andiesenji

It all depends on what sized pot one is using. I use a fairly large one for spaghetti and linguini and I like the really long stuff and when I make my own I make it in long strands. I think it is about 18 - 20 inches long and I just stand it up in the pot and as the bottom part softens, push it down till it is all submerged. The Italian market has several sizes of spaghetti and linguini that are quite long and there are some large tube-type pasta (I've never bought any) that are sold in bulk and must be two feet long. They weigh it and wrap it in butcher paper. Also "Mueller" is not a name I would associate with pasta.

If you check the ingredients list on some of the breads at TJ's they have less of the "preservatives" that allow breads like Orowheat to last for weeks without molding. I agree with Judiu, freeze it - very lightly toasted if you want it "plain" and frankly for most sandwiches, a little toasting is a good thing.

I've been using baking soda, with some kind of other material to give it some purchase, for decades - since before the first spice grinders appeared. I used the same process to clean coffee and/or spices out of my original Vitamix when I had several DRY things to go into the blender and did not want to use water to clean it and then have to wait for it to get dry.

Use some saltine crackers and two or three tablespoons of baking soda. Hold the lid on and turn it upside down a few times - run it for at least 30 seconds. Dump the stuff out and wipe with a paper towel.

It wasn't me that posted the correction. It was merstar who was so helpful.

I made these brownies a few days ago - using a combination of the Double Dutch and the Black Cocoa - You can't get that deep, dark color with regular cocoa.

I hate Valrhona cocoa powder! I bought it once and couldn't even stand the smell - it was definitely an off-smell and taste. My favorite Dutched cocoa powder is El Rey, but unfortunately, they stopped producing it a year or two ago. I was so disappointed. I only use the Valrhona in dishes that are also flavored with other strong flavors. I've never noticed any "off" smell or flavor but it is strong. I bought some cocoa at Williams-Sonoma several years ago which I immediately returned. It had a strong "ammonia" smell - reminded me of my neighbor's house when she hasn't cleaned the cat box... The clerk at W-S couldn't understand my complaint so I pulled the lid off the can and stuck it under her nose - I thought she was going to faint - She called the manager and after she smelled it, they pulled all the cans off the shelf and as I left, were opening them. I heard an emphatic, Oh God! as I went out the door. I don't remember the brand - it wasn't the store label. I make a chile that calls for "bitter" chocolate and I sub in the Valrhona cocoa because with regular chocolate, even small amounts, I get an allergic reaction which I have never had with anything made with cocoa. My allergist really doubted it but he did a sensitivity test on my back, where I couldn't see, and he used 6 samples, 2 from regular chocolate, including unsweetened and 3 from Dutched cocoa and 1 from ground cocoa nibs. I reacted strongly to the 2 chocolates, mildly to the cocoa nibs and not at all to the Dutched cocoa. I forgot to note that the cocoa in the container labeled: "TRIP COCOA" is a combination of 3 Guittard dutched cocoas. Cocoa "Rouge" - Full Dutched "Jersey" and Medium Dutched "Rio Cocoa" which was recommended by a baker friend for use in lighter cakes - like those I bake for making rolled cakes, sponge cakes leavened only with egg whites. Some cocoa powders cause the beaten whites to collapse, but this stuff needs less cocoa and combined well with the whites - the sugar has to be mixed into the cocoa first and 1/3 less of the cocoa is needed.

I was looking at that one and wondering about the shape. Does it work well for you? Reviews indicate it's big and might not fit into a utensil crock. What's been your experience with the size? I like that it's one piece, and I also like that it has a large capacity. I've got "several" utensil crocks and it would fit well in any of the larger ceramic or stainless ones, but I have this one hanging with others of my larger utensils that have the fatter handles (which are easier for me to hold, with my arthritic hands).

I suppose silicone would be acceptable. I didn't mention it because all the silicone items I've seen have been soft and sort of floppy, and it didn't seem like the material would make a good ladle. My feelings about plastic are based on several articles I read over the course of more than a year, so while they are not scientific papers they are from reputable sources, and have given me concern. Why take a chance if there are alternatives that are not questionable. One caveat. I had a steel ladle with a silicone bowl - made by All-Clad and it did not hold up. It was supposed to be Stainless but developed rust around the junction where the silicone bowl part attached to the shaft and when I tried to clean it, the coating peeled away and there was rust underneath the silicone. I threw it away. It was the only All-Clad item I ever had to discard. I don't know if they still make them - I think I got it at Williams-Sonoma or Sur La Table.

I have a Calphalon nylon ladle that came with a pot that someone gave me. I also have a Farberware ladle that I bought at the kitchen outlet store in the "factory-outlet mall" but the same one is on Amazon. I use them both interchangeably and I just noticed that the Calphalon is also on Amazon. And come to think of it, I also have others from that same "collection" - the fork, spatula, spoon, big pancake turner and the spaghetti tool. My friend must have given me all of them because I don't recall buying them and that pot is the only only one I have of that particular Calphalon line. They are both rigid and work well with thich, heavy stews - the handles are long enough for using in deep pots (16 quart easy) and for stirring and serving thick chili in my big electric roaster.

I have several brands of cocoa, mostly Dutch process because to me it has a fuller, richer flavor and in my opinion produces a better result in baking. I use a combination of King Arthur Black cocoa and Double Dutch cocoa in anything that I want to have the deepest, most robust chocolate flavor, such as puddings, ice cream, gelato, candy. I think the cost is reasonable and the stuff keeps nicely, retaining full flavor for a long, long time. For recipes that incorporate other flavors, I use a lighter, less overpowering cocoa such as Frontier (from Amazon) which combines well with espresso, marshmallow, etc. Some of the "smoother" cocoas do better in hot drinks than the more robust types and I make my own blend. The one in the glass jar with the bail is Valrhona

Whole Foods used to have rapadura available in bulk. Winco also had it in bulk last September. I haven't been to the store since then as it is not exactly handy to my home but if you have a co-op or similar store in your area, phone and ask if they carry one of these raw sugars in bulk. It's much cheaper than the pre-packaged.

Can't say I agree--I use soured milk all the time as a buttermilk substitute with good results. Pancakes/waffles, muffins, cupcakes, biscuits..... That's interesting. I've tried using sweet milk with vinegar numerous times and the baked goods just DON'T come out as tender as those I make with buttermilk or thinned yoghurt. Maybe I give off bad electro-magnetic joojoo or something. Bring the milk to room temp - measure it out the night before and leave it out overnight then add the vinegar or lemon juice and allow it to set for 20-30 minutes. Unless it is very unusual, it will form clumps.

I'm a bit late to this discussion but I would like to note that I do experiment with recipes fairly often and about a year ago I got some of the Piloncillo from Rancho Gordo and made a batch of carob chip cookies (I can't have regular chocolate) using only this sugar, no white sugar at all. And I did not substitute the piloncillo for the white sugar so in my recipe, used half the amount of total sugar. The cookies were crisp, with a slightly chewy center, not as sweet as "regular" cookies, which to me are often much too sweet (and have too much sugar for my diabetes). I'm not recommending you switch over to this immediately but keep in mind that there are other options for the various types of "brown" sugars. I follow a forum that has mostly Australian cooks and bakers and many of their recipes specify "rapadura" or "sucanat", which is a "raw" or unrefined sugar similar to piloncillo or panela and seems to be universally available in other countries while difficult to find in the U.S. where the "sugar giants" have a monopoly. I have purchased sucanat at Trader Joe's. Brown sugar in the US is simply granulated sugar to which molasses has been added. You can make your own brown sugar substitute - using this formula - Light brown sugar - 1 cup granulated to 1 TABLESPOON of dark molasses. Dark brown sugar - 1 cup granulated sugar to 2 TABLESPOONS dark molasses - blend with a fork until thoroughly mixed. Mix as needed because it hardens rapidly. This link has some good information about this "raw" sugar. I'm fortunate in that the local Mexican supermarkets now carry the granulated panela but a few years back, when I still had neighbors who regularly visited Mexico, they would bring me back 2-kilo bags of granulated panela when I asked them (along with other goodies not then available here).

First, and most important. Do not use margarine. If you don't want to use butter then get some coconut oil that is solid at room temp and works like butter in cakes, etc. You cannot substitute sweet milk for buttermilk unless you add something like citric acid or Cream of Tartar to the batter - you can add the citric acid to the milk (or add lemon juice or vinegar) This acts as a LEAVENING AGENT, not just a liquid. I make homemade applesauce and use it in baking but I use half the liquid (if any) in the recipe and reduce the number of eggs (if any) by half and reduce the amount of oil. Go to this link and read the section under "Moisture" and if you have a very thin and runny applesauce, cook it down to a thicker consistency.

The local Mexican supermarket (Vallarta) has begun stocking bulk black beans and yellow "Peru" beans in addition to the pinto and pink beans that have been offered in the past. It is interesting that the black beans are not all the same size. Some are as large as a kidney bean and some as small as a Navy bean. They seem to be very fresh and cook up rapidly and produce a very rich, purple "liquor" in the pot. Sometimes you can find ethnic markets by doing a Google search of your area - if you don't live in the "usual" places for such. One friend was surprised to find a Mexican market not far from her home in Des Moines, Iowa. She had no idea it existed and for the past couple of years it has become one of her regular shopping jaunts. She says she finds something "new and interesting" at every visit.

I have a Breville Ikon toaster two long slots (4-slice) and it too toasts unevenly. It toasts the top 2/3 of bread just fine but the bottom 1/3 is barely toasted at all in both slots, entire length. We used to have a wonderful small appliance repair guy here in town but since he retired, his son who now owns the vacuum and sewing machine store, has no interest in repairing small electric appliances.

Yes. That is the glass-sided Magimix - single long slot - but I have a complaint. it is no longer toasting evenly - which seems to be a symptom in so many "modern" toasters. It makes me angry because my 60+ year-old Sunbeam STILL toasts evenly from side to side and top to bottom. I simply do not understand why they do this. PARTICULARLY when it is such an EXPENSIVE toaster.

Yes. I have a bright red one and it has done super duty in some things that tend to boil over easily. I was not convinced it would work as advertised but so far has done the job perfectly. And it fits the one pan that no longer has a lid - glass - broken when I clipped an edge on the raised grate on the stove top. I have so enjoyed your blog. Thanks so much for sharing a week of your life with us.

I wish *I'd* thought of that. I've been doing it for years. In fact I got the idea from a lady who was demonstrating bread machines at Gottschalks, dept store right after the mall opened in Palmdale in 1994. She had 6 or 8 machines at various stages and she showed how to pull the dough out of the pan (a vertical one) and removed the paddle. Later I got a machine - still have it somewhere, as I have several bread machines - that has the paddles that are supposed to fold down flat but they never really worked as they were supposed to. One of these days I will have to get out all of them, line them up and take a photo. Including my now "vintage" Zojirushi...

I have returned to this topic to report that I absolutely LOVE my new bread machine. It easily holds a double batch of regular bread machine recipes and I also tried the pre-packaged bread mixes by Krusteaz and by Hodgson Mill (I keep some of the "flavored" ones on hand as it saves lots of time and the products are excellent). I loaded the pan with two of the packaged mixes - combining a Honey Whole Wheat with a Country White and adding 3/4 cup of raisins and 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts at the signal beep. At the end of the final knead, when the digital readout was at 150, I pulled the dough out and removed the 2 beater paddles to avoid having big holes in the bottom, otherwise I left the machine to do its thing. I forgot to take photos when this one first came out of the machine, and I have sliced away almost 1/3 of it (note arrows showing where the pan ribs and the beaters are located) but this shows the nice interior crumb, with NO holes - often a problem in bread machines - and an evenly browned crust. One slice is essentially equal to two and fits horizontally into my Magimix toaster but cut in half it makes two slices that also fit nicely in my vintage Sunbeam.

It absolutely should not crack. I've put cast iron skillets on high output gas burners with no problems, put them right onto hot charcoal and onto electric hotplates. Contact Amazon's customers service and explain what happened. In the "Contact Us" section there is a place where you can enter your phone number and click on "Call Me" . Your phone will ring, pick it up and there will be a wait (usually) but you will get a live person to whom you explain the problem. I bought an all glass tea pot and the first time I used it the handle just fell off while it was sitting on the counter, after I poured hot water into it. They sent me a new one and told me to package the old one in the box in which the new one came and give it to the USPS mail carrier.

Your popovers look lovely. I can't give you a real answer until I try making a batch using your method. I've never had a problem getting 6 popovers - it's possible the pan I have has cups that are narrower at the bottom or I put a bit less in each cup. I but a bit in each cup and then go back and add more so there is an even amount of batter in each cup. They do have thin walls with big holes inside - which is what I expect with popovers - especially when I want to fill them. I can't explain the hole in the bottom - mine have a hole in the side where I perforate them to let the hot air escape.

No, not at all like a percolator which repeatedly sends water up a center shaft over coffee grounds which drip back down and then that liquid is sent up again and again until the coffee is "done." A vacuum pot has two sections that have a good seal between and when the water in the bottom section is heated, it expands and some turns into steam which forces the liquid up into the upper chamber, which has been loaded with the required amount of coffee grounds. The bubbling of the water mixes the grounds, although sometimes one needs to stir with a spoon (long handled for safety) and if automatic, the head under the bottom section is turned from high to low and after a few minutes, the temperature drops enough that the pressure drops and the vacuum in the lower chamber draws the liquid back down, leaving the coffee grounds behind (if the filter is working properly) in the upper chamber, which can then be removed (with care) and set aside while the coffee is served from the bottom which is equipped with a pouring spout. Coffee Geek has an illustrated article on how they work. And JitterBuzz has several pages on coffee apparatus. Over the years I have known several men who would never consider stepping into the kitchen to do ANYTHING but when they discovered the technical intricacies of vacuum pots, began fiddling with them to get the brew "just right" and then branched out to various other coffee machines, espresso machines and the accessories. One wife, to whom I sold a Silex about fifteen years ago, claimed that I had, "created a monster" when her husband delved into it. Now they have a top-of-the-line superautomatic espresso machine, roasters, grinders and several other coffee brewers and "extractors" and they have taken three vacations to coffee-producing areas. (Prior to all that, he drank instant coffee...)

I remember when most restaurants had vacuum pots, usually the 12-cup Nicro. Then Bunn introduced the automatic drip machine and all those lovely Nicro were retired. I have a couple in storage, along with their hot plates. They were not automatic, but they made great coffee. At one time Farmer Brothers Coffee supplied a new Nicro vacuum pot with every 50 pounds of coffee. We used that coffee in my mom's bakery, back in the '50s (coffee for back door visitors - like the state police and the local constable) and it was a good day when the Farmers man arrived with our order and presented us with a new Nicro for being loyal customers. Here's an 8-cup Nicro the bottom of the 12 cup was wider at the bottom. I also have several of the glass vac pots, most with their own "stoves" (little hot plates) that were very popular and stylish in the 1930s. The ones I have are a bit older than the ones pictured, although I do have a couple that are contemporary to those.