What's cooking? (1 Viewer)

[BobO'Link]

Homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade angel food cake!

First time trying to make the angel food cake. Had some minor problems, particularly I had a brain glitch and set the oven at 375 instead of 325. I caught the error in time to drop the temperature to 300 and pull it out early. It came out well enough, didn't burn and cooked through.

The real hard part was getting twelve egg whites. That was a tedious process, and fishing out the bits of shell that I inevitably dropped in was a pain.

But with practice, this should be an easy cake to make.
View attachment 71039 View attachment 71038 View attachment 71040

I love angel food cake and can eat an entire one by myself in a single sitting! (So can my wife... )

So... separating eggs. It's actually quite easy depending on your method. I've been cooking a very long time and do the "pour the yoke from shell half to shell half" bit. That takes a bit of practice to get down. The "water bottle" method works well and mimics the action of a commercial "egg yoke sucker":

You can use a slotted spoon (or a strainer) - crack the egg into the spoon, slide the yoke off the spoon into a bowl, shake the remaining white into the white bowl:

Or even use a tablespoon to gently "scoop" the yoke out of the white:

As far as getting shell out of your whites easily... Use the shell of an egg you've cracked as a scoop to get that bit out. Unlike fingers, spoons, etc., the shell doesn't pull away but is somewhat attracted to another piece of shell. You can easily use a larger bit of shell to simply scoop out those little bits that get into your whites.

Hmmm... I may ask my wife to make an angel food cake for tomorrow...

We're doing Easter dinner a bit differently this year since we can't have a large gathering (they usually come to my house). The current menu is home made pizza with a side of chicken and dressing (Southern style, of course) and garden salad. My wife said "Yuck!" (but she doesn't eat the dressing anyway). My daughter and I said "What's the problem? It'll work!"

Can't have a proper holiday meal at my house without chicken and dressing. It doesn't matter what the rest of the meal is at all.

 

[DaveF]

I've been cooking meatloaf in trivet loaf pan for years and it's worth the space. And the pan can be used by itself of breads or other "loaf pan" recipes.

As for egg whites, I do it by hand. The problem isn't the separating, it's that my bowls all have blunt, round edges and don't crack eggs cleanly, so I get shell shards every few eggs. I'll adjust my process if I do it again.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My meatloaf is a free-standing affair, I just put down a sheet of non-stick foil before putting it down on a baking tray. It honestly never occurred to me to put it into a dish!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

As for egg whites, I do it by hand. The problem isn't the separating, it's that my bowls all have blunt, round edges and don't crack eggs cleanly, so I get shell shards every few eggs. I'll adjust my process if I do it again.

I found that you want to crack eggs on a flat surface. This prevents shell shards. I know it's counterintuitive (no pun intended). I either use the counter top or a flatter part of my cast iron sink.

https://www.eatthis.com/how-to-crack-an-egg/

 

[BobO'Link]

I've been cooking meatloaf in trivet loaf pan for years and it's worth the space. And the pan can be used by itself of breads or other "loaf pan" recipes.

As for egg whites, I do it by hand. The problem isn't the separating, it's that my bowls all have blunt, round edges and don't crack eggs cleanly, so I get shell shards every few eggs. I'll adjust my process if I do it again.

I found that you want to crack eggs on a flat surface. This prevents shell shards. I know it's counterintuitive (no pun intended). I either use the counter top or a flatter part of my cast iron sink.

https://www.eatthis.com/how-to-crack-an-egg/

I agree and crack my eggs on the counter top. I had far more issues (bits of shell or broken yokes) cracking them on the edge of a bowl or skillet. If I'm only doing a couple (mainly for breakfast) I'll crack them on the inside side of the mixing bowl to avoid any leakage on the counter.

I always crack an egg in a separate bowl and then transfer it to a common bowl or skillet just in case there's a bad one. That way the whole batch isn't ruined. It's rare, but it happens. It takes 3 bowls to separate yokes. 1 to crack and do the separation with, 1 for the yokes, and 1 for the whites. Same "bad egg" caution and to also prevent a broken yoke ruining a bowl of whites.

 

[DaveF]

Ha! Learned something new today!

 

[Malcolm R]

If I'm only doing a couple (mainly for breakfast) I'll crack them on the inside side of the mixing bowl to avoid any leakage on the counter.

I put a paper towel down on the counter before I crack the eggs, to catch any leakage. It's not really thick enough to "cushion" the egg from cracking when you knock it on the counter, but catches any whites that leak.

 

[BobO'Link]

I put a paper towel down on the counter before I crack the eggs, to catch any leakage. It's not really thick enough to "cushion" the egg from cracking when you knock it on the counter, but catches any whites that leak.

I do that some as well - mainly depends on how many I'm cracking.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

How does a meatloaf pan "die"?

 

[DaveF]

Too rusty so I threw it out.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

Understandable

 

[BobO'Link]

Too rusty so I threw it out.

What!? You don't want the extra iron in your diet?*



*You shouldn't really use rusty cooking tools/pans if you can avoid it. It won't necessarily harm you, it is natural, but too much is not good and can cause "off" flavors in food.

 

[Mike Frezon]

"I LOVE rusty meatloaf!"

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Tacos tonight. No pics.

But the great ground beef hunt was back on. Again, no fresh stuff. But they did have rolls of store brand ground beef, so I took a chance.

Wasn't too bad. Better than the last stuff. I just have to get over my hang-up about a roll of ground beef. I guess if I didn't mind rolls of sausage, a roll of beef isn't bad.

 

[KPmusmag]

Well, all these posts about angel food cake came to mind today when I realized I needed to use a dozen eggs that had been in the fridge for a while. I use the shell-to-shell with three bowl method for separating eggs. One bowl is the "master" bowl for whites, the "separation" bowl is what I separate the egg into (if there is no yolk and no shell, it goes into the master bowl - that way I don't ruin all the whites if I have an accident with my next egg). Third bowl is for yolks. I am quite pleased with how this turned out! We have been enjoying eating on the patio, and since the cake turned out nicely, I opened our last bottle of Veuve.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Looks beautiful!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I was going to fry chicken cutlets tonight, but I went the lazy/nostalgia route and did Shake and Bake pork chops (my first time actually doing that) and my wife turned leftover white rice from last night into vegetable fried rice. I didn’t get a picture but it took very little time and effort and tasted great.

 

[BobO'Link]

My daughter, youngest granddaughter, and I had home made Chicken Pot Pie with a side salad tonight. The crust was crispy and flaky, top and bottom, with tender chicken, peas, and carrots. Yum!

My wife doesn't like chicken (if it has feathers or swims she won't eat it) and the oldest granddaughter and grandson don't like chicken pot pie so they all had cheese and beef quesadillas.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I would’ve had the pot pie.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I would’ve had the pot pie.

Sounds like a classic punch line from a 1960s Catskills comic.