andiesenji

Since I posted previously, five years ago, I have done several similar things with mustard seeds. I have learned that if the seeds are "old" - that is, been stored for awhile, they still have plenty of heat but lose some of the more subtle flavors that come out with pickling. I've also had very good results with STEAMING the mustard seeds prior to plopping them into the pickling liquid and there are some interesting side notes that can be achieved with adding citrus peel, different types of chiles, herbs and other spices. One interesting flavoring is star anise, and another is black cardamom - I steam them with the mustard. I don't care much for the "normal" pickled caperberries, they are too sour, so I drain them, cook them in the sweeter pickling liquid along with plenty of mustard seeds. When ready to use, I smash this mixture in a mortar to make a spreadable condiment that is dynamite on ham, roast beef or ??

Some time back, maybe two or three years ago, I posted my method of scrambled eggs - which was a staple when I was a child, for a very large family, prepared and served in a chafer without becoming tough and inedible. My grandpa's cook made them this way. I learned how and have always made them this way and people rave about them. Scrambled Eggs

But then I wouldn't have another "oddity" for my collection of kitchen gadgets.

debone them, pound them thin, roll around a filling, tie and braise with carrots and celery.

The International Home and Housewares show apparently has quite a few "new" gadgets. Including a glass rolling pin - Bodum Bistro Rolling Pin - intended to be filled with ice to keep pie pastry cool. Someone should tell them, before they wax too loudly about the "unique" features of this gadget, that it is NOT A NEW IDEA. In fact, the first GLASS rolling pins that could be filled with ice, were introduced in late Georgian times - true antiques 18th century. And in the 1920s and '30 were produced in milk glass, green and blue, decorated, and also in porcelain, pottery, etc. And then again in the 1940s and in the '50s and there were even some made of aluminum with an interior chamber to hold ice. And there are people who collect them, write about them and who will probably be laughing their heads off when they seen the "news" about this "new" idea. Collecting them>

I use mine quite often. Holds food items that I want to cook in sauce but want to keep from breaking them up with stirring. Also holds mesh and perforated "tea balls" with herbs and spices without the annoyance of those little metal hooks slipping off the edges of pans and disappearing into the depths... Cooking eggs, blanching vegetables, expressing water from small batches of greens (carrying out to the deck and swinging it in a circle) instead of messing up the salad spinner for a handful of herbs or leaves. There are three tea balls inside it as pictured. I can stuff a dozen jumbo eggs in there. Makes it easy to pull them out at the proper time and plunge into ice water.

You can fill them with crushed ice and rock salt to get a fast extra chill. I should add that I also use them to fast-chill the fat on top of stock - it makes it much easier to lift off the top and some clings to the plastic and can be scraped off easily. One of my friends, who keeps goats, uses them to pre-chill the milk before it goes into the processing unit which chills and then heats the mild to pasteurize it.

I have three of these I use them in 20 and 26 quart stockpots to cool soups and stews that I prepare for gatherings at the local senior center and for the occasional block party. They work quite well for my purposes. I start the chilling with one and after a few minutes and the initial cooling is going okay, I switch out to a second one. I rarely have to use the third, meanwhile I have washed and rinsed off the first and put it back in the freezer. I've found that the way this is designed, the water inside chills and freezes much faster than in other containers. The cost is reasonable, considering how easy these are to use.

I looked up one of my notes about seasoning boar meat. My thyme was not doing so well so used marjoram which can substitute nicely for thyme. I make carnitas with meat from a hind leg (lower 2/3 with the "ham" removed) and took it to an eG potluck several years ago. Here's a photo of the meat before the other ingredients were added. The meat was much darker, more red, than domestic pork and this was braised for a very long time to achieve tenderness. The flavor was exceptional.

I never refrigerate breads of any type. Modern fridges, draw moisture out, even when well wrapped and hasten staling. I slice and freeze four slices each in small ziplock bags if I need to store it for longer than a few days. Otherwise I store the whole loaf in a bread bag and slice as needed for 4-5 days. Some people complained that there were no twist ties with the bags but I don't use them anyway. I fasten them with medium binder clips.

I've cooked a fair amount of boar meat in the past (prepped roasts and etc., for hunters whose wives had no desire to fool around with it). (Saddle roasts, rolled and stuffed loin, crown roasts and etc.) In exchange I got part of the meat. For ground boar, (ground my own) I add dried cherries or cranberries to the meat, as well as the oatmeal as suggested by mgaretz, ground or finely chopped pork fat, salt and pepper, thyme and a little sage, brown sugar (one tablespoon per pound), onions, an egg and a little milk. I personally don't care for tomato in the meatloaf but if you like it, tomato paste is the way to go. I often include Pimenton, the smoked paprika, about a tablespoon for two pounds of meat. I've also added dried, reconstituted mushrooms, with most of the liquid squeezed out, to the mixture. FIRST! Before you do anything else, after the meat is thawed, mash it into a flat slab. For 2 pounds, mix 2 teaspoons of baking SODA in 3 Tablespoons of water and sprinkle evenly over the meat, then work the meat with your hands (or a potato masher) until it is completely blended, allow it to stand at room temp for 30-40 minutes and then proceed with adding the other ingredients. The reason for this is to "relax" the components in the heavily muscled meat so you don't end up with rubbery little bits - think of jujubes - which resist chewing. (Also works with venison, elk, other dense muscle meats.)

I use simple syrup but have also tried adding one of the sugar alcohols: Xylitol, Erythritol, Isomalt, Glycerol (Glycerine) - all now available at Amazon. I sweetened a couple of batches with Golden Syrup (cane) and one with palm syrup. They all work and usually the vanilla flavor overpowers any inherent flavors present in the syrups - except for maple - which turned out to be a lovely flavor but not purely vanilla. As I recall, I used the entire (4 ounce) batch in baking cookies and quick breads. And I've tried extracting the vanilla flavors using only glycerin - time consuming, complicated and so-so results.

I'm bumping this up for a secondary question. Does anyone have suggestions of where to go for used bakery equipment in the Bay area or a bit further afield? How likely would you be to go to a drive-thru doughnut place and what about ordering on-line for "instant" pickup on the way to work or ???

The advantage (to me) in using the high alcohol percentage for "kick-starting" the extraction, is that is seems to remain stable for a very long time. And "cutting" the alcohol with another spirit, brandy, etc., modifies the flavor and I have also tried some "tricks" to remove the extract from the bottom to avoid getting too much of the oily stuff that floats on the top. I use one of the glass "gravy separators" like this decanting the (strained) liquid into it and leaving it to stand for an hour or so. I think I wrote in an earlier post that I had a problem with adding some of my homemade vanilla to beaten egg whites - the stuff was oily and caused much of the mass to collapse. I have also tried numerous methods to keep the vanilla from evaporating, including dipping the upper part of the little bottles and the caps in melted wax or even in PlastiDip coating. Yes, I have seen little yellow globules in the extractions. I still have most of a batch that was made entirely with tequila, a bottle of what I later learned was a very expensive "extra anejo" - as I don't drink alcohol, I figured it was fine to use to make vanilla. The product is excellent, the flavor is deep and nuanced but it took well over a year to reach the level of flavor concentration that I prefer.

I do buy the 151 proof Everclear here in Calif. but I also have neighbors who travel back and forth to Arizona often and are always willing to bring me a couple of bottles. I have also used the 151 proof Bacardi, an overproofed vodka - a Polish product given me by a friend.

I am so entertained by reading how the various "experimental" methods have turned out and how those in the works are progressing. I can't recall how long ago I began making my own vanilla extract but it had to have been in the mid 1970s because the first batch was made with Hudson's Bay 151 proof rum - on the advice of a chef that had conducted a "gourmet cooking class" I attended at that time. I'm pretty sure that that brand of rum has not been sold in this area since the early 80s. I've tried so many different spirits and combinations (and did not keep detailed records - shame on me) and practically all of them worked, some more efficiently than others. I also tried "vacuum processing" using my vac sealing machine on canning jars - taking a note from the "vacuum marinating" idea. It's possible the extraction went more rapidly than usual, but I did not do any scientific testing. I borrowed a small distillation unit but returned it without every seeing if vanilla could be distilled efficiently. (I did some herbal extractions which turned out "so-so" which was rather discouraging).

Thanks so much for the info. We really appreciate it.

My daughter is researching the possibility of opening a doughnut shop in the Livermore area, which is somewhat of a desert for this type of shop at present. She plans on studying the subject thoroughly before getting into it. She wants to offer a variety of items that are not the ordinary type - including gluten-free, high fiber and others that have more nutritional value - as well as unusual and exotic flavors, fillings, etc. Also SAVORY types, not just the sweets. Fillings with meats, fish, cheeses, etc. Possibly ice creams, depending on space available. Also good coffees and teas, other drinks. She plans on contracting with an experienced baker to consult with starting the business and possibly continuing to supervise part time and also hiring students from the culinary schools in the area. This is not going to happen immediately, they will be away for a month this summer and really want to have all the points fully covered before jumping in. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas please post or if you want to get in touch directly, PM me.

I'm doing the same thing. I am no longer baking the way I did even five years ago so have been scanning (easier for me than photos) many of my baking books - especially the bread books, the pastry books and chocolate books that are large, detailed and more for the semi-pros. It takes time to compose a successful ebay listing for some of these books so I have been spending too much time editing than is probably necessary but I like to be accurate.

I would not buy Nielsen-Massey vanilla powder. Although the label claims that the product is pure vanilla powder, and the ad you linked to claims the product is pure vanilla powder, that is an outright fabrication. Read the ingredients: the first ingredient is Maltodextrin. That's the brand I purchased at Williams-Sonoma several years ago and which was useless. Little flavor so one had to use double or three times the amount to get the same flavor one gets with PURE vanilla powder.

Do not WORRY about it! Use it for water without restrictions. Water kettles were rarely tinned on the inside - mainly because if they boiled dry (which often happened) the tin would melt and puddle in the bottom. Most water is somewhat alkaline, which is why one gets calcium carbonate deposits on the interior and why dilute vinegar was boiled in the kettles periodically to remove it. CANDY is cooked in bare copper with no ill effects. It is prolonged ACIDIC cooking that will cause some copper to transfer to food and some proteins also take up copper molecules - which is why one needs a lined skillet to cook meats, fish and eggs. The boiler on my grandparents wood/coal range was unlined copper and several generations ate foods prepared with hot water from that boiler or one of the big teakettles that were on top of the range for boiling water for tea, etc. Most of my family members lived long, healthy lives. I have a copper tea pot that is tin lined because tea is acidic and ditto coffee and I have two ibriks for making Turkish coffee which are tin lined. Whiskey is DISTILLED in bare copper for a specific purpose - besides the even heating - copper will take up heavy elements, that may be present in the water (and may impart unwanted flavors). And finally, you do NEED a small amount of copper in your diet. Copper helps to absorb iron and other nutrients. Certain FAD diets, that operate on erroneous ideas that one needs to severely restrict certain foods, can play havoc with the normal functioning of the body. Read this for further information.

I have tried several products from different vendors during the past ten years or so. Some have been okay but some were not at all useful and one had a really bad flavor (like kerosene) and I returned it to the vendor. I bought some at Williams-Sonoma that had so little flavor I had to use several times as much as the one I now use, to achieve even a modicum of flavor. For the past three or four years I have used only the pure powder from The Vanilla Company and I also use a lot of their vanilla PASTE (the Madagascar Bourbon) and while a pound may sound like a lot - but I use it spread with sugar on pastries prior to baking, in ice cream and in custards, cakes, pies and etc., and find that a pound will last only about 4-6 months - less in the run up to the holidays when my baking increases.

When I was a newly-minted lab technician, back in 1958, we used colloidal silver in the lab to isolate some pathogens in cultures in petri dishes. It was NOT effective against all strains of E-Coli - nor some of the other pathogens. We were also warned to keep from prolonged contact with it because even then it was known that it could cause damage to the kidneys if ingested and it could also be absorbed through the skin. Things have not changed during the ensuing 55 years. It can be DANGEROUS - Like what happened to this man. Like so many other things, some people get enthused about a product and believe they can make money on it and excessive self-promotion turns it into a fad that costs the GULLIBLE money and does no good at all. Read this. before wasting money on something that does not work and can cause problems.

Have you considered a bamboo board. I have one like this (upper left corner) which is slightly smaller 23 x 16, and very durable. I use it outside next to the barbecue. I've also got one of the big end grain chopping blocks, which has held up well.

I have purchased a few things from the store (cereal dispensers, ice molds, full-size draining racks, a plate rack). The service was fine. I have no experience with that cutting board so can't help you there. The one time I did have to return something, one of the draining racks had broken welds, they promptly sent me a replacement and told me to discard the broken one.