KitchenSavvy

Cream of Tartar vs Tartar Sauce

Are Cream of Tartar and Tartar Sauce the same thing?
--Helen

Seeing this question made me think of a Before and After category puzzle on Wheel of Fortune where the answer is "Cream of Tartar Sauce."

No, they are not the same thing.  Cream of tartar is a dry white powder that is actually finely ground tartaric acid.  The chemical name is potassium bitartrate and the formula, for those who care, is KC₄H₅O₆.  It is found as a sediment in the making of wine (see Crystals in Wine).  Cream of tartar has three main uses in the home kitchen -- to stabilize egg whites when they are whipped (see Beating Egg Whites - How Cream of Tartar Helps), in candy making to help reduce the formation of crystals in boiling sugar, and as a leavening agent when combined with baking soda (see Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder).

Tartar sauce is a mayonnaise-based condiment most frequently served with seafood.  Typical ingredients, other than the mayonnaise are chopped dill pickles, capers, lemon juice, vinegar, onions or shallots, and various herbs and seasonings.  Here is my recipe for homemade tartar sauce which I like to serve with crab cakes:

Homemade Tartar Sauce

	1/3	c	Mayonnaise
1		tsp	Lemon Zest
1		tbsp	Fresh Lemon Juice
	1/2	clove	Garlic, minced
1	1/2	tbsp	Chopped Caper Berries, rinsed and drained
1	1/2	tsp	Chopped Fresh Chives
2		tsp	Chopped Fresh Cilantro or Tarragon
			Salt and Pepper, to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together and refrigerate, covered, for at least one hour for the flavors to meld.  Quantities can be adjusted to suit your taste.

I like to zest the lemon and mince the garlic using a micro-plane since that way they mix right in without any chunks or stringy bits, but both can be done with a knife if you prefer.  Also, I prefer the larger caper berries to the non-pareil size, although any size would work.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered, nor can we guarantee we will answer questions immediately
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Raw Egg Whites

Making "White Christmas Pie" for the first time, the recipe calls for beaten egg whites, with cream of tartar and sugar but never says to "cook" it.  Is it necessary to cook the egg whites, or is it safe to use them, blended with other ingredients?

--Dora

You are right to be concerned about using raw egg whites.  The USDA now warns against eating anything made with raw eggs and especially about serving them to infants, young children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, since they are the most susceptible to salmonella bacteria.  The risk is especially high in something like White Christmas Pie, since it is typically made well ahead of consumption and may be eaten over a period hours or even days.

There are alternatives however.  Some cooks have suggested a process for heating the egg whites with water, sugar and cream of tartar over a double boiler until they reach a temperature of 160°F (71°C).  I'm not crazy about this method for two reasons -- first because raising the temperature increases the risk of contamination so you need to be sure to heat the entire amount to that temperature and hold it there, and second because there is a chance of actually cooking the eggs if they are over-heated.  If done right, however, apparently you can still whip the egg whites as usual.

The other alternatives are the whites of pasteurized in-the-shell eggs and powdered egg whites or meringue powder.  The US FDA has approved the pasteurization of whole eggs in their shell.  They can be found in some grocery stores and can be used in recipes calling for uncooked eggs.  Powdered egg whites are also pasteurized and can be used.  They are reconstituted with water following the manufacturer's directions and should whip well for this recipe.

Meringue powder is powdered egg whites already blended with sugar and stabilizers such as gum arabic, as well as flavor and preservatives.  Since they already contain sugar and usually vanilla, you will likely need to reduce or completely omit the sugar and vanilla called for in the recipe.  It may take a bit of experimenting to find the right amount of sugar and vanilla to use.

In any case, the pie should be kept refrigerated until served.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

 

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered, nor can we guarantee we will answer questions immediately
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Overcrowded Pan

Lots of recipes for stews and braises say to brown the meat "being careful to not overcrowd the pan."  What does this mean and why does it matter?

--Lisbeth

 

The basic idea of searing meat is to create a nice brown crust on the meat that adds flavor to the dish through a process called the Maillard Reaction.  Note that searing meat does not seal in juices, as many cooks believe (see KitchenSavvy Kitchen Science).  To brown meat correctly, you want to have the pan at medium hot and brown a few pieces of meat at a time.  Dry the meat with a cloth or paper towel just before browning to remove any surface liquid.  A good rule of thumb is to have at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) between pieces of meat, and to not cover more than about half of the surface area.  If necessary, brown the meat in batches.  If possible, do not use meat that was previously frozen, and have it at room temperature when you start cooking.

So, what happens if you put in too much meat at one time?  The meat makes the pan cool down, due both to the lower temperature of the meat and the evaporation of liquid on the surface, and instead of browning, the meat oozes out juices and steams rather than browns.  Even at the best of times, this still happens occasionally, depending on whether the meat was previously frozen or other factors.

Does this ruin a recipe?  No!  In fact, quite some time ago, when I was in my teens, I made beef stroganoff for a friend whose family was the majority shareholder in a national restaurant chain.  To my horror at the time, the beef started to swim in its own juices and I had visions of a ruined dish -- flavorless with tough, chewy meat.  Not having any other choice, I simply soldiered on and browned the meat as it dried out.  The stroganoff turned out perfect.  In fact it was so good my friend offered to see if there was any way I could get into training to be a cook at the restaurant, if I wanted.  That was the path untraveled, but the moral of the story is that it isn't necessarily fatal to overcrowd the pan.

What should you do if this happens? 

1. Make sure there is room in the pan for the leaking juices to evaporate.  If necessary, take a few pieces of meat out of the pan and cook them in another batch.
2. Keep up the heat.  Don't be tempted to turn down the heat while the juices evaporate.
3. Turn the pieces often.  As the liquid dries, the protein and sugars in the juices will adhere to the meat and brown.  After all, the Maillard reaction comes from the heating of amino acids, found in protein, and sugar.
4. Look out for the juices burning to the bottom of the pan.  One trick I have learned is to hold a piece of meat in my tongs and use it like a wipe to clean out the fond browning  in the bottom of the pan.  If the juices start to burn, take the pan off heat, remove the meat, and then use one piece to wipe out the bottom of the pan.  Unless the stuff in the bottom of the pan has started to turn black, you can just put that piece of meat into the final dish as it is cooking and it will add even more flavor.  You can do the same trick if you need to clean the pan between batches of meat that you are browning.
5. Don't be tempted to drain off the juices and put them back into the final dish.  Because they contain proteins, the juices may make the end product cloudy.  If you must drain off the liquid, throw it out, or save it for a soup.

Sometimes overcrowding a pan may not be salvageable, so it is better to avoid having it happening in the first place, but if it does happen the dish will still taste the same and, if you are even a little bit lucky, the meat will still be tender.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

 

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered, nor can we guarantee we will answer questions immediately
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

How are Egg Counted in Baker's Percentages

I read your previous posting on Baker's Percentage.  My question is, given that eggs contain a lot of water, should they be counted in the hydration percentage for bread?

--Eric

About 76% of the total weight of an egg is water.  Of the rest, about 9.5% is fat, 12.5% is protein and 0.4% is glucose.   Technically, that means that for a large egg, weighing approximately 50 grams (1.76 oz), 38 grams are water. Egg whites alone have about 87.6% water.

For a typical white bread recipe, the water in one large egg can represent about about 5% - 6% of the total hydration percentage.  For doughs like Brioche and Challah, the water in the eggs can represent up to 20% or more of the total hydration percentage. 

In the Challah recipe given by Reinhart in The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, he calls for 18 ounces of flour, 2 large eggs (3.3 ounces), 2 large egg whites (1.25 ounces), and 7 to 9 ounces of water.  The water in the eggs and whites totals just over 3.6 ounces or 20% of the total weight of flour.  The water represents between 40% and 50% of the total weight of flour, so the overall hydration is 60% to 70% (i.e. total weight of water from all sources/total weight of flour as %).

While I have heard some comments to the effect that we tend to spend too much time focusing on the minutiae of baker's percentages rather than learning how our bread actually behaves when we make it, since my return from the King Arther Flour Artisan Baking at Home class, I have been tracking my recipes and trying to learn how the science and the art come together in the kitchen.  In part, this is necessary simply because the Canadian flours available to home bakers tend to be higher in gluten forming proteins that their American counterparts.  What that means is that a recipe that works for US all-purpose flour will be under hydrated for Canadian all-purpose.  To get the results I want, I am finding I need to increase the hydration by a factor of about 1.03 -- that is, if a recipe calls for 70% hydration, I need to use about 70 X 1.03 = 72.1% hydration.  So far I would only call that a starting estimate, but without understanding where all of the sources of water are that come into a recipe, I can't make the appropriate corrections.  Either that or I try to figure out how to measure 0.03 of 2 whole eggs.

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Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Just for Good Measure

Along with baking ammonia ... where does one find a dram of lemon oil, and for that matter, how much is a dram?   Thanks for your answer on baking ammonia.

--Karen

The dram measure is not used very commonly now, perhaps because it has numerous definitions.  Depending on who you consult, it is ¹/₈^th of an ounce by weight,  or ¹/₁₆^th of a fluid ounce, or about 3.7 milliliters (mL) in the United States, or 3.6 mL in the United Kingdom.  And as if that wasn't enough, a dram of whiskey or brandy is about two tablespoons.

In cooking the most common conversion of a dram is ³/₄^th of a teaspoon.

Now for lemon oil, there are essentially two types when it comes to cooking^*.  One is the essential oil extracted from the rinds of lemons.  This kind of lemon oil adds a distinct lemon flavor to pound cakes, cookies and other baked goods. Some essential lemon oils are cut with another flavorless oil to make them less intense.  For that reason, you want to read and the manufacturer's directions, if there are any.

The second type is a cooking oil, such as olive or canola, which has been infused with the taste of lemons.  This may be done by heating the oil and simmering lemon rinds in the warm oil, or by crushing lemons with the olives when making olive oil.  This kind is used for salads or drizzling on foods such as pastas or vegetables.

I'm guessing you want the former for baked goods, based on your mention of baking ammonia, but without the recipe, I could be wrong.  You can find lemon oil of both types at most reliable gourmet stores.

So, where does all of that leave you? You likely want to use about ³/₄ teaspoon of the essential lemon oil in your recipe.  Depending on the strength of the lemon oil and the source and accuracy of your recipe, you may need to adjust the amount either way.  You might be able to find other similar recipes to yours that give some guidance, but it will likely be hit-and-miss the first couple of tries.

^* It may go without saying, but only use food grade products.  Lemon oil used for aromatherapy and household cleaning are not edible and should not be used in cooking.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Dave Recommends: "How to Cook Everything" iPad App

Being an incurable foodie and techie, I of course have been grabbing cooking apps for my iPad.  Some apps are little more than shameless money grabs or self promotions.  Others are poorly constructed technically or have little quality content.

The exception, far and away, is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything application.  This is perhaps the best cooking resource I own.  Some readers may recognize Bittman as the author of the books How to Cook Everything, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Recipes for Conscious Eating and a number of others.  He is also a writer for The New York Times.

So, what do I like about the app?  Well, for starters, the recipes.  If it didn't have clear well designed, easy to follow recipes I wouldn't care how well written an app it is.  From simple recipes like how to cook Corned Beef to more complex recipes like a classic  Bolognese Style Meat Sauce, in How to Cook Everything the instructions are clear, easy, and well explained. Index sections for browsing include not only the expected Soups, Salads (one of Bittman's specialties, apparently), Beans, Meats, etc., but also a complete section on Kitchen Basics, covering equipment, appliances, and ingredients. The section on knives includes basic knife skills, as well as how to sharpen and store them.

But it doesn't stop there.

Being a computer app, How to Cook Everything has features that no paper cookbook can muster.  For example, in the Lasagne recipe, one of the ingredients is Béchamel Sauce.  The words are underlined, indicating that this is a link to the recipe.  Touch the words on your screen, and the recipe for Béchamel shows up. Touch the "Back" button and you go back to the Lasagne recipe.

In the Béchamel Sauce recipe, like many others, there is a choice.  In this case, for "30 grams butter or extra virgin olive oil" with circles beside the choices.  Butter is the highlighted ingredient, but if you want to use olive oil, just touch the circle beside that ingredient.  Two things will happen.  First, "extra virgin olive oil" will become highlighted, and if necessary the measure will change.  Second, if you are building a shopping list, all you need to do is touch the blue shopping cart above the ingredients and they are added to your list.  But here is where it gets good!  If you choose olive oil, then that is what gets added to the shopping list.  If you choose butter, then the shopping list will show butter.  If you are planning a meal, you can go through all of the recipes and add the ingredients from each of the to the grocery list.  One enhancement I would like to see, though, relates to when you add ingredients to the shopping list from a recipe that contains another recipe, like above.  As it works now, How to Cook Everything simply warns that the ingredients from the second recipe are not added to the grocery list.  I would really prefer a pop-up with selection buttons to let me choose to maybe add the ingredients for the Béchamel Sauce, but not the homemade pasta.  As it works, I need to click and add the ingredients from each sub-recipe manually.

Staying on shopping lists for a moment, it is worth noting that if the same ingredient is chosen in multiple recipes, then the total amount needed is shown rather than multiple occurrences of the ingredient.  Once all of the recipes are added to a grocery list, you can go through and edit the list to remove items you have in your pantry or change quantities.

Once you are cooking the recipe, if there is an instruction like "Cook for three minutes" with a clock icon, touching the amount of time will open a timer dialogue for you.  You can have multiple timers running simultaneously.  When one of them goes off, a dialogue will pop up allowing you to halt the timer, add time if you think it is necessary, or show the recipe where you started the timer.  And it tells you on the timer which step you were at when you set the timer.

As you go along, you can bookmark steps in a recipe so that you know where you are at any time.  Bookmarks have a couple of advantages.  First and most obvious is that you can turn away to stir a pot or help your grandson play Angry Birds, and return to see where you were at.  Also, you can skip between recipes on the fly.  Think of bookmarks like the ribbon in your old Joy of Cooking, only you can have as many as you want and they keep themselves sorted out.  A button on the bottom of the screen shows Bookmarks and Timers.  Touch it and you can instantly go to one of your bookmarks or open the dialogue on one of your times, or you can delete them if you want.  With practice, bookmarks and timers can keep you on track in the kitchen.

Those are the main techie bells and whistles, but How to Cook Everything has a lot more to offer.  Most if not all recipes have a section on Techniques following the instructions that show basic techniques like "preparing Onions" or "Crushing and Peeling Garlic".  Most recipes also contain a tab that gives Variations, for instance how to make Pesto with arugula instead of basil or different options for Chicken Soup.  They also have a Related Content tab that may give information on ingredients, or additions to the recipe.  And they have a Notes tab where you can make your own notes.

Some other useful features include the ability to show metric ingredients, change text size. or prevent the screen from timing out in mid-preparation.  And for the social media types, you can even Tweet or post on Facebook directly from the app!

All in all, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is by far the most well thought out and robust iPad cooking app I have found so far.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

To Salt or Not To Salt, That is the Question

A friend recently told me that every ingredient should be salted as it is added to a dish when cooking.  Really!?

--Lynn

 

Cooking is full of a lot of myth and pretense, and perhaps even a little interference from special interests, and salt seems to be one of the big ones, nowadays (see Salt [of the Earth], and Fixing Over-Salted Food). 

I have two major problems with this particular fad.  First, and I think foremost, is that most of us are already getting way too much sodium in our diets.  It makes food taste better and we need salt as part of our diets, but the USDA Dietary Guidelines suggest that we should limit our consumption of salt to less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) per day, if we are under 51 years of age, and 1,500 mg if we are older.  2,300 mg is the amount of sodium in only one teaspoon of table salt.  The lesser amount, 1,500 mg, is just less than 2/3 of a teaspoon.  And that is sodium from all sources consumed throughout the day, including not just the salt you sprinkle on, or the salt in packaged foods, but also sodium in the baking soda or powder used to make cookies, biscuits, cakes, etc..  At present, the average American gets about 3,400 mg of sodium a day, or about half again the maximum recommended amount.  Adding salt at each step just increases the chances that you will have way too much salt in the final product, from both the  health and flavor points of view.

Second is simply, can you tell the difference?  Here is the experiment to construct.  Cook two identical versions of the same dish, one where the salt is added at each step, and one where the same amount of salt is added at one time, preferably toward the end of preparation.  Now have a bunch of friends taste the two dishes, without knowing which is which, and preferably mixing it up so some start with dish "A" and others with dish "B".  If you have enough tasters and they can consistently tell which is which, then go with that.  My bet is they won't know the difference, particularly on longer cooked dishes like stews.

There are reasons, however, why you might want to salt a particular ingredient.  If you are making caramelized onions, for instance, some salt at the start of cooking helps to draw out water and soften the onions faster.  Salt also draws water out of eggplant (aubergine) and cucumbers.  In the case of eggplant, it can significantly change the texture, too.  Salting meat may help encourage the Maillard reaction, creating a more flavorful dish. There is at least one dish I cook where I deliberately under-salt during cooking and then add salt at the table because it brightens the flavor.

Used strategically, salt enhances flavor and texture, helps in preserving, and speeds cooking.  Used recklessly, it can ruin the taste of food and be a contributing factor in  health problems.

If you feel you must salt at every step, then don't just throw salt in from your salt shaker (cellar, box, pig, ...).  Instead, read the recipe, measure out the total amount of salt beforehand, and then use small pinches from the pre-measured amount.  If there recipe doesn't provide a total amount, or says something like "Salt to taste", then you need to use your judgment, but you would still be wise to pre-measure the amount of salt you intend to use.  In either case, aim to use half to two-thirds the salt you have set aside so you have some left over at the end to adjust the seasoning once the dish is complete.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Art and Artist - A Shameless Promotion

If you know my wife, Pat, or even if you don't, click on over to her artist's e-store here:

http://pat-katz.artistwebsites.com/

to see some of her beautiful watercolor paintings. 

"Tucked in my backpack, on a post college trip to Europe over 35 years ago, were a pencil, six small tubes of watercolor, a paintbrush, and a sketchbook. Very little remains of my artistic efforts from that adventure.

In the intervening years, my love of color and design expressed itself in many different mediums."

On her site you can browse through her paintings, and if the image strikes you, buy art cards, reproductions and, for some, the original painting.  Her paintings and watercolor sketches can be found in private collections around the globe - in France, England, Saudia Arabia, the USA , and Canada.

Enjoy,

Dave

How Long can Cooked Leftovers be Kept?

How long can meatball stew be left in fridge after cooking?

--Linda

A lot of factors can influence how long leftovers can be kept, but generally assuming that the food was properly cooled through the danger zone between 140°F (60°C) and 40°F (4°C), see How Long Can Cooked Food Be Left Out.  It should be stored in the fridge within 2 hours total time since it was cooked.  If both of these are the case, then, according to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, the rule of thumb is the food can be kept safely for 3 to 4 days.

If food was left out too long, or was kept at a temperature within the danger zone longer than 2 hours, then the answer is that it is already spoiled, and should be thrown away.  Now, I know that there are going to be people who say they hate to waste good food, and I invariably hear from somebody who claims to have an iron stomach, but the best motto is "When in doubt, throw it out!"  You don't want to take chances with your health or that of your loved ones.

When reheating leftovers, they should be heated to at least 165°F (74°C).  Sauces, soups and gravies should be brought to a full boil.  If food is reheated in the microwave, it should be left to stand for 5 minutes or so to allow the heat to even out.  Microwaves heat food unevenly so some areas may be above the 165°F limit while other places are still cold.  Standing time helps to even this out.

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward

Making Applesauce Without Browning

I am making applesauce and then freezing it.  The recipes call for white sugar. I was told I need to add this so the apples do not turn brown.  Is there something else I can use?  I prefer not to use any sweetener.  Thank you very much.

--Mary

Apples brown because they contain an enzyme that causes the flesh to turn brown when it is exposed to air.  If you want to prevent cut apples from turning brown, there are a number of things you can do.  These include using firm apples, not over-ripe or wind fallen ones, submerging them in a solution of cold water and citric or ascorbic acid, or cooking them. Cold temperatures slow down the browning reaction while acidity interferes with the browning reaction. Heat destroys or "denatures' the enzyme responsible for browning.

We make and freeze applesauce all of the time around here from the Westland^* apples that grow in our back yard.  The applesauce maintains a nice light cream color.  Here's how to do it.  First pick the apples at their ripest.  Then get ready a large bowl with about 2 or 3 quarts of icy cold water with the juice of one lemon mixed in.  You could dissolve a teaspoon or so of powdered citric or ascorbic acid into the water instead.  Also get ready a microwavable bowl large enough to hold about a quart of peeled and cored apples.

Now you want to peel and core the apples as quickly as possible and drop them into the water as you go along, making sure they are completely dunked.  Instead of fussing with the apples too much trying to peel them, I remove the stem and quarter then from end to end.  Then I remove the core simply by putting each quarter on the cutting board and making a slice with my chef's knife the full length from end to end, taking enough flesh to remove all or most of the core.  This is a bit wasteful, but much faster than fussing with a paring knife or a melon baller.  The waste is only slightly more than if you use one of those tubular corers that you shove through the apple.  Then I grab my sharp paring knife and make a few lengthwise passes to remove the peel.  The poetic image of going around and around the apple removing a continuous strip of skin sells good in movies, but it is way too slow!  As each quarter is peeled drop it into the lemon water.

When you have enough peeled apple to make a quart or so, drain them by hand, put them into your second bowl, cover with plastic wrap and pop them into your microwave on high for around 5 minutes.  The exact time will depend on the freshness of the apples, the amount you are heating and the power of your microwave.  The beauty of using the microwave is the speed with which it heats the apples and destroys the browning enzyme.  You can tell they are done when a knife passes easily into a slice with almost no resistance.

Now you can either mash the apples with a potato masher or blend them with a hand blender.  We use a hand blender, but that does tend to make a smoother applesauce than if you mash them.  Be careful not to burn yourself, though.  If you want, you can add sugar or sucralose at this point to taste, or just leave the applesauce unsweetened.

Finally, pack the apples into freezer safe containers and let them cool somewhat before freezing.  We use freezer plastic bags since you can squeeze out any air.  The enzyme should be inactive anyhow, so it may be like "belt and suspenders" thinking to worry about air in the package at this point.

^* Westland apples are a variety bred for growing in the short Saskatchewan summer. They are a good apple, but the timing to pick them is very short. They go from ready to rotten in about a week!

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If you have food or cooking questions, send them to Questions@KitchenSavvy.com

Due to the volume of questions received, not all can be answered.
© Lost Hobbit Enterprises 2004 onward