paulraphael

Leaving aside playground taunts against the most thorough culinary research project ever ... Their takeaway, which is scientifically credible, is that braising produces different flavors from stewing. And modern uncovered braising techniques are essentially stewing. Which flavors you prefer are up to you. The interesting part is understanding the differences.

The Modernist Cuisine guys have written some interesting analysis of this. TL;DR: lots of people braise with the lid off these days, which basically conflates braising and stewing. And yes, the results will be different from a traditional braise (in their opinion not often for the better): Sealing the pot with a lid is crucial for several reasons. First, radiant energy from the lid browns the top and sides of the meat. This process gives the meat an appealing color and creates Maillard flavor compounds that dissolve in the juices below. Without a lid, those aromatic chemicals escape in the air. Although their loss makes your kitchen smell wonderful, it deprives the sauce of some of its best aromas and flavors! Second, the lid keeps the air in the pot humid. As a result, the food heats faster and dries out less. Third, high humidity helps to dissolve chewy collagen and to convert it to succulent gelatin. The gelatinizing process is critical for tenderizing tough, collagen-rich cuts of meat-the so-called "braising cuts." ... Simply adding more liquid to cover the food is no substitute for covering the pot. Although the extra liquid prevents the meat from drying out, it fundamentally changes pot-roasting into a process more akin to stewing. ... One of the more common forms of failure in braising is meat that turns out less tender and succulent than hoped. Evaporation is again usually the culprit here. Most meats contain more than enough water to dissolve the tough collagen inside them into tender, succulent gelatin. If too much of that natural liquid wicks to the surface and vaporizes, however, the meat dries out, and less of the collagen dissolves. To avoid such disappointing results, cooks tend to overcompensate by adding so much liquid to the braising pot that the meat is all but submerged. Drowning the meat certainly solves the collagen problem, but it also transforms braising into stewing. To be clear: stews can be delicious. But stewed foods taste nothing like braised foods. The reason the two techniques produce such a large difference in flavors is that the pool ofliquid surrounding a stew shunts the flavor-generating reactions in a different direction than the bit ofliquid used for braising does. A different set of aromas prevails as a result.

You can use any flour for anything, if know what's going on and you know how to compensate for it. You can make hearty bread with cake flour if you mix in an extra high-protein flour, or just add gluten as a dough strengthener. You can make cake with pizza flour if you mix in some cornstarch. Useful approaches if you don't have the right flour available. I'd consider bread flour for pancakes to be a problem that needed some compensation.

I hadn't even thought of it as part of this conversation, but yeah, a splash of almost any fruit juice in seltzer makes a perfect summer drink. The day I discovered that I stopped buying soft drinks forever.

I just stow them on the back of my chef chair.

I like 4lbs. A good size for roasting or for hearty soup / stew to fill a 7qt Dutch oven. My favorite has been the Bobo Poultry black plume Euro-style chicken. I don't have a convenient source for these right now so usually get decent quality supermarket chicken (Murray's, Bell & Evans, D'artagnan etc.). These are the same breed as all the other supermarket birds but seem better raised. I'd love to try the Sasso bird Mitch linked. Do you order those? Are they available retail anywhere in the city?

I'd think there'd be a lot of attention in this space ... not just "mocktails," but whole new creations built around the flavors of delicious ingredients. No need to try to simulate the flavor of booze. I gather this is what soda fountains were about back in the day. Modern things like coke and root beer are probably sad industrial incarnations of things people used to craft with infusions and fresh-squeezed juices and who knows what else. I hope this tuns into a whole new culinary category and not just the sad-sack options for people who can't imbibe.

Sort of, but the water absorption of higher protein flours comes into play even before you create any gluten. Or even if you don't create gluten. Gluten is a post-hydration product of proteins called gliadins and glutenins, which themselves only make up between half and 2/3 of the total protein content of the flour. But all of the proteins increase the water absorption of the flour. Personally, I'd avoid bread flour for pancakes. I can imagine it's possible to make good ones with it, but it's more likely that you'll make worse ones. Generally with a pancake, you're trying to activate very little of the potential gluten network. A lower protein flour will improve your chances of success. It's why some crepe recipes suggest a combination of AP flour and corn flour—it drops the protein level even lower, so you can get away with mixing in a blender. If you use bread flour, you should absolutely have to change your technique—not just more liquid, but also very gentle mixing. And you shouldn't expect any advantages.

Are you suggesting that great lazy minds think alike?

You just have to do it by feel. Once you figure it out, you can go by measurement if you always use the same flour ... at least if it's a consistent brand like KA. If you switch from bread flour to AP you'll need to reduce the liquid quite a bit. The higher protein content of bread flour soaks up much more water.

Yeah, a Western deba will absolutely handle any of the rough stuff. But they cost real knife money. The advantage of big dumb cleavers (truly the only advantage) is they're practically free. My main uses are beheading poultry (see above) and breaking open Kabocha squash. Which feels more like splitting wood than prepping food. Even my super thin Mac bread knife (also known as the watermelon sword) just wedges in those things.

I have a couple of big dumb cleavers. One is a $5 hunk of sheetmetal from Chinatown, the other a hand-me-down. I use them to cut anything that would be a bit too abusive for my biggest dumbest chef's knife. I learned my lesson when chopping through the neck bone of 20lb turkey many years ago. My German knife went straight in the mail to Dave Martell for repairs. For me the trouble with big cleavers is you need an appropriate cutting board—one you don't mind getting hacked up. That's one more big dumb thing to store, and it takes up more room than the cleaver.

Anyone had a chance to compare the Rationals to the high end consumer combi ovens (like Gaggenau)?

All else equal, buttermilk will make a fluffier, more delicate pancake. Because it's thicker than milk, so you can get a the same consistency with less flour. But it's not necessary. I think the basic tricks are 1) make the batter thick enough. It shouldn't flatten out and spread too much when it hits the pan. 2) make sure your leavening is ok. Baking powder expires. It may lose oomph even before it hits the expiry date. I use about 3g baking powder / 100g flour. That's about 1/2 tsp per cup. This is for non-buttermilk. If the baking powder seems dubious, use more. Edited to add: another common way to add fluff is to separate half or even all the eggs, and just mix the batter with the yolks. Whip the whites (generally to very soft peaks) and fold them in at the end. I used to do this fairly often but decided it wasn't worth it most of the time. There were easier ways to fluff things up.

That's interesting. It's certainly an unconventional take on braising, as Tom says. Traditionally it's in a 100% humidity environment.

I don't know how this would work without crisping the skin after the fact. Or without figuring out a process in a combi-oven or c-vap oven. Cooking crisp skin in a 100% humid environment (braising) uncrisps the skin. Does the Times recipe have you do a pseudo-braise ... with the lid off?

And cooking processes that rely on conduction with something stationary, like sautéing. I think you could argue that most cooking methods use a mix of of thermal processes, often with one of them dominating. But deep frying? That's pretty pure convection. I'm not sold on this "air frying" business. Just because two cooking methods use a roughly similar thermal transfer processes doesn't mean they're similar in ways that matter.

Here's the secret: pick it up with a side towel. It will finally make sense. I try to cultivate a habit of using a towel any time I grab a pan, just to avoid absentmindedly branding myself, so it's no trouble. That AC handle suddenly becomes comfortable, and more secure (less likely to slip or pivot) than any other handle I've used.

Even if you don't account for fraud, the organic rules are like the tax code—complex, illogical, full of compromises and loopholes. They're perfect fodder for savvy companies that want the labelling, but have no interest in the spirit of the law. There are some industrial farms churning out middling produce that earns the organic label. Meanwhile there are fanatically quality-conscious small farms selling great produce with no label, often because they can't afford the certification process. Funny story ... several years ago I ordered a bunch of lamb loins from a Pennsylvania farmer with a great reputation (I found his name on several Michelin-starred NYC restaurants). He asked me if I wanted organic or conventional. I asked the difference. He said "$4.50 a pound." As he explained it, it cost a small fortune to get land certified organic (they have to do lab tests of soil samples in several locations). He decided to pay for getting half his property certified, and putting a fence down the middle. Essentially the same pasture, same soil, same grass, same sheep. But the ones on that side of the fence cost more. He decided to pass the cost of certification on to the consumer. I ordered conventional.

Or you could send to Kyiv. A whole family could shelter behind it.

Yeah, looks like it. To confirm, see if the thought of dropping it on your toe arouses mild panic. The company makes smaller ones with the same construction. There are similar options by some other companies on webrestaurantstore.

That's got to be a problem with any double-sided griddle. Any coating ... non-stick or even just seasoning ... is going to burn off the side facing the fire. I wouldn't want to be in a room with that much incinerating teflon.

I have one of the heavy griddles by King Chef (2 burner, 7 gauge). It's huge (covers 2 burners on a big domestic or actual commercial range) and quite heavy. The carbon steel surface is perfect ... durable, seasons easily, and nothing sticks to it. It does not heat very evenly. 3/16" is pretty thick for steel, but not thick enough to spread head efficiently several inches. So for pancakes, you have to learn how it heats, and work within those limitations. Either don't take advantage of the full surface area, or don't expect photoshoot-perfect evenness. One approach that works is is using the center portion (between the burners) for keeping things warm rather than for cooking. You still have enough surface for 4 big pancakes at once. I would not get a nonstick griddle. The surface is too short-lived (I don't care if it has a lifetime warrantee or if you baby it ... if you cook at griddle temperatures, it will lose its stick resistance over time). My ideal material would be 3/8" aluminum. You can actually season the surface of bare aluminum if you want. You won't get a durable finish, but it works. And it would warp. But you'd get much better heat distribution, with no weight penalty.

I'm so sorry. What a humiliating defeat.

@Btbyrd, this is interesting. So many pro cooks seem to raving about induction. But I can't imagine them liking it if their ranges had all these problems. Do you think they're using better technology in the high-end commercial market? (it looks like mostly high-end kitchens adopting it right now)