Appearance on Great Day Houston is a post from: CopyKat Recipes | Restaurant Recipes

First off let me thank so many of you for purchasing CopyKat.com’s Dining Out At Home. I looked Sunday morning, and the book is in the top 25 Hottest New Cookbooks! Thank you! Thank you!

Ok let’s move onto those questions, I love the Facebook fan group, so many of folks had excellent questions.

What is a good less expensive cut of meat for both steak and roast that you can cook to tender?
So I did some time in a butcher shop in a grocery store, many years back. My best personal recommendation on this is look to the chuck roast. Do you like rib eye? Did you know the chuck roast sits right next to the rib eye? Often, I will look at what they call chuck eye steaks, these are often 1/3 of the price of rib eye, and often have similar marbling. When I get a craving for steak and I don’t want to spend a lot of money, this is exactly where I look for some tasty steak. I also like chuck roast, often not very expensive, and very tasty. These have a lot of marbling in them, and so they have lots of flavor inside. Other ways I look to save is to see when an eye of round goes on sale, I will purchase those, very lean, and full of flavor.
Here are a couple of roast recipes I like.
To Die for Pot Roast honestly this is the most popular pot roast recipe on CopyKat.com, and it has been so for more than 10 years.
Yankee Pot Roast – a traditional style pot roast. This is one of my old standbys.

Is there a difference between round steak and Beef top round for London broil?
Sometimes cuts of beef have regional names that mean basically nothing. Sometimes these are names that are local to the area, sometimes people just name a cut of meat something for marketing purposes. It makes it confusing on what you are really buying. A top round steak can be sold as a London broil, a top round steak, or even flank steak. All three of these are cut from the top round. The top round is the most tender of all of the three round steaks. They all should be marinated for best flavor before cooked, the best cooking methods for these are grilling and broiling.

Enjoyable Reading – Here are a couple of links that I have enjoyed this week.
Why we don’t eat chicken for Breakfast
Dinner 50s style, I love this, I have all of my Grandmother’s old cookbooks, and for fun I cook from them.
What’s in your refrigerator?, I saw this and immediately had refrigerator envy.

Have questions, please send them, chances are if you have that question, many others do as well!

CopyKat Answers – Meat Questions is a post from: CopyKat Recipes | Restaurant Recipes

So we know that peanut oil comes from peanuts, corn oil comes from corn, sunflower oil, well comes from sunflower seeds. So does salad oil come from salads? Well, I must say it does not come from salads at all.  In fact, salad oil can mean many different types of oils.

Salad oil is actually a generic term referring to a variety of oil that you can use for a recipe.  Many recipes written years ago often refer to salad oil. Lot’s of recipes in my grandmother’s recipe archives all call for this “salad oil”.  Salad oil is another term for a light tasting vegetable oil. You can use oils like vegetable, canola, corn, peanut, or other light flavored oils.  You will want to stay away from oils that give a lot of flavor to a dish.

You might be inclined to think that an extra virgin olive oil would be perfect for a salad oil, but it is not a good choice because an oil like an extra virgin olive oil has a lot of extra flavor.  An oil like a nut oil would also be a poor choice because they also impart a flavor that will not allow the recipe’s flavors shine through.  So when you see a recipe with a salad oil listed in there, be sure to pick something very neutral that will not give any additional flavors.

Suggested Recipes

Broccoli Salad

Commanders Palace Salad Dressing

Three Bean Salad

Send in your cooking questions, and next week we will answer your tough questions!

CopyKat.com Answers your Questions – What is Salad Oil is a post from: CopyKat Recipes | Restaurant Recipes

What’s the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Can I use them interchangeably?
You know I thought that was a great question, I honestly don’t know either. I have always thought I bought canned yams, and then I had bought fresh sweet potatoes. So Yams and Sweet Potatoes are completely different plants, they are not the same at all.
Yams are actually related to lilies and grasses, and they are native to Africa. There are hundreds of varieties of yams and when compared to sweet potatoes, yams are starchier and drier. They also can be very long, and have a skin that is similar to tree bark. Yams can grow up to seven feet. When you bite into a yam it will have a crumbly texture, something like a baked potato.
Sweet potatoes are related to the morning glory family. They come in several different varities, they come in hard and soft varities, when you cook the hard variety, they stay hard, and the the soft variety becomes soft after cooking. Sweet potatoes have a smooth skin. It is the soft variety of sweet potatoes that are often labeled as “yam”, so no wonder we get confused. You will typically find fresh sweet potatoes in the stores.
With those very different set of characteristics I don’t think we can use yams and sweet potatoes interchangeably. They are very different vegetables. Some of the confusion came in when some cultures saw a sweet potato for the first time and called them yams.
Article on difference between Yams and Sweet Potatoes
Mysteries of the Sweet Potatoes
What’s the difference between yams and sweet potatoes
Boston Market Sweet Potato Casserole
La Comedia Sweet Potato Souffle

I have some really old recipes, some over 100 years, they call for some unusual measurements. How much is a scant?
Here are some measurements and what they should be.
Speck – the amount that would cover a 1/4 inch surface area, or a quick shake from a spice box.
Scant – can be used in referring to a teaspoon, tablespoon, or even a cup, it actually means a little less than. So if you see this measure your normal quantity and take a little bit of it out. Scant is actually not a good way to describe measurements.
Pinch – is generally less than 1/8 th of a teaspoon.
Good Cooking.com’s measurement converter

CopyKat.com Answers your questions. is a post from: CopyKat Recipes | Restaurant Recipes