Do You Have A “Secret Weapon?"

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pepperhead212 said:
I don't have anything I keep "secret", per se, but a lot of things most people I know don't have in their kitchens! Besides all those already mentioned, here's something with a unique flavor, that I discovered in my early days of cooking, when I joined a co-op, down at school - some rice vinegar. That has that flavor, plus slightly less acidic that other vinegars - only 4%. That was what I use some in to make mayonnaise, which is the only way I'll eat anything with mayo in it. Later, I discovered the Chinese Chenkiang Black Vinegar - a rice and other vinegars, which gives a delicious and unique flavor to many soups and dip sauces - just not the same with other vinegars.
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I'm big on using (a modest amount of) rice vinegar in my marinades as a way to tenderize meat without drastically altering the flavor, like white vinegar does. Not much of a secret, though; that acid tenderizes meat is cooking 101, or at most cooking 102.
 
Most of my formal education in so far as food was concerned was Home Economics in 1965(?) And that was mostly baking (if I remember). We didn't do meats. Otherwise it was at home and just stuff I picked up along the way,

Tenderizing meat was not one of them! LOL That's something I slowly picked up as I started to get more of an interest in foods. Even then it was only about 20 to 25 years ago of 60+ years of cooking.
 
I have my own secret recipe for a dry rub, or flavor enhancer, whatever you want to call it, like Emeril's Essence. I mix equal parts of evaporated cane juice, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, coarse sea salt, and white pepper. Then I add my secret ingredient, and no one can figure out what that flavour is: it's an equal amount of fine ground coffee, like espresso grind. I keep a wooden container of it on the back of the stove, right between my salt cellar and my pepper cellar.

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dragnlaw said:
Gosh taxy, it sounds more like you are describing A1 rather than HP.
I personally think perhaps it was the tamarind in the sauce - which, back then, I had never even heard of.

I see Google says HP is sweeter than A1 but I didn't see it that way. Always thought HP was a little more vinegary. Both have tomato but you don't 'see' it in the HP (brown) whereas the A1 is definitely red, with a ketchup like texture compared to the HP runnier sauce.
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I used to buy A1 too. I think I just started finding that one a bit less interesting than I had. And when did you last buy HP? Did they get less sweet or gloopy in the past 10 years or so?

BTW, I had heard of tamarind. I knew it was in Worcestershire Sauce. I found that out back in the early 1970s, when I was a vegetarian. I also discovered that the Lea & Perrins Worcestershire has anchovies, so I bought other brands. Worcestershire has been part of my arsenal of flavour enhances for a very long time, longer than HP or A1.
 
I make my own seasoning mix from readily available ingredients. And it works well with everything, soups, side dishes, meat dishes. People don't believe me that everything was seasoned with the same seasoning when I serve lunch or dinner.
 
CharlieD said:
I did not think sending seeds would be against the law.
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Charlie, szechuan peppers out of China were banned for many years because of a fungus or something that was found on them. We cannot bring plants or fruit into Canada from the States but who knows exactly which ones. I would assume they would carefully scrutinize even seeds.

taxy, I often kept both A1 and HP. Would use them alternately. My bro preferred HP and my ex used to reach for the A1.
I just had to go check, seems I only have A1 in the cupboard at the moment .. so on the list it goes.
 
Jade Emperor said:
It’s a myth @dragnlaw.
Basically it’s been handed down over generations in Asian society.
It comes from the Buddhist tradition that people cook with one hand and toss the wok with the other, meaning that you really can’t stir in different directions.
It’s not going to affect the taste in any way.
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That's not what Kenji says.
Screenshot_20240129-154117_Reddit.jpg
 
Cooking Goddess said:
Enough grocery chains in MA offer it in the British Section of the International Foods aisle so that you don't have to hunt for it. I don't know if that's true back here in OH, but I guess I'm going to find out!
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Same here in Virginia. It's probably widely available in well-stocked grocery stores now.
 
I'm inclined to believe both versions of stirring in one direction. One must not forget that so many things are handed down over the centuries that should science and historical reasons collide/meld does not mean one is correct and the other not.

As to the HP Sauce in the Virginia's - must be a hangover from your British roots. :whistling :flowers:
 
i use A1 sauce more and more since it doesn;t have a lot of carbs like ketchup and bbq sauce does.
 
@GotGarlic - if I could ask you to please re-read what Kenji says in your quote, you will find that the chef there actually confirms my statement
I really didn’t want to go spelling it out, but I brought up the attachment to Buddhism because it has relevance to how people use their hands.
 
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dragnlaw said:
Charlie, szechuan peppers out of China were banned for many years because of a fungus or something that was found on them. We cannot bring plants or fruit into Canada from the States but who knows exactly which ones. I would assume they would carefully scrutinize even seeds.
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Those Szechwan peppercorns were banned from import for many years because of that fungus, and that thing is in the citrus family, so it couldn't be brought into this country, due to possible agricultural ruin. Same thing happened with Makrut/Kaffir lime leaves back then - they suddenly weren't available in the markets any longer, and this was why. That was when I started growing the lime leaves, as I couldn't be without them!

Many things are irradiated, to kill anything on them, before being brought into the country. That's how the Szechwan peppercorns were first allowed back into the country. It's a wonder we don't hear more things about insects or diseases getting into our country, or others, for that matter, with all the food transported between countries. Hawaii has probably the largest amount of restrictions, as to things allowed into the state, due to their dependency on growing food crops. Many others, like California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and anyplace with major agriculture has some restrictions.
 
In fact to send me chilli seeds to Australia would be a federal offence, and such that I understood the slight knuckle rap here.
We have a television program that is all about border security and it’s 90% about Asian people trying to bring in tasty porcupine penises or some such
 
For perhaps some perspective - when the British Invasion/colonisation of Australia occurred in the 1800’s, one thing that they brought with them was rabbits.
Rabbits went a very far way to wiping out the native rodents, such as Bilby. They were devastating to our native species and our forefathers had to go so far as to build a wire fence that stretched across the entire country to prevent rabbits from crossing and totally anihillating our ancestral wildlife.
 
dragnlaw said:
Charlie, szechuan peppers out of China were banned for many years because of a fungus or something that was found on them. We cannot bring plants or fruit into Canada from the States but who knows exactly which ones. I would assume they would carefully scrutinize even seeds.

taxy, I often kept both A1 and HP. Would use them alternately. My bro preferred HP and my ex used to reach for the A1.
I just had to go check, seems I only have A1 in the cupboard at the moment .. so on the list it goes.
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The 1st time I went to Mexico I had a tangerine in my carryon bag for a snack that customs took away from me. So yeah.
 
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