FistFullaRoux

Aspartame is the sweet ingredient in NutraSweet and Equal. From: http://www.health.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=67788 Aspartame does contain phenylalanine, which should be avoided by the small number of people — about 1 in 16,000 — who have the hereditary disease phenylketonuria.

It's a sensous thing, cooking. I think that is what the good chefs/cooks get. It may not be perfect every time, but they can tell when it is not. The great ones get some of it perfect, eventually. Food does use all 5 senses, and when they are all pleased, it can only be because the food was done right. Experiments have proven this. I did it myself for a psychology class, I think. Half a batch of cinnamon rolls were dyed blue. Another "normal" pan of the exact same batch of the same recipe was placed next to it with comment cards. The blue pan was nearly untouched, and not one of the blue ones were actually finished. All of this to say that any cook worth his salt has tried a lot of things, and had the spark of inspiration hit when it was right. The crucial moment is the decision to make the next thing right, instead of just OK. It makes no difference what it is, from a cream sauce to sourdough bread. I also think that is the line between pastry/bread/cuisine chefs. Which one did they get right first? How many famous and brilliant chefs have admitted that they suck at breads or pastries? How many pastry chefs have we seen fall short in non-pastry cooking competitions? It's why those specialties exist to begin with.

If observing my wife is any indication, Crystal Light is flavored crack. She drinks 64 oz or more a day, and even her doctor has said that it has nothing in there, aside from the aspartame, that she should be concerned with. And only a small percentage of the population needs to worry about that. If it helps you get the water down, great. More power to ya. I did a little more digging and came up with this: So I recant my earlier thoughts on caffeinated drinks. I stand by the alcohol. http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

Ah, one of my pet peeves comes to light. I'll try to be brief. The bottled water fad/industry has contributed to an increase in tooth decay (according to a source I can no longer remember) by bypassing the flouridation present in most municipal water systems. Do yourself a favor and get a filter for the faucet if the water tastes funny. They do work. Caffeine and alcohol are diuretics. THe effect depends on a lot of things, but a good rule of thumb for someone trying for an target number is to subtract 10% from caffeine drinks and 40% for alcohol (again, a source that I cannot remember). Ice counts. So do milk and soup. Veggies and fruit count as well, but there's not as much as most people think in them. Don't believe the forwarded junk email that colas and such don't count. As long as you factor the sugar into your daily calories, not a major deal. Drink diet if it's an issue. It's hot outside as I type this. Just about any liquid is a good thing. It all counts. Edited to add the source for the tooth thing - http://www.ada.org/public/topics/bottled_water_faq.asp

Any cook worth their salt has made... A ton of mistakes, miscalulations, poor choices, and just plain screw-ups. And gained something from every one. Don't just dump the pot out, try to find where you went wrong, then remember it for next time. That's why the carrot thing mentioned upthread worked so well. Get so sick of messing up that you want to get it right the first time and every time. Just some negative reinforcement.

You consider bream to be trash fish? Sea bream? I first encountred sea bream when I lived in Spain, where it is a very popular fish prepared in the best homes and offered in very good restaurants. You pay a pretty penny for it compared to the less expensive fishes such as the ever-popular and budget-minded hake. ← I'm referring to a fresh water fish, sometimes also called crappie or perch locally. Little bitty fish, mostly inedible bone. Maybe the size of your hand at the largest, and about 2 bites of meat per fish. And so everyone knows what I'm talking about, trash fish is the term Cajuns used to call those species that would not sell at market, so the fishermen took them home to feed the family. I forgot garfish as part of that list too. The garfish has to be broken up so much because it is so bony, it's easier to scrape all the meat from the bone you can before cooking, mix it with potato and flour, and make a kind of meatball. Tasty if done right, but a royal pain in the ass to prepare. Most people wouldn't think it was worth the effort, since flash frozen fillets of whatever you want are only a couple of dollars at the megamart. Spending 30 minutes preparing a fish for one serving is a lot of work for a fish that needs so much help. But it's a cultural touchstone.

I guess I'm lucky. Cajun has caught on so much in the last couple of decades, that the gross-out factor has all but gone away. Crawfish and boudin may be the two biggest "offenders" left, unless you count some of the game (nutria, squirrel) or trash fish (Gaspergou, bream, croaker) many Cajuns still cook. I'm a fairly adventerous eater, but I've never gotten into uni. I've had it a time or two, I know it is well loved, but still... shudder. I guess you could lump sushi and sashimi into the category, since the vast majority of Americans haven't had good or even decent sushi in the states. I like the stuff, but many don't.

Had mine today. From a salad bar at Pizza Hut. Someone else was buying lunch. Plain jane Iceberg lettuce, (or the mix they make with the shredded purple cabbage and carrot for color), diced hard boiled egg, bacon (not the baco-bits stuff. Real bacon or a reasonable facsimilie thereof chopped fine), shredded cheese (cheddar will do nicely, or anything but blue), croutons, and Thousand Island dressing. Fairly simple, easy to find or modify (like baby spinach subbing for the iceberg) depending on what's available, and a nice balance in flavors. Not too many components, no competing flavors or textures, just simple gut floss with harmonious add-ons. A close second, the classic Ceasar. An old fashioned Waldorf or carrot/raisin salad is nice sometimes too. And to round it off for a top 5 thing, believe it or not, Emeril's roasted potato salad. Garlic roasted potato chunks with a mayo/creole mustard sauce. I've been known to use a version of this as an Hors d' Oeuvres, serving the garlic potatoes without dressing them, with a mayo/mustard/lemon only mixture sauce for dipping.

I think it's a cool idea. Been done before with Door Knock Dinners (remember that one?) I kind of like his style. I think they play up the "tension" of the unsuspecting hubby coming home, but it's pretty well done. He's a decent chef that makes these sort of luxurious dinners accesible.

Congratulations, sir. Sounds like a blast. Hit the truck stops and see what the local truckers recommend type stuff. If you ever decide to do something in Alabama, let me know. I know quite a few members of the Birmingham PD and other local angencies as well. I do on-site computer repair and run about 1000 miles a week through the countryside here between Montgomery and Huntsville. I eat on the road every day. There's a BBQ subculture that's somewhere between Memphis and Carolina here. Big Bob Gibson up near Huntsville has won Memphis in May a couple of times now. There's Dreamland (Nothin like 'em nowhere) and dozens of little places that you would never see a billboard for. How about a road trip theme? Atlanta to New Orleans. Nashville to Miami. Cleveland to St Louis? If it's about road food, take a 6 or 8 hour drive, and hit some of the cool places that most people would only see from the interstate.

How about running the fry station for 8 hours at "the clown", being the only place in town with electricity after a tropical storm? How about having to then work a full shift at a register? You know how much hustling you have to do to reach the $700 club (That's $700 in sales in one hour at one register) at McClownPlace? I did it three times that day. Too bad they didn't have a $900 club, because I was pretty close on one of them. That's in 1986 money, when you could still get a regular cheeseburger for 49 cents. And we had freight come in that night. Our store got shipments at 3:00 am. The timing was good, because we had sold almost everything that day, but a nearly 24 hour shift on the busiest day like, ever, that ended with 3 hours in the freezer rotating boxes of hamburger patties and fish filets.... I'll make and deliver pizzas again before I deal with that. Don't get me started on the pizza thing. Edited to clarify

If you are the handy type, adjustable vibrating motors are fairly easy to set up. You need, 1) an AC motor, surprisingly small, no need for a big one. Look around thrift stores and garage sales for likely candidates 2) A variac, or plain old incandescent light dimmer, available at your local home improvement store 3) an eccentric load, meaning something to attach to the output shaft of the motor that is not balanced. You can take a balanced object and remove part of the material to achieve eccentricity. The steps are to: Attach the eccentric load to the motor, connect the power leads from the motor to the variac, mount the motor to a small table, check your wiring, turn the variac to lowest speed, say a prayer, then plug that sucker in, and adjust as needed. ******Please note that I am not responsible for any damage to property, persons, pets, furniture, emotional scarring or windows when it comes to this. It's an overview of what makes vibrating things work. At their basic, it's a motor trying to spin an unbalanced load. Or you could avoid all of the hassle and use the spin cycle of the old washing machine. Just put the molds on the closed lid.

That's why I was saying poaching. Gentle simmering is just below the boiling point, but I'd think the boiling point of stews and such would be different than 212. You're talking chemical and viscosity differences.

I'd eat it, but something I'd refuse to make in the summer is gumbo. I did it once about 6 years ago. It was cooler outside the apartment while it was cooking. Tasted great, just too damn hot. And Mexican/spicy foods are supposed to help lower the body's temperature. Makes you sweat. It's a good thing. Drink lots of water. Edited to fix a typo, and to add: An outdoor kitchen, a fancy grill with burners, or even a turkey frying/crab boil rig would handle that nicely, though.

IMHO, if it's something you do once in a while at a low enough temp not to melt the stuff, it should be fine. If you can microwave it safely, I'd think poaching would not be a major problem. I'd poach in a lot of water, though.

Of course I have. I'm 6'2", juuuuust too tall for most counters. So I have to hunch over ever so slightly or spread my feet apart into a half-split. Painful. I last about 10 minutes on a good day before I need a break. But, I can make full use of the upper cabinets. My wife is 5'3", and we've already planned for differing counter heights when we do our kitchen when we get the whole house thing figured out. We each get a sink at the right height as well, although I'd love to do it like this. There would be plumbing issues though.

Hamburgers done medium. I've started doing the Alton Brown method of large cuts ground in the food processor in small batches. It works folks...

Perfectly square edges of a molded sugar piece, of course...

There's something about the Cajun man mentality that a man should know how to cook, even if it is something done outside. Nothing wrong with that, but most men from my part of the world, if not gourmets, can at least survive. I was raised by a single mom who worked a lot of odd nurse hours sometimes. At the time I became old enough to stay at home alone, in charge of my younger brother, I had to know how to at least reheat something, or throw together a box of Hamburger Helper. That being said, I wasn't really into cooking at that point, I was a fledgling baker. I basically baked everything I made from scratch the first few years in the kitchen. The only stovetop things were scrambled eggs and burgers, but I prefered broiling those. Eventually I gained confidence in the top burners, but I still prefer baking a lot of times.

And speaking of power tools, I'm kind of surprised I don't see routers and Dremels used much in sugar or chocolate work. There's a million kinds of bits to do crazy things to the edges, then just run a torch over the edges to make them nice and shiny again. And if you have a template, instead of molding, you can use router bits to do the actual cutting of a shape. The speed of the bit and the hardness of the material certainly come into play, as the bits do develop some heat. Think of all of the sugar competitions where a completed item falls on the way to the table. It wouldn't have happened if mortis and tenon, half lap, and dovetail joints were used. Butt joints on a weird angle are never strong. I mean, they already use powerpainters and heat guns. Sorry, it's the ex-guitarmaker/cabinet freak/speakerbox builder woodworker geek coming out in me. I think a thickness sander would be useful in show pieces as well. A drill press and a table saw may be pushing it, I am actually thinking of a way to use scroll saws, a jointer can help laminate two narrow planks into one big plank by creating perfectly straight and flush lines, but I can certainly see uses for the Dremel and router. And maybe a big vertical disc sander. Hm. I could make a chocolate armoir, or a sugar dinette set ... OK, maybe just an end table. I may have to experiment with some of those techniques to see how they would work.

KichenAid makes a very usable Santoku. I've found them at WalMart and Publix for less than $20. Forged steel, decent handle, and practically disposable at that price. Bed Bath and Beyond often runs sales on Henkels and Whustoffs. Most home cooks will do just fine with those brands. If you are a pro, they could make a good backup set as well. Although my favorite knife until I upgraded to Whustoff recently was an 8" chef's knife bought through Pampered Chef of all places. Worked fine for me. I think it was less than $30 IIRC. Don't forget to look for discontinued and clearance items. I've scored some good stuff that way. Usually at Sears or JC Penny, who have to get rid of the old merchandise. Anyone know of a cutlery outlet store anywhere?

One application of the water jet could be for sugar or chocolate showpieces. Take a 4x4 foot sugar "plank", and cut the needed parts from a blueprint. It would turn out consistent results without all of the molding headaches. One thing to remember with these, as I recall from watching American Chopper, is that the cuts aren't truly 90 degrees. Since the water fans ever so slightly as it comes out of the nozzle, it's something like 88 or 89 degrees, and the edges need to be trued up for something that will be used on the perpendicular. Like a shark's fin, for instance. I've also seen air jets used on Unwrapped and similar shows. These would only really work with thin, sticky materials I think. IIRC, one application was to cut the frosting on a line of small cakes. The frosting was just extruded over a line of them, and an air jet pulsed between the cakes to cut the frosting before packaging.

What about a toaster oven? It may not roast a whole chicken, though most can do a half or quarter quite nicely. It can handle small cakes and small breads with a little experimentation. Also works as a broiler for pretty good steaks and chops. They don't take up much counter space and can be put in a cupboard when not in use. They are also fairly cheap, and don't heat up the entire kitchen when in use. The problem with using a dutch oven as an oven is that they were designed to have hot coals placed on top as well, providing heat all around. By using them with heat just on the bottom, they are simply a large pot and will not quite mimic the oven, and give you the steamer effect you described. If you have an outdoor charcoal grill, however, they will do a dandy job if you place it on coals, and have some on top as well. Edited to add: I just noticed you were using a stock pit to mimic a dutch oven to mimic an oven. The dutch oven technique needs the top that has an upper lip, if that makes sense, to hold the coals on the top of the pot. It should also be cast metal, either iron or aluminum, to hold the heat for best results. A thinner pot will just lose the heat too fast to have any kind of reliable results, I think. The rack keeping the food from touching the bottom of the pot kind of defeats the purpose. Long story short, either get a cast iron dutch oven and a charcoal grill, or a toaster oven. I don't really see a way to do any "real" baking with existing recipes without them. The heat just won't be delivered properly any other way. Unless you have a heating element that could be suspended at the top of the uncovered pot somehow, but it would be extremely dangerous to to that methinks. Edited again: I recently saw Alton Brown use a dutch oven without coals on a gas grill, lid closed, for a quickbread recipe. That may be an option as well.

Whatever happened to the guy who won? He supposedly took a job with Ramsey instead of getting the restaurant, but he's dropped off the face of the earth, unless he is still slamming polates in London...

I can't believe anyone else even saw that movie... ← Did you? ← Yeah, I did. The harvesting scene ruined me for a while. It even kept me away from sausage for several weeks. Not even Babe did that...