paulraphael

Ha ... I just happen to know some of the real ice cream and knife experts, and I bug them a lot. My hunch is that the frozen canister machines can outperformm the less expensive compressor machines, as long as you get your freezer cold enough. But I don't have first hand experience with compressor machines, and assume there's a huge range in performance. I recently visited a pastry kitchen that has a $15,000 Carpigiani machine that will freeze a batch in 4 minutes ... so it's probably safe to say that compressor models range from among the worst to the best of the best. I don't think there's a type of ice cream that will favor one kind of machine over another. The most important factor is the time it takes to freeze the ice cream. Faster is better; if you can't freeze it fast, then you'll have to put more attention into stabilizing your mix in order to get smooth results. There are a couple of other factors i haven't mentioned, like dasher speed, and other design elements that will make one machine tend to pump more air into the ice cream than another. One thing nice about the stand mixer attachment is that you can control the speed. With machines that don't offer controls, you can tweak your formulas to encourage more or less whipping.

Darrienne, many thanks for the vote of confidence, but remember that I'm just a guy who not long ago was asking the same questions you're asking now. I have my own guru, and he has his! Back to the question ... if ice cream is icy, there are a handful of likely factors. Two have nothing to do with the machine: the formula you're using, and how quickly you harden the ice cream after spinning it (which is a factor of freezer temperature and the size of the container you've put the ice cream in). The two most likely factors contributed by the machine are the speed of freezing, and the drawing temperature, which just means the temperature of the ice cream when you've finished spinning it. The speed of freezing is mostly influenced by the power of the machine's compressor (or the temp of the freezer used to chill the canister). The drawing temperature is either determined by an automatic program, or by you. Aaccording to my guru's guru—an ice cream scientist name Cesar Vega whose lecture I recently attended—the ideal drawing temperature is -5°C / 23°F. He says he's flabbergasted when he asks pastry chefs their drawing temperature and they have no idea. At the very least, picking a drawing temperature is a way you can standardize your formulas ... if they all whip up to the right hardness at the same drawing temperature, you know you're not compensating for formula differences by freezing the mix more or less. If you get your drawing temperature in the right ballpark, and can get it there fairly quickly, and have no serious issues with your formula, you should be able to make smooth ice cream. I'm curious to know how long some of the machines (especially the ones with compressors) take to freeze the ice cream. If your machine takes longer than 20 minutes, then I suspect you're going to have some crunchy ice crystals unless your formula includes some good stabilizing ingredients.

I've gotten excellent results with the kitchenaid attachment for the mixer. It's pretty big, so you need to be willing to sacrifice some freezer space. The upside is that the capacity is high. I think it could probably handle 1-1/2 quarts, but I generally make 1 qt at a time. The temp of your freezer makes a big difference. I keep mine at minus 5°F or colder, which allows ice cream to spin quickly and then harden quickly. Between this and a good formula, I get results that aren't icy at all. Typical time to spin a quart of ice cream when the freezer is this cold is 7 to 10 minutes. This method would not be good if you need to make more than one batch of ice cream a day. For that you need a machine with a compressor, and I'm guessing you'd need a very expensive one to better the results of the KA matched with a cold freezer.

I'm not actually looking for "natural" ... assuming this means fat-based soap rather than detergent. I think detergents just work better, and there's no downside to them that I can see. I just find that the perfumes used are too tennacious. Coffee should not taste like synthetic grapefruit.

I like reading the insane copy in the fine print on the Dr. Bronner's bottles, but I'm not a fan of the soap.

I'm reviving this ancient thread. The dish soaps I buy at the the supermarket are annoying, especially because their fruity scents linger in things like my coffee press and thermos. Liqu-nox looks interesting but costs a lot and I don't know wher to buy locally. What about commercial products from restaurant supply stores? Are there any unscented, no b.s. soaps that work well?

I'm just looking quickly at my notes ... Gelatin, I believe, is subject to synerisis, so it may not be the ideal stabilizer. Here's a list of some colloids that prevent synerisis and their typical concentrations: -iota carageenan (0.2 to 1.5%) -high acyl gellan (0.03 to 2.6%) -combination of agar and locust bean gum (0.1 to 0.2% lcb / 0.1 - 3% agar)

That sounds like a crazy amount of stabilizer ... most stabilizers are used at well under 1% by weight. I assume it's just some blend of hydrocolloids that prevent weeping (aka synerisis, if you want to get poetic).

I came up with a flavor this winter that was about coaxing as many flavors as I could out of sugar. Emphasis was dark sugars, so the flavor ingredients were dark muscovado sugar, dark caramel, and chestnut honey. I really liked it. Part of the intrigue is that the blended flavors are both strange and familiar. I'd be surprised if anyone who tasted it blind would identify them.

Jeffrey's on Essex. He can buy from the same wholesalers that those other guys use, or he can get from any of a number of small farms. His basic hanger is going to be comparable to what you get from ottomanelli's, but for under $10 / lb. I assume you're ok with marinating it yourself, or not marinating at all.

The idea is that it will cook better if it's closer to room temperature than to refrigerator temperature. Especially if you're doing high heat cooking like sauté. For something like a fish of a few pounds, it should take well under an hour. This time can be also be used to dry it, season it, etc.. I certainly can't speak for Keller, but I think that when most people talk about bringing meat up to room temp, they're really just bringing it closer ... like within 10 or 15 degrees or so. If you can get that fish up into the 60s, it will sauté beautifully. The last 10 or 20 degrees, up to your actual kitchen temperature, will take much longer and won't offer much benefit. You only have to worry about safety if it's such a large piece of meat that it will take hours to come up to temperature. I've rested big roasts for several hours, knowing I was going to brown the outside in a pan and kill anything that starts growing there. Very big fish pose a tougher challenge, especially if they're cold water species that spoil quickly at any temperature above freezing. I'd be curious to hear how people deal with these.

There's actually a middle path ... chickens that are raised humanely but not on open pasture or in boutique settings. I buy bobo chickens in NYC. Bobo's operation would probably count as factory farming, but their factories are small, and run with quality and humane treatment as priorities. I pay aout $3/lb for chicken from them. I don't think this is obscene; in fact it's about as little as I can imagine you could sell a well-raised living creature for. Even if it's close to twice the price of the cheapest birds at the supermarket. I believe there are similar operations serving other big cities. Chinatown markets are a good place to start looking.

With naturally fermented doughs, the acids produced by the bacteria add a lot of flavor. With any dough that gets a long fermentation (a whole day or more) enzyme activity in the flour develops flavors. It's the same principles as with artisinal bread ... coaxing as much flavor out of the wheat as possible.

A friend of mine, grappling with the usual omnivore's dilemmas, has gotten stuck on the central one: death. If we are only willing to kill by proxy, then it seems our ethics stand on nothing more solid than denial. Her solution: see if she is able to overcome basic squeamishness and kill her own bird. If so, she will continue to eat them. If not, she will be a vegetarian forever after. Makes sense to me ... I may have to go cleanse my conscience (and bloody my hands) as well. The rub: where do you go to kill a chicken? The bird should be well raised; there little point in engaging an ethical exercise with a tortured animal. This pretty much excludes the pollo vivero shacks scattered around NYC's outer boroughs. There also needs to be instruction; there's likewise little point to this if there a chance of incompetence turning the slaughter into a bloody, drawn-out ordeal. Surely there must be a farm somewhere near New York that caters to the foodies, the eco supper clubs, the bleeding hearts. Or a like-minded, humane pollo vivero butcher, or something?

If you can't get a direct wholesale hookup, talk to Jeffrey Ruhalter at the Essex St. Market ... 212-475-6521. He might be willing to work out a deal that's pretty close to wholesale. He's even been known to sponsor events like bbqs. As far as quality, he can get anything from the same stuff everyone else has to special order heritage breed from small farms.

And you might not like the same oil in every salad dressing. Sometimes you want flavor from the oil, sometimes not. Flavorful oils tend to have a lot in them that burns. If you're looking for neutral oils in your dressing, then you can probably find a one oil solution.

Darienne's right, those health issues with Canola oil are all made up. I've gotten the fishy smell before, but it seems like it was along time ago. FG is probably right that it's a property that can be engineered out. For light, high heat oils, I've taken to buying whatever has an attractive combination of price and smokepoint (kudos to the makers who put the smoke point on the label). Lately where I shop it's been safflour oil. Works great, virtually tasteless, takes the heat, cheap. Some other oil including canola could knock it off its perch, depending on the brand that's available. Each brand will have different properties, depending on how highly refined it is, etc.

If you've got a high btu range top, crank the fire, and walk away for several minutes, you can incinerate the seasoning. That's probably the only way it will happen because you'll see and smell a ton of acrid smoke as the coating starts breaking down. Think burning plastic. Seems like it happens somewhere above 500°F. In normal use it's just not an issue. You can and should preheat the pan for a long time on high heat. Then add the oil and then the food. It's the only way to brown things properly on any pan, especially one with the high thermal mass and low conductivity of a heavy skillet. You'll know you're overdoing if you start coughing.

I can't vouch for any of this, but here's a review site. They seem to like the vita prep 3 ... http://www.3blenders.com/Choose.html By the way, I wish someone would call out these manufacturers on their looney-tunes power ratings. 3 horsepower? No way. A motor that's 100% efficient (which doesn't exist) would consume over 2200 watts. The maximum consumption of the 3hp Vita Prep is barely over half this. Such marketing doesn't inspire my confidence, but the makers are all guilty ...

The 1" versions might be more warp resistant. But also more expensive (those are the ones that rival the wooden boards in price). And they get heavy.

I've thought about getting a sani tuff for raw protein. They really are good. I didn't know about the warping issue (except when put in a hot dishwasher). My biggest misgiving is price. They're only a bit cheaper than some pretty nice wood boards. In a home kitchen, cleaning and sanitzing a wood board is so easy that I prefer it to the alternatives. Since heat softens the rubber, maybe you can unwarp the sani tuff by immersing in hot water for a while and then lying flat. I bet they'll sell ten times as many boards if they can figure out how to make them in some color besides puke.

Well, induction is very likely the future. It's tremendously more efficient than anything else. Prices will come down. And abundant, cheap fossil fuels won't be around forever. I suspect over the next couple of decades induction will go from novelty to mainstream ... and if that's the case, guys like me who have mostly copper and aluminum pans are going to have to decide if our allegiance is to the past or the future. It would be great to not have to think about it.

you probably just didn't have enough water in the mix. The quantity of lemon you added didn't provide enough. You had a bunch of oil, and a thousand times the emulsifying power you needed. Just not enough water. That oil needs to be emulsified into something. A couple of tablespoons of water based liquid, including the lemon juice, would likely be enough.

A frying pan has curved sides and a sauté pan has higher, straight ones. I generally prefer the curved sided pans for sautéing, while others don't. I like straight sided saute pans for braises and fricasees and other dishes where you'll be dealing with a high volume of sauce. I assume you're looking at 11 or 12 inch pans. With smaller sizes the advantage of heavy copper over a lighter aluminum or clad pan are minor. If you've never used a straight sided saute pan, you might want to try one out before investing in an expensive copper one. And you might find that an aluminum disk bottom or clad pan performs more than well enough for this task.

Sure, that's the question. I don't know how thick a disk has to be in order to work well on convection. Would be cool if you could get away with a real thin one.