andiesenji

For the egg lovers who live in SoCal. If you are near a Vallarta Supermarket, they have their JUMBO eggs $2.49 a dozen and they are very fresh. They were 3.29 at Walmart. I got two dozen yesterday, the packing date is 103 so I think that means they were packed on April 11. The sell by date is May 10. The yolks are very yellow, they stand up high in the white and the flavor is excellent (fried). I think this is a pretty good price and both Vallarta markets in my area have a rapid turnover of dairy goods so eggs are always fresh. They have smaller eggs at great prices compared to the regular markets here, even Walmart.

I never kept mine in the freezer. I just filled it with ice and then some water, sometimes with rock salt to lower the temp further. I have an ice maker so always loaded with ice.

There have been times when all the burners on my stove top, the oven, my secondary oven were in use and I needed to toast some spices or seeds or whatever for a recipe. I have a little six-inch square electric skillet that is the perfect size for toasting spices. It was cheap, I don't think I spent more that twelve or fifteen dollars for it and that is the only thing it does. And sometimes I take it out on the deck to toast some very strong spices so I don't have the intense aroma in the house. I used to have a coffee roaster. It died and I did not replace it. I used it a lot for toasting cacao nibs - now I use the Thermomix for that chore. Some friends who are coffee fanatics recently got a new electric coffee roaster, I think it is a Burman or Berman, and it has a vertical chamber instead of horizontal. It is small, only holds small batches. Cute. I'm not sure of the cost.

Back when I was growing a lot of chiles and drying them, I made cheap screened frames, 6' x 3' hinged two together with hook fasteners on the open side with hooks in each corner so I could hang them horizontally so they were off the ground and so the birds couldn't get at them, which would happen if I left them out open. I had 3 of the units (6 doors) and gave them to my neighbor who has since moved a few miles away, has more land and grows a lot of peppers. Still using those frames I made with stretcher bars. The ravens here LOVE peppers and I had shade cloth over the rows of plants to keep them away.

Yes. Depending on the size of the vessel, I would "stir" the liquid with this, or spin it around. They make bigger ones but this worked fine for me. I never actually froze water in mine. (did not think ahead) I just filled it with ice then water to the fill line. On several occasions I added rock salt to the ice and then just a little water for an even quicker chill - to cool ice cream custard rapidly - I think the batch was about 3 gallons. It has a rubber gasket to seal it shut and I never had a problem with leaking. I can't even remember why I bought two or if I bought them at the same time. It's possible I bought one, misplaced it and bought another - that has happened with other things that tended to go astray in my collection of junk.

If there is a Middle eastern store in your area, check there. The local one here carries a couple of different types of lemons, one has the thicker "coarser" skin with deep pores and is preferred by the locals for candying the peel. I phoned today and was told they are "Cyprus lemons" and John sent me a photo. They are very large and the rind is 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. And the skin looks "warty". They also carry "sweet lemons" which are globe shaped and have a thinner, slicker skin with tiny "pores" and which are similar to the Mexican sweet limes (yellow) but not exactly the same. I have candied just about very type of citrus that can be found in California or Mexico. An ex neighbor, with whom I am still friends and see often, has a brother in Ojai who raises "fancy and exotic" citrus and sells direct to hotels and restaurants. My neighbor has brought me various fruits over the years, enormous oranges the size of grapefruits, huge lemons, buddah hand, pomelos and limes as well as bitter oranges for marmalade. Most citrus is very easy to candy. Limes are tricky because some turn an ugly gray instead of remaining green and you never know which ones are going to do this until the cooking in syrup is underway. And the drying after candying is also tricky. Take it too far and you get a tough, leathery result. You need a coarser than regular granulated sugar for the final coating. I like the Mexican "azucar" raw sugar. Or you can spend more money on the "sparkling" sugar designed for coating. I found this photo on a site about Cyprus/drinks/lemons.

I candy lemon peel and have done for decades. Look for the lemons with the rougher appearing skin with large "pores" as that indicates thicker peel. And try to get the largest lemons you can find. Observe my method of removing the peel as I demonstrate on an orange HERE. Flatten the peel and cut it into long strips instead of crossways as I do with the orange. You have to boil the peel in three changes of fresh water to get rid of the bitterness. If you want just a small batch, use the microwave method. It works just fine but you have to watch it constantly, sugar boils over. Set the vessel on a paper plate so if it does boil over, the cleanup is easy. The standard method of candying is simmering the parboiled peel in simple syrup, starting with a 1:1 sugar/water ratio until the pith just begins to look slightly translucent and then in a 1 1/2:1 ratio until the peel and most of the pith is translucent finish in a 2:1 ratio until it is fully translucent Times can vary, depending on how thick the peel is.

The Hobart sounded like a 747 taking off but it was over so quickly, not very annoying. It was popular with my neighbors who used to entertain a lot (huge family). They would use the dishwasher in exchange for taking care of my yard and garden, cleaning the house and teaching me how to make Mexican foods.

Ah, but when I was working with these, I still had the Hobart dishwasher - 90 second cycle - and it cleaned the nooks and crannies perfectly.

I have had large batches of vanilla beans dry out when I did not pay attention and the vac seal broke. Just as I do with hardened fruits - I have mentioned this many times before - I steam those suckers! This rehydrates and softens the beans and you can smell it throughout the house. I then put them in alcohol immediately - don't try to reseal them, they will develop mold. If I need to simmer one in milk or cream, I just pull the whole beans out of the alcohol, plunk them into the dairy and simmer until the intensity of flavor I want is achieved.

It certainly came in handy when I was shuffling several things around from stove top to fridge in a short period of time. The other one looks like it went a few rounds with the stove. It has a couple of "dings" where it rolled off the tray and hit the hot stove grate and sat there for a couple of minutes before I could get a hand free to grab it. Has a couple of places where it melted slightly from being in contact with the hot grate. Still works though. Tough stuff.

AlaMoi, my sentiments exactly. I like the heat retention of cast iron because after all these decades of using it, I know how long the "carry over" is and I use that. When I prepare my "famous" scrambled eggs, I turn off the burner and allow the residual heat to finish the cooking and they turn out perfect every time. And it also works with delicate fish. And with other things that can go bad rapidly if left with too much heat too long but need a gentle warmth, not an abrupt switch to cold for the desirable texture.

I bought two of the big Cuisinart processors when I was still catering. Used one a lot but only used the other sporadically. Haven't used it for a few years. I think they are 20 cup capacity. I got them at a discount and it took the best part of 1K in about '88 - '90. DLC-XPlus 1.5 HP direct drive motor. Bowl is 8" in diameter, 5 1/4" deep. I never found a task these would not handle and I put the one through a lot of tough stuff. grated a lot of very hard cheese. I don't think I ever used the grating blades on the other one. A chef friend showed me how to work around the necessity of having the inner feed tube locked in place but I have forgotten how and anyways, in this unit the feed tube is large enough that I never found it necessary to bypass the safety switch.

I have a #12 unmarked Wagner from the 1950s that has an inner surface that feels like glass. For decades this was my "fish pan" because I could fry any type of fish and it never stuck. I no longer use it so put it on ebay but I have several others, smaller and easier for me to handle. The thing is that these "modern" iterations of the antique cast iron skillets and those made up until the late '50s, are more expensive but not any more efficient or desirable. I was given one of the "Lodge Logic" pans to try and it was not nearly as non-stick as my 100 year old cornbread pan (Griswold). I gave it back to the person who wanted me to try it. Also heavier than my old Griswold. I can drop an egg in my "egg pan" tilt the skillet and have it slide all over the bottom with only a hint of grease (bacon drippings are my choice for eggs). Today I made gashouse egg (egg in a hole cut out of a slice of bread) and that too slid around the pan. I guess for me, in this instance, there is a bit too much "hype" in this presentation. I've been using CI pans for 50+ years and I have yet to see one of the new ones that is better than the ones I inherited. I have sold several during the past year and buyers have written to me from as far away as New Zealand on how perfect these are for certain foods. I'm keeping the smaller ones as I can still handle them.

In case anyone is interested, I just put this on ebay, item # 182077252513. I had purchased two, only used the one and this one has been lingering on the back of a shelf in my pantry for some time. Never been out o the box until I opened it to take photos. It's really handy when you need to cool a liquid rapidly. I used the other a lot for stock and for ice cream mix when I made a gallon or more and was in a hurry. I found that starting with a chilled liquid produced ice cream with less "grain" than when a hot or warm liquid was introduced to the machine.

Regarding the cocktail shaker hack. May I point you all to item #3 in this list of "hacks" for the kitchen from Tasting Table that was in my Facebook news feed today. I have a near antique, huge cocktail shaker - on the bottom Patented April 15, 1919. It belonged to a great uncle who was a bartender and part owner of one of the river boats that worked the Ohio from Paducah, KY to Cincinnati, OH until Prohibition. He and my aunt moved to Cuba and then to Vera Cruz, where he bought a small hotel. They returned in the mid '30s and he became a liquor distributor. Dicey in Kentucky because some counties were "dry" like the one in which I was born and raised, and sometimes local police would stop transporters and seize their goods. Anyway, my aunt had no children so after he died, she sent me a box of things, including this shaker. It has a weighted bottom and she said he used it to crack chunks of ice, holding the ice in his hand and banging it with the bottom of the shaker. The fact that it has survived for almost a hundred years is testament to how well it was made.

I also have the extra large Wusthof cheese knife, as well as the smaller one. It works great on large wheels of caerphilly or cheddar. For the harder cheeses I have a cheese wire but use it for horizontal cutting, loop it around the cheese and it usually takes two people to cut some of the big ones, then I use the long Wusthof. I don't do that much anymore but when I was catering, we did huge cheese boards for serving up to 50 people. Here: Little Wusthof cheese knife, big Wusthof cheese knife, big pizza knife (American Metalcraft).

I've got a vintage cheese knife made by dexter and the handles are at each end and the blade is thinner and straight though some were slightly curved, they are still very thin. Yours looks like an old "50s pizza cutter. We had one at my mom's bakery and used it for cutting big round galettes - 12" diameter. This is cheese knife.

I am bumping up this topic because I am getting ready to put my HUGE STAUB 12.5 quart "Cocotte" oval French oven on ebay and though I would first give a heads up to folks here who might want an enormously heavy, extra large vessel that is ideal for braising large hunks of meat and can also be used over two burners on a stove. I have difficulty lifting it empty - and if filled, it is impossible. I even have trouble lifting it with the lid in place. It weighs 27 pounds 7 ounces. In the past it has been used to roast a saddle of wild boar, a crown roast of pork, a full prime rib and a saddle of venison (when I was still prepping game for hunters whose wives were not interested in knowing how to prepare game for roasting. It has also held big batches of chicken and dumplings for a crowd and a turkey that dressed out at 31 pounds. I had help with lifting it with all these big and heavy items. Also, I no longer have an oven into which it will fit. I know this big oval French oven is no longer sold in the U.S. but is still available in Europe and possibly in Canada - a friend bought one in Quebec City a couple of years ago. The ones half this size, 7 quart, sell (discounted) for $344.95 - Regular price $493.00. If anyone is interested, please PM me. I won't be listing it for a few days. Enameled, inside and out Smooth ceramic bottom usable on all heat sources Highly indestructible, doesn't discolor or rust A Who's Who of the world's top chefs use Staub products Limited lifetime warranty from Staub US against defects

While most recipes call for "currants" and mean Zante currants or Corinth currants, I have come across a few recipes that call for "dried Blackcurrants - berries" which I take to mean the real bush currants. They are used sparingly, sprinkled over the top of single-crust fruit pies and custard pies. The flavor is intense - similar to that of blackcurrant jam. However, I use most of them in TEA - I blend black tea with dried blackcurrants, herbs and (sparingly) spices. I buy them from Northwest Wild Foods (along with some other of their offerings of fruits I can't get for home drying - Lingonberries, Mulberries, Goldenberries) For the "regular" currants made from the little grapes, I highly recommend Bob's Red Mill - much better than the supermarket boxed stuff.

Sorry, that was a typo - it weighs 26 pounds. It is not 100% solid. There is a bowl-shaped excavation on the bottom side - I had it made that way when I first got the block so it would fit a large 2-handled mezaluna for chopping herbs and etc. I can no longer lift it to turn it over so it stays where I put it several years ago.

I have been using an end-grain maple block that has resisted chopping with cleavers for many years. It weighs 16 pounds and it rests on a big sheet of the rubber drawer liner (from Costco) so it won't shift. It is 22 x 30 4.5" thick

Back in the '40s and '50s Reed & Barton sterling was one of the more popular silver companies, there were always ads in the "glossy" magazines and also in The New Yorker, etc. and the flatware was a very desired wedding gift or for girls graduating from college, etc. People gave place settings (usually 5 pieces), or serving pieces. Service for 12 was expensive so it sometimes took a while to amass the full set. Usually one bought a flatware box that had something in it to retard tarnishing. Autumn Leaves is a R & B sterling pattern introduced in the mid '50s and I chose that when I was engaged. I received several place settings and a few serving pieces and later filled in the "gaps" myself. I have 80 pieces (12 6-piece place settings plus serving pieces) and the tiered anti-tarnish chest. Two years ago I had an insurance appraisal to bring it up to date (last was 10 years ago) and the insurance "replacement" value was $6275. - an auction price would be less, probably 4500. Your pattern looks like one of the "baroque" designs and is one of the "suitable for engraving" designs. There used to be a Reed & Barton pattern PDF online that just showed drawings of the handles and made it easier to identify mystery pieces.

I have several wood cutting boards of different types of wood - bamboo - and a chunk of olive wood. I clean them all with coarse salt and half a lemon - then just wipe with a slightly dampened cloth.

I had a Dolce Gusto machine that failed. When I called and was told the machine had been discontinued and fixing it was not an option, I was pleased to be informed that they would REPLACE THE MACHINE entirely free, they even paid the shipping both ways - I packed the old machine in the box in which the new one was shipped. The new one is not like the old one but in my opinion is much better and more versatile. It uses the Dolce Gusto pods but there are also refillable pods and I recently bought some and they work just fine. I am really extremely pleased with the machine and love the way my coffee turns out. I don't use the milk pods but I mix my own "creamer" using half and half infused with vanilla (or you can add vanilla syrup if you like it sweetened) I heat it in the microwave before dispensing the coffee into it.