paulraphael

hard to generalize ... some baking requires precision, some is only a little less casual than making soup. When I'm making something like crepes I don't even measure. I just know the general proportions and what the final consistency should be, and i throw it all in a bowl. Making brownies or pastry dough I measure, but not in any way that looks like organic chemistry. If I want half a cup of flour, I'll dunk the measuring cup in and eyeball about a half cup. That kind of thing. But some things (certain cakes, etc.), are a delicate balance. A tiny bit too much or too little leavening, or a slight tweak in the ratio of sugar to fat or fat to flour, and the whole house can come tumbling down. So for recipes like that I break out the digital scale.

I flavoered a creme anglaise with lapsang souchong tea once. The sauce was delicious, but I wasn't completely convinced by the whole dish (i served it with a pear tart). I need to think of something that would work better with the smoky flavors. I also made a green tea infused creme anglaise once. I forget what I served it with. My local tea shop (porto rico importers) has a huge selection of teas and they let me stick my nose into the tins. A lot of the green teas smell like freshly cut grass (more or less), and this wasn't what I wanted. I picked one that had a more delicate, herbal smell. The sauce was nice ... not much of a stretch, considering how common green tea ice cream has become.

Glad to see this thread ... some compulsive buying has led to about 8 lbs of imported chocolate in the pantry, and it would be nice to figure this out before the place turns into an oven. Is there a problem with the fridge if you seal the chocolate from moisture? I'm going to use all the chocolate for baking, not for eating directly.

I think your instinct to keep it simple is right on. Not that you don't stand a chance of impressing them if you cook something high-end that you do well. Just a sense that a chef going to a dinner party might be happy to have some home cookin'. Thomas Keller joked that he started Bouchon so that he and his staff would have some place to get a meal after slaving in the kitchen at the French Laundry. It's easy to imagine that steak frites would hit the spot after a long day preparing alginated urchin carpaccio. A cousin of mine who's a chef commented that he likes to cook in the oven at home ... stews and braises. Because at work he mostly does fast, a la carte, stovetop cooking. That might be true for other chefs as well.

looks like it's just a design thing. people pay that much for pretty faucets, so in that context it's not so much to pay for an appliance (if it matches your copper flooring, your copper spoon, and your copper hat ...) i usually go the opposite route ... i'm still celebrating last week's ebay purchase of a hamilton beach commercial blender, in war-ravaged battleship gray, for $7 plus shipping.

My comparison to the copper is based purely on the subjective experience of using the two materials side by side. And comparing to heavier aluminum. If anything, the all clad stainless pan feels a bit quicker than my copper pans. The difference between the metals seems to be more than offset by the difference in mass. You're right that any issue of evenness is more than offset by the way a small frying pan gets used (tossing food). And by its size. And also about the weight. I use this pan instead of a 10" copper pan, because I find the copper in this size to be too heavy and badly balanced to work for this style of cooking. My 12" pan is copper ... but I don't try to toss that thing around. I like the stainless finish for sauté/fry pans (more than a spun steel pan, for instance) because I really like the stainless cooking surface for deglazing and making pan sauces. For the way I cook it's a kind of best compromise. I don't believe the extra layer of stainless steel makes much difference. It might be measureable, but it has so little thickness and so little mass that we can still think of the all clad pan as being aluminum. The stainless series is just a thinner piece of aluminum than the MC. The issue of the sides getting hot does not seem like a hot-spot issue. The sides heat up completely evenly. It seems more like too much conductivity up the sides, rather than too little (even though the physics of this makes little sense). It's not about flames wrapping up around the side of the pan ... I'm not letting that happen.

Another vote for the Chicago Metallic commercial. Aluminized steel, dull metallic finish. No non-stick anything. Use parchment, like every baker in the world. This material combination works great. Any similar weight, light (but not polished) aluminum works virtually as well. I have a couple of air bake insulated sheets also. I use those only when i don't want the bottom of what I'm baking to get browned. But they work great as baker's peels ... I use them all the time to slide things in and out of the oven.

They're going to perform differently; which is better depends on what you're up to. The MC pan will behave more like commercial aluminum, calphalon, etc.; it will heat very evenly, retain a fair amount of heat, and have medium responsiveness (somewhere between copper and iron). The stainless will heat less evenly (probably only noticeable on a large pan), will retain less heat, and respond quickly. The responsiveness is more like copper. I don't have any experience with all clad sauce pans or big sauté pans, but I have their stainless 10" frying pan. For fast sautéeing, I prefer its responsiveness and tossability to that of my commercial weight aluminum pans (which I assume are more similar to the MC pans). It also works great as a roasting pan. My only (minor) misgiving is that compared with the heavier pans, iit seems to conduct more heat up the sides, so I spend more time scraping browned bits off the sides when I reduce pan sauces. This seems counterintuitive, but it's prettty consistent.

found on the web: when you're done making ice cream, why not demolish a concrete building? http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2006/...rogen_tanks.php

So can you actually go to a welding supply shop with a styrofoam box and say 'fill 'er up?' This is safe? And what exactly is a Dewar? Is there a reason you can't use a regular thermos (besides the possbilty of closing the lid all the way and turning it into a bomb)? What about a stainless thermos rigged so the lid won't shut all the way? I'm also curious about measuring the correct volume of of the LN2. Is it difficult with all the steam and bubbling? And what kinds of materials can you pour it into without worrying about thermal shock issues? I'm guessing a stainless steel measure would be ok; pyrex probably not ...

I like the idea of the ice cream because it's fast, and requires no specialized machine (the expensive thermos and the protective gear are drawbacks). One issue with ice cream is hardening it if you want it harder than the soft-serve consistency that the machine produces. When I made ice cream professionally, we had a -80 degree F flash freezer for hardening and curing the ice cream. It took 12 to hours in there, and then a few days in the regular freezer to come up to scooping temperature. The LN2 does it all in a blink. The stand mixer looks like a natural way to do it. How long will the LN2 stick around once you fill your thermos?

I would expect salted water to extract less flavor from the food than salt-free water. One of the reasons to salt water for boiling vegetables is to increase the ion concentration of the water so less of the nutrients from the veggies get extracted into it.

The illustration on the right shows how most people make the vertical cuts. With the root away from them, the tip of the knife is used. The drawing on the left shows how I learnt to make the same cuts. The root facing me, and the heal of the knife is used. The heal never reaches (touches) the board, leaving the root in tact and holding the slices together. By using the heal I have more leverage, and can make the cuts more rapidly. Hope this make sense. ← It actually made more sense before you explained it! "the heal of the knife is used" and "the heal never reaches (touches) the board" ... i guess i'm misunderstanding but it seems contradictory. I'd like to try your fast way (have always done the slow way) but suspect it will only be fast if i do it right.

I roast a lot of chickens, which helps with stock making. The trick is being lazy; I only eat the parts of the chicken that I want, which means that the carcases are left with a fair amount of meat (including most of the back meat). I wrap and double bag this with the neck and wingtips and throw in the freezer. After a few months I'll have ten or so carcasses in there, and room for nothing else, so I'll know it's time to make stock. Sometimes I'll buy a pack of thighs from the supermarket (cheap!) to supplement the carcasses, but it's not required. I put it all in a hot oven to brown the bones and remaining meat, deglaze the roasting pan, and then start from there. (cool water, mirepoix vegggies, garni, etc.). There's no reason to simmer poultry stock for more than a couple of hours ... you'll just start breaking down flavors and losing aromatics. Another key is to use no more water than necessary. The water should cover no more than 3/4 of the meat and bones in your stockpot. when the carcasses break down and settle, they'll be covered. More water than this will give you a weak stock. Resist stirring or poking at the birds, and simmer as low as possible to keep the stock clear. and skim!

Enameled cast iron is pretty rustic, simple, and old school! It's probably been around longer than, say, gas or electric powered ovens, and some other modern advancements you probably enjoy in your kitchen ...

True ... makes the whole process easier and safer. the root stays attached til the last chop. I do cut off of the blossom end before peeling. seems to help.

Not sure if they ship over the border, but for anyone in the boonies in the U.S., try chocosphere: http://www.chocosphere.com/ I haven't shopped there but have heard good things. On a separate note, I'm having an interesting time right now trying to adapt a brownie recipe to work with good chocolate. When made with Bakers' and the equivalent, the chocolate flavor is 2-dimensional, but the brownies have a great dense, fudgy texture. When made with good chocolate (I've tried Valrhona at the high end, and Callebaout and El Rey as more economical choices) the brownies loose the chew. They're delicious, but become exceedingly soft and tender. I'm trying to get the good flavor AND the dense texture. I haven't found a solution yet (am messing around with fat content and starch content) but the message is pretty clear: good chocolate and supermarket chocolate aren't even the same kind of product.

I'll try eliminating the horizontal cuts to see if it feels more efficient. But if this step feels unsafe to you, I really think the problem is the blade. A chef's knife should glide through the onion with very little pressure ... so little that there's no chance of losing control if anything slips. If your knife isn't sharp enough to do this, you may be able to eliminate the dangerous step in cutting an onion, but there are a lot of other cutting tasks that will be more dangerous than necessary. You don't need a knife-grinding valet in your entourage ... just a decent knife and conscentious maintenance with a steel.

would be interesting to try sprinkling some sugar (suprefine?) on top right before baking.

I'll second that vote for Alton Brown's chewy recipe. It isn't a 'different' chocolate chip cookie; just a damned good one. The Recipe ← A third vote. I use his as the foundation for a bunch of minor variations. If you like chewy cookies, his approach is definitely worth a try.

for inspiration (and surprisingly tasty cake .... don't ask how i know ...) http://www.masturbakers.com/

These are very nice ... I bought one for my mom and one for my girlfriend. Very light, small handle that fits small hands well, but still comfortable in my bigger hands. I enjoy using them. My favorite, though, is a Schaaf Goldhamster. It's German knife that's quite different ... Very heavy, but unlike other heavy knives I've used, it's perfectly balanced (because of the double bolster design that works like a counterweight) so it's fast and effortless to use ... the weight of the knife does all the work. I don't know anything about the metalurgy, but the Schaaf is my one chef's knife, and I used it for four and a half years before I had to put a new edge on it. Just light steeling a couple of times a week kept it like a razor. I'm sure the steel is softer than the Japanese knives, but this seems like a matter of choice, not absolutes. Some purists still prefer very soft french carbon steel because its ductility allows it to be steeled to razor sharpness hundreds of times without needing to be reground. I'm considering getting a Japanese knife or two someday (because they're so cool) but not until I'm willing to invest in the more serious stones required to maintain the harder steel. And willing to invest the time ... monthly or weekly honing is a bigger deal than a few swipes at a steel a few times a week. til then, i'm resisting going back to Korin with a credit card in my pocket

Jars of mustard: take off the tag Gold-spoked Hummers, black-windowed Lexus limos, cases of Crystal and Courvoisier (any of which might appear in one of my hip hop videos): leave the tag on. Bling bling!

can you be more specific about the texture of the shell? that's the part with all the variables. the salty taste is just a matter of how much salt

some good info here: http://baking911.com/cookies/chocolate_chip.htm and http://baking911.com/recipes/cookies/chocchip_3ways.htm