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Try this: Rye Bread Improver - 16 oz. You'll be amazed at how much better your rye bread will come out. It's one of my favorite products.

Smoking chicken with a water pan will almost always give you rubbery skin. Try a higher temperature, 225 to 235 degrees, with no water pan. Baste once or twice with oil or butter. Alternatively (my prefered method), smoke it for an hour with medium smoke, then transfer to a preheated oven...

Those fortunate to live near the coast or with access to reputable fishmongers who offer quality fresh seafood are among the minority. For the rest of us, selecting good quality fish and shellfish can be a challenge. I'd much rather buy IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) seafood than buy "fresh"...

Be patient. The oven cleaner and plastic bag method should work. Reapply oven cleaner every day or so. It may take a week or ten days for it to eat through all the gunk. More info can be found here: Black Iron Blog: Easy Cast Iron Skillet Reconditioning

I'm with GLC on this one. I only use fresh thyme, never dried, because it's an herb I always have on hand from my garden but generally use it for simmered or braised dishes and in fact don't usually like the taste of thyme unless it's infused into the food, so I almost always add whole sprigs...

For beginning and intermediate cooks, here's a quick tip to help you become a better cook. The enjoyment of food involves five primary sensory aspects - taste, texture, aroma, temperature and visual appeal. The first four are fairly obvious and most cooks pay attention to them. However, the...

I use three different recipes, one during cooking, a second for final glazing and presentation, and a third as a table sauce. These are professional recipes which I've never shared previously but I no longer compete or cook professionally so I hope others will enjoy them. They're good basic...

Tupelo honey is good but in my opinion there's no other honey that compares with sourwood honey from the Appalachian region of the US. If you ever get a chance to try it, don't pass it up.

Actually, marinades work well with fish so long as you don't leave them in the marinade very long. Soy sauce, ginger, vinaigrettes, etc., are frequently used as a base for fish and seafood marinades. Also, ceviche is really nothing more than raw fish or seafood marinated in lime juice with other...

I use my pressure cooker mostly for braising - pot roast, beef ribs, lamb shanks, etc., and for cooking beans. All of these types of foods actually are better after a day or two of aging so I generally make enough for at least two or three meals and freeze or refrigerate the leftovers.

I've had the Fagor set for about 2 years and use it frequently. I'm completely satisfied with it although I almost never use the smaller pot. Incidentally, you cannot pressure fry in either of them, even though Kuhn Ricon refers to their smaller pot as a "pressure fry pan". True pressure...

It sounds to me like the sugar may have crystalized. If so, it's completely harrmless and heating it in a water bath will dissolve the crystals. This happens frequently with products such as maple syrup and honey. However, I agree that contacting the company is a good idea and I fully...

Kathleen, Picadillos are sauteed so you do need some sort of fat, usually butter or oil. Here's a link to a basic recipe: Picadillo de Chayote y Maiz (mirliton and corn) Variations could include mixing a little achiote paste to the oil before adding the other ingredients, adding ground...

Chayote is one of our most common vegetables in Costa Rica. One favorite method of preparation is in a picadillo, a sort of vegetable hash, which may also include ground or shredded beef or pork, but is usually made with just chopped chayote, onion and cut corn, with perhaps a little garlic...

For a group of this size, I'd be thinking of either some sort of custard-based dessert such as a trifle, parfait or bread pudding or perhaps a tiramisu or tres leches. All of these can be prepared well in advance and actually improve with a day or so of refrigeration. I'd give a lot of thought...

My recipe is adapted from Marcella Hazan's "Classic Italian Cookbook" (1973). There are several versions and adaptations of her recipe already posted on the internet so I won't go to the trouble of posting mine. This one is pretty good: Blog . My Version of Marcella's Meatballs | Beyond...

First, a quick Spanish lession. The singular is tamal. The plural is tamales. There is no such word as tamale in Spanish. As to your question about the amount of filling, Central American tamales are a bit different from Mexican tamales but one thing holds true for both - tamales are all about...

Without knowing how well equipped your restaurant is, here are a few ideas that will work well for a small short order restaurant with limited space and equipment: Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich Monte Cristo Sandwich Cioppino (Seafood Stew) Curries (Your Choice) You can find great recipes for...

I owned a seafood restaurant for many years in Florida and used this sauce and preparation technique for both fish and shellfish, always with great results. I think that once you try it, it will become one of your favorites too. You can make the sauce ahead of time and refrigerate. Once your...

Sometimes cilantro can have an unpleasantly bitter taste, particularly when cooked. My guess would be too much cilantro and/or overcooking it. I always add cilantro at or near the end of the cooking process. I note that your recipe called for simmering the marinade for only 5 minutes to make...

I also prefer Gravymaster or my favorite, Bovril, but both are a bit hard to find. Kitchen Bouquet is okay so long as you don't use too much of it. It will give you the desired brown color but doesn't really add much flavor. Some of the soup/stock bases such as Glory Foods Seasoned Beef Base...

A little more on the subject of making roux. It is an art that any aspiring cook should master but, again, is entirely unnecessary for thickening most gravies. Why bother with such a time-consuming extra step? One of the best explanations of the technique and use of roux in Cajun/Creole...

As Jennyema suggests, browning the meat before cooking will certainly help with both flavor and color. However, the most important advice is to use less liquid. You want the flavor to be more concentrated in both the meat and the gravy. Too much liquid will leach off much of the flavor. You...

I agree with most of Selkie's advice, with a couple of exceptions. Baking at 375F isn't nearly hot enough. You should bake at 425F to 450F. Also, although lard is traditional, very few people keep it on hand or use it for baking anymore. A good quality vegetable shortening such as Crisco...

Oops, I didn't mean to say you should disregard the aromatics. I left out a step. I remove them while I'm browning the rice (to prevent browning them, or even worse, burning them), then add them back in with the first cup of stock. I tried to edit the recipe but I guess I've waited too long...