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scott123

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Everything posted by scott123

  1. For a few years now, I've been working on my own nutella. I start by roasting the hazelnuts a bit (Costco hazelnuts are supposed to be roasted, by they are very light) and then I toss them straight in my vintage cuisinart. Every time I make them, I push the processing a little further- 3 minutes, 6 minutes, 12 minutes. This last time I think I went to 15 minutes with two breaks, and, toward the 15 minute mark, the melted chocolate/hazelnut paste went from being a fairly loose liquid to like a balled bread dough consistency, with a heavy layer of grease covering the whole thing. Anyone know what's going on here? The hazelnuts come out of the oven pretty hot, and the processing might add some heat (it's hard to tell).
  2. Beyond the Cuisipro 746165 referenced by @Annie_H above, I found another 'extra coarse' grater: Dalstrong Professional Wide Cheese Grater - Extra Coarse - #304 Stainless Steel Blade - G10 Handle Kitchen Shredder - w/Blade Guard (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) It's an even higher price point than the Cuisipro, but I think the holes are a bit deeper. On the manufacturer's site,there is a video that shows the grater being used. If you look at the apple pieces, you'll see that they're in the direction of the tilamook. The mozzarella doesn't appear quite as chunky, but I think that might come down to the pressure applied, along with the fact that mozzarella is harder to grate than cheddar. Depending on your budget, and how painful it would be to flush $30-$50 down the drain by bricking either the Cuisipro or the Dalstrong, you might be able to take a punch and flare the holes a tiny bit more. This might be large enough, although it could require something larger Stainless steel really isn't pliable, but, you might be able to buy yourself 1/32" of extra space. Or you could end up cracking it. In theory, you could practice on a $10 grater, although the material won't be identical, so it won't be apples to apples. Whatever punch you put in the hole, you won't want to pull it away to increase the angle, like the DIYer does here, but rather you want to lightly hammer the punch into the hole and let the tapered neck of the punch increase the flare. This will keep the wall above the hole flatter. One other option might be a chitarra. Traditionally, they're used for pasta, but you can use them for cheese as well. If you're handy, you can make your own and arrange the wires to exactly the right size opening that you're looking for. Being wood, though, these are difficult to clean.
  3. The strands that pull away from each other are a lot like hot melted cheese strands. And the taste is extremely miso adjacent- like an unsalted miso. Bottom line, it's beans. Not everyone loves beans, obviously, but, in forum like this, it's a pretty safe bet to assume that the OP likes beans. At the end of the day, and no offense to folks who love natto, my recommendation isn't about going from inedible (kale) to delicious. It's a lesser evil. It's exponentially better nutrition with considerably less gustatory pain.
  4. I know this is a food forum and not a nutrition forum, but... you might spare your taste buds if you ask your eye doctor what specific nutrients they want you to eat. If, say, they want you to get more vitamin K, natto destroys leafy greens. The vitamin A in greens is nothing compared to the vitamin A in liver. If it's about the phytonutrients, there's phytonutrients just about everywhere. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, purple sweet potatoes- just eat the rainbow. If chlorophyll is key, chlorella and spirulina top kale and spinach. Spinach has oxalate concerns and kale can contain heavy metals. Neither is as well regarded nutritionally as they were a decade ago. Now... arugula. Arugula is the real deal. Have you tried it on a pizza? White pizza, arugula, shaved parm and a little lemon juice. Magnificent. Also you can't beat arugula on a sandwich. But I would look for alternatives for the other stuff. Life's way to short to eat kale.
  5. There was a thread on this already, but it's from 2009. Looking for updated recs for the ocean city area. My family doesn't drink, so BYO not necessary- ie, recs in Ocean City proper are welcome.
  6. I went when it first opened. I wasn't impressed.
  7. Perhaps if the wings are big enough. In my experience with this technique, precision isn't that critical. A 120 internal temp will get the job done, it will just take a little while longer. And even as high as a 165 internal temp doesn't ruin it. I'm sure that just about everyone's confit process in this thread, including the 200 degree confit that I did, hits 165 internally.
  8. Two words. Peking Duck. The lower temp drying process they do for Peking Duck is, imo, the secret to super crispy and tender poultry skin with meat that hasn't been overcooked. My process is always evolving (and probably always will), but right now, I'm closest to the approach @Dave the Cook uses. I start the wings in the oven at about 200 and then cycle the oven on and off for about an hour, making sure the internal wing temp stays below 135. Obviously, since the wings start at fridge temp, I can give them more heat at the beginning than the end. It's effectively a dry sous vide. I use an infrared thermometer and make sure the outside doesn't exceed about 140. The oven is typically off way more than it's on. It's a similar approach to the one I use to proof dough, but a bit warmer. If you make wings enough times, and stick to about the same quantity, you can dial in the drying process so it doesn't require constant attention. After that I'll either deep fry them or bake them in a 500 degree oven. This gives me the crispness that I'm looking for, but, the skin likes to stick to the bone joints, which I'd like to avoid. I also get slightly different results between the wingettes and the drumettes, so I might end up cooking them separately for the final cook. I've done 200 degree oil for 1 hour, and those were very similar, but, because the wings released so much of their juices, you have to toss the oil on the first 200 degree cook and start with fresh oil for the final fry. Once you've dialed in the process, an oven achieves the first cook exponentially easier and without the cost of the oil.
  9. How long did the 4 cycles take? You can't completely match the cheese bubble you achieve with raw dough, but, there are a few steps you can take to mitigate the impact. 1. Try to get your hands on a well aged mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella has a higher water content, and water is an effective insulator. Fresh mozzarella also has a stronger protein structure, which, in turn, resists melting. It's a little more expensive, and can be hard to track down, but unsmoked scamorza is mozzarella that's seen a bit more aging. As mozzarella ages, it turns yellow. Look for the yellowest cheese you can find. 2. The final shape of the mozzarella can either promote or resist melting- the larger/thicker it is, the more resistance, the less likely it will bubble.. Assuming you're going with what appears to be the same pre-sliced cheese... that may be okay, although you might get a slightly better melt with grating. 3. Fat is a good heat distributor and goes a long way to help cheese bubble. Some folks turn to fattier aged cheeses like cheddar, but, I don't think the sharpness of cheddar works on pizza. I've grated mozzarella, spread it out and then misted it with oil. I've also frozen butter and microplaned it on the top of the cheese before it goes in the oven. I've also taken grated mozzarella, put it in a plastic bag, added some water (not too much) and some oilive oil and massaged it to distribute the oil. Try to keep the oil/fat localized to the cheese, since it won't do much for you melt wise if it's in the sauce- other than turn the sauce orange. 4. Water helps- not in the cheese, but, water on the cheese helps delay the skin that wants to form and keeps the cheese liquid longer. Your sauce-on-top approach is a step in that direction, although you want to be careful, as too much sauce on top of the cheese will insulate the cheese too much. Case in point, Chicago deep dish- but that's obviously a different animal. If you're looking at these workarounds and scratching your head as to why i go to such great lengths to make cheese bubble, it's because I grew up with mozzarella that was aged longer then the mozzarella is aged now, so achieving a good melt, even with raw dough, is very difficult.
  10. 4 rises (without a vacuum, just using the yeast to inflate) will have the same effect. Movement/friction develops gluten, and a rising dough is a moving dough. Beyond gluten development, time hydrates the flour particles in dough. This is the foundation for no knead breads. It's easy to look at pizza and assume that the cheese is being melted by the heat raining down on it from above. The reality, though, is that as the dough cooks, steam rises, and that steam cooks the cheese from below. The end results is the difference between fried cheese (bubbled, umami rich, buttery, flavorful) and broiled cheese (typically just browned on the top with a white milky, less flavorful layer underneath). When you fail to bubble cheese, you're burying potentially delicious butterfat inside milky undermelted cheese. Now, there are styles that promote milky unbubbled cheese, like Neapolitan, but, Al Taglio is not one of those styles. For Al Taglio, you want the cheese bubbled from the steam that the raw dough gives off during baking. If you parbake the dough in advance, that steam is gone, and instead of being a bottom heat source, the airy baked crust becomes a powerful insulator and the cheese gets almost no heat from below. This is what tends to happen when you try to melt cheese on a parbaked crust: https://www.goodenessgracious.com/100-calorie-english-muffin-pizzas.html
  11. The flax oil in fine art goes through the identical polymerization as pan seasoning. Granted,it takes days for the oil to set up, but, it's proof that seasoning a pan need not be smoky. If you have time- and are willing to deal with a hot house, you can season an oil at slightly below the oil's smoke point. It will take hours- I would give it a minimum of 6 hours, but the oil will polymerize. Once the oil has solidified, you can then ramp up the heat briefly to give it the characteristic black color and it shouldn't smoke at all. The biggest downside to this approach is that you will want to repeat it about 3 times. But the high heat/smoky approach will take a few coatings as well. Good seasoning will always involve multiple coats.
  12. I've had a LOT of cocoa butter go rancid on me. You can practically look at cocoa butter and it will go rancid. But white chocolate has so much sugar in it, that, in my experience, it lasts as long as milk chocolate. An obvious exception would be if the chocolate was stored at a high temp, but, no one who's selling Valrhona is going to keep it in hot warehouse.
  13. scott123

    Costco

    Not to split too many hairs, but I think it's important to recognize that, beyond the brine injection, the chickens have a rub which contains salt, so there is a disparity between the salt in the meat and the salt in the skin.
  14. scott123

    Costco

    If they haven't put one of these in a horror flick, they certainly should After watching the video again... I want one of these machines. Imagining being able to brine any meat instantly. I have a jaccard device, but this would be way better than that.
  15. scott123

    Costco

    When I first read this, my first thought was "is there even equipment that can inject a whole chicken?" Apparently, there is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gI1rBVSWn8 This being said, I'm very sensitive to salt, and I don't detect any noticeable saltiness in the meat, just the skin. I'll concede that it's not the same thing as a fresh unbrined chicken that you've cooked yourself, but, it's exponentially closer to that than deli chicken/turkey.
  16. scott123

    Costco

    One way around the salt and the potential dangers of sodium phosphate- don't eat the skin. The dark meat needs to be cooked a bit longer, but the done-ness of the white meat is flawless- every time. Even if you only eat the white meat, it ends up costing around $2.50/lb, which is pretty crazy for cooked white meat.
  17. scott123

    high temp cheese?

    Could you expand on this a bit? From what I understand, there is no cheese that doesn't melt below 400F, but does melt above it. Either you have cheeses that melt, or you have cheeses that never melt, like the ones being recommended above. What application are you using this in?
  18. I remember, when this place opened 36 years ago, that there was a LOT of buzz surrounding it. After a handful of years, I stopped hearing about it. I drive past it on my way to Costco and Aldi, and I occasionally wonder if it had maintained it's excellence. It sounds like it has. Great write up.
  19. Technically it's shredded, but it's not a traditional American shred, bur, rather, a coarse shred. https://youtu.be/3pxmIFz5914?t=279 I agree that It's not low moisture shredded cheese, which @MetsFan5 was implying. At the same time, though, he has a point about the aesthetic departure from Da Michele's norm. Obviously, they can't use the same cheese that they use in Italy, and I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the flavor, but, to a purist, that aesthetic is a bit of a head scratcher. Da Michele is notorious for their frugality. They're one of the only places in Naples to do a seed oil drizzle rather than an olive oil one. In the last 15 years, manufacturers have been pushing mass produced fresh mozzarellas. It's just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's the route they took.
  20. Considering how iconic the Da Michele marinara is, it's disappointing to see how much they've strayed from the path. Oregano is standard, but, a little oregano goes a long way. From an oregano quantity perspective, I'd classify some of those slices as inedible. I don't know what they're thinking with the basil. This is just not a Da Michele marinara. The truly unforgivable aspect to the marinara- at least, in my eyes, is the garlic. The bake time on a Neapolitan pizza is so quick that if fresh garlic is going to cook, it has to be shaved. Otherwise, you're eating chunks of raw garlic. I love an obscene amount of garlic in my babaganoush as much as the next guy, but, you give me a dish with a chunk of raw garlic in it- I'm not coming back to your establishment. Bianco shaves his garlic.- and he's got a slightly longer bake time as well.
  21. Andrew and I didn't always see eye to eye, but, unlike many in the pizza community, he was never openly hostile towards me, which says quite a bit. I know folks justifiably loved the pizzas he sold, but, for an oven geek like myself, I found the coal oven he built fascinating and have watched these videos countless times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaBGEJg4XaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A81KUhJ-WMM I'm definitely going to miss him.
  22. I devoted about 15 years of my life towards trying to preserve the slices of my youth. For the most part, it's been a lost cause. The classic slice has been on the brink of extinction for decades. With the recent explosion in the popularity of pizza, I think the slice is a little better off than it used to be, but, it's still on life support. If you know where to look, it can be found, but, it can take a tremendous investment of time and energy to stay up on what's current. Since most folks aren't a position to do that, the classic slice is now only for a very small number of people. And, no, it's not DiFara's and, I'm sorry, but Joe's is good, but it's not what the classic slice can be. I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of great pizza to be had. But unpretentious old school fare achieving it's full potential... good luck. So, from that perspective I can share in Wiener's lament. The saddest part of the near death of the classic slice is that practically no one is going to be able to experience that bliss. Out of everything, though, closures are the most insignificant threat. Novelty (Let's grind wheat berries in the basement! Let's add polydextrose and lecithin to the dough!), evolving equipment (our new oven is 20% more energy efficient than the old one!), paranoia (bromate causes cancer!), corning cutting by ingredient manufacturers ,apathy, ego, and ignorance- those are what's had the greatest impact on the slice's demise. Closures are more of a symptom than the root cause.
  23. It's been a couple years, but Trader Joes used to carry Locatelli Pecorino Romano. 7 bucks a pound, and potent AF. Then they switched to private label. I think it's still imported, and the price is right, but the wedge I tried had no umph whatsoever. After that, it's no more private label for me. Locatelli or bust. I'm having an especially hard time finding a good price in Northern NJ. Aldi - doesn't carry it Shoprite - $16/lb Wegmans - only private label Uncle Giuseppe's - $15/lb Costco has it for $10/lb, but, it's a 2 lb. block. I don't go through it that quickly, and, while it keeps well in a glass jar, I don't have a jar that size, and, even if I did, I just can't afford that much space in the fridge. When it comes to finding the best price on food, I'm normally in my comfort zone, but, this is really kicking my butt.
  24. scott123

    White Castle

    Microwaved bread is beyond me as well. I don't know how much effort your husband wants to put into his sliders, but, steaming them gets pretty epic. I actually prefer my steaming process to the ones I get at the restaurant.
  25. Here's the primary study that the article is referencing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821541/ Also, this: FFQ is "food frequency questionnaire." Think about someone asking you how much dairy you've consumed in the last year. I can't even tel you how much dairy I ate last week. So, we have a ridiculously imprecise, self reported, observational and retrospective study performed by researchers with clear ties to big dairy. And the net takeaway from the reporting is that people at risk for diabetes should eat ice cream. It is not hyperbole in the slightest to say that this article will kill people. Shame on the Atlantic for this dangerous, click-baity garbage.
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