How to grill perfectly seasoned steak
I'm grilling steak. When do I sprinkle it with salt? K. Hansen
Some say don't. We have enough salt in our diets. A little salt does enhance the flavour, however. If you sprinkle a steak with salt and leave it for a few minutes or more the salt will draw out moisture from the flesh through osmosis.
This creates a layer of basically water that will pull heat from the grill as it evaporates, dulling the sear capacity of the grill. Leave the salt on for around 45 minutes and that salty moisture will be absorbed back into the muscles. This gives you a deeply seasoned steak. Most chefs I know season their steak just before it hits the grill. If you have time, give this long seasoning time a try.
My biscuits are browning more on one side of the tray than the other. V. Robbins
Remember those young ladies at the beach in the 1980s advertisement for Reef Oil, glistening, deep brown and smelling so strongly of coconut they could be mistaken for human Bounty Bars. They had the good sense to constantly turn over to expose themselves to the source of radiation to get an all-over tan. Even the best ovens often have a hot spot.
You can test this by evenly setting out small cubes of white bread on a tray and observing which go brown first. Avoid getting an uneven bake by turning the biscuit tray several times during cooking. With cakes, you need to wait until after the cake has risen before rotating it to avoid a sunken disaster.
Can I use duck eggs to make mayonnaise? L. Chan
Yes. It will be richer tasting and will split faster than chook eggs. For one duck egg yolk add the juice of half a lemon, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, a good pinch of salt then mix.
Slowly whisk in three-quarters of a cup of delicate extra virgin olive a few drops at a time to begin with, whisking until it emulsifies.
A girlfriend told me that single-use plastic supermarket bags were far more hygienic than my reusable bags I take shopping. P. Howell
She's right. I also suspect she's also a passive-aggressive wet blanket. The Food Safety Information Council (FSIC) – and happy 20th birthday to them during Australian Food Safety Week (November 11-18) – suggest washing reuseable shopping bags after use as they can be a source of contamination. They also recommend that you choose a clean trolley and never put fresh food you won't cook or peel directly in contact with the trolley or basket. As the weather warms they also recommend taking an insulated container with you when shopping so foods that need to be chilled do not enter the temperature danger zone of 4C-60C. You can visit the food safety world of FSIC at foodsafety.asn.au, where the threat of food poisoning is omnipresent, and where they will hit you up for a donation so they can keep up their good work.
Send your vexing culinary conundrums to brainfood@richardcornish.com.au or tweet to @realbrainfood
Brain Food by Richard Cornish is out now from MUP (RRP $19.99, eBook $11.99).
