Home Cooking Gourmet Blog

I bought a stainless steel dutch oven a while back. Eventually, it had some burnt food on the bottom which could not be removed. I tried hot water/dishwashing liquid, vinegar, and soaking overnight. Nothing worked.

According to Cuisinart, stainless steel pans should not be subjected to steel wool or scraping with metal appliances. The instructions had vinegar, a mild acid, as a possible solution.

Visiting a Williams Sonoma store, I spoke with someone who suggested Barkeeper’s Friend (BKF). Luckily, I had some. I dampened the bottom of the dutch oven with water (BKF says to apply to a damp surface), added some BKF (about a teaspoon), and scrubbed with a sponge. Wow. It worked.

BKF uses oxalic acid as its main ingredient (originally derived from rhubarb leaves) whereas Ajax or Comet is a form of bleach.

Case closed.

If you get 2 liter bottles of soft drinks, here’s a way to keep it bubbly longer:

After you are done dispensing the soda, put the cap back on and momentarily tilt the bottle on its side until the soda engulfs the cap.

For some reason, doing this makes the soda last a lot longer. I have been doing this for a long time and it does work.

I had an interesting experience over Thanksgiving.

We were preparing wild rice, carrots, and walnuts pilaf when my wife decided to eat some of the shelled walnuts. She felt something funny in her mouth and spit it out. It was a piece of a walnut shell. Neither one of us had come across this before!

Next time you add walnuts to a recipe, sort through them and discard any walnut shell pieces.

I have never seen this tip anywhere and am a bit surprised. When I need to marinate something I make the marinade up several hours (and sometimes the day) before. This gives the marinade time to meld its ingredients before it is used. Granted, this is empirical evidence but I am sure this makes a difference. Of course, marinating must be done in a timely manner.

Two days ago I made a marinade and a sauce for garlic chicken. Last night I used them. Our guest said many times how good the dinner was and asked if I really made it from scratch. Enough said.

DougTheCook

The other day I made fajita marinade for some delicious chicken. It was good but not great. After some thought, I realized I used a different lime juice. The best lime juice, of course, is from a real lime. Sometimes it is not practical to always have fresh limes around so lime juice in a bottle is the next alternative. The best one I have found is the juice that comes in a plastic lime looking container (I cannot remember the manufacturer). No wonder, once you find a good brand, is to stick with it.

dougthecook

I do a good deal of baking – especially pizza. A pizza takes 20 to 25 minutes to cook, depending on the method I use which these days is usually an iron skillet. Another popular baking item is zucchini bread now that zucchini is growing prolific in my garden. This endeavor takes 55 minutes to bake.

Now that energy costs are rising I’m always looking for ways to save but not give up my lifestyle. One way I found was to turn off the oven during the last few minutes of baking and let it coast. No degradation of taste or quality has been noticed. So every 10th pizza doesn’t cost me a dime to cook.

When I pan cook food, such as an egg in the morning, I apply the same cut-and-coast technique. After I flip the egg off goes the stove (it’s electric so it has residual heat) while I butter my toast and pour my juice.

This may be a minor incident but small things add up. Now only if work were at the bottom of a hill…

dougthecook has added a new section called Herbs and Spices. The first order of business is defining the major herbs and spices. Later additions will be how and when to use them. Also there will be a section on growing and preserving your own herbs which we have done very successfully. Fresh herbs are far more tasty than dried ones.

Doug

Many people have asked me what is the best rice to use for fried rice.

A long grain rice is the best. The idea is to create rice that is not sticky. I rinse the starches off the rice before I cook it which reduces stickiness.

Let the cooked rice sit overnight in the refrigerator. This step makes a big difference in reducing stickiness and makes stir-fry of the rice easier. Another tip: let the rice come to room temperature and separate it with your hands.

I have used generic white long-grain rice with success. Basmati and Jasmine rice work well but are stickier than regular long-grain.
Doug