Shalmanese
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Posts posted by Shalmanese
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I was reading Alice B Toklas's cookbook over the weekend + all her recipes state very firmly that sauces must be stirred in one direction only. What's all that about then?
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!
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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?
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As for cooking things in plastic bags. I say yuck, I don't want that near my food.
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.
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The recipe is on page 170 of The Sugar Club Cookbook. I can't reproduce it here for copyright reasons but the quantities are 7 egg yolks, 200mls honey, 300mls milk, 300 mls cream and 200ml tamarind paste. Its the usual method, but beat half the honey with the sugar and heat the the other half with the milk and cream.
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.
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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.
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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.
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I can't get bread to rise properly. Counter, oven, water heater closet, on top of the fridge, outside in the backyard, it doesn't matter where I leave it or when I buy the yeast it just doesn't work.
I make great drop biscuits!
Perhaps your water is too chlorinated. Try using bottled water and see if you get a better rise.
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I can't get bread to rise properly. Counter, oven, water heater closet, on top of the fridge, outside in the backyard, it doesn't matter where I leave it or when I buy the yeast it just doesn't work.
I make great drop biscuits!
Did you proof the yeast before you mixed? perhaps the yeast is dead.
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project, I'll have to respectfully disagree with nearly everything you have said here.
For your questions, just as you have asked them, I would besurprised if the answers to very many of them are known at
all.
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
The pyrolysis of several samples of sawdust of Fagus sylvatica L. wood with different moisture contents was carried out, keeping all other smoke generation parameters constant. However, parameters such as smoke production length and maximum temperature reached were affected by the moisture content of the sample and varied in the different pyrolytic runs. The acidity and the composition of the liquid smokes obtained were determined, this latter by means of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography with flame ionization detection. The acidity and composition of the liquid smoke produced were affected not only by the moisture content of the sawdust sample but also by the smoke generation length and by the temperature of the process. The highest yields in components were produced from samples with low moisture content that underwent a short pyrolytic process. Some compounds, with important properties from an organoleptic and preservative point of view, were not generated from samples with high moisture content. Equations that closely relate yield of the total components or of groups of components or of individual components with parameters such as moisture content, length of the process, and temperature were obtained; these equations predict yield data of liquid smoke components with a satisfactory degree of approximation.Emphasis mine.
Some of your questions suggest that you have a 'methodology'in mind: Identify the basic facts and, from them, construct
new procedures for good, even best, BBQ results. We could say
that you are attempting a case of 'reductionism' which had
some spectacular successes in parts of physical science,
engineering, and medical science. E.g., physics likes to
derive desired results directly from 'first principles'.
<br><br>
However, cooking is so complicated that using only
reductionism and derivations from first principles is not
promising. Then it is fortunate that people did well without
reductionism for millennia; it is not the only approach!
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.
For 'best' and 'optimum', taken literally, in complicatedsubjects these are often tricky goals. Typically we can get
some good results for reasonable effort; for more, it's
expensive; for still more, it's much more expensive, and we
get only a little more. We can encounter the 'law of
diminishing returns' so that the last tiny bit of improvement
for the best or the optimum costs more than all the rest of
the effort.
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.
There is a famous profound question here called P versus NP --for the first correct solution Clay Mathematics Institute will
award a prize of $1 million.
P vs NP has nothing to do with this situation.
In a situation where the work to be done is clear enough andthe only consideration left is the cost, then finding how to
do the work for least cost or nearly so can be valuable in
practice. But, in many practical situations, there are many
criteria that have to be balanced. E.g., consider getting a
car with the smallest elapsed time in 1/4 mile acceleration:
As we get a car with elapsed time under 10 seconds, we have
something that is so specialized and so modified just for 1/4
mile acceleration that it is no longer useful for daily
transportation!
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.
From laboratory supply houses,get sensors, transducers,
computer interfaces, and
computer software,
get a biochemistry laboratory
with spectrometry and chromatography,
get good with experimental design,
analysis of variance, and response surfaces,
get good with the applied mathematics of
optimization, stochastic processes,
and stochastic optimal control,
especially Pareto optimality in
multi-objective situations,
design, run, and analyze experiments.
<br><br>
Then remove cooked meat from pit,
let cool to internal temperature of 160 F,
separate putting meat in a 3 quart bowl
and discarding fat, skin, and bone,
coarsely chop meat, pour over favorite BBQ sauce,
pile on especially large toasted white bread bun,
sprinkle on hot sauce,
pile on creamy coleslaw,
add top of sandwich, and eat, with BBQ beans,
potato chips, and beer.
<br><br>
Dessert: Chocolate ice box pie.
</OL>
The results from the first view are really good, from the
second view, better, the third view, tough to wait that long!
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?
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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.
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Starwich getting rid of the stuffed chairs, frisee, and endive
(AHN-deeve?) and including sliced roast beef ('au jus'?),
Texas BBQ beef brisket, Tennessee pulled pork, oriental pork,
ratatouille sauce and related sandwich ingredients, 'see and
point' ordering, Caesar salad, freshly baked hero rolls, still
warm from the oven, more ounces of sandwich per dollar, some
soups, and some desserts.
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.
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For (2), I sense a fundamental and serious mistake -- food
from current themes in high end white tablecloth restaurants
is not really what it at first glance can seem to be. To
explain: For a high end restaurant, people go heavily for the
total 'experience', a kind of theater. Such restaurants
commonly make heavy use of unusual and expensive ingredients,
and these attributes are part of the experience, the 'show'.
Bluntly, though, just on paper plates as carry-out -- that is,
just the food itself separated from the table setting, decor,
service, atmosphere, and the rest of the experience -- the
unusual and expensive ingredients do not promise to be better.
Sure, I would rather have a good chicken than a poor one, but
I would rather have nearly any (cooked) chicken than a piece
of raw tuna.
<br><br>
E.g., I have never eaten endive or pomegranate and am not sure
what they are; for juniper, well, we had a juniper bush
climbing the chimney once, and I understand that it is
important in gin, but I've nearly never tasted gin and have
never eaten juniper. I like shallots, but I would not know
what a shallot confit mousse was. I have no idea what frisee
is. I have made caramelized onions at times but do not know
what a caramelized onion compote would be. For an aioli, I
have seen some on Emeril and Mario but have never eaten or
made one. Port Salut I've enjoyed with Chambertin; without
Chambertin, on a sandwich I'd prefer Swiss. I ate soft shell
crabs once; I much prefer chicken. From having anything to do
with a place that served three sprout salad, I'd fear that the
guys at the office would question my good sense and manhood.
Some really contemptuous jokes should be too easy.
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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The other risk is soaking into clothing - that is BAD. There are plenty of lab rats who work with the stuff that will tell you that the best way to handle LN2 is naked.
An example of a really bad thing to do is to spill some so it goes in your shoes. You'll lose a bunch of flesh that way.
Naked and shaved preferably. Hair + LN2 = BAD too.
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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.
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I'll try to speak to the Forbes people re:aging. This is a very good question. Why don't you post it on the general forum? I'm lazy and will be doing some work this afternoon!
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.
Steaming vs. boiling vegetables
in Cooking
Posted
Another question, if your steaming, why not steam in the microwave? The microwave seems like the perfect mechanism for steaming because it can penetrate food and steam from the inside. This means you achieve higher temperatures and use less water and take less time. So more nutrients are preserved, the enzymes are destroyed faster and the food in general deterioates far less.
Apart from the inherent prejudice that the west seems to have against microwaves for anything other than TV dinners, why not use the microwave?