Shalmanese

I wish I could remember the reason behind it, but somewhere on eG there's a thread that mentions mixing ground meat in one direction when making...meatballs? Meatloaf? I'll try to find it... Andie, YOU WIN! ← this thread?

I second the idea of using portable induction hobs. Some of the top restaurants in the world are using them so why shouldn't you?

You are right. From an aesthetical and sensual view, SV doesn't add anything to the art of cooking, to say the least. ← I think your wrong. next time your slow cooking something, put your nose right into the pot and take a deep sniff. Now, imagine that all that flavour is just drifting out into the air and disappearing for 3, 4, 6 hours. Imagine how much flavour you lose from foods by doing this? I've always been appalled by this and it surprises me that other people can be so casual about it.

Also, theres no real easy way to portion a rabbit easily for 4 unless your doing a stew. Much easier to serve 2 incomplete rabbits for 4 and then do something else with the leftovers.

I don't know the specifics about the UK but, in the US at least, straight recipes cannot be copywrited. Any creative text surrounding the recipe such as historical notes of autobiographical details can be copywrited but a list of instructions is okay to post on the web verbatim.

When I made it, I first took off the hind legs, disjointing them much like you would chicken legs. I then removed the cylindrical loin section, using a flexible boning knife to keep it nice and close to the bone. The rest was chopped up and used in a stew or you could make rabbit stock/demi-glace out of it.

I would say 60C/140F for a stir fry to keep the meat nice and tender and juicy. 200F is way too hot, the meat will dry out.

Perhaps your water is too chlorinated. Try using bottled water and see if you get a better rise.

Did you proof the yeast before you mixed? perhaps the yeast is dead.

project, I'll have to respectfully disagree with nearly everything you have said here. I would be disappointed but probably not surprised if these things have not been investigated. It's a testament to society that we probably know more about whats happening in the middle of a souffle than in the middle of a piece of smoked pork. I'm almost certain the effects of water, temperature and oxygen on smoke production have been investigated though probably not in the context of food. I don't work in the field so you will have to wait for someone else to give some more specific cites. However, a quick google yielded this citation Emphasis mine. I don't see how any of this applies to the questions asked. They largely stem from mechanical and chemical principles which, in theory, should be relatively easy to determine and control for. I would imagine that a reductionist approach would bring a straightforward answer to nearly all of the questions. Nobody is suggesting that answering these questions will automatically allow the most clueless person to produce perfect barbeque. No more than saying that a solid grounding in paint mixing, colour theory or perspective will make you a brilliant artist. But such knowledge is undeniably scientific and "reductionist" in nature and acts as an aid rather than a replacement to barbeque talent. I don't see where the diminishing returns comes into play. It's not harder to soak chips or not soak chips and if your committed to staying at a constant temperature, I don't see how it's any more effort to stay at the optimum temperature. P vs NP has nothing to do with this situation. Yes, but nathanm *is* competing in what is the equivilant of the race car competition where a reduction of a few milliseconds counts. Even for the rest of us, maybe we are never in a situation where such matters are crucial, but it would still be good to know such things. Except we only ever need to do the 3rd once. Then we can share the results with the world and add it to the sum of human knowledge. And we don't need any of the stuff you mentioned above if you get right down to it, just good old double blind taste testing. Unfortunately, nathanm, I don't know the answer to any of these questions but I would be equally fascinated to know. Why don't you start answering them yourself by testing some of those theories?

Consider buying a portable induction nob if they don't have a kitchen. I haven't used one in dorms but my experience with them suggests they would fit very well. And it also eliminates the fire hazard aspect.

Yes, but as I said earlier, then it would be a different restaurant. Undoubtably a popular one if done right, but not the restaurant that starwich want to build. Obviously, you would prefer a good roast beef sandwich to one piled high with AHN-dive. But just as obviously, your palate is completely unique in the world and there are other people who have different taste preferences to you. I don't exactly see what your hostility is to "frisee, endive, pomegranate, juniper, or three sprouts". My local foofy sandwich joint, catering to local college students has a raw fish sandwich on it's menu. *I* regularly use frisee and sprouts in my sandwiches because it has an excellent texture and I like how it can balance out the richness of some of my other toppings. I admit i don't quite see the logistics of putting pomegranate on a sandwich, unless they are talking about pomegranate molasses or something similar. And I've never tasted juniper before so I don't know how that would work. But I can guarentee you that there is at least one person out there who would not bat an eyelid at a salad containing frisee, endive, sprouts, raw fish or any of the other stuff you are railing against. Presumably, and hopefully for starwich, there is significantly more than 1 person, enough to build a business upon.

With all due respect, you are not the target market of starwich and all of your helpful suggestions below seem to be trying to make starwich into a sandwich shop of which you would go. The starwich people have a very clear vision about what sort of customer they want in their chains, one that differs from yours quite considerably. Both approaches could very well work but they have evidently decided their approach is going to work. You seem to show a fundamental misunderstanding of just what their target market is and how they will behave. Sure, there are people who go to restaurants purely for the fancy white tablecloth, but some people genuinely like pomegranate and think that something like a caremalised onion compote would be at least worth trying. I don't think it's a mistake at all to try and cater to this crowd.

I would imagine a slightly less labour intensive way to do it would be to first heat up the water to 2 or 3 degrees above the desired temperature on the stovetop and then place it in an oven that is set 5 degrees less than the desired temperature. The heat from the oven should slow down temperature loss of the water but will not increase the temperature. Unless your cooking for more than an hour or so, the temp should remain acceptably in range.

It's the fox studios farmers market, here every wednesday. The seller is condobolin wagyu, their (very sparse) website is here. Their prices at the farmers market are: $79/kg for tenderloin $69/kg for ribeye $39/kg for rump

We had rabbit 3 ways. Roast hind leg of rabbit rubbed with olive oil, zatar and lemon juice Deep fried, oregano battered rabbit loin chunks with french fries rabbit & mushroom stew

The local asian butcher had farmed rabbits on special so I decided to try one as I had never made it before. Wanting to maximise the learning experience, I decided to do rabbit 3 ways. The legs were rubbed with a spice rub, seared and then baked. The loin was cut into bit sized chunks, rolled in batter and deep fried with some fries. And the rest was chopped up and made into a stew. In none of these preparations, did I actually bring out any rabbit flavour whatsoever, the meat remained stubbornly bland and utterly without charecter. In fact, as a test, I battered some chunks of chicken breast as well and fried them then challenged my brother to a blind taste test. He correctly picked out the chicken because it was the more flavourful of the two . So am I correct in saying that farmed rabbit is completely and utterly without merit and really has no place in the kitchen or am I missing something distinct about it? Does the way it's raised have an effect on the taste? Is there better examples out there? For the same price, I could have gotten an organic, hormone free, free-range chicken and it would probably be less bony too.

The beauty of sous vide is that it doesn't harm it if you leave it in for too long. Just put it in when you start cooking and it should be done by the time all the sides are prepped (assuming you have labour intensive sides), otherwise, just put it in 1 hour beforehand.

Lets see, so far, I've made: Minestrone, nice and thick with hearty vegtables. Some curries. Beef Bouegenion. Shepards pie. Pumpkin soup. Chicken soup. Apple pies.

I personally don't think GR is faking any of it. Mainly because the approach he's using works and works well. If you start of with deliberately impossibly high standards and then relentlessly break each and every one of them down for not meeting those standards, then they will work harder than you thought possible just to reach those standards. Look how happy any one of them is with an "acceptable" from GR and look at how over the moon they get when he pronounces something "nice". They're ardently devoted to him and will follow him to the end of the earth if neccesary. Also notice how he gradually becomes nicer and more sociable as the series goes on and does less screaming and more encouraging. It's all part of the process. Every army drill seargent since the greeks has independantly discovered this technique because it's so effective.

What about taking a couple of thermos full of liquid nitrogen up there and making LN2 ice-cream. IMHO, that would seem rather impressive. Plus, ice-cream would be perfect after a long hike up a mountain.

Naked and shaved preferably. Hair + LN2 = BAD too.

A flame needs fuel, oxygen and heat. Outside the torch, it can get all 3. Inside the torch, not enough oxygen can get in to make fire so it's perfectly safe.

In case anyone cares, I was at the farmers market yesterday and spoke to the Wagyu seller. He says that all the meat is aged for 21 days before it's sent to the market.

Make stock. A good stock makes good ingredients taste fantastic and cheap ingredients taste good. Which means you can stretch cheap ingredients further without making them seem boring. Depending on where you are, bones can often be an absolute bargain if you make friends with your butcher. I can get 12 chicken carcasses for $2 which is enough to make about 3 months worth of stock. Along with some cheap onions, celery and carrots, maybe another $2 worth. And once your done, you can pick all the meat off the bones and you have about 2lb of good quality chicken meat, perfect for making a soup out of.