Patrick S

Abra, you're a woman after my own heart. ← dark chocholate is good for the heart? How? ← It is thought to have a beneficial effect on some risk factors, such as serum LDL and platelet reactivity, which are associated with coronary artery disease. Chocolate is also rich in antioxidant compounds which, theoretically, can reduce the risk of cancer by binding to oxygen radicals which would otherwise be available in cells to causes genetic mutations. I say "theoretically" because results from actual randomized trials of antioxidant supplements have given conflicting results, often showing no benefit with respect to cancer risk.

Ditto - I always get inspired everytime you post your great baking pictures! ← I heartily third this sentiment - you deserve some sort of eG Medal of Honour ← Thanks so much for the compliments, Daniel, LC, and Lexy! For my next project, I'm leaning towards the Concorde (chocolate meringue and mousse 'cake'). A friend at work told me about this meringue and chocolate mousse petite for he had, raving about how good it was. Plus it seems pretty easy.

What I do, and I guess most other people do too, is turn the heat way down as I get close to the temp I want to stop at, which slows the rate at which the temp increases. Then, right when I hit the temp I want to stop at, I add my cream or butter, and that basically stops the temperature rise immediately.

I decided to break in my ice cream machine by making the triple-chocolate meringue and ice-cream puffs (p. 197). These consist of a scoop of Herme's chocolate ice-cream sandwiched between cocoa-meringue 'kisses' and topped with chocolate whipped cream. I decided to defer to Herme on the choice of chocolate, and ordered some Valrhona Caraibe to use for the ice and whipped creams. These are, obviously, deeply and intensely chocolatey. The shatteringly crisp meringues make an interesting contrast with the ice cream. The taste is awesome. Finally, my chocolate arrives. A kilo of gustatory joy. Making the ice cream. A meringue puff. Finished ice-cream puff. I should've made the whipped-cream swirl bigger. . . . . . but I'm not complaining. Maybe I'll have one more bite.

No, it would not be a bad idea at all. In fact, I liked it better the next day, slightly chilled.

I googled around a bit on this, because I found the question interesting. I found a couple references to duck eggs having far lower instances of salmonella than chicken eggs, but no references to the animals themselves. I imagine what is true for the egg is likely true for the animal though. Perhaps ducks just have some natural immune defense against salmonella? ← Did you happen to save the link, Nullo? If so, please share it with me. I looked briefly, but couldn't find any actual data. I did see a variety of opinions -- some saying duck eggs are far less likely to carry salmonella, some saying the they are as likely to carry salmonella as chicken eggs, and some saying they are more likely to carry salmonella because their shells are more porous than chicken eggs. Everybody seems to agree that duck eggs can carry Salmonella, but none of them are citing any actual surveys. Come to think of it, I never went and checked PubMed, which probably has journal articles on the subject. I'll go check. Okay, there are a few articles on the subject, though none of them compare the incidence of Salmonella in chicken versus ducks, and some of them are looking at Salmonella on shell rather than inside the egg. And many of them don't include abstracts. And most of them are either very old or based on research in other countries, which may have different rearing conditions. But for what its worth, here are some of the references. Those were the results from the search on salmonella+"duck eggs." A did a broader search for salmonella+duck, and this returned more results, some of which report human bacterial illness resulting from eating duck. Kessel et al (2001. General outbreaks of infectious intestinal disease linked with poultry, England and Wales, 1992-1999. Commun Dis Public Health. 4(3):171-7.) reported the following: That would seem to suggest that duck (2% of IID) is far less likely to cause IID than chicken (75% of IID). But of course, far more chicken is consumed than duck, so its not entirely clear from this if the greater IID from chicken than duck reflects greater consumption of chicken, a lower incidence of infected duck, or a combination of both.

Well, you don't go 'way out on a limb' by asking a question. You go out on a limb by making an assumption. I'm not trying to be pedantic, but that's just how the simile works. But to answer your question, I guess I was taken aback by the multitude of mean-spirited things that were being said about the person in the article. For instance, she was called "a soulless human being" in post #14, "boastful" in post #29, and "highly dysfunctional" and in need of "therapy" in post #35. I don't know the woman profiled in the article, but I know a lot of people like her, who could probably boil water if they had to, but not much else. They just happen to value food much less than I do. Really, I think it takes an almost Herculean small-mindedness to muster contempt for someone based on their cooking/eating habits or food preferences. I would be just as defensive if the tables were turned, and the criticism was directed at obsessive-compulsive foodies like us, who spend most of their waking life cooking, reading about cooking, watching shows about cooking, talking to other foodies on the internet about cooking, and so on. That's a funny theory, because 90% of the foodies I know, including myself, are overweight (don't trust a skinny chef), despite the fact that they rarely, if ever, eat fast food. The woman's photo in the article, on the other hand, shows that she is fairly thin. Much of the food I see prepared on Egullet in the cooking forum is just as "unhealthy" as fast food, in terms of total calories, cholesterol, and fat. And it is these three dietary factors, after all, that are associated with obesity and heart disease.

I have... 3-5 days in a cake safe sitting on top of the kitchen counter here at the house. Cream cheese icing is our favorite and none of us have gotten sick yet. ← That's good to know. Whenever I make a cake with cream cheese frosting, I have to clear a bunch of junk out of the frige to make room for a cake container. Next time I won't bother with that.

I gave this some thought; I think it's a good question. For me, the difference between cooking and the other activities is that people need to eat to live, so I think it would be in someone's best interests to learn how to prepare nutritious, balanced meals for themselves. ← A non-sequiter. The whole point of the article is not that the woman doesn't like to eat, just that she doesn't like to cook. Granted, only a weirdo orders food with sauce. But in any event, its undeniable: you do not need to know how to cook anymore, so long as you have enough money and inclination to eat out/order out. You also do not need to know how to cook healthy in order to know how to eat healthy.

I'm gonna go waay out on a limb here, and hazard a guess that you're not really a trained psychologist after all, just a foodie mistaking a difference for a pathogy because you can't comprehend how someone could possibly have different tastes and interests. Indeed, she suffers from an acute case of Different-Than-You-osis.

Sure, the article says that sometimes she eats junk food or some boiled egg whites (her and 100 million other people), but it also says that she eats real food as well. Just because she doesn't like to cook doesnt mean she doesn't like to eat. I like saltines and diet coke too, but don't invite me to dinner and serve that.

One thing I didn't consider is maybe all that sugar in icing would retard bacterial growth. Maybe. I dunno. My response was based primarily on the fact that the USDA/FDA says that "It's particularly important to keep custards, cream pies, and cakes with whipped-cream or cream-cheese frostings refrigerated" and "don't serve them if refrigeration is not possible." I've never kept a cake with cheese icing out at room temp for a long time, so I have no personal experience here.

That's weird. I can't find a single quote where she boasts of her inability to cook. I think you're reading a Rorschach here. I don't get it. What's so hard to understand about someone who doesn't like to cook? Is it any harder to understand than, say, someone who doesn't like to do their own auto repair or plumbing or painting or sewing or grass-cutting?

Yes, but the article also said that ol' Francine operated a lingerie shop for 9 years. Doesn't that bump her up a notch or two in the soul department? For some bizarre reason, this story reminds me of an anecdote about John Lilly. In his biography, it talks about how he would lay in his sensory-deprivation tank for hours on end, only emerging periodically to eat a chicken leg and re-inject himself with ketamine, and return to the tank, where he would continue his telepathic communication with extraterrestrial dolphin beings. I don't know why this story reminder me of Lilly. I guess because he, like Francine, had better things to do with his time than cook.

But then again, most cases of foodborne illness are not something you'll ever know about, unles you're in the habit of following up with people who eat your food and ask them, or have them tell you whether they experience mild nausea of brief diarrhea after they ate your food. Most foodborne illness is very mild and the person who has it doesn't even know that food caused it. But in any event, I would imagine that the risk from cream cheese is indeed lower that from eggs, as you say. The risk from eggs is that the egg already contains a pathogen, and that pathogen can multiply at the right temp. The cream cheese on the other hand, should not have any pathogens to start with. A pathogen would have to get onto the cheese, and then multiply for a while before there could be any risk.

I think the risk would be mainly due to growth of bacteria which would change the taste of the cream cheese, not so much risk of illness. Certainly you could get sick if the right bacteria colonized the cream cheese and multiplied on it, but most bacteria are not pathogens and most likely the only detriment would be to appearance or taste.

Can you share it with us? I'm not being facetious. I really do not see the point of the article. She has introduced us to a very accomplished woman who cannot/does not like to/want to cook. And she keeps telling us the same thing again and again and again and again, in various different guises .... But her point? Really, I don't see one. ← Gosh, I thought the point was blindingly obvious -- that a major shift has occurred in domestic economics, that people need not ever cook for themselves if they don't want to, and apparently more and more people don't want to. Lily Gordon is the epitome of that trend. I thought the caption right under the title said it all: "Surveys tell us average Americans cook fewer meals every year. Say hello to the future." And I thought the following bit made the point obvious as well:

Well, maybe if the article took an antagonistic stance on the issue of non-cooking types it could be so interpreted. But reading the article a second time just now, it doesn't seem at all antagonistic, just pointing out --without making any value judgement one way or the other -- the massive change that has occurred, where fewer people are cooking their own food, and some people essentially never cooking their own food.

Sheesh! Censured by who, and for what reason? For pointing out that there are people who almost never cook?

Cream cheese will "turn" really quickly at room temp. I'd be leary of leaving cream cheese frosting at room temp for too long. I think longer than 8 hours or so would really be pushing it.

I've had a couple of very small fires in the oven, but nothing I couldnt deal with. My wife's grandmother, on the other hand. . . I always know when she's cooking because the fire alarm sounds. She's the only person I know who's set off the alarm cooking things like green beans. I have fond memories of that particular meal. Gram cooked the green beans and corn, and mother-in-law, who is a vegetarian, brought over a roast. It looked good, but when I tried to slice it, it was apparent that I was going to need a diamond covered masonry saw and some kind of industrial laser torch. That's when she told me that she "dry-roasted" the chuck roast. So, the fam and I had a lovely meal of gram's stove-charred green beans and MIL's chuck shoe leather. Being the devout carnivore I am, and not wanting to offend anyone, I ate the roast. My jaw was sore for a few days. After that, I offered to cook saturday lunch from now on.

I'm glad you're doing this, Wendy. Its so much fun having a peek into your life.

How old is really old? Unless its older than a couple of years, I would make a hot cocoa with it and see how it tastes. Schokinag says that there powder has a minimum shelf life of 2 years.

Very nice ´mallows ! Would you share your recipe ? ← Yeah, I used Neil's (aka Nightscotsman's) recipe, which is posted on the 9th page of this thread, post #267. Basically I used the vanilla variation, except I used about 3.5t of banana flavoring instead of vanilla extract, and added some yellow gel color. Also, instead of coating the marshmallows with potato starch and sugar, I lightly rubbed them with a little canola oil. For some reason, I really dislike the chalkiness from from the powder.

Thanks for the advice, Wendy. I'm checking out prices on flavor compounds and oils. I'm browsing through Boyajian, Amoretti, and other manufacturer sites. I see lots of products I'm interested in trying out. Here's some pics of the banana marshmallows I made the other night. I'm posting them now because I didnt have my camera yesterday. They really are good, though I'm eager to try again with a better flavor agent. They could also use some more color.