oraklet

ron johnson, thanx for bringing up the magnetic strip, as i've been thinking about buying one. couple'a questions: doesn't one risk bruising the tip against the wall when grabbing the knife? doesn't one risk likewise bruising the edge? or will there be no such problems if the strip is thick enough (like, say, 1")?

patience...hmm: truth is, i'm just a slow learner

twisting the thread a bit off topic: last fall we returned from a vacation to find that the freezer had gone dead. upon investigating the reason, we counted ourself lucky the whole block hadn't burned down. anyway, the freezer was stinking, cause it was full of rotten vegetablesand meat - and litres of stock from veal, chicken, etc., representing many many hours of work. really serious throwing away. the upside of it was that i got rid of the strange bargains my dear wife will sometimes bring home!

so, christmas is over...and i didn't get the cookbooks i wished for. from reading on egullet, several were on my list: dornenburg/page: "culinary artistry" pepin's "complete techniques" c.i.a.: "the professional chef" the dornenburg book seems to be a must-own, so i'll get it through e-bay. but the other two...will they cover the same ground, and which is the most versatile or perhaps the most useful for a humble home cook? should i have both or only one?

the most interesting part of this discussion is the vagueness and ambiguity. i find it intriguing that nobody is able to come up with a useful definition of art - though we will liberally use the word! - and that all analogies are allusive rather than...logical, structural or what ever. it's a bit like middle age theologicans trying to define god. not that i think this comparison is very useful, either. there must be a reason for this.

i'm 45, and i have yet to come to a stage where i'd be able to make something complicated/complex. still working on simple combinations of tastes and flavours. and slowly, slowly...i'll probably never live to experience to be blasé or jaded.

"I thought I read somewhere that its very high smoking point makes it useful for cooking and frying." that's what i had in mind. grape seed oil ought to be healthier. i love a good olive oil for dressing, drizzling etc., though. besides, the whole saturation and cholesterol thing is being debated in scientific circles. some even suggest that butter is healthier than olive oil. i find the whole thing rather impenetrable, really. in the eu, the olive oil lobby has been able to sell the idea of the overall excellence of their produce, and in the usa it seems that the pharmaceutical lobby has convinced the public that half of you should take some sort of anti-cholesterol drugs. what is an un-smug un-scientific bastard to believe?

then there's the health issue, too, isn't there? i mean, some oils take heating better than others and olive oil is supposedly not the best, or what?

jhodgman, that was a nice piece of advice of the kind that is logical, and which i had therefore never thought of...

i think, generally, it's better to measure in weight than volume. (thanx go to robert schonfeld) but that's a very european way of seing it, as we're using the meter-system (no ", ', ounces, cups etc.). it's all based on the properties of water, and coherent, really. "natural" measurements are helpful, too. one wise suggestion on egullet was to find out how a teaspoon of salt looked if poured on the palm of your hand. that way you'll learn how much to grab, without the need of measurement tools that allways disappear, anyway. and the amount of oil to use: well, how big is your pan, and what are you using the oil for? half an inch deep or surface only just covered? use common sense and eyes. (thanx go, i think, to nigel slater)

wife can't resist bargains, so last sunday i had to throw out 10 bags of flour. i was very happy suddenly to find cupboard room for the ice cream machine which had been standing on the counter for four months (i like my counters to be free, too, and keep wondering how so many letters, notes, toys, sunglasses, lighters, socks etc. end up im MY kithen).

my wife tells me that pomelo is spanish for grapefruit. (i'm just adding to the confusion, i know)

wingding and all you other nice guys and dolls: i'll give it another try - or ten - when i return from sweden. thank you all!

"put it in the freezer and stir every quarter hour method, well, frankly isn't ever going to produce ice cream. But for ice cream, you need an ice cream machine. And a good one. Describe your process with the Phillips and the whipped cream as well. Sounds interesting and more like a frozen parfait--again, a different animal from ice cream." before i got my machine, actually i didn't whip the cream till quite stiff, just to a creme anglaise structure(?). added it to the egg-sugar-vanilla mix, and froze it, stirring every quarter of an hour. as said, this makes for a very nice dessert (not ice cream?) which melts in a relatively satisfactory way. but it isn't perfect. with my machine, i've used a creme anglaise base. this hasn't produced a perfect melt, either: doesn't go directly from ice to liquid as i want it to (which is the reason that i ask if it were a good idea to make a "thin" anglaise). i've had the butter pockets too, but now i know why, thanx a lot.

jinmyo, thanks for adding the link nickn and suzanne, is this Time-Life series to be trusted on indian and chinese cooking, too? (i've got the ones on french and spanish cooking, and they seem all right) anna, try sauteeing some onion together with the apple for krydderfedt. and then there are fedtegrever (that would be "fat counts" i think), too: slowly, slowly, boil cubed pig's fat in small amount of water till it forms pea-size crunchy chunks of fat that can be used with (danish or rather: southern jutland) sausages.

wingding, jason and steve, ok, i see what you mean. my point, really, is just that i'd like to be able to make the haagen daz sort of ice cream. you know, one of my few culinary triumphs was making vanilla ice cream with mixed fruit sorbet for 25 guests half of whom asked for the recipe... but this ice cream (which is pretty nice every time i make it) was "stabilized" by whipping the cream (instead of making a creme anglaise), and i feel that it still doesn't have the optimal "melting". so please, what to do? and perhaps my machine (a small philips) demands a different approach from my usual just-put-it-in-the-freezer-and-stir-every-quarter-of-an-hour method?

"though it isnt listed on their ingredient list. " in denmark it would be illegal (and it doesn't tell of any). not in usa? and anyway, aren't the additives you mention used to make the cheap ice creams fluffy and horrible in many ways

all right then, to get close to the haegen datz, should i make a "thin" creme anglaise? (so that it melts on the tongue in a more-or-less similar way) by the way, i don't think they use any additives?

"The most important thing to keep in mind when using an ice cream maker is to thoroughly chill your ice cream batter before freezing. If you put it in while it is warm or at room temperature, you may get bits of congealed butter churned out of your cream." why? and how to duplicate the haegen datz experience?

anna n bread baking is a challenge - and more so if you, like i had to, start off from virtually scratch. but luckily there are several good books to be found, one of which is danish, written by camilla plum. perhaps you are able to read some danish, or your husband may help you. on "the bread thread", led by robert schoenfeld, there are lots of great suggestions, too. sorry i can't figure out how to do the link thing, so you will have to search for it. there are two variants of grebbestads ansjovis: one with filleted, and one with whole achovies which are crunchy, and for the adventurous...

anna n, i'm sorry not to answer sooner. smørrebrød is a thing of beauty, which can be spoiled by the wrong kind of bread. if you want it to stay fresh at the table and be great tasting, perhaps you should make it yourself, sourdough or biga based. my mother's recipe for rye bread is as follows: first, you make, or get hold of, a biga/sourdough. she made hers this way 20 yrs ago: 150g rye flour 3-5 g of yeast (danish style block of beer yeast). perhaps even less? 1/2 teasp. salt enough youghurt or buttermilk to make it rather "wet" let rest at kitchen temp. (if not very hot summer) until it forms bubbles and starts smelling of...sourdough. approx. 24 hours. then add 1,5 liters water 3 tblspoons coarse salt 500 g wheat flour 500 g "broken" rye kernels (?) 1,500 g rye flour let rest in forms (?) for c 15 hours in kitchen temp., covered with damp cloth. bake at c 190 C for c 2 hours wrap in damp cloth for 24 hours (!) lots of c's, so you'll have to experiment a bit... sorry about the celsius part, don't know what it would be in fahrenheit. as for the white bread, if you make it slowly it will stay fresh much longer and have a lot more taste - you can even let it develop the slightly sour taste which was sometimes used in the smørrebrød of my childhood. making your own bread will, with some experimentation, be worth the effort. butter, of course, should be lurpak - salted. and krydderfedt can be pigs fat, too. on the "lunch" thread i rambled about danish smørrebrød. to think that i was able to forget about the vet's midnight snack! my only excuse is that it belongs in the finer end of the range, whereas i was trying to describe the delicious savagry of smørrebrød at its brutallest (which is what i love best...). which reminds me that a real dirty stinking old cheese should be served on good rye bread. and an additional advice which may sound heretical to most danes: if you serve several different kind of herring, try substituting the kryddersild with grebbestads ansjovis. swedish, but incredibly good and powerfull stuff.

"Should I put this on the naan and eat it that way, or would that just make everyone aware that I'm an ignorant tourist? Should I mix this and that other thing, or not?" (human bean) right. plus: not knowing a cuisine well, you go very slowly at start, having to feel your way. and these days, my cooking is mostly in the style of slater's fast food. my occasional more or less improvised curries are not bad, though, and i'm looking forward to have the time to try to recreate some of the meals i've had at indian restaurants. perhaps in a year or so, when alvilda is closer to three years!

kikujiro, i don't know about other cuisines, but in some old fashioned (!) danish recipies in the same genre, the apple part works just fine. goes well with chicken. should be sour, though. not french goldies.

glenn, i wish you hadn't posted that picture...

201, just a suggestion that i'd like to have the time to follow myself: keep some sort of track/diary/notebook of what you do. like, what did/didn't work, ideas of why this was the case, suggestions for yourself etc. don't feel obliged to reveal it to egullet, as this will demand much more work. would be great, though the reason i don't? 4 kids...home work...bedtime...school lunch...clearing kitchen...