Innehållsförteckning för November - December 2017 från Cook's Illustrated

W hen brisket is done right, there is perhaps no better cut of beef to braise, especially when serving a crowd. It’s beefy, velvety, and moist, and it slices beautifully. The braising liquid can be seasoned with any aromatic vegetable, herb, or spice, and during the long cooking time, it reduces to a rich-tasting jus or full-bodied gravy. The final product is ideal as a Sunday dinner for family or for company. Most recipes follow more or less the same script. Brown the meat, usually in a Dutch oven; set it aside; and then cook aromatics (usually including loads of onions) until softened and browned. Return the brisket to the pot, add enough liquid (wine, beer, water, stock, tomatoes, etc.) to partially submerge it, and braise it, covered, in the…

Chinese dumplings are like carefully wrapped gifts: juicy, deeply seasoned pork encased in soft, slightly stretchy dough. Boiled, they are delicately chewy; pan-fried, they are crisp on one side. But whether found in a restaurant or in a supermarket, they’re rarely bad. Unfortunately, they’re rarely great. I’ve always wanted to make my own so I could stock my freezer with high-quality dumplings. As I cooked and ate my way through several versions, I realized that though there are few truly bad dumplings, there are bad dumpling recipes. Some made too much filling for the amount of dough or vice versa. Some doughs were dry, so the dumplings wouldn’t seal, while others were wet and stuck to my fingers. I wanted just enough supple-but-not-sticky dough; a juicy, cohesive filling; and a…

T he Mexican tradition of pairing chorizo with potatoes as a taco filling may sound odd to the uninitiated, but it’s pretty ingenious. When fried, Mexican chorizo falls into crumbles, producing fragrant red juices that bathe the meat in spice, fat, and vinegar. The potatoes tidily absorb the chorizo drippings, perfectly dispersing and diffusing the flavor, so the effect is pleasantly piquant rather than overpowering. Mexican chorizo is a rare commodity in my neighborhood, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make my own chorizo and potato tacos. It simply meant that I’d have to start by making my own chorizo. Since I needed only 8 ounces of sausage, I started with ground pork instead of the pork butt often used for big batches. For my small batch, store-bought ancho chile…

Don’t let the name acquacotta, meaning “cooked water” in Italian, deceive you. In this Tuscan soup, a cousin of the better-known minestrone and ribbolita, water, vegetables, beans, and herbs are transformed into a rustic meal when whole eggs or yolks are whisked into the broth before it’s ladled over stale bread, which is often first topped with a poached egg. Though its name references water, many modern recipes for this soup call for broth. No matter which liquid is used, the soup is usually bolstered with soffritto: sautéed minced onion, celery, and garlic. From there, recipes vary wildly. To choose between chicken broth and water, I made two batches of soffritto and added broth to one and water to the other. I also added fennel, for its anise notes, and…

A Fast, Tidy Way to Chop Carrots To speed the process of cutting carrots and keep the cut pieces from rolling around on the cutting board, Brett Beauregard of Arlington, Mass., makes two lengthwise slices through the carrot, one on each side, leaving the top inch intact. He then slices the cut portion crosswise to produce uniform pieces. Cheesecloth Sugar Shaker Lorna Freed of Grand Rapids, Mich., doesn’t own a dedicated sugar shaker, so when she needs to dust confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder over desserts or sprinkle flour on a counter, she fashions a shaker from cheesecloth. She cuts a small square, heaps the powder in the center, and knots the top of the cheesecloth. A Tight Foil Cover When covering a roasting pan of braising meat with aluminum…

Pommes duchesse are thought to be named for a fictional French aristocrat with a penchant for potatoes: The recipe was dreamed up in the 19th century to encourage consumers to use more of the lowly spuds. The elegantly swirled individual mounds of eggy, buttery, yellow-tinged mashed potatoes with crisp crusts did the trick, and for years the dish remained popular, particularly on holiday menus. So why aren’t pommes duchesse still on every special-occasion table? Well, their retro-luxe look requires a pastry bag, plus a bit of practice. What’s more, being rather petite, they cool rapidly. But I had an idea: Maybe baking the potatoes casserole-style would simplify things and help keep them hot. Traditional recipes call for stirring melted butter, eggs, half-and-half, nutmeg, salt, and pepper into peeled, boiled, and…

Are roll-and-cut sugar cookies a fun, festive project? Not in my kitchen: They’ve always been a maddening chore with nothing but floury, shapeless disappointments to show for the effort. Most recipes require you to haul out a stand mixer to cream sugar and softened butter before mixing in the remaining ingredients and then to refrigerate the dough before rolling, cutting, and baking. The lump of dough is always stiff after chilling, so it’s challenging to roll. Many of the cookies puff during baking, which leaves them uneven or with indistinct outlines. What’s more, they’re often hard and dense rather than simply sturdy. I wanted to turn things around with a dough that would be easy—maybe even fun—to work with. It would be firm enough to shape with cookie cutters and…

It was a memorable kitchen moment: I had been experimenting with cooking Brussels sprouts on the stovetop when I produced a batch unlike any I’d ever had. Over intense, direct heat, the tiny cabbages developed a deeply caramelized crust that was unusually thick and dark, contributing a rich, nutty sweetness. With their attractively browned cut sides juxtaposed against bright green, tender-but-crisp rounded sides, these sprouts were impossible to resist. Getting there hadn’t been easy: Producing even browning from edge to edge and from sprout to sprout was a challenge, as was getting their dense interiors tender before the exteriors burned. I’d started by halving 1 pound of sprouts to create flat surfaces for browning. I heated a bit of oil in a skillet until smoking and then frantically arranged the…

Santoku knives became an overnight sensation in the United States in the early 2000s, when Rachael Ray declared on TV that she loved her Wüsthof model. Sales shot up, and several knife manufacturers, both Asian and Western, scrambled to create their own versions or promote their models to Americans. The appeal was the friendly shape of the blade: 5 to 7 inches long, with a rounded front edge and a boxier build than the typical chef’s knife, which usually stretches between 8 and 10 inches long and has a sleeker profile and a sword-like point. The style was developed for postwar Japanese home cooks as a more versatile alternative to vegetable cleavers—santoku reportedly means “three virtues,” which are described variously as “meat, fish, and vegetables,” or “chopping, slicing, and dicing”—and…

We selected eight top-selling whole turkeys from both national and regional brands. All weighed between 12 and 14 pounds and all were widely available at our local supermarkets at holiday time. Our lineup included four untreated turkeys, one kosher turkey (salted and rinsed according to Jewish dietary law), and three birds that had been injected with flavored broths containing salt, sugar, or other seasonings. We roasted them (skipping the salting step on the kosher and injected birds) and then asked 21 America’s Test Kitchen staff members to evaluate the white meat and the dark meat for flavor, texture, and overall appeal. An independent lab measured the fat levels in the white and dark meat; results are reported below as percentages. Age and diet information was obtained from product packaging and…

Here’s a Thanksgiving secret: You don’t have to roast a whole turkey to get all the glory. A bone-in, skin-on turkey breast can be a great option when hosting a smaller crowd or if your guests simply prefer white meat. Other benefits: A breast requires less cooking time, which frees up your oven for other dishes, and it’s much easier to carve than a whole bird. In fact, a whole turkey breast has so many advantages that you’ll likely find yourself roasting one at other times of the year, too, whether for sandwiches or as a simple main course. But I’m getting ahead of myself: To produce a true holiday centerpiece, I’d have to overcome a few turkey breast hurdles. White meat is notorious for emerging from the oven dry…

I’ve been the primary cook for my family’s Thanksgiving feast for about 20 years now. I gladly inherited this honor from my mom, but there’s one task I never took off her plate: making a batch of stock from the leftover turkey carcass. I’ve always felt guilty about saddling her with the job, so this year I vowed to keep it for myself. Anticipating a bit of postholiday fatigue, I intended to keep this recipe as simple as possible. Skin and Bones As it happened, a colleague was roasting lots of whole turkeys, producing a ready supply of carcasses that I could use for testing purposes. I gathered two that had the leg quarter and breast meat removed but still included meaty bits, the wings, and a fair amount of…

As I get older, I find myself increasingly drawn to the dark side. Before you start to worry for my immortal soul, let me clarify: I’m talking gingerbread. I’ve made the same gently spiced, fancifully frosted gingerbread cookies every Christmas since I was 12 years old, but I no longer find them all that satisfying. What I really crave is dark, moist gingerbread cake, the kind with an intriguing hint of bitterness and a peppery finish. Unfortunately, it’s usually a homely, unadorned square or loaf, and it might even be a bit sunken and damp. Such rusticity, no matter how delicious, seems out of place on a fancy holiday table. But if I could transform humble gingerbread into a stately layer cake, I’d have a dessert to satisfy both my…

We tested 10 santoku knives and also compared their feel and performance to that of our favorite chef ’s knife, the Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro 8" Chef ’s Knife. We measured the knives’ blade length, blade angle, and spine thickness. All knives were purchased online, and prices shown are what we paid. Test results were averaged, and the knives appear below in order of preference. PERFORMANCE We minced fresh herbs, diced onions, broke down whole raw chickens into parts, and quartered unpeeled butternut squashes. To assess precision, we cut carrots into matchsticks and sliced slightly frozen boneless steak against the grain into uniform slivers (a technique used when preparing beef for Vietnamese pho). Knives that sliced smoothly and helped us complete the tasks with crisp cuts and neat results…

Tasting Dry Vermouth Dry vermouth is a convenient alternative to white wine since it can be substituted in recipes in equal amounts. Like Marsala and sherry, vermouth is wine that’s been fortified with a high-proof alcohol (often brandy) that raises its alcohol content and allows it to be stored in the refrigerator for weeks or even months after opening. Dry vermouth is also infused with botanicals, which can include leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, herbs, and spices. It is sometimes aged in barrels, a process that is intended to impart an oaky, vanilla-y quality and can allow harsh flavors or sharp tannins to mellow. We bought eight nationally available dry vermouths, priced from $6.99 to $24.99 for 750-milliliter or 1-liter bottles. After sampling them plain and in place of white wine…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FINUM Brewing Basket L MODEL: 63/451.66.00 PRICE: $9.95 Tea Infusers Tea infusers are great for making a single cup of loose-leaf tea. They come in several styles: sticks, balls, and baskets made of perforated metal or wire mesh. With each, you simply insert the amount of tea you want to use into the infuser, stick the infuser into a cup, and pour hot water over it. We wanted to know which tea infuser was best, so we bought nine models, priced from $5.96 to $16.95, and used each to brew herbal, white, green, and black teas. The size of the infuser proved critical. Smaller strainers couldn’t hold a single serving of loose-leaf tea and were both fussy to fill and a challenge to clean. We strongly preferred larger,…