The “Goldilocks Approach To Grilling”

The single most asked question I get at supper clubs is: “Can you teach my husband to grill?”. Most of the time the complaint is that the steak is overcooked. The key to grilling the perfect piece of meat is the touch test, just like with Goldilocks.

The Goldilocks touch test

The meat can’t be too hard (Overdone)
The meat can’t be too soft (Underdone)
The meat has to be in-between (Just right – medium rare*)

Here is where my wife interjects: “What is easy for some is hard for others”. It is true that knowing what is perfect takes a little practice, but it can be taught. At Kraft Food Ingredients we had a promotion where Sales personnel had to go into customers facility and prepare a demonstration of grilled beef. To pull this off we did training on the touch test. We gave them three pieces of meat:

One that was cooked to well done. (It was as hard as a brick)
One that was cooked to rare (It was as soft as my stomach)
One that was cooked to a perfect medium rare (It was in-between well done and rare)

After that we had the Sales people do a little practice and the concept became clear. Granted these Sales people were smart folks. Many had degrees in food science. But, most were admittedly lousy cooks. Anyone can train themselves with a little practice.

When in doubt… cheat!

I have seen one of the best chefs I know cut a little slice to check the doneness of a piece of meat. There is nothing like being able to confirm the touch test with visible confirmation. I know that this breaks one of the golden rules of cooking in that when you cut a piece of meat you lose the juice. The way I look at it is, that if you have a guest that likes more well done than medium, they don’t like juicy anyway. You could serve them shoe leather and they will not know the difference (but I digress). By making a little slice you get confirmation and you also accelerate the cooking for the those that like more well done meat.

Rack of lamb has become my signature dish. The testimony behind it is that multiple times I have had guests tell me beforehand that they don’t like lamb. After trying my rack of lamb they become lamb lovers. The key to this dish is the perfect medium rare and the Goldilocks touch test with a little slice to check gets you there.

Check out the recipe.

For your next supper club dinner party (or any meal) try out the Goldilocks touch test and let me know…

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Notes: *I have asked chefs at fine ding restaurants what is the most asked for meat temperature. The consensus is that 85% of diners prefer medium rare

Is Papaya Killing Your Sex Drive?

Have you ever heard that papaya can kill your sex drive? Everyone knows this to be a fact? I certainly didn’t.

Several years ago I was traveling in Asia with my buddy John Huang. John is a Chinese Filipino who was our sales manager for Asia and we were in the midst of a long car ride in Korea. John is a devout Catholic and I had told him that my uncle Pat was a Catholic priest. Out of nowhere John says to me: “Your uncle must eat a lot of papaya.” My response was: “excuse me?” “Yeah”, John said: “Everyone knows that priests eat a lot of papaya because it kills your sex drive.”

I explained that my uncle didn’t have a sex drive. He was a priest living in a monastery at Villanova University. Picture an 80 year-old Archie Bunker in a Roman collar. Father Pat probably didn’t know what a papaya was. He was strictly a meat and potatoes kind of guy and certainly wasn’t worried about his sex drive.

Fast-forward a few years when I was visiting my cousin Virginia in Hawaii. Ginny and her husband Rich live on Maui near Hana. They have an organic farm and one of their principle crops…you guessed it…papaya. One morning Rich and I go off into their orchard with a long pole to pick some papaya for our morning smoothies. So I say to Rich: “You know that papaya kills your sex drive.” Well Rich certainly didn’t know that and almost took offense to the suggestion.

What got me on this tangent? I was watching an old episode of the Barefoot Contessa where she starts her day off with a papaya smoothie.

Check it out https://youtu.be/Ikf92NioGUE

I always love Ina Garten because of her practical cooking and entertainment advice. I am also a fan because she opened her first shop in Westhampton N.Y. down the road from my mom’s house. She was in Westhampton (the poor man’s Hampton) for a few years before moving to Easthampton where the real money is. A story she tells really explains the difference. She had just opened her shop in Easthampton when she noticed a customer hemming and hawing over how much lobster salad to buy. Ina was fearful that her price of $25 a pound was causing his reluctance. When she asked if he needed help he told her: “I am just not sure if I need 5 or 6 pounds”. There is real money in Easthampton and they certainly are not worried about papaya killing their sex drive.

How about a rum infused papaya smoothie as an amuse bouche at your next supper club dinner party? It would be a hit…just don’t tell folks that it may kill their sex drive.

But Things Change

The old saying is that you can never go back. The truth is that you can go back, but things change.

Lots of my supper club roots go back to my upbringing in a very Italian community in NY. I grew up in a neighborhood called Silver Lake which had a post office address of East White Plaines NY , but was technically West Harrison NY. Confusing? but it was a great place to grow up and fantastic place to eat. But things change.

Many of the scenes of my youth evolved around an Italian restaurant and bar called Casserella’s. Susan and I went there a while back and it is now an upscale Italian restaurant called Lago’s.

It was a bit of a tell when the waiter introduced himself as Juan. My dad used to say that every waiter in a French restaurant in New York was really Italian. Today everyone working in an Italian restaurant in New York is Hispanic. This is actually a good thing, it is just different.

Juan was great. He was well schooled on the menu. He even spoke New York Italian very well. On one my many trips to Italy I realized that Italian of my youth (or as Cousin Vinny would say: “my yutes”) was very different than real Italian. With New York Italian, when you were cool, you cut off the vowels. Prosciutto becomes prosciutt. Mozzarella becomes mozarell. Juan’s Italian was very cool and it was music to my ears.

I explained that I had grown up there. He told me he had a guy about 90 years old come in and tell him that beers used to cost 10 cents. I explained that I wasn’t nearly that old. In my day the beers cost 33 cents each. You got 3 beers for a dollar and the bartender Eddy would give you a fourth for free. So at a memory of a 25 cent beer, I am really old.

The food at Lago’s was actually pretty good. While memories usually make the food of your youth seem better, to be honest the food at Cassarella’s was inconsistent at best. My buddy John Nangle was once working in the kitchen making salads when Cassarella’s got reviewed by the local newspaper the Reporter Dispatch (affectionately referred to as the “Distorted Repatch”). The reviewer cited John’s work that night by stating he had been served a very “Undistinguished Salad”. John explained: “What should you expect, no-one had ever told me that there was a difference between cucumber and zucchini”.

Speaking of inconsistent, growing up we knew who the cook was each night. If Gracie was cooking you were in for a treat. If another cook was working we just drank beer. Actually we drank beer every night, we just ate better when Gracie was cooking. I have been trying to replicate Gracie’s veal chop Milanese for years. No amount of beer could dull that memory.

I made a Pork Chop Milanese for a recent supper club that was inspired by Gracie’s creation. Distance may make the heart grow fonder, but things change. My Pork Chop Milanese might be different than Gracie’s, but it is pretty darn good and it is a great supper club dish.

Check out the recipe.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.