ASK THE SPLENDID TABLE®by Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Host of The Splendid Table®, American Public Media’s national food show. Ask questions and find Lynne, recipes, and station listings at splendidtable.org, or 800-537-5252.
Copyright 2006 Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Dear Lynne, Do the size of the eggs change the cake? A cake recipe of yours calls for four large eggs. I always buy jumbo eggs. What effect would this have on the cake? What size eggs are assumed in recipes when no size is specified?
My wife makes a basic Toll house chocolate chip recipe with the exception of doubling the chips and using jumbo eggs. People rave about them, and I've believed the eggs could have a lot to do with the taste. Curious Bob
Dear Bob, Large eggs are the standard egg in recipes. A different size can change cake recipes because cakes are designed by precise and delicate formulas based on the weight of ingredients. When you find out that a large egg weighs 2 ounces and a jumbo egg weighs 2-1/2 ounces, you can see how too many jumbos could create problems.
Cookies, custards, and other sweets give you more room to improvise. More egg in your wife’s chocolate chip cookies is making them them richer and more cake-like, but I think with all that good chocolate, you barely notice.
Dear Lynne, We froze the turkey carcass and leftovers because we wanted to try soup. Of course, we never made soup. How do you start? Two Overachievers Yearning for Soup
Dear Overachievers, For you two, this will be easy. You want a lot of aromatic vegetables like celery, carrot and onion, the carcass, and all the trimmings you can find including meat, skin, and bits of stuffing. A little Asian fish sauce, tomato and a lot of wine trick out all their flavors. Don’t be surprised by the long cooking time, you are drawing everything from those ingredients. And if you can, crack the bones before they go into the pot so they give up all their character. If you have fresh poultry, like chicken, or even turkey wings, that will enrich the broth even more. Season the broth as you serve it. On its own in small mugs, the broth is a good stand in for icy cocktails on cold nights.
Thanksgiving Turkey Broth with White Wine
Makes 3 to 4 quarts; freezes for 6 months. Broth holds 4 days in the refrigerator.
The bones, meat bits, skin and about 1/2 cup stuffing from a whole large turkey, or a couple of chickens, or other meats
2 to 3 pounds raw chicken or turkey (optional)
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
2 large stalks of celery with leaves, coarsely chopped
12 big cloves of garlic, unpeeled and crushed
4 whole cloves
3 to 4 canned tomatoes, crushed
1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce
2 cups dry white wine (optional)
1. Start the broth about 14 hours before you want to serve it. Put all the ingredients in a 8 to 12-quart tall stock pot. Add enough cold water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a gentle simmer, partially cover, and simmer 10 to 12 hours. The longer the broth cooks, the richer the taste. Keep the solid ingredients covered with liquid.
2. Strain the broth. Cool. Skim off fat by chilling the broth until any fat is solid, or merely skim any fat from the broth by running a triple thickness of paper towels over its surface. Discard the toweling and taste the broth for seasoning. Refrigerate or freeze.
Variations:
Chickpea, Pasta and Greens Supper Soup: Sauté 2 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. Pour in broth with a can of drained chickpeas, chopped curly endive or escarole leaves, fresh basil, some canned tomatoes and small pasta. Simmer until the pasta is tender.
Madeira Broth: Heat the broth to a bubble, add a little dry Madeira and simmer another minute. Serve in small bowls or mugs. Sprinkle the broth with thin sliced scallion.
Five-Spice Broth with Rice Noodles and Bok Choy: Season the broth to taste with Chinese Five-Spice Powder and quickly cook in it rice noodles and thin-sliced bok choy. Serve with a little rice vinegar and fresh coriander leaves.
Dear Lynne, How much salt is there in a stick of butter? If I know this, I can allow for it in my cooking. Janene
Dear Janene, Would you believe a stick of butter can have 3/4 teaspoon of salt in it? That is a lot of salt. Butter’s salt content isn’t regulated so you don’t know what you are getting when you buy it salted. Far better to use unsalted butter, which is what professionals depend on.
Dear Lynne, I am trying to determine the feasibility of deep frying Scotch eggs in bacon grease. I know there isn’t anything more unhealthy other than eating a stick of deep fried butter, but I have to try it. So. To break it down, my questions consist of: 1) At what temperature is ideal for the oil? 2)How likely is the oil to catch on fire? 3) Apart from the obvious health issue, does this sound even remotely feasible or appetizing? Brian in South Carolina
Dear Brian, If you are doing Scotch eggs, that is hard cooked eggs packed in sausage meat, dipped in egg and rolled in bread crumbs, then deep fried, to quibble over using bacon fat because it is unhealthy seems somehow beside the point. And I love the idea. Given a little imagination and throwing saturated fat worries to the wind, this would taste swell.
The hitch is flash point. Each fat has a temperature where it will smoke, break down and possibly catch fire. Bacon fat’s is around 350º as I remember. You should fry your eggs at 375º. To be on the safe side, I would go with the oils giving you the greatest leeway. Canola, grape seed, corn, peanut and safflower oils have flash points between 400º and 450º which is why they are favored for deep frying. Think how much healthier those Scotch eggs will be.
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Comments: 7
In my mostly-American turkey soup, the tomatoes are out, parsnips and turnips are in and so is an onion, skin left on so it adds color, with the cloves stuck in it. I like rosemary in it, too.
To strain the broth truly clear, I rise a good length of cheesecloth in cold water then line the fine-messh strainer with it before pouring the soup through. Use the back of a wooden spoon to press all the juices out of the solids before discarding to intensify flavor. Chill overnight so the fat floats to the top and solidifies; it's easy to remove it that way.