Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: What Did You Bake the Week of November 13, 2016? #5615
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      I made another Celebration Challah, it came out about as nice as the one I posted a photo of a few weeks ago. We took it to a dinner party and brought maybe half of it back home, so I'm looking forward to a little French Toast.

      in reply to: Dinner roll recipes in WSJ #5599
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        The question still remains, what kind of baking powder are they using, does it use aluminum or not?

        in reply to: Restaurants rediscovering whole wheat bread #5596
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          It may depend on when and where the chef/baker was trained. Some cooking and baking schools were late to the party on 'rediscovering' whole wheat breads. The artisan bread movement started in small bakeries and home kitchens.

          I was interested in his $6000 flour mill, which looks like it is made of wood, I wonder if it was custom made?

          in reply to: Ina’s Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits #5587
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            Many sea salts are naturally high in iodine and other trace minerals. Himalayan sea salt is said to be especially high in iodine. (There's the makings of a joke there.)

            in reply to: Ina’s Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits #5586
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              Foods other than seafood that are said to be rich in iodine include:

              Navy Beans
              Bananas
              Strawberries
              Turkey
              Milk and milk products, including yogurt and cheese
              Prunes
              Eggs
              Green Beans
              Corn
              Potatoes (especially baked, other forms of cooking may leach the iodine out)

              However, fruits and vegetables may not be as high in iodine if not grown in iodine-rich soils.

              Source: http://bembu.com/iodine-rich-foods

              in reply to: Ina’s Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits #5579
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                Followup: This article seems to suggest that most processed foods do not use iodized salt.

                NIH article

                Perhaps the most useful information in this article is the sentence that notes that if a food manufacturer uses iodized salt, it must list it as iodized salt on the list of ingredients.

                in reply to: Ina’s Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits #5578
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  I'm not sure whether prepared foods use iodized salt or not, either. I might have to make some inquiries.

                  I grew up in a small town in NW Illinois in the 50's and 60's, farmers with goiters were not unusual, especially among those who mostly ate 'off the farm' all year long.

                  in reply to: What’s your 2016 Thanksgiving Menu? #5576
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    Sams brands vary over time and possibly by region, it's usually who they can cut deals with. (A company I used to work with dealt with both WalMart and Sams, the folks in Benton Arkansas are tough negotiators, a point they drive home in the sales rep waiting area, where there's a coffee vending machine rather than free coffee.)

                    Sams used to carry Cabot cheeses here, now they have Tilamook cheeses. They're good cheeses (we even took a tour of the Tilamook plant in Oregon years ago), but the Tilamook cheeses at Sams don't include a low-fat cheddar and the Cabot cheeses did.

                    in reply to: Ina’s Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits #5569
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      I believe the only advantage that kosher salt has over ordinary table salt is that it isn't iodized (some chefs claim the iodine has a bitter taste), but you can buy non-iodized table salt.

                      Most of us get so much salt from other sources these days that we probably don't need to worry about an iodine deficiency, I know several doctors who went through their entire medical training without once seeing a patient with a goiter, one result of iodine deficiency.

                      I have a sea salt grinder by the stove that I use when cooking, though I use ordinary iodized table salt when baking.

                      in reply to: What’s your 2016 Thanksgiving Menu? #5567
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        According to the food historians, the original recipe for Alfredo sauce used just Parmesan Reggiano cheese, very slowly heated so that it doesn't break. Cream was added by other chefs both because it's cheaper than Parmesan Reggiano and because it makes the recipe less likely to fail.

                        I've never used egg in an Alfredo sauce, though I do use cream. I actually prefer using a 4 cheese blend (parmesan, romano, asiago and provolone), Sams Club sells an excellent blend.

                        My wife used to order the Crab Alfredo at Red Lobster, but they discontinued it for a while, and when they brought it back it had garlic in it.

                        My usual rant about using garlic where it DOES NOT BELONG goes here.

                        in reply to: Dinner roll recipes in WSJ #5564
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          I wonder what kind of leavening commercial self-rising flours use? If it's an aluminum salt, that could explain the metallic taste.

                          in reply to: Ina’s Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits #5563
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            If a recipe calls for kosher salt (which Morton Salt says is a bad idea when baking, but the foodies are in love with kosher salt), you're using ordinary salt, you should cut it by 1/3 anyway.

                            in reply to: What’s your 2016 Thanksgiving Menu? #5562
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              The eggnog cakes sound interesting, what recipe do you use? Do you make your own eggnog for that?

                              in reply to: Ina’s Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits #5552
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                I like the cheese biscuits/rolls at Red Lobster, but they have garlic in them, so my wife can't eat them.

                                At home, we tend to have biscuits as something you put things like creamed tuna on, so cheese would kind of get in the way.

                                in reply to: Chicken Mirepoix #5543
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I've always thought this dish needs something, like a sauce, I think I came up with it last week.

                                  First, I deboned the chicken breasts (saving them in the freezer for my next batch of chicken stock) and left out the wine and the basil and celery seed.

                                  Then, while the chicken was baking (covered with parchment so it didn't dry out), I sauteed in butter and chicken stock some red, orange and yellow peppers that I had cut into long thin strips plus some mushrooms that I had sliced, adding the mushrooms after the peppers had softened, about 10 minutes. After the chicken had baked for about 40-45 minutes (at 400 degrees) and was registering an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees, I covered it with slices of fontina cheese and put the peppers and mushrooms on top of that, then baked it for another 10 minutes.

                                  My wife's only comment was that there wasn't enough of the stuff on top, so next time I'll use more cheese, more peppers and more mushrooms. For 3 large chicken breasts I'd probably use 3 medium peppers and 10 ounces of mushrooms, plus enough cheese to fully cover each breast.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 7,036 through 7,050 (of 7,424 total)