turkeybone

Well, they say that toques are good for maintaining head temperature, but I think McGee has some essay or the like where he talks about the benefits of a baseball cap in the kitchen. I think its something about the brim providing a place for warm air to circulate and condense, or the like.. Im sure someone can find a more benefical source of information than my swiss cheese memory.

So, I was doing my weekend culinary mercenary thing, and I ran into someone whose uncle is a dry cleaner. What they do for those stains is so amazingly simple!! Wet the stain with water. Get a bar of Ivory (and I guess it has to be Ivory, or a similar take-the-first-layer-of-skin-off soap) and rub it into the stain. Let it sit for 5 or so minutes, and then take a spoon to it, and it scrapes off /extremely/ well. I've just done it on one of my whites, and it definitely works.

Check out my whites, theyre not so stainless

Hmm.. maybe theres a niche market to be had for nanofiber whites after all Well, thanks for the explanation -- I never thought that it was actually filings. That still doesnt make them clean. Heh

In my months at culinary school, I've gotten tons of stains and tons of ways to get them out. The standard cocktail is a detergent, oxyclean, and borax/cascade soak for 2 days.. I've definitely boiled my whites.. and of course if you get them sent out then thats good too. BUT -- the one stain I can never get out without extreme effort and frustration is the "holding a sheet pan on your shoulder" aluminum-y stain. Has anyone had any success in getting these suckers out on the first try?

No need to nitpick -- both molasses and caramelized sugar are "darker" than white sugar, which is what phlawless was looking to achieve.

Dangerous temperature range... 41-140... bueller, bueller... Granted the /inside/ of a piece of meat is not really likely to get "diseased", but it definitely will be a long time going up AND coming down in that range, so who knows what could happen. As far as "grilling" the rib roast.. you can turn that gas grill into an oven with not too much modification. Get equipment such that you can monitor the temp of both the grill AND the roast, and you'll be okay. If you want to be safer, you can keep the roast off direct heat, or you can always put a sheetpan or something over the bars so it doesnt burn on them, either. AND you'll be able to hold it in the grill til you need it. With timing issues and one oven, I can already forsee rushing around and things going wrong, especially with heating/cooling that giant roast. But whatever route you go -- be prepared! If youre going to oven it, make sure that roast is prepped so you can toss it in at 9am. Also make sure you can pre-heat that badboy if you need to. And if youre using the gas grill -- make sure you got the propane. Also -- if youre going heavy on hors d'ouerve, Id cut back on your portion size.. especially considering you get 36 8oz portions from 18lbs.. and between drip and bone and whatnot, youre not going to have 18lbs when it comes time to cut.

I think the CIA would riot if they blew money on a water cutter -- the 10 million dollar BURSARS OFFICE was bad enough (it's like if the IRS made a castle of solid gold).

I think this thread perfectly demonstrates "Too many cooks....".

Maybe he's just going down the index of a standard culinary school textbook? -MEP -knife skills -protein fabrication - stock -sauce -soup -roast -saute -grill -brasie -pan fry -deep fry -shallow poach -deep poach I mean... "pastry techniques" is pretty broad. But I guess the general goal is to wean people off their recipes and just look at the ingredient list and cook from their heart. Or their brain -- there's certainly some kids 'round here that are all "well the recipe calls for 8 bunches of parsley, and we've only got 7"... sometimes "Just make it happen" is all you need to hear. Anyway, my post clearly rambled, but I did get *some* point across.

Close = 90 miles, give or take. But theres plenty of places in WPB, Im sure you can find the experience youre looking for.

The Breakers, eh? Thats where I (and two of my classmates) went -- and you're going during the slow season, too. I mean -- I can't say it wasn't bad.. everyone was really nice (like, paid time during the hurricane nice) and obviously living in WPB was cool, but I felt surprisingly bored for a lot of the time. Like.. I thought 5star 5diamond would be harder, or more demanding or something. In any case, I can't speak for the B&P side -- but I know that you want some real experience about working pastry in a restaurant -- you aren't gonna get it unless you get "in" with L'Escalier. For all the other places, desserts are 90% done in the bakeshop and finished by hapless externs in the kitchens.

Well, even the chefs agree that things aren't as strict as they once were.. but a lot of that is the changing perceptions -- they want to make the industry a bit more approachable, and that means they have to quell the stories of chef harshness and "brutality" that still linger (the one where a chef stabbed a kid in the hand for prodding his raw roast beef is untrue, but the one where a chef (Roland Henin, actually) pushed a kid's hand in the deep fryer for trying to snag errant fries with his fingers is true). And yeah it does seem frustrating at times. The parking sucks, the classes and dorms are more crowded than ever (to the point of having people live in a hotel down the road) -- you'd think it'd be as easy to just stop accepting people . And what are the results? A new parking garage, a new bursar's building, a waterfall? But to be honest, I'm not banking on the CIA name to open all the doors. At best, it will get my foot in that first or second door. Experience and references are everything in this business -- you're either an asset or a liability. I've known plenty of great guys from 'lesser' schools, and there's plenty of humps and hacks in my group. When I was on extern, my typical introduction was "I go to the CIA.. but I'm not a prick." So -- in summary, I agree with what you're saying.. that things seem a little watered down as of late, but you have to be selfish and aggresive with your education. And personally, I don't think that trying to appeal to the administration is the most efficient way to do so.

Is that still true? I remember an article I read in the Washington Post that they were considering going by weight, and not age. "While they were at it, regulators also cleaned out the cobwebs of some of the more obscure classifications for guineas, geese and ducks. They suggested that a Rock Cornish game hen be simply a chicken less than five weeks of age, of either sex, weighing less than five pounds, since there are no more purebred Cornish or Rock lines. They asked the industry to comment on a proposal to throw out age as a basis of classifying poultry. Instead, weight would be used. For example, a roaster would be five pounds no matter how old it was. " "There isn't likely to be much opposition from industry groups, which have been working on speed and size since the 1950s. "Age is not important. It's getting the size of the bird you want and selling it at that time," said Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, which represents chicken producers and processors. "But if they want to have these rules, it's fine with us. They follow industry categories." Similarly, Alice Johnson, president of the National Turkey Federation, said the proposal reflects "improved genetics and husbandry practices": The turkey industry now can produce a 12-to-14-pounder in six months. [For more information on the turkey industry, see: http://www.eatturkey.com especially the "About Turkey" section on the Pressroom page.] Tita Cherrier, a spokeswoman for Perdue, said the changes wouldn't affect the company because its roasters already are fully grown at eight weeks."

I think the amount for last year (or maybe it was 2003) was $7.2 million dollars "profit". "If" there's anything left over, Im sure it goes to an endowment.

I always was taught to check for the smell and the slip.. the spot where the melon is taken off the vine -- if that isn't a clean break, then the melon was picked immaturely, so even if it ripens it won't achieve full flavor.

I would say perhaps use a little more cornstarch than the recipe calls for.

Rebecca, Brining works basically by differing osmotic pressures. Alton Brown has probably done 3 or 4 different cute scenarios explaining this -- which will be far more insightful than my attempt. When you take off in an airplane, your ears pop -- this is because you have to normalize the pressure between outside your ears and inside. Brining is sort of the same. The salty brine is of a different pressure than the water inside your chicken/turkey/pork/etc. So by placing the meat in the brine, the meat releases its own water and takes on the delicious flavorful brine in its place. This works from the outside in, so a piece of pork might only brine 2 hours while a whole turkey, overnight (if you really want to get into it, you can inject the brine into the meat so that it evenly permeates the meat). Anyway, I just felt the urge to expound on brining -- the end result is delicious As far as salting meat before or after -- moisture is the enemy of browning. Taking that piece of meat to a paper towel right before you throw it in is going to have a big impact on the kind of crust you get. This goes along with having a super hot, heavy pan (that will keep that heat high once the meat goes in), having the meat close® to room temp (to lessen the temperature difference between meat and pan), and not crowding the pan (so you get a beautiful brown crisp meat and not a steamed White Castle patty). Edit: So I gave my browning speech and didnt actually address salt! I like to completely dry my piece of meat, and then salt and then go right to the pan.. the quicker the better (without looking silly, of course). For those recipes that salt a day before, I think that has more to do with pulling out moisture and intensifying flavor, like a super quick dry aging, or prosciutto effect?

I was always under the impression that the longer something was in the oven, in general, the more it dried out. This is why I prefer the high-low heat methods for roasting birds (450ish until they look 'bloated' in the oven, then 350 until they're done). Anyway, I'm sure this lesson will still yield some delicious braised results.

Wow, this thread has really blown me away with some interesting ideas... a few questions arise.. (1) How do the oysters shuck themselves? Do the shells break apart or do they open magically... basically, is the shell lost in the process? (2) For freezing things that normally dont freeze, how long do they last in that crystalline state? I'm thinking mostly about those pure honey garnishes.

Call them riblets and sell them for 5% food cost....

I really think that the externship is where all these little gaps get filled in. We culinary kids know that even the restaurants here aren't that close to actual restaurants (if you ever have more than one person bumbling around on a pantry station, its time for a reality check ). But externship you're basically applying for a job, going to work every day, and actually working in a real kitchen. Sorry for my one sentence overview of the 18 weeks, but you cant get more real than that. Now I'm not saying "wait til externship and see what you think", because that has nothing to do with the classroom curriculum. My group's favorite line seems to be "oh look, more **** we can't use" when it comes to all the additions on campus. And there's plenty of faults with the curriculum itself, but all of the chefs are still wealths of knowledge. I think you need to define your points better -- like.. the only concrete change I got so far was that you want the B&P back in the restaurants. Then you were asking for other ideas or changes, but I think that really has to come from you. Like, a simple list can become an outline for what you want to say. And it can help you put them in order, so you can really decide whats most important to you, so you can spend the bulk of your energies fighting for those important changes -- a well focused argument over one or two points will have more impact than a general survey of what you disapprove of. Also, the last rumor I heard was that theyre taking out St. Andy's and moving the APBC over there.

Yeah I second going to Warren (take route 9 about 40 minutes north of CIA, same road and everything). Also, because when youre done you can go another 5 minutes north and eat the best soft serve EVER at Holy Cow.. a delicious giant cone for like, a dollar and and change.

I can't be the only one who enjoys the smell of a greezy brown paper bag full of nathan's dogs & fries...

Well it may not be specifically Argentinian, but my family is from Southwest Brazil and my mom loves making cocada, which are basically little bites of coconut cooked together with sweetened condensed milk to a softballish stage... sort of like a softer macaroon.