Tail Section's Profile
Bob's Famous Bleu Cheese Dressing Recipe?
Yes, this is the recipe that's all over the Internet. The problem is that "4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled" doesn't begin to describe the unique version of "bleu cheese" (as the label says). It is the part of the dressing that I like the most; and as I said, it is quite unique. I have eaten several kinds of blue cheese, but I've never seen or tasted anything like this one, other than in the dressing, of course.
The cheese has no blue veins at all. I know this because I have taken a jar of the dressing and washed off all the goop so I could inspect the remaining cheese. It's all white. It almost looks like feta cheese. On the back of the jar it says:
BOB'S BLEU CHEESE
DRESSING & DIP
MADE WITH REAL BLEU CHEESE
Maybe they're taking license with the ingredients given the way they are spelling "bleu."
Here is a list of the ingredients as they appear on the jar:
Mayonnaise (soybean oil, vinegar, water, powdered egg yolk, lemon juice, salt, sugar, spices, natural flavoring)
Sour cream dressing [milk, cream, cultured skim (starter mix), non-fat dry milk solids, gelatin]
Bleu cheese (pasteurized cultured milk, salt, enzymes, natamycin)
Buttermilk (cultured skim milk, non-fat dry milk solids, cream, salt)
Soybean oil
Vinegar
Water
Salt
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Xanthan gum
Monosodium glutamate
It is the soybean, "spices," "natural flavoring," enzymes, xanthan gum, and MSG that I need to avoid.
Ranch Dressing
I'm sorry; that was supposed to be "Hidden Valley" brand ranch house dressing. I'll assume this one is the one we agreed on...
Originally this recipe made a ridiculously huge amount; maybe it would be practical if you were using it in a restaurant, but I divided up the amounts so it's more for home use.
3-3/4 saltine crackers (I know this is a weird amount)
1/2 cup dry minced parsley flakes
2 tablespoons dry minced onion
3/4 teaspoon dry dill weed
1 tablespoon onion salt
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
Put the crackers through a blender* on high speed until they’re powdered.
Add the parsley, minced onion, and dill weed. Blend the mixture again until it’s all powdered.
Dump the blender contents into a bowl. Make sure you get as much of the dust out of the blender as you can; use a basting brush if you have to. Stir in the onion salt, garlic salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and white pepper.
Store this mixture in a container with a tight-fitting lid. You can store this at room temperature for 1 year.
To use the mix:
Combine one tablespoon of the mix with 1 cup of mayonnaise and 1 cup of buttermilk. Mix it until it's thoroughly homogenous. Let it set for at least an hour. It tastes better if you let the flavors mix for several hours. Makes 1 pint.
*You might have to stop the blender and shake the container from time to time to get the contents to make good contact with the blades. It's important that all the ingredients get "powdered."
Let me know how this works for you.
Ranch Dressing
If you're interested in making something that ends up tasting EXACTLY like Ranch House brand dressing mix, I can give you a recipe. Let me know. I have taken all the junk inputs off the Internet and perfected it to a doable recipe. My whole family agrees; it's a ringer.
Bob's Famous Bleu Cheese Dressing Recipe?
Okay, here goes. For health reasons, I'm trying to figure out how to make my own home version of a manufactured "blue cheese dressing," but I'm unable to identify the cheese in it, which is not blue in color. I'm willing to send a jar of the stuff to anyone who thinks they can bring me closer to the answer.
The product is Bob's famous Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing & Dip. It bears the Bob's Big Boy Restaurant logo.
Best and Worst Cooking Shows
I can't even stand the sound of Rachel Ray's voice anymore. Not only is she extremely phony and toxically perky, she cheats. I've seen her on her "30 Minute Meals" show where she puts a giant pot of room temperature water on the stove, cut to a one-minute commercial, and end up with a violently boiling pot of water. Unless her stove is something like a jet engine, I'm not convinced. This gives the actual cook a complex, like they aren't as good of a cook as she is because they can't seem to get it done in the 30-minute timeframe. And she must be doing the network execs, because she's starting to spread all over the dial. Yuck!
Alton Brown is my favorite because he plunges the depths of food science like the Mr. Wizard of cookery. If you've had trouble getting something to turn out like it's supposed to, and he does a show about it, chances are your problem is solved.
The subject of troubled cooking brings to mind "Food 911" or specifically Tyler Florence. I don't know if it's his fault or some staffer's, but the version of the recipes he cooks on the Food Network website are sometimes different than what he actually cooks, sometimes with disastrous results. I followed one of his apple pie recipes to the letter. It was the most disgusting tasting thing ever. I watched the show again, and he actually prepared the dish differently on screen than what the recipe said. You can't rely on shows like that.
Once and for all -- rice in a burrito -- Yay or nay?
Generally speaking, I don't like rice in my burritos. I prefer it on the side. But there's a world of different qualities of "rice" out there. Everything from that gloppy Rice a Roni stuff to very dry and spicy Mexican rice, which is how I think it should be. My husband orders extra rice and tortillas so he can assemble a burrito made with nothing but rice (plus hot sauce). It kind of grosses me out.
I don't know if my distaste of rice in the burrito is a result of that "starch on starch" observation, the cheap filler argument, or that I just don't want to obliterate the taste of the other ingredients.
Lazy Researchers
I just registered here for one reason - to see if anyone here can identify a food for me. I guess you all get a lot of that, but it's not like this is my first stop on the research route. I've looked all over and asked many people, but I get either wrong responses or ignored. I'm still poking around to find out how to best post my question.
