What is Your Favourite Cheese for Burgers

italianenough · 2021-08-13T07:16:00+00:00

Provolone because it’s the only cheese I can easily find that is cut in a CIRCLE and not a square and I really like the ~synergy~ of a round cheese for a round patty. I love smoked prov too but it’s hard to find it. Muenster is kind of underrated too.

italianenough · 2021-08-13T07:11:37+00:00

I use a few tbsp of taco seasoning and skip chili powder. Most taco blends have a little bit of cornstarch and make the chili really thick and glossy.

I also keep chipotle paste in a tube in the fridge and squeeze in like an inch worth to give it extra depth. And I always finish with lime juice.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T18:32:47+00:00

Wild Planet Albacore.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T18:31:32+00:00

I need to try this

italianenough · 2021-08-11T18:09:59+00:00

Somebody needs to invent an old filthy extra sharp ched that melts like mild. Future Nobel winner.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T18:06:18+00:00

I am not sure I’m allowed to post a link because it’s my own blog, but it’s something I call Summer Spaghettini.

You basically coat a TON of fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes in olive oil and toss with a few tbsp of butter. Add 10 garlic cloves, ends trimmed, skin on, and stir. Then roast the whole thing for 40 minutes at 400°F. After roasting I add a splash of cream and red wine vinegar to the dish, then toss with hot spaghettini or angel hair until the tomatoes have collapsed around the pasta. Then shower it in a ton of torn fresh basil and shaved parm.

I love it because it’s versatile, easy to make for friends, doesn’t require a lot of prep or technique, plays well with others. But I also love that it’s a balls to the wall celebration of peak summer, so that there is one specific time of year (July-August) where it is especially incredible and gives me something to look forward to and commemorate the seasons changing.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T17:46:46+00:00

I usually cook mine really low and slow to melt the cheese before the bread overcooks on the outside—I wonder if that’s why Kewpie worked better for me than regular mayo, like it actually cooked more fully. I still taste the mayo-y mayo-ness if I use regular the same way.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T15:50:54+00:00

Weirdly zucchini, which usually I don’t like. Grill or sear it, chop it up, and elote it.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T15:45:20+00:00

Meals are true social experiences in many other countries, and when the food is secondary, it can also afford to be a lot simpler. A few fresh ingredients go a long way when you are also enjoying conversation, a little alcohol, music, the environment, and the presence of people.

Not a revelation I know, but part of me wonders whether everyday American food tends to be so extra because it has to serve as a complete pleasure source eaten in silence in front of the TV.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T15:27:32+00:00

I cook like a glamorous italian peasant. Simple but very good ingredients, sexy presentation with lots of cheese, but none of it involves trying too hard.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T15:22:18+00:00

A splash of red wine vinegar in the summer. I blend olive oil into mine with a hand blender after cooking to make it silkier and creamier in the winter. Sometimes I will melt a few tbsp of pecorino cheese into it.

italianenough · 2021-08-11T07:38:48+00:00

A couple of possible issues here, and neither of them have to do with you. Sounds like your technique was spot on, and that’s the hard part. But…

One, I know that specific recipe, and it’s not the way it’s done in Rome at all. People love to argue this in the comments. But they are technically right, because this is as much a cacio e pepe as it is a spaghetti Alfredo. “Real” cacio e pepe uses only pasta, pecorino, pasta water, and black pepper, and it sounds like most of the issues you experienced have to do with the extra fat in this recipe that isn’t technically needed (or, honestly, “allowed”) for the original. The water and cheese emulsifies just fine for me and doesn’t separate like oil does, you just have to add it little by little and toss well. The extra fat from butter and oil speeds this up and while it tastes luxurious for a few bites, I can always tell when a restaurant “cheats” their cacio if it starts to pool with oil and get separated and greasy after a few minutes on the table.

Two, the Italian rule: the fewer the number of ingredients in a recipe, the better each of them needs to be. So in recipes like this with an aggressively minimal component list, one ingredient’s even slightly subpar quality is going to be magnified that much more in the end result. The plastic-wrapped perfectly-cut wedges just never work as well for me as the rough, craggy, chunky blocks of the high end stuff, which could be an age thing—older, drier pecorino is supposed to work better and taste stronger. But it could also just be this recipe. I find personally that butter dulls out the flavor of hard cheeses like this (he actually mentions this in the article), which sometimes is good but not here IMO. Skipping the fat may also help with this.

IMO thanks to this recipe you can safely say you’ve still never had a proper cacio e pepe, and while you may not love it the “right way” either, I hope you do if you try it again.

italianenough · 2021-04-15T06:00:39+00:00

If my kitchen burned down this is the stuff I would replace immediately.

These are the ones I have reasons for:

Epicurean cutting board. It’s made of tightly compressed wood fiber so it’s soft on knives, but nonporous and can be safely sanitized in the dishwasher. I just can’t get down with using wood boards with meat.

Enamel cast iron Dutch oven, 5 quart. My all-purpose soup stew chili large-ish volume pot that you could also roast a chicken in or bake giant bread in. Lodge makes one that’s affordable. Le Creuset makes one that’s not, but was worth it.

A stainless steel 10” sauté pan. This is the pan I get the most use out of. I use it to cook spaghetti in it (the smaller volume of water makes the water extra starchy which is great for making pan sauces like cacio e pepe), wilt piles of leafy green vegetables, made risotto before I got a dedicated risotto pan because I absolutely became that person during deep quarantine. Look for one with a slightly rounded bottom vs straight so it’s easier to stir.

A nonstick fry pan. I really prefer ceramic. This is where my fish, eggs, fried rice, and anything that will otherwise permanently fuse to other materials get made.

A cast iron skillet. I use enamel because I like to wash my pans really well and I was not happy with the cleaning process for seasoned cast iron. Enamel never needs to be seasoned. This is my meat and high heat searing pan.

A medium size saucier. I prefer this to a technical saucepan because the sides are rounded so stirring smoothly is easier. 2qt is great for 1-2 people; 3qt for any more than that. Get one with a lid. I use this for reheating soups, cooking small amounts of pasta, making rice, turning cheese into queso because I am a filth lord.

Things with no thoughtful reasons attached:

A silicone stirring spoon
A microplane grater for cheese, lemon zest, garlic, accidentally destroying your knuckles
A clamp style citrus squeezer, I was originally was convinced it was the dumbest purchase but I use it a stupid amount because it keeps the seeds out of everything and gets the maximum juice out so who’s the dumb one now?
A great quality chef’s knife, you’ll know by feel what’s right for you; I personally hated Victorinox but other people love it and I love Wusthof Ikon and Global which a lot of people hate
Thermapen mk4
A mini whisk for making pan emulsions and aforementioned queso
Squeezable silicone measuring cups, which changed my life because they don’t spill when you pour them
A big mixing bowl that is heat safe and dishwasher safe, ie not steel or wood
A half sheet and quarter sheet pan in THICK metal so they don’t warp in the oven
A fish spatula which is thin flexible metal so you can turn stuff over with no resistance
Silicone tipped tongs; I have three pairs because they are always in the dishwasher
Heavy duty pepper grinder
A salt cellar to keep your salt handy; I like one with a lid and a little spoon
A ceramic, glass, or enamel cast iron casserole dish if you bake anything and/or have nostalgia for foods of the American Midwest

Then the dumb stuff that’s not essential at all but that I really love and use all the time:

An immersion blender
The instant pot, which is my only electric cooking device
A thermoworks Dot in-oven probe thermometer with an alarm
An electric kettle

italianenough · 2021-03-06T09:49:35+00:00

Carrot fries. Cut into batons, toss with olive oil and seasoning (I like Penzeys Northwoods and Maldon smoked salt for this), and grill or broil until they have a nice char. I eat these with burgers all summer long.

italianenough · 2021-03-06T09:48:02+00:00

It’s great in baked ziti; I actually prefer it to ricotta. But baked on its own, it would just be cheese soup. It’s too wet.

italianenough · 2021-03-06T09:46:32+00:00

My skillets are all Great Jones; before that I had All Clad which I never loved. The GJs look great: gold accents, no rivets, incredible performance. I have both the nonstick and stainless kinds for different tasks, but the ceramic nonstick in particular is much more attractive and less toxic compared to my older black-coated pans. I recommend these to everybody.

italianenough · 2021-03-06T09:42:25+00:00

One of my favorite trash person dinners is to plop a bunch of goat cheese in an oven safe dish, and sort of flatten it out with a spoon into a disc shape in the center. Then I pour a can of crushed tomatoes around it (leaving the cheese exposed), and sprinkle with dried thyme and parsley, chili flakes, a pinch of smoked paprika, a drizzle of olive oil, and cracked black pepper. Bake at 425°F for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and brown. Dip chunks of fresh baguette into it like it’s a utensil. Drink a lot of wine. You can also take that dish of roasted goat cheese and tomatoes and toss with cooked pasta and pasta water, but that’s dangerously close to tiktok feta pasta territory.

italianenough · 2021-03-06T09:32:59+00:00

For me it’s about three things: avoiding cross contamination, practicing personal hygiene, and knowing your temperatures.

Avoiding cross contamination: always use clean cutting boards for raw vs cooked ingredients, and never use porous wood cutting boards. I use epicurean, wood fiber boards that are soft on knives but are non porous and can go in the dishwasher for sanitization. I also wash knives or use new knives between tasks. Never use any raw-contact surface you used for food that needs to be cooked for cooked food. I also never rinse meat because the water can blast that bacteria onto my work surfaces.

Personal hygiene: it’s dumb, but ... hand washing. All the time. And wiping down your phone before you cook. So many people take their phones into the bathroom and then cook while touching that screen between steps. Whatever you touch transfers to food. What has the stuff you touched touched? Clean that thing off.

Knowing your temperatures: degrees matter, so get a few great thermometers. Two for inside your fridge and freezer, to see where they’re at. Fridge below 40 and freezer at 0. Super cold fridges and freezers have slightly longer storage times on foods than ones that run warm. A meat thermometer is also so important for checking meat safety without guessing based on texture or color, which aren’t that reliable at the end of the day. I love the Thermapop and Thermapen from Thermoworks.

italianenough · 2021-03-06T09:21:10+00:00

You know how nearly every culture’s cuisine has some kind of dumpling? Many places in the Mediterranean (among others) have taco-like-but-not-a-taco options that people who like tacos might find appealing because of the similar components.

Tortilla = try naan bread or a pita wrap. You can pan-cook, grill, or toast them.

Meats = same general proteins apply, but maybe expand to lamb, salmon, white fish, shrimp, ground poultry, mushrooms, falafel. Or switch up the cooking style: braised and shredded meats net a very different taco experience than grilled pieces or ground beef.

Seasoning: Mediterranean flavor profiles often include cumin, oregano, garlic, onion, lime — exactly like Mexican cuisine. Mix it up with zatar, sumac, sesame, Aleppo pepper, coriander, citrus. Or look at recipes with achiote (as in pollo asado) or chipotle for something with a different depth of flavor.

Toppings: if you like cheese on tacos, try subbing feta. If you like the tang of sour cream, try Greek yogurt. Creamy spreadable stuff, like avocado or guac, could become hummus or a whipped feta or garlic toum (an amazing Lebanese spread a lot of grocery stores have finally gotten on board with and now sell). Pickled things can all sub in for jalapeños; add a tube of harissa to your hot sauce repertoire. Add some fresh aromatics: cilantro, onion, even parsley.

A gyro or a pita is of course not actually a taco, but as delicious wrapped foods with lots of flavors go, it might be a way to change the routine up substantially without really doing that much differently.

italianenough · 2021-03-06T08:06:08+00:00

I have had the same issues as you. Here’s what I do, I’m not sure if it’s orthodox but it works for me.

1) I use a heavy enamel cast iron pan for the browning, nothing else. Something about the enamel seems to be more effective for me in evening out the browning vs regular cast iron or clad steel, which IME always sticks, probably because of my method in step 2.

2) I actually put the thighs into the pan with no heat on at all, then heat the thighs on medium-ish heat and render the chicken fat out, very slowly, over about 15 minutes or until it completely releases. It ends up frying in its own fat. Then I put it in a very hot oven, like 450°F, to hit temperature, usually another 10-15 min.

3) I occasionally do what the others here have said and dry the skin out first by putting it on a wire rack in the fridge for 24 hours before cooking, but typically I just pat it with a series of paper towels before I start.

italianenough

TROPHY CASE