Obviously "good" is subjective but I've used the expression to mean "better than average." In this case, they probably mean not a jar of Ragu.

Martha Stewart continually tells people to use "good quality" ingredients, but that's probably because she knows a lot of people who use poor quality ingredients. She also thinks salt belongs in every recipe, which is even worse. If I ever do use any of her recipes, I know to cut the salt in half or omit it.

As for olive oil, there are occasions when light olive oil is preferred over extra virgin, especially when sauteing. For the red sauce, if there is a lot of heavy meat to be added to it, it might be acceptable to use a cheaper red sauce, as the meat may overpower the flavor of the sauce. Better to use a good 28 oz. can of tomatoes instead of the sauce in a jar, and you can add the herbs and spices that you prefer.

Lars

Martha bugs me so I don't watch her very often. I would use the word "good" when whatever ingredient was important to the recipe but it's all very subjective and subject to budget. I wouldn't spend $8-9 on a bottle of tomato sauce even if a recipe called for it.

A "good" quality olive oil makes sense where the oil was a central ingredient like in a dressing but here's little point sauteing in a good quality olive oil, when "good" generally means extra virgin.

I also don't follow a lot of recipes, although I use them to point me in a general direction. I salt to my taste which generally means a lot less salt that most chef's would use because I don't like the taste of overly salty food.

LOL

Martha Stewart continually tells people to use "good quality" ingredients, but that's probably because she knows a lot of people who use poor quality ingredients.

I doubt Martha knows anyone who uses poor quality ingredients, at least not personally, but you can bet she knows a lot of people who will supply her, for free, with lots and lots of organic, fresh, local ingredients. Ingredients we "normal" people would never be able to afford, or even find.

Ina also tells you to use good quality ingredients too like Olive oil, and good vanilla. I want to know what brand is good vanilla? lol

I wonder if she means vanilla extract and not artificial vanilla.

If someone was paying them to be a name dropper, they would say what brand of so-called "good quality" red sauce they are getting paid to use..... Who cares since "taste" is so subjective and it just makes them sound like cooking snobs. When you live in the middle of "nowhere" it doesn't really matter what THEY call "good quality", we take what we get or make our own red sauce.

For some reason, I have been catching more of Martha these days on Create TV, and if I had a $1 for every time she calls something she's baking "pretty", I could buy that "good quality" stuff (even though it doesn't exist here). I also agree with her heavy-hand with salt, and I also get a kick out of how much she bangs stuff around, drops pans unceremoniously into the oven and slams the oven door shut, and is not very good at measurements. I guess it just cheap entertainment for me.

And when it comes to vanilla, imitation vanilla always wins the taste tests on America's Test Kitchen (which just KILLS Chris Kimball). Probably most of us didn't have "good quality" vanilla available when we were growing up - unless it was what mom purchased on rare occasions from the Watkins man who sold it door-to-door (which I believe was also imitation vanilla). Imitation vanilla was very common and that's what we, and the general population, got accustomed to and developed a flavor preference for. We had to unlearn it when real vanilla was more readily available.

We had a church member who went to Mexico for part of the year as a missionary and he would always bring Mexican vanilla back as gifts for his supporters. That was the first time I'd used anything other than imitation vanilla and I loved the flavor that had a nutmeg-like undertone.

I have that same pet peeve! The thing is, if I'm going to buy (whatever that recipe writer considers) poor quality ingredients, I'm not going to suddenly, upon reading that recipe, do the V-8 slap to my head and run out and buy some new ingredients. I buy what I like and think is good quality.

Anyway, good enough for me. Ina or Martha or Emeril or whoever, were they to walk into my kitchen (fat chance!) might be horrified, but you know, I won't fret about that.

Hey May, I walked into your kitchen and wasn't horrified!!

Grainlady, Mexican vanilla beans was my single purchase while in Mexico. I made my own vanilla and it is the best. I have been collecting those little syrup bottles from Cracker Barrel restaurant so I can put the homemade vanilla in them for gifts for friends.

I really wonder about the taste buds of the tasters at America's Test Kitchen if imitation vanilla wins. It has a weird taste to me. Cathy, I agree, homemade vanilla is the best.

Who knows what good quality olive oil is anymore, the industry is corrupt and even brands that should be good are tainted.

I thought there was something poisonous? with Mexican vanilla? Can't remember. Something...

Bumblebeez, the "bad" ingredient is Coumarin. I remember reading about it a long time ago.

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/vanilla.asp

That is like eggs. Ina and Martha say to crack eggs in a separate bowl before you add them to your cookies or cakes. In case you get a bad egg. Where are they buying their eggs. From a flea market where the eggs sit in the sun all day. I think not. I can't ever remember getting a bad egg from my market.

Good vanilla; http://www.saffron.com/vanextract.html There's a whole explanation here, plus an excellent vanilla that I can vouch for (not affiliated). :) Also the best saffron. They used to have just the two products, but now have other extracts and dried mushrooms, which I haven't tried.

I totally get Donna_loomis's pet peeve, but when I give one of my recipes to certain people, I also say it. The American food industry runs on people for whom low price is the number one reason to buy a product. You wouldn't believe some of the ghastly products that people who have a choice and an extra dollar choose to use and eat.

Even for simple ingredients there are grades of "goodness". I use light olive oil for general cooking. It doesn't have the solids that give olive oil it's specialness. It's just a very good vegetable oil. I have several different EVOO's. The situation isn't as bad as has been reported. Awhile back there was a scientific study that said it had proven that something like 70% of EVOO was "fake", when, in fact, while there is fake out there, most of the oil in that category had just lost its oomph (chemical identifiers) from being exposed to too much sunlight and air. When I say "good quality" EVOO I mean fresh and fragrant, preferably varietal and estate bottled, and it's going to be eaten fresh. OTOH, the EVOO at the bottom of a big bottle, which has been in a warm kitchen and exposed to the air is still just fine in the pizza crust. I don't have regular olive oil, so I use the ends of the EVOO for regular. ;) So, "good EVOO" has meaning to me. Maybe not so much to the recipient of the recipe, however.

kalapointer, I tell my granddaughter to always crack eggs into a separate dish. Why? Because she's eleven and usually gets a shell in there and it's easier to fish out. LOL

Ann T, I agree with you on the America's Test Kitchen taste testers, I almost never like the one they chose, and I don't care for imitation vanilla. I very much like Penzey's double vanilla, but I sure don't like the price tag, so I buy a big bottle of the real stuff at Costco and a small jar of vanilla bean paste for things where vanilla is a predominant flavor note.

I also would make my own sauce for pasta dishes since, like Grainlady, there are no "good" choices. Usually there are no choices at all, other than take it or leave it, LOL. Usually I also make my own pasta, although the Princess and I broke the pasta maker last weekend.

I do grow much of my own food, so my ingredients ARE good quality stuff, and I know exactly how and where it was produced.

My pet peeve is when recipe writers tell me to put a clean towel over something, like rising bread dough. Like I'm going to put an old dirty towel over it?

Annie

I thought the coumarin was from the commonly available form of cinnamon--nothing to do with vanilla. Which is why, if you are using large amounts of cinnamon to control blood sugar, it should be true cinnamon, not commonly available in the supermarket.

Coumarin can be found in Mexican vanilla labeled in Spanish “Extracto de vainilla” or “Vainilla.” Not all Mexican vanilla has coumarin in it, especially the brands that are exported into the U.S., since coumarin is banned from food products sold in the U.S.

Tonka beans are used for imitation vanilla in Mexico, and tonka beans contain coumarin.

As laceyvail mentioned, coumarin is also found in cinnamon. The "true cinnamon" is Ceylon Cinnamon (more expensive and not as strong), and is what you should use if you are using a lot of cinnamon for blood sugar treatment because it contains very little coumarin. The cinnamon we commonly find in stores is Cassia and doesn't work like Ceylon for diabetes, plus Cassia contains more coumarin than Ceylon.

For more information:
http://www.bfr.bund.de/en/faq_on_coumarin_in_cinnamon_and_other_foods-8487.html

-Grainlady

Interesting info as always....

My dad always said buy the best (tool, book, wood, food) you can afford and take care to use it well. I actually get more annoyed by suggestions for a particular brand. Especially if no alternatives are suggested.

I don't ever remember my mother using anything but McCormick's vanilla extract when we were kids and we were by no means affluent. Of course, other than birthday cakes and Christmas cookies she didn't bake much so a small bottle probably lasted a while. I can only assume it was available at the local grocery store, she wouldn't have gone anywhere else for it.

I don't recall ever buying imitation vanilla but years ago I did try some vanilla beans in a recipe or two and recall the flavor was better than from an extract.

For bakers that have access to Costco, their bottle seems to be a pretty good value.

I never watch America's Test Kitchen. Their attitude annoys me. They always act like their opinion or method or taste test results are THE only right answer. It's not.

This post has me wondering if there is "good quality" imitation vanilla, lol! I guess I'll have to check with America's Test Kitchen. I've been using the imitation in highly spiced baking and saving the good stuff for something where the vanilla will predominate. I can't remember the chemistry of it, but as I recall, imitation vanilla is fairly easy to produce and pretty close to the real thing. Not sure about the coumarin, since that has a vanilla odor so it may be one of the vanilla compounds. That's the issue with real vs imitation, the imitation has one compound, vanillin, but real vanilla has that plus other subtle compounds that will vary with species and also within species due to growing conditions. Same with all natural plant products, flavor varies, which I find fascinating.

Yes! to finding America's Test Kitchen annoying - seems like every 'best' recipe of theirs is overly fussy & time consuming/labor intensive. In fact, I find any kind of fussy, time consuming recipe annoying & try to avoid them, mostly. I prefer short ingredients lists & fewer steps. Wasn't Alice Waters' credo something about fresh, high quality ingredients, simply prepared?

Jacques Pepin, 1 of my culinary heroes, always emphasizes (& demonstrates) simplicity as well.

& I buy whole vanilla beans & steep the rinds in bourbon after I've scraped out the seeds.

Mike, that is my memory too. My mother wasn't a great cook but when she baked she always used real vanilla extract. My grandmother did too.

"Imitation vs. Real Vanilla Extract

The process to make real vanilla extract is
labor-intensive as the plants must be hand-pollinated, hand-picked and
dried for months to produce the vanillin that yields the familiar
flavor. This lengthy process results in and justifies higher prices for
the real stuff. In contrast, imitation vanilla flavoring is produced
quickly and cheaply. Although it contains vanillin, it is not from the
rare orchid. Instead it is chemically synthesized from the essential oil
of cloves or made from lignin, which is a byproduct in paper
manufacturing that has been chemically treated to resemble the taste of
real vanilla."

I think I will stick to using real vanilla extract.

Agmss, totally agree on the quality issue. If you have one good tool that works well you need many fewer crumby tools.

OTOH, I like it when a brand is specified in a recipe. You can usually look up what the difference is, but the person who writes the recipe might not know. My mother's challah recipe wants Gold Medal Bread Flour and won't come out right with King Arthur. They have different protein levels and bleaching is important to the texture. My brother's chocolate chip cookies only come out right with "baking margarine". Butter melts differently, and the new kind of margarine sticks that have 80 Calories per serving doesn't bake right either. It's also better of there's a good amount of milk solids. He has a list of brands that will work. Cooking isn't as picky, but there's a difference between Heinz Ketchup and Hunts and homemade. You might not care on French fries, but the different seasonings and moisture content could make a big difference in a meatloaf recipe. That doesn't mean you can't make substitutions, but you have to use some judgment as to how it might alter the recipe.

OTOH, that's staples. I don't even bother with recipes that call for packaged prepared foods.

Re eggs: I thought the reason to crack into a bowl first (other than shell) was in case an egg was fertile and wasn't caught by the candling. Not going to happen where there are no roosters, so not needed unless you have a barnyard.

OTOH, I have seen many side-by-side blind tests, "quality", "best taste", "durability", "price" are not related.

There is a show on PBS, wine taste of 5 wines, The most expensive wines almost never were selected as the best tasting wines.

dcarch

It's hard to structure a taste test so that it has reproducible results. If it doesn't then the results are random chance and have no actual meaning. Professional tasters are better at it than people off the street because they know how to do the process. I believe Grainlady is a trained judge of baked goods, so maybe she'll comment on how much taste training she's had. Judging and tasting aren't the same thing.

Remember the Pepsi Challenge? Where they'd give people in public venues a sip of Pepsi and a sip of Coke, and Pepsi would win a significant amount of the time? Besides all the ways the test can be manipulated, including order preference, how well the "palate cleanser (usually a cracker) goes with either), etc., what it really boils down to is a well known phenomenon: In a blind taste test, untrained tasters will generally choose the sweeter one. In real life, people often like complexity and contrast, and with Coke, a whole glass, rather than a sip, that is less sweet can be more refreshing. This happens with wine, too, where in blind tests people choose the sweetest one, whereas most people prefer wines that are less sweet when it comes to actually drinking it.

I have used Mexican vanilla in my baking. But its been years since I had any. My mother in law broke my bottle and lets just say my kitchen smelled good for a long time. I now just buy it at the grocery store but still I wonder if its the good stuff that Ina uses and when she mentions it I am always staring at her bottle which to me looks like Walkins brand.

I also thought the reason for breaking an egg in a separate bowl to make sure that the egg wasn't bad or a shell didn't get in your mixture. I quit doing this years ago. If a shell goes in the mixer I make sure it is mixed well into the batter and if someone gets the shell in their pastry then they win the prize. I think you can see a rotten egg. Why use all those little dishes. I have enough dishes to wash as it is.

I agree with Mike. My family was no where near affluent, but I remember my Mother thinking that her sister-in-law using imitation vanilla was a travesty. Mom never bought anything but Watkins and another one I can't recall at the moment. I know she always purchased pure vanilla extract, never imitation. And she definitely was not a food snob.

Lignin is in wood and TONS of other plants too. It is a major plant compound and gives plant cells their structure. Coumarin and other vanilla-like compounds are also in many plants. Extracting vanillin is a very complex process and there are many ways to do it. The lignin and cellulose in wood are separated early on, before either becomes anything like the final product. I don't think it's accurate to assert that vanillan is a "by product" of the paper industry. One could just as accurately assert that paper is a byproduct of the lignin extraction industry. It is a very complex synthesis and extraction process. There are also designer yeasts that create vanillin as a byproduct of fermentation. Yeasts are used in all types of food synthesis. I love buying products that are minimally processed, but I'm not losing sleep over the minimal amount of vanillin I use nor am I very concerned about the impacts of vanillin production on food purity when I put it into context with other industries. But to each his own. I'm much more worried about the PCBs and mercury in my fish than I am about the wood pulp in my vanillin.

Regarding cracking eggs separately, I was taught to do it to avoid getting shells in the food. But I don't do it anymore either.

However, not long ago I was making eggs, just plain ol' eggs, scrambled or something, so of course I did crack them into an empty bowl. And there was a sort of half formed, well, something, in the yolk. Blood spot and a glob of something. Freaked me out. I've been cracking eggs for a zillion years and I've never seen anything like it. No idea what it was, and I'm not sure I want to know.

This was from a box of grocery store eggs and I'm about 99.9% sure there's no rooster involved in the process. I'm just glad I hadn't dumped that egg directly into a cake batter or something!

May, if it helps at all, blood spots are just a sign that a blood vessel ruptured while the yolk was forming. It could be in a young hen's first few eggs, or an older hen, it could be a vitamin A deficiency in the diet or it could be that the chicken was startled during the formation of the egg. It's not harmful. The "blob" sound to me like it could be a "meat spot", which is usually a bit of reproductive tissue. Still not harmful, but not very appetizing.

Annie

Martha Stewart uses fresh eggs from her farm (she brags about the different shell colors -so "pretty"- and quality all the time), and for those of us who grew up doing the same thing, or use fresh farm eggs now, we check the eggs by cracking them into a separate container because there are many possible anomalies, especially if they are fertilized, since they generally aren't candled. I've seen Martha go ahead and add an egg with a blood spot and most people probably wouldn't use it, or might remove it and use the rest of the egg. I even smell a farm-fresh egg I've cracked into a cup because you never know what farm chickens have been eating and it can affect the egg flavor, as well as what you are adding it to. My mom always candled eggs she gave or sold to other people. That was her job on her family farm in Canada when she was growing up. Even using a double-yolk egg could alter a recipe if you went ahead and used it.

As to plllog asking about my food judging experience.... We are trained to judge a long list of food characteristics for each type of food judged, and follow a set of fair-judging standards. The flavor is actually a combination of taste and smell. I don't get picky about the vanilla flavoring (real or imitation), unless it's over-powering and too much has been used. But I will judge down for using poor quality eggs, fats and oils that are a little "off" or rancid, getting a bitter taste from using too much baking powder, or rancid nuts, and the flavoring not being well-blended throughout the food item.

On a personal note, I've used Cook's Pure Vanilla Powder with success (especially good when making my own dry mixes and "convenience" foods). Recently I've been trying a bag of Terrasoul Raw Organic Vanilla Bean Powder, which includes trace minerals, potassium and magnesium, and is completely different from the Cook's product. The Terrasoul product is twice as flavorful as an extract since it doesn't evaporate, so you use half as much. And I also have Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste. I've also made homemade vanilla with vanilla beans and alcohol-of-choice. Always looking for the next big "secret" ingredient. ;-)

-Grainlady

Martha Stewart uses fresh eggs from her farm (she brags about the different shell colors -so "pretty"- and quality all the time)...

Yet another reason I don't watch Martha, I could care less about her chickens. I'd could raise chickens too but frankly I'm not that ambitious (and our local ordinances, conveniently, make it all but impossible). The eggs that come from the store seem just fine to me. Just the ordinary "store brand" eggs. I've tried the absurdly expensive free range, cage free, organic, etc. eggs and I really don't taste much, if any difference and certainly not enough to justify the price tag.

Jacques Pepin, 1 of my culinary heroes, always emphasizes (& demonstrates) simplicity as well.

I love Jacques too! At least around here, unfortunately his shows don't make it on TV very often. Among my favorites are his bean soup and egg and bowtie pasta he made with his good buddy Jean Claude Szurdak.

I've
also taken liking to Gordon Ramsay and despite his foul language and
gruff demeanor on some shows, the man can cook. He has a YouTube channel and has
some fairly simple recipes that are very tasty.

Gordon Ramsay's YouTube Channel

Last week I made his Mushroom, Leek and Tarragon pasta. Very good even if I forgot to buy tarragon. The key is to slightly undercook the pasta and let it finish in the sauce. Great choice for a meat free meal.

Mushroom, Leek, and Tarragon Pasta

My only quibble is that he's a little generous with the salt but that's easy enough to adjust.

Chefs always have their incredible tips to give. I love to watch famous chefs show. Instead of "Why didn't I think of that!" I always get good laughs at their "tips".

A three Michelin star rated chef, " When you sprinkle salt, pepper or seasoning, do it from 36 inch high. This way the seasoning will cover you food more evenly".

Not only that, the seasoning will cover your kitchen counter and floor more evenly too. LOL!

On a Martha show, "Use you hand to mix your meatloaf to feel the texture, but only use one hand. This way you have the other hand clean in case the phone rings."

Two seconds later, she grabs the meat loaf from the bowl to the pan with both hands.

dcarch

The Michelin starred chef has someone to clean his floors. You just need to get yourself a porter and you'll be able to season properly too. Ha!

I am not a huge Martha fan myself. I once got a magazine with an article about blue pansies. That had a not very subtle implication that MS had not only invented blue pansies but all pansies and all blues. Lol.

However I do think she gives respect to traditional skills and craftsmanship that many people are completely unaware of from cooking to cabinet making to upholstering to pruning to......

As far as my dad and tools, I think he had two points. One to buy a good tool if one can afford it and take care of it. And two if all you can afford is a second (third) rate tool - use it well and you can still get the job done.

My sister and I are increasingly baffled on how he built such beautiful furniture in a shop with no horizontal surfaces or right angles. Lol.

My father once tried to give me his favorite hammer. He'd had it since decades before I was born. I can't tell the difference between his favorite hammer and my "bad" one, which he hates, seems to do all my hammering jobs just fine. I hope I didn't hurt his feelings when I wouldn't take his favorite, but it would have been wasted on me.

Re Martha Stewart, I too find her annoying, but a friend made a cookie recipe of hers and it was really good. And her gluten free pie crust (made with Trader Joe's GF flour), is the only one I've come across that's actually nice to eat.

The thing about the chefs' tips on TV is a that a lot of chefs are better at cooking that presenting on TV and don't know what to say, so they're just winging it with a lot of odd babble. They also have different attitudes to housewives when it comes to the home kitchen. The season all over the floor guy probably does a full clear down when he's done cooking, even at home with no porter, including a once over of the floor with the mop. A lot of housewives would be much more controlled in their movements with the attitude of I just vacuumed, edge tooled, and tripple mopped this floor 'till the water ran clean, so let's see if I can get dinner made without messing it up. Most of America is somewhere between. A surprising number only do the floor when it looks dirty!

Thanks for the info Annie. I'm glad to hear that's what it must have been.

Yeah, sometimes, you gotta take these chef tips with a grain of salt. (pun intended)
I often think their tips are related to what they are cooking as opposed to general rule of thumb type tips. Because what might be a great tip for a particular dish or cooking method might not work so well in other situations. Plus of course, the fact that they do have others to clean up after them and answer the phone if it rings when they are elbow-deep in meatloaf or whatever.

In my case, if the phone rings when I'm incapacitated by cooking, I just let them leave a message. What's the big deal?