5/26/2008  Hard cider steamed Buffalo Wings I tried Alton Browns buffalo wing recipe from the episode, The Wing and I. On the mechanics side, it worked REALLY well. No smoke and the wings look a LOT better than the stock image the Food Network webmaster put up. (Not a dig at them at all. I know how hard it can be to just get one decent image.) Check out my images and you can see they get a lot more bronze. So here is the link to Alton's recipe. Now his recipe went with a slightly less hot sauce mix from the standard 50/50. He used basically 3 parts butter, 2 parts "hot sauce" (cough - Franks - cough), and a minced clove of garlic. Made a great sauce. I have to admit, I like the kick the garlic adds. Ignore his part about using a huge bowl to toss these in. A large container with a tight fitting lid works just as well and fits in the dishwasher a LOT better. What about the steam then bake method for buffalo wings? Well, it wasn't a huge problem. I have a colander pot that I put the steam basket into. So it was a layer on the colander bottom, one on the steam basket and my pot has a steam tray that sits on top the colander. So steaming a lot of wings was easy... Really I think I could have tossed them all into the colander and steamed them like a bunch of crabs. Might have been a little skin shedding, but I bet it would still produce some fine hot wings. When you were done you could dump out the water and cool in the same vessel. So what about the hard cider you ask? It made a difference. The particular brand I used was Woodpecker. (heh, he said...) I would be in heaven if there was a place in Wichita that had hard cider on tap. Might have to check The Anchor in Wichita the next time I am in there. The taste was a little malty, like you would get from something beer battered. Bonded nicely with the skin. Makes me look forward to the beer steamed ones. I can say I will at least add cider to the water for my steam/bake buffalo wings. Now some may say that the only thing that is happening is the water in the cider is the only thing coming up. That is most of what is coming up, true. But that same steam carries a lot of flavor. Your nose will tell you the compounds are coming up in the steam. I do this in a lot of cooking. It occurred to me that what was good for fish was good for fowl basically. You don't do a shrimp boil in plain water after all. -Tusk Final Rank:85 Heat:40