Category Archives: Food
5 Useful Tips For Smoking BBQ
It is critical to select the best wood for smoking. Avoid chemically treated wood in favor of cured hardwoods; picking the best smoking woods for your next BBQ will significantly impact the color of your meat. If you’re unsure what wood to use, experiment with different types. Here are some tips you need to consider when buying smoking wood:
Avoiding Chemically-Treated Wood
Chemically treated wood can impart a bad flavor to meat, so you should avoid it if you plan on smoking food. Chemically treated wood can also contain toxins that can make your food unsafe to consume. Fortunately, you can use tree branches instead, as long as they do not have mold or pest infestation.
Smoke from wood is composed of trace amounts of syringol and guaiacol. These compounds are emitted into the air after the wood has been exposed to heat. The composition of the smoke is affected by the type of wood, humidity, and amount of oxygen available.
Generally, wood should be seasoned for at least a year before smoking. Fresh green wood is not suitable for smoking. Some hardware stores carry woods such as hickory and mesquite, while others offer expanded barbecue supplies. You can also buy wood from an online supplier.
Cured Hardwoods
The flavor of barbecue can vary greatly depending on the wood used. While there is some overlap between hardwood and softwood, there is also a difference in the amount of flavor each imparts. Hardwood has a higher percentage of guaiacol, a compound that gives a smoky flavor. Softwood lignin contains only guaiacol, while hardwood lignin contains both guaiacol and syringol.
Hardwoods have more compact cell structures than softwood. This means there is less room for air or organic matter to escape from the wood during combustion. In addition, hardwoods release more carbonyl compounds, which give food a natural caramelized flavor. Most hardwood used for cooking has been dried and cured either in a shed or outdoors. Some wood is even stored in heated kilns, though pitmasters prefer air-dried wood with less than 25 percent moisture.
Hickory
When smoking meats, hickory adds a distinctive dark color and strong flavor. Its smoke is often associated with the richness of bacon. Hickory is one of the most popular woods used for barbecue in the Midwest and South. It comes in several forms and the best wood to use depends on the smoker and the type of meat you’re smoking.
When smoking meat, you should choose seasoned wood. If the wood is not seasoned, it will require a lot of fire and generate undesirable flavor compounds. In addition, seasoned wood will add a deep, earthy flavor without overwhelming the meat’s natural flavor.
Orange Wood
Using orange wood is a great way to add a slightly sweet, smoky flavor to your barbecue. It can be used alone or mixed with other types of wood. Its sweet flavor can help balance out other woods that are more pungent. However, you should always dry the wood before using it to smoke your meat.
Orangewood is available in a variety of shapes and sizes. The most common shapes are chunks and chips, ideal for electric and propane smokers. You can also purchase orange wood pellets for pellet smokers. However, if you’re looking to smoke delicate foods, consider using planks of orange wood instead.
Adding Wood Chunks
Adding wood chunks to your barbecue is an excellent way to enhance the smoky flavor of your food. First, however, it is important to choose the right type of wood. While wood chips or pellets work well for short cooks, chunks the size of a golf ball or slightly larger will produce a consistent smoke over longer cooking times. Also, never use wood that smells bad, as it will not burn away and impart a bad flavor to your food. Also, avoid burning any moldy wood, as it is not safe to smoke.
The Best Street Food Around the World
Street food is the heart of intercontinental cuisine. These food items are the ones which save us at 1 a.m. when all the restaurants or bars are shutting their doors. Even if restaurants pick up the same recipes, street food taste better! As you hold a paper plate and eat without worrying about stains while the winds caress your face, it’s just another feeling! If you want to taste some heavenly food items, here are the countries you need to visit to try their specialities, found in all the corners of the streets.
Arepas, Colombia
Arepas are round corn cakes which are most popular in Colombia. This food item is much thicker that tortillas, and are normally eaten grilled. They are either topped or stuffed with cheese, and eaten normally as breakfast. The region where this food item is most popular is in Bogotá. They can even be topped with butter, eggs, condensed milk or chorizo. Sold in the streets of Colombia, Arepas is better served with a mug of hot chocolate.
Pierogi, Poland
Pierogi can be found all over Eastern Europe, but the best place it can be eaten is Krakow. This city has an entire festival dedicated to this dish- dumpling. These dumplings are made of flour, salt, water and egg. These dumplings can be filled with cheese, meat or potatoes. They are then boiled, and fried in butter. You can appreciate the sight of yummy dumplings at Magical Vegas Casino by playing Win Sum Dim Sum slots online! This 9 paylines slot game shows different types of dumplings as symbols and will definitely make your mouth water. Foodies will simply adore Magical Vegas Casino as it features an amazing Food and Fruit themed slots category!
Halo-halo, Philippines
Halo-halo means ‘mix-mix’! This multi-coloured sundae is the perfect reliever on a hot Philippine summer day. This food item normally consists of evaporated and shaved ice. And, to make it even better, different flavours like kidney beans, coconut, jackfruit, sugar palm fruit, garbanzo beans, crushed rice, ice-cream, flan or sweet potato, can be added! Despite that this dish seem out-of-this-world, it is quite famous in different Asian cities.
Bunny Chow, Africa
Don’t freak out, bunny lovers! This south African speciality is absolutely rabbit-free! This dish is made with portions bread loafs which are filled with thick curries. It is true that this food item was first made in India, but it has now become Durban’s most popular street food. Chicken or mutton are mixed with spices, and then added to the bread loaves.
Bánh mì, Vietnam
In Vietnam, the term of bread is Bánh mì. But this word also brings the mouthwatering sight of a sandwich which is richly filled. This French product is the best thing which still lives in the streets of Saigon. A standard Bánh mì is filled with different items like pork, cut colds, meatballs, carrots, cucumber and mayonnaise. Most popular in the west, it is the perfect lunch!
When Dining Hall Food Fails: 3 Easy Recipes For Students!
For all the thousands of dollars that college students around the world pour into their respective schools, it can be quite appalling when the quality of meal hall grub at these institutions barely rank above prison food at times. The similarities on a numbers level are startlingly similar, as line cooks scarcely making above minimum wage prepare three meals daily for thousands of people, day after uninspiring day.
As such, a certain level of care is missing in its preparation, but you’re a busy and cash strapped student … so what is one to do? Most dormitories and fraternity/sorority houses have basic kitchen facilities located on site, allowing for their occupants that wish to freelance with their food preparation to do so to their heart’s content.
By combining the creative use of cheap(ish) base ingredients, spices and condiments, you can fill your face with culinary creations that stand head and shoulders above the slop that is barely edible down at the meal hall, without costing you too much of your scarce cash reserves (alcohol doesn’t buy itself, after all!)
In this spirit, here are three recipes that will rescue you from the peril of a meal hall travesty in under 30 minutes and at minimal cost to you…
1) Next Level Macaroni And Cheese
OK now … I know what you’re thinking. MAC & CHEESE?! How uncreative and depressing!
Don’t despair though young man/woman, as macaroni and cheese dishes are all the rage these days, and with a little thought and creativity, it can become a dish that is truly the comfort food that it was meant to be, instead of a yellowish orange pasta that exists solely to fill a hole in your stomach. The most expensive investment is a bit of cheese (the real stuff), which can be bought in small chunks (buy cheese strings if you have to) to conserve your cash.
Apart from the macaroni itself, get a hold of some milk, butter, garlic powder, onion or shallots, and ritz crackers. If you’re doing this on the stove top, boil up the pasta, and then in a separate pan, fry up the onions, seasoned with garlic powder, in some of your butter. Mix together the milk and the rest of the butter according to instructions on the mac and cheese box, adding it to the fried onions.
After the pasta is done, add the shredded cheese to the pasta and stir, integrating it with the pasta. Top the pasta with the onion/milk/butter mix, top it with crushed ritz crackers and serve!
2) Pumpkin Spice Hot Oatmeal
Sick and tired of rubbery pancakes? So are we. You can take breakfast into your own hands as well, and kick butt in the process! For this, we’ll invest in some proper oatmeal instead of the overly sugary processed stuff, but everything else is very affordable compared to this crucial ingredient. Start by heating up your oatmeal and water in the microwave for about two minutes.
After taking it out of the oven, stir in some milk, followed by canned pumpkin puree, a few dashes of cinnamon, and even some pumpkin pie spice for that added kick of fall flavor. Hey, if it worked for Starbucks, why can’t it work for your breakfast?
3) Super Easy Asian Stir-Fry
Love the convenience of ramen noodles, but shudder at getting 150% of your daily dose of sodium in a single serving? Toss the flavor packet out and freestyle your own taste experience! Take your ramen brick and soften it up in the usual manner, all while pre-heating a frying pan on the side. Get an assortment of veggies from the market and chop them up, and get the cheapest cut of your favorite meat from the grocery store and do the same to it.
After the noodles have gone soft, strain’em and throw in the pan with some soy sauce, your veggies and your flesh/tofu. After 5-10 minutes, you’ll have a much healthier meal than 80% of what your meal hall has to offer.
