gfweb

I'm awaiting the taste tests with great interest. Its hard for me to imagine this isn't the sort of stuff my mother served me as a kid...which was sad even then.

@Smokeydoke that sounds way too hot. I'd say 140 or 145 for 24-48 hrs as a guess. 185 will dry the hell out of it. I use ziploc bags all the time. Just be sure its the freezer storage grade bag and that there is no zipper on the bag. Zippers leak. Use the immersion technique to get the air out. If it isn't perfectly evacuated just clip the bag to the vessel and the air will rise to the top.

Wow. Alert the foragers. I never really trust foragers who are typically self-proclaimed experts. They never know if a few mushrooms gave somebody hepatitis or liver failure because it is detected a few days later and who remembers they ate the mushrooms under the beef. I'll eat foraged ramps because I can confirm what they are, but not mushrooms.

If a podcast is more noise than information I can't bear it. Mostly I'd rather read than listen....unless it is humor e.g. Gilbert Gottfrieds podcast....no good in print.

There would be trade-offs....

Yeah. Pod casts work for me only if strapped into an airplane. No patience otherwise.

JoC is a collection of recipes, many bizarre, that appear to be assembled uncritically. You'd better be a capable cook to choose and successfully make a dish from that book. POS? Well that was obviously hyperbole and fit nicely with the JoC abbreviation, I thought. I'd be happy to just say JoC is vastly overrated and a lousy cookbook. Having said that I still have one on the shelf.

Having no electronics are what pointed me to Blue Star. Nothing to overheat and die expensively.

My first influential cookbook was James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking. All the basic recipes and a lot of teaching. I'd still recommend it if you can get it on Ebay or somewhere. Tom Colicchio's Craft of Cooking and Think Like a Chef aren't quite beginner level, but the instructions are clear, photos pretty and the recipes pretty inspiring (for me anyway).

At least it is better than Joy of Cooking. By a big factor. I recall a lot shouting over on that other food site when I said t hat JoC was a POS a few years ago. It was like I said something nasty about people's mothers.

Make two versions. Yours and his.

Or make a Bittman dessert. Add more salt. Fix the texture. Nobody will know.

Heh heh. Not cheating. Just tasting the dish and seasoning appropriately. That's just a cooking basic. If they try to make it and fail.... its their fault. Kidding aside, what can happen if you inadvertently make a palatable dish? Nobody loses.

The thing is indeed the new Joy of Cooking, which is both faint praise and damnation. If you are a beginner it is empowering, and I don't make light of that. But one wonders if he actually made some of t he recipes. They are all under-seasoned... amid other problems. Bittman is FOS most of t he time. Why make it as written, @ProfessionalHobbit ? Fix it. The recipe is a framework not a commandment. Make Bittman look good.

I'd add that a program that lets you crop and adjust contrast will add warmth and interest. A low camera angle is helpful. 90 degrees ...terrible. 30 to 45 degrees is nice.

So far nobody has actually said "Bisto is really good gravy". Your thoughts?

Its funny, I used to enjoy dining out a lot, but I've gradually shifted to mostly eating in. Not many decent restaurants where we live and it makes me nuts to wait for worse food than I can make. So maybe we eat out once a week.

@BonVivant I like the way you eat.

After more thought, there is definitely a recurring set of dishes. Lasagna, sausage and peppers, Kung pao shrimp, pork roast, miso salmon, steak and root veg, andouille meatloaf make monthly visits. The rest are new recipes or freezer dives. Dinner guests get something tried and true and our kids have veto power on Thanksgiving, Xmas and Easter meals...maybe I can change a side dish...maybe not.

I cooked my first kabocha squash the other week. It had been sitting in the pantry for four months. It was cut into wedges and roasted at 375f. It was beautifully caramelized on the cut side...sweet and a little nutty. I cooked my second KS tonight. It was none of the above. Same conditions. I'm assuming the storage caused sugars to convert and sweeten it. Anybody know any tricks to tell when a KS is old enough? I recall a method involving initially roasting at 140 f which activates an enzyme that breaks down starch in butternut squash. Maybe my next attempt....

Little of both here.

I have a Blue Star. It is a beast (which is good). I love it. But its isn't cute like yours is.

@Okanagancook beautiful dumplings. Hard to top vinegar/soy/chili oil dipping sauce

I just made the first CB of the season (shown over on the breakfast thread). Costco brisket. 5 day dry rub with pink salt, salt, allspice, dry mustard, pepper, garlic. Cooked SV at 140F for 2 days.

First corned beef of the season. (5 days, dry rub, cooked SV 140 F x 48hrs) Irish stir fry with ketchup/sriracha glaze