Porthos

In this picture the yolks don't look completely set. Is that correct?

A faire friend posted about steaming eggs to hard cook them. I couldn't find anything on the subject here. Has it been discussed? If so, could someone reply with a link or links. HIs technique: steam for 13 minutes then move into cool water to halt the cooking. I have been doing the "halt the cooking" part for a very long time with my traditionally-boiled eggs. I am impressed with the results. The bigger test will come at a later date when I try doing 5 dozen eggs at a time.

Andie - the tea kettle will be done on the side burner of my BBQ. That will help with the fumes.

25 minutes later I am amazed. Two 12 qt pasta pots, their inserts and the 20 qt "cool off" pot - all clean. Thank you all. When I unpack the SS tea kettle that needs de-scaling I know what I will be using.

Going to give the vinegar a try. We by the 5 qt bottles of white vinegar at Costco for use in the laundry so I have some at the ready right now. After soaking I will probably finish with BKF. I'll report back.

Each spring for several weeks I have reason to boil 15 dozen eggs. I use a 12-qt S/S pasta pot and do them in 3 batches. This allows easy removal of the eggs from the water and I then dunk the eggs in room temperature water to halt the cooking process (yes, I'm finicky about my eggs). At the end of the season I have a nice "crust" of calcium deposits to the upper edge of the main pot and the upper portion, inside and out, of the pasta insert. In the past I have scrubbed the pot and insert with a brillo pad with only ok results. Can I safely use something like CLR to remove the calcium or is there another way that would work?

Olive oil Butter Pam Corn oil for mayo Occasionally EVOO Vega table (soybesn) oil for baking

I've had my Sam's Club 1/2 sheet pans for several years. They are very basic aluminum pans. They go into the dishwasher. Most importantly I have never had any warping problems. I bought a S/S pan and it would pop and warp when it went into the oven.

Thank you all for your input. After more consideration and conversation with my DW I am going to proceed with the Newcastle and advise those who need to know that is an alcoholic ingredient. One friend in particular who just had his 18th sobriety birthday only has to taste that alcoholic beverage that was used, even with the alcohol long gone, to put temptation in his path. He knows his limits in life and I support that wholeheartedly.

I have never heard of it but I can look around. I have until the 15th to finalize what I am doing and get the ingredients. edited to fix a typo. Boy are my proof-reading skills absent today.

SInce I am a long-time 12-stepper for a different issue I care very much about not putting a stumbling stone in someone's path. It is not not that they "have an issue with it." They trust me to discretely warn them when I do use alcohol so I already have one avenue available to me if I do use beer. I am looking for a way to still do something close to the recipe that uses the beer but based upon the absence of beer they can enjoy also.

RE: Yoshida's - think of something between soy sauce and teriyaki sauce.

I use a recipe from a friend for tri-tip that is very popular with my ren faire friends. Cut tri-tip into approximately 5 oz servings. Place about 2 1l2 to 3 pounds of meat into a ziploc. Pour a cup of Yohsida's Gourmet Sauce and a 12 oz of bottle of Newcastle Nut Brown Ale into the bag and a generous handful of garlic cloves. Allow to marinate for 3-4 hours. Grill the meat until medium rare and enjoy. Here's the problem. In respect for those who will be eating the meal this is served with who are in recovery from an addiction to alcohol I want to substitute something for the Newcastle. Some of my friends in recovery are sensitive to the taste of alcoholic beverages used in cooking and I want them to be able to eat without any issues. I have not come up with any reasonable ideas for a substitute and am reaching out to eGullet for ideas. Cost is an issue. The substitute can't really cost more that a 6-pack of Newcastles. Any suggestions? edited to fix a typo.

Count me out. Disagrees with me.

I'v got it. We'll take over Groundhog's Day and serve pork-sausage-based dishes. What sides would be appropriate to reference the prarie states?

My 10" Chef's Knife - going strong after 31 years. It just fits my hand perfectly and balances where I want it to.

The brownies (plain and with pecans) and the tea cookies I make have to be cut and plated in a hurry. After the feast goes out on stage we have about 20 minutes to cut as necessary and plate all of the desserts including making up 3 special dessert platters. With parchment, I place a cutting board over the foil pan, invert, peel off the parchment and cut. I have to do this to 3 pans of bar cookies. Without the parchment I don't always get a clean "drop" onto the cutting board after inverting. My DW makes bread puddings using the same type of foil pans and she always uses parchment also. I also use parchment for ALL of the Christmas cookies we bake (enough for 35 tins and 2 platters, 16-20 varieties).

I am a serious parchment paper fan. I use 1/2-size foil catering pans for a lot of my baking (just put the last 2 pans in the oven for this week's baking) and always use parchment. I also use baker's half-sheet pans a lot. I buy pre-cut parchment in the baker's half-sheet size 200 sheets at a time. I buy them on-line from The Baking Queen (thebakingqueen.com). You should not have to oil parchment paper. I do spray the pans with Pam just to keep the parchment from skittering around while filling the pans. I use foil for roasting meats and veggies to make cleanup easier. Edited to add: One major advantage of buying pre-cut parchment is that it lays flat. I truly HATE dealing with roll parchment.

Last year Anna N posted her recipe for Tea Bread. It appealed to me because of the fact that vegans could eat this as a dessert. I've been cooking for 48 years but I am not much of a baker. My grandmother's baking powder biscuits, our family-recipe brownies, but nothing serious. I am pleased with the baby steps I have been able to make because of this recipe, I have adapted it to be made without the overnight soak, and measure the dry ingredients by weight. I am comfortable with choosing different dried fruits and even adding seasonings to complement certain fruits. I bake them to be bar cookies. So to Anna and everyone else that has the patience to help neophytes in baking, I say thank you. Here is this week's effort - Raisin-Cranberry Tea Bread:

Lawry's garlic powder - the only brand I will buy.

I have black sesame seeds that are ok. However, they are out at my faire kitchen so I will have to look at what brand when I go out there on errands tomorrow. I only use it for one dish: sauteed green beans in toasted sesame oil with black sesame seeds so I don't know if my data point will help. I do know they are not bitter.

I recently acquired a truly cheap S/S pasta pot. Unlike my older and definitely more expensive (but not WAY expensive) S/S pots this one is displaying pitting. I'm thinking I would lean toward small impurities that interrupt the the layer of passivation. Way back when I designed the controller portion of some anodic protection equipment that maintained the passivation layer within the piping and heat exchangers of sulfuric acid manufacturing plants. I hadn't thought about that for a long time. I remember the engineering/construction company that designed the plants were VERY particular about the source of the materials that went into their plants.

For what it is worth, I stir the pot after adding the oil and salt to the room temperature water.

I have not experienced this. Of course there are many alloys that exist under the general class of stainless steel so it would be nigh impossible to make a blanket statement like that. I can offer one specific data point. I have a Revere 3 qt S/S saucepan that my DW and I have owned for 35 years in which I have boiled countless batches of pasta in salted water (salted when started) and nary a pit. Although I was working on the electronics end of corrosion monitoring I spent 16 years in that field and my memory is that the mechanisms for pitting would be difficult to achieve in simple low-concentration salted water. If I am recalling incorrectly, that is my bad. I also still have the 3 qt S/S saucepan that my mother owned from before I was born (I'm 60) and it shows no signs of pitting either. YMMV. Edited to fix a grammar error.

This is not a joke. My SIL just brought home a 750 ml bottle of Buchanan's that we can't figure out how to open. The cap twists off but the scotch will not pour through the plastic insert out of the bottle. What are we missing?