Learn everything about seafoodWritten by Hans Dekker
Learn everything about seafoodSeafood can be enjoyed year round for many different lunch or dinner seafood meals. You can find seafood information, seafood news, and even seafood recipes online at various websites. You can learn all about seafood cooking, edible fish and how to prepare complete seafood meals just by surfing internet. Information on how to prepare seafood in way of fish, shrimp or even lobster tail recipes are plenty. You can also learn to tell which seafood is considered edible fish and which is not. Learning how to create seafood meals and how seafood cooking can be fun and exciting will brighten your day. You can take a basic seafood meal and using your own favorite ingredients can transform your seafood cooking into a wonderful and delectable masterpiece. Edible fish such as salmon or tuna will have your family running to your dinner table when you serve these unique and awesome seafood meals with your secret seafood cooking tools. The secret will be your own favorite seasonings that you will learn how to use for all of your seafood cooking and be able to plan delightful seafood meals all year long.
| | Holiday Ham: Tips for ChoosingWritten by Linda Schnable
The holiday ham is traditional centerpiece for Easter, Christmas, and other holiday gatherings. Almost any special meal warrants a holiday ham. Many options are available in choosing a holiday ham and in quest to make choice your holiday ham centerpiece a success. You can not judge value of your holiday ham by price per pound; you need to look beyond price for differences in hams that are available.Nutrition labels are a great place to start your comparisons of ham. The nutrifacts gives information about calories, fat, cholesterol, protein, and sodium contents of ham. Generally, nutrifacts for ham are healthy since ham is a relatively lean cut of meat before anything is added. When comparing hams, be certain that you note serving size that has been used to establish nutritional statistics of ham. Although nutrition information is very similar from one ham manufacturer to another, there are several factors that will present distinguishable differences in hams. These factors may represent differences in flavor and texture profile from one brand of ham to another. These factors are bone-in ham versus boneless, slow curing of ham versus efficient curing, water levels added to ham, different methods of smoking ham, cooking duration, and, of course, ingredients included cure or marinade of ham. Bone-in hams provide 2-3 servings per pound and tend to highlight added ingredients. The natural fats of ham help to enhance ingredients that are added to cure (marinade). Although you may want to trim fat away when consuming ham, cooking ham with its natural fat will bring out unique differences in many spices and sweeteners used to make ham. Boneless hams provide 4-5 servings per pound. Boneless hams usually have all visible fats removed when preparing ham for smoking and cooking. Boneless hams are extremely simple, however if you do not mind trimming away a little fat, you will probably enjoy flavor profile of bone-in ham more than boneless ham. If carving is a concern, try a pre-sliced spiral sliced ham with bone-in. Another factor that presents definitive differences in hams from one brand to another is method of curing ham. Ham is made with a flavorful cure, a marinade of water and brine that gives ham its typical taste and appearance. Technology advancements have helped ham curing process (adding ingredients through moisture enhancements) to become a much more efficient process than early days of ham processing. Equipment has helped process of getting ingredients into ham quickly to get ham to store quicker. Although efficiency factor helps reduce costs of production of some hams, it is not always effective in maximizing flavor enhancement factor. Whether using new technology or traditional methods, slowing curing process will bring out unique differences from added ingredients. Getting ingredients into meat is only half of process, giving them a chance to work before cooking is second half. Water is medium in which ham makers use to get different ingredients into meat. Over years, some ham makers have improved their methods to get more and more moisture into meat. Labels will read ham, ham with natural juices, water-added ham, and ham with X% added water. Obviously, ham and ham with natural juices will have least amount of water diluting natural taste of ham and its added spices. Adding more and more water will help drive down cost of ham, but generally does little to enhance flavor and texture of ham itself.
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