Podcast 33 -The Secret Weapons Every Cook Should Have On Hand

When it comes to curating your culinary arsenal, there are a few food secret weapons every home cook should have on hand. Vinegars, olive oils, condiments, and more can truly amplify your food and take your dishes from basic to amazing! Watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/Y7iTlC41Tko Every good cook has a food secret weapon or two they rely on to take their meals up a notch. Whether it's a particular spice, a dash of hot sauce, or a condiment that's used unconventionally, a little bit can make a difference in a dish. In this episode we explore some of my favorite secret ingredients and how I use them to make my dishes stand out. Secret ingredients While many of my food secret ingredients may be familiar to the average person, the method I use to employ them is less obvious. For example, everyone knows water is an essential part of making pasta, but what many don't realize is how the water the pasta is cooked in, the pasta water, is also a key ingredient for many dishes, including the Roman pastas like cacio e pepe, and spaghetti carbonara. It also can revitalize any cream-based pasta that has dried out. Its uses are plenty and I always make it a point to save it for future use since it truly is a food secret weapon! There are so many other secret weapons when it comes to food, such as vinegar, lemon juice, wine, different types of salt, olive oil, and more. Listen along as we explore these ingredients in greater detail. Resources Lemon Caper Linguine Recipe Assassin's Pasta Recipe Cherry Pepper Spread Recipe Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage Recipe Beef Marsala Recipe Caesar Salad Recipe If you enjoyed the Food Secret Weapons episode, leave us a comment below and let us know!   We love your questions.  Please send them to [e-mail] (remove the 11111 for our contact).  There’s no question not worth asking. If you enjoy our weekly podcast, support us on Patreon and you will get 2 more bonus episodes each month! Thanks for listening! For a complete list of all podcast episodes, visit our podcast episode page.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
- Welcome back to theSip and Feast podcast.

(00:01):
This is episode number 33.
Today we are talkingabout food secret weapons.
What exactly do I mean here, Tara?
- Actually, I was gonna ask you.
- Okay, well then I'll, what do
- You mean, Jim?
What are I'll tell you secret weapons,
- Then I will tell you, Tara.
Okay. So what I mean is these are things
that you should have, Irecommend you have most

(00:24):
of the time for cooking.
They can be add-ons thatyou put in at the end.
They can be things toreally just boost the flavor
of a lot of your dishes.
And many of them, they might know Tara,
but I think will, what I intend
to do here is put a littlebit, maybe a spin on it
where maybe they're notusing the ingredients

(00:47):
as effectively as they could.
- Right. So they, you'recalling them a secret weapons.
They may not be, theingredients themselves aren't
so secret, but it's really the application
of the ingredients that's moreof a secret. Is that right?
- That's right. The,basically the democratization
of food instruction has made it so

(01:08):
everyone knows or can knoweverything about food.
It's all at your fingertips,the internet. Mm-Hmm.
cookingvideos, everything is there
for the consumer, andthe ingredients are in
so many more places thanthey were even 20 years ago.
- Yeah, that's true.- But with all that info

(01:32):
and ingredients
and ev the whole shebangat your fingertips
may be still, well,
the question is why are peoplenot getting the results maybe
that they desire?
So it could be something assimple as an an ingredient
that you think needs to be used one way.

(01:53):
Mm-Hmm. shouldbe used in a different way.
Yeah. All right.
So we're gonna get intothese secret weapons.
These aren't in any particular order.
Tara, you wanna like, takecontrol of the list and Sure.
Maybe I'll talk about them.
Feel free to jump in if you think I'm not
describing it in the correct way,
or if you think thatI'm missing a particular
way to use it. Mm-Hmm.. All right.

(02:13):
- Yeah. So first up, Calabrian chili
or cherry peppers.
- So these are, again, not the,
these are relatively known now.
Mm-Hmm. .Okay. I think most people
who fancy themselves a cook
and experienced cook know whatthese ingredients are now,

(02:34):
you know, being able toaccess them, maybe not
as easy in all parts of thecountry, but Amazon again.
Mm-Hmm. ,you know, uh, puts it,
puts it at the fingertips
of anybody really in the United States.
Yeah. Cherry peppers Ilike to use while cooking,
but I also love to use themin their raw state too.
Mm-Hmm. , whenwould you use them, uh,

(02:54):
for cooking and versuswhen would you use 'em in
their raw state, Tara?
- Well, for cooking I would use them in
like an rabata type of sauce.
Right. Or maybe like a, the cherry,
cherry tomato pepper spread.
- Yeah. Or broccoli, you know,
just a regular broccoli rab uh,

(03:15):
sausage pasta, which is very typical. So
- I would put, I wouldn'tcook it in with that.
I would put it on top raw.That's how I would do it.
- I like to do, I like to doit both ways for that dish.
The real application whereI would use them raw is
- On a sandwich.
- Sandwich. Right. Yeah.Like an Italian hero. Mm-Hmm.
. Yeah. Collabionchilies, I think can do a lot
of the same work that a cherry pepper can.

(03:37):
Uh, calabrian chilies are smokier. Yeah.
And they are, I think,
better cooked in cooked things than
though I use it all the time.
Like, I put the spread onstuff afterwards. Mm-Hmm.
. But wherethey excel would be like,
in like a vodka sauce.
It would be really nice touse it. Mm-Hmm. .
So it gets like a smokey vodka sauce

(03:57):
- Almost.
You used it in the, did you use
that in the shrimp vodka sauce that you
- Made?
Shrimp vodka sauce. Yeah. Yeah.
- That was, that was good. Yeah.
- Yeah. The popular place, uh, Carbone,
they have a spicy vodka sauce that,
that uses collabion chilies. So what
- Makes it a secret weapon for you?
- I think with those,you can use them in a
variety of different ways.

(04:18):
You can buy them whole Mm-Hmm.
, which are really nice.
If you want like areally big kick of heat,
put like a whole one on sandwich.
Or you could buy like a paste of them,
or you could buy them dried.
So when you have 'emdried, essentially you're,
it's like you could just mash'em up and have chili flakes.
Mm-Hmm. thateverybody uses to cook with.

(04:39):
So there's like a variety ofways to go about using them.
They all have, I think, better use cases
depending on what you're going for.
Yeah. But I mean, si simply, I think
putting them like pureingthem in a sauce is a
really good way to go about it.
Okay. What else do you think, uh, would,
what would you use with use for them?

(05:00):
- I like the calabrianchili pepper spread,
specifically with eggs.
Yeah. I think it goesreally well with eggs.
So I would kind of considerthat a secret weapon of mine.
Like if I wanna make thekids like an egg sandwich
or something, adding that toit, they might not be able

(05:21):
to pinpoint exactly what it is on it,
but you're just like,oh, that's really good
to me, that's what a secret weapon is.
If you're like, oh yeah,there's something in that. It's
- Like the smokiness of it- That tastes so good.
Yeah. I just don't know what it is.
That's, that's what I think I like
- It for.
So it smokiness. Mm-Hmm. .
And, you know, one of the most iconic
issues that we forgot was
- Assassin's Pasta.
- Assassin's Pasta.Yeah. You know, from, uh,

(05:41):
Barri, right? Mm-Hmm. .
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah,- Yeah. Yeah.
So that one, again,
you could use pretty much anytype of formulation there.
You could use to paste.You could use the whole
ones in a pinch.
You could use the driedones. Mm-Hmm. .
Let's move on to the next ingredient.
- Olive oil, like differenttypes of olive oil.
And when, like, when would you use
the different types? Right?

(06:02):
- So maybe you cook with olive oil,
but then maybe that's where it ends.
You just use it to say, sauteyour onions or your garlic,
and that's the end of it.
But I like to have about,well, I don't like, I do,
you have three types of olive oil on hand.
Mm-Hmm. . I alwayshave an inexpensive olive
oil that is for cooking, fordoing that sauteing, maybe even

(06:24):
for frying cutlets ormeatballs or whatever.
Then I have an extra virginthat is a much better quality.
So I always would say like,parta would be that brand.
Mm-Hmm. . Andthat one pulls double duty.
I will sometimes cook with it.
I will sometimes finish it with, with it.
And then I have an olive oil, which is
- Frantoio,- Frantoio Barbera.

(06:45):
And that one I universallyjust finish with, I like
to put it a nice drizzleof it on say a pasta dish.
So say you're doing like,uh, oleo. Okay. Mm-Hmm.
. And youknow, you have your oil,
you do your uls emulsification,
your little flip flippy flip.
And then at the end you couldput on a little bit more of

(07:05):
that really good extravirgin. Mm-Hmm.
- Just like a drizzle. So
- No heat is hitting it or anything.
Mm-Hmm. .And it's just giving you
that like, burst at the end.
Or maybe you do a good lentil soup
and you know, you cookedwith your regular olive oil
or maybe your parta, but thenyou're serving a bowl of it
and you put a nice gratingof Parmesan on top.
And then a beautiful drizzleof the Fran Toya. Mm-Hmm.

(07:26):
. Yeah. What, what other uses
salad, obviously, right?
- Yeah. Although for salad, I tend
to use like a lessexpensive, um, extra virgin.
I wouldn't, I don't alwaysuse the Fran Toya in it.
What I would use the Fran Toya on is
like the orange and fennel salad.
Mm-Hmm. So that I feellike needs that drizzle

(07:50):
of delicious, really, reallygood extra virgin olive oil.
Yeah. So I would useit for that. It's real.
I would use it the same wayyou would, I would just use it
for finishing and like kicking up.
Yep. Whatever dish you want.
Like when you want toadd like, a little bit
of it's fresh is what it tastes like.
To me. It's like alittle bit of freshness.
Like springtime, it's, amI describing that right?

(08:11):
- Well, you're talking aboutFran Toia is fresh. Mm-Hmm.
, I think Fran Toia is,
is smooth, but it isstrong. Yeah. In my opinion.
- But it has like that I, I, I'm,
I'm saying it tasteslike springtime to me.
Am I using or grassy? Maybe
- I don't.
So again, everybody has adifferent interpretation of
what these oils taste like.
Mm-Hmm. , Iwould say frantoio slides more

(08:32):
towards the peppery scale.
I mean, it's a, it's aSicilian olive oil. Yeah.
All Sicilian extra virgins tomy palate seem to be strong.
Mm-Hmm. .But there's a whole range
of those Sicilian,extra virgin olive oils.
Parta is a Sicilian oil. Yeah.
So it's like, I'mrecommending both of them.
We actually filmed it andwe never published it.

(08:52):
We did an olive oil tastetest. Mm-Hmm. .
And we had 10 bottles ofextra virgin olive oils.
And we actually had one thatwas super expensive. Yeah.
In a little tiny bottle.
And that was from Sicilyalso, right? Mm-Hmm.
- . Yeah. So that video is
sitting in the archives.
- It's sitting in the archives.
I'm probably gonna publish it.
I'm not sure though, uh,at the point now where

(09:12):
I can't even give thefootage to my editor,
because I don't know ifI did something silly
in the video or whatnot.
And , it's seriously,seriously, I don't know.
Like, sometimes I'll havevideos where I'm like, oh, Jim,
you need to edit that one yourself.
, you know, I don't evenknow. And it's been so long.
And if I'm gonna go through65 minutes of footage, I might

(09:33):
as well just edit the darn thing myself.
Yeah. . But Ilooked at it the other day
and I was like, oh God.
I was like, Tara, I don'teven know if I remember how
to edit that well anymore. .
- Yeah. - All right, let'sgo on to the next one. Okay.
- Different types of salt.
- Salt, okay. Actually, this is a great,
this is a great segue because with
that delicious orangesalad with your Sicilian

(09:58):
extra virgin, you'll put on, by the way,
that salad is a Sicilian salad.
Mm-Hmm. .So then you put on the
nice, flaky sea salt.
So now salts have alldifferent applications.
Do you have fine salts that aregood for, say you're making,
I don't know, say you'remaking pizza dough,
you're gonna wanna fine salt.
You're not gonna want a thick,
chunky salt that's not gonna melt.

(10:19):
But say you're, or sayyou're making a soup
and you want everythingto dissolve, just use,
you know, fine sea salt.
But say you have a steak, you know,
a beautiful piece of prime rib.
We actually did this. I hadthe Malden salt in the Mm-Hmm.
in the picture.So really big chunks.
And you put a few of them on there,
or you do a nice filet for someone,
and you sprinkle a coupleof those salt specs.

(10:42):
Like basically you putit, bring it to the table,
and they're still not melting yet.
Yeah. That's the thing about it.
But yeah, that same typeof salt you would put on
that orange salad.
Mm-Hmm. . Now
that's not even getting into the flavored
salts that people do.
Yeah. There's a wholebunch of YouTube cooks
that sell their flavored salts.
Mm-Hmm. ,you know, like how old
YouTubers used to sell merch?
Yeah. They'd be like, we'redoing a merch drop now.

(11:03):
These, these cooking channels do a salt,
they do a salt drop.
They're like, we got likea, like, I got 500 orders
of my rosemary salt.
You wanna get in on it? And sothey build a sense of urgency
and, uh, scarcity.
Yeah. And they get the people to buy it.
- Is it just like salt mixedwith dried herbs? Yeah.
- Yeah. Something like that. I don't know.
We don't have any of those products yet

(11:24):
for you we're workingon 'em, lots of them.
. No, I don't know. Not really.
I'm not, I'm not, I'm, listen,I'm not resistant to it.
I just don't, I don't reallysee the, the point of, of
that one, if I had like a good product
that I thought was worth it, I think an
- Pursue in olive oil would be good.
- Yeah. But I mean, what are we gonna do?
Like, I'm gonna buy, like, youhave to like contract, like
with the whole, with the, the farm.

(11:45):
You gotta buy like 10,000bottles of it. Yeah. You know?
That's true. Okay, so let'smove on to the next one.
- Okay. So this is yourlist. These are not my items.
I was surprised to seethis MSG . What
- In a nutshell here.
MSG is used by
so many young cooks now on TikTok.

(12:07):
Really? Yes. Yes. Okay.
People who are over about40, they just, we've been
indoctrinated into thinkingthat MSG is horrible for you.
And there's really nothingthat can dispel to us
that it's not bad for us.
Even when you walk into allChinese restaurants around here,
not all of 'em, about half ofthem, especially the kitchens,

(12:29):
they will be sign that says what?
- Yeah. No, no, no. MSG.
- No. MSG. Yeah. Okay.
So it's, and so I, again, I had
to do research on this a little bit.
This really got popularizedin I think the sixties
or seventies where it was like,
it wasn't really peer reviewed science.
It basically said thatit can have a couple

(12:51):
bad effects on you, but there'sbeen so much further, uh,
current research on it.
A lot of, uh, what's it called when you
look at all different studies?
Is that a meta-analysis? Right.
So it's basically showingthat there's nothing wrong
with using it in small amounts.
And a lot of placesthat you eat at use it.

(13:12):
Chick-fil-A being one of 'em. Okay. Okay.
McDonald's doesn't useit. Mm-Hmm. .
So that's from my research.
McDonald's doesn't Chick-fil-A does.
- Is it a flavor enhancer?Yes. Isn't it a salt?
- It's glutamic acid.- Is it a salt?
- It's a salt. I, I'mgonna read this to you
because this is MSG is shortfor monosodium glutamate
- That I knew.

(13:32):
Okay. So when I heard sodium, that's
what makes me think it's a salt. So
- I'll just read this here.
Yeah. It's a flavor enhancerderived from l glut glutamic
acid, which is naturallypresent in many foods.
L glutamic acid is anon-essential amino acid, meaning
that your body can produce it by itself
and doesn't need to get it from food.
MSG is a white odorlesscri crystalline powder,

(13:52):
commonly used as a foodadditive in the food industry.
It's known as E 6 21.
It dissolves easily inwater separating into sodium
and free glutamate.
Okay. It's made by fermentingcarb sources like sugar, beet,
sugarcane, and molasses.
There's no chemical difference
between glutamic acid foundnaturally in some foods.

(14:14):
And that found in MSG.
This means your body can't differentiate
between the two sources.
MSG has a specific taste known as umami.
It is the fifth basictaste alongside sweet,
sour, salty, and bitter.
Umami has a meaty flavorthat refers to the presence
of proteins in food.

(14:35):
Besides MSG.
Other umami compounds includeine five, which is IMP
or Guanosine five monophosphate,
which is G-M-P-M-S-G is a popular,
is popular in Asian cooking
and used in variousprocessed foods in the West.
It's estimated that people'saverage daily intake is 0.3
to one grams.
It's a flavor enhancer. It goes on and on.

(14:57):
This was from, I gotta find,
I'm gonna put it right across here.
What, where we got this from,
because this comes from anarticle on from Healthline.
Okay. So I was just reading
verbatim from the Healthline article.
Now the Healthline article is,was an article written on it.
The basic bottom line here,from my understanding,

(15:19):
and I'm not a scientist, is that MSG in
small doses is totally fine.
It, it's in a lot of foods.
It's like, it's in Parmesan cheese.
It's in a lot of cheeses.
- So when would you use it ifyou're, if you're gonna say
that this is one of your secret weapons?
'cause I don't recall a time where you've,
do we even have MSG?

(15:40):
- No, we don't. I'm, and Iwanna just include this here
because I don't use it in my cooking,
but when I do do a chicken, uh,
fried chicken sandwich Mm-Hmm.
all Chick-fil-Aor Popeye's or whatever.
I am going to add MSG to it.
Again, my understanding isChick-fil-A that's what they use.
- Hmm. Interesting.- So they use that in a couple, um,
people have speculatedthere's a couple other things

(16:02):
that are in that marinade.
Mm-Hmm. . Like they come, the
chicken comes brined.
Yeah. Then they bread it and they fry it.
I mean, they're frying it ina pe a pressure fryer. Mm-Hmm.
. Which obviously, you know,
a home doesn't have a pressure fryer,
but I will just fry it in a Dutch oven.
Pot. Interesting. Yeah.Let us know what you think.
I would go out on venture, I would venture

(16:23):
to guess if you are over40, and if you are over 50,
and you're listening to this,
you are probably terrified of MSG.
And I think you probablyhad family members
who told you when they eatMSG, it gives them headaches.
That was the thing with theChinese food back in that period
of time, it said that it would give
you headaches. Mm-Hmm. .

(16:43):
- Yeah. That's what I remember hearing.
Or it made you like really tired.
Like, my mom had a, Ithink it was like Christmas
or Thanksgiving dinner once,
and somebody, somebody's husbandfell asleep on the couch,
passed out, and theyaccused my mom of using
MSG in her, in her food.

(17:05):
And I was like, well, maybeit was like the, you know,
two bottles of wine the person drank
that made, that made the plastic.
- Yeah. Yeah. That mighthave something to do with it.
I'll just finish, I'll finishup here just a little bit.
It says it's a flavor enhancer.
Um, it's dudes who's a mommy taste,
which induces salivary secretion.
In other words, umami flavorsmake your mouth water,

(17:25):
which can improve the taste of food.
What's more studies show
that umami substances canlower the desire to salt foods.
Salt is another flavor enhancer.
In fact, some research postulatesthat replacing some salt
with MSG can reduce people's sodium intake
by approximately 3%.
Similarly, MSG may be used
as a salt substitute in lowsodium products like soups,

(17:47):
prepackaged meals, coldcuts, and dairy products.
It, from, from what I read,it's in all those products. Wow.
So everything you're buying,like that comes in it.
I really think that Chinesefood got the bad end of a stick,
short end of a stick here,
because they were the onesthat had to put on their
sign in their kitchen when you come in.
No, MSG used. Yeah.
But you never, you wouldnever go to a McDonald's

(18:08):
and see no MSG used. So, wow.
- That's so interesting.- Let's move on.
- All right. Anchovies, speaking of umami.
- Yeah. So anchoviesare awesome ingredient.
I use them often when Iam cooking Italian food,
though they can be used in other cuisines,
but basically other cuisineswill use fish sauce, which is,

(18:32):
which is a substitute for anchovy.
So any recipe, that Italianrecipe, say you just cook a ton
of Asian food and you just have a lot
of those ingredients in your home,
and you don't have a lot of thetypical Italian ingredients.
If you're making an Italian dish,
you can easily substitute fish sauce.
Mm-Hmm. for the anchovies.
- Mm. Yeah, I could see- That. So I use a little bit,
they add a umami flavor.

(18:54):
Uh, I put 'em in the Reso al Forno,
which is a Sicilian interpretation.
The dish, the way I made it though,
I think it comes from Malta,they say, which is, you know,
an island off off the coast there.
Um, I put 'em in just regularsauces that I do. Mm-Hmm.
I put 'em in my clam sauce.I put 'em in a lot of sauce.
- They really are a secret weapon,

(19:15):
because I think so, so manytimes people don't realize
that there are anchovies in whatever it is
that you've made. Yeah.
- Yeah. I can like nottell the kids though.
They get, they get madsometimes when they hear
I'm putting here, there, I
- Put 'em in there.
James. James does. He'll eat a,
a whole anchovy. He doesn't mind
- Sammy then. Yeah.
- Yeah.- And they're of course in what dressing?

(19:37):
- Caesar.- Caesar.
Can you make Caesar's dressingwithout the anchovies?
- Yeah, you can. It's notgonna be as good, but you can.
- That's like, it's likemaking a pizza without cheese.
- Yeah. But you, you coulddo that too. Yeah. Yeah.
You can do anything. You cando anything that you want.
- I know you can, you're right. You can.

(19:57):
- Okay. Let's move acids.
You have acids on here.
- So acids are quickly would be
- Lemon juice, wine vinegar. That's
- Right.
Those would be the three most common ones.
And when I'm referring toacids, that's what I mean.
I even though tomatoes are an acid,
they're not as strong as those.

(20:18):
So those acids would be usedto basically brighten a dish.
Say you make like a rice
and you wanna just kickit up right at the end.
So you're making like, yeah.
An Asian dish, you're makinglike fried rice or whatever.
You could do a little squeeze
of lime juice at the endwill really brighten it up.
Or I think Chipotle does that

(20:39):
for their white, for their rice.
Right. It always has like lime in it.
Acids like wine would be to cook with,
but you can also use atouch more at the end.
Which would, which wouldboost it even more.
And what was the otherone that we were saying?
- We said vinegar.- So vinegar you like to put in, uh,
in your soups and stuff at the end.

(20:59):
- Lentil soup. Yeah. I, I liketo add vinegar to it. Yeah.
I, I don't think I would really add it
to other soups, but you could.
- Yeah. Vinegar is a great ingredient.
Like it's in, uh, Tara likesin in, in the lentil soup,
but in chickens, scarper,ello, it's delicious.
It's like, yeah. A vinegar chicken.
Now there are recipes justfor straight vinegar, chicken
that are really good too.

(21:19):
- That's so good. It's very pungent.
It's, it's actually hard to cook
because you have to open the windows
because the vinegar canlike, hurt your eyes almost.
- Yeah. And same thingwhen you're cooking with,
- Not hurt, but like irritate like onion
type irritation. Yeah.
- And like when you cookwith cherry peppers,
because they're cherry peppers,
the jarred ones always come in vinegar.
Once you put 'em in the pan, they,
it just goes up your nose immediately.

(21:41):
And actually, chicken scalperdoesn't just have vinegar.
It also has the cherry peppers.Mm-Hmm. in it.
So it has both of them in that dish.
- Okay. Next is herbs.
- Herbs, I use a lot ofherbs to finish dishes.
I think that's when you want to use them,
whether you're making a roast chicken,
whether you're making a pasta,
whether you're making arice dish, putting a lot

(22:01):
of herbs right at the end.
Parsley, basil, whatever.
If you're doing Mexican,obviously cilantro. Mm-Hmm.
or Asian foods.Cilantro great. I mean,
- Yeah.
I think herbs are really underrated.
In fact, lately leading upto Christmas, I was making,
um, kind of this likeFrench style salad dressing,

(22:22):
and I was putting some fresh herbs in it,
and I was using tarragon, parsley,
and what was the otherthing I was putting in it?
- It was delicious. That's chives. Yeah.
What you, that dressing you make is so
- Good.
So chives, tarragon, fresh parsley.
And a lot of times when I makehomemade salad dressing, I,
I don't put herbs in it.

(22:43):
I just do like a Dijonvinegar or lemon juice
and olive oil and garlic.
But I notice that when I addthose three fresh herbs to
that dressing, it just takesit to a whole other level.
And it makes even justlike a plain green salad,
it makes it taste so much better.

(23:03):
- No, you're right. And the kids
go nuts when you make that dressing.
They love it. So yeah.
That is your best way tofind out if, like you,
if you're gonna usethese flavor enhancers,
these are the pull 'emout for your family.
Do something like this. Yeah.
And if they're like, whoa,what did you do to this mom?
What did you do to thisdad? Mm-Hmm. .

(23:23):
That's, yeah, that's good.
And then you add that to your quiver,
and then you then, youknow, for next time. Yeah.
- I think like the secretweapon part comes in when it's
like, oh my God, this tastes so good,
but I can't pinpoint what Yeah.
What it is. Yep. And
that's when you're like, it's my secret.
- It's my secret. It's mysecret weapon. My secret babe.
- Okay. Next is,
and I think this is agreat one, pasta water,

(23:45):
- Pasta water.
Yeah. People go as far as to, uh,
refrigerate their pasta water.
- That's a good idea to justlike, have it on reserve.
- It is. Because whatyou're doing is you're just
refrigerating starch.
Yeah. You just have a lotof starch on hand. So yeah.
Pasta water, it's, uh,if you know, you know,
if you don't know, I'll explain quickly.
It can be used to do two things.

(24:07):
It can thin your pasta sauce
and it can also thicken your sauce.
How can it do both at the same time, Jim?
Well, if you have, I'llgive you an example.
So say you have, you made eoole, well, you use oleo again.
It's a good one to talk about.Because what'll happen is if
you make this dish practical,real life gets in the way
of the, the, the, the movies.

(24:28):
Okay. So if you watch the movieChef with, uh, Jean Favreau,
he's making this delicious pastafor, uh, Scarlet Johanssen.
She's laying on the bed. Okay.
And it looks perfect, and it is perfect,
but it's only perfectfor about 25 seconds.
She has to be ready to eat it immediately.
But the reality of us normal people is

(24:52):
that we're not John Favreauor Scarlet Johanssen.
And we're trying to get ourkids to the dinner table.
We're trying to just set the table.
Maybe we already made it,
and the pasta will startclumping and sticking together.
That beautiful pasta thatyou were tossing and flipping
and just, you had the, you hadthe perfect emulsification.
It's five minutes later, it's12 minutes later, it's dry

(25:14):
as all heck right now.
Mm-Hmm. , what do you do?
- You add some pasta water.
- That's right. That's right.That you saved in the pot.
Yeah. So you always pull yourpasta outta the pot. Yeah.
Don't, don't do colander.
Now, the way I write my recipesalways is I will always,
you'll see this for every pasta,
almost every pasta recipe on the sip
and feast website, itwill say, reserve two cups

(25:36):
of pasta water or three cups.
And it will say next to that in the notes
will not need at all thatto, it might be ambiguous
to some people, but it'sactually the best way
to write a recipe bar none.
I think, I think I do this better than
anybody on the internet.
Okay. And I do this
because it allows

(25:56):
for the realities of your life.
Mm-Hmm. , if youdon't have that pasta water,
it's not the end of the world.
You can just use regular water, you know,
but it's, pull your pasta outta the pot.
Yeah. Keep the pasta, keepall the pasta water there and
- Keep it warm.
Like keep it on the stove too. Yes.
Keep the pot there on the warm stove,
like turn the heat off.

(26:17):
But so that way when you addit, you're not adding cold.
'cause Yeah. You can add walike regular tap water to it,
but you're, then you'readding cold water Yeah.
To your hot pasta.
- By the way, speaking ofthat, I figured out a way
because I'm gonna redo the cacho pepe.
So it what they do, Iwatched a few videos in Italy
of these like famous places.
They use cold water,

(26:38):
but I think they're, I don'tknow if they're doing this
because some of the videos were ambiguous.
I think what you do is you, you,
so when you make ketchup pepper,
you wanna have really starchy pasta water.
So you don't use a lotof water in the pot.
You pull your pasta, youuse in that pasta water,
but that pasta water, if it mixes
with the finely grated pecorino,it will clump right away.

(26:59):
So it's, it's can prove difficult.
But I think what you do isyou tap ice cubes on hand,
and then you add them.
After you pull your pasta,you add 'em to that pot
of super starchy pasta water,
and then it will lower the temperature.
Still keeping your starch, but cooling it.
And then you take thatwater, that cooled water
and mix it with the cheese instead
of just using straight coolwater that has no starch in it.

(27:21):
- Well, it sounds like a, an
experiment that you'll have to do.
- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let'smove on to the next one.
- All right. Next isgarlic, shallots, onions.
- Okay. These are used inpretty much all cuisines except
for, uh, I, I'm, I'msure there's something
that doesn't use these, butthey're the base that are
essential and they don't justhave to be used as bases.
So when you're starting a dish dish,

(27:43):
often you'll saute your onions first,
then maybe add your garlic later,
because onions take longerto cook than garlic.
Maybe you just skip both of 'em.
And you use shallot, whichshallots are kind of a cross
between and onion and a garlic.
Mm-Hmm. ,they're more expensive.
They're associated morewith like fine cooking.
And a lot of home cooks willshy away from using shallots.

(28:04):
- I think it's like a Frenchingredient too. Yeah. Right.
Aren't shallots oftenusing French cuisine? Yeah,
- They'll say Shaah.
- I really like them. I actually find that
whenever I make a salad dressing
and I add finely mincedshallot to it, everybody seems
to like the salad dressinga little bit more.
And I keep talking about salad
dressings and , I feel like. But

(28:25):
- It's a good use case fora lot of these ingredients.
- It's, it is.- Yeah. So use them all.
Uh, there's actually a place right near us
Druthers coffee shop.
They do crispy shallots fortheir egg sandwich. Right?
- Yeah. They have a amazing egg sandwich.
In fact, they often willwin best of Long Island
for Best Egg sandwich.

(28:46):
Um, they do an egg sandwich.
It's on a bagel, butit's got crispy shallots
and Calabrian chili
or something like that,like that combination.
And it's fantastic. So
- Good when they're making these shallots,
and I think they, I don'tthink they do 'em every day.
I think they make like a bigbatch and then they have 'em.
But when they're makingthem the whole outside,

(29:08):
the whole parking lot , it's just,
it's just smells like a And that's,
that's the problem whenyou're using, like,
if you're cooking a lotof onions in your home
and you don't have ventilation Yeah.
It will stink up. You're gonna all
of your clothes, everything.
- I've left the house many times
and I'm like, oh my God,my coat smells like onions
or peppers or whatever itwas that you were cooking.
- Yeah. Like if you're cookinga lot, uh, pasta, pasta vee,

(29:30):
which uses five pounds of money. Oh,
- Forget it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Let's move on to the next one.
- Dried mushrooms.- Ooh, dried mushrooms. Okay.
I love dried mushrooms.They are so useful.
So buy the container at Costco.
Costco does not sponsor mein any way, but I love Costco
and I love telling youwhat I love giving you the
best tips for getting this stuff.

(29:52):
Because if you would've triedbuy these dried mushrooms,
and I'll just give you an example.
There's a place near usthat sells half ounce bags
of dried mushrooms,Portini, shiitake, whatever.
They have them, they are $4
or $5 a bag for a half ounce.
Costco sells 10 ounces. Sothat's 20 of those bags. Mm-Hmm.

(30:13):
Costco sells that for about $10 or $11.
That jar that container.
It's like this big will last you
a long time, a long, long time.
So what you can do is,now if you take one ounce
of those mushrooms out for a recipe
and then you reconstitute'em with hot water, it will,
it will give you a goodamount of mushrooms.
We just used them actually in the
beef Mars salad that we did.

(30:34):
I tried to do it to givemore of a blast of flavor.
But another great thing to do
with these mushrooms is youcan make mushroom powder.
And often if you go to fancyplaces like say Wegmans
or Whole Foods or whatever fairway,
they will be selling this mushroom powder
for a very expensive price.
You make your own powderbecause it's all it is,
is taking those dried mushrooms
and putting them in a coffee grinder.

(30:54):
And then you have yourmushroom powder. Cool.
And then you add that to dishes
and it boosts the flavor,the mushroom flavor so much.
- That's pretty cool. Right.
I never thought to useit that way. Yeah. Yeah.
- Let's move on to the next one.
- Smoked paprika.
- Well, smoked paprika.
We spoke about this in, uh,episode number, I think 30
when we were, peoplethought I was a little

(31:16):
feisty about the split pea.
Was that episode 30 orwas that 31? That was 31.
- I don't remember. Butyou were a little feisty.
You said that like, it's notg it's not gonna be good.
- I said that split peawould be disgusting without
having a ham hock in it. Yeah.
- And you're so wrong. I'm sorry.
That's not, that's just not right. Well
- Seem that a bunch ofpeople agreed with me.
- Well, no. So it, first of all, you know,

(31:38):
I don't like the word disgusting .
I mean, we shouldn't use
that word when we're talking about food.
Yeah. Because everybody's tasteis their own. I know, right?
What you think is good.
Like you are the biggestsnickerdoodle fan, right?
Snicker doodles are your favorite cookies.
I like a snicker doodle.But I mean, come on.
There's so many better cookies.
- A few people tell me that. They're like,

(31:59):
they're like, you're so wrong. Yeah.
- Yeah.- Jim, you haven't been more wrong
about anything. Yeah.
- But you- Is the wrong you've ever been. So
- You tend to like a cinnamon.
I I notice you like cinnamon flavor.
So that's why you like the snickerdoodle.
You like apple pie yet?
I don't ever have to eatapple pie for the rest
of my life, and I'll be fine with it.
But take pistachio gelato away from me

(32:22):
and I will have a bigproblem with you. Yeah.
- And I don't have to have gelato ever
- For the rest of my life.
Like, I love ice cream. I lovegelato. That's my weakness.
So all I'm saying is thateverybody has different tastes.
Would split pea soup without a ham hock be
quote unquote disgusting.
Absolutely not. It willstill be delicious If
- Okay.
If you put the smoked paprika,

(32:42):
- Papica in there will make it better.
But you can, it can begreat without it too. Yeah.
- So smoked paprika, Tara, listen,
we're we're just joking around here.
, uh, Tara smoked paprika,
not just for split pea soup.
It's also great for, uh, chicken papc
that we're putting up soon. That's
- Right. Oh my
- God.
Right. That is what thatvideo might come up then.
That's probably gonna be the next

(33:02):
cooking video that's put out. Who
- Wa was it Sammy or James?
That's a, it might've been Sammy
that said it was like one ofthe best things that you've ever
- Made.
Yeah. And James didn't like it too much,
- Did he? Didn't he not
- Like it too much?
- IC you know what? Everythingis blurring together for me.
This is the problem of doingthis for a living. Yeah.
Everything blurs.
- Well, we filmed and we, Iknow one of them filmed it a
- While ago, but I know oneof them really liked it.
We, maybe it was Sammy.

(33:24):
- Yeah. I, I can't, I Ican't remember either.
We filmed those a longtime ago. The chicken pop.
This was in November and it's been, um,
it's been three weeks sincewe put out a cooking video.
We have 'em all, they're alllike done. They're all edited.
But we were just kind of justwaiting like we were taking
off a little bit Yeah.
For the end of Decemberinto January. Yeah.

(33:44):
- And we needed a break.- Okay. So that was some of them.
We're gonna continue thisin the Patreon episode.
If you're not subscribedto Patreon, please do. Yes.
You have to pay for it.
But it's three levels, pricelevels to fit your budget.
We have too many to finish in this one.
That's why this, this episodewould be two hours long then.

(34:06):
So we're gonna take the,what do we have? 10 more?
- Yeah. There's a lot more here
and I think we can actually add to it.
Okay. I think we came up
with this list thinking we werejust gonna film one podcast.
Yeah. But you know, some
of us are a little bit more long-winded
than others. I, I was
- Trying to move- Fast and I, I know, but still.

(34:27):
No. And the other thing is wewanna get to questions. Okay.
'cause we ran out of timeon the previous one. Yeah.
And we didn't get to answer questions.
So I do have a littlebit of a backlog here.
Let's, let's answer these questions now.
These were the questionsI actually had prepared
for the previous week's podcast.
Okay. But we didn't get to them.
Jim, this question comes from Jane.

(34:48):
And actually this questionfits in really well
with this episode, even thoughI didn't plan it that way.
What are the best oils for frying?
I used to use canola,
but have heard it's not really healthy.
Avocado oil is great, but it's pricey.
- Yeah. So Jane, that's, I think, yeah.
We, we discussed this in the beginning.
He, this was this a part?

(35:08):
This one we were talking about the oils
- We talked about.
We talked about oliveoil. Okay. Specifically.
- Okay. So, you know, thesethings kind of blend together.
Jane, and I know I've spokenabout people don't really want
to use vegetable or canola oil now.
It's a lot of negativeinformation about it.
And I'm not disputing the science of it.
I, I am not a scientist.

(35:30):
So if you don't want touse it, which is, I gather
what you're saying, I think peanut oil is
probably the one to use.
Would you say it's so, tower
- Peanut oil is a reallygood oil, um, for frying.
'cause I think it has a high heat point.
It also, I think, dependson what you're making.
If you're gonna make Thai

(35:51):
or Indian food, I think you can get away
with using coconut oil too.
- But what is, what is sheusing this for, for frying?
- She's saying what arethe best oils for frying?
- Yeah. So I assume, I assume so
- You think she means deep- Frying?
I assume you mean deep frying, Jane. Okay.
So because she needs a lot of oil. Yeah.
That's why like, if, if
- She was, okay, that makes- Sense.
Just so you know, like, I mean,again, I don't, I don't know

(36:14):
what you know, but you cando shallow frying for a lot
of things that maybe youthink need to be deep fried.
Mm-Hmm. . Socutlets are great to shallow fry.
Yeah. There's a lot of other things.
Meatballs can be shallow fried.
And what do I mean by shallow fried?
What, what do I mean by shallow fry? Tara?
- Like an inch of olive oil.
- Not even, not even a pan.Not even like a quarter inch.

(36:35):
Yeah. You don't need a lot.
'cause all you're doing isyou're just relying on the oil,
the bottom, whatever'son the bottom there.
Mm-Hmm. just to be hitting and
then you just keep turning it.
So that's all you have to do. Yeah.
So it's very economical to dothe shallow frying. Mm-Hmm.
. I find thatshallow frying works great
for like one batch of chicken cutlets.
But if you're doing a lot of them,
but if you're doing alot of 'em, you gotta

(36:56):
keep changing it out.
Mm-Hmm. , which,or you have to keep like, kind
of like really straining things.
Well, wiping your pan,
but it is a much moreeconomical, uh, way to use oil.
And again, if you're deepfrying, I say peanut oil,
you could buy a hugebox of that at Costco.
My favorite place, uh, pfive guys uses peanut oil

(37:17):
for their french fries.
That's right. And alot of restaurants, uh,
places will use peanut oil also.
As far as other oils to fryin that are inexpensive,
I think, and I'm not positive about this,
it could be safflower or sunflower oil.
Right. That's used to
- There.
There, yeah. There's both.I think it's safflower

(37:39):
- Yeah.
- That people use to fry. Andthen I think sunflower oil.
I know a lot of Italiancondiments use sunflower oil.
Yeah. To preserve, like they do,
like sun dried tomatoes. Definitely
- Will have, you always see that
- Sunflower oil in it.
You see it. Yeah. But I don'tknow if like, I don't know if,

(38:00):
if that one should beused for frying. Yeah.
- It's, uh, this is a tough one.
I also think you canuse your olive oil jane,
and to fry, you know, oliveoil's fine to fry a 3 72.
There's a lot of misinformationabout this saying the smoke
point is, you know, it's smokepoint's higher than that.
It's like four 50. So you definitely can,

(38:21):
nothing's gonna happenif you're frying now
it's expensive olive oil.
But Costco has a blend wherethey have, I think it's mostly
olive oil, but then partvegetable oil. Yeah.
- And that's like aMediterranean blend they call it.
- Yeah. If you're not fryingfish, then you can strain
that oil and use it again.

(38:43):
So you can strain your oil really well.
You could use a mesh strainer
and a cheese cloth on top ofit, or coffee filters better
and just let it go through.
It will get rid of all of the impurities
and you'll have basicallybrand new oil Again for frying,
I wouldn't use that oilfor other things, like
for salad dressing, I wouldpour it back into the container,

(39:04):
uh, like an open container
and mark four frying second batch.
And then I would do it again. Maybe
four frying, third batch.
Maybe you get like that much out of it.
It's a really economicalway to do it. Okay.
What do you think about that, Tara? Yeah,
- I think that's good.
I, I don't use really, I don't,
- I don't usually fry stuff.
- Fry stuff.- You get, you get a little
intimidated by frying stuff.

(39:26):
- I don't know if it's intimidating.
I don't usually feel goodwhen I eat stuff that's fried.
So I try really not to, to make it
- Some things you just gotta fry though.
So say we're gonna do a donutrecipe. Gotta fry 'em. Yeah.
Say we're going to do, um, uh,
zeppelin, like a video for that.
Mm-Hmm. gotta fry 'em. Yeah.
- Yeah. So then I would golike, would bowl agree with you?
I would, I would reach for the peanut.

(39:49):
If you have, if you have a peanut allergy,
make sure you're gettingrefined peanut oil,
because a lot of timesthe allergy is to the
protein, which is not present in the oil.
Um, but obviously consult yourmedical professional. Yeah.
- Tara. I mean, most peopledon't have a peanut allergy.

(40:11):
We know about it becausewe have personal, uh,
- Yeah.
Yeah. That's why I'm saying it.
Um, but yeah, no, I think,
I think peanut oil is a great option
and it is somewhat economicalmore so than avocado oil.
- Yeah. No, that big box of peanut oil
and Costco is a, issupposedly a good price. Yeah.
- All right. Let's moveon to the next question.

(40:32):
This is from Tom. I have read
that cooking foods high in acidity,
like tomatoes in anon-stick pan will damage
the non-stick finish.
I would be interested in yourthoughts on this subject.
- Tom. I've never heardthat it would damage a
non-stick pan.
I have heard that it willremove, eat away the seasoning
of a cast iron pan.

(40:53):
But a seasoning on a castiron pan is just the, uh,
poll polymerization ofthe oil onto the pan
that forms almost likethis smooth surface.
So no, I haven't heard that.It will ruin a non-stick.
Non-stick coating is typicallylike a Teflon coating.
And the way to remove that,which you don't wanna do,

(41:15):
is obviously if you usehard tools like metal tongs
and stuff, and you scratch it by accident.
Mm-Hmm. . But have you heard
that it will ruin a tomato?
- I haven't heard that. I'veheard the same thing you did
about not using tomatoes
and cast iron, which we've done before.
Like the assassin's pasta we,
we made in a cast iron pan. Well,
- I don't baby my cast iron at all.
I'm not, you know, I, I seeit all the time on, on Reddit.

(41:37):
I, you know, I hate to alwaysbe like, you know, talking
bad about, you know, I thinklike the group think on,
on there and other, maybeother sites too is just that
my cast iron is like this delicate thing.
It's, it's, it's iron, youknow, it's like the most
un delicate thing in the world.
It's like they, they, I probablyhave said this in the past,

(42:01):
they find iron tools fromlike 300 years ago that
just need the rust to be
removed. And they're,yeah. And they're working
- Again.
But I think, so first of all, it's not
that you don't baby it.
We do, I think we take prettygood care of the cast iron.
We don't ever, like,
I would never let a castiron sit in the sink filled
with water to like soakand remove the bits on it.

(42:23):
It gets washed immediately.
It, we always put, I usually u
actually use like a tablespoonof olive oil to re season it
after it's clean and dried.
- So the people who baby it,they will not use any soap
or any abrasive material.
They will put hot waterin the pan. Mm-Hmm.

(42:43):
boil it. Yes.The contents will come out
that may maybe they'll like
smooth it out with a wooden spoon.
It'll come out and thenthey'll just dry it. Yeah.
And basically if you havea real seasoning Mm-Hmm.
, like, kind ofthe way I did the pizza steel,
you will supposedly have a cast iron pan
that is smooth enough to cook fish
and the fish won't stick. Yeah.

(43:04):
- No, I've, I've heard that too. So,
- But a lot of times, like thecheaper cast iron pans like
lodge and like the, the Noname brands,
they will be a little rough.
So you'll have to kind of sandthat bottom down to get that,
because they're lookingfor that smooth like,
baby's butt finish,you know, with the oil.
Like there's like videos andthey put an egg in the pan.
Mm-Hmm. andit's like moves around. Yeah.

(43:25):
Like, kind of like they'retrying to make a cast iron
to perform like a non-stick.
- Like a non-stick. Yeah. Yeah.
- Well, TOMM, thanks for the question
and for all of you out there,we appreciate you listening.
I know I mentioned Patreonearly on does don't feel bad if
you're not, if you're not, uh,
if you don't wanna subscribe to it.
But that is where we'reputting extra episodes.

(43:46):
And this one specificallytiming, we figured there's,
there's just too much on, onthe remaining bit of the list.
Leave your questions [e-mail].
Tara, you got anything to add?
- No, just keep sendingthe questions over. Yeah.
We love them and welove reading your emails
and even though if we don'trespond to every one of them,

(44:09):
we do love reading them. So thank you.
- And same thing goes for the comments on
that you leave on the YouTubeversion of this, uh, episode.
We read all the comments.
So basically this podcast hasbeen us starting over again,
almost in the sense that I wrongly thought
that the audience on the cooking channel
that's almost 800,000subs was going to want

(44:31):
to hear me do a podcastand that was wrong.
Mm-Hmm. , right,Tara? Yeah. It was wrong.
Now we put those episodesin the beginning.
If you recall, the first few episodes
of this podcast were on the main channel
and people were getting mad.
So this is why this isa separate channel here.
And the same thing. I wronglythought that we have almost

(44:53):
2 million people go intoour website each month.
We thought that by puttingthe podcast in the main menu,
that a lot of peoplewere gonna wanna listen
to the podcast when they werefinding us for recipes online.
That was also a wrong assumption. Mm-Hmm.
- . It's different audiences.
- Very different audiences.That's what it is.
So what I'm trying to say hereis we appreciate you Yeah.

(45:14):
Listening to this. Weappreciate you watching this.
Depending on which way youconsume this, this is a thing
until itself, even though it's part
of the sip and feast universe.
Mm-hmm. It is definitelya separate entity.
- For sure.- For
- Sure.
So if you have friends thatyou know, like to listen
to food related podcasts

(45:36):
and you wanna spread the word, please do.
So we would really muchappreciate that. Yeah.
- But we, we, we try notto be like, I'm, try not
to be super blunt about it.
A lot of people watchingthe cooking videos
might not even know we have a podcast.
I'm not gonna like, spend five minutes
of the cooking videopromoting the podcast.
Yeah. So thank you. We willsee you Of course next week.

(45:57):
We intend to be doing this fora long time because I said it
before, I actually likedoing this more probably
than anything else we do.
Tara.
- Well, you certainlyare very good at talking
for a very long period of time.
Oh, .
- And I know that that mightnot be what you love the most,
but maybe other people do.

(46:18):
- I like listening, soI think I am a good,
we're like a yin and yang over here.
Yeah. You know? Yeah.
- And that's another thing too.
All of this or this might be, uh,
changing in the not too distant future.
We're thinking chairs. Yeah.
- I would like to be way morecasual. I feel like I'm what
- You do you know what these mics on,
- Like the weekend update with Yeah.

(46:39):
Kevin Neen or, well,
- These mics are like, you have to like,
like I'm constantly feel like I'm leaning
- In here.
Yeah. I kind of wanna sit in a chair
and like have a cup of coffee
and be a little bit more cozy. Yeah.
- If you have ideas forthat too, please yeah.
- Let- Us know. Yeah, let us know.
We'll see you next time. Thanks.