paulraphael

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.

Most of us have hardware store torches. Microplanes were originally made for woodworking. At first the inventor seemed incredulous that they were being used in kitches. He seemed to think cooking was sissy stuff. Then he cashed in.

Years ago I occasionally smelled a fishy smell when the oil got very hot. I haven't smelled that in a long time. I also saw nothing but canola oil being used at the sauté station in a Michelin 3 star seafood restaurant, populated by noses more sensitive than my own. So I'm imagining it's a non issue unless you get a defective or very low quality sample. Whether or not the oil has much intrinsic flavor depends on how heavily refined it is. As with all oils, the more refined, the more neutral the flavor and the higher the smoke point. Talk about the evils of "industrially produced" oils, and the intrinsic rancidity of canola are urban legends. Production of canola oil is the same as with any seed oil. The thick residue left behind is the same as with any oil high in unsaturated or polyunsaturated fats. That's polymerized oil; the same plasticky stuff that eventually builds up as seasoning on cast iron cookware. It can be tough to get off if you let too much accumulate. You'll never get it off of a nonstick pan without ruining the thing ... so for these pans a more saturated fat or more moderate heat are a good idea. FWIW, i've become a fan of saflower oil. The highly refined versions are practically tasteless and have a high smoke point and are cheap. I like canola in a pinch too.

In brownies as in everything else, there's the right way, the wrong way, and the army way.

I always assumed the tip was the hottest part too ... but the more important issue is avoiding the flavor or gas or soot. NathanM speaks to this on the Modernist Cuisine blog: "The type of gas that you choose isn’t as impor tant as the com plete ness of its com bus tion. Propane, butane, MAPP, and acety lene are all great so long as you adjust the flame of the torch so that it is a fully oxi diz ing flame. This is a flame that is pro duced with an excess of oxygen—either from the sur round ing air or sup ple mented with com pressed oxy gen. You can tell that you have an oxi diz ing flame when the torch is burn ing dark blue, is rel a tively short in length, and hisses and roars. Frequently, peo ple have too large of a flame that is burn ing yel low at the tip. This is a reduc ing flame, also referred to as a car bur iz ing flame because there are uncom busted hydro car bons from the fuel in the flame that will end up in the food, impart ing an unpleas ant taste. In my expe ri ence, butane torches are espe cially prone to this, but it can hap pen with any torch that hasn’t been prop­erly adjusted before aim ing it at the food. Too often, peo ple aim the blow torch at the food before they have it appro pri ately adjusted. Not only do they often end up torch ing the food with a dirty flame, but there is also some raw fuel being blown onto the food before it ignites. Like an old, car bu reted car (and for the same rea son), it is best to light the torch and adjust the fuel-to-oxidizer ratio before get ting underway. Long story short, always light your torch fac ing away from the food. Then adjust the torch to pro duce a short, hiss ing dark blue flame and you won’t have a problem." The picture on that page shows the meat engulfed in flame ... I was always taught not to do this, but perhaps if the flame is adjusted correctly it doesn't matter.

Several years ago in NYC the farmers markets were a great bargain. The last few years they've been definitively more expensive than the grocery stores, except maybe the most boutiqu-y specialty shops. Not exactly when that change happened or how long the transition took. I now go to the farmers for quality and interesting selections, and only when I can afford to.

With propane torches, it's worth it to get one that has a pressure regulator. Without it, when you've used about half the gas in the cylinder, the flame will sputter out every time you tilt the torch far enough to do most kitchen jobs. And you'll end up with a collection of half-empty cylinders. Not sure if the same applies to butane torches ... worth asking. Dougal is right about how to avoid gas and soot flavors. Small, dark blue cone, no sputtering or roaring, and use the flame at or beyond the tip. This is the same for both propane and butane.

I used to love breyers ... thought it was a great, lighter alternative to B&J's, etc.. Then when I had it again several years ago I thought it was crap. I assumed this was because of the acquisition and I never bought it again. Maybe it's better again now? Overrun can be hard to increase in homemade ice cream. A multispeed machine like the KA helps. In addition, it's useful to think of ice cream in terms of whipped cream. The process of whipping air into ice cream is identical to the process of whipping cream, and the same factors are in play. The biggest diference is you also have the structure of the sol (mix of frozen and unfrozen water), so you don't need as high a concentration of milk fat. Chilling the base for 8 hours or more helps crystalize the fat globules and make them whippable. It also ensures they'll be cold enough. Many of the ingredients that pastry chefs use to stabilize ice cream (gums and other colloids) also improve whipability. Adequate nonfat solids, like from added dry milk powder, may also help.

If i'm just making some snack-sized thing, then I'll be amateurish and take it to the stove on a bench scraper. Anything bigger, then prep bowls. I use takeout containers or 1 and 2 quart square sided containers. I can wash them in seconds so who cares. If you have good board management habits, it's faster to prep on a big board than on a small portable one, even even if you take into account the time it takes to wash a prep container. A lot faster.

Just don't do this with an endgrain wood board. Total carnage ensues. Sanders work fine, though.