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The Easy Way to Peel Hard Boiled Eggs

April 5, 2020

Colorful bunch of fresh eggs in burlap — Farm fresh eggs are harder to peel, but worth it.

Trust me, you are not the only one who has struggled to peel eggs after boiling them! There are a lot of ways to boil and peel eggs and I have tried most of them. This is the most consistent and reliable method that I have found and it’s the method I’ve been using and teaching to my cooks for the last 5-10 years.

Choosing Eggs for Boiling

Farm fresh eggs have brighter yolks, are tastier and more nutritious but they are undoubtedly much harder to peel. As eggs age and dehydrate, the inside portion (yolk and white) gets smaller and the membrane between the shell and egg whites gets looser with a bigger air gap. This makes older eggs easier to peel. If using Farm Fresh eggs, which I recommend, it’s best to boil them after at least 1 week of being laid. If you are making deviled eggs for a party and are the type of person that will not forgive yourself if the eggs come out all pock-marked and ugly, you may want to take some stress out and buy store-bought eggs here (I wont’ judge you).

Tips for Peeling Eggs

Before boiling your eggs, tap them on your counter to create a hairline crack in the shell. No egg white or yolk should ooze out here. You’ll be able to hear it. Gently place your eggs in your pot and follow the steps for boiling below. After the timer goes off, stir the eggs or agitate the pot to further crack the shells all over and allow water to seep between the egg and the shell membrane. Drain off most of the water and add back cool/room temperature water. As soon as the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel under running water starting with the rounded end of the egg (where the air bubble usually is). The shells should slip right off.

A lot of people recommend “shocking” your eggs in ice water. I do not recommend doing this and haven’t had any luck with this method. As things are heated, they expand and as they cool they shrink. Cooling the eggs, especially rapidly, causes the membrane to tighten back down onto the egg making it more difficult to peel. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend peeling everything when its hot (beets, eggs, roasted peppers, roasted squash, etc).

What about adding salt, baking soda, and vinegar? I see and hear these recommendations a lot and have tried them a couple of times with no luck. I also find that I can taste the baking soda, vinegar and salt in the final product which is a downside.

How To Boil Perfect Eggs every time

Cover eggs with about 2 inches of cold water. The time that the eggs gradually warm up to boiling will temper them and ensure that the whites are fully done, even if you go for a soft yolk. I’ve done this with room temperature and cold eggs. It doesn’t make a difference here. Bring the eggs to a boil. Once the water reaches a boil, remove from the heat and cover. Set your timer for:

12 minutes for hard-boiled (best for deviled eggs, potato salad, egg salad, sauce gribiche)
8 minutes for medium-boiled (best for salads, toast, sandwiches)
6 minutes for soft boiled eggs (best served warm with toast or in ramen)

To Store Your Eggs

If you’re boiling a big batch of eggs, you can store them for up to a week in either salted or plain water after they have been peeled.

A Quick Food Safety Note:

One thing that is a pet peeve of mine and totally grosses me out is when people grab foods out of water or other liquids with their bare hands, (like hard-boiled eggs that you are storing in water, or fresh mozzarella, etc.)

The reason being that we are covered in bacteria. Some good or harmless, others, like Staph. Aureus, can be very harmful when they colonize our food and we ingest them. Aside from the natural bacteria that make up our microbiota, there are other nasty bacteria that may be hiding underneath our fingernails (like salmonella or e. coli).

When you put your fingers in water containing food, the bacteria from your hands contaminate the entire container and all its contents. When you’re cooking for yourself, it might not be a big deal, but if you’re making deviled eggs for a Christmas Party or potato salad for your kid’s school event, then this food safety lapse could cause some big problems. So use tongs or a slotted spoon or gloved hands to dish out your eggs from their storage water.

Make your own Creme Fraiche!

April 5, 2020

A kitchen staple that is so easy, everyone should make their own.

Creme fraiche (pronounced: crem fresh) is one of the few prep items we made at the restaurant year-round and I consider it a basic kitchen staple. We used it primarily to garnish soups and make cream sauces but the uses for this ingredient are extensive. Most grocery stores carry creme fraiche in the deli section but an 8 oz container will set you back about $8 and last you only 1-2 meals. This is one of those items that is so easy and inexpensive to make your own, there is really no reason to buy it.

What is creme fraiche?

Creme fraiche is a rich, slightly acidic, cultured cream. Crema is the Latin American name for it. Its consistency is between cream and sour cream. The longer it sits the thicker and more sour it gets.

How is creme fraiche used?

Creme fraiche can generally be used in place of cream, sour cream and yoghurt in many recipes. It is less acidic and more buttery than sour cream and yoghurt and it handles cooking better than both of these ingredients due to its higher fat content. It will thin when heated but will not curdle.

There are so many uses for creme friache:

Garnish pureed soups
Make hot cream sauces like mushroom cream sauce, or creamy tomato sauce
Make cold cream sauces like horseradish herb creme fraiche or cilantro-lime creme fraiche.
Add to salad dressings or use as a salad dressing on its own.
Drizzle or dollop over tacos, enchiladas, fish, chicken or cooked vegetables
Sweeten and use like you would whip cream.
Use in cooking and baking in place of cream, sour cream or yoghurt.

I hope you enjoy making and using this product. I’d love to know how you use your creme fraiche so please leave comments or tag your creations #homecooksguide on social media.

Home-made Creme Fraiche

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Author: Kara Taylor – Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 1 minute
Total Time: 12-24 hours
Yield: 2 1/2 cups 1x
Category: cultured
Method: culture
Cuisine: French

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Description

Creme fraiche is so versatile, easy and inexpensive to make at home there is no reason not to make this part of your regular kitchen routine.

Ingredients

Scale

2 cups cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

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Instructions

In a clean container, stir together the cream and buttermilk.

Leave uncovered at room temperature overnight (12-24 hours). The warmer it is the thicker and richer the creme fraiche will be in the morning.

Stir well. There may be a thicker layer on top, stir that in. Cover and refrigerate.

That’s all there is to it!

Citrus, Fennel and Radicchio Salad

March 31, 2020

Citrus Fennel Radicchio Salad and Deviled Eggs with Bouquet of Flowers on Table — This colorful and bright winter salad makes a great party dish.

I love this wintery salad. It’s colorful and bright with citrus flavors balanced out with bitter radicchio, sweet crisp fennel bulb and crunchy nuts. This is an adaptation of a dish I offered on the 2019 winter menu at the restaurant, redesigned for your home kitchen.

Citrus, Fennel and Radicchio Salad

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Author: Kara Taylor – Home Cooks Guide

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Description

This beautiful winter salad is an excellent palate cleanser between courses and the radicchio is hardy enough to stand up to dressing ahead of time making it an easy dinner party dish. Here’s a quick demo on cutting citrus supremes.

Ingredients

For the Salad

2 heads radicchio, core removed, torn into bite sized pieces

1/2 fennel bulb, core removed, very thinly sliced (on mandolin)

1 grapefruit, cut into supremes. Squeeze juice from the “guts” and set aside.

1/2 meyer lemon, cut into supremes, then cut into thirds. Squeeze juice from “guts” and combine with grapefruit juice

2 oranges, rind and pith removed, cut into 1/8inch-1/4inch cross section rounds.

1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts/hazelnuts/pistachio)

For the Dressing

3/4 cup citrus juice (using what you squeezed from fruit plus additional orange juice to make 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup good quality olive oil

1/4 cup canola oil

pinch of salt

For the Salad

2 heads radicchio, core removed, torn into bite sized pieces

1/2 fennel bulb, core removed, very thinly sliced (on mandolin)

1 grapefruit, cut into supremes. Squeeze juice from the “guts” and set aside.

1/2 meyer lemon, cut into supremes, then cut into thirds. Squeeze juice from “guts” and combine with grapefruit juice

2 oranges, rind and pith removed, cut into 1/8inch-1/4inch cross section rounds.

1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts/hazelnuts/pistachio)

For the Dressing

3/4 cup citrus juice (using what you squeezed from fruit plus additional orange juice to make 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup good quality olive oil

1/4 cup canola oil

pinch of salt

Pinch of fresh ground pepper

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Instructions

Combine radicchio, fennel, nuts and citrus in a salad bowl.

In a pint sized jar, combine all salad dressing ingredients and shake well. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Gently toss the salad with dressing, careful not to damage fragile citurs supremes. Start with a small amount and gradually add more till all the salad ingredients are evenly coated with dressing. You may have dressing left over.

Apple Kraut

March 21, 2020

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

Sliced apples and cabbage — This recipe is a variation of simple sauerkraut.

I’ve always enjoyed the combination of apples and cabbage, especially when paired with pork and sausages. This apple kraut is a variation on your simple sauerkraut. You can easily omit apples and make your classic kraut variety with this recipe.

If you haven’t made sauerkraut or fermented pickles before, I recommend first reading my step-by-step guide to making lacto-fermented fruit and vegetable pickles guide.

Apple Kraut Recipe

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Author: Kara Taylor, Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 quart 1x
Category: pickled
Method: fermented
Cuisine: german

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Description

This recipe is so simple and delicious. I left spices out of this recipe but you could certainly add some in to your liking. Some classic combinations are bay-juniper, lemon-clove, or black pepper-coriander-caraway.

Ingredients

Scale

1 small head of cabbage

1 apple

1 cup of water

pure kosher or sea salt (with no anticaking agents or iodine)

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Instructions

Thinly chop your cabbage and apples.
Tare your mixing bowl on your scale, add the cabbage and apples and 1 cup water. Make a note of the weight.
Multiply the weight of your ingredients by 0.02. That’s how much salt you need.
Weigh out your salt and add it to your mixing bowl. Use your hands to mix all the ingredients well. Let sit for 15-20 minutes.
Make a little bit of 2% brine by taring a measuring cup on the scale, adding water and calculating 2% of the weight of water and then adding that amount of salt.
Pack your mixed ingredients into a clean jar large enough to hold everything with a couple inches of head space.
Let the mixture rest about 20 minutes to allow the salt to draw out liquid from your cabbage and apples. If after that time, there is not enough liquid to fully submerge the vegetables, add a little bit of your brine. Using reserved cabbage leaves, pack the mixture under the liquid.
Insert and empty gallon size twist tie bag in the jar and push down onto your kraut mix. Fill with some brine. This is your weight. Tie and knot.
Cover the jar with your fermentation cap or a two-part canning lid loosely closed (gas needs to be able to escape jar)
Allow kraut to ferment for 3-7 days on your counter. The warmer your house is, the faster it will go. Taste it everyday after the 3rd day. Once it is to your liking, remove your weight, close the lid and transfer to the fridge.

Bratwurst Sausage Recipe

March 21, 2020

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

Sausage Links on Table — Detailed home-made sausage recipe.

This is a step-by-step old fashion German Sausage recipe for a traditional bratwurst seasoned with marjoram, ginger, pepper, mace and coriander.

I’ve been a professional sausage maker since I started my first Gourmet Meats business 10 years ago. I’ve hand twisted over 100,000 lbs of sausage and created more than 100 sausage recipes. Some recipes came easy, on the first try. Others, like this one, took several attempts to fine tune the spices and end up with the perfect sausage.

What is a bratwurst?

A bratwurst simply means “finely ground” + “sausage” in German. When working on this recipe I researched a lot of different bratwursrt recipes from Charcuterie: Sausages, Pates and Accompaniments by German Master Chef Fritz Sonnenschmidt.

Every region in Germany has there own traditional Bratwurst varieties. Most are made with pork, some use veal, some use beef, some use a lot of fat or pork belly. Some are a coarser grind, some are a finer grind. Yet for Americans, there is something specific that comes to mind when we think of a “Brat”. It’s mild… It tastes good with sauerkraut, mustard, and beer… Figuring out what that something was exactly so I could develop a recipe that was both authentic and recognizable to my American customers as a “brat” was my challenge with this sausage. After playing around with many different bratwurst recipes, I developed this one which I have been using now for about 8 years.

Making Sausage At Home

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I am not a fan of doing dishes or having a bunch of gadgets and equipment. Well, with sausage-making there is no getting around dishes and equipment.

I haven’t made sausage at home in a long time because my kitchen is tiny and I have little kids and a general lack of free time for ambitious kitchen projects, but also because I make 300 lbs of sausage on a near weekly basis in a commercial kitchen (where I have a dishwasher) so there really isn’t any need.

If you are just getting started with this, or only make small batches of sausages a couple of times a year, you can use a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer with the Meat Grinder and Sausage Stuffer attachment. This is good for 2-5 lb batches max! If making a 5 lb batch you’ll either need to hand mix it or mix it in 2 batches. If you try to grind or mix more than 5 lbs you’ll burn out the motor. I’ve been there, done that.

Personally, I think if you are going to make sausage, you should make at least 10 lbs to make it worth the effort and I have included equipment down below the recipe that I recommend for the hobby sausage maker.

In addition to the special equipment, you’ll also need to special order sausage casings and have ample space in your refrigerator or freezer to cool down your equipment and meat before grinding and mixing.

Bratwurst Sausage Recipe

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Author: Kara Taylor – Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Yield: 5 lbs 1x
Category: Meat
Method: Mixing
Cuisine: German
Diet: Gluten Free

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Description

This is a traditional mild bratwurst seasoned with pepper, mace, ginger, coriander, and marjoram.

Ingredients

Scale

5 lbs meat (pork or pork mix, 25% fat)

35 g salt

1.24 g sugar

1.25 g ground white pepper

3.75 g ground black pepper

1.4 g mace

1.25 g ground ginger

1.25 g ground coriander

4.5 g marjoram

1 T cold white vinegar

1/2 c cold water

Sausage Casings

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Instructions

Soak Casings in warm water for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 12 hours. Change the water a couple of times. Store the casings in the water as you work.

Cut meat mixture in chunks smaller enough to fit through your grinder. The meat mixture should be 25-30% fat. Pork shoulder works well for this or leaner cuts of meat combined with pork belly or fatback. Put meat in the freezer until very cold, but not frozen. Also, put your grinder pieces and bowl in freezer or fridge as space permits. The goal is for everything to be nice and cold.

Toss meat with the spices and salt and grind through the desired grinder plate into a mixing bowl. If you are using a larger die for grinding, make sure you are extra thorough trimming off the tough connective tissue and tendons or you will end up with chewy/hard bits in your sausage.

Mix the sausage mixture with a stand mixer (or meat mixer) fitted with the paddle attachment. Slowly add the cold liquids and set a timer for 5 minutes. As long as your meat mix stays nice and cold, you can’t really over mix it. You can however under-mix it and end up with a dry, crumbly, unpleasant texture. Depending on the equipment you are using for this, you may need to do this in batches.

Load the meat mixture into the sausage stuffer. Put a casing on the nozzle leaving a couple of inches overhanging. Leave the end unknotted until the sausage starts coming out to avoid a huge air bubble. Stuff sausages, twisting every other one in the same direction. Poke casings with needle or sausage poker.

Sausages are best if allowed to sit for 1 day before eating to allow casings to dry and flavors to mingle. If possible, hang sausages in the refrigerator during that time to tighten the casings and squeeze out air bubbles.

To package and store your sausages you can wrap in plastic wrap and then butcher paper and freeze or vacuum seal and freeze. If vacuum sealing, I recommend freezing first or leaving the sausages linked together as the vacuum pressure will try to pull the sausage out of the casing. Fresh sausage you can store on a plate wrapped in plastic wrap or a bag in the fridge. You should use fresh raw sausage within 3-5 days.

Equipment

| Charcuterie: Sausages, Pates and Accompaniments |

Buy Now →

| Kitchener Heavy Duty Electric Meat Grinder |

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| ThermoPro Dual Probe Meat Thermometer |

Buy Now →

Cheap and Effective Sanitizer Recipe

March 15, 2020

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

Spray bottle, paper towels and 2 sponges. — How to make a cheap and effective sanitizer for hard surfaces.

You can make your own sanitizer with bleach and water for less than 1 cent per batch.

This solution can be used to sanitize hard surfaces like door knobs, sink handles, light switches, sinks, counters, cutting boards, tables and chairs and so on.

Anytime someone is feeling under the weather in my house, I mix up a batch of sanitizer and hit all the heavily touched surfaces on a daily basis until the illness has subsided. At the restaurant, mixing and using bleach sanitizers are part of our Standard Operating Procedures for every shift, front and back of the house. Health Departments across the country consider this mix effective in reducing to safe levels salmonella, e. coli, staph. aureus, cold and flu viruses, norovirus, and many other bacterial and viral contaminants including the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19).

This recipe below makes an effective sanitizer that kills 99.9% of germs within 2 minutes of contact with the solution and costs less than 1 cent per batch! 1 Gallon of bleach makes 512 batches or 1.4 years of daily sanitizing. Realistically you don’t need to use this daily at home, only when someone is ill. So, there’s no need to panic buy bleach! 1 Gallon will get you through for your home needs. If you have an office or store that is open to the public its a good idea to sanitize at least daily if you are not already doing so.

What’s the difference between sanitizer and disinfectant?

A sanitizer reduces the number of pathogenic bacteria or virus particles on a surface to safe numbers. They generally kill 99.9% of specific pathogenic bacteria and viruses in a specific amount of time.

A disinfectant kills 100% of specific bacteria (soft bodies) and viruses. Disinfectants however, do not destroy dormant bacterial spores (hard bodies).

This is a side note and probably more technical than you need, but I think this stuff is interesting so here you go…

Some pathogenic bacteria such as clostridium botulinum (botulism), clostridium perfringens, clostridium tetani (tetanus), Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Bacillus Cereus create dormant spores as part of their life cycles. These spores are harmless and generally found throughout the environment. Once the spores land in an environment that they prefer (like an oxygen free low acid canning jar for clostridium botulinum), the spores germinate and enter into the soft bodied, reproductive stage of their life cycle and they produce toxins during that germination period that are harmful or deadly. (Bacterial Pathogens of Humans Page 5, Kenneth Todar, PhD) A disinfectant doesn’t destroy these spores, only the soft bodies. In order to destroy these spores you would need a sterilant or a sterilization process like pressure canning which we are not going to get into here, but this is why certain things must be pressure canned.

Bleach Sanitizer

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Author: Kara Taylor – Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 1 minute
Yield: 2 qts 1x
Category: Cleaning
Method: Mixing
Cuisine: Not Applicable

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Description

This is how to make a Bleach Sanitizer which kills 99.9% of germs on hard surfaces in 2 minutes. This size batch makes enough to sanitize my entire 1100 square foot home and then some.

One gallon of bleach will make 512 2Qt batches. That’s 1.4 years of daily sanitizing on one gallon of bleach at less than 1 cent per batch. You do not need to panic buy bleach during this pandemic. Just one gallon will do.

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 Tablespoon bleach

2 qts COLD water. See note below.

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Instructions

Mix the bleach and water in a mixing bowl or pot.

Use a rag or sponge to apply the sanitizer to clean hard surfaces to sanitize. I also use on leather furniture, though I’m sure any furniture manufacturer would advise against this.

Allow surface to air-dry.

Bleach breaks down quickly when exposed to light. This solution needs to be made and used within 4 hours. If you had an opaque container or spray bottle it may last for 24 hours.

Notes

A drop of bleach will ruin your clothes so be careful pouring. Undiluted bleach is also hard on skin and very bad for eyes so handles with care.

Always use COLD water. Hot water mixed with bleach will emit a toxic gas.

Never mix bleach with any other chemicals!!

If you wanted to make a disinfectant instead of a sanitizer, increase the bleach to water ratio by 4 times and use gloves when using as the higher bleach ratio is hard on the skin.

2 Cure-All Garlic Soup Recipes

March 3, 2020

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

Garlic has a long global history as a cure-all.

It is believed that garlic originated in Middle Asia and then spread to China. The first historic records of medicinal garlic use are from China in 2700 BC and Sumeria in 2600 BC.

In Ancient China, garlic was considered a stimulant and used to treat depression. In Ancient India, garlic was used as a tonic to treat lack of appetite, common weakness, cough, skin disease, and rheumatism.

Egyptians fed garlic to slaves to keep them strong and healthy and able to do more work. In Ebers, papyrus dating back to 1500 BC mentions garlic for healing 32 different illnesses.

In Ancient Greece garlic was fed to armies prior to major battles and today Greek Olympic athletes still eat garlic for the purpose of performance enhancement. Garlic was considered a remedy against intestinal parasites, snakebites, and “mad dog’s bites”.

In Ancient Rome, an oil made of garlic and thyme juice was rubbed on the skin to prevent snake bites and Pliny the Elder considered garlic a universal remedy. Around the second century, Galen and Celsius were using garlic to treat tuberculosis and colic.

Garlic was used as treatment and a preventative, and credited with saving thousands of people in Marseille during the plague in 1720, during outbreaks of Cholera, typhoid and diphtheria in Beirut in the early 20th Century, and during the Spanish flu of 1918.

Above information sourced from Extracts From the History and Medical Properties of Garlic by Biljana Bauer Petrovska dn Svetlana Cekovska.

Modern Scientific Research Confirms Garlic’s Healing Powers

Garlic is rich with vitamins C, A and B complex along with the minerals magnesium, zinc, selenium and germanium, enzymes, amino acids, lipids, steroid saponosides, and the unusual compound allicin which has been proven to be a bactericide.

Recent studies have shown garlic protects from the common cold (a form of coronavirus) and that those who took garlic were both less likely to catch the cold and more likely to recover quickly if they did.

Garlic has been shown to improve cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health and may lessen the risk of development of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Garlic has strong antioxidant properties and is being studied for anticarcinogenic potential.

Above information sourced from Extracts From the History and Medical Properties of Garlic by Biljana Bauer Petrovska dn Svetlana Cekovska.

Anecdotally…

Growing up, my next door neighbor and good friend was of Irish decent. She claimed it was a family secret to eat a spoonful of raw minced garlic when you started to feel sick and it would kick anything.

The first chef I worked under was a second generation Italian and he swore by loading up a slice of bread with raw garlic and olive oil to fight illness. He did this everyday and garlic seeped out of every pore.

When I stumbled upon a French Garlic Soup recipe that I loved, I tucked it in my figurative back pocket and took it to college with me where it become my own get-well tradition. I swear by it. After eating a bowl of these garlic soups, you will notice your body temperature going up like you are burning off a fever or infection. Garlic soup is also very simple, cheap, nutritious and comforting and the overall health benefits of garlic warrant eating these soups and other garlic laden dishes on a regular basis.

Over the years I have since expanded on the garlic soup theme at home and I make up a batch of some type of garlic soup anytime someone in my family is a little under the weather. Both of these soups start with the same garlic to liquid ratio and both are served with a poached egg that thickens the broth when it is cut open and provides additional nutrition to help you get well.

With the recent novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 outbreak, in combination with living with a 5 year old germaphile in kindergarten and a baby in utero, I definitely plan on adding in some garlic to my diet as a preventative measure.

Here are 2 Cure-All Garlic Soups.

Garlic-Miso Ramen

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Author: Kara Taylor – Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: Soup
Method: Boiling
Cuisine: Asian

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Description

When you’re under-the-weather nothing is better than a piping hot bowl of noodles and broth.

Ingredients

Scale

8 cups water or stock

20 crushed garlic cloves

1/4 cup miso paste

4 servings ramen noodles (preferably fresh noodles)

4 eggs

Optional Garnishes: Togarashi, Sesame Oil, Miso-Fermented Vegetables or Kim Chi

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Notes

Make the garlic-miso broth

In a pot large enough to hold 3 quarts add the garlic and water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until garlic is soft. Transfer the garlic to a bowl and crust with a fork and then transfer it back to the stock. In the same bowl thin the miso paste with some of the stock, then pour it into the soup and whisk to incorporate and fully dissolve. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble soup bowls

While the garlic broth is simmering, bring another pot of water to a boil.

Cook your noodles according to their package instructions. Remove from pot using tongs or slotted spoon (retaining the boiling water) and divide among 4 bowls.

Add about 1 Tablespoon of vinegar or 1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice to the boiling water and poach your eggs for 2 minutes each. Using a slotted spoon, transfer on egg to each of your 4 bowls. If you need an egg poaching demo, check out Gordon Ramsay Demonstrates How To Prepare The Perfect Poached Egg | TASTE OF FOX.

Spoon the hot garlic broth over each bowl and top with fermented vegetables, sesame oil and togarashi if using. Serve immediately.

French Garlic Soup

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Author: Kara Taylor – Home Cooks Guide
Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Total Time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: Soup
Method: Boiling
Cuisine: French
Diet: Vegetarian

Print Recipe

Description

This simple soup is light, inexpensive, nutritious and will warm you from the inside.

Ingredients

Scale

8 cups water/ chicken broth/ vegetable broth

20 crushed garlic cloves

10 fresh sage leaves

2 cups chopped swiss chard/kale/spinach/parsley or a mix of these (optional)

Salt and Pepper

8 slices of day old bread, toasted

4 eggs

Duck fat/ Butter/ Olive Oil for finishing

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Instructions

Make the Garlic Broth

Bring the water/stock and the crushed garlic to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the garlic is pretty soft. Add the sage leaves and cook for another 5 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the garlic and sage leaves to a bowl. Pick out and discard the sage. Crush the garlic with a fork and transfer it back to the broth. Season with salt and pepper. Add the 2 cups of chopped greens if using.

Poach your eggs.

You can either do this in the garlic broth or a separate pot of acidified simmering water. If you poach in a separate pot, it will make the presentation nicer as you won’t have all the stringy white bits that come away from the egg. Do I care about the presentation when I’m cooking for my family? Nope. I do care about how many dishes I have to do afterward, so I tend to poach these in the garlic broth. If you need an egg poaching demo, check out this quick video Gordon Ramsay Demonstrates How To Prepare The Perfect Poached Egg | TASTE OF FOX.

Assemble your bowls

Place two pieces of toasted bread in each of 4 bowls. Top with an egg. Pour the garlic broth over and drizzle or spoon in about 1 Tablespoon of duck fat, olive oil or butter. Duck fat would be my preference here. Serve.

Notes

If you have unflavored gelatin powder on hand, you can add it to your soup to make a “Cheater Bone Broth”

Really old home-canned preserves. Is this safe?

January 31, 2020

Old dusty home-canned preserves in garage.

Home Cook’s Guide Safety Rating = Don’t eat this!

This is a question I get all the time. You stumble across your grandmother’s stash of home-made preserves from the 80’s and don’t want to waste them. She made the best canned peaches….

In theory, a properly processed hermetically sealed jar is sterile and cannot grow any bacteria that would cause spoilage, and therefore should be safe to eat indefinitely. If I was in a survival situation, I would probably consider these a good option (after careful inspection). However, I think it’s safe to assume that as you are reading a blog post you are not in a survival situation and there’s a number of things that make these old preserves somewhat risky. And this risk just isn’t worth taking.

You don’t know if it was processes long enough.

If it was not processed long enough during the canning process, there could be food spoilage bacteria and yeasts in there causing all sorts of problems. Some people can things by adding a hot brine or syrup to cold packed produce, putting the lid on, and flipping the jar upside down. This is not a recommended method and it’s not sufficient heating to kill all micro-organisms. Do you know how long these jars were processed for? Probably not. Don’t risk it.

Re-Used lids aren’t dependable

Back in the day, it was very common to reuse canning lids. Even lids not intended for home canning as the picture shows. This is not a recommended practice today. You may be able to get away with it once or twice but that’s just a chance your taking and the probability of the seal degrading overtime, especially with drastic heat fluctuations (as there are in garages) increases with every month the preserve sits around.

High Acid or Low Acid? Water-Bath or Pressure Canned?

Is this a high acid preserve or a low acid preserve like green beans in water or beef stew? If its low acid, did granny use a pressure canner? If you don’t know, definitely don’t eat these. If you can’t tell if those green beans are in water or a vinegar solution, don’t eat these. It used to be common to can low-acid foods in hot water canners and then the preserved vegetables, stew or sauces were boiled for 10 minutes before eating to destroy any of the deadly botulism toxin that might be present in the canned goods. Do you want to eat canned green beans boiled for 10 minutes? No thank you!

Botulism is scary.

Clostridium Botulinum is one of those bacteria that I have literally lost sleep over. I’ve done a lot of research about botulism poisoning and how to avoid it. Studies I have found suggest you can destroy the toxin by heating the product to 170 F for 10 minutes. Magnus Nilsson, renowned Swedish chef (who I love) in his book Faviken has a section for “Pasteurization” by water-bath processing in which he recommends heating non-acidic preserves to 175 F to make them safe from clostridium botulinum. No disrespect to my man Magnus, but I would not do this unless I was in a survival situation. I would be too paranoid that my husband or kid wouldn’t know that the product needed special heating and would accidentally be poisoned to death. That being said if you are going to mess around with water-bath canned low acid foods, make sure your thermometer is accurate or boil the hell out of it.

Even if the preserves are safe, it’s just not worth it.

Over times vitamins, color and cell structures break down making the product of poor quality. After 10, 20, 30 years, these are definitely going to be a let down if you do eat them.

What is the shelf life of home canned foods?

Typically 1-2 years. I’ll generally eat them up to 5 years old so long as the seal is unbroken, nothing looks suspicious and they were in a fairly controlled environment. The quality is best when kept in a cool dark place with consistent year round temperatures.

Quick Avgolemono: Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

January 16, 2020

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

Avgolemono is a Greek Sauce of chicken broth, egg and lemon. Add chicken and rice and you have Avgolemono Soup or Greek Chicken and Lemon Soup. Despite being rich and creamy, this sauce is dairy free and gluten free. It is made that way by mixing the egg into hot broth (usually chicken broth). In order to assure that the egg becames a creamy addition to the soup or sauce and not a curdled mess, we use a process called “tempering”. This is very important.

Variations of this sauce are widespread throughout Mediterranean Europe and North Africa: Tarbiya in Syria, Bagna Brusca in Italy, Agristada in Shephardic Jewish cuisine and also in Spain. This sauce is often served with lamb, dolmas, meatballs, and fried fish.

Avgolemono Soup is the first dish that I learned to make outside of my mother’s tutelage. I grew up in a small fishing town in Massachusetts with a large Greek community. My childhood friend Stephanie is a 3rd generation Greek American. Her Yaya and Papou lived next door to her and we used to walk to and fro each others houses almost daily. There was a period of time in 4th or 5th grade where we would try to make our own acceptable version of this soup everyday after school, while our parents were at work. We would use whatever we could find in the pantry, those old-school salty chicken bouillon cubes, Uncle Ben’s rice, sometimes Knorr dried chicken noodle soup packs. There was a lot of curdled eggs back in those days. This was before recipe blogs and the ability to google anything. There were no answers to the secret of Avgolemono unless we figured it out ourselves. When we landed on a creamy soup it was a major achievement, but hard to replicate on the next try. I am happy to say my Avgolemono Soup skills have come a long way. Looking back I believe that my love for the kitchen started with those afternoons spent as a kid with my buddy and no adult supervision, experimenting with this soup.

I usually make this soup with leftover roast chicken and leftover rice making this a 20-30 minute easy weeknight meal. In fact, I’ll make roasted chicken and rice just to have this soup halfway done. Anytime I roast chicken, or ham, or bone in beef roast, I make stock with the leftovers right away, and I always have a couple different kinds of stock in my freezer. Anytime I make rice, I’ll make enough for 2-3 meals. There’s so much you can do with it. I’ll give you the recipe for making it with these leftovers for a quick weeknight meal and also for making it on its own, the long version, in a separate post.

Quick Avgolemono: Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

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Author: Kara Taylor
Cook Time: 25
Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 16 cups 1x
Category: Soup
Cuisine: Greek

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Description

Quick Method

This Avgolemono Soup uses cooked chicken and cooked rice and is a quick, easy and comforting meal for busy weeknights.

It is very important to temper your eggs before adding to the hot broth and to not boil this soup after the egg has been added.

Ingredients

Scale

For the soup

6 cups broth

1/2 large onion, minced

2–3 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

1/8 teaspoon ground clove

1 lemon

lemon juice, to taste

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1–2 cups cooked rice

1–2 cups diced cooked chicken

3/4 cups frozen peas (optional)

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Instructions

Pull your eggs out of the fridge.
Bring the stock up to a simmer with the onion, garlic, clove and bay.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a bowl large enough to hold 2 quarts of liquid. Squeeze the juice of one lemon through a sieve into the bowl with the eggs. Add a pinch of salt. Whisk until frothy.
Add the squeezed lemon halves, rice and chicken to the broth. Bring back to a simmer, then turn the heat off.
TEMPER THE EGGS! This is the most important step in this recipe. Ladle broth into the egg mixture slowly while whisking. You may need a helper or you can coil up a wet towel around the base of you mixing bowl to help hold the bowl in place while you simultaneously whisk and ladle. You need to do at least 2-3 ladles full but I’ll ladle most of the broth into the mixing bowl, taking off the top and leaving the rice and chicken in the pot because its easier to whisk without those things getting in the way.
Add the tempered egg mixture back to the pot with the rice and chicken. If the soup has cooled too much you can turn the heat on low and gently heat while stirring. DO NOT BOIL THE SOUP AFTER EGG MIXTURE HAS BEEN ADDED, 180 F max.
Stir in the dill. Taste the soup. Add more salt, pepper or lemon to your liking. I like a lot of lemon in mine.
Serve immediately. Garnish with dill sprigs and lemon slices if you like.

Notes

When reheating leftovers, do so gently, stirring frequently. DO NOT BOIL.

How To Make Lacto-Fermented Fruit and Vegetable Pickles

January 7, 2020

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

Assorted Pickled Vegetables in Jars — Fermented Vegetables are easy to make at home.

What are Lacto-Fermented Pickles

There are two types of pickles. Pickles made with vinegar, and lacto-fermented pickles made with salt and wild bacteria. Lacto-fermented pickles require no cooking or refrigeration to make and they are full of beneficial probiotics, just like yoghurt. During fermentation, wild Lactobacillus Strains of bacteria (LAB) that are found naturally in the milk of mammals and the skins and leaves of practically all fruits and vegetables convert sugars to lactic acid, thus increasing acidity.

Sauerkraut, old fashion dill pickles, and kim chi are all examples of probiotic Lacto-Fermented Pickles. Every major food culture has their own version of fermented foods. Think fish sauce, soy sauce, miso, sauerkraut, garlic pastes and chili pastes, tomato salsas, yoghurt, cheese, sourdough breads and fermented sausages. In this post, I’ll teach you how to pickle any fruit and vegetable with salt and wild bacteria.

How to Make Lacto-Fermented Pickles

The process for making these pickles is simple and can be summarized like this:

Select your fruits and vegetables
Add 2% salt
Remove the air
Let sit at room temperature for 2+ days

Step-by-Step Guide to Lacto-Fermented Pickles

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Author: Kara Taylor
Prep Time: 15
Total Time: 4-42 days
Yield: any amount
Category: lacto-fermented pickles
Method: fermentation
Cuisine: world

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Description

This is a step-by-step guide on how to pickle any fruit or vegetable with lacto-fermentation. As with any recipe, read through the entire process first, before beginning to make your pickles. The images used to illustrate this process are from our AppleKraut Recipe.

Ingredients

Fruits and/ or Veggies that you want to pickle

Herbs and Spices (optional)

Water (optional)

Salt (with no iodine or anti-caking agents)

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Instructions

Select Your Ingredients

When we make these pickles we are essentially harvesting the wild LAB from the skins and leaves and we don’t want to wash all those bacteria away. You’ll want to choose fruits and vegetables that you can be relatively sure were not recently sprayed with pesticides. I recommend using home grown fruits and vegetables or ingredients from your local farms. Foraged berries are a safe bet as well, as long as they are foraged in wild environments, not along urban or suburban trails where dogs pee all over them, and you know what you are doing.
All fruits and vegetables can be fermented using this process, however, some fruits and vegetables make tastier pickles than others. Choose ingredients that are good when eaten raw and have some crunch to them. Cabbage, grapes, carrots, apples, bosc pears, asian pears, beets, celery, tomatoes, brocolli, cauliflower, and asparagus all make great pickles. Berries, other soft fruits and mushrooms loose a lot texturally when lacto-fermented but make great sauces.

Prep your ingredients

Lightly rinse your veggies with cool running water if they have visible dirt on them.
Shred, chop, dice, mince or puree ingredients to your liking.

Prepped vegetables for apple kraut.

Weigh your ingredients.

Put a mixing bowl on your kitchen scale, set the scale to grams and tare so that the scale reads 0 with the empty bowl on it. You want to weigh only what is inside the bowl.

Mixing bowl on scale after pressing the “tare” button.

Add your fruits and/or veggies to pickle along with any herbs and spices you want to use.

Cabbage and Apple in Mixing Bowl on Scale

Cabbage and apple ready for salting.

You may want to add a little water to your bowl if the ingredients won’t produce enough liquid to be able to fully submerge themselves during fermentation, or you may want to totally submerge your ingredients in water if you want to pickle in a brine (as you do with cucumber pickles).
Once everything except the salt is in the mixing bowl, make a note of the total weight of all the ingredients and water (if using).

Add 2% Salt

Calculate 2% of the total weight of your ingredients. W* 0.02= 2% of total weight. For example if the ingredients weighed 1500 grams, 1500 * 0.02 = 30 grams. 30 grams is 2% of the total weight.
Add 2 % salt to the mixing bowl. Use your hands to toss and stir the ingredients with the salt. Let the mixing bowl sit on your counter for 30 minutes or so while you clean up and prepare your jars. The salt will start to pull the liquid out of the ingredients and make a brine.

2% of salt to add to mixing bowl with cabbage and apple.

Pack your pickling containers.

You can pickle in any food-grade glass, plastic, porcelain, ceramic, or stainless steel containers, including vacuum seal bags as long as the ingredients are submerged in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment and that there is a way for gasses to escape either through venting or burping. I use 2-quart mason jars with a weight made from a bag of brine. These instructions will describe my process. Feel free to modify as needed to suit your vessel of choice.

Gather your jars and lids. Clean and sanitize if needed. If your jars have been washed in a high temp dishwasher and are dry in your clean cabinet, they are good to go. If you are handwashing them with a germy kitchen sponge right before pickling, I recommend that you heat sanitize by either cooking in the oven at 300 for about 30 minutes or dip in boil water then let them come back to room temp before loading them up.
Pack your jars with the mixture from your bowl, including the liquid. Really pack the ingredients in, you can be a bit rough with them. You want to be able to pack the ingredients below the brine that they have created. If there is not enough liquid, you can either wait a bit longer to see if more water will be pulled out from the salt, or put your mixing bowl back on the scale, tare it, add some water, calculate 2% of the water weight, add 2% salt and then add that brine to your jar.

2% brine to add to pickles as needed and to fill your weight bag.

If you have cabbage leaves, vegetable peelings, or scraps, you can put them on top (as long as they were calculated in your salt equation) and use them as a cap to help push the ingredients down into the brine. Get a plastic bag (I like the Gallon size twist tie bags for this, not ziplock), you could also another food-grade weight of some kind. Put your hand in the bag and push it into the jar. Fill with as much water as you can fit while leaving a little bit of space to knot off. You want the weight of the water-filled bag keeping your ingredients submerged, not the pressure of the bag against the lid of the jar. If the lid is pushing the bag down, eventually, during the fermentation time an odiferous brine will shoot out of the jar all over your kitchen.

Jar of kraut weighted down with brine bag.

Jar of apple kraut weighted down and ready for closing up.

Close your pickling container

Cover your jar with an airlock, silicone fermentation lid, a clean kitchen towel, or a 2 piece canning lid where the ring is loose enough to allow gasses to escape. If you are vacuum sealing or using a lid that doesn’t let gasses out you will need to “burp” which means open the container every day or so and then reseal.

Ferment

Leave container at room temperature, tasting every other day or so until the pickles are fermented to your liking. They will taste less salty and more acidic over time as the LAB convert sugars to lactic acid. The warmer the ambient air temperature is, the quicker this will happen and the softer your pickles will get. Cooler temps make slower, crunchier pickles. As a reference point, my house is currently fluctuating between 62 F – 70 F and I just pickled some stuff that took 4-6 days.

Store your pickles

Once your pickles are done to your liking, simply switch out your venting cap for one that stays closed and move them to the refrigerator.

Notes

Can you Water-Bath-Can these pickles?

Generally, yes, but why would you want to? Heating these pickles kills their beneficial probiotic bacteria, destroys their effervescent qualities and makes them softer. By killing all their beneficial bacteria it opens the doors to other harmful bacteria to take over if your pH isn’t quite right. If you are planning to water-bath can these I recommend following a recipe designed for canning (by a legit source for canning like Ball Blue Book or a Cooperative Extension website), or using pH strips or a pH meter to verify your brine is less than 4.6.

How long do these last?

In theory, indefinitely. In practice I would keep them refrigerated and eat them within a month or 2. Across the world, you will find food cultures that leave lacto-fermented pickles at room temperature to eat throughout the year. But pickles get more sour and softer the longer they ferment. You will also need to skim off the scum regularly.

Botulism and how is this safe?

I had been processing meat for a long time when I started learning about Lacto-Fermented Pickles and my first thought was “Low acid foods, room temperature, no oxygen = botulism” followed by “How is this safe?”

Clostridium Botulinum is a frightening bacteria that lives in soil and is present all over our natural environment. It forms spores that cannot be killed with regular heating and these spores create the deadly toxin botulism when they germinate. The spores of Clostiridium Botulinum germinate when exposed to a climate that they like. That climate is low in acid (above 4.6 PH), a sustained amount of time 60-130F degrees, 96% and above water activity.

Our good Lactobacilli bacteria strains (LAB) are salt-tolerant which is great because a lot of the dangerous bacteria are not. 2% salt is enough to make your fermented pickles safe during the time that the LAB are working to convert sugar to lactic acid. As the acidity of your pickle increases, that acidity becomes sufficient to protect your food from C. Botulinum. It is incredibly important that you properly weigh your ingredients and salt and do your math correctly. Fortunately, the most common math mistakes in this recipe (not taring your bowl and multiplying by 0.2 instead of 0.02) will either be immediately obvious or result in more salt not less, making your final product safe but possibly unpalatable.

Scum, Pink Stuff and Molds

Sounds delicious, huh? Higher salt concentrations and cooler temperatures cause fermentation to take longer. If you are fermenting over a longer period of a couple weeks, many recipes will call for skimming the scum off the top daily. The scum is typically white or pink, or little dots forming on the surface of the brine. This scum is yeasts and molds. If removed regularly they are harmless. However, left to colonize your ferments, these yeasts and molds will feed off the lactic acid created by your LAB and increase your pH to potentially dangerous levels above 4.6. I don’t really like daily chores with my slow-food projects (which is why I’m not a fan of fermenting in containers that need to be manually burped) and am happy to report that when using the bag method to submerge the fermenting ingredients and this salt ratio, I have not had any issues with scum.