Cook's Country October/November 2019

HERE IN THE Cook’s Country test kitchen, we celebrate Thanksgiving at least three times a year. The first celebration happens in the kitchen as the team develops recipes for Thanksgiving appetizers, sides, and more. The second comes around when the photo team prepares and shoots the finished dishes in the studio. And the third, of course, is on Thanksgiving Day itself. We’re not the only ones who celebrate more than once. Many people have multiple Thanksgiving dinners—one for family, perhaps, and then one (or more) for friends. When I was young, we called our second celebration “Thanksmas,” because it usually happened between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Today, many people call it “Friendsgiving.” I love the idea of a bonus holiday. It gives you a chance to create a lighter, less austere…

Cook It in Your Dutch Oven You can prepare dishes of all kinds in this multitasker, thanks to its cast-iron construction and heavy lid. Plus, the broad surface browns foods like a dream. This book contains 150 foolproof recipes tailor-made for your kitchen’s most versatile pot. It will have you reaching for your Dutch oven again and again. Order your copy at AmericasTestKitchen.com/dutchoven. Find us on Facebook facebook.com/CooksCountry Find us on Instagram instagram.com/CooksCountry Follow us on Pinterest pinterest.com/TestKitchen Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/TestKitchen…

Easy Onion Dicing Cooking shows make dicing onions seem easy, but I feel unsafe cutting horizontally into the side of a halved onion. Is there an easier/safer way? –Kristin Morse, Portland, Maine We often dice onions according to the method you described: Halve and peel the onion, slice each onion half horizontally, slice downward north to south, and then slice downward again east to west. But there are two other methods that you might feel more comfortable with. Method 1: Halve the onion through the root end, trim and discard the stem end of each half, peel the halves, and then make a series of radial cuts, stopping just short of the root end. Slice across the radial cuts to create even-size pieces. Method 2: Halve the onion through the…

Can I use a single leftover rotisserie chicken carcass to make stock? –Chris Deer, Dallas, Texas Not everyone has the forethought—or freezer space—to save up pounds of raw chicken parts (backs, wingtips, etc.) to make a full-size batch of stock. Having found that an average rotisserie chicken carcass (including the skin and any jellied bits) weighs about 1 pound, we added it to a large saucepan with 5 cups of water, half an onion, and a bay leaf and simmered it for 30 minutes. The resulting quart of stock tasted flavorful and richer than stock we typically make from unroasted chicken parts. THE BOTTOM LINE: You can make about a quart of flavorful chicken stock from a single chicken carcass. Be sure to taste the stock before adding salt because…

Keeping Eggs Warm –Don Wilson, St. Augustine, Fla. I often make soft-cooked eggs for the whole family at breakfast. I cook them and then run them under cold water so that they’re not too hot to peel. Problem is, by the time I’ve peeled all 10 eggs, they’re cold. To keep them warm as I peel, I fell the pot back up with hot water from the tap and place the peeled eggs in the water as I go. They’re warm and ready to serve with toast all at once. Mess-Free Meat Pounding –Mateo Sandoval, Longmont, Colo. The classic method for pounding meat thin for cutlets is to place it between two sheets of plastic wrap, but I’ve always found that a zipper-lock bag works much better. The thin plastic…

CANNED GREEN CHILES are an inexpensive and convenient way to add a burst of flavor to foods, which makes them a pantry staple for some folks. We like to use this versatile ingredient in all kinds of dishes: chilis, stews, dips, biscuits, and more. To find our favorite, we rounded up six nationally available products and tasted each plain and in Green Chile and Cilantro White Bean Dip. While canned green chiles are available whole and diced, we selected diced (one product was labeled “chopped”) because that’s what we most frequently call for in recipes. When brands o_ ered both “mild” and “hot” chiles, we selected “mild” because “hot” varieties had added “natural flavor” and we wanted to focus on the flavor of the chiles themselves. And even though some…