andiesenji

I use a grapefruit knife for small melons and for mangos. But I also use one for grapefruit. They also come in handy for young coconut - the Mexican supermarket carries them. I cut the top off with a cleaver. Then slice the soft meat out in layers.

I have several of them. I use them for scraping the skin off ginger and galangal, other fiddly roots that are too uneven for peelers.

I was getting ready. We had just installed a huge Garland range with 8 burners a griddle with salamander and two full-sized ovens and the "warming oven" up top 36" above the cooktop. We also had a commercial 80 gallon, high temp hot water heater and a Hobart undercounter dishwasher. I had to get certification for the kitchen from the L.A. County health department, which took several months. But I did a lot of volunteer stuff with my "portable" 4 burner propane stove. Pancake breakfasts outside for the service clubs, Lions, Elks, etc., in shopping centers. The adjustable pancake dropper was a fantastic purchase - it was on sale that day. And so were the full-size sheet pans - I bought a dozen - buy ten, get two free. I still have some of them - I use them on my wire shelving where they fit perfectly and allow small bottles and jars to sit securely.

I first "discovered" Star restaurant supply back in the late '60s. It was next door to Builder's Emporium and we went there to pick up some lumber. I told my husband I was going to "take a look" at what they had in Star. An hour later he was frantically looking for me and finally remembered my mentioning the place. He found me with a pile of stuff on the counter and discussing knives with the clerk. I know I spent nearly $200. that day and money went a lot further back then.

That's the Danish dough whisk. I wrote about them on several threads over the years. I have two sizes and have often recommended them for quick breads and biscuit/scone doughs where you don't want to overwork the dough.

I was chatting with an ex neighbor, who moved a few miles away a few years ago. She reminded me that when I first moved here, in 1988 and got acquainted with them, and after her husband did a number of repairs in my home. And installed some things that were too heavy for me, I wanted to pay them but they refused my money. So on a ruse, I took Celia to Star Restaurant Supply and asked her advice on purchasing some things and asked her for her "wish list" - I bought them and presented them to her. For folks in the greater L.A. area, this is a treasure trove for the avid cook.

I got one for watermelons but it did not work well for me.

Early last year my egg man brought me a lot of eggs and shortly afterward I learned I was going to go for open heart surgery and would be away for about two months. I separated the yolks from the whites, put them in Cambro containers that seal tightly and froze them. When I was catering, I used to buy frozen eggs all the time and never had a problem with using them. There are numerous sites on the internet that tell you how to do it if you are worried. You can freeze whole eggs but I found it easier to separate them. MAKE SURE NOT EVEN A SPECK OF YOLK GETS IN WITH THE WHITES. They keep for months.

Has anyone mentioned silicone lids in various sizes and shapes? I have a bunch of them that fit everything from a mug to a large rectangular baking dish. They work in the OVEN as well as in the microwave. This is a photo I took a few years ago. Since then I have added several more of the Charles Viancin lids and other accessories, including the big "banana leaf" and the Sunflower lids. Also the "Overboil" large ring that keeps liquid in the pots. The last time I was in Bed, Bath and Beyond they had a special on some of these products. The ENTIRE range of lids is on this page - It takes a while to load. There are several I would like to have to add to my "collection" - especially the large oblong "Poppy" and the Maple Leaf dome.

I have used mine just this past week or so for prying some olives out of a tall, narrow jar. I used them to place some vegetables into a hot pot around a partially roasted guinea hen, without burning my hands and fingers because I wanted them placed precisely. In fact most of the time I use them it is to avoid touching hot pans when something needs shifting and a fork just doesn't do the trick. I've also used them when lacing up a turkey or large roasting hen because I can hold onto them easier than a trussing needle. Oh. I also used them last night to retrieve a measuring spoon that fell under the burner on my stovetop, while I had a skillet on the burner. I didn't want to move the skillet, turn off the burner and wait till everything cooled. I keep them in one of my tool caddies so they are always handy.

You can get 12 inch specimen forceps for about 8 dollars. And if you want something sturdier, you can get "sponge forceps" or "instrument forceps" that have loop ends for secure grabbing. They are even cheaper. I think I paid about 5 dollars for the last pair I bought from an ebay vendor and the shipping was free.

Some great ideas. I have just about everything mentioned here. In fact, I think I introduced the Danish dough whisk several years ago when I mentioned how quickly it blends quick breads where you want to handle and work the dough as little as possible to keep it from becoming tough. In my collection of kitchen gadgets, I have a lot of potato mashers but the arthritis in my right hand has made it difficult to use most of them. (I detest whipped potatoes so don't use a mixer.) A while back I got this Kukpo potato masher, which I can use with both hands. It does a fantastic job on potatoes and also on fruits, bananas and other stuff that requires mashing. It's 11 dollars at Amazon. Very reasonable. I often make the "smashed" oven baked whole potatoes and this does a brilliant job.

I have about a hundred mixing bowls. Most are "vintage" pottery from the '20s and '30s, a lot are Pyrex, Hazel Atlas, Federal, Anchor Hocking from the '30s and '40s '50s and some are newer from the '60s, '70s and '80s. Haven't bought many newer ones but I do have a set of the stainless steel Vollrath SS mixers - I think there are 10 in the set. I did have some with the silicone or whatever it was, non-slip bottoms. They did not survive my old dishwasher - the commercial Hobart.

Much envy here. I love copper.

I always keep heavy cream on hand. I use the "manufacturers cream" from Alta Dena - it is not "ultra-pasteurized" and works better for making cream cheese. Currently I have a half gallon on hand. I use it for baking - my biscuits are simply 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of self-rising flour. If I want to have scones, I add some vanilla, 3 tablespoons of sugar. Optional - dried fruits.

I phoned Ben this morning and he said he uses one of the large soup or stock cooling "wands" filled with ice inside the pumpkin to cool the ale. He dumps in ice with rock salt into the wand so it really keeps the ale chilled so well it sometimes has little flakes of ice in it.

I buy the white dent dried corn from Great River (25 pounds) and grind my own cornmeal. They now sell via Amazon so with Prime, shipping is free. I keep it in the freezer so it doesn't go rancid. I like to grind some medium coarse and some fine and combine the two, I find the texture of the cornbread is so much better that way.

I haven't had that happen. Maybe you should just try cooking the rice first - at least partially so it doesn't require as long a cooking time. I use Lundberg brown rice which takes less time to cook that other brown rices (don't ask me why, I have no idea). Ah. I just went out and went through the motions of putting rice pudding together. I don't use a recipe, haven't for decades, just wing it. I add some heavy cream to the milk - I think the higher butterfat content keeps it from breaking. I had completely forgotten that I do this. I recently saw a recipe for "creamy rice pudding" on Facebook or in one of the blogs I visit, that mentioned using milk with some heavy cream added. Sorry you had this experience.

This doesn't fall into the "bargain" category but I was surprised to see a product at Walmart today. I don't shop there often but a neighbor reported that the local supercenter is now carrying Martha White and White Lily self-rising cornmeal. (Not yet carrying the flour products) However, the product that startled me was Xanthan Gum. Right there on the shelf next to the almond meal and coconut flour. The store is stocking unusual baking ingredients "superfoods" flours, powders and etc. They even have some King Arthur Flour products. Several gluten-free products and specialty flours.

I know a guy up at Mammoth who makes pumpkin ale and puts it into giant pumpkins with taps for parties he caters. He has been doing this for several years - he make a "plain" pumpkin ale and a "spiced" pumpkin ale. He buys the pumpkins from a grower in Bishop who "trains" the pumpkins to grow tall rather that squatty by confining them in 55 gallon drums that have been cut in half and are held together with bands or straps while the pumpkins are growing. Apparently there are a lot of people up in that area who use the pumpkins for kegs. Ben grew up in New England, (Maine and New Hampshire) and told me that pumpkin ale was a "thing" in New England with old timers and he grew up hearing stories about how it was made during prohibition and tucked away in barns, in pumpkins.

If you are using brown rice, you should soak it in plain water for at least an hour then drain it well and rinse it thoroughly. Mix half the sugar with 3/4 of the milk before adding it to the rice and cook it on the plain WHITE rice setting. Beat the rest of the sugar and the milk with the eggs add a little of the hot rice to this mix to temper it and then add it back into the rice cooker and stir well. Now restart the rice cooker - still set on white rice and set your timer for 30 minutes. Check it at 30 minutes - some brown rice (Lundberg) cooks quicker than others. If still too chewy let it go another 15 minutes. Cooking for too long in a rice cooker, on the stove or in the oven will cause the milk to "break" - unless it has an ingredient to offset that factor (sugar) - some people mix Karo syrup with the milk or even sweetened condensed milk which will absolutely keep it from breaking. (a trick used in some restaurants). When I was catering I made rice pudding with red colusari rice, which produces a lovely pink result. It was tricky to work with and I did a lot of trial and error (many errors) before I found the formula.

Yes. They made them in two depths so they could be stacked. I have both somewhere in my junk, although one is missing the handle - I dropped it and it landed on the end of the handle which cracked. Before I got my electric steamer I used it with a "pot grabber" to lift it out. They were made that way so you could steam different items in the two different pans. It was recommended to put meat or fish in the bottom and vegetables or things like potstickers in the top.

Don't forget to take the beater paddles out at the end of the final knead cycle.

There are a lot of You Tube videos showing how sorghum molasses is made. Unlike most farms in Kentucky - my grandpa had two silos and the crushed canes were spread on a drying floor and allowed to dry for several days and then chopped and fed into the silo, along with corn stalks, for silage for winter feed. Nothing was wasted.

The "new sorghum" fresh from the reducing pans has a higher acid content of about 4.0 ph. During storage the acidity modifies slightly and after several months will read about 5.0 to 5.5. On my grandpa's farm, the sorghum was stored in wooden kegs that had been "scorched" with charcoal (contained in a wire cage) on the inside. They were stored like wine barrels on racks. The molasses was later drained into gallon cans and sealed. Most was sold to small grocery stores in the region. There was usually a keg in the cellar with a tap for household use. Cook kept the supply for immediate use in a big enamel coffee pot that always had a cloth draped over it. My cousins and I got to feed the fires under the reducing pans. It took several days - the cane was cut and immediately hauled to the crusher because it had to be really fresh. The sap was filtered through heavy muslin cloths that were switched out and boiled in fresh water in a big old cast iron cauldron every couple of hours the funnel that fed into the dispensing pot where the kegs were filled had a stack of screens and perforated metal filters that were also cleaned in boiling water constantly. Crystals would form in the corners of the final reducing pan and the "sugar man" would scrape the stuff out and give it to us as a treat. My cousin Clark burned his arm on the edge of a pan trying to reach in and pick some out. He did not try that again.