Grind into the palm of your hand*. Easier to measure that way, too.
*Phrasing!
Often, what you see going into the oven isn’t the same dish as the one coming out. You can especially see this when the morning shows are showing someone cooking; they’ll put the dish in the oven and immediately pull out a finished dish. I believe sometimes they have the dish at various levels of doneness ready to show.
I also have a coffee mill that I use only for spices (mainly pepper). I use a regular mill if I’m just using a little bit, but if I need quite a bit for a pepper crusted whatever I just toss a bunch of peppercorns in the mill, pulse it until the texture I want and I’m good. I may dump it into a small bowl first (like what the OP mentions) but it will rarely be older than 10 minutes from grind to use.
I also have a small bowl of kosher/sea salt by the cook top that I use to toss in a pinch or so whenever needed. I’m also more of a “palm full” measurer and I have no qualms of going from a palm full of Oregano to a couple of pinches of salt without feeling the need to wash my hands in between.
Actually, the salt is the one thing you could probably do that with, and be safe. But otherwise, I’m with you- merely measuring/using dry ingredients doesn’t dirty one’s hands enough to warrant washing in between.
And… the reason a lot of the chefs don’t like the premade or canned stuff is because they’re often not appropriate for the dish. Some of it IS because they’re being prigs about it- insisting on making one’s own stock, or refusing to use canned tomatoes in cooked tomato dishes is absurd. But say… specifying fresh instead of canned asparagus is most likely NOT being a pissy bitch, but rather because of the drastic flavor and texture differences between them.
MrDibble, we can definitely get those integrated-grinder things, but they’re not terribly common for home use. They’re mostly used in fast-casual restaurants that don’t have disposable salt & pepper shakers or packets, but aren’t quite to the point of having a waiter with a baseball-bat sized grinder wander around asking if you want pepper either.
This whole discussion has me picturing Martha Stewart in a prison yard and instead of doing bench presses and curls she’s madly grinding pepper or mixing large bowls of dough. Maybe flipping pancakes with a large, heavy cast iron griddle.
In my experience, they actually are pretty common for home use. I wouldn’t say the majority of my friends and family use it, but maybe a third.
They are very common here. I have one on my desk at work, and we typically vacation in condos so I tend to pick one up when there for meals in the condo and bring home the leftovers so I have a few others at home. They come in really handy when picnicking or just eating outside on the deck. Wherever we have traveled I’ve never had a problem finding them. I would actually say that in a standard supermarket it is often easier to find a disposable grinder than it is to find just the peppercorns.
It’s not just pepper. I ordered fresh squeezed orange juice with breakfast last weekend and instead of sending a juice server to my side to squeeze oranges into my mouth on command they brought a glass of already squeezed juice and placed it on the table in front of me. I sure as hell didn’t tip 30% after that blatant lie.
I just hope that boat gets back soon with the fresh fish I ordered two hours ago.
The fetishization of kosher salt bugs me. I know it’s got a different texture than regular salt, but otherwise, it’s the same stuff, and there’s little, if any purpose to using it to salt water for boiling potatos.
Well, yeah, specifically calling for kosher salt is kind of silly in that case. Although the other difference is that it’s not iodized. I personally don’t notice a difference in taste between non-iodized and iodized salt, but some say they can. Who knows what other people can taste.
Kosher salt isn’t iodized… “normal” table salt is.
Looks like I was beaten to the punch with the iodized thing. I don’t really care if I’m salting water for boiling potatoes, but salting a steak I like the texture of kosher/sea salt and I feel like I can better control the amount.
Not just kosher salt, but most of the fancy salts out there: sea salt, grey salt, freshly ground rock salt, pink salt. . . I dare anyone to tell the difference between them once they’ve been added to food.
There some situations where a special type of salt is needed. Popcorn salt is finer than regular table salt, so it sticks to the popped kernels rather than falling to the bottom of the bag. Coarse salt is good for things like pretzels. Pickling salt has no additives that could turn a brine cloudy. For most things, though, one type of salt is as good as another, so you might as well use what’s cheap.
Another annoyance is the use of the word “caramelization” to refer to the browning of meat. It’s a show-off word, and not even technically accurate (it’s the Maillard reaction, not caramelization). Why not just say “browning”?
There used to be a cooking show called The Urban Peasant which really stood out by the way the cook thought nothing of taking shortcuts with canned ingredients. He said, “It’s like making love. You do the best you can with what you’ve got.” The example in this video is just anchovies, which I don’t know if anybody would have the nerve to tell you to prepare fresh, but I swear I’ve seen him using cream of mushroom soup without shame.
I’ve never heard Carmelization used in reference to meat. It refers to the browning of the sugars in certain things… most commonly onions, but also fruits and the such.
Most people I know fall into the “have my own real grinder” or the “I buy McCormick’s ground pepper at the grocery” camps. There’s very little middle ground.
Heck, Sandra Lee’s Food Network show “Semi-Homemade” was based exactly on this premise. Never seen much “squealing” and “fussing” from TV chefs myself regarding canned ingredients. I’m not even sure what context you’d see squealing and fussing in, as they typically choose what to cook with–it’s not like someone forces them to use canned peas, or something.
Freshly ground pepper is fine. Too often, pepper said to be ground is only coarsely cracked. Big hunks of pepper that have to be chewed to get any pepper flavor are as annoying as flavorless pepper from a church kitchen pepper shaker.
I must be the bridge… I have two “real” grinders and a couple of the McCormick’s ones. Like I said though the McCormick’s are mainly for convenience and are much better than the pre-ground shakers.