Shalmanese

It's a bunch of pseudoscience.

OK, I'll bite. What is tiger butter, and how do you make it? Anything as good as you describe, I've got to try. ← tiger butter

I'm like that with a lot of things. I'll spend several hours making it and then eat it while sitting in front of the computer and realise I barely tasted my food. Chocolate work is like that as well. I could take or leave chocolate as a flavour but working with it is incredible amounts of fun.

Much more messy but try glazing them with a balsamic/sugar reduction after they're done. It turns into delicious garlic candy.

My first impression is that you've got way too much going on there and it's a giant confusion. I also wouldn't classify caramelized apples as crunchy, they're definately soft. Apart from the greens, I would pick 3 at most of these as a salad. Cashews & pear would be great, tomato confit and cheese, apples, carrots and mandarin would work...

Like I said, I never look at the author unless they particularly irritate or impress me so it's highly likely that I've read quite a few Melissa Clark articles I've had no problems with. As a matter of fact, today I did happen to catch that she wrote one of the articles this week which I though was decently done. But of all the articles I do get angry at, 90+% are written by Melissa. There's just a certain type of article she writes which I continue to viscerally loathe.

Here's an idea: add a layer, freeze until the top is solid, pour on a thin layer of gelatin and let it chill. add another layer and repeat until filled. This can then safely be stored in the fridge until serving time, the gelatin should for a barrier to prevent mixing. Before serving, you need to figure out some way of warming the mixture just slightly so the gelatin melts, maybe throwing them in a low oven or wrapping a warm towel around them. Perhaps steaming them might also work.

Of all the New York Times food writers, Melissa Clark is the only one who I have a visceral reaction to whenever I read her work. I'm not in the habit of checking who writes what but I constantly catch myself reading halfway though a piece and thinking "who wrote this garbage". Inevitably, when I scroll to the top, 9 times out of 10, it's Melissa Clark. It's not just the cheery, homespun, haphazard amalgam of ingredients that she tosses together and pronounces delicious. It's that cheerful, almost oblivious tone which powers through any cooking disaster and wrestles any stray ingredient into order such that they day is always saved at the end by clever improvisation. This would be acceptable if she were actually good at her craft but the recipes she puts out are not only pedestrian and lacking in creativity, they also don't look appetizing. I'm sorry but it's been building up for a while now. She might be acceptable for the local country gazette but I don't see at all what she's doing at the New York Times.

Is he allowed shallots, leeks, chives or garlic? Subbing other alliums in for onions could be viable.

Eggs will continue cooking after they leave the pan. If they're done when you plate them, they'll be overdone when you serve.

I've been struggling with this same basic dish for quite a while now. Basically, I want Cauliflower and Potatoes in a rich bechamel based sauce, topped with cheese and baked in the oven. However, everytime I've made it, the moisture from the cauliflower turns it more into a soup than a gratin. I've tried par-cooking the cauliflower but, by the time it comes out of the oven, the cauliflower becomes mush. I've tried making it with an extra thick bechamel but I have a hard time distributing the sauce evenly and it still comes out too thin. I know what I'm after, tender chunks of potato and cauliflower with some bite to it in a creamy sauce but I can't seem to find that elusive recipe. Here's what I'm currently doing: In a dutch oven: Sweat a diced onion in some butter Add some finely minced garlic and cook for 1 minute Add a copious amount of flour Deglaze with white wine, cook for 2 mins Add whole milk, season with S&P, bay leaves, honey and mustard Add cubed potato and cook for 5 minutes Add grated cheese, the cauliflower and mix well and transfer to a baking dish Sprinkle with more grated cheese and slide into a 350F oven Cook until the cauliflower is tender and then broil the top until the cheese is brown Let it sit for 20 minutes for the sauce to thicken slightly.

There's some intriguing information in this egullet thread about whether Fernand Point may or may not have gone to Japan and how that may or may not have influenced him. Enjoy!

If you do manage this, can you please make a plate which features a yin/yang of black and white hummus and photograph it for us?

I would hazard a guess that great chefs simply can learn their craft more efficiently from other sources. Culinary school may be great for the average student but if you have real talent, it may be faster to teach yourself and to seek out great mentors instead.

I've made duck fat biscuits with star anise in the pastry and a cilantro jam on top. It was good...

Hrmm... can you sous vide beans so they don't overcook?

Hrmm... I haven't noticed that. I was amazed by the plutots and apriums that Tiny had last year and I go to their stall every week in the hopes that they have something of similar quality and I've been consistently disappointed. Not bad by any means, but just ordinary so far...

Damn, that is gorgeous. I somehow never have the patience to cook my potatoes too long when making Spanish Tortillas. How long did you cook them for? In how big a pan with how much oil?

Wine technology tends to be incredibly conservative because perceptions matter so much and it can be so hard to change received opinion. Screwtops are finally becoming mainstream but it was impossible for a long time because people thought no good wine came in screwtops and so, no good wine makers were willing to risk putting their wines in screwtops. Plastic bottles were meant to be the next big thing as well but they're still having a hard time taking off.

Our family used five spice powder all the time in home cooking. Oddly enough, I had a hard time finding it in Hong Kong when I was there.

Clarification: I've been looking at a lot of Japanese Santoku's around the $100 range. Some of them have the swirly patterns on the blade whether you want to call it damascus or sumigashi or whatever. My question is, are the swirly patterns on the knife a purely cosmetic feature or is there some metallurgical reason for having them on there? I have to admit, for whatever reason, damascus blades justt look sharper to me but are they actually sharper?

I remember hearing that in the 80's Sous Vide was going to be the next big thing in convenience foods. It would be like TV dinners, on steriods. Sous vide baths would be as common as microwaves and people would buy pre-prepared vacuum foods which they would pop into their sous vide machine in the morning and have a nice, piping hot gourmet dinner when they arrived home. Now, on the face of it, none of this seems absurd. Sous Vide really would be great for this purpose and I think it would drastically increase the average quality of food that people are eating. But sous vide seems to have morphed into a edgy haute cuisine trend now on the road to being played out and tired. Why did it end up taking the road it did and is there any home for mass consumer sous vide? To me, it seems like a classic chicken and the egg problem. Noone was willing to invest money developing a sous vide machine without a ready market and manufacturers weren't willing to develop sous vide foods when noone owned a machine. However, now with a strong enthusiast home market in sous vide, there seems to be a ripe niche in the market for a basic home sous vide rig. It doesn't have to be super precise and people have been making tolerably accurate home brew kits for quite reasonable prices. Why is it noone has really made a move in this direction?

Now I'm aware that there's a difference between "true" damascus blades and those which just have pretty wavy lines but is there a noticeable difference in sharpness or performance between a damascus style blade and a plain metal one?

So far, I'm not super happy with my lodge. The enamel seems far more sticky that Le Creuset and there's a tendancy for food to get stuck on there and burn.

Sounds like the main problem might be your knife isn't sharp enough. Having a dull knife doesn't just make you slower, it completely changes your technique.