paulraphael

No answers for how to use the microscope, but I look forward to reading whatever you discover. I've read that lighting is hard ... easy to make the edge look much better or worse than it is. Rotus's idea of some tape on the blade to protect it from the vice should work great. You could also just pad the vice with a thin towel.

Not really. Chef's choice does a compound bevel, where you get a fairly acute main bevel for performance, and very small, more obtuse microlevel (maybe a mini-bevel?) at the tip, for durability. It's a standard way to sharpen and can give good compromise between performance and burliness. Thinning happens along the couple of centimeters above the edge, where the chef's choice and other sharpeners never touch. As you gradually wear down the knife through repeated sharpenings, the edge will move up to fatter and fatter parts of the blade's taper. Performance will gradually decline if you don't periodically thin up there. That's thinning for maintenance. People also sometimes thin new knives, just to fine tune them to their own preferences. This is hard work, done with coarse diamond stones and a bit of masochism. Fortunately there are enough thin knives available nowadays that there's less need for these shenanigans.

Even a powerful countertop blender makes slush, not ice cream. A paco jet has a very sharp blade that shaves ice into fine enough bits to have a smooth texture (which is surprisingly fine) and aerate it the right amount. It's also designed to do it without heating it up significantly.

Best button in our house.

No one would make fun of that gadget if they've seen it at scale.

Interesting. I haven't cooked Wagyu, but have been told by just about everyone to cook it at a higher temperature than the equivalent American beef. Typically 58°C. The idea is to fully melt the fat, which doesn't happen 55.

This is often the problem with consumer brands. You typically have no way to know exactly what you're getting. And since they don't tell you, they're not under any obligation to keep it consistent from batch to batch and year to year. Even with products labelled for commercial use, you don't usually get all the information. They may tell you the DE but not what's actually in it (what saccharides and in what ratios). There are many ways you can get to the same DE value. You can assume that that something labelled DE 42 will be sweeter than something labelled DE 15. But you can't assume that it will be exactly as sweet as something else labelled DE 42. Or that it will have the same water content, or the same freezing point depression, etc. To the original question, I suspect Karo is sweeter than typical DE 42 corn syrup. But I'm not positive. And on another note, I just heard from someone in the ice cream industry that there's a global shortage of corn sugar. Like with everything else. So prices have been rising.

The place I see pros use smaller knives is during service, when they don't have lots of room to work, and they aren't moving through piles of prep. But don't think I've ever seen 6" chefs knives. Small knife usually means an 8" chef / gyuto, or or a 6" petty. I've seen knives like these use for prep by the sorry folks who work in liliputian NYC-style galley kitchens. They sometimes have work surfaces and cutting boards that are less than a foot deep. It gets awkward to use a longer blade. I've read that it's a Thomas Kellerism that you should use the smallest knife you can get away with. No idea why, or what counts as small, or if it's even a true story!

Right ... things will only flame if the alcohol percentage is high enough to create the right blend of alcohol vapor and oxygen above the food. Once the alcohol level gets too low to provide this, the fire goes out. It's a little more complicated than this—a flamed sauce will keep burning past the point where you'd be able to reignite it, because heat from the fire will boil the surface and liberate more alcohol vapor. But you're still not coming close to burning off all the booze. The USDA chart is super useful. It's just rough guidance, though. The shape of the pot will make a big difference in evaporation rate.

The standard western pinch grips (along with techniques like rock chopping) were also invented to help you apply more cutting force. They're techniques for knives that aren't very sharp. This isn't a dig at western chef's knives; it's just a fact that in terms of their design, edge geometry, and metallurgy they're traditionally made more for toughness and versatility than pure cutting performance. We compensate with the grips and the techniques we use. If you're using thinner, sharper blades, these grips and techniques no longer make sense. The whole idea of balance becomes mostly irrelevant, because the knives are lighter. You don't need to apply a lot of force, or create shearing action through rock-chopping (and if you try, you might damage the blade). So the grip is all about control. More like a violin bow than a hatchet. I sometimes use a modified sort of pinch grip when cutting with the tip of a long, lighter knife. But it's a very loose grip. It's just to choke up a bit to get closer to the food, like for slicing garlic. Or it's to let the knife pivot easily, like when doing rapid chopping with the tip. Otherwise, the best grip is often the one that European cooking schools tell you never to use: holding the handle, with your forefinger on the spine of the knife. Forbidden in France, but the Japanese work magic with it. The chef who taught me Japanese techniques took this a step farther—he let his index finger kind of hover above the blade. He held the handle very lightly with his thumb and middle and ring fingers, and used the tip of his pinkie against the side of the wa-handle to counter any rotation and keep the blade cutting straight. Looked silly, but his cuts were perfect ... looked like they'd been made by a robot with a mandolin. I never got the hang of this technique in its pure form. I personally don't understand the point of a small chef's knife. The western chef's knife is for cutting with power, and for being crazy-versatile. A small one is neither burly nor versatile. If you want something for precise tasks, there are many choices that make more sense.

On a gas range, you have those hot gasses spreading out under the pan. They have to go somewhere, and they deliver some energy out to the edges of the pan through convection. So even if you have a big pan sitting on a small flame, you're getting at least a little help from something besides the pan's conductivity. And that steel you're using is probably thicker than a skillet, so it could do a somewhat better job of spreading the heat.

I use ear plugs when making nut butters in the vitamix. That takes long enough to be a real hearing loss threat. The little bamix is quiet. My girlfriend uses it in the same room when I'm on zoom calls.

I like them for small tasks, especially things like make vinaigrettes. Of course you're the one person here with a rotor-stator homogenizer, so I can already hear you laughing at my Bamix. They're also handy for whipping a single egg white, or sticking into a pan on the stove to puree something to a somewhat finer texture. I use it more as a monster whisk than a mini blender. The smaller sized Bamix models are great for this use, because they're nimble and they spin very fast. They're probably not the best as a blender substitutes ... I've heard they're mediocre at things like pureeing a whole pot of soup, etc., which I use the vitamix for. Your stick blender died because it stripped a sacrificial plastic pin or gear. This is a part that's designed to protect a more expensive part if the thing gets overloaded—but it's a pointless feature here, since consumer stick blenders aren't designed to repaired anyway. It makes sense on a Kitchenaid mixer—whenever some genius throws a frozen stick of butter into the bowl (it happens somewhere on Earth every 15 minutes), the plastic gear strips, which feels catastrophic in the moment, but you're only actually out a $5 part and a greasy afternoon. I don't think the Bamixes are built this way—they're transmissionless, so the only part that could break is the very accessible pin that holds the blade in place. It would take a serious commitment to abuse to shear that thing.

This is my favorite. Addictive, and it keeps for weeks. It's all about the vinegar: if you don't have a local source for great sherry vinegar I recommend ordering from Despaña. To make ~360g / ~12 fl oz 180g neutral oil 5g garlic clove 5g dijon mustard 1.5g salt 1.5g black pepper 0.2g xanthan gum (optional) 35g Pedro Jiminez sherry vinegar 35g Palomino sherry vinegar ~60g Water (to adjust consistency) Blast it together with a stick blender. I recommend adding all the solid ingredients to the oil, blending until it's pureed, then blending in the vinegars, and finally blend in water just until the consistency is right. If you use xanthan, it probably won't separate. You could use 100% pedro jiminez vinegar if you like, but that makes a bit too sweet for my tastes. The 50/50 blend is just right.

Yeah, this is a sauté that you've finished with some flamed booze. Nothing like a braise, and doesn't require the silly quantities of whisky that you'd probably need with a braise. Your technique is traditional for pan sauces. More commonly done with cognac. Regarding the meat being oily, this doesn't have to be a thing. Meat can't absorb oil from the pan; it stays on the surface. So there shouldn't be a difference in meat oiliness if you use a little oil or a lot. But you'll get the best browning results if you use plenty of oil; its purpose is to fill in all the gaps and conduct heat to the meat. Once the meat's cooked (before you make the pan sauce), pour the excess oil out of the pan. Assuming the pan drippings are properly browned and stuck to the pan, you won't lose them. If you want to reduce oil farther, just blot off the surface of the meat with a paper towel.

I walked by, but am not really a sake drinker. They do indeed have quite a selection. I was overwhelmed, so video called a friend in Chicago who cooks a lot of Japanese food and does all his grocery shopping at Matsua. He said, "that one, get that one!"

I don't know what this is, but it's the best I've had. [Edited to add: just did a reverse image search and found it here: https://www.amazon.com/Kishibori-Shoyu-Artisinal-Unadulterated-preservatives/dp/B004XX1NKQ. Kishibori Shoyu, aged in cedar. I got it at Japan Village in Brooklyn and am pretty sure I didn't pay this much.]

Some industrial ice creams are made this way (I'm not sure why exactly). They have to use powerful homogenizers, and still they sometimes have texture problems. I suspect that with home equipment you'd be disappointed in the results. You would probably need some kind of emulsifying ingredient (yolks would work).

Oh, yeah, I'm proud of my pancakes with vent-aged glaze of mixed oils. It's a house specialty.

Looking at houses mostly. Taking cues from if there's already a hood venting to the outside.

I do. It's not the best arrangement. We're shopping for a new place right now, and I'm insisting on a place where we can put in a 36" range and a commercial-style hood that vents outside. Without ripping the place down to the studs.

The vent on mine is aimed at my face.

And I think some of them have powerful blowers. In some cases they're designed to either be a proper venting hood or a recirculating hood, depending on if you hook them up to ducts or to a filter unit. Others are like mine. Understandable more as retro / ironic art installations.

We have the standard NYC grease-recirculating hood. I almost never turn it on, because adding lawnmower sound effects to the cooking process, while slightly changing the direction of the smoke and splatter, doesn't strike me as much of a value-add. My workaround is that I often have to clean pans before cooking, in addition to after. We also use window fans, and a huge HEPA air filter. They get turned almost every time I cook on the range, because I use a lot of heat. Eating good food without smoke and splatter means ordering takeout.

I've had the 12" Mauviel version of this since the 1990s (no lip, 2600 grams). It's one of my 2 or 3 favorite pans. Just a great compromise of heat retention and responsiveness. Very even heating, even on a crappy stove. A big enough bottom to work as a traditional saute pan, but a good shape for tossing food as well (if you don't mind the workout. And it will probably last forever. I knocked it off the counter once and it went flying. My heart sank. But there wasn't even a mark on the pan. The floor was the loser in this transaction.