Happy Friday everybody!
As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to hit reply and I’ll make sure to reply. And if you happen to participate in the weekly challenge, send me pictures and I’ll happily feature you!
This week’s challenge was to make an herb oil! I have a terrible habit of buying a bunch of herbs, using like half of it, then rediscovering the other half brown and wilted in the back of my fridge. So turning leftover herbs into an herb oil sounded like a perfect way to repurpose them!
It was a fairly straight forward process and only took about 15 minutes per oil. For basil and cilantro, I blanched each for 15 second followed by an ice bath. Then you just have to blend with oil and strain. Optionally, after blending you can also infuse on the stove at low heat.
My personal favorite was the scallion and chive oil followed by the basil oil. The cilantro oil was just too weakly flavored that it didn’t come through as a topping. I wouldn’t say it’s worth it to do ALL the time, but it’s a fun way to repurpose herbs for other dishes.
NEXT WEEK:
I really want to try to cook duck! I've only ever had it in restaurants but never tried it myself. I'll have to see what's available at local grocery stores, but I think I'd want to pair it with some kind of fruit inspired pan sauce since summer is coming around the corner.
Why your meat is (probably) overcooked
The Science:
Let's talk about carryover cooking. If you've ever pulled off a steak at what you thought was the perfect temperature, only to cut into it overcooked, carryover cooking is to blame.
When you roast, grill, or sear something, the outer layers of food get way hotter than the inside. Once you pull it off the heat, that stored energy continues to travel inward via conduction — and that can raise the internal temperature of your food by 5–15°F (about 3–8°C), depending on thickness and cooking method.
Keep in mind:
Thicker foods experience longer carryover times, as the heat travels from the outside in.
High-heat cooking like searing stores more heat and will result in a greater carryover cooking effect.
Water-rich foods (like vegetables) carry over less — they cool faster as most of the heat is dissipated by the water.
Actionable Tips:
Pull meats early. You can typically get away with pulling most proteins about 10 degrees before your target cook temp.
Use a thermometer! Instant-read or leave-in probes make this super easy. There's even some very modern ones that can use predictive algorithms to tell you how early to pull off the heat!
Speaking of thermometers, I'm HYPED. I've been using the ThermoWorks Thermapen instant read thermometer for a few years now, it was one of the first ones I bought long before I was making any content. So I'm SUPER excited to say I'm now a ThermoWorks affiliate! If you're in the market for a new thermometer they have a huge range of products that are the best in the market. Use my link if you'd like to support :)
I had always heard of Alton Brown and knew he was just a generally famous food and cooking figure. But it wasn’t until recently that I found out all seasons of his show “Good Eats” is streaming on HBO Max. I was surprised to find out his show is super similar to the content that I make! The graphics and visuals in the early seasons are a bit dated, but the info is great!
Not exactly a “cooking” related banger but I’ve been loving David protein bars (not sponsored). They’re the highest protein per calorie bar on the market right now and their flavors are super good. I’ve been impulse buying every single one of their new flavor releases.
Thanks for reading— Hope to hear from you and see you next week!
*If you’d like to read more of the Tastes Like Science Newsletter, you can read previous editions on my SubStack.
Thank you for writing this inspiring read! (Also thank you for including the °C conversion haha)