paulraphael

I love a well made brothlike sauce ... there's something about the freshness and directness of flavor that gets muted when a sauce is thickened (by any method). It's definitely a different mindset. The right kind of plate/bowl makes a big difference. And of course, a SPOON. I've noticed a trend of restaurants making me ask for a spoon. Even thick sauces are hard to sample with a fork, and I've never liked to sop up sauces with bread. It deadens them with starch. Gimme a spoon, and gimme sauce. It's the only utensile I need 90% of the time. Rant over. Back to broth-like sauces, I think it's helpful to think of thickness as a continuum. You can find some great consistencies in the range between creamy traditonal sauces and watery broths. Sometimes just 1/4 teaspoon of arrowroot in a quart of sauce, or little bit of reduction of gelatinous stock, can give some of the best qualities of both broth and traditional sauce. But don't forget the spoon.

Depending on the pans and stove you use, the batter can have a pretty negligible effect. (except on butter ... butter will burn without pancakes on the surface to cool it. I can imagine that with lighter pans or an amemic stove this would be an issue. A pan won't just keep getting hotter ad infinitum. It always reaches a point of equilibrium, which is the temperature at which it's radiating heat (into the air, the room, the food) at the same rate that it's taking it on from the stove. What's at issue is the difference in rate that batter absorbs heat from the pan vs. the air alone. It sounds like in your experience there's a big difference. In mine not so much. I can walk away from the pan (either a 5 lb copper pan or a 6 lb aluminum slab griddle) for five minutes and throw some more batter on it and not have any issues (except maybe some burned butter). For whatever reasons, the pan/stove combinations that I've used don't see that much difference between batter and no batter.

Next time you make your stock, it would be helpful to put some more gelatinous bones in the stock. If you can get some chicken feet, and maybe even a bunch of wings, that would help a lot. So would pigs feet. And being more generous with the meat/bones in general would help. Be wary of over-reducing. It's a way to get a nice consistency from gelatinous stock, but there are prices to pay. You lose a LOT of flavor, especially the subtler, brighter, more aromatic flavor compounds. And too much reduced gelatin can be gluey; it can stick your teeth together, and congeal on the plate before you're done eating. It's worth while to look into other ways to thicken and enrichen stocks, so you're not dependent on reduction alone. I like simmering some meatier cuts in the stock at the end for enrichment. Arrowroot is one of my favorite thickeners, as long as you don't overdo it. James Peterson's Sauces book is the best resource I've seen.

Steve, your hypothesis fits my experience exactly. Which I hope doesn't mean I'll start itching for an infra red thermometer anytime soon. There is one other complication: the ideal temperature depends on the nature of the batter. If you're always playing with different recipes, you'll end up with batters that loft to different heights, and sometimes only trial and error will find that perfect temperature. Even when I'm not changing recipes, I find the batter changes from one batch to another. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I'm not weighing ingredients, or maybe it's humidity, or the gods expressing displeasure. But I find on the occasions when the first ones bomb, it has to do with funky batter and not any kind of karma with the pan.

it seems to me the long preheat isn't about getting the pan screamingly hot (in fact it's easy to get it too hot if the fire's too high) but about getting the temperature thoroughly even. Even a heavy copper or aluminum pan or griddle will take a several minutes for the edges to get as hot as they'll get relative to the middle. Less of an issue if you're using a small pan, but that would make me crazier than just waiting a few extra minutes in the beginning.

It would be nice if there was enough market pressure to get the best growers to go organic (and the best chocolate makers to promise fair trade practices ...) Currently, none of the organic chocolate that I've had is any good, which seems to support what you're saying. I should add that I know nothing about chocolate plantations, or if there's anything particularly difficult about growing good chocolate organically.

This is presumably due to the oils in the chocolate coming out of emulsion over time and evaporating (sublimating?), right? That makes sense. What kind of time scale are we talking about here? Weeks? Months? Years? ← Best guess would be months. Storage conditions probably have a lot to do with it; I live with very little climate control so things can get pretty unfriendly for chocolate in my pantry.

No issues with it getting gluey when it cools off a bit? That's an issue I sometimes have with sauces that have piles of gelatin.

Agreed. Except for the agonizing part, because I find that the batter needs time to rest too ... maybe because the baking powder needs time to activate; I don't know. So it's simple to kill both chunks of time concurrently. Finish mixing the batter, turn up the fire, and wait five minutes. There are plenty of things I can clean up in that time. I might also be waiting for the oven to warm up (with a couple of plates inside) for those same minutes.

I notice a couple of things with old chocolate: it starts to smell more like dust than like chocolate, and the smooth, melt-in-your mouth texture becomes more chalky and crumbly.

Reviving this thread from the murky depths. I've been on a stock and glace bender, and have been researching and experimenting (involving quite a few ideas stolen shamelessly from Mikeb19, James Peterson, and Harold McGee. It's been a departure, since my previous concoctions were all variations on the basic Escoffier approach. I went back to Peterson's Sauces book and found reference to techniques similar to ones Mikeb19 mentions in this thread. I was also intrigued by Peterson's description of the 18th Century techniques of reusing braising liquid to braise another piece of meat, and then another ... the origins of the naturally thick and flavorfull coulis that chefs tried to immitate with demiglace, after the revolution. The technique I'm using is similar to Mike's, where browned meat is simmered in stock that gets replenished as it reduces. But I'm simmering the meat in multiple batches, which allows the meat to stock ratio in the pot to stay fairly high, and more importantly, allows at least some of the juices extracted from the meat to escape long cooking. I believe that natural jus tastes fresher and more rounded than reduced stocks largely because they haven't been cooked as much. The results of this approach seem to support the idea. My early attempts are promising ... easily the best glace/sauce base I've ever had, for whatever that's worth. I haven't had the pleasure of tasting a glace made by any great chefs (I've had sauces made by a couple of them, but I can't divinate what the individual components were like). But I've made some classic recipes, including some thoroughly unreasonable ones that would only make sense if the manor lord were buying the groceries. This beats them, in my limited experience and opinion. This approach is about as time consuming as the classical ones. I counted 21 hours from stock to glace, spread over a couple of days. But it's cheaper. It uses bone stock, and a lot less meat than I'm used to using. When the meat is added at the end of the process, it seems to contribute a lot more. Full recipe is here: http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r2081.html Still a work in progress; I'd be curious to hear any feedback.

Beef Coulis (Jus de Boeuf) contemporary demiglace This is my substitute for classical demiglace; it's useful when the flavor of a meaty, clean, naturally thickened beef jus is appropriate. It combines the intense flavor of 18th century meat coulis with the improved science of contemporary jus infusions. Time requirements are similar to a classical demiglace; food cost is much less. It's not a neutral sauce base; this version will have a strong beef flavor. To make other versions, you can start with a white veal stock and use different meats (pork, veal, etc.) to make meat-specific jus. The recipe is a substitute for demiglace, not glace de viande. It is based on a reduction to roughly a third the original stock volume. I prefer it more lightly bound than most demiglace, with greater intensity of flavor, but a thinner consistency, bound by gelatin. It can be thickened further at the end with arrowroot, if you like, or left loose, for individual sauces to be thickend a la minute. I haven't included a stock recipe. It will work with any standard bone stock, using beef or veal bones, as long as it contains adequate gelatin. I make mine with roasted knuckle bones, half beef, half veal. Yield is about 3 quarts. Total time (not including stock making!) is around 8 hours. 9 qt brown bone stock 6 lb defatted beef trimmings, beef chuck, or beef stew meat 2-1/2 oz butter (5TB) 1/2 medium onion 1/2 celery root 2 sprigs thyme 1 bay leaf 1 small bunch parsley 1-1/2 tsp arrowroot starch 2 T cold water (aprox. for arrowroot slurry) This is easiest with two pans: a 10 to 12" sauté pan, and 6 or 7 quart saucepan or dutch oven. - divide meat into three equal 2lb portions. meat will be incorporated in three stages; vegetables and garni will be incorporated in the last two of these. - consolodate stock into one container and place near stove Stage 1: -cut the first portion of the meat into rough 1" cubes -sear in a very hot sauté pan in brown butter (pan should be hot enough to brown the butter by the time the meat goes in). be sure to brown on all sides. it's ok if beef renders juices and starts to steam; let it cook until juices reduce and brown. -add 1 to 2 cups stock to meat, and thoroughly scrape bottom to deglaze drippings. keep heat high and reduce stock until it browns again. -with tongs, transfer meat to saucepan. cover meat with approx. 3 quarts of the stock. crank heat. do not wash sauté pan between stages (any remaining fond on bottom will help brown the meat on following stages). -pour off fat frome sauté pan. deglaze with a small amount of water and pour into saucepan. -when stock starts to simmer, turn heat low to maintain simmer, and slide pot back so flame strikes off center. -simmer about 2 hours. -skim every 5 minutes for the first 20 mintues, and every 20 minutes thereafter. rotate pan 1/4 turn every 20 minutes. -periodically add more stock to maintain the stock level. it's done when you've used all but 3-1/2 quarts of the stock. -turn the heat very low while preparing for stage 2. -remove meat from stock; allow to cool and then freeze. stage should take about 2-3/4 hours. Stage 2: -cut the second portion of the meat into rough 1" cubes -sear as before in brown butter. -deglaze as before with 1 to 2 cups stock; reduce and brown; transfer meat to saucepan and ad to the saucepan with the partially prepared coulis. turn up heat. -defat and deglaze sauté pan as before with a small amount of water and pour into saucepan. -add 1/2 of the thyme and 1/2 of the bay leaf. -coarsely chop 1/2 of the onion (1/4 onion) and 1/2 of the remaining celery root (1/4) celery root). -reheat sauté pan over medium flame, being careful not to burn any remaining pan drippings. -cook onion and celery root until onion is translucent. -add a small amount of water to pan with vegetables and deglaze; add contents to saucepan. -simmer as before for about 2 hours, skimming often in the beginning and every 20 minutes thereafter. continue to rotate pan and replenish stock to maintain level. it's done when you've used all but 1/2 quart of the stock. -turn the heat very low while preparing for stage 3. -remove meat from stock; allow to cool and then freeze. stage should take about 2-3/4 hours. Stage 3: -add the rest of the thyme and bay leaf, and add parsely (pin parsely under some of the meat so it stays out of the way) -coarsely chop the remaining onion and celery root. -reheat sauté pan over medium flame, being careful not to burn any remaining pan drippings. -cook onion and celery root in butter until onion is translucent. -add a small amount of water to pan with vegetables and deglaze; add contents to saucepan. -cut the second portion of the meat into rough 1" cubes -sear as before in butter. -deglaze pan with water (enough to cover the meat halfway). reduce and brown. -repeat with another portion of water -deglaze pan with half the remaining stock, and any added water needed to cover the meat half way. reduce and brown. transfer meat to the saucepan. defat if necessary, and deglaze the sauté pan with with the last of the stock. pour into saucepan. -simmer only 20 minutes or so, this time very gently. start checking flavor and consistency after 10 minutes. skim and rotate pan as before. -remove meat as before. freeze this batch of meat separately; it's going to taste better than the more overcooked batches. - test thickness of coulis on cold plate. if you want to thicken it more, make a slurry with 1-1/2 tsp arrowroot powder and some cold water (1/2 tsp arrowroot per quart of coulis). whisk in and simmer for 3 minutes. strive for a bit less thickness than traditional demi. test thickness by spooning onto a cool plate. add more arrowroot if needed, the same way, 1/2 tsp at a time. simmer a few minutes, and check again. - strain through fine chinois or strainer lined with 2 thicknesses of cheesecloth - cool in stainless bowls in a water bath, as before, and refrigerate overnight. stage should take about 2-1/2 hours. - defat and warm (to liquefy), and distribute in small increments increments in ziplock bags. for very small portions of sauce, freeze some coulis in an ice cube tray. freeze. freeze ice cube tray covered in plastic wrap. then store several cubes each in ziplock bags. ice cubes are a little over a half ounce—1 cup per tray. Keywords: Beef, Expert, Sauce ( RG2081 )

Microfiber is a 100% synthetic product. Anything that is advertised as a non-poly alternative to microfiber is not going to give you the performance of microfiber. And if it's blended with cotton, you are going to lose the benefits of no lint, no scratch, high absorbency, quick drying, etc. If you want cotton, go with cotton... ← Any textile with 1 denier or smaller fibers can be called microfiber. There are a lot of cotton microfiber and nylon microfiber products out there. My sense is that when something called microfiber, with no other qualifier, then it's typically the 80/20 poly-nylon blend.

I wrote above that microfiber towels are polyester ... but it turns out only some of them are. Next purchase will be cotton ones, so they can be used on hot pans without worrying about melting them. If anyone finds a good source of white, 16x16 cotton microfiber towels in bulk (10 or more for cheap) I'd love to hear about it.

Same places I'd recommend for meat: Florence Prime Meats (corner of Jones and w. 4th), and Otomanelli (corner of bleeker and jones). A block apart. I generally go to Florence for beef, Otomanelli for specialty meats (heritage pork, etc.). Both have higher quality and better prices than the butchers in the good grocery stores (Jefferson Market, Whole Foods, Citarella, etc. etc.). Quality is probably not quite at the Lobels level, but prices are nowhere near theirs either. Last weekend I bought 6lbs of veal knuckles, 6lbs of beef knuckles, and 5lbs of beef chuck and trimmings for a total of just over $50. I think the veal bones were $2/lb; the beef $1.50. The resulting demi/jus de boeuf should last at least 6 months. $9/month seems like a pretty good price for all the ensuing deliciousness (assuming, as my employer does, that my time isn't worth much). Off the top of my head, I'd try one of the Western Beef outlets; perhaps Big Apple Meats; any one of a dozen Chinese meat shops in Chinatown (these often sell bags of chicken bones for making stock); or any one of the dozen or so full-service butchers (my local is Oppenheimer Prime Meats). Might not hurt to check with Whole Foods either. ←

Yeah, I'm a convert to the microfiber. Found some at WS a few years ago (which means I probably paid twice as much as necessary). I have about four of them, but would be better served with a stack of a couple of dozen. Mine have the waffle pattern on them, which works fine. I think I like the finer textured kind better, though (a friend had some of these). I'd like to find a good bulk source. Only concern with these towels is that they're polyester, which melts at 480°F. I do plenty of roasting at hgher temps than that. I have a couple of orkas for reaching into a blazing oven, but a lot of times the roasting pan ends up on the stove, and I don't like having to think about what side towel I can use on what pan. So I might keep a few dry cotton ones on the oven door for grabbing pans, and then find a place, somewhere, to stack the microfiber. Dirty ones are easy ... I just hurl them onto the floor in the corner, and they go into the laundry when I'm done.

A chicken in pieces in a 12" non stick in a 375º oven takes 35 or 40 mins... If the exhaust fan works well 400+º works faster,, At 500° roasted chicken takes about 10 minutes per pound, whole. That's 40 minutes for a 4lb bird, no butchering required. I've never set off the smoke alarm. No nonstick nuthin' ... a skillet is the perfect size. stainless interior is the easiest for deglazing. no need for a rack. put the bird on a thin bed of coarsely chopped onions or other mirepoix. The best chickens I've ever had were made by this method. the most important trick is to pad the breast with a doubled layer of foil for the first half of the cooking time. this insures that the white/dark meat are perfectly cooked. or you can do what the french did a hundred years ago and bard the breast meat with bacon, for the same purpose. bacon is a bit tastier than foil, but i don't usually have it around.

my favorite dessert this time of year is roasted pears. peel, core and halve them, put them in a single layer in a roasting pan that can go on the stove, pile on some sliced butter and sprinkle with sugar. put in an oven, somewhere between 350 and 500 degrees (the softer and riper the pears, the shorter and hotter the cooking) pull out when the pears are meltingly soft and the sugar/pear juices have started to caramelize on the bottom of the pan (20 minutes to an hour or so). set pears aside, put pan on stove on high heat, and deglaze with some cream. disolve all the butter and pan drippings into the cream. reduce until you like the consistency. finish with some cognac or poire william if you like. simmer to take the edge off the alcohol. strain. serve pear halves plated on a small pool of sauce.

You could make a delicious but not necessarily authentic curry... -Quarter the chicken, brown it in a large saute pan or rondeaux (in oil/ghee/clarified butter). take the chicken out and set aside. -add some more oil to the pan, and toss in your spices of choice (like cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, mustard, tumeric, etc.) cook in oil until fragrant. -throw in a couple of chopped onions, cook a bit, then some chopped tomato (canned is fine) -add a little stock (if you have it) and some heavy cream. deglaze anything stuck to the bottom of the pan. put the browned chicken back in and simmer gently til it's cooked through. -(optional) take the chicken out, let it cool, and pull the meat off the bones with your fingers. throw the meat into the pot and turn up heat until the chicken is warmed through. also optional: finish with some garam masala.

I cooked pasta at 11,600 feet once. It wasn't pretty.

what do you use it for, and why? light makes a difference because it changes your perception of how unwieldy it is. it doesn't help you if the problem is cramped workspace, but if you don't have enough room to manage even an 8" knife, you got worse problems than just choosing the right knife.

The Japanese knives tend to be so light that they feel shorter than they are. I don't see any reason at all to go below 8" (210mm) with one of these. A too short chef's knife just cripples your technique ... it keeps you from getting the benefits of the knife.

I have this problem when I've been too enthusiastic about greasing the pan or griddle. The pancakes get slippery, and fall off the turner before I want them to. Whatever they lose from the crash damage gets made up for by the extra butter flavor. A griddle is a beautiful thing. I used to use a big pan; now I use a griddle inherited from my grandmother. It's a commercial thing, bare aluminum, about 1/8" thick (pretty heavy). It fits over 2 burners and handles 6 pancakes at a time, without a lot of crowding. You don't have to be a genius with accurate flips to avoid collisions.

Some reasons for a longer knife ... -as you said, it can more efficiently go through a big pile of things. but that may or may not be important. -it can slice more efficiently. even something as small as an apple can be hard to slice all the way through in a single stroke with a 6" blade. your goal is to pass through the food in one slice, without changing directions. every time you saw back and forth, you tear the flesh of the food. slicing something as small as 3 inches with a 6" knife gives you a maximum of 3" to move the knife. But in reality you have less, because the steeply curved part by the tip is less useful for slicing. with such a small knife you will end up sawing back and forth and demolishing a lot of food instead of slicing it. -it lets you chop with less fatigue. the shorter the knife, the steeper the angle that you need to tilt it (and your wrist) to raise the back of the knife high enough to clear the food. a long knife allows a much more relaxed motion. I think your biggest issues are handle size, knife weight, and balance. Some knives just work better for small hands than others. In a European knife, I strongly recommend the Messermeister chef's knives. I bought the 8" version of this knife for both my mom and my girlfriend. If you prefer a Japanese knife, there are many that are extremely light and have small handles. 8" is really the minimum if you do anything more than chopping an ocasional onion. If you go the Japanese route, you might even find yourself prefering a 9-1/2" knife, if you have room on your work surface.

Here's my formula for crêpes, adapted from multiple sources. Some French recipes have up to three times the number of eggs; I prefer a less eggy taste, so these use the egg primarily for structure. You can use more if you like. Savory Crêpes -1-1/2 cups all purpose flour -3 eggs -1-1/2 cups (approx) milk (for extra light crêpes, substitute water for half of milk. For dense ones, substitute cream for half of milk). There's no need to measure—just use enough milk until the consistency is right (like heavy cream for normal crepes) -1/2 tsp salt -3 TBS melted butter Sweet Crêpes -1-1/2 cups all purpose flour -3 eggs -1-1/2 cups (approx) milk (for extra light crêpes, substitute water for half of milk. dense ones, substitute cream for half of milk) -3 TBS liqueur, rum, or brandy (Optional. Reduce milk by whatever amount you add—total liquid should be about 1-1/2 cups) -2 TB granulated sugar -1/2 tsp salt -3 TBS melted butter (more can be used to discourage sticking if you're not using a nonstick pan) Mixing - Combine dry ingredients and eggs in mixing bowl and add just enough milk to allow flour to incorporate. A wooden spoon or spatula works best at first. Once ingredients are incorporated use a whisk to gently form a smooth paste. don't overwork. - Gently whisk in the rest of the milk and the liqueur (if using) Use more or less milk as needed to get consistency right. - Strain, pushing any thickened batter through strainer with a wooden spoon or spatula. - Ideally, allow to rest covered in a cool place or the fridge for 2 hours (or up to 24 hours). This is optional to relax the gluten and improve tenderness. If you want tender crepes and don't have time to wait, substitute 1 TB of cornstarch for 1 TB of the flour, or use pastry flour (NOT whole grain) - Stir in melted butter. Note: batter can also be made in a blender. put liquids, eggs, sugar, and salt into belnder. blend until mixed. add flour, and blend until just incorporated. then butter add butter. blend for 1 minute on high speed. scrape down sides with a rubber spatula and blend a few more seconds. Cooking - Pan temperature is important. If too hot, batter will seize and cook before it spreads. If too cool, crepe will stick. Go for a medium heat, at which butter foams and then subsides. - Butter surface of pan, with a pastry brush or paper towel. If using a nonstick pan, I only butter once at the beginning, to check pan temperture. - Add batter with a scoop or ladle. A 1/3 cup dry measuring cup is about right for a 10 inch pan. Rotate the pan to cover surface with a thin layer. Pour off excess. If thin layer doesn't stick, pan is too cool. If batter sizzles on contact with pan, pan is too hot. - Cook about 1 minute, until batter loses its sheen or starts to brown at its outer edges. Turn with spatula, using fingers to help. If crêpe starts to tear when you turn it, it probably needs a bit more cooking. - Cook second side about 45 seconds. - If crêpe still tears, try beating another egg and whisking it into the batter. If that doesn't work, try adding 2 TBS flour (made into a thin paste with milk) to the batter. Or, if batter is too thick, thin it with milk. - Crêpes can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen. stack with plastic wrap between them, and wrap whole stack with plastic. NOTE: Basic proportion is two eggs and 2TB butter per cup flour, with enough milk to adjust consistency. That's all the measuring you need to do.