RETREVR

http://www.allclad.com/ Just a pricey heavy duty maker. Not the end-all by any means. Looks to be better than lagostina....but I own niether.

Turns out I can afford copper. I just picked up a 2qt copper sauce pan and a copper and porcelin bain marie for just under $25. They are both tinned and in good shape. These are not the heavy all-clad type pans, but they are not el cheapo either. All peices are rivetted with brass hardware. Sometimes you just get lucky I guess.

I cannot answer the question on the grounds that it may incriminate me.

Have you?? ← Don't try this at home. Toss one in there the next time you go to Wendys.

I would love to have a rack of copper pans. The price is a little steep for me, so a couple is all I really need. I have yet to think of a recipe that I have said to myself, " dam, I can't make that with a stainless pan. I have to have copper". I know that the performance of copper is great, but it is not worth the premium for me at this point. I do think that a lot of the attraction is cosmetic for many. It is a bitch to keep clean if you want the bright look (not that I keep my pans clean anyway). A quality stainless pan will last me longer than I care to use it. I would rather spend the extra money on cutlery. Yesterday I bought a big williams-sonoma two-handled roasting pan at auction for five bucks. I am sure they get over a hundred for them, and this one is mint.

Ever toss a few Icecubes in a deep fryer?

I own 1. I don't use it. Ask me how many notebooks I have.

Scooter- I can go whith that. Sometimes the fat seperating the spinalis is so pervasive that it effects the integrity of the steak(on the 3 cuts). So, if you can give me a 2 cut with good spinalis, I would be bappy. Teardrop is not a industry term. If you look at the cut, it is sort of the shape of a teardrop. The spinalis is on one edge and the pointy, fat tip is on the other. Sometimes you get a bite or two out of that tip that is killer. I have mixed feelings on the t-bone. You are trying to cook two cuts at the same time. This compromise rarely produces super results on both sides of the bone. The best part of the t-bone is the rare meat next to the bone. There is some satisfaction from chewing on the bone at the end. I prefer a Ribeye to both tenderloin and strip. So I would usually opt for a ribeye over a t-bone unless the price is right, or the cuts just look superior to the ribeye selection. Ribey with the bone is also available. I just don't see porterhouse very often. I supose if you can pawn off the tenderloin side to your wife it starts to make sense. My grandfather was also a butcher.

Seems to make sense but my experience is different. The 3 cut is the big end and the 1 cut is the small end. What I look for is the 3 cut with good marble in the main muscle. The marbled strip of meat that runs along the outside of the 3 cut is arguably the most flavorfull part of the animal(the tip of the tear drop is pretty dam good also). Even if you select a tough 3 cut you will still get the ultra tender flavorfull band around it. The 1 cuts in the picture don't have the quality marbleing that the 2 and 3 cuts have. I might as well have a NY if I go shopping for the 1 cut. And in my opinion, a good NY can't hold its own against a poor ribeye. Now you can argue the point that the 2 cuts shown have good marble and a small band around them. OK fine. They look good. But if you put a prime rib in front of me and ask me to slice myself a peice, it will always come from the large end....the 3 cut.

This may help you glenn: http://www.smartgirl.org/writing/forum/index.html

How about fromagio? Sear the breasts Deglaze with White wine, maybe a squeeze of lemon. crumble a little gorgonzola or other touch of cream or half and half...milk if you must. throw in a few garnishes of prociuto if you have it, if not, serve as is, or garnish with what you have. Rich rainy day dish.

Agreed. Just as there is no single true Italian cuisine, or single true French cuisine. Regionality plays a role. There is no SINGLE true American cuisine. But there is TRUE American cuisine, and many of them. Globalization and assimilation of new products plays a role. For instance, the introduction of the potatoe to Europe and Britain. For instance, the influence of asian products and techniques in modern American cuisine. A region's cuisine is not static. It is constantly evolving. In Colorado there are regional dishes like Green chile and BBQ that I love and will eat no matter what my economic or gegraphic sitiation comes to be. These dishes have an honesty that can be enjoyed by any gourmand, no matter how sophisticated. Regional wild game plays a role. If I were in NYC, I would not search out pronghorned antelope. I will eat it here. The farm ducks served in NYC, are not even similar to the wild ducks I eat here. On the same note, it is pretty hard to get a a sea duck in Colorado. My grandad was a butcher. That is part of my heritage. I worked with Japanese, and Italians, and learned a lot of French cuisine that has become the foundation of knowlege that I base my cooking on. I may apply this to produce available in my region. Or create a dish that apeals to the population in my region. The truest of French cuisine may not be in any of the classic books. It may be something cooked by a Frenchman using what he has available to him.

Thanks guys. and gals I think I will go with an Atlas for symplicity sake. I can get one for about $40 or less. We have a kitchenaid but it is not in the kitchen all the time. By the way...has anyone used the meat grinder attatchment for the kitchenaid? Any feedback? I suppose there is a kitchen aid thread somewhere. I still kick myself. When I ran a liquor store I had a cook come in with a robocoup from a restaurant that had gone belly-up and not paid him. He wanted to trade for a 12 pack of beer. I took the trade and sold it for $100 to a chef I used to work for. Wish I would have held it. I kept the mandolin that he threw in the deal. Thanks for the info

I need a recomendation on a pasta roller. Here are the details. Manual crank is fine. It will not be used daily in a pro kitchen, but occasionaly. I just want to be able to put some ravs or torts on small party catering menus. I don't want to spend a lot of money. The Atlas machines seem to be available everywhere for cheap. Am I going to break it the second time I use it, or do they hold up? Any brand recomendations? Years ago I used a huge mechanized unit. The last hand-crank unit I used was fine but I forget the brand name. Thanks

Geeze, you get a lot of feed back and go away mad? I wasn't trying to squash your dreams, all I was saying is that in the restaraunt business, you have to addapt quickly. You would have to be willing to develop your menu. Perhaps your day-one menu is exactly the optimal selection. Perhaps your the one out a million people to open a restaurant that knows it all. You start the thread by saying how clueless most owners are. I'll tell you what. I've been there for opening night for restaurants a tad more complicated than a sandwich shop. If you posted thinking that everyone would tell how clever you are, then you are mistaken. If you get good advice and choose not to consider it, then you are truly clueless.

Hey Funk- This is a little off subject, but... Have you ever been to Sweedlers (sp) outside of Lander WY? I think the town is Hudson. Very old restaurant. They serve cabbabge rolls before every meal. The prime rib is thicker than War and Peace. No Credit cards. We were about to pay cash...they refused. They asked for our address and sent us the tab. If I lived in Dixon I would think it is worth the drive

Rocky Ford Colorado. Small highway Ag town in the Arkansas valley with a high espanic population. I drive down there to bird hunt. They have a kick-ass taco truck on the weekends. There is nothing better than a tonge taco after a long day of walking fields of milo looking for quail, or sitting in a blind calling ducks.

This is a joke rigth? Seems to me that you should scrap the grilled cheese idea and become the east coast distributer for obscure beverages. "I watched clueless restaurant owners..." hmmm Heres an concept for you: Say that grilled cheese doesn't fly like you think it will. Do you just keep operating untill you run out of money, or do you close the doors? Or are you capable of making a menu change? If grilled cheese is this hard, you might have to hire a chef.

Thats why I call what I make a "demi-demi" or a half demi, or a half half , which works out to a quarter. A quarter-glaze, is a pretty accurate description of what I make. The final pan reduction, or lack there of, can determine what type of sauce you want. It is light enough unreduced to improv a pan sauce for halibut. Or if you reduce it in the final pan sauce, it is flavorfull enough to make a brown sauce. Where a ye olde demi is very specific, both in definition and the sauces you make. You basically derive your brown sauces and improvosations upon them. Glace de viande, is simply sin. It is to be used only after sex. Anything following will just be a disapointment.

To make espangol you really want to brown the hell out of the carrots and make your roux. We used to make a real demi now and then. When it is cooled, it is so hard you could make a flack jacket out of it. But for most uses we would use a demi-demi, which is a reduced veal stock tightened up with a little starch. Very versatile. Usable on even fish and chicken. Bassically brown veal bones(in the oven) and any meat trimmings you may have, put in a pot with mire poix (sp) and fill with cold water. Bring to simmer, skim, and continue till the next morning or longer. Strain and continue to reduce. When you have good gelatin, color, and flavor, tighten it up a little with corn starch. Like I said, this was not intended to be a true demi, but it is very versatile and can hold together a lot of pan sauces.

You don't want to know. But here's a story. I used to have a couple of dishwashers from Cenigal (sp) Africa. I used to make them these big plates of potatoes lyonais which had tons of bacon in it. I would give them a scrap steak or burger with it. One night I had some pork chops and offered to make a chop with their potatoes. They said, "no no, we muslim, we no eat pork. Just make us those potatoes". Oops. Once I treated a waiter to a cut of prime rib hidden under his rice. I got off work and hit the bar for a beer. Evidently the bartender had been told to take care of me. What a hang over. Staff meals are always odd. In the old days half of a dessert tray, and a few beers at 11:30pm wouldn't seem unordinary. Or how about french fries and bernaise. Yep, its good I don't drink anymore. Don't forget morning coffee of esspressoo and heavy cream. Yep, helps get the bernaise unclogged. Once I caught a waiter eating off a plate he had bussed off a table. I gave him hell. His response was, "she was cute... I'd kiss her". Today it was a few chunks of roasted turkey for breakfast. Lunch was a pork filling I cooked up for pot stickers. and a cookie

Teal is a great eating little duck. I usualy do something simple like take the breasts and blacken them mid rare. Once I served them simply seared, deglazed with worchesteshire, sliced and served on a cracker with jalepeno jelly. One good improv on pheasant breast I made was this. I pan seared the breasts, deglazed with a little brandy, added a little demi (not a true demi but a reduced veal stock tightened up a little with cornstarch) , I finished the sauce with a homemade crabapple jelly and a swirl of butter. Kick ass. I have also made pheasant cacciatore(sp) using the whole bird parted out. As for dove...one of the truly great original American dishes is the old jalapeno insert and bacon wrap grill. One of the most common traditional things you see non-gourmands do is to chop up game and put it in a crock pot with cream of mushroom soup. ouch. I happened to see Emeril the other night make a duck pastrami. Looked good. Snowgoose is good in a braise or stew. I might make an improv on snowgoose borgononnonnne(sp) this year. Sometimes the ducks realy need a strong flavor element, sometimes not. Those little teal breast are like little beef filet tournedos....so tender, lean and mild....really just need a good browning and salt and pepper. I happen to think mushrooms can make a good pairing with game. Think about this. Duckbrest stuffed with crimini duxells with port glaze and wild rice. The earthyness of a funguss would be fine. Maybe mushrooms in brown butter over a seared cut of game? I'm just not a big fan of making game tast like a gin martini with juniper and mint. Same with lamb. Sometimes I get a super strong duck and it gets fed to the dog.

If you were to buy one, the Weber bullet smoker is highly recomended by experienced smokers.

Today I made crab cakes, curried butternut squash soup, roasted red pepper soup, pot stickers, beef borgonnonnne, chicken roulades, pan seared tuna with a ginger sauce, crusty french rolls, and a few beef roasts. But this is what I had for dinner when I got off work: I took a torilla and put some grated yellow cheese on it> I popped it in the micro for about 25 seconds (times may vary) , I then dropped it on the floor, picked it up and seasoned it to tast. For dessert, I had some squeeze butter left over from a camping trip, so I put it on a tortilla with some honey. Both dishes sliced with japanese 33 layer cobalt damascus gyuto. Bon food

Poaching and baking is fine for some dishes, but I really think the cut benefits from some browning. One of the problems is that the fashion for chicken breasts, among others, is for them to be very large. This gives you a huge variation in thickness. It may not be a bad idea to make a sort of butterfly cut in the the non-skin side of the thick end. This will reduce cook time and give you more even cooking. It should not be too difficult to make a passing chicken breast. But as I said before, the breast is just over-rated. Part of the reason I think this is because it is not very flavorfull and lacks the fat content that tastier parts have. Same with turkey. Everybody wants moist turkey. Heres your first hint:Eat the dark meat.