Season 2, Episode 3

Winter Holiday

Frederic shows Jack an alternative to her usual holiday turkey with a recipe for roast beef tenderloin with mushroom ragout.

Episode Guide
Below you’ll find a helpful episode guide for cooking along with Frederic and Jack, as well as tips and recipe rescues.


Equipment List:

  • Large oven-proof skillet

  • Large, heavy skillet

  • Tongs

  • Kitchen twine

  • Boning knife or chef’s knife

  • Chef’s knife or paring knife

  • Measuring spoons

  • Instant-read thermometer

  • Cutting board

  • Wooden spoon

  • Pepper mill

  • Liquid measuring cup

  • Aluminum foil

  • Wire rack

  • Carving knife


Tips:
Silver skin:

  • You need a sharp knife to remove silver skin.

  • Silver skin is a membrane; if left on, it can cause the meat to curl during cooking.

  • Silver skin is unpleasant to bite into in a cooked piece of meat; it is extremely tough, and cannot really be chewed.

Searing, tenting, and resting meat:

  • Searing is a very high-heat, fast cooking method used to brown the exterior of the meat and produce a nice crisp crust; searing adds flavor to meat and seals in the juices.

  • Tent meat to keep it warm while resting, but don’t let foil touch meat, as this affects crust and does not give it the room it needs to rest.

  • Meat needs to rest so that the juices redistribute throughout the piece of meat. If you cut into the meat immediately, you lose at least half of its juices.

Cleaning mushrooms:

  • Wipe the surfaces of mushrooms clean with a kitchen towel or paper towels.

  • Do not clean mushrooms ahead of time, or they may turn a more brownish color.

  • Do not soak mushrooms in water.

Deglazing:

  • Deglazing is the process of adding a small amount of liquid to a hot pan that has just been used to saute, and then scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen the flavorful browned bits, or fond.

  • Various wines or alcohol, or stock or broth are the most common deglazing liquids.

  • Deglazing is often used to make an accompanying sauce.

Recipe Rescues:

  • Meat sticks to the pan while searing – Don’t try to tear the meat away from the pan. Add a little more oil to the pan. Make sure oil is hot and shimmering before adding meat.

  • Mushrooms are getting soggy, not browned – Let them cook undisturbed until browned, at least 5 minutes. Stirring them or moving them around prevents them from browning.

  • The flame got too large when alcohol is added to the pan – Always remove the pan from the heat when adding alcohol. When the flame goes down, it is fine to return the pan to the heat.

See Tune-In Times

Recipes From This Episode

Roast Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Ragout

Holiday Cookies
A Starter Thanksgiving

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9pm | 8c

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