Cooking Tips, Tricks, Recipes, & Advice

Fwiffo said:
I don't misbehave. I'm the nicest person in the world. I don't know why people would any different. Jesus will come down and tap me on one shoulder and vouch how nice I am. Then after that Buddha will show up and nod in agreement. How is it possible I could be less than that?

I'm cooking for a lady friend on Friday. My old boss was offering last weekend to open a few vintage bottles of wine if I cook at his place for his wife and his 3 kids. His wife's eyes widened 100%.
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I meant I promise to behave!!! 🤣
 
jesus christ Fwiffo Fwiffo your talents are completely wasted behind a desk.

what are you using to photograph this stuff? the quality and details in these pictures are phenomenal.
 
Why would he do that?? Other than, I suppose following his passion.

Kitchen life sucks. And he is self-taught and knowledgeable enough to be relevant.

I worked in a kitchen many moons ago, I know people who still work in the restaurant business at different levels. I wouldn't recommend it unless it is a calling of sorts. Stressful, antisocial, quality of life is non-existent and the renumeration is pitiful.
 
Cheers gents. No, I haven't thought about volunteering or taking on a job as a cook. I always hated my European colleagues for using this word but this time it's apt - without formal training it's difficult for me to produce industrial amounts of food. For the latter it would violate certain conditions of my unemployment scheme.

Although when the global CEO for the travel insurance division in my ex-company was made redundant I heard he spent a year as a cook in a galley on a ship. Some of my ex-staff volunteered to help if I happen to 'pursue my passion' as Quando Dio said but everyone wanted to be hostess, sommelier, or any other role than cooking. You can't do prep and cook all by yourself.

Grand Potentate said:
jesus christ Fwiffo Fwiffo your talents are completely wasted behind a desk.

what are you using to photograph this stuff? the quality and details in these pictures are phenomenal.
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A 2 year Nokia mobile. The camera sucks. These photographs are from the summer and early autumn so there is daylight and I don't have to play around with the brightness/contrast. During the winter it will be tougher to take photographs at dinner time.
 


I just noticed there's not a whole lot of meat on a typical day (not the Sunday family lunch).
 
^^^Well, that is relative. Certainly not enough meat/protein for the likes of us but there seemed adequate for them and very much the Puglian cuisine. I liked the whole communal bit of it . They ate a lot over the course of the day, six, seven, eight times times (including coffee and gelato/ ice cream/ slushy) , hence the need for daily naps and it seems like they were always eating and pastries daily. Nonna was the star
 
Compared to the 40oz (1.1kg+) steak special I was offered when I worked in the US it's certainly a big change. Even when one in my party ordered it appetizers were again meat dominated.

I thought gelato and granita (I think that's the Sicilian shaved ice) were low in calories. At least compared to full fat Haagen Daz or whatever.

It's certainly different than my mother's idea of a side vegetable dish which is veg sprinkled with ground meat, bacon, prawns or any meat to make it not a 'bland' veg dish. This is usually paired with meat two ways (oh in case you don't like the half chicken, here are pork ribs). I've been struggling to convince them to eat meat once a day but they consider only one meat/protein per single meal to be a sign of poverty.

I don't think both sets of my grandparents cooked unless cooking was boiling veg, pre-packaged/frozen food, putting jarred condiments on to bread, and ordering takeaway. They both had at least one domestic servant.
 
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Fwiffo said:
Compared to the 40oz (1.1kg+) steak special I was offered when I worked in the US it's certainly a big change. Even when one in my party ordered it appetizers were again meat dominated.

I thought gelato and granita (I think that's the Sicilian shaved ice) were low in calories. At least compared to full fat Haagen Daz or whatever.

It's certainly different than my mother's idea of a side vegetable dish which is veg sprinkled with ground meat, bacon, prawns or any meat to make it not a 'bland' veg dish. This is usually paired with meat two ways (oh in case you don't like the half chicken, here are pork ribs). I've been struggling to convince them to eat meat once a day but they consider only one meat/protein per single meal to be a sign of poverty.

I don't think both sets of my grandparents cooked unless cooking was boiling veg, pre-packaged/frozen food, putting jarred condiments on to bread, and ordering takeaway. They both had at least one domestic servant.
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Well, I am with your folks on this. Not a sign of poverty part but the notion of eating meat (or other major protein source) once a day is ridiculous and a bad idea especially as we age. You should know this gym bro.
 
I eat meat once a day at most, though I eat a lot of other proteins (milk, Greek yogurt, cheese, eggs, nuts, etc). I do need to get back to eating more fish though.
 
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Fwiffo or others who care. Dinner plates? Bone china , porcelain or enamel? Colour? Well, it has to be white surely though I imagine some complaints and I'd gladly ignore that. Plate sizes? I think the standard 10.5 inch or bigger is frankly a no go. I would like even smaller plates but not quite appetiser size and as I am no Saudi prince so that is a tall order.
 
Is this supposed to be a "one size fits all" type of thing, so constant everyday use, needs to be dishwasher-proof etc? Then I'd pick something white, maybe stoneware, maybe a tiny bit of color on the edge. Otherwise, why not go wild, you can pick up complete sets of top quality porcelain (Haviland, Nymphenburg, whatever) for far less than pennies on the dollar. Nobody wants that stuff anymore. You can get something different for everyday of the week and still pay less than for an IKEA set.
 
I actually don't know. I inherited my brother's plate collection (mostly all white) and cutlery and the rest were gifts from family. If you're doing food photography I'd go with a white and then a dark one so you can use contrast to highlight colours.
 
QuandoDio said:
Fwiffo or others who care. Dinner plates? Bone china , porcelain or enamel? Colour? Well, it has to be white surely though I imagine some complaints and I'd gladly ignore that. Plate sizes? I think the standard 10.5 inch or bigger is frankly a no go. I would like even smaller plates but not quite appetiser size and as I am no Saudi prince so that is a tall order.
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Porcelain, ideally hard-paste porcelain, simply because it more robust than bone china, and more rarely gets the ugly cutlery marks that white china sometimes gets. If you want to be an old-fashioned snob though, bone china is sometimes considered more elegant, because its more translucent and often thinner than other materials.
 
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I think it is the same concept as digging a pit and then covering it with dirt to cook out in the open. Barbacoa for example.
 
I was making some tarts yesterday with leftover ricotta and jam. The jam is pretty low sugar - 7g per tablespoon and it's not cane sugar/glucose/added sugar. The ricotta I put 80g of sugar in 200g of ricotta and I find it super sweet. I think I'll try 20% of the ricotta weight next time.
 
I made potage de crecy on the weekend with some pretty underwhelming carrots. At the end of after putting it through a sieve I brought it back to a simmer, added the cream, and then I left 5 sprigs of thyme in there with the heat off. After about 30 minutes I took the sprigs out and the thyme saved the soup. I forgot which cookbook taught me this but it worked. (The thyme added during the cooking and before the blending/puree was useless).
 
Earlier this month, I had the most amazing bone broth soup while traveling - it was thick, right and creamy. Not a watery soup at all! I’ve tried some store bought varieties and making my own, but I can’t get the creaminess. Any idea what they are doing?

It should look like this:

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But I keep getting this:

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Dropbear said:
Earlier this month, I had the most amazing bone broth soup while traveling - it was thick, right and creamy. Not a watery soup at all! I’ve tried some store bought varieties and making my own, but I can’t get the creaminess. Any idea what they are doing?

It should look like this:

View attachment 47897

But I keep getting this:

View attachment 47898
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Just to clarify, you’re doing it at home?
Roast bones (have as many bones, feet and necks as you can fit)
Add a bunch of veggies
Simmer for at least 3-4 hours. Add water as needed to cover, as it evaporates
Push through sieve
Reduce to desired consistency.
 
belinmad said:
Just to clarify, you’re doing it at home?
Roast bones (have as many bones, feet and necks as you can fit)
Add a bunch of veggies
Simmer for at least 3-4 hours. Add water as needed to cover, as it evaporates
Push through sieve
Reduce to desired consistency.
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That’s what I’m doing. Today’s batch:

IMG_6383.webp


It’s good, but still basically a watery soup (or if I boil it down more, then gelatinous). Somehow that restaurant is getting this wonderful, creamy and velvety texture to it.

I emailed them to beg for the secret.

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Dropbear said:
Earlier this month, I had the most amazing bone broth soup while traveling - it was thick, right and creamy. Not a watery soup at all! I’ve tried some store bought varieties and making my own, but I can’t get the creaminess. Any idea what they are doing?

It should look like this:

View attachment 47897

But I keep getting this:

View attachment 47898
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A creamy soup, by its nature, has cream in it. Those photos are bisques. You can still make a bisque with bone broth.
 
Grand Potentate said:
A creamy soup, by its nature, has cream in it. Those photos are bisques. You can still make a bisque with bone broth.
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They are non-dairy and don’t list any cream sub ingredients (just bones, vegetables and herb) but I suspect you are right - they are throwing in a dash of oat milk or something like that
 
Dropbear said:
That’s what I’m doing. Today’s batch:

View attachment 47900

It’s good, but still basically a watery soup (or if I boil it down more, then gelatinous). Somehow that restaurant is getting this wonderful, creamy and velvety texture to it.

I emailed them to beg for the secret.

View attachment 47901
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Just by looking at your soup I can tell you
1. You dont have enough collagen in them (not enough bones)
2. You haven’t cooked it long enough.

yours is too clear and clean. It should be cloudier and less translucent.
A trick to get it creamier (although not technically a broth) is to blend it with some potatoes or other white starchy veggies in it, and a bit of olive oil for creaminess. I do this and also add a bit of white chicken meat.
 
belinmad said:
Just by looking at your soup I can tell you
1. You dont have enough collagen in them (not enough bones)
2. You haven’t cooked it long enough.

yours is too clear and clean. It should be cloudier and less translucent.
A trick to get it creamier (although not technically a broth) is to blend it with some potatoes or other white starchy veggies in it, and a bit of olive oil for creaminess. I do this and also add a bit of white chicken meat.
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I should add that that photo is hour 2 of a 24hr simmer. But I think you’re right - need more bones in there.

Hmmmm. I might try that with the potato and olive oil. When this is done, I’m going to try adding some cream (or oat milk or whatever) to a portion to see how that looks.
 
Dropbear said:
I should add that that photo is hour 2 of a 24hr simmer. But I think you’re right - need more bones in there.

Hmmmm. I might try that with the potato and olive oil. When this is done, I’m going to try adding some cream (or oat milk or whatever) to a portion to see how that looks.
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I’m out of the house now but I’ll send you a pic later of what the one I make looks like, for comparison
 
Grand Potentate said:
A creamy soup, by its nature, has cream in it. Those photos are bisques. You can still make a bisque with bone broth.
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Dropbear said:
They are non-dairy and don’t list any cream sub ingredients (just bones, vegetables and herb) but I suspect you are right - they are throwing in a dash of oat milk or something like that
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My Baba used heavy cream. she came from the old country.
 
Dropbear said:
They are non-dairy and don’t list any cream sub ingredients (just bones, vegetables and herb) but I suspect you are right - they are throwing in a dash of oat milk or something like that
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oh well i don't know about any special dietary restrictions or whatnot. my general premise was that they're using something to lighten it and make the consistency more bisque like. maybe Fwiffo Fwiffo would have some non-dairy ideas to accomplish the same goal.
 
Grand Potentate said:
oh well i don't know about any special dietary restrictions or whatnot. my general premise was that they're using something to lighten it and make the consistency more bisque like. maybe Fwiffo Fwiffo would have some non-dairy ideas to accomplish the same goal.
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I’m good with throwing in some heavy cream when it’s done
 
You want to use joints and bones rich with collagen and simmer that until it breaks down and goes into the broth. Oxtail. Knuckles. Bones with marrow in them. You can cheat with powder extract - gelatin being a classic one. Roasting in an oven gives more colour and reduces the simmering time. If you're willing to simmer for double digit hours in large volumes it achieves the same effect.

This is assuming you want a clear broth.

If you don't need a clear broth then you can achieve a similar effect with fats or starch or a combination of both - cream, potato, and reduction of something that already has plenty of fat. The French do it with a roux and you can take your broth and add it to the roux to thicken it. Orientals do it with a cornstarch slurry. Europeans also use flour slurries or flour their meat so it bleeds into the liquid.
 
Fwiffo said:
You want to use joints and bones rich with collagen and simmer that until it breaks down and goes into the broth. Oxtail. Knuckles. Bones with marrow in them. You can cheat with powder extract - gelatin being a classic one. Roasting in an oven gives more colour and reduces the simmering time. If you're willing to simmer for double digit hours in large volumes it achieves the same effect.

This is assuming you want a clear broth.

If you don't need a clear broth then you can achieve a similar effect with fats or starch or a combination of both - cream, potato, and reduction of something that already has plenty of fat. The French do it with a roux and you can take your broth and add it to the roux to thicken it. Orientals do it with a cornstarch slurry. Europeans also use flour slurries or flour their meat so it bleeds into the liquid.
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First time I 100% agree with Fwiff in a very long time 😂
 
You have Jamaicans down there? I thought it was just Haitians. I can learn to speak patois like our infamous ex mayor.
 
Fwiffo said:
You have Jamaicans down there? I thought it was just Haitians. I can learn to speak patois like our infamous ex mayor.
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oh yeah tons of them. every third plumbing and ac company is jamaicans. hell 1/3rd of lauderdale is jamaicans now.
 
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