paulraphael

No one even remembers what she was trying to cook. The answer is lost forever. Edited to add ... I never even thought of olives!

This is less a problem with recipes than with playing telephone ... When my mom was newly married, in the 1950s, when a woman's entire value to the universe hinged on knowing how to cook (which she didn't), she survived by way of desperate phone calls to her best friend to get instructions. One day the recipe she wrote down included "clives." There were no clives in the kitchen. She ran all over Manhattan looking for them. One grocer after another said, "no, we don't have those." Not one grocery professional did her the courtesy of saying, "lady, there's no such thing." I have no idea how she managed to save dinner. Whenever I go home for the holidays now I find a random jar in the pantry and label it CLIVES.

I've got one of those wire shelves above one of my counters. I use a short length of cord and a keychain carabiner to hang the bag. It's a bit awkward but it works.

That's a whole lotta thyme. How did you infuse it? I usually use 10g / liter, and it's strong. And yeah, anyone who gives you "sprigs" as a measure needs their cookbook writing license revoked.

It takes up to 4 probes but only shows readouts from 2 at a time. It cycles between them every few seconds, or you can move it to the next screen by hitting the arrow button. if you’re only using 1 or 2 probes, it stays on the relevant screen. You can set alarms individually for the probes. it doesn’t come with probes. You can buy different types from thermoworks, or use any other company’s K-type thermocouples. Just be aware that quality and accuracy varies quite a bit, as does the temperature range that the wires can survive.

I’ve been wanting something like this for years. Ovens are untamable beasts, and turkeys are fickle math problems. Never has there been a better justification for TMI. Especially on a year like this when I wasn’t hosting, but would be a guest at 2 separate holiday dinners, with a sense (based on experience) that I’d be asked for some help (what temperature do you think? How long? Is it ready?). Thrmocouple probes to the rescue. One in the thick slow part, one in the breast, and one open air to keep an eye on the oven. No more surprises! No more guessing! No more thinking! Yes, more wine for the guest cook.

Which means, you can turn the heat way down once it reaches pressure. My 10qt cooker holds pressure fine with the fire turned nearly off. Any higher setting just wastes energy and makes noise.

I suspect you'd want something as thin and light as possible. You don't want heat retention, and you don't need to spread uneven heat evenly. You just want something that will respond as quickly as possible.

I don't understand why those foil pans exist, unless there are really lots of people who decide to host thanksgiving, but are sure they'll never use their oven again ever. If you don't care about deglazing on the stove top (sad!) just get a half sheet pan. You'll use it for a million other things, and you can probably pick one up for next to nothing. You'll even benefit from more even browning than you get in a roasting pan. You just have to be careful not to let the bird slip over the low sides and onto the floor.

See And the followup comments. TL;DR: All sweeping generalizations are wrong.

That headline really stood out for me also. I didn't read the article. Usually by the time I'm done eating the produce bag I'm too full for the stickers.

Anyone try Ford's gin? I discovered it last year and it's become my favorite. It unseated Plymouth in my liquor cabinet. For context, I mostly think of gin as the primordial ooze from which a Negroni rises. So many of the gins that work great in other cocktails (Hendricks, etc.) aren't really on my radar. Plymouth for me made an interesting negroni. I understand why it's a controversial choice. It's on the subtle side. Ford's is much more juniper-forward, but it has Plymouth's earthiness and oiliness, which makes it work great in this cocktail. It's also a few bucks cheaper. Only drawback is it's a little harder to find.

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.

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.

Thyme ice cream and sage ice cream.

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.

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?

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.

Yes. He got his start as a traveling Aga salesman.

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.

They have cod, halibut, and sablefish at Wild Alaskan? I mustn't have looked carefully at the website. That would be great news.

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

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.

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.

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.