Lisa Shock

By popular request: Spice Cake with Crumbs (possibly the basis for A&P's Spanish Spice Cake) from Baker's Weekly, 1936 12oz Sugar 8-12oz Shortening 5 Eggs 1.5 oz Soda 1qt Water 1 qt Light Molasses .5 oz Salt .25 dry ground Ginger .13 ground Cinnamon 3.25 lbs soft Wheat Flour, sifted (cake flour) 1 lb Cake Crumbs, dry My instructions: Cream Sugar & Shortening, beat in Eggs. In a separate bowl add Soda to Water, then stir in Molasses, Salt and Spices. Mix Flour and Crumbs. Add liquid mix in small quantities to creamed sugar/shortening mix, alternating with the dry mix. Mix just until smooth, pour into greased pans and bake immediately. (no temp given, I'd say 350° conventional, 325° convection) You can add raisins, currants or sultanas to it.

Here's what the pros use:

There are uses for stale product, especially the unfilled doughnuts. Here's an article that covers some of it: http://modern-baking.com/supermarket_baking/stales-can-improve-profitability-0111/ A lot of classic recipes rely on stale crumb. If anything, there's always rum balls. The nice thing is, the recipes that use a substantial amount of crumb can't really be made by most people at home and are 'special baked goods' from the bakery only. A&P supermarkets used to be famous for a cake that was made from a high % of crumbs. Some dried crumbs are very useful additions to baked items with fruit toppings or fillings. Some bakeries, for example, lay down a layer of crumb before placing the fruit on Danish -it helps absorb any excess juice that might run in the oven. Some recipes for struesel or crumb-cake type toppings can be greatly improved by using stale crumb.

I managed to removed all of the skin and a good chunk of cartilage off the top of the proximal knuckle of my right forefinger on a peeler which had been placed in my pastry tool kit by someone else. (hot side people have knife rolls, pastry chefs have rolling toolkits) I just reached in to grab a spatula and popped off a disc of skin about the size of a nickel. I slapped a glove on it, taping the wrist area with blue masking tape, and drove myself to the hospital where I the ER admitted me almost immediately because the glove was full of blood and puffy like a balloon. Once, someone pulled a speed rack out of the rotating oven, unloaded the pans really quickly and put the rack with the empty/cool ones without telling anyone. I grabbed it hard and pulled it toward myself burning the palms of both hands and part of one forearm. The hands healed fairly quickly, the forearm oozed for a couple of months and was then an impressive scar. The scar has since faded, while more minor burns have left permanent marks.

I too am not a fan of Curtis Stone, he just comes across as insubstantial and inoffensive. The main challenge wasn't a buffet, just another catering gig. The real problem was that all of the random time constraints plus the theme switch, and its associated ingredient issues, just deflated any potential people might have had to make something truly interesting. I really got the feeling that the contestants were just trying to get something edible out. I think a good challenge should foster creativity, we aren't seeing anything like that. We're also not getting very good deconstruction of the dishes from the judges, either. The producers need to step up here and make some changes. Overall the first episode just felt bland and dumbed-down. Which is doubly sad because for the Masters series' I want to see more advanced techniques and more interesting final products.

I've got an old 1950's manual juicer that has the slot machine type handle and a domed top. I also have an automatic juicer attachment for my DeLonghi DSM7 mixer. I tend to just use the manual one for a couple of drinks. It seems easier to clean than the automatic one. I've only used the automatic one a few times; when I was making sorbet and needed a lot of juice. That said, the attachment was significantly cheaper than buying a free-standing electric unit and takes up less space.

43° isn't really a problem, yes, food should be stored under 40°. But, the time it spent above 40 was probably no more than a few hours (it wasn't at 43 for 12 hours, it got to 43 after 12 hours) and it's so close to 40, you're fine. Just be aware that some things like leftovers and raw meat may not last as long, I'd make plans to eat those fairly quickly.

One thing that many people neglect to plan for is space for dry storage. You'll need space (usually a whole room) to store cases of napkins, paper bags, to-go boxes, paper cups, hot cups, straws, lids, plastic silverware, paper towels, toilet paper, packets of sugar & sweetener, plus dry foods. I recall one place I worked at that ignored dry storage in the initial build-out and the owner's office was eventually taken over with stuff needing to be stored.

I got a fairly decent one at Ikea a few years ago.

When I managed a wine bar we had a weekly return system for bad bottles. We'd return 20+ bottles every week for credit. They were always ones with corks, I only ever returned one screwtop bottle ever -and it had a fault in the glass bottle not the cap. Some cork-sealed wines were so bad that 25% of the bottles were corked. Oh, and, once a case of cork-sealed bottles all suffering from high ethyl acetate.

Do everything you can to get customers their food as quickly as possible. Make certain that the front of house works with a sense of urgency, in some places they set a standard like 'no more than two minutes greeting a customer and ringing them up' or 'no more than two minutes between paying and being handed their food.' Give incentives to employees for figuring out how to streamline service. Schedule enough time to clean up. Make certain that employees know that closing time isn't the same as the end of their shift. Make a cleaning chart and make sure that people sign off on it, otherwise some tasks will never actually get done. -And make me some doughnut flavored gelato sometime!

Thanks! I am enjoying reading the research.

If you don't have success in finding some, she can make her own if she has access to alcohol. Here's a thread on making it yourself: There are still great grade B beans available very cheaply on eBay. You could ship those to her. I personally now start with grain alcohol (very high proof) then add whiskey later as the infusion starts to be fragrant.

Bon Ami (doesn't scratch), dish soap, bleach. For counters, mild solution of bleach and water. I have UV wand that I use when I remember that I have it. For windows: rubbing alcohol.

Researchers at Cornell have discovered that milk spoilage is caused by a unique, spore-forming bacteria that is triggered to grow by pasteurization. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120720201531.htm I found the part about higher pasteurization temperatures accelerated growth to be very interesting. The part about how dormant spores can survive for years despite current best efforts in sanitation makes me start to wonder how we can improve. This work will probably lead to new sanitation procedures not just for dairies, but also for restaurants and bakeries.

Definitelty bake at a lower temp. It only needs to get to an internal temperature of 180° or so, therefore go with a low oven for a longer time to avoid the dark tops -this is like cheesecake. If you were eliminating almonds in the white because you have them in your dark cake and want a different flavor for the white, use a different nut in the white like macadamia or cashew.

White chocolate is very different from dark chocolate. The additional milks solids mean that it tempers at different temperatures, burns more easily, and is less 'snappy' when tempered.Just subbing the dark chocolate for white will make the cake more runny and less solid. What are you replacing the almond meal with? There are bare-bones recipes like this http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-14478 but, eventually, you just have melted chocolate, some eggs, and butter, (and sugar, maybe -white chocolate may not need it) so, you're essentially making a custard/emulsion that maybe doesn't need to be baked -just whipped up like Hollandaise. Essentially, you're in mousse territory now...

Apple sorbet is difficult because apples (and to a lesser extent pears) contain a fiber that when frozen is like straw in your mouth, very undesirable. This is why most recipes for it call for cooking the apples/pears -or using a commercially processed puree. You can juice them and get a decent result, but, you have to add vitamin C very quickly to avoid oxidation which can give you a dark brown sorbet. Also note that too much vitamin C, even .10gram can make the sorbet too tart. Peaches are also difficult, there are threads around here on just this topic, in essence, peaches and apricots contain a chemical that makes them taste, at best, like chalk unless they are super-dead-mushy ripe, or cooked.

Not exactly what you're asking for, but, the pits can be infused into vodka or everclear to use in cocktails and as an extract. As for savory, they could be used in sauce making from frozen.

On the savory side, http://forums.egullet.org/index.php/topic/127072-blue-cheese-and-pecan-crackers/page__hl__%2Bblue+%2Bcheese+%2Bpecan -these crackers have always been a big hit for me. I add a pecan half to the top of each cracker before baking.

Jam thumbprint cookies are always good. Get a spritz cookie recipe, make it, put it into a piping bag with a large star tip and just pipe straight down and up to make stars on your parchment covered sheet pan. Take a moistened thumb and press down the peak in the center to make an indentation, then fill about 3/4 of the way with jam. ( a half teaspoon or so) The jam is easier/faster to apply if it's also bagged, but with a smaller plain tube tip. You can flavor the spritz to complement the jam: lemon zest with raspberry jam, lime zest with blueberry jam, almond extract with apricot jam, etc. You can also use the raspberry jam to make sauces for meat.

I just saw the film based on the book and enjoyed it. There are some great shots of classic dishes, and the venerable kitchen scale has some fairly prominent appearances as well. The film is available to stream on Netflix.

Bring lemons. Lots of them. There are a million things you can do with lemons, and they aren't native to Cape Cod, so they won't appear at a roadside stand.

We always kept it warm on the steam table. I personally don't think that potatoes re-heat well.

Congrats on the new gig!