for 12 bucks instead of $5 or 6 with that ingredient added alone. Never seen an Italian hoagie with that on, and in Philly, unless it’s some kind of upscale-gourmet version I never will.

Ok, enough of the “bologna” — pun intended. You came to the right place, here, for your answer. A true Philadelphia Italian hoagie (and there is no other authentic kind that a Philadelphia kind) is made with cooked capicola, genoa salami, cooked salami, ham and provolone. Some folks omit the ham, most have it on it. The good ones also include mortadella. Hoagies in general either come with mayonnaise or oil (with a touch of vinegar) and sometimes both, but with an Italian hoagie you get it with the oil, never with mayo. Sweet and hot peppers are optional, but most folks will pick one or the other or both. Natch the other ingredients of a hoagie are assumed: a fresh, firm Italian roll, little shreded lettuce, little raw onion and slices of tomato, maybe pickles, all seasoned with salt, pepper and dried oregano.

“can you use wine that has been chilled room temperature and back to being chilled again?” – I’m always getting questions about red wine every since my article on Chilled Red Wine? The Proof Is in the Lager. Ok, ever hear of “musky beer”? My nephew Billy knows this one. When you get a case of beer that’s unrefrigerated, but it in the icebox, take it out (for whatever reason), let it get warm, put it back in and later open it, you get musky beer. The cold, warm, cold has changed it’s composition enough that it gives it a funny taste. Now, if that’s beer, imagine what it will do to something as comparatively complex tasting as wine.

In short, try it. This goes back to my axiom of do what works for you, but generally my advice is, if it’s gotten to room temperature, drink it. If you have to put it back, again try it. Maybe it will not taste good, maybe you won’t taste the difference. Maybe if you put it in something else as an ingredient … in terms of drinks, maybe add it to a sangria, or maybe put it in your beef stew. I would not automatically throw it out, no, never. So try it, and it might be fine, second, if it seems a tad off, try mixing it with something else, using it as an ingredient, and if all else fails and it really tastes off to you, toss it.

Obviously the best thing to do in the future is to place it back in the refrigerator before it gets to room temperature or to add more ice to your ice bucket. I know, doesn’t help for now, but keep it mind for the next time.

“what makes a great cooking show?” – If I knew that, I’d either be the Next Food Network Star or better yet running the joint. Seriously, since you asked, a cook or chef that can connect with the audience, who has an interesting take on making things their own, who has a variety of experience, who has enough knowledge to give tips and talk about the food.

I do have one thing to say about food travel combo shows — most of which I can’t stand, and a few with I love. You had better do a minimum of five recipes per half hour, or you are not a food show travelling, you’re on a vacation and having a tax write-off and you’re annoying me. I don’t need to know everything about a culture or see the waves for ten minutes on a food travel show; you see, that’s what a pure travel show will give me. If you’re doing food, I want to see food and lots of it, not yacking, being introduced to your “new cultural friend Juan” to give you a tour of the mountains or the museums. I want to see and get the recipes for the food already! If you can’t do that, go on your trip or your vacation and leave the production crew at home.

“ground beef stew too dry” – That’s a pretty easy one actually. First, go with the fatty mixture. Whether it’s stew or hamburgers, I always go with the 80% ground beef to 20% fat. I know, the leaner you go the more expensive it is, so consumers think that’s better. What it is is leaner. Better depends upon what you’re trying to achieve. If you’re trying to get more fat out of your diet, I say forget ground beef altogether, going for a 90-10 mix is only depriving yourself of flavor and making your eating more bland. And it’s not cutting out much fat in your diet at the same time.

I recall the episode of Chef’s Story where they were featuring Cat Cora when she talks about one of her culinary school instructors who used to say the following to his class all the time, almost as a mantra: “Fat is taste. Fat is taste. Fat is taste” In the case of the ground beef stew it’s also the moisture. So first is the blend. Second, don’t over do it in the frying pan. Some folks totally skip a frying pan for ground beef stew and purely stew the beef. That would definitely give you moistness and tenderness. But in my opinion you’re loosing some flavor. Brown your meat in the frying pan with garlic and sauteed onions but brown it lightly. Remember this is not a slab of steak, this is not cubed beef. The surface area on each “crumble” of individual meat is the size of a pea or smaller. If you brown that hard and long and dark, of course there’s not going to be much moisture left inside of each clump of meat. So, right mixture, plenty of fat, a light browning not heavy, and you’re hamburger stew will be moist every time.

“adjusting cooking time stuffed chicken breasts” – gotten this a few times. I hate going by time. How do I know how big the breasts are? If you are really referring to half-breasts? Are the boneless? Are they boned? How thick the bones if they are? How deep and long did you cut the pocket? Is the stuffing actually denser or lighter than the chicken meat? etc etc … This is why time is not the answer and nothing I can answer. So go with the universal constant. Internal temperature. And how do we get that? With an internal probe or thermometer. In which case what you have to be careful with is you are not going to put the rod into the center the way you normally do. If you do this you will be taking the temp of the stuffing, but the chicken around it could still be too raw. Simply don’t insert the probe or rod too deeply, and instead check just outside of the stuffing area. Another way is to do what I just said plus two other places: check also in the stuffing, and at an end point away from the stuffing. By getting these range of temperatures you should be able to figure out if the area of chicken that has the greatest thickness without stuffing is done and if the area around the stuffing is done.

If you need a temperature reminder, we’re talking 165°F as the minimum level to eat chicken safely. Try not to exceed 175°F. At 180°F and over you have a very dried bird.

Strange But True Searches

“open face stomboli recipes” – An open-faced stromboli? Um, we have a special name for that. You may never have heard of it before. Write this down. It’s called a “pizza”.

“how to make beef brisket burnt ends?” – Burn them.

“microwave, turnip, aluminum foil” – Sheesh! I really do hope that search doesn’t mean what I think it does, otherwise the answer is “aluminum foil, microwave, big boom”.

“candy oven parts” – I’ll let you make up your own response to this. Really. Feel free to put them in the comments below.

“man vs wild recipe” – The only “recipe” I know Bear Grylls has is: Catch it while it’s moving. Rip it’s head off. Chow down. … Yuck!

“drunk on orange extract” – Seriously, whoever you are, your frat party privileges are now permanently revoked!