Indholdsfortegnelse for CID May/June 2018 i Cook's Illustrated

The bristly, chartreuse leaves of CURLY ENDIVE taste relatively mellow, with earthy hints of mushroom and green beans. The light, clean flavor of feathery-yet-crisp FRISEE is the perfect foil to crispy-chewy bacon and runny egg in the classic bistro salad frisée aux lardons. Raw ESCAROLE is pea-sweet and juicy, but wilting brings out its mineral-y flavor and dense, satisfying chew. Meaty DANDELION GREENS taste like spinach but more vegetal. Mature ARUGULA packs a fierce, peppery burn, as does deceptively dainty WATERCRESS. Shaggy MUSTARD GREENS deliver tingly, wasabi-like heat that’s also savory. Pungent and leathery, burgundy RADICCHIO leaves soften when heated, but their creamy white ribs retain substantial crunch. Those traits are exaggerated in bullet-shaped TREVISO, a variety of radicchio. Oblong Belgian ENDIVE leaves deliver thirst-quenching crispness and flavor that’s both…

Back when I was a line cook at Craigie Street Bistrot in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we had a nightly routine involving skirt steak. The end pieces were never plated because they were too small to show off the beautifully cooked beef, so the chef habitually tossed them into a “meat bucket.” At the end of the night, the tidbits were heated up under the broiler for a postshift snack. Trust me when I tell you (after many, many bites) that this fatty cut is intensely beefy, tender, and juicy—a true cook’s treat. Finding My Mojo Skirt steak is long, narrow, and only ½ to 1 inch thick. Because it’s so thin, you need to cook it over high heat to ensure that the outside is well browned by the time the…

You wouldn’t usually call upon the devil to save a weeknight dinner, but that’s exactly what Mr. Micawber does in Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield (1850) when he covers undercooked mutton with mustard, salt, and black and cayenne peppers. It is a classic example of “deviling,” the practice of seasoning food with some combination of mustard, pepper, and/or vinegar, which dates back to at least the 18th century. Nowadays, the term refers to any treatment that uses those components to punch up mild-mannered foods such as hard-cooked eggs, deli ham, or bland chicken breasts and pork chops. The ease and bold flavors of deviling appeal to me, particularly when applied to boneless pork chops, which I often make for weeknight dinners. But recipes vary widely when it comes to the…

I love ice cream, but it isn’t the most elegant way to cap off an evening. Serving a scoop (even homemade) at a dinner party always feels a little too casual. Enter semifreddo, a classic Italian dessert that’s often described as a frozen mousse. (Though it’s fully frozen, its name roughly translates as “half-frozen.”) There are many styles, but like ice cream (or gelato), semifreddo typically starts with a custard base. However, instead of being churned in an ice cream maker, semifreddo is lightened with whipped cream and/or beaten egg whites. Then it’s frozen in a loaf pan until solid, unmolded, and cut into neat slices. But instead of being hard and densely packed, semifreddo is soft enough that it easily caves to the pressure of a spoon. Better yet,…

We tested eight cocoa powders, including a mix of Dutched and natural products, all available at supermarkets. Panels of 21 tasters sampled them in three blind tastings: in chocolate sugar cookies and two kinds of chocolate sheet cake. An independent laboratory analyzed the fat content and pH of the cocoa powders; a lower pH indicates higher acidity. Prices were paid in Boston-area supermarkets, and products appear below in order of preference. RECOMMENDED DROSTE Cacao PRICE: $9.99 for 8.8-oz package ($1.14 per oz) STYLE: Dutched pH: 7.90 FAT: 20.14% COMMENTS: Our longtime favorite Dutched supermarket cocoa powder was the clear overall winner. It has a high fat content and therefore has less starch, so cookies were “perfectly chewy and moist.” Cakes were very “moist,” “rich,” and “fudgy.” We also loved its…

Macarons are the beloved French confection featuring two brightly colored, light-as-air almond flour meringue cookies sandwiched around decadent fillings such as pistachio buttercream, chocolate ganache, and lemon curd. They are at once refined yet playful, delicate yet satisfying. And I hate them. Let me explain. Years ago, while I was a test cook for this magazine, I was assigned the weighty task of developing a recipe for macarons. I eagerly jumped in. I visited big-name French bakeries in New York City to sample the epitome of the form. I enrolled in a weekend macaron class. I read journal articles with titles such as “Effect of Sugar, Citric Acid and Egg White Type on the Microstructural and Mechanical Properties of Meringues.” I considered learning French (but got busy). And here’s the…

The vast majority of the time when I cook salmon, I buy individual fillets for quick weeknight meals. They’re easy to pan-sear, poach, roast, or grill, and their uniform shape means they cook evenly. But salmon is ideal for entertaining, too. It requires little prep work; cooks faster than a roast or stew; dresses up beautifully with countless sauces, glazes, and rubs; and makes a striking centerpiece. But cooking a whole side of salmon—a single fillet that weighs 4 to 5 pounds and serves upwards of eight people—demands different considerations than cooking individual fillets does. The large fillet doesn’t fit in a skillet, so you can’t cook it on the stovetop. But cooking it in the oven comes with hurdles; namely, browning is more difficult without the stove’s intense heat.…

Everyone loves sitting down to a plate of fluffy, golden, flavorful pancakes, but making them is another matter. Nobody wants to run out for buttermilk or sour cream before the first meal of the day, never mind haul out (and then clean) their stand mixer to whip egg whites. That’s where box mixes come in, but their convenience is hardly worth the results they deliver: rubbery pancakes with a Styrofoam-like flavor that no amount of butter or syrup can hide. Besides, most prefab products still require you to add milk and eggs to the dry mix, so at that point, why not throw together a batter of your own? So that’s exactly what I set out to do. I limited myself to basic ingredients—no buttermilk or sour cream—and no appliances…

If you’ve only ever used barley to bulk up a brothy soup, consider this your introduction to another hearty grain with great versatility. Like farro, wheat berries, and brown rice, barley is nutty but neutral, so it pairs well with most seasonings and can deliver satisfying chew. I wanted to feature barley in a handful of simple sides, so I cooked a batch using the absorption method that we commonly use for rice. I soon realized why barley is typically relegated to soup: After I’d simmered 1 cup of barley in 3 cups of water in a covered pot until the grains were tender and had absorbed all the liquid, the barley clumped together, bound by a starchy paste—think gluey oatmeal. Undeterred, I cooked more batches with all the different…

Recipes for butter-braised spring vegetables abound, but don’t let them lead you astray. Braising simply doesn’t work for tender spring produce. Winter vegetables are another story: If you slowly braise sturdy carrots, parsnips, and potatoes in butter over low heat in a covered pot, they stew in their own juices, turning perfectly tender with an earthy sweetness. But do the same with delicate asparagus and peas and you get sodden, drab mush. That’s why most so-called butter-braised spring vegetables aren’t technically braised. Instead they’re cooked rapidly in a covered skillet with a small amount of butter and water or broth. But I reject those recipes, too. Because the vegetables cook directly in the buttery liquid, they become dull and waterlogged and the buttery richness is lost. For spring vegetables that…

Whether you’re storing leftovers, preparing a make-ahead meal, or taking lunch to work, you need a food storage container to keep food fresh, intact, and ready to eat. But the containers most of us have at home are pathetic: a motley pile of warped, stained bottoms and cracked, mismatched lids. Stores are brimming with containers claiming to be leakproof, airtight, microwave-safe, and more, but which ones function as promised—and hold up to serious use over time? In our last testing, we chose the Snapware Airtight 8 Cup Rectangular Container as our favorite plastic model, but we’ve heard complaints about the performance of recently purchased copies; plus, new competitors have emerged. We like having both plastic and glass containers on hand since each has advantages: Plastic is light and less fragile,…

Buffer for Wine Bottles Bill Lewis of Mount Kisco, N.Y., found a way to safely transport multiple bottles of wine without a divided cardboard box. He packs two rolls of paper towels next to each other in a sturdy bag and slips the bottles on either side of them. The snug, cushioned fit prevents the bottles from moving. Reminder About Surplus Spices When Carrie Andersson of Stillwater, Minn., buys bulk spices and ends up with more than will fit in her small spice jar, she places a sticker marked with a “plus” symbol on the lid to remind herself that she has more in the cupboard. How to Handle Garlic for Grating Rather than peel garlic cloves before grating them—and then inadvertently skin his fingers on the blade as he…

Few dishes are as beloved and crowd-pleasing as roast chicken. Perhaps no one knew this better than the late, renowned chef Judy Rodgers of Zuni Café in San Francisco. When she put her roast chicken with warm bread salad on the menu in the late ’80s, it was a real hit. Now, some 30 years later, it still is. I recently prepared Rodgers’s recipe from The Zuni Café Cookbook (2002). The chicken was beautifully executed: the skin deeply bronzed, the meat juicy and well seasoned. And the salad? The bread itself was a lovely mix of crunchy, fried, chewy, and moist pieces, all tossed with savory chicken drippings. Currants, pine nuts, just-softened scallions and garlic, salad greens, and a sharp vinaigrette completed the salad. Served with the chicken, it was…

Have you ever “discovered” something new only to find that it’s everywhere you turn? That was my experience with the meaty Chinese noodle dish zha jiang mian (“ja jang mee-AN”), and I’ve never been so glad to find a new favorite that I can get in most any Chinese restaurant. This dish has many aliases—fried sauce noodles, Beijing meat sauce, and Old Beijing noodles, to name a few. But what’s even better is that it’s a good dish to make at home: simple, quick, and flavor-packed. It starts with a sauce akin to a long-simmered, deeply flavored Italian meat ragu. The difference is that it simmers for just 20 minutes and calls for only ½ pound of ground meat. The savory secret? Two fermented products: sweet bean sauce (tián miàn…

When we want big chocolate flavor in everything from cookies and cakes to puddings and pies, we turn to cocoa powder. It has a higher proportion of flavorful cocoa solids than any other form of chocolate, so ounce for ounce, it tastes more intensely chocolaty. It’s made in two styles—Dutch-processed and natural—and there’s fierce debate in the baking world about which is best. Both styles have staunch supporters who are convinced that using the wrong type will ruin a dessert. For years, we also viewed Dutched and natural cocoa powders as distinctly different products. But when we last evaluated cocoa powder, something surprising happened: A natural powder won, a Dutched powder came in second, and the rest of the lineup was a jumble. In the years since, we’ve remained curious…

Tasting Ground Turmeric We’ve always used turmeric in Indian-inspired curries, rice, and vegetables, but now this vibrant orange spice is showing up in all sorts of foods and drinks. The uptick in popularity is due in large part to curcumin, a compound in turmeric that has gotten a lot of attention for its antioxidant properties, although no scientific studies have proven that eating it confers any health benefits. Does it matter which ground turmeric you buy? To find out, we purchased five products priced from $2.10 to $3.46 per ounce and sampled them in warm milk and in our Turmeric Chicken Salad. Our tastings gave us a newfound appreciation for turmeric. In recipes, we typically combine it with other bold spices, but when we were able to home in on…

Air Fryers Air fryers are large countertop appliances that offer a bold promise: perfectly fried food with very little oil (often less than a tablespoon). But these fryers don’t actually fry; they bake food like a convection oven does, using a fan to circulate hot air. To see how they performed, we made oven-fried versions of French fries, chicken wings, and chicken Parmesan and compared them with the same recipes prepared in nine air fryers (priced from $60.20 to $249.95), making slight tweaks to cooking times and temperatures as needed. Impressively, every model we tried produced food that was just as good or better than oven-fried versions. Our favorite, the Philips TurboStar Airfryer, Avance Digital ($249.95), stood out thanks to its slimmer profile, automatic shutoff, easy cleaning, and intuitive digital…