Smithy

If you survive, be sure to report back! I have a huge backlog of Trader Joe's jarred products, so it's silly of me to wish I had ready access to a TJ's. Nonetheless, I do.

My guess, and it's strictly a guess, is that it's a matter of taste. If you like the seasonings in the rub and think they strongly complement the meat flavor, you'd add a lot. I find that not all beef has a lot of flavor, incidentally, so the rub may be more necessary for certain cuts. An example, drawing from the sauce side: my husband loved the flavor of barbecue sauce, and he tended to drown his pork and beef in barbecue sauce even as he claimed to like the meats themselves! I find that most barbecue sauces overwhelm the meat they're on unless they used sparingly. Clearly, our mileages varied.

@Dejah, would you adopt me? 😀

My husband was the same! He liked a little egg with his pepper at breakfast! And we nearly came to blows, early in our marriage, over the amount of pepper he put in his split pea stew! I, however, rarely reach for the pepper grinder. I still think it's cumin for me. And yes, this is a fun discussion.

That's a very good question! I don't think of it as a spice, but as I read McGee's definition (quoted in my post above) it may fit that definition. I always think of spices as being dried and garlic as fresh. If we include garlic as a spice, I might have to change my answer from "cumin" to "garlic". 🙂 You're absolutely right that pepper is a spice and can't be eliminated from the discussion. Salt is a mineral; pepper is a spice.

Technically, salt is a seasoning but not a spice, since it is a mineral and not a plant part. Herbs and spices come from plants. I quote here from Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, 2004 edition, p. 248:

@mgaretz, I too appreciate seeing a writeup on this, and look forward to seeing what else you do with it. I looked at these some time back and thought they looked like a possible replacement for our large crockpot with the removable insert. The drawback I could see was the size: 8.5 quart looked too big for us. Now that I'm a singleton, like @Maison Rustique, I know it would be too big. (The current crockpot with removable insert is 6 quarts.) Did you happen to see whether they made smaller versions of this? I don't see it on their website.

So... maybe this discussion is a way to get me started back. Maybe it's a one-off, but I'm enjoying it tonight. click

I'm neither a microbiologist nor a fermentation expert but the numbers I'm seeing say that the kraut probiotics die at 115F. So I think you're keeping the flavor but not the good bugs.

Surprisingly good and easy dinner, considering I've been spending the last few days whinging about how I no longer want to cook or eat. I started with chopped slices of smoked pancetta from the Northern Waters Smokehaus, a local favorite (this stuff has been in the freezer for weeks). Cooked until it had started to brown and render its fat, then added chunks of asparagus and spattered all over the stove. I persevered, and when the asparagus had started to cook slightly added the contents of a can of Great Northern Beans. Added enough of the canning liquid to get the sauce consistency I wanted, then threw in the basil that's started dying since I repotted it. Delicious. First time I've used that stainless steel skillet in quite some time. And yes, I'm still using my black spatula.

Not that I'm in the market, but I wonder what that would imply for tech support or warranty support.

Fermented foods lose some of their good health effects if heated enough to kill the probiotics, and I don't want the lettuce to wilt.

You'll have to decide for yourself how convoluted it is. Here's their catalog photo and description: Source: https://www.swisscolony.com/p/caramel-apple-cheesecake-000145.html?p=ac At least the Kaffeehaus cookbook has a recipe for cheesecake, though it's what they call Farmer's Cheesecake, made with farmer's cheese, and they say the cheesecake is lighter than standard American cheesecake. Since there's nothing in this book resembling petits fours, I'll have to punt -- or try one of the tortes instead -- or look for another source.

Cumin

Meanwhile, I'm really liking the idea of trying to make something we see in a catalog and maybe do it better. It has the feel of a Bake-Off, but since it might be multiple products ( @ElsieD and her apple caramel cheesecake come to mind) it won't lend itself as well to the focused feel of the official Cook-Offs and Bake-Offs. This-here-now topic may be the right place.