Chef Cutaneo works with a brined turkey. While this step is optional, if you have the time to include brining, the difference in tenderness and flavor will be worth it. Here’s last week’s video and guide to brining.

Delicious olive oil from Nudo, crushed with
your choice of six different fruits or herbs.
All it needs is a bow. Photo courtesy
Nudo-Italia.com.

But what we like best about Nudo is not the bare oil (which is lovely) but the crushed fruit and herbs that infuse the flavored oils with so much pizzazz.

Within hours of being picked, late harvest olives are stone-milled together with fresh-picked fruits and herbs. (Late harvest olives have a subtler flavor than early harvest olives, allowing the infused flavor to burst through.) Crushing the fruits/herbs with the olives provides much finer flavor than infusing the olive oil with an extract. That’s why Nudo is the real deal.

Choose from Basil, Chillie, Garlic, Lemon, Mandarin, Thyme or Original olive oil. We also like the pizzazz of the can decoration, which makes Nudo olive oil a charming small gift.

An 8.4-ounce can is $11.99 at Nudo-Italia.com.

• Find more of our favorite savory stocking stuffers, one of our 13 gift lists for 2010.
• Learn all about olive oil in our Olive Oil Section.

Want to avoid soggy cereal?

We find that our morning bowl of cereal, filled with milk, becomes soggy after three spoonfuls.

It occurred to us: Why pour milk over dry cereal? Why not use a glass of milk as a chaser?

We tried it, it worked, and now it’s our favorite way to eat cereal:

1. Fill a bowl with cereal plus any sweetener or fruit.
2. Fill a glass with milk.
3. Insert a spoonful of cereal into mouth. Crunch once.
4. Follow with a sip of milk.
5. Repeat until all cereal and milk are consumed.

Just because it seems unusual doesn’t mean that it isn’t a better way.

After all, forks weren’t used in England until the mid-17th century, although they were introduced to the country in 1608 by an Englishman who brought them back from Italy.

According to The History Of The Fork, the English ridiculed forks as being effeminate and unnecessary. “Why should a person need a fork when God had given him hands?” was the refrain.

So, learn a lesson from history: Try new things, as strange as they may seem.

Keep it crunchy: Follow a spoonful of dry cereal with a shot of milk (photo courtesy PreserveProducts.com).

[1] This elegant version of cornflake-coated chicken is by Kim at Ordinary Recipes Made Gourmet. Here’s the recipe.

[2] The winner: Corn Flakes (photo courtesy Kellogg).

A few days ago we wrote about the superiority of panko, Japanese breadcrumbs, over American breadcrumbs.

Yesterday, munching on some Corn Flakes for breakfast, we noticed the Corn Flake-crusted chicken recipe on the back of the box (called “Double Coated Chicken”).

Hmm, we thought: How do Corn Flakes stand up to panko?

For lunch, we made both. The verdict: While we love panko, Corn Flakes win hands down—they’re more crunchy and more flavorful.

We hadn’t used Corn Flakes breading in years, associating it with less-interesting old-school American cooking of the 1950s and 1960s.

We were wrong. We’ll now use a Corn Flakes crust on fish and other fried foods; and crunchy Corn Flakes crumbs instead of bread crumbs atop mac and cheese and other recipes.

The orange dots on the plate are a peach purée with bourbon.

> The different cuts of chicken. How many can you name?

> The history of chicken.
 
 
RECIPE: CORN FLAKES FRIED CHICKEN

Ingredients For 2 Servings

 
Preparation

1. POUND the chicken between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to an even 1/2-inch thickness. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

2. WHISK the egg and milk together in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, crush the Corn Flakes and toss with the remaining salt and pepper.

4. DREDGE the chicken in the egg mixture, letting excess drip off, then in the Corn Flakes. Press so that the Corn Flakes adhere.

5. FRY the chicken, turning once, until golden and just cooked through (5 to 6 minutes). Drain on paper towels. Serve with a drizzle of Mike’s Hot Honey.
 
 
ANOTHER WAY TO COAT FRIED CHICKEN

Try cornmeal or blue cornmeal.

And don’t forget the panko!
 
 
ANOTHER WAY TO ENJOY CORN FLAKES

Try Corn Flakes as a crunchy topping on ice cream. We prefer them to the sweetened Frosted Flakes—they’re a better counterpoint to the sweetness of the ice cream.
 
 

• Bacon
• Caviar
• Any new and exciting food

We love all three, so of course we went gaga over “bacon and eggs” caviar—trout roe infused with applewood-smoked bacon.

We’ve been enjoying it as an hor d’oeuvre, as a general food garnish, on boiled potatoes, on blini, straight from the jar, and of course, with scrambled eggs and bacon.

Send as many ounces as you can afford, at $15.00/ounce. There’s also a $38.00 gift set that includes an ounce of the caviar, four ounces of smoked salmon, a caviar spoon and a package of bagel crisps. However we steer clear of eating delicate fish roe on hard, crunchy crackers. It’s not a good pairing.

Check out the bacon caviar at CaliforniaCaviar.com.

See more of our favorite gourmet gifts for Holiday 2010.

Learn all about caviar in our Caviar Section.

The “new” bacon and eggs. Photo courtesy
California Caviar.