I flatter myself that I’m a pretty good cook and certainly enjoy it. But DAMN I just cannot make mayonnaise. It splits and disintegrates to liquid every single time. I’ve tried whisking by hand, pestle and mortar, blender, food mixer, Kitchen Aid, you name it. I’m now banned from making it by my wife after I went through 18 eggs trying to make it again and again. So any advice on that would be appreciated.
What about you? What would you like to be able to make but just can’t crack? Maybe the great Dope could help you out.
Fish. I love fish, but other than giving tuna steak a quick sear, I always seem to overcook or undercook my fish of choice. Salmon, cod, haddock, mahi-mahi, whatever. I prefer broiled or baked to fried, and I don’t use batters or whatever. Maybe a light marinade or a little seasoning. The main problem seems to be timing and perhaps temperature.
Any and all suggestions will be gratefully attempted.
Use a pottery bowl, and warm it well by letting piping hot tap water sit in it for half a minute. Empty and dry the bowl, and then whisk an egg yolk and mustard together in it. Make sure this mixture feels lukewarm to the touch before whisking in the vinegar. Then proceed with your oil.
Once I started warming the bowl my mayo never failed. A pottery bowl retains heat for the whole process, so don’t substitute a metal or plastic one.
Invest in a meat thermometer, and err on the side of under done. Fish quickly tips over into overdone. Bake it in foil so it steams and doesn’t dry out. If you google fish cooking temperature, sites will suggest 145F minimum, but in my mind that’s over done. You’re aiming for an internal temperature of c. 130F.
As do I. And yeah, it goes from undercooked to boot leather really quickly. I think it’s better to undercook it a bit, then let it sit and let the carryover heat finish it up.
I make Hollandaise in a blender and don’t have any problems with it. Here’s the recipe, but it does have a tsp of dijon in it. It’s really needed as an emulsifier, and doesn’t add any real flavor to the sauce.
Easy Hollandaise Sauce
All you’ll need for this sauce are six ingredients. And you probably have them in your fridge and pantry already.
Egg Yolks – 3 eggs
Lemon Juice – 1 tablespoon
Dijon – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Cayenne Pepper – just a pinch
Butter- 1/2 cup of melted butter
To make this recipe, simply heat up some butter (and it needs to be hot!) and stream it into the blended egg yolk mixture to create a velvety smooth sauce.
Melt the butter in a microwave for about 1 minute until hot.
Combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, dijon, salt and cayenne pepper into a high powered blender and blend for 5 seconds.
Slowly stream in the hot butter into the mixture as the blender is running.
I do too if it still has its skin on - and I hold a lid over the pan to help it cook through without overcooking the outside. But whole fish - or more sturdy varieties like salmon - I do in the oven.
I’m a firm believer that recipes are just inspiration and not hard and fast rule books. So I’ll avoid recipes where this breaks down and if you don’t follow the instructions exactly to the letter you end up with a disgusting mess. Souffles are the classic of this to me. You need follow the instructions exactly or the whole thing collapses into mush? Not interested
I like fish broiled or pan-seared (with barely any oil), and it is tricky to tell when the inside is done just right. That said, here’s my method:
As an aside, make sure there’s some little bit of sugar in whatever marinade or rub you put on the outside of the fish. Fish cooks so quickly that it often doesn’t get a chance to get a nice seared brown exterior. I use a couple of drops of agave nectar or honey; it’s not enough to make the fish sweet, but it makes a difference in browning.
I use the old-fashioned way of seeing if the fish is done. I lift a flake of it right at the thickest part, and if it looks 4/5 opaque, I take it off the heat. It’ll continue to cook from residual heat until it’s barely cooked through.
In the case of a salmon fillet, the fillet will start to sweat out whitish juice from its sides once the interior is getting fairly done.
And for reasons I don’t fully understand (but I’m sure they know at America’s Test Kitchen), a bigger bowl seems to have a better success rate. Maybe it’s because you can attain greater whisking speed in a big bowl? I dunno.
I used to pan fry salmon and strictly timed it and it came out great every time. Now I used an air fryer and it still comes out great. Very fortunately the time to cook asparagus is the same so I cook them simultaneously.
7 minutes, 400F
I drip some Worcestershire sauce on the salmon first and then put Cajun seasoning on top. This is for strips of salmon
I only made mayonnaise once, with a friend who knew what she was doing. And it worked. But I’ve found that a little mustard powder makes it much easier to keep salad dressing mixed up, so you don’t end up just pouring olive oil on your greens.
As others have said its always best to err on the side of undercooked for fish IMO. I’d also add the freshness of fish has far more to do with how tasty it ends up than any cooking technique. Doesn’t need to be crazy expensive to be fresh. The local “budget” supermarket Bestway*, here in Maryland, has an amazing and reasonably priced fish counter (they have whole fish so you can check the eyes for freshness, and will say country of origin and if farmed or wild). I also have good luck with the big slabs of salmon they sell at Aldi (12ish minutes in hot oven with slices of lemon and old bay, a bit more for well done)
‘*’ - I’m guessing because the African and Latin American patrons they cater to care more about fresh whole fish than typical American shoppers? Wtf is wrong with you people
I also struggle with being able to get consistently perfectly cooked fish. I think the thermometer tip is probably a good one.
If you’re sometimes cooking fish straight out of the refrigerator, and other times letting it come to temperature, and other times somewhere in between, that will really throw a wrench in your ability to dial in your technique.
I don’t have a blender any more, so I can’t make hollandaise sauce. (Which I love, when I go to a diner, I always order eggs benedict.) So I’m reduced to concocting a sauce from a Knorr packet with a bit more butter, lemon, and a dash of hot sauce for my use, sometimes it comes out great, other times not so great.. I saw a recipe for mock hollandaise using sour cream, but it wasn’t good. They should sell a prepared sauce in jars or plastic containers in the cooler alongside the eggs .
