paulraphael

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

My favorite style of burger is my aunt's secret recipe, which i've since learned she stole from a Julia Child book long before I was born. The basic idea is to mix some raw egg and and finely chopped onion or shallot (very lightly sautéed) in with the ground beef. Other seasonings, like parsley, worcestershire sauce, salt + pepper, can be mixed in too. They can be grilled or broiled. These burgers are especially moist and flavorful, and hold together nicely. The egg seems to bind them, and add moisture as well as fat. I think Julia's original recipe is much more specific and involved, but the basic idea can be freely interpreted, and has always gotten great reviews from my friends.

Paul, Darcie has a regular electric cooktop. She uses cast iron on her induction hob. Darcie also has beautiful cookware purchase when copper was cheap and the US$ was expensive. She liked it so much, she bot a copper sink. Tim ← ahhh, got it. missed that.

Plain copper or aluminum would NOT work. Ferromagnetic implies iron-based. Copper or aluminum would have to be clad in magnetic stainless to work. ← This has been my understanding too, but now DarcieB is saying her 2.5mm copper cookware works on an induction stove. As far as I know, all the 2.5mm copper out there is lined wither with tin or 18-10 stainless (neither of which is magnetic). Wassup??

The copper works at all? I was under the impression that the pan needed to have a significant amount of ferrous metal to work. Interesting.

My Madagascar grade b beans have been brewing for two weeks now (12 beans, 500ml cheap vodka). The extract smells amazing. Compared to the store-bought madagascar extract in my fridge, it's paler in color, but has a bigger, richer, more rounded smell. Even after one week, it was smelling pretty good. Then it had sharper notes to it ... i could still detect a strong presence of vodka. Now the vodka smell is almost entirely gone. I can't wait to check it out after a couple of months.

I wondered about this with cookies; some more experienced bakers warned me that it wouldn't work so well. that i'd get tough, not chewy. not sure if this would be similar with something as moist as a brownie.

As far as the original question, I believe pretty strongly in buying one piece of cookware at a time, based on what you like to cook. Do some research to make sure your using the best technique possible, and then figure out which material and shape piece best supports that technique. Some generalizations ... stainless steel is the most versatile cooking surface for most techniques. With care it can last forever, it's reasonably nonreactive, and the light color makes it much easier to see what you're doing. With good cooking technique, the only thing that will stick to it is the pan juices that you want to stick (with the exception of some foods, like eggs or delicate fish, which need some kind of nonstick surface). Enameled cast iron is fantastic for soups and braises. One advantage is its complete nonreactivity, so you can actually go from the stove to the fridge and back again. Nice wiith the big batches you're likely to make. Seasoned iron or steel is great for browning or blackening or fast sautés, especially things that might stick and that you're not planning to deglaze. Teflon-type nonstick surfaces are ideal for eggs, crepes, fish with the skin ... other things that stick like crazy. They should be seen as special purpose tools for this. They're crappy general purpose pans ... they brown poorly, and are fragile, no matter what the manufacturer tells you. Buy cheap ones, and only the ones you actually need. for sauces and sautéing, responsiveness is important. A shiny, stainless surface helps a lot too. Clad aluminum/stainless is great. Copper with a stainless lining is bliss. Except for a 10" pan, where copper is too heavy and imbalanced to toss ... go for aluminum. One of the most useful pans is 5 to 6 quart rondeaux (or casserole, in america). it can be used for large amounts of sauce or rice, small amounts of pasta, braises, sautés, fricasés, steaming or boiling vegetables, making small quantites of soup, etc. etc.. i have an anodized aluminum one; clad aluminum/stainless would be great. copper/stainless would be really great. stockpots etc need to affordable and light enough to pick up. Stainless with an aluminum disk bottom is great. Anodized aluminum is great, too, but likely not worth the price. My bigggest one is a plain aluminum commercial pot (6 or 7mm thick) that was cheap and works brilliantly. No good for acidic ingredients, but you probably won't make 20 quarts of tomato sauce.

I have le creuset (light, smooth finish) and Descoware (dark, semiporous, staub-like finish) dutch ovens. I prefer the light one. Sticking is a non-issue. If I'm not browning things, then nothing sticks. If I'm browning things, then I want the juices to stick and brown. The light finish just makes it easier to tell the difference between browned and burnt. But it's not a big deal for this kind of pot ... I happily grab whichever one is the right size.

Evidently not! We seem to have some ideas about what it is, but it seems that the people curing the salmon differ. I've been a New Yorker for years (and ordered a lot of lox on bagels) and just found out what it really is right here.