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Culinary Science

MastersoftheHeat

Masters of the Heat: Using Chilis in Your Cooking

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Chiles can do all kinds of amazing things for your food. Understanding all of the amazing variations of the flavors and heat of the world’s chilis and the science behind them, help you become a Master of the Heat.

CHILE,  OR CHILI?

Chile (chee-lay) or chili (chill-eee) or chilli (chill-eee),  any works fine. Nahuatl peoples, including the Aztecs, were eating them before the Spanish “borrowed” them, and called them chillies. The Spanish word, Chile, is adapted from there.

The SCIENCE OF DA SIZZLE

Chilies get their sensation of heat from a natural chemical called capsaicin (/kæpˈseɪ.ᵻsɪn/). It’s why you can’t shake that heat for a while when you eat one.

Capsaicin is really good at getting into the cellular tissues of skin because it is carried along by natural oils in the chili. Add those to any other fats in your food and oils blend.

So, when oils with capsaicin molecules land on your taste buds (papillae), or in the skin of your mouth or lips, which always love them fats, they go in like a rocket at a cellular level and hang out, causing that burning sensation that we find oddly pleasurable when we eat chilis.

Capsaicin is hydrophobic: Its molecules repel water. Which is why drinking doesn’t take away the burn. A pinch of salt will, though, because salt is our body’s natural fluid exchanger anyway, and it allows fluids in to flush out the capsaicin. That’s why a margarita glass is lined with salt!  It helps with the burn.

ANATOMY OF A PEPPER

All peppers, from bell to bonnet, are relatives of the capsicum family of plants, whose seed pods with a waxy, cellulose flesh.

They have varying levels of capsaicin, from none in a bell pepper, to screaming amounts in a ghost chili pepper or a wiri wiri.

The heat isn’t in the meat of the flesh, or the seeds, for that matter. It’s in the connective tissues to the seed, the little white pith lines that run up the pepper to the stem.

Want to lower the heat, or remove the majority of it, from a fresh pepper? Strip the pith and remove the seeds. Peppers, like Jalapeños, have a really lovely flavor that emerges best when control the heat.

The waxy outer skin of a pepper slows its drying, which is possibly a reason why it became a useful foodstuff for people who didn’t have refrigerators. The skin, along with the right climates, especially in Mexico and the more arid parts of Africa, where humidity is low, let them just air dry into an easily stored food.

Most cultures dry peppers to extend their shelf-life, often making decorative hangings of them to both dry and attractively adorn a home.  In Mexico and throughout the American Southwest you might see this ristras, hanging from people’s portals, the breezeways and porches of a home near their doors.

When a pepper dries, the moisture is slowly drawn out. The skins and the high level of acids in chilies tend to retard spoilage in low-humidity, although the high sugar content of some chilies may cause a few to rot or develop mold in thicker walls of the chile or where the skin is thinner.

Two things also happen to a pepper when it dries.

  • The flavor, like jerky, intensifies.
  • The heat transfers to the outer meat/shell. Capsaicin is hydrophobic. It doesn’t dilute in water. So when the water escapes, a bit of the heat that is stored in the pith is sucked into the oils in the “meat” of the chile, and into the oils in its seeds.  How much varies by the type of chile. So the shell of a dried chile will be somewhat hotter than the fresh.

The pith still traps the majority of the capsaicin, so removing pith and seeds from a dried chile, or some of it, will bring down the temperature of the recipe in which you are putting the dried chile, but remember more of the heat stays in the dried than the fresh.  If you need tamer, try fresh deseeded and pith completely removed.

THE JALAPA GLOBETROTTERS

Peppers are a very adaptive kind of plant.

In just four hundred years, they have evolved a lot. There are 27 known kinds. Five of them are considered to be “domesticated,” e.g. they can be reproduced without variation anywhere.

The other 22 are essentially wild, even if they’re farmed, because they are a bit unpredictable in how they’ll turn out.

That’s because chilies, unlike the other Central and South American crops like potatoes that the Spanish and Portuguese exported all over the world are changed by three big factors: Soil, climate and weather.

Put the same plant in Texas, Mexico, or China, and it will change flavor because the conditions are not the same.

The African bird’s eye chili and the Thai bird’s eye chili are the same plant, but the shape and the intensity of the African one is smaller and much spicier. How is that possible?!

SOIL

You know the old saying: “You are what you eat?” That is especially true if you’re a pepper plant.

Peppers are super adaptive. Some plants won’t grow where the conditions aren’t right.

Peppers aren’t picky. The soil though, what is in it, changes them.

Which is why a Hatch chile featured in my Green Heroin article about New Mexico’s Hatch Valley green chilies, is only legit if it’s grown in that valley, in that soil. Which is why you can’t buy “generics” and have them taste the same if they aren’t grown in the same place.

 

Dirt is a such a “thing” in growing peppers that the fertile dirt in the Chimayo chile growing region of New Mexico is revered: The local Christians give it “holy” status.

CLIMATE

Climate or microclimate where they’re grown is the second factor in flavor.

Peppers can grow pretty much anywhere, from deserts to the tropics. Each adapts to its own climate, and microclimate.

The same pepper plants, grown in the mountainous regions of Africa are different than the ones grown in fertile riverbeds in the bust-and-boom of rain cycles in certain countries.

The climate creates the conditions that affect the soil’s nutrients and how compacted it gets.

Rainforests and deserts can both produce chilies, just very different variations of the same plant.

Which is why, when many of you buy pepper plants at a nursery where the flavor you’re used to comes from the dry soils of regions Texas or New Mexico or Morocco or Egypt, and you plant them in Florida or New York or London, the pepper pods don’t taste quite the same as the ones you’ll get from the store. You’ve changed the climate when you transplanted the chile, unless you grow it indoors and in soil amended to be similar to the soils where the chile is grown.

Climate is not weather, though, which has effect on the heat of chilies.

WEATHER

Climate and weather may seem to be the same thing, but they’re not. Even within a climate, chilies are highly weather sensitive. A dry year will produce chilies that tend to be spicier, and a wet year will tame the chilies down.

Climate affects crop yields too. Spicy chiles are thirsty for water like the people who eat them. Very dry years cause the plants to produce smaller yields with fewer seeds.

BUYING CHILiES SMARTER

For 99% of people, going to a market and tossing whatever they find available to them into the shopping basket is how they select both fresh and dried chilies. Be the 1% who do it smarter.

Knowing where and when your chilies were harvested, and comparing it to the weather in that area during its growing season may sound a bit extreme before you buy, but, since dried or roasted/frozen chilies keep for a couple of years, buying them in a year that matches to your temperature comfort levels can make a big difference.

FRESH

Fresh is best. I grow a few, buy from the farmers’ market or local market when available, or, for the hard-to-find ones that are regional, I get some by the Internet, straight from a farm or a co-op that I trust to put out a high-quality pepper.  Those are bulk box orders where freezing or drying becomes necessary to preserve them.

FROZEN

Freezing changes the texture of chilies, but from soups to sauces to stews, it provides more texture and depth than dried for many recipes where the chilies don’t dominate. It is a pretty close second, and essential if you are trying to use them throughout the year.  I roast chilies on the barbecue, or, in the case of jalapeños, occasionally smoke them to turn them into chipotle chilies.

Remove the stems and then freeze them whole. You can always chop them after being defrosted. It’s the same amount of work, but it keeps the integrity of the chile pod together which freezes without so many edges for the freezer to break down.

DRIED

Chimayo red chile from the Chimayo area of New Mexico is unique. Soil high in iron content gives it unique flavor.

Dried, chilies can be purchased whole or ground.  They are the base flavors and colors of Texas “chili,” a number of hispanic sauces, and pastes and marinades of African and Caribbean cultures. Coarse-crushed they are the “arrabbiata,” the spicy in Italian cuisine.

I prefer whole, and grinding it myself using a coffee mill that I keep just for spices. Here’s why:

  • Grinding yourself releases the essential oils, laden with a bit of capsaicin trapped in the skin/dried meat. The flavor is more intense and you can control the level of heat for that particular dish.
  • Ground only comes in one grind per vendor at most places, although, WorldSpice.com offers a grinding service for some of its product where they will vary the grind for you. Still, the more you grind a chile, the more you expose its essential oils to oxygen, even in an airtight, unless it’s vacuum sealed,container.

Buy whole for your dried chilies, if you can. They keep better, and allow you to control how to use them.

KNOW WHERE THEY GROW

paularps – Myanmar, 2013

Inquire where your chiles come from. You may like the more mild chile of Thailand rather than the spicy cousin from Uganda.  Some are sun-dried.  Others are oven or kiln-dried. I prefer the sun-dried ones. They have a richer flavor.

Increasingly dried chiles from the far-flung corners of the world are finding their way into Internet stores and more supermarkets in North America and Europe. If you don’t see them, venture to your local ethnic market, Caribbean, Latin, Asian, Indian, etc., where you’ll surely find them. If you’re not sure, ask! The grocers in small ethnic markets usually are quite helpful, and I’ve also found that people who cook shopping in these places love to tell you how to use this or that!

SpiceJungle.com is a great source, because I get great, well-sourced product, prompt response and they are very passionate about their products!

 

USING CHILIES IN YOUR COOKING

Peppers aren’t always about adding heat to your food, although they certainly can do that. They can also add color and a lot of subtle flavor palette to your foods.

CUTTING CHILIES

A great, sharp paring knife is your friend in working with chilies. It’s size proportionate and easy to make more delicate slices than a bulkier blade.

Using fresh chiles well in your dishes is all about how you cut them. A sharp edge maximizes control, and a sharp tip on the blade is useful because you want to be able to separate the connective pith and seeds for both heat control and appearance.

Their shape and thickness determine how they are perceived. If you grind them into a paste, they disappear, save the heat, and their flavor contributions to the dish. If you leave bigger pieces, say in an omelette, they can be both seen and tasted.  That can be very attractive, or it can set off warning bells for those who worry about heat.  When having guests over, always good to find out how much they like heat before firing up your foods.

Wafer-thin slices make a lovely garnish on meats, topping rice dishes, in soups and more.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT CHILIES FOR THE JOB

There are 27 chile varieties, and, because of the changes in the way they grow, hundreds of variations.  Usually how we pick them is by what’s available to us in the market where we do our shopping. The Internet has blown the barn doors off of our choices, though, so you have almost a limitless supply of choices within reach.

So, which chile to use?

The best way to learn your chiles is to cook with them in relatively simple recipes, and see what they can do. Many recipes, like a curry, or a dahl, are so full of other spices that heat is really the chile’s major role.

Most of the well known chilies are the ones that have a lot of heat-macho on the Scoville scale. Sauces in stores with names like “Ass Reaper” and “Kick U Momma” are novelties that people like to take home more for the bottles than the condiments inside.

Fresh & Frozen

Markets offer a wide variety of fresh peppers these days.

Fresh and Frozen, you should investigate peppers with great flavors.  I wrote up another article on the amazing Hatch green chilies of New Mexico. Fresh or frozen, they offer such big flavor you can make a simple stew with just pork, potatoes, onions, a touch of garlic, Hatch chilies and salt.

Jalapeños are often thought about more for their heat, but, when they are deseeded and deveined, they bring a big rich flavor with a little bell-peppery sweetness and a whisper of heat to dishes that normally use a lot of fats for happy, especially in all kinds of Mexican dishes. I use a bit of them them in omelettes and as riffs in things like my Mac n’ Queso.

Scotch Bonnets are a stock pepper for jerks and other Caribbean foods known for their heat, but if you knock the seed level down to your desired level of heat (or none), you will find that they contribute a lot of nice flavor to all kinds of dishes outside of their cultural corner.  They marinate well. I’ve used a half of one diced up in a nice ceviche, and even in the odd sushi roll that I make from time to time. They’re particularly good as a sub for jalapenos in Pho dishes and ramens too.

Diced or chopped chiles, fresh or frozen can be used in so many recipes that they’re too numerous to mention in one article.  The obvious dishes are from chile-rich cultures in African, Latin America and Asian cuisines, from jerk chicken to burritos to dals to hot and sour glass noodles.

DRIED

Chilies that are dried take on a bit more heat, but sometimes too they up their flavor.

Learn more about how to use Tepin chilies in our Spicedex!

Some smaller chilies like Tepins, look more like oversized peppercorn pods. Crushed in your hand and dropped into soups or marinades Tepins add a lot of savory flavor along with their heat. Use to your heat level.

I make a wonderful enchilada sauce with Guajillo Chiles where I strip out the seeds and pith and focus on the deep, rich flavor of the pepper pods themselves. Throw the dried chiles into a blender with onions, garlic, tomatoes, and a little beef broth and you have a base enchilada sauce that rocks the house!

You can find smoked jalapeños, or Chipotles, dried in stores. Strip the pod, decompress to your liking, and they add smoky goodness to roasted chickens that even have other flavor/culture bases.

When I make my Texas chili, I use Chimayo chili powder instead of the bland brown that they sell in the spice aisles of the local market. It has a depth and character, along with a couple of bottles of Shiner Bock beer, cannot be matched. If you can get the whole dried pods, that’s the best way to go.  Chimayo red also amps up all kinds of roasted meats with a rich flavor similar to when people coffee rub a meat.

They make a good salt substitute, because their flavor and heat lessen the need for sodium.

PREPARING CHILIES

For most peppers, save the bell, which is so big it’s easy to cut the top off of and de-seed, With fresh, I find that scoring the outside of the chile around the top, then running the knife downward from the score to the tip of the chile pod allows me to pop the seed pod, which is strongly connected to the stem, mostly in-tact. Two or three small scrapings and the connective tissues can be removed more easily.

For dried, make sure you have a bowl or trash can nearby. Use a long broad knife and cut through the top of the chile on a cutting board. Some seeds will pop out. I will sometimes scrape the seeds into a storage container if I think I can use them in another recipe later. You can also just dump them in the trash.

Roasting is one way to peel off the tough outer skin of a chile, and it lightly cooks the natural oils inside the pepper pod.   Some types of chilies can be roasted in bulk, and stored either refrigerated for a couple of weeks or frozen (better) for use later.

If you have a grill, you can roast chilies. Just char the skins pretty thoroughly, turning occasionally with tongs to get off all of the skin.  Make sure you use tongs and/or gloves when handling the roasted chilies.

If you have a gas stove, and you want to do one quickly, you can just put it on the rack over the burner and turn with tongs.

After roasting, some people shock them hot by dipping them in ice water after they cook, then peel the skin. Waiting for them to cool, though, leaves more flavor.

HANDLING

Needless to say, wash off all cutting equipment and boards well. Make sure you get handles and all side and bottom surfaces because capsaicin gets everywhere when you’re working with chilies.

Because the capsaicin in chilies can penetrate skin cells easily, it gets into tissues and causes a burning sensation.

Always good, if you’re handling chilies to work with food-grade gloves.

Washing your hands is a regular thing in good culinary practice in a home kitchen, but there is one trick that someone in New Mexico showed me once if you’re working with a lot of chilies: Wet your hands, then rub a little kosher salt between them, wait a moment or two, then soap up. The salt can help remove more of the capsaicin,  but not 100% of it.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or other sensitive areas of your body for a couple of hours with fingers that have been handling anything spicy. Anyone who works with chilies regularly can attest to what happens when we forget that golden rule.

Aye!

La Tourangelle Avocado Oil

Why Avocado Oil is Going to be Your Go-To Cooking Oil

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Avocado oil is a “fruit” oil as avocados are, well, fruit, like olives.

Its culinary use is the single biggest “discovery” in cooking fats in a generation that will revolutionize the way that you cook.

High in monounsaturates like olive oil,  Big Green’s cooking-grade oil can be safely purified to a 270°c / 520°F smoke point, without harmful chemicals, like volume “pure” canola, or processing using third pressings and rancid olives, as is often done with so-called “grilling” olive oil. First pressed avocado, not quite as hearty, still has an impressive 177°c/350°F smoke.

A high-temp avocado at a great price and size to try it out!

It has similar properties to olive oil, with no specific taste, which, for grilling and sauteéing when a neutral fat is needed, puts it over most fats other than rice bran oil, which has a slightly lower smoke point and a neutral taste.

With prices dropping on volume, it has become my go-to cooking oil.

I keep several oils in my pantry now, but, like you, I used many of the Vegoil Cartel’s biggest hits for years. A little of the “blend” of mystery vegetable oils, mostly the miracle canola oil, even though it had a pretty off taste when cooked, because allegedly it was better for you.

As is true with a lot of what we cook at home, I bought the brand that my grandmother and my mother both used. Family preference, marketing and shelf availability at the supermarket. Then I did some homework on them, and found out that cheaply-made large volume vegoil has a lot of downsides.

If you’re reading this, I’d guess you are on much of the same thousand-mile culinary journey. He’s what I found out.

ONE FRUIT. TWO GRADES OF OIL

There are two stripes of avocado oil, the first pressing, and the refined oil.

  • The first pressing has a smoke point of 177°c/350°F.
  • The refined oil can go as high as 271°c/520°F

HOW IS AVOCADO OIL PROCESSED BETTER?

The extraction process in avocados is somewhat easier because it’s a big, soft fruit, unlike olives, and it doesn’t require a seed to be squeezed over and over again through chemical extraction., Many vegetable oils like “pure” canola or the mysterious “blends” of the VegOil cartel that are processed with gasoline derivatives like n-hexane to extract max oil out. There is a very small trace residue left in those oils, but, amazingly, no one in the industry or government seems to want to find out what the long-term effects of human consumption over years will do to you.

First-pressed, some call extra-virgin, although that is an olive oil branding, avocado oil is cold-pressed from sun-ripened, hand-picked, avocados.

The skin and pit are stripped after washing.  it is malaxated (mashed and kneaded) at a low temperature to in tanks that minimize oxidization for a short period of time. It passes through centrifuges to separate pulp and water from oil. It passes through another fine filter to remove remaining large impurities.

Naturally Refined, HIGH-TEMP OIL – First-pressed avocado oil still has a lot of chlorophyll and triglycerides that make it bright green. It’s smoke point is lower. To create the Iron Tiger of oils, avocado oil that’s already been pressed and strained is passed through a very fine filter, usually diatomaceous earth and/or steam which naturally refines the oil. You lose the green, but you get a stable oil to very high temps that has neutral flavor and can be used in any cooking application.

WHY AVOCADO IS YOUR PRIMARY COOKING OIL

Why is it better than the vegetable cooking oil that you’re using now? Pretty much unlimited range. You could put filtered avocado oil, hypothetically, on a steak in a top home broiler and it would still be under its smoke point.

The refining of oils that you currently use, to increase their smoke point, ranges from less-than-ideal to mildly toxic.

The oil either loses a lot of its primary properties, or in the case of seed oils like canola, safflower and sunflower, many companies use n-hexane, a petroleum derivative also in your gasoline, of which trace amounts usually remain.

Blend oils that go by “vegetable” oil have had a number of downsides. A few still have hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils, which are being phased out, but are still “legal” for a bit longer.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

Trader Joe’s brands some great avocado oil. See more picks below!

Avocados are a fruit that originated in Mexico, which is why they’re a bit late to the oil party.

The vegetable oil business as we know it today in America began with the importation of olive oils from Italy, corn oil production in the midwest, and peanut oil in the south.

Throughout North America, animal fats, mostly beef lard, were a large portion of cooking fats up until doctors started ringing alarm bells about the dangers of high animal fat diets in the 1960s.

In Mexico, where both lard and corn were plentiful, animal fats and corn fats were the dominant cooking products in the cuisine. There just wasn’t any particular need for avocado oil itself, although avocados as a fruit and their fats enjoy a venerated place in not only Mexican cuisine, but throughout the world.

For many years, avocados sold at a huge premium, because they were grown in such few places, and the groves took investments of time and patience to mature to the point where they bear quality fruit.

Like all gold rushes, the “green gold” rush ended in an overproduction of avocados for consumption. The producers started taking the avocados that weren’t market-grade, too small, then just too many, and finding other uses for them.

Avocados studied for their health properties had big upside in oils that worked for the cosmetic industry, and people in the massage game found avocado oil useful as a massage/skin beauty aid.

Whomever decided to start cooking with it: Thank you!

RECOMMENDED OILS

  • La Tourangelle Avocado Oil – For low to medium temp cooking, and all cold oil applications, from salads to bread dips, nothing even comes close to this fine artisan oil.
  • Ottavio Avocado Oil – Avocados from Mexico, processed in Italy. Sold at Costco, one of the few oils from a mass-market warehouse store I can recommend;
  • Trader Joe’s Avocado Oil – A high temp oil at a great price without a club membership!
  • Honey Tree’s Avocado Oil – High temp and sized right to try out the oil!
PerfectEggsTop

Cooking Perfect Eggs: Go Low And Slow

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REVISED 03.06.21 – 90% of us, pro and home chefs alike, have cooked eggs, one of the most common foods on the planet, wrong. For generations!

The often rubbery rubbish, coated in burned fats which we turn toxic, from the sandy-yolked fast food egg sandwiches to the upscale cream-laden “soft” eggs of the Euro breakfast traditions, we proudly keep applying culinary band-aids to bad practice where tradition turns toxic.

Part bad practice, part fear of bacteria, destroying eggs comes from the Culinary Dark Ages before the advent of refrigeration.

Eggs are one of the most magnificent, versatile, simple foods on the planet.  Let’s make ’em sexy again! How good are you, in the kitchen? How do you do with one of the most basic foods, consumed by hundreds of millions of people, around the planet?

The amazing egg.

Only a few, and I mean a few, chefs, even pros, know how to cook them properly. That’s why Helen Mirren’s character, the owner of a Michelin-rated restaurant, uses the perfect omelette as a yardstick to hire her staff. Yet, you’ll laugh, but the food porn omelette in the Hundred-Foot Journey is cool looking, but still wrong!

You can achieve amazing things with eggs in your kitchen, with your equipment, humble as it may be. Great eggs require knowledge, understanding, patience, and skill.

Let’s try to understand the egg, from the science of it, and prepare it with that knowledge, and any egg dish, from scramble to quiche, can be perfect, light and airy.

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS THAT CAUSE EGGICIDE:

  • Too little time;
  • Too much heat;
  • Lack of aeration;
  • Germaphobia/Wrong sanitation;
  • Improper handling/Lack of confidence;
  • Poor quality eggs/old eggs;
  • Wrong fats/oil, and too much of them;

SOURCING WELL

Great eggs start with… great eggs!

Buy the good stuff in small quantities, use them up, and do not let them get so old that they file for Social Security (Get rid of them).

Read my article on how to shop for them, avoid the egg scams, and buying unsafe eggs.

Pasture-raised are your best bet for top grade. Locally sourced eggs from small farms and neighbors’ yards, or even from your own yard, are great, as long as they’re handled properly and cleaned well, and  you know that the hens are well cared for.

EGGS 101

Egg without its shell, fixed by soaking in vinegar. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Let’s start with what’s in an egg, beyond that most people know there is a yolk, and a white.

Eggs are mostly water. 90% of the white, about 27 grams of the 30g in an egg white, and 50% of the yolk, according to Hervé This in his landmark book “Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor.”

How does an egg rise?

A tremendous amount of steam is created by heating one egg: 30 litres/32 quarts worth!

That steam from water in the egg, itself, is what cooks the proteins in the egg. The amino acids that make up the egg’s proteins fold in on themselves, in part, when they cook, forming web-like lattices, little pockets.

Those pockets trap steam. That makes the protein lattices expand, which, in-turn, makes the egg rise.

How do you keep an egg soft, and tender?

The quantity of water that you can trap in it. The more time you give the egg to form those lattices, and the more lattices it creates. Those lattices trap the water, making a lighter, moister, more tender egg.  

The same is true of the yolk. Properly cooked eggs, even hard boiled, don’t have that “sandy” texture to the yolk, if you cook them slowly, and let them properly form.

So remember this rule: 

68/154 GIVES YOUR EGGS A LITTLE MORE

The ideal cooking temperature for cooking an egg is 68°C/154°F. In your home kitchen, if you want great food, low and slow is the way to go!

We trade off excessive heat for time/duration of cooking. It allows for both the proper rise time, and for the sterilization of the egg from unwanted pathogens like bacteria.

An overcooked egg at what are “normal” temperatures now takes 1-3 minutes. Ours will take 5-8 minutes, allowing for variables like air temperature, altitude, humidity, etc.

Won’t I DIE if I Cook That Way?

Like pork and shrimp, eggs have generational fears attached to them. While they’ve been consumed since man stole them out of nests, fear of foodborne illness, from eggs, has made a whole string of moms, and grandmas, positively mental about cooking eggs to “cure” them at extremely high temperatures.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends a finished temperature of 71°c/160°F, or over, to eliminate internal bacterial contamination that can occur in raw eggs. Many doctors and scientists, including those who cook, will tell you that is overstated.

Pathogens, harmful bacteria, in chicken, and eggs, that can cause illness in humans, like salmonella, die off at 50°c/122°F.  Add in salt, and that happens a degree lower. Plus, like all foods, when you remove them from the heat, they continue to cook for a bit. Some, or all of that last six degrees will happen. So, at 68°c/154°F, we’re in the sweet spot for a great egg, especially because eggs, like most foods, continue to cook for a minute, or more, as they’re being removed from the container where they were heated up.

What you should worry about more, but don’t, are the many ways, in overcooking eggs, that you can be introducing potential carcinogens into the cooking process.

OVER-COOKING: EGGS’ DARK SIDE

High-temp cooking of eggs has three other downsides:

  • Sending Oils to the Dark Side is Dangerous –  If you’ve sprayed PAM on a hot pan, you’ve watched it smoke and turn black right away, then you have turned your oil to the Dark Side of the Culinary Force. More on the health dangers of that in a moment.
  • Extra calories – To slow down the cooking process, and to get the right thickness without rising, chefs, home or pro, put more egg or milk, or cream into the pan or onto the griddle. That’s extra unwanted calories, and/or cholesterol.
  • Omega-3 Obliteration –  Omega-3 is the heart-healthy stuff present in eggs.  It’s also sensitive to light and heat. When we overheat pans, we lose a lot of the O3 that makes eggs better for us to eat.

So, low and slow is the way to go.

As the Rolling Stones know, time is on our side, yes it is.

THE PREP BONUS

Low and slow allows you more freedom to stage a meal. You just have to change the batting order in your meal prep.

We generally put eggs on a breakfast as a finishing point in the kitchen, but often at the expense of other things being perfect, or warm, because there is nothing worse than lukewarm egg dishes, for those that are expected to be served hot.

Change the order. Start with your eggs, cold in the pan, and give them the time to rise, while you’re doing the rest of your meal. Make bacon. Run your toast. Even if you’re scrambling, the egg takes a couple of minutes to warm up from 37-44°F, coming out of the refrigerator, to a point where it will begin to form.

BECOME A TEMPTIMELORD

If Dr. Who can master the world with his smarts and a “sonic screwdriver,” we can become TempTimelords of our own kitchens, with a good culinary “screwdriver” that is a game-changer in the way that you cook eggs…

Thermometer? Oh, H—l No!

I know that home chefs generally find thermometers a bother, and therefore don’t use them. Old ones were absolutely a pain. They took a long time to read. They were hugely inaccurate The digital age has changed all of that.

Laser thermometer. Point. Shoot. Temperature of the surface. Viola!

Since I first wrote this article, the thermometer technology has only improved. Laser thermometers are good for reading the surface temperatures of things. They are now dirt-cheap. Point at the surface. Voila! You get an instant read.

Temperature, on a stovetop, even the best commercial stovetops out there, is positively primitive.

1-8. Low to High.

It’s all guesswork. You don’t need to measure the temp EVERY time that you make eggs. Just do it a couple of times, to learn where, on the magic dial for the burner, your pan hits the right temperature.

From then on, you’re good to go.

What does knowing the real temperature do for your cooking? 

  • It gives you consistency. Do it once, or two hundred times, and the results are predictable.
  • It informs all of your “educated guesses” kitchen intuition better, because you’re starting a a point of truth, fact;
  • It makes you look brilliant to family, and friends, when you can turn out amazing food every time!

The other big element in getting your eggs perfect is using a pan that you won’t be fighting.

TAKING THE PAIN OUT OF THE PAN

In the Age of Mail-order, the workhorse pan doesn’t fight for shelf space. Misen makes exceptional gear, at a fraction of the big-brand price.

Eggs are more obligation than art for most of us. Nonstick pans were supposed to liberate us from the problem of making stuff that stuck, and burned. They’re a key to a better egg because they distribute heat better, and keep the egg together. There are a billion varieties of egg/omelette sized pans out there. Mostly bad ones.

All non-stick pans have limited lifespans. Two things kill them:

  • High heat – shortens the coating’s lifespan;
  • Wrong tools – Yes, many pans advertise that you can use metal implements on them. Use high quality, high-temp silicone spatulas, and you extend the life of the pan.

You can stretch the productive years in your pan out by using the right temperature, and the right tools.

HIGH TEMP silicone spatulas. A number of companies have popped on, direct marketing quality, affordable pans. We find that the Misen pans have replaced ceramic as the longevity winners.

Fewer calories, and less of a problem with burned oil, which we should worry about far more than bacteria in farmed eggs.

Low and slow….

NO BURNT PANS MEAN HAPPIER DNA STRANDS

When you burn oil, you change it. Many of the “good” properties are not only lost, but you’ve sent them to the Dark Side:

Carcinogens.

When oils are pushed past their smoke point, they change chemically in ways that create free radicals.

Like hippies from the 60s, free radicals do their own “thing.” They’re not complete molecule strands, so they look for places to “latch” on to. When that place is the DNA in your body, not such a happy thing.  Free radicals are a source of aging, and may cause/contribute to some types of cancer.

Overcook eggs and oils, and the good Omega-3 fatty acids in both break up worse than a couple on The Bachelor. 

SPRAY SMARTER.

Spray oils are convenient, Some, like a nice extra-virgin olive or grapeseed may be fine for misting a salad, but they leave a very strong taste, and usually burn very easily. Most of the conventional sprays, intended for spraying in your pans, or grilling, are a big AVOID.

Thin oils, meant to come out of a spray head, are some of the easiest to burn.  Most sprays are the lowest grade of commercial vegoils out there. Many, such as the refined, “pure” labeled canola oil, can have traces of a petroleum product, also found in gasoline, called n-hexane. That shouldn’t be on the top of anyone’s list to consume!

Lower smoke point means burnt oil, free radicals, possible traces of toxic chemicals, and bad taste.

GO GREEN.

Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Spray

Shop now

Avocado oil spray, however, is an excellent choice. With a 500°F smoke point, and much of the same nutritional profile as olive oil, it’s a go-to for keeping your pan lubricated, without going to the dark side of toxicity, and taste.

Regular avocado oil, brushed on the pan with a silicone brush works well. Rice bran oil, another high smoke point oil, is great. If you keep pan temps down, you can also use expeller-pressed (hexane-free) oils like canola, or almond.

NOVEL FRIED EGGS, NOT NOVELTIES

Even fried eggs benefit from low and slow.

We’re used to superheating a pan, dropping an egg in, and watching it sear immediately.

That’s great if you’re trying to make rubber egg novelties, for magic shops, or you like free radicals.

You can get a nice, light, fluffy “risen” egg that you can actually have the time to shape to fit any space, and watch it RISE!

See the perfect egg recipes, below, for the link to the fried egg.

 

GREAT OMELETTES AND SCRAMBLES ARE WHIPPIN’

People use the wrong tools to prep omelettes or scrambled eggs.  Forks. Mixers. Even the odd blender or two.

You are fusing the egg yolk and white. Fork tines don’t provide enough aeration, and lift, even if you crank the fork like an Evinrude boat motor.

Mixers, food processors, and blenders are overkill. They tend to emulsify the egg so much that it breaks down the protein chains into something that comes out even more rubbery.

So a whip/whisk is your friend, both when prepping your eggs, and while cooking them if you’re scrambling.

Some things to remember when whisking eggs:

  • Whisking eggs is a touch thing. You can really feel how the egg is handling under the whisk, and, unlike the machine, you have the fine motor control to make little adjustments to make the eggs lift up and aerate perfectly, without over processing them.
  • Avoid coated, or silicone, or plastic whisks. They’re more work and they never work as well. Steel wires stick to the egg just enough to pull on it and stretch and integrate the protein chains, while breaking them down just enough to aerate the mix perfectly for a nice risen finished product.
  • If you’re making an omelette, whisk a bit longer because we want a smooth, even finish on it.
  • Doing a scramble? Try whisking less in the prep bowl. The more that the egg white stays together, the more structure it will give your scramble.  Whisk just enough to integrate.
  • Every egg, not just the brand you use, but every egg, has its own viscosity issues. Some are thinner. Some are thicker and tougher.  When you crack the egg, how is it holding together? Is it loose or pretty tightly formed. The tighter the formation, the less viscous it is.
  • Based on the pull, you can tell whether your eggs are breaking down and integrating properly. You may need to add a drop or two of milk or water to rehydrate an older egg. You will want to probably avoid adding milk or water to factory eggs, as they’re already pretty thin to begin with.
  • Add a little extra egg white boxed, or saved egg white (from a separated egg). If you use boxed, remember that it has been processed and pasteurized and has a much thinner consistency than your egg.
  • This may be a good place to get some exercise logged on your fitbit or Apple Watch. Whisking burns cals!

 

THE JAZZ CHEF’s Perfect egg recipes

For some of the specific recipes and techniques, check out…

The VIC Perfect Scramble
Risen Fried Eggs
The Jazz Chef Perfect Omelette
154 Fried Egg

Risen Fried Eggs

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Fried EGGS THAT RISE SOFTLY

Before you begin, take a minute to read my article on Perfect Eggs, and the science that 99.95% of chefs, pro and home, ignore that will transform your egg dishes!

Even fried eggs benefit from low and slow. Another place where 68°C/154°F, the perfect temperature for an egg to do the “construction” of the amino-acid protein chains that form lattices to let it rise, works so well.

For fried eggs, we are all used to superheating a pan, dropping our egg in, and watching it sear immediately.

That’s great if you’re trying to make rubber egg novelties for magic shops, or you like releasing a lot of free radicals into your body with burnt eggs and oils, but you can get a nice light fluffy fried egg that you can actually have the time to shape to fit any space, and watch it RISE!

You can’t have a great fried egg without paying attention to the eggs that you buy, and how you clean and store them. Read my article on how to shop for them, avoid the egg scams, and buying unsafe eggs.

SERVES: 1

INGREDIENTS

MISE EN PLACE

  • Egg
  • Salt container
  • White pepper container
  • Small omelette pan
  • Ghee jar
  • Silicone brush

HOW TO:

  1. Have a silicon spatula at the ready. Preheat a ceramic or other non-stick pan to 68°C/154°F using low enough heat to maintain a range no higher than 168°F.
  2. Spoon out a tsp of Ghee on to your pan. Brush to distribute evenly with the silicone brush around the pan bottom.
  3. Crack your egg, and put it in, and it won’t sizzle. In fact, it will spread across the pan, and you’ll think I’m an idiot for ruining a good fried egg.Not so fast! Take your spatula, and, as the edges of the egg slowly cook, just reshape them however you want by scraping the loose, semi-cooked egg back into the shape that you want.  If you make a lot of omelettes, and you were taught to “bleed” the thicker parts to the edges of the pan, then you are used to working with egg mixtures this way, so why not a fried?
  4. Let it rise. You’ll notice, as you prep your other stuff, that the white will rise about 3mm or 1/8″. That’s the lattices at work, without overcooking the egg. We look for the yolks to be “done” on a high temp egg in about 2 min. It’s about 4-6 min. cooking low temp. When it develops that color and hardness that you’ve seen in the “quick” egg, remove it from the heat and plate it.

I shaped this egg to conform exactly to the size of the green chile corn cake that I put it on, but I’ve done all kinds of fun and crazy fried egg shapes because you can control that easily by adding time and dropping temp.  The white starts to rise, and the yolk cooks through in about 4-8 minutes, roughly depending on your pan and stove.

Mustards

The Magical Mystery Tour of Mustards

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UPDATED 04.20.20

The world is mad about mustard!  More and more shelf space is being made for the craft mustard revival.  We’re learning a lot more about how the rest of the world uses the plant, the seeds, and even the oil, to bring the magic of mustard to more of our home cuisine.

The Magical Mystical Mustard Tour

I’m going to re-connect you to your mustard jones. Heck, even if you never liked the big box brands, I am going to give you great reasons to discover the real magic of mustard, mustard greens, and the magic of mustard oil!

Mustard finds its way into some crazy places. Some of the best mac n’ cheese that you’ve ever had probably has a splash of mustard in it. Potato salad, great salmon, marinades for steaks, as well as stir fried Chinese green beans and sausage. Even one of my tuna salad recipes is powered up with a little of the yellow magic!

Mustard Tribalism

Mustards, possibly because of their easy portability, and long shelf-life, are a huge part of the daily diet of humans around the world.  Frequently, both the condiment, and the seeds themselves, can be a source of national, or regional, cultural pride.

Woven into our childhoods, through picnics, sporting events, or our first fond memories of sandwiches, burgers, sausages, or hot dogs, we culturally identify with particular brands/types of mustard that have been a part of our upbringing.

When I was a kid, The L.A. Dodgers signature hot dog, the Dodger Dog, were served up with French’s at the boiled dog stands, but the thing was to find the few grilled hot dog stands, sporting the coveted Gulden’s spicy brown mustard.

Cleveland Indians fans swear by Bertman’s Ball Park.  

Chefs in New Orleans make Zatarain’s Spicy Creole Mustard a staple,

It’s still a treat, or a point of regional pride, outside of your home pantry, or town, to find your family fave sitting on a table, or counter of a restaurant.

A Cultural Obsession

Mustard is a cultural obsession, not just culinarily, but also in art, film and television, literature, herbal medicine, and even in Earth’s orbit.  

NASA launched mustard plants into space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017. Mizuna mustard greens are still growing in their demonstration systems.

Roy Lichtenstein captures the cult of mustard in his pop parody art. ©Roy Lichtenstein, promoting his site & art.

There is very little truth in advertising in the mustard game. Thanks to Grey Poupon, few of the wine mustards called “Dijon” available for sale are from Dijon, France, which lost control of its name and never got it back. The stuff available on North American shelves is mostly made in Canada and, soon, Michigan?

Mon dieu!

A Long Part of Human History

Mustard was one of the earliest grown crops.  The word “mustard” is a hybrid of two Latin words, “mustum” and “ardens” meaning “burning must.” Ancient mustards were prepared with must, unfermented grape juice.

Antique mustard mill of Charroux in France

The seed, and the plant, have traveled well with man’s movement around the globe. Native to more temperate areas in Europe, it was popularized by the ancient Greek, then Roman empires. It has been traded, and cultivated, commonly for thousands of years, spreading, with societies that traveled, and explored, all over the world.

Roman mill wheel

Table mustard, as a condiment, traces its roots back to Gaul (500 BCE to 100 BCE). The Romans imported the custom of using table mustard sometime around their takeover of Gaul in 100 BCE. De Re Coquinaria by Apicius (5th century AD), the earliest known cookbook, has a recipe for prepared mustard.

In the reign of Charlemagne (768-814), mustard became commonly planted across France, spread to Germany, and then onward to England.

The Renaissance saw mustard proliferate as a part of the explosion of using spices in cooking in Europe. In China and India, which were trading spices outbound, mustard seeds became an inbound spice revelation from the exotic North.

In the prepared foods, the 19th century was the Golden Age of Mustard. The city of Dijon, in France, became famous for mustards with added wines and vinegars. Their grinding equipment experimented with different techniques.

Today, mustard plants can be found across Europe, North America, North Africa, and Asia. Grown in more than twenty-one countries, some table mustards, like Charroux, can trace their origins back nearly a thousand years!

Brain-Pleasing Chemistry

There is a reason that we crave mustard: It is used in so many dishes, all over the world, because its chemistry pleases our brains. The compounds in it are beneficial to our health.

Mustard is a cruciferous vegetable from the brassica family, which includes cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli.

Its leaves can be eaten as a vegetable, in salads, or cooked. It is the seeds, though, that are the stuff, when ground, of legendary table mustard, dry prepared mustard powders, seasonings, and magnificent mustard oil.

Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) is a colorless oil, an organosulfur compound that gives off a pungent taste found in plants, seeds and roots of mustard, radish, horseradish, and wasabi, and can be found in varying degrees in Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

The mustard seed is full of naturally occurring phytochemicals called isothiocyanates (eye-so-thee-oh-sigh-ah-nates) or mustard oils. Each seed is about one-third oil, and the oil flavor variations are what determine the seed’s overall flavoring.

Taste & Nutrition

Mustard is a pungent flavor, like onions or garlic. It has a strong taste/smell that we find appealing.

It is a core of our good health:  Mustard oils contain omega-3 fatty acids,  proteins, vitamin A, and essential nutrients including varying amounts of calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, selenium and zinc.

Mustard has traditionally been an important preservative in foods: It inhibits mold growth, and bacterial formations of yeast, e.coli, listeria, and many food pathogens.

Mustard is also a great antioxidant!

Depending upon how they are processed, whole grain mustards are a minor source of dietary fiber.

Mustard Seed 101

There are four basic kinds of mustard seeds:

  • Yellow: (brassica hirta) Small yellow flowers producing seeds round and yellow, are mild and flavorful, and the most common form. The flavor comes largely from p-hydroxylbenzyl. It loses that mild pungency pretty quickly, as that natural chemical in the seed dissipates after only a couple of weeks;
  • Brown/Asian (brassica juncea) – These are the seeds that have a bit of horseradish-like bite. Their earthy flavor is found in wine mustards, and in blends, like a spicy brown, or “ballpark” mustard.
  • Black: (brassica nigra) Small yellow flowers contain a more bitter glucoside, sinigrin, the bitter compound also found in Brussels sprouts, rabe, and broccoli. They yield hot, rich, round smooth red seeds that turn black. They’re the bitter that goes up your nose if it’s too strong!
  • White (sinapis alba) With flowers which are larger, its pale yellow seed is notably less pungent and more bitter.

As a condiment, the fusion of some base vinegar, salt, and mustard seed imparts big flavor. The taste is used to counterpoint the often fatty, heavy foods with which it is served. Mustard provides contrast to corned beef. It blends with other strong flavors like onions or oily seafood. Mustard was served with sardines in early American cuisine in the Northeast. In Germany, it was combined with cabbage as sauerkraut, part of their probiotics used to digest heavy meats.

As an oil, it is used in India, Nepal, and parts of Indonesia and Asia for its fragrant, pungent characteristics that it imparts to fried foods.

The Healthy Hot Dog?

Sonic’s New York Dog

So a New York hot dog with mustard, onions and kraut makes sense.

The supporting ingredients transform the tubes of emulsified meats into a more digestible, nutrient-rich meal that has essential vitamins, dietary fiber.

The sauerkraut, is actually probiotic, which helps you digest the richness of the hot dog a bit better.

Passion for Pungence

Yet mustard is more than that. Prepared mustard, mustard oils, and mustard greens embody our passion for the pungent in our cuisine.

For nearly two-hundred years, until the Industrial Revolution, mustards, mixed with a couple of other herbs, were used as an aphrodisiac!

The Mustard Revolution

Just like wines, spirits, olive oils, and other large food industries, mustard is moving out of the shadows of the tourist traps selling quaint condiments as mementos of regional cuisine, and pushing its way into the front lines of supermarket shelves and pop purveyors like Amazon, which tracks over 1900 types of the condiment over more than 1000 brands! 

There’s a mustard museum, several mustard competitions globally, and, because you knew that there had to be one, a National Mustard Day.

Very Versatile

Mustard is a very versatile condiment.  It comes in all shapes, sizes and forms:

  • Beer/Wine/Spirits
  • Brown
  • Chinese
  • Chocolate
  • Coffee
  • Curry
  • Cracked
  • Fruits/Citrus
  • Garlic/Onion
  • Herbed
  • Honey/Maple/Sweet
  • Horseradish
  • Nut
  • Peppers
  • Small Batch/Craft
  • Smoked/Smoky
  • Stone Ground
  • Spicy Brown (Deli)
  • Strong
  • Truffles
  • Vinegars

The Many Manifestations of Mustard

There is no such thing as one-mustard-fits-all. At home, it is best to have at least two go-to mustards available, and maybe a fun novelty mustard or two, although you can usually make those yourself if you start with a good base mustard and riff on it on your own.

  • Prepared mustard;
  • Dried mustard;
  • Mustard Oil;
  • Mustard seeds;
  • Mustard salts;
  • Mustard greens.

One plant with so many uses, that we must explore them all, because, at one time or another, they will come into play in your home cuisine.

Quality Counts.

Quality and authenticity in your cooking starts with quality and authentic products.

Mass produced mustard products are not always evil, although a few of the major brands, laden with additives to make them cheaper and more addictive, like sugar, or High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), need to come off your shopping list.

Amp the A-Game

We amp up our game in the kitchen when we learn all of the flavor, and texture, options that let us riff recipes at home.  The mustard plant, in all of its wonderful ways, offers us a lot of opportunity to create culinarily.

Condiment Creativity

For Mustard, the condiment, I want you to think beyond obvious objects like sandwiches and pretzels, although a great mustard can change your game on both.

I put a dab of Creole Mustard into my Ragin’ Cajun potato salad to work with some fresh scallion greens to broaden the flavor palette from heavy potatoes, without going to a sweet, pickled relish.  

No good mayo, or aioli, IMHO, is worthwhile without a drop or two of a good wine mustard.

My mayonnaise Morello has a touch of good Dijon or German mustard in it.

Condiment mustards can be used on dozens of dishes, from skillet potatoes, to chicken and pork dishes, to a dill honey mustard to dab under my citrus-infused house-cured gravlax.

Mustard Oil Out-Wasabis Wasabi

Mustard is not just a seed, or a condiment. Mustard oil, often mislabeled as “not for consumption,” due to lobbying efforts of Big Mustard, is, in moderation, a revelation in cooking where you need a little of that pungency, but not the seeds, or the cloudiness of the condiment mustards.  

My Indian, and Pakistani chefs will howl at me if I don’t mention that they fry in Mustard oil, as well. It’s not a bad flavorant, as a frying oil, at all. It has a smoke point of 249°c / 480°F, which makes it ideal as a durable oil. My only concern is data that shows that the higher concentrations of certain compounds can become too much of a good thing, and may become toxic, with regular consumption.

Chefs in the USA are discovering its wasabi-like allure, using it in more sparing amounts than Indians traditionally do, dressing up salads and adding a little pop to meats, fish, whatever at some of the nation’s top restaurants. Until you master the flavor, use in moderation, with other oils, is your best friend.

Mustard Gets Salty

Infused salts are the rage at kitchen stores, and spice merchants, in North America. Salts with mustard are growing in popularity. Salt is a major fluid exchanger in our bodies. That is why it amplifies tastes in your food. The salts help open up the essential oils in foods, the baseline of “flavor,” and blast them into your tongue, and tastebuds, like the speakers at a Rolling Stones concert.

Thus far, the only mustard salt that I’m impressed with comes from Gustus Vitae. Their Dijon mustard infused salt is well integrated. I sprinkle a little of it on as a finish for scallops seared in ghee that have a little onion powder, and herbs de Provence coating. It provides the salty kick, a pretty bit of yellow on the dark scallop surface, and gives you more direct access to the mustard’s flavor, and pungency.

Mean Greens Antioxidant Superfood Machine

Mustard greens are great fresh or sautéed! 

Once considered a foodstuff of African-American soul cuisine, and Cajun cooking, mustard greens are being rediscovered by the rest of the world for their health benefits. They are now classified as a superfood.

Thanks to that news, both the organic and vegan culinary communities embraced them.

Their pungent warmth has featured mustard greens at some of the nation’s top restaurants.

You can find them as a side, in salads, a vegetable in a soup, as part of more complex dishes like stuffing for empanadas, and as an ingredient to a very up-tempo spanakopita, the Greek spinach pie. They make a super Sichuan stir fry!

Mustard is a dynamic flavor that gives your improv plenty of pungent pop!

Your Essential Condiments

What mustards, ground as a condiment, deserve a place in your pantry, or refrigerator? Ones that are kitchen workhorses, and can find their way into your improvisational cooking, in places that you might not have used mustard before.

Mustards made with quality wines, or with a particular stone-grind, and craftsmanship, that dress up everything from a sandwich, or hot dog, to a sauce for a steak, or a shrimp dish, are the way to go.

The Many Unnecessary Mustard Variations

Mustards are like pancake mixes. There are way too many of them. Thousands, actually.

I will hear from several of you because I’ve left out a lot of your fave mustard mixes: Honey, Beer, Jalapeño, Tandoori, Tarragon and a bunch of others. There are a lot of prepared mustards out there with all kinds of gimmicks.

I would give you this advice: Save the money.

Why, oh why, do you need another jar of the same stuff, cluttering up your pantry, or refrigerator, that limits how you can use it?  

You’re paying way too much for improvisations that you can do yourself, with a good aromata, and basic staple ingredients in your kitchen.

How much “Honey BBQ Bacon Brown Supreme” do you want to keep stacked up in your refirigerator?

If you want maple mustard, take some good maple syrup, and a great stone-ground mustard and mix up what you need, that day, yourself. Add some fresh jalapeño, or some jalapeño powder, to the mustard of choice to get that variety, if that rocks your boat.

Make up your own!  Bourbon, beer or whatever spirit you like, do that. Mustards are a place for the home chef to be fearless, and to riff your own variations. Heck, you get a great one, sell it yourself!

Lower the Flag on Big Brands? But, of course…

The bigger the brand, the more malfunctioning the mustard.

Mustard seeds have soared up in price in recent years. The mustard magnates have responded by adding more filler, and less seed, to stave off bottom-line bleed.  

Just like factory eggs, people buy labels, not tastes. You remember an old flavor, so, as you buy newer, oftentimes more inferior product, in the same containers, you slowly adjust your palates to the taste.

No one complains.  

Yet, after a while, we notice that something is missing. Something we want back.  Mustard without toxic high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), or obesity-contributing added sugar. If you read labels, and see it, in any product, put it back on the shelf.

If French’s or Heinz, is your go-to, then you need to go to the store, or the Internet, and check out what lies beyond, in my opinion, the watery yellow. Let’s replace it with something simple, and far better.

Mustard Essentials

For mustard’s many uses in the average household’s cuisine, around the world, every kitchen should have:

  • A top yellow;
  • An excellent wine-mustard
  • A wonderful spicy brown
  • A little mustard oil

Best Mustards for Your Green

Here, then, are the our best mustards:

Yellow Mustard

  • Anyone who says German food is boring hasn’t tried Löwensenf. In yellow, they make great mustards to suit your spicy strength. Following the Three Bears rule, Extra Hot, Medium, or Mild should be just right.
  • Of the mass market mustards, Plochman’s Classic uses #1 grade mustard seed, and isn’t full of sugar.. Great consistency, and, for industrial-grade mustard, with a bit more body going for it than French’s.
  • Show a little love to Annie’s Naturals, even if it is owned these days by General Foods, for keeping it real and organic.
  • Any of the organic yellows, house brands for Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market or Whole Foods, which also lack additives, are going to be a win.

Wine Mustards (Dijon)

The term “Dijon” used to refer to mustards made in Dijon, France, but the name got away from them. Now, pretty much any wine mustard now seems to get lumped under the “Dijon” label.  

Many of the cheaper “Dijon” brands sub-out the wine for vinegar or citric acid and toss in a lot of sugar. Zut alors!

The overwhelming majority of the Dijon mustard sold in North America comes from Canadian, not French, seed.

Several little “d” “dijon” mustards, including bulk supermarket-grade Maille, and Grey Poupon for North America, are made in Canada. It’s cheaper, as the M in Canadian agriculture is not just Maple. It’s Mustard seed.

There are a couple of mustards from Burgundy’s finest traditions that deserve recognition and use, even if they cost a tad more than your faux-French dijon.

Prepare to have your tastebuds explode with bigger flavor.

Legit Dijon is STRONG, and a little goes a long way.

It comes in smooth, semi-smooth, and stone-ground. I keep the stone-grounds in their own space, as there, the French, Germans and Americans all go more toe-to-toe.

My must-have wine mustard? When I can get it, it’s Moutarde de Charroux.

  • Moutarde de Charroux  If there is a Rolls Royce of mustards, Charroux is it.  Ground in a century-old mill, they then add a “verjus” of wine, vinegar, spices and salt. Last, St. Pourçain’s white wine (AOC), is added.  If you’re in Europe, lucky EU! You can get it. For the rest of us, it is not readily exported, save at a few smart Francophile shops that know it is like mustard gold bullion. It will be pricey, and unfortunately not a regular staple of your pantry. At least once, though, you should get a small bottle, and work with it. Join the ranks of the Michelin chefs who use it. It is amazing!
  • Edmond Fallot is amazing mustard, real Dijon, with its Burgundy official seal, cute pail to ship the glass jar in, and all. Much more available in the US, its price is comparable to a top quality EVOO or top-of-the-line Parmigiano-Reggiano. If you really want to know what “Dijon” is supposed to taste like, this mustard belongs in your pantry.
Maille’s five world boutiques sell the Dijon legit, shipped to your door.
  • Maille (Boutique / Web Only) – I’d compare this to a world class French automobile, if only there was one. All Maille products are not created equal. Maille, which began in Marseille, France, in 1723 is, today, a unit of the corporate food conglomerate Unilever.

    Their American “Dijon” mustards are made in Canada. They’re loaded with sugar, and have a decidedly different taste from their legit namesake.  

    For real, old-school Dijon de Maille, if you can’t visit them at one of their boutique stores in New York City, Bordeaux, Paris, Melbourne, or even, wow, Dijon, they do a mail-order that beats supermarket Maille any day of the week. Will you pay a lot more? Count on it. Will it taste worlds better? Oh, yeah.
  • Temeraire, still available on the web, although it comes and goes, is another very legit Dijon, where the wine gives a little sharper edge. It has its own flavor thumbprint that I find pleasing. Just hard to find in North America.
  • I would be remiss in not taking up for Olivier Napa Valley’s Cognac Mustard, which is so good it should be from France, but since it’s from Napa, it’s French-Once-Removed. Vive California!

Spicy Brown/Deli Mustards

So-called “Deli” mustards are the space where some of the most iconic local and regional brands, which inspire fierce loyalty, live.

Wine mustards are show ponies. Spicy Brown/Deli Mustard are your workhorse, blue-collar, mustards.

French’s dominates the yellow shelf space in North America, but, downtown, on the lower shelves, in the brown, it’s a big free-for-all. There are hundreds of spicy brown/deli mustards in the U.S. alone. Germany brings a few leaders, and dozens of smaller world-class brands to the party, too. So does England, Ireland, Scotland. This is Ground Zero of true mustard mania!

Like the others, they range from whole grain mustards, to a thick paste.  

  • So I may be reliving my childhood summers at Dodger Stadium, but mass-produced Gulden’s is still one of the best spicy browns around.  The largest brand in the category has not wavered in its quality, and it’s a great price usually. If I’m going sinfully American, and doing the dog or I’m making my own beer brats, this is still one of my go-to mustards.
  • There are a ton of good beer mustards out there, Kosciusko Beer Mustard from Plochman’s, is a great balance and wonderful on brats, burgers, barbecue, and more.
  • A. Bauer outta da borough of Queens, now in Hempstead,New York is a horseradish mustard that is amazing not only on its own, but in cocktail sauce, my mayoless New York coleslaw, and many other dishes. You can find it on their website.
  • Folks on the North Coast may say it’s the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Cleveland rocks because Bertman Original Ballpark Mustard is legendary spicy brown. Aside from its great taste, it’s steeped in a local mustard war, and stadium controversies, that provoke passionate arguments
  • Koops is another quality spicy brown mustard that I like quite a bit. Regional, it has a huge following in Wisconsin, its home state. They’ve upped the product’s A-game quite a bit, in the last couple of years, making their seed sourcing organic/certified. We like the new packaging, too! Watch out Gulden’s. There may be another Big Brown in Town!
  • NOLA essential:  Zatarain’s Spicy Creole Mustard.  It lets the good times roll in your potato salad, puts the devil into deviled eggs, and has a unique flavor that you don’t find in the other mustards. It’s a grainy mustard, without being gritty. It was one of the first things Emile Zatarain ever concocted to spice up New Orleans! A staple of New Orleans’ finest kitchens.

Stone Ground Mustards

Stone ground mustards cross a lot of categories, but their wonderful texture distinguishes them, for me at least, into their own category, defined by their crunchy coarseness, and sparing “sauce.”

They have their specific uses. They work better in things like potato salad and cole slaws, because they give a little visual pop and a touch of crunch. They’re also great on their own with sausages of any kind, in or out of bun, and, of course, you can’t really do a wonderful charcuterie board without a little and some nice salty cornichon midget pickles.

Here, flavor is a function of what they’re soaked in. A good stone ground starts with a great soak. This is the best one on the planet:

  • Cognac mustards are the platinum standard in mustards.  Moutarde Royale, by Pommery is the most recognized, and for a reason. It’s really good if you pop it in a little cream for a quick sauce that sends beef into OMG smiles at your table.  It’s also a stone-cold, stone ground killer on a charcuterie board, on a rare roast beef, or the accent topper to a maple-glazed Duroc pork chop.
  • Of the stone-ground wine mustards, the legit Dijon,  Moutarde de Meaux (aka “Pommery“) is the best of the best.  Monumental flavor, and a perfect coarse grind of the seeds, along with great french wine vinegar and spices.
  • Maille’s stone-ground whole mustard with chardonnay, pumped into crocks, that comes from their boutique stores around the world, or online, is stone-cold perfect. Stone ground can run a bit “dry” or separate easily. Maille’s blend keeps the flavor, and the proportion of liquids-to-seed, balanced harmoniously.
  • Tracklement’s in the UK is a relative upstart, only in biz since 1970, but they produce three great stone ground mustards,  Original Wiltshire, Robust Wholegrain and French Wholegrain all of which are SUPER (Soopah).  You can find them at upscale Soopahmarkets in the U.S. like Whole Foods.
  • If you like your stone ground a little soupier, Inglehoffer may be your pick. They blend less seed and more sauce. It’s a mass market, but an acceptable one.
  • Wilkin & Sons Tiptree English Wholegrain Mustard is a name so large they almost need a second bottle, but, the upper-crust jam maker puts out a pretty credible mustard, albeit a bit pricey for its size. If you’re looking for a nice serving mustard that looks elegant on the table, it will do ra-ther nicely.

Mustard Seeds

One of the best ways to incorporate mustard into your own recipes is to have quality mustard seeds on hand. You can also buy a bigger batch and try your hand at your own homemade mustard!  They’re a must-have if you’re making my kosher pickles, or for a ton of other pickling recipes.  Ground with other seeds and peppers, they’re the Ba-BING in the BBQ sauce, and they can even, in small quantities, put a little zip into your ziti!

Courtesy: Spicejungle.com: The freshest seeds at great prices!

Best way to remember what does what, since mustard seeds don’t have that much smell to follow your nose, is this basic rule: Yellow is mellow. Brown takes it downtown and black is a spicy attack!

Mustard Oil

You may wonder why I’m recommending TEZ Mustard Oil as a cooking oil when the American label plastered over its nutrition information says “For External Use Only.”

Mustard oil is a staple cooking oil in India. Here, in America, it became sidelined by an old Food and Drug Administration (FDA_ report with a dubious study from years ago about heart health, and by Big Mustard, the manufacturers who don’t want to compete with oil manufacturers, because oil consumes a lot more of the seed, and raises prices.

The fact that millions of people consume it every day, and in limited quantities, and more current studies show that it helps strengthen red blood cells. and lower bad cholesterol, should help sway you. Pro chefs have been using it for a long time. Americans also consume a ton of the oil by way of their daily doses of yellow on this and that, because the oil is very much a part of the condiment.

Not convinced yet?

The current Food and Drug Administration report from 2015 shows mustard oil on the GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) list and states:

“The available information shows that the characteristic isothiocyanates, other known constituents, and decomposition products of the essential oils of both mustards, have low orders of oral toxicity in experimental animals. Further, there is no reported evidence that orally administered doses of these constituents are carcinogenic, teratogenic, or mutagenic… There is no evidence in the available information on allyl isothiocyanate, p-hydroxybenzyl isothiocyanate, and brown and yellow mustard that demonstrates, or suggests reasonable grounds to suspect, a hazard to the public when they are used at levels that are now current or that might reasonably be expected in the future.”

TEZ is mustard oil made from black mustard seed, the more pungent and intense flavor that people describe as the heat that burns your nose in spicy mustard.

Like sesame oil, it is very strong. In certain parts of India they fry meats and vegetables with it. Outside of India, I would recommend it highly as you use sesame oil: Sparingly.

It provides a lot of flavor to salad dressings, and any recipe that cries out for a little mustard love!

Mustard Greens

When I was in search of mustard greens, it used to require a trip to neighborhood markets that catered better to predominantly African-American, or Asian neighborhoods. The rest of us, sadly, have been a little M-G stoopid. Until someone slapped a new label for the health-crazed onto them:

Superfood.

While you can’t find them at every supermarket, most of the “healthier” stores like Whole Foods, Fresh Market, or Sprouts have at least one kind of fresh mustard greens. There are a whole bunch of varieties though, which offer your family some great meals!

If you can’t find a supplier, you might have to grow your own. It doesn’t take much of a green thumb to grow them! Johnny’s Seeds is my go-to for mustard seeds for planting, and all kinds of other seeds as well in at my H2OhGrows hydroponics project.

Southern Giant Curled

Probably the most common mustard greens, available at markets in the South, is Southern Giant Curled. It has a mild mustard taste that is tasty cooked, or adds a nice bite to salads much in the way that rocket arugula does.  (Seeds)

 Red Giant

Pretty for salads or as a nice base for a chicken or fish dish needing a bed of both color and pop, Red Giant is your leaf. (Seeds)  Much less common at markets, you may be growing your own here.

Golden Frills

Often seen in mixed salad greens bags, Golden Frills poses as a lettuce, but it really is a nice, spicy mustard green with good mouthfeel. It’s a great accent in a frisee salad with a poached egg and crisped bacon lardons!  (Seeds)

Red Splendor

Another more exotic-looking mustard green, pretty easy to grow hydroponically, Red Splendor is both spicy, and exotic looking. Add to a salad, or tear up a few leaves and throw it into patatas bravas or fritas to add a little visual interest and mustardy pop! (Seeds)

Suehlihung

Again something I never see in stores, but occasionally at a farmer’s market, is Suehlihung (Soo-lee-hung) which means “Green in the Snow” because it’s an early harvest crop from Southern China. It is easier to grow yourself if you remember to chill the water that feeds it. Harvest both the micro greens as well as the baby leaves. The adult leaves are AOK too, but the baby leaves in particular are nice as a garnish when doing up a mustard sauced salmon, or adding a little spice/garnish to the top of a good winter squash soup.  Sell or trade what you don’t use! (Seeds)

Amara

If you’re cooking African dishes (See the amazing book The Soul of a New Cuisine by Marcus Samuelsson for ideas) that call for mustard greens, chances are this is the one that they’re talking about. It is a mustard, you can share with your Ethiopian friends, even though they call it kale. Amara has more aliases than an HBO mob boss: Highland Kale; Abyssinian Mustard; Texsel Greens.  They have a BIG flavor that is awesome in salads and hot dishes like Peanut Soup with Mustard Greens or Mustard Greens with Fish and Shrimp! (Seeds)

Final Words

Wow! You made it all the way to the end! You just earned your Internet food geek super-merit badge!

That’s probably more than you ever thought you might read about in your whole life on mustard.

In writing this, I found literally thousands of pages, in books, on dozens of websites, tips from passionate bloggers, and thousands of small companies that have put so many hours into telling tales of its history, or like beer’s “micro brew” movement, blazing new trails in the creation of the 21st century’s definitive recipes, and condiments

Mustard, when used in very small bits, has transformed my improvisational arts. It’s the pop in vinaigrettes. It’s the ooh in my house-cured hickory bacon. The quiet pungency in my Chinese-style barbecue spareribs, and more. The greens, and the oil, are nice balancing touches to your cuisine that replace cheap fats, and oils, with something interesting, and tasty.

Explore them, beyond hot dogs, and burgers, and you’ll find what I have: They make your toughest audience, your family, really happy!