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I hadn't actually considered making a composé before but my wife loves when I make my very special and totally unique "melted butter with garlic and lemon" for certain dishes. I think I'll give making a garlic butter compound a shot actually. Thanks for the recipe tips.

DhammaStep says

I hadn't actually considered making a composé before but my wife loves when I make my very special and totally unique "melted butter with garlic and lemon" for certain dishes. I think I'll give making a garlic butter compound a shot actually. Thanks for the recipe tips.

Use real garlic, either finely minced or pressed. It takes a couple of times to figure out how much garlic you need to use when you've moved from garlic salt to garlic + salt. Garlic is a pain to work with, but I think it's worthwhile. I remove the skins by rolling a clove between my fingers until it cracks, then use a knife to peel the top and strip away the skins. You don't have to get rid of all of it, but it's better if you do if you're putting it through a garlic press. Better to remove too much than too little, just like an onion.

richwicks says

Use real garlic

I genuinely had no clue there were other options. Also just use the flat of a blade to crush them and peel the skin off easily. In my experience, let them sit for 10-20 minutes after crushing before you do anything further to maximize garlicness.

DhammaStep says

I genuinely had no clue there were other options.

Garlic salt is super easy. That's my "fuck it, I don't want to bother" option. Sometimes I end up making a dish that is under spiced, in that case, I'm glad to have it.

DhammaStep says

Also just use the flat of a blade to crush them and peel the skin off easily.

I used to do that, until I slipped and cut myself on the blade. I use garlic quite often so I have a strong thumb and forefinger.

DhammaStep says

In my experience, let them sit for 10-20 minutes after crushing before you do anything further to maximize garlicness.

THIS I've never heard. Before or after you crush them? I'd think oxidization would actually dull the flavor.

richwicks says

THIS I've never heard. Before or after you crush them?

After. Some people say just 5 minutes but I do longer. It has more to do with the compound alliin that converts into allicin which is apparently very healthy if I recall correctly. When I feel a little sickness coming on, I chop a clove or two, let them sit for 15 then chew like a madman.

DhammaStep says

richwicks says

THIS I've never heard. Before or after you crush them?

After. Some people say just 5 minutes but I do longer. It has more to do with the compound alliin that converts into allicin which is apparently very healthy if I recall correctly. When I feel a little sickness coming on, I chop a clove or two, let them sit for 15 then chew like a madman.

Well, I'll try it.

I kind of did it last night. I wanted some comfort food, so I made macaroni and cheese. I had boiled the noodles, chopped up and onion and crushed the garlic, only to find out I didn't have any butter left to make a rue. Took me 20 minutes to get the butter, and the dish did turn out quite well.

Must have been 40 minutes since I crushed the garlic and finally made the cheese sauce and got it into the oven to cook.

DhammaStep says

It has more to do with the compound alliin that converts into allicin which is apparently very healthy if I recall correctly.

I eat plenty of garlic stuffed olives that come in brine/pickling water in a jar. I wonder if that has any allicin health effects.

richwicks says

I made macaroni and cheese. I had boiled the noodles, chopped up and onion and crushed the garlic, only to find out I didn't have any butter left to make a rue. Took me 20 minutes to get the butter, and the dish did turn out quite well.

Marry me.

HeadSet says

richwicks says

I made macaroni and cheese. I had boiled the noodles, chopped up and onion and crushed the garlic, only to find out I didn't have any butter left to make a rue. Took me 20 minutes to get the butter, and the dish did turn out quite well.

Marry me.

No. You want the recipe?

You'll need:

* 2 cups of small elbow macaroni
* 2 cups of milk
* 1/4 cup of butter (4 tsp - this is 1/2 a stick)
* 1/4 cup of flour
* 8 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese (cut up into small cubes or shredded)
* 4 cloves of garlic (depending on taste)
* 1 red onion, finely cut up, almost minced.
* 1/2 tablespoon of salt or to taste - you might want to just salt to taste AFTER it's cooked though.
* quite a lot of pepper. You can also add this when you're done, I do 60 twists of a pepper mill, but who knows how much that is?
* OPTIONAL: 1/8 - 1/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice or lime juice - something that is acidic.

1 casserole dish - about 2 quarts

Cook macaroni until al-dente (i.e. chewy, but not waterlogged), drain and dump the macaroni into a casserole dish, mix (with the exception of the flour, milk, and cheese) everything in the casserole dish well. I cover it once I've done that.

Take same pan, melt butter on medium heat, then add flour being careful to remove any lumps of flour. Mix constantly and cook until it's bubbling, be careful not to burn, recommend medium heat. The mixture will bubble and will raise a bit - when it's all bubbling, remove from heat and continue to stir so it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan. Dump milk into pan and add back to heat at medium (or higher if you can stir enough to prevent burning). The second you add milk, the butter/flour will solidify, you can scrape the pan at the bottom and that gives you some ability to spend time cutting up the cheese. While it heats, chop up cheese. I use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom to prevent burning.

Continually stir but cut cheese up as it warms us.

You can add the cheese whenever, but I usually bring the milk, flour, and butter to a near boil - it will become thick - this is a roux. If you let it come to a near boil, it will get very thick (like alfredo sauce) and when it gets thick, you have to make certain you stir because there's not a lot of mobility in the liquid and it can easily burn.

When the cheese is all chopped up, stir in to the roux and let the cheese melt entirely until it's almost bubbling, continually stirring. Once it is, add to the casserole dish and mix well, and throw in oven at 350-400F to cook for 20-40 minutes. Maybe longer depending on the shape of the dish. If you've under cooked the macaroni, add more milk or water otherwise it will turn out too dry. You can mix it again, even after being in the oven if you need to add more liquid.

When it's bubbling and brown, it's basically done. Let cool a bit and eat.

-----------------

The vinegar (or lemon or lime juice) adds to the flavor because they are acidic and it's acid that makes sharp cheddar cheese "sharp". Sharp cheese might be enough, but I like more of a bite. I use a ludicrous amount of pepper (I'm told) but nobody has complained about it. Onions need to be finely chopped and the garlic pulverized very finely which is why I use a garlic press.

Often as I just cook the macaroni I do the vegetables and if I'm quick enough start chopping up the cheese and when the macaroni is done, throw all ingredients into the casserole dish and set it aside. At this point, you kind of have a salad although it's warm but you can check flavor and add salt and pepper to taste.

Then I make the roux which becomes cheese sauce, dump all that in, mix well, bake.

This recipe is kind of hard to fuck up too. Even if you don't make the roux properly, and don't entirely melt the cheese, it tends to turn out OK. You don't even really need to melt the cheese into the roux if you grate it, but I prefer to melt it.

I make a mean ass hamburger too, which is SUPER easy to do, but for some reason, it doesn't seem like any burger joint can. The secret ingredient, is SALT. Don't use hamburger buns, use Ciabatta rolls. Cut them in half, and toast them. Recommend something pickled (dill pickles, banana peppers), REAL cheese, mustard, hot sauce, and an onion slice.

Ciabatta might seem hard to get, they're just these weird square rolls.

https://www.aheadofthyme.com/easy-small-batch-ciabatta-rolls/

They are really easy for me to get.

Hamburger rolls have goddamned sugar in them, which makes the bread taste too sweet, and they are overly processed. They are convenient, but vastly inferior to me. Almost any roll is better than a hotdog or hamburger roll.

richwicks says

You want the recipe?

Got it, thanks!

HeadSet says

richwicks says

You want the recipe?

Got it, thanks!

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned this heats up well.

Onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and acid (vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice) are optional but then you end up with something I think is bland, but you can always flavor it later. I'll warn you about this, you have to use some sort of sharp cheese, I tried Pepper Jack once, and it was flavorless.

You can also include meat in it, PROVIDED it's cooked. Ham cubes are common. I've tried steak but... Engh.

You can also F around with random vegetables. The basic recipe is kind of like a base, and you can add a lot to it. Start with the basics, but the optional stuff, you can remove them and still get something edible and get creative.

richwicks says

Use real garlic, either finely minced or pressed.

Motar and pestle I've heard is the best way to make compound butter with fresh ingredients. Just smash the shit out of it. Just bought one so I have no advice, but it's one of the reasons I got it. Plus just making your own homemade spices. Versatile kitchen from what I've heard. Oh and guacamole. Feeling on a Mexican kick this summer cooking wise and know they use them a lot to make ingredients.

Looking for motor and pestle stuff to make and compound butter came up in the search. Funny this post was made. Weird timing. Might make fresh mojitos tomorrow for the wife with it. We'll see.

The only thing butter needs is food to put it on or in.

richwicks says

Take same pan, melt butter on medium heat, then add flour being careful to remove any lumps of flour. Mix constantly and cook until it's bubbling, be careful not to burn, recommend medium heat. The mixture will bubble and will raise a bit - when it's all bubbling, remove from heat and continue to stir so it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan. Dump milk into pan and add back to heat at medium (or higher if you can stir enough to prevent burning). The second you add milk, the butter/flour will solidify, you can scrape the pan at the bottom and that gives you some ability to spend time cutting up the cheese. While it heats, chop up cheese. I use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom to prevent burning.

Growing up my Mom made M&C more like a Quiche with noodles. I remember she would put the cooked noodles in the casserole dish, then add the milk or creme, grated cheddar cheese, crack a bunch of eggs tossed in bread crumbs, and mixed it then baked it. After it baked you could slice it and serve it out of the casserole dish like it was loaf. My attempts are always dry and the outer noodles get dried out and it falls apart when you slice it. My Mom's was moist and dense. The leftovers were better than when it was fresh out of the oven.
The closest I got to it, is when I followed a quiche recipe and added macaroni before baking.

Here's the thing, at family reunions and functions, I also remember everyone brought M&C that had the same properties and texture. Nobody was trying recreate Kraft Velveta Macaroni. I asked my Mom years later how did they used to make M&C she proceeded to tell me the roux based recipe. I said no not that one, the one you used to make when we(my siblings) were kids. She didn't remember and has since then makes the roux based variety solely.

It's one of those perplexing Mandela Effect things I guess.

I typically use cheapo costco disposable gloves when dealing with garlic. Got sick of is my fingers stinking for 3 days. Another thing I do an old chef pal taught me, that I never see on TV or interwebs: I slice the garlic in half in order to check for a green center. It it's there I peel it out. That part is bitter and means the garlic isn't fresh.

I did the same to the leftover shallots I sautéed, strained then vacuum sealed yesterday. Green centers. Get rid of them.

Even though the bay area is near Gilroy I encountered lots of garlic trying to sprout out there.

Tenpoundbass says

Here's the thing, at family reunions and functions, I also remember everyone brought M&C that had the same properties and texture.

Ask your family. I bet you might be under cooking the noodles a bit, or maybe you need to cover it when you bake it.

My parents are getting elderly, last time I went back for a visit, I pilfered all the recipes just to preserve them.

What's funny, is all of us modify the recipes. The macncheese recipe is slightly different for everybody. The actual recipe (from memory) is 1 3/4 cup of small elbow macaroni, I think it's still 2 cups of milk, remove all the spices (no salt, no onion, no garlic, no pepper) - the acid (vinegar, lime or lemon juice) I added because I simply can't get REALLY sharp cheddar here.

When I was a kid, we'd get sharp cheddar cheese that was SO sharp, it was crumbly.

richwicks says

When I was a kid, we'd get sharp cheddar cheese that was SO sharp, it was crumbly.

Yes the Extra Sharp White Cheddar from Cabot farms is the closest to the sharp cheddar they used to have.
I have asked around everyone makes the roux based stuff now. The closest I have seen to it, is when I have worked for a company that had Pot Luck lunches. Where everyone brings a dish. Black Southerners still make it like that. I should have asked around then.