tino27

dougal -- EXCELLENT explanation. One question for you though ... why boil the water and let it cool to room temperature? Presumably it might serve to sterilize the water and kill any microbial 'beasties' that might compete with the yeast?

So the water ... it is boiled and then cooled to room temperature before adding yeast/flour, or are you adding yeast and flour to water that boiled and is still at/near the boiling temperature? All strains of yeast start to succumb at around 130 deg F, so I can't imagine that adding yeast to water this is close to 212 deg F would last very long.

She was also in the PBS Documentary "Sandwiches That You Will Like", narrated by Rick Sebak (I believe). If I'm ever in that part of the US, I definitely plan on looking her restaurant up.

I thought for sure it would be Mark. I mean, double dipping in front of the judges? Good Lord, serious no-no!

The single best thing you can do to improve your bread doughs is to buy a book that talks about the science of making bread (as well as providing recipes). I started out with The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart and would still recommend that book to anyone looking to start out. In fact I still go back to it from time to time. There are a ton of things you can do to improve the flavor of your breads, but your biggest asset is time. Doughs that can age overnight in the fridge, or doughs using a pre-ferment (poolish or biga) that have been allowed to age for 8-12 hours before being added to the dough were the single biggest improvements in how my breads tasted.

Peanut M&M's. A single serving (aka a pint) of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia. A single serving (aka a sleeve) of Girl Scout Thin Mints. I'd better stop now. Obviously I keep none of these in my house on a regular basis.

I have just recently been turned onto the joy that is Bi Bim Bap and found a local Korean place where I can order it. My dilemma though is that I am having trouble conveying to the chef that I want my egg sunny-side up so that I can break the yolk and mix all of the eggy goodness into the rest of the bowl. No matter what I try (and I've tried three times now), I can't seem to convey my message correctly. 3 times I've ordered it and 3 times the egg comes out completely cooked all the way through. The rest of the dish is fantastic though. Any thoughts from you fellow Bi Bim Bap lovers out there? I must have impressed my server (who I think was the wife of the cook/owner) because at the end of the meal she offered me a glass of soojunggwa (which was quite delicious).

I personally like the Cambro's ... I have the front-loading ones and they've always been rock solid. Now, hopefully this isn't a total thread hi-jack, but I have a question for all of you caterers out there. I recently managed to pick up one of these ... Cambro UPCH400 and am excited about not having to prime the box with boiling water before using it. My question has to do with holding crispy foods (like baked phyllo). Understandably, after baking, you wouldn't cover it before putting it into the box for holding/transport. What kind of hold time can I reasonably expect to get using this type of hot box? Any tips/techniques for holding crispy foods nice and crisp?

I would think that using half as much meat would decrease the time (but not necessarily by half). This link talks about how to tell when Pot Roast is done ...

Cali, I can't speak specifically to the recipe you were trying to make, but I know that when I use regular instant yeast for my sweet breads, they take a REALLY long time (like 8-10 hours) to rise. I picked up some SAF Gold (from Amazon, no less) which is instant yeast specifically designed for high fat/high sugar doughs and it works MUCH better. It literally cut the time in half from my regular instant yeast. Now I keep two kinds of yeast in my freezer. BTW, SAF makes a "Red" variety as well. This would be equivalent to the regular instant yeast you already have. Hope that helps.

Really the point of the cloche is that it's something nice and heavy which retains heat well. So, anything nice and heavy will help out. Realize, too, that you can make perfectly fine artisan loaves without a cloche. I generally only use a nice thick pizza stone in my oven and I've gotten very good quality breads. If you are going to use your KitchenAid, just make sure that the knob on the lid is oven proof to at least 450 deg F.

I think it depends on the application. Used as a dressing for salad or as a spread for sandwiches, cold will probably do the trick. To serve with roasted vegetables or chicken, I would probably reheat it. Just remember to season it appropriately. Cold foods tend to require more salt than warm foods.

Welcome, ElsieD! A cloche is usually a clay enclosure (think of a terra cota pot) that you pre-heat and bake the bread in. It is designed to mimic a stone oven as it not only holds the heat really well, but holds the heat close to the baking loaf (as opposed to your oven walls). The primary advantage of a cloche is that it is much easier to get that crispy artisan crust that many people like. Forgot to mention that you can use plastic wrap in the fridge, I do it all the time. If you're worried, you can always buy one of those large plastic containers (like they sell at Sam's Club, etc.) and just leave one corner cracked. But I've never had a problem just using plastic. If you do use a dish towel, I would suggest moistening it first. When I first started making bread, I would only cover my bowl with a dry towel. When I returned to punch down or shape the bread, there would always be a thin crust on top of the dough.

I'm sure that's one closet NO ONE wants to come out of.

The roast pork sandwich at George's is also very, very good. It was kind of funny actually. I had seen George's Sandwich Shop during a PBS special and happened to be in Philly visiting a friend. We were just casually walking down 9th Street, checking out the Italian Market. Suddenly I look over and there it was. I had to stop for a sandwich and I'm darn glad I did.

I don't know Ohio, but WV laws mandate that all liquor products be put into opaque bags that obscure the contents (which usually means a paper bag). I guess that way Puritans don't have to let anyone know what they have been buying. I suppose the origin of that law was to keep children from seeing the labels on liquor or some other such crap. That may be the case in Ohio as well. ← You may very well be right on this one about it being a state law. However, that begs the question ... If everyone is using plastic bags that you can more or less see into, doesn't the sight of a paper bag about the shape of a bottle tip you off that there is liquor inside? Damn Puritans.

And here I thought it was only me. It's definitely not a southern U.S. thing. I can't tell you the number of stores in the Akron / Cleveland area that do this, too. I often tell the cashier/bagger to "pack them heavy". After giving me quizzical looks, they do, but this usually results in them double-bagging everything. On a somewhat related note, bagging as an art form seems to have been lost. My first job in high school was as a bagger and there was definitely an art to it -- don't pack too many cans in one bag, keep the cool/frozen stuff together, keep the perishables away from the chemicals. The last one, especially, seems to be lost on current baggers. I can't even begin to count how many times I've had to stop someone from packing the liquid drano in the same bag as my bread. The other bagging pet peeve I have is with liquor. Many of the larger size bottles now come in plastic bottles. I can understand in the "old days" when you bought several glass bottles, each was inserted into a paper sleeve to protect it from clanking against the other glass bottles in the same bag. Why on earth does my plastic bottle of vodka need a paper bag to protect itself against the plastic 2-Liter sitting next to it? As much as I try and reuse the plastic bags for other things (garbage, etc.), I just accumulate them faster than I can use them. So much for trying to be more green.

Not only was it egregious, it was sooo infuriating that I'm deliberately remembering the names of those sponsors so I can avoid their products in the future. The brand-whoring made me cranky. I'd like to nominate another show tic for the drinking game: whenever the cheftestants are describing their dishes, almost everyone prefaces their ingredient run-downs with "a little" this, and "a little" that. Watch it back - it's ridiculous. "Yes Chef. Well, we've got a little sundried maple serrano ham, mixed up with a little yogurt whisky reduction, and garnished with a little poppy pollen." Egads. Have they listened to themselves? What's wrong with some? ← Not to egregiously borrow from another source, but methinks someone's "little chef" is a bit cranky.

there is a perception by people other than in the USA that the greeting is not perhaps as sincere as it initially sounds. i.e it is not a prevailing social protocol elsewhere ← I think even in the USA, there isn't much sincerity in the phrase either. It is simply treated as an end piece to an encounter with someone you may or may not know. It is normally followed by a, "Thank you." or, "You, too." I think it is treated in the same vein as, "How are you today?" when asked by a complete stranger. Clearly this is not an invitation for me to vent all of my daily frustrations.

I hadn't considered the "dirty hands" angle, but I am reluctant to eat communal food at work (i.e. all those potlucks) because of food safety issues. I mean, *I* know to keep foods below 40 or above 140 to keep it safe, but I don't know about anyone else. Fortunately for me, someone always forgets to bring something and ends up ordering pizza delivery, so at least there's something safe to eat.

Are you slashing at a 45 degree angle?

I think I may have found a new purpose in my life. That would make an excellent bumper sticker / t-shirt / Trapper Keeper cover.

Ah ... found it ... Clicky Clicky Funny thing is that I never noticed whether a server was touching me until I read about it and now I notice it right away. Ignorance, apparently, is bliss.

I read/heard somewhere that servers who touched the patron at some point (hand on shoulder, etc.) were more often than not left larger tips. Then again, it may have been female servers and male patrons. Either way, I also notice when servers get touchy-feelie. I can assure you, your tip depends on how well I feel taken care of, not whether you initiate physical contact with me.

Edsel is right on the money ... the Moscow Mule was so refreshing. I also had a Pesca Sour with the Vietnamese cinnamon and bitters on top ... all I can say is, "whoa!". I'm looking forward to going back for a Dark & Stormy.