Food Hacks

Alton Brown is the best Food TV chef, even Anthony Bourdain thinks so. I learned to love cooking because of my mother and grandmother, but I learned how to cook from Mr. Brown. I am not sure why his style of show, or his descriptions work so well for me. It probably has something to do with his scientific approach to cooking. This approach has led him to show off some peculiar cooking devices over the years. Some , like the cardboard smoker are an oxymoron. Who would think to put a heating element in a cardboard box? It's this type of thinking, this out of the box thinking (ha ha ha) that has inspired this post. I call these food hacks.
Hacking has its own long history, now a days its a good thing. Hacking has gone past the computer , it's now being applied to everything. Basically a hack is showing off a bit of ingenuity by modifying something usually. You can have intangible hacks like mnemonic devices, but most of the time you are doing something, or using something in another way then normal.

Here are 5 food hacks.

The Imu pit
Underground Pit Cooking from Hawaii

• " Anyone who has experienced a contemporary Hawaiian lu'au (feast) will find kalua pig a main part of the menu. Traditionally, the pig was cooked in an underground pit and served in plaited baskets made of coconut fronds or on large banana leaves. The shredded pork was just as tender and moist as a pork butt roasted in an electric or gas oven. The wordkalua refers to the process of cooking in an earth oven (ka, the; lua, hole)."
• I love this thing. Although this was a normal way of cooking for Hawaiians, its was new to us Americans. Why is it a hack. Well they are using the earths thermodynamics to keep the temperature hot in the pit where the pig cooks.
• Another site on the put

Brick Pizza Oven

• " The pizzas cooked in 3-5 minutes and were incredibly delicious. They had to be rotated to cook evenly, but the fire was so hot you could see the dough rise as it cooked."
• Again another ages old cooking method, but its been forgotten. It actually cooks many things better then a normal oven. I also like the fact that they made it them selves

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

• "Go to the supermarket and look at the boxes of microwave popping corn. $1.99 to $3.00 a box and the odds are you won't find one seasoned to your individual taste. You just have to settle for what they offer. <b>HAH!</b> Not anymore, my friends. I am here to liberate your palates form the work-a-day microwave popcorn. Today, you will learn that which they don't want you to know. You will learn how simple and cheap it is to make your own popping corn. Lets get started."
• This represents my favorite genre of food hacks. The you can make it at home cheaper and better genre. There are so many of these and they can sometimes be as easy as the above
• extra credit -> the Alton Brown sandwich press

Clothing Iron Grilled Cheese
Yes this is the one from Beeny and Joon.
But it really works, just make sure you clean your utensils first.

• The Beeny and Joon way
  
• "Johnny Depp, clad in a ric-rac-trimmed apron, is an appealing figure as Sam in the 1993 film Benny & Joon as he cooks a stack of grilled cheese sandwiches using a clothes iron. But will this technique actually work when practiced by ordinary folks in an ordinary kitchen? On December 5, 2004, Roy and Laura set out to make grilled cheeses sandwiches the Benny & Joon way."
• WikiHow way
  
• "Is your stove top broken? Have you just moved, and don't have your own frying pan yet? Or are you just looking for an alternative way to make a grilled cheese sandwich? Here's how to make your next lunch with an iron..."

Finally the Cardboard Smoker

• "Feel like real BBQ? Don't have a smoker? Don't feel like spending more than 10 bucks or so? Like Alton Brown? Here's how to make a very serviceable smoker out of a cardboard box and some other things you might have laying around the house."
• I can't say much more, the idea its self I think speaks volumes. I just wish I lived in a house I would be doing this all the time. A good size Costco Salmon fillet is only like 15.00 bucks.