America's Test Kitchen - General Discussion

[ladydove]

On 10/28/2024 at 12:05 AM, Bastet said:

cannot believe Cook's Country did a honey segment without discussing the benefits of eating local honey.  They emphasized the importance of raw, rather than the filtered shit that litters grocery store shelves, which is primary, and noted the origin of all the samples, but it was weird not to even mention why you'd want to look for honey that's local to you.

Maybe because it is a "medical" reason? Helping cure allergies, I believe. Maybe the big bosses are afraid of losing sponsors from big pharma companies. I love cook's country. The equipment reviews are great. This show is almost as good as Martha Stewart or Jaques Pepin.

[Deskisamess]

On 10/28/2024 at 1:05 AM, Bastet said:

I cannot believe Cook's Country did a honey segment without discussing the benefits of eating local honey.  They emphasized the importance of raw, rather than the filtered shit that litters grocery store shelves, which is primary, and noted the origin of all the samples, but it was weird not to even mention why you'd want to look for honey that's local to you.

 

A couple of reasons most likely. Most legit medical sources have come out and said there is no benefit for seasonal allergy sufferers of using local honey. That combined with the fact that this is "medical" info, which they aren't going to delve into, is the reason.

[dubbel zout]

Julia was right that the smoke from the toasted cumin while it was being ground was hypnotic, lol.

Jack mentioned you should look for raw honey; if that's not on the label, does it mean the honey have been heated? I'm not a huge fan of honey, but I do use it as a sweetener in corn or oatmeal muffins.

[Bastet]

7 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Jack mentioned you should look for raw honey; if that's not on the label, does it mean the honey have been heated?

Yep.  And the process of heating (pasteurizing) and filtering, which is done to avoid or at least significantly slow crystallization, degrades the flavor.

This is done because people take it as meaning it lasts longer, regarding crystallization as an indication honey has gone bad and tossing it.  But honey doesn't go bad; crystallizing just means it changes color and texture, but it's just as edible as it was before.  So it simply appears to last longer if it's been pasteurized and filtered before being bottled.  If the state of crystallized raw honey bothers someone, all they have to do to return it to its former state is slowly apply minimal heat.  That won't destroy the flavor the way the high-temp pasteurization process does, but will give them the color and texture regarded as normal.

(It's also done to make the bottling process faster, by making the honey thinner.  In other words, there's no upside to anyone but the manufacturer.)

[Bastet]

I liked the indigenous pantry episode of CC; I'm glad indigenous food is getting some mainstream attention.  Top Chef did an episode on it, and Taste the Nation did an excellent episode about it.  The only Native American food many people think about is fry bread, but that's not indigenous -- what they ate on their land and what they ate after being herded into camps and forced to exist on rations of unfamiliar (and less healthy and less balanced) European ingredients are two different things.  I love hearing from the chefs who are going back to the indigenous ingredients and putting their spin on dishes their ancestors might have made.

[Bastet]

I had a bit of a chuckle with the breakfast taco board on ATK -- as Elle was making the poblano, onion, corn, and bean filling, I - who hates beans - thought, "Well, I would like that with chorizo instead of the beans."  Next up, a pan to the board, where chorizo is one of the toppings.  With that substitution, plus scrambled egg whites instead of whole eggs, and fresh jalapeño instead of the obviously canned version they had on the board, I would eat that taco. 

And it did make for a pretty board that would look nice if you were serving to guests.  But I'm not a morning person (understatement of the year; I despise mornings, and am not hungry until around noon), so I'm certainly never hosting a breakfast.

On the morning food front, I wanted nothing to do with the brunch burger on CC (I can't eat that much as a first meal even at noon, I don't want to have to cremate the beef because I've mixed it with pork, why the hell would I add bacon if I already had breakfast sausage, and get that egg yolk away from my food), but I kept watching just to see how outlandish it got since they said up front it was ridiculously indulgent.

Edited November 13, 2024 by Bastet

[Bastet]

Ha, Julia's face upon eating the vegan "chicken" nugget she hated during the recent ATK taste testing was almost as good as Bridget's reactions to some of the vegan mayo options she had to taste about five years ago.  Interesting, but not surprising, twist that she liked a couple of the vegan nuggets better than the chicken nugget -- a nugget tastes like its breading, not chicken, so as long as you don't screw up the texture or taste of the vegan filling, you have a chance.

With the skillet roasted chicken breasts (with green beans, which I'd make with snow peas instead if I was going to make it, which I wouldn't, as it wasn't anything special to me) from that episode, I can't believe Dan didn't season the non-skin side.

And this is at least the second time they've called for the internal temp of the thighs being 195.  I don't want anything - meat, vegetables, pasta - cooked a minute more than it needs to be, and particularly despise overcooked meat, so this is terribly off-putting to me.  I suppose I should one day cook a sacrificial thigh to 195 and see what I think.  Maybe with the fennel and olives dish featured, as that sounded like a good flavor combination (I don't care for licorice, so only like fennel cooked, and the olives would additionally cut that flavor).

[Bastet]

The savory pies episode of ATK has another chicken pot pie I'd likely never bother with, but I like that it's another option with just a top crust, not bottom and sides, which I'd prefer in terms of dough to meat & vegetable ration.  Last time it was with a puff pastry lattice and this was just a "regular" crust.  That one was pretty, but only in the pot; it had no presentation points once cut up.  This one looked okay as an individual serving on the plate.  If I combined the fillings of the first one, reducing or omitting the carrots (maybe with a broccoli, cauliflower, or combo of the two instead) and substituting snow peas for regular peas with this latest one's crust, I might make a smaller version for me.  I just still don't see me messing with it as chicken pot pie doesn't excite me enough, even though it's good and I'd chow down if someone served that version to me.

Dan admitting the science segment about eggplant was designed to let him use the budget to play with ferro fluid made me laugh.

I hate potatoes, but everything underneath them in the fish pie sounded tasty (again, as something I'd eat, not something I'd cook).

[dubbel zout]

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

I don't want to have to cremate the beef because I've mixed it with pork

When they showed the brunch burger cut in half, the middle of the meat looked pink to me; was that just lighting? Even with the caveat that the brunch burger was ridiculously indulgent, I thought it had too much going on—all of that stuff and a soft-fried egg on top? No, thank you.

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

Ha, Julia's face upon eating the vegan "chicken" nugget she hated during the recent ATK taste testing was almost as good as Bridget's reactions to some of the vegan mayo options she had to taste about five years ago. 

Hee. I love how most of the time they're able to stay fairly neutral about the samples they don't like, but every once in a while something is so awful they can't help grimacing. 

[Deskisamess]

On 11/13/2024 at 12:56 AM, Bastet said:

And this is at least the second time they've called for the internal temp of the thighs being 195.  I don't want anything - meat, vegetables, pasta - cooked a minute more than it needs to be, and particularly despise overcooked meat, so this is terribly off-putting to me.

Chicken thighs don't dry out like the white meat, and are better if cooked to a higher temp. I've cooked them to 165, and they just aren't good yet, the texture is too similar to raw. I like 180 for on bone thighs with skin.

[Bastet]

8 hours ago, Deskisamess said:

Chicken thighs don't dry out like the white meat, and are better if cooked to a higher temp. I've cooked them to 165, and they just aren't good yet, the texture is too similar to raw. I like 180 for on bone thighs with skin.

I find 165-degree chicken thighs delicious, but I'll try 180 and see what I think.

[Yeah No]

6 hours ago, Bastet said:

I find 165-degree chicken thighs delicious, but I'll try 180 and see what I think.

I made chicken thighs in the oven a couple of weeks ago to 180 following a recipe (not an ATK one, though) and they came out absolutely delicious. I was a little afraid to do it at first but I am sold on it now. I left some skin on (I often remove it all because I'm always on a diet) because they had a barbecue rub on them and it came out all crispy and yummy. 

[AllAboutMBTV]

I'm sure those charred sweet potatoes with maple chili crisp are delicious, but that's restaurant food. I live in a small apartment and am not grilling anything. As a friend of mine says, If your oven hood or ceiling fan can't suck a sock across the floor it's useless.

Friends of mine have Toni Tipton Martin's cookbook Jubilee, and I really enjoyed looking through it and copied a couple of recipes, but, man, she is just not good on TV. She comes across so... tentative. Or terrified, I can't tell which. She has gotten better on the interstitials and doesn't appear to be reading from a teleprompter anymore, so there's that in her favor.

[Bastet]

On 11/15/2024 at 3:52 PM, AllAboutMBTV said:

Friends of mine have Toni Tipton Martin's cookbook Jubilee, and I really enjoyed looking through it and copied a couple of recipes, but, man, she is just not good on TV. She comes across so... tentative. Or terrified, I can't tell which. She has gotten better on the interstitials and doesn't appear to be reading from a teleprompter anymore, so there's that in her favor.

I find her voice incredibly soothing.

I liked the texture of the M&M cookies Morgan made her, but I don't think I'd like the cookies being made with milk chocolate (too sweet), plus I'd think the texture of the candy coating would be weird in a cookie whose purpose is to be soft and chewy.  But it made me realize I have not had M&Ms in eons and I'm craving them now.

Edited November 17, 2024 by Bastet

[dubbel zout]

For some reason Tollhouse semisweet chips don't work for me anymore, and until I found Guittard chocolate, I was using their milk chocolate chips in my cookies. It's a different flavor, but I liked the change of pace. 

I always feel that the M&M recipe writes a check the cookies can't cash. They always disappoint me. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe that I prefer peanut M&Ms and that's kind of a problem in the cookie.

[Bastet]

I forgot to say that I'm going to try the herb paste they used on the turkey on chicken.  It's similar to what I sometimes use on chicken, but with a few added flavors, so I'll give it a whirl next time I roast a whole chicken.

(Not on turkey, though; we just grill a boned and rolled turkey breast rather than roast a whole turkey as there are only three of us and we go camping in a motorhome for Thanksgiving, so we keep it simple.)

[chessiegal]

I've seen cookies with M&Ms in the store. I've never bought any but would eat them if offered. A few months ago I picked up some M&Ms from the impulse rack at checkout. I accidentally picked up a bag of peanut butter along with regular and peanut. I LOVE the peanut butter.

ATK was doing a review of parchment paper. They complained that the rolls of it don't lie flat. Big whoop. I just turn the curl side down. They recommended buying King Flour sheets online. I've now seen and bought Reynolds sheets at the store. Not sure what year that review was made, but sheets are available in stores in my area now.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 11/14/2024 at 4:47 PM, Bastet said:

I find 165-degree chicken thighs delicious, but I'll try 180 and see what I think.

There’s nothing worse than undercooked chicken. But I never bother to use a thermometer for chicken parts. Does 165 taste like it’s just done enough without going over into overcooked territory?  

On 11/17/2024 at 3:36 PM, chessiegal said:

ATK was doing a review of parchment paper. They complained that the rolls of it don't lie flat. Big whoop. I just turn the curl side down. They recommended buying King Flour sheets online. I've now seen and bought Reynolds sheets at the store. Not sure what year that review was made, but sheets are available in stores in my area now.

True about parchment rolls, it’s not the world’s worst problem, but I’ve been buying sheets for years from the local restaurant supply store and once you try you will never go back. Besides, the restaurant size package lasts me a long time. Well, years. The sheets are sized to fit the restaurant supply baking sheets I use. No waste. No need to cut to fit. 

Edited November 23, 2024 by EtheltoTillie

[chessiegal]

I do 99.99% of my cooking/baking in my Breville countertop oven. Half-sheet pans are too large, so I have to cut parchment paper anyway.

[EtheltoTillie]

49 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

I do 99.99% of my cooking/baking in my Breville countertop oven. Half-sheet pans are too large, so I have to cut parchment paper anyway.

I also have restaurant supply quarter sheet pans. I cut the larger sheets in half for those. That’s pretty easy. 

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

There’s nothing worse than undercooked chicken.

Overcooked chicken.  Or overcooked beef.  Or, ugh, overcooked shrimp.

3 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

But I never bother to use a thermometer for chicken parts. Does 165 taste like it’s just done enough without going over into overcooked territory?

I don't usually check the temperature, I just go by time, look, and what it feels like when I poke it with a finger, but sometimes I'll check it to make sure it's not too far under a recommended minimum.  So what I'm eating is usually right around 165 for thighs.  And, yeah, that's how it tastes to me, as that's how I want pretty much everything to taste -- just done enough.

[Bastet]

The most recent ATK and CC episodes were full of things I wouldn't make, and often wouldn't even eat, but I enjoyed the segment with the Gullah Geechee home cook/cookbook author; sad to see the "in memoriam" at the end, but she did make it to 90. 

(Taste the Nation did one of its first episodes on the Gullah Geechee community, and it was really good.)

The Christmas tree meringues fall into the "nope, not messing with that" category, but they were indeed cute.

I don't know why their recipe for that Jesus bread from Germany (Stollen, which I'd never even heard of until recently, and it did not appeal to me in general, and certainly not as something to eat in the morning, with all that sweetness) was for two loaves, forcing everyone who's going to make one (most people, I'd think) to cut it in half.

[AllAboutMBTV]

The Christmas Tree Meringues for me fall into the category of Wouldn't Make, Would Eat. Although I thought they didn't really need the Hershey Kiss base (never mind all the fiddly paring-knife work to make the holes in the tree bottoms).

[dubbel zout]

I thought the Christmas tree meringues were adorable, but I wouldn't eat them, except for the clever Hershey's kiss base, LOL.

[Lois Sandborne]

Yeah, I don't like meringue, and I generally don't decorate with food, so the tree recipe would never be worth all that effort for me. They were adorable though.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 10/27/2024 at 11:05 PM, Bastet said:

Despite that segment distracting me with how often Morgan said "actually".  It was so terrible, I rewound and clocked; in those seven minutes, she said it 13 times.

Thirteen is the magic number, apparently.  I did a similar count with Bridget's "gonna go ahead and..." and she said it thirteen times in a segment.  Or, actually, eleven times, plus two "I've gone ahead and...," which equals more than 13 in annoyance.

(I suggest you don't do an "actually" count with House Hunters.  You'll run out of numbers.)

On 10/14/2024 at 10:05 PM, Bastet said:

I'm not a barbecue fan (I'll eat it, but I'm not excited by it; whatever the base of the sauce, it's put on meat that has to be cooked within an inch of its life to be good, which is not my jam),

Yeah, my opinion is that if bbq brisket needs sauce, then it's not good bbq. 

What I have found is that some places serve "moist" brisket, and "moist" is just another word for fatty, and it's goooood.  It in no way resembles the cardboard that passes for bbq brisket at most places.  (Then again, I like fat almost as much as I like rare meat, so maybe it's the fat talking?)

On 11/17/2024 at 1:03 PM, dubbel zout said:

Maybe that I prefer peanut M&Ms

The height of fine cuisine to me is a bag of peanut M&Ms that's been left on the dashboard of a car in the sun and gotten soft and melty.  I've tried heating them in the microwave and it's just not the same (plus if you burn them, it smells horrible).

On 11/23/2024 at 12:13 PM, chessiegal said:

I do 99.99% of my cooking/baking in my Breville countertop oven. Half-sheet pans are too large, so I have to cut parchment paper anyway.

Dollar Tree's parchment paper rolls are the same width as regular rolls of aluminum foil and plastic wrap--it's the only place I've seen rolls that aren't extra wide.

[chessiegal]

9 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Dollar Tree's parchment paper rolls are the same width as regular rolls of aluminum foil and plastic wrap--it's the only place I've seen rolls that aren't extra wide.

Reynolds is now selling single sheet parchment paper that I can get in the grocery store. It fits well in my Breville oven pan. Reynolds has been advertising it on tv that's part of an ad that shows using their aluminum foil and parchment paper make for easy clean-up.

[dubbel zout]

Will quarter sheet pans fit? I have an apartment stove, and while it's too small for a muffin tin placed horizontally, a quarter sheet pan fits with room to spare, and it's perfect for smaller quantities.

[chessiegal]

37 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Will quarter sheet pans fit? I have an apartment stove, and while it's too small for a muffin tin placed horizontally, a quarter sheet pan fits with room to spare, and it's perfect for smaller quantities.

The Breville oven comes with a sheet pan. I haven't found a need to buy another.

ETA: Breville calls it a roasting pan, but it serves as a sheet pan for me. It's 9" x 13".

Edited 19 hours ago by chessiegal
Additional info

[Mondrianyone]

I may be the only one who didn't know this till today, but just in case . . .

We get Dish Network, and a while ago they introduced ten streaming channels, each with a bunch of sub-channels covering different categories. Today I discovered that ATK has an entire channel of its own, streaming both ATK and Cook's Country programs all day long. I didn't have much time to go through more than today's schedule, so maybe there are other features as well--I'll check soon. You can't record, but there is an option to "autotune," which I assume means schedule a particular show to watch. (That would be more helpful if it came with an alarm, but you can't have everything.) If I find out anything else, I'll report back.

By the way, you can buy sheets of parchment already cut into quarter-sheet size if that's the size you use most. Amazon has them, Walmart--$3.88 for 100 sheets--and tons of other online sources.

[chessiegal]

I can find quarter sheet parchment by Reynolds and store brand at my chain grocery store. That's what I have in my kitchen now (Reynolds).

[Bastet]

30 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

We get Dish Network, and a while ago they introduced ten streaming channels,

Only on certain receivers -- Hopper, Joey, and Wally.  (I don't know what I have, but it predates all those [I don't think they had cutesy names back when I bought mine].)