Ten Steps To Delicious

Here are easy things to put into practice

when you’re food shopping and while

you’re in the kitchen that will help make you a better cook.

Market-fresh and seasonal vegetables can carry-over to perfect doneness for great taste and texture. (Photo by Melissa McArdle)

The satisfaction gained from making something to eat is in large part due to the choices we make in the market. At home, even the simplest of preparations deserves care throughout the process. The following bits of insight and advice will help bridge the two. With regularity all will become second nature.

It Is What It Eats

Just like the adage, “you are what you eat” the same is true for every ingredient that is grown or harvested. For example, grass-fed beef tastes much different than from grain-fed. The flavor of farmed seafood is a result of controlled and manipulated feeding versus wild caught fish. Vegetables grown in volcanic soil or by dry-farming are much more robust and pungent than those grown in hot houses. The yolks of common European eggs are thicker and yellower than America eggs in part because corn and marigolds are added to the chicken feed.

When one of the goals of preparing food at home is for great taste some of the cooking is already done when you choose ingredients that have been fed well. Sustainable farming, careful soil management, and responsible husbandry all contribute to what something will taste like and how nutritious it is. This should inspire the choices you make while food shopping.

Grading and Processing

Grading and processing has an effect on taste and texture. The marbling of “Choice” and “Prime” grade meats make them juicier and more tender than the “Select” grade that is commonly found in chain supermarkets. There is a difference between meat, poultry, and seafood that comes pre-cut and boxed from packing plants versus that which is cut and portioned at the store. “Previously frozen” seafood can be fine as long as the catch was flash frozen at sea and at the store it was properly defrosted. Conventional fruit and vegetables are generally cultivated and packed for transit and not necessarily for how they taste.

In the stores if there’s the opportunity to steer away from commodity products look for meat, poultry, and seafood from branded ranches and farms that practice sustainability. Ask a store worker or do a quick search on your smartphone to learn about them. More and more are showing in the cases these days. In the produce department keep an eye out for organic, “transitional” fruit and vegetables, or those graded and sold as “XF” for extra fancy. Just remember organic doesn’t always mean local or fresh.

Handling

The flavor of a fresh ingredient is affected by how it’s been processed, treated, and handled at the source, through distribution, and in the store or market where you shop. Time in transit, storage, temperature and humidity changes, removal from original packaging, portioning, arranging for the display, and how long it’s been on a shelf or in the case can all diminish taste.

As soon as something is cut or separated it starts to oxidize. The movement of cold air in a refrigerator is like a slow-acting dryer. Too much misting in the produce department is not good for fruit and vegetables. Oftentimes, the best looking meat, poultry, and seafood is presented at the customer side of the case. The items that have to get out of the store first are at the seller’s side.

While food shopping, stick to items in abundance that look like they were recently put in the shelves, trays, or bins versus grabbing what’s left in a quasi-empty section or there’s been a lot of picking over on either side of a refrigerated case. At a counter be polite but clear with the folks in the store and point to what you want. And when asking questions along the lines of how fresh something is, it’s better to ask when it arrived instead of posing a question that will beckon the programmed “yes” response like, “Did that just come in today?”

Ultimately the less time and handling it takes for a fresh ingredient to get from it’s source, through your kitchen, and to the dining room table the better.

IN season

Generally it stands to reason when there’s bright colors and pleasant odors those items will most likely taste good. There are always things in their prime at a particular time of year. It’s much more interesting and cost effective to look forward and binge on something while it’s at its best then move to the next rather than taking it for granted all is available all of the time. To me, the later turns excitement into complacency.

Public, open air, or farmer’s markets, roadside stands, and food magazine covers at the checkout lane of the grocery store provide plenty of clues to what’s in synch with the growing calendar. Asparagus and artichokes in spring followed by rhubarb and cherries. Then it’s tomatoes, corn, peppers, eggplant, berries, and stone fruit in summer. It’s all about squash, mushrooms, apples, and persimmons in autumn. The cold months bring root vegetables, leafy greens, and citrus. You can even traverse the country from Georgia, through Texas, to Washington State, then to Hawaii with different varieties of onions. These are just some examples.

Seek out the most brilliant, lively, colorful, fragrant, and firm looking fresh foods in season.

Read also: Ravenous Food Shopping

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Vacuum-sealed Packaging

A day before cooking remove vacuum-sealed ingredients out of the packaging and let them air-dry overnight in the refrigerator. Blot them with a paper towel to rid any liquid that surrounded them. Keep them on a tray lightly draped with a clean and dry paper towel. The item will be able to breath, lose the funky odor that occurs in the sealed packaging environment, regain color, and dry out just enough so that when you sear or roast you’re on a path to a crispy outside surface. This is especially important for meat, poultry, and seafood.

Defrosting

A food item that was “blast frozen” or “individually quick frozen” (IQF) immediately after harvest and processing then kept below freezing temperature during the trip from origin to store is a safe form of preservation. Unfortunately there is a little loss of color, flavor, and tenderness in the process.

Rushed defrosting and excessive handling at home will make matters worse. Ice crystals can pierce cells that in turn cause too much water loss while the item defrosts. When cooked these ingredients will end up dry, tough, loose some color and taste.

When buying frozen ingredients there is one hard and fast rule for defrosting: always, always, always defrost over time in the refrigerator with minimal handling. The slow process of bringing the product out of its frozen state will yield the best results.

Tempering

Tempering is when you take meat, poultry, and seafood out of the refrigerator for a period of time before cooking to reduce or eliminate the chill. It allows for even cooking so the results are tender and juicy.

Give at least a half hour and depending on the size, weight, or thickness of the pieces more time may be needed. One to two inch thick cuts of meat may need an hour or so. A seven bone prime rib roast will need at least an hour and a half. Fish and poultry anywhere from a half hour to an hour. The Food and Drug Administration says two hours should be the maximum for all food out of refrigeration.

When something is tempered it will cook in less time because there’s less chill throughout. Also, placing a tempered piece of meat or fish in a pan or on the grill helps to keep the cooking surface hot. The surface must stay hot in order to get a proper sear or nice browning.

Doneness

Another basic but important part of cooking is doneness. When something is cooked for exactly the right amount of time it’s “done to a turn.” For meat it’s rare, medium rare, and all the other steps to a proper well done. Seafood must be moist and juicy instead of dry or have the texture of balsa wood. Vegetables have that perfect place where they’re not too firm or not overcooked to the point where they’re mushy and flavorless. Dried beans and legumes are at their best when cooked to an even, creamy texture. Getting it right with al dente pasta is a conversation in and of itself.

A common question is, “How long do I cook this?” I don’t want to sound like a wise-ass but a typical chef’s answer is, “Until it’s done.” There are many variables that influence, indicate, or give signals for how much time it’s going to take to get to the perfect place of doneness to your liking. There’s the method of cooking. There’s the temperature of the heat source, your cookware, and of the food itself. There’s the size, weight, and volume of what you’re making. There’s what you see, what you hear, what you feel, and what you smell. Even the weather can affect how long it will take. All of these will change from day to day.

The process of cooking is a duo of live action with improvisation. All it takes is a little finesse, undivided attention, and awareness among your senses to get there every time you cook. The next two steps are equally important.

Carryover

Because of the heat absorbed by anything being cooked there will always be what’s called “carryover”. This means the food item will continue to cook after it is removed from the heat. Just like your car will continue to roll on a flat road when you take your foot off the gas the same happens with food. The hotter the internal temperature is of whatever you are making, the longer it will continue to cook— carryover— and as a result, more doneness. This happens with meats, fish, poultry, vegetables, pasta, toasted nuts, cakes— everything.

For meats, poultry, and seafood it’s helpful to use a good quality thermometer to take out the guesswork. The internal temperature for when something is done to your preference shows itself after what you’re making has had a chance to rest away from the heat source for five to ten minutes.

Therefore, pull what you’re making away from the pan, oven, griddle, or grill before it reaches the temperature or degree of doneness you want. Your food should be able to carryover to that perfect place. Remember, the more internal temperature, the more carryover. At the far end of the scale a steak or chop can carryover to well done. This is much better than blasting it with a copious amount of heat and cooking until it’s tough and dry or in line cook speak, to “hammer it”.

Vegetables, legumes, pasta, and rice carryover from both their internal temperatures and the steam that continues to keep them hot when they are taken out of the cooking medium. Use this to your advantage by removing them a couple of minutes or so they can carryover to the doneness you are after. Large pieces will carryover more than small. You will also have much more flavorful results than trying to stop the cooking by shocking the vegetables in icy water then cooking again. Go for flavor and don’t waste ice!

Carryover is a large part of the cooking process. It will almost be intuitive when you get comfortable with it.

Resting

“Let the meat rest!” is what every cooking teacher will tell you after removing a steak, chop, or roast from the heat. Resting allows the juices to dissipate and get absorbed from the center of whatever you’re making toward the outside for moist and tender results. When you cut or slice without resting those precious juices will be all over your cutting board and you’ll have dryness on your plate.

Remember, carryover happens while resting occurs. For most single serve size pieces of meat and poultry, five to ten minutes or so will suffice. I give a whole roasted chicken at least twenty minutes to rest. Depending on size, large roasts can rest from twenty minutes to as much as forty-five minutes. Thick fish filets only need a few minutes or so before serving.

Don’t forget to add the tempering and resting time to your planning for when to start cooking. If it will be ten to twelve minutes to cook a one-pound New York strip steak to medium rare, add an hour for tempering and five or so minutes for resting. So if you plan on serving that steak at 8:00 pm, take it out of the refrigerator at 6:40 pm. To help with time management, use the tempering time to preheat the oven or get the grill hot and make a side dish.