fiftydollars

Does using the straw technique provide enough of a vacuum? How much of a vacuum do you need anyway?

Have you tried Hamburger Helper? I kid, of course... I really like a ragu Bolognese. You can throw in some ground veal if you want to splurge, but just plain beef and ground pork (which is also pretty cheap) works really well. I start off making a lasagna and freeze the left-over sauce in small portions, which I later use on pasta or as a filling for ravioli.

For Christmas I had planned on serving a prime rib, which I already ordered from a local buther, but now I have some relatives coming over that really don't like rare meat ("well done only, please"). How should I handle this? How should I overcook their meat while at the same time not ruin a very expensive cut of meat for everyone else? Should I just make something else and cancel the beef?

I regularly make a veal stock using directions from your EGCI course. Would getting something like a true demi-glace be just a matter of reducing it a lot more than a 3x reduction (20x)? Or would this entail a product with sauce espagnole and roux? Thanks.

THE MCRIB IS BACK!!! I just drove past a McDonald's and noticed a large McRib sign over the restaurant... So I guess it's back. I've never tried it, but I sort of recently saw the episode of the Simpson's where Homer gets hooked on rib sandwiches...

I heard that Thomas Keller taught Adam Sandler how to make the perfect BLT. I am curious about that recipe...

Whenever I need pastry flour, I never quite seem to find it and I am wondering if cake flour might be a decent substitute. Is this a good idea? Do I need to take anything into consideration? Would it perhaps be necessary to add an amount of a more glutinous flour (AP)?

A fanatically health conscious friend of mine told me a story about her Mexican grandmother, who is a committed consumer of pork fat and has been her entire life. The family became concerned that maybe all those decades of eating beans with lard three times a day would put grandma at serious cardiac risk. Anyway, she dragged grandma to the doctor and they ran a lipid panel on both of them; striking a blow for heredity, it turned out that both their numbers were good, but grandma's... were better. I'm not sure what, if anything, a story like this proves... well, except that when it comes to pork I'll believe anything.

Not that I think that's what happened in this case, I agree that the changing shape of the blade is probably the culprit, but could heat affect the temper of the steel? Like if, for example, I accidentally heated my knife to a hot, but not too-hot, temperature like maybe 200 degrees, could that damage the temper?

A couple months ago I braised a brined pork belly. As you can imagine, the operation yielded a substantial amount of fat (cup+). The stuff has a bright golden color, a rich and complicated pork flavor, and it's just incredible. I have so enjoyed using it that I am planning to brine and braise another belly just to get more of this awesome fat. Anyway, it's disgustingly good for making onion confit. It's also, quite probably, not the healthiest thing I could be eating. But given that I have relished every teaspoon of these precious few ounces of porcine love I feel so fortunate to have met, doesn't this joy counteract the marginal damage probable from such a small amount of lipid in my already heavily larded lifestyle? If fat is going to kill you, just hope it's eating something this good that does it.

I am totally ignorant. Please forgive me. But is it common in Japanese to repeat words like this? I noticed this was the same for other words (piri piri, shabu shabu). This is very interesting. Why is that?

Thanks , Richard! You responded to a similar gripe I voiced about the same thing on another thread. I guess it's really bothering me right now... Since I've never before used Le Creuset, I don't know what to expect. Your experience in this area is invaluable. I was very nervous about using the Barkeeper's Friend on the LC... but from what I can see, aside from not actually removing the alleged stain, it didn't scratch or damage the surrounding areas whatsoever. So I guess it is safe to use Barkeeper's on LC enamel.

I bought the LC 7qt dutch oven after following one too many LC threads. Anyway, the enamel on mine has a stain of some sort following some osso buco. The area is off-color and dull. I tried scrubbing out the area with the LC cleaner, but it didn’t work. Then I took it back to Williams Sonoma and they told me it was a stain, to keep scrubbing, and try barkeeper’s friend on it. I tried it, but it didn’t work, which is a new one for me. I’ve never had a stain Barkeeper’s friend couldn’t handle. Is this really a stain, then? It looks like an area that might have been damaged by the acidity and heat I used in making the osso buco. I used Mario Batali’s recipe, which calls for tomato sauce and wine and braising at 375 for two hours. It was delicious. I’ve made the recipe before, but the way it turned out on the LC is the best. Unfortunately, one of the shanks left its mark on the cooking surface and it hasn’t budged. From what I understand LC will show some discoloration from use, but how about wear on the finish? Does losing the shine count as discoloration?

There has to be something strange going on in my freezer... I later discovered that I also had a brick of instant yeast, I tried to proof it, and it too is dead! This can't be possible. There has to be an explanation. How can 2lbs of yeast be dead like that? They are all well within the expiration date (3/05 and 7/06). Safeway and Albertson's stores in the bay area carry fleischmann's fresh yeast. I usually find it near the eggs... about where the instant hash brown potatoes and canned biscuit mixes are found. It's not the best fresh yeast around, but it's widely available 'round these parts (Oakland/SF).

Thanks fifi!

What do you need to make fresh ground masa? Do I just mixtamalizate(?) dry maiz, grind it, and add a fat?

The par cooking is a great idea when making large quantities. I was very hesitant at first, but Thomas Keller's recipe in the French Laundry cookbook uses a par cooking technique... so if it's good enough for TK... the hundred or so people at your party probably won't complain.

I recently took a half teaspoon from a brick of yeast that I had been storing in the freezer for a few months. Anyway, the yeast was dead. I placed it in warm water, waited 15 minutes, and nothing happened. It was totally dead. I next tried a small packet of yeast that I had also stored in the freezer and once again it was dead. I thought that it was ok to store yeast in the freezer. I believe I heard Alton Brown say so, but all my yeast is dead although it was all well within the expiration date, and none of it had been stored in the freezer for more than a few months. What happened?

Damn that's a good idea... I'm really surprised about the disappointing performance of the roulpat. I'm so happy with the silpat that I sort of assumed the roulpat would also be a great product.

Now that's closer to the type of prices I'm used to looking at...

The Berkeley Bowl is my favorite place to get wild mushrooms, but I doubt they have truffles. The Bowl almost always has a half-dozen different types of wild mushrooms and their prices are really great. The last time I purchased chanterelles there I did so for under $15/lb, which might not sound like a great price to everyone, but it sure did to me. In the past I've purchased morels, lobster mushrooms, as well as your more common shiitake, portobello, etc... I recommend taking a look if you're looking for wild mushrooms. I also agree that you should take a look at the place at the Ferry Building for the mushrooms. I got some of the French black truffles a while ago and I would definitely buy them again. I can't wait to try the alba truffles... as for whether I'll work up the courage to put down that much cash...

Well said!

That mushroom soup is great. I'll have to try the onion soup. I just made the onion soup in the Bouchon cookbook and it is ridiculously good. However, the onions for Keller's soup require about 5 hours of cooking as opposed to Bourdain's 20 minutes.

I did some experiments with making and culturing my own butter. I got the idea from someone else on eGullet who said that home-made butter is by far "the best." So I thought to myself, "I like the best," and then proceeded to spend several intense days making butter in isolation using a food processor (and at times churning with the stand mixer, blender, and at one point shaking heavy cream in jar). By the time I emerged from my kitchen, several days and gallons of cream later, I had many pounds of various different butters made from every different type of cream I could find. My testing conclusively determined, at least for me, that by making and culturing your own butter you can expend considerable effort, time, and resources and may actually yield some really good butter in really small quantities. They all turned out well. My favorite was made with cultured Berkeley Farms Manufacturing cream (BFMC), but the stuff from Strauss Farms was pretty good too. Adding 1 part Berkeley Farms Bavarian-style buttermilk to 8 parts BFMC and leaving it in a glass jar at 65 degrees for about 12 hours resulted in the most satisfactory culturing for me. I then experimented with adding coloring using annatto seeds... but I didn't perfect the technique as the results tasted, a bit, like axiote... not bad, but not exactly great for scones. I also tried saffron, but since it isn't lipid soluble the results were quite... spotty. Here's the site where I got some specifics: http://webexhibits.org/butter/index.html All this having been said, I'll be ordering some of this Cabot butter. Eff that churning my own business...

I go by weight.