Prep
For years I have used regular wooden spoons while cooking and never though much about them. I usually purchased them at Target or some similar store, but I also didn’t feel they were great quality. Six months ago, however, my cooking spoons improved greatly when I purchased a Berard olivewood spoon from Sur La Table.
I never thought there could be such a difference with wooden cooking utensils, but there is. Berard is a French company that has been making quality wooden cooking utensils since 1892. Their spoon is crafted from a single piece of olivewood and is oil varnished to make it durable and heat resistant.
Not only does this spoon feel good in the hand, but it actually does resist heat a lot better than other wooden spoons I’ve used. Now when I cook, I usually search specifically for my Berard spoon and it gets used much more than other stirring utensils.
You can purchase Barard spoons at Sur La Table or at Amazon.com
Every now and then I try gadgets even though I pretty much know that I will not like the product or use it. Usually, I have heard good reports on it, the Amazon ratings are high, and the product is relatively cheap. Essentially, I get to satisfy my curiosity and there is no regret if it turns out to be useless.
So I finally gave in and bought one of those cannelloni-shaped garlic peelers by Zak for around $9. I must admit that I didn’t have high hopes for this gadget. Once you know that you can just tap the flat side of a chef’s knife on a garlic clove and the skin will easily come off, a garlic peeler seems redundant. Just search YouTube and you will find many videos showing how to remove garlic skin with a knife or other flat object.
But maybe I am too quick to judge. The Amazon ratings are really high for this simple and cheap gadget, and there are some logical reasons someone would use it. The main arguments for it include:
* It is quick and easy.
* You touch the garlic less, so you hands don’t smell as much.
* It preserves the shape of the clove as it doesn’t crush the clove as the knife method does.
So how did it perform?
Well, first of all it does work. It quickly took away the skin and left a clean clove of garlic on my counter. I must say I was quite impressed. Though that is basically what a gadget does: it wows you with its magic and then you actually start cooking with it and begin to see the real benefits and drawbacks.
Was it faster than doing the knife trick?
That is tough to say.
If you are just skinning one or two cloves and have a chef’s knife handy, then you would likely be done removing the skin with a knife before you could retrieve the garlic peeler from your gadget drawer. So for a small number of cloves, it is probably still best to use a knife if you have one handy. If you don’t, go for the peeler gadget. You’ll just have to wash another kitchen item later on.
For larger amounts of garlic, the peeler makes more sense as it may save you time overall. But that isn’t always true. I tried out 20 cloves and after about 8 of them, garlic skins were stuck to the inside of the cylinder and it took longer to peel each clove. Productivity declines with use. You could wash out the cylinder, but that also takes time and when it becomes wet it also works less effectively, so you need to dry the inside thoroughly.
Essentially, in terms of speed, if you know how to remove garlic skin with a knife, the peeler won’t really save that much time — if any. If you aren’t comfortable with knives and are only doing a moderate amount of cloves, then the peeler could marginally save time.
Other Considerations
The most compelling reason to use the peeler is when you want to retain the garlic clove shape without smashing it. The knife or other flat surface, depending upon how much pressure you use, will crush the garlic to some extent. So if you are using whole cloves for pickling or want neatly sliced garlic to put into the slits of a tenderloin, then the peeler will do a good for such purposes.
Another reason for using the peeler would be to reduce the smell that handling garlic imparts to your hands. When you crush garlic, you start to release its oil and that is what makes your hands smell. But I do find this argument less than persuasive. If you neatly peel the garlic with the gadget and then use your hands to chop or slice the garlic, you still end up handling it — albeit less. Even if you use a garlic press, you still often end up employing your fingers to dig out the pulp remains. Basically, unless you are using only full cloves, you will still end up handling the garlic and have some garlic smell on your hands.
Lastly, I think the peeler is also good if you have children or less-than-foodie relatives or friends helping in the kitchen. It is easy to use, can be fun for children, and the helpers don’t have to worry about hands smelling like garlic. You will be the one chopping and preparing the food.
Overall Evaluation
If you are comfortable with a knife and are already using one to remove garlic skins, this peeler gadget will probably not get used that much. I wouldn’t buy it.
In terms of speed, the peeler can be superior but it depends upon how much garlic you are peeling. If you are doing 4-6 cloves, the peeler may be quicker but after that, the peeler can lose efficiency and become slower. I wouldn’t buy this gadget for the speed.
If you want to reduce garlic contact with your hands; you like to cook a lot with whole cloves; or you want to involve kids in cooking, then this gadget is a small price to pay for those advantages. It does work well; it just depends upon how you cook.
The USDA has longadvocated cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, which cooks the meat to medium doneness, but now many chefs are cooking it only to 140-145 degrees, which is medium-rare. The concern for a long time has come from a parasitic disease called trichinosis that is caused when trichinae (a type of roundworm) infect the intestines.
Technically, this parasite is killed off at 137 degrees, so the lower temperature of 140 isn’t going to make you sick, but food safety concerns continue to linger.
Trichinosis, however, is not the problem it once was in the US. There are less than 50 cases per year nowadays, and many of those don’t come from pigs but other forms of game meat. Essentially, modern pork is a lot safer and less contaminated than it once was.
But you can even cook pork at lower temperature and still kill the parasite if you can ensure an even distribution of heat throughout the meat and maintain it for a longer period of time, but I wouldn’t recommend this for most home cooks. For instance, if you cook meat to 132 degrees and maintain it for 15 minutes, the trichinae worms will also be killed. Sous-vide cooking in a water bath achieves this type of heat distribution and control, but that cooking technique is not often in the repertoire of the the average home cook.
The reason for the higher recommended temperatures by the USDA and CDC (which recommends an even higher 170 degrees) is because most cooks can’t ensure an even distribution of heat and maintain it for a long enough period of time when cooking meat. Depending upon the cut of meat and cooking method, internal temps will vary, so a safer higher temp is recommended to ensure all parasites are killed. So in other words, the recommended cooking temperatures reflect our inability to cook and compensate for our ‘errors’. It is not, however, what is best for the taste of your food. At 170 degrees, you can kill everything off in a very short period of time, but there is also very little moisture left in the meat.
The main issue with foodies when cooking pork medium-rare versus medium, is about texture and moisture. Some cooks find medium-rare meat too chewy, but others find it juicer and more flavorful. The higher the temperature, the more the meat proteins shrink and expel moisture, so at lower temps moisture is preserved better.
But then again, not all cuts of meat are equal. Fattier cuts also preserve moisture and are more forgiving than lean cuts of meat when cooking. Heritage pork meat, for instance, is darker and fattier, so it is harder to overcook than exceptionally lean supermarket pork.
And then you can always artificially enhance moistness by brining your pork. Essentially you marinate the meat in a water, salt and sugar mixture to enhance both tenderness and moisture content. Cook’s Illustrated gives a couple recommendations for brining pork.
- For 4 bone-in chops (1 1/2 inches thick), combine 1 1/2 quart water, 3 tbs salt, 3 tbs sugar and let the chops soak for 1 hour.
- For a pork roast (3-6 pounds), use 2 quarts water, 1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup sugar, and let the meat soak for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
What brining meat does is change the structure of the proteins. The ions from the salt force the meat proteins to adjust and they become more tender in the process, and the salty water is also absorbed into the meat through osmosis. Salty water evaporates less than regular water so the meat retains more moisture during the cooking process, and the end result is added moisture and more tender meat.
Lastly, it is important to keep in mind that the internal temperature of meat will rise as you let it rest after cooking. This happens because the exterior of the meat is hotter than the center, and that residual heat will have a ‘carry-over’ cooking effect even though it isn’t directly being cooked.
For instance, pork tenderloin recipes usually suggest letting the meat rest for 10 minutes after cooking, so you should actually take the meat off the heat before the internal temperature reaches your desired doneness. This allows some room for the carry-over cooking effect to finish your meat without over cooking it.
I personally take my pork tenderloin off at 135-140 degrees, which allows a rise of 5 degrees to 145. I like mine more medium rare as the tenderloin is very lean and will quickly dry out if cooked too much. At that temp, the loin ends are more towards medium and the center more medium rare.
A couple of weeks ago I was at Kitchen Window in Minneapolis and saw for the first time that Epicurean, which is normally associated with cutting boards, is now producing kitchen utensils. They have a series of spoons, ladles, turner spatulas, pasta servers, and saute tools that come in two lines and colors. The Kitchen Series is completely made out of their trademark composite wood and comes in natural and slate, just like their cutting boards. The Gourmet Series also comes in natural and slate but incorporates a high-temperature nylon head.
I ended up purchasing the Gourmet Series slate-colored spoon and large spatula to try them out (shown above), and though I haven’t used them that much, so far I like them a lot. The handles are very comfortable, the construction is stiff and sturdy, and the nylon heads seem to be firmly attached. The utensils do feel as if they will be durable – though it is hard to tell at this point. As for heat resistance, the wood handle can manage up to 350 degrees and the nylon head up to 400 degrees, and they are also dishwasher safe.
Additionally, I think they look better than other plastic utensils, and the spoon has measuring ridges on the interior for 1 tbs, 1/8 cup, and 1/4 cup. It isn’t something that you would use for precise measuring as you need to have the spoon very steady and level to get exact amounts, but this feature may come in handy for a quick-and-dirty measure if you need it. I could see myself using this feature when adding olive oil to a dish, broth to some risotto, or if you need to add some pasta water back into a dish.
The price is also reasonable at about $9.50 per utensil from the Epicurean website, or you can buy selected items at Amazon
Dave Benson, one of the founders and the CEO of Epicurean Cutting Boards Inc., has been coming on strong with knife friendly and ecologically friendly cutting surfaces in the last few years. His cutting boards are now sold worldwide in over 4,000 stores, but the lineage of this kitchen product comes not from chefs or restaurateurs but from skate boarders. Greg Benson, Dave Benson and Tony Ciardelli, the founders of Epicurean Cutting Boards Inc., based out of Duluth, Minnesota started off by producing innovative skateboard ramps and parks throughout the US under the name TrueRide, but as of 2007, they have been focusing on Epicurean cutting boards and their outdoor furniture under the Loll brand, which has been featured in Dwell magazine.
Loll Design Chair
Dave Benson and gang started off making skate parks out of composite wood and after having scraps left over (as the story goes), they offered squares of the ‘leftover’ board surface to family and friends as cutting boards. And the rest is history I guess. Now they are one of the major cutting board makers in the country, and they are in every major kitchen store to include Williams-Sonoma, Sur La Table, Bed Bath & Beyond and more.
So here is my take on their boards: I absolutely love them, and when I have a knife in hand and look through all of my cutting boards, 7 times out of 10 I go for an Epicurean. They are light, easy to clean, friendly on your knives and good for the environment.
Recently, I did a post on cutting boards and listed some criticisms of the boards that have been raised on Amazon.com and the various cooking forums. Some have complained about an odd smell from the sealant or resin, yet others complained that they scarred too easily, and some said that the slate boards left ‘dark bits’ in the food.
A review of the company’s website gave the following responses to these issues:
About the scarring they say: “Yes, it is normal for your knives to score your surface. Because our surfaces are knife-friendly (unlike glass or stone), it means they are soft enough that they will not bend the edges of your knives, but knives will score the surface.”
I must admit that the critics that mentioned the scoring of the surface are a bit odd to me. I have used light-colored boards and you can’t see the scoring as much with light as with dark boards, and yes, softer boards will score more than harder woods, but harder woods are also harder on knives — especially if you use expensive Japanese knives. And just today I used a brand new board from their line of recycled cutting surfaces, and I found that there was actually something very satisfying about scoring it. Just as you need to season a cast iron skillet, you need to cut up a cutting board.
About the smell they say: “Our cutting surfaces can have a ‘newly manufactured’ odor when they are used for the first time. We recommend washing your Epicurean® cutting surfaces in the dishwasher or with hot soapy water. The odor will dissipate after approximately 3-4 washings.”
I have to say that I have almost never smelled any foul odor when using these cutting boards. I am sure there is some smell at first, but I have never noticed it.
About wood particles coming off in food they say: “Over time, you may find that tiny particles from your cutting surface are appearing on food being prepared. This can occur due to the nature of the product and is more noticeable with our slate surface color. Your Epicurean® cutting surface is certified by the National Sanitary Foundation to be non-toxic and will not cause harm if particles are ingested. You may use a fine grit sandpaper to smooth and resurface your board, giving it a new and smooth finish. This will decrease the likelihood of particles appearing in your food and give you a fresh, smooth surface for your food preparation.”
Once again, I have never noticed this happening, but I have always used lighter colored boards. The new recycled boards are described (in color) as toasted nutmeg, and they are definitely darker, so I will let you know if ‘nutmeg-colored’ debris comes off in my food.
There was another criticism that seemed to come up fairly often on Amazon.com and that was that the boards slipped around a lot while cutting. This is true if you use the boards without the grippers or any other ad hoc item such as a wet paper towel to prevent slipping, but as the company has been focusing on their cutting boards in the last couple of years, there are many more options for those worried about boards slipping. There are light colored boards, professional boards, gripper boards, grooved boards, recycled boards and many other designs too.
In terms of cutting boards, I think this company is as good as it gets. Yes, they are from Minnesota, and I am too but I just learned that they were based out of Duluth last week. I used their boards long before I migrated up north. I am also not part of the company nor do I get any compensation from them. I just like their boards. Happy cutting.
You can buy Epicurean boards at Amazon
I am not one for celebrity chef cookware and gadgets, but yesterday at Sur La Table I picked up something that I like and think will be useful. Mario Batali has come out with a prep/measuring bowl set
The set of five comes in enough combinations to give a lot of flexibility, and the most common measures such as 1 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1/4 cup are doubled up so you can use them in different bowls. The only problem with the set is that there is no 2/3 and 1/3 cup measure. I am not sure why this is, but you can’t do away with your old measuring cups completely with this set. It is my guess that the 2/3 and 1/3 bowls didn’t fit nicely into the set, which nestle neatly together on top of each other.
One more point, this measuring set is made out of melamine as many bowls sets are so don’t try putting them in the microwave. In other words, don’t use them as regular bowls; they are for measuring and prep not eating out of.
This video of Hung Huynh, the season three winner of Top Chef, is interesting. It isn’t that great of an instructional, but it is always interesting to see chef’s with great knife skills. He also uses the Misono UX10 knife, and you can see this entire knife series at japanesechefsknife.com.
I tried searching for good instructional videos on knife skills and wasn’t too successful going through Amazon.com. There were some offerings, but they seemed to get mixed reviews. One source I did find was the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). They offer over 2 hours of instruction on knife skills on DVD. I haven’t seen the video myself, but the sample video appears to be well made. The cost is $99.95.
For free, there are some good videos at Rouxbe, an online cooking school associated with the Northwest Culinary Academy in Vancouver. Just click on the hyperlink above and then click on the tab for ‘tips and techniques’.
Another good free source comes from eGullet contributer, Marsha Lynch, who has put together a tutorial (with pictures) on the eGullet forum. It provides useful information on basic knife skills and cuts.
After buying some nicer Japanese knives recently, I thought I would look into good cutting boards to accompany the cutlery. I certainly don’t want to be too hard on my new blades and dull them prematurely. Here is what I found browsing the cooking forums and reading product reviews.
eGullet by far has the most extensive discussion on cutting boards, and at the end of all the posting, it boiled down to a gush-fest over the cutting boards made by David Smith at boardsmith.com. The picture above is an example of his beautifully made, handcrafted cutting boards. And after all my reading on the subject, I must admit that I want one too.
In terms of other cutting boards, the brands that kept coming up in the discussion and were generally recommended were: Boos, Epicurean, Totally Bamboo, and Sani-TUFF.
I personally own Epicurean and Totally Bamboo, and I like both brands. I have noticed some premature scarring on them, but I have seen nothing related to the more negative comments on Amazon.com. It probably helps though that I have several different types and sizes of cutting boards, and I rotate them and use them for different purposes. Essentially I spread the wear across all the boards and use some only for specific purposes.
With that said, after reviewing Amazon.com and the forums I will list some of the concerns about different boards.
- John Boos/Boardsmith (butcher block end-grain boards)
Pros: Easy on knives, beautiful and high quality, and weight prevents slipping. Cons: Expensive, need to care for them more gently, can’t go in dishwasher, and they are heavy and cumbersome if you get a big size.
- Sani-TUFF (rubber cutting board)
Pros: Easy on knives, durable, doesn’t slide, can go in dishwasher, and supposedly doesn’t absorb liquids or odors. Cons: Really heavy, doesn’t give you that cutting block feel with a knife (it’s grabby).
- Totally Bamboo (bamboo cutting board)
Pros: Sustainable material, relatively light weight, affordable, bonding agent for bamboo is food safe with this brand (others may not be). Cons: Bamboo is a hardwood/grass so it is also hard on knife blades, some people have reported problems with warping, and the surface may scar too easily.
- Epicurean (composite cutting board)
Pros: Dishwasher safe, knife friendly, and very light weight. Cons: Some models slide around too much, some say coating comes off in food, and surface can scar easily.
Of course reviews on Amazon.com can be rather one sided, especially if someone received a defective product. And cutting boards are dependent upon the user. Do you use one board for everything or have multiple boards and different sizes? Do you have really sharp knives or dull knives? Do you have expensive knives that you want to be gentle on?
A person also needs to consider countertop space, sink size, and the weight of the board for handling. I wouldn’t give my Grandmother and end-grain board or the heavy rubber Sani-Tuff. But a foodie with good knives may want to consider these options. In the end, the sign of a good cutting board is one that is used a lot and feels good when cutting.
With that said, here is some points from the cooking forums and Amazon product reviews that might be useful.
(1) Try not to use butcher-block, end-grain boards for poultry or raw meat if you find it difficult to clean. And if possible, try isolate one board for raw meats and use it only for that purpose.
(2) With Epicurean, you might want to avoid the black-colored (slate) boards as any board shards that come off may be visible in your food.
(3) Plastic boards and really hard woods (including bamboo) are harder on knives. If you have expensive cutlery and care about knife sharpness, you may want to consider more knife friendly boards.
(4) There is a heated debate about plastic versus wooden cutting boards. I will not get into this debate here, but there is a good post on KnifeForum that summarizes the issues pretty well. The bottom line: know your boards, use them appropriately, and clean them very well.
Lastly, here are some cutting board options and sites I think a person might want to check out . Happy cutting.
Totally Bamboo Hana Cutting Board
Sani-TUFF Cutting board 12in x 18in x 75in
Catskill Craftsmen Cutting Boards
Michigan Maple Block Cutting Boards
Japanese Knife Sharpening Store (very expensive but nice)
The MoMA Shop always has unique design items for the kitchen, but they also have some good deals too. This set of melamine prep bowls adds some color to an already useful item and is selling for $20.
I bought a very similar set at Williams-Sonoma a year ago and love the bowls. The non-skid bottom, solid construction, and functional design make these prep bowls one of the most used items in my kitchen. At Williams-Sonoma the cost is $38, almost double the asking at MoMA.
Of course, the construction may be different, so I will have to report back once I have tested them out. I have seen prep bowls at Bed Bath & Beyond that are also similar, but the construction is a lot more flimsy than the Williams-Sonoma product. The three-bowl set at Bed Bath & Beyond cost $15.
Regardless, these type of prep bowls are extremely useful, and I highly recommend the Williams-Sonoma bowls, but you also may want to consider the more colorful MoMA set. More on this product later.
