Fernwood

Shelby, You have much more canning experience than I do, so feel free to consider the following as relatively ignorant speculation. I wonder if the difference between regular mouth and wide mouth jars has to do with the difference in headspace volume? Canning recipes usually specify headspace in inches, but the same depth represents a larger volume in a wide mouth jar than in a regular one. The most specific discussion I could find about that is here The Natural Canning Resource Book p.54 (via Google books) in the box headed "Determining headspace in odd-sized jars". I don't know if that provides any information that is helpful to you. Canning looks like it is subject to rules of science but in my experience it sometimes feels like it owes more to black magic!

Another FYI, My photo turned out rather small in the original post; I don't know if it is clear what the defect is. The membranes came off cleanly and the whites are intact but they are marked with dents and grooves. All 12 eggs looked like this, though some were more dramatic than others. Very funky but ultimately not important. I hope to do some more eggs this weekend (no poking!) and, assuming they turn out nicely smooth and ovoid, I'll let this go. 🥚😄

FYI, My eggs were pressure-steamed above the water. I tried to imagine what was happening in there but I had to give up and make dinner.

Thanks, folks. I mis-remembered or mis-understood something along the way and, clearly, I would be better off fussing less. I do think the 'canyonlands eggs' effect is rather interesting, but not necessarily appetizing. No more poking!

I love my Instant Pot for bigger batches of hard boiled eggs. [I recently bought a plate that holds 24 deviled half-eggs and got great feedback on a mixed platter for a neighborhood gathering.] Like @rotuts and my mother, I pierce the large end before cooking. When my mother and I did that for eggs conventionally hard boiled in water, it allowed air to escape, minimizing cracking and improving roundedness of the large end. When I do it to my Instant Pot eggs, they turn out like this: Most of the time it doesn't really matter, but I keep wondering, What gives? Does anyone else see this? Should I make the hole larger, or ?

For me it's the metaphor pill = candy that is uncomfortable. I wouldn't make or buy any candies that look like pharmaceuticals. I think many health care professionals and other people who have more than enough experience with pills in one way or another may feel similarly: I don't want to blur the line between the two categories.

In coastal New England this was introduced to me as "Boat Cake". (Made with ingredients you could have in the storage bin on the boat.)

I spent some time on this question when I found a better-than-usual-looking brisket a few weeks ago. (Most that I see in my supermarket are so lean that I despair of getting an appetizing result, no matter what the approach.) Leaned on the Serious Eats article, for the most part. I divided in three pieces and started with 135; after they were pasteurized I put two away. The texture of the 135 piece was too firm for my taste. I ended up cooking the others some more at 155 and I much preferred that result. [Formatting weirdness apparently due to phone posting—no emphasis intended.]

My first goat meal was roast cabrito in Barcelona in the mid 1980s. I have the idea it was at Els 4 Gats, though their menu today looks very different from what I (very vaguely) remember. It was great; why is goat such a rarity in the US? Judging by what I see in our local markets, I have to think that many people in my area never eat lamb, either.

I'm not sure I understand this... or should the first sentence say "Even the best closed burner designs..."?

Relatively new Anova user here... looking to improve the work flow for Easter dinner: Can I use the circulator to hold hollandaise sauce for an hour or so? Google has provided me with various versions of the Modernist hollandaise recipe but I have a relatively traditional method that I like--I would just like to be able to hold it longer, with less anxiety. I'm thinking a mason jar in the water bath might be just the thing. Can anyone suggest a temperature? Any other advice?

(I'm not a regular in this sub-forum. I hope someone will move this if a different topic would be more appropriate.) "Hershey's Gold", what is it? Hershey's website uses the term "crème" as though it means something in English--maybe it does in the industry(?) but I am skeptical. I am ambivalent about tasting this but I am curious about the concept.

Since it's going into a relatively large amount of water, could you measure one (or ½, or ¼) teaspoon, dissolve in some manageable volume of water and then take the appropriate fraction of that solution? Requires arithmetic, but not a high-precision scale.

Ours has been the same for over a year. I know it has been that long because I thought to replace it with a Cuisinart steam oven for Christmas 2016 but then BBB didn't really have a CSO to send me, in spite of accepting the order online. So we kept on using the Breville. Sometimes the problem seems a little better for a while, then a little worse. I assumed that eventually I would be forced to replace it but I fantasized that Cuisinart might bring out a larger steam oven if I stalled, so I keep on jabbing at that button.

Now you made me want to know some of the finer points of hen anatomy that I had previously ignored! I can't vouch for the accuracy but this page has a nice illustration and a description that is easy to follow: http://www.afn.org/~poultry/egghen.htm (scroll down about halfway to two diagrams under the heading The Hen's Perspective on Laying Eggs). The gist of it is, the egg is pretty clean as it exits. When I had some occasional henhouse chores during childhood summers, I had the impression that there was plenty of opportunity for eggs to get soiled once they hit the straw, however.

Last Word When I finally made my first one, my only regret was that it had taken me so long to invest in Chartreuse.

Carnitas started in Instant Pot (30 min at high pressure, waited 1 hr in Keep Warm mode while I was elsewhere), then transferred with all the juice to the Falk copper sauté pan that @JoNorvelleWalker persuaded me to get. The liquid was rapidly boiled off and the meat browned nicely to complete a totally eG-enabled approach to the dish. Yum!

I've tried to come up with a plausible interpretation of this but I can't. What do you think it was supposed to mean--and what do you think it really was?

Having grown up in NYC in the 60s/70s, I remember the bright white of mercury vapor streetlights before they were switched to the sodium vapor lamps. I like incandescent/2700K inside my house but I was never a big fan of the pinky-yellow sodium vapor streetlights.

https://www.falkusa.com/copper-cookware/ For US shoppers: 20% off on Falk for a few days. I don't know if they ever go lower(?). I am thinking of putting a sauté pan on my Christmas list. ETA: "Free shipping on orders over $50" Not sure what they sell that could possibly be <$50....

When I'm washing apples, bell peppers and other produce with relatively sturdy skins I usually use some "dishwashing liquid" (not automatic dishwasher detergent) and rinse well. (I don't use detergent for delicate things like raspberries.) I guess I have no way to know if baking soda would be more effective; the dish detergent is very convenient. One might think that the wax on apple and citrus skins (even the endogenous wax) could trap some substances like pesticides and I always imagine that the mild detergent is increasing my chance of clearing that residue but, really, it's magical thinking on my part--I have no data.

@Porthos, If you're grating rather than shredding with the food processor, does that mean you are using the steel blade, rather than a disc? Does the Monterey Jack grate nicely that way? The kind I usually get is significantly softer than cheddar and I feel that it might get clumpy, but I'm just speculating.

My favorites!

What she said. Adding the vinegar at this point also firms up the cut surfaces of the potatoes. Good if you don't want your salad to resemble smashed potatoes but if you use waxy spuds and leave them with the vinegar too long before completing the dressing they can set into disconcertingly sharp-edged polyhedra.

I think some cuts and some qualities of beef tolerate more thorough cooking better. Ribeye cap and skirt steak are two cuts that still taste good to me well-done. And the more marbled the meat, the better it will survive. Don't try this with lean sirloin, folks!