Chef critique
Sage Brown-Butter Coho with Brussels Sprouts
A highly cohesive, elegantly timed recipe with precise temperatures and techniques, requiring only a slight adjustment to salt the potato cooking water for optimal flavor.
Score: 9/10
Suggested fixes
- Increase the total fine sea salt in the ingredient list by about 2 teaspoons.
- In step 3, add instructions to salt the cold water before bringing the potatoes to a boil.
- In step 5, remove the fixed 1/2 teaspoon salt instruction and instead tell the cook to taste the mashed potatoes and add a pinch of salt if needed.
Issues
- medium / flavor: The potatoes are boiled in unseasoned water and salted only at the mashing stage. Boiling potatoes in unsalted water leaves their interiors underseasoned, violating the rule to salt blanching/boiling water at the proper cooking stage.
Strengths
- Provides a perfect, chef-recommended pull temperature for the salmon (125°F).
- Properly scales and applies the 1.25% salt rule for the salmon and 1% rule for the Brussels sprouts.
- Efficiently weaves prep and active cooking tasks together for a realistic 45-minute total time.
- Uses very clear, exact ingredient quantities at each step of the instructions.