Octaveman

Now THIS is something to consider. Sure the other stuff linked were nice but $110 for one 3 piece setting? LOL. Thanks for posting Andie.

I agree David. a fairly short time ago I was looking for that big steakhouse kind of steak knives that would be befitting a 2-3 lb. ribeye or similar and looked and looked but found nothing. Someone suggested getting a particular knife (ironically a boning knife) while not typically used for the purpose of manhandling a steak the design REALLY appealed to me. So I happened to have extra money burning a hole in my pocket so I splurged an 4 of these. Beefy, heavy, manly.

Sometimes when I eat out I get these little folded crackers that have words of wisdom inside them. If I get lucky, it will have my 5 lucky numbers on the back. Very thoughtful parting gift IMHO.

pretty much all the ideas I had were already put out here but one of my all-time fav pastrami sandwiches served at a local Jewish deli (D.Z. Akins) is a Pastrami Rueben...toasted rye, sour kraut & cheese.

I guess I'm in the minority because I think they're disgusting. I had my first one the last time they came out in my area and I tossed it after two bites. Good gawd it was aweful.

I do have a Falk pan that I could possibly trade. Peter signed it himself.

Simply sounds like to me that they just didn't use very many peppercorns in the dish. Lip numbing affect aside the use of a lot of them would most definitely come through in flavor and it doesn't take a lot of them get your face numb. I've cooked with them plenty of times and it sure never took a lot to overwhelm a dish. I've also found that toasting and grinding them gets better coverage and higher intensity of the peppercorn flavor and that telltale mouth numbing affect.

I'd like Anthony Bourdains Les Halles cookbook. A couple more clay cooking pots/pans like Emile Henry or La Chamba. A few more Falk copper pans to augment the ones I have. Can't think of anything else I'd need really.

If this has been posted before I apologize but I refuse to go through 506 posts to find out. TJ's Garlic Naan is the BOMB.

Congrats on the purchase. He makes great knives. Takeda's knives are deceivingly acute. To say a hand made knife has bevel angles of 7* per side will likely not be accurate with every knife he makes. The picture below is a quick and dirty method to finding the original bevel angle. Move the blade back and forth and watch the water come out from underneath the edge. The moment the water is pushed out, that's the angle you need to sharpen if you want to keep the same angles. To keep that shallow angle steady you will need to go slow and let the stone do the work. One hand on the handle/spine moving the blade up/down the stone and your index and middle fingers of the other hand on the bevel right at the edge to keep the bevel steady as you move it. After a while through muscle memory you will sharpen without worry of steadiness as you will "feel" the bevel quite easily. Also, the link below while in Japanese gives you a general idea through pictures of movement and hand position. http://www.watanabeblade.com/hotyo/sharp5.htm

They look real nice but $200 for the large one is kind of ridiculous when you consider that this was "extra" material. Too bad. I was ready to buy one until they told me how much. Going with the standard 14x16x1/2 one.

They are a fast food burger place that IMHO serves a better than average selection of food. I personally think their chicken egg rolls are delicious. They often add new food to their menu to keep things interesting which is pretty much the opposite of McD's. I can't say what they'll have on the menu in your area because they do have regional differences but the core foods are probably the same. If they have some sort of a steak sandwich it's pretty good. It's a fast food joint. All over the place here in San Diego.

Okay, I went to their website, read the reviews, watched the video's and bought it. So far in just playing around it seems like this could easily be the coolest thing in my kitchen. Can't wait to try it out on pizza rather than a wet towel.

This is pretty much what you will find with 95% of the gyuto's out there. Check out the following links to online knife shops that are regularly used by knife nuts. Japanesechefsknife.com Seito Trading Tadatsuna Knife Merchant Aframes Tokyo

I forgot to add that Watanabe's carbon is WAY more reactive than most. I had a carbon honyaki that didn't form a patina in three weeks of use. It was weird. I thought they gave me the wrong knife. Blue super takes longer to form a patina than the others. I have used White #1, #2, Blue #2, Blue Super but I can't make any comparison of food reaction as most these knives were used several years ago. The knife forums Paul linked could get you more answers on this.

I use carbon steel and SS clad carbon knives and I've never seen one that didn't discolor food like onions, avocado's, artichokes, garlic, etc. My white steel Watanabe discolors less often as the patina forms but the day I expose a freshly sharpened edge (usually 5mm+ wide) it starts all over again. Oddly not all onions will get discolored. I wonder if this has anything to do with freshness or even simply not paying attention to any kind of correlation between newly sharpened or not-so-sharp edges and discoloration. I also have a Murray Carter SS clad white steel gyuto and sometimes get the same reaction after sharpening. But once the patina on the edge has been formed the reaction is less likely depending on the food. And honestly, if you have a budget of $500 I would strongly suggest a SS clad Carter over a clad Watanabe. Stainless clad knives will not remove the discoloration as the knifes' core is still carbon. In order to completley remove that factor you'll have to go 100% stainless.

Most of the time stones like these are 800/2000 or something close to this. It's most likely a water stone. picture?

+1 on the Iwatani. I got my torch on ebay. There's an auction currently going on for $10. I've seen the gas canisters at Asain grocery stores. Iwatani torch on ebay

Didn't need a whole lot of kitchen stuff but I did get... 8 ounces dried Morels misc spices/herbs from The Spice House Paderno omelette pan Ove Glove

Nice. Making it for family so if they get some chunks it'll be okay. I made a batch of french vanilla a few weeks ago and used BIG eggs. The larger yokes I think made the ice cream perfect so I think I'll go that route in addition to the Xanthan but I'm having a hard time finding it locally. Thanks for your time Scott. Cheers.

Pots de Creme are not just chocolate or vanilla or the like. Many are savory and my all time favorite is a Crab Pot de Creme at this website... http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/recipes_pdc.asp

Thanks Scott. That helps a lot and what I suspected but didn't know how to correct it. Below is the recipe I have. I will try to get xanthan today. How much would I use? I usually add the cheese when the base is at room temp. Should it be cooler? 1 1/2 cups half and half 1/2 cup heavy cream 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 vanilla bean 3/4 cup sugar 3 egg yolks 2 1/2 Tbs honey 8 0z mascarpone cheese On a side note, I will be finishing the ice cream with a strawberry balsamic topping. Hard to find exactly what I've been looking for but do you or anyone else think the ingredient list below would make for a tasty topping? the recipe says to combine ingredients until thickened. Yes, I have a very good balsamic to use. 2 tablespoons light brown sugar 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg 3 cups sliced fresh strawberries

Everything I've read says to wisk it in to melt. The lumps of fat come after it finishes in the ice cream machine. I read somewhere that you want to be careful to keep the yellow layer from forming on the top as the ice cream cools before going into the machine but I have yet to keep that from happening. Maybe I need to skim that layer off before putting in the machine. Baroness, this ice cream has a custard base made like a traditional french vanilla so it's already heated. Problem is that the yellow layer that forms (which I assume is butter) freezes into small lumps in the ice cream making/freezing/churning process. Maybe I need to cool down the mixture more than I have in the past so the cheese doesn't seperate. Thanks for the replies so far though.

I've made Marscapone ice cream in the past and had tasty lumps of frozen fat in it that I gather to be the butter from the cheese that separated. How do I make this ice cream without those lumps? Was my ice cream not cool enough when I mixed in the cheese? thanks

Spices, dried Morel mushrooms.