Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Cheryl - I checked in with our team in the store and they say it is meant to be a bit loose. It doesn't vacuum-seal or seal up very tightly. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Craig - It sounds like you have a pretty good turkey plan in place! We've only got a couple of turkey recipes here at Milk Street and they are both all about simplicity. Neither involves a brine, but the Tea-Rubbed Maple Turkey has a salt-smoky tea-white pepper rub. In that case we are using a 12-14 lb. turkey and using 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of white pepper, and 6 bags of lapsang souchong tea, rubbing the turkey, and letting it sit for 24 hours before roasting. However, I don't think our tea rub follows the recommended formula, which is 1 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of turkey. No baking soda involved in that recipe. Our other turkey, Brown Ale Turkey and Gravy, is basted with a flavorful (salty) liquid while roasting so no need to brine/salt. I think if you want to stick with your plan you'd want to follow the general recommendation of 1 teaspoon of salt per pound. Happy Thanksgiving! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Georgina - You're right. Those settings are pretty general and don't always match up from stovetop to stovetop. Unless you have an infrared thermometer that would be pretty challenging to measure on your own stove and, likely, even variable from day-to-day. When reading recipes look for key words to help guide you - simmer, brown, sear, etc. These will give you a visual clue to look for to ensure that the temperature is not too high or low. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Joanne - I think a lot of people (including me!) are in the same boat this year. I've only got four guests - who have both white and dark meat preferences - so I am planning to do turkey parts. A turkey breast alone is also a great choice. If it's just the two of you and you'd like both white and dark meat, why not do a chicken? You could easily make smaller portions of some "Thanksgiving-traditional" sides to make it feel more familiar. We've got several great roast chicken recipes on the website that are easy to adapt to your personal flavor preferences (their current flavor profiles are not terribly Thanksgiving-like). Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi John - We don't have an exact replica, but I would recommend this recipe for the Cannellini Beans with Tomatoes, Basil and Parmesan. You can either soak and pre-cook dried Cannellini beans (instructions are in the introductory note of the recipe) or use canned Cannellini beans. In Step 1, substitute fennel seeds for the fresh fennel and eliminate the sage. Then, if using, add the Parmesan rind when you add the tomatoes and cooked beans in Step 2. You can skip Step 3 (making the sage oil). Then stir in half of the basil and top with shaved Parmesan and the remaining basil. The Simple White Beans with Sage is based off this recipe. Follow the recipe substituting the thyme and rosemary for sage. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Glover - We get this question a lot and Christopher Kimball and Sara Moulton did a great breakdown on canola and vegetable oil in this link. At the end of the article there is also a link to our testing on high-heat cooking oils with surprising results. Our favorite for high-heat cooking, and the one that consistently had the highest smoke point, was grapeseed oil, which is made from grape seeds, a byproduct of wine-making. Safflower oil—made by extracting oil from the seeds of the safflower, a cousin of the sunflower—was the second-most durable. And the biggest surprise: olive oil. Though extra-virgin olive oil is ill suited for high-heat cooking (we prefer it for off-heat applications such as vinaigrettes and for a finishing drizzle of flavor), we were impressed by how hot we could get refined olive oil. Avocado and refined coconut oil would be fine for a sauté over medium heat, but I wouldn't use them for high-heat searing or sautéing. Safflower, grapeseed, vegetable and canola are all in the same basic category. We like grapeseed or safflower, since they don't produce the "off" (sometimes described as "fishy") flavors that canola and vegetable oil do. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Daniel - We haven't tried other cuts in our recipe for Ropa Vieja, but pork blade steak or country-style ribs would work here for pork. Pork butt would work too but that would take significantly longer to cook. For lamb, I'd probably go with the shoulder and, to keep it closer to flank for cook time, try to find boneless lamb shoulder chops. It's pretty likely cook times will be different here and, since we haven't tested it, I can't give specifics. Because of this, I would recommend a traditional version of the recipe rather than an Instant Pot version so you have more control over cook times and doneness. Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Folks - Adam just sent us his recipe. Please find it below. Enjoy! Five C Quarantine Flan (Coconut- Cinnamon- Cardamom Cr.me Caramel.) 1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk 3/4 cup milk 3/4 cup heavy cream Four egg yolks and two whole eggs 1/2 cup sugar One cup sugar One teaspoon of cinnamon 1/4 cup cold water Four to six cardamom pods Approx. 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes Make caramel on stove: dissolve sugar in water and cook until browned and almost burnt. Take off stove and add a teaspoon of cinnamon and stir into the super-hot caramel.. (You can buy pre-made cardamom -cinnamon sugar from Milk Street on line to caramelize, but this will work as well.) Pour the caramel into the bottom of four souffle dishes. (There’s usually enough left over for two mini-souffl. dishes as well. The minis are fun to have for dieting spouses.) Using a whisk, beat the eggs and egg yolks with the sugar— you can use relatively little sugar with the egg yolks, since the coconut milk is naturally sweet. But not for too long -- just until it is a beautiful lemony yellow. Heat the coconut milk, whole milk and heavy cream in a pot. Stir in the husked cardamom pods and the coconut. Make the mixture hot and just steaming-smoking but not truly boiling. Pour the hot milks into the egg mixture ,beating all the while with the whisk to keep the eggs from cooking. Pour the egg and milk mixture, with the coconut and cardamom still in it, into the souffle cups with the cinnamon caramel hardened on the bottom. (If the mixture’s super-frothy, you can strain it through a sieve, which will leave the cardamom and coconut behind…in that case, mix them back in cup by cup. I never find this step—straining -- makes much difference, but some like to do it.) Put the soufflé's cups into a big baking dish with boiling water poured right up so that it comes to about a third of the way up each cup. Bake for approx. thirty minutes, or until set. Refrigerate. Unmold by running a sharp knife around the edge of each creme caramel and inverting onto a pretty plate. Scoop out the residual caramel, there’s always some, with the knife or spoon unto the flan. Serve with pleasure.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Jean - We always store our almond flour in the freezer to keep it fresh too. It will somewhat solidify, but you can usually break it up pretty easily so it's not a solid mass. I always scoop out what I need and let it come to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe. Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Carrie - Most of the recipes in which you're seeing that off-center photo are from our new cookbook, Cookish. For some reason when these photos were transferred over to the website the website cropped the photos in this way rather than our usual format. Our photo and digital teams are working on fixing these photos as we speak! Best, Lynn C.