Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[theinevitable]

Just attempted chicken-fried steak with milk gravy.

the first thing I have cooked in a long time that was so bad, I took one bite, walked into the kitchen, and threw the entire meal in the trash.

it isn't just that I burnt it a little or something... every aspect of that bite made me want to vomit. WTF did I do wrong?

[Nabubrush]

I shouted, "Wow, Chaos! They're using explosives to make holes in the ground! That's so cool!" And she replied, "Now that's something you don't see every day!"

She's only seen like five things.

[theinevitable]

I think the meat was really really low quality. It got disgustingly soft and mushy during cooking. The gravy, I know where I went wrong. Didn't start out with enough grease, tried to compensate (more oil), over did it, then tried to fix it by adding more flour... gross.

This recipe said to use Cube Steak, not Beef Bottom Round. The meat fell apart when I dipped it in the milk/egg mixture.

The final straw: I am really bad at frying things. I never have success with anything fried.

[wombat]

She's only seen like five things.

That's the best part of the story.

[side_show]

Also, you only realized it was inedible after you had left the kitchen.  This means you made a big no-no and didn't regularly taste the food while preparing it.  Or if you did taste it, you didn't trust your own judgement.  If you taste as you cook you can either save a dish or realize earlier on that it is shit and save the time and energy of cooking the food to completion.

[jaydub]

Who wants to taste uncooked cube steak?

[theinevitable]

I never taste things while I am cooking them. Until the point where I am adding a spice and want to know if it is enough.

Also, I don't know what stage it would have been OK to taste at before it was done, as Jaydub says.

[side_show]

If it got soft and mushy during cooking, that would be a time to stop and taste it, before serving it.  If it goes to shit, why bother plating it without tasting it?  Likewise, especially when making gravy, I taste it several times through out the process to adjust it and determine how much it needs to be cooked down or thickened.

[Nabubrush]

Dan, you're doing it wrong. I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull your card.

[jay-ell]

Who wants to taste uncooked cube steak?

How do you know uncooked cube steak is bad?

Why find out

[AugustWest]

Pan frying stuff has taken me a long long time to get even the slightest handle on.  What I've learned boils down to:

1) Use more grease/oil;
B) At a lower temperature (medium say 4-5 on my stove);
III) Get the grease/oil hot on high before putting the food in, then drop the temp to medium.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Yeah, getting to know your stove is important. I've traditionally had trouble with stir-fry recipes that say "Heat wok on high heat. Add oil, then garlic, and stir-fry until garlic is golden brown and fragrant, about 1 minute." And I'd do that, and my garlic would burn in about 15 seconds. So either Chinese cookbook authors have a different definition of what "high heat" is, or my stove just gets really damn hot. So I've learned to adjust accordingly.

[theinevitable]

the knob on my gas burner seems to work like this, based on height of flame as you turn it.

10-- high
9-- high
8-- high
7-- high
6-- medium-high
5-medium-high
4--medium
3--low
2--the flame goes out and gas fills the apartment
1--the flame goes out and gas fills the apartment
0--off

But yeah, frying stuff makes me feel a child. Everything I have cooked in oil like that has come out fucked up. I can stir-fry like a motherfucker, though.

[pmcd9]

Yeah, getting to know your stove is important. I've traditionally had trouble with stir-fry recipes that say "Heat wok on high heat. Add oil, then garlic, and stir-fry until garlic is golden brown and fragrant, about 1 minute." And I'd do that, and my garlic would burn in about 15 seconds. So either Chinese cookbook authors have a different definition of what "high heat" is, or my stove just gets really damn hot. So I've learned to adjust accordingly.

I've been in open kitchen restaurants and they put hella amounts of heat under those woks. So your stove must be helaciously hot.

[jay-ell]

Or the cookbook authors are assuming that home cooks are using weak-ass heating coils and not letting the oil preheat.

My ceramic top doesn't get all that hot, but I've found since I got some good-quality pots and pans (as a no-reason-whatsoever present from my Mom) I don't even have to turn it all the way up to boil water. The first time I made grilled cheese in one of my new skillets, it burned in under a minute even though it was only set on 5. So maybe Carlos has a good range and high-quality, super conductive cookware that recipe writers and editors aren't planning for.