Peter the eater

Kerry, can you elaborate? Just cheese?

That's a heavenly match. I give you four point five stars!

Oooh, didn't think of that. What kind of cereal would you use?

Yes, I always add butter. But can't a chopped onion in a warm pan sweat, become translucent, then get brown and gooey on it's own sugar w/o the lipid?

That's only one ingredient -- you get immunity in the elimination round, Anna.

Perfection.

Think of it as a Top Chef Quickfire Challenge. You get two ingredients of your choosing, water, a heat source, and whatever kitchen equipment you want. Nothing else. What's possible?

Nathan, that's helpful, thanks. What's the difference between the Jaccard machine and the one that makes cube or minute steaks?

Can one determine, at a glance, if that Costco rib eye has seen a jaccard?

Actually, you've just solved a life-long mystery for me. Now I FINALLY know why most of our preparation for preserving was done outside when we were kids. I always thought it had something to do with the heat, but you post made me remember my brother and I nearly covered with cherry guts from head to toe after a visit to the pick-your-own place...well, there was more 5kg to pit, even after we'd taken out a pickers' payment. Once-inside-is-enough Kitchen Feats would be a good topic title. Cherry pits and juicy fragment were all over the kitchen, and my kids were feasting like a pair of preschool vampires.

I just stemmed and pitted 5lbs of very ripe sweet cherries with a pair of 4-year-olds. I won't do that again, at least not indoors.

Only if you consider that a fine razor cut is physically the same as a hack with a blunt knife. "2. Stab it repeatedly with a fork" and "3. Pass it through a jaccard" are the similar in concept but the results are quite different, in my experience.

I think I saw one in the Williams-Sonoma catalog. It was definitely a tortilla press, it may have been iron, and I doubt it was cheap.

Exactly two years ago -- weird, and still true. Later this month there's a big seafood festival in town at the Cunard Centre -- lots of fish, mollusks, wine, chefs, etc. On a lark I filled out a form to compete in the oyster-shucking competition. Now that I've done some egg-timer practicing, chatted with the competition, and actually read the rules, I realize it can't end well for me. I've got some technique but nowhere near the speed that comes with years of repetition. Snowball's chance. Here's some more good reading.

Why is jaccarding stupid?

My thoughts exactly. They're everywhere here -- are some better than others?

What on earth is a chuck mock tender?

Chicken Cordon Bleu? For weeks I've been whacking away at the six-plus kg log of Larsen's Ham in my fridge. I flattened a pair of homegrown chicken breasts, sprinkled liberally with generic Swiss cheese, and stuffed with ham. Into the fish cage and onto the grill, it was not at all bad. I certainly wasn't trying to revive a classic, but this episode reminded me of how many recipes we-all have stuffed away in our brains. There really aren't many truly original dishes. Maybe when a new ingredient comes about, or when a technology transfers over to the kitchen.

IndyRob, this is what I'm talking about. Impressive experiments -- this one sounds like a farce, as in farcemeat/forcemeat. I wonder about ways to improve marbling. Maybe there's a jaccard-like machine where each blade is a syringe that injects "liquid lardons" into the meat?

Yes ChickenStu, that's exactly what I thought after the initial post. Still, the ultimate goal is enhanced eating experience. What can a home cook do to that 16oz slab to make it special?

I forgot about that one. Definitely worth a try.

That makes sense. My sv gear is low-rent: a FoodSaver vac, a big stock pot with a thermometer and an electric stove. Remarkably, it can hold 58+/-2C all day and night. The torch is a good finisher, and so is the hot gas grill.

I've never done beef in a pressure cooker. I think my mother used to do roasts that way years ago. I wonder how increased pressure affects meat texture during cooking -- it does means water gets super-hot and stays liquid beyond the normal 212F boiling point. Speaking of pressure, I've got a small acrylic container for marinating with a special feature: once the meat and marinade is sealed in the clear rigid container, you pull up a plunger and lock it in place with a twist. The idea is to increase the volume of the container thereby lowering the air pressure inside. You can see the meat expand a bit which allows the marinade to penetrate better, or so the instructions say. I haven't used it enough to know if it really works.

I appreciate all the bits from nose to tail, I'm just looking for ideas to deal with an inexpensive steak. Smoking beef certainly preserves it and adds flavor, but does it affect tenderness? Probably.

The acronym may be obscene but the concept is excellent. I had an undergrad roomie who made BMW's: baloney and Miracle Whip.