Tips, Tricks & Just Good Advice! > Cooking Equipment - Tips
Food Prep Accessories
DWard51:
Above all keep your work space clean and sanitary!
* Like others said, gloves are a must (nitrile). I sometimes double glove if I know I'm going to need clean hands while handling the meat. It's easier than trying to put the next pair of gloves on damp hands after washing them (or sweaty hands after pulling dirty pair off when only wearing a single layer).
* Depending on what I'm prepping and how much, I will either use a good sturdy aluminum pan or a large disposable pan to hold the bulk of the meat. Also I will put an aluminum commercial cookie sheet under the large disposable pan when carrying bulk food out to the smoker (or back in when done). Nothing sucks more than having a disposable pan fold up on you dumping your meat on the deck
* I have a flexible cutting board/sheet that I really like. Once I have some cut up meat I can pick up the board and fold it into a curve to funnel the meat into another container or into a hot pan for browning.
* I also keep a Worksharp diamond knife sharpener in the kitchen drawer and dress up a knife just before working on meat. A sharp knife makes a world of a difference (and remember to curl your thumb under when curling your fingers and holding meat or vegetables being cut - ask me how I know - cut through to the bone once in a fraction of a second). If you keep them sharp, you only need to do a quick dressing on the ceramic rod or leather strop most of the time. I also have the Ken Onion power sharpening system and when a new knife comes home, it gets the full treatment before going into service. Like I said, once sharp, it's easy to keep them sharp with a quick dressing stroke or two
* Buy the big rolls of aluminum foil from either Sam's Club or a restaurant supply warehouse. You will us it often, even if you don't foil your meat. Makes a great liner for parts of the smoker to make clean up easy. Same for the clear plastic food wrap. The wide stuff makes it easy to cover bowls and plates of leftovers in the fridge.
* If you don't have a Restaurant Depot or similar nearby, Sam's Club or Costco is your next best friend for decent prices on meat, pans, cutting boards, etc...
* use fresh spices, and keep spices stored in sealed glass jars under vacuum if you can. Oxygen is your enemy when it comes to spices. I use the small 4oz and 8oz Ball jars with standard lids and vacuum them with the foodsaver. They do make both a wide mouth lid adapter that comes with most kits, and a standard lid adapter that is an option. If you order some online, make sure the 4oz have the regular mouth lid as they also make a mini-8oz version that looks like a small ball jar and has a much smaller lid[\li]
* Oh yeah, FOODSAVER!!!!!! That is a must have item IMO. Buy in bulk, cut in to smaller quantities, vacuum pack and freeze. Also when I pull spice mixes out to make 5lbs of sticks from a bag that makes 25lbs, I fold over the bag and vacuum pack it in another bag. Keeps spices fresh as the day you opened the bag. Hell, you could make an entire "what do you use your foodsaver for" thread.....
Oh, and don't be afraid to try and make your own rubs and spice mixes. The pre-packaged stuff is good, but there is something to be said for tweaking it to your liking by adding something extra or mixing an entire batch from scratch. If you do "tweak" a commercial mix or make your own, keep records of what you did so you can repeat it if it was a hit. I also convert my go-to recipes to grams and load them into spreadsheets. I can then make any amount of sausage or snack sticks I want and have precise spice measurements in grams. Which reminds me to recommend everyone also have a gram scale that goes to 1/100th a gram and a larger scale that will go into the 25 lb and up range.
Pappymn:
--- Quote from: DWard51 on April 25, 2017, 06:06:59 PM ---Above all keep your work space clean and sanitary!
* Like others said, gloves are a must (nitrile). I sometimes double glove if I know I'm going to need clean hands while handling the meat. It's easier than trying to put the next pair of gloves on damp hands after washing them (or sweaty hands after pulling dirty pair off when only wearing a single layer).
* Depending on what I'm prepping and how much, I will either use a good sturdy aluminum pan or a large disposable pan to hold the bulk of the meat. Also I will put an aluminum commercial cookie sheet under the large disposable pan when carrying bulk food out to the smoker (or back in when done). Nothing sucks more than having a disposable pan fold up on you dumping your meat on the deck
* I have a flexible cutting board/sheet that I really like. Once I have some cut up meat I can pick up the board and fold it into a curve to funnel the meat into another container or into a hot pan for browning.
* I also keep a Worksharp diamond knife sharpener in the kitchen drawer and dress up a knife just before working on meat. A sharp knife makes a world of a difference (and remember to curl your thumb under when curling your fingers and holding meat or vegetables being cut - ask me how I know - cut through to the bone once in a fraction of a second). If you keep them sharp, you only need to do a quick dressing on the ceramic rod or leather strop most of the time. I also have the Ken Onion power sharpening system and when a new knife comes home, it gets the full treatment before going into service. Like I said, once sharp, it's easy to keep them sharp with a quick dressing stroke or two
* Buy the big rolls of aluminum foil from either Sam's Club or a restaurant supply warehouse. You will us it often, even if you don't foil your meat. Makes a great liner for parts of the smoker to make clean up easy. Same for the clear plastic food wrap. The wide stuff makes it easy to cover bowls and plates of leftovers in the fridge.
* If you don't have a Restaurant Depot or similar nearby, Sam's Club or Costco is your next best friend for decent prices on meat, pans, cutting boards, etc...
* use fresh spices, and keep spices stored in sealed glass jars under vacuum if you can. Oxygen is your enemy when it comes to spices. I use the small 4oz and 8oz Ball jars with standard lids and vacuum them with the foodsaver. They do make both a wide mouth lid adapter that comes with most kits, and a standard lid adapter that is an option. If you order some online, make sure the 4oz have the regular mouth lid as they also make a mini-8oz version that looks like a small ball jar and has a much smaller lid[\li]
* Oh yeah, FOODSAVER!!!!!! That is a must have item IMO. Buy in bulk, cut in to smaller quantities, vacuum pack and freeze. Also when I pull spice mixes out to make 5lbs of sticks from a bag that makes 25lbs, I fold over the bag and vacuum pack it in another bag. Keeps spices fresh as the day you opened the bag. Hell, you could make an entire "what do you use your foodsaver for" thread.....
Oh, and don't be afraid to try and make your own rubs and spice mixes. The pre-packaged stuff is good, but there is something to be said for tweaking it to your liking by adding something extra or mixing an entire batch from scratch. If you do "tweak" a commercial mix or make your own, keep records of what you did so you can repeat it if it was a hit. I also convert my go-to recipes to grams and load them into spreadsheets. I can then make any amount of sausage or snack sticks I want and have precise spice measurements in grams. Which reminds me to recommend everyone also have a gram scale that goes to 1/100th a gram and a larger scale that will go into the 25 lb and up range.
--- End quote ---
Great post. I do most of these. I have the Ken Onion as well and I like it. What is the Worksharp diamond knife sharpener? Do you use that like a honing steel? I use a steel to prolong my edge in between using the Ken Onion
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