Continue reading »]]> If you are looking for a way to delight your diners on Christmas day, try a standing rib roast. This delicious cut of beef is usually only found this time of year in most stores, so now is the time to enjoy it. If you are feeling intimidated by this roast beast, I recommend watching Alton Brown’s Good Eats episode on the standing rib roast. Below you will find some of the highlights from the show. For the full episode, try searching for it on YouTube.

Before you cook the roast you have to select one. Alton gives tips on how to choose one. Meats are given different grades, prime, choice, and select. The choice is the middle in price and in quality, so it’s the one Alton would buy. As for the cost of these roasts, check out my list of prices selling standing rib roasts in Michigan for 2010. Even if you don’t live in Michigan, this will give you an idea of what this might cost you in your area.

The next tip given is to dry age the meat. This is a process that most high end steakhouses do. Dry aging is all about water loss. If the meat has less water, then it will taste more beefy. Alton does this by placing the roast in the fridge for 72 hours. He encloses it in a plastic bin with holes in it. It’s a simple step that will improve your final product.

Next up on the to do list is making sure your oven is clean. The junk on the walls of a dirty oven will absorb some of the heat that should be going to your food. This results in uneven cooking. Also you are going to be cooking this roast at a high temperature at the end and if your oven is dirty, particles are going to burn and fill your kitchen with smoke.

Now it’s finally time to cook. These roasts have plenty of flavor on their own, so only canola oil, kosher salt, and black pepper are added to exterior. Alton recommends cooking it at 200 degrees to begin with and then turning the heat up to 500 at the end to create a nice crust. As for knowing when the roast is done, a probe thermometer is the best tool.

When the roast is finished, Alton turn the brown bites in the bottom of the pan into a sauce. He does this by using water and wine to deglaze the pan and adds a few leaves of sage for additional flavor. Then boil off half the liquid. As for cutting the roast, an electric knife is your best friend.

This is a great option for a Christmas dinner. I can’t think of anything else that is this flavorful, yet this easy. Make it a Christmas tradition in your home.

Continue reading »]]> I love probe thermometers. They are a great way to know the progress of your meat as it cooks in the oven, without having to open up the oven door. The people at Taylor have taken this idea to another level. They have a digital thermometer that comes with a wireless remote that tells you what temperature your meat is from up to 200 feet away. Most probe thermometers beep when they reach a certain preset temperature. But if you want to check progress you have to walk out to the oven and look at what the temperature is. If this really bugs you, then you might want try this remote thermometer. You can currently find it on sale at Amazon as part of their Cyber Monday deals. It is going for $23.72 brand new, which is 21% off the original price.

I did read some negative reviews about this product. I wonder if these people took careful care of their probes. Here are some tips to proper probe care

1. Never leave your probe submerged in water, just wipe it off with a wet sponge.
2. Be careful when removing the probe.
3. Also do not leave the probe just sitting in the oven. Long exposure to hot temperature can ruin the probe. It is meant to be measuring the temperature of food, not of your oven.

Continue reading »]]> As you prepare for the big turkey day, there are some things that you can get for your kitchen that will make your life so much easier. Time is important when preparing for a big meal. So having the right tools at your disposal will save you time and stress. Some of these things are pretty obvious, while others are things you might not have thought of before.

1. Roasting Pan
You need something to cook your turkey in, that is where the roasting pan comes in. Most come with a rack that you can place the turkey on to make taking it from the oven to the plate you will carve it on easy. Pick a heavy duty roasting pan. Don’t go for the dirt cheap ones you find so often this time of year. Thin pan don’t distribute heat very well. So this is an item you want to invest you money in. You can use these pans for more than just turkey, they are great for beef roasts or whole chickens. You can also place them over two burners to use as a really wide pan, great for making gravy with your pan drippings.

2. Electric Knife
This item differs from the roasting pan in that it is alright to go with a cheaper model. Alton Brown (of Good Eats fame) even recommends picking one up at your local hardware store. You don’t want to be carving the turkey without one of these things. It’s a must have. They are also great for slicing any roast and even cutting up a loaf of bread.

3. Probe Thermometer
In a post earlier this week, I spoke about those pop-up timers found in turkeys (click here to read that post). I recommended that you ignore the pop-up timer and use a probe thermometer instead. This will tell you exactly when your turkey is done and you can watch the progress as it cooks. I also use them for any meat I roast in the oven.

4. Electric Skillet
Whenever I am find myself in a situation in which I have to bring a side dish to a potluck or family meal, I think to think of a way to use my electric skillet. This enables me to heat or re-heat my food easily in the last minute, so that is it pipping hot when it is time to eat. One dish I cooked for last Thanksgiving was Alton Brown’s Creamed Corn.

5. Heating Pad
You might not think of this one, but a heating pad is great to have for Thanksgiving. Just like the electric skillet is a way to keep food warm, so is a heating pad. Let’s say you are making some yeast rolls. You can set them on a heating pad turned to low and keep them warm until it’s time to eat. Keeping all the food warm is one of the biggest challenges on Thanksgiving day, so it’s great to have tools that you can use to accomplish this.

Continue reading »]]> As you get your turkey ready for the big day, you might have noticed a little white tube sticking out of your bird. Most likely the packaging holding your bird advertised with pride that the turkey has a pop-up timer that will pop when the turkey is done. What is this pop-up timer made of? Inside there is a spring that is held down by an epoxy. This epoxy melts somewhere in the neighborhood of 180 degrees, thus releasing the spring and the timer “pops up”. The biggest problem with these things is that they are always inserted into the white meat. Now 180 degrees is what you want the dark meat at, but the white meat will be dry when it reaches 180. So instead I would recommend using a probe thermometer, instead of the pop-up timer. This is better for two reasons, first you don’t have to open the oven door to see if the pop-up timer, popped. Second, you can know exactly when the white meat is done without overcooking it. However make sure you do NOT remove the pop-up timer or you will create a nice hole in your turkey for juices to escape.

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Recently I discovered ramps at a local grocery store (Produce Station). They are also called wild leeks and can add an onion/garlic flavor to a dish. Click here to read my post on what ramps are. Ramps go excellent with chicken.

Ingredients
1 whole fryer chicken (make sure to remove whatever is in the cavity, giblets, heart, etc.)
1 bunch of ramps (6-8 ramps)
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
dried rosemary
dried tarragon
1 1/2 cups chicken broth (to make a sauce)

* NOTE * Get all your ingredients ready ahead of time so that there isn’t an cross-contamination. The last thing I want is for you to touch the chicken and then touch your containers of herbs to get them out for this recipe. Put everything you need in small bowls before you even touch your chicken and make sure to wash your hands before you touch anything else in your kitchen.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take your ramps and cut off the leaves, leaving the pink stem attached to the bulbs. Save the leaves for later use. Take the bulbs and drizzle some olive oil over them, then sprinkle kosher salt and black pepper over them.

Now place your chicken on a roasting pan. Using a pairing knife or kitchen shears, pull back the skin without removing it, over the breasts, thighs, and drumstick areas of the chicken. Place the ramps under the skin in these areas. Sprinkle some dried rosemary and tarragon over these same areas and the entire chicken.

Insert a probe thermometer into the breast on an angle, being careful not to hit any bone. Cook the chicken until the temperature reaches 165 degrees. The dark meat should be at 180, so make sure to check that too, and if the dark meat is not ready, put foil over the breast and cook until the dark meat hits 180.

Now to prepare the sauce. Take your roasting pan and place it over 2 burners. Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Scrap all the bits you can off the bottom of the pan and bring to a boil. Add the leaves from your ramps and cook for 2 minutes, then remove them. Simmer the sauce until it has been reduced to your desired thickness. Keep in mind that the more water that you lose, the more salty the sauce will be, so since my wife does not like things too salt and keep the sauce pretty thin.

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Looking to save money on your grocery bill? Buy whole chickens. They can be had for much cheaper a pound than any chicken that has been sliced up for your convience. I like to roast the entire chicken, eat it that night, and save the leftovers to use in other dishes the next day or two. I buy what is called a fryer chicken, which is a young chicken (between 7-13 weeks old) that weight about 1 1/2 to 4 pounds. Before you roast your chicken, you should add some additional flavor. I do this with ”a paste”. For the paste you will need:

4-5 gloves of garlic
The herbs of your choosing (rosemary, basil, tarragon, thyme are all good choices)
Olive oil or canola oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Take your garlic and just give it a good smashing, no need to cut it into small pieces. Throw the garlic into a bowl, along with your herbs, a heavy pinch of kosher salt, several grinds of freshly ground black pepper, and a couple tablespoons of oil. Mix well to combine (if you are doing a larger chicken, you might want to make your paste in a food processor). You don’t need to perfectly measure everything here.

The first thing you need to do with the chicken itself is to remove anything in the cavity, giblets, heart, and neck. Once that is done, take your chicken and pull back the skin (do not remove it) in any places you can get it to go (you can use a knife to help you). Then rub your paste in between the meat and skin. Do this in as many spots as possible. Make more paste if you need to. Remember to wash your hands immediately after touching the raw chicken. Do not touch anything else before you wash your hands. Cross contamination is a major concern with chicken.

Set your oven to 350 degrees. Once your chicken is prepared set it in a roasting pan and insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken, being careful not to hit any bone, and roast until the thermometer says 165 degrees and the juices run clear. There is a fine line between perfectly done chicken and dried out chicken. But if you under cook it that’s bad news too. So it may take some practice, but I always recommend that if you don’t feel comfortable pulling the chicken yet, then wait a little bit longer.

If you plan on eating the skin of the chicken, I would recommend starting the chicken at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes, then reduce it to 350 until the chicken has reached it’s final temperature. You may also wish to flavor the skin, by sprinkling kosher salt, black pepper, and maybe some paprika on the outside before cooking.

Now it’s time to slice up the bird and enjoy! I recommend eating first the parts of the chicken that was closet to the areas in which you inserted your paste. If you have any leftovers and are planning to use them in other ways, it’s better to use the chicken that didn’t get as much seasoning the first time around.

Now speaking of other recipes for leftover chicken, here are a couple I did the last time I roasted a chicken:
Chicken Faijtas (in an electric skillet)
One-Serving Chicken Noodle Soup

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This is a recipe review, which means this is a recipe that I did not personally come up with, but that I tried out and am giving my opinion on how the recipe turned out. For legal reasons I cannot post these recipes, but I can tell you where you can get them yourself.

Yesterday for my Easter dinner I gave Alton Brown’s recipe for city ham a try. In case you don’t know what a city ham is, check out my post on the different types of ham. This recipe has you applying a crust to that ham that is made up of dark brown sugar, brown mustard, and ginger snap cookies. Yes I said ginger snap cookies. You turn them into dust in your food processor and apply them to the ham in the final hour of cooking. Here are my notes from making this recipe.

Click here for the recipe.

1. I used a shank end city ham, like Alton picked out in the show.
2. The only ingredient I left out was the bourbon spray. I found that my ginger snap cookies stuck to the ham really well without the need for any additional liquid.
3. The basting brush worked well to get the mustard layer on the ham.
4. I used my probe thermometer to tell when the ham had reached 130 degrees, so I knew when it was time to put on the crust.
5. We carved the ham up using an electric knife, which made the job really easy.

This ham was delicious. My wife wanted to try this recipe because she isn’t really into ham, but like the idea of the crust. The crust came out perfect and she did indeed love it! I didn’t really have any problems with this recipe. It was rather simple and good.

Recipe Grade: A

Click here for the recipe.

Continue reading »]]> The most tender part of the pig – the pork tenderloin. It is a versatile piece of pork than you can grill or roast with a wide varieties of flavors. The flavor we are focusing on today is teriyaki – a salty and sweet combination featuring brown sugar and soy sauce. Pork tenderloin is great for marinating as it’s low fat content can lead to drying out if you overcook it. Using a marinade is one way to introduce flavor and keep your pork moist and tender.

Ingredients

1 whole pork tenderloin

4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons olive or canola oil

2 teaspoons light brown sugar

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine all the ingredients into a large zip top plastic bag. Then place the tenderloin inside. Seal the bag, making sure the marinade is completely covering the meat. Place inside a container large enough to fit that bag (just in case the bag decides to leak) and place in the fridge for about 4-6 hours. Don’t go beyond 8 hours or you might end up with salty pork.

Set your oven to 425 degrees. Take the pork out of the fridge and discard the marinade. Pat the pork dry. Place it on a pan lined with parchment paper or in a roasting pan. Place a probe thermometer on an angle in the center of the tenderloin and cook until the temperature reaches 160 degrees. You can use an instant read and check the temperature if you don’t have a probe variety. If you have neither type it should take around 25-35 minutes to cook, but going by temperature is best. Slice and serve!

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When my wife and I were preparing to celebrate our 1st Christmas together, we were looking for someone special to make for dinner on Christmas Eve. After a trip to the grocery store, I came up with turkey drumsticks. We have been making these drumsticks every Christmas Eve for the last 5 years. As I have become a better cook, the drumsticks have become better too. The process begins with a brine that will keep your drumsticks moist and add additional flavor. We normally buy 3 drumsticks so the recipe is based on that. If your drumsticks are frozen, make sure to defrost them first.

Brine
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 pound of ice

Place a saucepan with the broth along with the peppercorns over medium heat. Add the sugar and salt to the broth and cook until they are dissolved. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the ice, to bring the temperature down (you don’t want to boil the drumsticks!). Place the drumsticks in a gallon size plastic bag and add the liquid. Place the bag in a dish just in case it leaks and place it into the fridge. Allow the brine at least 2-3 hours to work. I would not go more than 6, or you might end up with some salty turkey.

When it is time to cook take your drumsticks out of the bag and pat them dry. You will now need the following items for additional flavor:

canola oil
fresh rosemary, thyme, and sage

Rub each drumstick with canola oil, just enough to make it shiny. Cut up the herbs and rub them all over the drumsticks. The amount of herbs you will need depends on the size of the drumsticks. While you are doing this you can heat your oven to 500 degrees, we are going to start high in order to get some nice coloring on the outside, then we will turn it down to 350 for the rest of the way.

When your drumsticks and oven are both ready, place them on the center rack of your oven and cook them for about 10-15 minutes (this may produce some smoke in your kitchen, especially if you haven’t cleaned your oven this decade; I would recommend cleaning your oven before doing this recipe). After that time is up, turn the oven down to 350 and insert a probe thermometer into the biggest part of the largest drumstick. Be very careful that you don’t hit a bone or your temp reading will be off. Since drumsticks are dark meat you will want to cook them until they reach a temperature of 180 degrees. I would plan on about 1 to 1 1/2 hours for them to be done, but it depends on how big the drumsticks are and your oven. When you take them out let them rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting into them.

Continue reading »]]> I think the one question that most cooks have whenever they are cooking meat, whether it be chicken, beef, pork, or whatever animal is when is it is done. They open the oven door, poke the meat, stare it trying to determine if it looks done, and then pull the meat 30 minutes after it should have already been out of the oven. So how do one know when their meat is done? Many meats will come in packages that tell you how long to cook it per pound. That might work, if every piece of chicken was shaped exactly the same. So the only other option out there is a thermometer. A thermometer will be able to tell you exactly when your meat is done. There are two types of thermometers I recommend: a probe therommeter and an instant read (both of the digital variety). Both can be had for less than $20 a piece.

A prope therometer is perfect for putting into a roast. All you do is stick the probe end into the hunk of meat, put the meat in the oven, and plug in the therometer. Then you can watch as the temperature rises until it reaches your desires doneness (with roast it’s a good idea to pull it from the oven 5-10 degrees before it’s done because there will be carry-over when you take it out). You have to be careful that you inser the probe into the right spot. If you hit a bone or the bottom of the pan you will get a false reading. It’s best to stick the probe on an angle into the thickest part of the meat.

An instant read therometer will tell you within 5 seconds what the tempearture of your meat is. Why would you need of these as well as a probe? Sometimes a probe therometer can’t be used like when grilling, cooking a piece of meat that is too thin to get the probe in, or when you are braising or cooking in liquid. An instant read can be used to test whether the meat is done in those situations. It can also be used to taste whether a loaf of bread is done.

Here is a list of the temperature you want to cook certain types of meat to (these are all minimum temperatures):

Pork: 160 degrees

Poultry: 165 degrees (for dark meat of a turkey: 180 degrees)

Beef: Medium rare (135 degrees), Medium (145 degrees), Medium Well (155 degrees), Well Done (or Toast) (160 degrees)

Lamb: 160 degrees

Fish: 145 degrees