Friday, September 07, 2007
Pop goes the Krystal!
| I have discovered, quite by accident, a better way to reheat and resteam your frozen Krystals. Previously, I had been cooking them in a Zip Lock bag, 4 to a bag, for about 1.5 to 2 minutes. Occasionally I found cold spots and uneven heating. The cooking time was also never consistent. I just came to accept that. Well two weeks ago as I was nuking my Thursday Krystals, I decided that rather than cooking 4 at a time I'd go with 2 at a time. I hoped that would reduce the uneven heating and allow me to doctor up one pair of Krystals while the second pair was cooking. I took a bag of four out of the freezer. Removed two, and seperated the two in the bag. The whole bag went into the microwave and off they went. I did not realize it at the time but I had accidently "double tapped" on the time. Instead of 1 minutes, I had put in 11 minutes. While I do enjoy putting things (marshmallows, chocolate, gummi bears, hot dogs) in the microwave for amazingly long times, this was unintentional. As I turned back to set up my mise en place I heard a loud popping noise behind me. I turned to find the Zip Lock bag had burst open in the microwave. Fearing the worst, I popped open the oven to be greeted by an all too familiar wave of hot steamy deliciousness. I carefully puled the bag out of the oven, extracted the Krystals that were scalding hot, and dumped them from their protective boxes onto a paper towel. I saw no obvious signs of distress, so I figured I'd try it again. I worked the second time, too! They were some of the best three week old frozen Krystals I have ever had. Though I must admit, my encounters with three week old frozen Krystals are uncommon. Since then I have had a chance to practice some and test out the possibilities. First off the choice of bag seems to make a difference. They now sell these new bags with "double zippers" on them. What a scam! Apparently the Zip Lock folks have seen the Disposable Razor people adding more and more blades to their razors and felt they could get in on that too. Watch closely because I bet soon someone will be coming out with the "Triple Zip" bag followed closely by the "Quad Zip." The double zip bags burst open too soon, leaving your Krystals steamed but not hot. The good old classic freezer bags work best. The kind with the thick sides and heavy zipper. The heavy duty zipper take a lot of force to pop open. Sadly, these are becoming harder to find, thanks to the double zipper consipiracy. The second thing you need to pay attention to is how much air is in the bag when you first put it in the oven. If the bag is partially inflated when you start cooking, it will puff up and burst too soon. So you need to squeeze out most of their air before you put the Krystals in the oven. The time it takes to build up a good head of steam allows the Krystals to fully heat before the bag pops open and allows the wonderful delicious steam to escape. Finally once the bag has burst, you have moments to retrieve your Krystals from certain soggy death. Open the microwave and extract the bag by the corner. don't grab the Krystals themselves or you will get hurt. They're steaming hot, remember? Next you need to get them out of the bag before they oversteam and get soggy. Use the box to get a grip on them. You'll notice the box is soggy from the steam as well, so you need to get the Krystal out of the box ASAP. If you grab the burger, though, you'll burn your finger tips. I find turning the box sideways and giving a quick flick of the wrist will deposit the Krystal nicely on your plate or paper towel. From there, you have a world of options. I leave the care and handling of your new steamy hot Krystal completely up to you. Just be careful it is extremely hot. I have also found that if you don't eat it fairly soon, the bun gets tougher as it cools. You know there had to be a down side, right?  |
