phatj

Jamie, sorry to hear you have to go through this. Does the chemo affect your sense of taste? My wife is a cancer survivor, and found that for several days after each treatment, nearly all foods tasted equally bland, only with a nasty metallic overtone like she was eating pennies. This more than nausea (her insurance did cover anti-nausea drugs) kept her from eating much. One thing I found that she liked was fajitas with a lot of lime. She couldn't taste much else but the lime flavor masked the metallic aftertaste.

How does that make you a purist? Wouldn't a purist eschew anything but patty and bun? Myself, I like all kinds of stuff on a burger. Two of my favorite constructions are: Bleu Burger: bleu cheese mixed into ground beef before making patties; served on grilled roll with mayo, sliced tomatoes and red onions. Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger: regular patty topped with thick-cut smoky bacon, sauteed onions and sharp aged provolone and served with a tangy mustard-based barbecue sauce.

I have had sandwiches that were worse than any wrap I've had.

I don't think I'd ever heard of the "professional" method before. My method is straightforward and can be easily adjusted for size of dice required. 1. Cut off root and stem ends. 2. Slice in half from pole to pole and remove peel. 3. Lay halves cut side down and cut into half-rings, as thick or as thin as desired. Keep slices of rings together. 4. Starting at the bottom, cut wedges from the edge towards the center of the onion perpendicular to the ring cuts. Again, these cuts can be made as fine or as coarse as desired. This won't make perfectly uniform pieces, as they'll be thicker at the outside than towards the center, but it's never been an issue for me.

But is Viva outdoorsy? I thought not. Speaking of Costco and paper towels, I wish they would standardize their unit costs. I was trying to decide, functional differences aside, whether Costco's store brand represented a better value than the Bounty towels I normally buy, but one listed price per 100 sq. ft. and the other per 100 sheets (and no, the sheets weren't 12x12).

Plain copper or aluminum would NOT work. Ferromagnetic implies iron-based. Copper or aluminum would have to be clad in magnetic stainless to work.

I think I have such a pan, but it's not new. I got it at an auction along with my mainstay cast iron pan, and was mystified by the shiny, silvery finish. I don't think it ever had the nickel (if that is, in fact, what it is) on the inside, but judging by the outside of my pan, I'd take that claim that the finish is indestructible with a big grain of salt.

Depends on the type of steel -- some (most?) stainless steel isn't ferromagnetic. I think the rule of thumb is that if a magnet will stick to it, it will work. Clad cookware would take longer to heat, though.

It's only manly if you chop it down yourself.

A well-seasoned cast iron skillet can do credible stir-fries. Lacking a wok, that's what I use and it works fine.

I just pressed a crapload of garlic tonight. My pesto turned OK pretty good, and it took me about 30 seconds to do all the garlic. Sounds OK to me.

Per Wikipedia, passivation is the natural formation of an air- and water-proof chromium oxide layer on the surface of stainless steels.

As you may have read, I'm considering the same knife. What do you think of the squared-off handle? After further review, I'd say it looks about the same as my Henckels, if not more squared. Of course, if this knife is as sharp as I'm hearing, it sounds like I might be able to use a lighter grip than I do with my current knife, so the handle shape becomes less important. I take it sanding this down is no big deal should I find it uncomfortable? How should I refinish the wood if I sanded it? I'm really leaning towards this knife. Convincing my wife that I need a $60 knife would be vastly easier than convincing her I need a $100 knife. Plus, I like the way it looks.

I noticed the handles on the Tojiro. They look like they're a little less square than the ones on my Henckels knives (which I actually find pretty uncomfortable), and I'm thinking that if they were too round, I would loose the sense of orientation in your hand, if that makes any sense. Thoughts?

I'm thinking it should be under $100. Even at that, it would be the single most expensive item in my kitchen that doesn't have a power cord. Sorry if I'm asking too many questions. It get the impression it takes a lot for you to get tired of talking about knives.

Thanks again. I'll probably go with the 240, for the little extra flexibility the additional length gives. I'm just thinking that if I already find an 8-inch blade adequate for nearly everything, a 240mm should be plenty long enough, and the 270 would be overkill. Maybe someday i'll decide that the 270 would be worth it after all. Then I'd just have to buy a pretty new knife. One more question: I find the appearance of the Damascus steel knives to be pretty compelling, but they're a bit pricier than, say, the Tojiro DP. Is there a performance advantage that would be noticeable to a Japanese knife newbie like me, or would I just be paying for looks? -Jay

Thanks, Bob, for the detailed response. I'm actually lefty and wondered if having a left-beveled blade would be worth the extra expense. This is really idle curiosity, though. I'm looking to make the plunge on my first Japanese knife soon, but it will almost certainly be a Gyuto. So, let me pick your brain on that: I know that the blades are light relative to western chef's knives of equivalent length, but I'm thinking that the longer ones would be pretty unwieldy. It seems like everyone recommends at least the 240 mm, but by my calculations that's almost 1.5 inches longer than my 8-inch Henckels chef's knife, which is already plenty long enough for most tasks. Why would I want a longer blade for what is pretty much an all-purpose knife?

Check the nutrition label If the trans fat level is low, .3 g per 100ml, that is within rabge of natural trans fats in pork. ← The tub has no nutrition label, and lists no ingredients. Is this even legal? I'm going to go back to the grocery and see if they still have this stuff.

Mine doesn't even list ingredients. It just says "Pure Lard." EDIT: just searched Google for "Leidy's lard" and what came up, but this thread about leaf lard @ RTM. The last post suggests that Leidy's isn't hydrogenated, but it's not clear whether it's pure leaf. I'm guessing not for $3/lb, but who knows?

Hm. I've always thrown salt into my stainless stockpots prior to adding water, and I never gave it a thought before now. The inside bottoms of the pots are a little discolored, maybe, but not pitted that I've noticed.

What's the deal with single-beveled knives? Is there a performance or durability advantage? And does the side the bevel is on matter?

Pardon me for the tangential question, but I have a tub of lard (Leidy's brand) purchased from a supermarket here in PA. The package doesn't say anything about being hydrogenated; would it be safe to assume that it is not?

This sounds fantastic. I love the idea of the cabbage mixed in with egg noodles, which are among my favorite things to begin with. Homemade egg noodles will probably have to wait, though they sound amazing. Awesome. At some point I'm going to have to get the necessary attachments for the KitchenAid and try some of that myself. I did end up smoking the rest, and it turned out delicious. I have some pics from my kielbasa bonanza the last couple days, but my computer situation is a little awkward. I'll post them whenever I can.

Sugar! I definitely should have put some brown sugar in the rub. More garlic powder would have been good too. I'm becoming convinced the wind last night was largely to blame for the lack of smokiness. Today I smoked kielbasa and some chicken legs, and both turned out yummy, with great smoke flavor. There's much less wind today.

The pork definitely wasn't pre-brined, as it ended up tasting under-seasoned. I've run into the flareups from pork fat in the past; now I put a disposable aluminum lasagne pan under the grate where the ribs or whatever sit to catch the fat.