paulraphael

What do you mean by the threshold being 165F?

True enough, but it's still considered unsafe practice to cool soup or stock covered. You lose the mechanism of evaporative heat loss, so the soup will spend much, much too much time at temperatures that promote rapid bacterial growth. It's important to cool the soup uncovered, and if it's a large enough volume that it will take more than a few hours to get it from 130F down to 40F, you need to play an active role in the process. This may mean transfering to a few smaller, shallower containers, stirring in a water bath, or an ice water bath, or with an ice paddle. At home I'm rarely dealing with more than 8 quarts or so, so I try to get it down to 50F within a couple of hours, and then I'm pretty comfortable putting in the fridge. Winter is easiest. If it's really wintery out, I'll put the whole pot out in the snow and wind. This is one of the few times a covered pot is ok. Old man winter packs way more convective cooling power than a fridge.

Anywhere else? DeBragga has lots of good stuff, but no interest unless they open a retail location. I'm not having meat shipped from 4 miles away.

Checking in after a few years. Jeffrey's is indeed gone. End of an era. Mr. Silva, his #2 butcher, is working at Heritage Foods market, which opened up in Jeffreys' space at Essex St.. Their meat is very good, with an emphasis on meat of known provenance, especially Piedmontese. To my palate, the meat is similar qualitiy to Jeffrey's (unknown) meat, although they seem to do a more consistent job with the dry aging. Prices are higher than J's but still pretty good. Silva tells me Jeffrey is working at a butcher shop somewhere in Brooklyn. I haven't been able to track him down. The outgoing message on his phone says "Do NOT leave a message." Any other great finds in NYC meat?

Most of the techniques I use for vegetables put the knife edge on the board. Not agressively, like in Euro techniques, but enough that it takes a delicate touch to prevent edge dammage. I'm pretty good at this but not 100% consistent. My chef's knife has a very thin edge and it doesn't take much to get a chip or flat spot. I learned a lot of my technique from KC Ma, a Japanese-trained chef who's generous about sharing his skills. Mostly the hybrid techniques Japanese chefs use when preparing Western food with double-bevel knives. He posted some demo videos before he died last year. I think the chive video is the most impressive. If you can learn to cut herbs like this, you'll be able to prep them 10 hour in advance and they won't brown or lose any percepible flavor. It's harder than it looks, and you'll need a serious knife and sharpening chops, and if you're a pro your chef will probably have no idea what you're doing and will make you do it his way.

The only chamber sealer I've used was a borrowed $4000 unit, which was nice, but its superpower seemed to be a massively powerful vacuum pump. It went down to 1 millibar, which (correct me if I'm wrong) is way more powerful than you'd ever need in the kitchen. What's the strongest you need for various compressions, speed-pickling, etc? Certainly for sous-vide, a sealer that's a fraction as powerful would be sufficient, and would still do away with the problems of Food Savers.

I learned to sharpen with wet/dry sandpaper, because the cost of entry is low. But I found that the paper clogs pretty quickly, and I was going through it fast enough that it was an expensive and frustrating longterm solution. So I got a set of entry-level waterstones, with the expectation that when I wore those out I'd be competent enough be merit an upgrade. This approached worked pretty well. I still have my medium-grit beginner's stones, but finish on a Naniwa 10,000 grit stone (really nice), and touch up on a strop that's just a sheet of paper spray-mounted to flat board, rubbed with some 1-micron abbrassive powder. The strop is just quicker and easier than a waterstone, because no water is required. It gives as fine a polish as any knife steel can take, and lets me put off the stones for a week or so longer I could otherwise. With sharpening, there are many different tools and techniques that are ultimately capable of getting you to the same place. The choices are mostly about ease, efficiency, and economy. The better you are at sharpening the less it matters how you get from coarse to fine. This isn't to say that all tools are equal. Diamond stones and wheels, oilstones, and ceramic rods will not come close to waterstones, automotive sandpaper, or abrasive powders. Their abrasives are just too coarse.

Ha. I don't even cook daily. I mean "everyday" in the sense of routine, ordinary, quotidian ...

Arrowroot may be worth trying if the mousses will be non-dairy. If there's milk or cream, it gets slimy. Agar, gellan, or some combination of gums might be ideal.

I have a German knife that I love for heavy duty stuff, but the bolster was making me crazy. I couldn't sharpen all the way to the back by any method. So I had Dave Martell at japaneseknifesharpening.com grind it down for me. The bolster's still there, but it's out of the way enough to let stones get to the edge. Not sure if you'd be able to use a cc machine though.

You can have a lot of fun improvising with lemon and garlic, since both ingredients work well in so many ways. Lemon juice is an acidulator and a great solvent for aromatics; garlic is both delicious and an emulsifier. I'd briefly infuse herbs or other seasonings into the lemon juice, then mix in garlic pulp. You can then whisk in an oil of your choice, like olive oil, or something that's already an emulsion, like cream or whole butter. You could add other liquids to the lemon first, like stock or reduced wine. If you need to hold the sauce for a while you can incorporate a bit of xanthan gum into the liquid before stirring in the oil ingredients, to stabilize the emulsion. Some of these variations are similar to aioli. If you used emulsified egg yolks and butter you'd be moving into hollandaise family sauces.

Plenty of knife nuts have posted this kind of image. I wouldn't necessarily trust one from a manufacturer. Microscopy can teach you what kind of edge your likely to get from different grit sizes on different knife metals. Some people get a cheap USB microscope to examine their own handywork. You can see how good a polish you're getting, how even a bevel, and you can diagnose problems like wire edges, or missing the edge entirely.

I don't know if it would destroy any good Japanese knife, but I wouldn't use my knives as a guinee pig. The heat would worry me a bit. But I don't know enough about metalurgy to say for sure that these knives would heat up more than other knives, or that their heat treatment is more fragile. I'd really be worried about chipping, especially on knives with thinner profiles and more brittle steels. But mostly I'd be dissatisfied with the performance. The finest grit applied by that machine isn't fine, and edge angles are too obtuse. It will improve a lot of European knives, but would impair a higher end Japanese knife.

This decision has to based on how much work you're willing to do and how sharp you want your knives to be. Realistically, if you use a professional sharpening service, it's likely to be a once-in-a-while kind of maintenance. And unless you go to one of the high-end, expensive artisans (Dave Martell, Korin, Bob Cramer, etc.) you're probably going to get a knife that's quickly ground on a wheel or a belt sander. You'll get an ok edge similar to the factory edge, and probably see a lot of metal taken off. So you get ok performance, and an edge that can be more or less maintained on a steel. If you want really sharp knives you need knives that support a thin edge and a high polish, and you need to touch them up on stones often. A pro will hit the stones every night. A home cook every few nights to every couple of weeks, depending on use. The chef's choice machine is a kind of middle ground. It will do a better job than cheap commercial sharpening services, and is quick and easy. The results will be a bit better than the factory edge on a typical European knife, but not close to what's possible with waterstones on a good Japanese knife. If you have one of these machines, it's a good idea to skip the coarse and medium grit slots unless the knife really needs them. They grind off a lot of metal. A lot of people fear the learning curve with stones. The good news is that even with a little bit of practice, you'll get better edges than you've ever used before. If you really don't want to practice, you can get an edge pro. It takes almost all the manual skill out of it. It just takes more time to use, and costs more. There are good stones available for it now from 3rd parties ... these add to the expense, but make the system competitive with hand sharpening.

A lot of this is strange. Items in red are "critical": Sanitary Violations 1) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F. 2) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation. 3) Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided. 4) Tobacco use, eating, or drinking from open container in food preparation, food storage or dishwashing area observed. 5) Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution. 6) Plumbing not properly installed or maintained; anti-siphonage or backflow prevention device not provided where required; equipment or floor not properly drained; sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly. 7) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained and/or not properly sealed, raised, spaced or movable to allow accessibility for cleaning on all sides, above and underneath the unit. Items 3, 6, and 7 seem especially strange, since these are about the design or construction of the kitchen. The restaurant's been inspected a lot over the years. Did they remodel? And do so stupidly? Seems dubious. Items 1 and 2 are hard to judge without knowing the details. The FDA and Board of Health rules (the "danger zone") are simply based on incorrect science, and good chefs know this. They break the letter of the law every day in order to deliver good food, and do so without endangering anyone. For example, you can pasteurize food at 132°F. It's simply a question of understanding the time/temperature relationships for different foods. Keller understands. I do not know how these restaurants navigate the inspection process, which is of course based on the letter of the law. The answer in this case seems to be: poorly. Unless, of course, there was an actual serious violation. Items 4 and 5 look like the kinds of things Keller would crucify someone for. I'm curious to see the final grade. A high-end restaurant could have trouble surviving anything below an A.

I was surprised pastry wasn't included in the original set. I know they had to draw the line somewhere ... but the distinction between sweet and savory or hot kitchen and pastry kitchen sems decidedly pre-modern. At any rate, I look forward to 50lbs of pastry volumes.

Is this the Carlisle you mean? It's 8-1/4" deep. That's deep enough for the Anova?

I've never liked the flavor. Always seemed sharp and one-dimensional (althought this could be a self-fulfilling belief ... my white pepper doesn't get used, so it's always old ...) I mostly see it called for in light-colored recipes, which makes me think people like primarily for esthetics. I just live with the black specks.

What size containers are people finding most versatile? I've got an Anova on the shopping list and am considering either the 12qt or 18qt square camwear container. Also probably a cooler for long cooking.

The green habanero / prickly pear version is amazing. Maybe not as versatile, but it's the tastiest hot sauce I've ever had.

You could similarly say the loin cuts (lumbar muscles) are used 24/7 to support the spine, just like ours. This isn't the same kind of heavy work that's performed by the legs/shoulders. This is why the hanger is a steak cut that's tender enough to eat after brief, high-heat cooking, unlike the traditional braising cuts. But it's no less flavorful.

What size pressure cookers are people find most useful for making stocks? For conventional stocks I've started with a 22qt pot and gotten a yield of around 6 quarts. What cooker would make sense for a yield of 5 or 6 quarts?

I don't know if flavor = work holds up universally. Hanger steak has more flavor than most others but it's just diaphragm muscle. Rib steak / roast is both tender and flavorful. It's certainly accurate to say work = collagen = toughness with fast cooking = gelatin and tenderness with slow cooking.

One issue is that I really don't want to boil any of my soups or stocks for an additional 15 minutes. Most of my soups have ingredients that will overcook, and all stocks and broths lose aromatics with continuous boiling. Sometimes this is a tradeoff you have to make in order to to concentrate non-volatiles by reduction. But I'm not going to make that tradeoff because I'm too lazy to cool the stock properly.

The one significant difference between the Demeyere and the M'cook (or All-clad stainless) is that the demeyere has a much thicker bottom. This has benefits and costs. The benefits are that the heavy base will heat more evenly, and store more heat, which makes it easier to sear large pieces of food. These benefits only really matter if you're using a home range with low power output and small burners. On a higher powered, high-end range, they won't matter. The disadvantage of the heavier bottom (besides weight) is that it will be less responsive to changes in heat. The pan will take longer to heat up and to cool down. If you overshoot the right temperature it will take more time and effort to get it back where you want. It's more like driving a ship than a sports car. This matters less with the kinds of cooking generally done in a big sauté pan (vs. a saucepan, for example) but can be a nuissance. None of these pans will warp. They can all go in the dishwasher. I think Demeyere's dishwasher stuff is mostly marketing. All the manufacturers' stuff about 5 layers, 7 layers, etc., is marketing nonsense. What matters in these pans is that there's aluminum in the middle, with a stainless steel skin. The greater the proportion of aluminum, the better they'll perform. The number of layers of metal beyond 3 will make no difference to you. (Edited to add: I haven't used the all-clad d-5 series. As far as I can tell it's just a bit thicker than the standard 3-ply line, which would place its characteristics somewhere in the middle).