Secret Cooking Ingredients

[PizzaJNKY]

I've heard that another way to sweeten spaghetti sauce is to add carrot juice to the mixture. I've never tried it though. I will definitly try Spring Jim's honey secret. I have a freind that's in the honey business, so I have a great supply line.

[SpringJim]

Originally Posted by asudavew

I heard somewhere....
that a great addition to spaghetti sauce is grape jelly....
seem to make some sense though.

that's the honey and red wine recipe

Grated carrots in the chili will give you a nice sweetness there....

[Orrin Dean]

An old wives secret is add a little sugar to everything to bring out the flavor like salt. I haven't tried it in everything but it works in a lot of things.
I've tried cinnamon in more mexican dishes like red sauce and enchalada sauce.
Chocolate is good too!
I'll have to make chili with the carrot juice, cinnamon, cocoa and anchovie paste. Oh yeah and honey! I think the key to good chili is the carmalization of the meat, anyway.

[gjbingham]

Orrin,
How do you carmelize the meat in chili? I always just throw it in the mix. No carmelization there? Do you cook it prior to adding it?

[Orrin Dean]

I brown the meat first. Not dried out just good and brown - Maillard reaction. Then I add onions, tomatoes and peppers to get the brown off the bottom of the pan.
I guess I used carmelization because I want to get those sugars out, like you do in carmalization, and I couldn't think of Maillard reaction at the time. I think you can brown meat without getting the sugars reacting to the recipe. We just had some nice beef patties at work, that were ruined in a inch of water in a half pan covered with foil for a hour.

[SpringJim]

ditto, I brown the meat well and then drain off the fat (saturated)
add some olive oil for the onions, garlic, peppers, etc....

[Tim F]

When you brown the meat that much in advance, doesn't it get tough? Or are you slow/long cooking it afterwards?

[SpringJim]

No, it get's rehydrated in the sauce and cooks further. Since it's ground meat, it's not much of a problem. The natives love it!

[tgm]

My favorite secret ingredient is 18yo Basalmic Vinegar.
We use it on everything from chicken to steaks. I just did 10 pizzas for a friends open house yesterday and one of the pizzas featured a ricotta cheese mixture with basil, sun dried tomatoes, romano cheese, red chile flakes, salt, pepper and EVO and then topped with sliced wood fired chicken, basil, spinach, roated red peppers, fresh mozzerella and then a sprinkling of grated Asiago.
Anyway...the chicken was marinated in chopped onion, garlic, fresh red chiles, salt, pepper, EVO and 18yo Basalmic vinegar and then grilled in the WFO. We had it earlier in the week w/o the BV and what a difference it makes. Wow!
We also used it to marinade fresh grape tomatoes that were quartered and then tossed with fresh chopped basil, garlic, salt, pepper, chile flakes, EVO and BV. Toss and let sit for an hour at room temp and the tomatoes exude all their juices. the flavor is awesome, to say the least. When you are ready to use just drain the tomatoes thoroughly and use them as the base for the best Margherita Pizza you have ever tasted.
The juices saved are a mixture of the EVO, BV and all the tomatoe juices with the spices and makes the best tomatoe vinegarette you have ever tasted. Nothing wasted...a perfect meal.

Sorry for the ramble....I am getting hungry now.

Thanks guys...great forum,

Tom in PA