2012-11-20, 18:34 | Link #561 |
Juanita/Kiteless
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 40
|
I have some questions about cooking a turkey. Maybe someone here can help me.
I was gonna help my dad make a roast turkey for thanksgiving. I was going to use a soaked cheesecloth. You take butter, turkey stock, half an onion (skin removed, the whole half), an entire bulb of garlic cut in half 'at the equator', fresh thyme and fresh parsley, and a lemon wedge, melt the butter and add the rest and bring it to a boil, and then simmer it for 10-15 minutes, and then you soak a cheesecloth in it when it is cooled down a bit, and drape that over the turkey. They say with this, you don't need to baste the turkey every 30 minutes. What I'd like to know is, if I go with using a cheesecloth, could I still put some butter under the skin? Would that somehow not work out well? Is it just not needed? With the cheesecloth, it should make the turkey plenty tender, even if the turkey skin separates the meat from the cheesecloth? Also, do I have to worry about the cheesecloth drying out and burning? Should I use a new soaked cheesecloth after about 2 hours to 2 1/2 hours? I ended up buying two cheesecloths today. This video is about using a cheesecloth on a turkey.
__________________
|
2012-11-20, 23:16 | Link #563 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: NY
|
I've never heard of using a cheesecloth, so I watched the vid. I haven't cooked a turkey in some years but I didn't baste that often, maybe twice during the whole process. Saying all that, I'm not sure if just buttering under the skin would do much, herbs can flavor the surface flesh, neither is going to penetrate deep inside.
Guess you'll take a look and see approach to drying out of cloth. For an even like cooking you might want to cover the breasts but leave thighs out, they won't dry out as fast as breast meat. If it's done cooking you just have to make sure the thighs and breast come to temp, mainly thighs, to around 150º F. If the skin isn't crispy to your liking you can bump up the oven temp to 475-500º F and put it in for 7-10 mins. depending on what it's like after it's ready. Cover with foil loosely after it's all done and rest for like 20 mins. before carving it. Hope it turns out well for you Urzu. |
2012-12-01, 18:37 | Link #569 |
廉頗
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Massachusetts
Age: 34
|
Just cooked myself up some delicious duck legs to break my intermittent fast. Pan-seared at high temp in rendered duck fat for a couple minutes each side, then added chicken broth with a tablespoon or so of sherry vinegar and seasoned with dried garlic, thyme, sea salt, and oregano. Covered and let it simmer on a low temp for approx 15 minutes... Meat was so tender it literally was falling off the bone. Heavenly. Maybe I'll take a pic the next time, but had been fasting for 16 hours so I had little ability/desire to wait before digging right in.
|
2012-12-02, 01:17 | Link #570 |
Juanita/Kiteless
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 40
|
Duck is delicious. I was at a Japanese restaurant in October (one of the best I've been to; a really good one for America), and I ate this shredded duck meat appetizer. It was very good. I'd like to eat more duck.
Lamb is also another good meat that is something different from the norm (chicken, beef, and pork). I should eat more lamb, too.
__________________
|
2012-12-07, 11:55 | Link #572 |
( ಠ_ಠ)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
|
So, I was in a mood for a good ol' favorite in Japan... white sauce gratin!
Decent amount of prepping necessary for a single, non-cook man like me, but hey, I had time! And....... voila. Shrimp & Pasta au Gratin with whitesauce. Honest to god, this was the best food I've made in years, and even eaten in years. DELICIOUS! Cooking directions: 1) Making White Sauce. In a microwave safe bowl, mix half stick of butter and half a cup of flour, then microwave for min or two. Mix well and add 3 cups of milk. Mix, microwave again. Add salt, pepper, and soup stock. Microwave again if needed. 2) Prep shrimp (strip, wash with flour, etc) and dice a whole onion and half as much shrooms. Stir-fry them all. 3) Cook pasta. I did a whole box, but it's a little much. Half-size will probably do. Here I used carrot-flavored farfalle. 4) Mix them all together in a bake-safe pan. 5) sprinkle plenty of mozzarella cheese, and top it with panko breakcrumbs. Now bake at 450F for 15~20 min until the cheese is brown and well baked. 6) EAT!!! Makes about 4 servings. (The plate on the side is beef-potato croquette with spicy cheese... yummy)
__________________
|
2012-12-09, 00:16 | Link #574 |
blinded by blood
Author
|
@Aohige: Your white sauce (which is actually bechamel sauce) used to make the basis of this dish (and many others) will taste far better if you make certain to cook the flour in the fat a bit before mixing your cold milk into it. This takes out the "raw flour" taste which can make things quite mealy. The microwave won't cook it properly--the roux needs to very slightly brown in a pan (and I mean VERY slightly, caramelizing a roux is only acceptable if you're going to make gumbo) on the stove or it will retain that raw taste.
Adding a small amount of freshly-ground nutmeg to the finished bechamel sauce also makes a tremendous difference in the flavor, even if you add cheese or garlic or spices to the sauce to flavor it. Personally when I make any sort of "cheese sauce" for any application, be it cheese dip for tortilla chips or sauce for pasta, rice, or even Southern-style macaroni & cheese, I never use a bechamel sauce. I find that even with cookking the roux thoroughly it still retains a very mealy flavor that I find objectionable. I take the much richer (but much more fattening) route of mixing one part heavy cream with one part whole milk in a saucepot on the stove. Season this with salt and pepper (use white pepper if you don't like the black flecks) and slowly bring it up to temperature. Don't let it boil or you risk "breaking" the dairy, especially once the cheese is added. Slowly add grated cheese of your choice and stir until it melts completely. If you don't want the sauce to be too gloopy and treacly, add a small amount of lime juice (about a teaspoon). The citric acid will cut the proteins slightly and prevent them from tangling around each other and becoming very stringy--this is critical if you melt in cheeses like mozzarella.
__________________
Last edited by synaesthetic; 2012-12-09 at 00:26. |
2012-12-09, 21:28 | Link #577 | |
Juanita/Kiteless
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 40
|
Quote:
Oh, I see. I mean, shh you aren't supposed to tell us that. Being a cook in the San Fran food scene sounds really impressive.
__________________
|
|
2012-12-10, 17:03 | Link #578 | |
( ಠ_ಠ)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
|
Quote:
I know cooking flour in a pan with butter is the best way to go, but they're a bit technical and cumbersome. It's easy to mess up and get ugly clumps lol. I'm no chef, so I do the cooking the "easy singleman way". All the stuff I cook are the "cooking for dummies and chimps" food, I dare not touch anything more complex than something I can just make in a wok and a microwave!
__________________
|
|
2012-12-10, 17:24 | Link #579 |
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2009
Age: 34
|
What one likes the most about cooking? Eat what you did.
I can cook too some good nice plates but only with motivation and hunger . I tried to upload some photos but the current server I'm using is blocking any image host posible so I think I'm doing other day. |
2012-12-12, 19:58 | Link #580 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Somewhere in a distant patch of green staring into the luminous starry sky.
|
I remember recently trying to make fried rice. The rice starting getting fried and burned. Fire alarm went off. And I sat there eating oil tasting crunchy burnt rice because I was the only one who could give it a mothers love.
Seeing the food people make here make my mouth water. Amazing job everyone. |
|
|