Smithy

We're visiting family and helping them settle into their new place. Food always flows in flavorful excess with this gang. Given the ham, potatoes (cheesy and otherwise), shrimp dip, fruit, burgers, fresh bread, and colossal pans of cookies, bars and cupcakes we've already consumed this weekend, it looks like it's staying simple: brats, beans and beer so we won't be tired to waddle up the hill to watch fireworks.

Rhubarb date cake? Please tell more about that.

If your friend needs even more of push, point out the energy-ineffiency of older applances. I don't suppose her power company is giving out rebates right now for such projects?

Mine came in a box earlier this month. It's the wifi version (and includes Bluetooth, which I haven't tried yet). @HungryChris and @rotuts, what about yours?

Welcome! There are bread bakers of all levels here. It's nice to see another; feel free to jump in and participate!

Ah, thanks!

Thanks for that suggestion, @shain. I understood that good oven spring required an initial high heat. Is 230F hot enough to get the necessary expansion of gases?

CSB = Cuisinart Combination Steam/Convection Oven. It's spurred its own topic(s) (start here) in the last couple of years. A few of its devotees have taken to calling it the Cuisi Steam Boy (CSB) or the Cuisi Steam Girl.

Very pretty, sir. How was the texture of the beef? Was doneness the way you gauged when the braise was finished?

My latest sourdough bread. I'm very pleased with the taste, and I'm getting the hang of shaping - not as quickly as I'd like, but I'm pretty happy with today's batch. I'm trying to figure out how to get the crust right. My last loaves had a softish crust - not terrible, but not as crackly as I'd like. This time I ran the heat higher (around 450F before steam added) and then lowered the temperature to 400F to finish. The crumb is good, but look at the whitish ring around the edge, just inside the golden crust: (The gold flecks in the interior holes are surface crumbs that were picked up from the bread board.) This crust is hard. It looks from the cross-sectional ring as though there's a tough, dry ring around the perimeter. Does this mean I cooked it for too long at high heat before turning the oven down? If not, what? What should I try next?

I've been using the Android app. It includes good-looking recipes that I plan to try, although I admit I'm still at the data-collection and -logging stage. It's a shame the Anova can't be programmed to stop when the time is up, but I can use the app to turn the machine on or off, change temperature, and monitor the time without having to walk back into the kitchen.

That's what I have been doing, but I am the newest of the newbies and may have been doing it wrong. As long as the temperature is constant (water circulating), why would it matter?

You might consider making some ice cream, also. This recipe (a family favorite) lends itself well to plums, nectarines, peaches or a blend. I have it happily associated, forever, with California summers. If you don't have time now to do the churning, you can do the puree and freeze for later.

Did you find out the purpose of that 'spreader spoon' yet? It has a rather Victorian look to it.

With pictures, please.

I feel as boggled by the abundant unfamiliarity as if I'd landed in those markets myself! Thanks for posting these. What was the combination of baby octopus and quail egg like? Did they play off each other well? I wondered about the gold leaf on the soft-serve ice cream cone and, until your caption, thought it was some new drip-saving method. Does the leaf add a flavor, or is it more about the texture and color (and luxury)?

I remember my shock when I moved from the L.A.area to way north in northern Minnesota and discovered that restaurants closed no later than 8 p.m. there! It was quite the cultural adjustment. Still, I'm surprised that the lunch opportunities stop so early in your large city.

Welcome back, sir! Is San Francisco as wonderful now that you live there instead of being a visitor?

What about as a spice, like mustard seeds?

I had forgotten about that linked topic. It has good depth (thank you, @EnriqueB and others) and is good additional reading for us neophytes. One of my immediate takeaways is the importance of rapid chilling unless the food is to be finished and served quickly. Thanks for that post link, pbear.

I hope you do, huiray, and that you post about it. The flowers look like potential seasonings - maybe not large enough to fry (like chive or onion flowers) but to be picked off their stems and scattered over a finished dish. OTOH there may be many other things to be done with them; I'd like to learn more.

"How do you want your egg?" "Soft-boiled is fine." "OK. 62, 63 or 64C?"

Yes, that's a nice writeup, @paulraphael. Finding my way through the forest of sous vide information - here and elsewhere - is quite a job. It's nice to get succinct pointers along the way.

@rotuts: you're right that there's a massive amount of info already here. Thank you for that compilation; it helps a lot.

"We have bad cooked foods, no bad foods"...I like that philosophy!