aidensnd2

Anyone familiar with Schokinag Chocolate? Thoughts, opinions? We currently have their bittersweet 6438 and white at work and I'm trying to convince the exec chef to switch to Valrhona, Callebaut or Guittard for the new restaurant. The bittersweet isn't too bad but the white isn't very impressive at all. This is the first time I've worked with it and was just wondering what other think of it. Thanks

They sell little square pads made out of the same stuff you put under rugs to stop them slipping around that are perfect for cutting boards. Or you could just buy one designed for rugs and cut it into the right shape for your board. You can also find them in hardware stores designed for putting wood pieces on when you are routing/sanding them so you don't have to use clamps. Anyone know what they are called?

I'm just trying to lessen the ways that they could get screwed up in the restaurant. Let's just say that the people who will be making them aren't the most astute people in terms of baking. Also a no bake version will eliminate the struggle of trying to get oven time... Thanks

I'd check out Oba also.

I'm looking for a no-bake pot de creme recipe. Anyone have a good one? Thanks Dan

I'm looking for a good/inexpensive online source for baking moulds and pans, things like cone and pyramid shapes, flexipans, rings etc... Anyone have a favorite? Thanks Dan

I finally got around to trying this recipe today. I won't have the final results until tomorrow as they are in the freezer overnight but I did have a couple of questions. First, how much are people's cakes rising? Mine didn't rise much at all. What kind of ending height are people getting from a 9 inch round? Secondly, how moist should they be. I baked mine for almost an hour in a recently calibrated 300 degree oven and they still were very moist, almost fudgy, when they came out of the oven. They seemed almost too moist when I handled them but a skewer came out clean, I'll see how they end up after freezing. I noticed that one of the posters mentioned creaming the butter and sugar. I had the sugar in with the dry ingredients and the butter with the wet, is that correct? I mixed the wet for quite a while to get it smooth and it thickened up quite a bit to an almost mayo like consistency. Anyone else experience this? Thanks Dan

I think that many people make a similar mistake. From talking to friends who aren't familiar with the restaurant world it seems that a lot of people think that the head chef actually cooks, or does the majority of cooking, of EVERY plate that goes out. I worked at a well known restaurant in Sydney for awhile which is home to a "celebrity" chef and on a day to day basis he was only in the kitchen for dinner service and then mainly worked the pass. I very rarely saw him actually do any form of cooking or prep, never saw him taste sauces, etc.. but of course it's him that is praised and not the line cooks who are actually churning out the food. I'm sure this is the same in many restaurants where the chef, or the chef's name, is one of the main attractions. I don't think that many people consider the logistics of turning out meals in any sort of volume. It blows me away how many people I've seen surprised when they learn that the vegetables are cut, meat trimmed and the fish filleted in advance and not when the order comes in....

Mmmm, truffle and garlic mashed potato...

I have a Furi paring knife and the only thing I don't like about it is that the handle is so large in relation to the blade. Here in Australia Furi is a really popular brand, being made here, and I keep on thinking about getting some more as I'm looking to replace my Wusthofs. I especially like the chef knife and the boning knife but I'm not sure about the angle of the boning knife. Any thoughts?

The acid from the lemons will prevent it from curdling allowing you to bring it to quite a generous boil. However it still makes me nervous though and I normally try not to take it beyond a heavy simmer. If you have cooked it this way then there is no need to bake it in the shell, you can just blind bake the case and let the curd set in it. Dan

What I'm actually after is a mousse that is JUST chocolate and water... I incorporated the water into the chocolate just like making a ganache and then put it on a machine to whip and cool. I tried whisking it over ice but the chocolate basically instantly hardened on the bottom of the bowl. After it cooled down it was nice and fluffy, just like you would want a mousse to be. The only real problem was that it hardened too much overnight even when left at room temperature. It was great served right away I'm just hoping to find a way where I can save it for at least a full day...

Ahh, I'm guessing that I was using too little water. I was doing a 3/1 chocolate to water ratio and even that seemed pretty fluid in the beginning. It had a nice texture immediately after whipping. I just put it on a machine and let it go until it was cool. I'll try it again closer to a 1/1. yorkshirepud, that recipe would be greatly appreciated. I love your handle, every time I see one of your posts I get hungry for a big roast and yorkshire puddings... mmm Thanks Dan

Just wondering if anyone has tried making a chocolate mousse with just chocolate and water? I made one which was nice right after making but when it set it set too firm. Any ideas?

If you want a true vegetable stock I wouldn't. It seems more like you would be making an incredibly weak chicken stock, you would mainly have the taste of veg with a hint of chicken in the background which might be nice but might also just seem like a really underflavored stock. I think if you want some chicken flavor just mix chicken and veg stock together. But if the fat holds onto the flavor of the veg then when you skim the fat off you would in theory be removing much of the flavor, no? I think you cook the veg to release their flavor and to start converting some of their starch into sugar. Personally I think that doing this might backfire. I think it will cause too many impurities to be released and you'll have to skim it nonstop. Even if you don't mind about the clarity of the stock all that scum will negatively affect the flavor. I think it's like with fish stock, you only cook it for 20 minutes, after that the bones start to break down and release calcium which turns the stock cloudy and bitter. This would also play into grinding the bones. You would have so much surface area that they would break down incredibly quick. Ditto on that one. Great flavor and a great way to get tons of gelatin. In my experience leaving the vegetables in bunches is due more to convenience. If you are making a large batch of stock (commercial size) then it's easier and faster not to chop the veg and with a long cooking time you are going to get all the flavor out of them anyway. I've never tried removing the veg part way through, I'll give it a shot next time I make stock at home and see if it helps the clarity.

Where in Aus are you? I'm in Sydney.

Like others have said, I think if you show them exactly how you want somethhing done and watch them do it once to make sure they understand it then after that they should be able to do it by themselves unsupervised. I can see accepting the odd mistake especially in the beginning, everyone makes them, but if the work is regularly shoddy then it's time to let them go. When I started at my current job I was told, "It's okay to make a mistake as long as you only make it once." Hope this helps.

In my experience Lindt seems to taste sweeter and creamier than other chocolate with similar % of cocoa solids. I've used a bunch of Lindt couverture and it's not bad, not my favorite but not anything to be ashamed of.

Forgot to add that IMHO there is no need to boil the stock for 12 hours. After about 4 hours with chicken stock and about 6 or so with beef/veal I don't notice much of a difference.

For one thing you would never get a vegetable demi-glace. As their is no gelatin in veggies the stock would never thicken regardless of how long you cooked it or how much you reduced it. I suppose you could freeze it into ice cubes to make it convenient though. Not all stocks are reduced to a glaze. Primarily demi-glace is used to make/finish sauces but if you need stock for a soup or something where a decent amount of stock is needed you would use unreduced stock. While you could add demi-glace to a pot of water to "make" stock it wouldn't taste the same as stock would. I wouldn't add salt to any stock, seasoning should be done when making the final product. What might seem like a little bit of salt in that big pot of water could very well turn out to be one hell of a lot in the finished reduced glaze. As for it aiding in the leeching of gelatin, that's partly what the long cooking process is for. Not sure why you could cook bigger batches if they are seperate. It seems like it would be more convenient to only have to make 1 stock than 2 assuming you want some combo of meat and veg. You could do this with traditional stocks. I think you lost me on this one. I don't think this would be that practical or really make that much difference. It's much easier to have 1 type of stock to make/store and then just adjust the flavor when it's used if necessary. Stock is just a flavor base, not the final flavor. Wouldn't that be the same as just starting off with less water? Not sure what you mean by this. I think overall it's not a bad idea it's just more an issue of what's practical. For me a meat stock without mirepoix would just be bland. If I were to use your method I would always be combining veg and meat stock in the end so why not just start out that way and cut my work in half. Hope this helps Dan

Ditto what everyone else says. The key is to underwork the dough. You can also try turning the biscuits over after cutting them so the bottom becomes the top. This way if the layers have been compressed during cutting they will now be in the "right" direction for a better rise.

I'd say the problem was most likely too little corn syrup. I make mine with glucose and although I don't have the exact recipe in front of me it seems like 1 1/2 TB might be too little. Did you try warming it up before kneading?

My all time favorite is Apple and Calvados.

I too am a big fan of the strawberry rhubarb combo.

I never smoke fish anymore, it was always clogging the bong. Sorry, couldn't resist...