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How To Make a Dark Cajun Roux

Dark roux cooling on a plate.
Dark Cajun Roux for Gumbo and Etouffee

What Is A Roux?

A roux (pronounced “Roo”) is a kitchen staple used to thicken a beef bourguignon, your grandma’s gravy, and a cajun gumbo. It is made by cooking flour with fat, usually butter or oil. In French cuisine, flour and butter are cooked together briefly until pale blond in color. This roux thickens without adding hardly any flavor. In Cajun cuisine, flour and oil are cooked together until a dark chocolatey color. This roux not only thickens but adds a toastiness to the dish that is the cornerstone of cajun flavor. A dark roux is the secret ingredient to a good gumbo, etouffee, and tomato gravy. Its that “spice” you cannot place. Its toasty bitterness acts similarly to dark chocolate in a good mole sauce.

A dark roux can take up to an hour of near-constant stirring. You can make a roux in the pot you are using to make gumbo and then add your cajun mirepoix (onion, celery, and green bell pepper) directly to it. However, it is such an investment of time, and focus to make a good dark cajun roux, that I prefer to make up a large batch ahead of time and add it to my gumbo towards the end of cooking. One batch of roux can make many batches of gumbo or etouffee and will keep in the refrigerator indefinitely.

Stages of a Roux

As a roux cooks it passes through several different stages of color and flavor. A white roux has a neutral flavor. A blond roux is buttery in flavor. A peanut butter-colored roux smells like popcorn. A copper-colored roux is rich and toasty. A chocolate-colored roux is dark and mysterious like voodoo magic; as hard to attain as it is to describe. A roux can go from perfect to burnt in a matter of seconds. It takes almost a trancelike focus to make a chocolate roux. It is a meditation.

This may sound intimidating, and it is. I’m not going to lie to you; I have burnt many large batches of roux after an hour invested in close supervision and stirring. Roux splatter burns are no joke either (use a long wooden spoon and wear long sleeves). The good news is that you can stop at a safer peanut butter or copper-colored roux (many chefs do), and still make an excellent gumbo or tomato gravy. You can work up to the chocolate-colored stage and with time and practice, you will achieve a perfect dark cajun roux.

Secret Tip to Making A Cajun Roux

The basic ratio to any roux is 1:1 oil to flour. As a roux cooks, it loses its thickening power and may separate out in your dish. If storing roux for later uses, you may find you have split roux with the oil on top. You can pour or scrape off this oil or you can add more flour at the very end of cooking, which is what I usually do. Adding more flour at the end replenishes depleted thickening power and ensures a velvety sauce that doesn’t have a layer of oil on the top. The roux is so hot at this point that the flour cooks instantly you don’t have to worry about any raw flour flavor compromising your perfectly toasty cajun roux. My final ratio is closer to 2:3 oil to flour.

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Dark Cajun Roux on plate

How To Make a Dark Cajun Roux

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  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Cook Time: 45-60 minutes
  • Total Time: 45-60 minutes
  • Yield: 4 cups 1x
  • Category: Kitchen Staple
  • Method: Stove top
  • Cuisine: Cajun
  • Diet: Vegan
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Description

This dark roux is the cornerstone of Cajun Cuisine and is used to thicken and flavor gumbo, etouffee, tomato gravy, and beef gravy.

Ingredients

Scale

2 cups oil (with a high smoke point)

3 cups flour

Instructions

In a heavy bottom pan, stir together 2 cups flour and 2 cups oil.  Set a metal pan or container that holds 1 qt or more near by. 

Turn heat to medium and cook stirring every minute or so with a wooden spoon, making sure to get to the corners of the pan, until the roux reaches a peanut butter color and starts to smell like popcorn.

At this point, reduce the flame to low (2 out of 10 on your dial).  Stir constantly.

Continue cooking until your roux passes through the copper-colored stage and becomes a dark chocolate color.  Or stop at the copper-colored stage if you are unable to give your absolute full attention to it.  Your roux will become thick and chalky looking at this point.  That’s normal.  When you take it off the heat and let it sit it will become smooth and glossy again.

As soon as you reach your desired darkness, stir in another 1/2 – 1 cup flour.  This will add thickening power to your roux and drop the temperature a bit.  Carefully pour the roux into the metal container that you set nearby at the beginning of this process to prevent overcooking.

When the roux has cooled down a bit but is still soft, transfer this roux to a sterilized glass jar for long-term storage.

To use this roux, add 1 tablespoon at a time to a simmering liquid (gumbo, gravy, etc) while whisking until you reach your desired thickness.

Notes

CAUTION: Your roux will be incredibly hot and if it splatters on you it will stick to your skin.  Use a long wooden spoon, turn your pot handle in so it isn’t overhanging your stove, and be really careful stirring.  If you have little kids, do this at a time they won’t be hanging around with you in the kitchen.

If you try to transfer your hot roux directly to a glass jar without letting it cool a bit, thermal shock will likely cause your jar to crack and break and create a hot mess in your kitchen.

How To Cook Meat Part 2: Slow Roast, Smoke, Braise and Confit

When the temperatures outside drop, there is nothing I crave more than a pot of slow-braised meat. Whether it’s beef bourguignon, braised lamb shank or osso bucco, there is simply nothing better on a cold winter’s day than coming home to a house that is filled with the smells of cooking and warmed from the oven.

I spent a decade as a meat processor, charcutier, chef, and caterer. I consider meat cookery my specialty and the low-and-slow methods described in this post are my favorite to make. I love the transformation of ingredients, the layers of flavor, and the richness of the dishes produced by Slow Roasting, Smoking, Braising, and Cooking en Confit. I also love the practicality of being able to start a dish in the morning, focus on other things all day, and have it done for dinner time. Or to be able to cook large quantities of meat for a party the day or two before the event, reheat it, and not worry about it getting overcooked or dried out while it sits in the chafing dish.

This post does not contain recipes. This is a cooking lesson, an overview, guidelines, that can be applied to any dish you plan to make with these methods. There are links to recipes, so check those out for more specifics.

In How To Cook Meat Part 1, you learned about the “High Heat – Low Temp” methods of cooking meat: Grilling, Roasting, Sautéeing, Frying, and The Reverse Sear. In all of these methods, you use a high cooking temperature to achieve a relatively low target meat temperature between 120-165 F depending on the cut and your personal preferences. In these methods, you rely on the Maillard effect of browning for flavor.

Here, in Part 2, I will teach you how to Slow Roast, Smoke, Braise, and Confit. These Low Heat-High Temp methods rely on building and layering flavors throughout the cooking process. Low cooking temperatures over an extended time bring the meat up to a relatively high target meat temperature of 185 F or above. These methods are easy, dare I say “foolproof”? They utilize economical, tough cuts of meat and achieve more complex flavors in the final product. You will not need a probe thermometer or any other gadget to achieve perfection. The secret ingredient with these methods is time.

Part 2: Low Heat – High Temp Cooking.

Slow Roasting, Smoking, Brasing, and Confit

Low Heat – High Temp Cooking is what we use to achieve meat that is fall-off-the-bone tender. Think pot roast, pulled pork, delicious smoked pork ribs, duck leg confit, braised lamb shanks, chashu pork for ramen, and osso bucco.

The methods used for this type of cooking can be dry heat (roasting or smoking) or wet heat (braising, confit) but the goal is the same. What defines this type of cooking is the goal of reaching an internal temperature between 180-205 F; the point at which connective tissue breaks down into gelatin.

These cuts are tough and full of collagen-rich connective tissue. At temperatures above 180 F, this collagen turns into gelatin and melts into the meat fibers and the broth that make up the braising liquid giving the finished dish the quality of being full-bodied and deeply savory.

The long cooking times of 4-12+ hours ensure adequate duration for the osmosis of salt and flavor to occur throughout the cut of meat. Creating a dish that is fully seasoned all the way through.

Let’s get started…

Tough fatty cuts of meat with mirepoix vegetables. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Step 1: Select and Prep your meat

These are comfort foods. The cuts best suited to these low-and-slow methods are tough and economical cuts, a selection that harkens back to the days when we used whole animals butchered on the farm:

  • shanks and hocks
  • knuckles
  • Osso Bucco (shank cross-sections)
  • oxtail
  • neck
  • pork shoulder
  • chuck roasts
  • pigs feet and ears
  • Poultry legs
  • Whole birds
  • pork belly
  • ribs
  • brisket
  • bottom sirloin flaps

Once you have selected your cut, salt (or cure) the meat. Ideally, 1-2 days ahead of time, using about 3-4 grams (or 1 heaping teaspoon of Diamond Crystal) salt per pound and whatever other spices you would like to use. If you are curing your meat, follow a recipe and the specific timeline in it. For braises, I keep the seasoning simple. Usually, I simply salt the meat ahead of time, and then I add all the other flavors to the braising pot during the cook. For roasts and smoked meat, I use flavorful rubs. Here are some of my favorite flavor combos:

For Pork or Chicken

  • brown sugar
  • salt
  • pepper
  • ancho
  • mustard powder
  • minced onion
  • minced garlic
  • squeezed orange/lemon/lime
  • oil
  • achiote paste
  • salt
  • pepper
  • cumin
  • toasted fennel seed
  • black pepper
  • lemon/orange zest and slices
  • sage
  • rosemary
  • garlic
  • red pepper flakes (optional)
  • herbs de Provence
  • honey
  • black pepper
  • garlic (fresh or powder)
  • mustard (powder or prepared)

For Beef, Lamb, and Venison

  • Rosemary (ground or fresh)
  • Garlic (powder or fresh)
  • Mustard (powder or prepared)
  • Black pepper
  • Pepper
  • Garlic
  • Citrus Zest (optional)

Once seasoned, leave the meat uncovered in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. A longer time is best for larger cuts. Just before cooking, pat your meat dry with a piece of paper towel. Don’t rub all the seasoning off, just gently pat away any excess liquid. Leaving the meat uncovered to dry will help it absorb the smoke flavor by forming a pellicle if you are smoking it, and if you are roasting it or browning it before a braise, it will help to sear the outside.

Step 2: Cook Your Meat

Whether you are using dry heat or a wet heat cooking method there are 3 very basic and intuitive concepts to keep in mind.

  • The lower your cooking temperature, the slower your cook time. Conversely, the higher your cooking temperature, the faster your cook time will be.
  • The internal temperature of the meat will never be higher than your cooking temperature. So, if your finishing temperature goal for a smoked brisket is 205 F, you could in theory set the smoker to 205 F for 48 hours and still end up with a brisket that is 205 F. Now, at that length of cooking time, it may be dryer than you want it and you may have blown through $100 in smoker pellets, but the temperature would be 205 F.
  • The larger the piece of meat, the longer your cooking time will be. Stew meat cut into 1-inch cubes will cook much faster than a 4 lb piece of chuck roast.
  • The meat is done when it pulls cleanly away from the bone (if bone-in) and when a fork inserted into the meat pulls out effortlessly with no resistance.

With all of these methods, the meat will pass slowly through the temperature range of 90-130 F. At these temperatures, enzymatic processes speed up and have a tenderizing effect similar to dry aging meat.

How to Slow Roast

This is a dry heat method in which meat is cooked in the oven with temperatures set to 180-325. This is a good method for large fatty cuts like beef short ribs, baby back ribs, pork belly, and brisket. Anything you would cook slowly on a smoker can be cooked slowly in an oven. The only difference will be the smoke flavor or lack thereof.

You can literally just throw a well-seasoned piece of meat on a sheet pan at a low temperature (180-200), forget about it for most of the day, and end up with a mouth-watering final product for dinner, but if you want to put in a minimal amount of effort for maximum return, you may choose to wrap the meat in tin foil once it has achieved a browning of the exterior, perhaps with sauce, cut onions and other vegetables that will be served alongside it. Putting a water reservoir in the oven will help keep the meat from drying out.

How to Smoke Meat

Smoked Pork Ribs, sprinkled with green onion on a plate.
Fall-off-the-bone perfectly smoked ribs!

You can use your smoker for high-heat methods covered in Part 1 or for low-and-slow cooking. But in this section, I’m talking about low-and-slow smoking with cooking temperatures between 180-325.

I use a Traeger Smoker and Grill and I love it. I use it all the time. But no matter which smoker you have, the principles here will be the same. Just follow your specific smoker instructions for the preheating and pellet/wood requirements.

You will get the most “Smoke” at the lower end of this temperature range. I always start smoking at 180-200 for several hours, then turn the smoker up to 250-325 F for several more hours to finish the meat off. For ribs, pork butt, or brisket, I wrap them in tinfoil at the time I turn the temperature up. There’s a lot of debate out there on whether or not to wrap the meat, so play around with it and see which method you like best. I wrap mine.

You can smoke a large piece of meat like a pork butt or brisket overnight at 180-200 F and then continue cooking it all day at those temperatures for an 18-24 hours smoke. The result would be an amazing smokey and tender delicious piece of perfection. I typically do not do this because occasionally, when my smoker is in the lowest temperature range and especially when it is very cold outside, it will turn itself off. If this happened overnight, you could end up holding a large piece of meat in the danger zone for many hours and lose a lot of time on your cooking and possibly the whole thing. Or if you live in colder climates, you could wake up to find a frozen solid piece of meat on your smoker.

FOOD SAFETY NOTE: If you do smoke meat overnight, make sure it is a whole muscle that has not been rolled and tied (NOT meatloaf, uncured sausages, porchetta or pancetta, or stuffed pork loin). The long amount of time that the meat will be in the danger zone could create the conditions for botulism poisoning in some products. Make sure your pellets are fully stocked so you don’t run out in the middle of the night.

You might be thinking that this is all very vague and “how long do I smoke a pork shoulder for pulled pork?”. You want specifics! I get it. Truth be told though, it just depends. The flexibility and intuitive nature of these methods are what I love most about them.

For instance, you can cook a pork shoulder for pulled pork in 8 hours around 250-300 degrees or you can cook it for 12 hours at 180 for the first half and 225 for the second half. If your cooking temperature is the same as the target meat temperature, you really can’t overcook it. You can however undercook it and that is the biggest mistake people make with these types of cuts. You know the meat is done when the meat has pulled away cleanly from the bone and a fork inserted in it meets little or no resistance.

If it’s 3 pm and you just realized you want to cook ribs or pot roast for dinner, resist. You are better off just salting it and waiting till tomorrow to cook it…. or using an Instapot.

How to Braise

With braising, you submerge the meat in a cooking liquid and cook it just below the boiling point (185-212 F depending on elevation) for 3+ hours. Braising is my favorite method. It is the intersection of meat cookery and soup making. Two of my favorite things to do. All summer I look forward to cooler weather so I can start braising again. I love that I can start a braise in the morning before my kids are up, all day long it will fill my house with the tempting smells of the dinner to come. In the afternoon I’ll add some vegetables and by 6pm I’ll have a deeply satisfying meal with layers of complex flavors on the table all with relatively little effort. Often a one-pot meal.

With low and slow dry heat methods you want to use fatty cuts, with braising you can use cuts that are leaner but still full of connective tissue and if there’s bone marrow in them, that’s a plus. The cuts I use most often for braising are lamb shanks, pork or beef osso bucco, and chuck roasts. Other cuts that work well are poultry legs, short ribs, and ham.

As with all of these methods, there is a lot of room for flexibility and variation, but these are some general steps to achieving a perfect braise:

  1. Salt and season your meat. Let sit and dry (uncovered in the fridge) for 1-2 days.
  2. In your brazier or dutch oven, thoroughly brown the meat on all sides in oil, fat, or butter at medium-low heat. The tendency is to skip over this part or to do it quickly. This is really the only browning you’ll be getting, and that flavor is essential to the final dish. I’ll spend 20 minutes browning a pot roast.
  3. Remove the meat and add the vegetables and aromatics you will use to season the broth. These vegetables will be discarded or will just melt into the broth. These are not the vegetables you will be serving alongside your meat. I will typically add some combination of onions, garlic, tomato paste, dried chilis, and sometimes carrots and celery that I will later strain out. Sauté these until you get some caramelization.
  4. Stir in about 1/2 cup – 1 cup of liquid to deglaze the pan. Brandy, whiskey, wine, beer, sake, vodka, and vermouth all work well. Reduce this by half. You could also skip this step.
  5. Add the meat back in. Add water, broth, tomato sauce, other liquid seasonings to come 1/2-3/4 up the meat. Add more salt, spices and herbs. Heat this liquid to a low simmer.
  6. Transfer the pot to the oven. If cooking at 250 F or above, leave the lid ajar or off. If cooking between 180-250 F, cover it with the lid.
  7. About 1-2 hours before you plan on removing the meat from the oven, add the vegetables that you would like to serve alongside it. Some combination of these: small potatoes, carrots, celery, peppers, turnips, parsnips, beets, mushrooms, onion, leek, cabbage, and fennel. Leaving the vegetables in large pieces will allow them to cook for 1-2 hours. Dicing them small, they will only need to cook for about 30 minutes. The more vegetables you add, the more it will drop the temperature of the broth and slow the cooking down.
  8. Once the meat is fork-tender, remove the dish from the oven. Let the meat rest in the liquid for 20 minutes or longer before serving it. Cool and store the leftovers in the liquid.

How to Cook en Confit

Confit is a method of poaching seasoned or cured meat in fat! Sounds amazing huh? It is! Even more amazing is how practical it is. The cooked meat is cooled in the fat that it is cooked in. The fat forms an airtight seal that preserves the meat for months under refrigeration. In fact, it “ripens” and develops more complex flavors in the weeks after it is made. To use the confit, you simply grab a piece of the meat from the vat that it is being stored in, put it in a skillet, and brown it off in the oven or on the stovetop.

Duck leg confit is the most well-known confit and it’s one that I made often during my time as owner/chef of The Farm Table. I was once told by a customer that my duck confit rivaled Bouchon’s, a Thomas Keller restaurant. That was one of the best compliments I have ever received!

You can confit anything. I’ve made many variations of pork belly confit, tuna in olive oil confit, and turkey confit…. Generally, you make confit out of small, individual portions of meat. Tough cuts of meat you will cook low-and-slow to break down the connective tissue. Leaner and more tender cuts (like turkey breast or tuna) you may cook to a lower internal temperature between 140-165 F.

60 lbs of Duck confit, hot out of the oven.

Cooking en confit will produce an incredibly silky, flavorful meat. Aside from the decadence of meat prepared this way, there are also some very practical benefits to this method. You can make a big batch of duck legs or pork belly, and then have it on hand for the weeks or months that follow for a quick, ready-made “prepared” food for busy weeknight dinners.

You can make a big batch of meat ahead of an event and reduce your prep the day of. In the past, I’ve made turkey confit for Thanksgiving. The turkey was done the week before the main feast, making the prep for the rest of the meal a cinch. The turkey only took about 20 minutes to reheat and the skin was super crispy and delicious.

Another benefit is all of the by-products that you end up with. The first one is aspic. This is a concentrated, heavily seasoned jelly that can be stirred into broths, potted meats, paté, or warm vinaigrettes. The other byproduct is seasoned fat. Whether duck fat or olive oil, it can be reused to sauté or drizzle on bread or make the next batch of confit. You can use the same fat for several batches of confit until it becomes too salty. I once had a meal in Missoula, MT in which the restaurant made a “tomato” confit with sage and then used the sage-y olive oil as a bread dip with fresh cracked black pepper. It was simple and surprising and nearly 15 years later I still remember it.

These are the steps to making confit:

  1. 2-4 days before cooking, season the meat with about 8 grams of salt per pound (or 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal Salt) plus any other seasonings you would like. Garlic, whole black peppercorns, cloves, fresh thyme on the sprig, sage leaves, rosemary, etc. If you are making a big batch and plan on storing it for more than a couple of weeks, you may want to use curing salt as well. 1 gram per pound. Leave the spices whole, garlic crushed (not minced), and fresh herbs on the stem. This makes it much easier to rinse them off later.
  2. Halfway through the seasoning time, turn the meat over so the meat on the bottom is now on the top and redistribute the brine (salty juices) that has formed in the bottom of the container.
  3. At the end of the seasoning time, rinse the spices off of the meat and allow the pieces to dry on a rack, or by patting dry with a paper towel.
  4. In an oven-proof container, place the meat in a single layer or double layer. If you can’t fit it all in two layers, you need to use a larger container. You want the meat to fit snug in the container. The more empty space you have, the more fat you will need to cover the meat. This adds to the cost.
  5. Preheat the oven to 180-200 F.
  6. In a saucepan, heat the oil or fat to about 150-200 degrees. Keep in mind that the fat won’t” boil”. If you heat it to the point where there is a lot of movement in the fat, you are probably close to 350 F and it will fry and splatter in the next step.
  7. Pour the hot fat over the meat. It needs to completely cover the meat. How much oil you need will depend on the size of the container and how tightly packed the meat is. As a general guide though plan on 1 quarts of fat for every 5 lbs of meat. Gently slide a spatula or wooden spoon down the sides of your oven-proof container to get the air bubbles out.
  8. Cook the meat in fat, uncovered, in the oven until done. I cook duck legs at an oven temperature of 180 F for approximately 12 hours (overnight). For pork belly confit, 8 hours at 200 F or 4 hours at 250 F works well.
  9. Remove the meat from the oven. Set a strainer over a storage container. Use a turkey baster, suck up all the aspic from the bottom of the container, and squirt it through the strainer into the storage container. You may need to prop the confit dish up at an angle by placing a rolled-up towel under one end. Or see the note below and skip this step.
  10. Allow the meat to cool in the fat. Refrigerate it until ready to use.
  11. To use the confit, grab pieces out of the vat using clean gloved hands or sanitary utensils. Reheat. You can also make easy rillettes (potted meat spread) using confit, aspic, and fat.
  12. Place the vat back in the oven for a couple of minutes to melt the fat and reseal the confit. If you use olive oil, this step isn’t necessary.

NOTE: You may choose to transfer your meat to a different (sterile) storage container or vacuum seal it in user-friendly portions. If you do, simply transfer the meat to the container or vacuum seal bag once cooled to room temperature, and ladle the fat off the top to cover the meat in the new container. In a vacuum-sealed bags, you only need about 1/2 cup of fat in each bag. If you do this carefully, the aspic will stay on the bottom and when you have transferred all the meat, you can pour the rest of the liquid through a sieve and reserve it for another use.

Low Heat-High Temp Recap

In High Heat-Low Temp cooking you are trying to reach an internal temperature between 120 F-165 F. In the low-and-slow cooking methods of Low Heat-High Temp cooking you are striving to reach an internal cooking temperature between 180 F-205 F. Notice that nothing good happens between 166-184 F., This is the dead zone. If you missed hitting 165 F on your roast chicken, you might as well open a bottle of wine, put your feet up and let it keep cooking until it reaches 185 F.

You don’t need a thermometer to know when meat cooked this way is done. There are visual tests. It’s done when the meat pulls cleanly away from the bone (when bone in). Chicken legs will wiggle easily in the hip socket. And a fork inserted into the meat meets little to no resistance and pulls out easily.

The best cuts to use for slow cooking are tough, economical cuts with lots of fat and connective tissue. No matter the method of cooking, meat should always be seasoned in advance to allow the salt to permeate the whole cut of meat. And the meat should be dry when you start cooking it.

Don’t rush it! With these methods, the worst thing you can do is undercook the meat.

Turkey Leg Confit – Make Ahead for an Easy Thanksgiving Day

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

Turkey confit is an indulgent preparation that turns a humble bird into a culinary masterpiece. Unlike the roasted turkey that graces many holiday tables, turkey confit is cooked slowly in fat (preferably duck fat), resulting in meat that is incredibly tender, moist, and infused with flavor. In this post, I’ll guide you through the steps of making turkey confit and share why this dish is so extraordinary.

What is Turkey Confit?

The word ‘confit’ is derived from the French word ‘confire’, which means “to preserve”. The confit cooking method was originally a means of preservation in the days before refrigeration. Meats were salted and then cooked at a low temperature in fat, and subsequently stored in that fat, creating an oxygen-free environment (before canning was discovered) unsuitable for most bacterial growth (see note below). Long ago, a family would keep a large vat of confit (game birds, chicken, pork, rabbit and even fish) in the larder and pull a piece or two as needed for a meal over a period of months.

Turkey confit, therefore, is turkey legs that have been seasoned, and then slowly cooked in fat at a low temperature. The result is a dish that’s incredibly rich and fall-off-the-bone tender.

Why Turkey Confit is Amazing

  1. Texture: The slow cooking process tenderizes the turkey meat to perfection. The meat is soft and can be easily shredded but with a slight crispness to the skin that is utterly delightful.
  2. Flavor: Cooking turkey in its own fat or a mixture of fats allows the flavors to marry and intensify over the hours of cooking, creating a depth of flavor that roasting often can’t match.
  3. Versatility: Turkey confit can be used in a variety of dishes – from sandwiches and salads to tacos, breakfast hash, and pasta. It’s not just for Thanksgiving!
  4. Preservation: While not as necessary today, confit is an excellent method for preserving turkey. The fat used for cooking acts as a seal that can keeps oxygen from reaching the meat the meat and spoiling it. This means that you can prep your Turkey legs for Thanksgiving well in advance and pop them in a hot oven 30 minutes before the meal for utterly perfect, fall-of-the bone, crispy-skinned turkey legs.
  5. Simplicity: Despite the lengthy prep and cooking time, the process is very hands-off. Once the turkey is prepped and in the oven, it requires little attention.

How to Make Turkey Confit

Making turkey confit is a simple yet rewarding process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to making your own.

Ingredients:

  • Turkey legs (thighs and drumsticks)
  • Salt
  • Sugar
  • Curing Salt (optional)
  • Herbs and Spices

Instructions:

  1. Seasoning Turkey: Weigh the turkey legs to calculate your salt and sugar. Use 10 grams salt (including Curing Salt#1 if using) and 2.5 grams sugar/brown sugar per pound plus herbs and spices as you like. Mix all the seasonings in a bowl first and then rub the turkey legs all over. The salt not only seasons the meat but also acts to draw out moisture, which helps in the preservation process. Don’t skimp on this part – the salt is crucial for both flavor, texture and food safety.
  2. Resting: Once seasoned, lay the legs in a single layer in a dish, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Let them sit for 3 days, turning over once during this time. This resting period allows the salt to penetrate the meat and work its magic.
  3. Rinsing: After the resting period, rinse the turkey legs under cold water to remove excess salt and pat them dry with paper towels.
  4. Preparing the Fat: Heat your chosen fat in a pot that’s just large enough to fit the turkey legs in a single layer. Warm the fat over medium heat until very warm 185-220 F (not frying temps).
  5. Cooking the Turkey: Preheat your oven to 185-200°F (93°C). Once the fat is warm, ladle it or pour it very carefully over the turkey. Make sure they are completely covered. If not, add more fat or oil until they are. Slide a wooden spoon or spatula down between the dish and the turkey to release any trapped air bubbles.
  6. Slow Cooking: Place the pot in the oven, uncovered, and cook for about 8 hours. This low and slow process is the key to confit.
  7. Checking Doneness: The turkey is ready when it’s incredibly tender to the touch, practically falling off the bone. With a sterile fork, stab the meat. The fork should slide right out with no resistance.
  8. Cooling and Storing (Optional): Allow the turkey to cool in the fat, then store it in the refrigerator submerged in the fat for up to a couple of weeks (or months if curing salt was used and it’s properly handled and stored). Alternatively, you can transfer the turkey to vacuum seal bags and ladle in some fat.
  9. Finishing: When ready to serve, remove the legs from the fat and wipe off excess. For crispy skin, sear the legs in a hot skillet or roast in a 450 F oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and heated all the way through. Alternatively, turkey confit can be removed from the bone shredded and pan-fried for tacos or breakfast hash, or turned into rillettes for an appetizer.

If you are interested in making confit, you may find relevant and helpful tips on my post for duck conft.

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Turkey Confit

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  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 3 days
  • Cook Time: 8 hours
  • Total Time: 80 hours
  • Yield: 2 turkey legs confit 1x
  • Category: Charcuterie
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: French
  • Diet: Gluten Free
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Ingredients

Scale

10 lbs turkey legs (4–5 legs)

88 grams (10 Tablespoons Diamond Crystal Kosher) salt 

12 grams Pink Curing Salt #1 (optional, add this amount more of reg. salt if omitting)

24 grams (2 Tablespoons) brown sugar

Optional Herbs and Aromatics

4 grams (1 teaspoon) whole peppercorns

10–12 sprigs fresh thyme (no need to pick off the leaves)

5–10 fresh sage leaves

4 6″ inch sprigs of fresh rosemary

5 garlic cloves, crushed

zest of half a lemon/orange

Instructions

  1. Seasoning Turkey: Mix all the seasonings in a bowl and then rub the turkey legs all over. 

  2. Resting: Once seasoned, lay the legs in a single layer in a dish, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Let them sit for 3 days, turning over once during this time. 

  3. Rinsing: After the resting period, rinse the turkey legs under cold water to remove excess salt and pat them dry with paper towels.

  4. Preparing the Fat: Heat your chosen fat in a pot that’s just large enough to fit the turkey legs in a single layer. Warm the fat over medium heat until very warm 185-220 F (not frying temps).

  5. Cooking the Turkey: Preheat your oven to 185-200°F (93°C).  Arrange the turkey legs in an over proof casserole dish/hotel pan or pot.  They fit snugly in a single layer with at least 2 inches of free space above.  Carefully ladle or pour the warm/hot fat over the turkey. Make sure the legs are completely covered. If not, add more fat or oil until they are.  It’s ok to mix duck fat and olive oil if you are in a pinch.  Slide a wooden spoon or spatula down between the dish and the turkey to release any trapped air bubbles.

  6. Slow Cooking: Place the pot in the oven, uncovered, and cook for about 8 hours. This low and slow process is the key to confit.

  7. Checking Doneness: The turkey is ready when it’s incredibly tender to the touch, practically falling off the bone. With a sterile fork, stab the meat. The fork should slide right out with no resistance.

  8. Cooling and Storing (Optional): Allow the turkey to cool in the fat, then store it in the refrigerator submerged in the fat for up to a couple of weeks (or months if curing salt was used and it’s properly handled and stored). Alternatively, you can transfer the turkey to vacuum seal bags and ladle in some fat.  If you are not using the curing salt, you need to make an effort to cool this down quickly. See note below.

  9. Finishing: When ready to serve, remove the legs from the fat and wipe off excess. For crispy skin, sear the legs in a hot skillet or roast in a 450 F oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and heated all the way through. Alternatively, turkey confit can be removed from the bone, shredded and pan-fried for tacos or breakfast hash, or turned into rillettes for a delicious appetizer.

Equipment

Notes

Curing Salt and An Important Food Safety Note:

Curing salt is used to prevent botulism, a deadly toxin caused by the bacteria C. Botulinum that grows in room-temperate anaerobic, non-acidic environments.  It also gives the meat a rosy hue and cured meat flavor.  I like using curing salt, for peace of mind and because I think the meat tastes better with it. 

If you are concerned about nitrates or don’t want to purchase a special ingredient that you will rarely use, it is technically not necessary for food safety in this recipe provided that after the confit comes out of the oven, it passes through the danger zone (140-42 F) within 4 hours.  In my past life, when I was a licensed meat processor, I spent a lot of time logging cooling temps and times for charcuterie and I can tell you that cooling a vat of confit within this window is not as easy as it sounds.  Simply leaving the confit out on the counter to cool will not be sufficient for this size container to get the temp through this zone quickly enough.  If you put it directly in your refrigerator, you will warm your fridge, and the top layer of fat will solidify and insulate the interior.  You will need to leave it out in a cold garage for 2 hours and then transfer it to a not-too-full fridge.  Otherwise, please use the curing salt. 

Another option for quick cooling is to put the turkey leg in a vacuum seal bag while still hot/warm (use sterilized utensils and handle carefully as it is fragile when hot) with some fat, seal it, and then submerge the sealed bag in ice water.

The Most Delicious Roast Chicken In the World

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

A perfectly cooked roast chicken is a thing of beauty. The ultimate comfort food. It seems like a simple thing but it is deceptively difficult to achieve. Why is it so hard? The ideal thigh temperature is 185 F or higher. The ideal breast temperature is 150-165 F. If you cook your chicken (or turkey) on a rack in a pan, the breast always cooks faster and dries out before the thighs reach their optimal temperature. If you cook the chicken breast to perfection, the thighs are still bloody, or tough. I’ve come up with a simple solution to this challenge (hint: do not cook your bird on a rack) plus instructions on how to get it perfectly seasoned all the way through. You will need a couple of things for this method. Things that you should already have in your kitchen, but if you don’t it’s time to invest in them.

You need:

A kitchen scale, (or you’ll need to do some math).

A leave-in probe thermometer

A cast iron brazer or (if you need to substitute) a medium oven-proof heavy-duty frying pan

The Steps:

  1. Dry brine your roast. Rub the bird all over (especially under the skin of the breast and inside the cavity) with salt and seasonings at least 8-24 hours before cooking it and leave it uncovered in the fridge to dry. For the seasonings use 3 grams of salt and 1 gram of sugar per pound of bone-in chicken, plus any other dry seasonings you want.
  2. Stuff the cavity loosely with onion, celery, and other aromatic herbs and vegetables.
  3. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine
  4. Place empty brazer/frying pan in the oven and preheat oven to 375 F
  5. Once preheated, remove the pan and add 1-2 T oil. Add the chicken, it should sizzle in the pan when you do, rub oil over the top.
  6. Insert the probe of your leave-in thermometer into the center of the breast and set the alarm to sound at 150 F. Yes, I mean it, 150 F (not 165 F).
  7. Rotate the pan with the bird in it at least once during cooking, especially if you do not have convection.
  8. When the alarm sounds, remove the bird from the pan and transfer it to a cutting board. Do not cut it or remove the thermometer yet. Let the bird sit for at least 10 minutes while you make a delicious gravy or sauce with the browned drippings stuck to the bottom of the pan.
  9. After 10-15 minutes, cut the bird and serve it.

A note on cooking time. People always want to know how long something will take to cook but there are simply too many variables that it is impossible to give a precise time. Variables like how powerful your oven is, convection or no convection, how many times you open the oven door to admire it, and how full you pack the cavity or the pan. If you want a perfectly cooked roast, just use a leave-in probe thermometer and take the guesswork out of it. That being said, for a ballpark time so you can plan out the rest of your meal prep, I made this recently in a very weak oven with no convection and it took about 2 hours for a 5 lb bird. In a professional oven with convection, it would probably take about 1 1/4 hours.

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The Most Delicious Roast Chicken In the World

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  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes + 8 hours or more
  • Cook Time: 1 1/4 to 2 hours
  • Total Time: 0 hours
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x
  • Method: Roasting
  • Diet: Gluten Free
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Description

Cooking a perfect roast chicken is a skill all home cooks should have in their back pocket.  This recipe makes it easy.  The same technique can be used for your roast turkey.

Ingredients

Scale

1 5 lb whole chicken, patted dry (see note if your bird does not weigh 5 lbs)

15 grams salt (2 1/2 teaspoons, fine)

5 grams sugar (1 heaping, fine)

Optional Seasonings to taste:

Herbs de Provence

Black pepper

Paprika

Garlic Powder

a couple of sprigs each: fresh thyme, fresh sage, rosemary, etc

1/2 medium onion, cut into a couple of 1-inch wedges

3 smashed garlic cloves

1/4 medium carrot, cut lengthwise and then in half crosswise

1 celery stalk, cut lengthwise and then in half crosswise

Instructions

  1. 8-24 hours before cooking the bird

    1. In a small bowl, combine all your dry spices.  Rub the bird all over (especially under the skin of the breast and inside the cavity) with the salt and seasonings.
    2. Stuff the cavity loosely with onion, celery, and other aromatic herbs and vegetables.  Any extra onion, celery can be added to the pan so don’t feel like you have to overstuff it.
    3. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine. Place the chicken in the fridge uncovered. 

Approx 2 1/2 hours before dinner time

    1. Place empty brazer/frying pan in the oven and preheat oven to 375 F
    2. Once preheated, remove the pan and add 1-2 T oil. Add the chicken breast side up, it should sizzle in the pan when you do, rub oil over the top. Add a couple of chunks of onion, carrot, and celery to the pan around the chicken (not under it) if you want to (but don’t fill it up too much and slow the cooking)
    3. Insert the probe of your leave-in thermometer into the center of the breast and set the alarm to sound at 150 F. 
    4. Rotate the pan with the bird in it at least once during cooking, especially if you do not have convection.
    5. When the alarm sounds, remove the bird from the pan and transfer it to a cutting board. Do not cut it or remove the thermometer yet. Let the bird sit for at least 10 minutes while you make a delicious gravy or sauce with the browned drippings stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Do not rush this 10-minute resting period.  It is critical not only for flavor and texture but also for food safety.
    6. After 10-15 minutes, cut the bird and serve it. Since you’ve left the thermometer in, you’ll notice that the temperature has risen to 160-165 F which is plenty safe.  

Equipment

Notes

Spices

In this recipe, I included my go-to traditional roast chicken spice mix.  You can flavor your chicken any way you want.  Try Chinese 5 spice for an Asian twist or Cumin-Ancho-Oregano-Garlic Powder for Mexican.  Just don’t mess with the salt and sugar.  

Don’t Leave the Thermometer Probe against the bone

I stick the probe into the center of the breast until it hits bone and then I back it out about 1/2 -1 inch.  Bone conducts heat differently than meat does.  You’ll get an inaccurate read if you leave the tip of the probe in contact with the bone.

Can I use an Instant Read Thermometer

I don’t recommend it.  An instant-read thermometer requires constantly opening the oven and poking holes in your roast.  Holes that allow all the flavorful juices to escape and the likelihood that you will miss the exact perfect moment to take the bird out of the oven is pretty high. 

If you don’t have a leave-in Probe Thermometer, you are better off cooking your bird to 185 F or higher in the breast (until the thighs wiggle easily in their sockets).  It will be fork-tender and delicious, but not really juicy. Just whatever you do, don’t let the finished breast temperature be between 168-180 F.  That’s the dry dead zone.

If your bird is not 5 lbs.

Weigh your bird or note the total weight of your bird before you throw the packaging away.  Multiply that weight (in lbs) by 3 for grams of salt and by 1 for grams of sugar.  If you don’t have a scale, use the salt and sugar labels to calculate how many grams are in a teaspoon and then calculate the total amounts from there.  

Make delicious and easy homemade yogurt!

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

Making your own yogurt at home is an easy and surprisingly forgiving process. Generations of industrial food consumption have convinced us that some foods, most foods, need to be made by professionals in commercial kitchens and rigorously controlled environments. I take issue with this thinking, and as a rule of thumb, frequently remind myself that anything humans have been making for thousands of years without special equipment or sanitation can be made in my own kitchen. And you can make it too, I promise. This is the way with fermented pickles, yogurt and cheeses, wild-yeasted bread, and some basic charcuterie and meat preservation.

Making yogurt is a way to preserve milk and extend its shelf-life

I buy milk from Costco, two gallons at a time in my house. Every so often, sickness or vacation will disrupt our normal milk consumption and leave me staring down the expiration date on a glut of milk in my fridge. And when that happens, I extend its shelf life by making yogurt (and sometimes, ricotta).

Milk is truly a fascinating thing. Having young kids, I have had years to observe and ponder this unusual pearly substance in its many forms; the sippy cup abandoned behind the couch for days before it is found, milk mixed with stomach acid before being…. well never mind that’s gross. Did you know that if you do nothing but leave a cup of milk out overnight it will “sour” and thicken and turn into yogurt? Even after it is pasteurized and all the natural bacteria and enzymes in the milk have been killed! How? Turns out it takes a special enzyme to break down lactose. An enzyme that most bacteria take a while to develop or produce except the abundant lactobacillus. This gives lactobacillus a head start from all the other microbes that may cause you trouble and during that headstart lactobacillus digests the sugar in lactose and increases the acidity of the milk (“souring”) making it harder for bad microbes to grow in it then too. It’s like milk comes with a built-in preservation system.

And what is really incredible…what keeps me up at night considering our place in the universe is this: If it weren’t for us humans doing strange things with foods that no other animals do (removing milk from a mother’s body of another species and storing it, harvesting and milling grass seeds, juicing fruit, chopping and salting meat and then packing it into an intestine and hanging it for a long time, etc), these microbes would never have a chance to perform their greatest magic tricks. It makes me wonder if the bacteria are working for us, or us for them, or if it’s just a coincidence that all the pieces found each other. And all these amazing bacteria that effortlessly turn the milk into yogurt and cheese, (and make wine and beer, soy sauce and kimchi, etc), they are all just sitting invisibly on nearly every surface in your kitchen and garden and floating through the air we breathe, just waiting to go to work! Now, I’ve heard people (vegans) tell me that it is unnatural to drink another animal’s milk because no other animal does it. I am not convinced.

Here’s another interesting thing about milk and lactose. Most adults worldwide lack the enzyme that breaks down milk (lactose intolerant). Only in Northern Europeans and Scandanavians and their descendants is lactose tolerance the norm. But fortunately for the majority of lactose intolerant adults, bacteria in yogurt do the work for us, both in the yogurt and in our bodies! Lactose is water soluble so it lives in the watery part of milk, aka the whey. When yogurt (or cheese) is drained and the curds are separated from the whey, most of the lactose is removed and what remains gets broken down by the bacteria. Greek Yogurt is extra thick and creamy because the whey is drained out of it. This is why lactose-intolerant adults can usually tolerate cheese and yogurt.

The Yogurt-Making Process

The process of making yogurt is simple. First, milk is heated to a low simmer, 180F-206F. This effectively kills any undesirable bacteria that may be in it. Meanwhile, sanitize all the utensils and containers that you will be using in a hot oven or pot of boiling water. Once the milk has been heated, then you cool the milk down to approximately 110 F, the ideal temperature for the good bacteria that you are going to add. Inoculate the milk with the good bacteria, aka a yogurt starter. You can use store-bought or homemade live probiotic yogurt from your fridge or even probiotic capsules (emptied), or you can purchase a special heirloom yogurt starter. Let the milk and starter sit in a warm place for 4-12 hours to thicken. Strain to thicken more, if you want to. Refrigerate and enjoy for up to 10-14 days.

I use an Instapot to make yogurt. My Instapot has a yogurt-making setting that maintains the ideal temperature for the 4-12 hours that it takes to thicken the yogurt. This makes it downright impossible to mess up but does extend the prep time by 1-2 hours because it takes so long to heat the milk and cool it back down. If you don’t have an Instapot, no worries, you can make yogurt in a covered heavy pot, and a warm place like a sunny counter, a warm (but not hot) oven, or next to your fireplace.

A note on sanitation

You may be wondering, if milk will turn to yogurt without doing anything, why bother with heating and cooling milk and trying to maintain a warm temperature? That’s a fair question. The answer: with a minimal amount of intervention, you will end up with a better-tasting and safer final product. The strains of bacteria that create yogurt originated from the warm climates of the Middle East, Mediterranean, North Africa, and India where milk would spoil quickly if left out. These bacteria are thermophilic (heat-loving) and produce a tart, thick product relatively quickly in temperatures up to 113 F. The strains of bacteria that make buttermilk, creme fraiche, and sour cream are mesophilic. They like cooler temperatures, 85 F is ideal but cooler is ok too, and those products ripen over longer periods of time in places where the milk goes bad more slowly because it is colder. The window of time that milk is unrefrigerated but not yet acidified by the bacteria, is an opportunity for undesirable bacteria to gain a foothold and create off flavors or worse. We heat the milk to destroy any undesirable bacteria that may be present in the milk before make yogurt. We sanitize storage containers and utensils to ensure that we don’t introduce pathogens into a safe finished product. Salmonella and e.coli may not have any effect on the yogurt-making process or taste, and yogurt may not be its ideal environment for growing, but it could still make you sick if it happens to be in it. If you travel to India or Africa, you will likely encounter yogurt that was made the old fashion way without sanitizing utensils or heating the milk, even using raw milk… and, not surprisingly many travelers get sick. And not just travelers get sick, locals do too. In short, the goal of fermented foods is to apply some control over which strains of bacteria get in, it’s not a free for all, and heating the milk and sanitizing utensils will ensure that.

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Homemade Yogurt

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 2 hours
  • Total Time: 10
  • Yield: 8 cups 1x
  • Category: Dairy
  • Method: Fermented/Cultured
  • Cuisine: World
  • Diet: Gluten Free
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Description

Homemade yogurt is surpringly easy to make and a great way to extend it’s shelf life.

Ingredients

Scale

8 cups milk (any type, see note)

1/2–1 cup heavy cream (optional)

2 Tablespoons Store bought or home-made Yogurt with live active bacteria (see note)

Instructions

1) Fill a large pot 1/2 full of water, submerge your storage containers and any utenisiles you plan to use (tongs, heat proof spatulas, whisk, or measuring cup with spout, large spoons).  Bring this pot of water to a boil.  Dip your thermometer probe into the boiling water for a couple of seconds.  Remove all utensiles from the pot (I use tongs for this) and transfer them to a clean towel on the counter to air dry.  Meanwhile:

If Using an InstaPot to Make Yogurt

Make sure all parts are clean, including the lid and gasket.

Pour the milk into the inner pot. Cover it but leave the vent open.  Set the Instapot to “Yogurt” and adjust to the highest position “Boil”.  It will begin to heat the milk.  This will take about 1 hour.  It will beep and turn off when it has “sufficiently” heated.  Open the Instapot (it may not be actually boiling), stir the milk and either use your probe thermometer to check the temperature or (if you don’t have one, and I highly recommend you do) visually inspect that the milk is actively steaming.  It should be 180 F or higher.  You may need to extend the heating time for another 5 or 10 minutes.

Now, pour about 1 cup of milk into a liquid measuring cup and remove the inner pot and place it on the counter or on your burner with the burner off to expedite cooling.  Let the milk cool back down to 110 F.  This will take about another hour.  If you want to speed it up, you can place the pot into a larger pot with ice water and stir the milk occasionally. 

The 1 cup of milk that you set aside in the measuring cup will cool faster than the large pot.  Once that has cooled to 110 F, stir the yogurt into the 1 cup of milk to inoculate it, and let it sit while you wait for the rest of the milk to reach the target temperature.

When the large pot of milk has reached 110 F, stir in the cup of inoculated milk.  Place the milk back into the InstaPot, cover it the vent open, and set it to “Yogurt” for 4-10 hours.  The longer it sits the tangier it will be.

If Using the Stove Top:

Pour the milk into a pot (approx 4 quart size) with a lid. If you have a ceramic enameled cast iron brazier or dutch oven, that will work the best as it maintains a warm temperature over a longer period of time.  Cover the pot and bring it to a low simmer over medium heat.  If you boil the milk over high heat it will likely scald on the bottom.  Check the milk every 5-10 minutes, stirring gently and checking the temp.  If you do not have a probe thermometer, see note below.  When it reaches 180 F, remove the milk from the heat.

Now, pour about 1 cup of milk into a sterilized liquid measuring cup and set aside.  Let the milk in the pot cool back down to 110 F.  This will take about another hour depending on the pot used.  If you want to speed it up, you can place the pot into a larger pot with ice water and stir the milk occasionally.  

The 1 cup of milk that you set aside in the measuring cup will cool faster.  Once that has cooled, stir in the yogurt and let it sit while you wait for the rest of milk to cool.

When the large pot of milk has reached 110 F, stir in the cup of milk that you inoculated with yogurt bacteria.  Cover the pot.  Place it in a warm place (in front of sunny window, on your hearth, or a warm but not hot oven that has been turned off) or if you don’t have any of those things, wrap the covered pot in a couple of bath towels to insulate it. Let this inoculated milk sit for 6-12 hours.  The longer it sits the tangier it will be.

3) Store your yogurt in the fridge for up to 14 days.

Home-made yogurt in the Instapot.

After 6-12 hours, the milk will be thick.  You should be able to lift a spoonful out and it will maintain its shape.  You can either strain it through a fine mesh sieve for Greek Style yogurt (several hours or overnight in the fridge) or whisk it vigorously to smooth out any lumps and transfer it right away to your sterilized containers.  Cover and refrigerate the yogurt for up to 14 days.  It will continue to get tangier in the fridge.

Equipment

Notes

Selecting Milk For Yogurt

You can use any kind of lactose milk: cow, sheet, goat, etc.  You can use skim, lowfat, whole milk and cream.  My preferred combo is 8 parts whole milk and 1 part heavy cream.  You can substitute about 25% of milk for milk alternatives like soy or coconut milk without making changes to this recipe.

It is possible to make yogurt from soy or coconut milk and other milk alternatives using probiotic capsules or yogurt cultures but it behaves a little differently and this recipe is not really applicable to milk alternatives.  Cultures for Health is a great site for purchasing all different cultures and has information about “Alternative Milks for Making Yogurt“.

Selecting your Yogurt Culture

Your yogurt starter should include lactobacillus bulgaricus and streptococcus thermophilis.  The easiest method is to use your favorite store-bought yogurt as your inoculum.  You can then use your own batch of yogurt to inoculate the next batch that you make.  Store-bought yogurt is readily available.  You just need to make sure that it is unflavored and that it “contains live active bacteria” versus “is made with live active bacteria”.

You can also use heirloom yogurt starters, gifted from friends or purchased by specialty stores like Cultures for Health.  These starters may be specific to a certain geographic region or family.  If you strain your yogurt through a cheesecloth or towel, you can dry the towel without washing it (just a quick rinse with cold water) and then use it to inoculate milk.

You can use probiotic capsules that contain lactobacillus bulgaricus and streptococcus thermophilus.  Other yogurt-making bacteria include lactococci, lactobacillus delbrueskii, lactobacillus fermentum, lactobacillus casei, and lactobacillus brevis.  Probiotic capsules also contain other strains of bacteria that are known to survive the human digestive system and provide health benefit to us but are not known to make the best tasting or creamiest yogurt: bifidobacteria (from breast milk- acidifies the stomachs of infants before stomach acid is produced), lactobacillus plantarum (makes fermented pickles), lactobacillus acidophilus (native to the intestinal tract) and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus (native to the urogenital tract).  If you use probiotic capsules make sure that they contain primarily probiotics that turn milk into yogurt and be aware that the end product will be healthful but perhaps not as delicious as it could be if you used only yogurt-making species.

If you do not have a probe thermometer:

If you do not have a probe thermometer, you will need to use your senses to check the milk’s temparature.  At 180 F, the milk will be steaming even after you stir it.  When left alone, it will be slowly moving in the pot from convection, but not boiling. 

Liquid at 110 F is the temperature of an extra-hot hot tub.  Check the milk by touch without contaminating it.  Wash your hand very thoroughly.  You know, sing the Happy Birthday Song, hot water, lots of soap, scrub scrub scrub.  Then you either can dip your knuckle in it (not your finger because bacterial is hard to completely remove from under your fingernails).  Or you can pour a spoonful over the back of your very clean hand.

I highly recommend having a probe thermometer.  Mine is one of my most used kitchen tools.

Easy, Crispy, Hot Wings in the Oven!

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

Get Ready for Game Day

I’ve been craving bar food lately. Specifically, perfectly crispy Buffalo Hot Wings with Blue Cheese dip and celery. I think I must be feeling a little nostalgic about that time in my life, pre-covid and pre-baby, when I would venture out to bars to watch the game with my husband or decompress with my co-workers after a long hard shift. These Crispy Buffalo Wings satisfy this craving.

I know air fryers are all the rage right now, and before that, it was the Fry Daddy. Both those devices would undoubtedly make nice crispy wings, but if you’ve been reading this blog you know I have an aversion to special kitchen gadgets. Less is more, especially when you’re kitchen is small. I’m not dissing the air-fryer, I’ve never used one (never felt the need), but you don’t need anything but your regular old household oven to make these perfectly crispy hot wings.

These wings are perfect for Game Day, Superbowl Sunday, casual dinner parties, and cookouts or just because.

Tips for Crispy Oven Chicken Wings

Crank up the heat

Home ovens are not as powerful as commercial ovens and they recover their heat slowly after opening the oven door. If you want to crisp something up like chicken skin or get a nice charring effect on roasted veggies, you need to turn your oven up high to 450-550 F and use convection if you have it. If you have it, convection should be used for everything (except baking cakes).

I use a standard mid-grade GE oven at home. One that I think represents average heat recovery, insulation, and power for home ovens. If you are using a Viking or Wolfe or something really powerful, you will want to adjust your cooking time down a bit. If you are using a really old, poorly insulated, non-convection oven, adjust your cooking time up and refrain from opening the door unnecessarily.

Use Air-Chilled Chicken

Air Chilled Chicken tends to be a higher-end product, often used with free-range and organic birds. It may be more expensive but you’re not paying for added water weight, and the drier skin crisps up better when cooked. If you are using conventional non-Air-Chilled Chicken, it is especially important to pat the wings down well with paper towels and leave them in the fridge uncovered for at least a couple of hours or a day to dry.

Frozen chicken wings are often sold with the directions “to cook straight from frozen”. Don’t do this if you want crispy wings (and who doesn’t). When frozen meat thaws, the ice crystals break down into free water which has been pulled out of the muscle. If you cook directly from frozen, this process will happen in your oven and cause you to steam your wings instead of roast them. You will never get crispy by steaming. If you buy frozen wings, thaw them first a day or two prior to cooking, pat them dry once completely thawed, and leave them uncovered for at least a couple of hours or a day in the fridge.

Variations

There is something magical about the Classic Buffalo flavor combo, just the right amount of heat, with the cooling blue cheese and refreshing, palate-cleansing celery…. but variety is the spice of life. So if you are in the mood to venture away from Classic Buffalo, try substituting Frank’s Hot Sauce in the Classic Buffalo Sauce with:

  • Dijon and Honey
  • Siracha
  • BBQ Sauce
  • Sweet Chili Sauce
  • Jamaican Jerk Spice Mix (mixed with butter)
  • Mojo (Cuban citrus sauce)
  • Teriyaki
  • Yuzu

If you try this recipe out, please be sure to give it a star rating. Google loves star ratings and it will help more people find it😉.

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Crispy Hot Wings. No special equipment needed.

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 6 reviews
  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 2 hours
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
  • Yield: 4 appetizer servings 1x
  • Category: Appetizer
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: American
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Description

This recipe makes perfectly crispy chicken wings in the oven.  Adjust the heat by using your favorite hot sauce.  

Ingredients

Scale

2 lbs dry chicken wings (see note)

salt

1 cup flour

3 Tablespoons Hot Sauce (Franks, Tobasco, other)

1 1/2 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon minced celery leaves and stalk for the innermost core of celery

1/2 cup your favorite blue cheese dip

Instructions

Sprinkle the wings with salt and leave uncovered for a couple of hours

Preheat the oven to 500 F.

In a mixing bowl, toss the wings with flour.  Place the wings in a sieve and shake off the excess flour.  You may need to do this in a couple of batches depending on how big your sieve is.

Spray a sheet pan with cooking spay.  Place the wings on the sheet pan.  Lightly spray them with cooking spray too.  Place the pan in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes and then spin the sheet pan.  Bake for another 15 minutes or longer until nice and crispy.  If your oven is not convection and is going real slow, you may want to remove the pan (close the oven fast), flip the wings over, and place back in the oven.

While the wings are baking, add the hot sauce and butter to a microwave safe mixing bowl, and heat the sauce.  When the wings come out of the oven, immediately toss them with the buttery hotsauce.

Transfer these wings to a plate, sprinkle with the minced celery leaves (the tender green/yellow ones from the heart of the celery) and serve with your favorite blue cheese dressing.

Enjoy!

Post originally published March 2021.

Simple Potato and Collard Greens Soup with Linguica (Caldo Verde)

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

This Potato and Collard Greens Soup is simple, economical, and full of flavor and nutrients. Served with crusty bread, a drizzle of olive oil, and minced malagueta peppers (or your favorite hot sauce) it is perfect for a weeknight dinner.

Caldo Verde’s (or Green Soup) origin is in Portugal, where it is considered by many to be the National Dish. Variations of this dish can be found in Brazil and parts of Africa, where collard greens are a staple food and the Portuguese imposed their culture (and culinary traditions) during colonization.

I love Collard Greens, tough and bitter as they can be. These greens are packed with nutrients and it’s worth acquiring the taste for them if you haven’t already. If you are new to collard greens or looking for more collard green dishes that you might like, try Couvé: Quick and Easy Collard Greens, the Brazilian Way, and Southern Braised Collard Greens with Bacon: American Comfort Food At It’s Best!

Variations to try:

  • Keep the potatoes in chunks instead of semi-pureed/ mashed.
  • Use kale instead of collards or a combination of greens (kale, chard, and collards). Kale and Swiss Chard will cook a bit faster than collards.
  • Use different sausages: linguica, chouriçe, Spanish dry chorizo, and andouille are all good substitutes.
  • Go vegetarian – omit the sausage altogether.
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Simple Potato and Collard Greens Soup with Linguica (Caldo Verde)

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  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
  • Category: Soup
  • Method: Boiling
  • Cuisine: Portuguese
  • Diet: Gluten Free
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Description

A Portuguese and Brazilian soup of collard greens or kale and smokey, spicy linguica sausage in a hearty broth thickened by potatoes.

Ingredients

Scale

1-2 tablespoons olive oil or dende (palm oil)

8-10 cups chicken, pork or vegetable broth

1 lb linguica sausage, cut into rounds.

1 large onion, diced

5 garlic cloves, minced

6 Yukon Gold potatoes, diced.

1 tablespoons salt plus more to taste

1 teaspoon dry thyme

2 bunches of collard greens (or 10-12 large leaves), sliced thin and chopped.

Malagueta Peppers or your favorite hot sauce

Instructions

1. In a soup pot, 4 quarts or bigger, heat the oil and brown the sausage. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the sausage to a plate and set it aside for later.

 

2. Sauté the onion in the oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.

 

3. Add the broth, potatoes, salt, bay leaves, and dried thyme. Simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are very tender and starting to break apart. You may choose to use a potato masher or immersion blender to further break down the potatoes.

 

4. Add the chopped collard greens and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

 

5. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Add the linguica back in or serve with the linguica on top as a garnish. To spice it up, stir in chopped malagueta peppers or use your favorite hot sauce.

Mild Italian Sausage with Fresh Basil, Fennel and Garlic – Small Batch Version

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

This made-from-scratch Mild Italian Sausage is sweet with fresh basil and toasted fennel seed, and coriander. Since I left the restaurant and meat processing biz, I have not made sausage links at home because stuffing links is a messy process and requires more space than I had. I do, however, regularly make fresh bulk sausage, with some shortcuts (like buying already ground meat) in batches small enough for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer to handle. I consider this Mild Italian Sausage a kitchen staple and I use it in pasta sauces, soups, white beans, meatballs, and stuffed vegetables. I have yet to find a store-bought Italian Sausage that comes close to the flavor of this recipe.

This small batch version of this sausage formulation has been modified to be easy to make at home. If you have meat processing equipment (grinder, kitchen scale, meat mixers, sausage stuffer, ample fridge/freezer/prep space), and/or you hunt or have farm animals and a certain amount of meat trim that you want to use, I recommend this post: Mild Italian Sausage with Fresh Basil, Fennel and Garlic – Master Recipe. The Master Recipe is designed for scaling to whatever size batch you want to make.

I highly recommend using a kitchen scale and going by weight, however, I have provided volume measurements as well. Just be aware that these are approximate and can get way out of wack if you are scaling the recipe up or down.

I’ll run through the steps for making sausage in the recipe but if you are new to sausage making or would like more detailed instructions, read How To Make Sausage first.

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Ingredients for making The Best Mild Italian Sausage From Sausage

The Best Mild Italian Sausage From Scratch – Small Batch Version (2lbs)

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  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 2 lbs 1x
  • Category: Charcuterie
  • Method: Sausage Making
  • Cuisine: Italian
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Description

A staple food in my kitchen used in pasta sauces, meatballs, braised white beans and grilled stuffed summer vegetables.  This recipe has been scaled to 2 lbs for you, a perfect size for one batch of bulk sausage in a kitchen aid mixer (or other stand mixer).

Ingredients

Scale

2 lb (4 cups) Ground Pork (70% lean)

14 grams (2 t) salt

8 grams (2 t) sugar

5 grams (1 1/2 lg) garlic cloves

6 grams (3 t) whole fennel seed

4 grams (1 t) whole black peppercorns

6 grams (2 T) dried basil

3 grams (1/2 T) whole coriander seeds

2 sprigs fresh basil, stem removed and minced

1.2 oz (2 1/2 T) cold water

.4 oz (2 1/2 t) cold red wine vinegar

Instructions

Place the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl if you are hand-mixing your sausage) in the fridge or freezer to cool it for at least 30 minutes.

Measure out the water and red wine vinegar into a small container and place in the fridge.

In a dry frying pan set over medium heat, add the fennel seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns and toast until fragrant.  Set aside to cool. Once cooled, place in a spice grinder (or mortal with pestle) and grind into a fine powder.

Grate the garlic cloves on a Microplane over a small mixing bowl.  Add to the bowl the toasted ground seeds, salt, sugar, and basil (fresh and dry).

Place the ground pork into the chilled mixing bowl.  Sprinkle in the spice mixture.  Set the mixing bowl into the stand mixing fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed for 30 seconds.  Add the chilled liquids and continue mixing on medium speed for another 4 1/3 minutes.

When it is done the sausage meat will look tacky.  You cannot really overmix it (unless it gets warm) but you can undermix it.  If you are not sure, cook up a small patty in a frying pan to test the texture.  

Equipment

Mild Italian Sausage with Fresh Basil, Fennel and Garlic – Master Recipe

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

This Italian Sausage recipe is mild and sweet with fennel and fresh basil, toasted coriander and peppercorns. I consider this a kitchen staple and use this sausage in pasta sauces, soups, braised white beans, meatballs and grilled stuffed summer vegetables. When this is made into links, it makes the best sausage sandwich with grilled peppers and onions.

This recipe is from my Charcuterie archives. In my years as a meat processor, I have made and sold tens of thousands of pounds of this sausage variety.

All my sausage Master Charcuterie Recipes are formulated by weight for 10 lb batches for easy scaling. For example, if you want to make 8.2 lbs of sausage because that’s how much pork trim you happen to have, simply multiply all ingredients by 0.82 and if you want to make 100 lbs of sausage, multiply all ingredients by 10. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale and going by weight, however, I have provided volume measurements as well. Just be aware that volume measurements are approximate and can get way out of wack if you are scaling the recipe up or down. The density of salt also varies by brand and can make a big difference in the final product. If you use a kitchen scale that measures grams, you will never go wrong.

If you are making sausage links and have meat processing equipment at home (grinder, mixer that can handle at least 5lbs at a time- not a Kitchen Aid, sausage stuffer, food bins, and ample refrigeration/freezer/prep space) then a 10lb batch is the right size to stock your freezer and justify the effort and mess of sausage making. If you do not have all of these things and are dabbling in meat processing, I recommend starting with the Small Batch Version of this recipe ( The Best Mild Italian Sausage From Scratch – Small Batch Version) which has been modified to be easy to make in a home kitchen with just a stand mixer and makes 2 lbs.

I’ll run through the steps for making sausage quickly in the recipe but if you are new to sausage making or would like more detailed instructions, I recommend reading How To Make Sausage first.

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Image of sausage links in a pan.

Mild Italian Sausage – 10 lb Master Recipe

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  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 1 1/2 hours
  • Total Time: 0 hours
  • Yield: 10 lbs 1x
  • Category: Charcuterie
  • Method: Sausage Making
  • Cuisine: Italian
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Ingredients

Scale

10 lb (5 quarts) Trimmed Pork Shoulder*

70 grams (10 t) salt

40 grams (10 t) sugar

26 grams (7 lg) garlic cloves

28 grams (5 T) whole fennel seed

18 grams (5 t) whole black peppercorns

29 grams (10 T) dried basil

13 grams (5 T) whole coriander seeds

1 bunch fresh basil, stem removed and minced

6 oz (3/4 cup) cold water

2 oz (1/4 cup) cold red wine vinegar

Sausage Casings (optional)

Instructions

For a more detailed step-by-step, check out How To Make Sausage before making this recipe.

Place the removeable parts of your meat grinder and mixing into the fridge or freezer to cool it for at least 30 minutes.

Measure out the water and red wine vinegar into a small container and place it in the fridge.

In a dry frying pan set over medium heat, add the fennel seeds, coriander seeds, and peppercorns and toast until fragrant.  Set aside to cool. Once cooled, place in a spice grinder (or mortal with pestle) and grind into a fine powder.

Grate the garlic cloves on a Microplane over a medium mixing bowl.  Add to the bowl the toasted ground seeds, salt, sugar, and basil (fresh and dry).

Reassemble the meat grinder with the chilled parts.  Grind the meat through the medium die into a chilled mixing bowl. 

Reassemble the meat mixer with the chilled parts.  Transfer the ground meat and the spices to the meat mixer and begin mixing (about 30 seconds to 1 minute). Add the chilled liquids and continue mixing on medium speed for another 4 1/2 minutes (total of 5 minutes).

When it is done the sausage meat will look tacky.  You cannot really overmix it (unless it gets warm) but you can undermix it.  If you are not sure, cook up a small patty in a frying pan to test the texture.  

At this point, you can package the sausage up as bulk for patties or sauces, or you can stuff into casings for links.

Equipment

Notes

You can substitute some or all of the pork for boneless skinless chicken thighs for a leaner option.  Just make sure to inspect the chicken pieces well for little bone/cartilage fragments. 

Seafood Stew with lobster, calamari, shrimp and fish. Perfect for special occasions.

The links in these recipes are for products that I use and recommend.  

This seafood stew is rich and creamy and loaded with lobster, calamari, shrimp, and fish.

This Seafood Stew is a creamy and decadent, made-from-scratch bisque loaded with vegetables and a variety of seafood. When I was cooking at the restaurant, I would make a version of this soup every year as an appetizer course on the New Years’ Eve Prix Fixe Menu. I modeled this dish after a soup from my childhood, served regularly at Ipswich Seafood, a little fish market and grocer in my hometown that has the best homemade soups. As a teenager, I used to sneak out of school during lunch and head to Ipswich Shellfish for a bowl of this soup. Was it worth in-house suspension? Yes, it was.

I haven’t made this soup since I left the restaurant in 2020 but I’ve thought about it (and craved it) often. I just didn’t have the space in my home kitchen to make this recipe, but I’ve recently moved and upgraded kitchens and was very excited for the opportunity to make this for New Years. Most of the recipes on this blog are easy and straightforward and minimize dishes to wash. This recipe does not. It’s really a two-day process and requires a bit of prep space. Sure, you could do it all in one day, but it would be a long messy day in the kitchen! You will read through the recipe and be tempted to take shortcuts, to buy shelled and deveined shrimp and shelled lobster meat, to buy seafood stock from the soup aisle of the grocery store. Don’t do it. There is no store-bought seafood stock that comes anywhere close to this one. Trust me, it is worth the effort. This recipe uses every bit of the lobster and shrimp, including the shells and guts (aka tomalley and roe). You simply cannot achieve the same flavor without these parts so please, buy the crustaceans whole, and don’t take shortcuts with the seafood broth.

There are some shortcuts you can take, though. You can buy already prepped and cleaned squid. You can pour the broth through a coffee filter or muslin cloth and eliminate a day of “sediment settling” in the fridge.

There are lots of variations you can play around with. You could make this an all-Lobster Stew. A variation that I am particularly fond of. Simply triple the amount of lobster and omit all the other seafood. Or play around with different combinations of seafood. Just keep in mind the optimal cooking times for each type of seafood varies and put them in the pot accordingly. Squid (“Calamari”) will need to cook for 30-45 minutes or it will be tough. Octopus is the same and can cook for even longer. Use firm fish that won’t flake apart in the broth like salmon, mahi mahi, or sea bass. Scallops also work great. All raw bite-sized seafood (except calamari and octopus) should only be cooked for 2-3 minutes, just before serving. Already cooked seafood (lobster, cooked crab if using) should be added at the very end, just to warm it through.

Notes on Recipe Techniques

This recipe is all about techniques to extract the maximum amount of flavor from the seafood that you use and to cook each different type of seafood for the optimal amount of time.

To Cook a Live Lobster:

You can buy cooked lobsters from the seafood counter or frozen section of the store for this recipe, but if you live somewhere where live lobsters are available, that is definitely your best option. If you are buying r lobster, place 1 inch of water in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Humanely kill the lobster by either placing it in the freezer for about 10 minutes or driving a knife through its head, between the eyes. Andrew Zimmerman Cooks: How to Kill a Lobster is a good how-to video on dispatching lobsters by Andrew Zimmerman. Once the lobster is dead and the water is at a rapid boil, add the lobster to the pot and cover. Listen carefully for when it returns to a boil. Once boiling, set a timer and steam the lobster for 7 minutes per pound, 10 minutes for 1 1/2 pound lobsters. Run the lobster under cold water or plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking. You can cook up to 3-4 lobsters in a large pot (5 Gallon) but never try to cook more than that in one pot. Calculated the cooking time based on the average size of the lobsters in the pot, not the total poundage in the pot. For instance, a pot with two 1 1/2 lb lobsters should cook for 10 minutes 30 seconds after the boil returns (1 1/2 lbs x 7 minutes), not 21 minutes (3lbs x 7 minutes).

How To Clean a Whole Lobster

Have a medium bowl handy.  Working over the bowl, remove the legs, claws, and tail from the body.  Lobstery water will likely gush out when you are separating the bits and you will use this in the broth.  Using a nutcracker or a hammer and cutting board, crack the shells and remove the meat.  Reserve the meat and the shells in separate bowls.

Take the body and open it up, separating the shell from the underside where the legs connect.  There will be some yellow/green/blackish stuff in the cavity and some red roe (eggs) if you are lucky.  Use a spoon and scrape these guts into the bowl with a spoon.  This may sound and look nasty but it is really delicious and the secret to the best bisque ever.

After removing the guts, pick out the meat from the body.  There is actually quite a bit in there and most people waste it when eating lobsters.  At the location where each leg connects to the lobster, there is a cavity filled with bite-sized pieces of lobster meat.  You may need to break apart the cartilage-like elements that separate these pieces of meat in order to get to it, but you can easily do that with your hands- no special tools needed.

When you are done you should have 3 bowls, one with lobster juices, one with meat, and one with shell (including the little legs and body scraps).

Use this same technique for crab.

To Flambé:

If catching something on fire in your kitchen makes you nervous, you can omit this step and simply deglaze the pot with brandy or sherry.

If you want to try this technique out, make sure there is ample space above the stove (without kitchen towels hanging or kitchen cabinets that could catch fire).  Use a long-handle grill lighter or light a long wooden skewer on fire and then touch the flame to the booze in the pot.  If you have a powerful commercial-grade gas stove, you may be able to just give the pan a little shake and catch it on fire from the burner flames.  But if you are using an electric, induction, or average residential gas stove you will need to manually ignite the booze.  Brandy will flame up better and last longer than sherry.  The booze will pool in the lobster shells and curves of the onion pieces.  Those are good places to light.  You will want to light the alcohol as soon as you pour it into the pan before it is diluted by any liquid in the pan or the alcohol cooks away so make sure you have everything nearby and ready before you add it. It’s always a good idea to keep a tight-fitting lid nearby in case anything gets out of hand and you need to cover and extinguish the flames.  You’ll be using the lid in the next step anyway.  All that being said, this is a small amount of alcohol, and it won’t flame up very high or last more than a couple of seconds.

How to Cleaning Calamari (squid)

You can usually buy cleaned squid, already cut into rings, at the store. However, with supply chain issues, when I went to make this soup, I could only find blocks of frozen, whole, uncleaned squid at the grocery store. I didn’t mind because I knew what to do with them after years in commercial kitchens but I was surprised that the store would sell them in that form because it is definitely not intuitive for the average shopper. In case you find yourself in the same situation, here is how to prepare a whole calamari:

1- remove the head/tentacles from the body.

2- Squeeze between the eyes with a forward (towards tentacle) motion. With the other hand, place your fingers inside the tentacles to catch the “beak” that will come out.

3- Cut right in front of the eyes, separating the tentacles from all the guts that came out with the head. In these guts, you will find the little ink sac. If you are really ambitious, you can very carefully set the ink sacs aside for squid ink risotto or homemade squid ink pasta.

4- Squeeze the remaining guts out of the body. This will be the eggs, if present, and the swim blatter. Also remove the piece of cartilage, aka “the quill,” that runs the long way up the body and helps the squid maintain its shape in the water.

5- Next remove the fins and with them the purplish skin that covers the body. Cut the now all-white body into rings.

To Cook Calamari:

For tender calamari, you can either cook calamari low and slow or quickly and for just a few seconds.  Anything in the middle will be tough and chewy.  For this soup, I use the low and slow methods for tender calamari.  It needs to cook for a total time of 30-45 minutes.

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Image of seafood stew with lobster claw garnish.

Seafood Stew

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  • Author: Kara Taylor- Home Cooks Guide
  • Prep Time: 3 hours
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
  • Yield: 2 quarts 1x
  • Category: Soup
  • Method: Simmer
  • Cuisine: French
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Description

This hearty stew is loaded with a variety of fresh seafood and vegetables and served in a rich made-from-scratch bisque.  This is not an easy or mess-free recipe but it is 100% worth the effort especially if you enjoy weekend-long kitchen projects.  This recipe makes about 2 quarts and serves 4 as a meal and 8 as an appetizer/light meal.

Ingredients

Scale

For Day 1 Prep:

1 1/2 lbs head-on shrimp, peeled and deveined and cut into bite-sized pieces, with shells and heads set aside

1 1/2 lb whole cooked lobster, meat removed with body and shells set aside

1 small onion, quartered

2 medium carrots, peeled and broken into large pieces

1/3 cup brandy or sherry

6 cups water/ reserved lobster juices

1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste if needed)

pinch of saffron (optional)

1 Tablespoon tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon paprika

For the Stew (Day 2)

3 celery stalks

1/3 cup room temperature butter

1/3 cup flour

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 lb whole squid, cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces

12 oz firm (not flakey) fish fillet, diced into bite-sized pieces about 1/2 inch

3/4 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

3/4 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch peices

2–3 Tablespoons of neutral oil for sauteing

Instructions

Day 1, Prep the Seafood Broth

In a large deep frying pan or brazier, add 1 T oil or butter, the quartered onion, and large carrot pieces and begin to sauté over high heat until the onions are fragrant about 5 minutes.

Add the lobster and shrimp shells and sauté for another 5 minutes or until the shrimp shells turn pink and any water in the pot is gone.

Add the brandy (or sherry) and light the pot on fire to flambé (see note).  When the flames subside, add the water, salt, spices, and tomato paste and bring the pan up to a boil.  Reduce to the heat, cover, and simmer for about 1 hour.

Remove the broth from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve and transfer it to a storage container (ideally a tall and narrow container instead of a wide and flat one).  Cool this broth to room temperature and then transfer it to the refrigerator overnight.

Day 2, Make the Stew

If you haven’t already done so, dice the carrots, potatoes, celery, fish, shrimp, and calamari.

Make a “buerre manie” (an uncooked roux that will be used to thicken the stew) by stirring together the room-temperature butter and the flour until evenly incorporated.  Set aside for later.

Add 1 Tablespoon of oil to a 4-6 quart soup pot and heat over medium-low heat.  Add the calamari (see note) and sauté for about 15 minutes.  Then add the carrots, celery, and potato and sauté over medium-low heat for another 10 minutes.  Add the broth and bring the soup up to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.

When the vegetables are just tender, probably another 5-10 minutes after the broth comes to a boil, add the buerre manie tablespoon by tablespoon, stirring briskly to dissolve and thicken the soup.  Add the heavy cream and bring the pot of soup back to a boil.  Taste the broth and add salt and pepper if needed.  Then add the remaining raw seafood and cook for 2-3 minutes or until completely opaque.  Lastly, stir in the cooked lobster meat.  Serve and enjoy.

Notes

To Cook a Live Lobster:

You can buy cooked lobsters from the seafood counter or frozen section of the store for this recipe, but if you live somewhere where live lobsters are available, that is definitely your best option. If you are buying r lobster, place 1 inch of water in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Humanely kill the lobster by either placing it in the freezer for about 10 minutes or driving a knife through its head, between the eyes. Andrew Zimmerman Cooks: How to Kill a Lobster is a good how-to video on dispatching lobsters by Andrew Zimmerman. Once the lobster is dead and the water is at a rapid boil, add the lobster to the pot and cover. Listen carefully for when it returns to a boil. Once boiling, set a timer and steam the lobster for 7 minutes per pound, 10 minutes for 1 1/2 pound lobsters. Run the lobster under cold water or plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking. You can cook up to 3-4 lobsters in a large pot (5 Gallon) but never try to cook more than that in one pot. Calculated the cooking time based on the average size of the lobsters in the pot, not the total poundage in the pot. For instance, a pot with two 1 1/2 lb lobsters should cook for 10 minutes 30 seconds after the boil returns (1 1/2 lbs x 7 minutes), not 21 minutes (3lbs x 7 minutes).

To Clean the Lobster:

Have a medium bowl handy.  Working over the bowl, remove the legs, claws and tail from the body.  Lobstery water will likely gush out when you are separating the bits and you will use this in the broth.  Using a nut cracker or a hammer and cutting board, crack the shells and remove the meat.  Set the meat aside.

Take the body and open it up, separating the shell from the underside where the legs connected.  There will be some yellow/green/blackish stuff in the cavity and some red roe (eggs) if you are lucky.  Use a spoon and scrape these guts into the bowl with a spoon.  This may sound and look nasty but it is really delicious and it is the secret to the best bisque ever.

After removing the guts, pick out the meat from the body.  There is actually quite a bit in there and most people waste it when eating lobsters.  At the location where each leg connects to the lobster there is a cavity filled with bite-sized pieces of lobster meat.  You may need to break apart the cartilage-like pieces that separate these pieces of meat in order to to get to it but you can easily do that with your hands.

When you are done you should have 3 bowls, one with lobster juices, one with meat, and one with shell (including the little legs and body scraps).

Use this same technique for crab.

To Flambé:

If catching something on fire in your kitchen makes you nervous, you can omit this step and simply deglaze the pot with brandy or sherry.

If you want to try this technique out, make sure there is ample space above the stove (without kitchen towels hanging or kitchen cabinets that could catch fire).  Use a long-handle grill lighter or light a long wooden skewer on fire and then touch the flame to the booze in the pot.  If you have a powerful commercial-grade gas stove, you may be able to just give the pan a little shake and catch it on fire from the burner flames.  But if you are using an electric, induction, or average residential gas stove you will need to manually ignite the booze.  Brandy will flame up better and last longer than sherry.  The booze will pool in the lobster shells and curves of the onion pieces.  Those are good places to light.  You will want to light the alcohol as soon as you pour it into the pan before it is diluted by any liquid in the pan or the alcohol cooks away so make sure you have everything nearby and ready before you add it. It’s always a good idea to keep a tight-fitting lid nearby in case anything gets out of hand and you need to cover and extinguish the flames.  You’ll be using the lid in the next step anyway.  All that being said, this is a small amount of alcohol, and it won’t flame up very high or last more than a couple of seconds.

Cooking Calamari

For tender calamari, you can either cook calamari low and slow or quickly for just a few seconds.  Anything in the middle will be tough and chewy.  For this soup, I use the low-and-slow method for tender calamari.  It needs to cook for a total time of 30-45 minutes.