paulraphael

We stumbled into Ops in Bushwick and were very pleasantly surprised. Perfect crust, well made all around. The tomato sauce on the marinara was a bit unbalanced, but otherwise flawless. They say they use a sourdough crust, although it wasn't as evident as it is (or used to be) at Roberta's.

Looking for places up to $75 / person, all included. We won't drink much. Definitely would like money to go toward food rather than linens and formality. Interested in non-sushi choices at the moment. Thanks for any thoughts!

Nope, I don't even know the market. Please report back when you've tried it.

I looked up C02 prices online and came up with some price comparisons. These are average prices of C02 for carbonating a 2L bottle of water: -CO2 bought to fill 20lb tank in NYC: $0.20 Initial investment: $150–200 -Soda Stream, 3rd party cartridges on Amazon: $0.50 Initial investment: $50–$80 -Generic Seltzer bought at supermarket: $0.70–$1.20 Initial Investment: $0 -iSi siphon (2 chargers/liter), 3rd party chargers: $1.76 Initial investment: $100–150 Seems like from an economics point of view, the whole enterprise mostly makes sense if you want to carbonate stuff besides water, or if you consume a LOT of seltzer. If you're in the I-want-bubbles-in-all-kinds-of-stuff camp, one reason to consider the big tank, under-counter, DIY approach is that you can also use nitrous oxide. Dave Arnold talks about this in some detail. The idea is that N2O gives a completely different texture (softer bubbles) and flavor (sweet, not sour), and so being able to mix both kinds of gas with your regulator gives you fantastic control. He shows a picture of his under-counter setup, but declines to give instructions, since technically, N2O is a controlled substance (20lbs of whip-its, anyone?). But he invites you to decipher the picture, and assures you that you can indeed buy pharmaceutical grade N2O in bulk from welding shops, if you ask the right questions (you don't want to use industrial grades in anything you eat or drink).

Awesome, CDH. This should have its own thread.

I admit to liking the big fat ones, if they're done well, with a crisp outside and the right firmness inside. But everyone I know who expresses strong opinions about fries tells me this is sacrilege. They're all skinny pomme frites or go home.

I just learned that Apple recently allowed app makers access to the raw camera files. This has led to several new camera apps that can all make better pictures than the stock app. I downloaded ProCamera, and will play with it soon. Another app that gets good reviews is Halide. I've never been a big fan of the iphone camera, partly because I feel it's extremely heavy-handed with noise reduction, leading to a mottled, pointilized look at high magnifications. They call it a 12 megapixel camer, but in practice it looks more like 3 megapixels. I assume all the great reviews are in comparison with other phone cameras. Being able to shoot raw should allow for much more control, and probably image quality improvements, at least some of the time. On my professional camera it would never occur to me to use a format besides raw. I use Lightroom as my raw converter / jack-of-all-trades photo library organizer. There are other choices that I'm less familiar with. There must be some free options. Many serious photographers believe that PhaseOne's Capture One is the best in terms of quality. I find the workflow maddening so I don't use it.

I'm a big fan of iSi generally, just not for carbonating drinks. Even at 42 cents it's wildly more expensive than the other options. And slower, and less controllable, and more of a nuissance. Ideally I'd like a big tank under the sink that holds 20 lbs of CO2, with a regulator and an attachment to carbonate things in regular 2L bottles.

If the owner is there (Buck) he'll be happy to talk roasting with you all day.

@Rotus, if you don't already have it, you'd probably enjoy Dave Arnold's cocktail book Liquid Intelligence. He goes into fairly obsessive detail on carbonating booze, including wine (his blog gave me the idea to play with this in the first place). His conclusion is that in most cases it ends up being a pointless exercise (the wine was better flat), although the one time my friends and I did it, we thought the cheap chardonnay was much improved ... even if it was too oaky to pass for champaign. He also discusses how to set up a carbonating system with a 20lb CO2 tank for around $200, which over the long term will cost a tiny fraction per drink what a soda stream costs, with its overpriced cartridges. Far in last place, as others have commented, is the Isi siphon with its $1 a hit chargers. Sadly, this is the only gizmo I've got.

We made peanut butter ice cream at the shop where I worked way back in the 20th century—we just blended PB into our standard base and it came out fine. My standards were lower then, so I might not think too much of the results today. The challenge you're discovering is that peanut butter puts a bunch of solids and also peanut oil into the mix, which will both affect the texture. My inclination would be to some of the things you've already tried: reduce the eggs, reduce the cream/milk ratio. If that hasn't worked, it's possible that you're just being too ambitious with the amount of peanut butter. If you're not satisfied by the depth of peanut flavor you get when you reduce the amount of PB, then I think your idea of infusing peanuts into the milk is a good one. I'd try crushing the peanuts to the point where they're like coarse sand, and maybe toasting them a bit in a pan first. Then you can heat the milk up to 185°F or so, add the peanuts, cover, and let it infuse for 30 minutes or so off the heat before straining. This is just a guess. I don't know how much flavor you'll get. Possibly between this, and a reduced quantity of peanut buter in the mix you can hit the sweet spot. Also don't forget to throw in a bit of salt. 1 to 2 grams per liter. It really brings out the flavor of peanuts.

I was confused; I think the minimum volume is 500ml. Please ignore.

Great thread. We tried this a few years ago at my gf's parents' house (they have a soda stream, and I'd just read Dave Arnold's post on whipping up faux champaign). We had an inexpensive bottle of California chardonnay and gassed it. All of us loved it. Even the sommellier who happened to be hanging out with us that night. The wine tasted better sparkling than it did flat. It did not, however, taste like champagne. Our sommelier friend suggested repeating with a less oaky white bordeaux, which we haven't tried yet. On his podcast, Dave Arnold once went on a long rant against soda streams and the equivalent, talking about what a massive waste of money they are. He said it's cheap and easy to plumb in a full-sized CO2 tank with filtered water, and have bubbles on tap all day. He'd probably tweat you the details of his setup. I don't have room for that (or even a soda stream, for that matter). Those of you using an isi, are you staying within the volume recommendations of the siphon, and doing a maximum of 500ml in the 1l container? Or have you gone rogue and done a whole 750ml bottle in there?

In Brooklyn, both Stumptown and Toby's Estate have local roasters. There's a small shop at Newkirk Plaza called Coffee Mob that roasts its own and usually does a great job. I don't know where Joe's Art of Coffee and 9th St. Espresso roast, but it's somewhere local. They both know what they're doing (although I've only had their expressos inhouse; have never taken beans home). I don't recommend Gorilla (bad roasting). Haven't tried Brooklyn Roasting Company.

In a dutch oven. I preheat to around 525F, drop the dough in, slash it, cook covered for 12 minutes, uncovered for 4 to 6 minutes. Maybe going a little lower and longer would help with crust development. I'm more interested in flavor than the crust, but it would be great to improve both.

The results were very good. This was the easiest dough to work with of all my various sourdough trials, and it had the best gluten development (I've had some problems with every loaf trying to become a focaccia). The interior texture was excellent. The crumb structure was pretty good (my previous method, with high hydration, gave somewhat nicer / uneven holes). The crust was very soft. The flavor was good—for bread generally, but not much to indicate that it's sourdough. It didn't have the dreamy sweet/sour/creamy flavors that I've gotten from my homegrown method (which is unfortunately a pain in the ass, and which forms a weak gluten structure that doesn't like to rise into a proper boule) I used half KA AP flour, half KA bread flour (a combination that's worked well for me). For proofing, I did not use the refrigerator, because my culture just goes dormant at fridge temps. And I don't have a 55° proofing box. So I used my standard proofing temperatures of ~75°F for a couple of hours (which emphasizes yeast activity) and a couple of hours at ~92°F (which emphasizes LAB activity). Times were extrapolated based on temperature / activity curves that I've used for this culture in the past. I used the machine variation of the instructions. Do the MC people give much guidance on controlling flavor? What about crispness of crust? My method uses a smaller percentage of levain, and a relatively longer proof time. I may experiment with that. Do you you have a sense of how instrumental the bran and malt powder are? These are new addtions for me.

A thought on sweet vermouth ... the most common brand in US liquor stores, Martini & Rossi, is divisive. Many people think it's perfectly good, many people think it tastes like soapy bathwater. It's not about the sophistication of the taster; it seems like a phenomenon similar to cilantro. The people who like it have no idea what the bathwater-complainers are talking about. I'm one of the bathwater-complainers. It ruins drinks for me. You'll have no idea where you stand on the issue until you taste it. I'd suggest that if it's the only brand you can find locally, try the smallest bottle they have.

Chocosphere and Worldwide Chocolate both sell Michel Cluizel Le Noir Infini 99%, which strangely is edible as a bittersweet chocolate, if only barely. Lighter than that, I pretty much lump everything north of 65% together, and choose based on flavor. My favorite single origin at the moment Cluizel Villa Gracinda, which is only 67%, but it tastes as dark as any of higher percentage bittersweet chocolates I've had. Many people have given good reviews to lindt 85%, but I'm distracted by the chalky texture.

The secret is that it's not very good straight up.

Yeah, an index would be good. I mostly have the patience for the podcast when I'm on a treadmill for an hour or more. It would be too much if I were just sitting around listening.

Anyone listen to this? It keeps me company at the gym on endurance days. Dave is the former Grand Poobah of food science and technology at ICE, has the excellent/defunct cooking issues blog, a defunct/soon-resurrected avant garde NYC cocktail bar, and knows as much about all-things-culinary as anyone on the Modernist Cuisine team. The style of the show is irreverent, wildly discursive, and steeped in in-jokes. The tone is Bugs Bunny on crack. If these don't clash with your personal esthetics, you'll probably find it informative, and maybe even entertaining. Bonus: the global audience seems to be about a dozen culinary nut jobs, so if you call in with a question, you'll probably get through.

Later model iphones (7-plus and onward) have a "portrait mode." This is a setting that uses gobs of processing power to simulate a very shallow depth of field. It may work by assuming that the thing you want in focus is in the middle of the frame; not sure. Phones have to do this with digital effects because they have very small sensors, which require a very short focal length lens, which because of physics is going give huge depth of field (unless the lens has a wider maximum aperture than anyone wants to pay for). So the phone takes a picture that's sharp corner to corner, and then throws alogrithms and processing power (and maybe some AI) at the problem. The result is a vaguely convincing simulation of selective focus with a wide-open lens. The few samples I've seen had a bit of an uncanny, processed look that wasn't too appealing. But people will like it as a shortcut to blurring out distracting backgrounds. You'll have to experiment to see if you like the results with food.

Anyone looking for tips should check out James Peterson's blog. He's one of my favorite cookbook authors. Many years ago started doing his own photography, and doing it beautifully. FWIW, I've taken none of his advice. Despite being a fine art photographer by profession, my food pictures are terrible. Studio stuff was never my thing. It doesn't help that plating is my least developed culinary skill. Most drunk people with an instagram account take better food pics than mine. Mayb one day I'll get motivated to learn.

Which is another way of saying that the difficulty in cocktail making isnlt the making ... it's the shopping, the affording, and the preparing / not wasting all the various fresh ingredients and infusions. Based on this, I think the easiest cocktails are ones that don't require fresh ingredients (juices, etc.), homemade infusions, or relatively obscure ingredients that will take a bite out of your bank account and cabinet space and that you'll use a few ounces of maybe ever. I'd look at cocktails like the Negroni, which is all spirits, and all useful ones. Technically speaking, vermouth is perishable, but it lasts long enough in the fridge that you'll probably drink it in time.

I'm not assuming that's what it smells like when anyone else does it ...