The Short Cooking Question Item

Dec 11 05:26 UTC 1996

    I have a short question: 

   Is there such a thing as freezer marination? I ask because in a few days
I will be the proud owner of a dehydrator, and I am planning on making beef
jerky, which I love, but don't love paying 8 dollars a pound for. Anyhow,
I bought some nice chuck roast, and I tossed it in the freezer. I have some
marinade (powdered) that says can be prepared about an hour before cooking
and the meat will be fine. What I want to do is to make the marinade, thaw
the beef, and refreeze it in the marinade. I figure a few days in the freezer
and it'll taste heavenly. But is this worth it? Will the marinade actually
do any good? If it's a block of ice won't the molecules stop, and the
absorbtion of the marinade stop as well?

 thanks for your answers and comments

response 2 of 55:

Dec 11 17:16 UTC 1996

I seem to remember that you're not posedta freeze things more than once,
especially meats.  I don't remember if the rule was because of sanitation,
food taste, or lost nutritional value.

response 4 of 55:

Dec 11 21:03 UTC 1996

I'd be interested in hearing more about your dehydrating
experiences though, when you'd had some. ;-)
I've always been fond of dried cinnamon apple slices.

response 6 of 55:

Dec 12 08:09 UTC 1996

Dehydrated water melon?  What would be left??  (And don't say "melon!" :-)

response 8 of 55:

Dec 20 08:10 UTC 1996

  The first batch of jerky only took 18 hours to make. The book says 24-48,
but I suspect that it would've been really tough had I left it for 24.
I marinaded it in McCormick beef Mesquite marinade, for about an hour and
it's pretty flavorful, and hot. I'm probably going to make a teriyaki batch,
and a batch with some home made marinades. I'll keep you posted. Oh, the cost
wasn't that bad, either. The chuck roast only set me back 3 bux, and the
marinade was a buck, so for 4 bux, I got nearly 3 pounds of jerky.

This is going to be a beautiful thing

response 10 of 55:

Dec 22 04:28 UTC 1996

 I was good this year. Yes, Santa came on Thursday in the form of UPS. Only
sent the order off on the 3rd. ;(

  I'm about to embark on the second batch using top round. &^%$# 2.28 a pound.
but I was assured that this will be even better.

response 12 of 55:

Feb 20 18:52 UTC 1997

OK you chocolate fans.  I'm in search of the ultimate chocolate muffin recipe.
This is a debt of honor, so even though I've never *heard* of chocolate
muffins, I must learn to make them.  Help, help!

response 14 of 55:

Feb 22 12:05 UTC 1997

I once experimentally used chocolate chips instead of blueberries in my
favorite blueberry muffin recipe.  The combination with the lemon juice tasted
rather weird.  (Big help I am!)  :S

Olga's, at Briarwood, sells gigantic chocolate muffins.

I would think that if you mixed cocoa powder or melted baker's chocolate into
any old muffin recipe, you'd end up with chocolate muffins.  Hm.

response 16 of 55:

Feb 23 02:51 UTC 1997

I looked in my Williams-Sonoma Muffins and Quick Breads and
did indeed find a recipe for chocolate muffins.  In fact it's
called something like triple chocolate muffins and they are
described as brownie-like and call for some very rich ingredients.

If you are interested in this recipe I'll enter it.  But make
sure your will is up to date first - these look like death
by chocolate. ;-)

response 18 of 55:

Feb 23 13:35 UTC 1997

Muffins.  Heavy muffins.

response 20 of 55:

Feb 23 21:39 UTC 1997

Triple Chocolate Muffins  
************************

3 squares (3 oz.) unsweetened chocolate
3 squares (3 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.  Butter standard
muffin tins.  Combine the unsweetened and semi-sweet
chocolates and the butter in the top pan of a double
boiler and place over simmering water.  Stir frequently
until melted and smooth.  Set aside to cool slightly.

In a small bowl stir and toss together the flour, baking
powder and salt; set aside.  In another bowl combine the 
eggs, sugar, vanilla and coffee granules.  Beat until 
light and about double in volume.  Beat in the chocolate
mixture and then the combined dry ingredients just until
blended.  Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
The mixture will be stiff, almost like dough.

Spoon into the prepared muffin tins, filling each cup
about 2/3 full.  Using moistened fingertips, smooth the
top of each muffin.  Bake until they look dry on top,
about 15 minutes.  Do not overbake; the centers should 
remain moist.  Cool in the tins for 10 minutes then
remove.

Makes 12 standard muffins.

From: _Muffins and Quick Breads_, Williams-Sonoma

response 22 of 55:

Dec 12 02:30 UTC 1997

I use butter whenever a recipe calls for shortening.  Things taste a tiny bit
different, and white frosting comes out yellow, but other than that it works
okay.  If I remember right, butter is higher in saturated fat than shortening,
but shortening has more of the evil trans fatty acids, so it really isn't any
better.

response 24 of 55:

Dec 12 12:57 UTC 1997

I learned "shortening" as a word from my mother's recipe cards, and she told
me that it meant any kind of butter, margarine, oil, fat stuff; we used
usually margarine, sometimes lard.  Culturally these days it seems to mean 
thoroughly hydrogenated soybean oil.  I'm not much of a cook, but I use
liquid oil or chicken fat or occasionally margarine or very occasionally
butter.