paulraphael

I've been on a bit of a bender. After discovering Despaña here in NYC, I can't stop. It's become my acid of choice for most dishes, and also a savoriness enhancer. And in some cases a sweetener. And not a bad stocking-stuffer. Left to right: 1) Columela Solera 30. This isn't from Despaña. It's a brand you can get on Amazon and at a decent number of specialty grocers. The grape variety is unnamed, which almost always means it's a palomino vinegar, which is the most common and least sweet. It claims to be 30-years old, but is tastes like (and is priced like) the youngest among these here. About $14 for a 375ml bottle. This is my everyday basic vinegar. When it runs out, I'm going to try a Bodega Paez Morilla version, called "Gran Gusto." This is available from Despaña and costs $7 for the same size. 2) Montegrato Pedro Ximénez XVI years. This is my favorite. Deep, dark, woody, nutty, savory, sweet, syrupy awesome. For whenever this more complex and assertive flavor profile is called for. As with Amarone wines, Pedro Ximinez sherry is made from grapes that are sun-dried, taking on the depth and savor of raisins. About $17 for a 375ml bottle. 3) Bodega Paez Morilla Moscatel. I just got this and haven't had much chance to use it. Moscatel is the 3rd standard sherry vinegar type. This is sweeter than the palominos, less complex than the pedro ximenez. The sweetness has more of a pear / grape quality than the PX's raisin quality. Pretty expensive: about $15 for a 250ml bottle. Probably only worth using if a dish really features its flavor. I doubt I'll buy again. But delicious. 4) Montegrato Fino Reserva XVI years. I just bought this a 2nd time ... had stumbled onto it at Whole Foods years ago and bought out of curiosity without knowing what it was. It's a palomino vinegar made with the Fino process, and aged long enough to earn the 'Reserva' designation. Tastes very different from other palomino vinegars I've had. Very light, bright, and fruity, but completely smooth. Apple-like acidity. This is the most expensive one here: $20 for 250ml. As good as it is, I doubt I'll buy again. Delicious, just not the best value for me. 5) Bodega Paez Morilla Reserva 25 years. Another higher-end palomino vinegar. Definitely tastes more complex and smoother than the Columela, but once it's in a dish the difference is pretty insignificant. $11 for 250 ml. I probably won't buy again. 6) L'Estornell grenache vinegar. Not really a sherry vinegar, but Spanish, and has been a staple of mine for a long time. Available from Amazon and Whole foods. Lighter and less complex than the sherry vinegars, and has a bright, raspberry-like sweetness that brings a lot of things to life, including simple vinaigrettes. $10 for 250ml. A note on the ages: Sherry vinegar uses a complex aging system called "solera," in which younger vinegars are added to older vinegars in stages. So any sherry vinegar is a mix of young, medium, and old. The age on the label is determined by some kind of average, which I'm guessing isn't rigorously standardized (you can't count on one company's 30 year-old tasting more aged than another company's 15 year-old). But in general, it explains how something with such a long bottle age can be so reasonably priced. It also probably contributes to the unique complexity of this stuff.

I've never tried cooking comice pears. I just assumed they'd disintegrate. Anyone know otherwise? Interesting that bosc pears are newcomers. I often buy those to cook, since they're robust, and I like the way the flavor develops.

I have the small and regular non-perforated versions. For perforated I have cheap spoon from the restaurant store; it does the job a well as anything ... usually fishing raviolis out of the pot and spherification, but doesn't get reached for often. I like the big Kunz spoon for its size, and for the slightly concave sides, which give extra control when saucing. It's basically a precision ladle. And it's good for quenelles. The small version's only advantage over my tablespoons is that concave edge. I don't use it nearly as often. These things are nowhere near the top of my list of desert island kitchen tools, but my plating skills are weak in ways that will not be fixed by a fancy spoon.

A big wood-fired oven is great, but keep in mind that it takes a lot of wood—and attendant deforestation and pollution—to preheat the thing. It's hard to justify them unless you plan to make a lot of pies every time you fire it up. I'd imagine that the bigger and heavier the oven, the greater the minimum fuel requirements for each cook.

I like to use an oil that lists the smoke point (been using spectrum "high heat" safflower oil for both sautéing and seasoning things). I set the oven about 25°F above the smoke point. This has always given perfect results and made short work of the project. For the oil I use that's around 500°. As Rotus said, you want to put the oil on in VERY thin layers. I usually have a piece of paper towel wetted with the oil, and a dry piece. Using tongs, I wipe it down with the oily one, and then wipe off all the excess with the dry one. You're really going for as thin a coat as you can manage. While there isn't a lot of smoke, the operation doesn't smell awesome, and can drag on for the better part of an hour. So I try to ventilate as well as possible.

Likewise cooking multiple courses for four people.

I generally feel that a dishwasher is an enemy of the clean-as-you-go ethos, because for me the whole point is that I'm going need all this dirty stuff again, probably in 5 minutes. That means, cutting boards, pans, prep bowls, machine attachments, etc, in addition to work surfaces. Unless you're lucky enough to have a commercial Hobart that runs a load in 90 seconds, the dishwasher is like locking your tools into a vault. When I cook at my parents' house I practically have to put a lock on that thing to keep people from imprisoning my stuff. The dishwasher is fine for dishes ... after everyone's eaten. But this is called cleaning after you stop.

Probably this or something similar. If you really mean biggest and baddest! The catch is that it requires 3-phase 208V power, which can be very expensive to have wired into a residence. But there's no other way you're going to have 6 truly big/bad hobs. 3.5KW times 6 equals 21KW, Equals 3-phase power, 208V, 60 Amperes.

I haven't heard anything bad about Bluestar, besides the price tag. They'd probably be my 1st choice all else being equal. Definitely the open burners. The biggest concern with any high end brand is if you get service for it locally. But I'm sure there's service for everything in NYC where Mitch lives. Strange about the cost of running 220V. I'd think you could have have it rigged straight from the breaker box. They just take two 110V circuits that are out of phase and combine them. But don't hire me as your electrician.

It's easy to demonstrate. If you take an unseasoned carbon steel pan, oil it and heat just to the point of polymerization, you'll get a translucent brown coating. And everything will stick to it tenaciously. The blackness that we associate with a seasoned pan, and the slippery qualities, both come from the soot.

You certainly don't, but if the coating is pure polymerized oil you'll have the stickiest pan you've ever used. What makes the coating slick (and black) is carbonized oil embedded in the polymer. You get that from burning some of the compounds in the oil.

100% always. Lose my mind otherwise. I don't even want help in the kitchen from someone who isn't cleaning as they go. I end up cleaning up after them and it would be faster if they weren't there. "The best way to help mommy," as they say, "is to stay out of her way. Edited to add: cleaning as you go can end when you've plated the food, assuming you're eating with everyone else (and not diving into making the next course). There's no point in letting the sauce congeal on the plates as everything gets cold because you're obsessively scrubbing the last pan of the evening.

Homemade magic shell?

Smoke point has more to do with the level of refinement than the kind of oil. I usually used a refined safflower oil, marketed as "high heat." It's what I use anyhow for sauteeing, it's not expensive, and it's very high in unsaturated fats, so seasoning things goes quickly. I don't actually know how big a difference smoke point makes. To properly season a pan you have to go beyond the smoke point. If you're not carbonizing some of the oil, the finish will be sticky.

Drying oils are also the ones responsible for the dangerous reputation of oily rags. As the oils oxidize and harden, they give off heat. In a cabinetmaking shop, where a messy worker might throw used rags soaked with linseed oil into a pile, that pile can offer enough insulation for heat to build up and cause spontaneous combustion. Maybe not so likely in the kitchen.

I'd probably go with Matfer, just because they've been doing this a long time and I've never heard of anyone having problems. In general I'd prefer to shop for these pans in person at a restaurant store. Carbon steel pans come in a range of weights/thicknesses, and can be hard to know what's what based on descriptions. Generally, if you have a more powerful your range, you can benefit from a thinner pan (more responsive). If you have a weaker consumer range, you need more thermal mass. Preseasoning will save a few minutes of your time on a product that will last a hundred years. I wouldn't consider it a serious benefit. I've never heard of a restaurant seasoning these things; they just throw them on the fire and start cooking.

Huh. I make a dessert with pears, cherry, cognac, goat cheese, and cardamom. I think the flavors are great together.

I'm having a hard time getting a sense of those textures from the pictures. The top looks maybe firmer and shorter, the bottom softer and more elastic. Can you describe what you're looking for vs. what you're getting? Also, what emulsifier are you using?

I'm not sure I've ever met a flavor that didn't go with cardamom. It's one of my not-very-secret weapons. Putting cardamom on it around here is like putting a bird on it in Portland.

I think the real advantage of the mortar and pestle is that it allows a consistently coarse texture that's hard to get with a blender. Blenders usually go all the way to smooth, or else fail on consistency. It's a matter of preference if you want the traditional rustic texture or not, but if you do, the old gizmo's the best way to get it.

I should add that the trickiest part of this operation might be finding a snap-ring plier that's the right size. Most of the ones online are made for cars and bigger appliances; they're too big for the KA. The people at the parts sites might be able to point you in the right direction.

That can be repaired. You need to replace the planetary assembly. This happens when there's a defect in the press-fit between axle and the cast part of the assembly (the part that fell off). Usually that connection lasts forever, but occasionally it fails. I think the whole assembly costs around $30 on Amazon or on the various appliance parts sites. Just make sure you get the one for your mixer (and in your color!) Are you reasonably handy with tools? There are videos online that will walk you through this. You'll also need some degreaser, some new grease (don't get the horrible KA grease; get a nice synthetic like superlube), and a new gasket for the gear cover. If your mixer is an old model with a plastic gear cover, it's a good time to replace with the magnesium one. And see if any gears are badly worn. Most of the parts cost $10 to $20. The only special tool you need is a snap-ring plier. I think these machines are pretty fun to take apart and work on. If you make these repairs the mixer will be better than new.

I'll swap sherry vinegar for maple syrup. As long as the shipping doesn't make it crazy.

If the budget is $50 I'd go with Jo's advice and get a mortar and pestle. A bit more work, but will give a nice rustic texture that's great for this kind of thing. Just mince ingredients to a fairly small size first. Some coarse salt can work as an abrasive and help the pestle dig in. I'd be afraid that a super cheap food processor or blender would disappoint. In my early days buying kitchen stuff, I got a cheap blender at k-mart; it died the first or second time I used it (frozen cocktails). I returned it and got another one. It died just as quickly. After the fourth one broke, I gave up and got my money back. Eventually I picked up a used commercial blender at a restaurant store ... it lasted 15 years, but it cost more than $50.

I'm ok with the remote stuff (which isn't to say I have a use for it; but I'm ok with the company experimenting. You never know what feature will seem indispensable tomorrow even thought it's laughable today). BUT—I'll be extremely cranky if the fluff features get in the way of day-to-day usability. No touch screen on my cast iron skillet, please.