chromedome

I haven't found it to be an issue with my elderly-but-stalwart Cuise. YMMV. My butter is always straight from the fridge, if that matters (I typically only do this for biscuits and piecrust). If I'm using warmed/softened butter in anything (cakes, cookies, what have you), I'll be using my stand mixer instead.

I frequently do. If *some* larger bits are required for flakiness, I'll add those separately and then just pulse a bit.

...annnnnd, for everyone who's been participating in the fussy/picky eaters discussion...

In my home this is gender-swapped, but it's still funny.

Cultivated burdock, or is it as prevalent a weed in your area as it is in mine?

I'm struck by how much is packed into that deceptively simple, six-word expression of incredulity. First, it implies a lucid alternative definition of the phrase "empty calories," to wit: "eating something you don't like just because you can't bear to throw it out." Second, it provides an admirable illustration of the sunk cost fallacy, in its culinary expression, which also boils down to "eating something you don't like just because you can't bear to throw it out." Speaking as a writer, I can only tip my hat in awe at the marvelous economy and efficiency of your prose.

Al-Rabih brand tahini, possibly national (for sure, Ontario and Quebec) for salmonella. https://inspection.canada.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-06-14/eng/1623717905250/1623717911599?utm_source=r_listserv

When my daughter was little she hit on the notion of adding rhubarb to butter tarts (for those of you unfamiliar with this Canadian pastry, you can think of it as broadly similar to a pecan pie but without the pecans). The butter tart itself is tooth-achingly sweet and rhubarb (of course) is very tart, and the two components play very well together. You just have to slice the rhubarb finely, otherwise you get a "two solitudes" thing happening on your palate as opposed to a balanced partnership.

Pushing back the "known" date for animal husbandry... https://www.pnas.org/content/118/25/e2100901118

I don't have the manual one yet, but I was pricing them a few days ago.

We always have grapes in the freezer. They're one of my GF's favorite summer snacks, and the grandkids love 'em as well.

Yes, I'd intended to mention that in my post as well. I tried it because it sounded interesting, and then tried it again in case the first recipe was just a dud. Nope. Weird and unpleasant texture, every time.

As one of those writers...yes, exactly. In this case a lot of the items singled out are ones I do use consistently. My coffee grinder gets exercised every day, sometimes more than once, and I use my bread machine every week (I don't bake in it, I just use it as a "fill and forget" mixer for the dough). My waffle irons get used infrequently but consistently, ditto my pasta roller. The spiralizer, well...that was always going to be a limited-use item and I bought it knowing this to be the case. My ice cream machine gets used in summer and ignored in winter (go figure). The rationale for not grinding one's own coffee seems pretty thin, to me. Yes, I can buy it ground. I can buy most things prepared for me these days, but that's not the point. I like my coffee fresh-ground, and vacuum-sealing a bag of coffee after every use to keep it fresh would be a bigger PITA than grinding my coffee (and uses a bigger kitchen gadget, for that matter).

I know an organic potato farmer who uses one like that to control potato bugs. The slightly charred plants will grow back, the bugs do not. "Good luck evolving fast enough to beat a flamethrower!" was her grimly satisfied comment to me when I interviewed her for the local paper.

Q: Why does a space rock taste better than an earth rock? A: Because it's a little meteor...

I've been watching Spongebob Squarepants with the wee grandson this morning. In one episode the irascible Squidward character is menaced by a bunch of rogue performing fleas (don't ask) who cram him into a roasting pan with some mirepoix and stick him in the oven. Squidward, of course, bursts free...to lecture them on what they've done wrong in seasoning him for the oven. He demonstrates correct preparation - which includes lots of fresh-ground black pepper - before climbing back into the roasting pan and tasting the pan juices to make sure they're correct before closing the oven door again. Then, and only then, he bursts out and escapes. Gotta admire the commitment level...

AFAIK all oats intended for human consumption are heated/steam treated to inactivate the enzymes which otherwise would cause them to rapidly become rancid. Can't check McGee right now, as I'm still riding herd on a small grandson.

Kurlansky wrote at length about the oysters/NYC connection in one of his books. Oh, duh...it *was* one of his books. The Big Oyster. Too tired to look up how to do an eG-friendly Amazon link (been chasing 3yo grandson for a few hours...)

Quaker has recently started selling oat flour, so if you feel like pulsing the oats for a few minutes to powder 'em, you can check out some of those recipes: https://www.tastyrewards.com/en-ca/brands/quaker/recipes

Meant to post this a few days ago, when I saw it initially, but forgot... https://qz.com/1176962/map-how-the-word-tea-spread-over-land-and-sea-to-conquer-the-world/

https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/collections/vintage-books/products/new-arrival-american-immigrants-leila-mcguire-ed-old-world-foods-for-new-world-families-a-handbook

No, not everyone....but for youngsters who've only ever made the boxed kind, it's a step in the right direction. And "decent" food is a relative term, one we refine with experience. Gotta have a base to refine and build on, right? As for the vapidity of these TikTok sensations, well...Sandra Lee did 15 seasons of Semi-Homemade,* opening cans and boxes and mixing their contents. There was clearly a market for what she did, and his tens of thousands of followers would (to my mind) demonstrate pretty clearly that there's an appetite for what this particular yutz on TikTok is peddling. Seriously, we live in a world where you can buy a PBJ in the frozen section of your supermarket; and where people are mind-blown to learn that you can make whipped cream from scratch (that's not hyperbole, I've had that conversation multiple times). If one excited kid can make six figures by showing other excited kids some really rudimentary cooking techniques, then more power to him, and I hope he invests it well. TL;DR version: (shrug) Just don't follow him. Clearly neither of us is his demographic. (*and she was Cordon Bleu trained!)

Or more accurately, "processed cheese food product."

It occurs to me belatedly (in furtherance of my previous argument) that even on this forum, in this company, we have a thread for "absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions."