Jack’s Cooking Hacks & Techniques – Epi-3220
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I decided to do one more “new” episode for 2022 and just woke up thinking about cooking and different techniques. Partly due to my episode last week with Texas Slim when we talked about “cattleman feats”. Also due to the approaching holiday meals. Lastly, well I seldom go a day without thinking about cooking in some way as it is one of my true passions.
The key to me is understanding one real thing, “technique trumps recipes” and it does so ever single time. I can give you every ingredient in my creamy garlic sauce down to the measurements of the herbs, it won’t matter, it won’t be right if you don’t follow a very specific set of procedures. Just one example.
Today will be mostly free style. I will include some recipes along with the techniques so they work out right and a bunch of hacks, if that is even the right word for it.
Join Me to Discuss…
- Teach a man how to cook a fish not what to cook it with
- The basics of making soups
- Develop a base (sufrieto, mirepoix, sofrito, soffritto, holy trinity, etc)
- Add liquid
- Develop flavors
- Time the adding of ingredients
- Taste along the way
- Making my creamy garlic sauce (full keto here)
- Saute’ one white onion finally chopped until it starts to brown and develop flavor
- Add 5-10 cloves of garlic and sauté for 5-10 more minutes, lower heat don’t scorch
- Deglaze with 2 cups of chicken stock and one TBS of BTB Chicken, bring to simmer and reduce by half (reduction stage one)
- Now add 1 quart of heavy cream, reduce by 50% again (stage two reduction) watch carefully at first especially
- Uses now that you have it
- Strait on anything you like, it would likely taste good on a napkin
- Use on chicken you are finishing in oven (gets darker and thicker)
- With cauliflower rice (crawfish or shrimp are really nice)
- Add and stir in a cheese like parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano
- What can you think of
- Some simple hacks and go to ingredients
- Cooking rice like pasta (infuse with flavor)
- Short order cook trick for an “over easy” egg
- Get your meat fricken DRY before you sear it
- Finish steaks with a “knob of butter”
- Pork panko bread crumps (use coconut flour or whey protein powder in a dredge)
- Any breaded product let it sit all day before frying, freeze it if it won’t damage the underlying item
- Roasted half smashed potatoes and twice fried fries (potato or sweet potato)
- Sous vide for perfect boiled eggs
- Half a lemon in chicken soup
- Use “finishing salts” like Maldon Smoked Salt, etc
- Add heat with Calibrean Chili Peppers (whole, chopped, dried flake)
- Work with meat (cutting grinding) that is as cold a possible
- Gochujang fermented chili paste
- Learn to make aioli and your own mayo from scratch
- Cold smoke and then sous vide large cuts like pork shoulder, brisket, prime rib, etc. (smoke tube)
- Use mustard on large cuts to make an “herb crust” and Lowry’s Season Pepper really works for this too
- Log your oven’s performance, grill, etc.
- If you ever get a Blackstone Griddle you are going to fall in love with it in time
- Use the best cookware for the job, what I tend to use for what
- Stainless – soups, sauces, basis veg saute’ etc.
- Carbon Steel – high heat searing, eggs, almost everything if a pan is available – what I use
- Cast Iron – Long slow roasting, stewing, etc.
- Anodized Aluminum – great for people not in love with carbon steel maintenance – great option here
- Getting the most from cooking shows
- Your a cook not a chef, you don’t have the equipment and resources they have
- Focus always on technique and procedure (order of things)
- If you make a recipe do it exactly as they did before modification so you know what you have done
- The competition shows are useful but full of “trickery”
- Try to come away with 1-2 things from any episode (technique, ingredient, combination)
- Final Thought – have fun, it isn’t really hard
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- TspAz.com
- TSPC on Discord
- TSPC Group on Telegram (group chat)
- TSPC Telegram Channel (just messages from me)
- Jack on Flote
- Jack on MeWe
- Join Me on Odysee
- All My Recommend Bitcoin Tools and Resources
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon.
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Hey Jack, just a heads up. There’s no ‘s’ sound in the ‘buco’ of ‘ossobuco’
Apart from that, great podcast 🙂
If somebody wants a steak more well done than you want to cook it, after it is cooked, put it in Au Jus. It basically stains the beef so it looks more well done. This is mind over matter. Haha!! The person sees a more “well done” steak and thinks it is more well done. I learned this working at a country club early in my life, when people wanted more well done beef at the carving station.
I actually did this to my daughter in law with a prime rib for Christmas. She is so fuckin picky it is unreal, worries about every spot of fat you can see, etc.
Trimmed her some, soaked in my home made jus and she said, “best she’s ever had”.
I keep telling so many in my family they are screwing themselves with all this mental BS. This works but there are so many food adventures they won’t take. I have to say in general when it comes to food most Americans are boring. Home of the chicken nugget and box mac n cheese, so not surprising.
I’ve learned to never return anything to a restaurant kitchen. I requested a very rare steak to be finished up to medium rare and it was brought back to my table not one bit more cooked, still way too rare, and one bite indicated that it had mopped up the kitchen floor. Never went back there again.