Journey to France
with Diane Philips
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| Cooking Classes |
Invest in a Cooking Class
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Delicious Dividends that Multiply every time you cook at
home!
REGISTRATION IS NOW
OPEN!
Register Online, In-Person, or by
Telephone
Harper's Point
classes - Call 513-489-6400 Settler's Walk
classes - Call 937-748-4540
www.cookswaresonline.com
 Mon, May 24 - Cooking with My Mamas! with Jackson
Rouse and his Mamas
Settlers' Walk
6:30 - 9:00pm $45
Tues, May 25 -
All Day Chocolate Festival with Lisa
Cooper-Holmes
Harper's Point 6:00 -
9:00pm $45
Wed, May 26 -
Strawberry Fields Forever with Rhonda
Clark
Settlers' Walk 6:30 - 9:00pm
$45
Harper's Point
classes - Call 513-489-6400
Your Cooks'Wares
Bonus:
Cooks'Wares offers a 10% Discount on
your merchandise
purchases on the day you attend class!
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Storewide Sales) |
Burger
Fundamentals
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There's nothing to
making a good burger,
but there are a few tricks to incorporate into your methodology that
will make for a better burger,
and, perhaps, inspire you to create your own signature
burger.
 Choosing the Meat - Because
burgers have the simplest of ingredients, choosing the meat is a
crucial decision. Traditional beef burgers can be made from chuck,
sirloin, or round cuts of beef. Chuck is a combination of meats from
the "waist and above" on a cow, sirloin is from the midsection, and
round is from the hip and upper back legs. When it comes to meat,
fat equals flavor. Not exactly what our nutritionists want to hear,
but true. Chuck tends to be about 80% lean and 20% fat. Sirloin
weighs in at around 90% lean, and round at around 85% lean. Buy meat
that has a fresh, bright color from a reputable source.
Grinding and Chopping - Ground
meats are readily available at any grocer; choose the cut and fat
percentage you prefer for the situation. Increasingly, individuals
are choosing their own cuts of meat and grinding them at home. This
allows control over quality and composition. You may use a grinder
attachment on your mixer to accomplish this, or use razor-sharp
knives to chop the meat finely.
Shaping the Patties - Form patties
from the ground meat that hold together easily, while handling the
meat as lightly as possible. Use a kitchen scale to weigh equal
portions of ground meat; this will minimize handling. Avoid handling
the meat too much and smashing it together.  A light texture will provide small
spaces for the juices to collect during grilling and eating. Use a
mold or burger press to quickly achieve uniformity.
Seasoning the Meat - Most meats
need nothing more than salt and pepper for great flavor. Because
salt withdraws juices from food, we tend to salt just prior to
grilling. However, if your burger is destined to have other
seasonings, they may be incorporated into the meat prior to forming
patties. Allow the burgers to chill so that the flavors blend and
the meat regains its coldness prior to grilling.
Grilling and Cooking - Cook burgers
on a medium-hot grill. Once heated, rub the grate with a paper towel
dipped in olive oil to help prevent sticking. Place the cold burgers
on the grill, cover, and allow to cook for about 2 minutes, then
turn and allow to finish grilling according to the size of the
patty. The key to a great burger is not pressing down on the burgers
while cooking. This forces the juices out of the meat instead of
retaining moistness and flavor.
 Testing
Doneness - Being flat, burgers are easy to estimate doneness.
However, we always recommend using an instant read thermometer when
cooking any meat. Undercooking meat is undesirable, but more often,
there is a tendency to overcook meat robbing the burger of flavor
and yielding a dry result. A thermometer provides confidence in the
grilling experience and promotes the best result possible. Cook
hamburgers until the center reaches 160ºF.
Serving Fresh - As hungry as you
might be given the swirling aromas, allow the finished burgers to
set for a few minutes so that juices can be reabsorbed into the
meat. Use this waiting time to grill the buns to a perfect golden
toast.
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Ketchup &
Mustard
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Open nearly any
refrigerator in America and you'll find in the door shelves a
container of ketchup and at least one type of mustard. But what do
we know about these ubiquitous condiments?
 Ketchup tops the list of condiments, no
question. Originally, the word, ketchup, described any number of
sauces. The term's meaning settled on the tomato-based sauce by the
early 1800s. Henry J. Heinz developed today's ketchup sauce and set
the standard for flavor and texture by the turn of the 20th century.
 His secret was to use ripe tomatoes, pickle
them with vinegar, and then concentrate the sauce. Ketchup is
considered good if it is thick, does not separate, and, of course,
tastes great. The secret to ketchup's huge fan base lies in its
ingredients. Ketchup contains tomato, vinegar, sugar, salt, spices,
and herbs. This mélange of flavors hits all of our taste buds -
sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and the fifth taste, umami. With all
cylinders firing at once, no wonder ketchup registers pleasure in
our mouths.
 Mustard holds second place on the post-grill
table. While ketchup seems to be, well, ketchup, mustard sports a
host of personalities that project distinctly different flavors and
effects. All mustards start with the humble mustard seed, the fruit
of the mustard plant. Mustard seed or dry mustard powder does not
have any potency on its own, but when combined with water or liquid,
heat emerges. The cooler the liquid used in mustard preparation, the
hotter the mustard. Hot water breaks down the heat component during
mustard making and later during roasting or grilling. Vinegar,
water, and spice mixed with the ground mustard seed complete the
condiment. There are four common types of mustard each with many
variations:
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Cooking with
Fire
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Why do people grill?
Anthropologists might point to some primeval connection to fire, the
chemist might point to the Maillard reaction occurring during
browning, but a modern interpretation might land on the simplest of
answers - it tastes good! To enjoy your grilling life to the max,
keep these ideas in mind:
 Keep the Grill Clean! - We can't
emphasize this enough. A clean grill will allow your foods to keep
their true grilled flavors without any compromise from burnt pieces,
ash, or other leftovers from the last grilling session. Use a wire
brush to scrape away any stuck on food. Be religious in keeping your
grill clean and you'll be rewarded with great tasting food and a
long-lasting grill.
Oil the
Grate - Once clean, oil the preheated grate with a paper
towel soaked with an oil of your choice and held by a pair of tongs.
The thin coat of oil will keep foods from sticking and
simultaneously allow for easier clean up later.
Expand your Grilling Life - Explore
burgers on the grill, but don't forget all of the other foods that
would benefit from the magic of the grill. Master the tradition of
meat on the grill with beef cuts, but don't forget pork, chicken,
turkey, and seafood. You may like to experiment with less common
meats such as buffalo, ostrich, emu, or game. Vegetables on the
grill are hard to match, as are grilled fruits.
Baskets, Skewers, Mats - A few key
tools can make your grilling explorations instantly more successful.
Grill baskets allow for small pieces of seafood or vegetables to be
grilled easily without any loss through the grate. Explore the many
skewers we have for kabob grilling; each has its distinct use and
advantage. Grilling mats, like grilling baskets keep food from
falling through the grate while allowing the fire and smoke to
infuse into the food. Mats are particularly useful for grilling fish
and vegetables.
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Smart Grilling
Tips
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Tip #1: Expand your repertoire of
burger buns - ditch the soft, fluffy breads and choose breads with
some heft, flavor, and interest. Here are a few alternatives -
ciabatta buns, baguettes, croissants, English muffins, or any number
of flat breads.
 Tip #2:
Get comfortable with
using tongs when grilling. Tongs allow for all kinds of handling
motions with the advantage of long-handled distance. Tongs have an
advantage over long-handled forks; forks pierce the food allowing
juices to escape.
Tip #3: Add olive oil to
lean cuts of ground meat for juiciness and flavor. This doesn't
necessarily reduce the overall fat content, but it does substitute a
better, healthier type of fat and optimizes the richness and
moistness in the end result.
Tip #4: When grilling kabobs use
skewers that are flat. The flat shape will help keep the food from
spinning when turning.
Tip
#5: When shaping patties, moisten your hands with water. This
will help to keep the meat from sticking to your hands and makes
washing up
easier.
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Q & A's
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Q: How can I make a
great burger indoors?
A: If you live in an
apartment, or if it's raining and your patio is uncovered, a great
burger is still accessible. Here are two common methods for making
indoor burgers: (1) Pan-Searing, and (2) Grill Pan. When pan-searing
a burger, heat a tablespoon of oil in a medium-high skillet, add the
burgers, cover for 2 minutes, turn, and complete the cooking. A
grill pan is used similarly with one exception, excess fat is
allowed to drain away from the frying meat due to the pan's
ridges.
 Q: How do I
know when my grill is hot enough for grilling
burgers?
A: Burgers
usually require a medium-hot grill. Hold your hand, palm down 4-5
inches above the grill. If you can hold it there for about 4 seconds
the heat is just about right for burgers. If you need to pull away
sooner, it's too hot; if you can hold your hand there longer, it's
too cool.
Q: What's the best
way to get perfect tomato slices for my burgers?
A: Choose a tomato that matches the
size of your burgers and one that is more meaty than juicy. Use a
high quality serrated knife to slice the tomatoes as thinly as you'd
like. A classic tomato knife has a razor-sharp serrated edge and a
pointed tip for spearing and moving the completed
slices.
Q: What is
piccalilli?
A:
Varying by region, piccalilli is a relish of various chopped,
pickled vegetables. The veggies are often held together in a
mustard-based sauce and are a classic addition to mustard and
ketchup on the condiment
tray.
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Cookbook
Review
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Burger
Bar by Hubert Keller with Penelope Wisner. Photography by
Bill Milne. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Copyright 2009.
 Who knew burgers could be so
interesting? This cookbook serves up a whole new attitude for
burgers that can be summed up in one word, flavor! Mr. Keller and
Ms. Wisner manage to take the humble burger and transform it into
the centerpiece with some serious flavor dynamics. They school us in
the essential basics, then propel us into the big world of delicious
variations. While the initial focus is with traditional beef
versions, the book broadens its appeal with pork, fowl, and seafood
substrates. The much maligned veggie burger is reinvented and duly
elevated in its appeal. The book concludes with great suggestions
for sides, sauces, and finales. The full color photographic
illustrations start the mouth watering upon first glance; the real
thing that followed did not disappoint. Try the three recipes below,
then you'll be ready for Keller's French-inspired Burger au Poivre,
or the Brazilian Feijoada Burger. Burgers have never been
better!
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Better Burger
Recipes
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Recipes
excerpted from Burger
Bar by Hubert Keller with Penelope Wisner. Published by John
Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Copyright 2009. Reprinted with
permission of the publisher. All rights
reserved.
Black
Jack Burgers
 View and
Print
Full bodied in
stature and in flavor, this burger delivers. Choose some good chuck,
season, and grill. The "black" in Black Jack comes from the
delicious olive tapenade, and the "jack" comes from a thick slice of
Monterey Jack cheese. The combination makes for a hat trick certain
to win over the entire house. The extra tapenade was delicious the
next morning on a lightly toasted baguette.
Blue
Cheese-Stuffed Bacon Sliders
 View and
Print
Perfectly packaged,
blue cheese unites two of its favorites, beef and pears, together in
these tasty stacks. Slider-sized, these burgers pack tons of flavor
into just a few bites. The caramelized pears seem an unlikely
addition, but turn out to be an essential flavor. The blue cheese
melts nicely permeating the burger with a juicy dimension. The
sliders made for a dynamite presentation on a tray served tapas
style.
Seared
Tuna Burgers
 View and
Print
Not every burger
needs to be a beef burger. This fresh tuna burger with its Asian
flavor influences will have you converted at first bite. Sesame oil
and ginger provide plenty of personality for the tuna. The Sesame
Vinaigrette is a keeper combination of ingredients that is not only
the perfect condiment for the tuna burgers, but is great on greens,
easy to make, and a pizzazz-y dressing for all kinds of grilled
foods.
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Mastering burgers
on the grill is a worthwhile, budget-minded endeavor. We've
uncovered a whole new world of burgers featuring great flavor
and endless variety that leaves us anything but deprived. The
lessons learned about grilling burgers translate well to other
aspects of our grilling life, too. 
Thurs, Jun 3 - 