Cook's Country April - May 2017

ONE OF THE most persistent misconceptions in cooking is that if a dish is good, it must be difficult to produce. A great pasta sauce takes hours of work. A brilliant soup requires incredible diligence. And a showstopping dessert? Don’t even bother—your best bet is to buy one instead. Bunk! Making something special in the kitchen, whether it’s perfect fried chicken or a resplendent pork roast, doesn’t have to be a bridge too far. Sure, it requires care and attention. It requires following directions. And yes, it requires some effort, as does anything good. But it can, and should, be done. Just take a look at our Easiest-Ever Cheesecake (page 24). We call it “easiest-ever” not because it’s particularly forgiving if you improvise but because we’re confident that if you…

Worth the Salt What exactly is kosher salt, and why do you call for it in some of your recipes? Marilyn Bergeron, Seaside, N.J. Salt is harvested from evaporated seawater and mined from underground salt deposits. Chemically, all salt is composed of sodium chloride. But the flavor of salt can differ slightly based on the types and amounts of minerals that attach to the salt crystals. The texture and size of the crystals are determined by how the sodium chloride is processed. Kosher salt is designed to have large, irregularly shaped crystals, which make the Jewish practice of koshering (applying salt to draw blood and juices out of just-butchered meats) more effective. Kosher salt manufacturing is done under rabbinical supervision. We often use kosher salt to season meat because it…

SMART TIP Fast Frico Terry Vaughn, Peekskill, N.Y. I like to serve Parmesan crisps with cocktails, but they’re ridiculously expensive to buy. I’ve started making my own in my microwave. I take 2 ounces of Parmesan cheese, finely shred it (for about 1 cup of shredded cheese), and spread it in an even layer on a plate. I microwave the cheese for about 3 minutes until it’s golden, let it cool for a minute, scrape it off the plate, and break it into pieces. My crisps are delicious, easy, and much more affordable than store-bought crisps. CLEVER TIP Bag It Arthur Muldoon, Redmond, Wash. My family loves marinated chicken cutlets on the grill, and—following your advice—I always buy whole boneless chicken breasts and pound them out myself. Instead of pounding…

RESPLENDENT RACK OF pork—a rich, meaty roasted loin with the rib bones still attached—is just as worthy a holiday centerpiece as the celebrated prime rib roast of beef. But what makes it especially welcome at our table is its price: It costs about one-quarter as much as the beef. The bones aren’t just for show. Over the years we’ve learned that in the oven, heat travels more slowly through bone than through meat. In essence, the bones insulate much of the roast and keep it from cooking too quickly—a big deal considering that pork loin is so lean. Even a touch too much heat or a few too many minutes in the oven can render it unpalatably dry. So when I wanted juicy, deeply seasoned, rosy pork, along with some…

A COWORKER FROM North Carolina, knowing that we’re slightly obsessed with fried chicken, recently asked our team if we’d ever had dipped chicken—crispy, tender fried chicken doused in a spicy barbecue-like sauce. We hadn’t, but after hearing a description like that, we swiftly dispatched an editor and photographer to Salisbury, North Carolina, to investigate (see “Keys to the [Fried Chicken] Kingdom”). The intel they brought back to the test kitchen was irresistible, though incomplete: They described a deeply seasoned, craggy coating that, impossibly, stayed crunchy even after the chicken’s signature “dip” in a slow-burning spicy red sauce. “Amazing,” they said. But what they didn’t bring was a recipe. They had gleaned a few hints about what was in the sauce (vinegar, sugar or molasses, and a hot sauce— locally produced…

ON THE ROAD I M COMING!” YELLS Linda Dillard. She swings open the door with a wide smile, inviting me into her kitchen. A deep pot of oil heats on the stove; she flicks a few droplets of water from her wet fingertips into the oil to see if it’s hot enough for chicken. It doesn’t even sputter, so we turn to conversation while we wait. Dillard delights in sharing the history of dipped chicken, made famous by her late father, Benjamin Franklin Cureton Sr. Cureton started a burger and dog business in Salisbury, North Carolina, in 1942. Fried chicken was only an afterthought. But the chicken soon proved to be the most popular thing on the menu, and the business came to be known as Frankie’s Chicken Shack—“Frank’s” to…