Casa Brillig has had a Cooks Illustrated subscription since the early 1990's and is the only magazine we receive independent of a membership in something else. It's been an indispensable part of our culinary toolkit, for many reasons. Grab a cranberry orange scone and follow me below the fold after a word from our sponsor...
Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
For those who haven't seen an issue of Cook's, Wikipedia describes a typical issue, and I've excerpted bits:
Each issue of Cook's Illustrated is 32 pages in length, printed almost entirely in black-and-white. The front and back covers contain color illustrations of various foods and ingredients, and the inside of the back cover contains color photographs of the recipes featured in the issue.
Approximately ten recipes are presented in each issue, taking the form of a narrative in which the author discusses the recipe's evolution.
Each magazine also includes a detailed taste test...
Every issue includes a detailed equipment test...
In addition to the featured test, most issues test a few other products with less detail, where the best and worst brands in each category are presented with a brief description of the products' highlights and drawbacks. The magazine also features a "Kitchen Notes" section, providing tips on completing common cooking chores, often relevant to the recipes in the issue; a "Recipe Update", in which the magazine provides variations on recipes from previous issues; "Quick Tips" submitted by readers; and "Notes from Readers", in which the magazine's editors respond to reader questions. Many issues also include a two-page spread illustrating details on a general method or task...
It's that Quick Tips section that increasingly leaves me unimpressed. Over the years it's been fun to see what tips, shortcuts, substitutions and other hacks regular amateur cooks come up with to make things easier. Ideas like rolling out dough evenly (dowels of a particular height), or how to keep a pot lid ajar during long simmers (wine cork slit and placed on the pot rim). For each Tip published, the reader receives a complimentary one-year subscription. As a result, you'd think Tips are truly novel, right?
Let me share in my own words a few that won in the most recent issue:
"Stain Free Beet Prep"
To keep hands from turning pink when peeling roasted beets... wear disposable plastic gloves and throw them away afterwards.
Gloves? Really? They keep your hands clean? Why did no one EVER tell me this before?!
"Alternative Spoon Rest"
If your recipe calls for an entire large can of something, use the empty can as a spoon/spatula rest, and recycle it when you're done.
Blinks like a Tea Partier told the NRA isn't mentioned by name in the Constitution. No shit, you can use an empty can to hold a wooden spoon? Will wonders never cease to amaze me!
And the one that had Mr. Brillig fuming while preparing our latest loaf of sandwich bread...
"Proof That Yeast Works"
To see if your yeast is fresh, take a little bit of yeast and sugar, add to warm water, and see if it bubbles and foams within 10'.
I really hate to point it out, but people have been doing the "hey, let's see if this yeast is fresh by testing a little bit of it" proofing thing for, well... thousands of years. Everything old is new again, right?
I fear this is the result of several decades of dumbing down the populace via cuts to education funding and adoption of the mistaken belief Fox produces a news program.
I sent in a tip last year that got ignored; a method of portioning meatballs in large batches that no one I know had ever heard before but everyone thought was cool. I now know why- it was far too inventive. In that new spirit of understanding, I'd like to propose some new Tips, and invite you to do the same in comments!
Easy Whipped Cream
To ease the strain of preparing whipped cream by hand, either use a mixer to beat the cream or buy prepared whipped cream (see our related Taste Test on page 28, Canned Whipped Cream).
Recipe Notes
If you don't want to ruin your cookbook by writing notes on the page, use a Post-It. It doubles as a bookmark so you can find your favorite recipe easily.
Taste Test
To allow for differences in ingredients between batches, use a small spoon to taste your food prior to serving and adjust seasoning as needed.
My Penultimate Tip: when you see that extra special comment, send it in for inclusion in Top Comments! My Ultimate Tip: When you have the diary for Top Comments, enlist the collaboration of a fellow writer to split the duties of writing and formatting. Both BeninSC (whose diary last night is the inspiration for my own small attempt at levity tonight) and I use this Tip regularly, so please shower him with mojo tonight!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From HeyMikey:
Please don't miss Rikon Snow's fine lyrical comment on Laura Clawson's diary, "Boehner can't stop, won't stop, suing Obama".
Tonight's Comment Flags:
In THIS comment, Mindful Nature 'flagged' a comment for 'unintended irony. The comment got (and DESERVES!!!) ZERO recommendations (in what is a true Top Comments FIRST,), no, we're not even including the commenter's name) but the unintended irony is apt enough, so please thank Mindful Nature for it!
Flagged byjan4insight, this comment by Utahrd 'zings' Republicans for their hypocrisy on abortion.
Missed in the snow last night, Meteor Blades flagged this comment by DerAmi.
And, also snowbound, bakeneko flagged this terrific comment by AnacharsisClootz! Don't miss!
Sorry we missed those last night!
From Yours Truly, brillig:
From Hunter's Boehner: 'We have a right' to invite Netanyahu to address House comes this exchange. Mayfly starts us off, here4tehbeer volleys, and Mayfly returns for the win.
From a must-read diary by Shaun King comes this comment and reply by 4CasandChlo and weezilgirl, respectively.
Top Mojo for Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Kyle was a serial fabricator by exlrrp — 169
2) Warren was blocked by Wall Street ... by Dallasdoc — 128
3) to quote another Kossack: by AR2 — 122
4) Then you pin them down: by zenbassoon — 121
5) They - the Dem -ahem- "Leadership" - by winkk — 116
6) If You Live Downwind of 2 or 3 Great Lakes You Kno by Gooserock — 114
7) It's amazing to me that the "Dims" by officebss — 107
8) Walker is an idiot by weezilgirl — 99
9) Well by JamieH — 99
10) Tipped & rec'ed by a2nite — 83
11) And John McCain by FaithGardner — 82
12) Yes and no. by Shaun King — 81
13) Good on Michael and on you for writing the diary! by weezilgirl — 80
14) ... by indycam — 77
15) I remember Reagan using "Born in the USA" and by GeorgeBurnsWasRight — 76
16) It is... by cardboardurinal — 74
17) Good luck to my old friends on the Cape by Dallasdoc — 73
18) Thanks. by NCJim — 72
19) Yes But Mentally Ill w Knives, Sticks, Sometimes by Gooserock — 71
20) cowards by annieli — 71
21) I'm in the by gchaucer2 — 70
22) What you've done matters less than how you look... by Kelly of PA — 69
23) And extremely saddened and embarrassed at the by Leslie Salzillo — 67
24) they could have called the movie "American Psycho" by Deward Hastings — 65
25) briefly my own experience by teacherken — 65
26) It's going to take a lot of time by ivorybill — 65
27) The entire culture of never questioning the troops by DerAmi — 65
28) We've been waiting for you, Marti! by slksfca — 65
29) Hopefully, Pack will get the ACLU and/or the by flitedocnm — 64
30) And there's a huge part of the Media's problem. by Aware63 — 64
2015-01-27 Top Comments with Pictures, courtesy of
jotter!
Please submit your comment 'finds' below!