Milk Street Q&A

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Karmen - Any slow-cooked sauce or braise could benefit from the addition of Mexican chocolate. It does a great job of toning down bitterness and adding a little bit of sweetness and fuller flavor to your food. It would work well in chilis and sauces for pulled pork or pork ribs, posole, or enchiladas. You could also grind it up in a blender and combine with oats, dried fruit, and nuts to make a granola (or granola bars) with the unique flavor of Mexican chocolate. If you do decide to use it for baking, make sure to find recipes that call for Mexican chocolate specifically. Because of the difference in sugar content and cocoa butter between Mexican chocolate and bittersweet/semi-sweet chocolate, they aren't interchangeable. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Marla - In addition to, obviously, changing the flavor of the cake, you're correct that it will affect the moisture of the cake since the wine is part of the liquid ingredients in the batter. The alcohol doesn't serve any purpose in the cake from a technical perspective. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Mary - I don't believe there is, but our customer service team will have better answers and, possibly, more information on if and when this feature might be available. They do not not monitor this board. Please send all customer service inquiries directly to [email protected]. Thanks! Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Joanne - We didn't test lard in our Single-Crust Pie Dough, so we don't know for sure if/how it will work, though we presume a half-or-less substitution should be fine. If you do try it, make sure to find good quality rendered leaf lard, which is a bit hard to find. Much of the lard widely available in grocery stores has been hydrogenated and filled with preservatives, with a strong piggy flavor, which makes baking with it considerably less desirable than an all-butter crust. Good luck! Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Heath - The Cooking School and customer service teams don't monitor this board so, in the future, you will have a quicker response if you head directly to them at either at [email protected] or [email protected]. We will go ahead and forward your inquiry to them. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Esther - In order to keep true to the version we had in Liberia, we only tested this using freshly-ground rice, which is how it's traditionally made. So, unfortunately, we can't offer any suggestions on how to convert the recipe using rice flour. We think it could work, but we just don't have the ingredient conversions to give you without doing considerably more testing. If we were going to test this, we would probably start by weighing the freshly-ground rice and using an equivalent amount of rice flour and seeing how that baked up. Then being adjusting amounts of flour, baking powder/soda, bananas, oil, ginger (in case the flavor of freshly-ground rice provides more balance to the ginger than more-mild rice flour), etc. to compensate for the change in rice. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Anthony - You could use a non-dairy yogurt. Several non-dairy brands now make a plain yogurt. These are usually low-fat and, though we generally prefer full-fat yogurt for marinades, it should still work. Otherwise you can try to think your non-dairy sour cream with non-dairy milk or water. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Laure - We haven't had a chance to taste this yet, but I'm sure the folks in the store can answer your question. I will forward your question over to them but, in the future, if you've got questions about store products, the fastest way to get an answer is to email them at - [email protected]. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Cheryl - Many chefs and bakers believe that using unsalted butter will allow you to control the salt content in your dishes better than using salted butter. But we've tested salted versus unsalted butter in a number of savory and baking recipes and we didn’t find any measurable difference between the two. The small amount of salt in salted butter (it's about 1/4 teaspoon per stick, depending on the brand) is undetectable when cooked or baked in a recipe, we found. Still, we have a preference between the two. Though most culinary professionals and publications will recommend using unsalted butter, we prefer the salted kind because it tastes better when you’re not cooking with it. Unsalted butter doesn’t cut it on toast! Since we prefer to stick with one kind, salted butter is our choice. It also has a longer shelf life. So if you don’t go through butter at a fast rate, buying salted butter is a good idea. You can certainly still use unsalted butter in our recipes if you prefer. You just may need to adjust the salt to your personal tastes. Using salted butter in the lemon almond pound cake will not make the cake salty, it will just give it a more rounded, deeper flavor. Hope that helps! The Milk Street Cooking Team

Answered by Lynn Clark

Hi Jake - To streamline the recipe we wanted to make sure it could be made with pre-ground chicken from the supermarket, which is almost exclusively ground breast meat, so we didn't test this with thighs. Due to the extra fat in thighs and its different texture - breasts are more firm, thighs are more "shred-y" - we don't think this swap would work in this recipe. Best, The Milk Street Cooking Team