paulraphael

I don't really dislike mint ice cream made with extract. That super-mentholly flavor can be refreshing, and it's what I grew up with. It's just no match for the flavor of infused mint. And I don't know why this is the case. An extract is an infusion. Maybe some of the volatile compounds are less soluble in alcohol than the menthol is. I'm surprised your friend couldn't get the mint out of the mix. I chifonade the leaves pretty finely; they all get caught by a strainer.

BTW, I think the recommendation to mix infusion and extract is just an economizing measure. 36g of min leaves, for example, is a crap-ton of leaves. It's enough to pretty much clearcut the little mint plant in my garden. So Imagine a teaspoon or 2 of extract could keep the mint use a bit more reasonable. But I don't think the flavor will be as good. I made mint ice cream with extract when I worked at an ice cream shop years ago. It was very high quality peppermint extract (nothing in it but mint and alcohol) but still tasted like 100% menthol. None of the delicate, floral flavors of the mint plant.

In my experience infusions always taste better than extracts, usually drastically so. Peppermint extract, for example, tastes like mouthwash. A well executed infusion of mint leaves tastes three-dimensional and delicious. I infuse into a solution of milk and sugar (both from the recipe) since sugar syrup is an excellent solvent for aromatic compounds. There isn't a lot of published research on infusion times/temperatures, so I've been experimenting. Currently I heat the milk/sugars to 82°C. I'm working on ways to keep milk proteins from curdling, but if they do, it doesn't seem to hurt the final result. Herbs with big, delicate leaves (mint, basil, sage, etc.) I infuse for 5 minutes, with a large quantity of leaves. Tougher, stemmier herbs (thyme, rosemary) I infuse for 15 minutes with a smaller quantity. Per 1000g mix I use the following quantities: Basil 28g Mint 36g Sage 18g Sorrel 18g Thyme 8g Rosemary 12g This is all a work in progress, but I promise all of it will taste way better than extracts.

0.5g / 1000g! Please don't try 5 ...

If you put enough xanthan gum in anything to taste it, the texture will have gotten unbearable long before that point. It's a great ingredient in ice cream. If you overdo it, you can get too chewy a texture in the frozen state, and a slimy / jiggly texture in the molten state. I try to keep it under 0.5g per 1000g ice cream mix. At this level, it helps with ice crystals and with body, but there are no ill effects. It works exceptionally well in conjunction with other stabilizing ingredients. For years I used it with gelatin, which I found to be a great combination. Now I use it with other gums. It works synergistically with guar, locust bean gum, carrageenans, and some others ... which means that if you use them in combination, you get a stronger effect than you'd expect based on how they work separately. This lets you use very small quantities, and balance the effects of each to your liking..

If the meat is low on fat I add some. Butter works well; partially freeze, cut into chunks and add to grinder with the meat. I've also had the best luck grinding meat just once, using the 1/8" disk on the KA attachment. Minimal handling and compression keeps the texture nice. I presalt if cooking conventionally (sprinkle salt and pepper on the meat right before grinding) but add the salt in the form of a compound butter if cooking sous-vide. This prevents the texture from getting tough and sausage-like. Burgers done this way are delicate but don't fall apart. I weigh seasonings and use this formula: 0.7% salt 0.2% black pepper 0.01% cayenne pepper (optional. should not be an identifiable flavor)

Even the thickest AC stuff is going to perform very differently from cast iron. Think of thin AC as a sports car, thick AC as a truck, and cast iron as an ocean liner. Thick AC is still probably much thinner than typical disk-bottom aluminum pans. It's just going to be a bit more even than the thinner version, will store a bit more energy for searing, and will be a bit less responsive. Whether or not these changes are an improvement depends entirely on how you're using it.

The number of layers is pure marketing. The only things that count are the materials, and the relative thicknesses of the conducting layer and outer layers. It's possible that this new line has thicker conducting layers ... this would make it better for some applications, worse for others. Unfortunately Allclad has never been open about the thickness of their conducting layers. Someone would have to saw a pan in half and measure. Barring that you'd have to compare subjectively, which is harder than you might think. These differences are often more subtle than most cooks acknowledge. Lots of other variables in the kitchen are likely to make a bigger difference and throw off a casual comparison.

Something to consider if you don't see the value in a dedicated IR thermometer ... there are some cool products that combine a thermocouple probe and an IR thermometer in one. I have an older model of this Taylor. It's worked flawlessly for 6 or 7 years. The IR part is definitely low-end, but works for simple stuff

I picked up a pretty nice 1.5" thick heritage breed loin chop yesterday, and SV'd 2 hours at 59°C, then seared on a hot pan. It was very good, but next time I'm going to drop to 58.5°C. Good pork loin meat seems dry and overdone to me when it loses all its pink.

This fits my experience. I sometimes use one to check the pan temperature before making things like crepes. It doesn't make me a better cook, but it's nice to know the pan is ready without having to make a couple of lousy crepes first. For this it only works on cast iron or teflon; on stainless surfaces the readings are so far off, it's almost as if I'm getting the temperature of whatever's reflected in the pan's surface. It would theoretically be helpful to check baking stone temps for pizza making, but mine doesn't go high enough. I haven't found it useful for measuring the surface temp of food.

This kind of analysis is so situation-specific that it's beyond the bounds of any general discussion. Electricity is generated many different ways; gas is extracted many different ways. Every type of production, and really, every individual well and power station and mine and wind farm is going to have a different energy cost per unit energy extracted. And then what about the energy cost of building the facility? Amortized over what life span? What about the energy cost of energy delivery? Of fuel delivery to the energy plant? It goes on and on. At this point we'd remiss to not discuss the energy cost of food production, which in many cases is higher per kCal than for gasoline. Which is to say, riding a bike to work after eating a Kobe steak may be worse for the planet than driving your grandpa's Cadillac. But none of this is really relevant to which stove is more efficient.

I think the real comparison is with gas. Gas is inefficient but gives great control and a great cooking experience. Induction gives similar control with greater efficiency. I'd be bummed to cook on a standard electric range even if it were magical and used no energy at all.

I've experimented with lapsang souchong, but have had better results in savory dishes. I'd love to use it for a smokey dessert. So far my attempts have tasted pretty off-kilter.

Life is a lot easier with steaks and chops if you aim for about 1-1/2" thickness. This is thick enough that's it's easy to sear without overcooking, and still easy to present in a lot of attractive ways. And cooking times stay reasonable—a little over half the time of 2" chops. What cut are you using? For sous-vide I've used chops from the rib or loin, which don't need any additional tenderization time. If you're doing shoulder chops or sirloin, that's a different story; there's I'd go for a few degrees higher temperature and many hours of tenderizing. For the tender cuts, I set the circulator to 59°C, aiming for an interior temperature of 58°C. This takes 2 hours for a 1.5" cut; 3 hours 20 minutes for a 2" cut. I'd dispense with the brining, but it won't hurt anything [edited to add: these cooking times include pasteurization to core. Checked with SVDash App]

The range of what we call beer is so big that it makes any comparison tricky unless you agree on terms. Beers like Belgian lambics practically cross over into being wines, with their fruit ingredients and long aging. They're not just complex but are complex in many of the same ways as complex wines. But if you compare typical beers to typical wines, a difference, as I see it, is in the type of complexity. Wines are like artisinal bread, where the challenge is to get as much flavor and as much control as possible with just one ingredient. Wheat or grapes. Beer is more like pizza. There's artisinal bread at the foundation (if you're lucky), and then it's about whatever else the chef wants to throw in. That's a pretty reductive comparison, because wine's ingredients themselves offer a different kind of complexity. Grapes are subject to terroir, which for the most part barley and hops aren't. And wine develops much of its flavor while barrel aging and bottle aging, which the great majority of beers don't. So I think wine complexity is a bit more about subtlety, and appreciation of a craft that offers the maker a lot of constraints. While beer complexity is more about range and creativity. It comes from more of an anything-goes culture and is made with a process that offers few constraints.

Ah, ok. Sorry for the confusion. That sounds like a good solution. I'd think just water would do it.

In general, you can expect an inverse relationship between hardness and iciness. Maybe counterintuitively. To make an ice cream softer at freezer temperature, a greater proportion of the water needs to be kept in its liquid state (by dissolved solids that suppress freezing point). The presence of of more liquid water means that more is available to migrate and glom onto existing ice crystals, making them bigger. I'm in the process of adjusting my recipe to make it a bit harder, for this reason. Ideal serving temperature for ice cream is a little warmer than a typical freezer anyway ... 6°F to 10°F. It just means letting the ice cream warm up a bit before scooping. Most home recipes are too hard even in this temperature range. But if you're getting into pastry chef territory and adding milk solids and alternate sugars, it's easy to suppress the freezing point beyond what's ideal.

It uses lambda carrageenan, which is magical stuff. I use that in my own homegrown stabilizer blend and don't know why it's not more popular.

It's the math that's getting you; ingredients for whatever you're putting the glaze on will scale according to volume / mass, but a glaze scales according to surface area. If you cut the main ingredients in half, you should probably cut the ingredients of the glaze by 3/4.

Sounds like there are some practical advantages to the lower wattage consumer circulators, like the 800 watt Anova.

I find it good for things like ravioli filling ... where texture and dryness can be fixed by other ingredients. If there's a lot I save some for my cat, who surprisingly only likes it ok.

How can one be serious about cooking salmon and not want to be with it during the whole process? I had no idea people actually cooked salmon without having it with them in the tub. That would be like not swimming with it before catching it!

Burgers! SV today and then freezing to bring to parties Saturday and Sunday. Working out the details on a new recipe.

Well, they actually do burn a lot longer and more consistently. If you do a side-by-side test it will be obvious. This is because they're denser, so there's more stuff to burn in a given volume ... and less easy access for air. Because of this they also burn at a lower temperature, and are slower get started. It's all tradeoffs. match the qualities to the kind of cooking you're doing. I like to have lump on hand especially for if charcoal has to be added to a grill that's already going. It will be ready much sooner. I also prefer lump for searing food that's been cooked sous-vide. Just because it burns so hot. But for a casual day cooking outside, I find briquettes make life easier, just because of the steady output and longer life.