andiesenji

When I was catering, I made candied orange and lemon cups but they were part of the dessert and were intended to be consumed, though many guests only ate a portion. They are labor intensive and you need really large lemons - medium-sized oranges. As noted by Lisa, the health code anywhere in the U.S. would absolutely forbid the reuse of any food item. Even the elaborate cast sugar decorations used on cakes, even if they are not sold, cannot be reused. And in fact quite a few years ago an L.A. bakery was cited and fined from removing decorations from stale cakes and storing them for reuse. (a disgruntled former employee tattled) Not only did they have to discard all those "saved" roses and etc., they had to toss ones that had been newly made and stored in the freezer because the "new" ones were not separated from the "used" ones.

Food Safety News Sept. 7, 2016 Island Soups Co. recalls six soups that could cause botulism. Company is in St. Albans, NY http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2016/09/island-soups-co-recalls-soups-that-could-cause-botulism/

We raised pigeons (squab) on my grandpa's farm and one of the chores we kids were given was to tend the dovecotes and "harvest" the squabs - this is when they are fully grown but don't yet have feathers. It doesn't take long to learn how to estimate the weight by just lifting them, leaving the underweight ones to fatten a bit more. The meat is very tender because they have never used their muscles to fly - unlike wild pigeons. We had 10 dovecotes and as I recall there were a dozen tiers for nesting in each one and probably 20 nests on each tier. (We ate a lot of squab) It was important to keep the cotes clean and well ventilated and free of vermin - rats like squab too - and so do cats so we had a couple of small "rat" terriers that were very adept at ratting in the cotes. My grandpa's cook made "smothered squabs" in big roasting pans with a fantastic gravy - for "company dinners" I have the recipe in one of my recipe boxes - I will see if I can find it and will put it on my blog and if anyone is interested, will post it here too.

I agree, Porthos. I have seen some really filthy stuff offered for sale in one local thrift shop lately. It's as if they don't even look at it. A couple of weeks ago they were offering a Corning visions sauce pan that still had food stuck in the bottom and a big chip in the edge of the lid. I pointed it out to one of the volunteers and she just shrugged and said, "we don't wash dishes or pots and pans." And they had the thing priced at $8.00. The church thrift shop on the other side of town puts out nice, clean stuff and for much less. I have never seen any Visions piece there for more than 5.00 and that was the roasting pan with lid in perfect condition.

As I have noted in previous posts, dried fruits and candied fruits can become too hard for successful use in baking. Steaming works very well to rehydrate the fruit without losing the candied effect or the color. On PAGE 13 in this thread, I posted photos of dried fruit before and after steaming - so if you go to that page, scroll down a bit past half way, you can see the difference. I also steam candied ginger that has dried out over time - recently I moved a stack of empty Cambro containers and found one at the back of the shelf that was half full of candied ginger - probably from four or five years ago. It is hard enough to grind but I am going to steam some of it to bring it back from the "dead" which has always worked nicely for me. In a way, this is serendipity because I was planning on buying a few pounds of ginger and candying a batch for fall cooking and baking. With this "trove" now I can omit that task.

Food Safety News from yesterday: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2016/09/fda-seeks-egypts-help-on-outbreak-linked-to-strawberries/ Hepatitis A is not something to pass off as minor. It can have serious effects on people with liver disease or compromised immune systems, people with transplants, taking anti-rejection drugs. So far it appears the distribution is limited but they are still trying to track down all the vendors.

I am really enjoying the Oster oven. My baking molds fit in, except for the popover rack, which is just about 3/4 inch too long for the doors to close. I too have baked tall bread loaves but more important, I baked some sponge cakes, in the tall tube pans with the "feet" that holds the pan upside down to cool. These sponge cakes (orange chiffon) rise almost an inch above the pan edges and they baked nicely without having the top scorched - which really doesn't matter because it would be the bottom of the cake to serve, but it's annoying. I did a cheese soufflé and it came out perfect. I roasted a chicken with a parchment "tent" because I wanted a crisp skin but no spatters and it worked nicely. I used it to "toast" lightly several THICK slices of bread for a bread and butter pudding with the "Toast" setting at 2 instead of the standard 4 - this on the digital and the toast came out evenly toasted, crisp and just right. The pudding baked nicely too. Cyberider - I don't think you have enough clearance on the side of the oven next to the other one. Check the instructions, You really do need to have adequate clearance for circulation so the oven itself can exhaust some of the heat.

#3 looks very similar to the dried lemongrass sold in the SE Asian market here in long bunches.

Another interesting advantage to this oven, that some people seem to not like, is that tiny gap between the doors when fully closed. Yesterday I did a roast wrapped in foil - with some dried onions and seasoning (I used to use Lipton's onion soup mix but it has too much salt). Anyway - I used my ThermoWorks remote probe thermometer and the cable fit perfectly in that little gap between the doors. This morning I baked biscuits again, and this time I preheated it and used the convection/bake setting. Got more early rise than with putting them in the cold oven. Still very pleased with this oven.

YES it is Dutched. And has an intense flavor. In fact, if you blend it with simple syrup, it makes a very nice chocolate syrup. Start out with one tablespoon to 4 ounces of syrup and then add more to taste. That will give you an idea of how intense the flavor is - when subbing for other lighter cocoas, I start out with 2/3 the amount of the regular cocoa and add more if it needs it. I have one of those little electric muffin bakers which I use to test cake experiments - takes about 6 to 8 minutes to "bake" one. I taste and then adjust the flavors. Saves wasting an entire batch of batter. and the thing was cheap - I got it at Overstock for $12.00

I have used it a great deal. I use it in my fruited cocoa cake and in my cocoa cookies mixed half and half with the black cocoa and I get a result that is similar to Oreos. The flavor is deep and very satisfying. I have used it in pudding both egg base and made with other thickeners. One "quick" pudding I have had nice success with is with using equal parts Double Dutch cocoa and Bird's Custard Powder using the recommended amount of sugar for the plain custard and then adding a bit more "to taste" after mixing with the hot milk. I have also taken this same "recipe" a bit further by adding a tablespoon of espresso powder.

It is still quite new. I have not yet tried the "grill" function. I am sure that will dirty it up a bit. But I do try to keep things clean. This has bot a drip pan and the pan that came with it, which is slightly larger than a 1/4 sheet pan in both dimensions. The fact that my 15-inch pizza pans fit it really floats my boat. I like to use them because they are heavy steel and are virtually non-stick but without a non-stick coating. Made by Hoffritz - which no longer makes them. I have four and wish I had bought more. If I have to rotate the pan if something is not baking evenly, it is much easier to just spin the pan rather than pull it out and turn it - especially with my arthritic hands.

I bought some new back in the '60s. I still have three or four - sold a couple of the more colorful "bakelite" handles with some bakelite flatware a while back. They work great on cakes baked in tube pans - sponge cakes, angel-food and even on some of the not-so-dense Bundt cakes and are excellent for loaf cakes - including pound cakes, but they are pretty much useless for regular round cakes. They were developed to keep from "crushing" the lighter sponge cakes when using a traditional knife. They sort of bridged the gap until knives with serrated edges came along. I have one, which was my grandmother's and she used it for angel food cakes - and then in the late '40s for the newly introduced ORANGE CHIFFON cake, which became a family favorite. (Made with Softasilk Cake flour).

Sorry, I did not pay attention to the photos. I have the Digital model. Still very happy with it. This is with a 15-inch pizza pan holding current scones and with a 1/4 size sheet pan on the bottom shelf. Used the convection setting 400°F 11 minutes. The sheet pan fits either way.

Holy cow! How can it be that much more in Canada? How much does it cost to drive to the states? No wonder a friend who used to live in Hamilton would drive to Niagara Falls to a friend's place to get things shipped there.

You can put a metal pot rack, as noted by Pastrygirl above the range and many have a "shelf" or metal grid. Where I live, if there is no exhaust hood, the minimum clearance above a gas cooktop for any cabinet is 48" - minimum clear space above an electric is 36" You should check the CODE in your area because if you have a fire - due to the kitchen range or cooktop, and there is not adequate clearance above the burners, your fire insurance can refuse to pay. Overstock has this one on sale.

????? To what does this refer?

You can get these. I had one in my kitchen back in the '70s for the KA 5 qt bowl lift mixer and I had a second one for my large electric meat grinder. From Sears From HOme depot

They work fine on glass top electric.

No, it does not take long at all. The water boils quickly - these also work on gas stoves - or on electric stoves but on the old coil type you need a spacer. with the automatic ones, the power switches to "low" or shuts off completely and as soon as the temp drops in the bottom chamber, the vacuum should suck the brewed coffee down into the bottom vessel.

Interesting that this topic has surfaced yet again. I seem to recall that there have been earlier threads with extensive discussions about the various aspects of coffee, selecting a variety, roasting, brewing and etc. As noted above. If you are HAPPPY with your setup and the quality of the brew - do as you wish. There is not a test or a snap quiz. Satisfy yourself always. That's my philosophy about COFFEE - or anything else for that matter. I still use one of my Senseo machines - making my own pods with my pod sealer - I use premium coffees and my preference is dark roast and I often blend some selections together. I have mentioned in the past that I have a collection of vintage coffee brewers, including quite a few vacuum brewers, most from the 1930s. Three weeks ago I had some unexpected guests who noticed my Silex machines and asked if they still worked. So I had to demonstrate how the Silex "Lido" made in 1937, still worked perfectly. It has its own "stove" - a small, fitted hot plate. It is a 10 cup brewer - 6oz cups. The coffee was exceptional. One of my guests has a Technivorm and declared the Silex coffee was superior to the results he is getting but opined it may have been the coffee. So I gave him some of my beans so he could grind them fresh and brew a batch in his machine. He phoned a couple of days later and said that the Technivorm coffee was "okay" but did not have the complexity he tasted in the vacuum brewed coffee. This past Monday he phoned and told me he had purchased a Silex on etsy and had received it Saturday, waited until Sunday to find the instructions on line (for some reason he did not want to ask me) and brew a pot. He is very impressed with the quality of the brew. Since the one he got was smaller, he is now watching for one like mine.

I've used "toasted" flour for decades, for rustic breads - for ryes and seeded breads. For oatmeal breads I toast the oatmeal too. I generally use up to half toasted flour and half "raw" bread flour. Occasionally I use 2/3 toasted and 1/3 raw. You do have to add some vital wheat gluten - if you are using all toasted because the heating will degrade the gluten and the crumb will be too tight and crumbly. It works really well with high hydration and with extended fermentation in the fridge doughs. I toast it in a large skillet - stirring constantly with a wooden "spatula" with a broad, flat end. I keep a spoon full of the raw flour next to the skillet to check the degree of toasting - I aim for an old ivory shade or ecru. I also toss in a couple of tablespoons of diastatic malt powder for each pound of flour after toasting. This will counter the slight bitterness that develops along with the toasty flavor. If I am planning to use several whole grains - wheat, barley, spelt, etc., along with seeds .. I toast the whole grains and then grind them in the Nutrimill. Then I mix in some raw bread flour - you can use all purpose but as I buy a lot of bread flour, I usually have more of that. I have tinkered around with toasting soft wheat flour - Odlums cream flour - and Odlums wholemeal flour to make some of the "wholemeal biscuits" (a cake-like cookie) made with lard and which specified toasting the flour in the original recipe given to me. One recipe called these "lardy cakes" and now that I am trying to locate the recipe, can't find it. One of the baking journal sites discusses roasting flour for baking but I have been unsuccessful in finding that also. I have thousands of bookmarks and right now the "search" function is letting me down. More later.

They will close if they are not opened all the way. People SHOULD READ THE INSTRUCTIONS it states clearly that the doors will close automatically unless opened fully to the "stop" point. My old Blodgett oven had the same type doors. Open fully to stay open and once they were past the half-way point they would close all the way on their own. Mine looked like this but it was on a base with shelves. It was gas and I had to have a large gas line installed for it. I also had the "steam" function add on which took up space in the bottom so it only held 7 trays instead of 10. I rarely used more than 4 pans at a time, usually only two to allow for the bread to rise. Ben bakes a lot of cookies so he uses it to full capacity.

Both doors open when you open one and when all the way open they stay open till you close them. I have no problem with the very small space between the doors. It is less than 1/8 inch.

The Oster oven is working out quite well. Today I baked a banana almond cake. I did not preheat the oven. Set it on convection, 325°F for one hour. (Adapted the recipe from an America's Test Kitchen recipe using their timing) Turned out perfectly. Browned perfectly which has been a problem with this recipe in the past - too pale. Done all the way through, temp in the center 210° F. And I really LOVE those French doors.