paulraphael

That only applies to things that actually draw power, like computers (when asleep, or when keepting the battery charged), tvs and vcrs (to retain programming and clock settings, etc.). And it applies in a big way to anything that uses a wall wart power supply. Those things consume power whenever they're plugged in. You can tell ... they're always warm. One solution is to put appliances with wall warts on a power strip that you turn off when it's not in use. Most things, like toasters and mixers and washing machines, don't draw power when they're off. For things that consume power to maintain programming and clock settings ... well, you'd live in a world of unprogrammed electronics and blinking 12:00 displays if you didn't leave them plugged in. It's no big deal ... the amount of energy drawn by a VCR compared with a toaster oven is barely worth mentioning.

I couldn't find dextrose anywhere in town (if you think New York Cake Supply would have it, you'd be as wrong as I am). So I picked up some overpriced Wilton glucose syrup. There is no information on the package (besides "ingredients: corn syrup"), or on Wilton's website. Can anyone hazard a guess on how to substitute this for powdered dextrose? I suppose there's no way to know how much water is in it, without measuring its density, and I'm not even sure I'd get the math right ...

If I could have one copper pan it would be my 1.5 liter evasée (flared saucepan). It's one of the 2.5mm Mauviel Cuprinox pans ... Bourgeat and Falk make equivalents. This is the most versatile pan I've used for serious saucemaking, including reduced cream sauces and emulsified egg sauces. For this kind of use the fast response and even heat of copper puts a big smile on my face. I have a few other copper pans, but they could more happily be replaced by aluminum. For lids you can get aluminum or stainless commercial ones for cheap at the restaurant supply store.

lard is a whole different story, at least if you're talking about high quality leaf lard (supermarket lard is some nasty, nasty stuff). Suet and goose fat are also amazing alternatives. They all provide a buttery succulence, but have some of shortening's ability to hold shapes. And they're a bit easier to work with than butter, especially if you're going for a very crisp or flaky result. Personally, I've had best results with a 70/30 or thereabout mix of butter and rendered animal fat. Of course, these are all fats with a very distinctive flavor, which you may or may not want. I don't want pork or goose or beef overtones in an apple tart. In a pot pie or a quiche they might be perfect.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever noticed an actual off taste from shortening, but i notice a lack of flavor, and I notice the greasy mouthfeel.

Can you post a link?

I've been curious about poaching in butter, but have no idea if there's any way to salvage all that butter after doing it. In a restaurant they keep a pot of it going all day and poach one thing after another, but at home I can't stand the idea of sacrificing quarts of butter to one meal. I know you can clarify it afterwards, but I don't use clarified butter anymore. Is there any way to save the emulsifed butter for future poachings? Can it be frozen and re-emulsified?

I don't see how it would be a problem with a big bird if you have that big pot. Cooking finishes in the oven, however long it takes ... you can trust this will work, because people roast bigger birds than that entirely in the oven. Barbara Kafka does giant birds at very high temps. I think my bird was around 120 degrees between the thigh and breast when it came out of the poach. This took 90 minutes for a 14lb+ bird. It took about 45 minutes to come up to 154 degrees, and then it came out and rested for over a half hour. I'd guess your bigger bird would have done well with closer to 2 hours of poach and 1 hour in the oven.

Not trying to harp on you, but I honestly think that those who prefer shortening in a crust do so because they lack the technique to get good results (which are always better tasting and more succulent results) with butter. Say it all you want that there's no refinement involved. If you're right that just means I've been hallucinating the improvements I've seen over the last many years. Easy doesn't mean there's nothing to it. I agree it's easy to make a pie crust. I don't think it's easy to make a great one. And I believe the same can be said for anything, if you set your sights high enough. I spent two years working on roasted chickens, and almost as long working on brownies. You could interpret this as meaning I'm an idiot, or that these things are hard to do. But those are facile interpretations. The reality is that they are simple things to do, but doing them to a very high standard is not so simple. I know this has turned into something of a perrenial debate, but I would be willing to pit an all butter crust that I make against ANY crust made with a significant percentage of shortening. And I would let any jury of tasters anywhere compare. I'd be willing to be a LOT of money on near unanimous preference for the butter crust. And if the the jury includes pastry chefs, I'd bet on complete unanimity. I'm not blowing hot air ... if you know anyone who's up for the challenge in NYC, I'm there. At the very least it would be interesting, and there would be pastry to eat after the smoke clears.

it encourages you snug your fingers around the handle, and hold it tight, with your knuckle pressed against the blade. this does indeed feel comfortable and natural; it's why shun is able to sell a lot of these knives to home cooks. but if you've practiced good cutting techniques with more conventional japanese knives (ones that require a very loose grip, and allow the handle to pivot with a loosely held wrist) you'll find the ken onion design will fight any attempt at using those techniques. it will just be in the way. If a knife is sharp and if your technique takes advantage of the sharpness, "comfort" becomes a non issue. You won't be holding the knife firmly enough for one knife to be more comfortable than another. The design of the knife just needs to let it get out of your way. compared with the Ken Onion, there's a long list of superior performing knives with much more versatile designs, for the same money, and even for much less.

You really don't need a formula. Time will vary depending on the size and nature of the potatoes. In my experience, a very hot oven works best ... does a great job browning and crisping the outside while giving you a buttery and moist interior. I roast at 500 degrees, and start checking at 20 minutes or so. Sooner if the pieces of potato are small. But no matter how you decide to do it, you should pay attention to the potatoes, not the clock.

Abra, I'm so glad it worked for you! Lapin, how did you determine that it needed to poach for that long? I would have been inclined to just poach for 1:45 or 2:00, and then just roast for however long it takes.

Do you have any references for that? ← From Peterson, Sauces: "What chefs often ignore when cooking with truffles is that the aroma is far easier to infuse in fat than in liquids such as stock or fortified wines. the flavor of fortified wines such as Madeira works well with truffles but does little to draw the truffle flavor into the sauce. If a truffle sauce contains fat such as butter, cream, or egg yoks, the best way to flavor the sauce is to infuse the raw chopped or sliced truffles with the butter, cream, or egg yolks for an hour or two before making the sauce. "For butter-enriched sauces, such as Périgordine, store the butter overnight with the truffles and infuse the truffles in the sauce after finishing the sauce with butter. The flavor of the truffles will permeate a sauce containing butter far more completely than it will a flavor base containing no fat" According to Harold McGee, one of the important aromatic compounds in truffles is dimethyl sulfide, which is not water soluble. Other important aromatics, such as aldehydes and androstenone, are water soluble, but I don't know what conclusions we can draw from this without really understanding the structure and chemistry of the truffle (I sure don't). I think Peterson's practical knowledge, which matches my experience, is as reliable a source as any.

In most cases I agree. This isn't one of them. There are several efficient ways to hold a knife. And there are many more inefficient ways. The Ken Onion knife is designed to encourage (enforce!) one very inefficient way. Better knife designs allow you to choose from among any of the efficient ways (standard western or wa handles, gyuto shaped blades, etc.). Additionally, it costs close to twice as much as many knives that will outperform it in almost every way. This is more than stupid enough for me!

K8, your comments could easily be seen as insulting to people who struggle with pastry. NOTHING is difficult if you know how to do it. YOU know how to do it--ergo, it's not difficult for you. That's not the same as saying there's nothing to learn. Keeping butter from melting is indeed a very simple idea. Doing it, in practice, in a hot kitchen, when you're not fast at handling the dough because you don't have experience with it, is another story. This is why many people have a hard time getting good results, and end up giving up on butter crusts. The problems can be solved with some clear technique description and some practice. They probably can't be solved by dismissing them as nonexistent. In addition, the matter of how much water to use in completely unintuitive. I've seen people who have made pastry for years use close to twice as much water as they need, because they don't understand the principles of hydration. Because no one told them. Personally, I wish someone had told me a long time ago, so I wouldn't have wasted so much time figuring it out on my own.

I don't know what chichi foofoo means, but I'd be curious to know about any great pastry chefs who use half and half. They may well be out there, but I've yet to encounter one. Ok ... give those instructions to someone who's never done it and see how well they do! With shortening they'll probably end up with something that looks kind of like a pie crust, but with butter my hopes wouldn't be so high. It's much more sensitive to time and temp, because it melts easily.

Well, I don't agree with any dismissal of the topic as easy. And I didn't mean to suggest anything about refined palates. I do believe that shortening-based pastry exists for two reasons: to save money, and to allow people to get decent results without refined technique. But if you can afford the butter, and if you're interested in learning the fussier requirements for handling the dough, I believe you WILL end up with pastry that tastes better. And I think anyone at the table, regardless of their sophistication (usually a self-declared quality ... ) will agree.

I'm not quite sure what you're point is. Here's a subject that flummoxes more people than just about any in the kitchen. The current conversation is all about people's dificulties getting pastry to come out right. Yes, it's easy if you know how to do. And yes, it's hard if you don't. Maybe that's even the definition of easy ... stuff you know how to do? Sure, it's not a lot of work and it's not complicated. If you have good technique. The difference between good technique and bad is the difference between good results and bad. I've eaten many examples of each!

Lately I've been grilling sandwiches in my broiler (which is uneven and generally terrible, but makes quick work of a the project. and like a little browning and bubbling on the cheese). My favorite so far is sourdough bread, sliced thick from a boule and dabbed in olive oil, melted gruyere, ham (i've been loving Niman Ranch Jambon Royale, a shoulder cut ham sold by whole foods), thin sliced pears, or tomato, or shallots, and dijon mustard. Yum.

I was at a kitchen store last week wherea a Shun rep was showing off knives. He gave me an 8" Ken Onion and let me prep some veggies. It is unquestionably the stupidist knife I've ever gotten my paws on. It's one of these designs that caters to the flawed techniques of people who haven't learned how to use something properly. Deep belly for rocking? With the exception for cutting certain leafy herbs, this is a technique designed to compensate for knives that aren't sharp. Big broad rounded spine? This facilitates pushing hard; also something never done by someone with a sharp knife and good technique. "Ergonomic" handle? this facilitates holding the knife in a way prefered by people who don't know how to hold a knife. I thought the Shun was a disaster in every category! It was not useable with any of the refined tequniques I've fought hard to learn over the years.

If you're lucky enough to have a good baker show you, you'll be a pro in an hour. if you try to figure it out on your own by trial and error, or from sketchy instructions in a book, it will be a long road. And many have given up! So yeah, it's not hard, but it's technique intensive. Especially if you're using butter, which requires much more precise technique. All complaints about butter crusts are the result of imprecise technique.

If it's a fine art, it's one that's hard to get wrong. Not having any goose fat handy, I can't comment. Sounds good. I will say that I've had many happy results with olive oil. My method has evolved a bit: any kind of new potato will work, but fingerlings like La Ratte, French Fingerling, or Russian banana are decidedly the most delicious I've had. I cut them in halfs or quarters depending on size, and toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Roast in a sheet pan at 500°. No need to monkey around with low temperatures. After 20 minutes or so they'll be about 90% done. In the mean time, I'll pick my flavors ... usually some kind of herb, like rosemary or thyme. I'll finely mince the herb if it needs it, and blend with more olive oil. When the potatoes are almost done, I'll pull them out, turn the oven down very low (as low as 170, but if i need the oven for something else, this temp can be flexible) and open the door to cool it rapidly. Pour the herb infused oil all over the potatoes and mix well. But them back into the cooled oven. Over the next 20 minutes or so flavors will infuse and potatoes will get buttery. If you need to hold them longer than this, cover with foil so they don't dry out. But it's better to have them sooner, so you can enjoy the crisp crust. The idea is that you don't actually want to roast your herbs for a long time at high temps. This method lets you get the flavors into the taters without any harm.

and ...one thing that makes life easier is the food processor. I use it more for pastry dough than for anything else. It's much faster than mixing by hand, doesn't add heat like your hands, and the sharp blades literally cut the butter instead of smearing it around. With a lot of skill you can do as good a job by hand, but the machine makes it a snap. Especially helpful if it's warm in your kitchen.

There's also a lot of lore about different fats giving different textures ... lard=flaky, butter=crumbly, etc. etc. None of this is true. These basic textures are influenced by the size and shape of the chunks of fat in the dough. You can get the same range of textures with butter as with lard or shortening. Butter will require more refined technique to get right, but as a bonus it will give you more refined flavor and mouthfeel. If you think of pastry as being flour and different sized / shaped lumps of fat interspersed with each other, it becomes easy to imagine what's going on with the different textures. A flaky american crust has big, flat pieces of fat separating fairly thin sheets of flour. A crumbly traditional French tart shell has very small pieces of fat closely interspersed in the flour. The flakiest of all, puff pastry, has long, thin sheets of fat separating long, thin sheets of flour. Cookie crusts have thoroughly blended fat and flour. If you keep these ideas in mind, you can achieve whatever texture you want. Personally, I often go for something between a crumbly french tart and a flaky american pie (because I'm a flaky American with crumbly French pretenses?) I go for pieces of butter a little bigger than what's normal in a tart, and flatten them out through a fraisage step. When I make the final disk of dough, I align all the fraisaged balls of dough parallel to each other and flatten them out. So I end up with fairly small, but flat and parallel bits of butter in the shell. A little bit crumbly, a little bit flaky. If you can visualize what's going on with the fats, you can find a way to get whatever texture you dream up.

I've never frozen the butter, but I chill it to close to that point. What happens afterwards is more important. The dough needs to be kept cool while you're working with it. This means working quickly, especially if the kitchen is warm or if you're using your hands. As soon as the dough feels greasy or sticky, it has to be covered and chilled in the fridge for 20 minutes or so. This can be repeated as many times as you need. After the dough is made, it should chill for a long time ... one to twenty four hours. After this, a few whacks with a rolling pin should soften it up enough to roll out. And you're back to racing the clock. First sign of stickiness or greasiness, back into the fridge. After rolling out the dough and making the pie or tart shell, chill it again for at least an hour. It should go into the oven straight from the fridge. Tenderness also comes from not using too much water, and from not overworking the dough. if you have the impression that butter gives you a less tender crust, it's probably because you didn't account for the water in the butter--butter is up to 18% water, and that water eventually gets liberated and can add to the hydration of the flour. Two things help: using a higher quality, high fat/low water butter (which will also taste better) or just holding back on the water you add. Check yourself by weighing ingredients. Water in the recipe in general should not exceed 20% of the weight of the flour. 15% is better, if your flour will allow it. At this hydration level, dough will be so crumbly when it comes together that it's almost impossible to work with. This is what you want. It takes time for the flour to hydrate; if you add enough water to fully hydrate it quickly, it will gradually become too hydrated. So do what bread bakers do: autolyse. It's a fancy word for resting it in the fridge (which by now you might realize is your best friend). As soon as the dough comes together into its initial crumbly mass, cover it, refrigerate it, and walk away for 20 to 45 minutes. When you come back, the magic will have happened: the dough will be manageable, without excess added water, and you will end up with some very tender pastry. If you get the general rules down for working with a butter crust, you will not have issues with greasiness. Check out the pastries at a good French patiserie. It will all be crisp, tender, and with a melt-in-your-mouth tenderness and rich buttery flavor. It will all be made with 100% butter.