What kind of peanut butter do you keep in your pantry? Where there were once just a few options for peanut butter, it seems like there are dozens of types and brands to choose from these days. You have the option of creamy and crunchy, as well as natural, honey roasted, Omega-3 enriched, sea salt and no salt – just to name a handful of the options out there. Peanut butter is great on a sandwich, but it is also used in many recipes where both flavor and consistency play a big role. The testers at Cook’s Illustrated set out to wade through all the options and conducted a taste test of 10 different creamy peanut butters (March/April 2011) to find out what the differences were from jar to jar and what brands tasted best.
The most basic peanut butter can be made by pulverizing peanuts into a paste and adding a little salt. Few brands use this technique, as the peanut butter has a sandy texture that isn’t as appealing as the ultra creamy competitors out there. The creamy peanut butters, both regular and “natural,” generally use either hydrogenated oil (not the same as partially hydrogenated oil) or palm oil (a high saturated fat oil that is usually found in the “natural” peanut butters). The test kitchen wanted a creamy peanut butter that tasted good out of the jar and performed well in recipes, so they tested with spoons, peanut butter cookies and satay sauce to pick the winners.
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Homemade baked goods are one of the best gifts that you can give during the holiday season. They’re good any time of year, of course, but the holiday spirit seems to make people enjoy baked goods even more than usual! Baked goods, even some as simple as chocolate chip cookies made with the back-of-the-bag recipe (which is generally a good one, incidentally), are tasty, relatively inexpensive and convey a lot of effort and good feelings. It is easy to give homemade treats to neighbors, coworkers and friends who live nearby because you can wrap up a plate and hand it over. Shipping goodies takes a little more thought, so here are some tips to help your holiday shipping go smoothly.
What to send:
There are all kinds of great homemade goodies that you can ship and the options are almost limitless, with so many shipping options at our disposal. Generally, however, you want to choose baked goods that are relatively sturdy and will keep well, so that they arrive as good looking and fresh tasting as they left.
Gingerbread Cookies ship very well and remain soft and chewy even after a few days. Orange and Clove Snowballs keep their tender texture and have lots of holiday flavor. Most drop cookies are good choices because they can handle the rigeurs of shipping with ease. Brownies and fudge ship well. Biscotti ship extremely well, too. Homemade chocolates, marshmallows and candied nuts are also great options, and you can find more suggestions here.
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Thanksgiving is a holiday really has it all. A big roast, lots of side dishes and even more desserts. The one thing it doesn’t have (according to my father, amongst other people) is bacon. So, this year, I’m putting together a Thanksgiving menu that is infused with bacon. I know there is no shortage of bacon lovers out there, so feel free to infuse some bacon into your Thanksgiving, too!
- For the turkey, I decided to go with the High Heat Turkey method I used last year with success. I considered putting bacon on top of the turkey for this menu, but instead I’m introducing some bacon fat into the turkey drippings to make Bacon-Infused Turkey Gravy. You can get the recipe below.
- Stuffing – whether I was doing a bacon theme or not – is definitely Bacon, Pumpkin and Pecan Stuffing this year. This stuffing recipe is so savory and delicious, it can be addicting. Fortunately, a double batch of stuffing means more for turkey sandwiches the next day.
- Yorkshire puddings are typically made with beef drippings, but I make my Huge Yorkshire Puddings with butter. You could chop up some pieces of already cooked bacon and add them in to the popover batter, but instead I would use bacon fat – or half bacon fat and half butter – to cook the popovers and give them a hint of bacon flavor to tie them in with the turkey and stuffing. I’m doing these in place of dinner rolls.
- Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts are a great side dish in general, but are another food that really takes to bacon. Cook a bit of bacon in a frying pan and toss the brussel sprouts in the bacon to coat them before putting them in the oven. You can sprinkle the bacon on top for a little more crunch, if you like.
- Use either Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Duchess Potatoes as the potato dish. With a bacon gravy already on the menu, you don’t want to go too crazy with bacon (yes, even if you’re a big fan of bacon!).
- Because the stuffing recipe has some maple syrup in it, and since bacon has such a savory flavor, this sweet Maple Brown Sugar Cranberry Sauce is a nice contrast to all of the other dishes here. It’s sweet, tart and has a definite maple flavor to it.
For dessert? I know there are lots of maple and bacon cupcakes, donuts and cookies out there, but that might be overkill here after such a rich meal. Skip the bacon after dinner and go with a classic Thanksgiving pie.
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There are lots of recipes that call for coarse salt these days. Coarse salt refers to sea salt or kosher salt, salt that has a much larger grain to it than common table salt – hence the name “coarse” salt. The reason that coarse salt is so popular is not that it is saltier or more flavorful than regular salt, but because it has a more dramatic impact when it comes to flavoring. Each of those little bits of salt is fairly large, so you notice it immediately on your tongue when you taste something. This can give the impression that something is saltier or better seasoned than something lacking coarse salt, simply because that salt is more upfront (not because the salt is any saltier) on your palate.
Coarse salt is great for finishing off a wide variety of dishes, from salted caramels and other sweet desserts that you want to lend a bit of contrast to, to good pieces of bread and steak. A small sprinkle goes a long way for most people, and coarse salt is becoming more and more popular with people who want to slightly reduce their salt intake simply because they feel they can use less.
Coarse salt is not usually good for baking. Recipes for baked goods – unless they specifically call for coarse salt – are written with the expectation that you will use standard table salt. In baked goods, you want the salt to disperse evenly into a recipe to even out the flavor of a dish, not show up in big salty chunks. Really dramatic contrasts like that work well in caramels, but you don’t want it in a white cake. You can use finer coarse salts (like some kosher salts) in baking without any problems, but it’s a good general rule to save coarse salt for a garnish, or use it when a recipe specifically calls for it to be on the safe side.
I’ve only had the opportunity to visit General Mills’ photography studios twice, once last year and once this year, but anyone who regularly shoots food photos would appreciate the amazing setup that they have there. They make all of the food they photograph in kitchens inside the studios, so the food only has to travel a couple of feet from the oven or stove to where it will be photographed for a cookbook or to put on one of the General Mills’ brand websites, like Betty Crocker. The photographers also take the opportunity to get even more creative and there is a gallery showcasing some of their work that shows the more creative side of food photography, using food in unexpected and beautiful ways. I took a couple of stills from that gallery before, and was glad that I could take another couple of pictures this time around. The first one is obvious, but any guesses on what the foods are in these photos?
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