Octaveman

Find a retailer with good pictures. Call them to ask questions. Ask them to choose the knife with best handle quality (fit and finish). Don't like it, return it. Keep in mind that if you get a Nakiri that has a small Japanese style handle it's real easy to get it rehandled with a bigger one. Much more difficult and costly to do that with a western handled knife.Here are my sugestions all of which I think are fine knives with good reputations. Kansui Dojo Yoshikane Kumagoro Togiharu Tanaka edited to add one more suggestion.

Doh! I missread what I read. Yes, add more Kosher salt. You can use whatever amount you'd like really. More salt means less brineing time, less salt means more brineing time.

Everything that I've read says to use 1 cup of salt to every gallon of water. If using Morton's Kosher salt lower to 3/4 cup per gallon. The recipe that I've used year after year says exactly this. I also add: 1.5 cups sugar 1/4 cup peppercorns, cracked 15 all spice cracked 15 Juniper berries cracked 15 whole cloves 4 bay leaves 1 tsp dried thyme. Add to a quart of water and bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Add this to the remaining 3 quarts of water. I did the brine this morning before leaving for work today. Smells wonderful. edited to fix wording

Huh? I have microwave popcorn as a quick snack for the kids. I may have a handful but nothing and I mean NOTHING beats homemade popcorn. This is what I do. Don't know if it's similar to other people's method but this method continues to be done the way Grandma did it. First I buy a bag of Jolly Time popcorn (it's what Grandma used). I put a layer of bacon grease in the same exact aluminum pot Grandma used to use and once it's liquid I put in the popcorn. I wait for for the first popped kernal then I pu the lid on. Once the popping is in full swing I start to shake the pot a little. Don't know why but it's what Grandma did. When all finished popping I pour the butter over the popped corn while stirring to get even distribution. Then I add regular table salt. As for the butter, I get that ready to go but must make sure it's the right color. It's got to be a golden brown and make sure the heat is high enough to get it frothy too. Don't know why but it's what Grandma did. I think because frothy butter coats better than runny butter. This is the only way I've made popcorn and refuse to try it any other way...it's that good. Bob

Fried bologna sandwiches with avocado and mayo

I'm sorry but I think white castle hamburgers are the most disgusting thing on the face of the planet. A friend gave me a couple to try last time I was over and it was all I can do to keep from barfing. The thought of using them to stuff a perfectly good turkey is revolting. Seriously. They are reeeeeallly aweful. It took me two days to get the taste out of my mouth.

Wrap in banana or pandanus leaves with Asian spices/sauce is always good.

I'm with you on this too. I've had more stock attempts taste like the veggies than anythng else. While I've never made the stock without the mirepoix I use very little, one onion, half carrot, half celery. A good solid roasting is very beneficial.

I had a Vollrath Steelcoat non-stick fry pan last year. Lasted me a few months and I threw it out. Kinda pissed me off actually. Here I thought this pan would last a while and give me some resemblance of good performance and the damn thing became useless in no time at all. Granted, it probably wasn't babied 100% of the time but still. Spending $20 for a pan is not too bad if ya gotta, ya gotta.

Man, what a great lookin steak. Thanks for the post. I've pretty much always done the quick sear then finish in the oven method for my steaks mostly because it's what I've been taught. If I'm cooking up a nice steak that I'm worried about over cooking during the sear stage I hedge my bets and start right out of the fridge (no bringing to room temp). The steak doesn't get charred and grill marks are prominent. The center doesn't have much time to get hot since it has further to go temp wise. This seems to work well for various steaks I've made specially the thinner ones. Anyone else do this?

For me personally, I think it's a little rediculous to spend a lot of money on a pan where the cooking surface will quickly wear away. The two non-stick pans I have were bought at the grocery store for $7.95 each and they've done their job lasting me 5 months and counting. Sure, in the big picture of non-stick cookware they're not good pans but how good of a pan do you need to cook an egg or a piece of fish every now and then?

I get various stuff like whole chickens and other meats, whatever veggies on they have, bag-o-garlic, cat litter, TP and PT's, garbage bags, zip lock bags, clothes for the kids, blu-rays. I also recommend getting the Sanyo Eneloop rechargable batteries. Fantastic.

Yes, prices are going up across the board with everyone. It would be interesting to see what Takeda is charging these days for his gyuto's. If you wouldn't mind, please send me a PM when they get back with you.

Alan, Arizona custom knives dot com is very expensive and you may be waiting for a while to get a knife you want in stock. I suggest sending Takeda an email and tell him what you want. They should come back with a quote within a day or so. Be sure to specify AS as the steel type. My gyuto was with extra belly. Their standard gyuto is more flat like you desire.

Essentially, Section 179 deduction states that you can deduct up to the $250k limit the full cost of equipment that will be used in your business in 2008 tax year. The purchase date and date put into service must be no later than 12/31/08. Any excess over the $250k limit has to be depreciated under MACRS. Section 179 has been around for a while now but the limits were doubled for this year. So yes, if anyone was thinking about doing some equipment buying, now would be a good time because as of right now, the limit will drop back down for 2009. Here are a few links to look over to give you more specifics as to what type of equipment is allowed and disallowed. General info: http://www.taxguru.org/incometax/Rates/Sec179.htm IRS Deprec Info: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p946/index.html IRS Section 179 info: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p946/ch02.html

Actually Janet, I'm not entirely sure because of multiple variables that come into play. Factors such as, magnet strength, type of magnet, blade material and whether the blade touches the magnet or other metal from the rack all come into play. How much time they spend on the rack is also a factor. Of the knives I have the only time they seemed to be affected was with an older Wusthoff rack I used to use. The blades came into contact with metal bars that were attached to the magnet. The knives that are currently on my Mag-Blok don't show any magnetism to them. Maybe there is some but it's so slight I can't tell. Still, as you said, the blades are not affected by it and certainly doesn't affect performance.

It's very popular among people who become aware of them. Unfortunately though, popularity is still dictated by expsoure to the masses and is quite relative. Within those that do business with distributors of them it's extremely popular. It's a fantastic product and if I had any money, I'd buy one or two more in custom woods. Send them en email and ask when the next batch of one-of-a-kind's will be put up on the website.

I have a few comments.... First, I would never buy that block with the sticks. Second, regarding magnetic racks and which way to put the knife on them, I store my knives point up and here's why. Have you ever gone to reach for something on the counter bringing your hand up then accidentally hitting the edge of the counter? Or gone to reach for anything for that matter and misjudged your surroundings and hit your hand on the door handle, drawer knob or something first? With that in mind can you imagine misjudging how far away you are from your knife rack and you bring your hand up to grap the handle and you're too close to it and slice your hand? No way can that happen if your blades are stored handle down. Third, I'm with you on that Chezcherie. I have half my knives in a block and have never had an issue with grimey slots. If you wash and dry your knives well, there will never be a problem. The only issue I can see is if your area is particularly dusty or your house is prone to getting those dust bunnies or if you fry a lot of foods without proper ventilation which would allow airborne particles to settle on your block and accumulate over time. But even so, that would also apply to silverware drawers, appliances that get grimey, counters that get sedement of various types but when that happens you clean them. There should be no difference with anything else around the kitchen your knife block included. Don't say knife blocks are bad or unhygenic because dirt/oil/grime settles on them. Clean it like you would everything else around the kitchen. Fourth, like anything that needs storage even magnetic strips could cause problems if you don't have a lot of wall space. But if you do I think they are superior to blocks in that they don't take up valuable counter space if that's a concern too. But keep in mind that a block can store more knives in it's given space than a rack can. Some complain that magnetic racks magnetize your knives too. In a word...so what (okay two words). Your onion is not going to fly across the room and stick to your blade. The knife's quality (or lack thereof) will not be affected by slight magnetic energy and does not stay magnetized for long upon removal. Another issue people have is that the metal on the racks scratch the knives. Can't do anything about that except be very careful putting them on and taking them off. IMHO, the best magnetic rack that has no metal touching your blade and is strong enough to hold the biggest and heaviest of knives is called the Mag-Blok. They are a solid piece of wood that's had rare earth magnets inserted. They also have beautiful one-of-a-kind racks too. Check them out. I have one for use with my high-end Japanese knives. Cheers, Bob

Hello? Anyone?

I like this idea. I've used doubled-up foil roasting pans with the rack in it and that worked just fine too and for only $4 it's hard to beat. BTW, when I made turkey doing it this way, I made the gravy ahead of time with the "extra's" you get with the bird and just added in the fond/juices from the roasting pan. Worked great.

That's what I was thinking too with regard to being able to deglaze the goodies. Just throw the pan on top of the stove for a few minutes and boom, you're done. But why would anyone want to spend a lot of money on a pan when the deglazing can be accomplished just as well with a cheap pan and then transfer to a sauce pan? One certainly doesn't need a pan costing $180 when the food just sits on a rack on top of it. I have a cheapo on-sale roasting pan I bought from Macy's Home and while the construction is simple it serves it's purpose of roasting anything and then get it hot enough to deglaze on my electric stove. I've actually used a big foil roasting thing and deglazed on the stove. Worked fine. Out of all the type of pots/pans I would spend a lot of money on a roasting pan would not be one of them. I just don't see the benefit.

Speaking of full bodied red wine...what is that exactly? Zinfendel? Merlot? Sangiovese? Since I'm not really a wine connoisseur I have no clue about what a dry white, full red, dry red really is. Any tips would be nice. Thanks.

I've had Boar's Head brand and liked it a lot. Maybe a local sandwich deli uses it and you can get a pound or two if you like it.

I don't see anyone pounding down a cold one of said fluid's. I raise my hand as a tryer of breast milk...didn't really care for it. I would not want it in ice cream or any other product as a cows milk substitute.

I wonder how much B&J will pay for to acquire said ingredient. Could be worth getting my wife pregnant again. Oh god, did I just say that?