EdS

The cast-iron handles do resist getting hot. The heat doesn't transmit easily between the copper pan and the cast-iron handles. I suspect it's partly because of the difference in material and also because the handles are long and it takes a while for the heat to reach the part you grip. They aren't like, say, the handles on a Griswold or Lodge cast-iron skillet where the short handle rapidly heats up along with the rest of the pan and you must protect your hand at all times. Yesterday, I cooked some chicken thighs in my Falk 4.5-quart Sauciere. In the time it took to brown the pieces on both sides, the handle did not have a chance to get warm. I then finished cooking in the oven. Of course, I used a kitchen towel to remove the pan from the oven and while deglazing with some wine. The handles do get warm if you leave something simmering for a fair amount of time but I guess I don't think about it much.

That sounds like a very good reason.

I visit Whole Foods only to buy grains. I like all those bins. There seems to be a good turnover, and the prices for those products seem fair. While I'm waiting in line, I like to look in other people's shopping carts. What do I see? I see a lot of hippy-brand junk food. It's mostly similar crap to what people buy in a regular grocery store but different brands and at higher prices. OK, maybe there's an organic foie-gras-fed and plucked-by-virgins chicken but then there's loads of potato chips, frozen prepared stuff, and more. I think most people shop at places like Whole Foods for the image and perhaps for the delusion that they are eating healthy.

I've read comments here on eGullet and elsewhere that bamboo is too hard on knives but if it's only 16-percent harder, it seems that concern would be mute. I rather like that chopping block.

Any reason not to use a material other than ceramic tiles, such as cast-iron? For example, Lodge make a pizza pan. I would think that cast-iron would soak up more heat than stone given a similar thickness. Even better would be some sort of copper slab. Hmm, like from 10,000 melted down old copper pennies.

You might try baking the salmon to contain some of the odors or even cooking the salmon sous vide.

I hit Costco tonight. They're now up to $0.89/lb here as well. Thieves, I tell ya!

I live across the SF bay from you (San Mateo) and whole Foster Farms chickens at Costco are $0.79/lb but you need to buy them three at a time. Chicken thighs are $0.89/lb. They've been the same price for as long as I can recall. I think they're about double at the regular grocery store.

Some ideas: Reduce portion sizes and/or reduce proportion of meat. Eat more flavorful chicken thighs and legs rather than the more expensive boneless/skinless/tasteless/pointless chicken breasts. Buy whole chickens and piece them out yourself. Make sauces from scratch rather than using prepackaged canned and bottled sauces. Eliminate junk food. Drink water, tea, or coffee instead of soda and alcohol. Buy vegetables and fruits in season when they are more tasty and less expensive. Ignore Atkins and instead eat more like people do in the rest of the world. Soup is good. Make broth from chicken backs (and breasts, heh) from whole chickens above. Find a Mexican grocery store and cook Mexican. Those stores are cheap here. Pasta is your friend. Potatoes can be friendly too. Eggs are friendly by the dozen. Make a meal of Costco food samplings. Talk to college students and do as they do. Eh, Top Ramen?!? Recipes? Search Google for Medievel peasant recipes using bread as a thickener. Say no to sushi. If all else fails, go on a David Blaine hunger strike.

Some might say a gyuto isn't as well suited for prep work as a cleaver. The Chinese seem to do pretty well with their cleavers.

I have a 10" Sanelli, stamped-steel, with which I am quite happy. I don't see the point of spending significant money on a bread knife. I think the important thing is to make sure you get a long one. I sometimes use my Global 10" Yanagi sushi/sashimi knife, for whatever reason. Come to think of it, I think it works better than a serrated bread knife as there are hardly any crumbs. I sharpen it often on Japanese sharpening stones. If you have a super sharp long knife, perhaps it could do double-duty as a bread knife.

If you're going to substitute chicken for turkey, be sure to find the right chicken. If the label says "kosher", or even, heaven fobid, "Bresse", toss it aside and find something better. Too much flavor! You're basically looking at raising the temperature and reducing the cooking time as you go from a larger bird to a smaller bird, assuming you are roasting it. I guess you could even fry the chicken whole just like folks on this site are doing with turkeys. Chicken is an upgrade over turkey!

I'm curious about the procedure that was used to cook this meat. I'd have started by letting the meat marinate for several hours or overnight in wine with a mirepoix of a quartered onion, sliced carrots, and sliced celery. Add in some cloves of crushed garlic if you like. Then I'd sear the beef, saute the mirepoix, and then begin to braise. Even better would be to add in a pig's foot and some cured raw ham and throw in a bouquet garni. Season with salt and pepper. I think burned pepper tastes bitter so I wouldn't add it till this point. Without knowing what was done, it's hard for me to comment further. If the meat wasn't marinated and could stand some more cooking (i.e. it's not mush), I'd marinate the cooked meat and then braise for another hour. You know, it could be as simple as checking the seasoning and adding some salt.

I'm quite proud of myself. I have trouble with the nuances of wine-tasting but my sensory perceptions have come of age tonight. Why, might you ask? Well, I've been reading this thread and thinking about how one would make homemade Spaghetti-O's. Is that an oxymoron or what? OK, you've got pasta boiled to mush. I can do that. But how to get that sickly-sweet sweetness of yore? I knew it couldn't be sugar. I thought about a certain similarity in sweetness to a soft drink. The magical ingredient? High Fructose Corn Syrup I couldn't find a Spaghetti-O's ingredient list on Google but I found the ingredients to Chef Boyardee Spaghetti & Meatballs in Tomato Sauce. Those of you who prefer Boyardee to Batali should take note.

I second the parmigiano-reggiano, freshly grated. I figure that since popcorn is corn and polenta is corn, what works with polenta would work with popcorn. That's the delusion that I'm living.

I cook regularly with sake and I can't say that I have noticed a difference in the final dish between a fresh bottle and sake that has been opened and then stored in the fridge for three or four weeks. However, for kicks I tried drinking some sake out of a month-old opened bottle and it just wasn't right. It wasn't nasty like oxidized old wine but it did have a funny taste. I might try that gadget that I have that sucks out some of the air out of an opened wine bottle and seals it to see how well it works with sake.

Lactose intolerance is the norm for most people in the world beyond early childhood. It is not abnormal. It is only in those of northern European ancestry that the majority of people can tolerate lactose. The U.S. has a relatively high proportion of people of northern European ancestry which gives the perception that most people can freely consume dairy products in large quantities without a problem. Perhaps most Americans, but that is changing as the population mix changes. Here are some links explaining this issue: Foodintol.com NHS US Pharmacist

The drop-lid technique is similar to the classical western technique of shallow poaching. A sheet of parchment paper is folded and cut so that it becomes a round disc about the size of the pan. A small hole is cut out in the middle to allow some of the steam to be released. The parchment is placed over the partially submerged food and the pan is then often placed in the oven where the heat is more even than direct stovetop heat. The purpose of the parchment is to cook the unexposed part of the food but not to allow the cooking speed to rise as much as if the food were fully covered. It seems to me that using a drop-lid has the additional advantage of providing more mass on top of the food to keep it from moving around. I used a drop lid for the first time a few nights ago. My first nimono, sake-simmered monkfish. I will be making more nimono!

This page includes a selection of sous vide recipes from Japan: NTT Gourmet Chef recipes

You may be able to remove the coil element and adjust it by bending it slightly before reattaching it. In that way, you may be able to make it so the "springiness" no longer causes the coil to change in height dependent on the weight of the piece of cookware. My stove is pretty new and the coils just plug and unplug. I don't know if all electric stoves are that way. I suspect not. Be careful.

I had the same problem. I tried monkeying around with the burners and burner pans until I realized that the stove itself has leveling feet. I made some adjustments and the problem is solved.

The past week I've intermittedly been eating Pocky while surfing eGullet. I found some Thailand-made CHEAP "grey market" Pocky with Thai writing (rather than the Japanese-made) in San Francisco's Chinatown the other day and hoarded the stuff. It's just as good. I think it'll be a meal replacement each day for the next few weeks.

I have looked over some of the pieces. Essentially, they appear to be a disk-bottom version of All-Clad at a lower price point than the other lines. I recall the lids being made of glass which I don't really care for. The quality otherwise seemed to be about the same. I do not know the thickness of the disk bottom nor the construction. Disk bottom cookware can be just fine, depending on the item and how you intend to use it. Slkinsey's eGCI cookware class explains this in more detail.

If you can handle the dishwasher while drinking, why not use it? Dishwasher Salmon with Cilantro Sauce

My understanding is that bacteria in large numbers will feel slimy and is the reason that an older raw chicken will feel that way. Cooking the sausage hot enough and long enough should be ok but I'm paranoid and would likely toss them.