jmolinari

Can anyone recommend a good cookbook focusing on Cantonese cooking? I have a couple generic ones (yan kit so's, gracy young), i have Sichuan and Hunan covered...i need some good books focused on milder non-spicy chinese cooking. I dont want another generic chinese one as that would likely have recipes i already have covered in my books. Ideas welcome. thanks

I doubt it. My vent hood is a home 30" unit ducted for up to 1200CFM and it's a massive 10" duct. That duct looks tiny.

LOL! Seriously, there is no need for different final meat temperatures. Why? The S-shaped form of the heating curve is always the same. In the same time that starting from 5°C in a 55°C water bath will arrive at 54.5°C, it will arrive at 44.6°C in a 45.0°C bath or at 64.4°C in a 65.0°C bath, an irrelevant difference. But wont the pasteurization times be different for different temps, therefore requiring different values on the chart? You're right, but space is limitied, so I had to prioritize. Right, of course, but my point was that one cannot just assume the S-shaped heating curve b/c that wouldn't take into account the pasteurization times.

LOL! Seriously, there is no need for different final meat temperatures. Why? The S-shaped form of the heating curve is always the same. In the same time that starting from 5°C in a 55°C water bath will arrive at 54.5°C, it will arrive at 44.6°C in a 45.0°C bath or at 64.4°C in a 65.0°C bath, an irrelevant difference. But wont the pasteurization times be different for different temps, therefore requiring different values on the chart?

Pedro, thanks for the table. I think your next step is to make it into a slide rule for varying final meat temps That would be awesome!

Agree with what others said. Those avocados are huge, but have little flavor and not creamy. Imagine taking a Haas flavor and putting that "amount" of flavor in 2-3 times the flesh. It tastes "watered down" and dull. Not worth buying.

The answer to that is a most resounding "yes" as well!

Yes, definitely. I can't think of any examples off hand, but i've often thought to myself, "this food is WAY too savory". Actually i just thought of it... BBQ Spare Rib potato chips from our vending machine. I ate some and just thought "this isn't too salty, it's just pure savoryness...pure MSG"

don't think the ipad app is out yet.

Costco/Kirkland eco-friendly dish soap seems to be just as effective as anything else.

Not very well.....

It needs more liquid and you shouldn't be kneading it anywhere near that amount of time. For conventional dough you bring it together, put it in the refrigerator for an hour. Then put it through the machine which is where the only kneading it needs will be done as you form the pasta. If you overwork it and form too much gluten and be too tough when you cook it. With this dough i found it impossible to knead using the rollers as i've done with other doughs. Once flattened, and folded to roll again, the dough does not want to stick to itself and you and up with a mess and torn sheets. Chris H. above did say he increased the hydration and that helped the rolling....

I had similar issues with the pasta and rolling. It wasn't grippy enough for the rollers to grab it, and when it tore that sheet became unrepairable.

Were you able to find it as a normal newstand/Borders/B&N?

I stuff mine with cream cheese and pulled pork...so good!

Douglas, two questions if I may. 1/ Is it possible to estimate (put probable bounds on) that z-factor and thus give any approximate idea of the sort of time that might be required at 55C? 2/ The 'pasteurisation' time would be a minimum time, wouldn't it? Would there be any problem in going (considerably) over it? I'm thinking that since many folks would often be running their bath for a couple of days continuously at or about 55C, if there was space to tuck in some eggs, as long as you weren't in any hurry to make the mayonnaise for your grandmother, you should be fine, shouldn't you? But I'd have guessed (and its only a guess) that there wouldn't be much point leaving them in beyond about the eight hour mark. That's what i'm thinking. Can we use the D and Z values for the highest fat chicken that has been tested (so it would be closer to a fatty yolk) and then add a safety factor of 2, 3 or whatever to calculate pasteurization at 131? Maybe Nathan was able to pull data sheets/records for the validated process that the shell egg pasteurization companies?

If i remember correctly Modernist Cuisine calls for ~2 hours at 131 deg. for pasteurizing eggs. I did it with my circulator, but just to be on the safe side i used 132 (circulators and thermometers have measurement error..thought it would be good to be just a touch higher, and i don't know if they'll ever pasteurize below 131...i forget what the tables in MC list), which partially cooked the whites, they not look hazed. they're fine for cooking with, but not clear and perfect like the purchased pasteurized eggs. As I understand it, the purchased pasteurized eggs only have the shells pasteurized and not the internals. That gets rid of near all the risk, but I figured if I have the equipment, why not remove all of the risk? Did you try to whip them? My primary interest is in using them to make mousse. I'm pretty sure they're fully pasteurized not just the shell. At least the ones I get. Haven't tried whipping them. Sorry.

If i remember correctly Modernist Cuisine calls for ~2 hours at 131 deg. for pasteurizing eggs. I did it with my circulator, but just to be on the safe side i used 132 (circulators and thermometers have measurement error..thought it would be good to be just a touch higher, and i don't know if they'll ever pasteurize below 131...i forget what the tables in MC list), which partially cooked the whites, they not look hazed. they're fine for cooking with, but not clear and perfect like the purchased pasteurized eggs.

I tried making sense of this as it relates to bacon but not having a scientific mind, I have to admit my eyes glazed over. I could not get my head around the quantities they use in their examples, other than to reduce the cure by 10% if the skin has been taken off. I follow the Maple-Cured Smoked Bacon from Charcuterie and just smoked some the other day. I follow the recipe each time and find that the taste of the salt varies. Some are just right - the last batch was, I thought, too salty but still edible. Can you tell me what you would use for a 5 pound piece of belly? I don't know if you have the book or not but it is a dry cure, no water. Thanks in advance if you are willing to share this info. I've never made bacon, but i would probably use 2.5% of the weight of the meat in salt and 0.25% in cure #1. So for a 5lb piece i'd use about 57g of salt and 5.68g of cure #1.

Curing in brine, i've concluded, is at best a random guess on the absorption of the salt and cure, so i really don't do it. When i do, i use an equilibrium brine as described in the FDA handbook or Modernist Cuisine. That way you know how much salt you'll end up with, rather than trying to guess based on brine %, time and temperature. The FDA inspector handbook is here: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISDirectives/7620-3.pdf

Thanks guys. I'll vac pack one of my fillets and put it away for long term storage until the weather cools enough to cold smoke it....

Anyone make lox/cold smoked copper river salmon? I got a couple fillets at Costco today at $9/lb was planning on vac packing and freezing 1 to keep until weather cools in the fall/early winter and cold smoking it.

Even if you smoke it the rub pretty much falls off in the brine as you cook it. You could sub some liquid smoke in the cooking phase for real smoke...not sure how much though for 1 liter of brine.

On the gels chapter there is a brief discussion on ricotta, and in teh parametric table for cheeses it says that if you want to make dry ricotta you can add 0.7% salt, press it for 2-3 days in fridge, then hang for 2-3 weeks. What are the environmental conditions supposed to be during the hanging?

I think that's a good start.. is DDL not normally made from condensed milk? I'm not sure what the stuff is...