Soygen
The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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Gravy's Cooking Thread
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
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Tried my hands on some jerk chicken today withthis marinade, was awesome. Only thing I changed was regular white sugar instead of brown (didn't have) and added more garlic, of course.
So, in my quest to teach myself to cook well, I started off by thinking about equipment. I did an inventory of what I have in the apartment I'm living in. It came furnished, and there's 5 years worth of random pots and pans and utensils. There's a couple nice stainless steel pots, medium and large, a decent stainless steel pan, two horribly scarred non-stick pans, and then a bunch of just random garbage. What am I missing that I should get?
Right now I'm thinking a cast iron pan and one non-stick pan. Should I get a dutch oven? The stainless steel pots are pretty bulky, but the lids are shit and weigh nothing.
As for knives, throwing out everything in the apartment. They're total garbage. Picking up a Victorinox 8" chefs knife, santoku, and a paring knife to start.
Right now I'm thinking a cast iron pan and one non-stick pan. Should I get a dutch oven? The stainless steel pots are pretty bulky, but the lids are shit and weigh nothing.
As for knives, throwing out everything in the apartment. They're total garbage. Picking up a Victorinox 8" chefs knife, santoku, and a paring knife to start.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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You could probably skip the non-stick pan unless you like to have quick breakfasts that involve frying eggs in some fashion very often.
I'm no expert myself but I would definitely get a food scale, good meat thermometer and a garlic press. Quite frankly I'm not sure how you haven't died to some horrible disease yet without a garlic press.
I'm no expert myself but I would definitely get a food scale, good meat thermometer and a garlic press. Quite frankly I'm not sure how you haven't died to some horrible disease yet without a garlic press.
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Takes more time to clean a garlic press than it does to mince a few cloves.
If you cook anything with eggs or protein in it, I would consider a nonstick pan. Probably the best advice is find good eats on youtube and start watching it. Find the ones where he makes dishes you like, he usually goes over the hardware required.
If you cook anything with eggs or protein in it, I would consider a nonstick pan. Probably the best advice is find good eats on youtube and start watching it. Find the ones where he makes dishes you like, he usually goes over the hardware required.
Sir Funk
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You might want to check out Tim Ferriss'The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life: Timothy Ferriss: 8876250441120: Amazon.com: Books
It's a pretty cool way of introducing techniques and equipment in a progressive, step-wise fashion. It was a lot of fun to follow the book and do the recipes in order, picking up pieces of equipment I didn't have along the way.
But I would recommend getting a Dutch oven and a non-stick pan as your definite must-haves. You can get a cast-iron for like $15-20 or something so you might as well pick one up, but I use the other two way more often.
I mince all my own garlic, so that's seems superfluous. I do cook a fucking ton of eggs, thus having one non stick pan seems like a good idea. I'll definitely check out that book. I picked how "how to cook everything" based on some recommendations that its a good teaching cookbook, but I'll check that one out too. I saw Gordon Ramsey has one too that I'll compare them to.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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Yeah he actually does a Good Eats episode I think where he goes over basic essentials. Shit like one nonstick pan, one stupid fish spatula or something, I don't remember.
You're totally wrong about the garlic press. The OXO one cleans itself in about a second and produces results you just can't get otherwise, or at least I can't. Bobby Flay did this thing where you crush garlic with the side of a knife then put some kosher salt on it and then crush it some more, maybe that would do it. But I love my garlic press.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Nonstick pans are also nice for sauteeing vegetables. At least I like doing the thing where you toss them in the pan instead of stirring and you can't do that with a cast iron pan because the handle is too hot. You could technically do this with a stainless or whatever pan with a wood or plastic handle, but why the hell not make it non-stick while you're at it?
I am also an opponent of garlic presses. Mincing garlic is quick and easy with a little practice. If I have time this evening I'll dig up Tony Bourdain's rant about garlic presses from Kitchen Confidential, not that he makes a particularly rational argument for it, but it's funny.
I am also an opponent of garlic presses. Mincing garlic is quick and easy with a little practice. If I have time this evening I'll dig up Tony Bourdain's rant about garlic presses from Kitchen Confidential, not that he makes a particularly rational argument for it, but it's funny.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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You don't need a non stick pan for sauteing vegetables though, if you're doing it right they won't stick anyway. I'm certainly not a "never use non-stick you heathens" type but I find most non stick pans don't distribute heat uniformly so I use them strictly for eggs or shaving some left over steak and cooking it up with some cheese. Things like that.
Gravy
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Sir Funk
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Did my second chicken a few days ago and just lazily bought this stuff instead of making the rub in the recipe:
The rub in the recipe was WAY better. I am going to buy the spices in bulk and just make a large batch of it to have on hand to cook my weekly chicken.
The rub in the recipe was WAY better. I am going to buy the spices in bulk and just make a large batch of it to have on hand to cook my weekly chicken.
Joeboo
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So do I. It's just easier and as much as I LOVE garlic, I don't want to smell like it for 3 days after chopping up a bunch.
Minced garlic is actually pretty potent stuff, but I recommend just buying small jars of it so it doesn't lose it's potency sitting in the fridge for months on end. I probably go through one of these per month:
and It doesn't seem to be any less flavorful by the end of the jar than it was at the start.
Obviously, garlic cloves are still better for some things, like roasted garlic where you need large chunks, but if you're purely just using it for the flavor and don't need it for texture or anything, minced is just too easy.
Hekotat
FoH nuclear response team
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Cooking with this stuff because I ran out of normal Garlic and it burned in the pan almost immediately, ymmv of course.So do I. It's just easier and as much as I LOVE garlic, I don't want to smell like it for 3 days after chopping up a bunch.
Minced garlic is actually pretty potent stuff, but I recommend just buying small jars of it so it doesn't lose it's potency sitting in the fridge for months on end. I probably go through one of these per month:
and It doesn't seem to be any less flavorful by the end of the jar than it was at the start.
Obviously, garlic cloves are still better for some things, like roasted garlic where you need large chunks, but if you're purely just using it for the flavor and don't need it for texture or anything, minced is just too easy.
For the sake of conversation what are the taste differences between extra virgin Olive Oil and Olive Oil, also, are there any major health differences between one or the other. If you do use one or the other which do you use for cooking what and why.