Keep It Safe!

Q: You told us about buying knives, but what about keeping them? I use a magnetic strip for mine, and it protects them pretty well.

A: My LEAST favorite place to keep a good-quality knife is in a drawer, where it gets knocked around and hit by other utensils. Barely one step above that is the traditional knife block, which protects the knife from everything but the wood abrading against the edge and holding moisture against it.

Magnetic strips are adequate, but over time a heavy chef's knife can warp from its own mass. Granted, it will take quite a bit of time, but why not consider one other option: the knife "safe."

I first saw one of these neat critters when I took a cooking class from Alton Brown last year. It's a locking, rigid plastic sheath that fastens over the blade of your knife, giving it positive protection from injury. They are also vented to allow moisture to escape, preventing rust. Good ones even have rubber pads inside to offer additional protection. With one of these, you CAN toss your knife in a drawer ... or in a knapsack, tote bag or cooking kit for camping.

There are plenty of places selling them. If you'd like to order online, just click here.

Q: What can I use cornmeal for in cooking? -- Stephen Platkin

A: Cornmeal is one of the oldest food products known to man. It makes a fantastic breading for fried foods, especially catfish. I use a 3-1 mix of corn meal to flour and an assortment of secret spices to make mine.

The finest purpose for cornmeal, though, is to make cornbread! There are passionate debates over the best recipe, and in some southern societies you can find yourself shunned for life depending on whether or not you use sugar in your batter.

I will confess, I am a cornbread sugarer. There. I've said it. I feel better now.

My recipe? It's dirt simple, really.

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. shortening
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Grease a 9x13x2-inch baking pan with solid shortening and set aside. Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and cut in the shortening and butter until particles are fine.

In a medium bowl beat the buttermilk and eggs together until well blended. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients until just blended. Do NOT overbeat. The batter will have some lumps.

Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I like to lightly butter the top of my cornbread while it's still hot. Have a VERY light touch here, as you don't want to make the crust soggy.

Q: I am going to do my first prime rib roast, and have found some lovely recipes, but all the recipes seem to call for roughly 325° F. heat. While in England, I observed slow cooking techniques, (180-225) which resulted in the most tender and flavorful meat I have ever enjoyed. Do you see any problems with this method for prime rib?

A: I'd be wary of going below 200° F., unless the roast is very small. It'll stand a good chance of staying in the bacterial danger zone too long. I roast mine at 225° F. until a probe thermometer inserted in the center (not touching a bone) reads 120° F. While it's resting, the carryover heat will boost the temperature of the center up about another 10 degrees.

From Alton Brown, I learned this next trick: After the roast has rested, put it back in the oven at 500° F. (yes, that's right, 500) for 10 minutes to give it that marvelous crust your favorite steakhouse will charge you $60 for.

Q: Can you tell me if there is a way to make a broth less salty? I made chicken and dumplings and used a chicken soup base I bought at the store but it made my stew extremely salty. Is there a way to correct it? Thank you. -- Ann

A: This is a great chance to plug one of my very favorite food science books, "What Einstein Told His Cook" by Robert Wolke. It is a book so knowledge-packed, so overstocked with wisdom that you'll only be able to read a dozen pages at once lest your brain surrender under the excess of information. In short: if you have even the slightest interest in the science behind what goes on in your kitchen, YOU NEED THIS BOOK.

According to Wolke, who conducted an exhaustive series of experiments on the "salty soup" question, the only way to "remove" salt from a soup or stew is to dilute it. You will of course end up with more liquid, and need to correct your seasonings, but it's the only way. The old kitchen tale of putting potatoes in to "soak up" the salt simply isn't true, and adding vinegar or other flavorful substances to try and counteract the salt taste can have disastrous results if you pick the wrong antidote or use too much.

Got a question for Ask The Cook? A quandary? A poser, even? Drop me a line and we'll find the answers together!