scott123

Wait a sec... I like Perfectly Frank(s), but are we talking about: Perfectly Frank(s) Perfectly Franks or Perfectly Frank? Parentheses in a name might be a little too complicated. Okay, here's mine to throw in the fray: Wacky Weiners Sizzle Doggy Style Diggity Dogs Sirius Good Doggie Chien Chaud Dog Gummit!

Andiesenji, I've been making a lot more Thai food as of late. Do you have any idea if your process will work with galangal?

Rosie, Zen- no, Shumi- yes. Thanks, everyone, for your recommendations!

I'm not Italian either but I too have been known to utilize lemons to add some 'brightness' to dull overcooked paste/puree sauces. Ideally, the brightness in my sauce should come from the tomatoes, but sometimes the canned puree/paste isn't quite up to snuff. When that occurs, I may reach for a lemon. Not enough for anyone to ever say "hmmmmm... there's lemon in this," though.

Thanks Rosie! I just called- they don't have sukiyaki on their menu. At least the woman I spoke to couldn't find it Any other Japanese stand outs in the county? A while back, Jason mentioned Tamaya in Fort Lee had good sukiyaki, but I'm really hoping for someplace closer.

I believe North Indian cuisine is an amalgamation of all of the invaders/occupiers. I don't have the history of the area at hand, but if you look it up, the timeline should be there. I would venture to say that even though it's called 'Mughlai,' the Mongolian influence is probably fairly small. The Muslim influence, such as your Iranian restaurant experience, is far greater. As far as I know, nuts, raisins, honey and cream all stem from the Muslim influence.

My mother is a bit of a sukiyaki connoisseur. She gets it at every Japanese restaurant we go to. The last few outings have been very disappointing. Little Tokyo (Morristown) got such great reviews on eG we gave it a shot. They don't have sukiyaki on the menu. Mom thinks Niko (rt. 10) is okay but we're looking for better. Her biggest complaint is that the beef is simmered, not sauted and very soupy.

I find myself spending quite a lot of time tracking down/plugging in volume to weight conversions (1 cup sugar = 112 g) into excel so that I can compare percentages of an ingredient, by weight, in recipes. Also, because volume to weight conversion charts are incomplete, it takes some time to track down conversions for some ingredients. Because I have no centralized database, the next time I use the ingredient, I have to go hunting again. I'm looking for a database/spreadsheet solution to this repetitive data entry. In other words, if you type in 1 cup sugar into a field, 1 cup salt the next line down, it will then look for sugar in the database and spew out 112 g., 1 cup salt, 280 g, and so on. Once you plug an ingredient into the database once, this 'lookup feature' will work with any other recipes that use the same ingredient. Has anyone developed either a spreadsheet and/or a database for this type of conversion/comparison?

Abra, from the sara lee website, it looks like this cake is still being sold, just not retail. There has to be some cafeteria (school/business) in your area that's selling this stuff. Make some calls. If you can get a piece of cake in your hand, it'll take all the guessing out of the equation.

Is there a connection between hydrogenation occuring at high heat and oxidization/polymerization? Are they one in the same? The reason I ask is that I've done some research on polymerization in hopes of better understanding the seasoning of frying pans and I think it might apply here. From what I understand, polymerization is the inevitable result of an aging fat. If one leaves an oily frying pan in the cupboard for a year or more, you'll see brown deposits on it that can't be washed off with soap and water, aka polymerized fat. The exact same thing occurs with a frying pan seasoned in a 350 oven. The only difference is that heat accelerates the process. Even in a refrigerator, polymerization can occur. Take for instance, EVOO. Fresh EVOO when chilled, is still clear. After a few weeks, it will start to turn cloudy. Give it enough time and it will start to turn solid. This, as far as I know, is polymerization and is a part of the process of a fat going rancid. I haven't done a lot of research on free radicals, but I do know rancid fat is both extremely unpalatable and unhealthy. Think of how olfactorilly unnappealing a trip down the dog food aisle is. Unlike our canine companions, humans aren't engineered to consume rancid fat. We're hardwired to be revolted by it. Heat/light/oxygen accelerate oxidization. Partially polymerized fat is rancid fat, and is thus to be avoided. Putting it all together: 1. Use the freshest fats possible 2. Never re-use a fat to fry with 3. Use saturated/trans fat free fats (saturated=stable=less prone to oxidization) 4. Limit exposure to air by using deep narrow frying implements This is a lot of conjecture and I may be connecting dots that should't be connected, but that's how I see it.

I can see similarities between Puerto Rican, Dominican and Cuban cuisine, but grouping these under the term "Caribbean" is a little too broad for me. Jamaican cuisine is as unique and different from Cuban as Mexican is.

Curlz, do you get your parm from there? How much is it per pound?

Currently I'm buying it from Trader Joe's for $10.49/lb. The quality isn't spectacular, but it is the real deal, and thus is a phenomenal product. Anyone have a better source in the area? Would a trip east (Newark/New York/Brooklyn) give me a better deal? If I find 40 other friends to go in a wheel would that save me any money? Anyone have a good source for wholesale parm in the area? I love this stuff, but man, the price is killing me.

Geetha, the khoya I get from my grocer is milk that's been reduced to a solid and is rock hard. There's also a few recipes for khoya floating around that follow the same process - evaporating moisture from milk. Could khoya have different meanings in different parts of India? From the context of a few gulab jamon recipes I've seen, Chhena is a loose, unpressed version of paneer (similar to ricotta).

I am more loyal to Hellman's than I am to any other brand and have been so since I was an adolescent. I like mayo in some unorthodox scenarios as well. On hot dogs, hamburgers, fries. Mixed with BBQ sauce, sf honey/mustard, ketchup, lemon pepper, blue cheese, garlic/sour cream, you name it. I'm also partial to a liberal smear of mayo on a piece of bread then cheese on that and then a trip to the broiler.

I, personally, would never buy yeast in a supermarket. Fresh yeast is not immortal - that stuff sits on the shelves for weeks on end. If you want fresh yeast, go to a bakery. They'll sell you a 1 lb. block for about $2. It's way more yeast than you'll ever need but the quality of taste is night and day compared with any of the supermarket stuff you get. Fresh (compressed) yeast has a different taste than dried, and not-so-fresh compressed yeast has a completely different taste than the really fresh high turnaround bakery stuff. I've noticed that as compressed yeast ages, it turns a darker color (not just on the edges, but throughout) and the off flavors get much more pronounced. It is my theory that these are the same off flavors of overfermented bread and is a result of yeast consuming itself. Just a theory, though. I've never been able to recreate the same quality of taste from supermarket yeast that I get with bakery yeast. Same thing with bakery flour. If you care about bread/baking, don't ever buy flour in a supermarket.

Nathan, I'm happy that your low carb ice cream experiment turned out so successfully. Was the low carb version just a little bit sweeter? Assuming the invert sugar you used was 1.3 times as sweet as sugar and the dextrose .75 times, your high carb recipe had about 112 g sugar equivalent or half a cup. From what I can tell, your low carb version had about 1/2 C. sugar equivalent pre synergy, but after synergy was taken into account, it came out to .6 to .75 of a cup. Which brand of low carb milk did you use? If you used carb countdown which contains ace k, the ace k would drive the synergy to that higher .75 value. It would be helpful for me to know, as I'm attempting to track the effects of synergy for different combinations. So far it's mostly guessing. If you're looking to bring the sugar/carbs down a bit, you might want to see if the recipe works without the nonfat dry milk - there's a few lactose carbs there. Salt, being an electrolyte, is a much more powerful freezing point depressor than non electrolytes like erythritol, xylitol, and polydextrose. Can you increase the salt a bit in your savory ice cream? The most reliable/cheapest retail source for liquid splenda is sweetzfree. Because of the splenda shortage, the owner has placed limitations on how much a customer can order per month. I know a person in Thailand that can get their hands on the powder, but I can't say I know them all that well.

And then try making it with just the bones.... because that's where the flavour really comes from ← I, respectfully, disagree. I will concede that bones will provide a greater output of flavor than meat, but both pale in comparison to the stockmaking magic of skin. I'm curious, just for the sake of argument, which treatment of chicken bones would you consider to result in greater flavored stock, raw bones or roasted?

Gel/flavor comes from collagen. Greatest source of collagen: skin. Greatest source of skin: feet. Second best source: wings. Peeling off/discarding skin when making stock would be akin to eating an orange skin but throwing away the flesh. The foundation, the soul, the very essence of chicken stock lies within the skin. ← Just to be cantankerous, I'd say that you have it backwards. Flavor comes from flesh. If all you want is gell and unctuous texture, you can buy gelatin in a box. ← It's very simple. Try making stock from a skinless boneless piece of meat and then try making stock from skin. Try it. You'll see where the flavor comes from. ← I confess I haven't done a scientific study, but the most flavorful chicken stocks I've ever made have been made with the carcass of a chicken roasted and eaten for dinner -- not a shred of skin on it. ← Wait a second, first you're talking about how flesh makes the most flavor and now it's bones. Which is it?

Gel/flavor comes from collagen. Greatest source of collagen: skin. Greatest source of skin: feet. Second best source: wings. Peeling off/discarding skin when making stock would be akin to eating an orange skin but throwing away the flesh. The foundation, the soul, the very essence of chicken stock lies within the skin. ← Just to be cantankerous, I'd say that you have it backwards. Flavor comes from flesh. If all you want is gell and unctuous texture, you can buy gelatin in a box. ← It's very simple. Try making stock from a skinless boneless piece of meat and then try making stock from skin. Try it. You'll see where the flavor comes from.

Gel/flavor comes from collagen. Greatest source of collagen: skin. Greatest source of skin: feet. Second best source: wings. Peeling off/discarding skin when making stock would be akin to eating an orange skin but throwing away the flesh. The foundation, the soul, the very essence of chicken stock lies within the skin.

Add me to the 'acquired a taste for cilantro' list. Despised it growing up but love it now (in the right context). Cloves are my arch nemesis. I can be making 2 pumpkin pies and my smidgeon measuring spoon (1/32 t.) will still be too big for measuring the cloves. Mint is another of those borderline spices/herbs for me. Out of my list of forbidden foods, though, most of them aren't flavors, they're textures: Bean sprouts Shredded coconut (love coconut milk) Undercooked onions Raisins in desserts

I'm not sure how long you proof your croissants for, but I freeze my chocolate chips when I add them to chocolate chip cookies - it helps a little bit. Also, how much chocolate are you using? If you use a very sweet very dark chocolate, it shouldn't need much.

Josette, I'm happy the PDX is working out for you in your brownies. Would you post your working sorbet recipe? A raspberry sorbet sounds gooood.

What kind of percentage of E are we talking about here? To achieve a sugary mouthfeel from just E and no other bulking agents, that must jack up the quantity, does it not? 1:1 replacement for sugar, texturally? No recrystallization issues? If I can up my E without it going sand/grainy in the final product, my scoopability issues would be gone forever and it would be less chewy as well. Tell me it's true! ;)