As part of my Ask A Chef feature, I just received this email from Ellen who is in a debate with her friends about reusing used breadcrumbs. She writes,

Debating with friends whether you can reuse breadcrumbs that egg battered fish were dipped in if I froze it immediately and will cook with it immediately.  Everyone says “no” but I don’t understand why when you can freeze raw egg, freeze raw meat and no bacteria would have time to grow freezing it immediately and then cooking immediately!  Thanks in advance.

New Contributing Writer Chef Mark R. Vogel

My immediate response would be No too and why bother when breadcrumbs are inexpensive and easy to make yourself,  but not being a professional chef or food scientist, I passed this question on to my newest contributing writer, Chef Mark Vogel. You may remember Mark from one of my earliest Novice2Pro interviews and from several great articles he has contributed to the site.

Chef Mark will be contributing articles to my cooking blog that fall into five categories including:

1) Ingredients:  articles on a specific ingredients such as onions, butter, tarragon, etc.
2) Classic Dishes:  such as crepes suzette or beef Wellington
3) Wine:  articles on specific wines and issues with wine
4) Cooking Techniques:  These are your classic “how to” articles
5)  Food For Thought:  These are discussion articles where he delves into some aspect of food and mankind.  These run a wide gamut from psychological aspects of food, economics, current topics in the food business, etc.  Some of these are straightforward informative discussions such as how to save money at the supermarket or how to choose cookware.  However, in others he frequently challenges food myths and irrationalities about food, and what he calls our “food neurotic” culture.  Hence…..food for “thought.”

And time to time, like now, Chef Mark will thankfully help me answer questions like these. Here is how he explained it to me -

First of all, freezing does not KILL bacteria, nor does it even completely stop their growth.  Rather it inhibits it.  Frozen food will eventually go bad.

Second, the used breadcrumbs that have come into contact with the raw fish can possibly have bacteria on them while fresh breadcrumbs would not.

Now, with those two things said, how much actual risk would there be if the used breadcrumbs were indeed frozen immediately, used in the near future and cooked to a temperature that would kill bacteria?  Probably not much.

But as cheap as breadcrumbs are, why take any unnecessary chances?  Moreover, there isn’t a food on the planet that tastes better after being frozen, (except foods that are frozen in their natural state like ice cream).  Fresh breadcrumbs will taste better than fishy, frozen breadcrumbs.

Thank you Chef Mark for a great response and I’m looking forward to reading your contributing posts. If anyone would like to learn more about Chef Mark, please read my Interview with Chef & Food Writer, Dr. Mark Volgel and visit his web site Food For Thought.

Cooking Questions & Answers

I get email from you guys all the time asking me questions about various cooking topics. The questions come from all over and I do my best to answer them. If I can’t give you a good response, I recruit the help of one of my many professional chef friends. Here are a few questions I bet many of you would like answers to.

Pounding Chicken Breasts

What is the correct way to pound chicken breasts to use in chicken picatta? Do I start with thin slices or if I already have “normal” sized chicken breasts, do I slice them thinner before pounding? How hard should I pound?

photo from goodhousekeeping.com

You do not need to slice full breasts any thinner in order to pound them out.  I would use the smooth side of a meat mallet or even a fairly heavy, smooth bottomed frying pan.  Spray a little oil on the meat so the mallet will slide and then start in the center, pounding and sliding off to one side (as opposed to just crashing straight down on the meat).

Continue pounding, sliding off in a slightly different direction each time (or, conversely, turning the meat between each blow) to create an even thickness.  I’ve also seen this done with the meat between two pieces of plastic wrap and I have used wax paper.  Keep pounding until the meat is roughly 1/4″ thick and all your frustrations have melted away. Another great reason for learning how to cook.

Take your time; this isn’t a test of strength.  In fact you want to do this a gently as possible (if pounding can ever be considered gentle) because you don’t want to tear the meat.  This same technique can also be used on any other type of lean meat–turkey, pork or beef.

Smashed Potatoes

I want to know how to make restaurant style smashed potatoes….the kind that are chunky.

Okay, here’s what you do:  use red bliss potatoes, or some other type of potato with lovely red skin.  If they are very small, boil them whole in well salted water until easily pierced with a fork.  Cut larger potatoes in half or quarters.

When tender, drain well, then put back on the heat and let them dry for a couple of minutes.  This will keep them fluffier–the dryer, the better.  Leave the skins on.  Since you want to keep them chunky, add all your add-ins before you start smashing:  some warmed dairy–either milk, half and half, cream, sour cream (don’t let the sour cream boil), etc.

Salt and pepper to taste, butter to taste and perhaps some roasted garlic.  Then, smash away with a potato masher that has large openings - the kind that has one thick metal tube that curves back and forth is a good one for this.  Smash to your particular smashiness and enjoy.

For garnish try sprinkling with fresh chives or parsley.

Egg Expiration

How do you tell if your eggs are expired and not good to use?

That is an “eggcellent” question, and no, I couldn’t help myself!

Eggs stay usable for a surprisingly long time as long as they are refrigerated.  The best way to tell if an egg is still usable without cracking it open is to put it in water–at least 4 inches of water.  If it stays on the bottom, you’re good to go.  If it’s a floater, toss it away.

Why this works: All eggs have a membrane between the shell and the albumin (the clear, viscous liquid inside).  There is no air between the membrane and the shell in a freshly-laid egg, but as the egg ages, the air pocket inside gets larger and larger due to osmosis through the permeable shell. Once the egg has enough of an air pocket to float, it has definitely passed its prime.

I have also been told by a egg farmer that if you hold an egg with the pointy side down and shine a flashlight on the top of the egg, you can see a space between the egg and the shell with older eggs. I’ve tried this and either it doesn’t work or my eggs were all very fresh.

Prolong egg life by storing eggs in the containers they came in on the bottom shelf of your fridge.  Don’t store them in those cute little egg holders that come in some refrigerator doors.  It’s warmer in the doors because of all the opening and closing.

I get all sorts of questions asked of me by you guys and I try my best to give you a meaningful response but if I don’t know the answer, I reach out to experts in their field for their responses.  Here’s an example.

I received the following email from Grace R. asking,

Hi, I make pizza for a living; I have been told that salt kills yeast. I use salt & sugar with the dry yeast, eggs, oil and water, which is about 135-140 degrees. Was I misinformed? Is it a combination of elements or has the restaurant just been lucky for the past 26 years? Just curious. Thanks….

So I asked two of my favorite experts, Chef Jennifer Field and Chef Ruth Gresser. Jenni is a graduate of the Orlando Culinary Academy in Florida and Ruth is a graduate of Madelein Kamman’s Classical and Modern French Cooking School in Glen, New Hampshire and owner of the top pizza restaurant in Washington, DC.

Here’s what they had to say:

Chef Jennifer Field - It’s a matter of balance.  Salt does retard yeast growth, and in concentrations that are too high, it can indeed kill the yeast.  In judicious amounts, salt is what brings out the flavor in the bread and controls yeast growth so that the resulting crumb is nice and even.

If you ever make a dough without salt, you’ll notice a lot more, and faster, rise and after baking, you’ll see large, irregular holes in the bread where the yeast just got carried away.  So, it’s not that the restaurant has been lucky; it’s just that their pizza dough recipe is balanced so the yeast can do their thing while the salt keeps them in check.

Chef Ruth Gresser - In response to Grace’s yeast question, she heard correctly that salt and/or too much sugar can kill yeast.  However yeast has become much less perishable and more reliable over the years and the likelihood of that happening is less than it used to be.  Nonetheless I believe that Grace’s success is not luck, but due to the kind of yeast she uses.

We use regular dry yeast here at Pizzeria Paradiso and so proof it without salt or sugar in water that is 100 to 105 degrees F.  It sounds to me as if Grace uses instant yeast that is used by mixing it into the dry ingredients that are then combined with the liquid ingredients, including water, at a much higher temperature of 120 to 130 degrees F.  Grace says her water is at 135 to 140 but perhaps after it is mixed with the other liquid ingredients the combined temperature is in the range of 120 to 130 degree F.

Thanks chefs for your responses.