paulraphael

Certainly true. Sometimes in these cases I'll run for the hills, but other times I'll take a couple of steps back and see that in spite of all the theory, these people have doing this for years (and maybe it's a tradition that goes back farther than that) and no one seems to be dying, so maybe they actually know what they're doing with that mop bucket and used meat!

Octaveman, would you mind talking a bit about what sharpening stones / other devices you think are reasonable to have for maintaining Japanese knives? I'm curious to know if there's a way to do it for less than the prices I saw at Korin (where I'd be spending about double the price of any knives I get on a set of water stones and a how-to DVD!)

there's a little french/tunisian place called Epices ... right off columbus, i think on 70th street. I'd steer clear of the tunisian wine, but other than that everything i've had there has been delicous. very moderate prices.

The nice thing about a food mill is that it purees and strains at the same time. So a lot of things that you'd have to strain or peel if you pureed them in a blender or food processor you can just toss in there unpeeled. It also has a much gentler action than a machine, so it's less likely to turn starch into glue. The food you put in needs to pretty soft, otherwise you'll give yourself more of a workout than you need. And you can get the Strawberry Peeler attachement for it just a couple of thousand dollars

People can be pretty precious about the seaoning on their cast iron; I personally don't think a lot of fuss is necessary. If you really want to maintain the maximum non-stick qualities, like for making omelettes or crepes, it might make sense to handle the pan with kid gloves and keep the heat moderate. Under high heat the seasoning, which is really a slightly penetrating coat of polymerized oil, will become partially carbonized. It will still protect the pan, it will still look good, and it will still maintain some non-stick qualities. It just probably won't perform AS well as an uncarbonized coating. I crank the heat on my cast iron pans all the time. I use them mostly when I want to brown the bejeezus out of something, so I don't put the food in until I start seeing smoke. Most likely my seasoning has been carbonized, at least somewhat. It still works well enough for me. A bit of new seasoning gets applied every time the pan gets used. Sticking and rust have never been issues.

I have a couple that are filthy, that I've used as recipe books in the kitchen when I'm lazy. But most are clean, not counting my notes and post-its. I use them for reference. Usually if i need help I consult a lot of sources (including books, and the fine people here) and develop my own recipe which I keep as a text file on the computer. This lets me take a printout into the kitchen, which I'll scribble all over with notes, then updated the file on the computer, and sometimes work through many revisions until I get it right. This works great because I end up with a library of my own recipes on the computer, which can easily be printed or emailed to someone else, and are a snap to revise or convert to different quantities, etc.

I have bags of beef and veal shank meat in my freezer, verterans of my last batch of brown stock. I figured this would be good for pasta sauce, dumpling filling, that kind of thing. So last night I made some tomato sauce with the meat ... something really simple: canned crushed tomatoes, onion, white wine, olive oil, a bunch of the meat, thyme, salt, and pepper. I was curious to see to what degree the meat had had its flavor extracted. What I noticed immediately was that 100% of its fat had been extracted. I had to compensate for this by adding siginificant amounts of olive oil (never ever an issue with the kinds of meat i've normally used in a sauce like this). I also noticed that the meat had some pretty good flavors (especially some of the more browned pieces) but that it was missing some other flavors. The overall sense was that some flavors had been completely erradicated but not others. I don't know how to articulate what was there and what was missing ... just a sense that some of what makes the meat taste meaty and beefy was there, and some wasn't. In the end, I thought the sauce was half good. It was flavorful, but it had holes in the flavor that I didn't know how to adjust for. In the future, I think I'll use the spent meat along with some cheaper, fattier, fresh meat (ground chuck or pork, perhaps). Something with less interesting but better balanced flavors. Any other thoughts on how to get the most out of this stuff?

My girlfriend and I want to cook ourselves a celebratory dinner, and I thought some black truffles would be fun to splurge on. But I just discovered that aux delices no longer has a store, and I don't have time to order any. Who should I check out? Also, I'm a truffle newbie, so any tips on how to buy would be most helpful. Starting with how much ... I'm planning to make a demiglace based sauce for a couple of filet mignons. I'll probably make 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sauce at the most. How many grams would be reasonabel? I want the truffle to be the primary flavor of the sauce, not a mysterious background element. Thanks!

I don't agree with this 100% ... it's true if the reason you won't drink it is bad flavor, but in many cases wines that have general qualities that you don't care for make excellent wines for cooking. A wine that's boring and two dimensional can work very well, as long as it has the basic qualities called for in the dish (acid, or full body, for example) because the subtleties of flavor and aroma will be cooked off anyhow. Red wine in particular is transformed by cooking and by the presence (or absence) of proteins in the food. Red wines that I would normally consider too insipid to drink (like most cheap merlots) can work great in cooked dishes and sauces, provided they have enough body to hold up. I also find, as others have mentioned, that recorked wine that's been sitting in the fridge for days or weeks can be great in a sauce or a risotto. The oxidized flavors that make it unpleasant to drink don't seem to show up in the dish. Possibly because cooking will oxidize the bejeezus out of it anyhow?

I'd check out the discussion boards on kitchenaid.com. A lot of experienced people there who can advise you. Also tips on where to get them for cheap. I wouldn't bother with the copper bowls unless you can find a great deal on them. For silly reasons they'll void the warranty, and I suspect you can get equally good results with a bit of acid (cream of tartar, etc.) and the brute force of the machine.

I'd start by reducing your dependence on recipes like these: http://www.amazon.com/Manifold-Destiny-Gui...e/dp/0375751408 after that, it seem like there are a couple of issues. the first is cooking method itself. Raw food is obviously the winner here, with multiday bbq and smoking the loser. i'd look at techniques that originated in places without a lot of cooking fuel (stir fry, etc.) The second set of issues is the amount of C02 that went into producing and delivering the food. that's a more complex can of worms, but interesting to consider.

This thread inspired me. I'm cooking a dinner for my parents as a present, and have decided to send them a fake menu in advance. I'm aiming for something that will be at first glance pretentious, and at second glance horrifying. here's my first draft: Amuse Bouche blowfish carpaccio fleurette on a "spoon" of cinnamon chewing gum Entré Fire-blackened quail's eggs embedded in a block of ice. Suckling urchin en papillote served with a brine shrimp aspic and a seasonal meddley of cured, distressed West Brooklyn riverfish. Tossed Salad of Frisée and "Dirty Money" fresh baby greens and "leaves" of various international paper currencies, tenderized in a week-long simmered balsamic reduction, sprinkled with fine grains of truffle soil. PLAT PRINCIPALE Twice-fingered Harris Ranch Wagyu beef, prepared sous vide in tepid water, garlanded with imported thistle and served in an unfired clay pot. Handpicked, drawn and quartered young rabbit, punished with a shock of mezcal-infused habannero chili marmalade, steamed in a cornhusk and balanced on a pyramid of maize. Medallions of milk-fed veal-fed veal, hand-hewn turrets of baby harp seal foie gras, wild dolphin roe, collard greens. Partially sedated live monkey, bamboo shoots and papaya, moistened with coconut holandaise, wrapped in grilled banana leaves and presented on a skewer. DESSERT Demolished Cake Five layers of time-ravaged angelfood, interleaved with dessicated bastions of ganache and creme anglaise, scorched and helmetted by a sheath of whipped cream fallen in ruin, served on crystal platter shards partially supported by a collapsing tower of butter. Sweet Triage a demitasse each of lightly sweetened waters, made with cane sugar from Hawaii, Barbados, and Suriname, served precisely at body temperature. Arrives with three brown rice flour "communion wafers" for cleansing the palate. (Note: it is not legal and therefore impossible for us to serve sweetened water made with Cuban sugar cane. Please make a discreet inquiry with your server for more information.) Black Opium mixed valrhona bittersweet chocolate vapors, inhaled through a pâte feulleté hookah

I think our pending plan is Degustation followed by Chickalicious! Thanks for all the suggestions.

There are many different kinds of Stevia product, refined in different ways from the leaves of the plant. Some are white, others dark brown. The brown stevias tend to have a woody, almost maple-like flavor with some liquorice and other root flavors. It doesn't pass as sugar, but it has interesting flavor profile. I have no experience cooking or baking with it, so I don't know how it reacts with heat or other foods chemicals. There is almost overwhelming evidence that stevia is safe. It's been used as a sweetener for thousands of years in Asia and South America. I haven't seen a single evidence-based allegation about potential problems. Suspicion is that food industry lobbies (who have a strong interest in pattentable sugar substitutes) have exerted influence on the FDA in this matter. If you look on PubMed, you can actually find a decent number of clinical trials that support Stevia as an anti-diabetic supplement. It has a tendency to lower and to stabilize blood sugar, which cuiously has been known about for a long time in some native cultures. Unfortunately, as far as i can tell, these clinical demonstrate beneficial effects only with huge doses of stevia ... considering how sweet it is to begin with, you'd never get the benefit of it as a supplement if you're using it as a sweetener. But wouldn't worry for a second about sweetening food with it if you like the taste.

Yeah, I'm generally baffled by broiling. It throws out your precious pan juices, it doesn't give any smoky flavor like charcoal or hardwood, and it's really hard to control (I once set a mountain of nachos on fire in the broiler, thanks to a moment of inatention. The spectacle was brilliant, i thought, but there was nothing left of the chips and the guests almost ran for their lives when i brought the flaming platter into the living room). Also most home ovens have lousy, uneven broilers. I wouldn't even consider it unless you can get predictable even heat from yours. My friend's wolf range broils things nicely; my frigidaire (odd name for an oven, granted) has a useless broiler, in spite of a quite good oven. What's wrong with doing it all on the stove? You don't need a cast iron skillet. Any heavy pan will do. I actually prefer pans with shiny insides, so I can see how browned the fond is. I hate to saute all that beautiful meat and not have at least a basic pan sauce. Especially with fillets, which typically have quite a mild flavor. The sauce is an opportunity to focus the flavor. One other thought: if the fillets aren't already cut, you can cut them to slightly different thicknesses. this makes it very easy to cook them to different degrees to please different guests, while getting them evenly browned on the outside. People who like them bloody get thicker ones--they deserve them!

Camilia Panjabi has a book called "Great Curries of India," which I like very much. There seems to be some issue with the translations of the recipes in some cases, so I always cross reference with somethingg simmilar from Madhur Jaffrey's books. This problem asside, it's an excellent reference book with a lot of tempting ideas.

Normal! your pans are fine. That's just the early stages of oxidation. You can polish it away with any copper polish. but my wish for you is to learn to love the patina of a pan that gets used (as opposed to the coppery gleam of a fetish object in a show kitchen). A few more uses, and the pan will darken with a nice mottled, well-worn look that tells the world you actually coook with it. My good friend is a cook with a huge batterie of copper cookware. He used to keep it all gleaming. Finally his mom called and said, "David, stop polishing your copper and go out and make some friends." 'Nuff said.

which? Degustation, or the bar at the Modern?

What were your impressions of the truffles at the festival? Do you get the impression that American farmers and hounds are starting to know what they're doing?

(including a bottle of wine) My girlfriend and I got a present ... $150 to dine anywhere. We'd be interested in a place that serves interesting, at least somewhat contemporary food, with roots either in france of california (but we're open to some kind of asian fusion). Good value and fun, unpretentious surroundings are a plus. Broad question, I know. Just curious what ideas people throw our way. There seem to be more nuanced oppinions here than in Zagat and Michelin.

Hey, I love heavy copper. I don't think it makes sense for every pan, though. I use copper for saucepans and for bigger saute pans. for a small (10") poelle, like what I use sauteing and tassing smaller portions, I find the copper offerings from Falk and Mauviel and bourgeat to be unsuitable. Too heavy, badly shaped, and badly balanced to toss food in. I find aluminum to work great in this size. i used anodized aluminum (calphalon) for years ... it cooked beautifully and was well shaped and balanced, but it got beaten to hell, it warped, and i got sick of trying to figure out if the fond was burned or not on the dark surface. Now I use an alclad s.s. pan in this size. As obnoxious as the company can seem, the pan is excellent both on the stove and on the oven. Light, fast and responsive, even, easy to clean. And i paid just under $100 on amazon ... pretty competetive with Sitram, Demeyere, etc.. In many other sizes I think you'll find choices that make more sense than copper. There's little need for a copper dutch oven or stockpot. Something we should be thankful for. One day I would like a copper rondeau, though ... something in the 5 or 6 quart size. That would be a nice pan. Not sure what this has to do with the original topic ... all these pans have riveted handles. They inspire a certain amount of confidence (even if a spot weld is bombproof, you have no way of knowing for sure), and the few seconds of extra effort to clean them has never seemed like a big deal. I have noticed that my calphalon pieces use aluminum rivets, and some of the older ones have corroded on the inside. This seems like an esthetic annoyance more than a structural one.

agreed. for my copper pans i went to the restaurant supply store and got the generic commerical aluminum lids. they come in every imaginable size, are cheap and indestructible. half the time i don't even use the correct size; i just grab a big one and throw it over the top of the pan. maybe for a copper pot in a dutch oven size (if you can afford it, and then if you can lift it) there would be some advantage to honkin' heavy copper lid. but for that type of pot i use enameled cast iron.

I suspect these issues with welding concern the kinds of spot welds that we see in cookware, where two pieces of sheetmetal are connected with very low surface area welds. TIG and MIG welds, in applications where you have substantial metal contact, are going to be stronger than any kind of rivet connection could ever be. A bike frame held together with rivets wouldn't hold together for long. The switch from rivets to welding allowed steel-framed sky scrapers to be made with much lighter girders, because the connections are so much stronger. I just don't know if it's possible to get these benefits from welds in clad metal pans, or other pan constructions where you're attaching pieces of stainless steel that are a fraction of a milimeter thick. In a clad pan, the walls seem to be thinner than bicycle tubing. At the butted end, most road bike frames are .5mm to .9mm if they're steel. These steels are made of chrome moly and nickel chrome moly alloys that are way, way stronger than the 300 series stainless steels used in cookware. And the welded frames are typically heat treated after welding, which i suspect happens at temperatures that would destroy a clad metal pan. On the topic of galvanic corosion, or rivets working loose from thermal expansion, has anyone seen this happen on a high quality pan? I just don't know what the material science would be for some of the combinations we use. I can imagine the iron/steel/copper/s.s. sandwich of my copper cookware working like a car battery and self destructing in a matter of days, but it doesn't seem to happen. This kind of construction has been around almost forever (at least the tin lined versions). Clad metals in general would seem like a questionable idea for use at cooking temperatures, except in reality they have such a good track record. I've never heard of the stainless steel delaminating from aluminum or copper. Does it ever happen?

There's a dive bar on East 4th Street called appropriately enough, East 4th. But the sign just says "BAR." It's right across from the KGB bar ... off 2nd ave, i think. They serve mostly greasy bar food, but the bourbon wings are the tastiest, melt-off-the-bone wings I've ever had. I'm no wing expert, but these are amazine. I found out about the place from a wing-loving coworker who grew up in Buffalo and makes special trips downtown for these ... so that should be worth something.

Michael, that sounds almost too good to be true. A bit of prep work for a private lesson and a free meal? Sign me up! I hope you don't my asking where this was.