ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603130027
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: IRENE SAX/NEWSDAY
Everybody makes mistakes.
New cooks make them through ignorance. They add 2 tablespoons of dried thyme instead of 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme and end up with an overseasoned stew, or substitute diet margarine for butter when baking a cake, then wonder why it didn't work.
Experienced cooks make them through carelessness, trying to do too many things at once. Because I was talking on the phone while I cooked, I didn't notice that the lid wasn't snapped onto the jar of hot red pepper flakes. Instead of a dash of heat, I wound up with the lid and half a jar of flakes floating in the garlic oil that was supposed to go over steamed broccoli.
But there also are mistakes we all make because what we were taught was wrong. Or so says Christopher Kimball, editor and publisher of Cook's Illustrated Magazine, in a booklet called ``25 Common Cooking Mistakes ... And How to Avoid Them.'' (To get it, with a free copy of the magazine, call 800-888-6778.)
``A lot of things we do in the kitchen every day are simply wrong,'' said Kimball. ``They are the holdover techniques that your mother or father or your cooking school instructor taught you 20 years ago, but that just don't hold, because food and equipment have changed. The classic example is scalding milk before you make custard. We were told to do it because unpasteurized milk had an enzyme that kept sauces from thickening, but since pasteurized milk has already been heated, there's no reason for us to heat it a second time.''
Several of the mistakes surprised me, such as the warning not to mix cookie dough with an electric mixer. It seems that an editor at the magazine was at a cooking school where some of the students made cookies by hand and others made them with a mixer. The motorized cookies were overprocessed, thinner and less chewy than those that were made by hand, because the heat and heavy action of the mixer almost liquefied the dough.
What about quick-soaking dried beans? I've done it for years, busily patting myself on the back for using real dried beans instead of canned beans. But according to Kimball, tests at the magazine showed that only an old-fashioned overnight soaking works. Beans that are quick-soaked (put in cold water that's brought to a boil, then allowed to sit in the water, covered, with the heat turned off, for an hour) are no different from those that haven't been soaked at all. I don't know if I take his word for it; I have to test this one myself. I'm afraid that if I have to soak them a day ahead I won't cook beans as often as I do now.
I've long since stopped trying to make Chinese food at home, but I never realized that my mistake was trying to do it in a wok. Round-bottomed woks were designed to use in a heat pit and don't get hot enough when they're held above the flames of a gas burner or barely touch the coils of an electric stove. You're better off using a flat-bottomed skillet for stir-frying, and letting it heat up well before you add food.
I loved the fact that he calls trussing poultry a mistake. I've always felt vaguely guilty that I didn't do it, the way I feel about not balancing my checkbook. But, despite the somewhat risque look of an untrussed bird, Kimball said it's the way to go. When the legs aren't bound close to the body, the dark meat is exposed to heat on all sides and can cook through before the white meat dries out. (He also said that at 180 degrees, the temperature at which pop-up thermometers pop, white meat is overcooked; instead, cook dark meat to 170 degrees and breast meat to 155.)
A few ``cooking mistakes'' were no surprise. It's been years since I proofed yeast before adding it to dough. But in the days before we had reliable yeast, careful cooks waited to see if it would bubble up in warm water to show that it was still active. And I'm glad to find Kimball and I agree that the microwave oven makes a good prep cook but a lousy cook. In fact, he says it cooks only three things well: bacon, polenta and swordfish.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 linesby CNB