My favorite food-related obsessions, learnings, and media from the past month.
What I’ve Learned
- The history of egg in a hole, or whatever you call it – Turns out there are about 100 different names for the same breakfast treat: egg fried in a cutout piece of bread. Check out this article to read about the dish’s hazy origins.
- The difference between noodles and pasta– This is one of those things I never really thought about until a coworker mentioned that she used noodles rather than pasta for a dish. Turns out it all about the ingredients.
- Preventing berries from sinking to the bottom of your muffins – You’ll see that Stella Parks is a theme for this month. In this article she shares a great tip for preventing berries from sinking in your muffins:
“Most recipes would then have you toss the blueberries in a bit of flour, ostensibly to prevent them from sinking to the bottom, but if that’s all it took to defy gravity, we’d all have hoverboards by now.
“No, the real trick is dropping a little cushion of plain dough into the bottom of each muffin cup. After that, the berries are folded in and the dough portioned up, each scoop sitting happily atop its pillow.”
- What’s the Difference Between American and British Bacon? – Until I posted Ina’s English Bacon Sandwich, I had no clue there was a major difference between the two. Both are cured, but it all comes down to cut – American bacon is from pork belly and British bacon is from pork loin.
- Ethical Veal does exist – I was nervous to try any of Ina’s veal recipes having grown up on the horror stories of veal production. Well, apparently the bad press changed a lot of how the veal industry operates and ethically sourced veal is available – you just need to do your research.
Ina Cheat Days
My favorite non-Ina recipes of the month
Roasted Salmon with Maple + Soy, Julia Turshen – Small Victories, page 205 – with all the traveling last month, I didn’t have much time to cook anything other than Ina recipes for the project. But I was able to make Julia’s Roasted Salmon with Maple + Soy for a quick, healthy meal in between trips. The sweet, salty, sticky glaze adds a lot of flavor without overpowering the salmon. I served this with brown rice and bok choy.
Can’t live without
Digital Thermometer – This is the one tool that has most drastically changed my meat cooking game. I was guilty of overcooking every type of meat for fear that it’d be undercooked. (And that hand test never really worked for me.) With a digital thermometer, there’s no more waiting for the dial to register the temperature and you have perfectly cooked meat every time. Bye, dry chicken!
Thermopen always seems to be the highest-rated, but at $100 it’s not the most affordable. Base on Serious Eats’ recommendation for a budget thermometer, I bought the Lavatools PT12 Javelin Digital Ultra Fast Instant Read Meat Thermometer several years back and it’s never let me down.
Cookbook spotlight
BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts, 2017: I rarely pick up cookbooks that focus solely on desserts – Ina has nearly 260 dessert recipes that’ll keep me busy for years. But after reading an article on Serious Eats by Stella Parks (see What I’ve Learned above), I had to pick up her book, BraveTart, and could not put it down. Focused on updating and perfecting classic American desserts, it combines everything I want in a cookbook: a deep dive into the history of the dish; tips and tricks to simplify baking and troubleshoot issues; the reasoning and science behind her techniques and ingredient used, and an approachable, conversational tone. No wonder it was the winner of the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award (Desserts). Buy it here.
Can’t wait to try:
- Oatmeal Creme Pies with Vanilla Marshmallow Creme. Well, actually made these and despite a runny filling (I think I messed up the temperature) they were phenomenal. A taste of my childhood, but better than Little Debbie could imagine.
- Red (Wine) Velvet Cake – can’t wait to try this with my grandma’s heritage frosting!
- Homemade Nutter Butters
Favorite tip: Creaming your leavening agent (such as baking powder) with the butter and sugar prevents it from activating before you get it in the oven. This is especially helpful if you need three layers of cake and only have two pans!
Who I’m loving
Stella Parks (see above). Find her here:
Restaurant Highlights
- La Josie (Chicago) – My friend and I ended up at this restaurant after encountering long waits at Girl and the Goat and Au Cheval. And I’m so happy we did. Great music, half-price happy hour drinks until 7, tasty and filling tacos and ceviche.
- Popeyes (Nationwide) – Popeyes has been my favorite guilty pleasure fast-food chain for years. And if you missed that they released a chicken sandwich in August, please give me a key to your bunker so I can disconnect from the world, too! Pictures of the delicious sandwich were all over Instagram as well as big features in The New York Times, New Yorker, and Eater just to name a few. I was able to get my hand one (despite the shortage) and it lived up to the hype. Juicy chicken, crispy breading, buttery brioche, pickles and mayo. It’ll be my new go-to.
August Long Reads
- Secrets and Lies in the School Cafeteria, Sarah Schweitzer, The Atlantic
- The Barbaric History of Sugar in America, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, The New York Times
Food Media
- The Great British Bakeoff (also known as my happy place) is back for its 10th season! This year we’ll get to follow along in real-time (sort of) for the first time ever. Netflix is releasing new episodes every Friday – just three days after they air in the UK!
- Is The Food Renaissance About To End?, Michel Martin, NPR
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Combating the Climate Catastrophe, With David Wallace-Wells, The David Chang Show. David Chang is one of my favorite chefs – I love his commentary on the intersection of food with culture, politics, and, well, pretty much everything, (If you haven’t check out this amazing Netflix series, Ugly Delicious, do it now!) In this episode, he talks with David Wallace Wells about climate change and its interplay with our food systems.
