Chef-Vetted Answers to Your Cooking FAQs
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Summary
In your quest to become a better home chef, you probably find yourself wondering things like: What potato should I use in this recipe? How much salt should I put in this dish? Am I even making spaghetti right? But then you forget to Google the answer to your question, or if you do, you feel overwhelmed by the number of opinions out there. Well, my guest today will cut through that noise and answer some of your cooking FAQs once and for all. His name is Daniel Halsman, and he s a chef and the co-author, along with Matt Rodbard, of Food IQ, 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts.
Transcript
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Brett McKay here, and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
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In your quest to become a better home chef, you probably find yourself wondering things
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But then you forget to Google the answer to your question, or if you do, you feel overwhelmed
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Well, my guest today will cut through that noise and answer some of your cooking FAQs
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His name is Daniel Halsman, and he's a chef and the co-author, along with Matt Rodbard,
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of Food IQ, 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts.
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Today on the show, Daniel offers advice on whether the kind of onion and potato you use
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in a recipe matters, and whether it's okay to use frozen vegetables.
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He explains why you should be less worried about getting foodborne illness from meat and
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the type of food that's more likely to make you sick.
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Daniel offers a lowdown on salt, including how to figure out exactly how much you need
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in a dish, when to use the convection bake function on your oven, his recommendation
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for the best frying pan and chef's knife, the secrets to making perfect spaghetti, scrambled
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eggs and steak, and plenty of other tips as well.
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After the show's over, check out our show notes at awim.is slash foodiq.
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So you are a chef, and you got a book out called Food IQ, 100 Questions, Answers, and
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This book was just, it was a fantastic read, super informative, a lot of fun, and you answer,
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I think, a lot of questions that people have had about cooking, but didn't know who to ask.
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We're going to talk about some of the stuff, but before we do, talk about your career.
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What kind of chef are you, and what were you trying to do with this book, Food IQ?
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My mom worked nights, and so I found myself alone.
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And part of, I don't know, my mom helped me get a job in a restaurant because it was
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kind of the only place I could get a job as a young kid to keep me company and keep
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So when I was 13, 14 years old, I was delivering pizzas and working at the local Mexican restaurant.
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And found my way into the kitchen because I guess I was just attracted to the like, you
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know, everybody told everybody in the kitchen, yes, sir.
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And they had tattoos, and there was fire in the kitchen, and they were kind of, just seemed
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Well, I worked as a waiter, and everyone feared the cooks.
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They don't get the money, the glory, or the fame, but they get that.
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So if you have a shorty complex, the kitchen is a great place to exercise your will, I
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So I, you know, working in kitchens my whole life, I started working in fancier restaurants,
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and at some point, I realized that I like cooking food that my friends and my family
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can afford, and, you know, and that everyday food wasn't getting the level of respect that
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And, you know, great cooks want to cook with the finest ingredients, and they want to push
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But a delicious hamburger, or a piece of fried chicken, or a meatball, or a slice of pizza
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should, you know, should deserve the same level of respect.
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And so I started a meatball restaurant with my partner, Michael, in New York, and we made
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these, a meatball shop, we had these kind of, you know, a more humble approach to the
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And then I recently moved out to Los Angeles, where I started a pizzeria.
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I've been making pizza by the slice downtown LA at a restaurant called Danny Boy's Famous
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Original Pizza, which is a throwback to Ray Barry's Famous Original Pizzerias of my childhood
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And so with this book, what was the, what was the impetus behind this book, Food IQ?
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I think as a chef, you know, I've had this writing partner, Matt Rodbart, for 10 years
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It started out as kind of like a eating adventures in Queens, and then we started a column, writing
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a column together about our time, you know, looking for great, interesting, off the path,
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And, you know, as a chef and as a food writer, you're constantly getting questions from people.
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You know, what's the difference between these two different types of salt?
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Why are there all these different types of olive oils?
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And the thing about these questions are, you know, they're really not like Google-able
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questions as much as it seems like they require research.
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And so we started a column that was called a hundred questions for my friend, the chef,
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And we were, we were writing it every week and, and ultimately it kind of, it morphed into,
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Hey, we should start to, like, we expanded on it.
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And, and that was kind of the idea of the, of food IQ that as a home cook, there's a lot
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of intimidation around cooking, but it shouldn't be.
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It should be less expensive, more fun, less stressful.
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And so we're trying to kind of cut through some of the murk and give, give a clearer, a
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Well, so, like I said, I, I love this book because you do, you do just what you said
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you were trying to do, answer these questions that aren't very Google-able, a Google-able,
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So I want to give people like a taste of some of the things you talk about in this book.
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Let's talk about picking out ingredients when you're shopping for a meal.
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One that I've constantly had when I've had a recipe that's called for one onion, you know,
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go to the produce section and then there's white onions, yellow onions, and red onions.
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And I'm like, well, which onion do I get if it says one onion?
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So like, what's the difference between the onions and like, when would you use one over
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I think this is where, this is where folks get stuck.
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And, you know, you go to the supermarket, you see all this kind of like cornucopias, like,
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And the truth is you can use any onion and it'll be just fine.
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You know, if you want to dork out and really get specific, individual onions have qualities.
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So, you know, the Maui sweet onions that say Maui sweet or onions aren't necessarily sweeter
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They don't necessarily have more sugar in them.
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So they're a little less bite if you're eating them raw.
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But when you cook them down, it's hard to really tell the difference between the different
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If you go with the yellow onion, it's always a, it's always a, the yellow onion is kind
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The yellow Spanish onion, you just, you can kind of use that for everything.
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It will look good with some red onions or, or I'm pickling these onions and I don't want
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I'll use a white onion and you can get deeper into it, obviously.
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And then, and then that's where you, you know, you go from being a cook to being a chef
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The one takeaway though, I got when, for as far as presentation, now, when I make burgers,
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I get red onions because it just, it just looks pretty.
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I mean, we, I've worked in restaurants where like the chef is like, we're only using red
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And then it's a kind of easy to, it's really easy to, to claim something when, when, when
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Well, and then another tip you gave too, about avoiding crying when you're cutting onions,
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I mean, you could definitely wear those ski goggles or put bread in your mouth or, you
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know, gargle upside down with water or whatever the like old wives tales are that, that, um,
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But ultimately you cry because you crush the onion and there's kind of a, there's a, uh,
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an acid in there that gets mixed in with your eyes and, and makes, makes a burn.
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And if you use a sharp knife, you don't crush the cells.
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The acid is less of the acid is released and voila, as they say, across the pond.
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Then you go to the potato section and there's like four different kinds of potatoes.
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What's the difference between the different types of potatoes?
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And like, when, when do you use one over the other?
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Unfortunately, you're, you're, this one is matters a bit more, you know, some, some potatoes
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are, are, are, are quite starchy, like a russet or a Kennebec potato, the baking potato
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It's a little drier and a little, a little more starchy.
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And then if you get into the like red bliss potatoes, um, or fingerling potatoes are a little
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And so, you know, if you think about that, like for mashed potatoes, a dry starchy potato,
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like a Kennebec potato is really, really great or a, or a russet potato or an Idaho potato.
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I think they call them baking potatoes, big dogs.
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And then some of the smaller potatoes, when they're, when they're more waxy, they tend,
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if you try to mash them to get a little gummy, almost gummy in texture.
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If you use the wrong type of potato, it's, it'll be delicious.
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I love a Yukon gold potatoes because they're kind of right in between their medium starch
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So you can kind of do everything with them and you don't have to peel them.
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If you're making mashed potatoes, the peel just kind of disintegrates and gives it a nice
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So the russet, but like the, the more starchy potato, that's when you'd want to add like
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fats to it to make it like a cream or a butter.
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It makes it a little less flaky, I guess, is the, yeah, it absorbs more.
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Like if you were making gnocchi, for instance, you know, you wouldn't necessarily want to
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use like a, a, a starchy potato, excuse me, a, a waxy potato, because it'll be like, have
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a gummy texture, almost like a pasta that's cooked in cold water or undercooked or something.
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But you know, if you're, if, if the russet potatoes, the starchier potatoes, they do absorb
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So if you're making mashed potatoes, you want them really buttery, really creamy.
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You know, when I'm making, I think people get, get shocked when I'm making mashed potatoes,
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I'm putting like a ton of butter, a ton of cream.
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And then you, you know, if anybody's ever made this mistake, I'm sure we have, you make
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your mashed potatoes, you think they're perfect texture, you put them out on the table.
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And then when you go to scoop them, it's like a brick because the starch in those potatoes
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just continues to absorb the moisture and hydrate.
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So, you know, if you want to be able to add maximum flavor, that's the way to go.
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So I've had instances where I haven't been able to get to the grocery store to get, you
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know, fresh produce, fresh vegetables, but I had some frozen stuff.
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This was, this kind of Matt, Matt Rodbard, you know, food writer, Daniel Holzman, chef.
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It's kind of like you, you're, you know, you look down on folks who use frozen vegetables.
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Sorry, but, and so we were talking about it one day and we thought, you know, we're, we
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have this strong opinion, but we've never really given it a go.
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It was kind of like a snarky attempt to, to prove ourselves right.
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I mean, there's amazing quality frozen vegetables and, you know, we were using asparagus that
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And it turns out, you know, these are not your grandma's frozen vegetables.
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A lot of technology has gone into a lot of technological advances have happened in the
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And those advances show themselves in places like the freezer section where the cold chain
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isn't broken so that, you know, a vegetable gets frozen out in the field and it, when
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it makes it all clean, frozen, picked, clean, frozen at the height of freshness out in the
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field, makes it all the way to your freezer without ever having kind of like a melted,
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which tends to get them a little bit mushy and they're like snappy and crunchy and fresh
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So if I had a farmer's market next door, I don't think I would be using the frozen asparagus
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in the spring, but they're absolutely, you shouldn't be ashamed of them and probably
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Here's another issue I've had and you talk about is picking out avocados.
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I'll spend, you know, minutes trying to figure out, find the right avocado for different
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Like the problem I have with avocados is if I'm making a meal like two days out, I'm
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trying to, well, is this avocado going to be ready for that?
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So any tips on picking an avocado for your meals?
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I feel like picking an avocado is like buying a house, you know, it's a real
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You spend like four bucks on one of those bad boys and then you open it up and it's
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got those like brown streaks in it and it's ruined or it's hard as a rock.
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And you, I mean, you know, avocado, my dad had an avocado tree in his backyard.
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Avocados take like a month and a half to ripen and they only ripen off the tree.
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We didn't realize that for the first couple of years, we were like, these things are like,
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And so we're just throwing them out, you know, and then we figured out like, oh, these
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things take a month, month and a half to ripen.
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So you can really buy an avocado and then, you know, for, for dinner in two days and
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So, you know, ruin or mash, whatever's going on.
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If your thumb just gently starts to push in, but the best trick I've found is, is you pull
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that little bolster, that little nub of a branch that's still stuck in there out and
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you look inside and you want it to be, so you want it to be just barely soft, but you
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If there's any brown under the stem, it will mean that it could probably be a bit rotten
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I think that, you know, contextually all things are worth it, but it just depends upon what
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You know, America traditionally is not a grass-fed beef country.
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Like we make really, we, we have the best beef in the world.
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And when I think of that, I think of grain-fed meat.
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It can be gamier and it can be really, really delicious, but you don't cook it the same
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So for those of us that were brought up, most of us here, you know, in America that were
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brought up on grain-fed beef, transitioning over, we think, well, this, we don't love the
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way this tastes often, but usually that's because we don't really know how to cook it.
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Most of the countries where you find, you know, grass-fed beef, they either cut the meat
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quite thin and serve it on the rare side or, or it's, you know, kind of really, really thinly
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So I like, I like the flavor of grass-fed beef and I've definitely had some amazing experiences
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with grass-fed beef, but generally I don't, you know, like, do I really think that grass-fed
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I think that if you really, really want to be healthy, you should limit the amount of,
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And I like the one tip I really took away from when you're picking out beef is where
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you go to get your beef or meat, whatever butcher, make sure the butcher knows like the
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Cause then they're, they're able to answer more questions that you have about you, about
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I think like, if you ask that one question to a butcher, like, Hey, where did this meat
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And they can answer that, you know, you know, you are dealing with somebody who cares and
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knows a lot and, you know, that is, it's, it's actually a really simple, but very, very
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complicated question to answer because the nature of the, the beef market in America is
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So they'll travel all over the country and they get, you know, farmed in one place and
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So, you know, by the time it gets to you, it could have traded hands so many times.
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It's very difficult to know exactly what's going on there, especially with stuff like
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ground beef, where you can have different cows from different places in the world, all
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So yeah, if you ask the butcher where the beef came from and they can answer that question,
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where the meat came from, they can answer that question.
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You're cutting through a lot of it and you really get somebody that knows what they're
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And you had this one section that I loved because it answered some questions that I've
00:17:02.480
And you guys make the case that you probably shouldn't be too freaked out about foodborne
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I always laugh at, you know, I always say that like my, I've got the stomach of Billy
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I can eat anything, you know, and never get sick.
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And my wife's always, she's like, you're just constantly complaining that your stomach
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So I don't know, maybe I don't have the, I'm not the best person to take my advice,
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but realistically, you know, when we get, there's kind of a couple of different, we
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get like a grumbly tummy, you know, I ate too much, or maybe it was a little fatty.
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It didn't agree with me too much acid, something like that slept on the wrong side.
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You know, that, that aside, when you really get food sick, it's a, it's a really extreme
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And often it'll be the last time we eat the thing that we associated with.
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Like, you know, you ate those oysters, you were like writhing in pain, thought you had
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to go to the hospital, or maybe you should just end it.
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And then you think I'm never eating an oyster again.
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It's not any worth it, but usually it wasn't the oyster.
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It was like the salad because salad is just way more vulnerable.
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So when you cook something, it makes it innocuous or whatever it was called, benevolent, benevolent
00:18:21.440
So, you know, for all those things that we're cooking and something like a steak, you know,
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bacteria doesn't like find its way into the center of the steak.
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So, you know, if you, if you grill it, even if it's rare in the middle, it's still
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And if meat has gone bad to the point where it's going to get you sick, like, you know
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it, a bad piece of meat is extraordinarily pungent and it's just terrible.
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You know what rotten chicken smells like, you know, people are often like smelling, they're
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I'm like, trust me, homie, if the chicken was not good, you wouldn't be asking, you'd
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Like we are, you know, for thousands of years programmed, uh, you know, we don't really
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trust our instincts as human beings because we have these big old brains that, you know,
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supersede, but like trust your instincts with the meat.
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And if it smells fine, also you can rinse it off because bacteria lives on the outside.
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Just like, you know, when you smell bad, you don't throw yourself out.
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So give your, give your chicken a shower is okay.
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What about, uh, you know, I think people like, are, you know, they, they're okay eating
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a rare steak and, you know, if it's just red in the middle, what about chicken?
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I think we've just been programmed to, you know, we've just been programmed that like
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pork is scary, chicken, scary beef is not, but you know, it's a bit arbitrary and obviously
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And, you know, there are cases of folks that, that have gotten salmonella, but it's
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Eating a piece of rare chicken is kind of like, you know, be like, you know, walking your dog
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You could get hit by a car, but quite unlikely.
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So, you know, I don't love, I've been looking in Japan, they eat a lot of raw chicken and,
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you know, I've been traveling around and eating some raw chicken.
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You know, I didn't grow up with it in my childhood.
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It just doesn't, doesn't, doesn't sit perfectly well with me.
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So I tend to cook my chicken, but I cook my chicken to like medium.
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If you follow the guidelines set up by the USDA, the USDA sets out these like safe cooking
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And if you, if anybody's ever like cooked a turkey till that little, like the, till the
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turkey was ready, then a thing pops out and your turkey is just like dry, like sand,
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Everybody hates turkey because they overcook it, not because turkey is terrible.
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And, you know, I'm a big proponent of cooking things until their most delicious temperature.
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You're not going to, you know, like I'm still alive.
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I'm here talking to you, you know, but I have, I, there's other risky behaviors in my
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Again, I wouldn't take my advice and bring it to a lawyer, but you know, from, for maximum
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I think if, if you're going to get sick from food, it's probably going to be from produce.
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Cause I mean, I think back at all the times I've gotten sick from eating produce has always
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Like the last time I got really sick, I ate these raw green beans and that night I felt
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like I was going to, I just, I felt like I thought I was going to die.
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So you say always wash your produce, you know, use a salad spinner or whatever.
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I think if you, you know, if you think about like, you know, lettuce grows on the ground
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and, you know, you get deer that jumped the fence and they're walking through their, you
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And then it's kind of gross way to say it, but true.
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And then, and then trotting on your lettuce and then that gets on the lettuce.
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And that's where, you know, you get that E. coli scare where you hear like, you know,
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all of the Romaine in the Northeast was recalled because that's really dangerous.
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Like you eat that and gets you very, very sick.
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If you're young or immunocompromised, it can be devastating.
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So like, you know, you don't really hear a lot about the great beef recall, but we
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hear a lot about kale and lettuce getting recalled because people eat it raw and because
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And yeah, that's what, that's where it comes from.
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We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.
00:22:28.160
I've been to Whole Foods and there's like a whole aisle for salt now.
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Is there a difference between all these salts and should you use one instance over another?
00:22:40.160
I think that there are some, you know, look, like there's a lot of snake oil salesmen out
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Like you'd use this salt and you'll be healthy.
00:22:50.100
It's like, yeah, like that's not, or, you know, it doesn't really work that way.
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Like we electrolyte water or whatever else we need it to, for, for, for human function.
00:23:00.260
But you know, the, the difference in the salt is really visual and textural and not flavor
00:23:06.840
So I think you can throw the health claims out the window first and foremost, but you know,
00:23:11.860
if you want to be a weirdo and like, believe in that, that's completely, I have all the respect
00:23:16.020
You're just scientifically not right, but maybe I'm wrong.
00:23:18.600
So I just want to throw that caveat out there, but from a textural perspective, there, there's
00:23:25.580
So like as a finishing salt, not dissolved, you know, on top of something, there's those
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like Maldon salt have a great kind of texture crunch.
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The cell gris that have those like textural crunch to them.
00:23:36.940
The pink Himalayan salt can look really, really beautiful.
00:23:39.520
Or those like black, black volcanic salts, you know, you're making some kind of dish where
00:23:43.120
that, that on the outside will look really beautiful, but if you dissolve the salt in
00:23:48.220
water and then taste it, the human palate cannot detect the difference with all the different
00:23:56.360
So ultimately you're spending money to throw it away.
00:23:59.720
So I'm a kosher salt guy, not just because I'm Jewish, but because it's a, because I'm not
00:24:05.840
kosher, but it's the least expensive, most consistent.
00:24:09.920
And the most important piece of the puzzle, I think when it comes to using any of the
00:24:13.100
salt is to be really consistent because the one big difference is depending upon the size
00:24:18.040
of the salt crystals, your pinch will be different.
00:24:21.380
Like you can practice, you can, if you get a digital scale, you can kind of weigh different
00:24:24.880
pinch sizes of salt from different pinches of salt from different, or even teaspoons of
00:24:29.580
salt, you know, a volumetric measurement of different types of salt.
00:24:33.160
And you realize they weigh vastly different amounts because they stack differently.
00:24:37.740
So by being consistent, you'll be consistent with your seasoning.
00:24:40.540
I moved from New York where, where diamond crystal was kind of like predominant.
00:24:45.020
And then out here in LA, Morton's, Morton's kosher salt is the, is the kind of like ubiquitous.
00:24:51.500
So I started using Morton's and I started over seasoning everything.
00:24:55.160
I mean, everything I made it, people would be like, oh, it's a little salty.
00:24:57.760
And it was because the Morton's is saltier by the, by volume than diamond crystal.
00:25:04.780
Do you think people typically over or under salt their food?
00:25:07.420
I think people like under salt their food, like criminally under salt their food.
00:25:18.380
You know, home cooks are like, why does my food not taste good?
00:25:22.820
People are, cause look, the reality is you can always add more salt.
00:25:27.740
It's like lights out curtains on the whole meal.
00:25:32.100
So I understand being afraid of that, but, you know, under salted food is, you know,
00:25:40.640
So when it says salt liberally, like you should salt liberally, like more than you think you
00:25:45.820
You know, I think, look, ultimately what you should really do is you should taste before
00:25:56.020
If you think it's, if look, if you're like, ah, what does it need?
00:25:59.520
Because what does it need means it's not salty enough period.
00:26:02.260
Every time, you know, seven days a week, twice on Sunday, we at, in food IQ, Matt and
00:26:06.900
I really tried to break down a few of these questions to help folks.
00:26:10.260
Like if you, if you think about it, like 1% by weight of salt is pretty much the right
00:26:18.820
If that makes sense in, in scenarios where all the salt is going to be served.
00:26:22.600
So like, and a lot of times you salt something and not all the salt makes its way to your mouth,
00:26:28.180
Like you salt the water for the pasta and then you cook the pasta in it.
00:26:31.800
Not all that salt you put in the water is getting consumed, right?
00:26:36.500
So you use a lot more salt so that the pasta will absorb the right amount and the rest gets
00:26:43.480
But when it comes to salting something that you're going to like eat 1% by weight will
00:26:49.320
So when in doubt, like use the metric system, weigh it, divide by a hundred, add that amount
00:26:54.580
of salt, salting a chicken, for instance, that's a really great way to do it.
00:26:58.380
You salt it overnight and you know, it's properly seasoned.
00:27:00.620
It'll be, you'll be a winner at your next chicken dinner.
00:27:04.560
Is there one all purpose pan you think a home chef should have?
00:27:08.400
I hate to like, you know, to hock the like expensive brand, but a 10 inch all clad saute
00:27:16.660
pan, frying pan, whatever it is, it's a really great tool.
00:27:19.820
And I've had the same one hanging in my kitchen and I use it almost every single day for like
00:27:26.420
It's just a, it's just a, it's just a perfectly made piece of equipment.
00:27:35.780
You know, you can pretty much make almost anything you need in that pan.
00:27:41.640
So, yeah, I think that it's worth, and look, it's like, you know, it's like, wow, it's
00:27:48.200
And I completely understand being like, well, I could just buy, but I feel like people are
00:27:55.240
If I had a choice of buying like the 47 piece set for, you know, $800, I'd rather spend the
00:28:03.040
800 bucks on four or three of the pieces, great quality pieces that I need.
00:28:14.440
No, I think, I think a lot of times people buy the set cause it looks good hanging up in
00:28:19.640
I certainly have one of them hanging up in my kitchen.
00:28:24.560
And so you also get into like the difference between nonstick, stainless steel, cast iron,
00:28:32.060
And if there is like, when would you use one over the other, or is it just a matter of
00:28:36.240
I feel like this is more like the potatoes and then the onions.
00:28:38.920
So there, there is a difference, but you know, like, again, if you get a stainless steel,
00:28:44.240
all clad pan, like it'll work for almost for anything.
00:28:48.300
Now, if you use a cast iron pan, the downside is that it can rust, takes a little bit more
00:28:59.860
So there's just more massive metal and that metal holds more heat.
00:29:03.780
So like, let's say you take a piece of steak, cold steak, thick steak.
00:29:08.920
And you think of that steak is, you know, what temperature is it?
00:29:14.660
You put that in a, in a thinner frying pan and that cold steak will draw the heat out
00:29:21.340
And then that's when you start to get like either maybe it starts to stick or it starts
00:29:28.040
You get that grayish kind of color and that boiled flavor because it's kind of boiling
00:29:35.340
Whereas a cast iron pan's got all of that heat mass and you put that cold steak in there.
00:29:40.240
And even though it's drawing the temperature out, there's enough.
00:29:42.300
Temperature to maintain so that it sears all the way through and it gets really nice and
00:29:45.900
golden brown and, and it's crispy all the, you know, the whole time.
00:29:50.220
So a thicker, heavier pan will hold more heat, you know, cast iron again requires more care
00:29:56.420
So you really have some special kind of care that you need to take a thinner pan heats
00:30:03.980
If it's too hot or it's too cold, like it's going to take a few minutes to, to change that
00:30:09.520
So it's like, you're not making, you're not making adjustments on the fly.
00:30:14.380
And then nonstick pans, like, you know, they're just, you know, because they're really great
00:30:19.820
and there's, they're, they're really, they work so well.
00:30:22.380
I feel like they become a crutch that we use them for everything.
00:30:26.400
And that's just, it's a little bit, it's a little bit lazy.
00:30:29.640
So there's nothing wrong with it, but ultimately, you know, they, they don't last forever.
00:30:36.780
I love the watching Jacques Pepin and then trying to make a perfect omelet in a regular
00:30:43.380
And I do it and I'm proud of myself when it works.
00:30:45.920
But like, you know, if it was a competition or I had a really important guest, you reach
00:30:54.220
It's going to work really, really well for those type of, for the, you know, for those
00:31:01.660
Is there, is there such a thing as the best kitchen knife?
00:31:04.480
I think that the Vustov 10 inch or depending upon your eight to 10, depending upon how big
00:31:09.640
of a hand and, you know, you have chef's knife is kind of like that knife is really
00:31:20.200
But knives, I'd say part of knives are the, are the, you know, any, you can get almost
00:31:26.780
If you sharpen your own knives, if you're one of those types of people, or if you send
00:31:30.000
them out to get sharp, ultimately a sharper knife is a better knife, right?
00:31:33.600
So like most folks, it doesn't really matter what quality knife they're using because their
00:31:40.200
So it's like, you might as well just throw it away, not to be glib or rude about it, but like,
00:31:45.840
the sharpness of the knife is the most important piece of the puzzle.
00:31:50.400
My like 10 inch, I have a nine inch Vustov chef's knife that I've had forever.
00:32:01.200
It's weighted perfectly, but knives are more than just how well they perform.
00:32:06.620
There's also the kind of aesthetic and how they hold in your hand.
00:32:10.060
And I've got some beautiful Japanese knives that I'm really, really proud of.
00:32:12.960
On my counter, I always have kind of fancy Japanese knives, but I'm a chef.
00:32:16.820
So I've got like this knife collection of, you know, knives that are gifted or knives
00:32:22.160
So, you know, if you, if you buy a Victorinox kind of like plastic handled knife, the steel
00:32:34.040
It's what most butchers use and they work great.
00:32:37.200
So like, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
00:32:39.680
And they're, they're less expensive and you shouldn't feel uncomfortable about it.
00:32:43.060
But, you know, again, you buy stuff for the way it looks and feels and how it makes you
00:32:48.660
And if you think having an expensive knife will make you a better cook, then I'm all for it.
00:32:54.720
So I think everyone's seen the convection bake button on their oven.
00:33:01.340
I've always wondered like, when should I be using this?
00:33:03.060
I feel like the technology in the kitchen, just, it's a shame.
00:33:06.840
Cause it's like, it's really, really helps a lot.
00:33:09.600
There's a lot of good outcomes of it, but it's intimidating again.
00:33:12.980
And, you know, like if you just have a fire, you can make a delicious meal.
00:33:16.420
It's like, you don't have to really feel like you need the convection oven.
00:33:20.620
Most ovens, you know, the heat, the fires on the bottom, it heats up the natural convective
00:33:26.480
kind of heat rises, keeps the heat bouncing around on the inside, the steel or whatever the
00:33:34.060
And then it radiates heat into your food, radiant heat.
00:33:37.960
Convection is like having a fan in there that blows the air.
00:33:48.800
If you were baking chocolate chip cookies, you don't want to use it.
00:33:51.700
You want, you want radiant heat that's slow and gentle convection when you're baking chocolate
00:33:58.940
But if you want to like crisp Brussels sprouts, then I'd say convection is a great way to go.
00:34:05.740
People think it's faster because it's, it's like, it's not hotter and you know, it's like,
00:34:12.540
So it's, it is adding more energy more quickly to the food.
00:34:17.260
I cook a prime rib every new year for my family.
00:34:20.520
Should I be convection baking that thing when I'm roasting it the entire time or just regular
00:34:25.880
You should be doing regular bake and not convection.
00:34:30.060
When you're thinking about prime rib, you're thinking of a big piece of meat and that, that
00:34:34.000
fan will dry out and brown the outside before the inside is cooked.
00:34:41.940
So if you think about it, it's a, it's a, it's faster and harsher.
00:34:45.160
So it's great for browning on the outside, but you could burn it before it cooks all the
00:34:49.620
Whereas if you use a regular gentle heat, it'll bake more evenly.
00:34:55.040
Same thing with that Thanksgiving turkey, you know, like we've all seen when, when the
00:34:59.500
turkey skin gets burned before the inside's cooked, it's kind of like, it's hard to come
00:35:08.360
Let's talk about, I thought this was interesting.
00:35:10.460
You make the case that people should start weighing their ingredients instead of doling them
00:35:17.860
I feel like, I mean, as a chef, I weigh everything and every one of my recipes at the restaurants
00:35:26.180
And look, like a scale used to be an expensive kind of difficult thing to navigate.
00:35:35.720
You can go on Amazon and buy a scale for 25 bucks and it'll last forever.
00:35:46.940
When you weigh stuff, you get really, really accurate consistency.
00:35:50.500
And when you keep track of stuff by weight, you start to help yourself under, like, you
00:35:55.300
know, our grandma would have told us, you know, you add a pinch of salt and we know what
00:36:01.900
But like, you know, my grandma's fingers and my fingers were different size.
00:36:05.080
And my pinch of salt is a little bit different.
00:36:06.860
And it's very hard to communicate and remember for her.
00:36:10.840
She, she knows I always use a handful of salt in that or a pinch of salt in that.
00:36:14.500
Well, it's, you're training yourself to remember like a hundred grams of salt for, for this
00:36:20.820
And again, when it comes to that, like chicken, it's a lot, it becomes a lot harder to, to
00:36:29.100
Whereas when I, when I weigh stuff and I think, well, 1%, it's very, very easy for me to
00:36:37.460
And then the biggest one for me is like, I love trying to perfect something.
00:36:41.740
And I hear a lot of people like, oh man, I've been making this over and over.
00:36:46.460
When you weigh your ingredients, you really give yourself a great advantage because you
00:36:54.640
Like a little more salt, actually, you can say, well, let's go with 10% more.
00:37:01.720
Like it, I find it to be, if you're serious and you really want to make great food, it'll
00:37:08.240
be one of the steps you can take to, to, to step up your game big time.
00:37:13.540
And I think too, like with baking, measuring by weighing is probably, you'll get a better
00:37:18.720
result if you do that instead of just trying to use the big measuring cups.
00:37:21.800
Like the flour, if you weigh flour from one day to another, a given volume of flour will
00:37:27.920
weigh a different amount because there's more moisture or less moisture.
00:37:30.420
Like the, the volume is just less accurate and less consistent.
00:37:34.240
We talked about it with the salt, all ingredients.
00:37:36.040
Like think about like a cup of chopped strawberries, you know, think of how much spinach when they
00:37:42.040
say like a cup of spinach, think about how much spinach you could jam into a cup.
00:37:45.840
Or if you lightly pack it, it's like one leaf, you know, it's just really, really difficult
00:37:52.420
Like think about the difference in the size, one onion, you know, I've seen onions the size
00:37:57.440
And then you see onions that are the size of like a, you know, like a pebble.
00:38:00.560
It's really difficult to, to maintain consistency without, without weight, which is, you know,
00:38:09.200
Let's talk about some basic kitchen staples that people mess up all the time.
00:38:17.200
I mean, it just seems like you're just putting dry pasta and boiling, boiling.
00:38:23.120
I mean, I feel like, how do people mess up spaghetti?
00:38:28.580
That could be my next book on 100 ways to mess up spaghetti.
00:38:33.440
You know, I think that people don't understand that that whole heat thing we were talking
00:38:38.360
about with the frying pan, like a thicker, heavier frying pan will, you know, have more
00:38:43.400
Well, when you're boiling spaghetti, you want to cook it in rapidly boiling water.
00:38:48.680
So like anything less than that in the spaghetti can be quite gummy.
00:38:56.400
And the way to do that is using enough water that when you add the cold pasta to the boiling
00:39:02.880
water, it doesn't cool it down and stop it from boiling.
00:39:07.040
So like, I think the number one way people mess up pastas, they just cook it in too small
00:39:12.700
You know, there's no amount of water that's too much.
00:39:15.560
For me, it's a gallon a pound is the right, is the right kind of ratio.
00:39:19.020
So if you're using, you should just, you know, and you can't put a gallon in a gallon pot,
00:39:24.020
Because it's going to spill all over the place.
00:39:25.520
So like if I'm doing a pound of pasta, I use an eight quart pot and I put four or five,
00:39:31.480
I bring it to a rapid boil with the cover on, you salt the water to season the pasta.
00:39:36.200
Otherwise your pasta isn't going to get seasoned at all.
00:39:39.160
And you want that, that salt to, you know, the pasta to be seasoned properly.
00:39:45.420
So you cook it one minute less than it says on the package, and then you finish it in whatever
00:39:50.100
sauce you're, you're planning on serving it with so that it absorbs the flavor.
00:39:53.500
That's kind of the, that's kind of the restaurant method for making great pasta,
00:39:57.900
but definitely a lot of very rapidly boiling water.
00:40:02.340
Otherwise you're just never going to come back from that.
00:40:05.340
Is throwing spaghetti at the refrigerator, is that a good way to know if it's ready?
00:40:11.020
My mom is a painter, so I like to just throw it right at her paintings.
00:40:14.280
I mean, you can't, you should not, I have, I have done the spaghetti test.
00:40:18.900
And the reality is if you throw it at the wall and it sticks, it's really overcooked.
00:40:22.380
So if you're going for, if you're going for mushy spaghetti, I think I made honey,
00:40:27.200
boo, boo, child's, uh, skitty recipe with ketchup.
00:40:30.700
And she, she suggests that that was the only time I really tried it and it works.
00:40:39.820
Seems like that's an easy thing to do, you know, put it in a pan, but how do people mess
00:40:45.040
Before we started recording, you were like, you know, I think I'm going to do that like pasta
00:40:53.100
I'm like the, the simpler, the recipe, the fewer ingredients, the more masterful your
00:40:58.140
technique needs to be because the more your, the flaws will show themselves, right?
00:41:02.920
Like when you do something with a hundred steps and a hundred ingredients and you mess
00:41:09.060
When you only have three steps and three ingredients, like each one is really, it's imperative that
00:41:14.160
So like scrambled eggs are a way that a chef can really show off and scrambled eggs are
00:41:19.480
fun and easy and quick, but a slow scramble is, is, is really where it's at.
00:41:23.760
You want to really slowly cook those eggs with more butter than you ever thought you could
00:41:27.920
possibly use in there, mixing them the entire time until they just start to set.
00:41:32.320
And then you can get something that's really special.
00:41:35.520
You know, scrambled eggs are like, it can be a utility food, right?
00:41:39.020
It's like, I need something to eat and I'm hungry and anybody can do it and I can throw
00:41:44.260
it together like cheese and crackers, but they can also be really, really delicious and special
00:41:49.480
if you take a little bit more time and not much more time, but like three minutes instead
00:41:54.580
I, when I cook scrambled eggs in the morning, it's 30 seconds.
00:41:57.540
I'm just looking for, I just need the stuff to stick together.
00:42:00.960
So I can put it in a tortilla and just eat as quickly as can.
00:42:06.000
But we did an article, it was last year about how to make James Bond scrambled eggs.
00:42:11.340
So apparently Ian Fleming, you know, James Bond loves scrambled eggs.
00:42:17.640
And then in one of the, I think the living daylights is a short story about 007.
00:42:23.940
Ian Fleming, he, he loves scrambled eggs as well.
00:42:26.860
And he gave his recipe that he thinks that he ate and that James Bond would probably eat.
00:42:31.400
And the thing that surprised me about it, it was like, he used so much butter.
00:42:37.680
It kind of became this like really rich, creamy thing.
00:42:43.940
I feel like, you know, the recipe in our book has a lot of butter in it and advocates using
00:42:49.920
really good butter for something like scrambled egg, where it's one of the main ingredients.
00:42:53.220
So I'm, I'm going to Ian Fleming, I'm, I'm on his side.
00:43:00.960
What's your take on grilling a nice, juicy steak?
00:43:08.140
So the number one, I've been, I find this a lot and it's kind of a shame.
00:43:12.080
You know, once you learn how important seasoning ahead of time really is, you know, the thicker
00:43:19.280
the piece of meat, the more in advance you need to season it to, for the flavor of salt
00:43:25.000
So like, once you learn that it's really hard to come back from, cause you're like, man,
00:43:30.040
I don't want to cook anything that's that I don't have 24 hours to cook can be really
00:43:34.660
Like I would never, I will, I will not roast a chicken if I can't salt it the day before.
00:43:39.000
It's just not worth it because like, it's just not worth it.
00:43:42.220
The flavor is so much better and the cooking becomes better.
00:43:46.540
So like salting in advance, I salt a steak an hour in advance.
00:43:49.940
I leave it out on my, now depending it, I will often leave it out on the counter and
00:43:56.300
If it's really thick, that'll help me to get a more consistent cook, right?
00:44:00.760
You don't like love that bullseye steak where you get like dark brown gray and then like,
00:44:06.940
So that happens because often it's not rested long enough.
00:44:10.640
That's like, that's probably the number one mistake folks make is the resting period.
00:44:14.840
We can get to that, but the thicker, the piece of meat, the warmer, you kind of want
00:44:20.100
So like if I'm cooking a really thin steak, I want to keep it rare.
00:44:22.900
I keep it in the fridge until I throw it in the pan and that'll keep the center a little
00:44:27.460
cooler while the outside has a time to kind of crisp up.
00:44:31.280
So the temperature control, and then understanding that if you start with, from the fridge or
00:44:35.900
start from on the countertop, that temperature difference will make a big difference in your
00:44:41.920
So be aware of that, like three minutes on each side from the fridge might be right.
00:44:47.180
Might be blood rare, but it might be medium if you're going from, from room temperature.
00:44:50.780
So keep that in mind, but the rest period after I cook a steak is equally as important.
00:45:00.080
So if you cook a steak and then cut into it right away, basically when you cut into your
00:45:04.600
steak and you see, you know, that juice kind of bleeding out onto your cutting board, that
00:45:12.880
And, um, it's really like, uh, I'll rest a Thanksgiving Turkey for an hour, right?
00:45:19.280
Really it needs, it needs 30 to 40 minutes minimum rest time for the temperature to equalize
00:45:27.740
The temperature continues to travel towards the center and then, and the outside cools,
00:45:34.640
the juices redistribute and reabsorb and it gets really moist and delicious.
00:45:41.860
It might only take 10 minutes, but that rest period is just as important as the cooking
00:45:47.500
So give it the time to rest after you're done cooking.
00:45:54.360
If it's about an inch thick and a little less, if it's thinner.
00:45:57.340
Let's just say that, uh, that a, uh, a steak that's, that's half inch to one inch thick should
00:46:01.900
be five to 10 minutes, like, you know, five minutes on a, on a thinner steak and 10 minutes
00:46:09.360
I just go right into, cause like, I don't usually when you're cooking.
00:46:11.860
And steak, I'm like, okay, we're going to have it for Tuesday night dinner and sort
00:46:19.260
But like, if you organize yourself a little bit, like you're like, oh, well, you know,
00:46:23.100
if you think about it, you're like, well, the steak's going to take eight minutes to
00:46:25.440
So like, I'll start at eight minutes before I'm going to start certain, like that air
00:46:28.240
traffic control of how I organize my, my meal prep.
00:46:31.240
But if you just think about it in terms of like eight plus five to rest.
00:46:37.460
And then, you know, you throw the asparagus in after the steak instead of before, and it
00:46:44.040
Is there some place people can go to learn more about the book and your work?
00:46:46.500
If you go to www.foodiq.co.co, you can see my partner, Matt Rodbard's beautiful face.
00:46:56.960
And he's, he's a, he's a really amazing writer.
00:47:02.120
I've been very lucky to get to work with him for tons of years.
00:47:07.620
And you can read and there are recipes to download and stuff to play with.
00:47:11.220
And you can, if you stop by Danny Boy's Pizza in LA, you'll see me there.
00:47:21.660
Thanks so much for your support, for having us.
00:47:29.300
It's available on amazon.com and bookstores everywhere.
00:47:31.460
You can find more information about the book at the website foodiq.co.
00:47:35.740
Also check out our show notes at aom.is slash foodiq.
00:47:45.120
Well, that wraps up another edition of the AOM podcast.
00:47:52.320
Make sure to check out our website at artofmanly.com where you can find our podcast archives,
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as well as thousands of articles written over the years about pretty much anything you think of.
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And if you'd like to enjoy ad-free episodes of the AOM podcast, you can do so on Stitcher Premium.
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Head over to stitcherpremium.com, sign up, use code MANLYS at checkout for a free month trial.
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Once you're signed up, download the Stitcher app on Android iOS, and you can start enjoying ad-free episodes of the AOM podcast.
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And if you haven't done so already, I'd appreciate if you take one minute to give us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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Please consider sharing the show with a friend or family member who you think would get something out of it.
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As always, thank you for the continued support.
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Remind you on the list of AOM podcast, but put what you've heard into action.