andiesenji

I make it often and I always use half goat milk and half cow milk, regular milk, not low fat. I use a crock pot -uncovered- and cook until it is a bit darker than regular caramel, light chestnut is the color description I use. It is stiff when taken from the fridge, I generally remove it from the fridge early in morning when I am going to be using it later in the day. If I forget, I place the jar in a bowl of warm water, not hot, to speed it up but never warm it in the microwave. My recipe is in RecipeGullet, I got it from my neighbor Celia Obregon, who is originally from Durango, Mexico, so I am pretty sure her recipe is authentic. It is better than any of the commercial ones I have tasted and is worlds better than the cooked condensed milk.

Andie, when you say you use it in "beverages" do you mean something more than hot tea? ← Yes, I like to combine it with beef or chicken broth for a lower fat and lower salt hot beverage - pick-me-up. However, I also like it on its own.

Do try the Lapsang Souchong from Republic of Tea. I use it both for beverages and in cooking and find it has the deepest and most complex flavor of any brand I have tried in recent years. At one time I depended on Taylors of Harrogate but like the RoT much better.

I know two people who have the Cuis. Brick oven and like the way it bakes, but do not get the one with the rotisserie as the person who got that one had to return it after one use and got the convection model. The motor of the roti broke half-way through roasting a chicken. The heating element can vary somewhat so be sure to check the oven with a separate thermometer. For the discounted price it is okay but those who paid the full price when first introduced are a bit disappointed. It does an okay job baking bread but uses too much power for just toasting a couple of slices of bread and tends to dry the bread too much. Also, it gets very hot on the outside so can't be placed next to a wall or under an overcounter cabinet unless there is a lot of space - it melted the housing on a coffee maker that was 6 inches away from it on the countertop while a cake was baking. My neighbor was quite upset because the coffee maker was new and expensive. She also thinks the oven has discolored her Corian countertop. If you are going to be doing a significant amount of baking you would be better off getting the Cadco convection oven - the smaller unit if space is a consideration. It is more of a "commercial" unit the outer surface does not get excessively hot while it is working. Better insulation, I guess. I use it extensively for baking, broiling, braising, and etc. Here some stuffed pork chops. I haven't read anything recently about the Kalorik but note that it was being sold at Overstock.com. A friend had one but opted to get one of the Cadco 1/2 sheet ovens (like mine) so she could use larger pans. I think she gave the Kalorik to her son who mostly cooks pizza and snack foods.

Are you saying that you roast coffee beans in your popcorn popper? If so, that's the best tip I've had in absolute years. ← For many years the stovetop popcorn popper made by Whirley-Pop included instructions for roasting coffee in it. I don't recall just when they stopped including the instructions, but somebody has continued it as can be seen HERE

You might check the information on Gernot Katzer's spice pages If you have not yet checked Recipezaar the recipes are quite good. I always grind just before use and add it to food after cooking in most instances. Very good on melons and fruit salads - if you like a spicy "bite" which I do. I use it on tomatoes, in omelets, especially with mushrooms and on roasted vegetables, just prior to serving. Somewhere in my stacks of cookbooks, I have a cookbook of North African recipes that includes a couple of recipes that use grains of paradise and as I recall, some of the Ethiopian recipes I have made, which call for black pepper have notes that it is a substitute for grains of paradise. I would therefore assume that one could use the spice in similar dishes that have been converted to readily available western spices. You might examine some of the recipes in this link. I have had the spiced cheese made with grains of paradise.

I just spoke by phone to a friend who lives on the Big Island, Hawaii and she says the local growers there, who already charge super premium prices for their vanilla, have notified regular customers that their prices will be increased after the first of the year. I am sure the same thing will be happening with the growers in Mexico and Central America as well as Tahiti and Indonesia.

I absolutely love the WS goldtouch line of bakeware. I have a loaf pan, 9 x13, a 9 inch square and a sheet pan. NOTHING every sticks and everything bakes up like a dream. Dont forget as a chef you get a 10% discount. Just show a business card. ← I second this. I purchased several of the Gold Touch baking pans after watching the demo on the PBS show from Cooks Illustrated. Even sticky buns (and mine are extremely sticky) exit the pans with no difficulty and they clean up so well that it is difficult to see which one has been used and which is still "new." (I have a habit of buying extras when I discover a really fine item.)

I came across this news article last night while searching for a vanilla vendor: Madagascar hit by deadly vanilla-killing fungus. Note that they are predicting a possible upsurge of vanilla prices so perhaps this is the time to stock up. Forewarned is forearmed!

You write that you are in the UK but don't say where. I have several friends who live in the UK and when they want to purchase copper ware they go to France and most of them stick to the Mauviel or Bourget commercial stuff 2.5 mm with the stainless lining. They are in the southern half of England so the trip is not all that onerous for them and they also buy wines and other supplies while there. I have two pieces of the Falk but most of my copper ware is Bourget and I have been using copper most of my life and some of my old pieces were inherited. They needed retinning every few years so when Bourget introduced the stainless lined pieces, I began buying them although I still use my big tin-lined stockpots as the lining in them has lasted well because it doesn't take the utensil beating of fry and sauce pans. Do not get pieces with brass handles. Get the ones with iron handles or if available, stainless steel as these do not conduct heat as rapidly. One of the handiest pieces that I use all the time is the 3.8 qt "casserole" shown here in the Mauviel cuprinox line As I can use it on the stovetop and then put it right into the oven. I often use it for braising as the lid fits snugly. I haven't done a detailed search, but you can find this often at a very good discount. I mention it as one of my Brit friends got one in France a few months ago for 178. euros. I think that is an excellent buy.

Today I have been taste-testing a blend, or rather blends, of black teas (Indian and/or Ceylon) with various proportions of cherry and vanilla flavored teas as I am trying to duplicate a flavored tea no longer on the market. A couple of years ago Republic of Tea introduced several teas under the "Jerry Garcia" name with labels that were from Jerry Garcia paintings. The Jerry Cherry Carcia tea was exceptionally flavorful and had I known it was to be discontinued, I would have purchased extras. Unfortunately I missed the event and now would like to recreate the same flavor. So far I have pretty much missed the mark but have an order arriving from Adagio tomorrow that may include something that will work. Meanwhile, I am now ready to brew something totally different to get my taste buds to relax. I am considering one of the "seasonal" teas that sort of mimic the Indian chai blends and which work nicely with milk or cream. (I think I need the milk to sooth my tummy.)

gfron1 did a 5-pound batch last month and his only complaint was that the ginger was too "hot" in that it had quite a bit of "bite" and it is true that ginger varies quite a bit. I really never have had the problem of it being too "hot" but conversely, too mild. It will mellow with time and if it is to be used in baking, I would want it more spicy because it does lose some of that spiciness when mixed with other ingredients. When I was mostly growing my own, I used to harvest half of it in the late fall and leave the rest in the ground over the winter, blanketed with a thick layer of mulch, straw and also a tarp during the years when we had a huge amount of rain. (The El Niño year.) Then I would harvest the rest in the spring, have the gardener spade up the entire bed and break off the smaller segments and immediately replant them for that year's crop. I sometimes noted that the "spring" crop was a bit spicier than the fall crop.

I feel like such a dunce for not posting this link in earlier posts. I have referred to several of the recipes on multiple occasions (especially the ones using Lapsang Souchong - Ham and Lentil soup is fantastic) and have ordered from the site numerous times but for some reason it slipped my mind when posting to this thread. I placed an order earlier and just as in the old cartoons, a light bulb lit up in my brain and I immediately thought that I should post the link now, so I don't again forget it. Tea Chef recipes at Adagio.com

I don't know how you prepare your Italian meringue but I have prepared hundreds of batches in my DLX and have never noticed a problem. I know a caterer who uses it for similar purposes and she has never mentioned any problem and she uses hers a lot more than I do. It is much easier to pour the hot syrup in a fine thread into the egg whites with this machine than with any others I have used. There is no motor head in the way and the top edge of the bowl is lower than my KAs. If you want more detailed information about the specs on the composition of the bowl and beaters you can send an email query to Electrolux or even call them.

Yes. Almost any type of citrus peel can be candied. However, you do have to start with peel that has some flavor. A few of the hybrid citrus have so little flavor that they end tasting only of sugar. I have found that most pomelos are this way and the white part is so thick, sometimes as much as an inch or more, that most of it has to be pared away and the results are not worth the bother. If I can't get citrus direct from growers, so that the fruit has not been treated, I buy only organic fruits. I would advise you to buy just one of the fruits, wash and cut off a small piece of the skin and chew it. If the flavor is very aromatic then you should end up with an aromatic and flavorful result. Some of the tangerines are tough skinned so after they have been parboiled, I test to see if they are tender enough. If still rather leathery, you can steam them to tenderness and then proceed with the candying process. I candy or glacé may types of dried fruits and steaming them first accelerates the process so they absorb the syrup much more rapidly. I learned this from a Lebanese cook who taught me how to candy apricots in honey (which are then rolled in sesame seeds to make a traditional confection). Also, here is the link to a page in Artisinal Christmas prezzies where I posted in Post # 163, my method of removing the skin from most citrus which is the easiest and quickest method I have found. It also makes it easier if you want to use shaped cutters as you have a larger piece to flatten and cut. I know that several people have used garnish cutters to make fancy shapes for decorating cakes and candies.

While I was visiting with my dad in late October, we were talking about the pork mincemeat and MeeMaw's cakes and other goodies made with the mincemeat. He reminded me that she also made little tiny sausages from the mincemeat long before "cocktail" sausages appeared. They were heated and doused in a sweetish mustard sauce and served with half-sized biscuits for a New Year's Eve snack (along with a bunch of other hot and cold nibbles. I barely recall them but my dad says they were about half the length of breakfast sausages. He said she also used the mincemeat in a sort of strudel, spreading it on the dough and rolling it up as one would a strudel and baking it in the log shape so when it was cut it showed a spiral formation. I don't remember this at all but my dad has an excellent memory and can recall her making big batches of the mincemeat right after the hogs were butchered and the mincemeat went into many dishes, including "filling" in winter squash, baked apples, and layered with "noodles" - which I take to mean the big flat home made noodles that were sort of like a cross between pie dough and biscuit dough rolled out to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut with a pastry wheel into strips. MeeMaw put them into soup, stew and etc., so the meals would be more "filling." THOSE I remember well.

I certainly do not see anything wrong with giving someone a present of vanilla extract that is "in process" so to speak. Think as a futurist. After all, most people will have some vanilla on hand which they should use up before trying yours - because once they try yours they won't want to use the other stuff!

It's in my storage room so I will have to get some help to drag it out. I have the "extras" in a rolling bin but the mixer itself was shoved under the bottom shelf and it is too heavy for me to move now. (It's tough to get old!!! )

Alan, this recipe was originally made from home grown fully adult hogs with a lot of fat on them. The meat was much darker and far more fatty than "modern" pork. My family did not breed hogs to produce "The Other White Meat."

I've been visiting in Livermore this past week and today I drove up to Napa and Yountville and found a few interesting things, not exactly junk heap shopping but a tiny antique place. This huge cleaver was made in Boston and I took a close up of the mark but have to do a bit more investigation to get the maker's name correct. For size comparison, that is a partly used roll of paper towels. I also got a pastry divider and a Solingen egg clipper, partly gold-plated, very neat. Then I shopped at NapaStyle and loaded up on olive oils, dips, jams, honey, olives and etc.

It's a beauty! I have its brother and a pile of attachments and extra bowls. When I get home from my trip I will check the Serial number on mine - it's not as pretty as yours as it lived in a bakery for quite a few years. I bought it some time in the early to mid '70s.

I don't have a food mill, nor will I be getting one for quite soe time. However, including some of the skin sounds like a good idea, but I'd only used organic, unwaxed apples for that. ← By a food mill, I meant an inexpensive hand-operated one. They are great for many purposes, not just making applesauce. Food mill - inexpensive

Some oolongs and many greens are pelletized, often labeled as "gunpowder" teas. The process is thought by many to preserve the tea better and was developed during the age of the China trade when it might take a year to bring a tea to market in England or Europe or America.

Tea smoked duck and chicken. Rice or other grains cooked with tea. There have been a couple of other topics about cooking with tea.

Yes indeed! The spiced teas always call for milk and sugar - actually it all goes back to the "Railway Chai" once a staple in India, perhaps it still is.