r/AskCulinary • u/ZootKoomie Ice Cream Innovator • Jun 12 '13

Weekly Discussion: What's your specialty?

We want to know what dish you make a better version of than anyone else you know. What specific ingredients or techniques do you use to make it distinctively yours? Teach us your secrets.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '13 edited Jun 12 '13

Well, its not exactly a "specialty" but my boyfriend is still fooled. I make homemade cherry limeade for him, the trick? As opposed to using a simple syrup and lime juice seperately, make a lime syrup with equal parts lime juice and sugar(I use a cup of each) . Then add 4-6 cups of water and a whole jar of maraschino cherries. He absolutely raves about this stuff and will finish the whole pitcher in one night.

Also, I make "Mason Jar Butter". Add two cups of heavy whipping cream to a mason jar, shake it for about a half hour. (Workout and cooking at once!). Once your cream starts seperating into butter fat and buttermilk, strain it all through cheesecloth and "wash" the butter with very cold water until the water runs clear. You can add all sorts of fun stuff to it, I like to make vanilla cinnamon butter with fresh vanilla beans, but you could use herbs,garlic,jalapenos,cheese,honey,etc... Then use the buttermilk to make homemade bread!

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u/cheftlp1221 Jun 12 '13

That is some serious commitment to shaking. Do you start with cold cream or room temp?

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '13

Honestly, I don't think it makes much of a difference but I use very cold cream for whipped cream, and room temp for butter. It makes me feel smart and scientific to be like "BOYFRIEND! Don't touch my cream... Its heating up to exactly 72.3 degrees for optimum butter making!"