Sugarella

A lot of the allergies being listed by everyone aren't even allergies. Crohn's disease or colities are bowel diseases, not allergies. Lactose intolerance is not an allergy; neither is an upset tummy when you eat something that occasionally disagrees with you or causes gas or diarrhea, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. I think John L hit the nail on the head. Not to belittle those with actual allergies, because I do know they are very real for some people, but I agree this is just another way for media and culture to perpetuate another level of the "fear of food/food is bad for you" syndrome that's been festering for decades.

Forgive my stupidity, but how is freeze drying different from dehydrating? I mean, I get the freezing part, but I usually associate dryness of frozen things to just be freezer burned. Could someone fill me in? Is it flash freezing and dehydrating at the same time? Do the items need to be kept frozen, or stored at room temp?

Not exactly true. Some are allergic to different chemicals within the peanut, which are also present in peas themselves. I know there are unrelated botanically, but there are at least similar substances in both. It can be enough to cause a reaction. ← Oh, don't get me wrong, I am VERY serious about allergies ....I was just being silly when I wrote that. Although....I didn't know there WAS anything in greenies that one could be allergic to, save the acidity in peppers or the like. Thanks for the info.

Here is a picture of the Mille Crêpes. One description I found of the cake is: "This divine gallery's signature wedding cake, the Mille Crêpes Cake, is a light-as-air pile of crêpes sandwiched between layers of cream custard with a hint of cherry liqueur, a caramalized top...." As far as inspiration for the name..... sounds exactly like a takeoff of Milles Feuilles to me...... crêpes instead of puff pastry.

I agree that a lot of people's so -called allergies are imagined, or that they simply have trouble digesting something rather than being allergic to it. But if they tell you they're allergic and you serve it anways, and they go into anaphylactic shock...well.... that's really an inevitable assault charge isn't it? You have to take people at their word about anything that could be life threatening. Red food dye is a very real, fairly common allergy, as is coconut and peanut butter. I'm not sure what the difference sweetened peanut butter would make to that person you mentioned, tho. My Dad, for the longest time, thought he was allergic to mussels. He apparently became deathly ill eating them, and for probably a decade wouldn't touch them, only to find he accidentally ate some in a chowder. Nothing happened, and he realised that time he'd just had bad food poisoning. My brother, on the other hand, is allergic to raw tomatoes. Not deathly allergic, but his beard area swells up, turns red, and the skin goes puckery and is inflamed for days. Cooked tomatoes he's fine with, and he's not imagining it....I've seen it. So even if someone says they're ok to eat something cooked that they can't handle raw, you should probably assume they're telling the truth. When I ask people about this stuff, I make sure the question isn't too leading. "Are you allergic to anything?" leaves you wide open for every distaste in food to be labelled an allergy. Likewise, "Is there anything you don't like?" will also inevitably result in a long list. Instead, try going with, "Do you have any religious dietary restrictions of things you can't eat?"..... this opens the door but doesn't ask the question about allergies directly, and anyone who has a real, true allergy will mention that thing right off the bat, vegetarians will mention that they are, etc. It works, really. But if anybody told me they were allergic to peas I'd kick them out of my house. There's nothing in peas to be allergic to.

A few days should be fine. The only concern with it not being dry is the moisture in the clay between 2 glazes on either side might cause the piece to burst on firing, but clay that has already been fired once (this one would have been done twice already) will dry out pretty quickly.

I think a lot of it really depends on how hard your water is. Minerals in hard water will etch glass and your drinking glasses will turn whitish over time in the dishwasher.... it'd happen to plastic quicker I would assume.

Well, it says the tails are butterflied so maybe they're, uh, braided together??

That is standard terra cotta. TERRA COTTA HAS LEAD IN IT! Don't use it for food. You can do 2 things..... you can keep the cruets as decorative elements in your kitchen, or you can take them to a potter and just have then line the inside with glaze and fire it again, and then it'll be ok to use. Ceramic glazes are actually fine....they're just made of glass (sand) and are perfectly foodsafe after firing in a kiln. What do you think porcelian is glazed with? Same thing...and we use porclelain for all sorts of food vessels. Might cost you upwards of $40 or so to get it done, but they can have your cruets back to you within a couple of days. And if you've poured oil into the other one, I'm afraid you've probably ruined it for glazing. The oil would have soaked into the terra cota and will make the glaze pool at the bottom during firing, not giving you an even coat. Hope this info helps. Oh and PS.... that whitish powder would have been the vinegar causing sulpher compounds in the terra cotta to actually seep through the glaze on the outside. Lucky you put the vinegar in there to catch this problem before you ingested something else from that thing!

Oohh.... glad you didn't take my advice about the oven cleaner then, Russ. It would have eaten at the aluminum.

So, does that mean the insides of the cruets are unglazed and only the outsides are glazed?? And what kind of ceramic is it; what colour?

Like everyone else said, you don't need the special equipment. But, if you MUST buy one because it's copper and porcelain and pretty (I understand, believe me!) then buy THIS ONE .... it's Mauviel, same as your link, but twice the size and cheaper.

All purpose flour is the same as all purpose baking flour....it's for all baking purposes! I suspect that brand has reprinted the new packaging to "all purpose baking flour" to make it easier for some to identify, or know what they can use it for. At least.... I'm pretty sure that must be it. P.S. .... Try making your pizza dough with bread flour instead of all purpose.... more gluten = chewier dough.

And to clarify, technically yes, the tempered chocolate IS warm enough to soften the cocoa butter in the molds, making it adhere to the chocolate.....it just isn't warm enough to actually melt it like the hair dryer would. Hope that clarifies.

A-HA! You're melting the cocoa butter when you hit it with the hair dryer; you're supposed to use the dryer (if you choose to at all) in the molds before rubbing the cocoa butter in.....that does 2 things..... cleans any dust/lint out of the mold, and warms the mold so the cocoa will spread more smoothly and this also results in a shinier finish on the finished chocolate. (Well, a shinier gloss on the cocoa butter, actually.) ....And yes, you'll have had less problems with white chocolates doing this because the cocoa butter content of white is so high and the 2 are melding together easier. I'm not recommending using both plain cocoa butter then the coloured ones over top..... either/or is sufficient. And chocolate, in temper, is not warm enough to melt the cocoa butter in the molds. Try this: 1 - Clean and buff molds with cotton 2 - Hit molds with hair dryer (optional step) 3 - Apply cocoa butter by rubbing or spraying 4 - Chill molds to solidify cocoa butter 5 - Bring molds back to room temperature 6 - Fill with tempered chocolate

You know, by your description of how these events unfolded, it sounds like the entire problem was just that you had The World's Worst Waiter. Besides the obvious lack of upselling on alcohol, even bringing one course too early, the server probably failed to inform the kitchen that you weren't ready yet, but I suspect it was even worse than that. I bet that plate was intended for another customer with the same meal and the server screwed it up. Kitchens just aren't that fast to churn out plate after plate in less time than it takes us to eat them. Bad waiters are a problem for customers, of course, but they're even worse for restaurants. I'm sure the manager would love to know about your experience. I'm just suprised this person was hired at such a high end place to begin with, considering they didn't have a clue what they were doing. Or it sounds like they weren't given any training, which is of course the fault of management, not the server.

You know, I've read all through this thread in the past and other threads using cocoa butter in the molds first, (with PERFECT results now every time - thanks everyone!!) but I'm not gonna reread it all today so forgive me if you've already covered this point. But it sounds like you've got one major problem: Your cocoa butter isn't completly firmed up/hardened back to its solid state when you're pouring the tempered chocolate in, hence the stickiness in the crevices. Even if you're not heating it to apply it, the heat generated from rubbing it in there will be enough to turn it to a semi-liquid state. Think of it exactly like regular butter.....cold butter when you rub it on something will soften and stay softened at room temp, so you need to solidify it again. Try popping the molds into the fridge for a few minutes after they're coated, then allow them to come back to room temp before pouring your chocolate in. If it's terribly warm where you're working, try keeping the molds in a cool, but not cold, place. (You don't want to pour the tempered chocolate into a cold mold, of course.) I hope that helps solve your problem. If I stated the obvious here for you I'm sorry. Edited to add: Cocoa butter is not in temper/doesn't need tempering.

Here's mine, if anybody wants it. I've changed Nick's recipe slightly with the method and because I use salted butter, because I primarily make wedding cakes. His recipe calls for unsalted butter plus adding a pinch of salt, and I suppose mine ends up less sweet tasting because of the extra salt in the recipe from the salted butter to counter sweetness. 3/4 cup egg whites (about 5 large eggs) 1 1/2 cups / 300 g. granulated sugar 1 lb. / 454 g. salted butter, softened 1 tsp. Vanilla 8 oz. / 250 g. cream cheese, softened (I use Philly) Whisk whites and sugar together with a hand whisk and heat, whisking continuously, over the top of a double boiler until the mixture is HOT, about 130 degrees. Remove bowl and beat egg mixture on MEDIUM speed until cooled down, about 5 minutes, until the eggs are forming stiff peaks and the mixture and bowl are cool to the touch. On LOW speed, add butter in 10-12 additions until smooth and blended and mixture is light and fluffy. Increase speed to HIGH and continue beating for another 5 minutes; the volume will double. When completed, add the vanilla or any other flavourings and just blend to incorporate. At this point you have regular buttercream; you can stop, or you can add in the softened cream cheese and blend on LOW until incorporated, about 3 minutes. Edited to add: I also add 1 Tbsp. almond extract at the end when I make this as cream cheese icing..... the almond tends to accentuate the tang of the cheese.

They also do that if they've been frozen then thawed more than once.

Yup, you got it right, it's a roux. Roux is any flour and fat mixture cooked into a paste to use as thickener.... technically milk has fat so I think the term is still correct in this instance. Edited to add: Do those of you who use these icings actually like them and/or prefer them? I'm curious about them.... I use Nick Maglieri's buttercream and really prefer its taste and texture; previous to that I was using Sylvia Weinstock's, both of which I think are much better than RLB's Mousseline. If the flour leaves a taste in these icings, could you possibly sub something like potato starch or even rice flour????? I'm wondering if a flour icing could be modified so that it did hold together.......

If it's a newer stove, use oven cleaner. If it's and old stove and they're made of iron, nothing you can do except sand it off. Edited to add: If you use oven cleaner make sure you remove them first and don't spray oven cleaner onto the gas flames. I'm sure you're smart enough to know this of course but I just came across the stupidest person on the planet elsewhere online today so I figured I shouldn't make assumptions anymore....

Oh jeez, everybody, you NEVER need to scrub a pot!!!! NickV - for your le crueset, just boil water in it for 20 minutes and it'll all come off. If it doesn't, scrape with a wooden spoon and boil some more. I swear it works. Your pot may be stained on the bottom, but a soak of a capful of bleach in some water will fix that too. The method works the same for steel pans.... but after they'll be clean they'll look a little dull inside so boil fresh water in there with a little vinegar and they'll be all shiny again. russ parsons - for the bottom of that pan, turn it upside down in the sink (assuming your sink is steel) and just spray it with any non-toxic oven cleaner. 10 minutes later, rinse. ~ Sugarella, who never scrubs anything anymore.

Well I'm definitely odd man out on this one because I use polished river stones.

A long skinny rubber spatula, one of the cheap flexible ones that are worthless for anything else, make quick work of scraping out jars, even those ridgy ones. And for anything in a tub, just put hot pasta or leftover rice in there and shake. And ditto on the sauce bottles, a little water or wine in there makes a good rinse-out for pouring into cooking sauces. I was raised to never throw anything out and I've stuck with it. Even shampoo bottles and cosmetic foundation get the rinse-out treatment.

$350 is my monthly grocery bill so I'm definitely not in the camp you're seeking answers from, but just how bad was it? Do you feel like you were totally ignored or do you just feel like service could have been better or you should have been given more attention? Honestly, if I felt like I was treated like crap while spending that much I'd have walked out. (Half way thru so I was semi-full, and after I'd chugged my wine glass. Or at least I'd like to think that's what I'd do but ......)