Might have gotten it out a bit too soon- the digital meter was saying 245-250(grr) and it’s a hair on the soft side. It lost a bit of the apple flavor compared to when it was at thread temp… if you want a sharp hit, maybe add some more of the cider vinegar. The flavor is still there, but iat thread it was (tart) apple->Carmel, now it’s carmel-> apple
We mostly use them in beef stews and tomato sauces. We dice them up as fine as possible and add them. They seem to disintegrate into the sauces and just add nice umami.
Personally, I use anchovy paste a lot. It comes in a tube like toothpaste. I never need that many, so it’s nice to not have to open a whole can. It does really dissolve in pasta sauce. I also use it for caesar salad dressing. I think every culture has a way of adding MSG to things, whether it’s pure powdered msg, miso, vegemite, soy sauce, fish sauce, parmesan, mushrooms, or anchovies. For me, it’s really just an msg source with a little extra flavor of its own. I never really use enough that something tastes like anchovy.
Yeah, I use MSG and soy sauce in almost everything, but I cook a lot of Asian foods. I didn’t even think about anchovy paste. That’s something I keep forgetting to do with tomato paste as well instead of buying cans. But I don’t really make a lot of tomato based stuff, and when I do I use homegrown tomatoes. Mushrooms I use a lot as well. Thanks for the tip!
Cold proofing is a great way to develop flavor, but the down side is that it’s hard to tell if something is ready to bake. It’s also easy to overproof for the same reason. It just requires baking the same recipe multiple times using the same fridge until you get a handle on the proper amount of proofing time. Another way you could develop the flavor is by using a preferment like a bigga.
Undercooking can be avoided by taking the temp of the bread using a thermometer. It should be 200F inside, minimum.
But yes, you can def save a bread that hasn’t come out quite right! Toasting is a great way to do that.
I’m saying that I do all those things on purpose when I am baking a sandwich loaf. I always will toast the bread first unless I’m making grilled cheese.
Any other type of bread is baked the way it should be, proper rise times, etc. The exception to that is when I am playing around with very long cold ferments (5+ days), or alternative leaveners like rice, chillies, beans, whatever. They’re much more unpredictable in behavior.
I season right when it goes into the pot (salt and pepper), and then I do two “dumps” of the other seasonings - one towards the beginning prior to adding liquids, and another towards the end of cooking.
When searing meat and adding spice in a more or less "dry way", for taco meat or chili or some curries, I sear the meat to nearly where I want it, then add the dry spices to toast on lower heat before "deglazing" with water/stock/whatever else makes sense. You can also just toast the spices separately, but some toasting is nice either way and I think this is convenient.
Generally salting early is good for anything you want to get any kind of browning on, it's just that the meat and any other additions might also be salty, so you don't always get to. Spices will give a better flavor over time, like a "rub", but you can't necessarily sear meat with spices on it. Things are usually tradeoffs.
I don’t use ground meat for chili, typically I will use a braising cut. For that, I salt it, and let it air dry for a bit, then sear it. When it’s nicely browned, I’ll pull the meat out, throw in onions to deglaze the pan, then garlic, any spices that could use a toasting (like cumin), and some tomato paste.
Finally I pour in my chile puree, which in my opinion is a non-negotiable part of what make chili, chili. That’s just a combo of a few different types of dried chiles that I’ve toasted, soaked in liquid like chicken stock, blended, and passed through a sieve. Then I slice up the meat, and put it back in.
If I were to use ground beef, I would basically just do the same thing, but I’d skip the salting part and just do it all after I add the liquid. It’s hard to get good color on ground beef if you have a big hunk of it, especially if any moisture is pulled out of it. Sometimes if I need to brown a bunch of ground beef, I’ll do it in batches, basically cooking each chunk like a separate “burger”. If I’m lazy, I’ll do however much can fit in a single layer well spaced, then just toss the rest in after. I’d rather have half of the meat well browned than all of it “grey”.
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