paulraphael

Nah, I rest a chicken for 10 minutes or a bit longer. By large I meant something like a turkey or a prime rib. Often I rest for however long it takes me to make a pan sauce, not according to any theories of what's ideal. Haven't done any formal testing.

I've seen various rules of thumb based on cooking time, but I'm suspicious; they fundamentally don't make sense. A 1" steak can cook in just a few minutes under a salamander, 20 minutes in a medium skillet, or several hours by low temperature sous vide. In these cases, the ideal resting time is in fact inversely related to the cooking time; the low temp steak won't require any rest; the very high temp steak will require the longest. I don't know any good formula, but in general the higher the cooking temperature and the thicker the meat, the longer the ideal rest time. I've gotten good results with 7 to 10 minutes for steaks, and up to 30 minutes for large roasts.

Both sides of this arguement are frought with logical faceplants and sweeping assumptions. I think we need to take a step back from all the loaded language. There are really two issues here: cruelty, and freedom of choice. "Factory farming" is not the issue. It can't be. The world needs factory farming to feed even half the current population, so zealots need to drop the pastorial utopian fantasies of going back to traditional farming as soon as possible, lest they pollute this argument into an even darker pool of nonsense. We are stuck with industrial agriculture, period--so the question is, how can we do it better? How can we be efficient without torturing animals and polluting the environment? This is the only line of questioning that's going to get us anywhere. As far as foie goes, we should first consider that in a world full of major farming issues, this is a minute one. A tempest in a teapot. That said, there are live geese in that teapot, and paying consumers, so we might as well address it. A question that needs to be answered without bias is if foie production is inherently cruel. I personally doubt it, but don't claim any authority. A separate question is if it is often or sometimes cruel in practice. This seems likely. If we are cruel to chickens and steers, we are probably also cruel to geese. I would like to see this cruelty abolished, and I'm willing to see higher prices as a result. But this in no way constitutes a logical argument against rasing these creatures for food, or even against doing it with industrial efficiency. It's simply a call for standards of animal husbandry. Feedom of choice? We have gobs of it when it comes to food, but we don't have any guarantees of it, or reasons to expect it to be limitless. We are not allowed to eat endangered animals. We are not allowed to eat the neighbor's children. And so on. I'm a lot more comfortable in a world where standards besides our senses of entitlement exert force on the market.

I don't think that is a fair criticism. PETA does go after factory farming operations. In a big way, too. Not in a parallel way. They are hoping ban production of foie, yes? I don't believe they're trying to ban the production of chicken (even though it's likely their wish).

My general sense is that the "ridiculous luxury goods" sentiment is exactly what peta's tapping into. As with most farming operations, there are probably good, humane foie farms and piss poor / cruel ones. But such distinctions are uninteresting to a group that's interested in raising outrage to strengthen its support. If it weren't for the unsympathetic luxury goods factor, peta would be going after run of the mill chicken operations. Purdue tortures more birds every five minutes than all the foie farmers in the country lay their hands on in a year. But it it would be harder to get the the populace in an uproar over their own eating habits instead of the habits of the "overprivileged.'

A while ago in a thread about cast iron cookware, someone asked about seasoning bare aluminum pans, and posted a picture of one that was already well spotted with polymerized fat. Consensus was that this was just a dirty pan, and that she should wash it properly and drop the subject. I started wondering why, and when recently confronted with an aluminum griddle that was turning brown and black, decided to experiment. I scrubbed it, covered it with a thin film of safflower oil (high in polyunsaturated fat, smoke point listed as 440F) and cooked in a 500F oven. Every ten minutes or so I pulled it out and wiped on another thin layer of oil with a paper towel. After about five coats, and close to an hour's buildup of smoke in the kitchen, the griddle had a deep, glossy, brown-black coat. A perfect seasoning. It's practically bulletproof; it won't scrape or scrub off, is reasonably stick resistant, and water beads up on it as if it's greased. Sticking is rarely a problem on griddles, but I'm finding it much easier to clean than when the metal was bare. I can report back when I've put a few more miles on it. At any rate, I don't see any downside to this treatment. Makes me want an aluminum skillet that's 1/4" or more thick ... it could replace cast iron for many things.

I'd look for one for $10 or so. The WS price is unsurprisingly ridiculous. I once dated a dane who had an inherited aebelskiver pan hanging on the wall. Raised a lot of eyebrows. I remember the things being tasty, too, but that was ages ago. We probably made them once a year.

For bigger ones the Kunz spoons work well.

[quote name='GNV//PDX' date='14 April 2010 - 05:03 PM' timestamp='1271278985' post='1739119'If I was to try and stabilize it, when yould I add the stabilizer?

I've played with this a bit ... it's a cool concept, but by itself I haven't been thrilled with the texture or stability. The versions I've been making have some cream added for ... creaminess. I've also been stabilizing it with gelatin and xanthan.

The waiter is responsible for a portion of the dining experience, and generally only gets a portion of the tip. It's commonplace for tips to be pooled and shared according to some scheme by the whole front of house staff.

Interesting article on Salon about Western chefs taking Japanese knife skills class.

This common at hotel restaurants. They have to deal with people from other countries who don't / won't comprehend our tipping custom. A friend who has waited tables at a hotel restaurant assures me that you're not obligated to leave that amount. It's there so you don't forget. The only unscrupulous behavior is when people miss that line on the check, tip double, and when the server doesn't alert them to the mistake. It's best if the server mentions up front that service is included, to avoid confusion and build goodwill.

I'd think with a powerful range hood you could get away with just about anything (though you'll be cleaning out the filters ofen if you make a habit of bbq ... ). Having no hood, I've never experimented with this. I get smoked flavors by using other smoked ingredients in sauces (bacon, smoked salt, lapsang souchong tea). It's not bbq, but it's nice. At Alinea, they make authentic smoked water and use it as an ingredient. Evidently it's better than bong water.

Sure ... without care and maintenance, a $100 knife becomes a sub-$5 knife in short order. Unfortunately, decent sharpening stones cost more than $3. I'll usually coax people into budgeting a chunk of change for a decent combination stone, at least to get started. There's indeed a good $5 knife available: the forschner plastic handled pairing knife costs just that, and works great. I've talked to sonemone who's had to tourne potatoes by the crate, who thinks this is the best knife for the job. The same guy has spent over $300 a pop on his gyuto and yanagi, so this isn't just the opinion of a cheapskate.

If you're goig for a step up from the Forschner chef's knife (which isn't as great a bargain as their smaller knives), I'd recommend the least expensive Togiharu gyuto from Korin. It's $80 for the 240mm size, has good steel and great geometry. It won't compete with some pricier knives in edge retention, but is easy to sharpen, and will cut better than anything by shun or global or the big German companies. A gyuto is a much more versatile style than a nakiri or santoku ... it will do everything that those shapes do. The reverse isn't true. A few years ago Tojiro was the obvious choice in a budget J-knife, but their prices have gone up quite a bit.

I'll throw in a vote for the wood-handled forschners. Same blade. Slightly higher maintenance, but I prefer the way they look and feel.

The 'independent sales represntative' was probably their teenage son, or the next door neighbor. Besides supporing your local hapless kid, there's no justification for these knives.

Important blender question: is it pronounced BAY-mix or BAH-mix?

No idea about THC dacarboxylation, but I'd estimate the cooked temp of a brownie is in the 200°F range.

Ahh .. my only practical piece of knowledge on the subject. All salt is kosher. What gets sold as "kosher salt" is salt like what's used for koshering meat and poultry; it's coarser than standard salt for this purpose.

The thought of doing anything because Leviticus says so rubs me the wrong way ... BUT! At least we only preserved his dictums about what end of a cow to eat, and not the ones about our moral obligations to stone people to death for working on the sabbath or for blasphemy, or the ones about it being ok to sell our daughters into slavery.

I think the percentage of weed to butter is all that really matters. Maybe do a google search and see what different people recommend ... it's just a question of how concentrated you want it to be. It's possible for it to be REALLY concentrated ... someone I met says he makes brownies that are so strong he only eats half a brownie or less. It might take some trial and error to figure out your preference.

You are in for a treat. The secret, mined from the deep lore and wisdom of the Lebowski generation, is called cannabutter. A google search will no doubt produce other descriptions and instructions. In short, you want to boil water and butter together with the weed. The idea is that the THC and other significant compounds are fat-soluble; all the nasty tasting stuff is water-soluble (think bong water). The presence of water also keeps the temperature in the pan well below THC's boiling point of 390F. Simmer for 20 or 30 minutes, then strain out the plant material. Let the butter/water mixture cool in the fridge; the fat will rise to the top and solidify. That is your magic butter. Discard the water. This butter can be used in any recipe. Be warned that a little goes a long way, and that it's imperative to have non-magic treats around, so you'll avoid the tempting downward spiral of curing your munchies by eating more of what gave them to you.

This is true if you have a really hot flame at your disposal; like double or more the BTUs that a typical home rangetop delivers. If you have more modest fire, then the problem is that the stove just can't deliver heat at a rate that can properly brown a medium or large quantity of meat. If the pan doesn't have a high heat capacity, you can preheat it almost to the melting point, but the the meat will suck the heat right out of it, dropping the surface of the pan temperature before much browning can happen. From that point on, the stove will have a hard time delivering heat at a rate that can get the temp where it needs to be for effective browning. So a lot of stewing / steaming goes on. A big, heavy iron or copper pan will take a long time to heat, but then it has stored enough energy to do the bulk of the browning. The ideal material for this is heavy copper; if it's heavy enough it rivals the heat capacity of iron, but is much more conductive ... so it delivers the heat quickly for a great sear. My iron pans are heavier and have more heat capacity that my copper ones; I find they do a slightly better job on big pieces of meat, while the heavy copper does a better job on smaller pieces. Some people tested different kinds of cookware during one of the braising labs in the egullet institute. They found the Creuset pots, which were the heaviest tested, to give the best results, possibly because high heat capacity allowed them to buffer the temperature swings of the oven and deliver the most consistent heat level. There is some discussion of material choices here. At any rate, the nuances of browning seem to make a very small difference in a final braised dish; in fact, the difference between thorough browning and no browning at all is mostly evident in the level of roasted flavors present in the final sauce. At any rate, I often brown braised meat in a different pan from the braising vesel anyhow, because I don't want retained heat to cook the interior of the meat too quickly. I'll brown on a blazing hot pan, and then tranfer to a cold pan and put it in a cold oven that will come up to temp slowly.