paulraphael

I like the spatulas and the oven mits. The mits sit in a drawer most of the time, but when I roast at 500+ degrees they're the only thing that works. I've singed cotton, melted microfiber, and burned myself through three layers of side towel. Even with the mits, if the roasting pan is heavy and hot you gotta move fast!

The conversation makes me wonder if anyone uses egg whites to clarify stocks used for glaces or concentrated jus. My stocks tend to get a bit clouded during the straining process All the stuff that accumulates at the bottom of the stockpot roars through the coarse chinois, and in a heartbeat clouds up the stock. I suppose if ladeled the liquid stock off of the sediment the problem would be avoided, but there's so much of it down there, and it harbors so much stock, that I hate to throw it out. So I've wondered about clarifying with egg whites/other protein after defating. I've never made a consomme, so I don't know how much flavor is lost and if it would be worth it.

Peter Reinhart recommends using some kind of spray oil for several stages of the bread making process. I made do without it back when I was getting into bread, but would probably try one of those mistos if I got started again.

sorry, no idea. we don't have one. the stoppers for the drain look like run of the mill ones.

One possibility is what my landlord did. He bought a used restaurant double sink, cut the legs off of it, and mounted it in the counter. Similar utilitarian faucet. I don't know how much it cost, but I see used dishwashing sinks by the dozen at the restaurant stores. Can't be that much.

Does anyone make a scale that works with bakers' percentages? It seems like such an obvious feature: weigh your flour, establish it as the 100% ingredient, and hit tare. Then every other ingredient gets measured in percentages instead of grams. Instant, mindless recipe scaling.

I ordered a My Weigh, but chose the i5000 based on recommendations from Old Will Knot and this Cooking for Engineers article: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/82/Kitchen-Scales I'll let you know how it is. Thanks for the feedback.

I just remembered Kampuchea ... there was a thread about the place a while back. I liked the food when I went, and liked the atmosphere more than the standard chinatown, mass chaos experience. We went as a party of two and I didn't get a sense of the seating. Can anyone recall if they had room for a big crowd?

For these purposes, if starving artists could get a full belly for under $40 (not including wine).

... and preferably downtown. I'm planning a birthday dinner next saturday, and the guest list has swelled to about 12. Landmarc couldn't take us at one table. Otto insists on a special group tasting menu for parties of 12 or more, which might not be to everyone's liking. And I don't know what will happen if people bale. Any recommendations? I'd better make the reservation today ...

The other threads on digital scales are a few years old. I figure info on anything electronic has an expiration date. So. ny old darkroom scale has done a pretty good job weighing chocolate and butter, but is limited to 300 grams. I'd like something that can handle 5kg or so, is simple, easy to clean, works with any bowl, and has whatever kitchen features people think are useful (all I've ever used is Tare, but maybe there's something else I don't know about?) People seem to like My Weigh scales (in spite of the name). Thoughts?

Yeah, I know I'd use it, but not all that fast. And it's more $$$ than I want to have tied up in chocolate investments! Anyone in the NYC area want to split 5kg of Cluizel Los Anacones? We can meet in a hotel room with a laboratory balance to divide it. No guns, no wires

I can agree with that, no problem. I go ice climbing every weekend I can, which from a survival standpoint is arguably less clever than eating tuna every day. But I worry that people are making poor evaluations of the risk when they make casual comparisons between mercury and donuts. If you've seriously evaluated the risks, then no should bully you for your decision.

I don't have a good feeling about braising a hanger. Like most steaks it's lean and doesn't have much collagen. This is a recipe for a seriously dried out piece of meat.

Comparing this to things like cholesterol or saturated fats is to wildly miss the point. We're talking about mercury levels of over 1 part per million. This is legitemately scary. It's not about a minor risk of unpleasant illness, like eColi, or health effects that can be easily managed through reasonable diet, like saturated fats. This is a neurotoxin that accumulates in the body. longterm effects can be devastating. Is anyone talking about where the mercury is coming from, and what could be done about it? In the mean time, maybe a little hysteria will help curb the overfishing of large tuna species.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I'd need some better storage than I have now before investing in a 5kg block. Someone in another thread suggested freezing it. Is this legit?

Fugu, I'm sorry if I came of as calling you lazy; it wasn't my intent. I was just taking your word for it that many restaurant kitchens do it the way you described (with clarified butter) for the reasons you described (convenience).

If a kitchen is using the sauce as a blank canvas (in other words, to be seasoned with liquid flavorings, as with bearnaise family sauces) then I agree with you that clarified butter is the best option. I've already said so. But if we're talking about straight hollandaise, and it's being used for reasons you described earlier ... "For practical reasons, the professional kitchens I've worked in, always use clarrified butter. Line stations always have clarrified butter containers constantly fed throughout service" ... then it sounds like the priority is on convenience, not flavor or texture.

Seems more likely that using clarified butter is the lazy way, based on Fugu's post. The decision in at least some commercial kitchens seems to be based on convenience: they happen to have a ton of clarified butter at the ready. If flavor or texture is your priority (and if you're not adding addtional liquid, as you would for a bearnaise family sauce) then there's no reason I can imagine for using clarified butter.

Amazing, Pam, thanks. I just checked icaviar, and can barely believe they have cluizel chocolate for $10/lb. Not that I have a good excuse for buying a 5kg block of anything, but I'm looking for one.

I don't have Careme's cookbook ... Escoffier says to use softened or melted whole butter.

Well, you could argue that there are times to use clarified butter and times not to. Clarified butter doesn't taste as good as whole butter. And it has no water content, so the sauce will be denser (more like mayo). For a normal hollandaise most would consider this a flaw. But if you're making a hollandaise family sauce with a liquid infusion (like bearnaise) then you pretty much have to use clarified butter, or the sauce will be too runny. Another option is melted whole butter. This won't form as stable an emulsion as solid whole butter that's whisked in, but it will give you the airiest texture, because you don't have to work it as hard (which deflates the sabayon). Melted whole butter gives you better flavor than clarified. And solid whole butter does work well, if you use good technique (forget the double boiler and throw it together fast on medium to medium-high heat). You'll have the most stable foam this way.

I believe you can get a depth of flavor from melted chocolate that you can't get from cocoa. Some of the best, high end cocoa powders can let you come close, but for some reason they're not the same. There are also texture differences. Cocoa powder works like a starch and builds structure in a way that chocolate doesn't, so cocoa brownies tend to be chewy. I spent several months developing brownie recipes, with the goal of maximizing chocolate and minimizing everything else. In the end what worked best was to use primarily melted chocolate, but to substitute cocoa for some of the flour. This works well, because chocolate is a tenderizing ingredient (because of the cocoa butter), and dark chocolates tend to require more structure building ingredients to keep the brownies from falling apart. Using a bit of cocoa helps minimize the amount of inert ingredients (like flour) and still get the structure you need.

I've found some recipes that finish the toast in the pan, and some that finish in the oven. What are the pros/cons of each? I'd rather have it crisp than puddinglike.

I'd like to start making French toast on weekday mornings, for the traditional reason: an endless bounty of stale bread. But I'm not crazy things that taste stronggly of eggs. Are there any basic recipes for French toast that don't taste much more eggy than pancakes or crepes? I'm looking for a basic template that's versatile and will have good texture, and that can easily be modified for different flavors. I'm new to this ... last time I French toast was probably when my mom made it. Thoughts?