America's Test Kitchen (2000–…): Season 14, Episode 1 - Meat and Potatoes with Panache - full transcript

- From the editors
of Cook's Illustrated magazine,

it's America's Test Kitchen

with your host
Christopher Kimball,

featuring Test Kitchen chefs
Julia Collin Davison,

Bridget Lancaster,
Becky Hays,

with Adam Ried
in the Equipment Corner

and Jack Bishop
in the Tasting Lab.

Discover the secrets
of America's foremost

food testers and tasters,
today on America's Test Kitchen.

- Today on
America's Test Kitchen,

Becky updates a French classic:
modern beef burgundy.



Next, Adam reviews potato ricers
in the Equipment Corner.

Then Chris reveals the science
behind potato starch.

And finally,
Bridget shows Chris how to make

braised red potatoes.

That's all right here
on America's Test Kitchen.

- Hello, I'm Julia Child.

Welcome to the French Chef
and the first show on our series

on French cooking.

We're going to make
boeuf bourguignon,

beef stew in red wine.

And it's a wonderful show
to begin our series on

because it shows you
so many useful things

about French cooking.

- That was Julia Child's
first TV appearance



on public television,
actually right here in Boston,

and she was making
her signature dish:

a beef stew from Burgundy
called boeuf bourguignon.

Now it's been over 50 years,
so let's go

into the Test Kitchen with Becky
and take a fresh look

at one of Julia's classic
recipes: beef burgundy.

You know, over the years
we've given you

lots of great quick tips.

At least we think so,
but here's one

that didn't work out so well,
and this one isn't from us.

"I didn't have
a salad spinner"--

we just got this email--
"so I tried a trick

"I learned from
the Food Network.

"Putting the cabbage mixture
in a towel"--

you remember this--
"and swinging the towel around.

"Big mess in the kitchen
as sugary water

"splattered everywhere.

"I decided to go outside to spin
the rest of the water out,

"something happened
and most of the cabbage

flew out all over the driveway."

- Oh, no.

- So, you know, sometimes things
don't work out so well.

Well, in this recipe,
boeuf bourguignon,

the problem is, of course,
it takes hours and hours,

and lots of different pans
and the garnishes at the end

with the onions
and the mushrooms

and browning the meat.

So we're going to have
to come up

with some new solutions
to a great recipe

to make it a little
more friendly

for the home cook, right?

- Yeah, streamlined
and simplified.

And I tell you,
I really love this recipe

because once you get it
in the oven

and it doesn't take that long
to do that,

you're home free.

You can relax,
it's great for entertaining.

We're starting with
a four-pound beef chuck roast.

And I cut it
into two-inch pieces here.

And I saved all the scraps.

We're going to use
every part of the roast

to help give us
some really rich, meaty flavor.

So I'm taking one-and-a-half
teaspoons of salt.

I'm just going to toss the meat
with the salt,

and we'll let this sit
for 30 minutes

while we prep
the other ingredients.

This will, of course, season
the meat all the way through

and it'll help it stay
nice and moist while it cooks.

We're going to be cooking this
almost entirely in the oven,

and we'll start
with six ounces of salt pork.

Beef burgundy almost always
has some salt pork in it.

- The first step usually
is browning the meat.

- That's right, yes.

- So...

- Not going to happen.

Not on a stovetop, anyway.

We are going to get
some browning,

but it's all going to happen
in the oven.

- So a whole different start?

- Yes.
- Okay.

- These are all the scraps
that I saved

from trimming the chuck roast.

Put all those in.

- And chuck we like
because it has some fat

and better flavor than round.

- That's right,
it has some really nice marbling

and it gets really nice
and tender.

It requires quite a bit of time
to become tender,

but that's okay because it's
all going to be hands off.

So to that I'm just going to add
a couple tablespoons of butter

that'll help the meat brown.

So we're also going to cook
our garnish in the oven.

The garnish is cremini mushrooms
and pearl onions.

And in the typical recipe,
the way Julia did it,

is to do this sort of
last minute on the stove top.

We're going to do these
in the oven as well

on a baking sheet.

That's a pound
of cremini mushrooms.

And these are just
frozen pearl onions.

I have a cup and a half there
that I thawed out.

They taste just as good
as the fresh ones.

You don't have to spend
all that time, you know,

peeling them one by one.

- What, you thought
there was a possibility

I would actually buy fresh ones,
and peel them

and do the little X thing?

- Well, I'd probably end up
doing that part, but...

- No, that's not going
to happen.

- Okay.

And then we'll throw
a tablespoon of butter on there.

And a tablespoon of sugar,
and that'll just help

create some browning
and it'll sort of glaze

those vegetables
a little bit too.

- Okay.
- That looks great.

Now I have the oven set
at 500 degrees.

We'll put both of these
in the oven.

We'll have to stir
the vegetables once or twice

to make sure they don't burn.

But they both should be nice
and brown in 15 or 20 minutes.

So it's been about 20 minutes,
and I took the scraps

out of the oven
and the veggies out.

You can see how everything
is nicely browned.

So if you want to, you can
put those veggies in a bowl,

and we'll just set them aside.

- Save them for another recipe?

This is the part of the recipe
that I found most annoying.

- Yeah.

- At the end,
the last hour or so

you're having to stand there
at the stove

and get all these done right,
you know.

- Right, you should be enjoying
your guests

and you're busy trying
to glaze these vegetables.

So now the job is done.

So here's the salt pork
and the meat scraps.

I'm going to add
a third of a cup of flour

to the fat that's collected
in the bottom of the pan here.

Just whisk that in.

And this will help thicken
our stew as it cooks

and give it some
really nice body.

Next I have four cups
of beef broth.

That's just store-bought
beef broth.

We're going to add
so many other great flavors

that the store bought
is going to do just fine.

- You could tell
I was panicky because you used

store-bought beef broth.

- Don't worry.

And then I have a bottle
of burgundy.

Of course we're going
to use burgundy wine,

beef bourguignon.

So we'll put half the bottle
in now and add the rest later.

Half the bottle
is about two cups.

We'll add an entire
head of garlic.

I've just separated the cloves,
but the skins are still on.

We're going to be
straining this out later

so you don't need to worry
about the skins.

Also, a tablespoon
of tomato paste,

and I'm adding five teaspoons
of unflavored gelatin.

That's going to give the sauce
a really nice silky texture

that you would normally get
by making a homemade beef stock.

And then I have two carrots,
chopped up.

Two onions.

A couple of bay leaves.

Half a teaspoon of peppercorns.

This is anchovy paste.

Don't worry, it won't make
the dish taste fishy at all.

Half an ounce of dried porcini
mushrooms.

- So tomato paste, anchovies
and the dried mushrooms

all add meaty flavor.

- Yeah, big time.

I have six sprigs of fresh thyme
and ten of parsley.

And then we're just going to
prop our meat up on top of that.

And we don't want the meat
to be submerged in liquid.

We want the meat to brown
in the oven.

So as long as
some of the meat is exposed

to the air of the oven,
it's going to brown

just as well as it would have
if we had done it on the stove.

- So the bottom of the meat's
in liquid.

It's just the top and
some of the sides are above?

- Yeah, exactly.

And we're using
a nice big roasting pan here

so that we can get the meat
all out in a flat layer

instead of a Dutch oven.

If you had a Dutch oven
we'd have lots of the meat

crowded on top of itself.

This way it can
all get evenly browned.

So there's our meat.

I'm just going to add
a little bit of water.

I want the liquid in the pan
to come three-quarters

up the sides of the meat.

So I'll add a little bit more,
but we do want that meat

poking out so that
it gets browned.

- So the basic message here
is almost no browning

on top of the stove?

- No browning at all
on top of the stove.

We'll put this in the oven

for three to three-and-a-half
hours at 325 degrees.

Halfway through I'm going
to check it.

I may need to add some water
if it's evaporated a lot.

- So, you know,
I think compared

to any other recipe
we've done ever,

this one is completely
reconstructed and redone.

- Yeah.

- And it all is based
on one simple concept,

which is how
the Maillard reaction works,

which is how browning works.

Most of the time most recipes,

especially classic
French recipes,

happen on the top of the stove.

There's lots of heat,

the skillet gets up
to 400 or 500 degrees,

Maillard happens
at 300 degrees or above

and that means amino acids
and sugars--

fructose and glucose--
combine with heat

to create flavor compounds.

So what we're doing is letting
the oven do all the work.

Which means that
even in a 325 oven,

over a long period of time
the pieces of the meat

that are exposed to the air
and the heat of the oven

will get to 300.

And we have plenty of time
so the Maillard

is actually going
to happen in the oven.

So we have a lot
of flavor development,

but you don't have to do
the work ahead of time.

- So it's been
three-and-a-half hours.

And if you check out the meat
here you can see

how it's gorgeously browned.

- Can you say Maillard?

I mean there's a lot
of browning.

- Yeah, it's awesome.

It's almost better than
you could do on the stovetop.

So I'm very pleased
with our results.

- Becky's always very pleased
with her results.

- So I'm just going to use
a slotted spoon here

to pull out the beef,
and I want to be careful

not to get the scraps.

I only want those
nice big chunks of chuck roast.

- Mm... that looks good.

- I know, it's fantastic.

So I'm just putting the beef
in with the mushrooms

and the onions
that we prepared earlier.

Now we're going to strain
all this delicious liquid.

This is our sauce
for the beef burgundy,

so I'm just going to use
my spoon here.

I'm going to push on the solids
and squeeze out

all the yummy juices
that are in there.

And now this is the rest of that
wine that we used earlier.

So there's two cups left.

I'm going to add
this to the sauce.

This will still get cooked
a little bit more,

but we like to save
some of the wine

to give more of a fresh wine
taste at the end.

- Looked like one and a half
cups to me.

- Think I had a little
while I was cooking?

So we're going to let this sit
for ten minutes.

That'll give the fat time
to rise to the surface.

And there's actually
quite a bit.

Sometimes you have
a lot of fat on top.

It all depends on the marbling
of the meat.

- I like to make stew a day
ahead of time.

I think it actually tastes
better the second day,

but the best part of it is when
you refrigerate the sauce.

This is from one recipe
of her beef burgundy.

The top level, the fat comes
to the top, it solidifies.

You can actually see
the different layers

and it comes off very easily.

So if you want to make it
a day ahead of time,

refrigerate it.

It's a great way to get rid
of all the fat really simply.

- Yeah, that is a great way.

This is a little bit tricky.

You just have to kind of
skim the spoon delicately

across the top of the surface.

I got most of it.

Got to leave a little bit
in because that makes it

taste good too, right?

- That's reason to do it
this way.

You don't get it all.

- That's right.

So we're going to put this
into a Dutch oven.

This is our only work on the
stove for this whole recipe.

And if you'll give me some
medium-high heat.

We'll let that simmer briskly
for 15 to 20 minutes,

and it'll reduce down
a little bit,

it'll thicken up
almost like heavy cream.

You can see our sauce
is nice and silky,

and thickened up a little bit.

So now we'll just add the beef,
and the mushrooms

and the onions back in.

We're just going to let the beef
and the mushrooms heat up

for about five to eight minutes.

We're just letting everything
warm through.

- I got to say,
this was a shortcut recipe

that was less work,
but it doesn't look

like a shortcut recipe.

- No, it doesn't taste
like it either.

So I'll put the lid on,
we'll move the heat

down to medium low
and in five to eight minutes

it'll be dinner time.

So it's been five minutes.

Time to eat.

Just going to give it
a little taste,

make sure it doesn't need any
more salt and pepper.

Perfect.

Okay, so I'm just going
to finish this off

with some parsley.

That's three tablespoons
chopped up.

If you'll hand me a bowl.

How's that?

- I'm already in a good mood
before I even taste it.

Oh...

Mm...

The surprising thing about this
is the depth of flavor,

which is the whole point
of this recipe.

It has a lot of depth.

- The meat is so tender.

And the vegetables
are perfectly cooked.

- You know,
if Julia were still with us,

she would invite you over
for dinner to make this.

- Oh, wouldn't that be amazing?

- And she would love it.

So the secret to our almost
no-work beef burgundy

is to do everything in the oven,
not on top of the stove.

The scraps, the salt pork
in the roasting pan

and we had a baking sheet
with the onions

and the mushrooms
and put them in about 20 minutes

just to get them browned.

Then you build everything else
in the roasting pan,

and then we added
a few extra things.

Some gelatin for body,
tomato paste, we had anchovies,

and we also had
porcini mushrooms

to add meaty flavor, umami.

Everything simply
goes in the oven

for about three-
and-a-half hours,

take it out, strain the sauce,
finish it up.

Everything goes back together
reheated, and there you have it,

from America's Test Kitchen
to your kitchen,

all new way to do a very easy
oven-only beef burgundy.

Tastes great.

Less work, tastes great.

There we go.

- If 30 years ago I said we just
did a testing of potato ricers,

you might laugh at me because
there was only one model.

It was French,
it was heavy-duty,

and who needed
the other alternatives?

Well, here in the
Test Kitchen today

we've decided to do a testing
of ricers to see, you know,

if there's something new
under the sun.

- We are still enthusiastic
about potato ricers, Chris.

They are actually the best way
to get a really smooth,

even puree of potato.

And they all basically work
on the same principle.

They're like giant
garlic presses.

And I have one here.

And you can see that
it has a hopper

into which the potatoes go.

It's got a plunger that comes
down on top of the potatoes

when you squeeze the handles,

and then perforations
on the bottom,

and that's where
the potato puree comes out.

This one is the winner of
our previous potato ricer test.

It does a good job, but there
are new ones out there.

We wanted to see if something
would do a better job.

So we have six models,
the price range was $10 to $30.

And you know how we tested them?

(in unison):
We riced potatoes.

We're looking for them
to be easy to use,

efficient and to give us
a potato puree that's uniform

and not too dense.

And, you know, there aren't
any revolutionary new designs.

This really got down
to a few basic details,

and I want you to try
a couple of them out.

Try this one out first,
if you would.

You know how they work,
you load up the potatoes

into the ricer,
and then squeeze them together.

How's that one to use?

Not so bad, right?

- That works pretty well,
actually.

- Try this one with the green
and white now.

Give that a little comparison
run.

- Well, it's easier to get
the potatoes in for starters,

which is good.

- Which is not a minor thing,
we like that.

- Try that.

I like the color.

The color's nice.

- You're all about color, Chris,
aren't you?

- Yeah, that works well.

- That one works really well.
- That's nice, yeah.

- One of the details
that this got down to

is the number
of the perforations

in the bottom of the hoppers.

Now they're all roughly
the same size,

but we put them
all on their finest settings,

and we counted
the number of perforations.

Well, I delegated
the counting of the number

of the perforations.

The more perforations,
the easier it was to use,

the more efficient
the ricing was.

The first model you tried here
has 201 perforations.

The second model you tried,
347 perforations.

- Really?

- Which is why it was so much
easier to use.

I want you to try a third one.

Try this one.

You would think that
those extra perforations

on the side of the hopper there
as well as on the bottom

would make that one
even more efficient,

but give that a shot
and see how it does.

You almost got me with potato
on that one.

- What's the deal?

- The side perforations
just made a mess.

The potatoes come shooting out
the sides.

No more efficient.

- This is the joke ricer.

- That was the joke ricer.

There are a bunch on the market
like that.

Another one of these
design details

was the angle of approach
of the plunger into the hopper.

A lot of these... you can see
here the plunger is at

a sharp, sharp angle,
and it goes in unevenly,

and it really doesn't even out
to press down all the potatoes

until you're about halfway
down the hopper.

Two of our models were designed
to compensate for that.

This is one of them.

And you can see that
the edge of the hopper

is actually angled
to match the angle of approach

of the plunger.

So that one made it
a little more efficient.

And then this guy,
the one with the green

that we've liked so much,
has a big, rectangular hopper,

and the plunger is designed
to match that angle.

So that it actually goes down
evenly from start to finish.

That means that it rices
more efficiently

because all the potatoes
are underneath that plunger,

they're not coming out
the sides, coming out the top.

- Only you would measure
the angle of attack

in a potato ricer.

- It's important, Chris.

We take this seriously.

- And 300-- how many holes
in this?

- 347 perforations.

I also want to mention
the handles.

Our testers really like
big handles that had

rounded edges, were softer,
easier to grip,

made the whole thing
easier to use.

And, in fact,
the one that won last time

is the one that won
this time too.

This is the RSVP International
potato ricer.

It's $13.95, and
it has a lot to recommend it.

It has this big,
rectangular hopper,

it's got the right angle
of approach,

it's got a lot of perforations,
it has two disks,

they're interchangeable
for fine and coarse.

It's got a great handle,

it's got this little pot hook
here so you can put it

right over the edge
of your bowl.

It stays stable.

It's easy to take apart, clean,
put back together.

And what more can you ask for
from a potato ricer?

- So our old winner
is our new winner,

the RSVP International
potato ricer,

under $15 and 347 holes.

And it comes in green and white.

It's cute, too.

- Cute.

All about the cute, Chris.

- Now Bridget, would you say
I'm relatively thick-skinned?

- Sure.

(chuckles)

- So we get a lot of mail here,
most of it's great.

Once in a while someone
sends me an email,

and I feel a need to respond.
- Oh really?

- And I got to respond
to this one.

- I got to hear this.

- "Just read Chris Kimball's
latest Letter from Vermont"--

which I write every month--

"I'm beginning to think
he never actually bags anything

"when hunting"--

this hurts me to the quick--

"as almost every story
seems to be about

the one that got away."

Well, any hunter that doesn't
have one get away is lying,

first of all.

So if any of you have kids
who don't like hunting,

just turn your backs
for a moment.

This is the seven-pointer
a couple years ago I got.

And there you go.

Now someone actually saw that
picture here they said,

"What a great job
of photoshopping."

- Perfect.

- This is not photoshopped,
so there we are.

- It's Bullwinkle.

- It's Bullwinkle.

So there we go, what goes
better with venison than--

what a great segue
than potatoes,

and I think Bridget has come up

with a totally new way
to cook red potatoes.

- Yeah, how about braising,
Chris?

I mean we've roasted, boiled,
steamed red potatoes.

Red potatoes are great.

I mean they're great any way
you cook them.

But the idea
of braising potatoes

was kind of intriguing to us.

Nice and crusty on the outside,
tender on the inside

and it makes for an interesting
sauce as well.

But when we tried it,
we tried the few recipes

that are out there
that start off

with browning the potatoes
in a little bit of oil,

then adding chicken stock
to allow them to braise through

until they're tender.

We had really high hopes,
but we were kind of disappointed

in the whole result.

I mean for one thing,
the chicken flavor

never permeated the potatoes,
so it was kind of a waste

of an ingredient.

And then any of that brown crust
that we developed first

was washed away
during the braise.

Now as you mentioned before,
we are using red potatoes.

They're perfect for braising.

And these are about

one to one-and-a-half inches
in size.

That's perfect for our recipe.

So we're going to start them off
in a dry skillet here.

We're going to place these
cut side down

into our cold skillet.

This recipe is so easy, Chris,
that this is the hardest part.

- So you'll do this
and I'll finish it?

Okay, yeah.

- All right,
I have some more potatoes here

that are already cut.

Let me just dump it in.

Snuggle them all up
as close together as we can,

try to fit these all in there.

All right, so that looks great.

Now I mentioned before
that it starts off

usually with browning
the potatoes in oil

and then braising.

We're going to start off
braising first.

We're going to get these nice
and tender before we brown them.

And it couldn't be easier.

Two cups of water is going
to start us out.

And we're also going
to season this

with three-quarter teaspoon
of salt.

We're going to add
three sprigs of thyme.

Now the flavor compounds
of thyme

are both fat and water soluble,
so they will add some flavor

into the potato.

We also have three cloves
of garlic.

Now garlic is fat soluble.

So the garlic
isn't really going in there

to flavor the potatoes,

but instead the braising liquid
or the water

is going to soften the flavor
of that harsh bite of garlic.

So we'll be able to use
a little bit later on.

And then finally,
we've got three tablespoons

of unsalted butter.

- Which is fat soluble.

- Very.

It's also Bridget soluble.

The butter is not going
to flavor the potatoes,

but later on it's going
to really help us

get a nice brown crust
on these potatoes.

So that's pretty much it.

Now I'm going to turn the heat
to medium high,

and we're going to bring this
up to a simmer.

Now once it's up to the boil,
we'll reduce the heat to medium,

I'll put that lid on.

We're going to let these
potatoes get nice and tender,

and that's going to take
about 15 minutes.

All right, Chris, let's take
a look at these potatoes.

Just want to test one
with my knife

and see if it's pretty tender,
and it is.

Now, typically, this is where
we would drain off this liquid

and then rearrange the potatoes
in there to brown.

But instead we're going to let
all this moisture in here,

the liquid, evaporate.

But before I do, I just want
to fish out those garlic cloves.

We're going to use them
a little bit later.

And I'll get rid of these
sprigs of thyme as well.

Now I'm going to crank up
the heat back up to medium high.

We're going to let these boil
down about 15 to 20 minutes,

we'll let all of that
water evaporate

and then we should hear that
butter in there start to sizzle.

- So one of the things
that's really interesting

about this recipe
is that the potatoes cook

a very long time
past the tender stage,

but they don't break down
and they don't become mealy.

That's because there are
really two kinds of potatoes:

there are high-starch potatoes
like russets--

they're about 25% starch--

and low-starch potatoes
like these new, or red, potatoes

that are about 15% starch.

So there's just less starch.

Now what happens in the cell
of one of these potatoes

is there are starch granules,
they start to absorb water

when they're heated, and
some of them start to explode,

destroying the texture
of the potato,

like a mashed potato
or like a baked potato.

These potatoes have less starch,

so the texture
doesn't get ruined.

The other thing is they
contain amylopectin.

That's one of two kinds
of starches.

Amylopectin acts like a glue
and actually repairs

some of those broken cells.

So less starch,
and amylopectin

actually makes up the difference
to give you a creamy potato,

even if you cook it a long time.

- All right, Chris,
the potatoes are sizzling.

Now we're ready to move on.

But these are going
to continue to cook here

for about four to six minutes,
and I am going to swirl the pan

around a little bit
just to make sure

the potatoes don't stick
to the bottom.

Now during that time,
the milk fat in the butter

is actually going to start
browning the bottoms

of these potatoes.

And they will be ready to go.

You can see they're already
on their way.

So let me just flip these
back over.

All right, so in the meantime,
let's go back to that garlic

that we cooked earlier
in the braising liquid.

So now we're going to turn it
into a flavorful paste.

I'll go ahead and mince these
garlic cloves.

Very easy, it's super soft.

So we'll just add
a teaspoon of lemon juice

and then a quarter teaspoon
of black pepper.

Mix this together.

All right,
these are smelling great

and that's a good indication
that that butter

is starting to color.

You can start to smell it.

And you can see that beautiful
brown color on the bottom.

These are done.

So I'm going to turn
the heat off

and we'll go ahead
and add in our garlic mixture.

Dress these right at the end.

Along with the two tablespoons
of chives.

- Just got the waft of garlic.

- Exactly.

I'll go ahead and toss these.

- You know, I thought--
well, of course I think

I know everything
about everything--

but I thought I knew everything
about how to cook potatoes,

but evidently not.

- Today I taught you something.

- You did.

Boy, those look good.

- Aren't they beautiful?

They're nice and crisp.

- Looks great.

- They look amazing.

- Mm...

- You're awfully brave.

- They're hot!

They're hot, they're creamy,
they're well-seasoned,

crusty on the outside and
they're creamy on the inside.

So as it turns out, the secret
to braised red potatoes

is to braise them first.

We took the potatoes,
water, butter, thyme, garlic,

a little salt.

Cooked them about 15 minutes
with the top on,

20 minutes with the top off,
then another 15 minutes

it cooks down and the butter
that's in the pan

actually turns out it browns
the bottom of the potatoes.

You really don't have to do
that much work.

So from America's Test Kitchen
to your kitchen,

a whole new way
of cooking potatoes.

Braised red potatoes
with chives.

You can get this recipe and all
the recipes from this season,

- Thank you.