Patrick S

FWIW, according to news reports, John Scharffenberger is staying on, and is promising that the chocolate will not change.

At the moment, Google News has 88 items related to the aquisition of SB by Hershey's. Click here.

Ok, here's a couple of pictures of the Hershey's recipe, from waaay back. I believe I made this for a b-day party. This was baked in a tube pan.

Ah, but what weight will you use? It still matters. If the recipe assumes that you will dip and sweep, you have to assume that a cup of AP weighs 5 ounces, but if the recipe assumes you will lightly spoon, you have to assume that a cup weighs about 4.5 ounces. With this recipe, you should assume that 1C AP weighs about 4.5 ounces. The cake is a good riser. I'll see if I can find a picture for you.

If it is the same recipe as this one, on Hershey's website, I've made it several times and think it is a fine cake. Note the flour in this recipe should be spooned, not dipped-and-swept. EDIT: Of course you don't have to use Heshey's cocoa, use the one you like best.

I'm trying to learn the art of steak, so . . .we had steak. These were sauteed in butter over medium heat. Served it with potatoes, sauteed in butter and olive oil.

This is an incredibly philosophical statement. Of course it makes sense - there are at least ten ingredients in a cake recipe, sometimes more; you've got equipment to keep in mind, and then environment (temperatures, altitude). Combine all possible variables for all of these items, and then take into account the differences in people, and you're hit with one of the craziest realizations - that you'll probably never make something in a recipe the way the original author ever intended. Or one of the greatest mysteries - that food must be incredibly forgiving, for even the most complex recipes to work. Which must be the case - because the threads where we test different recipes and get very similar results exist. So either our standards are the same, or - ? I'd love to hear what people think. By the way, I love the threads where we test for the best recipe. It's like a Cook's Illustrated reality show, but more creative. ← At least ten ingredients in a cake? I must be special -- I can make one with eggs, flour, and sugar. Not terribly delicious, though! Seriously though, I think the problem is that most recipes are just not specific enough for different bakers to get exactly the same results. To take an obvious example, most recipes just specify volume of flour, without specifying how to measure that volume. Two people can make the "same" recipe, yet use flour amounts that differ by ~%20. That will have a pretty big effect on the cake. Flour is the obvious example, but there is variability everywhere -- fat content and freshness of butter, type of veg oil, fat/sugar/cacao content of chocolate, pH of cocoa, weight of eggs, type of vanilla, heat distribution in your oven, and so on. And then you have the variability in method. What does a firm peak look like? How do you know your sugar and butter are creamed? Did you sift your flour? I think recipes can be precise algorithms that yield results that are, for all practical puposes, identical from baker to baker. But even if all the recipes we tried were made according to precise instructions and we all got exactly the same result, the element of individual taste would ensure that we never ALL agreed on one recipe as the best. It would be like Pink Floyd fans trying to agree which of their songs is "the best." You might get a slim majority saying one song is "the best," let's say Dark Side of the Moon, but others will say Wish You Were Here, and still others will say Another Brick in the Wall.

You might want to test the torch before you buy it. Some cheap torches have a tendency to go out when you turn them upside down and move them side to side. The first cheap torch I bought did that, and thus was practically worthless.

Naked and shaved preferably. Hair + LN2 = BAD too. ← And besides, what could possibly be more sexy than a bunch of naked and shaved lab rats exploring the mysterious ways of LN2? Add some MDMA, loud techno music, and flashing lights, and you have yourself a fine rave . . .

Interesting. There is a picture of a girl doing this here. I think I'd pass on that one!

The director of FOD, himself, John Schwartz, has said that aside from a few authentic news clips in the film, they are all fake. Lifting the mask from 'Faces of Death'

Patrick, I might be wrong but I remember you making a chili awhile back.. Was it Cinci style last time?? Which recipe is better? What are some of the toppings or sides you throw on the texas style? Is that corn in the background? ← I don't know if I like either of them better than the other. I like that Texas chili has big chunks of chuck as opposed to 'blanched' ground beef. Spice-wise, the Texas style has only chili powder and cumin, in addition to fresh and smoked chilis, so the flavor is not as complex as the Cinci style. The Texas chili is very thick, more like a stew than a soup. Toppings and sides: I put sharp cheddar on mine, but I think jack cheese goes as good or better. The best side with Texas chili, IMHO, is corn bread or corn fritters or "skillet corn". I was too lazy/busy to make them, though, so we plain corn. Beans are popular sides too, as are rice and thick tortilla chips.

That is the "buckle."

We had Texas-style chilli made in the slow-cooker. Beefy. Very beefy.

The CI blueberry-lemon sour cream coffee cake is good, but not nearly as good as the 'buckle.' I think it could be much better with less leavening and about double the blueberries, but I doubt I'll try it again.

I've never done it myself, but I'm pretty sure that the folks in the rural, eastern part of my state eat Sasquatch chitterlings on a semi-regular basis.

The brain has billions of nerve endings, called axons, but it doesn't have any pain receptors. ← No pain receptors...that's what I meant! ← I know. It's just that I can't pass up an opportunity to be pedantic!

I have it on not-the-best authority (Thomas Harris/Hannibal, episodes of ER) that there are no nerve endings in the brain. The brain itself requires no desensitizing drugs during brain surgery. ← The brain has billions of nerve endings, called axons, but it doesn't have any pain receptors. And you're right. You can do brain surgery with a local anesthesia. In fact, in the days before fMRI, surgeries of this kind were very useful in determining what parts of the brain were involved in what functions.

I agree. Since my CI muffins turned out so well, I made the 'buckle' recipe to, and it was also great. Tonight I'm making yet another CI blueberry recipe, the blueberry lemon sour cream coffee cake. Its cooling right now, and looks good. Can't wait to try it.

So I just got a Lodge cast iron pan and I'm going to try it out tonight. I have 2 steaks, not too thick, at home waiting. I'm going to follow this method, but I have a question...For medium done steaks, about how long should they stay in the oven? I have a thermometer, but I just want to get an idea if we're talking about 5 minutes or more like 15 or 20 minutes . . . ← It will vary depending on the thickness of your steaks. Most of the steaks I've done this way were thin, only about 3/4" thick, and 3 minutes per side in a blazing hot skillet was all it needed, no oven time necessary. I love steak cooked this way, but I can't do it very often because I fill my house with smoke, even with the vent fan on high.

Hmm. Propane itself is not classified as a carcinogen by any of the major cancer research agencies, such as The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the US National Toxicology Program (NTP). Propane is also not a mutagen in the Ames test, that it, it does not induce DNA mutations, which is the primary mechanism whereby carcinogens actually induce cancer. Toxicology reviews of propane also state that propane does not cause reproductive or developmental problems. Carbon monoxide is also not known to cause these things. I don't know what it is in the fuel that is supposed to cause these effects, but I'm pretty sure its not the propane. 'Combustion products' are a different story. Any time you burn organic matter, you create or pyrosynthesize new compounds, some of which are toxic and or carcinogenic, but that applies to all forms of flame cooking, not just blowtorching.

I tried the CI bb muffins last night, and they are superb. Of course, lemon-lover that I am, I used the lemon variation, where you brush the muffins with lemon syrup and then dip them in lemon zest sugar. I agree with you, jayhay, lemon works great with blueberries (and other berries). I'm making another batch tonight to give away at my nephew's birthday party tomorrow.

Sure, its not the cacao beans in something like "Death by Chocolate" that is bad for you, its the half gallon of cream and three pounds of sugar in each serving.

I just had one of those why-haven't-I-done-this-before moments. I can't wait to try this with a good steak. According to this article on Jewelry making, maximum torch temps for different fuels are as follows: Acetylene-6300°F Butane-4995°F Hydrogen-4850°F MAPP-5301°F Propane-5252°F I don't know the temerature of a typical broiler element, but I know its much lower than a torch flame!

The explanation that I have heard is that as meat cooks, muscle fibers in the meat contract, loosing their porosity, squeezing out their liquid, like a compressed sponge. The liquid doesn't leave the cut of meat necessarily, but it is pressed out of the fibers, into spaces outside of the fibers. So, if you cut the meat before the fibers have relaxed a little again, then all the liquid that is sitting in the extra-fiber spaces can drain right out, whereas if you wait a bit, and the fibers relax again, increasing the porosity of the fibers, then much of that liquid gets reabsorbed into the fibers, which holds it like a sponge. I don't know if that explanation is correct or not, but it is consistent with the observations you describe.