paulraphael

I just looked up the LD50 for borax (the amount, in mg/kg bodyweight that it takes to kill 50% of of unlucky ingesters). On rats, LD50 is 4500-5000mg/kg bodyweight. This means that table salt is about 50% more toxic to mammals. They do believe that borax may be dangerous to unborn fetuses. But it's probably moot, because borax is very flammable, and you're supposed to burn briquettes down to glowing coals before cooking. By the time you get to that point, there will be nothing present but carbon, with some inert limestone in the ash. And I think this is the crux of it. No matter what additives are in the briquets, they're gone by the time you put the food on the coals. This is why it's unsurprising that there weren't any taste differences between brands, or between briquettes and lumps. The one situation that's sketchy is when the coals burn down in the middle of cooking, and you want to add more. This is where impatient people sometimes end up smoking food on top of briquette additives. I think this is the best use of lump charcoal: when you need to add more in the middle of cooking. The part that surprises me is temperature. Nathan Mhyrvold and company reported that lump charcoal burns hotter and faster, simply because there's more air in it. I wonder if they and Cook's Country tested different types.

For anyplace you want great light, I strongly recommend the Soraa Vivid LED bulbs. The color rendering is as close to perfect as I've seen. We put them in our kitchen track lighting (recommended by the lighting designer who tried to post here) and everything under them looks ready for a photo shoot. I've actually just bought a couple of the PAR38 size to use for proofing photographs. The color looks as good to me as the halogen viewing lamps I used to use. They come in different color temperatures. Expensive. Not sure how they hold up to heat and steam.

This was my rationale, but I think it's been called into question. Anyone checked out the latest research regarding soaking vs. farting?

Interestingly, in Dave's cocktail book he gives instructions for building a home carbonator that's much more like Deephaven's setup in the first post. Uses the same fitting for a 2-liter bottle.

For the last few years I've been consulting people on ice cream recipe development. My secret weapon has been software that I designed that basically encodes all the stuff I've researched, and then does the math for me. Since these are basically math and science problems, It's abundantly clear that someday AI will put me out of business. But a few attempts with ChatGPT have convinced me that that day isn't today. The nice robot very confidently calculated a bunch of recipes that just plain wouldn't work. Right now one of its biggest weaknesses is that it makes stuff up out of thin air ... and doesn't seem to know the difference between doing that and using real genuine knowledge.

My biology PhD friends partied hard and did a lot of drugs.

I see this drama playing out over and over. Manufacturer makes thing in bizarre size. Someone buys it and builds custom cabinets around it. You end up with this kitchen, and the thing breaks. You are screwed, or you get (sort of) lucky, and find an obscure thing that happens to be more or less the same size. Choices are: spend ungodly sums to replace everything, or live out your days with a new thing that has nothing to recommend it besides an ability to fit the odd-sized hole in your wall. If we ever manage to renovate our kitchen, one of the rules will be to stick with standard sizes. Just a minor effort to break the cycle of violence.

Yes, I've been advocating for this for a while for long cooking. I've scalded for 1 minute, not based on any rigorous testing.

Duvel is right about using dextrose (or any reducing sugar) and baking soda (or any base). I use a 1:5 ratio by weight of dextrose powder and baking soda. The mixture is deliquescent and will eventually turn to syrup in whatever container you use (and then start maillardizing itself). When this happens I apply it with a silicone brush. Before it happens, I dust it on. A little goes a long way. After browning, correcting the seasoning with some acid is helpful. No idea if adding amino acids will help the process. The sugar+base works so well it doesn't need help. I believe pre-searing plus post-searing helps. I do this often with sous-vide cooking. Some people have disputed this. Dave Arnold and crew at cookingissues.com actually did a blind test, with chefs and culinary students as subjects. There was a significant preference for the flavor of meat that had been pre- and post-seared. Pre-searing can also help kill spoilage bacteria on the surface of meat before long low-temp cooking.

How did the PX fluid gel turn out? What did you gel it with? I don't think the coffee speckles look like a flaw. They probably enhance the coffee flavor in people's minds (just as people swear vanilla ice cream tastes better when it has specks of vanilla pod showing).

That's great to hear. The surprising part is that they support home installations at all. Most commercial equipment companies won't even talk to you. They specifically say non-commercial use voids any warranties, and the installers don't want to have anything to do with it. Is Rational unusual in this respect, or are things different in the US and Canada? I'm having a hell of a time finding a range hood that works ... there are no domestic hoods that work even a fraction as well as commercial ones. But the commercial hood installers won't return my calls.

Those look just like the ones we used use while backpacking. Some camp cookware doesn't have handles, to save weight. I haven't seen these in ages, and I've never seen them in a kitchen. There have been a couple of times I've gone to the toolbox for regular pliers to grab something hot.

It's also good with anything dark chocolate, especially if you need to stay up late.

This looks good. I'm wondering how you're getting the locust bean gum to hydrate? Typically it needs to be cooked at a temperature that I'd be afraid would kill the fresh blueberry flavor.

Link??

This is definitely a thing. If you buy a culture from Sourdoughs International it comes dried. I also dried some of mine later to keep as emergency backup. I think I spread it thin on a Silpat, and then broke it off and sealed in a plastic bag. There are probably better instructions online.

I find it takes close to no effort to keep a sourdough culture alive. It might vary from one culture to another, I don't know. I bought the Ischia Island starter from Sourdoughs International (popular with Neapolitan pizza people), and it's basically indestructible. I've neglected it for 6 months and it's bounced right back. What I've discovered is that if you keep it in the fridge it goes dormant. To wake it up, bring it to room temp, feed it, and it's lively again in half a day. If you keep it dormant without feeding for more than a week or two, it goes extra dormant. More like comatose. It will still bounce back, but takes a couple of feedings over 24 hours. Another approach people use for mock sourdough is to use the culture as a seasoning ingredient. It doesn't even have to be active. This is a good use for portions that you're planning to toss during the usual feeding cycle. For this purpose, if you use 100% hydration like I do, you just treat the culture as a substitute for equal parts flour and liquid in your recipe. Maybe keep it to 20% of the recipe weight at first and see how it goes. When you do this, you'll need to some other form of leavening. Commercial yeast for bread.

That is too kind. At the end of the day I'm a food nerd, not a James Beard award winner.

I wouldn't use it on a roast. But it's a revelation for slaying a watermelon.

I've had really good ones. Just don't know how to make them (but I don't know much about deep frying).

I get it. I happen to like the intense seriousness, especially when the subject is "bon bons." I'm similarly a fan of Werner Hertzog, when he talks about ... anything. But seriously, Chef Laiskonis has taught me a lot over the years, and has been unreasonably generous with his knowledge and time. The way he applies encyclopedic technical knowledge to creative thinking is a model that I aspire to.

Michael's got more of an intense, post-punk demeanor. "It's important that it's really clean. Which is why I use a blow torch."

To my dismay, my girlfriend bought one. Took up almost as much space as a chamber vac or commercial ice cream machines (things I deny myself, because there's no room to spare). Her dream was to make crispy sweet potato fries. That project failed, so she sent it back, thank Bezos.

Looks like it's for slaying and butchering some kind of mythical creature! Never seen anything like it. No surprise that it's good with bread. That kind of reverse scallop is the best for bread knives. Looks just the edge on the fantastic Mac version. They are very difficult to sharpen. I've been able to awkwardly maintain mine a bit by touching up the the tips of the scallops on regular stones, and the indentations on a smooth steel. But it's not great. There are professional sharpeners who specialize in Japanese knives that can handle a scalloped edge. I've never sent mine out. Fortunately, even though my Mac is 15 years old, it still cuts well. I only use it on bread and watermelons, and it doesn't get worked hard against a cutting board, so there isn't that much to dull it. It's just not quite as impressive as its virgin self. Those finer serrations might not be sharpenable. Do you use them?

You must be from Albany.