andiesenji

I have a huge copper jam pot that has been in my family since the 1880s, with heavy bronze handles and 3 rivet heads almost an inch in diameter holding each handle tightly to the pot. There is no evidence of loosening and as far as cleaning around the rivet heads, I have always just used a stiff brush. For the burnt-on bits around the rivets on my SS All-Clad, I spray on a bit of Carbon-Off, let it sit for a few minutes then use a stiff brush and hot water. I keep nail brushes in a little dish next to the sink that has water with a few drops of bleach, changed every morning. I use these brushes to scrub the depressions in plastic lids, plastic, metal or silicone spatulas, slotted spoons, wooden utensils, wire and metal colanders, etc., because nothing else works quite as well to get into those tight places where sticky, oily and other food debris wants to hide.

It depends on how many and what size oranges and how tart they are - you still need a little sugar for it to jell. For two layers of orange slices on the bottom of a pie plate I probably use a bit more than half a tablespoon of Splenda and a heaping teaspoon of superfine sugar and that is the total amount. The purpose of the short heating periods and keeping it sealed, so the fruit "sweats" is so that the Splenda can absorb the liquid and be incorporated. using only sugar is much faster because it absorbs liquid rapidly.

As a child, I was taught never to stir anything "widdershins" because that would "invite the devil in" - My grandfather's cook was extremely superstitious and wouldn't pick certain herbs except at the times that was deemed correct. This carried on to turning pie dough while rolling it out, always turned clockwise, and so on. One of her daughters who began helping in the kitchen in her teens, was left-handed and always had to remind herself how to stir because it was more natural for her to stir in an outward-swirling motion, which was counter-clockwise. I know when I make lemon curd it always turns out better if it is always stirred in the same direction - the only time I get lumps is when I deviate from this routine. And, when I found it getting difficult to do the constant stirring required for this, I bought one of the Stir-Chef automatic stirrer - and it turns clockwise!!

For those that are having difficulty cutting cheeses, you might consider using a cheese wire. I have several just like this $2.95 inexpensive ones you can get at Fantes. cheese wire at fantes.com Superior Kitchen Gadgets has one. There are several more on ebay, one is 28 inches long. Joe's Basement will make them to order up to 48 inches. If you have a large wheel and don't want to cut all the way through it, stand it on its side, securing it so it won't roll or tip over, and cut down toward the center as far as you wish, remove the wire and cut down again to remove a wedge. The technique I use is to start the cut close to one handle and drag that handle away from the cheese as I put downward pressure on both handles. For very hard grating cheeses I use a Wusthof parmesan knife and a mallet with a rawhide head.

While speaking to my daughter yesterday, I was reminded of yet another way I love to use blood oranges. For this I remove the peel completely, also slice the oranges crossway, but not as thin as for the marmalade. I roll and stretch pizza dough very, thin - if I don't have time to make my own, I get the ready-made dough at Trader Joes. I cut a mild fresh cheese (my favorite is manouri, which I buy at a local middle eastern market) into thin slices and arrange over the dough, covering about 80% of the surface. I then arrange the orange slices on top of the cheese layer and drizzle with a very small amount of honey, perhaps a teaspoonful for an 8-9 inch round. You can also add a tiny bit of finely minced candied ginger or infuse grated fresh ginger in the honey. If you can find very sweet grapes, you can combine the grapes and oranges - I cut the grapes in half. There are other fine cheeses that work with this, but I have found that the manouri melts nicely without becoming gummy or oily.

I want all of my heavier pots, pans, skillets, roasters and etc., riveted. Unless one has experience of having a weld fail, while lifting a full roasting pan from an oven and dumping the entire contents onto the oven door and floor with a few (very hot) splashes onto feet and legs, one would have no need to consider this question. Wikipedia has this entry: "Intergranular corrosion Some compositions of stainless steel are prone to intergranular corrosion when exposed to certain environments. When heated to around 700 °C, chromium carbide forms at the intergranular boundaries, depleting the grain edges of chromium, impairing their corrosion resistance. Steel in such condition is called sensitized. Steels with carbon content 0.06% undergo sensitization in about 2 minutes, while steels with carbon content under 0.02% are not sensitive to it. Intergranular corrosion A special case of intergranular corrosion is called 'weld decay' or 'knifeline attack'(KLA). Due to the elevated temperatures of welding the stainless steel can be sensitized very locally along the weld. The chromium depletion creates a galvanic couple with the well-protected alloy nearby in highly corrosive environments. As the name 'knifeline attack' implies, this is limited to a small zone, often only a few micrometres across, which causes it to proceed more rapidly. This zone is very near the weld, making it even less noticeable[5]." In my case, when the first weld gave way it left a pit in the metal and the plate that held one side of the handle bent out which then pulled the other weld out of the metal. causing the handle to twist and slip out of my hand. This was not an inexpensive roasting pan, it was heavy stainless steel with handles that swiveled up or down so they would lay flat against the sides of the pan. It was by no means new, but had not been used frequently nor had it been abused in any way. Since that time (1960s) I have used only cookware with riveted handles or, in the case of cast iron or cast aluminum, handles that part of the casting, not applied by welding. Incidentally, it is true that copper welding is difficult because it burns right through the copper. Some lightweight vessels such as molds, pudding steamers, measuring cups, have handles that are connected by brazing but you can see that the attachments are wide, covering a much larger area than a weld and even at that, those joinings can be disrupted by heat, stress, etc.

The flyer from Vallarta supermarket states they still have low prices on citrus and avocados. However the local produce market has upped their prices on citrus but reduced prices on other fruits, apples, pears, grapes. They have no strawberries at all.

I make a quick marmalade which you can do with just one blood orange, or two if they are small. Scrub the fruit well cut off the stem end just to where you can see the flesh. Cut the fruit in half lengthwise and lay cut side down on your cutting board. Slice extremely thin and lay the slices flat in a pie plate, Pyrex or ceramic. Lightly sprinkle the first layer with sugar (I use a mixture of 2/3 Splenda and 1/3 superfine sugar (by volume) because I am a diabetic.) and add another layer of slices, sprinkle with more sugar or the mixture and continue until you have used all the slices. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in the microwave and cook on 40% power for 2 minutes. Allow this to rest for 5-10 minutes or so - the plastic will shrink down onto the fruit and hold in the moisture. Repeat this process, cooking and resting the fruit three or four more times and after the last session, use a fork and catch and lift the plastic wrap from the surface, use care that you don't get a steam burn. Stir the cooked fruit and test to see if the peel is tender and translucent. If it is still opaque, cover again with plastic wrap and repeat the cooking process. Some citrus fruit cooks much in much less time than other batches. You need to use low power because the fruit becomes gummy if cooked at higher power/temp. I generally do this while I am doing something else in the kitchen, prepping vegetables, or baking, etc., so all of my time is not devoted to this. It really only takes a minute or two, at intervals so the total time expended is not great.

If anyone is looking for a Hobart 10 quart mixer, there is one now on ebay Vintage Hobart 10-quart mixer. I had one of these for 30 years, couldn't kiil it with all I threw at it. I sold it a couple of years ago and it is still going strong.

Check out these glazed terra cotta tagines at Sur La Table. The larger one is 13 inches in diameter and holds enough to serve 6 people (or more, depending on the size of the servings). The smaller one is 8 1/2 inches in diameter but is deep and besides using as a tagine, it makes a great oven baker for a pot pie or a fruit cobbler.

An email from Sur La Table in my morning messages indicates a Winter sale clearence, including a few Le Creuset pieces, Sale at Sur La Table I haven't checked to see how these prices compare to other vendors. bakeware sale. Significant mark-downs on tableware! Need chargers? Remember the "Gone Fishing" flatware discussed in the Gadgets topic a year ago? The salad servers and appetizer forks are now half price.

No, but at least it has been in double digits. It is now 8:45 a.m. and my online local weather report has current temp at 15 degrees F. The low at 4:30 was 11. Better than the past 5 days when the lows were between 3 and 9. Yesterday the high was 41 and the ice on the streets in shady areas has not melted for a week and it did not get above freezing from Sunday through Tuesday. Palmdale was not quite as cold as it is at a slightly lower elevation - this valley looks flat but the immediate area where I live the altitude is 2587, while in the center of Lancaster, 3 miles southwest of me, the "official" altitude is listed as 2355, 2415 or "2500" depending on which website you check. The main problem we have had around here is people who don't insulate outside pipes or disconnect their sprinkler systems and drain them. Eventually the pipes, which are usually PVC will break. The ag problem that might be most important later in the year is the fact that at this time the onion farmers, and there are thousands of acres dedicated to this crop, are usually planting the onion sets for the crop that matures and is harvested in the early summer. They can plant the sets when it is raining but not with these killing freezes. In 1990 and in 1998 the freeze struck in early February after most of the sets had been planted, others were stored in unheated sheds and it killed everything. Virtually no Antelope Valley onions came to market that year until the late crop harvested in September/October. While they haven't lost the sets, the problem is the harvesting crews that move around on a fairly set schedule and if the planting is delayed they will be somewhere else when a crop is ready for harvest. It's machines and operators that do the work and they are contracted on a long term basis. The ag business is far more complex than most people understand.

My next-door neighbor has a brother who has citrus groves in Ojai. The problem is that almost all fruiting citrus, at least the trees he has, are grafted onto hardy rootstock. Losing the crop he can survive, he does have insurance but the big thing is if the grafted part is damaged, the trees have to be replaced and it takes several years to bring them to full production. He raises mostly specialty citrus which is even more sensitive to freezing than the navel oranges, which can be juiced if they freeze. The blood orange trees are one of the less hardy types and he had a significant die-off in 1998 and the replacement trees from that disaster had not yet reached maturity. The Meyer lemons are also more susceptible to freezing as are the sweet limes. His grapefruit crop was picked in December as it is an early maturing variety.

Prices of oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, broccoli, lettuce and spinach are already up since last week.

Growers are estimating that 75% of the California citrus crop and a significant percentage of the avocado crop will not come to market this year. Prices are already being jacked up in response to the 4 nights of freezing temps in the central and coastal valleys. Governor Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in 10 counties after touring growers in the Fresno area. They do not yet know if the effects will be as bad as the 1998 event, but some retailers increased avocado prices 100% and citrus prices 75%. Some growers did not make it through because of the destruction of the trees themselves and the expense of replacing the major portion of groves. There is no way to tell if the trees are damaged to the point that they have to be replaced, that will take some time. However, in spite of efforts to warm the groves, the oranges, in the late stages of ripening, are frozen on the trees. Some can be juiced, but many are still too immature. Sometimes Mother Nature is just plain mean. Where I live in Lancaster, we have had 4 record-breaking lows. Saturday, January 13, - 10 degrees Sunday, January 14, - 3 degrees!!! Monday, January 15, - 7 degrees Tuesday, January 16, - 11 degrees Tomorrow morning will be a "warm-up" estimated low 15 degrees!!

I have recommended La Varenne Pratique by Anne Willan. The sub title is The Complete Illustrated Cooking Course techniques, ingredients and tools of classic modern cuisine with more than 2500 full-color photographs. There are detailed photographs of techniques from boning and trussing fowl to cleaning and dealing with all types of seafood and cutting, boning, shaping all types of meat, including game. It goes all the way through vegetables, fruits, pastries, cakes and right up to candies and chocolate. It demystifies many processes that are taken for granted by experienced cooks and bakers so that novice, intermediate or advanced cooks are encouraged to try things that are, to them, exotic ingredients.

refer them to this site. and this one.

I use the Kerrygold Irish butter. It has the most flavor in my opinion and it browns beautifully without giving off the watery stuff one gets with domestic butter. It thickens sauces and adds a particular gloss that is my test of a good butter. Cabot's has an "heirloom" butter but outside of a batch I ordered when Fat Guy posted about a special offer in late 2005, I haven't been able to order it shipped to California. It was terrific.

For those that want to try making their own butter, there is a very good method with practical instructions that were originally enclosed with the Dazey, hand-cranked churn You can also use an electric churn that agitates the cream much slower than you can do with a regular mixer and the shape of the paddles is also important. They have a significant collection of churns so click on one of the links to see some of the odd critters that were invented to turn cream into butter. Incidentally, there are a lot of butter churns on ebay! When ebay first started up, some of these old things brought astronomical prices but now people know they are far more durable and common than anyone guessed.

Just stopping in to report that I have purchased two more KitchenAid mixers for my collection. These are a couple of old ones, one is the often seen on ebay, 4-C but this one is in pink, a less common color back in the day. However the other is the much harder to find K4B which has a motor head very similar to the ones we have now. It is known as the KA with a nose ring and tail fin. You can see it in the second photo down on this page. Incidentaly, did anyone here know there is a group of people who collect old and not-so-old mixers? Yep, we are WACEM - We Actually Collect Electric Mixers - and there are some very odd machines out there that have survived from the early days. If you have an old mixer and want to know its history, visit the site and look at some of the photos. Here is a recent acquisition: Looks sort of like an insect, doesn't it? It is a 1931 Hamilton Beach. In amazing condition for its age! It is also an interesting anomaly - the handle mounts are reversed in a few of these models.

Note: I have used my new KA several times and am very pleased with it. It has handled everything I threw at it, including the cocoa cookie dough that is quite stiff and my older KA (not a Hobart) would not, it would stall even at the lowest speed. I did ask the vendor this one that has the KA pro 600 for $319.00 to double-box the mixer and they packaged it nicely. They also have the Bosch for $289.99 Bosch kitchen machine. which is 30.00 less than on other sites, that is the machine without the blender. P.S. I have since purchased a couple of other things from this vendor and I am very pleased with both their prices and their service. They are very nice people with whom to deal and very pleasant on the phone.

I have used these and other, larger burners with a hose to a propane tank with no problems indoors. However, with these burners I do place them on a sheet pan so there is free space around them and nothing gets shoved up against the burner. We also always weighted the tables, by hanging gallon jugs of water from the support legs (so they are about an inch off the floor) and also taping the legs together with duct tape, which also helped to secure them. Often we were in similar rooms with herds of kids and also used barrier stands to keep them at least a foot away from the table. A great deal depends on your guests. I learned from experience that any guys up to age 30 can start horsing around and bump into tables, same with kids and sometimes the very elderly who tend to lean on things without looking or set things down without looking.

I have two pans, that I have had for many years, one a 12 qt stockpot, the other a wide casserole, that have silvered. I simply avoid cooking high-acid foods in them. The casserole is great for browning chunks of meat and odd-shaped birds, etc. I recently cooked veal stock in the 12 qt and had no problems. I have also sent one in and received a prompt return of a new pan which I don't notice is much different from the original.

I saw giant tins of "Danish" butter cookies at Sam's Club, Costco, Staples and Wal-Mart prior to the holidays. Call Staples, one of the stores I was in between Christmas and New Years had a big stack of them next to a huge display of those big popcorn tins.

I will strongly second the vote on the older Hobart machines. I collect "vintage" mixers and have several that were made way back in the 30s and a few newer ones and with what is essentially minor maintenance, they just keep on keeping on. I bought one of the "newer" 5 quart bowl-lift machines in 1969 used it for 9 years and gave it to my step-daughter and she is still using it. On the other hand, I did manage to burn out two newer ones in the mid to late 1990s, also bowl lift type and bought a different type of mixer that could handle really stiff dough. I now have one of the newer "Pro 600-6quart" models and it has worked just fine with all I have thrown at it. I just recently added another "vintage" K4B to my collection. This one is fairly rare and sports the unusual "nose ring and tail fin" unlike other KAs of the era.