Riverside Ovens
Test Kitchen

The format of the famous Cook's Illustrated Magazine is a wonderful one to both read and just look at.  The format goes something like this: some 60 members of the test kitchen, located just outside of Boston, decide that it is high time to take another look at a classic food type or a classic recipe and

put it to the test in the kitchen by re-evaluating the process of cooking.  A classic lead-in goes something like this, an article from the newest installment, concerning carrots, "We all should eat more carrots. They're nutritious, inexpensive, and available year-round, and their cheery color brightens any plate. But if eating carrots means roasting them for 45 minutes or grating a pile of them for a salad, most of us are unlikely to prepare them often."

The article continues on a step by step experimentation in ways to prove the beauty of the cooked carrot, as long as the cooking of them are both simple and tasty.  Another lead-in from another article in the same magazine talks about the truly perfect way to cook those very thick pork chops which, if not handled properly, almost always give home cooks headaches because they are a difficult dish to prepare without becoming dry on the inside or burnt on the outside.

The solution in this case is to use a cast iron pan, pre-heat the pan up to a full-tilt 500 degrees, then set the chops in for some serious searing, turning back and forth so not to burn the exterior, but all the while continuing to sink the heat deeper and deeper until the temperature reaches some just beyond 125 degrees.  Let the chops sit under foil for another 10 minutes and they will continue to cook up to the necessary 140 degree mark.  The key: you want deep cooking quick, and you want to time the extra cooking the chop does after it comes off the pan.  Both of these are common enough recipes and full of pitfalls; by reading through the articles, now we have standard processes to follow and either too-crunchy carrots or leathery thick chops don't happen as often as they might have.

The Riverside Ovens Test Kitchen would love to try to test the tests -- the one great advantage the test kitchens have is the time to try multiple processes for cooking.  For the chops, the tester tried a variety of thick chop styles and eventually realized that he wanted to go ahead and buy a pork roast and cut his own chops in order to keep shape and thickness uniform. He tried multiple pans and multiple heats.  For the carrots dish, "The Easiest Carrot Side Dish," the tester tried a variety of mixtures of salt in the boiling water.  When you are cooking at home, though, you have to take the parts of the test recipe and make them happen as quickly as possible for the sake of as much success as possible.

When I made both of these dishes, I had already had some luck with certain experiments with carrots and thick chops so was able to apply the new to the old, hoping to find what I would call a signature, or a way that makes sense for the home cook. I really liked the idea of cast oven pan -- it seems more and more magazines are trending int he direction of these thick, durable and even cooking machines, but I don't happen to have. I do, however, have a very powerful large top burner on the stove. By letting the pan sit on low for a considerable amount of time, I was able to both deeply pre-heat the pan and also secure against an initial burning of the surface of the chop.  If I would have pre-heat my non-stick thin pan on high, for example, the chop would have exploded over the oil and almost certainly the sear would have been a burn.  As I began to cook, I raised the temperature up to medium, which is closer to medium high on most stovetops.  The idea from here on out would be to continue to flip the chops as many times as necessary to get rid of the visible pink line in the center, all the while not blackening the surface.  I took these off of the pan and let them rest for only around 5 minutes: I either don't have the patience to let meat rest a full 10-15 minutes, and I have always felt that I prefer to eat a thick chop when they are hot not lukewarm. This batch was a perfect combination of seared to a crust veneer but that was actually quite soft from the oil, cooked all the way through, moist, but hot.  As we all know, as a thick chop over cooks, at least half of its positive, inherent taste is lost and it begins to pivot to taste like something else entirely, like shoe laces.

Carrots are one of the easiest vegetables in the world to make good.  You can boil them and simply continue to poke them to see if the texture is the way you want them.  I found the key in this batch to be the addition of a little extra salt to the boiling water, as the recipe suggests. The salt boosts the flavor and also reduces the cooking time, according to the tester, by at least a minute.  Uniformity of the chop, as always, will help with the success of cut vegetables.  I always like to cut the cylinder of the carrot in 2-3 inch chunks, but then cut those in half length-wise, allowing for an interesting texture when cooked and soft.

The simple addition for flavor was some freshly squeezed lemon, as much butter as you see fit, and a dash of chives.  The combination of the large piece of white pork meat, and the very soft and juicy carrots was a nice signature dish.