paulraphael

We're all coming to your house for the apocalypse.

Tobacco sounds hardcore. The trouble I've had with Lapsang Souchong is the opposite of the smokiness getting lost. It's just been too assertive, at least in the couple of desserts I've tried it in. As a dry rub for meat, it's been amazing. I still love the idea of some kind of lapsang ice cream, just because I have such a long history enjoying that tea.

I order chocolate online these days. Mostly from World Wide Chocolates, but sometimes from Chocosphere. Both have amazing selections and good prices. The interwebs is also the best source for techie ingredients. L'Epicerie, Modernist Pantry, La Sanctuaire, TIC Gums Chef's Store, Willpowder, probably a few others.

Or if you have a little more room, BERKEL - Fly Wheel Slicer VOLANO TRIBUTE - Gold Finish and Flower Flywheel - Handmade in Italy - RED

Teo, have you had any success with lapsang souchong in an ice cream or sorbet? I've had luck with it in savory dishes, but not so much in desserts. Would love to find a way to get the smoke to work in something frozen.

As funk precaution before long cooks, I dip the bags in simmering water for one minute before putting them in the bath. I'm making a few assumptions about the conductivity of the plastic and the thermal mass of any fluids in the bag, but it should be enough to pasteurize the surface. After this routine, even after several long cooks, including 4 hour pre-cooking at 40°C, I've never had a hint of bad funk. I use ziplocs. No problems ever with long cooks. They are fragile, though, during and immediately after the dip in simmering water. So you have to handle them carefully there and check the seal afterwards. Once they cool down a bit they get their strength back.

It's definitely worth checking out a fabricator or scrapyard or two. Here in NYC the prices they quoted were way higher than the manufactured pizza steels, but it seems like in most places you can get a better deal by going that route. You may have to put in some work to get a finish on the steel that you find acceptable ... be prepared for rust, a rough mill finish, and sharp burs on the cut edges.

Try it and compare. The results are different. One extracts at 85°C, the other at 121°C. I find the differences especially noticeable with fish stock.

We were talking about using s.v. for veggie stock, not for the veggies in meat stock.

I made Rachel Khong's 2-minute chocolate microwave mug cakes. They're pretty good! I used decent chocolate (callebaut 70% and cluizel cocoa) and substituted melted butter for half the oil. This time I served them in the mugs (when I tried de-mugging, the results were unaesthetic in a fecal sort of way). This is a good one to have in your trick bag.

Several years ago I bought a boule from a bakery in Manhattan (one I'd bought from a few times before). There was something bizarrely wrong with it. The texture was strange, and it seemed to have no flavor whatsoever. It was like eating nothing. A friend of mine finally figured out that they'd left the salt out.

Agreed ... I've tried it both ways and the pressure-cooked stocks are a bit better and much easier. I still use SV for veggie stocks, as BTB says, and it's sublime for fish stock. I use ziploc bags, which are close to the temperature limit when making stocks, so leaks are a concern. Sometimes I double-bag stocks, out of paranoia. The outer bag stays clean and is easy to reuse. SV is also useful if you're doing Modernist Cuisine-style low-temperature "jus" kinds of stocks, where you're aiming for a red color and rare meat flavor

Certainly it works to just use a pan. It's probably what most people did over the years. The other ways are for if you're in a hurry, or want to make sure you get the smoothest or most durable finish. At least the smarter versions will accomplish this.

It's so easy with a pressure cooker to get the same (or better) result in a fraction the time that I think it's an obsolete technique. Do a test and see for yourself. Make a triple stock, and then make a single stock with 3X higher ratio of solids to water. You're doing the same thing—but simultaneously rather than sequentially. I don't stock up on classical glaces or anything similar anymore. It's so easy to make a superior equivalent (with a specific protein chosen for the sauce) that I'll just do it as needed.

I'd practice a LOT on some cheap knives. But yeah, that's probably what the pro knife sharpeners use for thinning. Even the ones who do all the basic sharpening and finishing on waterstones. Dave Martell said he uses a belt for European knives and for Globals.

Probably doesn't need saying, but the machines are out if you're particular about your bevel angles, or if your knives are ground asymmetrically (most everything from Japan). You can certainly sharpen an asymmetrically beveled knife in one of these machines, but you'll end up with 50/50 bevels on a knife that's designed otherwise, and you'll have funky edge geometry that won't perform so well.

I doubt you'd have to compensate for that reduction. 12g salt / 500g flour is on the high end of normal ... that's 2.4% salt. 5g salt would be 1%, which is low but not outrageously so. I think 1.5 to 2.5% are pretty typical. I haven't seen much change in gluten structure or yeast activity with salt in these ranges. None of this looks to me like a ton of sodium. The real high-sodium bread is the salt-free stuff from Tuscany, because it's inedible until you pile prosciutto on top. Small variations in salt can make a bigger difference with sourdough; the wild yeasts are often quite sensitive to salt level.

My girlfriend thinks we're all nuts for not using GitHub, which would allow for version control and all kinds of collaboration features. I don't exactly know how it works. After looking over her shoulder, I suspect it's not going to catch on around here anytime soon.

That's something i hadn't thought of. Interesting idea. I'd still like to tame the freezer with a shelf or two, even if canning becomes an option.

From the site it looks like a disk-bottom pan, which isn't my first choice for sauces. If this is the one you mean, then there's a 1/4" aluminum disk in the bottom which has a lot of thermal mass, so the pan will be slow to respond to temperature changes. Heavy disks are good for evenness (which is adequate with thinner, clad pans) and for heat retention (which is not helpful in saucemaking). I'd be inclined to look for a similar shape in a thinner clad pan, like allclad or any of the less expensive equivalents. Avoid the ones that are more expensive because they're extra thick or have bizarre numbers of layers.

I've got a fairly small freezer (standard fridge with freezer on top) and an always-growing pile of stocks and glaces and carcasses in ziploc bags. These bags compete for space with things that ordinary people consider food, and I'm feeling some heat around here to fix the situation. The freezer's basically a single box, with a small shelf for ice trays. I'm thinking an additional freestanding shelf might be a good solution, or maybe something with vertical dividers (like what you'd get at Staples to manage papers on a desk). Any other thoughts on solutions, and good places to look for them?

You wouldn't miss it so much if your handwriting looked like mine

I'd be curious to know also. No trouble getting parmigiano around here, but the prices are at least double what your site charges for the 24-month-old. Looks like the minimum is 1kg, which would take me a while to get through. I'm curious to know the best practices for storing a piece of cut parm. For vinegar I'm thinking about ordering from here. They have Montegrato sherry vinegar, which I like very much. Amazon carries my favorite sweet vinegar.

You must be hungry.

I've been all digital for many years. Nothing fancy—mostly text files and pdfs. I keep it all synced via DropBox, so I always have access by phone or web. Here's a screen shot, drilled down to some folders that happen to have lots of stuff.