paulraphael

Trimoline is different; it's sugar syrup made from sucrose, with a significant amount of the glucose and fructose dissociated from each other. So you have a mix of off glucose and fructose (both monosacharides) rather than sucrose, in which those smaller molecules are bonded to each other into a larger (disacharide) molecule. You'd have something similar if you mixed glucose syrup and fructose syrup. But pure glucose syrup will have different properties. As far as how much glucose there is in glucose syrup, that just has to do with the particular syrup you're using. I don't think there's any standard. Generally the glucose syrups I've seen sold for pastry purposes are more concentrated than corn syrups. There are so many different variables to consider. What invert sugar were you using (was this just concentrated glucose syrup?), and in what proportions? Generally trimoline substitutes for about 10% of the total sugars in an ince cream. And the results are the opposite of what you describe.

Are you sure they're not just talking about fondant sugar? It's like confectioner's sugar but finer. I see it used in a lot of high tech pastry applications.

I've made stiff doughs. Just like with any mixer you have to pay close attention and use your judgment. KA's guidelines are useless; they don't take into account actual dough stiffness. Listen to the machine, feel how how warm it gets, be wary of burning smells. With any dough recipe, start with a smallish batch and work up to bigger ones. You just have to get a feel for what the thing can handle. I find the capacity to be quite a bit higher than KA's recommendations with some doughs. And quite a bit lower with others.

Mine looks like what you see at the chef eddy link ... more clear than white. Not sure why it's different from the commercial product. I suppose there's a chance the commercial product is better. Apparently only a certain portion of the sugar "inverts," and so it's possible that it's harder to invert as much with the home process than with what's done industrially. Just speculating. Homebrew seems to work.

It's a staple way down south, but I don't see it anywhere that I shop. Thoughts?

Right, that's the 11 (i think) tine whisk. You can buy it and it's worth every penny. Not just because it works faster and whips in more air, but because it lets you whip small quantities. You can easily whip a single egg white with it. Forget about trying this with the original whisk ... maybe you could do it but would take half a day.

Aparently there's a little light bulb or LED inside the 610 that accounts for the 15 extra watts. Draw your own conclusions ...

It's sweeter if you you control for the water content. But if you're just comparing trimoline to sucrose, gram to gram, sucrose will be slightly sweeter. Corn syrup or glucose syrup will be much less sweet.

I'd try substituting alternative sugars. Dextrose (glucose powder) can substitute for a portion of the table sugar, as can trimoline (invert syrup). Both will supress the freezing point much more than sucrose (table sugar). Trimoline will also improve shelf life and may actually increase chewiness. You'll probably have to play with proportions and quantities; dextrose is is less sweet than table sugar, and trimoline is slightly less sweet (by weight). I don't think any cookie dough will freeze at 32F. They all get stiff because the butter hardens, and maybe a small percentage of the water freezes. I suspect having a smaller quantity of butter, or substituting liquid oil (especially one high in polyunsaturated fat) for some of it, would help ... but I hate to advise this because the cookies won't taste as good. If this is for an ice cream sandwich, you should aim for good texture around 10 to 15F ... this is the range where properly made ice cream is the best texture for eating.

Sure, it's always been there ... and I think this is one of the reasons people most associated with molecular gastronomy have disowned the term. I have to agree with them. It really doesn't mean anything, if you try to apply it to a style, or even just to techniques. There is no one style (or even ten), and new techniques have been introduced all through culinary history. An immersion circulator is no more hi-tech today than an oven with a thermostat was 70 years ago. Today we have chefs and food technologists who are informed directly by science. This is new ... but the discoveries are applied to old techniques as well as new ones. When Hervé This and his partner first coined the term, they were referring to the research, not to the results. I believe their working definition was "the science of deliciousness." And their first lectures focussed (I believe) on the science of decidedly un-modern cooking techniques. I think it's hard to find any modern techniques that are more dependent on complex scienctific principles than wine, bread, cake ... I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but it seems to me that the most technically complex food, even taking into acount the post-modern pyrotechnics of Adria and Achatz and Dufresne, is ice cream.

I suspect it's the automatic modes. And don't some of those Blendtecs come with a noise reducing enclosure? Overall I'm willing to bet the Vita-prep 3 is the better blender, if you're not looking for automation and other juice bar features. This site suggests so, and they sell all the blenders in question. They are pretty dismissive of the home Vita-mix blenders, which they put in a different category. That company also sells a Chinese made blender called the Omni, which looks promising. Performance close to the Vita-Prep 3 for $250. I can't vouch for it.

That Jupiter grinder looks promising. Another option is to find one of the older aluminum Hobart meat grinders on ebay. They generally cost a little more than the current KA grinders, but are pretty indestructible. I have one and like it. The plastic KA grinders have the advantage of being dishwasher-safe, but I've heard about some of them cracking after a few years of use. As far as "unconventional" uses ... that's tough. There are so many conventional ones. KA wants you to use it for everything. They'd make a tooth-brushing attachment if they thought they could sell it. I read once about a concrete company using a Hobart N50 to mix concrete samples. This would likely be a bad idea with a Kitchen Aid ...

I don't think you have to compensate at all.

salt can actually drop the water temp to -21°C.

I haven't heard anything about the quality and flavor of the GMO salmon, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were issues. Chickens that have been bred (conventionally) to grow big in a short time don't develop any flavor. This explains much of the difference between supermarket chickens (which typically grow to 4lbs in 6 weeks on 8lbs of feed) and longer-maturing breeds that actually taste like chicken. Anyone tasted the new breed or heard anything?

Yes, thank you. This is the sense that I was using. And in this sense, a thin, stamped knife like a forschner (if very sharp) will outperform a big forged Wusthoff when going through a cabbage. The only thing that makes cutting cabbage difficult is that they're big and rigid, so knives tend to wedge. Thin kinves wedge less. My gyuto slips through a cabbage almost without resistance, except for the hardest part down by the stem. The forschner will do worse than the wusthoff at tasks that are more brutish, like cracking lobster shells, cutting off fish and chicken heads, chopping chocolate etc... These are tasks wher weight and thicker profile behind the edge are your friend. I also like a heavier, German-shaped knife for the few tasks that are better served by old fashioned rock-chopping. I love my honkin' 8" chef's knife for this stuff.

The biggest (suspected) issues with GMO salmon are ecological. We already have problems when farmed fish escape from the farms set off invasive species problems. This is likely to be exacerbated by releasing a species with the monsterous growth hormone potential of the GMO salmon. We don't even know what all the ramifications would be. Personally, I prefer not to support such an endeavor. Salmon farming is already done in such a dubious manner that I now consider salmon a seasonal fish and try to stick to the wild ones.

Wild Edibles in NYC has been doing this for years. They don't editorialize on the labels; they use the uninterpreted rating given by the Blue Ocean Institute. I like this approach; it's definitely influenced my buying habits. I think it's disengenuous to put a sticker on something you're selling that says "avoid." If you believe it should be avoided, don't sell it. The Blue Ocean ratings simply indicate the seriousness of sustainability issues with each species. FWIW, 90% of the fish I see at Whole Foods in NYC should be labelled "avoid" purely for freshness reasons. I'm flumoxed by how a store that has such good produce (and reasonably acceptable meat) lets itself get away with such a badly run seafood department. I do shop at WF ... about once a week, and get to check out the fish often.

With a lighter knife, if it's really sharp (able to fall through food with a fraction of the force you're used to), you can adapt your technique in ways that will make you faster, nimbler, and more precise. A heavy knife is great for lopping off the heads of fish and chickens, chopping chocolate, and lending to people. I also like mine for rock-chopping woody herbs like rosemary, or slimy things like sun-dried tomatoes. But for most cutting, a very sharp, light knife with a thin blade will outperform anything else. The caveat is that you have to adapt your techniques to it, because it's more fragile. Forschners represent a pretty good middleground. Same metalurgy as the big Germans, but a thinner, lighter blade. A forschner chef knife will actually outperform a more expensive Wusthoff, but it won't hold its edge any longer.

What style of knife? the lighter, 10" Japanese style knives feel pretty light and nimble ... closer to a typical 8" European style knife. A 10" Euro knife is quite a battleaxe. If you work in a galley kitchen with those 8" deep cutting boards, I can see wanting a shorter knife so you don't go crazy.

I wouldn't worry about the stamped vs. forged distinction; many of the best knives are stamped. Many of the very best are machined, or made by what's called "stock removal." My chef's knife, which is the most expensive thing I've bought for the kitchen, was made this way. The whole trope of the superiority of forging came from the German knife industry, which is heavily invested in drop forging technology. In fact the only fully forged knives, in the pure sense of the word, are handmade by a smith with a hammer (mostly in Japan and in small shops scattered around the world), and these offer distinction mostly as artisan pieces. Needless to say, such art objects are not the most practical choice for culinary school or most commercial kitchens. The Tojiro that victornet linked to is a great knife, although these used to cost barely more than half the current price. Their value led to huge popularity. Now they're at a price point with a lot more competition. The current value leader in Japanese knives (as of the last time I looked) is Togiharu's low end line, available at korin.com. These cost significantly more than the forschners, but less than just about anything else worth considering. Forschner is a great value and has a nice thin blade. The sacrifice is edge holding. You'll have to sharpen more often than with harder knives.

Dunno ... I'd call those guys at gilko. Looks like they have a line for tech questions. You can also join the forum at Alinea (it's called alinea mosaic). The chefs there have all the answers.

What they said. No set. You'll do 90% of your work with your chef's knife, so put most of your money and attention into that. And I wouldn't go crazy. I've heard horror stories from culinary students who had expensive knives. Your knives will be borrowed, sometimes permanently, sometimes just long enough to wreck them. You'll be fine with a $5 forschner paring knife (I know people who cook in high end restaurants who use nothing but) and a cheap bread knife from the restaurant supply store. For a chef's knife, I'd look at one of the more workmanly Japanese knives that you can get for under $100. Probably 270mm. There are a number of brands that will outperform Wustoff at a much lower price. I'd check out the cutlery section at foodieforums.com and the kitchen section at knifeforums.com for expert advice. Read before you post ... a hundred people have probably asked for the same advice. And I'd strongly recommend putting some of your saved money into a couple of waterstones (for starters a combination stone, like a 1K / 6K would be great). If you learn to use this passably, you'll likely be the only person in the whole school with sharp knives. Down the road, when the situation merits, you can treat yourself to something fancier. By then you'll have a better idea of your preferences.

I have no idea if that design will ever make it to market. This was years ago, and the researchers had doubts back then, because the appliance market is so conservative. Their fridge was also horizontal and mounted at eye level, above the counter ... Their stuff worked, though. The institute is in Aspen, and they use all their own technology. They said their winter energy bill went from something like $15 a month to $30 when they got a xerox machine. When I visited, their work in progress was a solar powered hot tub.

This place sells them. They look like an industrial supplier, though, so aside from free samples you might have a hard time buying small quantities. None of my usual potion dealers has them. Possibly because glycerides work in very small quantities and so are hard to use in home or restaurant sized batches ... not sure. Most people I know use some kind of lecithin or gelatin for emulsification.