paulraphael

So, the early verdict is that these are great. Just like other twisty trays, but incredibly easy to release. And they stack in really positive and space efficient way. I also got a pair of the Tovolos, which probably won't see everyday use. My main issue with them is that the ice took hours longer to freeze. There's no air space separating the cubes. This would seem to be a tradeoff for the more efficient use of space. Also the cubes are bigger, and silicone may be more of an insulator than the plastic of the others.

Oh, yeah, it's just polyester. Wash and dry it with impunity. I use the microfiber towels exclusively for wet stuff, because it works so nicely. But I use cotton for handling hot pans, because the microfiber scorches and melts at a much lower temperature.

I picked up the habit of using side towels for grabbing pans from restaurant cooks. Now i won't go back. Pot holders feel clunky and are single purpose and don't easily stay on the handle of a pan. Oven mits, yikes. They gross me out ... has the inside of one every been cleaned, in the history of kitchens? Maybe some can be turned inside out and machine washed, but I've never witnessed it. The ones in my experience are petry dishes. I make an exception for a pair of silicone ones (the ones that look like sharks). These are borderline reasonable to clean/sanitize on the inside, they're waterproof (so you can grab hot things that could splash you, or reach into a hot sous-vide tank for something that you might damage with tongs). I mostly use them for reaching into a very hot oven when I'm afraid of bumping into something with arms, back of hands etc.. But that's like once a month.

Have you noticed that rubbing alcohol now has an expiration date? Ploy or not, I think mustard is something that loses potency as it ages. There's no magical date at which it's bad, but it will tend to better now than next month, no matter how old it is.

I used to live across the street from an ice sculptor who had to make big blocks of perfectly clear ice. His trick was to keep the water circulating ... he used something that looked like an aquarium pump. This apparently stopped air bubbles from forming.

I ordered a couple of Rubbermaid trays that good reviews on amazon, and a couple of the Tavolos. Expecting a hot rest of the summer ...

Preference? I like the beater blade so much I haven't used the original attachment in years, except for abusive things like crushing little rocks of brown sugar. But I haven't tried the others.

I have an earlier model of this Taylor that's super cool. Thermocouple, infra red, and it's water resistant. Taylor 9306N

Yeah, I figured the plastic twisty ones ... that's what I have now. I need some more, and the current ones are only ok ... I fight with them a lot and ice goes flying. I was wondering if they're all basically the same or any of them will make life better.

Those of you unblessed by the automatic icemaker deity, what sucks the least? Ease of getting the ice out, stackability, space savings, and durability are all plusses.

Oh, and here's a template for a really easy tomato sauce. It's less weird/more versatile than the M.H. butter sauce, but not far off. -dice 1/4 to 1/2 an onion -sweat the onion in some olive oil in a saucepan -add a 28oz can of tomatoes ... whole peeled ones if you want chunks, crushed or pureed ones if you don't -optionally, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of full bodied red wine. I rinse out the can with this. -simmer to get the consistency you want. add herbs if you want (if you're using anything delicate like parsley or basil, add in the final few minutes) -adjust the seasoning. this usually means pepper. If you didn't use wine, you may need to add a bit of vinegar to get the acidity up. Very rarely salt ... most canned tomatoes these days have all you need. If the tomatoes are good, this is a tasty and simple pasta sauce by itself. It can also be the base for all kinds of embellishments. If you want to get fancier, instead of just onions, start with a full-on batuto, which can contain diced pancetta, carrots, garlic, and celery, in addition to the onion. Pork fat may or may not substitute for the olive oil.

The big revelation for me many years ago was that canned tomatoes make great sauce. Most people got that memo a century ago, I know ... My old fresh tomato sauces required enough cooking that they were essentially canned by the time I was done. But these tomatoes were rarely as fresh as the ones that go straight from the field to the cannery. The trick has been finding good brands of tomatoes, which has gotten easier over the years. It's one area where I've looked into avoiding BPA, since tomatoes leach a ton of it (they're acidic, they're cooked in there, they sit for ages on the shelf in there ...). In contrast I use my polycarbonate water bottles with impunity, because evidence shows the amount of leaching is probably insignificant. But I'd like to avoid epoxy-lined cans if possible. Here's a list of companies that are no longer using epoxy linings. I don't know how up-to-date this is, and also don't know of independent testing on whatever lines the cans now. So this is pretty provisional information. Of the brands listed, I've had good luck with Muir Glen. They say they're lining the cans with some kind of vinyl. The only other food use of vinyl I know is PVA that's in cheap, catering-quality cling wrap. It's the stuff that smells like shower curtains. It's a poor choice for food use because it leaches plasticizers, which taste bad (like ... shower curtains) and have potential health effects. I doubt this is what's lining the cans, but also don't know what IS lining the cans.

I don't doubt that you are right, since nothing is standardized anywhere in Italy, and gelato is such a generic term. That being said, I've never encountered high overrun gelato, at least from gelaterias in Italy. And in the U.S., every gelateria and Italian pastry chef I've encountered makes very low overrun product. The other qualities that people debate endlessly (can it have cream? eggs? corn starch? lots of fat? little fat? etc.) seem completely variable. Which is just to say that if "gelato" means anything at all, it's most likely to mean ice cream without much air. And there's plenty of ice cream without much air that doesn't get called gelato ... Edited to add: Carpigiani makes different machines designated for ice cream and gelato (and some for both). There isn't much helpful info on their site, so I wrote an email asking for clarification. I'll post the answer here.

I don't know ... it's just a feature mentioned to me by a pastry chef. I just looked around on their site and they sell way more products than I expected. Details about specific features aren't so easy to find.

How do people like salmon at 45C/113F? I'm curious since the Cooking Issues guys found sweet spots at 108 and 122, but thought the salmon got "toothy" (whatever that might mean) in the range in between. No mention of if this was especially lean or fatty salmon, farmed or wild, etc..

Gelato means something different in every Italian region, and probably to every Italian pastry chef. The one thing gelatos typically have in common is low overrun. So any machine sold as a gelato machine is going to be capable of spinning low overrun ice cream. Likewise, any machine that can be set for low overrun can be used to make a traditional gelato. Since I like ice creams that are low on overrun, the distinction between the two doesn't mean much to me. My Kitchen Aid attachment tends toward low overrun, so I could call my stuff gelato if I wanted. In the commercial world, the Italian Carpigiani machines are top of the heap. These things can be set to whatever overrun and whatever drawing temperature you want, and then get there automatically. A pastry chef I worked with said his spinning times were something like 6 minutes.

A rib-eye without marbling suggests that the cow was finished on grass, and not for a very long time. No idea about breed ... I think the way cattle are raised and fed has a bigger impact than the breed. I buy Piedmontese beef from time to time. Some of it is grain finished and rated prime ... lots of marbling. Some is grass finished and has less. Interestingly, it's possible to finish on grass and get a lot of marbling, but only some farmers go through the trouble. Some also finish on a mix ... raise them in a pasture, but put out grain for them to snack on. Contrary to what grass-feeding activists will tell you, the cows run to the grain. Really lean beef is indeed tricky to cook. I haven't tried it sous-vide. Since you don't have to melt the marbling, you can try temperatures lower than medium-rare. But I don't know what will give the best mix of tenderness / juiciness / flavor. My starting point would be to try cooking in a 55°C bath to an internal temp of 54° or 53.5, and not leave it in for a minute longer than necessary. Then brown in a pan with oil, so you can get a more even crust without burning anything. In general, I think 1.5" is the ideal thickness for sous-vide steaks. I'd rather get one steak to share between two or three people than to try to cook individual ones that are too-thin. 1.5" is thick enough that you can easily sear without worrying about overcooking the middle, but thin enough that s.v. times are reasonable.

I really like these. They're too expensive, but for years I was getting w.s. gift certificates for christmas, and ran out of regular stuff that I needed. Now I have a lifetime supply. The disadvantage (besides price) is that microfiber is synthetic, so you can't use them to grab hot pans. So I have a pile of these and a pile of assorted cotton terry towels (cheap). I use the latter for pans. It's helpful to have different looking ones for wet and hot, so you don't make the mistake of grabbing a 500° chunk of metal with a damp cloth.

Oh, the stove. That's a whole other story. A longer learning curve than sous-vide, for sure. I used it for a week last summer and am still a beginner. The top of the thing is easy, but the oven takes hours to reach temperature, is uneven, and takes a lot of tricks to manage. I try not to think of the horrors being afflicted on the environment by the amount of wood you have to burn just to bake a pie.

Just a follow-up to say these steaks were insanely good. My girlfriend even came around to liking the aged flavor. Comments included "I've had aged steaks before, but nothing like this," and "this is more tender than a fillet" (which is a bit of an exaggeration. But they were probably about as tender as a rib-eye). The meat at the island was thicker than what I'd sampled at home, and retained more juiciness. The only real issue I have with chuck compared with rib-eye is that there are more thick bands of fat (rib-eye usually just has that one prominent one, and then the cap on the outside). Since these cooking temps aren't high enough to melt the fat, you get some pretty big chunks. At least the fat tastes good. There was no issue with keeping the meat fresh in the bags. I rewarmed in a pot of water on the wood-burning stove, and seared on a griddle. Here's a pic of the SV bags warming up on the 1940s Queen-Atlantic: If I do this again with aged chuck, I'll try trimming the cook time to 36 or even 24 hours, to see if they can be a bit juicier without sacrificing too much tenderness.

Little bits of it sometimes crystalize. If I see a lot of crystallization I'll reheat the batch until the crystals disolve. I always make my own invert syrup, and assume I end up with something that's less pure and consistent than the manufactured product. It's possible that a small portion of the sugar doesn't invert ... this could leave the batch less stable. It doesn't seem to effect the quality of anything I make with it.

Aren't flare-ups the whole point of grilling? Seriously, where else will the smoke flavor come from?

I just use ziplocks. I put a weight in the bag to keep it from floating. Some steam usually builds up in the first few minutes ... the zip lets me release it and reseal the bag.

I use ziplocks for 36 to 72 hour cooks without issues. I use the freezer bags, and am careful to evacuate as much air as possible (usually this means having around 45ml liquid in the bag, depending on the shape of the food). I also double check that the thing is solidly zipped.

Ok we had one of the steaks tonight ... the runt from the end of the chuck. The flavor was insane. The tenderness was perfect. It could have been more juicy. A genuine ribeye cooked for a couple of hours is quite a bit juicer. Either the pre-cook at 40C makes a big difference or the dry age significantly tenderized the meat. If I'd had more to play with I would have done a comparison. With similar meat, next time I'd go 36 hours instead of 48 ... trade a little tenderness for some more juiciness. But there's still nothing to bitch about here. Delapietra's did an amazing job with the aging. The aged flavors are intense ... as intense as some 8-week aged beef I've had. Tonight's tragedy is that my girlfriend discovered she doesn't like aged flavors. "Um ... is it supposed to taste like blue cheese??" I don't know what to do about this.