dougal
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Posts posted by dougal
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Ah, but did you notice that they are now a standard 'bonus' on the high-end current UK Kenwoods?
The Kenwood 'flexible beaters' are a £30 ($65?) accessory, and not bundled with their basic products.
However, they are included, as an addition - not a replacement for the K-beater paddle, with the 'Titanium' spec machines.
I read this as suggesting that these things do add something - for specific jobs - but at a noticeable additional cost to the manufacturer. (And a retail price I've held off paying!)
Since KA would seem to have recently become more 'cost conscious', they may prefer to wait and see whether there is enough market demand for them to bother changing their familiar ways...
Being good, but at a price, and not recognised as an essential, might explain KA's disinterest!
However, if a buyer was specifically wanting a cake-beater, it might well be worth a pop.
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I heard just a few days ago about a new beater for stand mixers called the "Beater Blade" by New Metro Design LLC. Does anyone know anything about it?
It is supposed to have the same action as a car window wiper blade and scrape the side of the bowl continuously. It is made for KA and Cuisinart and I can't remember what other machines. The information came from About.com.
I recalled a specific thread on that type of beater, and, amazingly, managed to locate it!
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=114634
But I don't think that specific one got a mention.
EDIT: Wrong !! BeaterBlade (all one word) is mentioned (and linked) in the very first post on that thread
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I have a question: why a wine cooler over a small fridge? I'm wanting to do more curing and really need something. ...
A refrigerator is designed to keep food cold: they generally can't be set above about 40 F without modification. A wine cooler is designed to keep things in the 55-60 range, which is where I wanted to be for charcuterie. A wine cooler is, in general, going to be quieter and more efficient, since you are using it in the temperature range for which it was designed. ... I also like having the glass door on the wine cooler: it lets me check on things without opening the door and messing with the temperature/humidity. Just remember to cover the door when you aren't checking on things, since light is an enemy of fat.
A big second-hand fridge (or even freezer) can be much cheaper than a new wine cooler!
Not as smart, but potentially more functional.
As Chris says, you can't normally wind a fridge's standard thermostat high enough for charcuterie temperatures.
But the "modification" required can be really simple.
Instead of plugging the fridge (or freezer) into the wall socket, plug it into a 'control box', and plug the control box into the wall socket. Put the controller's temperature probe inside the fridge, turn its own thermostat to coldest and adjust the external controller to give whatever temperature you want.
Here's a random example of the sort of thing I'm referring to -
http://cgi.ebay.com/Refrigerator-or-Freeze...Z380060632061QQ
That one is $65 and works on US 110v.
Using this sort of thing means that your modification can also be removed in seconds, leaves no trace and avoids installing DIY mains electrical switching inside the damp fridge chamber. So - effective, relatively inexpensive, robust, safe - and no commitment -- so you can instantly move it to a bigger fridge as you get more ambitious!
I have a 240v controller (see my earlier posts in this thread) which is generally sold for maintaining the temperature of an aquarium! Its not really a super accurate control (doesn't seem needed - I think more thermal mass would help) but its probably more stable than the fridge's own thermostat and easily can be temporarily used for other jobs like running a bread proofing box heater (a lamp!) Nicely, it has totally independent heat and cool outputs (not just a single changeover), and a time delay to protect the fridge against excessively fast off/on switching.
I don't think there's any need for a PID controller for this job - unlike sous vide cooking or espresso for fussy enthusiasts. But it could be done!
Specifically regarding "efficiency", I think the thicker insulation on a refrigerator would act to reduce the energy requirement. While its actively cooling, I don't think the temperature of the 'cold element' is very different to normal fridge operation. Located in a cool environment, it doesn't seem to run very much of the time. (Must put a clock on it...)
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I'm not sure whether there is any quick, kitchen-practical, low-tech method for you.
It seems that commercially its done by adding (really strong) sulphuric acid and then centrifuging the milk to gather the solids together.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babcock_test
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerber_method
I don't think that density measurement (with for example a simple winemaker's hydrometer) will tell you anything useful.
I just wonder whether viscosity measurement (at a standardised temperature) might be worthwhile. This would be something like measuring the time for a ball bearing to fall down a long narrow (glass?) tube full of the cream... The longer the time to drop the standard distance, the more viscous, indicating a higher fat content. (The ball bearing would need to be something like 90% or more of the width of the tube - making it hard for the cream to flow round it as it falls, and so you can see, rather than just hear, where it is!)
I wonder if your requirement for consistency of product qualities (rather than just consistency of product quantity) could be be put to your supplier?
I'd suspect that inconsistent processing (skimming) might have a lot to do with it. Maybe the difference you are seeing is the difference between the first and the last stuff to come off the skimmer?
Explaining the reason for your need for consistency might be easier than measuring whatever it might be that you've been sent today!
One of the things I recall from an old book on cheesemaking is that there was a difference between milk from morning and evening milkings. And of course with the grazing fodder and seasonal variations.
But in terms of day-to-day product variation, I suspect that it might be helpful to explain carefully that while the average quality is fine, its the variability that gives you a problem.
And it sounds as though your "supply chain" might be short enough for you to speak directly with the skimmer operator! If you have the opportunity of 'local sourcing' then you should be able to (diplomatically) create the opportunity to get a little input into the production process!
I'd certainly try and see what could be achieved in that direction before changing to a non-local and heavily processed product.
Some variability is one of the glories of a truly natural product!
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White vs Brown rice?
What about White vs "Brown" (wholemeal) wheat flour?
Or White vs Brown sugar?
Or table salt vs 'sel gris'?
It begins with some technology that "improves", purifies, refines the product.
To begin with, its the affectation of the rich.
Then, it hits the mass market, and everyone wants what the rich had.
Then it becomes the mass-market norm.
And then eventually, the unrefined product starts to sell at a premium to those who see the benefits... or maybe want to make a point - even if its only that they are outside the mainstream or else that they can afford it!
White rice and white flour do store better, I believe, which can provide production/distribution economies that (together with simple economies of scale) can lead to the refined product consolidating its mass-market dominance.
And, yes, with rice the faster, easier cooking of white rice might have something to do with market dominance as well. But, just as with wholemeal flour, brown rice is the nutritionally more valuable product...
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How much vitamin C?
Not much at all, I reckon...
http://sfwater.org/Files/FAQs/removal.pdf (found on page 3)... SFPUC determinedthat 1000 mg of Vitamin C (tablets purchased in a grocery store, crushed and mixed in with the
bath water) remove chloramine completely in a medium size bathtub without significantly
depressing pH.
I'd guess a "medium sized {US} bathtub" might be about 100 litres.
So that's about 10 milligrams (1/100 of 1g) per litre (or US quart).
As I think I've said before on here, making up a standard dilute solution is the easiest way of measuring such tiny quantities of Vitamin C.
Take a 500 mg Vitamin C tablet (like the ones in my cupboard) for example.
Dissolve it in 500g of water (weigh the water for accuracy, like with baking).
Now weigh out 20g of that solution. So you've just measured out 20mg of Ascorbic Acid to a likely accuracy of better than ± 2mg - thats ± 0.002g -- not bad for a kitchen scale! (Drink the remaining 480g - the Vitamin might do some good!)
Take the 20g of solution and make it up to 2 quarts with more water. Stir very well.
The reaction should be practically immediate, if unspectacular.
You should now have a couple of quarts with an ascorbic acid concentration of about 10mg/l.
And that (as above) I estimate to be the sort of concentration that the SFPUC say completely removes chloramine.
I trust that its obvious how this method could be adjusted for different strength Vitamin C tablets...
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...
San Francisco's water is heavily clorinated (2.1mg/l ... that's 0.2% chlorine!), ostensibly because of the very old pipes in the system ... The amount of treatment in the water has been quadrupled over the last 10 years.
You can taste it. Most San Franciscans, like me, use a filter to remove the taste. ...
It's actually Chloramine rather than Chlorine, ...
I'm learning about SF sourdough !!
AFAIK, the rationale for Chloramine/Chloramide rather than Chlorine is to reduce the rate of loss to the air, and hence, incidentally, the smell.
Therefore Chloramine is less easily dealt with by the "let it stand in a glass/pitcher/bucket/watering-can/whatever overnight" technique...
In fact it even remains after boiling the water.
Reduction and removal options include passing the water over activated charcoal (as in some home filter jugs) and treatment with Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) - which is the method advised for dialysis patients to use on water for their blood treatment machines. {I gather that, while Chloramine is safely broken down in the human digestive system, its not good in the bloodstream, interfering with red blood cells transport of oxygen.}
I think a really tiny touch of Vitamin C sounds entirely appropriate for both Sourdough cultures and (this topic) any water used in Cheesemaking...
It seems that SF Chloramine treatment only (re)started in 2004.
http://sfwater.org/mto_main.cfm/MC_ID/13/M.../166/MTO_ID/399
Incidentally, the Chlorine-equivalent level of 2.1 milligrams per litre does not convert as "0.2%" - which would be 2 parts in a thousand. Its actually 2 parts in a million (2ppm) - a thousand times more dilute than the quoted "0.2%".
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... In her general advice, one thing she notes is that tap water with high colorination can prevent your rennet from working effectively.
Guess what San Francisco tap water has in it?
So the advice is to dilute your rennet in distilled/plain filtered water.
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The veggie rennet that I have used does not require 'dilution'. It is simply added dropwise to the incubated milk. Hence the question of what water to dilute it (and thus the cheese) with has never arisen.
I believe virtually all tapwater around the world is chlorinated to some extent.
But I do wonder if Bay Area water really is highly chlorinated?
Its just that I don't recall hearing of this being an SF problem in sourdough discussion. Sourdough cultures are shaped by their environment and can be rather sensitive to chlorination. And with SF's sourdough traditions, I'd have expected to have heard rather a lot about that specific SF problem, if it existed.
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Its generally not sold through normal retailers.
The link I posted above was to a catering (commercial kitchen) supplier, Nisbetts.
It would seem that it is (today) available in France
http://www.clicanddeal.com/store/Product.a...06-32f77e725f51
But it is expensive.
However, here's a used one with lots of accessories for only €225...
http://www.2xmoinscher.com/info/detail.asp?id=488688
I'd still be interested to hear how the other one broke...
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Its ever so pretty.
Not really difficult cooking.
100 pages on bakery stuff, 80-ish on veg, grains and pulses, 50-ish on meat, poultry and fish.
Most recipes get a whole page to themselves. And another one for a photo.
Within the baking section, the nearest we get to 'patisserie' is brownies, muffins, filled (sweet and savoury) tarts and the like. Absolutely nothing scary! But do we really need a cheese straw recipe? (Even with caraway seeds...)
Eastern Med meets European. With a few, but not too many, hard-to-find and limited use ingredients.
Almost all dishes are photographed. Beautifully. Either complete or near as dammit.
The food is presented extremely simply. Yet it nevertheless manages to look quite classy.
The sans-serif typeface, though undoubtedly stylish, makes it difficult to spot details like marinade delays buried in the text.
To keep the pages looking kuhl, there's lots and lots of white space, but no call-out of cooking, prep or even the total time requirement.
All time requirements are buried in those blocks of sans-serif method description text.
Which makes simple domestic cooking less easy to schedule, than it could/should be.
That quibble apart, at the very least this is a tasty book for a chic/trendy gift ...
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I'm converting some recipes in a little cookbook the hotel I work for gives to our guests from grams to grams/ounces/cups, trying to make them useable for anyone around the world. Our guests are about half American and half from absolutely everywhere else.
Does anyone besides Americans use cups? I think I've heard that Australian cups are larger, so is it better to specify 'US cups'? Or do Aussies know if the recipe didn't come from Australia, it's US cups?
For those who use metric, is there any sort of volumetric equivalent to cups? It seems odd to me to say '480 ml chopped cabbage' ...
The Japanese cup (really) is smaller than the US one, and yes, the Australian one is bigger.
Its not just boasting!
The thing that seems wrong about "480 ml of chopped cabbage" is that its a volume measurement for a solid of variable and uncertain packing density. Volume measures, whether cups or ml, are simply inappropriate for variably loosely packed solids.
I enjoy drinking beer by the pint (and not those funny little US pints either), and I still think of vehicle fuel economy in 'miles per gallon', I'm looking for a bit of wood about six inches long - and so on.
BUT I now cook in grams. Its just plain easier.
Any tourist unworried by Bhutan's daily visitor tax really should have no difficulty finding $20 to treat themselves to a basic digital scale, that should have a 'grams' setting, and a 'tare' (add and weigh) facility. If they use your recipes, in grams, measured on such a scale, then they too will soon become evangelists for simple, logical, reproduceable specification of recipe quantities and will, to their own surprise and amazement, find themselves banging on about such things, even on internet fora...
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Oh yes, that index! (or even those indices...)...Also finally saw Advanced Bread and Pastry. That is some huge text (and I'm talking about the book itself and the typeface). Not the best-organized book I've seen. For multi-component gateaux they list the component but not the page number of where you can find the formula. Index isn't very helpful either.
Take "Bread Flour" for example.
Its a US book, so you could think that the "Bread Flour" that is specified in the (bread) formulas might mean typical US (high protein) bread flour.
So, if they really meant "bread flour with Less than 12% protein" they might:
1/ Make this very obvious because it seems somewhat unusual to call such flour "bread flour" in the USA. Or even 'asterisk' link to the definition.
2/ Or, at minimum, reference that definition/specification in the index.
They might have. But actually they didn't do any of that.
And yet they do explicitly specify the use of "low protein bread flour having approximately 11 to 12% protein" in the formulas. (If you happen to spot it rather than just opening the book at a formula.)
Its no problem at all -- after you know what they mean.
Hence I'm sure its no problem for students actually at SFBI.
But it is the sort of thing that really should be clearer in a self-study student textbook.
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... In my earlier posts I mentioned that I had bought a KitchenAid which had a problem with the head lifting, and returned it.
... splurged on the Kenwood Chef Titanium. I loved it for 3 weeks, then had a problem. I won't go into the details, (partly my fault, partly theirs) ...
... I took it in for service ... That was 12th June. And I'm still waiting.
...
Which brings me back to my earlier problem, whether to go with a replacement and take another Kenwood...
I know what the problem was before, and wont ever do that again!
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3 months wait is excessive, even for France. Time for some action, NOW.
I have to say that I'm intrigued as to how you broke the Kenwood after 3 weeks.
You indicate that you have learned a lesson as to 'what not to do'.
Could you share that lesson?
There is, incidentally, at least one 'ruggedised' Kenwood, designed for use in commercial kitchens.
http://www.nisbets.co.uk/products/productd...cVat&mkt_id=PC1
And I'll repeat the question I asked back in April. Has anyone managed to break an Electrolux? And how?
(Failing to master the skills of operating the thing doesn't count - I'm talking ruggedness.)
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On a somewhat related note the NYT article on Thomas Keller / Sous Vide (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/magazine/14CRYOVAC.html) mentions that the watermelon is "cryovacked" at 20 pounds per square centimeter.
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I am not aware however of a vacuum chamber sealer that can also pressurize the chamber, do such things exist and are they ever used? Or is this just a case of something being lost from spoken to written.
I think its a mistake.
I do hope its not Keller's.
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Hot smoke and eat cold?
Eel gutted and kidney removed.
Brine for half an hour in 80% saturated brine.
Hang by the 'throat', propping the belly open with wooden skewers.
Dry in cool/cold smoke (2 to 2.5 hours?) then an hour at 77C/170F to cook the thing ...
(Detail from Erlandson)
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So, again ... book recommendations? Is the Ricki Carroll book the best for a home cheesemaker, or is another one?
Before buying any book, I'd suggest first familiarising yourself with the excellent material on Dr Fankhauser's site
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/cheese.html
His suggestion for a DIY cheese press does depend largely on the availability of something like his pan.
IMHO, it would generally be simpler to build one's own press in the style of a 'Dutch Press', with a pivoted lever arm.
http://www.ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/Dut...Press-DP43.html
One thing to beware of, if you start pressing cheese, is the prevalence of superficially specific - but actually vague or misleading - recipe advice regarding the pressing force.
What matters is the pressure applied to the top of the cheese. Not the force applied!
For a specific diameter of 'hoop' (mould), the pressure produced will be proportional to the force applied. Change the hoop size (radius or diameter, the height doesn't matter), and the same specified force gives a different pressure!
And with the Dutch Press, the weight is hung from the end of the lever arm. Consequently, with different presses, one needs to be aware of the lever lengths (or rather proportions) to calculate the force that the lever delivers to each press's piston.
I've seen so many cheese recipes that specify a weight to apply, without explicitly mentioning the hoop size or even the type of press. If you aren't using the same type and size of press that the writer assumes, your result will be very different.
The pressures required are actually pretty gentle, of the order of a couple of psi, but you might not realise that from reading of "50lb weights" in some farm-scale recipes!
The thing is that a constant gentle pressure needs to be applied for several hours - so a simple screw press is probably the least suitable type - because it doesn't follow the shrinking cheese.
Particularly with small presses, an occasional small tap or vibration will help to overcome friction (or stiction!) in the cylinder and any joints, and allow the proper pressure to be applied to the cheese.
The big eye-opener for me was just how much milk one needed to get an appreciable weight of curd. So a very large saucepan is the starting point...
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Are the products being promoted as "All Butter"? (If not, why not, I wonder...)
And if they are, then of course that'll have to change.
Which may change the achievable selling price.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that, in Europe, "All Butter" doesn't sell at a higher price.
A "euro style butter blend" - pah!
Much will depend on what market 'the boss' thinks she is in.
Up market or down market?
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Agreed, Adam.
The point about "ricotta" is that its re-cooked (ri-cotta) whey. Not curd. It is a means of extracting value from the leftovers after primary (curd) cheesemaking.
Dr Fankhauser gives one such method:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Chees.../RICOTTA_00.HTM
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Assuming the circulation aspect is to ensure even distribution of heat, how serious is the compromise if one employed an "immersion heater" (without a circulating device)?
I can get one at a great price.
I think its worth making explicit the implication behind e_monster's reply.
The heat source isn't really any great problem (or expense).
Controlling the heat of the bath, (super-accurately by traditional cooking standards, and over a rather long period), is the major technical challenge.
Hence the requirement for some form of proportional controller.
Rather than a so-called "bang-bang" (simple on/off switching) thermostat.
So its not the immersion heater itself that would be the problem, but its thermostat - which you could likely bypass by setting it to maximum, always on, so that a more sophisticated controller was able to take charge.
Stirring the bath (even with the bubbles from an aquarium pump) will help to maintain the whole bath (rather than just the neighbourhood of the temperature probe) at the desired temperature.
It really shouldn't be a problem (at least once the bath is stabilised at temperature), but guarding an immersion heater element from direct contact with plastic vac-pac bags might be no bad thing.
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Hmmm !Chris, have you noted any food safety issues with your multiple-hour at 200 degrees approach? Or is bacon so loaded with nitrates and what not that it is inhospitable to bacterial growth?200 degrees is not much lower than what I smoke bacon at when I am making my own at home, so I don't think there would be an issue. Of course, the only evidence I can proffer for this is that I'm not dead yet
.200F is much higher than the temperatures used in sous-vide cooking, and is higher than the the temperatures used for poaching ("boiling") ham. Cooking at 200F (93C) for long enough to 'cook' the bacon should be no health hazard at all.
Regarding MGLloyd's mention of "nitrates and what not", two points could be clarified.
Nitrate can be used in bacon-curing (in Europe and elsewhere) BUT the nitrate's action requires bacteria to be present - otherwise the cure never gets started. The first stage is nitrate reduction to nitrite by bacteria!
However, because of entirely different food safety concerns (nitrosamine formation), the US FDA doesn't like nitrate in bacon. So US cures start with nitrite (bypassing the need for specific bacterial presence and thereby making the cure "more reliable") ...
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Ariel, you can answer your own last question by searching this "Kitchen Consumer" forum for that brand name.
{Try the search box at bottom left of the Kitchen Consumer thread list page(s)}However, it does need to be mentioned that those knives are not "slicers" and they are not "hollow ground" - as per your original request.
This is the point to gratuitously plug Chad's eGullet knife tutorial
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=26036
and the full-length book that it spawned
http://www.amazon.com/Edge-Kitchen-Ultimat.../dp/0061188484/
On page 55 of Chad's book one learns that the 9 inch plus length of a "slicer" is specifically there in order to cut a slice (of roast beef for example) with a single stroke. So a 'short' slicer is a contradiction in terms.
Hollow grinding has traditionally (going back before any of us were born) meant a convex shape to the whole of (at least) the lower half of the blade. While common on hunting knives, its not really an important distinguishing feature of good kitchen knives - though it is found on sky-high-end custom-made blades (page 137).
And Chad confirms (on page 138) Octaveman's terminology of "kullens" for those dimples on the knives you linked.
If the 'dimples' extend all the way to the edge, its called a "Granton Edge".
As Chad notes, Granton edges and kullens "are sometimes incorrectly called hollow ground".
Ariel, from the mistaken terminology and the unfamiliarity with the brand name linked, I must say that it does sound as though you might benefit from taking a look at Chad's (tutorial and) book - which is subtitled "... how to buy them, keep them razor sharp, and use them like a Pro."
Particularly because you indicate that cost is a factor for you, specific background knowledge is a great way of minimising the cost of mistakes.
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There is an oven-cooked-bacon trick that I attribute to Gary Rhodes.
Cook the bacon between two identical, nested pans.
You grease the underside of the 'lid' before putting it in place.
Result: no need to turn, and the bacon doesn't crumple up as it cooks.
This technique gets extended by some people to ham, Parma ham even.
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Well, at least there's something I can (more or less) agree on with Fat Guy!
After you've dissolved it, the crystal shape and size don't mean a thing.
HOWEVER, the reason that crystal size CAN make a difference with brining and such is if you try to use volume measures, like measuring cups or spoons.
With big crystals, you get more air (and therefore less salt) in your cup or spoon.
Now, that's not such a big deal if you are cooking and taste-test for correct seasoning (as long as you don't over-salt it by using smaller crystals - more salt to the spoonful - than the recipe writer anticipated).
But its different if you are using the salt as a preservative, or elsewhere when you simply can't judge the correctness of your quantity by taste.
Note that this problem (of accurately communicating salt measurement) disappears entirely if weight measures are used instead of volume measures.
The size (and texture/shape) of the crystals also determines how quickly they dissolve.
This can, allegedly, matter to some dry curers. Maybe.
BUT, much more importantly, it matters when the crystals are dissolving on the tongue.
The shape, texture and crystal size do make quite a difference to taste perception when they are eaten as salt crystals.
As slkinsey says, "purity" does get horribly confused between chemical purity and purity of tradition or origin.
The French "Sel Gris" is very 'pure' in the sense that, er, its just ordinary seawater with the water taken away, but chemically its terribly impure - which is why it is actually grey, not white.
The premier British salt would be Maldon (crystal, sea) salt. The traditional method of production produces flakes, airy assemblages of tiny crystals, being particularly pleasant in the mouth (small so fast dissolving giving a "strong" taste, yet seeming "mild" because of all the air and maybe the whole crystal not contacting the tongue simultaneously) . But as loose flakes, you get more air (and less salt) in your measuring spoon. Think of the difference between sugar and candyfloss... Maldon is a sort of candyfloss salt! http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/
If a recipe specifies salt by volume (spoons, etc) its well worth checking to see what sort of salt is specified, because if you should happen to be using a different type you probably should be using either more (easy to fix later) or less (a definite problem).
Chefs tend to use a lot of salt, British chefs tend to use Maldon routinely, and this creates a risk of very high sodium food if table salt is substituted in the same volume quantity!
After I worked out that the UK anti-caking agents were used at a concentration of about a teaspoonful to a ton of salt, and discovered that the safe daily dose of pure additive was actually bigger than the safe dose of pure salt, I stopped bothering about something I (personally) certainly can't taste.
Different places add different amounts of Iodine - depending on the local mineral deficiency. If you reckon you can taste it, my advice would be to check up on your local conditions, and if you avoid Iodine in salt, find another way of supplementing your intake - because its probably rather short otherwise. And that's well-intentioned advice from someone with only half a thyroid...
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Just about 30 years ago, one of the factories I visited as part of the postgrad production engineering course I was on, made Ritz crackers (amongst other things).
Someone (might have been me) asked if any biscuits got broken and what happened to them.
We were told that the broken biscuits, together with any that were slightly over or under-baked, were ground up to crumbs and remixed into the dough. IIRC, something towards 10% of the dough might have been recycled or circulating load.
One thing that made the memory stick was the guide's claim that good crackers (or even biscuits) simply couldn't be made without adding back ground up biscuit crumbs. (Sorry, no idea how finely ground, but I'd guess pretty damn fine. Maybe like through a home flour mill?)
Anyone else ever heard anything like this?
Or do it?
Making Cheese
in Cooking
Posted
I'm puzzled now.
If you know you specifically want Ascorbic Acid, then why (or wtf) buy Citric Acid?
I'd never heard of "sour salt", but it only took me about 20 seconds to find out that its nothing to do with Vitamin C...
http://www.americanspice.com/catalog/searc...2sour%2Bsalt%22
A precision measured 500 milligram vitamin c tablet costs about 3 pence (call it 2 cents) each here in the UK.
Making the cost of using the proper stuff, at an accurately low strength, less than 1/6 th of a cent per US gallon.