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Episode-2190- Jack’s Cooking Hacks and Cheat Codes

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So as many of you know one of my passions in life is cooking.  To me it is more than just food, it’s understanding other cultures and history.  It is chemistry, biology and science as well.  And to me anyway cooking is fun, trying new things, making something simple not just taste good but look amazing.

Take the picture above for instance.  To make that we just took a walk around our property.  We foraged some wild garlic flowers, some lambsquarters, nasturtium, pea tendrils and some veggies from our grow beds.  We made a salad with left over cut up chicken.  Simple, but why does it look so amazing, simply the arrangement.  I can tell you that it also tasted as good as it looked.

So today I want to give away a bunch of what I call me “cheat codes”, these are various ingredients that add amazing flavor with minimal effort.  Additionally I feel if an ingredient is a “cheat code” it has to do more than just what it is intended to do, for instance sure you can make chipolte mayo for a taco with chipolte canned peppers, but you can also make a BBQ sauce for ribs that will blow your mind.

I am also including “Jack Hacks”, little things I have learned over the years to make things work better or to make them easier to do.  Like how about a way to make perfect rice and not even give a damn about how much water you use.  Okay you are going to have to tune in for that.

Join Me Today to Discuss…

  • Why we should make cooking an essential life skill in America
  • Some of my favorite “cheat codes and what to do with them”
  • Some of my hacks
    • Cook rice like you do pasta
    • Infuse rice with flavor
    • Par cook bacon that is going to used to wrap something
    • Always do your marinades or brines in a zip top bag
    • If a marinade has water and oil bases always add mustard
    • Mix marinades in a ball jar
    • Partially freeze any meat you want to grind or slice
    • Steam your hard boiled eggs instead of boiling them (Alton Brown Hack)
    • Grill fruit
    • Use water from re-hydrated veggies
    • Salted Steaks and Salted Squash (how to make zoodles)
    • Salt aging steaks (Alton Brow Hack)
    • Defrost meat on cast iron cookware – yes it works
    • Use cast iron to start or finish sear food on the grill
    • Soak skewers in a water bottle (Another Alton Brown Hack)
    • Cook chicken bones/cores in a strainer (I love this pot and strainer from Ikea)
    • Put a lemon in chicken stock
    • The above also makes a great steamer
    • Cook in the oven with a cooling rack and a baking pan
    • Finally, do put some thought into presentation
  • In the end just try stuff, it will often work out

Resources for today’s show…

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Comments

Episode-2190- Jack’s Cooking Hacks and Cheat Codes — 10 Comments

  1. “I don’t like gourmet cooking or ‘this’ cooking or ‘that’ cooking. I like good cooking.”
    – James Beard

  2. Jack, you are an absolute natural at explaining cooking. These are by far my favorite TSP episodes! Great job!

  4. Jack,

    What kind of pressure cooker do you use for ribs?  The Carey Canner?  How many ribs can you fit in there?  Do you have a link to the steamer rack?

    Thanks!

    • Yes the carey canner, any cooker will do though, there is a rack that comes with it, I just try to keep the ribs above the liquid is all. I have done two full racks and there was likely room for a third, you do have to cut them in half though.

  5. One of my favorite cheats is grape must. I actually tried it first from one of the food box subscriptions and it’s now a staple in my pantry. I use it on eggs, salads, pungent blue cheese on crackers…pretty much anything that calls for a semi-sweet finishing sauce similar to a reduced balsamic vinegar. It also goes by the name Saba in Italian cooking. Here is an Amazon link to an example: Saba

  6. On the steaming eggs to hard boil them, I heartily agree. The only difference is I use a pressure cooker. Just put in your steamer rack, put in the water that your pressure cooker needs (mine is 1 cup, yours may vary) and then set it to high for 5 minutes. When it’s done, do a quick release and put the eggs in some ice water to cool them down. Quick and easy.

  7. On the subject of yogurt cheese, I used Cabot Greek Yogurt to make the Cranberry Walnut Lebnah you talked about for Thanksgiving. It has no pectin but it does have whey and milk protein concentrates added, along with some vitamins. It seemed to work pretty well.

  8. Try adding lump crab, smashed green peppercorns and a little lobster base to your egg drop soup.  Finish it with chopped green onions and a few hard boiled quail eggs.

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