paulraphael

I've used essential oils, especially mint. The flavor profile seems about the same as mint extract—super heavy on menthol. So you get mostly candy cane / mouthwash flavors. I've sometimes added just a touch to an ice cream base that has infused mint leaves, just to for some extra flavor. Probably the hardest thing with the essential oils is measuring them. Unless you're doing commercial-size batches, it's hard not to overdo it. A drop can be too much.

I don't think seasoning really survives 700F. The pan will stay black from the carbon, but the polymerized oils will burn. Effective seasoning is a mix of both. I'd estimate that seasoning starts to break down somewhere north of 500, depending (maybe?) on the kinds of oil it's made from. FWIW, I was in a restaurant kitchen once that used a grill pan for a few dishes. They kept on a burner on high all the time, so it would always be ready. Probably a ~25,000 BTU/hr burner. That pan was silver-white. Not a hint of seasoning anywhere on the thing. The cooking temp was too high for it to form or survive.

Yeah, it gets confusing! Hardness and abrasion resistance aren't quite the same thing. All else being equal, a hard steel will be more abrasion resistant (and harder to sharpen) than a soft one. But when steels have a lot of alloying elements that create a high volume of hard carbides, they become very abrasion resistant. And this added resistance comes regardless of the general rockwell hardness of the steel. You can think of steel as being like concrete ... the base metal is like the cement, and the carbides are like the sand and gravel that the cement holds together. "Simple" carbon steels, like the Hitachi white and blue paper steels, are like smooth concrete with tiny pebbles in the mix. Even at high hardness, they're relatively easy to sharpen. High hardness and high carbide content are both antithetical to toughness. If you want a blade that can be sharpened to a very acute angle and support a fine edge without chipping, you need a steel that isn't too hard and that doesn't have too high a carbon content. But it can't be too soft, either, or it will collapse! Knife steel is a balancing act. If you want to nerd out, this article on edge stability and this one on edge retention can take your mind off the world for a while. The latter has interesting charts on the toughness-to-hardness ratios of different steels.

That's true ... but you have to be pretty good at sharpening to know if your edge retention issues are the result of the steel vs. your sharpening technique or geometry. It gets complicated. High-alloy tool steels and super alloys can have lousy edge retention if you sharpen them to too acute an angle. They have terrible edge stability and will microchip. AND they're challenging to sharpen, because these steels were specifically designed to resist abrasion. And some steels are tricky to deburr. They'll seem sharp straight off the stones, but dull very quickly. It's not intuitive that it's a technique problem, made worse by a quirk of the steel. Edited to add: lots of restaurant cooks like the simple carbon steels that you like. They just sharpen after every shift.

What Mitch said. I found the Victorinox link hard to navigate; it led me to a whole page full of knives. This is probably the one you want: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) You've had a lot of restaurant meals that were prepped with that, and it's priced like it's still the 20th century. You'll need to think about sharpening no matter what you buy.

Yeah, I find that strawberries get kind of sour and astringent, and with a bitter aftertaste if they aren't at least pretty good. We only have a good ones in NYC a few weeks out of the year most years, and you have to go to farmer's markets. Then I'm usually more inclined to just eat them than to make sauce or sorbet ... Tell us more about cloudberries. I've never heard of those.

Absolutely. It's the sharpening process that leads to the strong opinions about steel. I finally sharpened the cheap carbon steel Vietnamese knife I mentioned upthread, and have to admit it's getting me to rethink some things. I've always gone with low-alloy stainless steels for my main knife, on the theory that onions and garlic and all the acid stuff would quickly dull carbon steel. But this hasn't been my experience with this thing. And it's SO easy to sharpen. The ginsan stainless on my Tadatsuna is pretty easy, but this a whole different level.

I don't think sticking is going to be an issue with something as soft as a grape. This is mostly a test of the absolute keenness of the edge, which suggests that a straight razor would do impressively (if expertly sharpened). Stickiness becomes an issue with things like potatoes, that are more rigid (so there's some force pressing them against the blade) and that have a solid but wet surface. I don't believe a mirrored finish is less prone to sticking. If anything it's worse, because the potato can make an airtight, suction-cup-like seal against it. Like if you were to make a clean cut of a potato and press it against a pane of glass. Some people find a textured surface, like damascus or kuroichi less stick prone. But people who really care about this look for knives with a geometry that discourages it. A fatter blade with a convex slope on the front side gently pushes the food away and breaks contact with it. Personally, I go for knives with very thin blades that are very prone to sticking. I deal with the problem with cutting technique. If you cut potatoes and the like with the tip, and draw the blade through in with the right timing, by the time the two halves are severed, the blade is gone and cant be stuck to. This is just a little slower than using the whole blade and speed-chopping. Maybe if you routinely prep whole 50lb bags of spuds you'll shop for a knife with more stick-resistant geometry.

Yup. But I think the videos speak much more to sharpening skill than to the esoteric difference between alloys. If you can sharpen this well, you'll get performance close to this out of almost any knife. If you can't, you're not going to make grapes split in two by glancing in their general direction. Even with the finest grained carbon steel and laserlike geometry.

This is an example of the shortcomings of ChatGPT. It's a bad answer. Fat caries fat-soluble flavors. It can mute water-soluble flavors. It can be great for carrying non-volatile flavors that you perceive with your taste buds (sweet, sour, bitter, umami, etc.). It can mute many aromatic flavor compounds that you perceive with your nose (but I doubt all of them). This is complex flavor science, but the AI has just picked up on the old lore.

What I mean is, is there anything fundamental to the motor or the machining requirements that would explain such a huge price gap, or does it have to do more with economies of scale, different markets, etc., or does it have to do with technical requirements that may not be relevant to a kitchen? That kind of thing. Not long ago the cheapest immersion circulator you could get was an $1100 Poly Science lab model. You can now get models for $400 that are designed to hold up better in a steamy commercial kitchen environment, and ones for under $200 that do anything a home cook could want. So that original high price for the lab gizmo did not seem tied to something fundamental to the task. I'm wondering if homogenizers are similar. If so, there's a chance this ~$300 model is a great find. If not, it might just be a slightly glorified stick blender.

Jo, based on your experience, is there anything real that justifies the usual price difference between stick blenders and similar sized homogenizers? The difference seems to be close to 10X.

Interesting. Is it different from regular oven cleaner? That's usually based on lye, sometimes with bleach. I've used oven cleaner on some nasty cast iron. Recently I used a wire brush wheel on the end of a drill. The latter is much faster, but I ended up looking like a coal miner.

We just bought a house with one of those. I drag my iron pans across the top with impunity. Could I be secretly hoping it breaks so I get to replace it?

Has anyone heard of the Dynamic MiniPro? https://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=60812 It looks a lot like the smaller Bamix (like what I've got). But it has interchangeable shafts. This version has a rotor/stator homogenizer. The standard version has a regular immersion circulator shafts, with interchangeable blades that are suspiciously similar to Bamix blades (but not identical ... they attach with a set screw). This looks like a good company that has lousy distribution in the US. Made in France.

The Cannon looks intriguing. Interested in your impressions after using it a while. I'd enjoy fawning over the Weber, but I'm not tempted. I'm familiar with the brand from reading reviews of their hand-hewn solid unobtanium espresso grinders. But I just don't need my pepper mill to be most finely crafted thing in the whole house.

You've probably thought of methyl cellulose. That's the first thing that comes to mind. Not sure how you'd incorporate it. Mono- and diglycerides might also be something to experiment with (fat-soluble). Or portland cement?

How annoying of you to make me aware of these things. Until this minute I was perfectly happy with the Unicorn mill. Luckily my pepper mill budget is about $infinity billion short.

I'd love to hear more about how someone would choose pellet vs. charcoal vs. wood.

Financier. Not just the traditional shape. It's the world's best pound cake. Also good for muffins. The batter's good for cake of any size or shape. Rarely comes up anymore; my girlfriend pilfers all the egg whites to make healthy stuff.

Strawberries, raspberries, pears, dates, figs, honey (ones with sharper, herbaceous flavors maybe), blood orange. Maybe goat cheese.

I checked my notes from ages ago and saw this method for thyme ice cream (~5g thyme / L ice cream): Add thyme to milk; heat to 180°F/82°C Take off heat and cover; hold 30 mins; strain Whisk in dry ingredients and yolks; cook Etc. I also worked some lemon zest into the sugar, which complemented the flavor The thyme flavor from this simple method was fantastic. If I do it again, I'll experiment with infusing the thyme into the fully-made mix in a sous-vide bag while cooking. It will be a longer time but a lower peak temperature. I'm hoping this works out; if not, I'll go back to infusing on the stovetop as a separate step. Thyme is relatively easy because it's so robust and stands up to heat and long cooking. This all gets more challenging with leafier herbs.

If you get your LBG from TIC gums or Modernist Pantry (I believe it's the same product) it can be hydrated at a 75°C. I like to use this stuff for the flexibility it offers. Let us know how the thyme flavor is.

Any thoughts on propane vs. Mapp gas? They seem to be pushing the latter, but it's more expensive and harder to find.

I love that the guy who plays the janitor / handyman is a Canadian celebrity chef.