General

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello Nicole, Our Oven-Poached Salmon with Thyme, Dill and Vermouth would be a wonderful main dish for a pescatarian Thanksgiving, it would serve a crowd and is versatile enough to build a full meal around. We also have a variety of delicious steamed fish recipes that you could check out on our website. For a vegetarian main, we have a several roasted whole cauliflower recipes, including this Chermoula-Roasted Whole Cauliflower, on our website as well as an elegant Butter-Roasted Cabbage with Citrus, Hazelnuts and Mustard. You could also put this stunning Zucchini and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Yogurt at the center of a meal. Another option is to build a meal around a hearty soup, one of my favorites is Chickpea and Harissa Soup (Lablabi). You could use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth and omit the hard-boiled egg garnish. This Spicy Peanut and Vegetable Stew is another great option. We also have braised and roasted vegetable dishes like the Ligurian Potato, Green Bean and Mushroom Gratin. These are just a handful of the possibilities you have to choose from. Look around on our website and books for more ideas. Best wishes for a happy holiday!

Answered by Rosie Gill

Hi Cynthia - We call for non-iodized table salt for baking and Morton's kosher salt for cooking. We prefer table salt for baking because it dissolves easily and completely. Iodized table salt can contribute an off flavor to your baking, so we recommend using salt with no iodine added.

Answered by Rosie Gill

Hi Nina - We recommend you salt dry beans when you soak them and again when you cook them. Much of the salt will be rinsed off with the ample water you soak and cook in, so you will also want to season your final dish according to your preferences. The salt in the soaking and cooking water helps with texture and uniform cooking, but does not season the beans much. For one pound of dry beans, we recommend adding 2 tablespoons of salt to 2 quarts of water and soaking for 12 hours. Drain the water and then put the soaked beans in a Dutch oven or large pot with six cups of water and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and cook until tender.

Answered by Elizabeth Mindreau

Hello. Thank you very much for purchasing Milk Street cookbooks! Most of our books, including "Vegetables," keep it to a minimum of about 20 pickup recipes from previous books. Some of our cookbooks published since "Vegetables" have borrowed from Veg, so, depending on which Milk Street cookbooks you already have, there might be quite a few distributed across those. Hopefully this helps you decide.

Answered by Chris Kimball

I first encountered the issue of salt and bread making when I spent time with a local bakery near Boston - I was told that they never added salt to the dough before mixing since it would hinder the action of the yeast. I took that advice for years but, after having forgotten to add the salt later, I went back to adding it along with the dry ingredients. I saw no measurable effect. So, in a professional bakery, when you add salt may matter but in my home kitchen, I do not see any measurable difference. When using autolyse, however, most bakers will say to add the salt after that first step.

Answered by Chris Kimball

Yes you can omit those flavorings but if you want to do a classic French fruit tart, then just use pastry cream as the base and top with berries. It's a classic.

Answered by Matthew Card

Hi Mark, That is an excellent question! On the whole, Americans eat only about a pound of lamb a year (as opposed to 85 pounds of beef), so we tend to adapt our recipes to beef and offer lamb as an option whenever possible. For the most part, it's easy to swap out lamb cuts for beef if it's a stew or braise. Lamb shoulder is an easy swap for chuck roast. Rogan Josh is often made with lamb, beef or chicken at this point. I'd agree that its best with lamb because the strong-tasting meat stands up best to the spices, but we've tailored the flavorings to suit chicken. We've got a number of lamb recipes that may not show up in a simple search: Spicy Stir-Fried Cumin Beef This is one of our first recipes, which uses lamb to excellent results: No-sear Lamb or Beef and Chickpea Stew https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/turkish-minced-meat-kebabs This is excellent made with ground lamb: Indian Spiced Beef and Peas (Keema Matar) Spicy Chinese Beef Skewers (Niu Rou Chuan)

Answered by Whitney Kimball

Hi Victoria! Whitney from the web team here. We’re well aware of this issue, and we’ve been working hard to fix it. We’re also working toward providing much more robust functionality throughout the site, prioritizing feedback from our users. We hope this to be in place by end of year. We’re a small team and appreciate your patience!

Answered by Matthew Card

Hi Paulette, I think you're referencing the Masala-Spiced French Fries? The fries are first blanched in acidulated water--to firm them up and aid in crispness--then tossed with potato starch and spices before frying. https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/masala-spiced-french-fries

Answered by Chris Kimball

Hi Mitchell, Building out a new kitchen sounds like a good time! New induction ranges are fairly amazing in that they heat extraordinarily quickly and are very energy efficient. I think the only downside is the potential for non-compatible cookware--if you have a lot of aluminium or ceramic cookware--and the chance of rough-bottomed cooking vessels scratching the glass. I'm definitely curious to hear what other members think?