paulraphael

There are many things in the world to be worried about. Teflon isn't one of them (unless you're a bird, and someone's incinerating a non-stick pan in the next room). PTFE is so innert in the human body that it's used in permanent installations, like artificial joints, artificial heart valves, and vascular grafts. The only reason to avoid teflon in cooking is that it's a lousy surface for 95% of cooking. If you're cooking eggs, or very delicate fish, it's perfectly fine. You will die of something one day, and it almost certainly won't be your omelet pan or potato chip bag. The chips themselves might be a culprit.

I wish you'd do your own research before posting distracting statements like this. First—most of the research in question is done at the university level, with funding form the NIH and grants from other public health agencies. All of it goes through the scientific journal peer review process, which, while far from perfect, is the best system our species has yet devised for controling bias. Second, and please think seriously about this—the only reason you've even HEARD about the dangers of any plastics is because of research published by the very same people and institutions that you are now systematically dismissing. If researches were universally corrupt and in collusion and wanted to hide something from the public, it would be the easiest thing in the world. But they took on the research, they chose to spend their limited grant money on it, they got the results, and they went through the (substantial) trouble of publishing it. If you trust the intitial reports that say "this stuff might be hazardous," why would chose to dismiss continued research that modifies those initial findings? This is how science works: continued research supports, contradics, or refines the initial findings. We are learning that plastic is something to consider, but not blindly fear. This is good news, IMO.

If you're interested in using the pressure cooker to make stocks — one of the most interesting applications of the technology — be sure to read the cooking issues blog post on the subject. Interestingly, pressure cooker designs are different in fundamental ways. Some allow you to make stocks that are better than conventional ones, and others do not.

One of these is right down the street. They were on the short list, but they close at 4pm on xmas eve. I'm a bit worried about trying to hold a pizza that long. What's their pizza like? I just checked this place out in person ... they give you an unbaked pizza to take home. I don't have high hopes for the quality, but as far as convenience it's tempting. I think baking our own will be a good fallback position.

One of these is right down the street. They were on the short list, but they close at 4pm on xmas eve. I'm a bit worried about trying to hold a pizza that long. What's their pizza like?

Thanks everyone. Butcher and Larder looks a great choice.

My family's Xmas eve tradition has always been Giordano's pizza and champagne. We would buy it half baked, finish it off at home, and dig in while passing presents around. Bliss. But last year just about everyone spontaneously came to the same conclusion: the pizza is not very good. It was a bit deflating to wake up from a delusion that goes back to childhood, but man, that pizza is basically a deep dish cheese casserole in a pastry shell. The little kids didn't like it, the grownups could barely get half a piece down before feeling queezy, and I found myself missing Brooklyn. So what are some better choices? I've become a convert to the neapolitan-styled pizzas of New York's new wave. I realize these things don't travel so well, and I don't know what's available in Chicago, in the downtown / near north / lincoln park region. Preferably near north. We'd like something delicious that can be taken home, and that could survive the trip and being reheated or held in the oven. Any ideas?

I'm at my parent's for the holidays, and have been unable to continue my ridiculous tradition of flyning from NYC with a dry-aged roast in a cooler in the belly of the plane. It will be a small crowd for xmas this year and I'm thinking about lamb racks. Who would have something really good? Preferablly not too far from downtown or the Lincoln Park area? I've been browsing Yelp but don't find too many trust-inspiring reviews. Paulina meat market looks good, but is stratospherically expensive (the lamb there costs about double the wholesale price of lamb from the best couple of farms in the country) so I worry that all the money goes to the boutiquiness of the place. I would love a no-nonsense place that sells great quality meat, ideally from some identifiable farm that whose reputation I can check out (I realize this last bit may be asking too much). Thoughts?

This seems to be new over the last couple of years. It corresponds (surprise!) with the Tojiros getting more expensive. The blades also look much thinner than they used to ... a good thing. The Tojiros I saw last year at Korin definitely had a sharper factory edge than most knives, but they were still not close to their potential.

You get a hopelessly inconsistent and messed up edge from dished stones. A convex edge comes from changing the angle of the knife while you sharpen. Unless you are using an edge pro, or have almost supernaturally consistent sharpening technique, you will produce edges that have some concavity.

Yup. The coarse stone made deep scratches, which gave you an edge with big teeth. It will work really well on things like rope, or fibrous cuts of meat. Or your wood cutting board. The trick is to follow that stone with one that's fine enough to leave much smaller teeth, but not so fine that it takes you hours polish out the scratches from the previous stone. Moving to a stone that's half as coarse (a grit number that's twice as high) is usually a safe bet.

KA vs. Elecrolux is really about planetary mixer vs. spiral mixer. Each has its advantages. Commercially spiral mixers are usually used for making huge volumes of dough. The design allows lots of dough to be worked without as powerful a motor or heavy gearbox as a planetary design. Planetary mixers are more popular for all-purpose use because of their versatilty. There's a lot of information online; bakers and pizza makers ask this question often. If you REALLY need a heavy duty mixer, the best option may be a used 20 quart hobart. They often go for close to the price of the 5qt hobart, because no one wants to crate or ship the things. This of course depends on your being near a city where you can find one. They're not as huge as they sound. They sit on a countertop, and work just like any other 3-speed planetary mixer. A lot of people who run wedding cake businesses out of their homes use these. You can make bread in them all day long.

How did it "die"? Did you open it up to see what broke? All the parts are available online for fairly cheap. The first incarnation of the pro600 had a plastic gearbox cover that could warp when it got hot and lead to gear failure. They then upgraded it to a metal cover, when they were able to find a vendor who could injection mold magnesium into the required shape. The new covers fit onto the old mixers with no modification. There are very few things likely to go wrong with that mixer that would cost more than $50 to fix. If anyone gets a new Pro600, I'd recommend these steps: 1) pop it open and make sure you got the magnesium gear cover. It's highly unlikely that there are old plastic ones on the market, but it's worth being sure, especially if you bought a factory refurb (and I would never buy anything but a factory refurb ... they cost $240, which is about what the thing is worth, and there are no addtional quality control worries). 2) Break in the mixer slowly. Do a lot of easy mixing, like cakes, whipped cream etc., before taking on bread or grinding meat. The grease in the mixers is a vegetable-based lubricant (for food safety reasons) that has some quirks compared with petroleum or synthetic lubes. It is solid when cold, and often settles away from the gears when the mixer is stored or shipped. Running the mixer gently lets the mixer warm up and redistribute the grease under gentle load. 3) After that gentle break in, work it HARD. This is your opportunity to find defects while it's still under warranty. I don't mean abuse it, but use it for the hardest tasks it was designed for. KA has very spotty quality control, as people have discovered. So do Viking, Cuisinart, and Kenwood. In the U.S., KA has better warranty service than the others, so I think they have the strong advantage here. I wouldn't recommend KA in Europe. If you do the above, and confirm that you don't have a lemon, you will have a very good mixer. I use mine hard, and it just hums along, getting only slightly warm under the biggest loads. It is not as mighty nor as well made as a Hobart, but it is as solid as anyone can expect for 1/4 the price.

Is the coating applied directly to the copper? When it loses its powers, I wonder if you could sand it off and just have the pan tinned.

Teflon lined copper is a depressingly cynical invention. A cruel joke on the consumer. Please don't buy it; maybe it will go away. There are ways to make teflon linings last a long time, but no ways to make them retain their non-stick properties for a long time. These pans turn expensive materials that could be used to make heirlooms into disposable (luckily, reclyclable) paperweights. None of this even gets into the unsuitability of nonstick surfaces for most cooking. They're terrifically helpful for eggs. They are useful for delicate fish, but even here, a bare metal surface used with good technique will give better browning, handle higher temperatures, and last essentially forever. On a separate note, I don't find that copper requires any special maintenance. I don't let guests wash my pans, not because they're hard to clean, but because they're expensive, and guests will find ways to destroy just about anything. But I just wash the things with soapy water (sometimes BKF on the inside) and towel dry. They only require special maintenance if you insist on polishing them. I consider this to a problem with the owner, not with the pan. Stop calling it tarnish, start calling it "patina," and go enjoy life.

Yes, that's the one I'm describing. But some people prefer the curved ones because there are no corners where sauce can hide from a whisk. Both kinds are basically the same idea.

No doubt. But unfortunately it's not an option because no one makes it in that thickness (there's some thick tinned copper out there, but it's not suited for the kinds of cooking where you benefit from thermal mass, because tin melts at such low temperatures). Also, there's very little cooking I can think of that requires huge thermal mass AND the responsiveness of copper. I like big mass for searing big chunks of things. A giant cast iron skillet does that just fine. For making hollandaise family sauces or reducing cream or anthing else where evenness and responsiveness are helpful in equal parts, I've never found anything as good as 2.5mm copper. Not to suggest for a minute that it's necessary. It just makes things a little easier, a little more fun.

It's very difficult to know for sure. There are good bamboo boards and bad ones. Probably many more bad than good, but I think your inclination is right to trust Epicurian Edge. They take their products seriously and probably research everything they sell. As far as hardness measurements for wood (someone else's question) the measurements indeed exist. The most common measure is the Janka scale. You can find charts all over the web. It's confusing, because similar woods from different regions measure radically differently. What I've been told is that the ideal hardness range for cutting boards is 1200 to 1600 or so. Lower and they're not durable enough; higher and they're hard on knife edges. With bamboo cutting boards, the issue is more with the copious amounts of glue than with the bamboo itself. Most cheap bamboo boards are essentially bamboo-reinforced glue, so the hardness / abrassiveness of the glue is what's at issue. Ok, sorry for the interruption, gentlemen. Please continue with the microscope slides and rockwell hardnesses of unobtanium.

So my Brick oven finally bit the dust - it no longer maintains its temperature. Suspect it may be something simple like dirty contacts and my SIL will be attempting to repair it. However, living without a small oven is not something I am prepared to do so I pulled the trigger and bought the Breville Smart Oven. .... Once you get over these quirks the oven is a joy to use. It's early yet as I have only had it for a week or two but so far, so good. I'm curious to hear your updates. I have the Cuisinart brick oven and it has NEVER maintained temperature accurately. I sent back my first one because of this and the second one had the same problem, so it's basically only usefull for toast and broiling. It's adequate for these things but in my mind very underpowered. I wonder how quickly the Breville makes toast, and how subjectively powerful the broiler is. If it's as good as all that, I may decide my brick oven is truly a brick.

Cast iron and heavy copper have radically different cooking properties. You would never want an enamelled cast iron sauté pan or saucepan, for instance. The near total lack of responsiveness and poor heat distribution would make them the worst choices possible. 2mm copper works ok for some things. It just won't have the evenness of heat distribution nor the heat retention of 2.5mm copper, and the gains in responsiveness from being thinner will in most cases not offset the disadvantages. Every material has an ideal thickness (in terms of heat distribution) based on a formula that considers density and thermal conductivity. The 2.5mm standard is closer to copper's ideal thickness than the 2.0mm standard.

Just another voice in wilderness ... I no longer buy cookbooks, especially pastry books, that omit weight measurements. Part of the reason is political: these publishers need to stop being jackasses and just get a clue. Part is that I don't want to be bothered with inferior recipes, and with reverse-engineering the weights and tweaking the formulas. There are enough high end professional sources that use weight. I'll use them. To attempt a software-based baking forumula calculator that's based on volume would be a fail before the project even starts. I would simply ignore it. On the other hand, if the software included a feature to translate final results into (approximated) volume measurements, for those who don't have a scale, that would be completely reasonable, and probably necessary if it's to find a popular audience.

I'm pretty sure it's true that Falk makes all the copper / stainless laminate for itself and Mauviel and Bourgeat, so the only differences between those brands is esthetics and price. Also I think bourgeat moulds a little lip on the rim of their saucepans ... a nicety I've never been inclined to pay for. Ask yourself why you want copper. If it's for performance, you'd be well served by just one or two copper pans. The advantages over aluminum laminates, in practice, are minor, and you will only notice them in cooking that requires the highest level of control. I've got a bunch of 2.5mm mauviel pans. I bought them before copper prices went insane, so it wasn't such a big deal. If I had to buy at anything close to today's prices, I'd be VERY happy to just have the 1.5L slope-sided saucepan. That's what I use for most serious sauce work. My 11" sauté pan is also wonderful, but an aluminum disk-bottom pan do the job just as well. My other copper saucepans just don't get used for anything where the temperature control of copper would make any difference. I've had plenty of commercial aluminum saucepans, so I'm pretty confident of this.

Bamboo boards can be nice, but a great many aren't, and it's almost impossible to tell the difference before buying. The trouble is that they're made of very small pieces of bamboo glued together, so the glue itself forms a substantial portion of the cutting surface. Many of the glues that get used are very hard ... much harder than the bamboo itself, and outside the recommended hardness range for cutting boards. They can be unecessarily rough on knife edges. Bamboo itself comes in a range of hardnesses, from softer than what's ideal for cutting boards to harder. I just wouldn't know how to buy one.

I've had one for a few years and couldn't recommend it more highly. Mine is standard, un-fancy maple, but still quite beautiful. The Boardsmith greatly undercharges, considering the competition. I haven't seen boards as well made from similar materials at any price. His boards are much nicer than the Boos boards for quite a bit less money. As is often the case, I can't imagine what Cooks Illustrated could be talking about. A good endgrain board is phenomenally tough. Much moreso than edgegrain or facegrain boards (I've had many in both these constructions, mostly made of maple just like my endgrain board). With endgrain, if you're using sharp knives and decent technique, you never cut the wood fibers. The blade just slips between them. With edge and facegrain, you're always cutting the wood, producing grooves that have to be sanded out. The only visible marks I've put in my endgrain board from my serrated bread knife, which is basically a saw. I figured out the first couple of days of owning the board that I had to be gentle with the bread knife or use it on a cheaper board. Otherwise, the surface stays pristine.

I find dull knives to be much more dangerous. If your knives are very sharp, you will undoubtedly get more dumb little cuts, like from bumping into the edge when the blade is sitting on the cutting board. But dull knives force you to use force, which means the knife can slip and go out of control. Most of the nasty cuts I've seen are from dull blades and bad technique. With a sharp blade and good technique, you will never use much more force than the weight of the knife itself, so deep cuts become very unlikely. The only time I cut myself badly enough to consider stitches, it involved a serrated bread knife, bad lighting, and a lot of alcohol.