The Recipe Thread
POSTED BY: JEWELSTAITEFAN
UPDATED: Wednesday, July 15, 2026 13:56
VIEWED: 27093
PAGE 7 of 36
Quote:I've never had any reaction to citrus that I recall.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Neither can I, which was I was su surprised to see it in America's Test Kitchen Cookbook lasagna, and also surprised to read (here) that it may have been the offending ingredient in school-lunch lasagna. But maybe schools (and their suppliers) don't want to spend the money on ricotta and substitute cottage cheese instead?
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
When I was really, really little - maybe 3 or so, our mom served a very specific kind of sausage, but, sadly for her, that particular batch was spoiled. Everybody got sick. Then years later she tried to serve it again. None of us kids could get it down - even though we didn't remember the earlier incident. Our bodies remembered! Anyway, maybe that's the thing between you and cottage cheese.
That whole idea of using cottage cheese in lasagna instead of ricotta - I guess that's an WASP (non Italian) thing? Every genuine lasagna I ever had highlighted the light, fresh, dairy flavor of good ricotta. Though I think one can only get good ricotta in certain areas of the country. Anyway, I can't imagine a lasagna made with cottage cheese.
I was thinking that maybe cottage cheese is (or was) made with rennet and possible that is what the problem is, but it turns out that cottage cheese is now made without rennet while many of the other cheeses, like Parmesan, are still mmade with rennt.Quote:https://oureverydaylife.com/which-cheeses-contain-animal-rennet-125313
There are several different kinds of animal rennet used in cheese making. Rennet obtained from a calf is generally used in cheeses made with cow's milk. Goat cheeses are made using kid rennet, and lamb rennet is used in cheeses made with sheep's milk. These days, vegetable rennet, derived from either the fig tree or Creeping Ivy, is used more often in cheese making. Microbial rennet is also used, and even genetically engineered rennet is now used in making cheese. There are also a few soft cheeses such as cream cheese and cottage cheese that are made using only citric acid for the coagulation process. True cheese artisans still tend to prefer animal rennet and consider it to be superior when it comes to curdling milk.
The amount of animal rennet needed to coagulate milk is very small. Though times are changing and more cheese makers are using other forms of rennet, the majority of cheeses on the market are still made with animal rennet. Parmigiano-Reggiano, considered one of the world's best cheeses, originated in Italy. It is next to impossible to find this cheese made with anything but animal rennet, unless one considers a product by BelGioioso called Parveggiano. Most imported cheeses, in fact, still use animal rennet. There are only a few exceptions that include: French Saint-Andre, Tomme Perigourdine, a few English and Spanish farmhouse cheeses and some Dutch made diet cheeses.
Because vegetarianism is on the rise and more vegans are requesting cheese like products, the cheese industry is slowly starting to make changes. Microbial rennet and genetically engineered rennet are starting to be used more frequently, but confusing labeling can make it difficult to know exactly what kinds of enzymes are used in each cheese. According to Whole Foods Market, labels list enzymes in up to eight different ways: enzymes, microbial enzymes, microbial coagulants, rennetless enzymes or coagulants, rennet, both enzymes and rennet, and vegetarian rennet.
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So I'm back to lactose, or an associative reaction to cottage cheese, or possibly citric acid, which is one of the ingredients found in cottage cheese and cream cheese but not other cheeses.
A citric acid reaction would also put citrus foods out of reach.
JSF, hw do you react to oranges, lemons and limes?
Love OJ, prefer fresh squeezed or high pulp.
Lemonade is great, I prefer Calypso brand (no fake sweeteners). Otherwise from jar, Country Time Pink, Dark Ch
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I still wonder if it's a body-memory from a long, long time ago ... in a galaxy far ... OOPS! got derailed !! 
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So, I'm going to try something.
I buy TJ's organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs. (I would prefer with bone and skin, but I'd have to drive miles for that, and TJ's is less than a mile away.) When I cook them, they always release a TON of juice. I already have a cup-and-a-half stashed away from the last batch I cooked. Now, you can roll your eyes, but I cook them plain, and modify them later - in chicken pot pie, broiled with bbq sauce, used to make chicken salad sandwiches, and so on. Cooking them plain allows me to do a lot of different things with them afterwards. Well, I'm going to cook another batch, so I'll have lots of cooking juice, plus a box of broth, plus the cooking juice I already have. I intend to take all that juice and broth, throw in veges and herbs, and make soup. But then I'm going to take some of the soup broth and make gravy. I wonder how it'll taste.
So, those are my 2 experiments - making soup out of strained broth with no protein chunks in it as a light snack, and making gravy out of soup broth.
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Well, the chicken soup made from the juice and boxed broth is omg good. And the gravy made from the soup is omg, omg good! I am not going to make THAT again, unless I have a lot of people around (whose health I don't care about too much) to eat it up for me.
ETA: I DID cook the soup with the lid off to concentrate it. So that might be why the gravy I made from the soup was so flavorful. But it was literally the best gravy I've ever had, excepting the pork sausage pan-gravy I had a Bronco Linda's Cafe in Grand Junction many years ago.
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It sounds yummy! I wish I could taste it. (I mean, I wish I could taste anything.)
You did with your chicken like I do with pork picnic roast- I save the juice and make broth. In my case, it's hot and sour soup, which the family really likes. I keep wondering when they're going to ge tired of it! I suppose I should try something different some day. Any ideas what kind of soup to make with pork broth?
*****
I did the "twice cooked" pork (tempura-style but Chinese flavorings) with sweet and sour sauce with red bell peppers, water chestnuts, garlic, ginger, and onions; and stir-fried green beans with mushrooms.
I forgot what a pain-in-the-neck that twice-cooked pork recipe is. There's a reason why I only make it once every few years! But, the family enjoyed dinner and we have some leftovers* for lunch tomorrow.
* Posted too soon. A midnight bandit dug into the leftovers. Now we have leftover.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
I'd nuke a BILLION PEOPLE if it would save the other 7 billion from living under Putin. Hell, I might go all the way to the last 100 people on Earth to keep this planet from being under fascist rule.- WISHIMAY
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Well, when I hear pork broth I think bean soup. A large, creamy white bean like cannellini in a very thick soup with some carrots, celery, and onion - but not too much! - for a hint of flavor and color, and of course a couple of bay leaves. Some added ham would also be nice. OK - maybe I should call it stew.
I make and use pig's feet broth for just that purpose. And I'll often toss some small, oven roasted pork meatballs into my soup/stew (taste like they're grilled outdoors on a grill!) for added protein.
ETA: "You did with your chicken like I do with pork picnic roast- I save the juice and make broth. In my case, it's hot and sour soup, which the family really likes." I know you've posted about that before - more than once! It's just ... I associate hot and sour soup with a really clear broth and things like mushrooms, lotus root, and so on, and I associate western soups with chunks of cooked animal protein. So I didn't connect up your hot and sour soup mentally with my no-chicken chicken soup. But yeah - I did the same thing you've been doing!
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So, this is the last cooking experiment for the next while. I tried some mashed cauliflower at TJ's, and I liked it, it was very similar to mashed potatoes though with a mild but different flavor. But it was full of chemicals and salt. So I thought I'd try to recreate it at home. I cooked a 12oz package of riced cauliflower with 2T rice flour for thickening (but any flour that thickens would work, I think), and a cup of milk for flavor, and when it was done I immersion-blended it to a smooth consistency with a tablespoon of cultured unsalted butter. It was a little watery at first, but it thickened with sitting. I did end up adding a small amount of low-sodium salt to counter the sweetness of the cauliflower. Like the TJ's product, you can't mistake it for mashed potatoes, but it's an exceptional alternative that's very similar. Well, I really liked it! Anyway, I put the rest in the freezer. I'll take it out and thaw it after a couple of days to see if the texture survives freezing, or if it breaks into grainy solids and liquid. That's what the flour is supposed to help prevent - but we'll see.
If it freezes well, my next set of meals will be chicken, mashed cauliflower, and gravy.
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Well cool. I just defrosted the 'mashed cauliflower' and it looks like the rice flour did the trick. The 'mashed cauliflower' didn't break or lose any of its fluffy/creamy mashed-potato texture !! YAY !!!
So now I'll be on to creating my next recipe. Since I WILL be making gravy, I think I'll cook the chicken thighs with an appropriate amount of carrots, celery, onions, and fresh thyme. I can then puree the veges into the broth and use that to make an extra-flavorful gravy. I believe the chicken and gravy over mashed cauliflower will be quite a comfort-food treat.
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I wish DD could eat cauliflower, that would be a nice treat for her and very healthful.
Well, the experimental dishes turned out OK (I think. Not being able to smell/taste anything, I can't tell if they turned out the way I was hoping, I have to rely on family feedback.)
I did learn how to make crispy-crunchy onion, rings which is great! You MUST use bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs for the crunch ... I cooked a few just with batter, and they weren't anywhere near as good. So I don't need to be hustling off to restaurant to get hubby's favorite treat. But I also learned I need a frying/candymaker's thermometer: The secret to non-greasy deep-fried anything is to make sure the oil is very hot (385F). That way, when you drop the food in, the moisture in it turns to steam and blows the oil away from the food.
I learned something new about the twice-cooked pork, too: It's always hard to tell when the pork is cooked thru, but I noticed that partway thru the deep-dry process the steam bubbles get REALLY intense. I figured that that's when the meat is cooking/releasing its juices, and I can pull the pieces out when the bubbling slows down a bit, that way timing not so critical and accounts for bigger/smaller pieces.
But that's all the deep-frying I'm going to do for the time being; it's a pain in the neck and no matter how carefully you do it the food is still greasier than regular cooking.
Daughter and I made Indian fresh cheese (paneer) which turned out OK. Surprisingly, we found cheesecloth in the grocery store. I would not rinse the cheese at all next time, and I need to figure out how to manage the cheesecloth/pressing process better because some of the curds penetrated the cloth and I couldn't recover them; possibly the weight I was using was too heavy, but it was surprisingly easy to do and a learning experience for dear daughter and me.
The tandoori chicken turned out OK ... altho when I set it to broil hubby walked in asking about burning electrical insulation! Given that I had just strung Xmas lights, and it was raining, I checked around to see if there were any wet connections but didn't see anything wrong.
It is SUCH a trial- and a safety hazard!- not being able to smell anything at all!
The spinach part (palak) of "palak paneer" had the right texture (the secret ingredient is heavy cream), but according to hubby it was missing key spices. Again, not being able to smell I can't tell what those might be and he knows nothing abou cooking so he can't help me there either. Hmmm... a conundrum! Maybe enlist dear daughter's help. She hates anything "spicy" but if I could purchase some palak paneer and get her to taste/smell the restaurant version and smell different spices I think it might help sharpen her cooking skills (differentiate the various scents, like listening to an orchestra and hearing the individual instruments). But feeling a little sorry for myself, I used to have a PHENOMENAL sense of smell, which made me a favorite on odor complaint investigations because not ony could I tell that there was an odor, I could often ID the primary chemicals involved (MIBK, VOFAs etc) I could deconstruct recipes pretty well. Seriously, if I hadn't gone into chemistry I might have been a decent enologist. Not world-class ... I know what those people are capable of ... but a decent sommelier, perfumist, or chef. Now, I can't smell a thing.
Well, that's it for now for the experimental cooking. Like everything you do for the first time it takes a LONG time, and I have more important things to do!
There is one more experiment I'm going to work on: How to make fruit brandy. We have SUCH a fruitfall of feijoa, I tried making jam (too runny) and drying it (ok but not great) I think I should really try fermenting it. I've never done that before, but some knowledge of chemistry should help!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
I'd nuke a BILLION PEOPLE
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Unless ... KIKI, do you have a recipe for palak paneer?
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
I'd nuke a BILLION PEOPLE if it would save the other 7 billion from living under Putin. Hell, I might go all the way to the last 100 people on Earth to keep this planet from being under fascist rule.- WISHIMAY
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