At KarenNoCA, about Zakarian's spice mix

sallybr

Well-known member
Hi, Karen

I happened to try his exact spice mix this past week, and I must say that for beef (I used it on flank steak), I think the cinnamon is way too strong.

I re-made his mix getting the cinnamon out and it is much much better, at least for my taste

Not sure you watched The Kitchen today, but I had a huge laugh at Zakarian's reaction's at the crockpot recipe by that blogger. Indeed, a recipe that calls for TWO cans of condensed mushroom soup and then cooks the chicken for eight hours, could leave him in a full blown coma

smileys/wink.gif

 
I wondered about the cinnamon in the recipe too, thanks for the report. I just cleaned

up my stack of "to try" stuff yesterday and came across my note on that spice mix. Moved it to the top of my pile, so will change it.

Yes, GZ's reaction was a kick. While I am not opposed to the use of canned soup to a recipe, because there are many which come out very well (I prefer cream of celery or chicken) I did cringe at the two cans of Golden Mushroom and the cooking time for the chicken. Oh, and the two packages of Italian Dressing Mix... there is a lot of salt going on in this recipe.
*NFR....
Katie and Marcella looked a bit rough around the edges yesterday. I wondered if the make up artist had not shown up prior to the show. Katie did not seem her usual bright, cheery self either. I think something is going on with Jeff Mauro...he seems a bit out of sorts lately with his duties and yesterday he said something that shocked Katie and Marcella, but I got distracted and only caught part of the looks they gave him. Going to watch again today to see what I missed.

 
missed Jeff Mauro's stuff....

I guess I'll have to watch it again more carefully

I actually always thought they over-did Marcella's makeup - she is so beautiful, I prefer a more natural look, but maybe in this episode they went too far in the opposite direction.. smileys/wink.gif

I have to say I don't like the use of canned soups - I admit it is silly on my part, but I could overlook that in the recipe. But then, when she stated the crockpot could cook for 8 hours (or more), it made me cringe. Particularly with chicken breasts, anything over 5 hours produces a texture that is just wrong. It is unpleasant, it has that "crockpot" quality that gives crockpot a bad reputation. I am amazed that Zakarian could more or less keep his cool

anyway, I noticed that in the show they've been catering to a lot of processed food stuff to "help" - and that probably means their audience likes that.

oh, well...

now, if you make that spice mix, yeah, leave the cinnamon out, at least if you intend to use it for beef. Maybe if you are cooking some other type of protein, maybe pork, it could be less objectionable. But ALL I could taste in the beef was cinnamon, at least it was the most prominent flavor. No bueno....

 
NFR: Interesting observation

on Marcellas make up. You are right, I always thought she was overdone too. Maybe that is why it was downplayed on Saturday. I love studying the characters, It was near the end during the cocktail segment that Jeff muttered something and Katie cringed, then Marcella just glared at him and the camera caught it all. I could not make out what he said. It was a kick.

I have noticed that they are using more prepared shortcuts in cooking and may be what the viewing audience has asked for. At first I thought it was just because it was summer and too hot to spend a lot of time cooking. However, summer is when it is so easy to get a fresh meal on the table when so much produce is abundant and available to us, and a lot more foods we can use without needing to cook it.

Kind of fits in with what is happening at the grocery store...the prepared food section just keeps growing. I especially cringe at the kabobs, who knows how long all those ingredients have been cut and plastered up against each other. In one of the stores I frequent they even have hamburger patties made up with blue cheese in them. The meat cutter tells me they sell out very fast but I just cannot get myself to buy them. It is so easy to make them at home and I know my blue cheese is fresh and stored properly.

 
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