Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2019 från Cook's Illustrated

My dad is pragmatic, humble, and massively talented with anything related to woodwork and construction—a true carpenter by birth, if not profession. Now that I’ve settled into my own hands-on craft, cooking, I especially enjoy when our paths cross. We talk about knife sharpening, the best wood for cutting boards, and controversial topics such as when rasp-style graters shifted from the business of filing wood to grating Parmesan. My dad likes to say that the kitchen steals most of its best tricks from the woodshop. I can’t really argue with him—it’s pretty hard to cut T-bone steaks without a band saw. Over the years my dad has tried to teach me a great deal about how to build, fix, and assemble the material things in life. He’s an excellent teacher…

BRINE CHICKEN We brine all the chicken pieces for 30-minutes and then pat them dry. BROWN (MOST OF) SKIN We sear the skin on all the pieces except the tapered breast pieces (the most prone to drying out) to create a flavorful fond. GIVE DARK MEAT HEAD START The long-cooking thighs and legs (with the skin left on) go into the braising liquid first. ADD THICK, THEN THIN, PARTS OF BREASTS We add the thicker broad pieces first since the thinner tapered pieces need less time to cook. FINISH IN OVEN We transfer the pot to the oven, where the chicken cooks evenly and gently until the breasts register 160 to 165 degrees.…

When dough is left to ferment, the yeast consumes sugars in the wheat, producing primarily alcohol and carbon dioxide, which gives the dough proper rise. Numerous organic acids are also produced that, like alcohol, contribute flavor. At room temperature, the fermentation happens fast: The yeast eats all the sugar it can find in just a few hours, creating carbon dioxide and alcohol but a minimal amount of the flavorful acids. When we put the dough in the refrigerator to ferment instead, the cold slows and alters the yeast’s metabolism, so it ferments the sugars more slowly, which creates more of the flavorful acid byproducts. Meanwhile, enzymes turn more of the flour’s starch into sugars, giving the yeast more raw material to work with. Over the course of a 16-to 24-hour…

In Spain, albóndigas, or meatballs, are a quintessential tapas offering, enjoyed as part of a spread of shared dishes. Unlike Mexican albóndigas, which are simmered in a soup, these petite, saucy meatballs are typically served in a cazuela (a shallow clay baking dish) and eaten one by one using toothpicks. I’ve enjoyed albóndigas coated in a robust tomato sauce, but I recently learned of another style. In this version, a saffron-and-paprika-infused wine sauce is flavored and thickened with picada, a lively mixture of fried ground nuts and bread, raw garlic, and often parsley. Unlike a roux or cornstarch, each of which is primarily used to thicken foods, the ground nuts and bread in picada provide body while also contributing vibrant complexity. Frying the nuts and bread in olive oil brings…

If you’ve ever eaten tom yum in a Thai restaurant, you’ll know that this hot and sour soup is a bold example of the energetic flavors that Thai cuisine is famous for. The heat comes from chiles and galangal (also known as Thai ginger), the sour from lime juice and tamarind (a dark, tart fruit). But tom yum doesn’t stop there: It also serves up saltiness courtesy of fish sauce and sweetness via a touch of sugar. Lemon grass, makrut lime leaves, cilantro, and Thai basil round out the fragrant bowl. There are many versions of tom yum soup, but my favorite, known as guy tiew tom yum goong, is chock-full of shrimp, rice noodles, and sometimes mushrooms and/or tomatoes and topped with a deeply savory, sweet, and spicy chili…

SLICED NO Cutting galangal, lemon grass, scallion whites, makrut lime leaves, and chiles into thin slices was time-consuming; plus, it took more than 1 hour to infuse their flavors into the broth. PROCESSED NO Pulsing the mixture of aromatics in a food processor chopped them so finely that they muddied the broth and made it unpleasantly potent. SMASHED YES Using a meat pounder to crush the aromatics allowed them to release enough of their flavorful oils into the broth in just 15 minutes.…

There’s nothing wrong with serving feta on a cheese plate, but if you have a few minutes to spare, I suggest transforming it into the traditional Greek dip tyrosalata. It’s practically effortless: Just process the cheese with extra-virgin olive oil until it turns smooth, and then season it with additions such as lemon juice, garlic, and fresh herbs. As part of a meze spread (small plates served with drinks) with crudités or pita, the creamy, milky, salty dip is a real standout. Feta varies widely depending on the type of milk it is made from—cow’s, sheep’s, goat’s, or some combination thereof. I defaulted to our favorite high-quality cheese made from sheep’s milk. Its richness and distinct tang are not only authentic (most Greek fetas are made from sheep’s milk) but…

I thought my days as a short-order cook were long behind me, but in recent months I’ve been logging a lot of hours on the test kitchen’s breakfast line. It all started with my recipe for Easy Pancakes, in which I prioritized pantry-friendly ingredients and minimal effort so that the flapjacks could be thrown together anytime—not just on leisurely weekend mornings. That got me thinking about an equally simple formula for that other breakfast mainstay, French toast. Soaking bread in an eggy custard and browning the slices in a pan until they’re golden on the outside and custardy within doesn’t take long, but all that dipping, flipping, and batch cooking is fussy business, especially if you’re trying to serve a crowd. And the custard-to-bread ratio rarely works out just right:…

There’s no need to batch-cook your French toast in a skillet, which risks tearing the delicate slices and splattering custard on the stovetop. Our two-step oven approach avoids the fuss and mess: We first bake the custard-saturated slices on the lowest rack of a hot oven until their bottoms are deeply golden and then slide the baking sheet under the broiler to briefly brown and crisp their tops.…

Tomato paste is an inexpensive, versatile flavor powerhouse. We typically use it in small amounts—a tablespoon here and there—deploying its concentrated sweetness and savory umami flavor to bring depth and complexity to both classic applications (such as sauces, soups, and pastas) and unexpected ones (such as beef stew or spice-rubbed steak). Historically, tomato paste has been sold in cans in the United States, but over the past decade, tubed pastes have been popping up on supermarket shelves. Amore Tomato Paste was the first, but others have followed. When we studied the domestic tomato paste market, we found an intriguing pattern: Almost all the tubes are made in Italy, and all the cans are made in the United States. But considering that we often use such a small amount of paste…

To try to get the benefits of a fully clad pan’s multiple layers of metal without the expense, some manufacturers offer pans with a disk of aluminum encapsulated in steel and attached to the bottom of a thin steel pan. We found that these disk-bottom pans heat unsteadily; what’s more, food usually scorches around the thinner edges of the single-layer pan where it overhangs the thick disk base. A fully clad pan is a much better choice.…

Today, bacon comes in a variety of ever-more-substantial slices, ranging from thick-cut to double-cut to extra-thick-cut. We decided to take a fresh look at thick-cut bacons, so we bought the six top-selling national products (as assessed by IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm), priced from $3.99 to $6.99 per pound. We tasted them plain and in BLTs. There is no industry standard that dictates how thick bacon needs to be sliced to be called thick-cut. On average, the products in our lineup ranged from 3.2 to 3.8 millimeters thick, about 50 percent thicker than the regular-cut supermarket bacons we’d tasted previously. Our panel liked all the bacons regardless of thickness but preferred those with equal amounts of protein and fat; products with more fat occasionally registered as “greasy.” Ultimately, flavor…

Tweaking the Consistencies of Sauces and Gravies When your sauce, gravy, or stew doesn’t turn out quite as thick as you’d hoped, you have a few options: A cornstarch slurry will create a thicker consistency, but imparts a glossy sheen that is not always wanted. A roux can also be used, but making roux takes time and a second pan. Instead, consider a beurre manié. This mixture, whose name means “kneaded butter” in French, is a paste of flour and butter that’s added to hot liquid. If flour were added directly to hot liquid, it would clump; in a beurre manié, the flour particles are coated in fat, so as the butter melts, it seamlessly disperses the flour particles, which swell and thicken the liquid. To make it: Combine equal…

Brining meat helps it cook up juicy and well seasoned. When brining larger cuts that require a long soak, such as roasts and whole poultry, we typically suggest a time range. But while it’s important to brine the meat for at least the minimum amount of time, don’t brine longer than the suggested range. The far end of the range is built in for the cook’s convenience, not because the meat will be significantly juicier or taste more seasoned. To prove it, we tracked how fast salt moves into a roast over time. EXPERIMENT We made three batches of our standard brine and soaked pork loin roasts for 2, 4, and 24 hours. Then we cut each roast into 1-inch-thick slices and tested the slices for salt penetration by applying…

Once the ground thaws, tender, vibrant vegetables spring up and signal new growth. Among them are tightly furled FIDDLEHEADS; their flavor is comparable to those of asparagus and okra, with more earthiness and seaweed-like astringency. Curvy GARLIC SCAPES, which sprout from hard-neck bulbs, taste milder and creamier than the pungent cloves. Pickling RAMPS—recognizable by their oval green leaves, magenta stems, and slender white bulbs—preserves their garlicky, green pepper–like flavor beyond their short season. The plump bulbs of delicate SPRING ONIONS can be red or white. RADISHES pack nasal burn and refreshing crunch. Just-picked ENGLISH PEAS are sweet and tender—shell them from their inedible pod and enjoy them raw—but rapidly turn starchy as they age. NEW POTATOES, so named because they are sold fresh instead of cured, boast thin, tender skins;…

Easy Way to Remove Solids from Stock When Julia Weinberg of Ann Arbor, Mich., is making homemade chicken stock, she places the chicken bones and vegetable scraps in a large pasta pot with an insert. After it has simmered for 1 to 2 hours, she just removes the insert to discard the solids. Fresh Brownies in a Flash Jason Nachowicz of Elgin, Ill., bakes brownies by lining the pan with an aluminum foil sling for easy removal, per our recipe instructions. The sling also makes it easy to freeze the brownie batter before baking it. After pouring the batter into the foil-lined pan, he moves it to the freezer until the batter is solid. He then transfers the frozen batter in the sling to a zipper-lock bag. The next time…

Our pizza al taglio crust couldn’t be much easier. While it requires time—an hour up front, an overnight rest, and another hour of rising before you bake—the hands-on work takes just minutes. Plus, it doesn’t require any messy stretching on the counter or equipment such as a stand mixer, food processor, baking stone, or pizza peel. MIX DOUGH; 2 SHORT RESTS During rests, gluten develops and strengthens dough. TWO SETS OF FOLDS; 2 SHORT RESTS Each set of folds slightly tightens dough. COLD-FERMENT IN BAKING PAN Roomy baking pan allows us to shape dough into large oval. BRUSH WITH OIL; INVERT ONTO BAKING SHEET Oil will help bottom of crust crisp. PROOF WHILE PREHEATING OVEN After 1 hour, oval-shaped dough will puff slightly. SPREAD DOUGH IN SHEET Dimpling motion will…

Picada—the mixture of nuts ground with bread, fried in olive oil, and combined with garlic and parsley that gives the sauce for our meatballs (and our Catalan-Style Beef Stew, January/February 2012) body and personality—is one of the most important elements in Catalan cuisine. Picada is thought to have originated in the 13th or 14th century as a way to use stale bread to thicken soups and stews. But as author Colman Andrews explains in Catalan Cuisine: Vivid Flavors from Spain’s Mediterranean Coast (1988), picada behaves differently from other thickeners: It “doesn’t … thicken as relentlessly as roux,” and it “adds more heart than heft.” Picada recipes vary from cook to cook. The bread differs. And while almonds are traditional, other nuts—pine nuts, walnuts, or hazelnuts—are sometimes swapped in. Spices (saffron…

Galangal, makrut lime leaves, and lemon grass can increasingly be found in the produce section of large supermarkets. If you find them, we recommend stocking up and storing them in the freezer for up to six months. Galangal: Peel nubs of galangal, then transfer to zipper-lock bag or airtight container and freeze. Makrut lime leaves: Rinse leaves, place on paper towels, and pat completely dry. Place leaves in zipper-lock bag, squeezing out as much air as possible; seal bag; and freeze. Lemon grass: Trim stalks to bottom 6 inches, transfer to zipper-lock bag, and freeze.…

Forgive me while I take a minute to gush like a perfectly poached egg about why I love shakshuka. This dish features eggs gently poached in a bright, savory tomato sauce fragrant with warm spices and spiked with red pepper and pops of fresh herbs. The runny yolks mingle with the sauce, and everything gets scooped up with pita or crusty bread. It is often customized with additions such as crumbled cheeses, olives, sausage, or ground lamb—making it an excellent breakfast-for-dinner option—and may be further enlivened by condiments such as harissa, zesty herb sauce, or even tahini. I’m not alone in my devotion: This North African dish has long been a favorite across the Middle East and Europe, and in recent years its popularity has spread to the United States.…

While this hot sauce, which some sources say originated in Yemen, is often served as an accompaniment to shakshuka, it’s hard to imagine what it wouldn’t taste good on. SPICY MIDDLE EASTERN HERB SAUCE (ZHOUG) SERVES 12 (MAKES 1 CUP) TOTAL TIME: 15 MINUTES 2 cups fresh cilantro leaves and stems4 Thai chiles, stemmed3 garlic cloves, peeled½ teaspoon ground coriander½ teaspoon ground cumin½ teaspoon table salt½ cup extra-virgin olive oil Pulse cilantro, Thai chiles, garlic, coriander, cumin, and salt in food processor until coarsely chopped, 8 to 10 pulses. Transfer to small bowl. Add oil and stir until sauce has consistency of loose paste. Season with salt to taste. (Sauce can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Let come to room temperature before serving.)…

A risotto featuring creamy Arborio rice; plump, juicy shrimp; and light, bright seasonings is one of those slam-dunk dishes that every cook needs in their repertoire. Its subtle flavors are universally appealing, and it’s luxurious enough for company. A few years ago, we came up with a revolutionary risotto-making technique: Our Almost Hands-Free Risotto calls for gently boiling Arborio in stock in a covered Dutch oven so that the agitation of the grains (rather than the cook’s spoon) sloughs the starch from the rice. Just before the rice is done, a final portion of stock is added and the risotto is stirred for just 2 to 3 minutes to maximize creaminess before the dish is finished with butter and cheese. I started with the backbone of the dish: shrimp stock.…

When you’re a test cook, being asked to develop a recipe for a classic item such as lemon tart can be daunting. After all, bakers have been producing handsome, crisp-crusted tarts filled with smooth, bracing, just-sliceable curd for centuries without my assistance. What could I possibly contribute? Well, actually, I had an idea: extra-virgin olive oil. Admittedly, it’s counterintuitive: Butter is featured in both the crust and the filling of almost every lemon tart. But developing a recipe for an olive oil cake a couple of years ago reminded me that other fats offer advantages, too. Using a liquid fat in that cake made the mixing process easy and quick: There was no softening of the fat and no creaming until light and fluffy, yet the crumb was beautifully plush…

We tasted eight tomato pastes—three made in Italy and sold in tubes and five made in the United States and sold in cans—priced from $0.12 to $0.78 per ounce. We tasted them plain, lightly cooked, and in a simple marinara sauce in which we halved the amount of crushed tomatoes and doubled the amount of tomato paste. Sodium amounts were taken from product packaging and are reported based on a 33-gram serving size. Best sellers were identified using data from the Chicago-based market research firm IRI. Prices shown are what we paid in Boston-area supermarkets, and products appear below in order of packaging and price. RECOMMENDED (TUBED TOMATO PASTES) CENTO Double Concentrated Tomato Paste PRICE: $2.59 for 4.56 oz ($0.57 per oz) ORIGIN: Italy INGREDIENTS: Tomatoes, salt SODIUM: 70 mg…

We purchased seven fully clad skillets, all about 12 inches in diameter, priced from $100.00 to $400.00. We evaluated their cooking performance, ease of use, and cleanup. We also conducted abuse testing to evaluate long-term durability. All pans were purchased online, and prices shown are what we paid. The pans appear in order of preference. PERFORMANCE: We cooked steaks and chicken and made pan sauces, cooking on the stovetop and in the oven. We also pan-roasted asparagus, pan-roasted green beans, and sautéed diced onions. Pans that produced evenly browned food and good fond for flavorful pan sauces rated higher. EASE OF USE: We evaluated the weight, balance, and ease of handling of each pan. Pans rated highly if their handles were comfortable to grip firmly and didn’t feel insecure or…

Cajeta is the lesser-known but more complex cousin of Mexico’s caramel-like confection dulce de leche. Whereas dulce de leche is made with cow’s milk (easier versions use sweetened condensed milk), cajeta is made by simmering goat’s milk and sugar until the mixture browns, undergoes the Maillard reaction, and turns luxuriously thick and smooth. In both confections, the transformation is aided by a small amount of baking soda, which increases the pH of the milk, encouraging browning of the dairy proteins and the formation of hundreds of new nutty, toasty flavors. In cajeta, the goat’s milk has a tanginess derived from its fatty acids that provides an appealing counterpoint to the confection’s sweetness and helps distinguish it from the more simply flavored dulce de leche. CAJETA SERVES 24 (MAKES 3 CUPS)…

The scale and shape of this kitchen tool would have you believe it was designed for a child’s playroom, but the diminutive Androck Beater was actually designed to help adult hands with small mixing jobs. The 1940 patent by the Washburn Company of Worcester, Massachusetts, describes the tool as a “beater being adapted particularly for whipping or beating liquids, such as cream and eggs.” We bought ours for about $30 on Etsy. Measuring roughly 4 inches wide by 5½ inches tall, the tool is composed of a cup-shaped perforated beater that fits snugly in a glass bowl and is activated by a handle connected to a shaft that protrudes through a tight-fitting lid. To assess its usefulness, we attempted to whip cream, make aioli, and scramble eggs with it. After…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED QUICKIE Bottle Brush MODEL: 158372 PRICE: $5.80 RECOMMENDED BABYMOOV The Duo Meal Station: 6 in 1 Food Maker MODEL: A001125 PRICE: $159.99 RECOMMENDED FRYWALL Stovetop Splatter Guard MODEL: 700256539667 PRICE: $28.95 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED CHICAGO METALLIC 2-Piece Angel Food Cake Pan with Feet MODEL: 16184 PRICE: $17.99 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Scale with Pull-Out Display MODEL: 11214800V1 PRICE: $49.99 Bottle Brushes A bottle brush is designed to fit into spaces a standard sponge can’t. This cleaning tool—basically a wand with a brush head on one end—fits easily into tall, slim, and narrow-mouth bottles, such as water bottles, coffee carafes, baby bottles, and more. Curious to see how well bottle brushes worked, we gathered five popular, widely available models ranging in price from $4.99 to $13.94 and…

Our online extras include recipes, reviews, and a complete lineup of videos. Go to CooksIllustrated.com/APR19 RECIPES Braised Chicken with Herbes de Provence and Lemon Braised Chicken with North African Spices Eggs in Spicy Tomato and Red Pepper Sauce (Shakshuka) for Two Shrimp Risotto for Two NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION CooksIllustrated.com/APR19/nutrition VIDEO Testing 12-Inch Stainless-Steel Skillets RECIPE VIDEOS Want to see how to make any of the recipes in this issue? There’s a free video for that. Go to CooksIllustrated.com/APR19 and click on videos. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA facebook.com/CooksIllustrated twitter.com/TestKitchen pinterest.com/TestKitchen instagram.com/CooksIllustrated youtube.com/AmericasTestKitchen…

Remember the Corn Flakes slogan that Kellogg’s ran in the late ’80s, “Taste them again for the first time”? This braising story is my culinary equivalent of that campaign—a pitch to rediscover an old classic. I recently spent some time reacquainting myself with the basic tenets of braising chicken parts—both white and dark meat—and learned several ways to make a good dish a whole lot better. Before we dig in, a refresher on what exactly braising is and why it’s an ideal way to cook chicken: It involves browning food and then partially covering it with liquid in a lidded pot and simmering it gently until the meat is tender. As it simmers, the cooking liquid takes on the meat’s flavor to create a luxurious, deeply savory sauce that you…

Asparagus cooks in a snap and needs little more than butter and salt to make it shine. And while I like the nuttiness that roasting brings to asparagus, it’s also nice to pay homage to spring by preserving its bright green color and grassy flavor. Steaming is one way to accomplish this, but I’ve never found the method entirely satisfying; it tends to wash out the vegetable’s already delicate flavor and leave the spears wet and plain-tasting. How about sautéing the asparagus in butter? The fat would thoroughly coat the spears and add flavor, and if I was careful about moving the asparagus around the pan, I could prevent browning. First, I trimmed the ends from 2 pounds of asparagus and peeled the spears’ bottom halves. (This results in less…

THAI CHILI JAM (NAM PRIK PAO) SERVES 16 TO 20 (MAKES ¾ CUP) TOTAL TIME: 35 MINUTES Slice the shallots to a consistent thickness to ensure even cooking. For a spicier jam, add more chile seeds. ½ cup vegetable oil2 large shallots, sliced thin4 large garlic cloves, sliced thin10 dried arbol chiles, stemmed, halved lengthwise, and seeds reserved2 tablespoons packed brown sugar3 tablespoons lime juice, plus extra for seasoning (2 limes)2 tablespoons fish sauce, plus extra for seasoning 1. Set fine-mesh strainer over heatproof bowl. Heat oil and shallots in medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until shallots are deep golden brown, 10 to 14 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer shallots to second bowl. Add garlic to hot oil and cook, stirring constantly, until golden brown, 2 to 3…

1. OFF HEAT, CREATE INDENTS Moving the pan off the heat allows the sauce to cool slightly so the eggs cook at an even rate. The indents hold the yolks in place. 2. ADD EGGS TO INDENTS Creating indents ensures that the eggs are evenly spaced around the pan. 3. TOP WHITES WITH SAUCE Spooning sauce over the whites just after adding the eggs provides immediate direct heat to help the whites set faster.…

Italian tradition maintains that seafood and cheese should never appear on the same plate, lest the milky, salty dairy overwhelm the delicate seafood flavor. Yet the pairing is quite common—and delicious. Think lox and cream cheese, pizza with anchovies, tuna melts, and lobster mac and cheese. Likewise, our risotto just wasn’t as complex without a small amount of Parmesan. Even this Sicilian fish recipe from around 400 BC advocated for the pairing: “Gut. Discard the head, rinse, slice; add cheese and oil.” That’s good enough for us.…

Mixing up custard the usual way—by whisking all the ingredients together at once—tends to slosh liquid out of the bowl and yields a broken custard that cooks up streaky on French toast. We found that whisking the ingredients into the eggs in stages blends the mixture more thoroughly and without making a mess. First we beat the sugar, cinnamon, and salt into the eggs and vanilla; the gritty particles of the dry ingredients help break up the egg yolks. At that point, it’s easy to thoroughly incorporate the melted butter and milk. STAGGERING MAKES IT SMOOTH For a homogeneous custard, first whisk the dry ingredients into the eggs to break up the yolks, and then stir in the liquids.…

We worried that using olive oil instead of butter in our filling would cause it to be runny, but it was actually beautifully sliceable. That’s because the firmness of a curd made with butter is due mainly to the coagulation of the egg proteins, not to the hardening of the butter when it cools. As the curd cooks, the protein molecules in the eggs unwind into long strands, which tangle to make a mesh that traps liquid. The tangling continues as the curd cools, creating a creamy yet firm texture.…