Would a cream based sauce go well with steaks?

Question

I've reached a point where I am very comfortable with a nice red wine/shallot reduction as a pan sauce for my strip roasts/steaks. I think I remember have a meal once where they served sliced tenderloin with a white sauce. I imagine it was cream based but I don't often see this combination.

I was wondering if there was hope for throwing together a cream based sauce and if so if anyone had an idea of what base (mother or otherwise) sauce would be a good jumping off point for experimentation?

Answer

You may have been served Bearnaise, which is a common red meat sauce. Bearnaise is based on Hollandaise (a mother sauce), a butter based sauce. Hollandaise is somewhat advanced to make because it is important to keep the temperature right and the ratios correct while making it, but the result is worth the effort.

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How to rest meat but not let it get too cold?

Question

Having read this question I am persuaded that resting meat is good for its flavour. But if the meat has a good temperature straight after it's been cooked, it seems as though it will be too cold after resting it for a few minutes.

How do you rest meat in such a way that it is not too cold for eating?

Answer

Straight after it comes out of the pan it will usually be too hot to eat. Regardless of resting or not, you can't fully taste things which are too hot, they need to come down to a comfortable temperature before you eat them.

Some things you can do to stop the meat being too cold when you serve it:

• You can rest the meat wrapped in foil, this will stop it from getting too cool too quickly if you are not ready to serve once its had the time to rest.
• you can rest it and then warm it again before you eat it, either under a hot grill for a little, or in an oven.
• serve it with a hot sauce which will warm the meat
• serve it on a warmed plate which will stop it cooling more too quickly on the table

Although I think you are worrying too much about nothing IMHO. Even once rested the meat will still be at a good temperature, especially as you have not cut it yet and most of the heat will be retained in the middle of the meat.

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How long should I cook pasta sauce?

Question

I recently made pasta sauce, and every couple of minutes decided to add something more... More tomatoes, more pepper, more garlic...
After that I let it sit on a small flame for a bit more.
As a result, the sauce set in the pot for a fairly long time (45 min at least).

I asked my roommate if it's ok to leave it this long, and he said that the longer I leave it, the better it will come out.

Is this true? Is patience a key ingredient to a perfect sauce?
(P.S, it really did come out great...)

Answer

Yes, with any kind of 'stewing' sauce, the flavour improves the longer you cook it (provided it's a slow, gentle process). The longer you leave it, the more chance the flavours have to 'marry'. I have a recipe for a pasta sauce that calls for 6 hours of slow simmering!

You may also have noticed in the past that left over pasta sauce that you eat the next day is really good, for the same reason as above. Any stew, in fact, like bolognese, casserole, chilli, bourgignon etc, is really delicious when left overnight and reheated.

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How long can you store a mixture of old bread in a no-oxygen-container?

Question

I watched a TV-program where they made a mixture of old breads. It has no water in it so it is mainly carbohydrates. They used it to fry up such as chicken and fish.

How long can you store such a mixture?

Answer

It sounds like you're talking about bread crumbs--you use these to bread the outside of anything you'd want to fry up (i.e. chicken breasts).

If you stored this in a sealed container and kept this in a cool place, I would say a few months, at least. It's possible that something like this would last for over a year or longer without going moldy.

After a few months, I would just give it a close visual inspection and taste a small amount. Are the bread crumbs moldy? Are they stale? Do they still have any flavor (if there was any to begin with)? If it passes all these tests, I'd use it. Even if it's stale, I may still try to make a small batch of food with it because baking and frying heats water out of foods anyways.

Side note: My parents have some ground spices in their kitchen from over a decade ago. The spices haven't gone moldy and I don't get sick eating food with these spices in it. However, the difference in flavor between these spices and new ones are like day and night. When I cook there, I don't bother using their spices, but I won't complain if they use it for food served to me.

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Can I use aluminum foil as a substitute for parchment paper?

Question

I'm attempting to make this recipe for Greek Meatza which calls for baking ground beef in a pan on top of parchment paper.

I don't have access to parchment paper, so I'm wondering: can I substitute aluminum foil? If so, are there any adjustments I should make to the time or temperature for baking?

Thanks.

Answer

Depends on what you're making. The principal differences are:

• Parchment is much more non-stick than aluminum foil. I haven't tried non-stick aluminum myself, so no idea how that compares.
• Parchment insulates (against heat transfer) more than aluminum.
• Parchment is somewhat porous; it absorbs water.

Looking at that recipe quickly, it'd probably work fine. I'd suggest substituting aluminum foil sprayed with Pam (non-stick cooking spray). The bottom may brown a little quicker with the foil.

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Does pesto go bad?

Question

I have some basil pesto but I'm not sure how long it's fridge life is. It's in a sealed container. How long does it last before it's not safe to eat anymore?

Answer

I believe that the best indicator of freshness is the colour of the leaves. Once they turn from green to brown, it is all over for the pesto.

To boost the 'shelf-life' of the pesto in the fridge, make sure that it is completely covered with olive oil before sealing the container.

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What's the numbering system for spaghetti and does it matter?

Question

When I lived in Italy some years ago I remember an Italian friend explaining the numbering system for spaghetti (perhaps also other long pasta). How spaghetti was sold in Italy with a number indicating its fineness.

She told me that different kinds of recipes called for specific numbered spaghetti, if you wanted to be precise.

Can anyone else explain the numbering system for spaghetti better than my vague recollection? Do people in Italy really worry about matching the right numbered spaghetti with a given dish, and has anyone outside Italy encountered a recipe calling for a specific number spaghetti?

Answer

They are just a "product number", and it may vary for the same kind of pasta from a manufacturer to another.

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