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A citrus supreme is a segment of citrus fruit that has been carefully peeled and cut from the rest of the fruit in such a way that it retains its natural shape, but has been trimmed of all pith and connective membranes.
Cutting citrus fruit into supremes exposes the shiny, jewel-like surface of the individual segments for a beautiful presentation that doesn’t include the often bitter or chewy membranes. They’re a great garnish, particularly for salads and desserts.
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“En croute” is a French phrase meaning “in crust.” It is used to describe food (usually meat or seafood) that has been wrapped in dough or puff pastry prior to baking. It’s a great way to enjoy roasted whole fish.
Examples of classic en croute dishes include salmon en croute and Beef Wellington (usually beef tenderloin covered with duxelles and/or pate before being wrapped in puff pastry). En croute pates & mousses are also available. |
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The term “airline breast” is one primarily used by butchers and chefs, here’s what it means:
An airline breast is a game bird or poultry breast (often chicken) that has not been entirely deboned. Though the rib cage has been removed, the largest bone in the wing (closest to the breast) has been left attached, and frenched for better presentation.
What is an airline breast for?
The airline breast is an older, more elegant style of presentation, where the bone is used to add color and shape to the plate (not unlike the frenched bones on racks of meat and bone-in rib chops). If you’re fabricating your own poultry (or your butcher is willing to cut them for you), consider giving it a try to add an unusual, classic look to your dinner. If roasting them, you may need to wrap the bone in foil for part of the cooking process to keep it from burning. |
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Though they’re commonly called roots because they tend to grow under ground, not all edible roots are technically roots (meaning they have no leaves and usually act as anchors and food gathering/storage facilities). Others are actually stems.
Types of edible stems include:
Rhizomes – underground stems that tend to grow horizontally and send off both roots and shoots as they grow.
Corms – a specific kind of stem that has developed exclusively to store starch to protect against environmental changes such as drought.
Tubers – an enlarged type of stem called a stolon also used in food storage (but that can also be used to propogate crops).
Does it matter from a home chef’s perspective? Not really. Only a single stem/root type tends to be used from each plant and each plant has its own characteristics, so it’s usually just easier to make culinary plans based on the ingredient.
Still, it gives foodies and botanists something to talk about.
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Sacrificing or “a sacrifice” are pastry chef terms used to refer to a sponge-cake technique where a small portion of egg whites is mixed into the batter before the rest are carefully folded in.
Any cake recipe that gets its primary leavening (if not all its leavening) from whipped egg whites is defined as a sponge cake. Because the fat in egg yolks retards egg whites’ ability to fluff up into a stable foam, the egg yolks are beaten separately with most of the sweeteners and the flour, fats and flavorings. Just prior to baking, the whipped egg whites are folded into the rest of the cake batter, so that there will be as much air trapped in the batter (via the foam) as possible.
However, because the yolk-based batter is rather dense relative to the fluffy egg whites, it can force a lot of air out of the foam during the folding process. To help combat this, a small percentage of the egg white foam is mixed (rather than folded) into the batter first. This lightens the batter’s consistency, but also wastes most of the air trapped in that portion..hence the term “sacrifice.”
It is believed by many pastry chefs that the now lightened batter allows the rest of the foam to be more easily folded in, resulting in a fluffier cake.
Sacrificing is also sometimes used when folding whipped cream into dishes. |
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Silver skin is a butchery term referring to a type of connective tissue found in most animals. Its name is very descriptive: to find the silver skin you need only look for a thin membrane with a silvery sheen. Though you probably won’t find much on steaks and chops, larger cuts (like tenderloins, kurobuta pork shoulders, and leg of lamb) are likely to have some still attached. Where it shows up depends on the type of meat and cut you’re working with, but it should always be removed as much as possible.
Why is it important to remove silver skin?
Unlike other connective tissue like collagen (which dissolves into gelatin, imparting flavor and better “mouth feel”), silver skin does not break down when cooked. As the protein in your meat coagulates, it contracts, pulling the silver skin with it. The silverskin becomes extremely tough and unpleasantly chewy. Silver skin is usually easier to remove prior to cooking, and taking it off will result in a far more pleasant eating experience.
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A china cap is a tool used in many restaurant kitchens. It is a large holed (like a colander) strainer with a stick-shaped handle on one side. It is significantly larger than the strainers found in most home kitchens and has an unusual shape, looking like a long metal cone that tapers into a point. Chefs use china caps most often to strain things out of stocks, soups, and sauces.
The china cap’s shape focuses all the ingredients too big to pass through into the middle, making it easy for additional liquid to be squeezed out of them. Its large size allows it to be used for straining veal stock or chicken stock, where the residual ingredients can include large marrow bones or whole chicken carcasses.
The china cap has a similarly shaped, finer meshed cousin called the chinois. |
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Manufacturing Cream is cream with a fat content at or above 40% (most heavy cream sold in grocery stores tops out at around 36% percent fat).
This higher fat content gives the cream better flavor, a smoother texture, a lower risk of curdling or burning, and more stability when whipped or churned. Because of this, it is usually free from the artificial stablizers often added to lighter creams.
While most home chefs have never seen manufacturing cream in stores (unless they shop at wholesale warehouse stores or restaurant supply stores), they’ve almost certainly consumed it in ultra-premium ice cream or fine-dining restaurant cream sauces, soups & desserts. Like real butter and more salt, manufacturing cream is one of the simple secrets of fabulous restaurant food.
Though it may take some effort, consider tracking some down for your next homemade dessert. It won’t necessarily be better for you, but it will be tastier! |
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No. No matter how many times you see them on menus in dishes like ”wild mushroom quesadillas” or “____ with wild mushrooms” shitakes, criminis and portobellas, while tasty, are not wild. Certainly they were wild once, just like most of our now cultivated food, but the modern versions of these mushrooms are no more wild than broccoli.
For an explanation of why wild foods are exciting, read What is a Wild Food?
Curious what mushroom varieties actually ARE wild? Browse our fresh wild mushrooms, dried wild mushrooms, and frozen wild mushrooms to find out! |
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Cleaning a cast iron skillet can usually be done with a stiff brush or sponge without soap. Using soap can remove the cast iron’s seasoning, which is important to protect because it imparts flavor, improves browning, and gives the pan its semi-non-stick properties.
However, every once in a while hot water and a brush isn’t enough. To more thoroughly clean your skillet without damaging its seasoning:
1. Pour in a bunch of kosher salt. |
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In classical cusine, bone-in cuts of meat like racks and bone-in rib chops are often served with the bones exposed. These bones, depending on how the meat was prepared, can be bright white or a darker, roasted color. Though in some preparations (as in lamb “lollipops”) these bones are intended for use as a handle, they’re usually just there for decoration.
“Frenching” is the chef/butcher term for using a sharp knife to scrape all the connective tissue from the surface of the bones. It can be very time consuming depending on the cut of meat involved and your level of experience. Meat that is labelled as “Frenched” has already had the work done for you by an expert butcher, saving you time and giving you a great result every time. Most of the racks that Marx Foods sells have already been pre-frenched for your convenience.
“Denuded” cuts take frenching one step further and have had their surface fat removed, so the exposed bone runs clean down to the eye of the meat. |
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Malossol is a Russian word that roughly translates to “little salt.” It’s a caviar term that describes a style of caviar rather than caviar from a specific fish. It refers to varieties that have a lower salt content than is commonly used (traditional Russian caviar tends to be between 3.5 and 4 percent salt, but Malossol caviar contains 2.8 to 3 percent salt). Caviar fans tend to prefer malossol varieties because they allow the full flavor of the roe to shine through and because traditionally only the highest grade of roe is used for malossol caviars.
Because of this, you’ll also sometimes see “malassol caviar” used as a catch-all term referring to the very finest caviar of a given species. |
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A potato ricer is a kitchen tool that forces cooked potatoes through a bunch of small holes. It works similarly to a garlic press, just on a larger scale.
Why would you use a potato ricer?
Pressing chunks of boiled potato through a ricer breaks them down into small clumps that can be easily mashed. Because the potatoes haven’t been beaten with a mixer, they are lighter and fluffier (as long as you don’t over-mash them after ricing). Try using a ricer with heirloom potatoes (particularly German Butterball potatoes or Yellow Finn potatoes) to really take your mashers to the next level.
Many chefs prefer to use a food mill for the same task, as it also has a variety of other uses in the kitchen. |
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Center cut is a butchery term that refers to steaks, chops and other cuts of meat that come from only the middle portion of the primal or muscle.
Why Do Some People Demand Center Cut Meat?
If you look at whole tenderloins, ribeye rolls, or racks, you’ll see that they taper off and are smaller on the ends. The center of these cuts offers the most uniform steaks and chops. For some people, particularly some chefs, it is very important that every cut of meat in the case has the exact same appearance, shape, and size. Ordering center-cut portions gives them uniformity.
Is Center Cut Really Better?
The end cuts are the exact same meat, and therefore the same quality, so buying center cut meat is only really necessary if you need uniform portions. |
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There are several types of flour on the market, and you may have wondered what cake flour is, or what’s the difference between bread flour and AP flour. The difference between most flours is protein content. Often, but not always, the higher protein content a flour has, the more potential gluten can be produced. Lower protein flours tend to be better suited to soft applications, while higher protein flowers tend to be better for breads.
Here are the different wheat flours presented in order of protein content (least to most), followed by information on more unusual flour varieties & wheat alternative flours:
Weak Flours (Least Protein):
Medium Flours:
Hard Flours aka Strong Flours (Most Protein):
Wheat Flour Variations:
Wheat-Alternative Flours:
As a high root volume grain, it has been shown to draw higher amounts of vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidents out of the soil than conventional wheat. Some people with wheat allergies tolerate it better, but it is still not recommended for gluten-intolerant people (celiacs).
Spelt can be used in bread making as a wheat substitute. We recommend using 25% less water than the wheat bread recipe calls for, and keeping mixing (kneading) times under 4 minutes. Because of its different gluten/gliadin structure, after the four minute mark spelt doughs can loose their rising structure.
We also sell organic whole emmer berries and organic whole spelt berries for bakers looking to grind their own flour from scratch. Because both of these grains are harder than wheat (Emmer particularly so), expect a finer grind consistency in your resulting flour. |
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Folklore says fresh oysters should only be eaten in the non-summer months—months with the letter R. One article I found says it’s a big myth, goes back to the days when oysters were shipped without adequate refrigeration and could spoil. What happens in May, June, July and August? According to the Seattle P.I., this is when oysters spawn, using all their energy doing their “business”. This results in a tired, flaccid, not-so-delicious oyster… that’s ok to eat, just not at its prime. What do you think? |
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Though it sounds fancy, it’s really quite simple: aspic is savory gelatin. Aspic used to be used more often in European cuisine, but is now rather rare. It’s usually made from gelled stock, although any liquid can be used. Some varieties of stock will gel on their own if cooled, while other liquids will need extra gelatin dissolved in them first. The texture of aspic can be smooth, silky, and delicate, or firm (aka sliceable aspic) like gelatin desserts.
In the past, aspic was sometimes used in elaborate decorative platters, but now is most often used as a binder for cooked meats like headcheese, or to add shine to the surface of traditionally made pates & mousses. |
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There’s no disputing that ghost peppers (aka naga jolokia, bhut jolokia, naga morich) are the world’s hottest chilies. Guinness says so. Still, people want to know more about them. We get a lot of calls asking how many ghost chilies are in a pound, and many calls asking just how hot they really are.
In short, they’re really really hot. On the scoville heat scale they come in between 855,000 and 1050,000 units. The only thing higher on the scale is pure capsaicin (the stuff that makes chilies hot). To give you an idea of how hot that is, here are some (very) rough chile to chile comparisons:
Each ghost pepper is roughly as hot as:
Because dried chilies are an agricultural product their heat level can vary considerably from chile to chile, so we can only offer this imprecise comparison, but it should give you a rough idea of how hot ghost peppers are.
So, are ghost peppers too hot? Well, it depends on what you’re planning to do with them. If you’re planning on putting them in your mouth right out of the bag…yes, they’re probably too hot. However, used carefully, they bring controllable heat and a surprising fruity sweetness to dishes, homemade hot sauce, and even homemade spiced vodka.
If grinding ghost chilies into homemade chili powder, you and anyone else in the room probably want to wear eye and mouth protection. If making a lot, you should consider buying pre-ground ghost chili powder and saving yourself a lot of potential sneezing (read more: should I buy chili powder or grind my own?).
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Yes, you can freeze live mussels for up to three months (although they won’t be alive after freezing). Frozen mussels should be used within 2 days of thawing. We’ve given you directions for freezing them in the shell below, although you can easily adapt this to freeze them out of the shell (ignore step 2 below) or on the half-shell.
How to Freeze Live Mussels: 1. Test the mussels for signs of life: First discard any that are cracked or more than slightly open. Then tap any open mussels firmly…if they do not slowly close, they’re dead and should be discarded. Finally, hold each closed mussel in your hand separately. If any feel significantly heavier than the others, they are probably filled with mud and should also be discarded.
2. Clean the mussels: Scrub the surface of the mussels with a tough wire brush. Pull off their “beards” (clear tendrils on the outside of the mussel). Ordinarily we do not recommend removing beards until just before cooking, as it quickly kills the mussels and reduces their shelf life, but as you’ll be freezing them anyway, you might as well do it now.
3. Lay out the mussels individually on a sheet pan in your freezer: You can also just throw them in an air-tight container if you don’t mind your mussels freezing into a clump, but freezing individually can also reduce their freezing time, leading to a better texture/flavor later (read How to Freeze Better at Home for more info).
If you’re worried about the mussels sticking to the pan, put a sheet of wax paper between them and the metal.
4. Once the mussels have frozen, place them in a freezer bag for storage. Make sure to get as much air out as possible, and clearly label them with the date frozen.
How to Thaw Frozen Mussels: At any point in three months you can easily thaw your mussels by moving them to the fridge from your freezer (if you’ve frozen them individually, they’ll be easier to thaw a few at a time) and letting them thaw slowly. If you’re in a hurry, you can use the running water thawing method, but because shellfish are so perishable, we recommend the fridge if you have the time. Use your thawed mussels within two days.
Related Posts: Mussels Mariniere Recipe (aka Moules Mariniere)
- Question submitted by David |
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Multi cooker steam pots (for those who aren’t familiar with them) are a common pot set including:
1. a large deep pot (often called a stock pot by home chefs),
How to use a multi-cooker pot: The large pot can be used on its own for stocks, soups, & stews, just as you would any other large pot, but combining it with the strainer can make boiling food safer and much more convenient.
No more pouring your food out with the boiling hot water into a strainer sitting in your sink, you just lift the strainer up (slowly) from the pot, and leave the water behind. Not only does this keep your food from escaping during the pour, it’s also less likely to break delicate food (we recommend this setup for cooking Nuovo ravioli).
Of course, you don’t have to just use it to boil pasta. Potatoes, vegetables, meat and poultry are all much easier to drain this way. Pot strainers are a great way to lift the bones & vegetables out of your next batch of homemade chicken stock or veal stock…you’re much less likely to splash yourself than other methods.
You can absolutely use your steamer basket at the same time to save stove space and harness all that wasted steam. Just remember that the food you’re boiling and the food you’re steaming will likely be done at different times, so test them separately. I wouldn’t recommend just using the steamer without boiling food, as you’ll have to heat more water than you’d use in a smaller pot.
Steaming requires no cooking fat, so it’s a great way to eat healthy and enjoy the pure flavor of your ingredients. However, some chefs do put some butter atop vegetables in the basket, which can melt into a glaze (although some will obviously end up in your water below).
Some Simple Steam & Boil Dishes: Pasta Primavera – Boil the pasta of your choice in the pot below, and steam a mix of fresh veggies above. Sweat some finely diced garlic in a large frying pan, and when the pasta & veggies are just done toss them with the garlic. You could also use a basic alfredo sauce (butter, cream & parmigiano reggiano) or add cooked poultry, sausage, or shrimp.
Seafood Pasta – Use the steamer basket to cook fresh clams or fresh mussels. First wash & scrub them in the shell and discard any cracked ones, abnormally heavy ones (might have mud inside) or open ones that do not close when tapped.
Steam them just until they open (if any do not open, throw those out). Their juices will run down into your pasta water (to better capture these, cook the shellfish in a separate pot instead). Toss in or out of the shell with your pasta, a little sweated garlic, parsley and butter. You could also steam fish fillets in your basket if you’re only cooking for a few people.
Couscous – Traditional couscous steamers (couscoussière) actually have a similar design…all you have to do is line your steamer insert with damp cheesecloth. Cook a stew below and use the flavorful steam to cook your couscous above. You’ll want to use non-instant couscous for this (no boil & cover box varieties). A Moroccan chef-instructor once cooked couscous from scratch for me using a steamer setup, and it makes a huge difference.
Steamed Dumplings – The steamer basket is the perfect place to cook all sorts of steamed dumplings, you don’t need to buy a bamboo steamer. For some dumpling varieties you may want to put a layer of muslin on the bottom of the basket to keep them from sticking and tearing.
Other Quick Tips:
- Question submitted by Sharon |
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Both Tahitian vanilla beans and bourbon vanilla beans (aka Madagascar vanilla beans) will last for a year or more if stored properly (what’s the best way to store vanilla beans?). |
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Consomme is a almost perfectly clear soup, often simply garnished with a few small vegetable cubes, croutons, or served plain. This classic French dish is prized for its clarity of appearance and flavor. You may have had consomme before and wondered how chefs make it. The complexity of the classic technique may surprise you.
Consomme is essentially good stock, often chicken stock, that has been clarified. This method of clarification can also be used for fish stock, veal stock, vegetable stock or even some juices. Despite the name, this technique is very different than clarifying butter.
Parts of a Clarification Mixture for Consomme:
Clarifying liquid for consomme is made using a mixture called “clearmeat” or “clarification” and its primary ingredient is egg whites. To these egg whites are added mirepoix (chopped carrot, celery and onion), herbs and spices, lean ground meat if a meat stock is being clarified, and sometimes an acidic element.
Egg Whites: cook in the stock while it is heated on the stove. Being light, they will rise to the top and form what is called a “raft” floating on the surface. The interweaving fibres of cooked egg white will form a natural filter, that will collect the impurities in the stock as they bubble up through small holes and then flow back down through the raft.
Mirepoix, Herbs/Spices & Meat: These ingredients fortify the flavor of the stock while it’s being clarified, so that the consomme has a stronger taste in addition to a more beautiful appearance. The herbs and spices used are often the same as those used to make the original stock (parsley stems, black or Tellicherry peppercorns, thyme, cloves, and bay leaves), though different chefs have different opinions.
Acidic Element: Tomato paste, wine, or lemon juice can be added to the clearmeat mixture. It is believed that this can help the egg white coagulation for a stronger, better filtering raft. Not all chefs do this, particularly because it can effect the flavor of the finished consomme.
The stock is placed in a pot on the stove, the clearmeat mixture is whipped together and then added to the stock, which is then simmered. Once the raft appears, the chef pokes a hole in it if one doesn’t form naturally, and allows the stock to simmer until it has become crystal clear. The clearmeat mixture is then discarded, and the consomme is usually filtered through a chinois or other similar fine mesh strainer. If beads of fat are still floating on the surface (often the result of a stock made with meat where the fat wasn’t completely trimmed) the chef may draw strips of absorbant material (like a clean paper towel or coffee filter) across the surface to try to grab them. |
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A food mill is a hand-crank driven device that home chefs used to use before the food processor became popular. Their job is essentially breaking food down into smaller pieces without turning it into a puree. Commercial chefs still use them because of the level of control they provide.
Professional chefs often use food mills for culinary tasks like breaking down sauces and soups with large chunks (like bolognese sauce), making rougher textured apple sauce, and mashing potatoes. Food mills make mashed potatoes that are of similar quality to those produced using a ricer, but also can be used to do many other tasks, so many chefs tend to prefer them to ricers unless they’re mashing a lot of potatoes on a regular basis.
Parts of a Food Mill:
1. The base. The food mill base is usually made of metal, and is shaped like a giant, wide-mouthed funnel. Better food mills have braces, feet, or clamps that allow them to rest on top of pots and mixing bowls.
2. The die. Food mills come with multiple dies, which are metal disks that fit (one at a time) into the mouth of the base. Each die has holes in it that look a bit like a cheese grater, and different dies have different sized holes. This allows you to better control the consistency of your finished product.
3. The crank & screw. The final piece of all food mills is a hand crank with a screw-like scraping device attached. This attaches to the top of the food mill base and presses down on the die. As you turn the crank, whatever food is sitting in the food mill will be scraped against the bladed holes on the die, breaking it down into smaller pieces by pushing it through the holes. |
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Grind your own chile powder for best flavor:
In general we recommend buying your own whole dried chili peppers and grinding them before each recipe you make for their ideal flavor (see our homemade chili powder recipe). Once chili powder has been ground, more of the chilies’ surface area is exposed to air. Over time, oxidation decreases the chilies’ flavor and potency (which is the same reason why you should buy whole spices instead of pre-ground). In addition, buying dried chiles in their whole state allows you to do other things with them beyond simple powder, like rehydrating them for recipes or making chile pastes.
Buy pre-ground chile powder for convenience and less sneezing:
There are times when we would recommend buying pre-ground chile powders instead. If you will be using a lot of chile powder in a short period of time (making your own spice blends or spice rubs, for example), pre-ground powder will save you a lot of effort.
Grinding chilies can also send particles of chile into the air, which (depending on the variety) can be painful if they get into your nose, mouth, or eyes. We strongly recommend eye, nose, and mouth protection when grinding the super-hot ghost chilies, for example. Buying pre-ground ghost chili powder will keep you from having to deal with all of that, and may be worth the slight reduction in potency (besides, with ghost chilies, who’s going to notice? They’re the world’s hottest chile by a mile).
Make sure you’re buying high quality chile powders:
While it’s easy to find chili powder in your grocery store, read the ingredients carefully. There may be fillers or chemicals involved. In addition, it may be a blend of different chilies. Homemade blended chili powders are great, but in the store it’s hard to tell from the ingredients list how much of any chili is in there, and as such you don’t know how spicy or fruity it’s going to be until you’ve tried it. Single variety chili powders are made from a single kind of chile, so it’s easy to tell how hot they’re going to be by looking at a chili heat scale.
Our bulk chile powders are made from single varieties of ground chilies, and nothing else. They contain no added chemicals, anticaking agents, or fillers, so you know exactly what you’re getting and how it’s going to taste. Blending them is easy (just pick your proportions and mix them together) and allows you to add milder varieties for depth of flavor or hotter varieties for additional heat. |
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To a chef, a mandoline is not a musical instrument (”mandolin”), but instead a bladed device used for slicing things thinly and evenly (primarily produce). Using a mandoline involves pressing the item to be cut against the back of the mandoline (made of metal or plastic) and drawing it down, while maintaining pressure, across an adjustable blade. Used properly, mandolines can rapidly and accurately produce thin or thick slices of produce, often at precise thicknesses difficult for a home chef to consistently slice by hand. They’re great for making everything from carrot coins to homemade chips from heirloom potatoes (taro, lotus & potato chips recipe).
There are two mandoline designs in common use:
V-Slicer or Japanese Mandoline A lot of chefs prefer Japanese style or v-slicer mandolines to traditional mandolines because they are very simple, very light, and usually very affordable. A v-slicer is usually a plastic board with an adjustable v-shaped bladed slit in the top, although versions with an angled, straight blade exist (often called mandolines or Japanese mandolines).
Traditional Mandoline Traditional mandolines are more versatile than v-slicers, but they are also more complicated in their construction (more parts to clean, take apart/put back together, and potentially lose) and significantly more expensive. Their blades are straight rather than v-shaped, and often have two sides that can be used (one straight, one wavy for ridged cuts and waffle cut fries). Some traditional mandolines also have vertical blades that can be attached and adjusted for cutting strips (like batonnet or julienne) as well as slices.
An Important Note About Mandoline Safety Mandolines and v-slicers come with hand guards. They are not for show. Though you may see chefs in restaurants (and occasionally even on TV) use them without hand guards, this isn’t really a good idea. Mandolines, because of the force involved, the slipperiness of washed and peeled produce, and the angle and sharpness of the blades, can be extremely dangerous if not used properly. If you simply cannot stand using the hand guard, we recommend you at least wear a kevlar “cut-proof” glove. |
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The definition of the word crepinette varies depending on where you are. The one part that is always true is that it involves caul fat, which is called “crepine” in French (hence crepinette). Traditionally in Europe a crepinette is a small, flat sausage encased in caul fat. They are frequently served with potatoes, or sometimes used to stuff lean game meats and poultry to add extra fat and flavor. The filling is usually a smooth “forcemeat” (a kind of meat mousse) flavored with parsley, spices, and sometimes truffles.
In American fine dining restaurants the term can be found on menus describing anything wrapped in caul fat prior to cooking, from roulades to veal rib chops. |
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So you’ve done the right thing. Instead of paying $5+ per bean in a grocery store, you bought your vanilla beans in bulk. Unlike most grocery store beans, they are moist and supple…almost like raisins, but now you’re worried that they might dry out and lose their delicious flavor. Here’s how to protect them:
How to Store Vanilla Beans:
Vanilla beans should be stored in an air-tight container with as little air contact as possible. Methods we recommend are:
Best Quality: Vacuum packed. If you have access to a vacuum packing machine, use it to package all the vanilla beans you aren’t planning on using in the next few months. We recommend splitting your beans amongst multiple small bags so that you don’t have to repackage over and over as you draw from your vanilla bean supply.
Most Useful: Packed in sugar. Packing your vanilla beans in sugar will protect them from the air and excess humidity, while imparting a pleasing vanilla scent (and a little flavor) to the sugar (See our Vanilla Scented Sugar Recipe). We recommend using superfine sugar for this, as it will pack in more tightly around the beans and dissolves faster in beverages (which are a great place to use your vanilla scented sugar). Organic evaporated cane juice would also be a good choice, if you want more organic vanilla sugar. After you’ve used the seeds from a vanilla bean, you can return the leftover outer vanilla pod (wash it first if necessary) to the sugar, where it will continue to impart additional vanilla scent and flavor.
Easiest Method: Tightly Wrapped in Plastic Wrap and a Zip-Top Bag. Though perhaps the least-effective recommended way to keep air from getting to your beans, this is the easiest method. Simply tightly wrap your beans in bundles using plastic wrap, and then put those bundles in a zip top bag. Press as much of the air out of the bag as you possibly can, and seal the bag. |
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You may have seen natural sausage casings for sale (perhaps in our trim meat for sausage making section), packaged by the hank and asked yourself “what the heck is a hank?”
In sausage-making terms, a hank is essentially a coil or bundle of sausage casings. The amount of casings in each coil can vary from store to store, but in our case, each hank should be sufficient to make about 100lbs of homemade sausage links.
We offer both pork casings (used for most single-serving sausages) and smaller lamb casings (often used for breakfast-sausage sized links). Natural casings are prized by quality butchers and dedicated charcuterie hobbiests because they provide a firm natural wrapping for the finished sausage (artificial casings don’t have the same mouth feel). |
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Caul fat (aka caul fat netting, fat netting) is a fatty membrane that is found wrapped around internal organs in several animals. It looks like a thin, semi-elastic clear sheet with veins of fat running through it. It is a natural wrapping material used to encase food prior to cooking to hold ingredients on to its surface, keep it from coming apart (for example in a roulade or crepinette), or simply to keep it moist. The fat melts during cooking and the membrane shrinks slightly to adhere to the surface of the food. It is generally unnoticed by diners as part of the finished result unless they really know what to look for. |
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Pre-ground spices are very popular because they’re convenient. What a lot of people don’t realize is that convenience can come at the cost of flavor.
The problem is that spices lose their potency faster the more they’re exposed to air. When you take a spice and grind it, you’re dramatically increasing its surface area, and therefore the amount of exposure. Add to this the fact that supermarket spices often sit on shelves for a long time before being purchased, and you’ve got a good idea of what you’re really giving up when you reach for that pre-ground nutmeg.
In fact, some spices like allspice and nutmeg begin to lose flavor minutes after being ground or grated, so you should always buy whole allspice and whole nutmeg. Try the the pregrated stuff side by side with some you’ve just grated yourself, and you’ll notice a big difference.
Finally, when spices have been pre-ground you can’t tell what quality they were to begin with. Buying whole spices allows you to be sure you’re getting the good stuff.
Working with whole spices is easier than you think. Read how to grind whole spices for directions. |
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Converting fresh mushroom recipes to using dried mushrooms is pretty easy. It takes an average of 9lbs of fresh mushrooms to make a pound of high quality dried mushrooms, so all you need is some very basic math:
If your recipe specifies a number of pounds, use this equation:
If your recipe asks for ounces, use this equation:
If your recipe asks for cups, use this equation:
Dried wild mushrooms are a great way to enjoy mushroom varieties anytime that may only be available fresh for a month each year. And of course, they’re also significantly lighter without all that water weight, so they’re cheaper to ship, and reconstituting dried mushrooms is really easy. They’re also non-perishable, so they won’t take up fridge space and they’ll stay good for over a year in an airtight container in a cupboard. |
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Looking at a chili heat chart will show you that measuring chile heat is not an exact science. Not only is the scoville scale somewhat subjective, but chile heat can vary wildly within a specific species. The best way to avoid over-hot chilies is to pick a milder chili to begin with, but if you end up with an unusually hot batch, here are two things you can do to cool the chilies down:
1. Remove the seeds: The capsaicin in chilies (what makes them spicy) evolved as a defense measure to keep creatures (other than birds, which are immune) from eating them. (Evolutionarily speaking, chilies ”want” birds to eat them, as birds can help sow a chile plant’s seeds further as they fly.) It is particularly concentrated in the seeds, so making sure you remove every last seed can dramatically reduce the heat of your chilies.
2. Remove the ribs: Inside each chili are several ribs that give it structure. These can be unpleasant to eat because of their texture, but they also carry a lot of the chile’s capsaicin.
Marx Foods offers a full line of dried chilies so you can find just the variety you need for a specific recipe. If you’re going to be using a lot of chili powder, rather than grinding your own (how to grind chili powder) consider our single chile variety chili powders, perfect for homemade spice blends as well as use as ingredients. |
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When you take food off the stove or out of the oven, it continues to be hot (unless you shock it). While it’s cooling down, it will continue to cook. This is called “carry-over cooking,” and understanding how it works and using it carefully can greatly improve the quality of your food.
Meat: When cooking meat, particularly larger cuts like racks and tenderloins, assume that the meat will continue to increase in temperature 5-10 degrees out of the oven before it begins to cool down. Smaller cuts, like steaks, have less thermal mass and so usually carry over cook less while resting. This will happen while you’re resting the meat (you do rest meat prior to slicing it, right?), so if you pull your roast out of the oven at your target temperature, it will be overdone by the time you eat it.
Careful management of this residual heat will allow you to hit your ideal level of doneness every time. Just use a thermometer to check your meat’s temperature, and remove it from the heat when it’s 5-10 degrees away from where you want it to be when you eat it.
Vegetables: Veggies continue to cook off the heat as well, and they can very quickly go from fresh and vibrant to overcooked if you aren’t careful. If you’re planning on serving your vegetables cooked but cold, take care to shock them once they’re cooked to your liking. If you’ll be serving your vegetables (particularly green vegetables) hot, consider cooking them almost to your liking. The veggies will continue cooking as they make their way to the table. Keep in mind that covering them while hot will cause them to steam themselves, so if you’re going to be doing that, plan for them to cook more.
Desserts: Most cakes and pies should be removed from the oven when they’re done, not before. Pulling a cake out early can keep its structure from setting properly, leading to sagging (or worse, outright collapse). However, there are some exceptions where using carryover cooking can really work to your advantage.
Custards, particularly creme brulee, are tricky to carry-over cook. Pull them too early and they won’t finish setting up at all. That said, if you do it correctly, pulling JUST before they’re completely set and leaving them in their water bath to cool down slowly, your custard will still set, but with a softer, creamier texture that will have guests and family members swooning. Cheesecakes also need to carryover cook, but the purpose is less to finish cooking them and more to keep them from cooling down too quickly. A fast cooling cheesecake is a cracking cheesecake, so always leave cheesecakes in their water baths to slow the cooling process. |
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A quenelle is a culinary shape, not a specific ingredient or food. The quenelle shape looks something like a curved, oval football. Quenelles are made by passing a smooth and creamy substance back and forth between two spoons, scooping the mixture out (and thus shaping it) with each pass.
They’re often found on fine dining dessert menus and made of ice cream, firm whipped cream, ganache or other creamy substances. However, they can also be made from savory ingredients (and are a great way to show off homemade compound butter), and in fact they originated as poached dumplings made from spiced meat or seafood.
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Shocking is a chef’s technique that is primarily used with fresh vegetables. The term refers to a rapid change in temperature, usually caused by plunging the food into an ice bath. It most often used with veggies that are being steamed or boiled…particularly green vegetables.
Why do chefs shock vegetables?
This shock and reheat method is an important chefs’ technique that sets the color of green vegetables and helps preserve their texture, which is the main reason why vegetables are so crisp and bright in restaurants and often dark and limp at home. Shocking at home is an easy way to improve the quality of your vegetable side dishes. |
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Fond is the little brown bits that develop on the bottom of a pan during the cooking process. Essentially tiny bits of browned meat and vegetables, fond has a lot of flavor, and plays a very important role in traditional French pan sauces. In order to use fond as the foundation of your sauce, it must be deglazed from the hot pan using a liquid (often water, stock, or wine). That liquid can then be reduced, and other ingredients can be added to create a sauce.
Brown fond brings wonderful flavor to sauces, soups, and stews, but blackened fond will make them bitter and unpalatable. If you burn the fond, it is better to leave it out of your recipe by switching pans or using a different sauce recipe that doesn’t rely on fond and pan drippings for flavor. |
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Liquid smoke is exactly what it sounds like: liquid smoke. Wood chips are burned and the resulting smoke is condensed into a flavoring solution. It’s used to add smoky flavor to food as a cheaper, faster and more convenient alternative to smoking the food over wood chips.
Though there are many great uses for liquid smoke in the home (where actually smoking food over wood chips can be impractical) it is also used as a culinary shortcut by industrial food producers making products like low-cost bacon. Instead of spending money and time to smoke the bacon over actual wood, they instead inject it with liquid smoke…which doesn’t taste the same. Just one of many reasons why buying top quality bacon makes such a difference in flavor.
The quality and contents of liquid smoke can vary considerably from simple condensed smoke from specific wood chips (hickory, applewood, etc) to largely artificial products packed with additives, so you should take care to read the label before purchasing and using it. |
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This may seem like an odd term to have to define, but the word “soldiers” has begun to enter the American culinary lexicon with a different meaning and you may find it on a fine dining menu sometime soon.
A term originating in the UK, “soldiers” (aka “toast soldiers”) refers to to thin strips of buttered toast served with soft-boiled eggs. The idea is to dip the toast into the soft yolk. They are starting to show up on menus in the US for their original purpose, for dipping in other things, or as a stand in for the classic “toast points” served with some caviar or pate & rillettes appetizers, hors’d oeuvres, or amuse-bouches. |
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Most grade school children can tell you that pollen is a powdery substance that plants use to exchange genetic information. Pollen can be exchanged in a variety of ways: bees, bats, and the wind are some of the most common pollinators.
However, most people do not realize that some pollens can be potent cooking ingredients. Fennel pollen, for example, is fantastically delicious. It is pollen from the fennel plant, where we get fennel seeds and fennel bulbs. It can be used as a spice (like fennel seed) but has a much stronger fennel flavor, so a little goes a long way. It is commonly used in Italian dishes as a seasoning to finish dishes with. Simply sprinkle atop pasta or fish as you would use a finishing salt. Dill pollen is also available, and it tastes of very strong, and very clear dill. |
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We get asked this question quite a lot by customers looking to buy ghost chilies (aka Bhut Jolokia, Naga Jolokia, Naga Morich). Ghost chili peppers are the spiciest chili peppers on the planet, and a lot of people are excited to try them.
There are approximately 460 dried ghost chilies in a pound, and every one of them is very VERY hot (Scoville Heat rating of 855,000-1050,000, check out our chili heat scale to see how they compare to other chilies). Ghost Chile Powder is also available. |
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Compound butter is the chef’s term for butter that has been flavored. Many compound butters are savory (incorporating ingredients like chili powders, freshly ground whole spices, chopped herbs, flavored salts or fresh truffles) and used on meats, seafood, poultry and vegetables. However, sweet compound butters can also be made and are delicious on pancakes, waffles, etc (they’re often made with honey, nuts, mint, berries (huckleberries!), or vanilla beans).
Marx Foods offers high quality black truffle butter, and it’s easy to make other flavors at home following these Compound Butter Recipes. The basic technique is to soften unsalted butter, mash in your ingredients (cut into small pieces if necessary), and put the butter in the refrigerator to harden again. |
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Sadly, no. We can only offer these low prices by selling products in bulk. In addition, many of these products (for example, Kurobuta pork & high-grade Kobe Beef) are of a level of quality normally reserved for fine restaurants. As such, they are packaged for restaurants (by the case) and we cannot break cases. We do our best to offer as many size options as possible on each item, but we cannot go any smaller than what is currently available for sale on MarxFoods.com |
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Sure! Although ordering through the Marx Foods website is much faster. If you want to order over the phone, you will first need to contact us and request a credit card authorization form to be sent to you. Once you’ve filled it out and sent it back to us, we will be able to take your phone orders. |
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Yes, but it depends on what you are ordering. If your order contains several items from the same product category, give us a call, and we’ll see if we can group the items for more affordable shipping and pass on the savings. |
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When products ship depends a great deal on the product ordered and when your order was placed.
Perishable items are usually shipped after we receive your order, and sent overnight. However, you can also select the a later delivery date that works best for you when placing your order. Saturday delivery is also available in many areas for an additional fee.
Non-perishable items (like dried chili peppers) are shipped via ground shipping to save you money. If you would like your non-perishable items to be shipped using a faster method (for an additional fee), please contact us immediately after placing your order and we’ll see what we can do.
Someone must be present at the point of delivery in order to receive and sign for the order. |
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Sorry, but no. Our products are shipped directly from their sources to you for the best quality and lowest prices. As such, there’s no central place for you to come get them. We don’t have a retail store location, only a web store. |
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Certainly! In fact, we have access to well over 5,000 items, many of which are not currently featured on MarxFoods.com. If you’re looking for a special food item and don’t know where to find it, contact us, and we’ll do our best to source it for you. If you have any ideas for products we can add, please contact Katy at |
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Our products come to you from all over the world. For example, our kangaroo meat is from Australia, Nuovo gourmet pasta is made in Connecticut, our wild mushrooms are hand-foraged in the American Pacific Northwest, and our Palm Leaf Plates come from India. Our goal is to find the best food in the world, wherever it is, and make it available to you. |
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Sure! If you have an original recipe using a Marx Foods product that you don’t mind being reprinted or distributed, and would like to send it us to be considered for publishing on MarxFoods.com or the Marx Foods blog, please e-mail it to us at |
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Absolutely! Katy, our general manager, is happy to chat with you and answer any questions. Give our office a call at (866)588-Marx or e-mail her at |
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The Marx family has been selling these same quality products to fine restaurants for over a decade, but MarxFoods.com and its ability to sell to consumers is a relatively recent offshoot of the family’s restaurant supplier business.
Leveraging connections in the top-quality restaurant supply world, we are able to provide the very best gourmet foods, but most of them have to be packaged in restaurant-sized cases. Several of our perishable items arrive frozen and can be consumed right away, shared with friends and family, or stored in your freezer for later use. Many of our items are individually wrapped within the case for easy sharing, storing, and freezing. Some (like our Kobe beef steaks) have alreadybeen broken into individual portions for your convenience.
Though buying by the case may seem like a big expenditure, once you examine the contents on a per portion basis, comparing them to the cost of ordering the same ultra-fine foods in a restaurant, you’ll discover the substantial savings to be gained by buying in bulk. The number of servings in each order varies by product, but for example:
10 lbs or 1/2 Kobe beef burgers = 20 burgers
It is important to remember that these products are substantially higher quality than those found in your grocery store. They are regularly sold to expert chefs who will settle for nothing less than the very finest ingredients. For example, our dried porcini mushrooms are really wild and hand-foraged in the United States…most of the dried porcinis you find in your local mega mart were most likely grown in China and don’t look a thing like a mushroom. |
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If you’ve never used a vanilla bean before, and aren’t even positive you know what one looks like, you’re not alone. In grocery stores, vanilla beans sell by the each for $5 or more, so most home bakers have switched to vanilla extract. However, if you buy them by the lb., you can get more than 100 for less than $50 … and have a purer vanilla flavor. Plus, you can easily make your own vanilla extract.
Here’s why professional chefs use them:
1) They provide a more nuanced, complex flavor than extract without adding color & alcohol to dishes where they aren’t wanted (like custards & ice creams).
2) Their tiny seeds add a beautiful speckled appearance to desserts that vanilla fans recognize as a mark of high quality.
3) They’re a lot cheaper & fresher when you buy bulk vanilla beans (as we sell them).
4) The inedible outer pods can be reused as a flavoring agent, increasing the value of each bean.
5) They’re surprisingly easy to use.
How to Use a Vanilla Bean
1) Place the bean down flat on a cutting board. Split the pod lengthwise into two pieces by drawing the point of a paring knife down the length of the bean.
2) Pull the two pieces apart to separate them completely, then take one half and place it on the board with the inside of the bean facing up (you’ll see the tiny vanilla seeds).
3) Take the side of your paring knife and again run it down the bean lengthwise, but this time using a scraping motion instead of digging in the point. You want to scrape as much of those tiny little seeds out as possible, they’re where most of the flavor is.
4) Add the seeds to your recipe, but do not discard the pod, it also has some flavor that you don’t want to waste. You can steep the pod in custard, ice cream, or beverage bases like you would tea leaves to extract extra flavor and those last few vanilla seeds, or use it to make homemade vanilla scented sugar or homemade vanilla extract/vanilla vodka.
Want to try cooking with real vanilla beans, but the above still sounds like too much work? Try baking with vanilla sugar, filled with lots of ground up vanilla beans. You can enjoy all of the flavor and beautiful speckled appearance that result from using real vanilla without any extra work. Vanilla sugar can also be used to sweeten beverages and makes amazing whipped cream. |
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If you or someone you know is a red meat lover who’s looking to eat healthier, game meats are a great alternative. The below meats will satisfy that red meat craving, but are lower in cholesterol and fat. Many are also higher in heart-healthy iron.
Closest to Beef – You Might Just Fool Them:
Ostrich Meat
Differences: Despite tasting mostly like beef, ostrich does have a slightly smoky, sweet element to its flavor. Though it can be substituted for beef, do keep in mind that ostrich cooks very quickly because it’s so lean.
Health Benefits: Less fat, cholesterol and calories than skinless chicken or turkey…plus more iron!
Bison Meat
Differences: Very beef-like flavor with a slight sweetness. Cooks faster due to lower fat content.
Health Benefits: Higher protein than beef, so you’ll stay full longer, reducing snacking. Bison meat is lower in cholesterol than skinless chicken and has a third less fat than similar cuts of beef. It is also higher in heart-healthy iron than beef.
Try Something Different – Beefy, Yet Exotic:
Kangaroo Meat
Differences: Kangaroo Meat’s flavor is beefy but with a noticeable smoky flavor. Its texture is a little bit softer than conventional beef. It cooks quickly because it’s lean.
Health Benefits: Kangaroo meat contains more protein than lamb, beef, pork or chicken. Lower fat & cholesterol than lamb & beef. It is the highest known source of natural Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). Kangaroo meat is also high in iron & zinc.
Yak Meat
Llama Meat
Just Can’t Give Up Beef? – Go Grassfed!
Grass-fed Beef
Differences: Grass-fed beef cooks faster than conventional, grain-fed beef. It also has a cleaner, less buttery flavor.
Health Benefits: Compared to conventional beef, grass-fed beef is lower in saturated fat and higher in vitamins A & E as well as healthy omega-3 fatty acids. |
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Perhaps you’ve gone to a fine dining restaurant before and been presented with a tiny appetizer that you didn’t order “compliments of the chef,” and asked yourself, “what is going on?”
You’ve just encountered the Amuse Bouche (”mouth pleaser” in French, aka amuse-gueule) or, as chefs often call them, “an amuse.” Amuses vary wildly depending on the restaurant and the style of the chef, but here are some generalizations you can rely upon:
An Amuse Bouche is:
Tiny – usually only enough for a bite or two per person.
Apart from that, your amuse could be darn near anything, depending on what the chef has on hand and what dish they felt like designing. Because the amuse can change from day to day (and even meal to meal) it’s the perfect place for the chef to experiment, play, and display their art in a few perfect bites. It could be their interpretation of a dish they had somewhere else and loved or a crazy idea that popped into their head that they just had to try. I’ve eaten at a restaurant where the amuse bouche WAS the menu, printed on a savory cracker and served with aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil…you just never know, and that’s why it’s so exciting. |
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Resting meat means literally giving the meat a rest – letting the meat sit out of the oven and off the stove before you cut it.
Why is it so important to rest meat?
Resting meat makes a huge difference in the quality of the finished dish. If you pull your gorgeous New Zealand lamb rack out of the oven and slice it immediately, all the lamb’s juices will run out onto your cutting board, leaving the meat dry, tough and with significantly less flavor. Such a shame. This is because as meat cooks, all its moisture is drawn up to the surface, where it will run out if the meat is cut. By letting the meat rest, you give all those delicious juices a chance to redistribute themselves throughout the meat.
How do you rest meat?
After the meat is finished cooking, simply transfer it to a clean plate and cover it with foil. Let it sit for 5-15 minutes (depending on the size of the meat cut…most steaks only need to rest for 5 minutes, while larger cuts and roasts will need 15). The residual heat in the meat will continue to cook it slowly during the rest, so pull it from the stove or oven about 5-10 degrees away from your ideal internal temperature and allow it to coast the rest of the way while resting.
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Most often found on French or Fine Dining menus and recipes, “Duxelles” is a mixture of mushrooms and shallots, very finely chopped and sautéed in butter (Duxelles Recipe). Sometimes cream or fresh herbs are added. It’s often used in rolled meat or fish dishes (aka roulades) and Beef Wellington, but also shows up in sandwiches and as a crustini topping. We have used it to top baked oysters (Baked Oyster Recipe).
Though you can use any mushroom, duxelles excels as a great way to spread the flavor of fresh wild mushrooms across your entire dish. |
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Dashi is a classic Japanese fish stock that forms the foundation of many classic Japanese dishes. The basic ingredients are incredibly simple, just dried bonito flakes, kombu kelp, and water. Many families & restaurants have their own variations, one of the frequent additions is dried shiitake mushrooms (though you could use maitake mushrooms or matsutake mushrooms).
Though instant dashi packets exist, they often contain MSG. Fresh dashi can be made from scratch very quickly and the ingredients are all dried (so they keep a long time) and reasonable affordable.
The most common application for dashi is miso soup, which is consumed regularly across Japan and is served with breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is simple to make, soothing, nutritious, and easy to digest. Miso soups served in the evening tend to be made with darker miso than those served in the morning. Check out our Dark Miso Soup Recipe.
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