Hot Weather Cooking Tips

I learned a few things in the past heatwave that will help those sans AC in the hot summer months.

1. If you have to cook something and it gets crazy hot in the afternoon, prepare your stuff the night before and wake up early to pop it in the oven or put it on the stove top on low heat and just keep setting your alarm to get up and check it on the allotted times. This only works for things that cook long such as braises or beans and with low heat that is relatively safe to leave unattended. Of course, I have a studio apt and my bed is pretty much in the kitchen, so I felt confident I would know if something was seriously awry.

2. If you have electric burners, keep an extra pot with cool water for when you are done cooking. Put the cold (full) pot on the burner to absorb the heat instead of letting it radiate into your kitchen. The water won't boil and the pan won't really get hot either. This made a huge difference in my tiny kitchen where cooking for 20 minutes raises the temp 10 degrees in my apt.

3. Learn how to make a damn sandwich.

Stock Generalities

A stock is a flavored water, or to get more technically: a clear, unthickened liquid flavored with soluble substances extracted from bones, veggies and seasonings.

The basic ingredients are: water (100%), bones (50%) and mirepoix (10%)

The way to measure out these percentages is to take the bones as your given weight (being that they are the most costly and are generally disinclined to change weight easily), then double the weight and add that much water (water being approximately 8.7 lb/gallon at sea level), then use 10% of the bone weight as your guide for the mirepoix. Honestly, this equation is a little flawed. If people could trust one another to do ratios, it would be much simpler, i.e. 20:10:1. But it turns out that people entering the culinary field have just about the same talent for math that the rest of the population has (minus, of course, nuclear physicists and accountants.)

ACIDS: In general, acids used for fish stocks are likely to be white wine or lemon juice. Acids used for beef/veal/brown stocks will be red wine or tomato product.

Mirepoix sizing: General rule is that the smaller the bones, the smaller dice for mirepoix and vice versa.
Small dice: Fish Stocks
Med dice: Chicken, fowl, game, etc.
Large dice: beef, veal, etc.

Notes on Stocks I

When you are finished with your stocks and all of the fat has been drained off, pour enough fat back onto the stocks to create a seal. This will solidify when refrigerated and create a seal that will add a week to the life of your stock. You can pull this off when the stock is ready to be used at you don't want all the fat incorporate back into the stock when used. That just reintroduces impurities and unnecessary greasiness.

If the fat cap breaks up, strain through a chinois or china cap to remove chunks.

Also: Always smell and taste your stocks before using. Of course you smell first. If it smells off, your stock is ruined. If it tastes off, the same.

Remember not to add your mirepoix too early. Vegetable matter will break down much faster than bone matter and will not retain the correct flavor if added too soon.