Random Cooking/Grilling Tips that You Use

Resting steaks- when I started resting my steaks in a tin foil tent with a table spoon of butter for 5-10 mins it?s crazy how much that changed things for me. It?s to the point where I think it would make a really cool restaurant concept where the server ran the steaks in foil and plated it at the table.

Always brown butter- in some applications you can?t but when you brown butter it breaks down the milk proteins and releases the natural, earthy flavors. Gives it a nutty aroma and taste

Wine pairing- When in doubt, order a pinot noir. Pinot Noir is a low tannin red making it versatile. You can pair it with a chicken or seafood and while it may not be the best pairing, it?ll work. If you don?t like white, it?s perfect. Whereas a cab or Syrah will make seafood taste like dirt. Pinot Noir will also go really well with any red meat.

What y?all got? Love learning new stuff

Next time you've got some fresh venison backstrap or tenderloin, cook it medium rare just like you would a steak. Serious.

When making hamburger patties, don't fold a bunch of shit into it. In fact, try to handle the beef as little as possible. Just form it into patties, liberally sprinkle with salt, crack some pepper, and cook that ****er on a flat top or in a cast iron skillet, developing a nice crust on both sides. Also, don't cook it past medium.

Speaking of salt and pepper. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a decent pepper mill and only use fresh ground pepper in your cooking. That pre-ground stuff isn't food, and the flavor lost from just sitting around in the plastic or paper shaker is profound.

Speaking of seasonings and ingredients. Always keep a head or two of fresh garlic around (that pre-chopped stuff in the jar isn't food). The same applies to lemon and lime juice (those little green and yellow bottles are garbage). Always keep a lime and lemon or two in your fridge for when you need them.

I'll add more later. Got to go teach, for now....

Vinegar is the secret.

With marinades for chicken, pork, and deer meat, always put lemon juice and white vinegar into the mix. The acids will break down all fat fibers so marinade absorption and tenderness is achieved.

Vinegar in any BBQ sauce will add to the zest of taste.

When smoking pork, after the initial low smoke time, wrap the meat in tinfoil and add a little apple cider vinegar to the tinfoil tent. Once again, it will tender meat and keep it super moist.

When using the vinegar, one will not taste it, if is used in the right ratio. However, you will get a little zing in the taste buds in the back of the tongue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Howboutdemdogs

When smoking pork, after the initial low smoke time, wrap the meat in tinfoil and add a little apple cider vinegar to the tinfoil tent. Once again, it will tender meat and keep it super moist.

---

Next time you're wrapping your shoulder in foil for the finale, give dry hard cider a try instead of cider vinegar. Never tried vinegar for this, but the hard cider does me good every time I use it. Apple flavor, a little sweetness, and likely some leftover booze for you while you wait out the rest of the smoke. A win all the way around. (That is, unless the only hard cider available to you is the sugary sweet garbage that Woodchuck or Angry Orchard makes. Drinking the remainder won't be worth your time if that's the case.)

When boiling shrimp, I always have 2 frozen water jugs handy. Instead of dumping ice in the pot and diluting the spice, use the jugs to cool the water and not over-cook while still allowing to soak for the desired amount of spice. If I?m boiling a small amount on the stove, I?ll use a couple 20oz frozen bottles. Whatever you do, do not over cook. Hard to peel shrimp is awful.

Also, jalape?o & cheddar deer sausage in a shrimp boil is amazing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BeardoMSU

Next time you've got some fresh venison backstrap or tenderloin, cook it medium rare just like you would a steak. Serious.

---

Absolutely. I do this for the first meal from every deer killed. Little sea salt and pepper - medium rare and enjoy.

When cooking any pork on the grill or smoker, prep time starts 48 hours before cooking. The first 24 hours, soak the entire pork (shoulder, ribs, butt, loin, etc...) in a brine solution. The salt will break up the fissures for tenderness and flavor. Wash extremely well so as to remove all the salt and salt taste. The final 24 hours, put your rub on or place in marinade; then the Refrigerate. Pull out and let it get to room temp, and start your cooking. All pork should be LOW AND SLOW! 220 - 225 deg F.

Dry brine - I dry brine almost all meat that I cook, hopefully for a day or so if I remember. Easier than wet brines and great results.

Microplanes - I've recently started pulverizing garlic on a microplane instead of mincing it for stews, soups, sauces, and salad dressings. Seems to really increase the aroma and flavor I get out of the stuff. Plus, for those of us with butterfingers or dull knives, it's quicker than mincing the stuff.

Mixing it up with chiles - There are lots of chiles out there other than cayenne that I think can add nice depths of flavor to chili, tex-mex, and Asian/Indian dishes. Some of the best chili I've ever had contained something like seven different chiles (whether whole, dried, or in powder form). It wasn't insanely hot, just really, really flavorful. And you don't have to necessarily scour the internet to get started. Ancho and chilpolte powders are pretty common, and dried guajillo peppers are in most Wal-Marts I've visited. Related tip: if you find yourself really digging on ancho, try pairing it with a little cocoa powder. Solid, solid stuff.

Thermometers - I can gauge meat's done-ness about as well as I could gauge what women were thinking when I was in high school. Without a good, quick-read thermometer, I'd be effed.

Buttermilk - Like butter and bacon grease, buttermilk makes pretty much everything better. Baked goods are a given. Pancakes, biscuits, scones, etc. But have you ever tried replacing some or all of the milk in your homemade (or, hell, store-bought boxed) mac and cheese with whole buttermilk? Skidoosh. We've started keeping oversize ice cubes of the stuff in our freezer for spot use in the kitchen when we don't have any in the fridge.

Those are off the top of my head. I'm interested to see other people's tips. Already some solid ones posted so far.

This thread has been outstanding. Learned some great stuff so far.

Don't confuse sticks of butter with sticks (or tubs) of margarine. They are not the same thing; one is butter, and the other isn't food. You can't monte au beurre a wine sauce with margarine, lol.

For the love of all that is holy, make sure you have a couple of good kitchen knives. You need, at a minimum, a good non-serrated chefs knife (8 to 10 inches; whichever feels good in your hand). The basic chefs knife you'll use for 90% of the cutting in the kitchen, but a basic paring knife, preferably non-serrated, would be a good thing to have as well (this is good for the finer stuff). I absolutely hate trying to cook a big meal in a person's house who doesn't have a single sharp blade in their kitchen; and what knives they do have, are those crappy plastic-handled serrated knives that can't cut shit. You can't chiffonade fresh herbs with a serrated knife. I'm not saying you need to go out and buy a bunch of German steels (though they are good to have and will last forever if treated with respect; I'm rockin' Wusthof, btw)...There are plenty of affordable good quality knives to be found. Stop by your local T.J. Maxx and check out their kitchen section. You can find some great options for less than $15 (Calphalon and Oxo to name a few).

Eggs are great. A well cooked egg is one of the tell-tale marks of a good cook. Master the art of the perfect omelet. Perfect scrambled eggs are also a must, and whatever you do, don't over cook them. They should still be slightly runny when you take them out of the skillet. This is perfect, actually, because they will carry-over-cook once you take them out.

San Marzano tomatoes. I seriously thought San Marzano's were a gimmick. I thought the can of Hunts plum tomatoes was just as good, not to mention $2 less for the same amount. How wrong I was. The quality and depth of flavor in a can of San Marzano plums is amazing. The liquid in the can isn't just thin tomato water; it's tomato sauce, and it's amazing.

Speaking of tomatoes....properly cooked pasta. Always boil your past just shy of doneness, then spoon it into the pot of sauce, and finish it there. Doing this ensures the pasta absorbs the sauce, and finishes at a perfect al dente. Never ever ever put your pasta naked in a bowl, just to spoon the sauce over it for service. That is the technique of a shoemaker, not a cook.

Beardo just made me think of another good one. If you need to thicken a sauce like a scampi, you can throw a cpl tablespoonfuls of the starchy pasta water in you’re saut?e pan. That’s actually exactly how you do cacio e pepe

Don’t cook pasta and dump red sauce on top it it and call it a meal. I’d you can make your red sauce, you still need to cook it with your pasta. Cook the pasta to al dente and add it to a pan with a good chunk of butter. I used unsalted for everything. You can’t unsalt anything, but you can always add it. Then add the red sauce and let it bind with the pasta and flip it in the pan. Don’t stir it around, practice and learn how to flip your food, it’s much faster and efficient. Keep some of your pasta water and add a little bit to the pasta dish, flip a few times and plate. DONT’T use the Parmesan crap in a plastic bottle with wood pulp in it. Buy a block of parm to grate and always keep some in the fridge.
Use peanut oil for frying. Everything else is swill. Don’t ever consider buying anything else again. It’s not really a tip, it’s just the only way to do it.
Put a light coating of mustard on fish/shrimp before you batter and fry. You can’t taste it and you’ll have the best fried seafood you’ve ever had. Other than fish, if your are frying put your food into the fridge after you batter it and let it rest, bind, whatever you want to call it. Your breading or batter will stick to it better and you’ll have a nicer crust.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BeastMan

Beardo just made me think of another good one. If you need to thicken a sauce like a scampi, you can throw a cpl tablespoonfuls of the starchy pasta water in you’re saut?e pan. That’s actually exactly how you do cacio e pepe

---

Great point, Beast.

Good mentioning cacio, too. That dish is one of the great examples of how true Italian cuisine is all about simplicity. I love cacio. Also, aglio e olio (garlic and oil) is another master class in simple Italian deliciousness.

Back to the pasta water....I've actually saved pasta water, frozen it, then added it to a batch of beef stock I made. When reduced to a glace, it makes a great demi that's extra velvety, even before adding butter.

Good Thread.

I know it?s basic - but two things that have really improved my Boston Butts:
1) after I rub the night before, wrap that puppy in plastic wrap.
2) wrapping in foil and throwing in a cooler with towels for about an hour to rest.
It?s amazing what those two things do for the meat.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BeastMan

Beardo just made me think of another good one. If you need to thicken a sauce like a scampi, you can throw a cpl tablespoonfuls of the starchy pasta water in you’re saut?e pan. That’s actually exactly how you do cacio e pepe

---

Here's a cacio for ya, Beast.***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDNtmeRJCLg

sarcastic, but I bet it's still ****ing delicious, lol.

Best thread in a long time! All great stuff!

This is not a hint or anything, but it does go along with the lines of cooking. What I have been doing for all 3 kids when they started college (with the oldest out and the other two finishing this semester) was making them a cookbook. It is “Dad’s recipes to a fatter and happier you”. So what I do is every week or two make a page with pictures of all the ingredients and step by step instructions. Then, if they come home or I am in Starkville, I bring them the page to be add to the book, plus I bring all the items to make the meal. From the grill to the stovetop. It is something that I feel it is a part of me that they can keep, and it gives them a taste of home. Now with these new ideas to try, it gives me more to offer to them.

I just remembered something I picked up from the Joe Tkach, the original owner of City Bagel. Basil pucks. Get a bunch of fresh basil. Stuff it in a food processor and add just enough olive oil for it to get chopped down. It makes almost a thick paste like consistency. Line a measuring cup with plastic wrap. He did 1 cup but for home it would be a 1/4th or 1/8th. Use a spatula and fill plastic lined spatula. Wrap the basil puck and put it in the freezer. Now you have a fresh minced basil you can throw in a tomato paste or add a couple things and have a killer pesto in a matter of minutes.

There was a lady in Starkville that grew it and had a literal damn field of it. We would get garbage bags full of fresh basil and make "pucks" out of it for future use.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BeardoMSU

Here's a cacio for ya, Beast.***

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDNtmeRJCLg

sarcastic, but I bet it's still ****ing delicious, lol.

---

Lol that's heresy. That said, I have a pasta in my brain that's kind of a play off cacio e pepe that I haven't tried to make yet. I haven't worked out all the kinks. Here is what I have so far: Start off just like a traditional cacio e pepe. Toast fresh cracked pepper in olive oil. Add you pecorino romano and when you have that good and thick add a little butter and chicken stock. Incorporate and let cook down for a bit. Add pasta and toss. Fry up some boneless chicken thigh strips southern style double dredged in seasoned flour. Add your crispy fried chicken on top of your modified cacio e pepe and top with fresh parsley and parm. Serve a garlic butter biscuit on the side. It's like merging Kentucky fried chicken and italian cuisine. If that was on a menu at restaurant I owned I'd call it Kentucky Fried Pasta.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Howboutdemdogs

Best thread in a long time! All great stuff!

This is not a hint or anything, but it does go along with the lines of cooking. What I have been doing for all 3 kids when they started college (with the oldest out and the other two finishing this semester) was making them a cookbook. It is “Dad’s recipes to a fatter and happier you”. So what I do is every week or two make a page with pictures of all the ingredients and step by step instructions. Then, if they come home or I am in Starkville, I bring them the page to be add to the book, plus I bring all the items to make the meal. From the grill to the stovetop. It is something that I feel it is a part of me that they can keep, and it gives them a taste of home. Now with these new ideas to try, it gives me more to offer to them.

---

Damn good idea. I spent a good bit of time teaching my daughter some basics this summer prepping her to leave for State - especially grilling a good hamburger. If you can grill a good burger, you will never go hungry. She is really good at following recipes, and bakes regularly.

I’ve gone to baking steaks....a little olive oils and season up. Place on a cooling grate on a deep foil lined pan (no clean up) and get to room temp. I cook to internal 128. A good size strip (about inch and half thick) is good at about 36 mins at 250. I flip at 18 mins. Melt a little butter and spoon on as soon as they come out. At this point i have my egg cranked to 650-700 and ready to sear. Drop butter side down and baste top with butter. Flip every 20-25 secs until you have flipped where you have the cross hatch look. So each side on the grates twice.

What this does is cooks evenly all the way thru and you also get the crust from grilling. When plated the steak is hot, flavorful and super juicy. Also what I’ve found, for me, i can get fueled up without dealing with a bunch of steaks on the grill and trying to make sure they are right. I’m only grilling for about a minute and a half.

Bolner's Fiesta spices, esp their Texas Style Steak seasoning, and Hi Mountain Seasonings, esp their Alaskan Salmon seasoning: Get some good peppercorns, green, white, and black and always grind them as used: garlic salt.

I Always grill or cast iron skillet/oven a little extra venison strap. Next morning, slice that med rare strap very thin. Soften some onions in a skillet (bacon grease if you have some) and toss in the meat and a little ELY?s seasoning for minute or two. Put it over 2 fresh eggs cooked however you prefer.

Not as elaborate as some of the ideas on here but I love to find new ways to cook venison. Hope the CWD doesn?t change this

Y'all are waaaay outta my league...

My Steak Recipe:

1) Buy a kickass cut from the Butcher Shop.
2) Put it on a plate.
3) Enjoy.