Innehållsförteckning för May - June 2016 från Cook's Illustrated

Grilled to a perfect mediumrare, a rosy-pink, ultratender beef tenderloin is a great centerpiece for summer entertaining. The only trouble is, this cut’s flavor is fairly mild. To amp things up, many recipes call for smoking the tenderloin over wood chips, wrapping it with cured meats like pancetta or bacon, or rubbing it with an abundance of spices. The result? The meat’s delicate flavor is overwhelmed. I wanted a grilled beef tenderloin that tasted beefy—not smoky or porky or spicy—with just enough flavor from the grill to complement and amplify the roast’s natural flavor. And of course, I wanted the roast to be perfectly cooked. Inner Perfection I settled on a ready-to-go center-cut tenderloin (also known as Châteaubriand) rather than a larger whole tenderloin. The center-cut option comes cleaned of…

Atowering cheese soufflé is my favorite brunch offering, but some may consider whipping egg whites and assembling a water bath too much work for a Sunday morning. An ideal alternate dish combines the richness and elegance of a cheese soufflé with less work. Enter sformato, an elegant Italian baked egg custard with a plush but light texture. It’s surprisingly easy to make: Most recipes I found were based on a béchamel (a mixture of butter cooked with flour and milk) and then thickened with eggs and flavored with sharp cheese like Parmesan or Pecorino Romano. Some included vegetables that were processed into the batter, which was ladled into a baking dish (or ramekins for individual sformati) and baked in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes. A restaurant version I’d…

I once made sticky buns at home, and I enjoyed every step of the baking process, from rolling the spiced sugar filling up in the firm, smooth dough to nestling the tidy spirals in the nutty caramel topping to flipping the baked buns onto a platter and watching the glaze drip down the sides. But when it came to the final step—actually eating a bun—I felt betrayed. Even when slightly warm, the bread part was drier and tougher than I had anticipated, and the topping was so firm that I feared for my fillings. A few hours later, the buns were downright hard from top to bottom, but it didn’t really matter. They were so overwhelmingly sweet that finishing one had been a feat, and I couldn’t muster enough enthusiasm…

In the test kitchen, when we need a wine vinegar, we’ve generally turned to the red or white varieties. That’s because the third big category of wine vinegar—sherry vinegar— has been far less widely available in supermarkets. Given that it’s a Spanish condiment, we’ve mainly restricted ourselves to calling for it in Spanish recipes like gazpacho, romesco sauce, or Catalan beef stew. But when we noticed that sherry vinegar is now appearing not just in specialty stores but also in many ordinary supermarkets, we were thrilled. We are big fans of its nutty, oaky, savory flavors and decided it was time to find a favorite that we could use not just in Spanish dishes but in applications across the board. First, a little background on this interesting ingredient: As its…

More (and Better) Bacon in the Pan To ensure that bacon cooks evenly in the pan, Rob Hughes of Soquel, Calif., cuts the slices in half crosswise before cooking. The shorter strips (which happen to be the perfect size for sandwiches) lay completely flat against the surface; plus, he’s able to fit two extra half-slices in the pan without overcrowding. A Steadier Pour from Syrup Because it’s easy to pour out too much maple syrup over pancakes or waffles, Mara Morgan of Boise, Idaho, controls the pour and creates a steady stream by affixing a spare liquid pourer (the kind she uses for cruets of oil and vinegar) to the top of the syrup bottle. The pourer does get sticky, so she removes and washes it between uses. Splatter-Free Deglazing…

Patatas bravas are a quintessential tapas offering, the perfect bite to nibble between sips of sherry. These chunks of crispy fried potatoes are served with a smoky, spicy tomato sauce (bravas means “fierce”) and sometimes a thick, garlicky mayonnaise, or alioli, to balance the heat. In Spain, patatas bravas are served at virtually every tapas bar but rarely, if ever, made at home. That being the case—and because I’ve always wanted to be able to serve these at home with drinks or even alongside a simple roast—I was glad to find that recipes for the dish abound. But when I tried a handful in the test kitchen, the results were disappointing. The potatoes didn’t have the supercrispy, well-browned exteriors and fluffy interiors of those I’ve enjoyed in tapas bars, and…

At its most basic, a rice bowl is not so much a recipe as it is a practical style of eating popular across Asia: Top warm rice with an array of seasoned vegetables, a fried egg, maybe a small amount of meat, and a piquant sauce, and stir it up for a complete meal that’s true comfort food: nourishing, flavorful, texturally interesting, and healthy. To me, the ultimate interpretation of a rice bowl is Korean dolsot bibimbap, where the rice takes on a brown, crisp crust that makes the dish very satisfying. Bibim means “mixed,” bap means “rice,” and a dolsot is the heavy single-serving stone bowl in which the bibimbap is traditionally assembled. The vessel is heated and then coated with sesame oil so the soft rice sizzles when…

Risotto has been a staple in American restaurants and home kitchens for years, but farrotto has only recently gained a footing stateside. As the name suggests, it’s a twist on the classic Italian rice-based dish, made with farro, an ancient form of wheat that’s been grown in Italy for centuries and that boasts a nutty flavor and a tender chew. Using this whole grain instead of rice yields a more robust dish that still cooks relatively quickly and functions well as a blank slate for any type of flavor addition—from cheese and herbs to meats and vegetables. There’s just one pitfall to farrotto: bran. Arborio or carnaroli rices have been stripped of their bran layer and thus readily give up their amylopectin, the starch molecule that makes risotto creamy. Farro…

It’s easy to drop several hundred dollars on a gas grill and not get what you need. We’ve cooked on models that never got hot enough; models that were too small to cook more than a couple of burgers at once; models that rusted, wobbled, and warped; and models that couldn’t handle anything beyond the simplest jobs—never mind roasting a holiday turkey or smoking tender ribs. The bottom line: For the best results, you need a well-designed, responsive, durable grill. The winner from our previous gas grill testing was discontinued, so we went shopping for some new models to test, priced at $500 or less. We focused on six major brands, asking them to help us choose their best contender. The grills in our lineup were outfitted with three to…

RECOMMENDED NAPA VALLEY NATURALS Reserve Sherry Vinegar PRICE: $5.49 for 12.7 oz ($0.43 per floz) INGREDIENTS: Sherry vinegar. Contains sulfites. SUGAR PER 1-TBS SERVING: 2 g ACIDITY: 7% AGING AND CLASSIFICATION: Up to 15 years; no certification SOURCE: Spain AVAILABILITY: Supermarkets COMMENTS: Our slightly sweet winner had “just the right amount of tang” and boasted flavors ranging from “lemony” to “smoky.” In gazpacho, it added “nice depth” that highlighted the fresh flavors. O Sherry Vinegar PRICE: $9.99 for 6.8 oz ($1.47 per floz) INGREDIENTS: Aged California sherry vinegar, aged apricot wine vinegar. Contains naturally occurring sulfites. SUGAR PER 1-TBS SERVING: 1 g ACIDITY: 6% AGING AND CLASSIFICATION: 2 years; no certification SOURCE: California AVAILABILITY: Upscale supermarkets and online COMMENTS: With a sweet boost from apricot wine vinegar, this “rich,” “smooth”…

Smoked paprika, a specialty of Spain, is traditionally made by slowly drying ripe red chile peppers over a smoldering oak fire for upwards of two weeks and then grinding the peppers into a powder. We use smoked paprika to lend sweet, smoky, raisin-like flavor and deep red color to meats, seafood, sauces, and vegetables. Spain has two paprika-producing regions. Both have Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) status, which ensures that paprikas made there and stamped with the DOP seal adhere to traditional production methods. Smoked paprika is a specialty of the La Vera region and is available in three styles: sweet, bittersweet, and hot. For this test, we focused on sweet smoked paprika since it is most commonly called for in recipes. We tasted seven products in our Smoky Pork…

Salt Storage Containers Salt containers placed near the stove put salt at your fingertips, making it easy to season a steak or a pot of boiling water on the fly. They come in two basic styles: Salt pigs are open-mouthed cylindrical vessels, while salt boxes have lids and usually are slightly smaller. We tested two salt pigs and three boxes ranging in price from $8.99 to $37.99, hoping to find a sturdy container that could hold a useful amount of salt; be easy to fill, clean, and access; and defend the salt against humidity and splatters better than an open prep bowl. While none of the containers kept the salt from clumping in humid conditions, the lidded salt boxes did a better job of this than the open pigs (no…

Even if you’ve never landed a table at Rao’s, New York City’s legendary Italian restaurant, you may have heard of its famous roast lemon chicken. The dish is a take on pollo al limone in which two small chickens are cut in half and cooked under the restaurant’s powerful broiler (called a salamander). The deeply bronzed birds are then cut into pieces and bathed in a simple, pungent sauce of lemon juice (a full cup per bird), olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and dried oregano before being briefly broiled again and served with crusty bread for dipping. With its simple, bold preparation, the dish is undeniably appealing, and the restaurant’s recipe (published in its cookbook and on the Internet) is hugely popular. But it’s not perfect. When I tried…

Pan-searing salmon sounds so straightforward that I’ve never given much thought to the technique. Normally, I’d add a little oil to a nonstick skillet, get it good and hot, sprinkle a few skinless fillets on both sides with salt and pepper, slide them into the pan, and cook them on both sides until the fish was cooked through and nicely browned on the exterior but still pink on the inside. But when I gave this approach a more critical look, I could see that it had two flaws. While the fish had a nice rosy interior at its thickest point, it was a bit overcooked and dry at the thinner end. (Pieces cut from the center of the fillet are our preference for their more uniform thickness, but even these…

Plenty of juicy, sweet berries and whipped cream are a must for strawberry shortcake, but what about the shortcake itself? Some opt for biscuits, but I’ve always been drawn to the style featuring light, fluffy cake, since it seems better suited to soaking up the berry juice. For my ideal version, a flavorful cake that wouldn’t fall apart when soaked with the juice was a must, and I liked the idea of a whole cake since it would offer a more elegant presentation. As for the strawberries, I wanted to pack in as many as possible. Cake Walk What kind of cake would be best? Recipes were split between butter and sponge cakes. Butter cakes practically dissolved when soaked with juice. Sponge cakes, which rely on whipped eggs or egg…

If I’m going to cook fresh peas, I usually go for the sugar snap variety. These pods are a cross between snow peas and shelling peas and, in my opinion, offer the best traits of both: the former’s easy preparation (just pull away the tough strings along the pod’s seam—no shelling required) and the latter’s fresh pop, sweetness, and delicate crunch. I like to sauté sugar snap peas because the method allows me to flavor them with a little garlic in the pan. But unlike when sautéing other vegetables such as cauliflower or mushrooms, my goal isn’t to brown the snap peas, because doing so muddies their fresh sweetness. The other difficulty of cooking them—and part of what makes my goal challenging—is that snap peas are a two-part vegetable, and…

BURNERS: Gas grills heat via perforated tubes called burners that emit flames when ignited. Grills are described by their number of burners, though we found that this did not correlate with performance or capacity. GRATES: The grill grates are made of either cast iron or stainless steel. SIZE OF MAIN COOKING GRATE AND HEAT OUTPUT: Manufacturers typically list the combined total square inches, including warming racks and side burners. More usefully, we list the dimensions of the main cooking grate and how many 4-inch burgers each can fit. Similarly, we only list the BTU (British Thermal Units—a measure of heat output per hour) numbers of the main burner. FEATURES: Some grills offer more extra features than others. GRILLING: We grilled hamburgers and steaks over direct heat, looking for distinct grill…

Best Way to Revive Wilted Produce A few years ago we found that soft leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, or arugula can be revived by simply soaking them in a bowl of ice water for 30 minutes. We wondered if a similar technique might be used to revive other types of produce. Vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, celery, scallions, and parsley won’t admit water as quickly along their waxy stalks and stems as they do at their cut base. We found that the best way to revive these kinds of vegetables was to trim their stalks or stems on the bias and stand them up in a container of cold water in the refrigerator for about an hour. This exposes as many of their moisture-wicking capillaries as possible to water. –S.D.…

WHAT IS IT? Separating eggs can be time-consuming and messy. Could this egg separator, manufactured around the turn of the 20th century, make the task easier? After setting the tool over a bowl, you crack the egg into its coiled cup. The space between the coils allows the white through, while the yolk should remain suspended, intact, in the coil. When we gave it a try, we found that the separator performed fairly well. Eggs with loose whites passed through each separator in as little as 10 seconds, though very fresh eggs with thicker whites took up to 1½ minutes to separate (even with persistent shaking). Separating eggs with our hands is faster, but the tool did keep our hands clean for other tasks, and at about $10 on auction…