paulraphael

What do you like?

My biggest hesitation with aluminum fry pans and sauté pans is warping. Nothing subtle ... I'm talking about bulging, wobbling, smash-back-into-shape-with-a-hammer distortion. I've had this happen to every plain or anodized heavy aluminum pan that i've used for sautéing. And with at least one saucepan. Counterintuitively, It doesn't happen with clad pans. The aluminum oxide layer that prevents corrosion is vulnerable to both strong acids and bases. Once a pan starts pitting, it seems to continue to pit. The pits in the bottom of my calphalon saucepan (started as innocent dings when an ex commited some attrocity with a fork) are now craters. I've heard mixed opinions on whether the oxalic acid in BKF can halt this process. Just yesterday I picked up a couple of used aluminum half sheet pans on the bowery for $2 each. One of them had clearly been through the dishwasher ... it's a moonscape of little pits. I'll be curious to see if they grow and turn the thing into lace.

My 20 qt stockpot gets used no more than once a month. Bare aluminum. No issues with oxidation, save for the ones it would have if used daily.

I've had good luck with plain aluminum for things like stock pots that don't get used for especially acidic ingredients. I haven't liked it for saucepans and sauté / fry pans. I get deep pits, and sometimes a slight metalic taste in sauces and in deglazing liquid. Steven's right that it's the restaurant standard, at least at the low end and middle. I've had plenty of great meals that were cooked in $15 commodity aluminum pans. The off flavors and colors might be purely symptomatic of the types of food I've cooked. And the pitting might happen because I keep pans longer than most restaurant kitchens do. Line cooks beat the bejeezus out of those things. They're probably reduced to scrap metal from abuse before anyone even notices pits and craters in the surface.

How much time do you find it takes to get tender (but not falling apart) short ribs if you're cooking in the 135 degree range?

Well, yes, a millimeter of copper will do more good than a millimeter of aluminum, in terms of improving dispersion without impeding responsiveness. But a tenth of a millimeter of copper isn't worth much at all unless you're writing the ad copy. Companies like AC seem to include just nominal thicknesses of copper ... enough to let them say there's copper in there. And to raise the price. The thermal differences might be measurable, but I seriously doubt they'd be noticeable. Incidentally, gold isn't an especially good thermal conductor. It's lower on the scale than copper. Silver is the only metal I know of that's higher.

This Taylor kicks some some serious thermopen butt. Normally sells for $90, but I've seen on sale for less. Has a thermocouple AND a remote IR sensor. Takes regular batteries. Waterproof. And it's the only thermometer I've owned that's lasted a year without breaking (and still going strong).

I was just looking at 10" aluminum core fry pans. At Sur La Table, AC stainless is $100, Demeyere Atlantis is $199. I'm glad the other pieces don't exhibit this big a price premium. And I'd agree with anyone who says the AC copper core pans are a ripoff. I would only consider the stainless and the MC2. MC2 will heat more evenly and have more thermal mass; stainless will be more responsive and will work with induction.

You might like the NOLS Cookery.

Collagen breaks down at temperatures above 140F or so. But at temperatures this low it takes a very long time. I have minimal sous vide experience; doing conventional braises, a melting texture can take 12 hours or more even at 180F. I believe there are advantages to lower temps and longer times; particularly if you can bring the meat to temperature slowly. Time spent below 120F increases enzyme activity and aging effects. It can also give the beautiful effects of meat that's bright pink in the middle in spite of being well done.

Yeah, the Tribute pans are a bargain and seem like a reasonable alternative. I haven't used them, so I don't what cooking on them is like, or how they hold up. They are certainly more cheaply made, in ways that may be purely superficial ... lower quality finish, more reactive 18-8 steel interior. I would still consider All Clad a bargain compared with pans like Demeyere and Mauviel M'cook. These may be better quality, but in some cases cost more than twice as much as AC.

Which line of their pans? I only have one All Clad pan--a 10" stainless clad fryingpan--but it has been used relentlessly on heat high enough to set off smoke alarms, deglazed, thrown in the sink, and used as a roasting pan at temps up to 550 degrees F. Not even a hint of warping. And I've warped all kinds of cookware, especially heavy aluminum (anodized and unanodized), to the point where I've had to bang it back into an approximation of flatness with a mallet. The allclad seems right up there with my stainless lined copper and cast iron when it comes to warp resistance. I still don't get the idea that AC is expensive. Who makes decent quality clad cookware that's cheaper?

Maybe places like costco have it for cheap, but whenever i see Sitram it's surprisingly pricy. Looks like cheap, commodity commercial fare, but the prices rival online prices for All Clad. And i don't like the stuff. In general, I find the disks on the bottom of the pans to be too thick. They do a good job of even conduction and heat retention, but responsiveness is terrible. Not an an issue on things like stock pots, but there are much cheaper, equally functional stockpots available. And I don't like that the disks stop short of the edges. I don't know where people get the idea that All Clad is expensive. Look at any other clad, high quality brand that uses similar materials: Demeyere, Mauviel, Matfer. They all cost more.

When I was told, "oh, one more thing: wear a suit" ... i knew for sure they were out of their minds. The logic went something like this: we're often accused of taking ourselves too seriously, so why not take ourselves WAY too seriously, by dressing up? This being the goal, I think we should have gone all the way ... tuxedos, top hats, tails.

Yeah, probably! Unfortunately I didn't get to try even a single full dish ... just nibbles of individual components here and there (which ranged from amazing to curious to beta-quality). Every plate had multiple components on it; each component was prepared by different people who often weren't even talking to one another. It led to some funny moments. Ocasionally the film crew would come over to interview me about what I was doing. I'd try to act like a t.v. chef and smile and be educational. "What we have here is a mouseline of blackfoot silky chickens from Chinatown. The breasts have been cooked sous vide, then puréed with heavy cream, and I'm now blending in 2 grams of Activa, which is a name for transglutamase. It forms covalent bonds between protein molecules, binding them together, and then it vanishes. When I spread the purée into these waffle molds, the Activa will set it into solid waffles that can be deep fried." Then the t.v. host would ask, reasonably, "so what dish will this be a part of?" And I'd look at her like a deer in headlights. I'd have no idea. So she'd ask, "well, is it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner?" Again, no idea. So it will be clear to the Japanese foodie public that my role was to mix this stuff over here with that stuff over there. And then scuttle off mindlessly to the next project ...

Three crews. Each meal sat 15 to 18 people. I don't think any guest stayed for more than one of the meals. But many of the guests helped in the kitchens, sometimes for long stretches. This is part of the idea with wiht the Razor/Shiny knife events: full participation. At any point guests could come by, stroll into the kitchen, get a demonstration on anything from running the sous vide vacuum machine to binding short ribs into perfect blocks with transglutaminase ... and then get their hands dirty doing it. It's a great idea. Double the fun, triple the chaos.

Saturday night I finished a 24 hour endurance stunt with my friends at A Razor, A Shiny Knife: prepare and serve three high end, 8 course meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), completely from scratch, on location, in 24 hours. While wearing a suit and tie. The clock started ticking at 10pm Friday night, as we browned bones for veal stock, got the two immersion circulators warming up, made butter, incubated the creme fraiche, started the baguette and croissant dough, and unpacked ingredients in our two kitchens. The location was a pair of adjoining penthouse apartments, in a newly built, uninhabited brooklyn apartment building, which had been (absurdly ... insanely) offered to our event for free by the landlord. The gas had not been turned on yet, so we had no stove burners or hot water. And the elevator was broken. And even though our arsenal of high tech gear rivaled both Alinea and Fermilab, our chefs had managed to forget the can opener and corkscrew. But the great challenge of the evening (not counting the two hour setback caused by the deep fryer breaking--rectified by the MagGuyver-like skills of our photographer) was one of our own making: trying to find ANYTHING--ingredients, equipment, space to work--amid the chaos of two disorganized workspaces and a constantly rotating gaggle of sleep-deprived cooks. The experience was insanely fun and thoroughly educational. We made the deadline with one minute to spare (with a bit of a cheat: we sent out the two dessert courses simultaneously, rather than waiting for the diners to eat them in sequence). The circus atmosphere was punctuated by a Japanese film crew, who stayed on location shooting a documentary of the event, with only one short break, from 9:30pm Friday to 11:30pm Saturday! Our all-nighter will be nothing compared with the marathon session in store for their editor. I'll post links to the official debriefing and pictures, once they're online. These are the same guys who made news last year by recreating Thomas Keller's and Grant Achatz's famous 24 course colaborative meal, in a Brooklyn loft. My kind of lunatics! The chef and mastermind was Michael Cirino, who handled the cooks, guests, and chaos like a rockstar. I hope to collaborate with him again soon. But not too soon. Here's the menu. It doesn't tell the whole story ... most dishes included at least a couple of molecular biological twists and surprises: Breakfast: 1. Croissant with butter and jam 2. Charentais Melon, Bourbon, Bacon 3. Slow Poached Eggs, Rarebit, Crumpets and Tea 4. Asparagus Oscar 5. Chicken and Waffles 6. Red Leaf Salad, Tomato, Zucchini, Ricotta 7. “Mozzareaps”, Agave, Saffron, Cilantro 8. Maple, Bacon, Walnut Lunch: 1. Pickle Plate 2. Steel Head Trout Roe, Pluot , Mache, Bread Crumbs 3. Cucumber, Celery, Tomato, Cress 4. Asparagus, Red onion, Pecorino, Egg, Black Truffle 5. Soft shell crab Ban Mi Sandwich 6. Canard Confit, Smoked Almonds and String Beans 7. Green Papaya, Daikon, Pork Belly, Cilantro, Aji Amarillo 8. Caramelized Pineapple, Crème Fraîche, Rosemary, Pine nut Dinner: 1. Salmon, Meyer Lemon, Balinese Long Pepper, Molasses, Saffron 2. Foie gras, Cucumber, Strawberry, Aji, Almonds 3. Lobster, Aji, Key Lime, Thai basil 4. Chawan Mushi 5. Beef Rib, Morels, Garlic, Garbanzo Bean 6. Potato, Smoke, Egg Yolk, Chives 7. Coconut, White Peaches, Sriracha, Lavender 8. Chocolate, Cherry, Honey, Cream Menu was written with Daniel Castaño

Sourdough boules last several days. I haven't done a side by side comparison with paper, but from casual observation they seem similar to me. I prefer paper for the ease of recyling.

The bread bags at whole foods are plastic, perforated with hiundreds of pinholes. The low tech solution. Scubadoo, I don't think there's any way besides freezing to keep lean French bread from drying out in a couple of days. I've never seen an unfrozen baguette last even 12 hours.

I stand corrected on the Mauviel pieces ... I remembered those rondeaux being shorter. When I said I liked a shorter sauté pan, meant ones closer to the shape of the American ones. Not sure the dimensions of the AC and Calphalon pans, but they look a lot shorter than the Mauviels and Bourgeats (which I prefer for the material).

There's speed that comes from moving fast, and there's speed that comes from efficiency. If you have good organization and efficient technique, you can fly through prep even if you're moving at a relaxed pace. Cutting board organization is worth a lot more than adrenaline. Knife skills are worth a hundred times more. I sometimes move fast and keep a lot of balls in the air in the kitchen. Other times I putter ... depends on the mood and the meal and the deadline. But I never like to work inefficiently. It takes the fun out of it. Taking much more than 30 seconds to dice an onion doesn't feel relaxing to me; it's painful! On the other hand, baking sometimes slows me to a crawl. If my brain isn't fully plugged in (a likely state ... ) I know to slow down and minimize any multitasking, just so I don't make any stupid mistakes. I'm most likely to mess up my own recipes If I go too fast; I foolishly assume I have these recipes wired, and I stop paying attention.

The Mauviel and Bourgeat sauté pans are more like 3:1 ... just like their rondeaux. Personally i prefer shorter sides on a sauté pan, but I can only seem to find them on pans i don't like.

The nomenclature is all over the map. Sitram even makes a "rondeau casserole." ← Based on this I don't think it makes sense to debate rondeau vs. sauté pan based on the height of the sides. In many cases there's no difference. And I'm sure you could find some rondeaux with lower sides than some sauté pans. The handles are the distinguishing difference.

Just curious about this. The main difference between the rondeau and the saute pan is the height of the sides. When frying, won't the high sides on the rondeau get in the way when you go to turn or remove food? ← I think it depends on the manufacturer. Some make rondeaux with higher sides than their sauté pans; others define them as sauté pans with loop handles, and keep the heights the same. The American companies seem to make sauté pans with lower sides than the Europeans. Like, 1/5 to 1/4 the diameter of the pan instead of 1/3.

Is that the one with the heavy cover that can be used as a roaster or paella pan? My father has one of those, and it's a great pot. He used to use the cover for making deep dish pizzas. ← Mine is just a plain pan with a thin aluminum lid. They might have called it a casserole, or something like that. It's from back in the day when they were 5mm thick and just said "commercial aluminum cookware co., toledo, oh" on the bottom.