Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Mitchell - you can substitute chicken breasts for most (if not all) of our sheet pan chicken recipes, including our recipe for Miso-Glazed Chicken with Mushrooms. In fact our Sheet Pan-Roasted Chicken (which includes 3 flavor variations - za'atar, jerk, and coriander) calls for a mix of whatever parts you like. I would recommend using bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. The skin and bone will protect the chicken a bit from drying out. Most importantly, temp your chicken. Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and pull it out of the oven when it hits 160 degrees. This will ensure that the chicken will still be moist and juicy. Hope that helps! Best, Lynn C. \_

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Quintin - you might be interested in Mark Bitterman's book, "*Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes." *Mark is considered an expert on all things salt (he both coined the phrase and is considered a selmelier, a food service professional whose expertise is in salt). His website, The Meadow, has a little bit on the history of salt (albeit a bit skewed towards finishing salts which he sells in his salt boutique): https://themeadow.com/pages/introduction-to-gourmet-salt. I also found some great information on the history of salting food for flavor from Saltworks, a sea salt company: https://www.seasalt.com/history-of-salt and a short article and video from the History Channel: https://www.history.com/news/off-the-spice-rack-the-story-of-salt. I hope you enjoy reading these! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Howard - the classic French recipe, Poulet en Cocotte, is a whole chicken roasted in a small, covered Dutch oven (a cocotte) that essentially cooks in it's own juices which, in turn, become a very flavorful sauce. You can also find a similar version of this recipe in the South Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan). In both regions it's always been made with a whole chicken. The idea was to provide an easy, economical dinner for the family. Whole chickens were and are widely available (most countries still don't sell chicken parts) and, even here in the U.S., are much less expensive per pound than cut-up parts. I make this recipe a lot at the end of a busy day and I'm grateful to be able to just throw the whole chicken in the pot to start cooking while I help with homework or shuttle my daughter to a dance class, leaving my husband to keep an eye on the pot. Another benefit -you can use the cooked leftover carcass and the giblets to make a super flavorful stock. My favorite thing about this recipe is that it offers endless opportunities for variation in both the spices on the chicken and the sauce ingredients. Thanks for writing to us! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Maureen - I haven’t made cottage cheese pancakes and we don’t have a recipe here at Milk Street, but I can offer some basic guidelines on cooking and baking with cottage cheese that will, hopefully, help make yours more successful. I don’t like using low-fat or fat free cottage cheese in cooking and baking. These tend to break and become very watery, which will both dilute flavor and negatively impact the texture of your pancakes. In general, I prefer full-fat cottage cheese with a thicker texture. Full-fat cottage cheese is still only 4% fat, which is quite low compared to other cheeses. It also tastes worlds better than low- or fat-free cottage cheese! Thick-textured ones tends to perform better in baking applications because they won’t throw off the dry-to-wet ratio. However, it’s hard to know the texture of a particular brand of cottage cheese without opening the container and taking a look. A good guideline is to look at the ingredient list. Full fat cottage cheese without any stabilizers (xanthan gum, locust bean gum, guar gum) would be my top pick. As long as it’s full-fat and contains only milk, cream, and salt (added probiotics are OK), I don’t think curd size matters as much. Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi David - Thanks for your question! At Milk Street we use leftover cheese rind from hard cheeses like parmesan and pecorino to add a savory boost to soups and stews. Parmesan contains high levels of glutamate, an amino acid that (along with ribonucleotides) imparts umami. The dish won’t taste cheese-y, per se, but the rind will add a depth of flavor that will really take your dish to the next level. As Elizabeth S. mentioned, we use parmesan rind to flavor the broth in our weeknight Kale and White Bean Soup and in the vegetable broth for our Risotto with Fresh Herbs. I would also recommend adding a rind to a Bolognese, meat ragu, or tomato sauce, a minestrone, or, really, any soup or stew. Happy cooking! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Rhonda - The easiest way to add some heat to this dish is to replace the sweet paprika in the spice mixture with hot paprika or simply add some red pepper flakes or cayenne to the spice mix. But, why not experiment with some more interesting flavors too? Aleppo pepper would be great here. Fruity and moderately spicy, Aleppo pepper is used throughout the Middle East. The one we sell in our store, Villa Jerada Aleppo Pepper, is impeccably sourced. You could also experiment with ground, dried chilies. Dried chilies can impart heat but also a ton of complex flavor. They do require a bit of preparation before use. First they should be toasted (to heighten their flavor) in a dry skillet until just beginning to darken, about 1 minute per side. Once cool enough to handle, tear the stem off and shake out the seeds. At this point, the chilies can be ground to powder in a spice grinder. Turkish Urfa pepper is one of our favorite dried chile flakes. - it packs a punch with deep, earthy flavor and moderate heat. The moist texture of the coarse-ground flakes make it better suited to garnishing a dish than using in a spice rub. Sprinkle a little on the chicken and cauliflower after cooking. Hope this helps! Thanks for writing to us, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi - Thanks for writing to us! Our recipe for Cuban-Style Pork Shoulder with Mojo Sauce calls for a 4 to 5 pound pork shoulder with a total roasting time of about 3 1/2 hours. That translates to about 40 minutes per pound for a 5-pound pork shoulder. For a 7-pound roast that would mean between 4 to 5 hours of roasting time. Given the larger size of the meat, I would also definitely recommend allowing the salt mixture to sit on the meat for the full 24 hour period. And don't forget to double the herb-garlic paste ingredients! Good luck! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Lizbeth - The toothpick test is a popular technique to tell when a cake is done, but i agree it can be a bit unreliable. Fudgy chocolate cakes and rich carrot cakes are considered fully baked while a few crumbs are still attached to a toothpick or tester. I usually pull all cakes out of the oven while there are still a few crumbs attached to a cake tester or toothpick since, due to carryover cooking, the cake will continue to bake. A better test of doneness is to touch the top of the cake in the center. If the cake feels firm and springy to the touch, the cake is probably done. If the batter sticks to your finger or the cake doesn’t spring back, it’s not. If you do want to take the temperature of your cake, first ensure that you don’t take it too soon. The hole made by the thermometer could affect the rise. Close to the end of the baking time take the temperature in the center of the cake (making sure you don’t hit the pan bottom). For most cakes you’re looking for 200-205 degrees. For lighter angel food cakes or sponge cakes, a temperature between 205-210 degrees is better.  Thanks for writing in! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Eileen - Thanks for purchasing from our store. We can't get enough of that Pistacchiosa Spread. I love it straight out of the jar, but it's even better spread on toast with a little honey, sea salt, and ricotta cheese. We haven't developed an ice cream recipe with it yet (we should!) but David Lebovitz, who has been a guest on our radio and TV shows, made a gelato using a similar spread. It's not the exact same brand we sell in our store but it's probably a good place to start. David is not only a friend of Milk Street but he wrote a book on ice cream, so we would consider him a pretty reliable expert! Here is a link to his recipe - https://www.davidlebovitz.com/pistachio-gelat/. Good luck and let us know how you like it! Best, Lynn C.

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Richard - I apologize for missing your question! A ceramic tart pan is great for taking a tart or quiche right to the table since it doubles as a stunning serving dish. Just know it will be a bit more difficult to serve that first slice since it doesn't have a removable bottom. However, pans without a removable bottom are particularly good for crustless quiches since the filling won't leak out through the removable bottom. Our recipes are developed in a standard 9" tart pan, which has a capacity of about 4 cups. The Emile Henry Slim Tart Pan capacity is 1.7 quarts, or 6.8 cups. Therefore, the recipe ingredients would have to be multiplied by 1.7 to accommodate the larger capacity of your pan. However, it's always tricky when converting recipes for baking so you may find that some tweaks to this conversion might be necessary. Another thing to consider - stoneware conducts heat more slowly than glass or metal so the baking time may be longer and you may not get as much browning on the bottom of your crust. Hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.