Share your tips and secrets

[lspencer534]

Here's a couple to start it:

1. So you bought some fresh fish filets, did you? What do you do with them before anything else? Well, you put a liberal amount of sea salt in a bowl large enought to hold the fish pieces. Then dissolve the salt with water, enough to cover the fish (use cool or cold water). Put the fish into the bowl and wash it; use your hands. You'll see the water turn very cloudy. Repeat with new salt and water until the rinse water is clear. Then pat the fish completely dry. That cloudy stuff is bacteria and dirt. BTW, this does not make the fish taste salty at all, but you'll be surprised how much 'fresher' the fish tastes.

2. Cook all pasta except spaghetti in a large skillet. Add water to the pasta, and add more water as it is absorbed by the pasta. You want the pasta to absorb all the water you add; don't have the pasta floating in water when it's done. Do not drain the pasta before serving it; it needs the starch for sauces to properly adhere to it. "But you're leaving all that starch in the pasta for me to eat!". Yep; it's a starchy food--eat something else if you want. BTW, you can also cook spaghetti like this; it's just less messy to cook it in a pot.

[Olustee bus]

In one recipe from Ina Gartens "how easy is that" cook book, for a roasted vegetable dish (which I will post later), she boiled garlic cloves unpeeled for 15 seconds and added then later to the dish. Mild garlic flavor. You don't even slice the smaller ones. slice the larger cloves in half.

[Cybercowboy]

When you cook a thick steak on the grill, try the reverse-sear method. It will give you a steak that is done evenly all the way through. I like mine medium-rare, if you like yours less or more rare, just take off the grill a bit earlier or later (temperature-wise) before you do the first rest.

You'll need a probe thermometer than can be left in the meat while it cooks. It's generally OK to just measure one of the steaks if you're making several. I usually measure two when I'm making more than one steak, since I have a dual-probe unit.

Set your grill to 250 and have the fire off to one side because the first part is done with indirect cooking. Season your steaks well with a little oil, kosher salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. Let them stand at room temp for at least 30 minutes before you begin cooking. If you can add wood to your coals, now's the time to do it. Put the steaks on the side of the grill with no direct heat and cook them until the probe reads 114F.

Immediately remove the meat to a dish and cover it tightly with foil, leaving the probe in the meat. Meanwhile, crank your grill up to high and get it set for direct grilling, with the grate as close to the fire as possible. You want it hot hot hot.

When the temperature stops rising in your covered steaks, remove the probe(s) and put them on the hot fire, about 1-2 minutes per side depending on how thick they are (1" to 1.25" thick, 1 minute. 1.25-2". 2 minutes). If they are monster thick, like over 2", go 2.5 minutes per side. Remove again to the dish and cover with foil for at least 10 minutes. Eat.

Here is a monster bone-in rib eye I did this way. Notice how, close to the narrow area next to the end of the bone, how it's still perfectly cooked all the way through. Usually this area would be medium-well to well-done.