ASK COOK’S COUNTRYGoing Against
the Grain
Recipes often call for slicing beef
against the grain, but I don’t un-
derstand what this means or how
to do it. Can you please clarify?
–Bridgette Holmes, New York, N.Y.
If you look closely at a piece of beef,
you’ll notice little lines—bundles of
closely packed muscle fi bers that run
parallel to one another. This pattern
of fi bers is referred to as the “grain”
because it looks similar to the grain on
a piece of wood.
When recipes call for slicing meat
against (or across) the grain, it means
you slice it perpendicular to the fi bers
instead of parallel to them. If you
think of the fi bers as a handful of dry
spaghetti, you want to cut the bundle
of spaghetti into shorter sections.
This is important because shorter
lengths of muscle fi bers are easier to
chew. Luxe cuts such as rib eye or ten-
derloin are tender no matter how you
slice them, but for tougher cuts such
as fl ank steak or skirt steak, cutting
against the grain is important to ensure
pleasant eating.
To cut against the grain, look for
the lines of muscle fi bers and orient
them so they run north to south on
your cutting board. Then, slice east
to west, perpendicular to the grain
line. Sometimes that means making
long cuts across a large piece of meat,
such as a long skirt steak. To make
slicing more manageable, we recom-
mend fi rst cutting the meat with the
grain into smaller sections and then
rotating the meat accordingly and
proceeding to slice against the grain
of the smaller sections.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Slicing against the
grain means slicing across the muscle
fi bers, which makes otherwise tough
meat more tender. Tender cuts do not
need to be sliced against the grain.Illustration:^ Traci^ DaberkoBye-Bye, Baby (Carrots)
It seems that my bagged baby
carrots spoil faster than regular
carrots. Why is that?
–Deb Hines, Tiverton, R.I.
Bagged baby carrots are not young
carrots harvested when they’re small;
rather, they are merely processed
pieces of large carrots that are typi-
cally too blemished to sell whole. The
larger, imperfect carrots (usually vari-
eties high in sugar and beta carotene
and therefore sweeter and brighter in
color) are forced through a machine
that peels them and cuts them down
to baby carrots’ signature small size.
Then, like a lot of produce nowadays,
the baby carrots are washed in an
FDA- and EPA-regulated chlorinated
solution to kill off bacteria before they
are bagged.
Because baby carrots don’t have the
natural protective outer layer present
on whole, mature carrots (it is peeled
off ) and have a relatively large amount
of surface area exposed to air, they are
inclined to spoil faster than regular
carrots. Without this protective skin,
baby carrots are prone to losing their
moisture; when the exterior dries
out, it forms a white blush that looksunappetizing (but is generally safe to
consume). To combat moisture loss,
some manufacturers add extra water
to the bagged carrots; this sealed,
high-moisture environment means
that the baby carrots can turn slimy.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Due to their pro-
cessing—primarily the removal of their
natural protective outer coating—baby
carrots do indeed spoil faster than
whole carrots. If your baby carrots
are dried out, try soaking them in ice
water to revive them.Next-Generation
Grapes
My grocery store carries Cotton
Candy grapes. What are they?
–Gus Gendron, Orlando, Fla.
A few of our test cooks are enthusiastic
fans of Cotton Candy grapes and were
eager to order some for us to taste.
The grapes looked like any other green
grapes, but true to their name, these
juicy specimens had a bubblegum-y
sweetness much like that of cotton
candy. A few tasters noted a similarity
to the artifi cial “blue raspberry” fl avor
found in some candies and drinks.First-time tasters were shocked by the
grapes’ sweetness and perfumy fl avor.
We assumed that these were geneti-
cally modifi ed Frankengrapes, but in
fact, they were developed by a Califor-
nia company called The Grapery using
traditional, all-natural crossbreeding
methods. Cotton Candy grapes contain
about 12 percent more sugar than most
other commercial varieties.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Cotton Candy
grapes are an all-natural grape hybrid
that is sweeter than many other grape
varieties. Their availability in late sum-
mer is limited, but they can be found at
many major grocery store chains.GET YOUR GRAPES HERE!
Fruit that tastes like candyby Cecelia Jenkins2 COOK’S COUNTRY • JUNE/JULY 2019
These
north-south
lines are the
meat’s grain.Slice east-west across the grain
for the most tender meat.A Mediterranean
Mix
I love your recipe for homemade
Italian seasoning. Could you
create a recipe for homemade
Greek seasoning?
–Cheryl James, Streetsboro, OhioAiming to please, we ordered in
several Greek seasoning mixes
and were surprised to fi nd how
diff erent they were. Some were
just mixtures of herbs, others were
dominated by onion, and still
others included warm spices such
as nutmeg and cinnamon. We
wanted a lemony, herb-heavy blend
that would be great mixed into
vinaigrette, added to marinades for
chicken or lamb, or simply sprinkled
over rice. Here’s our version.HOMEMADE GREEK SEASONING
Makes about ¼ cup
One lemon yields 1 tablespoon
of zest. We love this seasoning in
salad dressings and on feta cheese,
baked potatoes, or grilled chicken.1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder- Spread lemon zest evenly on
plate and microwave until dry
and zest separates easily when
crumbled between your fi ngers,
about 2 minutes, stirring halfway
through microwaving. - Combine oregano, salt, pepper,
garlic powder, and lemon zest in
small bowl. (Seasoning can be
stored at room temperature for up
to 1 week.)