7 Biggest Mistakes in Southern Cooking
By K. A. Miller
There is Southern Cooking and then there is SOUTHERN COOKING! You can follow a recipe and still come out with a dish that does not resemble what the recipe intended. The reason is technique and the little secrets that are not included in the recipe.
Technique is as important as the ingredients and proper technique helps you avoid the following common mistakes made by novice cooks. You can find many free Southern recipes on the internet, but few web sites provide the additional information needed to to be a real Southern cook. So when you find a site that does, bookmark it and stick with it for your Southern recipes. (See Resource Box below for recommendation).
7 Biggest Mistakes:
1. Failure to Properly Preheat Oven When Baking.
Have you ever made cornbread that came out soft and crumbly without a crust? Or biscuits that did not rise and have a gray color? It was probably due to the fact that your oven was not properly preheated. When baking, the crust is set in the first 10 minutes. So, if you want a nice, golden crust on your cornbread, be sure to get the oven up to 400 degrees before you put the cornbread in.
Ovens vary in how long it takes to reach a given temperature. Some ovens will reach 400 degrees in 4-5 minutes. Some will take as long as 15 minutes. A good practice is to get a thermometer (any food thermometer that goes up to 425 degrees will work) and time how long it takes your oven to reach 250, 350, 400 and 425 degrees. Write it down and keep it handy if you can not remember. Then always allow the alloted time to reach the desired temperature before beginning your baking.
2. Undercooked Vegetables
Keep in mind we are talking about Southern cooking. Not Chinese or West Coast casseroles. Many vegetables, Southern Style, are cooked considerably longer than most people tend to cook them. Specifically, green beans are cooked until soft and dark green in color. They are not crunchy and bright green. Okra and green tomatoes, are cooked until some burned edges appear and are very crunchy. As a general rule boiled vegetables are cooked until very tender and fried foods are cooked until crunchy (this goes for cornbread, fried chicken and pork chops, too).
3. Failure to Use Cast Iron
I have never researched all the reasons why, but Southern cooking is best cooked in cast iron cook-ware. The cast iron holds and transfers heat unlike any other type metal. Food just does not cook the same in aluminum or steel. Especially cornbread. Besides, it is the traditional way to cook Southern.
Older cast iron tends to have problems with rust and food sticking, but the newer cook-ware comes already cured (seasoned) so it is not as much a problem. However, it is not difficult to cure your cast iron if you have an older style. You can get complete, free instructions in the web referrals below.
4. Failure to Use Onions and Bacon
Onions and bacon (or bacon grease) are used extensively in Southern cooking. Some cooks, however, stray away form cooking real Southern because they (or family members) do not like onions and/or concerns about the fat content in bacon.
They do this because they fail to understand the reason for using bacon and onions. They are NOT in the recipe so that you taste onions or bacon. They are there only to provide subtle flavor. A unique Southern flavor. If you do not like onions, use only a small amount and remove the onion from the dish before serving (put onion in cheesecloth while cooking and it is easy to remove). If you are concerned about the calorie content of bacon, do not use whole bacon. Just add 1/2 tsp of grease from previously cooked bacon. And, accept the fact that Southern cooking is not inherently low fat. It is meant to be flavorful and robust. So, use that bacon and onion for real Southern dishes.
5. Overworking Dough
Southern breads are meant to be light and fluffy. Even cornbread should not be heavy and solid. Many Southern cooks never learn how to make good biscuits. And homemade Southern Biscuits are the trademark of good Southern cooks.
Three errors cause bad biscuits (and other breads). First, do not overwork the dough. Biscuit dough should only be kneaded three times. No more. Just enough to shape it for cutting out the biscuits.
Second, when cutting the dough, do not push down and twist the biscuit cutter. Push straight down and straight back up. Twisting compacts the edges of the dough and causes uneven cooking.
Third, remember the previous mistake above...preheat your oven. A cold oven can result in flat, hard biscuits.
6. Yellow Cornmeal and Sugar in cornbread
Everyone has their own preference, but, please do not use yellow cornmeal in cornbread. It may be mental, but it just does not taste the same as white cornmeal. Besides it looks funny. And, NEVER, NEVER put sugar in cornbread if you want authentic Southern cornbread. Cornbread is bread to accompany a meal. It is not dessert. It is not cake! It is BREAD. So, if you like sweet cornbread...go ahead and use your sugar...but, do not call it Southern Cornbread!
7. Failure to Use buttermilk
All good Southern cooks use buttermilk in everything except desserts. Regular milk does not add the flavor that buttermilk does. Especially in any dish with cornmeal (cornbread, hush puppies, tamale pie, etc.). If you do not have buttermilk, you can make a reasonable substitute by stirring 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in a cup of regular milk. Allow to sit for a minute before use.
These are some of the most common mistakes (or lack of Southern cooking technique) made in Southern cooking. You can ignore all of them and make eatable food, but it will not be traditional Southern. Even some good Southern cooks fail to comply with all the above, but they have probably developed a variation of these same techniques.
So, get in that kitchen, fire up the stove and make your family a real Southern dinner tonight.
Ken Miller is a free lance writer and webmaster for http://www.olsouthrecipes.com , Southern Recipes - Southern Cooking, where you can find FREE recipes for the most popular, authentic Southern dishes like fried chicken, fried okra, biscuits and gravy, cornbread and many more.
Change Your Cooking To Improve Your Health And Lose Weight
By Alexa Cooper
Cooking is a great way to make improvements to your health and to lose weight. Most restaurant kitchens use way too much fat and salt on their dishes. Also, with eating out you can never be sure on how fresh the ingredients really are and how well they have been prepared. When you cook for yourself you have a detailed list of all the ingredients that have been used and you can make sure that the cooking has been done in a safe and sanitary way, especially when you are dealing with meats. The other advantage that home cooking brings is the choice to adjust meals to make them more healthy. So if you already cook regularly you can try to modify your recipes to make them even healthier or if you have never cooked much before start out with healthy recipes right away. How to find healthy recipes? For one you could buy magazines that are specialized in weight loss recipes or buy a recipe book by a weight loss program. Other than that simply look for recipes that are low in fat and refined carbohydrates but high in vegetables and protein.
Cook with less fat
Cooking with less fat sounds more complicated than it really is. For instance, if you like to fry your food in a skillet, use one of those Teflon skillets and you will barely need any oil at all. Or use some broth instead of the oil. When you make a salad, us some olive oil because it is very healthy oil and use lemon juice and vinegar to give the salad a little extra taste. Try not to eat fried foods since they are loaded with fat and that is not even good fat like olive oil. If you want fries, bake them in the oven instead. Also, if you love to barbecue it is an awesome cooking method that uses no oil at all. If you need any oil to coat a surface, always use cooking spray. Make sure you only apply a light coat since it is still oil. The sprayer just makes it easier to coat it thinly. This cooking spray comes in really handy when you want to bake or use a casserole dish in any way. Besides that, it is handy for a frying pan as well and to give a little extra taste when the cooked food is already prepared. You can Use some butter flavored cooking spray on almost everything.
Cook more vegetables
Vegetables are always very important to your over all health as well as weight loss. The greatest advantage vegetables have are that they are so low in calories. You can basically stuff yourself on vegetables without having to gain weight. Really easy vegetables to prepare are carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and onions. There are plenty of great recipes out there that will transform these plain vegetables into some delicious meal. Also, you can add vegetables to your already existing dishes. For instant you could add some steamed broccoli to any pasta dish or you could grate carrots and add some to the spaghetti meat sauce. One great advantage that vegetables have is that you can cut them up shortly after you buy them and store them in containers in the refrigerator. Then you don't have to work as long preparing dinner with the veggies already good to go for the dish. Or just buy frozen vegetables and prepare them in the steamer. this will always make a great side dish. If you are in a huge hurry to make dinner, barbecue some meat or chicken and serve it on a bed of greens. Salad is one of the healthiest foods you can find.
Use lots of chicken and fish
When it comes to the choice of protein some things are to be considered. Probably one of the most favorite sources of protein is beef. Beef in general is very healthy, but you want to choose a lean kind if you can. Also, there is pork. Lean cuts of pork seem to be good as well, however the ground pork is in general much more fatty than the ground beef. Next choice would be poultry. Poultry has very little fat and therefore is an excellent source of protein when on a weight loss program. Especially the chicken breast is a very lean piece. If you want to remove as much fat from the chicken as possible you can remove the skin as well. Other than chicken, fish is an excellent choice of protein. Some fish are considered fatty fish like salmon. Nevertheless, the fat in fish is of very high quality and you should consider eating some fatty fish every once in a while. Leaner types of fish are also very healthy and therefore a great choice. Lastly, eggs are also a good source of protein. The egg white consists of protein whereas the egg yolk consists of mostly fat.
To read more by Alexa Cooper on weight loss and maintaining a healthy lifestyle visit her website at
http://www.10stepstoweightloss.com/blog
Divine Mercantile LLC does not endorse any author, web site, or product mentioned in any articles listed above. All articles published by Divine Mercantile LLC are not meant to be used for legal, medical, or any other type of advice. All articles are for informational purposes only.
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