I've never been able to make a successful batch of biscuits. My botched attempts have reached the double digits. I finally just assumed me and biscuits weren't meant to be.
But I reconsidered this notion after coming across a recipe in Andrew Carmellini's American Flavorentitled The World's Best Biscuits—End of Story. Any biscuits with a name like that were certainly worth their weight in flour, buttermilk, and shortening.
After so many batches of leaden hockey puck biscuits, it was going to take a pretty incredible recipe to break my track record and to Carmellini's credit, his biscuits were just that good.
There are two steps in this World's Best Biscuits recipe that sets these fluffy little gems aside from others—a honey butter glaze that has the power to make anything insanely delicious and a dough that rolled, folded, and beaten down a total of seven times for optimal flakiness and breathtaking height. The biscuits were tall when they went into the oven and even taller and more beautiful when they came out, not to mention perfectly tender with just the right touch of sweetness.
So, are they the world's best? I'm going to have to say yes. Better than any biscuits I've made (obviously) and even better than the best biscuits that I've had outside of my kitchen.
Cook the Book: 'Rustic Italian Food'
When Mario Batali calls your restaurant "the best meal of true Italian deliciousness" eaten outside of the boot, you know you've got something good going on. Marc Vetri, the chef behind an expanding empire of Philadelphia restaurants, turns out the kinds of meals that warrant such a compliment, not to mention a visit to Philly.In his latest cookbook, Rustic Italian Food, Vetri shares his take on hands-on Italian fare: crusty loaves of bread, pizzas with perfectly charred crusts, recipes for homemade salumi, and so many glorious pastas.
Batali files Rustic Italian Food in the reference category and we're going to agree. Vetri's chapters on pasta-making, preserving, and meat-curing are thorough, informative, and approachable which is something that's indispensable when tackling high level kitchen projects.
This week we'll be sharing a pasta-heavy menu from Rustic Italian Food featuringSpaghetti in Parchment with Clams and Scallions, Rigatoni with Chicken Livers Cipollini Onions, and Sage, and a Rosemary and Garlic Brined Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder.
Win 'Rustic Italian Food'
Thanks to the generous folks over at Ten Speed Press, we are giving away five (5) copies of Rustic Italian Food this week.
All you have to do is tell us about your most memorable Italian meal in the comments section below.
Travelers: What's Your Favorite Airport Food?
The holiday season means family, and family means airport security lines! Many of us will be boarding flights in the coming days and weeks, and if you don't pack PB&J in your carry-on, the trip could involve some mediocre food court grub. But there are a few decent chains hiding in those airport terminals. Here are 12 pretty tasty airport bites. Do you have a favorite snack while traveling?
Taste Test: The Best Fast-Food Breakfast Sandwiches
"The egg is arguably what makes a breakfast sandwich a breakfast sandwich. And sadly, we've been conditioned to expect the pre-made egg-loaf-spongy-patty-blob-thing."
Even people who swear they won't touch fast-food seem to make exceptions for breakfast sandwiches. Something about the combination of egg, melted cheese, salty meat, and toasted bread is so satisfying, not to mention a lifesaver on those especially rough mornings. You go from zero to feeling-more-like-a-real-person in just a few bites.
Sure, it's not that hard to make one at home, and even tastier with just-fried eggs (try not to think about the pre-cooked egg loaf on most fast-food sandwiches too hard) but sometimes you just need to grab one on the go.
For a whole week, we gathered around the big table at Serious Eats headquarters (Ed has been known to call it the stadium) at 10 a.m. every morningto nibble on breakfast sandwiches (note: no breakfast burritos, but we made an exception for one wrap) from various fast-fooderies to think really hard about each component:
- Bread: Toasted? Fresh-tasting? Good on its own, or just a tool to hold the sandwich together? Chewy? Too much chew? This raises the question of bagels—are they an appropriate breakfast sandwich bread? We all agreed the answer is often no because there's too much bready mass, which throws off the whole bun-to-insides ratio.
- Meat: Good salty, smoky taste? If bacon, does it have the right crispy-pliant balance? And if sausage, is it rubbery? Because that's a bit of a dealbreaker.
- Cheese: Melted? American cheese or something fancier? Does it overpower the sandwich?
- Egg: Alright. This is arguably what makes a breakfast sandwich a breakfast sandwich. And sadly, we've been conditioned to expect the pre-made egg-loaf-spongy-patty-blob-thing. It doesn't even look related to an actual egg. We held our breath, hoping to find a source that actually cracked the eggs in front of us.
We tried sandwiches from 11 different chains:
McDonald's
Panera
Cosi
Starbucks
Dunkin' Donuts
Burger King
Tim Hortons
White Castle
Subway
Wawa*
Jack in the Box**
McDonald's
Panera
Cosi
Starbucks
Dunkin' Donuts
Burger King
Tim Hortons
White Castle
Subway
Wawa*
Jack in the Box**
* Thanks to help from our Philly-based hot dog columnist Hawk Krall.
** Thanks to help from San Diego-based photographer friend (you may recognize his work from theDomino's Big Deal Pizza post) Jon Liu.
** Thanks to help from San Diego-based photographer friend (you may recognize his work from theDomino's Big Deal Pizza post) Jon Liu.
The Winner: White Castle
White Castle breakfast sandwich with sausage on a slider bun. [Photographs: Robyn Lee, unless otherwise noted.]
White Castle, we apologize for having no faith in you at first. To be honest, we even questioned walking the extra ten blocks to you. But while staring off into space waiting for our order, we heard a crack—the magical crack that only a real egg could make. Could it be? A real egg?
White Castle sandwich with bacon on a slider bun.
Yes. Finding a fast-foodery that will actually do this for you is rare. "There's not enough room.. not enough time." But White Caste didn't give us any hogwash excuses.
The fried egg (you can see the yellow and white parts! with the real browning around the edges! it's so real!) goes onto one of the slider buns, with your choice of meat. The sausage is well-salted, but not in a whoa, settle down, kind of way. The bacon had the right crispity-pliant balance.
Our only complaint? The buns. They could have been toasted and buttered, but then again, we gobbled it down too fast to care.
Follow @seriouseats on Twitter »Like Serious Eats on Facebook »
Honorable Mention: Wawa's Ham & Cheese Ciabatta Melt
Unfortunately we don't all live near a Wawa. But somehow this convenience store chain (in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia) has a way of putting a spell on people. The iced tea! The made-fresh hoagies! And, if you haven't already, you should add breakfast sandwiches to the list. Our favorite was the Ham & Cheese Ciabatta Melt ($4.29).Stuffed with scrambled eggs, deli ham, and Swiss cheese, this thing is massive.
The roll was lightly toasted and by far the best bread of all the Wawa breakfast sandwiches we tried. It's a big roll, which could be problematic, but they overstuff it to balance out the ratio of bread-to-innards. There's no skimping on the ham either—it had as much meat as the regular hoagies. And the eggs taste so eggy.
"They're first frozen then go into a rethermalizer," a Wawa employee informed us. Retherma-whatawhat? We looked into it, then stopped and just accepted the creamy, fluffy, eggy-tasting goodness.
No comments:
Post a Comment