Lisa Shock

I'm trying to find the image I referred to, I think I found it in an online review. I know it took a long time to find. Now, I am hoping it was a real image, and not for the Denver Biscuit company... Just in case, here's a quick primer on how to spot a cut-in biscuit vs a drop biscuit. This article takes you through the process, and the photo with the hand holding the raw biscuit is very informative. That's what the sides look like, raw and cooked. Sometimes, the layers will slide around, which is what happened as they baked that batch. Normally, though, look for cut-out, geometric appearance (hockey puck, usually) and a thick side edge: http://www.insidebayarea.com/bayarealiving/ci_2842836 Here's a drop biscuit, one of Red Lobster's cheddar biscuits. Note how the texture looks like cake and is even throughout, no layers. It also has a puffy, cloud-like outer appearance with low sloping sides: http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/assets_c/2013/01/RL%20JIC%20002-thumb-300x224.jpg

The piped chocolates could be blooming because your hands are too hot and you're getting the piping bag too warm while piping. Your room might be too warm, or, parts of it might be, like underneath lights.

I can tell you, from looking at photos online, they are using a real cut-in biscuit, not a drop biscuit. Look for a recipe where you cut butter (real butter) into flour like making pie crust, and then add buttermilk. The recipe in Professional Baking is really very good. Also, try and taste just the top -some places brush the tops with butter, some with honey-butter, some with egg wash, etc. -That's usually easy to figure out. Good ingredients are key, try using cake flour. Some all-purpose flour in the North has as much gluten as bread flour, and doesn't make good biscuits. The other main thing is handling the dough. It needs to be handled gently, and as little as possible with cool hands. I like to give a couple of gentle 'folds' like croissant dough, it creates a layered structure. When cutting, cut straight down, do not twist your cutter, or, if using a knife, do not saw.

Here in Phoenix, I can buy pre-formed, raw flour tortillas that can be quickly cooked in a pan and are pretty good. I don't think many people would buy a machine to make tortillas, they are too expensive and not worth the real estate on the countertop.

If you can mail me one, I can reverse engineer it....

BTW, this batter is just pancake batter. I see the main issue being that the instructions don't tell you to flip it. (ever eaten an un-flipped pancake?) They just want you to embed toppings in it and then bake for a long time. It's never going to be like real pizza. And, without a flip or extensive broiler use before adding toppings, you may always have the wet center issues.

For smelling burning before the center is done, the oven is too hot. Try lowering the temp by 50°. I find that the majority of recipes on that site are terrible: badly written instructions, incorrect measurements, poor assumptions, and old wives tales abound there. You might want to put it under the broiler for a minute after you think it's done, just to really firm up the top. Also, go easy on the toppings. <-this is true for all pizza. That said, you should at least try making a yeasted dough at some point. You can make a large batch and keep it in the fridge for a few days to lessen the overall amount of labor. Then make pizza one night, calzones on another and stromboli on another -all in different flavors. If you have a stand mixer, it does all the work you just roll out the dough.

Art Culinaire

Chantilly contains sugar and possibly vanilla, whipped cream is just cream and air.

macaron are the crisp little discs of egg white, nut flour and sugar sandwiched with jam, icing or ganache macaroons are chewy coconut things sorbet is a frozen fruit puree with sugar sherbet is frozen milk with fruit flavor Generally, I use the correct term for the dessert being referred to. I think you're making far too great an issue of regional foods being referred to by their traditional names. Sure, some foods appear in multiple regions' classic repertoire with names in multiple languages, bread, pain, brot, pane, pão, etc. In those cases, we tend to use the native word. When a food is introduced whole cloth from another culture, we tend to use that culture's word. We don't spend lots of time trying to accurately describe pho or larb in English, we just call it what the natives do.

Does it need a sauce at all? I'd just serve the shrimp.

For the tortilla, how about diced green chiles? (my New Mexican side speaking up here!) They go well with potatoes and eggs and can be purchased fresh, frozen or canned. (even though the can is tiny, don't use all of it unless you're making a 12" tortilla with like a dozen eggs) You could also try some diced tomatoes, fresh or canned, I find that tomato in egg dishes adds a nice flavor contrast. With either of these options, I would add them right before the eggs. I like my potatoes really browned well before adding anything watery to the pan.

For getting every last bit of stuff out of a bowl, I usually use a bowl scraper. They are flexible plastic and can really clean out things like a mixer bowl with one or two passes. They are cheap, and really work well. It's one of the few things I couldn't live without. For the ice cream maker bowl, you might have to dip it in hot water. The paddle is another story. I got a skinny flexible silicone spatula a while ago that might work. First though, are you banging the paddle on the bowl to get as much as possible to fall off? Make sure to hit it a few times to get things moving. Then scrape. -Maybe look for someone wanting to lick the paddle?

Approximately how large was the diameter of the roll? Which direction was the brisket rolled up?

As far as Japan goes, I was struck by visiting a Toys R Us in Japan in 2008. In the aisle with little kids' toys, ages 4-8 -ish, I found a cake decorating kit pretty much exactly like a Wilton or Ateco set, all small tips, but still, about 20 tips and piping bags. Culturally, we just aren't sitting kids down and teaching them to pipe at age 4 and then having them keep up with practicing. So, we serve a lot less home-decorated foods, thus less of a market develops. I wish that when I was 4 and learning to embroider, and cook, my mom had been able to teach me cake decorating -but, she doesn't know how, so there was no way for her to teach the skills.

That makes a lot of sense. Guar gum freezes well, holds things together, and holds air bubbles well, for a very long time. I have seen melted ice creams with guar gum hold their texture for days after being thawed. -The frozen ice cream was only a little firmer than the thawed ice cream.

Sur La Table has some good pastry items both online and in-store. The decoration items change seasonally. They are one of the few places you can actually see items in person. You may have an independent shop in your town, you'll need to do some sleuthing. Here in Phoenix, we have several local spots.

Overall I agree with your assessment, but would like to point out that it never went to your 130C. The OP stated that he ran it at 56C for 22 hours. Also, most health departments recommend tossing meats that have been in the danger zone for more than 4 hours. If it took 6+ hours to get inner parts of the roll, which were formerly outer parts of the meat, to 55-56C, that's too long.

I'd say the 'air' was gas created as a by-product of some sort of anaerobic bacteria or other micro-beastie. Looks like your body fought it off and/or wasn't affected too badly by any toxins it produced. But, this could have been bad. You're cooking in the danger zone (4or5 - 60C) with plenty of moisture and protein and some sugars available to feed the bugs. Be aware that some bad bugs, like botulism, have no odor and a small amount of their toxin is deadly. I'd toss any bag that produced an air/gas bubble like yours did. Don't most methods call for some sort of procedure to sterilize the outside of the meat? You don't mention a sear or dip in boiling water, or starting at a high temp. -I think you need this step to prevent what just happened.

Blind baking the bottom crust is very, very common. What I have not seen is a prebaked top crust for a whole pie. -One that is then attached to a blind baked bottom crust filled with apple filling as mentioned by the OP.

I've never heard of pre-baking a top crust, except for cobblers of the type that have biscuits (not batter) on top. Once in a while I see a recipe that calls for the biscuits to be precooked a bit.

At the bottom of the chart, it does allow garlic powder and oil, look to those to help you out. Looks like you could have grits and/or polenta which would be good for breakfast or as a side with dinner, or dinner if made with a protein. Fruit salad is always a good change of pace, for any meal. You can make enchiladas (corn tortillas) for dinner, just eliminate the usual cheese. I am assuming that since bell peppers are on the ok list, that hot peppers would also be ok. Make your sauce from scratch and use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. It also appears that you could make ratatouille without onions just go heavier on the herbs. I am thinking that ghee would be ok to use. You can make your own or buy it. Just use it like you would use butter. I know butter is on thhe list as ok, but, ghee has pretty much all lactose removed. There are a lot of potato dishes available to you: anna, scalloped made with parmesean and butter/ghee no cream, oven fries, spanish tortilla, etc. Being able to make tomato sauce means you could make a version of eggplant parmesean, just use gluten-free bread crumbs and lost of parmesean cheese and leave out the mozzarella, it will still be tasty. Serve with a side of polenta, and you have a meal. (if you need meat, fry up a chop.) There are lots of other tomato sauce based recipes that can give your meals variety like steak or lobster fra diavolo.

You've got to search around for stats. Some outlets charge for such reports, some do not. The info you need may be buried in an investment article or a trade weekly news release. I found THIS which may help.

The team over at Modernist Cuisine announced today that their next project will be an in-depth exploration of bread. I personally am very excited about this, I had been hoping their next project would be in the baking and pastry realm. Additionally, Francisco Migoya will be head chef and Peter Reinhart will assignments editor for this project which is expected to be a multi-volume affair.

Overall it looks good. My personal preference is for boiled dressing made with fruit juice for coleslaw, not the mayo based ones. (the closest thing in commercially available slaw dressings is Marie's) My recipe is from the 1951 Joy of Cooking. That said, my recipe could be made modernist by bagging it and cooking it sous vide instead of on a double boiler, hmm...gotta try this...