Lisa Shock

Have fun with it! My advice is to make a large batch and wrap it up quickly and store in the fridge. It will last a week or more before possibly turning moldy. You can, of course, add color and flavors to it. The other big-name candy made from pastillage is Necco Wafers. Experiment with a small amount before committing to a larger project. It dries quickly. I know that thicker pieces can take days to fully dry, but, it develops a skin pretty quickly and if you manipulate it while it is wet inside with a skin on the outside, it can get a funny wrinkly texture. The wrinkles can be sanded off, but, that's a lot of work on a tiny candy. Good luck! Maybe you can post some pics when you're done?

As far as I know, those candies are pastillage -which lasts for decades. I'd store them with some dessicant packets if you have a humid environs.

Most of the vacuum sealer machines out there allow a user to seal bags without vacuum, if desired.

White chocolate would be my choice. Yes, it's a bit more difficult to temper. I wouldn't add the butter, it will make a softer product that might not set up properly. -More like ganache icing than a chocolate.

Pulled sugar makes very beautiful bows, and they are dry within minutes of assembly.

I don't know how the business of mentors telling anyone anything came into the discussion. Ruhlman quoted Ripert as stating that it was 'common knowledge in France' -no mention of a parent or chef-instructor at all. I have heard people use the term 'common knowledge' to simply validate personal belief without citation, usually because there is no external source to cite. It can be a warning signal that the knowledge being passed along is neither common nor knowledge. Secondly, Ruhlman should have known better than to publish the quote. Any time a statement involves an entire class of people and their abilities, a reasonable person should recognize that it's a biased statement -and refrain from including it in educational text. The fact that Ruhlman refused to withdraw the statement from his website until three women proved it to be wrong was a poor choice as well.

I really only liked Pepperidge Farm cookies (and bread) back before they got bought out by the huge corporate machine, back in the 1970s. Nothing's been the same since. Brussels used to have a completely different color and texture. It was a true lace cookie, with holes you could see through, made with nuts. Milano had butter in them, and tasted of it. I could go on, but the topic is so depressing...

There have been scandals here in Arizona with people selling produce at the Farmer's Markets who claimed that 'their' foods were organically grown, when in fact the people in question didn't raise anything, they lived in suburban housing with tiny lots. They were buying cheap conventionally grown produce from Mexico and simply unpacking the boxes. Overall, I think our nation's food safety inspection programs need a serious overhaul, and knowing the origins of foods is probably a good thing.

Looks like the show airs tonight.

With a preserve, you might have to adjust the amount of sugar in the base because a preserve or jelly is a lot sweeter and lower in water than the fresh fruit. But, that's all I can think of.

In defense of savory pie, Pizza Rustica, at least the Sicilian version (the term means different things in different parts of Italy) is good and unknown to many Americans. I won the grand prize at a pie competition in culinary school with one of these. You can do a fairly uniform ricotta cheese/egg filling, or do layers of veggies, meats, sauce, etc. a bit like lasagna without noodles. The main trick is to keep the filling fairly dry to protect the crust. Thinly sliced mozzarella can help keep the layers separate. I have seen a lot of variations on the crust, all presented as authentic. One version is raw pasta dough, another was bread dough. My favorite is to simply use my regular pie crust pastry dough. *** As for sweet pies, honestly I prefer to serve individual tarts. My favorite is the basic fruit tart: sucre dough, pastry cream, fresh fruit, glaze. I know that some supermarkets sell these, but most cheat on the crust and filling, and just don't taste the same as the real thing. Chocolate chiffon tarts can be enhanced by adding flavors to the mix, like orange or raspberry.

I usually wind up making cocktails when life hands me huge amounts of grapefruit. That, and I drop a few bags off at the food bank...

My main point here isn't to nitpick facts about inanimate objects like corks. The original statement was about a segment of the human population and their supposed lack of ability in the kitchen. (according to Ripert and Ruhlman) All of the alternate examples people are posting here are not related, because, it's not just about fiction being sold as fact, it's about insulting and demeaning a group of people. I am a vegetarian, so I don't like Bourdain and I don't think he would enjoy dinner at my house. I have read all of his books and seen much of his television work. (Yes, I really, really enjoyed one episode shot in Africa.) While he hasn't been nice to vegetarians, and I wish he could have been a bit more civil at times, he hasn't yet lowered himself to telling the world that about half of the adult population of the world is incompetent in the kitchen for a few days each month -like his buddies Eric and Micheal.

Ruhlman has the right to stand by with what he thinks is right. But credit to him for removing something when he gets proven wrong. What happens if a chef gets one fact wrong in a show, but all his other facts correct? And how would you know what is right and what is wrong anyway? Do you know everything about food? If you go back to the "searing meat to seal in the juices" theory, it was accepted as fact for many years.....until McGee proved it to be wrong. So what may be fact this year might be proven to be not fact somewhere down the track. ← Ok, well Ruhlman isn't a die-hard sexist. But, he's still gullible enough to believe, and teach to others, prejudiced comments about various groups of peoples' abilities to perform tasks. If a celebrity, especially one put forth from the Food Network's machine gets even one fact wrong I am really done with them. (I do know that not all FN shows are produced by FN, for example, Good Eats is produced by Mr. Brown, away from the machine.) The big networks that produce in-house shows, and especially Food Network, run scripts and final tape past a group of fact-checkers. Those fact-checkers should be smart enough, and have extensive resources, to get it right before the show airs. I don't know everything about food, but, I do know that McGee's first book had quite an impact on everyone, home cooks and chefs, back in 1980. (IIRC, when Rachel Ray was 12...) Magazines and newspapers reviewed and reported on the book in-depth. It's ridiculous that, 29 years later, anyone should not know better than to mention searing as sealing in juices. I also do not have to know everything about food. I happen to have access to the Internet, a good personal library of medical and scientific texts, subscriptions to scientific journals, and as something known as a Public Library. Back in Middle School, I was taught the basics of doing research on factual topics. I expect the producers of television shows to have the same, if not better access to quality resources and to use them. If they decide to be lazy, I choose to not waste my time paying attention to their shows. Yes, new discoveries are made all the time. I recall the landmark discovery of trans fats increasing LDL cholesterol and decreasing HDL cholesterol, published in 1990 -the year I stopped eating it. I don't expect factual articles or shows about trans fats from before 1990 to reflect this work, but I do expect those who did work later to acknowledge it. (and, I do know the difference between published, actual double-blind research and vanity press releases) And, yes, this brings up the whole issue of the trustworthiness of blogs in general -as opposed to traditional magazines with in-house fact checking departments. By forgoing the classic staffing of a magazine, bloggers generally assert that they can wear all of the hats (writer, editor, fact-checker, advertising salesperson) themselves and perform these tasks competently. If they do not perform fact-checking competently, then they simply are not a reliable source for factual information -not trustworthy as journalists.

I have to agree.

Why aren't you weighing your ingredients? A cup of flour can weigh anywhere in the ballpark of 3-5 ounces, which is a huge variable alone, but when compounded with other dry ingredients' variable weights, well, your recipe can have a lot of different outcomes as written -even if followed with care. How does this relate to Bakers Percentages?

I stopped trusting Ruhlman when he posted the quote in an instructional, how-to post on how to make mayo -some of his blog is designed as a basics cookbook, some is just a blog, he posted this in the cookbook. Ruhlman edited the quote out after several women proved it to be incorrect. The quote shown above is abridged and does not contain the part where Ruhlman says that Ripert told him in person. I am still offended that Ruhlman posted it as 'information' in the first place. I am offended that he refused to retract it for several days, until more than one woman 'proved' it to be incorrect. And, yes, I don't trust anyone on TV who talks about searing meat as acting to seal in juices. I avoid Rachel Ray because she said that on the very first episode of her show that I watched, I haven't watched since. Alton Brown regularly presents personal opinion as absolute fact, and this is why I rarely watch his show -and I double-check his 'facts' before believing him about anything. I would also like to note that none of the examples of silliness given in this thread involve sexist or racist attributions of ability, they are all about objects or animals, not the ability of one class or group of people to perform tasks or not. My father was born in the early 1920s. He grew up in the northern US, but even so, he heard a lot of negative things about people of various races, skin colors, religions, countries of origin and gender/sexual orientation. He likes to point out that even back in the 20s, people knew better than to be prejudiced; but some people chose that path and perpetuated hate speech. He told me about some of the things he heard people say, and print, when I was a child, primarily to point out how wrong it was and how it hurt society in general. I would never, ever, repeat any of those comments in an article I wrote about how to prepare a food. -Not even if a good buddy of mine who happened to be celebrity told me his version.

There are quite a few people selling honey powder on amazon.

If you want to get certified or not, understand that there are three classifications for organic products: 100% organic, organic, and, made with organic ingredients. Each has a specific legal meaning. You can read a bit more HERE.

The fact is, the man is putting himself out there as an educator to the world. Not a fairy-tale writer, not a memoir-writer, but a university-level instructor in a physical science. He doesn't check the 'facts' that he teaches to the public. Some of his untrue 'facts' carry a sexist message that I find to be offensive, but others here seem to find appealing. We all hear things as children, but most university instructors, at least those at good quality universities, in the sciences, teach up-to-date information that has scientific research to back it up. Ripert's comments were stated as facts, in an educational setting intended to be a master-level class while he was instructing other instructors. Not told to children as a joke, or parable -like the comments about the stork or yellow/purple. The real analogy is: what if you took a PhD level physics course at a major university and were told that yellow was purple, or started your residency at a teaching hospital and were taught on OB/GYN rounds to ignore the women in labor and just wait for storks to bring babies? Would you still trust that anything the instructor told you? Since he hasn't bothered to check his so-called 'facts' in the past, I cannot trust him as instructor. I therefore believe that he is unsuitable to host an instructional television show, and that production of said show is unwise, at best.

I'm sorry, somewhere alnong the way, I assumed that you're tried butter ganache already. I just went and read the thread on the topic. Kerry Beal states that she usually uses a ratio of 1 part butter to 2-3 parts chocolate to keep things crispy. That means she's dealing with 5% - 7% possible water in the mix, and maybe that amount is low enough to keep things crispy. I'd also venture a guess that the mixture may lose a bit of moisture due to the melting and handling.

The butter factor still outweighs the chocolate factor in the ganache because the water is still present, and, depending on the recipe, the water still represents 3% - 10% of the mass of the finished product. You may also have disadvantages based on the humidity of your room. Commercial producers often control this aspect of production, it may be too difficult for you to affect any noticable change in this. Pretty funny about Google, I had no idea that our words got spidered so quickly!!!

You're trying to make a barrier against moisture, which can come from two sources: other items in your products, or, the environment. Butter doesn't work, unless it's clarified, or anhydrous, because butter is approximately 20% water. Cream cheese is full of water, so is cream. Cocoa butter and chocolate make good barriers, as long as your item isn't stored above their melting point. Some ice cream makers use this as a barrier -Breyer's has a flavor with chocolate covered toasted almonds. (although I gave up on eating Breyer's since they started using gums in the formula, so my info may be old) Commercial ice cream makers may be using waxes, alternate sugars like isomalt, and oils to coat their product. Some of these work longer than others. Good luck with the chocolate, it should hold up for a while if it's tempered.

My mother always bakes turkeys in brown paper bags, using the time/temp chart from the Joy of Cooking. And, I have done it myself on occasion on catering jobs, and gotten rave reviews. (I'm a vegetarian, so I don't cook turkey at home.) Mom learned it from one of her aunts. I have never seen or heard of one catching fire, and my family has probably done hundreds of them over the years. It works really well, if you make certain to cover the turkey with melted butter before placing in the bag. I know this sounds odd, but the added fat winds up soaking the bag and creating a moisture barrier. (think parchment paper packages for cooking en pappiotte) It also helps to use really large paper clamps or clips to close the bag -large so they are easy to find and discard later. Staples can get 'lost' pretty easily and are not recommended. The biggest danger is being hit by hot smoke as you cut off the bag when it's done. And, making certain to have a trash can nearby is also useful. Oh, and once you've cut it out of the bag there's no going back, so it's imperative to use a thermometer in the oven, know the weight of the bird, and do the math accurately. This way, when it's time to take the bird out of the oven, it will be perfectly cooked. I personally have never seen an undercooked or overcooked bird, but, my mom is pretty thorough in following directions. She may hate to cook, but, she isn't irresponsible when she does cook. Overall, the big comment my family always gets is that the turkey isn't dry. It also browns nicely, which, I guess means that the bag retains a limited amount of moisture.

I've bought a lot of kitchen tools over the years, and the wooden ones have been some of the most challenging. Essentially, I have found that the cheaper items have tended to be made of soft wood, like pine, that tends to dry out, splinter and shred. (You must have seen an ugly cutting board at some point.) I got really lucky years ago in purchasing, from a charity, a hardwood cutting board which is still center-stage in my home kitchen. I have never done anything to maintain it other than wash it after use. It's a bit scarred, but it's still very shiny and beautiful after 24 years of use. I also managed to grab th one tiger-maple, tapered french rolling pin out of a bin of pine rolling pins at a now defunct mall-based Kitchen shop for a dollar, in 1982. It has outlasted several soft wood rolling pins. I now only purchase wooden items that are made from hardwoods (for lasting items) or bamboo (for cheaper disposable if necessary items.) You might want to shop around on price, or wait for a discount coupon (SLT sends me coupons every once in a while) but, I would definitely side with the more expensive one, in this case. It should easily outlast 3-4 of the cheaper ones and need less care.