paulraphael

I was recently looking for cocoa powder advice from the chocoholic geniuses at seventypercent.com. One tip I got was that the higher-fat cocoa powders are delicous but quite perishable; you can't keep them around as long or they lose a lot of flavor. Another point was that high fat cocoas can diminish volume in desserts where the cocoa is folded into whipped egg whites. There seems to be some consensus that the Cluizel cocoa kicks ass, but that it may not be available in anything more reasonable than 3kg bags. If anyone knows how to get a reasonable volume of this, I'd love to hear it. Or we could chip in and split a bunch. 8oz would be good for me (it's high fat/low shelf life). A $77 3kg bag would make 13 8oz+ portions for $6 each. I'd also like to try the Pernigotti. Anyone know if that's available locally in NYC?

If you don't mind industrial chic, you can get a blender that will demolish anything at Williams Sonoma, and for less money. And if you don't mind used, you can do it for a fraction of the price. I just got my second Hamilton Beach commercial bar mixer for $7, in almost new condition. The catch was that it didn't include the caraffe, but I had one from my old blender. Complete blenders in good condition often go for $60 or less. I got the first one in 1991, for under $40 with the stainless caraffe. It was at a restaurant supply store, presumed dead from overuse, being sold for parts. It lasted sixteen years before the bearings finally gave out. My previous three consumer blenders lasted less than a month each! This new one is a treat. The bearings are fine so it doesn't sound like a chainsaw. It doesn't get warm no matter what I throw in it or how long it stays on. I can put in a bunch of ice without liquid and it turns it into snow. One other nice thing about these is that parts are available, and they're pretty standard across the HB line. So if you wear out the rubber clutch or the blades, you can get new ones for cheap pretty easily.

Ligurian Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes Serves 3 as Main Dish. These were inspired by the familiar and the exotic; the classic lemon poppyseed muffin, and a phenomenal cake recipe by Pierre Hermé that blends the flavor of lemons and Ligurian olive oil. I've kept the Ligurian name in honor of M. Herme, but I personally prefer a more assertive olive oil. Nothing heavy or bitter, but a light oil with a good taste of fruit, and some spicy/peppery overtones works well. Pierre's cake includes raspberries, so it's no surprise that raspberries (fresh or infused in hot maple syrup) are delicious on these. They're also great with plain maple syrup. 1-1/2 c all purpose flour 1/3 c sugar 1-1/2 tsp baking powder 1 T poppyseeds (approx) 1/2 tsp salt 1 c whole milk 2 eggs 1 small lemon, zest and juice (or 1/2 large) 1-1/2 T unsalted butter 2-1/2 T olive oil -lightly toast poppyseeds in a small, ungreased saucespan, until they release their fragrance. -add butter and let it melt. turn heat very low and cook for a few minutes. -set aside 1TB of the sugar for the whipped egg white. mix zest into the remaining sugar in a mixing bowl, with your fingers, until moist and fragrant -add other dry ingredients to sugar/zest. stir to blend -separate one of the eggs and set the white aside, preferably in a copper mixing bowl -in separate bowl whisk the yolk and the whole egg into milk -whisk in melted butter/poppyseed slurry and continue whisking until frothy -stir in the olive oil -gently stir liquid ingredients into solid ingredients until eveything is moistened. do not beat. do not worry about lumps -start preheating pan or griddle -with electric mixer or baloon whisk, whip egg white to soft peaks -add tablespoon of sugar, and continue whipping to firm peaks. don't overwhip; they should still be glossy and moist. -stir lemon juice into batter -fold egg whites into batter -cook like regular pancakes (they will be thick, so prepared to use slightly lower heat). grease the pan with olive oil instead of butter. Keywords: Main Dish, Cake, Easy, Breakfast, Fruit ( RG1989 )

Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Torte Serves 6 as Dessert. Flourless chocolate cakes are everywhere. But I couldn't find one that lived up to its potential as the ultimate expression of chocolate intensity. Most of the recipes I've made or found at restaurants put too much emphasis on fluff or on eggs, and not enough on chocolate. Flourless cakes can run the range from souflés (lots of air) to baked custards (much less air). This recipe is on the custard side. My efforts were all about maximizing the ratio of chocolate to everything else without compromising the texture. If you love dark chocolate, you'll love this. It's ridiculoulsly easy to make, and if you follow the instructions, the texture will be creamy and, while almost dense, will melt away in your mouth. You can use whatever chocolates you like; I specify my favorite blend so you can get an idea of where I'm coming from. But please use excellent bittersweet chocolate; this recipe puts all the emphasis on the chocolate, and will succeed or fail based on its quality. 4 oz /113g Valrhona Guanaja bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 2 oz /57g Valrhona Manjari bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 4 oz /113g unsalted butter, cut into pieces 2 whole eggs 2 egg yolks 2-2/3 T /32g granulated sugar (2T plus 2tsp) 1/8 tsp /.5g salt confectioners' sugar for dusting Prepare in 6" cheesecake pan or springform pan, with 2 layers of foil wrapped around outside, up the sides (or a layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil). Make sure no seams are near the bottom inch of the pan. Pan will sit in a water bath that comes an inch up sides of cake pan. Grease pan bottom and dust with cocoa. Or better, line with a greased and dusted round of parchment. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with water bath on bottom rack. Use a roasting pan or lasagna pan, with about an inch of water in it (a bit less if the pan is small) Melt chocolate and butter in bowl over hot water. Ideally, melt chocolate slowly, reduce heat, and then stir in cool butter, in small pieces, until mixture is smooth and glassy. Set aside to cool. In a different bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks until yolks break; Add sugar and salt while beating. Whisk slowly, to disolve sugar, then whisk faster to create a light froth. Do not whip to the point where volume is greatly increased. This is where you will determine the final consistency of the torte. If you incorporate no air, it will be like custard. If you incorporate too much, it will get too fluffy. Gently stir egg mixture into chocolate (not the other way around) until uniform. Fill pan (about 1/2 full) Bake 20+ minutes. It's done when top looks dry and when torte jiggles only in the middle when shaken. Bake no more than needed. Set pan to cool on cooling rack. When torte is still warm, but cool enough to handle, invert onto serving dish. Best served warm, when fresh, but easily reheated in microwave. Dust with powdered sugar before serving (unless you're going to frost or glaze it). Serve plain, or with ice cream drizzled with chocolate butter sauce, or with a tart creme anglaise—ginger, orange/grand marnier, lemon, etc, or with a tart fruit coulis. Can also be frosted with whiped cream that's been sweetened with confectioners sugar and flavored with any of the above seasonings or spirits, or any kind of ganache. If you're topping it with something especially sweet, you can cut back slightly on the sugar in the recipe. Keywords: Dessert, Easy, Chocolate, Cake ( RG1988 )

I just stumbled onto this: http://www.rawguru.com/store/raw-food/trul...owder-1-lb.html I'm a bit skeptical ...

really depends. If it's something delicate that will be eaten raw or lightly cooked (in-season tomatoes for caprese, for example) I'll be picky, and maybe go to more than one store or farmer's market stand. If it's for something that's going to be cooked to death (out of season tomatoes for long-simmered sauce, etc.) I'll grab whatevers closest as long as it doesn't look like a disaster. Alice Waters commented on this in an interview. She felt obligated to use produce that wasn't perfect (because most of the world's produce isn't!) but she wouldn't use it as a featured ingredient. The perfect thing goes in the salad, the bruised thing goes in the mirepoix. Your question reminded me of of the time I got in trouble a few months ago in China Town for being picky. I was having my parents over for a dinner that I cooked them as a Christmas Present, and I took the opportunity to go nuts and play chef. One of the courses required bok choy, which is always plentiful and perfect in Chinatown. Except that day. I went from store to store and stand to stand and it was all wilted. I finally found a place that had good ones mixed in. So I picked through the whole bin, looking for a pound of fresh ones. Suddenly the incredulous grocer confronted me in broken english: "No pick, pick, put back, put back! No this one, that one! You take all!" and he mimed filling up a bag with whatever was on top. The message was, "if you want my vegetables you have to buy my crap along with the good stuff!" This sounded so obnoxious that I heard an even more obnoxious reply blurt out of my mouth. In my worst, loudest, dumb American tourist voice, I just said, "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT." And I topped off the bag and bought it and left. Who was more out of line?

I'm curious to hear what these programs offer. A couple of years ago I started storing my recipes on the computer, but just as simple text files. This lets me print them out and scribble all over them and update them all the time, which is handy since I usually work on a recipe through quite a few versions before leaving it alone. I suppose scaling tools would be handy, and a database would be handy if my recipe stash grew by a few hundred percent. I worry about what would happen to a database (any database) if the software stops being supported. Using a lowest common denominator format like text files is comforting for this reason. Are there any other features/benefits I'm missing out on? [edited to add] If you sell me on the idea I'd definitely be curious to see what the best (and simplest) solutions are on the Mac. Including FileMaker templates ... are there any of these?

Ninth try was the charm! I finally got my brownies to come out with both the right flavor and texture. Posted here, with some background, for anyone interested. These will appeal to you if you're crazy for dark chocolate.

Heart of Darkness Brownies Serves 30 as Dessert. These are my favorite, in every way: dense, buttery texture, slightly sour tang, crackly crust, all emerging from the dark depths of high quality bittersweet chocolate. They're a complete reworking of a longtime favorite brownie recipe that I traced back to Maeda Heatter. When I tried to make the original version with high quality chocolate, the flavor was improved, but the brownies fell apart. A year of exploration into the mysteries of chocolate, and a dozen recipe generations later, I got it to work. The sour cream adds moisture and a subtle acidity. The cocoa provides a bit of structure without diluting the chocolate, as increased flour would. The dusting of sugar on top allows a nice crust to form; hard to do otherwise in a truly bittersweet recipe. Note: It is important to use good quality, bittersweet chocolate, with 60 to 72% cocoa solids in this recipe. Please don't use Baker's or Nestle supermarket chocolates. See my food processor variation of the Maeda Heatter recipe if that's all you have. It is not necessary, however, to use the most expensive chocolates. In my experience the subtlety of very high end chocolates doesn't make a big enough difference in brownies to be worth it. Callebaut 70% is an excellent option and was used for testing. 12 oz / 340g bittersweet chocolate, at room temperature, chopped into small chunks 12 oz / 340g unsalted butter (plus about 2 tsp for greasing pan) 1-1/4 c / 238g white sugar (can be adjusted to taste based on bitterness of chocolate) 2 T / 24g (approx) additional sugar for dusting 3/4 c / 100g all-purpose flour 1/4 c / 24g cocoa powder (plus about 2TB for dusting pan) 1 tsp / 6g salt 4 large eggs 200g 2/3 c / 140g sour cream 1 T / 14g vanilla extract Optional: chopped nuts or chocolate chunks requires small and medium mixing bowls, and a saucepan large enough for all ingredients (2-1/2 qt for whole recipe; 1-1/2 qt for half recipe). if the pan isn't big enough, then you will also need a large mixing bowl. melt butter in heavy saucepan over low heat whisk in sugar until smooth and thick sift and thoroughly stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. whisk into the butter/sugar mixture util smooth. turn heat as low as possible, and stir chocolate into butter/sugar/cocoa mixture until mostly melted. remove from heat, and continue stirring until smooth. allow to cool until just above room temperature; about 80 degrees F. it should become fairly thick. you can speed the cooling process by putting the pan in a water bath and stirring. while mixture is cooling, preheat oven to 300° with rack in center. grease baking pan and lightly dust with cocoa powder. optionally, line the bottom with a greased/dusted with cocoa sheet of parchment, to make serving easier. shortly before chocolate mixture is cooled, combine eggs and sour cream in a medium bowl. whisk until well mixed, pale, and a bit frothy. do not try to incorporate enough air to increase the volume. stir in the vanilla. stir egg mixture into the other ingredients (if the saucepan is big enough, just do it in the pan). If mixture gets thick and lumpy, it means the chocolate has cooled too much--return it to the stove, and stir over low heat. mixture should get fairly smooth. If you're incorporating any chopped nuts or chocolate chunks, stir them in. pour into prepared pan and smooth top. dust a light, even coating of sugar over the top . bake about 35 to 45 minutes, depending on oven and batch size. batter should rise evenly from center to edge. the top surface should look uniform. a tester should come out of the center dirty, but without any large chunks of batter attached. better undercooked than overcooked. allow to cool on cooling rack. they can be served room temperature, warm (very soft), or chilled (like fudge). they keep a long time at room temperature or refrigerated, but crust will soften quickly. These brownies are delicate; be careful cutting and serving. they should be cooled to room temperature (or ideally chilled) before slicing. a palette knife or offset spatula works well. use your fingers to keep crust from breaking up when removing the blade. a pizza wheel also makes good clean cuts (although you'll have to begin and end the cuts with a knife). a thin, flexible metal spatula, like an offset spatula, cookie spatula, or fish spatula, makes it fairly easy to serve them without damage. (I just learned that there's another recipe, published by a cookbook author, with the same name as this one. There are no other similarities. The other recipe uses a much lower proportion of chocolate and is jammed full of candy. Don't be fooled!) Keywords: Chocolate, Brownies/Bars, Dessert ( RG1987 )

That's about what I do too. How much vinegar I add depends on the acidity and flavor of the vinegar, the depth of flavor of the oil, and probably what mood I'm in. I'm sure a lot of the time the final ratio is close to 1:1, especially if the vinegar is tasty and not too strong.

Yes, that was the conclusion of one of the studies. This critique would apply to the study supporting msg sensitivity, which i thought i posted.

← it doesn't ... i posted the wrong link! sorry. these abstracts all look alike.

some studies: contradicting msg sensitivity: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?D...Pubmed_RVDocSum http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?D...Pubmed_RVDocSum http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?D...Pubmed_RVDocSum http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?D...Pubmed_RVDocSum supporting msg sensitivity: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?D...Pubmed_RVDocSum

Sure. I was refering mostly to friends who are serious home cooks (most restaurant kitchens could probably trash anything in 6 months, coated or not ...) Personally, I expect my nonstick pan to last many years, because I use it as a specialty item, maybe once a week. I also don't have a household full of people (kids, etc) getting their hands on it, exercising destructive skills that rival those of a resaurant crew. A typical household that uses the nonstick pans for everything will likely wreck them a lot faster than i will, but not as fast as the line cooks who toss them from one stack to another all day long.

i make more things that use yolks than whites. so i started freezing the whites in ziplock bags. when i accumulate enough, i'll find an excuse to use them (angel food? mousse? merengue?). if you typically use more whites than yolks, that's a bit more problematic ... i'm not aware of a good way to store yolks.

No evidence, just the accumulated experience of all the cooks that I know. As far as I've seen, all the lifetime warranties refer the coating remaining intact, but say nothing about the more difficult to prove issue of whether or not it still works. I'd be very curious to hear if Swiss Diamond's warranty is an exception to this. And I agree with all of Skinsey's challenges to the company's dubious (or i'd say ludicrous) claims.

It's been three months and I'm thinking about a taste test. But as Fat Guy pointed out, it's not exactly helpful to take a swig of vanilla extract. Any suggestions for something easy to mix, that really showcases the extract? I'd like to do a side-by-side with some nielsen massey extract that I have.

99% is close enough to 100% that i'd think you could just use it 1 to 1 in place of unsweetened. if you want to be anal, subtract a teaspoon of sugar for every pound of 99% you use. You could also just adapt other recipes that use bittersweet chocolate. use less chocolate, more sugar. I'd love to bake some things with Cluizel chocolate. It's my favorite that I've tasted so far. But even in bulk it costs enough more than valrhona that i've decided to just stay away, and avoid a new addiction. Let us know what you come up with.

how was gelato made originally? is there an gelato equivalent to the hand-cranked ice cream maker, or is gelato a newer tradition that depends on high tech machines? and going back to another thread, i'm wondering how you'd do making gelato with liquid nitrogen and a stand mixer. the question is how to control overrun and hardness independently.

i actually first heard that from jerry (of ben and jerry's) when he visited the homemade ice cream shop i used to manage. i just finished version #7. as soon as the sugar buzz lets up i'll make the next one. this has taken more trial and error than i'd expected, but it's getting close!

Egg yolks serve other purposes in ice cream as well. The lecithin acts an emusifier and a stabilizer. Stabilization isn't important in a tradtional gelateria where the ice cream is made and served the same day. But in an American style ice cream shop, ice cream is flash frozen right out of the machine (in a hardening cabinet) and then stored for up to many days in a regular freezer before being tempered to scooping temperture. Unstabilized ice cream will deflate if it isn't eaten immediately. Egg yolk is the traditional stabilizer for french style (custard based) ice creams; philly style ice creams have less egg so they typically add bean and seaweed extracts (guar, carob bean, carageenan). In an effort to appear natural and home made, Haagen Dazs uses molecularly altered milk proteins for stabilization (so they don't have to list anything besides cream, milk, sugar, etc. on the ingredients ...)

Something I notice that seems to set skilled cooks apart is that they pay more attention to the food ... flavor, texture, smell, etc. ... while less skilled cooks pay more attention to the instructions. Some of this just comes down to confidence. I'm always trying to get my girlfriend to trust her senses more. She asks me "when should I take these out of the pan?" and I answer "when they're done!" It's never the answer she wants to hear. She wishes I'd say "in 2 minutes, 45 seconds!"

I have two maple boards ... one small one (about 12 x 20 inches, 3/4 inch thick) and big butcher block (3x2 feet, countertop thickness). I use the small one for meat, because it's easy to take to the sink and scrub down. Neither is endgrain, though endgrain boards are nice. They've lasted for 15 years and 10 years respectively, and i'm sure will last much longer. I just give them a little care. Whenever they look dry from cleaning, I wipe them down with olive oil and let the wood drink it up. I've sanded the big one twice to smooth it out and give it a deep cleaning. There are NO sanitation issues that are specific to wood. The most thorough tests that have been done show that wood harbors bacteria no better or worse than plastic, and is no harder or easier to sanitize. The advantage of plastic is that it's dishwasher safe, but I hate the feel of knives on plastic (and I don't have a dish washer).

I'd recommend against ANY expensive nonstick cookware. If you can get a good brand for cheap on closeout, go for it, but I won't spend more than $25 or so on anything nonstick. Just not worth it. None of the coatings are permanent. Even if the coating lasts forever, its performance will be gone, anywhere from 6 months to a few years from now. I think of nonstick pans as specialty items. I have one, that i use for crepes and fish with the skin on (i'd use it for omelettes too if I made them). But that's it. Literally everything else I cook does bettter on a regular surface. Stainless steel is the best all around, but seasoned iron, spun steel, aluminum and enamel all have their place. Many cooking techniques are actually impared by a nonstick surface.

A couple of the bigger Williams Sonoma stores in NYC have all the olive oils set out with bread so you can taste them. It's the only way I've ever been able to buy good quality olive oil, besides guessing. And it's about the only thing I ever buy at WS. There must be other merchants clever enough to figure this out, right? I would never have picked the oils I've liked based on labels, names, lore, or guessing.