Useful Info
Sara Kitchen Revelations – Fresh Corn: Cook It, Chill It, or Lose It
I bet many of you, like me today, are picking up corn at the farm stand or farmer’s market, which is a good thing, because corn close to the source (as opposed to trucked miles from the farm) is fresher. But there is a problem with corn – the second…
Sara’s Kitchen Revelations – Tomatoes Need Salt
There is absolutely nothing better in the summer than a ripe tomato. We have a garden in the back field of my parents old farmhouse and some years I can’t keep up with the crop: Even though this kind of harvest makes me feel slightly like Lucy trying to wrap…
Kitchen Shrink: How can you make sure fruit pies don’t become too soggy when baked?
I got a question entitled “Soggy Fruit Pies” from Audrey, a viewer. That got my attention! She asked for my best tip for “making sure fruit pies don’t become too soggy when baked.” She particularly asked about blueberry and peach fillings. Here are my thoughts. If you are making a…
What is the easiest way to Roast Peppers?
There are a number of ways to roast peppers; all are easy. I have used roasted red peppers in all of my books and here are the instructions I’ve included to help readers make them: If you have a gas stove, turn on one burner to a low flame for…
Comfort from your Kitchen: Recipes for Pandemic Times
Earlier in the year I shared a collection of recipes that you might find helpful during these stressful times. You can find them here as comfort can often be found in the kitchen. There are comforting soups, pantry based recipes, a variety of entrees, breads and a few easy desserts.…
Mom and Pop Cookware Stores
My last book tour has taken me all around the country, to smaller independent cookware stores in smaller cities that I normally don’t get to, like Des Moines, Madison, Savannah, and Anchorage. Everywhere I go I am working for my book sales. I have learned from past experience that unless…
News: Hope you have been catching the latest episodes of “Milk Street Radio.” Here’s where you can find them.
The first episode of Chris Kimball’s “Milk Street Radio” podcast aired on October 22, 2016. Each hour-long show includes a segment devoted to listeners’ questions, which I co-host with Chris. Here’s where you can learn more and check out the latest show: Milk Street Radio, iTunes, Tunein, Stitcher. Or on Amazon Echo:…
Turkey Roasting Discoveries
Let me explain. First the dry brine idea. Cook’s Illustrated, the magazine that has been in the forefront of brining (because many years ago Pam Anderson, their food editor, ran a recipe for brining a turkey after she discovered it in one of Jean Anderson’s cookbooks. Jean had learned this…
News: A New York Times article documents that Americans are doing more home cooking these days!
A New York Times article shows that busy Americans are enjoying more home-cooked meals and fewer commercially- prepared meals these days. With more new and returning home cooks in the kitchen, “Sara Moulton’s Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better” would be a great guide and right on time to offer…
Answers to Your Holiday Egg Questions
Each year at this time I get questions about preparing, storing, and using hard-cooked eggs. I just wanted to remind you that you can find the answers to your questions in the Kitchen Shrink archive 24/7 all year long. Here are direct links to the answers to your Holiday Egg…
Kitchen Shrink: Can I freeze potatoes?
A viewer recently asked, “Can I freeze potatoes?” Although you can’t freeze raw potatoes (they discolor and the texture changes), if you suddenly have way more potatoes than you can use before they wrinkle, you can freeze some for a short period of time with the right preparation. You might…
Kitchen Shrink: How can you keep Scalloped Potatoes from curdling?
I recently got a question from Phyllis who asked, “Every time I make scalloped potatoes my sauce breaks. What am I doing wrong.” This seems to be a frequent problem with scalloped potatoes particularly when you use a recipe that calls for layering the potatoes, onions, and cheese and pouring…
Kitchen Shrink: How to select and cut a mango.
I got a question on my web site from Tammy who said “I was wondering, if you could tell me how to select a good mango and the proper way to cut it?” Both very good questions. First of all a mango’s color indicates its variety not its ripeness, so red…
Kitchen Shrink: How do you decide which level of the oven to use?
I recently received a question from Wendell who asked, “ how do you decide which level of the oven to use for a given task.” In most cases selecting the rack in the middle of the oven is a good choice unless the recipe tells you to use the upper…
Blog: Meringue Issues
Normally I would have posted this in the kitchen shrink part of my website but I thought the topic of weepy meringues was such a burning issue that I should feature it as a blog entry. The answer comes from one of my good buddies and an important mentor, Jean…
Kitchen Shrink: How do you decide which cornmeal to use when a recipe doesn’t tell you?
I recently got this question from John: “Every recipe that I read that includes cornmeal never states what grind to use. How can I determine which grind to use? Should it be Coarse, Fine or Corn flour?” Until the last decade, it was very difficult to find anything but steel-ground…
How do you know which potato variety to use in a recipe?
For many recipes, the kind of potato you use makes a very big difference. There are two important categories of potatoes, baking and boiling. Baking potatoes, or russets (the most famous being Idaho), become soft and fluffy when cooked and are good for any recipe in which you want a…
Sara's Kitchen Revelations – That artichoke stem is edible!
It is not only edible but also dense and tasty just like the artichoke heart. Last night I was preparing some monster artichokes for my son Sam’s birthday chez us, when I decided to get out the camera and film the process of trimming the stems. I actually learned this…
Sara's Kitchen's Revelations – You Can Cook Beets in 3 Minutes
The Husband loves beets. Me, not so much. I think they taste like dirt. They take forever to cook – 45 minutes to boil or to steam, and if you steam them you have to keep adding water. They take a whopping 1 1/2 hours to roast, which is the…
Sara's Kitchen Revelations – Raw Beets are Very Tasty
When I was grating my beets for a quick saute for The Husband I happened to taste a little bit of the shredded beets in the raw state shredded gold and red beet salad and discovered that they had a very fresh, mild beet flavor with a lovely crunch.…
Sara's Kitchen Revelations – Watch out Beluga, there are some new caviars in town
Last Thursday I had a spectacular dish at INK in LA – Burrata with trout roe, garlic flowers, kataifi and much more Who says that cheese and fish don’t go together? But meanwhile, this trout roe reminded me how many new choices there are in the market in the fish…
Sara's Kitchen Revelations: Milk is the Great Deodorizer
Love fish but wish it didn’t smell quite so fishy? And how about gamey venison or livery calves liver? How do you turn that assertive aroma and taste down a tiny notch? Soak that strong tasting ingredient in milk! I learned this years ago when I worked at a 3 star…
Sara's Kitchen Revelations – The Secret Ingredient to Juicy Tender Chicken
Southerners always soak their chicken in buttermilk before dipping it in flour and deep frying it – that is what I learned on my live call in show on the food network. I thought it was a just a Southern thing, I didn’t realize it was a science thing. I…
Sara's Kitchen Revelations – Small People Need Big Knives
This is not about my Napoleon complex. I really mean it -we little people work better with a bigger knife. Actually, mostly, big people chop more efficiently with a bigger knife too. Why? Well, Here are two chef’s knives, side by side, an 8-inch and a 10-inch: The 10-inch knife…