The New York variety is known for its chewy, thin crust that serves as the basis for the sweetened tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese. New Yorkers eat their slices folded in half. Don’t be surprised to see yellow oils dripping down your arm. This is from the cheese, which is rich in butterfat. New Yorkers prefer it without a lot of toppings to distract them from the goodness of a plain simple pie.

Chicago Style is deep dish. Invented by Ike Sewell in 1943, the deep-dish pizza contains a huge amount of toppings to make sure you are getting a hearty meal. Additionally, the crust is built up high on the sides to contain all the goodies. In Chicago, the cheese goes on first, then the toppings, and finally the sauce. Margarine is added to the pan to create a crisp, lightly fried crust on the bottom. This is eaten with a knife and fork.

California or West Coast style features unusual toppings and combinations. After rising, the dough is partially baked, and then finished once the toppings are added. This allows the crust to bake into a delightful, airy, and tender bread. Some common toppings include smoked salmon, shrimp, Dungeness crab, or asparagus. Vegetarian pies are very popular too.

Pan style is baked with oil in the pan. This makes a crunchy fried bottom on the crust and alters the flavor just a little bit. This style gives a thicker crust that has been given time to rise before baking. Any toppings can be used for pan style pizza.

Cracker style crusts became the rage in the 1950s. This dough was allowed to ferment before baking, which gave it a cracker-like texture. This was a new technique. Normal thin crust is usually hand stretched. One may wonder where did pizza originate? Most think of Italy, but these thin crusts were very popular with the Greeks and Etruscans, who happened to be occupying Italy.

Focaccia style pies reach back into the far reaches of history to pizza’s early beginnings. This type does not have sauce. Instead, it is topped with oils, grilled vegetables and whatever other toppings that may be on the menu. This type of pie has been eaten in Europe since before the introduction of the tomato.

Other styles continue to be developed. A Tex-Mex style offers a crust that contains masa flour, making it taste more like a corn chip. Tex-Mex pizzas are often topped with shredded beef, corn, and other Mexican style toppings. The sauce is similar to picante sauce. Other regional taste use specific cheeses like Provolone instead of mozzarella to finish them off in the Midwest.

pizza dough recipes vary widely and you can use different kinds of flour and different flavorings for a range of wonderful homemade pizza results. At our site, you can find lots of pizza dough recipes to team with your favorite pizza sauce and pizza toppings. Nothing is as tasty as homemade pizza!

How to Buy the Best Chicken

First of all, only buy chicken within its expiration date that feels cold to the touch. Do not buy fresh chicken, which is leaking or damaged.

Chicken is chilled during its distribution to retail stores to keep it cool and fresh. If you need to buy fresh chicken, it is a good idea to make it the last item you buy before heading to the checkout so it does not get warm. Double bag the chicken separately from your other groceries and put it in the refrigerator as soon as you get home, in its original packaging.

Chilling, Freezing and Thawing Chicken

If you are not going to use the fresh chicken within a day or so, you will need to freeze it. When you want to defrost it again, you can either use cold water or a microwave. Alternatively, you can let it thaw slowly in the refrigerator, which is the safest way. You can defrost boneless chicken breasts in the refrigerator overnight but a whole chicken can take up to two days. If you do not need all the defrosted chicken, you can refreeze it.

If you want to defrost the chicken in water, submerge it, still in the packaging or in a Ziploc bag, in cold water. Change the water every half an hour so it stays cold. You can defrost a pound of boneless chicken breasts in an hour or a whole chicken in two or three hours.

Only defrost chicken in the microwave if you are going to cook it immediately after because some parts might get warm and start cooking while the chicken is defrosting and partial cooking will encourage any bacteria to multiply.

It is possible to cook frozen chicken on the stove or in the oven but you cannot safely cook frozen chicken in a crockpot or in the microwave.

You can marinate chicken in the refrigerator for up to two days but you should not stuff a whole chicken unless you are going to cook it right away. Cooked chicken needs to reach an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F to ensure that any bacteria have been killed.

If you have made a Kentucky fried chicken recipe and you have some left over, you should put it in the refrigerator within a couple of hours to keep it safe for enjoying the next day.

How Long Can You Keep Chicken?

A whole raw chicken keeps for two days in the refrigerator or a year in the freezer. Raw chicken parts will keep for two days in the refrigerator or nine months in the freezer. You can keep cooked chicken parts or a cooked whole chicken for four days in the refrigerator or for four months in the freezer.

If you love fried chicken you have not really tasted it till you have tried it with a tasty southern fried chicken batter recipe. If you want southern fried chicken we have the recipes and information for you.

In the Olden Days

People have been slow cooking their meals ever since they learned how to smelt iron and make a pot. A large kettle could be simmering over the fire throughout the day, or a small, covered Dutch oven could be set into the coals for cooking. It has long been known that slow cooking has many benefits for our food. The downside to the old methods is the constant tending needed for the fire, as well as frequent stirring of the food.

Meats cooked slowly are tenderized because the low heat softens the fibers. It also melts the natural collagen found within the meat, creating a gelatin-rich, delicious meal chock full of goodness. Fibrous vegetables like parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas also benefit from slow cooking. Dried crops like beans and lentils are slow cooked to create delicious, hearty meals.

Today’s Crock Pot

In the’50s, Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago created the first slow cooker. It was called the Beanery All Purpose Cooker, and it was designed to help people cook baked beans. It was basically a ceramic pot that fit inside a metal pan with heating elements around the inside. This kept the heat even all around the food, but kept it out of direct contact.

Naxon was bought by Rival in’70. The Beanery was reinvented as the Crock Pot. During the’70s, more women were joining the workforce, and the Crock Pot helped them manage to feed their families as well. It was easy enough to fill it before they left for work and be able to come home to a hot meal.

Over the years, Crock Pots have evolved. They now have ceramic pots that are removable, making cleaning much easier than the old models. With the older pots, one had to be careful during cleaning that the electrical cord not get wet. The new ceramic inserts are dishwasher safe, as well, making clean up even easier. Some newer crock-pots also have an additional setting. They come equipped with High, Low, and Warm. A few are even computerized and will change automatically to warm when the food is finished.

Long ago, women cooked many different meals slowly over the fire. Today, our crock-pots offer even more versatility. Stews, roasts and casseroles are very common meals that are made every day in the crock pot, but you can also make dishes like lasagna, sweet and sour chicken, and even your best chicken noodle soup recipes in your slow cooker.

Like the traditional methods, crock-pots can also be used to bake breads and cakes. The more you play with your crock-pot, the more you may enjoy it. Desserts and other great recipes are waiting to be tried.

When you make a white chicken chili soup recipe, you are blending chicken soup with white navy beans, vegetables and a little spice. While it looks pale and unassuming, when you take a spoonful you know you are getting a flavorful bite of something utterly delicious.

Pumpkin soup can be a real treat, even if its color and texture look a little bit unusual. Many people do not get around to trying it because they are used to having pumpkins only in the form of pie, but this sweet, delicious food is something you should not allow yourself to miss out on.

Serve up your favorite pumpkin soup in bowls or mugs, cook it right in the pumpkin, or hollow out a pumpkin to serve as centerpiece and serving dish, too. Garnish with green onion, chopped parsley, or sweet spices like cloves and cinnamon. While your family might start out skeptical, they will end up loving this unique dish.

Pumpkin soups are not just creamy and tasty enough to make you come back for more. They are also packed full of vitamins A and C, iron, fiber and many other important nutrients. You will not feel like you have to virtuously eat your vegetables when you make pumpkin soup, however. Even the kids will love it.

For something a little out of the ordinary, try an Asian inspired easy pumpkin soup recipe with spices, carroy and coconut. It is great in hot weather, when the first pumpkins are appearing at roadside stands, but the temperature has not yet dropped. Of course, for the dog days in midsummer when pumpkins are nowhere to be found, you can use canned or frozen pumpkin instead.

The ideal type of pumpkin to use in a soup of this kind is the smaller kind, often called a pie pumpkin or sugar pumpkin. Do not make the mistake of using the kind you would give the kids to carve up on Halloween. Pie pumpkins are specially bred for eating, not looks, and will be sweeter, smaller, and more tender than their bigger, woodier cousins will. Prep these pumpkins for cooking by slicing them in half and removing the seeds, then chop them into wedges.

Next, you either peel the pumpkin and cook the flesh, or cook the pumpkin and spoon the pulp from the skin. Save the skin for stock, or put it on the compost pile, then take the pumpkin flesh and run it through the food processor to get a consistent, smooth puree.

Savory ingredients that go well with pumpkin include garlic and onion, as well as chicken and vegetable broths. Add in coconut, soy, or cow’s milk, or some cream or half and half. Then blend partially or completely to get a smooth result, with or without some textural pieces. Chill and serve for a real taste sensation.

Adapting a canned pumpkin soup recipe can make your dinner exciting. This fast soup is put together in your kitchen and takes only a few minutes. Season it as you like. You can make it spicy or mild; savory or sweet. Serve with croutons or a dollop of creme fraiche on top.

Pumpkin works great in cuisines from all over the world – a curried pumpkin soup might be a great choice for you. Alternatively, you could stick with homey traditional tastes. There are all kinds of options out there, even though many people do not realize that pumpkin is good for more than just desserts.

However, there is one big problem with making pumpkin soup – the recipes! Since not too many people even know that you can make soup from a pumpkin, it can be hard to find a good recipe. Most cookbooks do not have much information about cooking pumpkin this way, for instance. However, you do not have to go without – the Internet is the answer.

The online world offers plenty of great pumpkin recipes, in all kinds of formats. Check out personal cooking blogs or giant recipe repositories to get what you have been looking for. A quick run through your favorite search engine should do the trick. All you have to do is go through the results.

Of course, not all recipes for pumpkin soup are going to be the same. Some of them will assume you know to include steps, without adding them to the instructions. That could result in a recipe that is not like you expected. Make sure you look over any option you choose to be certain it will get the job done, and make sure you understand what you should be getting.

Of course, you can also just head to a site you know that you can trust. Specialty sites covering pumpkin cooking and fall recipes are a great choice, and the information there will have been checked out for you in advance. While that is no guarantee you will like the recipe when it is done, you can at least know that there will not be any missing steps or wrong temperatures to deal with. That can be a real help.

Just go over the recipe to make sure you like the ingredients, and you understand the methods of cooking that are being used. After all, there are lots of great ways to make a soup with pumpkin, from crock-pot cooking to actually making the soup inside a hollowed pumpkin! There are also lots of interesting presentation options out there that can help you make a great looking Halloween or Thanksgiving meal.

If you have been looking for a great new option for dinner this fall, it might be time to think about pumpkin. It is not just for pie, and there are all kinds of things you can do with it. Soups keep getting more popular. Do not just stick with the same old thing – pumpkin soup can be pretty amazing.

An easy canned pumpkin soup recipe is a great way to enjoy the flavor of pumpkin all year long. You don’t need any fancy ingredients or special tools to make this delicious creamy soup. Once you taste pumpkin this way, you’ll wonder what all the hoopla is about pumpkin pie.