paulraphael

I wish someone would make an onion peeling machine. It takes me about 3 times as long to peel an onion as to dice it.

I support procrastination in all its guises.

I've gotten a lot of great technical help from Michael Laiskonis's blog. He's a wizard with frozen dessert and is one of the few people I've found who can talk articulately about why he does what he does. At the very least his recipes serve as great examples. Your comments made me realize that the most processed ingredient I ever work with is chocolate! The number of steps between the bean and your belly is pretty dizzying. And the technology to make it as smooth as we're used to didn't exist until the 19th century, even though cocoa has been consumed for thousands of years. As I'm sure you gather, i'm not trying to suggest that processed food is always good. I won't be suggesting that you make gelato out of twinkies, or butter-flavored shortening, or I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-__________

Would this kind of motion / effort hurt your hands? This is what's possible with a sharp knife and good technique (it's my friend KC who has Japanese training). If that would be painful, then by all means avoid knives .... though it seems to me like it could be less stress on joints than doing things like twisting the lid to food processor on and off, or repeatedly whacking a chopper.

I bet I could take ANYONE, and with a single combined hour of instruction / practice, have them dicing onions with a knife so quickly that they'd never even consider using a gizmo. Up to a few pounds of onions you can be faster than a food processor (if you include setup and cleaning time), and the results will be vastly cleaner and more even. Once you get it down, dicing onions is FUN! And if your knife is sharp, arthritis is a non-issue and tears are generally minimal. In fact, you'll release much more eye-burning vapor with a blunt-edged instrument like one of those dicers. If tears are still an issue, there's a fail-safe, if dorky, solution: lab goggles.

Everything I mentioned is 100% natural. Many are just 99% unfamiliar in a lot of people's kitchens. Even the word "processed" is tricky. For example, cane sugar is much more processed than dried milk. Cornstarch is no more processed than white flour. Products like locust bean gum and gelatin have been made by artisans for thousands of years. Glucose and Fructose are not so far removed from table sugar. I think you're smart to start simple and try the ingredients your most familiar with first. Then if you find you want to tweak things, you can experiment with new ingredients / techniques one at a time. And I agree that dried milk would be a good place to start. It adds what ice cream gurus call "nonfat solids," which improve creaminess and stability. I resisted using this for a long time, since I had such bad associations with dry milk. Then I saw both Pierre Hermé and Michael Laiskonis used it in their ice creams and decided I was being irrational!

The blogosphere is filled with hysteria these days over food being poisoned by contact with murderous plastic. I've met people who have banished plastic from their kitchens and only use glass or metal or crockery containers now. This kind of reductive thinking annoys me (all plastic is bad? all glass is good? how do you know there's no lead in the glass? how do you know there's no cadmium in the pottery glaze, or soluble nickel in the metal?) But good, unbiassed resources are scarce. I had to search through a lot web clutter before concluding there's no damning evidence against the polypropylene used in my prep and takeout containers. I doubt most people will bother looking this hard. Does anyone know of a well researched clearingouse of information on plastic toxicity?

I think the problem would be salt leaching into the water during cooking. This wouyld be fine if the manufacture could get everyone to use the same volume of water, but that's probably not going to happen. So people boiling a pound of pasta in a gallon of water would likely find the pasta undersalted; people boiling it in a quart of water would likely find it inedible. This is just a guess ... there may be no problem at all and it's just done as it is out of tradition.

I think you nailed it when you assumed the restaurant made batches of each of these side dishes daily from scratch. It's not that big a deal for a restaurant that's going to be using these sides with several dishes that they're churning out all night. Doing the same thing at home to garnish two plates is just a lot of work. If you're cooking every night, you might find some sides (rice dishes, potato dishes, roasted vegetables) that you can make in big batches and keep reheating for a few days. This way you'll only have to make some of the meal from scratch each day.

Something to consider is that the most traditional gelatos (at least the ones made in the style that you describe) are intended to be eaten very shortly after being made. They don't have much stability, and will get icy fast. So unless you're planning to make these for people the day they'll eat them, it's going to take some ingenuity; you'll have to use ingredients beyond milk and sugar and flavorings. Some things to familiarize youreself with are nonfat dried milk, alterntive sugars (glucose, fructose, either solid or in syrups), and starches, gums, or other stabilizers (cornstarch is traditional in Southern Italy; ingredients like gelatin, xanthan gum, and locust bean gum work in much smaller quantities and i think work better). You can also buy a prepackaged stabilizer mix ... this is what most pastry chefs do, but I like to know my exact recipe so I'm not bound to a manufactured product. You need to decide if you'll incorporate egg custard or not. If not, you'll have to rely more on these other ingredients for texture and stability. Also, the lower the milkfat percentage you want, the more you'll have to worry about texture and stability. Your machine calls itself a gelato machine, so it's probably designed to incorporate very little air. That will help.

good god! seriously!

There are classic complementary flavors like browned onions or shallots, possibly prepared wth some red wine, or anything with mushrooms: sautéed wild mushrooms in any form are delicious. I often serve something green. In this capacity I like something that isn't too assertive with flavor but that has a nice texture. Baby bok choy is a favorite. For starches I like things that can be plated away from the meat ... i don't want it interfering with any sauce. all the usual potato suspects are fine, but i've becom a sucker for purées based on celeriac.

I saw a cool jar opener that mounted on the bottom of a cabinet. It was basically a kind of cam-like jaw that would grab the lid when you twisted against it. you could twist the jar with both hands ... the thing itself was low profile and completely out of the way when you didn't need it. For cutting, a long chef's knife (at least 8 inches), well sharpened, will let you cut things with very little force or wrist motion. Way easier than gizmos for tasks.

A couple of thoughts: first, the problems of too sweet and too soft take care of each other: use less sugar. second, since alcohol is antifreeze, you can reduce the amount of gin a bit, and then enhance the gin flavor by adding juniper in some other form (make your own infusion ... this would be a cool project). with sorbets, more water tends to give a harder texture. it also gives more iciness. a stabilizer like zanthan gum or locust bean gum will greatly reduce iciness and improve creaminess (they work in tiny quantities). Is all your sugar coming from the tonic? If so, one solution would be to mix in some sugar free tonic (but I think artificial sweeteners are gross, so that would be low on the list). Better would be a mix of tonic and water, and add your own quinine to increase tonic flavor. I don't know where to get quinine, but that would be a cool project too. I'd also be inclined to look up classic tonic recipes online ... it's possible that they were even more interesting once upon a time.

I love whisky and I love chocolate ... skeptical that any of the nuance of the whisky would hold up. possibly a very aggressive, smoky, island malt would come through. never the less, i'd be more inclined to try this with a simpler, spicier, more robust (and cheaper!) bourbon. and yes, water ganache is absolutely the way to do it. you don't want dairy in there adding more layers over the booze.

I make the same glop ... 10% wax by weight works great. I also find parafin works just as well as beeswax. I've been going back and forth and can't tell the difference in practice. End grain boards drink a LOT of oil/wax. Mine needed to be oiled daily for a week or so, a few times a week for many weeks after. Finally it stabilized; now I oil it once a month at most. Be sure to oil it on both sides, especially in the beginning, so you don't encourage it to warp. Dave at Boardsmith makes the nicest boards I've seen or used.

It's just an easy way to season the pan juices if you're going to make a quick pan sauce. If you're not, then it's pretty pointless.

Since the OP is about browning after sous vide, I'll add that I like torches for touch ups and for for putting caramel crusts on desserts, but I don't think they're all that great as a sole source of browning on meat. It's hard to get a crisp crust, and hard to do an even job. For sous vided steak, I'd consider browning in a pan with butter (I like butter on a steak; if you don't you can use a neutral oil). For quick results with minimum risk of adding an overcooked veneer of meat, you can try doing it on medium heat after brushing with a malliard-enhancing wash (water with 2-4% glucose syrup, and 1/4% or so baking soda). Meat will brown beautifully and form a crisp crust very quickly. I have a friend who swears by browning sous-vided steak in the deep fryer, but I haven't tried this. He said he once browned and plated perfect steaks for 50 people in ten minutes using this method.

I haven't gotten off flavors from propane, but it's possible to get them. The culprit is unburned propane. It may have to do with the torch or the adjustment of it, or as David suggests, by holding the flame too close. If you get any torch, make sure it has a pressure regulator. The bernzomatic 3000 linked above is one of the cheapest models that has one. Without a regulator, as the gas bottle gets about half empty, the fire will blow out every time you tilt the torch. And almost everything you do in the kitchen requires tilting the torch. If you get an unregulated head to save money, you'll end up with a collection of half empty bottles. There are professional models that cost more than that one, but their main claim is that they burn hotter. I think all these torches are more than hot enough ... the challenge with them is to brown and crisp skin without scorching the surface. I'd pay more for a slightly less powerful torch, personally. I'm happy with my propane plumber's torch for now. I'll consider replacing it with butane if I start tasting propane.

Of everything mentioned, the one that seems universally silly to buy is salad dressing. I'm kind of amazed bottled dressings exist.

I am a veteran of many butter explosions. I suspect the answer is simple ... for various reasons microwaves heat things unevenly (some related to the oven, others related to the food). all it takes is for some of the water in the butter to start simmering while it's still surrounded by solid butter. Luckily, of all things I've blown up in the microwave, butter is one of the easiest to clean up. Warming the butter first helps. So does nuking on a lower setting. My favorite solution is melting it in a saucepan.

I think the amount of moisture pulled out by salt can be relevent in some respects ... it's certainly enough to make it harder to brown the meat if it stays on the surface. And it might be enough to creaet brine that can then get reabsorbed. But I don't believe that it's enough to lead to the meat drying out perceptibly (if, for example, the moisture gets drawn out by the salt and then wiped off). I'm basing this assumption on tests done by food scientists.

Tests done by Hervé This found that the amount of moisture drawn out of meat by salting was so minimal relative to the total water weight that you'd probably never know the difference either way. If you leave something uncovered in the fridge overnight, you'll lose lots of moisture to evaporation. In many cases this is a good thing ... like if it's meat that's been processed with water or that has water added. One of the advantages of dry aging, for example, is concentrated flavors from evaporation.

Yeah, I love winter salsas ... not sure if this is traditional, but I've made them with roasted tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, onions, and smoked dried chilies (chipotles, guajillos, ets.). So tasty. Very different from fresh salsa but I think just as good.

I have looked at the industrial approaches. The trouble is that their goals and constraints are different. For example, in the interests of economy, they often take advantage of superaditive effects of different gums. This is the phenomenon by which a combination of two gums will have an effect that's greater than the sum of the individual effects. Great for them, when they're manufacturing by the ton, but annoying for me, when it means I'll have to measure in hundredths of a gram instead of tenths. The industrial guys also have use of their industrial mixing and manufacturing methods. I'm looking for something that's easy to use spontaneously ... ideally like a slurry you can throw together and whisk into the sauce. Xanthan is harder to use than purified starches, but it's within the realm of reason.