paulraphael

Loupes can be useful. I don't have a very powerful one ... the 4X Schneider loupe I use for photography actually gives a good look at what's going on. It lets me know how close my sharpening has come to the edge (when thinning) and it shows if there's any residual burr or wire edge (I suppose a higher magnification loupe would be even better for this). You don't need a loupe, but since I'm at best a journeyman knife sharpener, every bit of input helps. Of course, the ideal test is to cut whatever food you're most concerned with cutting well. But this is not practical most of the time when you're sharpening. I find tomatoes to be a pretty poor test. Any halfway sharp knife slips right through a tomato. And a toothy edge (like one sharpened only to 1000 grit or so) can sometimes cut the skin of a ripe tomato more easily than a sharper, more polished edge. I don't know what the best generic test is, but I've had pretty good luck using firm apples (like Granny smiths ... can you easily make slices that you can read the phone book through?) and the phone book pages themselves. A sharp knife will push-cut phone book paper with virtually no pressure and make virtually no noise while doing so.

1. I make no claims to being the Emperor of Ice Cream! 2. My latest, post-colonial recipe is here: www.under-belly.org/recipes/vanilla_ice_cream.pdf (sorry for not using the link function ... for some reason HTML is not working)

Books are tough; I don't have any that are particularly educational. David Lebowitz's is great for flavor ideas, but the techniques and base recipes are very simple homestyle ones, and there's no technical information on how to manipulate textures and adjust formulas. There's a professional book that came out a few years back that got glowing reviews, but last i checked it was very expensive and only in Italian. I'd be curious to hear other people's recommendations. I haven't had a chance to check out the CIA frozen desserts text. I've gotten my best information from online sources, including chef blogs, and by bugging pastry chefs. And of course, from finding excuses to experiment and then eat the data. I am beyond flattered to be anyone's ice cream hero. But my hero is Wallace Stevens: The Emperor of Ice-Cream Call the roller of big cigars,
 The muscular one, and bid him whip 
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds. 
 Let the wenches dawdle in such dress 
 As they are used to wear, and let the boys 
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers. 
Let be be finale of seem. 
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. Take from the dresser of deal, 
 Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet 
 On which she embroidered fantails once 
 And spread it so as to cover her face. 
If her horny feet protrude, they come 
 To show how cold she is, and dumb. 
Let the lamp affix its beam. 
 The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Hi Mostlylana. yes, I've changed the recipe a few times since then. I'm always learning new tricks (I'm on version 16 right now ...). Where did you find that one? I don't even remember making it quite like that. I'm still using dry milk powder (it's a revelation) and 2 yolks per quart. No more corn starch (using gelatin and xanthan, as described earlier) and no alcohol (controlling hardness through the sugars ... now use a mix of granulated sugar, dextrose and trimoline). I'm away from home right now; I'll try to check soon and see if my latest version is online somewhere.

Ok, so it's a smidgen of rumor, not a smidgen of evidence. But it probably deserves the same conclusion as much of the published research: "further research seems warranted." Luckily, quite a few volunteers have emerged through this thread, proposing methods as widely varied as rolling pins and croquet mallets.

Here's a post I wrote last fall. Sous vide let me serve perfectly done meat to a whole room full of people, with no real effort. These were from 8-week dry aged, very prime loin and rib sections. Definitely worth it.

Sous vide gives enormous control. You can get a huge range of effects. You can even get a gradient from well done to rare if you want to (there's no law saying sous vide needs to be a low temperature technique). I personally never want this ... I like a crisp crust and then the remainder to be a perfect pink, but you can get whatever result you want. The "airplane food comment" is probably base on tender cuts that are over-tenderized by excessive cooking times at low temperature. This is a variable that can be controlled like all the others. The only thing I haven't figured out how to create is a VERY thick, crisp crust when browning sous vided meat. This doesn't mean it can't be done; I just haven't figured it out the couple of times I've borrowed a circulator.

Whoever said "bad food" nailed it. I have a lot of personal markers for someone who I wouldn't want to collaborate with in the kitchen ... they mostly have to do with organization and OCD cleaning habits. These are typical markers that make or break a pro kitchen, and they make a huge difference at home, too. But I've had wonderful meals prepared by people who are disasters in all these regards (Mom, are you reading?)—a kitchen that looks like a war zone minutes into prep, dull knives, horrible pans, clutter, drawers clogged with gadgets... My solution is to let them do their thing while I mute any lingering sense of horror with alcohol. Then enjoy the delicious meal that emerges like Phoenix from the ashes.

The primary purpose of the oil in the pan is browning the fish properly. Food has an irregular surface that doesn't fully contact the pan. Oil provides even conduction to every indentation and allows the fish to brown more quickly and evenly. In order to get these benefits, you need much more oil than is required to prevent sticking. Keeping fish from sticking is 100% about technique. You can cook a fillet with the skin on it in a stainless steel pan if you do it properly. The secret is that the proteins will stick while they're cooking, but will release on their own after the maillard reactions are complete. You have to place or slide the fish onto the hot pan quickly and accurately, because it will adhere in just a couple of seconds. Then you LEAVE IT! That's the hard part to get used to—doing nothing. The fish spat isn't used as a scraper to tear the fish off the bottom of the pan. If it doesn't slip under the fish, you just have to wait a bit longer. This does require accurate modulation of the pan's temperature. If the pan isn't hot enough, you'll risk overcooking the fish before it's ready to release.

Everything I've looked into (which certainly isn't everything ... I haven't found anything at all about Thermalon, for instance) has turned out to be some kind of PTFE (generic for Teflon) with either better bonding technology or particles of something hard, like ceramics, embedded to make it more abrasion resistant. These pans generally stay stick-free longer than plain teflon pans, but not nearly in proportion to their added cost. They can't take higher heat than any other teflon pan. If Vollrath has something that actually does, I'd be curious about it.

There's at least a smidgen of evidence that obsession with food and fine dining can be caused by brain trauma. I suppose I've been knocked out a couple of times. Years ago. This might become a good excuse for lots of things.

I would check with people on some of the more knife-specific forums. There's a lot of discussion about sharpening Globals. They're made out of a very strange steel that is difficult to deburr properly. As a result, it's rare to find a global knife that's actually sharp. Dave Martel at Japanese Knife Sharpening no longer sharpens globals on waterstones; he uses a belt sander as he does on most Western knives. He finds hand sharpening the global steel to be too much of a nuissance. He's generous with information ... I'm sure he'd tell you what he's learned about deburring / removing the wire edge, etc.. At any rate, you'll never get them sharper than serviceable with any kind of ceramic system or traditional steel. You'll need some kind of stone or abrassive system that lets you get the angle right and that you can take up to at least a medium-fine grit. And you'll need something really aggressive for deburring, and probably some practice with it.

Yeah, I remember H&H having the same policy. Their bagels tasted good untoasted, at least back when they made good bagels. But I think every bagel is improved by toasting. Whenever I take good bagels home I toast them. "Traditional," even in the rare cases when you can demonstrate that it means something, does not always mean better.

I've got no opinion on the actual machines they reviewed ... just suggesting that the review itself is highly dubious, and so I'd be wary of basing a purchase solely on its recommendations.

Just saw this Cooks Illustrated article linked above. I have no idea what they smoke over at that magazine. The findings are bizarre. The online version of the article, at least, makes no mention of their methodology but the results suggest that they don't know much about making ice cream. They are recommending machines that take 60 minutes to spin a batch. I've never sampled ice cream that wasn't heavily stabilized that could stand up to such a slow freeze. It's physics-defying, not to mention inconvenient. They report that the Kitchenaid attachment produces huge amounts of overrun. In my experience, one of the nicest features of this product is that the speed is variable. Between speed and recipe adjustments, I've been able to vary the overrun from zero to about 20%. Getting more should be possible, but their claim of 80% suggests something truly odd with their recipe. I don't even know how I'd do that deliberately. At any rate, I would recommond against putting much stock in any findings from this article. At the very least, get a second or third opinion. And try to get a machine that will freeze a batch in 20 minutes or less. My last batch with the KA attachment took 6 minutes (1 quart, drawing temperature -5°C).

I like this book a lot for history, technique, general information, structure, etc... But beware of the details of some recipes. Pay special attention to things like cooking times and temperatures. Some are just way off (I suspect editing issues). The book offers a curious opportunity to become an expert on certain French dishes and then incinerate them.

I'm going to steal these ideas.

Has anyone run one of these through the self-clean cycle of the oven? It should work ... I'm assuming the enamel gets applied at a higher temp than this. I won't go as far as suggesting this without better information. (to state the obvious ... take the knob off the crueset first ...)

That's a good point. I infuse basil into creme anglaise which has many more eggs than any ice cream I make. The flavor comes through nicely. Usually for herb flavors I find that 7 or 8g per kg of ice cream base gives good flavor. I include stems (they add to the flavor), heat the milk to 180°F, and infuse the herbs for 30 minutes, covered. I then take them out and set aside. After the base is fully prepared, I put the herbs back in and let them sit in there overnight as the mix ages.

Right now, for a recipe that 1-1/2 cups whole milk and 1-1/2 cups cream (370g each) I'm using 2 egg yolks, 1g gelatin, and 0.3g xanthan. If you experiment with ratios, something to keep in mind is that gelatin melts at body temperature and gets harder as it get colder, while xanthan has very consistent thickening properties over a wide temperature range. This means that gelatin has a greater proportional effect on the frozen texture, and xanthan has a greater effect on the melted texture. So together they give you a lot of control. Overdoing the xanthan will give you unusual textures (chewiness, gooeyness).

I'd do the cornstarch first, since it will be easier to disolve into thin milk than into custard. It will make it harder to tell when your custard thickens, because much of the thickening will already be done. But you won't have to worry about curdling the custard; the starch will make it very hard to do that. But I'd rather ditch the starch entirely and use thickeners that work in smaller quantities and that mask flavors less. In general, I find that I can't taste the eggs when there are only two eggs per quart (roughly 1000g of base). I don't like to taste eggs in ice cream so this is what I do. The rest of the mouth feel and melt can be controlled with a commercial ice cream stabilizer, or your own mix. I use gelatin and xanthan gum together. I much prefer the results to what you can get with any starch.

I get addicted to variations on the croque monsieur. Usually open-faced, toasted sourdough, melted cheese (goat or gruyere if I have any), mustard, thinly sliced shallots, sometimes tomato, ham (I love the Neiman Ranch jambon royalle) and thinly sliced apples or pears. It's fun cutting stuff while I wait for my stupid-slow toaster oven.

The Laiskonis recipe is simple and pretty foolproof. It works well in foam coffee cups. The resulting cake is pretty chaotic looking; Laiskonis uses this in counterpoint to geometric elements on the plate.

Those look interesting. I'm curious about tool steel knives but haven't ever had one. FWIW, there are many, many great Japanese knives available right now. Several are contenders for the title of Camry or Accord. Typically, last year's contender will have gotten popular and then expensive, and so a new unknown will appear, seemingly out of nowhere, as the next great bargain.

The server is more than a link between the diner and the kitchen. A good server actively advocates on behalf of the diner. You can tell when a server gets it by their genuine interest in the diners' comments, and their immediate taking responsibility for setting things right. Very few servers below the high end understand this. The ones that get it put the diners at ease, and win their confidence and best tips, even if there was a problem with the meal. Complaining directly to the chef is pure boorishness. No one in the kitchen even has time to look at you.