s_sevilla

I have some very nice handmade/forged knives (sugimoto), some middle range henckels, and some "commercial quality" Dexter Russel knives. The Dexter Russel's are by far the cheapest, most often by an order of magnitude, and I always find myself turning to them whenever I'm cooking. The blade that comes on them is decent, not perfect, but 10 minutes with my sharpening stones will get most blades to that point, but the steel is actually very high quality. The handles are made of plastic composite, so they stand up very well to some abuse, and while I try to take care of my knives very carefully, accidents happen, and I'm not going to tear my hair out over a chipped blade on a DR versus a chipped blade on my sugimoto. Of course if you're doing sashimi cuts or something of that nature that requires the best steel, then you will need a nice blade, but for almost all of what anyone will ever do, most knives will get the job done, the most important thing for me is that I am comfortable holding and handling the knife.

Sorry about the double post, my browser went on the fritz and I hit the submit button a few times. anyway, for some reason that steakburger just brings back all these repressed memories of the infamous McRib sandwich.

An idea to further modify and alter the texture of meats, etc.: you could try and use some papain, a common tenderizer, to break down the protein structure of whatever you are working with, then add a protease inhibitor to stop the reaction from continuing much further before modifying the structure again with the TG, perhaps this would create a smoother final product?, maybe if you found something that would attack and break down the cellulose and other fibers in red meat one could even make a beef noodle as well.

An idea to further modify and alter the texture of meats, etc.: you could try and use some papain, a common tenderizer, to break down the protein structure of whatever you are working with, then add a protease inhibitor to stop the reaction from continuing much further before modifying the structure again with the TG, perhaps this would create a smoother final product?, maybe if you found something that would attack and break down the cellulose and other fibers in red meat one could even make a beef noodle as well.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I have no idea if it will work (I have a feeling it won't), but I wonder if putting a ball of butter into a rennet bath would be enough to coagulate a skin on the surface and hold it stable...if if you'll just end up with some good ol' curds.

what if you made a mold and dusted it with some sort of Calcium containing powder that would start the binding process as soon as you poured your liquid into the mold? Perhaps like the cornstarch molds used in candying and confectionary, but on a more sophisticated level. Also, does anyone know if Calcium Citrate can be substituted for the CaCl2 as the reagent in the setting solution?

my two cents: The standalone "burners" would be great for dorms, small kitchens, or doing bigger dinner parties where that extra burner would really come in handy.....i used to have an old electric coil burner for these things and I loved having it around for emergencies. Induction cooktops tend to screw around with your thermometers, especially the thermocouple's used in remote probes and some of the instant read models. IR gun thermometers can get around this, although they couldn't read the internal temperature of something like a roast, and a regular old glass/alcohol thermometer would also be fine. They are also very good for candying and sugar work.

red bean ice cream.....sounds almost like the filipino Halo Halo....that country's version of "ice cream", usually an assortment of different beans that have been sweetened and then jackfruit, palm fruit gelee, young coconut and some other stuff, topped with shaved ice and sometimes cream (taro ice cream on top is good) Really good stuff if you've never had it......as far as red bean ice cream, I would just take some creme anglaise base, and then add some red beans that have been pureed and pressed though a food mill and sieve a few times to refine the texture and get rid of the endosperm....might want to add a little extra sugar to the base first, but that should get you experimenting a little bit.

Is just plain Maltodextrin the same as Tapioca Maltodextrin? Can they be used interchangeably for the same applications?

try an IR gun thermometer. Fast, easy, and shouldn't be affected. Downside is that they only read surface temperatures, but they're fine if your boiling down a syrup and the like.

I haven't read most of the posts yet, but I cook for 44 people on the weekends and have come up with some recipes that go over very well. Lamb Keftas with pepper saute: for the lamb keftas, get good quality ground lamb, the stuff we get is grass fed from the local Halal market, and has about 10-20 percent fat depending on the butcher and grind that day. I mix it with very fine diced onions, a touch of ceyenne, cinnamon, diced mint leaves, sea salt and sweet paprika, form into patties, and grill on a cast iron pan. pepper saute, I roast and peel red peppers, then slice. In a pan I saute some onions, then add some thin sliced garlic, add the peppers and continue to cook on high heat, at the end add in capers with some of the juice and a splash of balsamic, taste and season with salt to taste. Pulled pork: This is a simple but very good way to get a lot of pork done up fast, and we've done this for a meal for about 200+ people, and is good on homemade masa tortillas and a fruit salsa, my favorite is papaya and habanero (don't forget the cilantro). Take a bunch of oranges, and squeeze into a big pot, drop the rinds in as well. Take your pork shoulders and salt, put them in the pan with a few jalapenos or whatever pepper you prefer (I like habaneros). Pour enough water in to bairly cover the pork and bring to a boil, once reached, bring down to a high simmer and cook for a couple of hours (4 or so), skimming the surface of scum. The key here is the amount of salt you use in the water, its a lot, but too much and it tastes like sea water in your mouth, but too little and the flavor of the pork and oranges is very muted. once the pork is very very tender, lift it out of the pot and into a few hotel pans. using forks, shredd the meat and distribute into a layer about 2-4 inches deep in each pan. Salt the meat (use kosher or sea salt), and ladel a few scoops of the reserved liquid over the meat. Put into a hot oven and dry for an hour or two. Every so often you will need to pull the meat out, stir it, and ladel on more of the liquid (make sure to include of the orange rinds as well). By the end, you want to have a nice browned, crisp surface, and juicy, orangy meat underneath. I have a lot more, but they'll have to wait for when I have a little more time.

I'll have to say, the most interesting flavor I've concocted was a red beet and white pepper flavor. The pepper had a sharpness that came slowly on the finish, while the beet had a light earthy flavor....still needed a little work to balance the sweetness with the beets and reducing the musk from the beets (I think I just needed fresher beets), but it was fairly good. When I was in japan I had a very good red wine ice-cream; I also saw some whale flavor and trout flavor ice cream. Interesting, but my morals were more likely to make me go and throw paint on the creators of that whale flavor than anything else.

I was reading the posts on trying to make round shapes, it seems to me that if you release the drop under the water it would be more likely to form a ball shape....I haven't recieved my chemicals yet, so I haven't tried, but this just comes to mind from images of liquids forming sphere's in micro-gravity. Dropping from above the liquid the drop will naturally take the most aerodynamic shape possible, that being a teardrop before entering the bath.....I'll have to see when I get my stuff and start experimenting. Back to the shrimp broth experiment, I'm wondering if Calcium could have leached from the shells of the shrimp to the broth, affecting the chemistry of gelation when dropped into the water bath. Calcium Carbonate, which I believe is the main component of shellfish carapace's, however, does not dissociate very well in water, but the acid from the tomatoes and other ingredients could have had an effect on this as well, pushing the calcium to dissociate more. You could always try the stock without the tomatoes in it and see what sort of outcome you have, or buffer the solution before cooking so that the pH doesn't get too acidic. Yet again, when I recieve my ingredients I will spend a weekend experimenting around to see what sort of effects this may have.