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no matter if its an attempt at making Philly cheese steaks, pizza in the oven or fried rice ?
they tell you how to make fried rice, but it does not come close to the restaurant. Philly cheese steaks are good when you make it at home, but it does not have that taste they have at any restaurant. the take and bake pizza tastes great, but still not like the restaurant. if anyone knows that would be good ?
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"Just livin' day by day"
(set 26 days ago)
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If we knew the answer to that question, it'd probably put a lot of restaurants out of business. I think it has to with the aroma in the restaurant and the visuals of a menu that leads us to think we could never made this meal.
We don't eat at restaurants anymore because most of what I cook is as good or better than what we got at restaurants. We've had food from a restaurant once in the last six months, and it was fine but definitely not exciting.
To make good pizza in a home oven, you need a pizza stone. I have no idea how a frozen pizza would come out on a pizza stone, but homemade pizza gets that restaurant taste on a pizza stone. I have a stand mixer and I use the dough hook to knead the dough, then I make my own sauce.
If you learn to make your own flour tortillas, then tacos taste as good or better than they do at restaurants.
For roasted chicken, marinade and seasonings make a difference. I like those seasoning blends that you can get at the grocery store that have a really wide variety of flavors. Throw the chicken in a big bag, add the seasoning mix, some olive oil and some liquid that will compliment the flavor of the seasoning mix, like a wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, lemon or lime juice, liquid smoke, wine, beer, etc. then squeeze the bag until the chicken is coated. Marinate in the fridge a few hours if you have time or just cook it right away.
The difference between restaurant fried rice and homemade fried rice is that they cook the rice, chill it, then put it in the hot oil. They use more oil than most of us like to use at home.
A lot of restaurants also use MSG which most of us don't like to use at home, at least not as an ingredient to be added to something we're making, rather than an ingredient in a spice blend or bottled sauce that we're using. I've experimented with adding MSG to different foods and for some foods, it does give it that extra little bit of "wow" flavor that we can't really describe or define.
It's a lot of little things that add up. Equipment (higher heats, different surfaces like a plancha instead of a frying pan, salamander broilers, etc.), more salt, more fat, shallots, ghee, breads specially made/procured for that restaurant's sandwiches (Amorosa rolls for a proper Philly cheesesteak), the techniques born of cooking the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, consistency of product, ability to procure specialty products not typically found in a grocery store .......
I've wondered the same about roasted/broasted chicken and steak?
I've tried recipes claiming to have that restaurant flavor, even copy-cat recipes, but I can't get that special "taste" or juiciness in either.
Though it's taken quite a while, my son now makes incredibly good steak. He's learned how to choose meat, sear and finish. He has it down to a science. He makes a very nice cheesesteak, too. He chooses the correct bread, meat and cheese. If you want to make something well, magnificently, put some time into it.
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