Shalmanese

Well, there you go. Last I looked you could get their entry level 240mm gyuto for $60 something. I would still generally look to a knife that's made for professional use rather than a brand like Kai, wich is export only, made for the Western consumer market. If you check out the knife discussions at foodieforums.com you'll get more up to date information than what I have. Mean time the Fujiwara carbon steel knives remain a good value, direct from Japan http://japanesechefsknife.com/FKHSeries.html Unfortunately a lot of the bargains from a couple of years ago are now priced over $100. I never made the claim that the Wasabi was the best knife of 2011 but that it replaced the Tojiro as the value champ. It's not the best steel in the world but I challenge you to find a better knife under $50.

This is going to sound really apathetic, but I just don't have the motivation in this case to buy the bricks (about USD10, here). The arrangement is temporary, and my boyfriend's parents really don't have a problem with it, but actually find it amusing. I don't want to know how much a brick house costs at $10 a brick. Around here, bricks cost 30 - 50 cents a piece and they'll often just give you a couple for free if you're only asking for 1 or 2. It's Denmark! Everything is shudderingly expensive! On the other hand, the food is delicious, the people are friendly and it has a great social security system. In that case, anything with thermal mass which can survive heating/cooling can be used. If you have any cast iron pans, you can store them in your oven as long as it never goes about 400F.

That would work if the thermostat in the oven was off in a linear fashion. I've found they almost never are. The oven that is 30 degrees off at 300f, might be 10f off at 250f and 50f off at 500f. I would test the oven at a range of commonly used temperatures. If it's always off by the same amount, GREAT. But I'll betcha a Côte d'Or Chokotoff that it isn't, though. Really? AFAIK, most ovens (cheap ones anyway, I have no idea what fancy ovens use) use a bimetallic strip for which the thermal characteristics are well known and changes in temperature are linear across a range (eg: a N degree change in temperature will always cause an M inch displacement in the strip). Errors in calibration are only what displacement of the strip corresponds to to what internal temperature. Any additional variance you see might be coming from two sources: 1. The oven heats unevenly which causes some parts of the oven to be warmer than others. 2. The oven cycles slowly which means, depending on what part of the cycle you check it, the temperature may vary by quite a large amount. If you want additional precision, place a cast iron pan in the middle oven and check the temperature at 350F both when the heating element just clicks on and just clicks off and average the two numbers with an IR thermometer. Point to the direct center of the pan each time.

This is going to sound really apathetic, but I just don't have the motivation in this case to buy the bricks (about USD10, here). The arrangement is temporary, and my boyfriend's parents really don't have a problem with it, but actually find it amusing. I don't want to know how much a brick house costs at $10 a brick. Around here, bricks cost 30 - 50 cents a piece and they'll often just give you a couple for free if you're only asking for 1 or 2.

If the oven is suffering from temperature fluctuation problems as well, add some thermal mass. Line the bottom of the oven with bricks wrapped in aluminium foil and then do the temperature calibration again.

A few years ago Tojiro was the bang-for-the-buck champion, no doubt. At least compared with everything else available in the U.S.. Word got out, though, and the price went up. I think it's more than just the exchange rate. The Tojiros are now thinner than they used to be, and are more nicely finished. And they have a reputation. So other brands, like Togiharu, have become the value champions. This seems like an ongoing cycle. In another year everyone will be talking about some brand we haven't heard of yet. All the Togiharu's are over $100 which I don't think qualifies as a value champ. I'm a huge fan of the Kai Wasabi line and $35 for a chef's knife is a steal.

Set an empty oven to 350F, wait an hour or so until it stabilizes, then use an oven/probe/IR thermometer to check the internal temp and note the bias. The next time you bake something, take the bias into account. (eg: If you set it to 350 and it reads 320, the next time you need a recipe that cooks at 300F, set the oven to 330F instead.)

I hear you. But some days there just isn't much to do in the casino. I'm not allowed to leave my station. And cellphones are verboten. So I break out a stone and sharpen knives. If a chef walks in and I'm sharpening knives (instead of kibitzing with other cooks), I'm "Mr. Golden Boy." Why not pick up a cheap, coarse stone at the hardware store for more aggressive sharpening?

* What knives do you own? * Do you know the angle on them? * have you ever professionally sharpened or sharpened them with a stone? The problem is people who know how to sharpen with a stone wouldn't dream of using a pull through sharpener and people who use pull through sharpeners don't know what a sharp knife feels like so it's very hard to get comparative data.

It's not Kobe and it's not even 100% Wagyu (virtually all Australian Wagyu is cross bred with another breed) but it can still be a quality product and good Australia Wagyu can be sublime.

I freestone sharpen all my knives so I have my sharpening needs met but my #1 hesitation in recommending a really good knife to friends is because I don't know how to set up an adequate sharpening system. Once it's a few months out of the factory, a knife can only be as good as it's last sharpening and there's no point in recommending a $100+ knife over a $25 Victorionox if both are going to be sharpened to the same sharpness. I've heard mixed things about the dead simple, pull through sharpeners. Cook's Illustrated seems to like some of them but notably does not compare them against whetstones. Many knife people I know say their inherent design means they can never bring a knife fully back into sharpness. I was wondering what everyone's opinions were?

I think the criteria for this would be if the average person thinks "Oh, that's just for people who are trying to avoid X. Since I'm not trying to avoid X, I have no need for it". Almond milk and rice pasta both definitely fit this criteria.

An entire industry has arisen devoted to mimicking conventional foods, except to conform to a certain dietary paradigm. Vegetarian "meats", diet sodas, low carb pastas, low fat yogurts & gluten free pastries would all be examples of this. Usually, these products are largely ignored by anybody who doesn't fit the marketed niche as people assume the mimic version must be inferior to the genuine article. Recently though, Thomas Keller released a line of gluten-free flour made from "cornstarch, white rice flour, brown rice flour, milk powder, tapioca flour, potato starch and xanthan gum." and the SF Gate did a review where they found: "On the other hand, the C4C pound cake stole the show. Tasters deemed it moister than the regular version, with a better texture and more buttery flavor." If the article is to be believed, even if you're not gluten free, it might be worthwhile to specifically seek out this flour for making pound cakes and potentially other recipes could similarly be improved by subbing wheat flour with C4C. I wonder what other examples are there of mimic foods that have largely been ignored by the mainstream audience, even though they actually deliver better results?

Yeah, condiments are one of the few things I don't make at home.

What would be the "lowest temp"? Say you prepare 3 SV preparations at 120F, 130F & 160F. You can then chill all the preparations down for storage, and then reheat all of them in the same bath at 120F. Only thing is, I don't have any dishes that are SV-able. Suggestions? Carrots, perhaps? IMHO, if you're freaking out about prep, you should alter your menu so that you can pump out the maximum volume of food with the minimum amount of fuss, especially during the crucial last hour where all the a la minute stuff happens. If you replace the broccoli soup with glazed carrots, you can prep the entire dish in a SV bag and just cut open for service. You can retrograde the starch in mashed potatoes which gives you more leeway on the mash. If you have a vacuum sealer large enough, you can even SV the rib roast at 130 for 48 hours, chill, bring it up to ~110 on the day of service and then throw it into a 500F oven for 30 minutes to color the outside. This would give you oven time to devote to other things and also not have to worry about timing a multi-hour roast with people arriving. Honestly though, your menu looks simple enough that it shouldn't be too hard to bang out regardless. I was thinking more a ~6 - 10 course menu, each with multiple components which would involve several days of prep.

I think it matters when a recipe is defined by it's lack of a certain ingredient. For example, carbonara should have no cream in it, the creaminess of the sauce should come from the eggs coagulating to just the right degree. A dish with cream in it is undoubtably a tasty dish but it's no longer carbonara. I think the same would also apply to risotto. Southern cornbread should have no sugar in it as this is what defines it from northern cornbread.

I have a giant Safeway close to my apartment where I go to buy condiments, canned goods, staples and other assorted miscellany but I rarely ever get produce, meat, etc from there as I find the selection plasticky and lacking in flavor. There are a couple of exceptions however, like green grapes. Industrially grown green grapes are a wholly different fruit from their more high class brethen. Basically, what I'm looking for in a supermarket grape is that they're huge, sweet and crisp, even though they have barely any grape flavor. It's a completely different type of grape to the ones I can get at the market. Similarly, supermarket celery is great when I'm making a cold salad where I want that crunch of celery but not necessarily the strong taste. Those giant, watery stalks fit the bill perfectly. What are some other instances where the giant, watery, frankenfood version of produce is actually what is ideal for the task at hand?

What would be the "lowest temp"? Say you prepare 3 SV preparations at 120F, 130F & 160F. You can then chill all the preparations down for storage, and then reheat all of them in the same bath at 120F.

If you make and chill SV dishes in the bags the day ahead, you can safely reheat all of them at the same time using the lowest temp for all the bags. How many are you cooking for? I've found anything less than 40 to be pretty simple in an average home kitchen providing you're well prepared and experienced.

You can use a coffee/spice grinder/food processor to grind salt into an ultra-fine powder which can be useful to help with adhesion. For example, I use it when I need to sprinkle salt on popcorn or roasted nuts. I imagine it would also be useful for brines.

I made a cold cucumber salad today tossed with a little homemade chili oil and I accidentally misjudged the heat of the chili oil. As I was eating it, the burn would creep up until it became uncomfortable, at which point, I would grab another chunk of cucumber to temporarily salve the heat, which of course ramped up the heat even further. The last time I remember the same effect was when I made a strawberry-jalapeno sorbet where the same cycle of pain and relief would happen. I think there's something sadistically pleasurable about dishes that manage to push you past your pain tolerance level and leave you gasping at the end. A good pineapple or mango salsa on tortilla chips does the same thing as does a guacamole. What are some other dishes that share this same characteristic? FTR, the recipe for the salad is as follows: Ingredients: 1 English Cucumber 1 Tbsp of Salt 1 Tbsp of Sugar 1/2 cup of Peanut oil 1 Tbsp of Sesame oil 12 Dried Chinese Chilis 2 Tbsp Szechuan Peppercorn 1 Tbsp Black Peppercorn 3 Tbsp Chinese Black Vinegar 2 Cloves of Minced Garlic 1 Handful of Cilantro 1 Big Handful of Roasted Peanuts Peel and cube 1 english cucumber, sprinkle with some salt and sugar and let stand for 30 minutes. Heat a pot of peanut oil & sesame oil with chopped, dried chinese chilis, szechuan peppercorn and black peppercorn until bubbly, let sit and steep for 30 minutes Wash & drain the cucumbers, dry with paper towels, add some of the strained chili oil, chinese black vinegar, minced garlic and cilantro Let it marinate for a few hours in the fridge, toss with gently crushed, freshly roasted peanuts, serve.

You use the first 100 mL of scotch to help empirically determine what is the optimal dilution and then dilute the rest to that concentration .

There's a chinese cold noodle salad with a sesame sauce that, the first time I made it, was transcendental. Every time since then, it's been merely good even though I'm going by the exact same recipe list.

I get that water changes the taste, I'm wondering about the timing. If I add 10 mL of water to a 60 mL glass of scotch, is it going to taste different from me adding 100 mL of water to a 600 mL bottle of scotch when I first get it and then pouring a 70 mL pour?

It's commonly accepted that adding a splash of water to scotch opens up different flavors. But is there anything intrinsically special about the process of adding the water or is it a simple dilution? Could I add the water to the scotch in the bottle and have a readily diluted drink to pour at any time?