[bundens]

I was just wondering...what do you guys think is the hardest dish to cook? Meaning, the one that takes the most skill...
I think a lot of people think beef wellington is pretty hard...
and by asking this I'm excluding pastries..because a lot of that takes skill too. ..so what do you guys think?

[teamfat]

Based on a number of backyard barbeques I've attended over the years, I'd say grilled chicken could be a top contender for this prize!

While that is a rather flippant answer, there may be some truth behind it. I'm betting that some of the most difficult dishes to get right are ones where if done right, with few ingredients and simple, basic procedures, they are brilliant. If one little thing goes wrong, they are a disaster.

Omelets, souffles, slow cooked barbecue ribs or brisket, fried rice, potato pancakes, alfredo sauce, grilled steaks, hot and sour soup, cold smoked salmon, bearnaise sauce are all examples of food that requires some skill of various levels to do well, but for the most part are still edible if done less than correctly.

I'll have to think more about serious contenders for this thread.

mjb.

[MaryB]

Brisket cooked with an all wood fire and NO foiling

[shel]

You might be right, at least as far as I'm concerned. Back in 1990-1993 I had a small BBQ business, and even using some qood quality, large smokers with offset fire boxes, smoking an entire brisket without tenting was the most difficult cooking task for me. It wasn't too hard to get right in larger pits, but even with the larger home smokers it was always difficult for me. Took almost a year, and i don't know how many briskets, to get it just right.

shel

[Georgia Pasty]

a Consommé seems to give some chefs sleepless nights !! Bearnaise is anoth high contender I would say .

[kuan]

I'd say Beef Wellington would rank pretty high up. That and galantines served chaud-froid.

For Beef Wellington:

1) Make stock (24 hours)
2) Make demiglace
3) Make puff pastry (about 3-4 hours)
4) Make foie gras pate (24 hours)
5) Make duxelles
6) Sear beef
7) Make sauce
8) Assemble and chuck it in the oven

Of course you can just buy the pastry, pate, demiglace

Let's see, some more old world dining. Stuffed squab chaudfroid w/ cumberland sauce

1) Make demiglace (optional depending on stuffing)
2) Bone squab
3) Make forcemeat
4) Make veloute from squab bones (yuck)
5) Make chaudfroid from veloute
7) Poach the squab
8) Coat the squab
9) Make wine aspic
10) Glaze the already coated squab
11) Make jam
12) Zest citrus
13) Make cumberland sauce from 11 and 12.

That's a lot of steps!

[KYHeirloomer]

I don't think cooking anything is particular difficult. Not if the prep work has been done right.

With that in mind, turducken has to be one of the more difficult dishes to prepare.

Shel and Mary: Interesting that you both brought that up. Brisket is the one thing I've never had trouble with. And I never tent. In fact, using my offset cooker, I can make perfect brisket every time; whereas ribs sometimes give me trouble.

Go figure!

[eloki]

I always have trouble with chicken galantine. Lucky it's a dying dish.

[MaryB]

I think the trouble with brisket is staying awake to cook it with my Klose it is easier but it can be hard to hit it just right.

[bundens]

ah yes...brisket...and turducken...a bird..within a bird within a bird...
2 hard dishes indeed. My aunt prepares turducken quite frequently but I've never done it. And I've never seen brisket done or done it myself...
and and thank you kuan for the recipes

and heirloomer I think you're totally right on the money. I think anybody can prepare almost anything but..how well? I think a good example of this a cheap buffet line or one of those odd social gatherings...like a neighborhood or community event one may find themselves at. The one where everybody brings something. You get there and almost everything is bland or hard as a rock...and even the most simple concepts such as a hamburger piss you off...
patooey!

[Scarecrobot]

Originally Posted by eloki

I always have trouble with chicken galantine. Lucky it's a dying dish.

What's your trouble with it? I made 5 a few weeks ago. Took me 3 days to make between everything else, but turned out to be well worth the effort.

[RPMcMurphy]

Originally Posted by teamfat

Omelets, souffles, slow cooked barbecue ribs or brisket, fried rice, potato pancakes, alfredo sauce, grilled steaks, hot and sour soup, cold smoked salmon, bearnaise sauce are all examples of food that requires some skill of various levels to do well, but for the most part are still edible if done less than correctly.

Yep. can vouch for that.....only, I'll add that Bearnaise and hollandaise sauces pretty much stink and are inedible to "me" if done less than correctly.

[kuan]

Originally Posted by Scarecrobot

Took me 3 days to make between everything else

LOL! There ya go! Three days.

[boar_d_laze]

Barbequed Brisket, cooked over an all wood fire, is kind of the holy grail of barbecue. If it was easy, a lot more people would do it well. However, once you've done it successfully a few times, it comes down to choosing good meat to begin with, proper trimming (1/4" isn't all that easy until you learn how), fire management (which has a LOT to do with the pit), good meat and injecting, cooking to the right internal, and properly resting.

A lot of "all wood fire" is the pit. If you're trying to run an all wood fire in too small a pit, you're hosing yourself. Even if you keep even temps, one slightly funky piece of wood will wreck you. IMO, Barbecued Brisket cooks better at a higher temperature than pork. I usually cook at around 275 -- which is not an easy temp to hold in smaller pits. Much over 250 and a runaway fire is a real possibility.

That said, you can make brisket every bit as good in a small pit -- you just have to use a mostly charcoal fire. A little bit of hardwood chunk in the charcoal at the right time in the right way will put every bit as much smoke into the beef as an all wood fire in a big pit. I think the prep and management techniques aren't all that difficult as long as they're suited to the pit. Charcoal baskets are an enormous help in smaller offsets. The biggest obstacle to managing the fire in a small pit are novice pitmasters. They insist on doing it the most difficult, most wasteful, least reliable ways as though there were some virtue to them. One constant, they always have reasons.

Barbequed" Chicken, whether grilled or actually barbecued is mostly a matter of simple techniques. Admittedly it takes a rather large bag of tricks to cover all the various styles, but when it gets down to it the techniques are more numerous than difficult. One of the few constants is brining. Brine your chicken, dag-nab it! Interesting note: Chicken is generally best grilled over a low fire, and smoked over a hot one. Go figure.

Intewestingwy, wabbit can be cooked outdoors in many of the same dewicious ways. Or even fwied or a fwicasee if you have a pwopane burner. Heheheheheh.

Beef Wellington (Wehwington?) is a lot of prep; nothing really difficult about it. Unfortunately, a fillet of beef does not benefit from being cooked en croute. No way. No how. Admittedly some are better than others, but bottom line: Not so much difficult as impossible. The Duke of Wellington, at least the one who defeated Napoleon, did not eat it. That's a canard.

Speaking of canards, I used to make a PITA called Stuffed Duck Charles Vaucher, cribbed from Pellaprat's cookbook. Sort of a turducken on steroids with PMS, but lacking the sense of humor -- possessing instead a stick up the vent.

"Imagine if you will," removing the bones and the meat from a duck -- except the drumsticks, and wings -- without breaking the skin; make a rather complicated farce with the meat, some pork, truffles, olives and the rest of the usual over-priced French suspects; stuff, sew, and reshape; a fussy braise; chill and coat with aspic; blah blah blah. You get the picture.

The first time I did it was to challenge myself, and the second time to pefect it. Then I started bragging about it. Mistake number one. Then I put it on my catering menu, and kept it there when I moved down South. Mistakes number two and three. Then I served it at my self-catered wedding reception which included a number of clients as guests. Mistake number four. This was on the way to being my "signature" dish when I quit catering. In fact, the thought of getting one more request for "four of those duck things you do" was a big part of the reason I quit catering. Now that I think about it, I have no desire to make it again. None. D'rien. Don't even think about it. I can't hear you.

Chicken Marengo is otherwise pretty straightforward. but for the mushrooms. It's not the fluting that bothers me, it's the peeling. Something about peeling a mushroom just chaps my @ss. DW's worth it. The only other people on the planet I'd do it for are my kids.

BDL

[Suzanne]

Roast chicken with moist breast meat and crisp skin.

An egg cooked in the shell to exactly the right doneness.

Complicated recipes are nothing but a lot of little recipes strung together -- nothing really to be afraid of, if you understand the steps and their science. And they offer so many chances to cover up mistakes.

It's the "simple" ones that have the least wiggle room. And that makes them harder to get right.