Another one for fried eggs, and also cheese fondue. You know, just the classic wine, garlic, and Swiss cheese (and/or Gruyere, or Emmenthaler) deal.
I wind up with something that looks like a brain or a head of cauliflower in cheese sauce.
I’m with Homebrew on the gravy thing.
The secret to great refried beans is lard.
My Hitachi Bread Machine does steamed rice (it has a little square lid that covers the bread pan). But I’ve never tried it for rice because we got a rice cooker for our wedding, so I’m not sure how good the results would be.
But anyway, if you get the right bread machine, it can double as a rice cooker, and yo uwon’t have to break your “no single-use appliances” rule.
[sub]I wonder what the device you use to iron your shirts looks like.[/sub]
I don’t mean to go all infomercial on you, but the “As Seen On TV” Perfect Pancake maker really makes nice pancakes. But don’t bother getting one, unless making a pancake breakfast for you means ONE pancake. Each flapjack takes about five minutes.
Which brings us to the secret of making good pancakes. Don’t make the pan too hot, and be willing to wait for the right time to flip them. Get a large, cast-iron griddle (like, big enough to cover two burners on your stove), put the heat on low to medium on both burners, and start making your batter. When you pour the batter, try not to let the 'cakes be touching each other, then wait until the little bubbles that form on the upper surface begin to pop. THIS is the time for the flip.
My cooking tends to fall apart just beyond the “boil water” stage. I eat out a lot.
Thanks for the tip, Kaylasdad. I’m another one who loves pancakes, but can’t cook them to save my life.
CJ
Steak. Always way too much pepper.
Oh, I’m okay on the first flip. But I don’t know when the bottom is done unless I scoop up the pancake with a spatula and look.
I recommend a bread machine.
Oh, several years ago, I pooh-poohed the idea…technology and lazy and all that. True bread had to be kneaded by hand and the dough raised lovingly in a warm cozy place.
Then I got a bread machine.
Throw in the liquid, flour, etc, make a well for the yeast, hit a button, and two-three hours later hot fresh yummy bread. Some of them come with a timer, so you can dump all the ingredients when you go to bed and wake up to nice fresh bread.
ivylass, I’ve had a bread machine for a couple years now and it works great. I make bread every sunday, haven’t bought a loaf at the store for a long time. (I do by hamburger buns though).
As to the OP, I can’t cook hardboiled eggs. Period. They always crack and get goo in the water or are underdone. Not to mention the green yolks. :eek:
—As to the OP, I can’t cook hardboiled eggs. Period. They always crack and get goo in the water or are underdone.—
Simple solution: don’t boil them. Bake them. Place all the eggs you want to do right on the high rack of your oven. Place a tray underneath on the lower rack just in case (though I’ve never had any break, ever). Close the oven. Set it to 325. Wait a little under half and hour. Remove the eggs with tongs and dump into ice water. Peel, and you’re done (and the eggs will occasionally get these yummy lightly brown spots on the whites).
Baking works a lot better for me because it’s a gentle cooking method, as opposed to a roiling smashing boil. Of course, another good, non-violent method is steaming them. Steaming can be a bother when you have tons of eggs (which is why baking is so convienient) but it actually makes for the easiest “peel” experience.
If you just can’t seem to make it work, you can always buy one of those hard boiler machines where you simply stick the eggs in and it steams them for you.
—Fried eggs - greater than 50% YBR (yolk breakage rate)—
I’ve found that the key is to have realy fresh AA eggs: that membrane degrades over time if its more than a few days old. I also suggest not using a spatula: more trouble than it’s worth. Once you master flipping, it’s a lot better, and much less likely to cause disaster.
If you haven’t before, I’d really suggest checking out Good Eats, on the Food Network: explains the science behind cooking, so you know why things go wrong, and how to make them right. Food 911 does a fairly good job of doing that too. It’s really something even recipies should do more often: describe what the major dangers are, WHY they happen, and how to avoid them.
You can see transcripts here: they’re corny as hell, but contain some great info.
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm
Who irons shirts?
Thanks for the tip about the bread-machine. I’ll stick to proofing and kneading with my bare fists, though, and keep using a pot for the rice. (I’ve found that starting the rice earlier, and shutting it off and letting it steam quietly for the last several minutes before dinner, is solving most of my problems.)
So lift up the edge and take a look. And don’t set your standards so high that you think they have to be the same hue on both sides. That way lies heartbreak and madness.
Well I don’t iron my shirts anymore. But Michaela likes to have her school uniform skirts pleated, and I’m not quite ready to delegate that chore to a six-year-old.
And I heartily endorse your rice-cookiing methods. Rice is done right when it is steamed.
I’d love to have a Mole recipe, wanna trade?
as to done pancakes, well, one has put butter on top after flipping the cake & when it melts off, it’s a done cake.
You can cook rice in a microwave; in a 2 qt covered dish, put in 2 cups of water, 1 cup rice, cook on HIGH 5 minutes, then 15 minutes on 50% or until the water is absorbed, then stir/fluff with a fork.
As to roast beast & gravity, I’ve not been to the websites provided, I’m sure I will spend hours there; I recommend Caramel Knowledge by Al Sicherman, but here’s my tip on gravy, always mix cold to hot or hot to cold. Use the juice, not the fat on top, then, heat it & put a couple of tablespoons of it in a small bowl, add 2-3 tablespoons of flour, mix until blended. This should be cool enough to add to the hot juice, add slowly, while stirring the whole time. If this isn’t thick enough, do that again, making sure the flour is cool when you add it to the hot. If it’s too thick, add cool water. Cooled water that had been used to cook potatoes is perfect.
I’m loving this thread, I really want more food on the boards!
Speaking of Good Eats (And I second Apos’ high recommendation, this show is fantastic) I used to make bad pancakes, until I saw the Good Eats on pancakes. Now my pancakes RULE THE WORLD!!!
My problem (and this may also be a problem that has not been addressed yet amongst the pancake ruiners here. Alton said it is the most common problem, and he does not lie!) is that I overstirred the batter. Here was his rule, take your beater… stir 15 times and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP! The batter will be lumpy… and this is all good!
My current cooking foils are Hard Boiled Eggs (I can’t wait to try the oven thing)/ French Toast (I know that they literally are, bread in eggs, but they shouldn’t taste like an opposite fried egg sandwich.) / Potato Salad. OK, I know everybody’s mom makes the BEST potato salad. But in my case it is literally the truth. And yet, though her recipe looks simple, it is in fact apparantly written in Greek, because I have no idea what I"m doing differently.
Apos, here is a quicker method for perfect hard boiled eggs:
Start with room temperature eggs. Put eggs into pot. Fill pot with cold tap water to cover the eggs. Bring to a boil. When the water is at a full boil, cover the pot and remove from heat. Let stand 15 minutes. You’re done.
pugluvr I make what, with all modesty, I refer to as The World’s Best Cole Slaw. No one who’s tried it has disputed my claim.
Take half a head of green cabbage and chop coarsely - do not shred! Ideally, pieces will be about 1/2" wide by 1-1/2" long, though obviously you’ll have a lot of variation. Add 1-3 tablespoons of finely minced onion. I add about half of a 16oz jar of Marzetti Slaw Dressing; adjust that depending on how saucy you like your slaw. Mix that all together in a big bowl. Now add liberal amounts of black pepper, celery seed and paprika, and less liberal amounts of red pepper (cayenne), and Prudhomme’s Vegetable Magic and mix well.
The final product should be very speckled, and the dressing should just start to take on a light orangeish cast. Keep seasoning until this is the case, or just keep tasting til it’s good for you. It took me several batches before I got a good sense of when to stop, but it was worth the learning time.
Tuna Salad. No matter how I tweak the recipe it just tastes… tasteless. Sometimes I think there’s a secret ingredient everyone else is hideing from me…
I also inherited a possessed Fudge recipe from my mother that will surely drive me insane. The measurements don’t exsist on measuring spoons and the odds of it actually turning out properly are about 20/80. Every Christmas, the women in my family call around to see if anybody pulled off the fudge… it’s tradition by now.