Kitchen Notes

K I T C H E N N O T E S

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WHAT I S IT? How to Care f or a Wooden Salad Bowl

Years of exposure to oily salad dressings can leave a wooden salad bowl with tacky, rancid residue. Here’s how to make it new again—and keep it that way. –A.J.

TO R E M OV E S T I C K Y B U I L D U P : Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 275 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and set wire rack in sheet. Place bowl upside down on rack. Turn of oven (don’t forget this step or bowl might burn) and place sheet in oven. Within minutes, oils will start to bead on surface of bowl. After 1 to 2 hours, oils will run of bowl and onto sheet. Once bowl appears dry, remove sheet from oven and wipe down bowl with paper towels to remove any residue. (If bowl is still sticky, repeat baking process.)

TO R E S E A S O N : Whenever bowl becomes dry or dull-looking, reseason it: Use paper towel to liberally apply mineral oil, which won’t turn rancid like oils used in salad dressings, to all surfaces of bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes, then wipe away residue with clean paper towel.

TO C L E A N A N D M A I N TA I N : Use mild dish soap and warm water to clean well-seasoned wooden bowl. Always dry bowl thoroughly after cleaning. Never put bowl in dishwasher or let it soak in water, as it will warp and crack.

It may resemble an early 19th-century surgeon’s tool, but this implement is actually a sugar nipper, a tool that was used to break down a sugarloaf for household use. Before sugar was sold as cubes (1843) or in granulated form (1853), it was sold in hard cones called sugarloaves that were developed by Venetians.

Sugarloaves were extremely hard and were diicult to break apart: Shopkeepers would likely have used a hammer and chisel to break of pieces from a larger loaf for customers to purchase. At home, a pair of nippers like these would be used to “nip” the sugarloaf into a more usable form. Small pieces could be dropped into a cup of tea or further broken down into granulated sugar using a mortar and pestle.

To test our nipper, we ordered a few sugarloaves from The Shop at Monticello, which stocks Jefersonian-era replicas. While we’re happy to live in the age of granulated sugar, the nipper made short work of breaking of some small pieces of sugar to sweeten our afternoon tea. –S.D.

S U G A R N I P P E R S

T E C H N I Q U E TH E B E ST WAY TO F O LD

When folding an aerated ingredient, such as whipped cream, into a dense mixture as in our Chocolate Semifreddo recipe (page 21), we irst whisk in part of the aerated component to lighten and loosen the dense ingredient before folding in the rest of the aerated ingredient. We found that this lightening technique gave our inished semifreddo a smooth texture and roughly halved the number of folds required to combine the whipped cream and custard (30 folds versus 57). Follow the steps below for eicient folding. –A.P.

1 . In large, wide bowl, whisk approximately one-third of whipped component into denser base component until just combined. 2 . Add remaining whipped component. Using lexible rubber spatula, start in center of bowl and cut through both components to bottom of bowl. 3 . Pull spatula toward you, scraping along bottom and up side of bowl to edge. 4 . Once spatula has been lifted out of mixture, rotate it so any mixture clinging to blade falls back into center of bowl. 5 . Rotate bowl quarter turn and repeat folding process until components are just combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

How to Slice Tough, Thin Steaks

How you slice steak matters almost as much as how you cook it. Steak beneits from being sliced across the grain, which shortens its muscle ibers, making the meat more tender and easier to chew. Tough, thin cuts such as skirt, hanger, and lank steak should be sliced at an angle. This shows of a large cross section of the interior for more elegant presentation. –L.L

1 . Hold knife perpendicular to grain of meat. Tilt spine of knife toward you. 2 . Using sawing motion and applying slight downward pressure, slice meat thin.

Extend the Life of Leftover Pancakes

If you’ve got leftover pancakes, don’t toss them. Use these simple tips to store and reheat them for another breakfast. –L.L.

How to Store: Place cooled pancakes in zipper-lock bag, separating them with pieces of waxed paper, parchment paper, or aluminum foil and pressing on bag to eliminate air pockets before sealing. Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 weeks. How to Reheat: Place pancakes on rimmed baking sheet and heat in 325-degree oven (or toaster oven) until warmed through, 3 to 4 minutes if refrigerated and about 6 minutes if frozen.

S C I E N C E Another Reason to Emulsify

An emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that ordinarily resist one another, such as the proverbial oil and water. (Vinaigrettes and mayonnaise are two classic examples.) Emulsions are creamier and thicker than nonemulsiied sauces, which helps them coat and cling to food. We set up an experiment to demonstrate the mechanics at work in an emulsion.

E X P E R I M E N T We made two batches of the butter sauce that accompanies our Buttery Spring Vegetables (page 22). For the irst batch, we followed the recipe: We reduced the leftover cooking water with shallots, vinegar, salt, and sugar and then whisked in cold butter 1 tablespoon at a time to create an emulsiied sauce. For the second batch, we simply combined the same ingredients in a saucepan over low heat until the butter was melted.

R E S U LT S The irst (emulsiied) sauce had a thick, velvety consistency, while the second was thin and separated, with watery shallots below and liquid butter speckled with milk solids on top. When we dipped radishes into the two sauces, the emulsiied sauce coated and clung nicely, but the second sauce slipped right of.

THICK AND CLINGY Emulsified sauce nicely coats.

E X P L A N AT I O N There are two types of emulsions: water-in-oil and oil-in-water. Solid butter is a water-in-oil emulsion—fat with tiny droplets of water suspended throughout. When butter simply melts, as in our nonemulsiied sauce, the water and fat separate from each other so that the resulting sauce feels slippery and greasy and resists clinging to the surface of foods. But if you gradually whisk cold butter into hot liquid, as in our emulsiied sauce, you can actually transform the sauce into an oil-in-water emulsion. Here’s how it works: The water droplets in butter contain remnants of the cream from which it was made—proteins. These proteins act as emulsiiers, coating and separating tiny fat droplets as they disperse into the liquid when the butter melts. Because these fat droplets are now separated by water, the resulting sauce is more viscous than either melted butter or water alone. It also clings to moist vegetables because the fat droplets are surrounded by water (remember, water is attracted to water but resists fat).

THIN AND SLIPPERY Nonemulsified sauce slides right off.

TA K E AWAY Emulsifying might be a little extra work, but it comes with a big payof. Emulsions are cohesive and creamy, which helps them to cling to food more efectively. –A.G.

More Good Uses f or Kitchen Shears

When sussing out the best pair of kitchen shears (page 32), we ran all the products through our standard kitchen shears tasks: butterlying a whole chicken, snipping herbs, and cutting sheets of parchment paper and lengths of kitchen twine. But using shears to perform tasks usually done with a knife can make these tasks faster, neater, and easier. Here are a few other good ways to put this essential tool to work. –A.P.

C H O P C A N N E D TO M ATO E S Instead of chopping peeled whole tomatoes on a cutting board and creating a juicy mess, use shears to snip them into chunks right in the can.

C U T B R E A D S Use shears to snip pizza, pita, or quesadillas into even wedges; cut focaccia into squares; or cut up stale bread for croutons.

P R E P P RO D U C E Shears can cut caulilower to size, trim artichoke leaves, section bunches of grapes, trim carrot and radish tops or fennel stalks, and snip stems from leafy greens.

S L I C E M E S S Y S T U F F Shears make chopping sticky dried apricots and dates or slicing slippery raw bacon quicker, neater, and more pleasant.