paulraphael
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Posts posted by paulraphael
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On 11/9/2021 at 10:49 AM, cdh said:
Interesting. What complementary flavors are in them, or is it just herb, sugar and dairy? A just thyme ice cream scares me a bit, as I find that too much thyme in anything ends up with an industrial cleaning solution aroma that I just can't find appetizing. I'd bet browned butter solids would really make the sage ice cream flavor pop.
My favorite is just straight thyme. I first had it in Paris in 1990. My dad took us out to the fanciest meal I'd ever had, at a restaurant called Taillevent. This place has gone down the tubes since then, and the proprietor has died, but back then many people thought it was the best restaurant in the city. Courses piled on top of courses, including the desserts. One of them was simpler than the others—a small quenelle of thyme ice cream, alone and unadorned.
I'd just left my first after-college job as the manager of a homemade ice cream shop in Colorado. I thought I knew something about good ice cream. This little scoop of thyme nearly took off the top of my head. It was so good. The flavors were almost 3-dimensional, and it wasn't as sweet as most ice cream. Perfect texture. The pastry chef was a guy named Gilles Bajolle, who I haven't heard much about over the years. He was the first chef I ever stole ideas from. Herb ice cream was one. His chocolate marquise was another.
I've experimented with thyme, lemon thyme, sage, basil, peach-basil, and mint. Mint is the most conventional, but is by far the hardest to get right. I'm still working on it. The dream is to get the flavor of fresh mint and not candy canes / mouthwash. All these flavors work well in a creme anglaise also. I like mixing a fruit and an herb, like peach and basil, apple and rosemary, blueberry and lavender, cherry and sage, raspberry and thyme, etc. These kinds of ideas are all over Bajolle's menus, and also Pierre Hermé's
I know what you mean about how thyme can be overbearing. It hasn't been a problem in ice cream. Thyme infuses nicely into dairy, and isn't especially delicate or prone to overextraction or to giving bitter or vegetal flavors. I can see how it could come on too strong if you infused into alcohol.
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Thyme ice cream and sage ice cream.
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1 hour ago, lindag said:
Interesting. None of the ranges on that page look like the old school always-on Aga style. These are just standard luxury ranges with unimpressive sealed burners and retro styling.
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I thought this was a whole product category. You see them at diners: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/search/griddle-press.html
Is the innovation that they made it really heavy?
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22 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:
It's an improvement over my Viking infra-red in-range broiler?
Without having used the Searzall, I can imagine advantages and disadvantages. I think your big broiler will be better for most big jobs. It has more total horsepower and spreads its heat out over a wider area, and so will go much faster.
If you often do little things, like croque monsieurs, or sous-vide scallops, it will be faster and easier to use the searzall than to fire up a broiler. You also have more control with the little guy, because it's in your hand, on the countertop, and gives instant feedback.
The thing with big bad infrared oven broilers is that they're hard to be precise with, unless you get down on your hands and knees ready to pounce when the food hits the sweet spot. You quickly understand why restaurant salamanders are mounted at eye level and don't have doors.
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On 11/6/2021 at 10:01 AM, lindag said:
Of Ogillvy and Mather?
Yes. He got his start as a traveling Aga salesman.
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50 minutes ago, rotuts said:
Natural Gas is not PC in some places.
Like planet Earth.
I'll be surprised if in 10 years it's legal to sell a gas appliance or build a house with a gas / propane hookup. And for all good reasons.
I won't miss internal combustion cars (at all), but I will sorely miss cooking on a flame. I hope when the day comes I can afford a monster of an induction cooktop.
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1 hour ago, Smithy said:
Oddly enough, I've had much better success with their cod, slightly better success with their halibut, and excellent success with the sablefish. What's odd about it is that I'll take salmon every time over a white fish for flavor...but hey, I'm finding ways to cook those white fish so that we both like it!
They have cod, halibut, and sablefish at Wild Alaskan? I mustn't have looked carefully at the website. That would be great news.
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2 hours ago, palo said:
Okay, my take on the AGA - back in the day in England when central heating was uncommon the stove not only heated your food but also your house - nowadays I think its more a nostalgic thing (and a thing of beauty as well) the newer ones do not have to be "on" all the time, but with their huge mass it would take a while for the oven to come to temp, whereas the new top burners being gas work just as normal
I stand to be corrected on any or all of my previous observations
p
Also back in the day ... that Aga sales manual assumes many households will have a full-time cook in residence. Suggesting that the stove will get used for 3 meals a day every day, making it slightly more credible that keeping the thing hot 24/7 wouldn't be a colossal energy waste.
https://www.agamarvel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/aga_ogilvy_booklet.pdf
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On 6/29/2021 at 8:17 AM, Smithy said:
Here's my first test of the Wild Alaskan shipment. I thawed 3 packages of Coho Salmon. Each package was around 6 oz worth of fish. @rotuts, I took a picture of each piece on edge, so you could see that at the thickest they were around 1" thick. I think these must be from nearer the head, or at least not near the tail. Can you tell from these shots?
These fillets are glazed with salt water as the spot prawns were that @KennethT mentioned above. I took a cue from him and thawed the fish in salty water in the refrigerator. Was that useful or helpful? I don't know. The package instructions simply say to remove from the packaging and thaw under refrigeration. As it happened, I'd snapped the photos above when family called from out of town. We went out to dinner. The salmon were still icy in places the next morning, so the refrigerator thaw in salt water is indeed a slow and gentle method.
When I pulled the fillets out to start cooking the fish flesh was VERY soft, almost mealy. Was that because of the long, slow thaw and hold in salty water? Should I have simply left them in a covered dish without the water? I've noticed that texture with some salmon in the past. I don't remember whether it's been a particular variety of salmon. I'll ask Wild Alaskan and see what they have to say.
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Was this salmon better than we could have gotten at the store? I don't know, but it was at least as good: beautifully frozen, very fresh tasting. I'll ask Wild Alaskan about the texture and the proper thawing method, and report back.
We've been ordering from Wild Alaskan for a few months and have been happy with the results (except for a salmon burger that seemed riddled with parasites ... we're now sticking to the Sockeye and Coho fillets).
I haven't experienced any mealy texture. I did try thawing in salt water in the fridge (an experiment in simultaneous thawing and brining) and it took so long as to not be worth it. I believe the best way to thaw is right in the cryovac packaging in cool water. Thaw it rapidly, then open the packages, cover and hold in the coldest part of the fridge until you cook. The company does not recommend this; but when I spoke to them on the phone the rep did not seem to know anything about food, food chemistry / biology, or cooking. Just wrote instructions.
I suspect they fear that customers might leave foot vacuum sealed at temperatures that could allow activation and growth of anaerobic bacteria, which would be bad. But if you make sure that the fish doesn't get much above freezing, and then expose it to air if you have to hold more than a few hours, there will be zero risk of this.
So far I've cooked with and without brining (seafood is the only thing I brine ... it firms the texture and reduces oozing albumin), both sous-vide and in a pan. I can get closer to perfect gradient-free results sous-vide, but the improvement is usually not worth the added time & effort & plastic. So usually I just thaw, bring to room temperature, dry the surface with paper towels, dust with salt and wondra flour (an Eric Rippert trick for perfectly crisp skin) and throw skin-down in a very hot pan with generous amounts of neutral oil. After it browns I turn the heat low, flip, and when the center looks almost perfect, transfer to warmed plates, skin-up. I give my girlfriend's fillet about a minute longer than my own. I like it melt-in-your-mouth tender (~43°C); she likes it a little firmer.
Overall I'm quite happy with the quality. It's in the same league as what I can get at the 2 or 3 best fish shops in NYC. Much better than what I can get conveniently. I just wish they had more kinds of fish. I understand there are some tasty things in the sea besides salmon.
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My dad's old boss, David Ogilvy, started his advertising career by selling these things door-to-door. He then wrote the sales manual that the company continued using for decades. Considering how expensive and ungainly these things are, I'm rather awed by the guy's gift for
B.S.rhetoric.-
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I'm curious. Dave Arnold is not full of B.S. ... I've been following his escapades for years and am indebted for quite a bit of useful (if sometimes esoteric) teachings. But the thing is large, and I don't have room for one-trick ponies, unless it's a really impressive trick. I also wish it were cheaper. Version 1 just looked too slow to be useful in real life. If this one's much better, I'll keep a cautious eye on it.
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On 10/29/2021 at 8:58 PM, Nyleve Baar said:
I am not an expert and I have not tried this myself. But years ago I read an article somewhere that said you can turn the cheapest nastiest vodka into something as good as the good stuff by running it through a Brita filter several times. So go ahead someone. Let me know if it works.
I read that. It involved a blind test with a bunch of people including bartenders and liquor industry reps, so it sounded legit. Needs to be mentioned that by "good stuff" they meant vodkas that had done well in their previous blind tasting—which did not correspond with price or reputation or top-shelfiness. Typically Smirnoff wins blind tests because it isn't as offensive tasting as most when you drink it straight. Many of the top shelf brands are just badly distilled swill. None of them has enough flavor (good or bad) to make a difference once you mix them with coke or cool aid or cranberry juice or whatever else people do with these things.
I think the really flavorful ones (like the potato vodka I mentioned earlier) are outliers that don't make it into typical blind tastings. If they did they might be polarizing. If you like them, you wouldn't be able to mimic them by pouring Grey Goose into a Brita. But you might be able to make the potato vodka taste like Smirnof.
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I've had some tasty vodka. It wasn't the usually (bad-tasting) top-shelf stuff. It was a Polish potato vodka that one of my grandmother's friends had brought her from Eastern Europe. It had an earthy, potato-ey flavor that was really nice. It wouldn't make much sense for mixing. But I can see being in the mood to drink it straight. I assume from the flavor that it had neither been filtered nor distilled many times, but had been made from some kind of mash that tasted good to begin with.
For parties, for people who want to mix vodka with ... whatever ... I buy the big bottle of whatever's cheapest.
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9 hours ago, weinoo said:
I need more than perfectly decent if something is gonna take up that much room.
My favorite feature on these things is the broiler. It's great for crisping things up in a hurry, especially the kinds of leftovers that will come out too steamed and soggy in the microwave. Also great for things like grilled cheese / croquet Monsieurs. The bake feature is nice for small portions when you don't want to fire up the real oven.
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I've occasionally grabbed a Victorinox utility knife for this and it works great—better than any actual steak knife I've used. Things marketed as steak knives are usually serrated and dull. They'd be great at cutting sheetrock for putting in electrical fixtures. But they just tear up meat.
Usually we just use regular table knives. If they couldn't cut the steak then I'd be worried I'm serving tough meat. But to make things even easier on diners, something with a blade like the Forschner/Victorinox utility knives would be perfect. They're fairly cheap, have good steel, good geometry, and you keep them in shape with a nice aggressive edge just by hitting them with a butchers' steel. You'll have to do this regularly, because the steel isn't hard, and steak knives lead a life of abuse (cutting against ceramic plates, etc.) Are the Victorinox steak knives similar to the utility blades?
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Serendipitous timing that this thread is back from the dead. 3 years later our Breville smart(ish) oven is dying. The bottom heating elements only come on when they feel like it, resulting in jeckyl/hyde slices of toast. And it's started shrieking at us. It sounds like a bad fan bearing, but we see no evidence that there's a fan anywhere in there. It's not a convection model. Nothing deep in the bowels looks fan-like. So I can only conclude that it's either haunted, angry, or in some kind of deep psychic pain.
At first we could distract it back into quiet servitude with a crisp zen slap. But after a while it needed multiple slaps. Eventually it needed one or more full-on haymaker punches, right to the midsection. Now it's dented, madder than ever, and defiant—violence no longer works at all.
The happy news: Breville has offered to fix it. It's way out of warranty, but our story must have made them feel sorry for us. I suspect fixing it will take a long time, and we don't want to be without a toaster oven (the untoasted life being not worth living, etc.). So we've ordered a new one. Same model, to test our luck. When it shows up, we'll send the old one for repairs, and when that eventually comes back we'll give it to someone.
Someone who likes toast, and doesn't mind a slight fist-shaped dent.
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No, but I've saved the dry trimmings from dry aged beef and frozen it, thinking maybe it could be used for something. Maybe steeping them in hot water or melted butter to infuse some of that funk. Haven't tried yet.
Odd that they're selling tenderloin fat. There isn't much fat there, and people don't usually age tenderloin separately (if you did there'd be hardly anything left).
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5 hours ago, CentralMA said:
My understanding is that Garland attempted to enter the consumer market but shortly after decided to step back, at that time Prizer-Painter Stove Works got into an agreement to take over the endeavor, keeping the open burner configuration.
But I may be wrong, I usually am. Just ask my wife, she'll tell you.
I think that's about right. Garland had Prizer making their residential ranges from 1991 to around 2002 (at least 2002 is when Prizer took over the business and launched the Bluestar brand). They did get to hang onto some of Garland's IP to make the burners. But the burners aren't identical; they don't even look alike, aside from the star shape.
I don't know exactly why Garland got out of the home business. Just about everyone does. I think if you're used to selling equipment and services to businesses, dealing with homeowners is just too big a big a pain in the ass. The rules are different. And also Garland changed ownership many times over the years; this might have coincided with it.
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44 minutes ago, heidih said:
I think it was @paulraphael who brought up a pet peeve and a good concern. One - the damn glass window - hard to clean (my Bosch is 2 layers and aerosolized whatever gets in there. Useless as any cooking update. Why?? Two - small pans falling through grates - who'd have thought but I've cooked on nice stoves and had to micromanage location of pot to avoid tilt.
I've shattered the windows by spilling water on them when they're at roasting / bread baking temps.
They also make ovens heat unevenly. Glass doesn't radiate as much heat as dark enameled steel. It's just physics. This is the main reason ovens usually brown better in the back, especially at high temperatures.
The Decor we just got has one of the better grates as far as keeping things from tipping over. Not perfect but pretty good. Bluestar could be improved here. Some of the worst grates we looked at were on the Bosch and a couple of Italian ranges (Bertazzoni, Verona).
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I've infused ground coffee into milk and cream for making coffee ice cream. It's possible to get much better flavor than you'd ever get from instant coffee. But it's got to be coffee that has flavors that you like, and you need to get the infusion times and temperatures right. I outline some of my methods (product of a lot of trial and error)in a coffee ice cream post. Sweetened condensed milk is probably going to change things up quite a bit, due to the higher concentrations of everything. Also, sugar syrup is a powerful solvent for some compounds. This might affect the flavor balance you get from the coffee, and possibly even the amount of coffee you need to use. I think it's worth experimenting, at least if coffee is a dominant flavor in what you're doing, and you've got some time to kill. And some good coffee.
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11 minutes ago, Marya said:
The BlueStar's appeal is that it has the same burners Garland was lauded for. I've had my BS range top for 16 years. No issues with grill, griddle or burners.
I just saw a video where a Bluestar rep confirmed what I'd suspected: when the company split off from Garland, they negotiated to keep the star burner intellectual property. Those burners are the darlings of the commercial range world. Bluestar added their own refinements to get the things to simmer.
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18 hours ago, MassWineGuy said:
So, can anyone make further suggestions for a stove?
TL;DR is that there's no perfect option, and you'll need to figure out which compromises are best for you.
A piece of advice I'm glad I took was to go to a big appliance store and look at things in person. Don't rely 100% on advice and online research. For example, we discovered that some ranges have grate patterns that are so open, a small sauce pan could easily tip over if you're not careful. This wouldn't be obvious from pictures and no one talks about it. Some ranges felt much flimsier than others.
I'd keep an open mind toward induction. It's the future. Gas appliances are going to be phased out of existence, probably in the next 10 years. It wasn't an option for us; our building doesn't have the electrical capacity for electric ranges. And I'm stubbornly nostalgic about cooking on fire, and don't want to eBay my copper pans. But the revolution is coming.
Commercial ranges: no. This has been a pipe dream for many of us, but once you do the research, it seems crazy. Reasons:
1. They're not as cheap as they used to be
2. Even the nicest ones look like industrial equipment (maybe this is a plus for you. I'm ok with it, most aren's)
3. They are 6" to 10" deeper than your counters
4. To make them safe, you will need a full-powered commercial hood, oversized, with makeup air ventilation.
5. You will also need to build a certified non-combustible firewall behind it. This alone will more than kill any cost savings.
6. You'll need at least a foot of clearance between it and any combustible cabinetry.
7. Kids, pets, and the unwary will burn themselves on the oven door.
8. Your homeowner's insurance company will laugh at you and walk out of the room
9. Authorized service people will probably refuse to work on it in your home.
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23 minutes ago, weinoo said:
Methinks you thinks to the point of overthinking things (sometimes). It's almost a solution looking for a problem. I've never caught anything on fire, neither here nor when I was cooking on a line. (Admittedly, you're a lot taller than me).
Anyway, the other 3 burners on my range are only 15K BTU's, so I refuse to self-immolate. Also, the broiler works great, and the temp is spot on and consistently even in the oven, which are, of course, just a couple of other considerations.
And - it has red knobs and a matching hood.
If not wanting my side towel to burst into flames means I'm overthinking, then you are a cooler cat than I.
(This is not a towel draped rakishly over my shoulder, but the one on the pan handle that lets me pick it up)
cocktail set
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
And because they don't melt into the drink, they can't get the drink anywhere near as cold. So this kind of thing is used more for cooling scotch (or something similar) just a bit. Not for really chilling a drink like you do when stirring or shaking.