andiesenji

If this is the same Fridgidare I saw at the store, it has a smaller oven. However I can't find the oven dimensions of the Kenmore - I know that their ovens and the GE ovens are larger than the others in both width and height. The spec sheet says the KA oven is 3.9 cubic ft., but the oven cavity volume is not listed on the other two. I believe the Kenmore has one larger element in the cooktop which is nice for stockpots. When I was shopping for a replacement for my broken cooktop I was only looking for gas but did look at the electrics also, just because I am curious. I noticed some of them had "bridging" elements which allowed cooking on two elements with one pan, something that is not advised without the bridging element because the surface between the elements heats unevenly and can crack. As an aside OT. I really like the cheap replacement cooktop I bought at Sears. The burner deck surface is sunk down so that the burners are actually at the same level as the countertop and the grates are only elevated about 3/4 of an inch above the countertop surface. Quite different from the Dacor, where the top of the grate was at least 2 1/2 inches above the countertop level, if not more. It certainly is easier to move heavy pots on and off the burner grates. I am still dickering with the insurance company. They have agreed to the cost of the carpentry work to repair the under cabinet and countertop but they want to pro-rate the cooktop itself to 80% of the cost of a similar replacement because it was more than 5 years old. (6) However I have pointed out that this type of cooktop has a standard usable life of 20 years or more. Interesting how they operate. They apparently thought that since I was a senior citizen and live alone I would jump at their offer. Then the adjuster came to my home and had second thoughts. Now we play the waiting game.

By the way, I recommed a Magnalite roaster for this method. It can be used on a burner as well as in the oven. They are available on ebay because the new ones are quite expensive. The lids fit very tight which is essential for this method. If you have a small bird and one of the LeCruset oval ovens, you can use it. Almost as good but I still prefer the Magnalite.

I posted my no-fail method on another thread. It requires a heavy bottomed roasting pan with a lid that will cover tightly. The turkey is placed on a rack, depending on the size of the roaster, 2-3 cups of turkey or chicken stock are put in the bottom and it is put over two burners, for a large roaster, and the stock is brought to a boil, then reduced to medium so it is a fairly vigorous simmer. The top goes on and you cook it about 8 minutes per pound. At this point it should be nearly done, but I use meat thermometers (designed to remain in the meat during the entire cooking time) which are stuck into the tight and also into the thickest part of the breast, if not stuffed, into the center of the dressing if so. When the thermometer reaches the temperature I want, about 160 degrees, I remove the cover, place it in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes for a small bird, more for a larger one until it is nicely browned. By this time the thermometer should have reached the preset temperature (another advantage of a meat thermometer) between 175 and 180 degrees. Remove the roaster from the oven and let the bird coast for 30 minutes. I guarantee it will be done all the way through and will not be dry. This lessens the cooking time considerably. I have cooked a 35 pound turkey in 5 1/2 hours, total. Total cooking time would be figured at 10 minutes per pound, including the time in the oven for browning. Half the "usual" recommended cooking time.

Whoa!!! When I spoke of "self-sufficiency" in my post of yesterday afternoon, (I signed off early last evening because I am fixing things for the eG potluck tomorrow), I was not referring to women being independent or not. God knows I have been independent almost all my life, through marriages (3) and never relied on my husbands for my livelihood either during or after the marriage. I essentially worked multiple jobs because I wanted to, not because I had to. The Southern Tradition of Self-Sufficiency of which I wrote, was the way many southerners still maintain gardens, keep domestic animals for food and do not have to run to the market for convenience foods every time they have to put a meal together. My cousins, aunts, uncles and sundry other relatives and others, still living on the home farm in Kentucky, are pretty much still self-sufficient. The farm is now a corporation as they market many specialty items to restaurants and hotels in the midwest. But the day to day feeding of folks who live on the farm is not dependent on running to the market. They still have an operational grist mill, now used only for family and friends, but that's how they get their cornmeal (and occasionally send me a care package). They grow a lot of fruits and vegetables for home use, still cook sorghum for molasses and of course there are the livestock. This tradition has hung on in the south longer than in other areas of the country. I know farmers here in California who have thousands of acres under cultivation but make a trip to the market to buy vegetables for their table. I designed and set up a potager for friends who have such a farm near Oxnard, now complete with an extensive herb garden. They never thought of doing it themselves (except for tomatoes and squash) but now love the idea of being able to step out of the back door and pick lettuce, cabbage, Brussells sprouts, dig up their own turnips, carrots, etc. Both were raised on farms so it seemed odd to me that they could market fruit (mostly strawberries, some tomatoes) but not raise other crops for their own consumption. When the garden was finished they bought 30 chickens for eggs as well as for meat and learned the benefits of chicken manure in a small garden. Last February they bought a cow, then three goats. They have yet to try raising a pig, but I keep pushing. Farmers in Iowa, in Minnesota, Nebraska and New Mexico are the same. They simply don't see the point in raising their own food, although a generation ago their parents did. And much of it is because of the barrage of advertising on TV. This generation grew up thinking that if it was mass produced it was somehow better, vitamins added, etc. What they didn't think of is that the only reason vitamins are added is because they are lost in the processing of these foods. When I was traveling a lot when showing dogs, I occasionally made it to a circuit in the south. It was like an invisible barrier had been crossed when I would be invited to dinner at the homes of people I met. The women, many very independent, prided themselves on their "light" rolls, their biscuits or their fried chicken. Impromptu picnics at dogs shows brought out home made foods, not stuff from a deli. Much different from here in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon or Washington, my usual show areas. That is the self-sufficieny which I referred to, i.e., cooking without the aid of frozen entrees, instant this or that or pre-sliced, pre-formed and pre-made sandwiches.

It is true that it is not just in the south that this is happening, in fact, the south is really the last bastion of people being self-sufficient but even that is fading. Things changed gradually and part of it is because of advertising that went into high gear to convince us that we "needed" things and doing things as our mothers and grandmothers did was "drudgery". Appliances were touted as enabling women to "get out of the kitchen" and more involved with the family. However children were getting the message to pay more attention to cartoons and advertising of convenience foodstuffs. In my lifetime I have seen things change in housing. Through the late 50s, young people who left home and took a job, did not move into an apartment alone, they took a room in a boarding house, a transitional home that allowed them to be independent but still have a sort of family on which to rely. The majority of these were in homes of widows with their own families and some were in very nice homes. I read a book many years ago in which the author stated that, in his opinion, some of the best cooks in America were in these establishments. He traveled the country extensively, gathering data for his stories and usually stayed at boarding houses for weeks or months at a time. Sadly, I can't recall the name of the author or the title of the book. (must be the Old-Timer's disease) Television has had an enormous influence on our entire society, and it is so evident in the way meals are taken. It is not unusual to see every family member take their food to a different place in the home and consume it in solitude. There is no interaction and this can be disappointing to a cook who enjoys cooking and would like to see the family enjoy it. I can kill, pluck and dress a chicken and have never broken a gall sac. (Which will spoil the entire carcass) I can't even remember when I learned, but I was quite young. I do know that it was a lot easier to get my hand inside a chicken back then. Now, with arthritic joints, it isn't easy. I have tried to continue the traditions of my family by continuing to prepare foods that are seldom made in the home nowadays. I don't have to do it, it does cost more than buying mass-produced items, but I feel that what I make is better, it is done with care and pride and I feel a great sense of accomplishment in producing something that is special. Even though I am not living in the south, I was born and raised there.

I can't tell you what it is, however I can tell you that it is even stronger in immature green fruit. It is the same as the mucus type stuff that is just under the skin of a chayote squash that acts as a very strong glue - many times I have had my knife handle glued to my hand before I began wearing gloves all the time. The only thing that I have successfully used to remove it is to dampen my hands and use salt to scrub. I keep an open bowl of salt and one of baking soda next to the sink for this purpose. I think the Univ. of Illinois web site has an explanation of the material. - I know one of the univ sites does and I consult that one quite often.

Often I use it to grab something from a container of hot syrup, then hang it from a hook overhead to let the excess syrup drip back into the pot before transferring it to a draining rack, particularly when candying something large and intricate. Or I use it to hold something in place while I use both hands to tie it, such as little rouladen, which are tricky to work with, or clamp it on the end of the string when I am tying a roast, to keep tension on it. The jaws have a cross-cut pattern as they are desgined for holding onto slippery things. Perhaps I find them handy because I have arthritis in my hands, particularly the right, at the bae of the thumb and find it difficult to grasp tongs for any prolonged period. In fact, my grip weakens and I often drop things when using regular tongs.

I LOVE these books-I've read them multiple times. I do wish someone would reprint them in a nicer version; they are such cheesy little paperbacks. I'd love to have a nice hardbound volume, maybe with some photos... Marion Cunningham's Learning to Cook is a great book for beginners. Her Lost Recipes is a great present partly because of the unique way it is bound. ← You can get the Colwin books in hard cover. They are, of course, out of print but if you go to this site, you will see copies of both are available.

Hi! This is an interesting gadget. Have you measured the temperature of the milk after foaming it? Thanks! ← No, but I will. I often use the milk for my tea while my guests like the foam alone or with just a little of the milk. Then there are the cutsey ones who just ladle a bunch of the foam into an empty mug and spoon it up like a dessert with a little cinnamon and sugar or powdered vanilla sprinkled on it. The tell-tale foam on the lip is the tipoff. They don't even bother to look guilty, just grab the milk and start a new batch. Worse than kids..........

Speaking of which - - - big Magnalite roaster! Several smaller ones also. Note that the 4269 is the largest, then the smaller 4267 and 4265 are probably large enough for most families. You can also make a lot of soup or chili in one of these big boys.

The only sheet pans and baking pans we had in my mom's bakery, back when I started out in the 50s, were steel pans. When new they arrived coated in some kind of sticky, rubbery grease that had to be scraped and scrubbed off before they could be used. Then they had to be coated with mineral oil and seasoned. In between use we usually just wiped them down unless something gooey was baked on - then we had to soak and scrub then oil and season again. If we didn't oil them immediately after washing and drying they would rust overnight. I really hated bending over that deep sink, working my way down a stack of sheet pans after baking sticky buns. I always wonder about all these so-called "studies" that prove this or disprove that. I still remember the brouhaha about the sodium cyclamate sweetener that was supposed to cause bladder cancer in rats (it seems that almost everything causes bladder cancer in rats) and it was taken off the market. Only years later was it learned that the amount given to the rats was the same amount that would be given to a human of average weight and that the "study" was funded by a shadow corporation whose money in turn came from a corporation who was getting ready to market another artificial sweetener. One way to kill the competition. Some people used aluminum cookware all their lives with no problems. I think this is yet another case of "the sky is falling syndrome"........

I learned to cook turkey, goose, capon, etc., 50-some years ago and I am still fixing it the same way. It requires a very heavy roasting pan with a tight fitting lid - thus the giant Magnalite roasters (and their smaller siblings) that take up so much space in my storeroom. In fact this is the only way I know how to prepare an extra large turkey (30 pounds and up) without having to start in the middle of the night. It also insures that dressing inside the turkey, should one wish to do it this way, comes up to temp early without too much time spent in the "danger zone." It starts out on top of the stove over two burners, turkey on a rack and with enough stock in the bottom of the pan so that one quickly gets a good bit of steam in the roaster, thus the tight-fitting lid. The last big one I did was a 33-pounder and if roasted the normal way it would take 11 hours, figuring the traditional 20 minutes per pound. My way took 5 1/2 hours. 4 3/4 hours on top of the stove and the last 45 minutes uncovered in the oven to brown. All the meat, including the breast meat, is moist and tender and it is done all the way through. I cook by temp, not by time. I always stick a couple of meat thermometers in a bird this size and near the end of cooking time check on the internal temp periodically. Using these is easier for me than using the instant read thermometers as it only takes a couple of seconds to lift off the lid, check the temps and replace the cover. Even the most rapid "instant-read" thermometers take more time. Most stores offer a "free" bird, or greatly discounted one depending on how much other stuff you buy so give it a try with one of these loss leader items and see what you think. If you don't have a heavy-bottom roaster that you can use directly on a burner, you can use them with heat diffusers. However, ebay often has the Magnalite roasters, usually the medium-sized ones, the 4267 but occasionally a 4269 will show up. They are again available new but the price is fairly high. See it here.

I eat my fries with ketchup, often homemade but any kind will do in a pinch. My homemade mushroom ketchup. I also love fries with chile sauce, the kind that comes in the squat, round jar, if I don't have any homemade. Also, the sweet Thai chile sauce, Mae Ploy brand preferred. mustard mixed with the above, 1 part mustard to 3 prts sweet chile sauce. Sweet soy sauce. sour cream, toasted onion dip - mundane, I know, but I love it!

This is dense foam with tiny bubbles. It has almost the consistancy of whipped cream. It is interesting that the instructions say that it will not whip half and half or cream but I have tried half and half in it and it whips also, not as much volume at the low fat, but certainly enough. I think it is really neat, especially since it is so easy to use and there is no danger of being scalded by steam. However I am a nut case when it comes to gadgets and odd appliances and collect them avidly.

Why are you laughing. That sounds delicious. ← Keeps the cardiologists in business. I eat way to many meals like that. ← You must have missed my earlier post (Post # 2 in this thread) It was one of the things I would fix to go with fondue because the kids didn't like bread or toast in fondue but they loved the Tater Tots dipped into the fondue and then into crumbled bacon and green onions chopped very fine.

I am still trying, after many years of making numerous attempts, to duplicate the candied sweet potatos (or squash) that used to be sold by the street vendors in Mexico City. They carried or wheeled around a little metal brazier, (looked like they were made from a metal 5 gallon can) and would spear (with a round wooden stick that looked like a piece of 1/4 inch dowel with one sharp end) a slab of partially cooked sweet potato from a pot that held a sweet syrup (might have been agave syrup), and put it onto the pierced top of the brazier, turn it a few times until all sides were bubbling and beginning to get black and brown on the edges, then twist a bit of newspaper around the stick and hand it over. I can remember trying to wait until it had cooled enough so one wouldn't scorch lips and tongue because it seemed to be about the temperature of molton lava. One did not have to worry about getting "tourista" from this because no germ could have survived in either the hot syrup or on the surface of the brazier. The closest I have come is parboiling until they were just barely tender, slicing into 1 inch thick rounds, soaking in hot syrup, then cooking over the charcoal grill on one of the pierced pans made for cooking small items on the grill. The problem is that I am not sure that I am using the same kind of sweet potato or if there is a step in the pre-cooking process that I am missing. The last time I was in Mexico City we couldn't find a single one of these particular street vendors, although every other type was there in abundance, although it may have been the wrong time of the year for them. If anyone has any idea about this, I would certainly appreciate it.

Oh yes! I agree 100%. I remember when I read Home Cooking, I kept thinking I should write to her and tell her how much I enjoyed it and how closely her philosophy dovetails with mine. Then I picked up More Home Cooking and was dismayed to see the copyright was for her estate. I missed a chance to communicate with a writer who impressed me so much because I procrastinated.

Let me preface my answer by saying that I have a lot of quirky friends, many are involved in literary pursuits of one type or another, the film and TV industry, education and in various facets of food growing, preparation and similar pursuits. Most of my gifts are of things I make, however if I find a book that might appeal I will include it in my gift baskets or "care packages." This year I have already purchased several copies of Ben Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany, after reading it and deciding it might be enjoyed by some of my friends who received the "Original Miscellany" last year and found it amusing. For people who are just beginning to find an interest in food, or a particular aspect of food, I try to find a book on that specific subject, but one that includes something other than just recipes. Perhaps the history of barbecue, regional barbecue, for someone who has developed such an interest, or whom I know is getting a bang-up major piece of outdoor cooking equipment as a gift from his nearest and dearest. I also gave several copies of American Pie to friends who are pizza addicts and/or, have installed either a brick oven or similar appliance in their kitchens. For those who are only marginally interested in cooking, I rely on an old favorite, Peg Bracken's "I Hate To Cook" book. Whenever I come across this book in a thrift store or used book shop, I buy it because I know sooner or later I am going to find someone who will find it fun to read in additon to having some easily prepared recipes.

There is a sealing compound you can spray onto the acoustic material which will seal in the asbestos because if untreated it constantly "sheds" - you can test this by laying a black sheet on the floor in a room and slamming a door. Regular water-based paint will not seal it, you have to have one of the resin compounds.

Let me preface this by saying that I have enjoyed your first book and The Curious Cook since they were first published. I am a collector of kitchen gadgets and I have often wondered why no one has ever marketed self-retaining tongs for the kitchen. I have worked for many years for an orthopedic surgeon and we have self-retaining clamps that work opposite of "normal" clamps, in that squeezing the handles opens the jaws and a strong spring holds them closed. It seems to me that such a tool would be a natural as sometimes one needs a "third hand" for holding onto something. My solution is simply to buy a pair from a medical supply, which, things being the way they are, means they are very expensive. They are also difficult to keep as more than a couple have gone missing after a party at my home. Would you use such a tool if one were manufactured for use in the kitchen and do you think it might become popular with serious home cooks or with professionals?

Any water in which pasta, vegetables, anything but meat and dairy, is cooked, I drain into a bucket, let it cool and it gets poured onto the compost. In very dry weather a little is drizzled into the worm composting bins. It really accelerates the composting effect. Now that the weather is cool, especially at night, there is steam coming off the compost heaps. I have a special thermometer with a 24 inch probe to test it and it has gotten up to 145 degrees.

High tea is traditionally more like supper, with heartier foods. Afternoon tea, cream tea, etc., would be what I would look for. The last time I was in New York, we stayed at the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South and had a delightful afternoon tea. I believe the Pierre also had one that was well-rated. You might check this link Guide to Tea shops at Cat-Tea corner. The site is maintained by one of the owners of the Tea List, the email tea forum. Janis keeps everything wonderfully up to date.

I save just about everything also. I have several sets of "vintage" canisters and kitchen accessories from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s and just about every one has a "Grease" container. I am still using the grease container (very large) from a set of West Bend aluminum canisters - I have retired the rest of the canisters as I keep everything in Cambro containers now, but still use the grease container for bacon drippings. I never stopped using it because I always thought that cholesterol was more a matter of genetics than diet and never trusted the artificial stuff. (Since I have recently been proved right about some of these things I still trust my own judgement.) My garbage disposal gets only a small amount of use. All vegetable/fruit scraps go to into the worm composting bins or the regular compost. Bread is turned into crumbs or croutons. Cakes and quick breads also. Leftover vegetables go into a container in the freezer for use in soups and stews. Like most of you I save bones and such for stock. I was born at the end of the depression and my family was not affected much by the depression, mainly because the farm was pretty much self-sufficient and the same thing was true during the war. The family was just naturally frugal. Both of my grandfathers had contracts with the government to sell beef, pork and poultry, lard and sorghum molasses, to Ft. Campbell, and Ft. Knox, in Kentucky. This meant they were allowed much more gasoline than most people. I think most of the grease produced on the farm was used on the farm or sold directly to the Army for kitchen use - I know for sure lard was because it was packed into big metal drums and had a government seal put on the rim. The only thing I remember saving for the war effort was tin foil and steel cans, although we didn't have a lot of food in cans, most was canned at home. But "exotic" stuff like pineapple would come in cans, and tuna fish. Both ends of the cans were cut out and the cans flattened. I liked to do that.

Black ones with colored dots? Where? When? Who carries them?

Some utensils have become obsolete during my lifetime. This picture of a place setting of my grandmother's sterling includes an individual butter knife. The service butter knife is shown along with the sugar shell in the upper right. I use this all the time and the only time it ever gets polished is when it has been near eggs. The individual butter knives were phased out during the 40s. In some of the older sets there are several more pieces in each place setting. I have those in a safe deposit box because at the moment I don't have an adequate safe or one that is large enough to hold all the things I don't want to lose.