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When I started teaching, I became friends with a teacher who became sort of a mentor in non school things. He made wine, smoked meats and threw great parties. One annual party was his birthday party and he smoked a hole pig for that occasion. About as often as not I was the bartender. At one party, I overheard two other teachers tell him that their years long quest was to find the restaurant that made the best Country Fried Steak. I can't describe what I thought about that but Don Quixote and Sanjo Panza who set out on a journe with little chance of reward. Now decades later my son has started that same search for the Chicken Fried Steak they had at the high school cafeteria and I am old enough to understand why people crave food they had while Growing up.instead of using a cheap, tough but tenderized piece of meat, they used seasoned ground beef pressed out on sheet pans and baked, then cut into individual sizes. It was seasoned with salt, pepper, dehydrated onions and some flour. I am baking hamburger paddies and then treating them like the recipe below. Probably the last thing to do is find the right thickness for the meat. So far it has been too thick for his liking, but otherwise kit seems llike we are on the right track. Chicken Fried Steak recipe from Threadgills - Recipe By : Threadgill's - The Cookbook ISBN 1-56352-277-2 1/2 cup kosher salt 4 tablespoons black pepper 2 tablespoons white pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper 2 tablespoons granulated onion 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin 4 tablespoons granulated garlic 2 tablespoons paprika Mix ingredients well. Store in a glass jar or plastic container. Keep tightly sealed. Shake before each use to prevent settling. 8 6 ounce tenderized beef cutlets -- at room temperature 2 eggs 2 cups milk -- at room temperature 3 cups flour 2 teaspoons Threadgill's Meat Seasoning 2 cups frying oil -- preferably canola Whisk eggs and milk together in a bowl and set this egg wash aside. Combine the flour and meat seasoning in another bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a heavy 14-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat to 350 degrees F. Use a 550 degree thermometer to check temperature. The oil should pop loudly when a drop of egg wash is dropped in. Dip each of the first 4 cutlets in the egg wash mixture. Dredge them in the flour, then dip them back into the egg wash, and very gently place them in the hot oil. As you carry them one at a time from the egg wash to the skillet, hold a plate under them to catch the dripping egg wash. There'll be a regular explosion of noisy oil a-popping. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until breading is set and golden brown. Gently turn them with a long-handled meat fork or long metal tongs. Be careful. Cook another 3 minutes. Carefully remove them from the skillet and drain on a platter lined with paper towels. Let oil reheat and repeat process for other 4 cutlets. Serve with White Cream Gravy and Mashed Potatoes.

I don't have an answer, but for anyone interested, Gavin Webber just posted a rather interesting video on how PH affects cheese texture - from gooey to stretchy to hard....

Loved every minute of this thank you

I do flank steak @133F for 4 hours followed by a fast sear.

Up above: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/167917-cooking-with-a-countertop-indoor-smoker/page/8/#findComment-2453795 Start with chicken drumsticks. Cut around the foot end and scrape the joint and remove the tendons. Push the meat back towards the thigh end, removing the rest of the tendons. If necessary trim the bottom so that the pop can stand vertically. Season with salt and pepper. Last night I smoked mine two and a half hours at 121C, coating with plum sauce for the last half hour. The result should look like a lollypop. And taste like one too.

Thanks for taking us along on your trip. But where are the meals on the return flight? They don't show up on the link you provided.

It has to be toasted, if it starts out coming out of my freezer! https://www.freshdirect.com/bky/bak_bagel_knish/bak_bagels/sc/bak_bagels_plain/p/bak_pid_4651076

Did you make the peach gelato?

I had the novelty kind. That’s a 750 ml bottle of wine in the glass.

@Nancy in Pátzcuaro I buy Presidente brie from Guadalajara Costco. It is soft, not a great rendition, but edible given no other brand available. I think yours may have dried out in store or in transport.

Jo, I'm sure you've told this already, but what is a chicken pop and how did you do them? @JoNorvelleWalker

As before, the chicken pops were fantastic. This afternoon the weather is a bit cooler and I'm smoking beef ribs. Rubbed just with salt, pepper, and garlic. Wood is oak and temperature is 102C. One can tell the GE was designed for Fahrenheit cuisine because one can't set the temperature dial to 100C. Did I mention the chicken pops were fantastic?

As we speak I'm smoking another batch of chicken pops. Not that the weather is fit for smoking anything. But the drumsticks were past the point of no return. That's what barbecue sauce is for. Last night a dear friend took me to Whole Foods. I looked at turkey breasts but I was dissuaded by the size, weight, and price. I got a couple beef spareribs and a rack of St. Louis ribs on sale. I originally passed on the pork when the butcher said it was too late at night for him to cut me a piece. Eventually I came back for the full rack. I'm evaluating a new marinating container but these ribs are too long to fit. Not to mention the container is too big for my refrigerator. I intend to wait to portion the rack until I'm ready to cook. Half the rack would not be close to fitting in the GE. Also at Whole Foods I got the stuff for smoked bluefish pate. The dairy person told me he was out of whipped cream cheese, so I got two packages of regular.

@JoNorvelleWalker Well , I hope , size , inside and out being , being atractive it would be easy a la CSO to steam clean , then later just wipe down. that simple.

Novelty kind? Mine is Baccarat, pattern Haut Brion. Though I don't usually fill to the brim.

What do you anticipate the new oven can do that cannot be done in an APO?

Hurra (hooray) for leftovers 🥳

Is that bagel toasted?

While swooning over @Ann_T's glorious biscuits, I made the buttery porcini fried eggs from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage. There’s a generous half ounce of porcini/serving here so it’s rather indulgent. One of those flaky biscuits would have been perfect with this but I made do with sourdough toast.

Seared zucchini and soft-scrambled eggs with red onion, serrano chiles, garlic, coconut milk, and feta cheese, seasoned with epazote, fish sauce, black pepper, and garam masala.

A small peach tart with toasted slivered almonds, we had it with peach gelato.

@TdeV I used to grill , after marinating 24 hrs , on a very hot grill . just to get a quick but decent char on each side , then rest . then slice thinly . the meat was rare , but sliced thinly , was tender and extraordinarily delicious .

@TdeV I concur w @KennethT sometimes the ends of the FS are quite gnarly . consider minimal trim there. when torching , make sure the surface is dry , or flash sear in a hot pan.

@KennethT thank you for taking us along , and sharing so many pics.

Years ago, I used to make flank steak SV pretty regularly. My goto was 131F for 24 hours, then torch before serving.