@EzShadows I bake cod & sole. With salmon I make croquettes (my grandmother’s recipe). I used to prepare them for my mother, who had loved them from her childhood.
Good timing. .I'm grilling a spatchcock chicken right now. Get a meat thermometer. Insert into the middle of the thigh and get a reading 165-170...it's done.
@sree251 the wing tips were already removed on this chicken, so no tucking. The bird weighs about 4 lbs, but it's pasture raised, and not one of those confinement raised Cornish-cross birds.
Like any food that can give you food poisoning You just need to learn to store, cook it or prepare it properly then you will be fine.
I suggest getting a meat thermometer if you want to double-check that your chicken is cooked all the way. You will have more confidence in your cooking! Enjoy!
@CountScrofula someone should make a study of the psychological origins of tool use. 🤔
you be you.
some of us just need more tools to successfully cook and gain confidence in cooking. The thermometer is a bit of a crutch. I'm jealous of those that don't require a meat thermometer for food safety. They are the real chefs.
I lack the natural talent/observational skills to just look at some meats and just know if it's done or not (mostly because I don't cook meat often enough to remember via repetition) much less treat cooking as the art that it is rather than a science.
It works for me and so I recommend it.
I humbly bow to the chefs who have better cooking instincts then I do.
@shakemeup I have good cooking instincts I find as my beloved thermapen slowly dies, but not perfect. Maybe if I cooked the same cut of meat over and over again. The thermometer lets me expand my range quickly without requiring the repetition.
That said I still tent to have a good knack for knowing when food is done at this point, but gimme that thermometer confidence.
I have both instant read insertion thermometers and laser surface temp ones. You just have to be sure to bring poultry to 165ºF for at least 15 seconds, but I usually go higher and longer anyway.
Yes, I had to become certified in Food Safety Management for one of my prior jobs at a spa because they served food IN the spa (those profit mongers). Most of this stuff just became engrained in my head after doing it at work for so long.
Both for fear of undercooking it myself and for ordering it from somewhere that does the same. As well as all the other “ingredients” that I don’t want in my body. (Antibiotics and so on…) Chicken scares me enough that I almost never eat it. Unless my mom has prepared it and it’s in a soup or something I skip it all together. I don’t even remember the last time I had anything with chicken.
@sree251 I was a little too confident in my abilities when I was younger and I was very competitive with the sports that were my primary interests and my passion. I did it snowboarding and mountain biking and at the time it was my profession and I loved it so much. Now it’s left a little more of a bitter taste but in my mid to late 20’s it was pretty sweet. I ended up getting back into it in my mid to late thirties and I just found out that I have broken the titanium fusion and I have burst all the discs above the fusion and below my thoracic level 10 and 11 vertebrae which means that my surgeon wants to remove the old titanium and replace it with about 8 levels of new titanium which means I won’t be able to bend at the waist for the rest of my life and I’m just not ready for that kind of restriction yet. So I’m trying my best to get by with maintenance like acupuncture and exercise for now. I’m hoping that I can stretch that out as long as possible too.
I ended up getting back into it in my mid to late thirties and I just found out that I have broken the titanium fusion and I have burst all the discs above the fusion and below my thoracic level 10 and 11 vertebrae which means that my surgeon wants to remove the old titanium and replace it with about 8 levels of new titanium which means I won’t be able to bend at the waist for the rest of my life and I’m just not ready for that kind of restriction yet.
You just found out about the broken titanium and burst discs? Was it an accident or did they all those discs break by themselves? You must have suffered a lot of pain. A friend of mine had a slipped disc and he was practically crawling around on the floor to avoid pain when moving around.
You are definitely a very driven person. I have watched snowboarding in the Olympics. You guys must be really pushing the limits. Don't you ever think of the downside and the consequences? This is not a criticism. I am basically a coward. I avoid risks. Not pushing the edge has downsides also. Could you tell me about your sense of confidence and not being hampered by fear of the consequences you are dealing with now?
@sree251 I don’t mean just yesterday but it’s a recent discovery. I didn’t think it was possible for me to break the fusion loose from the way that it’s literally drilled into my vertebrae with bone screws. But I am clear about the fact that it is not functional anymore. The disc situation was equally distressing and disappointing to hear about. The way that my pain went up from my usual level was enough to make it impossible to keep doing the things that I enjoyed and so I started looking for a doctor and was referred to the best surgeon in the area. He took his time getting as much information as possible in the fork of up to date scans of the problem area and after comparing them to the next most recent scans he was able to see what changed in my lower lumbar spine. It was both informative and upsetting to hear that I wasn’t just becoming hypersensitive to my usual level of pain but I had a lot of new damage and problems. I wasn’t able to do things the way that I had done them before my first back surgery, I was able to get on the snow and on my bikes but not on consecutive days unless I really pushed myself and the snow was soft. I know I wasn’t able to ride my bike on consecutive days after I moved back up to the mountains. I had 6 good years and 2 terrible years and then I had to move back down because I couldn’t even get to the grocery store with the level of pain that I’m still currently in all the time now. I’m just not ready to get an 8-9 level titanium fusion installed through a small opening in my abdomen just below my navel and I don’t know if I ever will be. It comes with no guarantees of pain relief but it will certainly change my life and lifestyle. I was told no more bikes and no more snow and I might not even be comfortable sitting in a car let alone driving one. So that’s what I’m trying to weigh out. When do I get bad enough that I choose the only option left. How I did that much damage to my reinforced but previously damaged spine is still a mystery to me and I was there. I probably carried too much weight in my backcountry pack and I rode too often but I felt like I was being significantly more careful and less aggressive than I had been in my career in my twenties. I do sometimes wonder how I wasn’t incredibly careful with such a precious thing but I was told that I would have that titanium in my body for the rest of my life and that I was as good as I ever could be made. My pain was still present but structurally I was solid and perhaps more so than ever. And yet I’m back to being unable to get out of bed on my worst days which is virtually every day now. Hopefully this answers your questions if not feel free to pm me and I can give you specifics. Hope you’re having a nice weekend. ☺️😊
It's funny I have the opposite problem I'm always afraid of overcooking and drying it out I have a pretty good knack for it now..always marinade first!
It's troublesome...always checking if the meat is white or still pink. Buying fresh isn't always without issues either.
I purchased 3 chicken breasts. As they cooked, I got busy with tasks. Their aroma hit me, and momentarily forgot what was roasting; "That salmon will be delicious!" I thought out loud.
I dumped the chicken in the trash b4 I'd finished the thought.
Pro tip: if you’re grilling or broiling chicken pieces, you can put them in booking water and simmer 30 mins before grilling. That cooks them through and keeps them tender. Then you grill or broil until they are crispy and delicious.
I don't love cooking it, or any other meat for that matter, because it seems so hard to get just right, and to do it consistently. I swear, the one time you get it perfect, you can never recreate it.
I second the suggestion for a meat thermometer, too!
Chicken is not poison and it is not a high-risk food to consume. Otherwise we'd all be dead considering its the most widely-consumed meat in the US. It -can- carry salmonella, but that does not mean it -always- carries salmonella.
If it's pink, cook it more. It's really not that bad.
Get chicken breasts, cut them into cubes or strips, sauté at 300-350ºF until cooked and lightly browned. Add paprika, S&P, enjoy. We seldom cook a whole chicken any more. We will stop at Costco and get a rotisserie chicken for $4.99 and get 10-12 servings out of it, so 50¢ a serving or less for our protein!
I just read that if you boil chicken legs or thighs, or chicken leg quarters first, they come out much more tender after then being baked. So...boil 20 minutes, preheat oven to 400F, seaton chicken, then bake skin side up for 25 minutes.
Its not that hard to cook chicken. You can visually see if the meat is cooked or not. Just throw it back in if its not. Your not going to die if you eat it, maybe just shit your pants a little.
