Lisa Shock

Several people have run tests in the past. Here's a good analysis of what happens when you cook with this method: http://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/debunking_beer_can_chicken.html And, here's the results of a test by one of the guys at Cooking For Engineers: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/171/Beer-Can-Chicken Essentially, aside from the position of the chicken allowing the entire skin to crisp, the method is worse than useless.

Try checking out Jeff Varasano's Youtube channel.

Got myself the MC baking steel. Haven't had time to try it yet, but my plan is to freeze it and then pull it out and see how quickly it can (if it can) chill pie crust dough that's been rolled out on a silpat. (I may run a time test comparing silpat to parchment.) I also want to see if it will chill scooped out cookie dough, which I usually refrigerate for 20 minutes before baking, and if it will help me with unleavened pate sucre style cookie dough (mix, chill, roll out, chill, cut into shapes, maybe chill, place on silpat and bake.) My idea is to see if I can use the steel instead of the fridge, or freezer, especially at home where it's BIG deal to clear out even a half sheet pan's worth of space. If I make chocolates at home anytime soon, I will also play with piping on the steel and just placing molds on it instead of in the fridge.

You should probably read this NYT article on cookbook ghostwriters. I wouldn't trust most celebrity cookbooks nowadays. My exceptions are: Raymond Blanc, Hervé This, The Ideas in Food team, the Adrias. This all depends on what you're interested in, but, I'd say get a grounding in the basics first. You can pick up perfectly usable reprints of Escoffier (although watch out some of his are condensed editions), Ranhofer, Soyer, etc. Also pick up one of the CIA or LCB's basic texts on cooking. They will take you through material a bit more in-depth than Julia did. Older editions of these are mostly fine. There are a few occasions when a scientific discovery makes a procedure obsolete. (for example, modern pasteurization makes scalding milk unnecessary for use in bread doughs) Honestly, you'll do fine at first with a $10 copy of Professional Cooking that's 9 years old. New versions come out every 2-3 years, so, you'll be ready to buy a newer one maybe in 5 years. Anyway, I am always amazed at how many recipes I see in celebrity cookbooks that are just basics that could be found anywhere. I now mostly focus on in-depth books on world cuisines and confectionery, in both cases I look for those aimed at a professional audience; I don't need to be told how to make a basic roux or ganache.

There shouldn't be any problem scaling up the doughs. That said, how much experience do you have with yeast breads? The temperatures are critical, especially for large batches. A large mass of dough proofing can become fairly warm just from yeast action, something that isn't as apparent in smaller batches due to faster heat diffusion into the room due to small size. Temp the water you start with get a friction factor number for your mixer, and temp the dough along the way to get consistent results. We used a handheld depositor, but, this was in the early 1980s, so, I am sure everything has changed. I do not have a cake recipe offhand. I will check my older professional baker's books. In the meantime, you might want to experiment with making small batches of muffin batter (check page 222 of my link in my first post) and frying that and seeing how it turns out. I am thinking that a cake doughnut should be a bit more like an old-school, slightly dry muffin to hold its shape. Modern muffin recipes are almost indistinguishable from cake recipes, and, super-moist cake doesn't hold together very well. HERE's a guide to troubleshooting both kinds of doughnuts that looks useful. Oh yeah, I've been slowly testing old recipes intended for use with cake scraps and using stale vanilla cake doughnuts and posting results in the Cake Scraps thread. Just a heads-up if you have leftovers to deal with.

I think you just need a 'large' fryer. I think you can get by with frying one sheet pan's worth of doughnuts at a time. They still have to be flipped by hand anyway. Very few places make dough from scratch anymore, the mixes have really taken over. That said HERE are some good formulas and instructions. Yeast doughnuts start on page 236. Cake doughnuts on 237. I worked in an indie doughnut shop years ago. We used Dawn mix, but people loved us, I think, mostly, because the owner was obessively neat and clean and changed the oil at least once a week. Changing the oil frequently is as important as the type of fat. (we were just using some solid white deep fat fryer formulated shortening)

Beat me to it, Lisa. "Take your hands off the Ranhofer, and step away from the bookcases! I repeat, put the book down and step slowly away from the bookcases!"

I'd be too afraid of being robbed, or, afraid of people touching my antique cookbook collection to be able to do it.

How mature is the plant? Sometimes, baby herbs can be almost flavorless or have odd flavors.

ramps cremini mushrooms heirloom potatoes gold cippolini onions edible flowers (nasturtiums, edible violets) fiddlehead ferns*

If possible look up your potato variety before buying, if you are concerned about the appearance of potato salad. I add vinegar to my water and use waxy potatoes. My potato salad looks like a bowl of miniature toy blocks. (I also use the dish to show off knife skills and have ingredients cubed in various sizes from brunoise to large dice.) For other people, it's not that important; I've seen potato salad that looked like mashed potatoes midway in progress. Generally, waxy potatoes retain shape better and have a better texture cold than intermediate types, and definitely have better texture cold than high-starch types. Yukon Gold is a type that is generally referred to as all-purpose because it is less waxy than regular waxy types like norland red and less starchy than say, a russet. It won't hold it's shape as well as most red potatoes, or other very waxy types. If roasted or baked, it won't be as fluffy and dry as a high-starch type. If you like them, and they give you an appearance you like, then use them. Yes, there are intermediate-type all-purpose red potatoes, like the very delicious, highly-rated Sangre. They won't stay as good looking as a waxier type when boiled, but they are very tasty. You need to research your reds before assuming they are super-waxy.

Salt in the water will season the potatoes, which is a plus. But, yeah, I am also curious about flavors being imparted...what does your water taste like???

Egg, this way, if they run for anything or line up, you can discuss who arrived first, the other chickens or Egg.

Tough call. I am always very interested in negative feedback; positive feedback is ok but doesn't help me refine dishes, or grow. That said, if the place was a greasy spoon and the staff was just trying to get through the night, maybe they wouldn't care one way or another. It's kind of a crapshoot. I've had employees who would push out anything, just being lazy until their shift ended, and showing them their mistakes did not make any sort of impact on them. Showing the owner in these cases was very enlightening, especially when decisions were being made about who got more or fewer hours.

This is the correct way to do it. And yes, waxy types like reds work best. Yukon Gold is ok to use, but it's a medium-starch variety and won't give as good of a result as reds will.

In the US, a normal egg for a recipe is 'Large' and, without the shell, each should weigh 2 oz or 56.7 grams. I don't recall if other countries use different size systems for eggs or not. And yes, 10 eggs would be an appropriate amount for the ratio of other ingredients.

Got my dad a kitchen thermometer last year and he really enjoys it. (he like to grill outside) Mom says he runs around temping everything now.

I'd be concerned about putting a baking sheet under a bundt pan. Some recipes need to be baked in a pan with a hole so that warm air flows through the hole, thus helping to cook the cake both from the outside of the pan AND from the hole. If you put a baking sheet under the bundt, you destroy that airflow and it adversely affects the baking of the cake. Professional bakeries put the pans on sheet pans all the time. In a lot of commercial bakery type ovens, there are no shelves at all, just slots for sheet pans to become the shelves. In larger ones, you can just roll a speed rack, or four, or more, into the oven, hook it up and leave it to bake -once again everything is on a sheet pan.

Not really, unless it's a 'tunnel of fudge' cake. I think that some cakes we are just more used to seeing in a bundt pan or loaf pan. There's also less icing expected.

True, but there are still plenty of cans around that have been used for vegetables, beans, fruit, and juices. Watch out what kinds of cans you use, most are now lined with plastic -which will melt into the bread, taste terrible and be bad for your health. Coffee cans are one of the few types that currently don't have linings. Anything even slightly acidic (most juices, fruits, tomatoes) will definitely have a plastic liner in the can.

Also, the olive oil can't flavor the meat in the SV step, the molecule is too large. So, that may also be a waste of time/money/ingredient. Here's Nathan Myhrvold on discovering that adding fat doesn't add flavor to SV meats.

It takes over an hour of high heat to eliminate raw flour taste. Managing to keep a sauce balanced during that much boiling would be a huge pain. Plus, raw flour wants to naturally form lumps. Roux separates flour grains by coating each one with fat, so you don't get lumps if you work all the lumps out of the roux first. It also only takes 5-20 minutes to make roux, which cuts the cooking time for a sauce way down. Check out this transcript of Good Eats on gravy and roux, the roux part is down the page a ways.

Acid Phosphate is used for soda fountain drinks commonly called 'phosphates' and has a different flavor than citric acid. Since the OP does not like lemon in his tea, and citric acid is a major flavor component of that flavor, it's probably best avoided in this case. http://www.artofdrink.com/blog/acid-phosphate/

Yeah, I haven't tried it, but acid phosphate is pretty easy to order online.

Look for a formula that just has baking soda in it, no baking powder. This one is pretty accurate, notice that it does not contain white or brown sugar nor does it contain baking powder. Molasses in several grades has been available for a long time, the darkness depends on what stage of the refining process it's been through. Generally, for older recipes, use a dark molasses. The recipe explains brown bread flour, which is sold in New England.