Porthos

Perhaps this gets into regional preferences. I am in southern California about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

When I said "sweet spices" I was trying to convey that the spices in question in that combination is something I associate with things like cookies as opposed to savory dishes. Both my DW and I felt that their contribution was out of place for what we were expecting. For reasons that are not clear, and accept that this is how she now does things, my DW has mostly abandoned our collection of cookbooks to look for recipes in deference to using the internet. There are so many recipes that just don't work out there that I am leery of the net as a source. I have noted in other posts that when I do pull recipes from the net I word process them into the format I prefer. Just doing that has revealed flaws in recipes. My pet peave is that water is an ingredient, especially if a specific quantity is called for, and belongs in the ingredient list. Note that the 2 cups of water in this recipe was not in the ingredient list.

I used a recipe for carnitas a couple of years back that was more like sweet and sour pork than carnitas. I went with it because it had such a high rating from others. Apparently these others have not tasted much authentic carnitas. I did rework that recipe and had much better results then next time I made it.

My DW pulled the following recipe off of the internet to cook for a pot luck today. The major differences in prep and cooking were chili powder in place of the ancho chiles and cooking it overnight in a chicken roaster we use like an oversize slow cooker. When I got up this morning I asked her how it turned out and she said it didn't taste like chili to her. I had a taste and said it tasted like it had sweet spices in it. I was surprised when I read the recipe. It calls for allspice, cinnamon, and cloves. These seem like pretty unusual ingredients for chili con carne. I was more or less able to rescue it by reducing the rather liquidy sauce and adding more garlic and cumin. Do these ingredients seem out of place to you? www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chili-con-Carne-363749

I started picking up extra baking supplies in anticipation. Last year's list is still up on the fridge and my DW and I will soon start looking it over. Thanks for starting this thread. It is a reminder that I need to order more parchment paper.

And the one in Betteravia. I will take the smell of chilis over processing sugar beets any day. I don't know if there is much sugar beet farming there any more. A lot of those fields became vineyards.

Now here is where I really am sort of crazy. The other faire we do is on the pass between the San Joaquin Valley and Gilroy and we have reason to drive into Gilroy, drivng right past the huge processing plant. I love the smell. We have a friend who works there even. She has never had anythng to say about the smell.

Irwindale, in the Sante Fe Dam Recreational Area, has been home to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire since 2005. I have reason to be there not only on faire weekends but also during the week all through the late winter and spring months. Unless this plant JUST moved from Rosemead then whatever smell they are emitting, if any, is hard to detect. I wonder if there were complaints in Rosemead?

I feel compelled to point out that the OP's question was about technique, not should he or shouldn't he make ghee at all. I might just try making some for the fun of it.

I would love to know exactly where the plant is. I have never smelled the "chili smell" when there.

Mortons. I have used DC and didn't care for it. It was long enough ago that I don't remember why I didn't care for it. For baking and at the table good ol' Mortons iodized table salt. Everything else Mortons Kosher. I use parmesan shakers for my kosher salt shakers.

How I wish snowangel would pop into this thread. I have to believe that she could answer this question well.

I'm thinking that my 440 and 600 stones will last forever. For me the 220 does better than 90% of the work, then it's a gentle finish with the 440 and 600 stones and a quick hone on the ceramic "steel".

Happiness. Removed the glaze in about 30 seconds. 10 minutes later I was done putting the new angle on the knife I had been working on last week. Now on to touch up my 8" Henckels. I did not use his recommended techniques - leveling the stone or some sand on a piece of concrete. I wet the stone then rubbed the stone against some 220 grit sandpaper for a few seconds, felt for progress and noted one bit still felt too smooth, worked that for a few more seconds and then the entire surface felt like what I had expected.

Got an answer back. The mfg process for the stone can leave a smooth glaze-like finish on the stone. I just need to break through the glaze and the stone should work like I expect it to. It will have to wait for Monday. My dance card for the weekend is quite filled up.

I have sent an email asking about the difference between the stone I got 6 years ago with the kit compared to the stone I purchased this year. I'll let you all know what answer I receive.

Larger: 23 1/2" x 15 1/4" and has removable handles that screw into it. The stress-relief hole is still at the 1/16" diameter. I hope to make to time today to get more done.

For when I do my renaissance faire cooking I gave up on trying to deals with stains. I have a tub in the garage full of "faire" shirts, old shirts that already are stained and I wear those while cooking. Then if I splash bleach or grease on them I don't care.

Aprons help. I use Shout! to pretreat my grease stains.

It is not listed on EdgePro's website.

I just double-checked the website and 120 is listed as course, 220 as medium. The old "medium" stone just seemed to remove metal a little faster.

My EdgePro Acme came with stones marked M for Medium and F for fine. The medium stone had given it's all and so I bought a 220 stone to replace it. It seems to not remove metal nearly as aggressively as the old stone. Is it my imagination? FYI: I am trying to put an 18/18 degree edge on a knife that was probably more like 22/22 or higher. I'm having trouble properly raising the burr as of yet.

Please reference post 18 of this thread. Not an Option.

More even cooking. Also I perceive a bit quicker.

At the Irwindale faire I am in the Kitchen from about 6:30 a.m. until about 2 p.m. At the Northern California Renaissance Faire I am in the Kitchen from about 7:30 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. The meal we cook is a catering-style gig - feeding actors in our group a feast on-stage for the "travelers" to see. I have thought about blogging about it in the past. It is pretty much the same menu items from day to day. Some are always seasoned or prepared the same way, others get different treatment different days. The griddle in question in this thread is not actually used for the mid-day feast. It is used for breakfast items and sometimes dinner on Saturday nights.