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@liuzhou, that is hideous, and not in a good way.

From my understanding of the physics of resistors, all resistive elements are 100% efficient in converting electricity to heat - their efficiency differs in how that heat gets transferred to the pan. That can vary based on how much of the "tube" cross section makes contact with the pan, the total flatness - meaning, how much of the coiled tube doesn't contact the pan at all, etc. Most stove elements are of the "calrod" type - meaning that a thin wire is helically twisted and encased in an electrical insulator which is then further encased in a metal sheath. I imagine that the manufacturers of the heating elements would be able to supply data on their elements' performance.

I wonder if oiling your hands a bit might have helped?

I need a new food processor, and I'm waffling about whether to just get the wider vitamix, and also the food processor attachment, so I can reduce down to one appliance instead of my current two. But I'm not sure if the wider vitamix works well enough, and also somewhat unsure if the food processor attachment is good. Any opinions from others who have gone this route?

Not meatballs, but chicken balls (well, not the balls of a chicken) - which are a royal pain in the ass to make, at least this first and possibly only time I'll make them. Thing is, they were very tasty - just a pain in the ass to make into a ball shape. The mixture is so sticky they're almost impossible to roll. I used a pound of breast meat from the freezer, which I ground up in the food processor and mixed with 2 large eggs, bread crumbs, some chicken stock, parm, percorino, ramp greens, parsley, salt and pepper. Sautéed them in butter and olive oil, and finished cooking in chicken stock enhanced with a tomato sauce I was making at the same time. So...pasta with chicken "meatballs" in tomato sauce. Ramp greens, chives and parsley to garnish.

OK, I get what you're saying. I have a question, though. I recall reading somewhere that coil burnes with thinner coils were more efficient than the, at the time, older, wider coils> Is there some/amy truth to that? Would more, narrower windins make for quicker heating of the pan? Is there any design that makes for more efficient use of the electicity that's being consumed, such as (just guessing) thinner coils that heat up quicker?

Since we had rhubarb pie last night, I didn't make the dinner I had initially planned to cook. So I made a roast beef dinner for breakfast. Moe loves this meal any time of day. Served with Yorkshire Puddings, mashed potatoes and gravy and buttered peas. I'm working today so going to take the same thing for lunch. The eggs I use are from a friend's chickens and they are free range and the yolks are very yellow. Yesterday's rhubarb pie filling was yellow and today's Yorkshires were also very yellow.

T80! that was a surprise!! For anyone interested central milling's Old world European style bread flour is there version of T-80 https://centralmilling.com/product/organic-type-80-wheat-flour/ I find the pre-geletanizing of the flour pretty interesting too -kinda curious to try that in a regular pancake batter

@Pete Fred fine video thank you.

That's what I call dinner!

Within the realm of resistive burners, the only thing that will make one more efficient over another is how well it contacts your pan since the heat created is proportional to the burner's resistance. So a burner that uses less power will also make less heat - so to bring a given mass of water to a boil (for instance) a less powerful burner will take longer to get there while using less energy per minute, basically ending up a wash. To get to be much more efficient, you need a different technology, like induction, but that requires a whole new burner system, not just a part replacement as you may be aware.

In case it's of interest to cannelé obsessives, I'll add to your information overload with this video of how Cassonade make theirs (I mentioned them on the previous page). Auto-translate will hopefully give you a rough idea of what's going on, but the main takeaways are that they use a flour with a higher bran content than plain/AP, they have a specific temperature for the milk to pre-gelatinize the starch (65C/150F), and the batter is rested for at least 48 hours. For non-obsessives, hey just look at the pretty cannelés. (Incidentally, for behind-the-scenes footage of French bakeries in action, that channel has some cool videos.)

Another clanger from the Grauniad today. Good for the scientists. I hope they enjoyed their bonding over alcohol. I like a bit of alcoholic fruit. Preferably grapes. But what were the chimpanzees doing?

Very similar looking mangoes are common here. Same variety, probably.

You have a lot more resources there than I do. The main requirement here is if it fits, buy it.

There are many choices here from a variety of sources. I'm starting to learn about the differences in burner design and hoping I can find some that are more efficient and less expensive to operate.

A hearty Tempranillo from Baja México. Loved the label content saying it pairs well with a Torta Ahogada (the official sandwich of Jalisco). I had it with Moroccan Chicken.

Neely, that cake looks tremendous! I tried to google it but found only an apple & almond cake from Nigella, which I'm sure isn't the right recipe. Could you please tell me a bit more about the cake?

I made a couple batches of mini muffins today. The dark ones are cinnamon spice muffins and the light ones are blueberry muffins from a Betty Crocker mix that I quite like. The recipes made more than are pictured here because I ate a couple and gave some to the repairmen that came to fix my internet. Earlier this week I made a batch of gingerbread muffins that were excellent but I didn't get a picture of them. I like making the mini muffins because they are about half the size of a regular muffin and you don't have to feel guilty about eating two or three of them because you aren't really getting that much.

My GF just sent me this one:

You're right. They do degrade and they do wear out. I've had my stove about 25 years and I've replaced the burners several times. I don't know about up there but I can find replacement burners in the hardware stores here.

Thank you it sounds very similar.

I'm probably wrong, but it sure looks like an Ataulfo to me.

Spanish tortilla, homemade mayo, caviar. i Ice cream three ways, sour cream/ lemon, peach and banana.

Some of those shirts are almost profane. (One imagines lumpy body parts).