I’ve made cheesesteaks from scratch! Except I use mozzarella or taleggio rather than Cheez Whiz, so a native Philadelphian wouldn’t recognize them as such.
I bake a lot, and I find bread which has had a long cool rise tastes better than hurriedly proven bread. An hour or so at room temp, then I stick it in the fridge for at least a day. Many no-knead recipes espouse this approach.
Are you deep fat frying or oven roasting your chips?
Oh, absolutely! I often just let the dough rise in the fridge for several days before taking it out to use it. The final rise is done at room temperature and takes however long it takes. (Usually a couple of hours at around 20-24C.) My pizza dough is almost always made at least one or two days in advance for the same reason. There is a marked difference in taste, IMHO.
I do a lot of scratch cooking, or close to it.
Does getting tomatoes from a can count as scratch?
I make pasta, but it is a lot of work, especially the clean up, so I need to feel like it.
I make bread and specifically buns, but they are so good they are like crack, and not good for diets and keeping calories down.
When I cook full chickens, I always make a stock. But I use more stock than that so usually have the bought stuff on hand.
I love buying pre-chopped fresh vegetables and salads. If a mirepoix comes pre-chopped in a little container, that is great.
Puttanesca sauce for pasta. I might “cheat” where tomatoes are off season and use canned diced tomatoes.
Yes, canned tomatoes are picked when fully ripe, not so for fresh tomatoes I have access to.
I would guess your oil temperature isn’t correct. The way I’ve always seen it described is a first fry at 325 F/162 C and then a second one after a rest/cool down period at 375F/190C.
That’s never failed for me thus far.
Have you ever tried the starting from cold oil method? I’ve mentioned it before here, and it may even have been to you, but it’s the method I use when I just need to do a single batch of fries. Here it is. Basically, you just fill a pot with oil, throw in the fries you cut up, set on high, and cook until they look done. It really couldn’t be easier. (And, if for some reason you’re worried about the fat content, IIRC, Cooks Illustrated determined that these fries actually absorbed less fat than the traditionally cooked ones. But if you’re doing fries/chips, that’s probably not a concern.)
I make all kinds of things from scratch, but I tried Manwich sauce for the first time yesterday, mainly because I forgot to pick up a can at the store and of course I’ve got everything one needs to make it already at home. It wasn’t bad - needs a bit of tweaking though.
The Big Bang? Oh yeah, I* was there, played a minor part in the whole thing.
- or the components that comprise me
Key lime pie. The limes seem to come into the stores once a year, so I buy a bag or two, hand squeeze them for the juice. Make the crust from scratch as well. I’d make the condensed milk and sour cream if it was feasible.
Oven chips go in the oven but it was deep fat frying to which I was referring.