Porthos

My daughter wanted to go thrift shopping to look for knitting needles that could be used on-stage at renaissance re-enactment events. Sure, I'll take you thrift shopping. No needles for her but for me: A nice heavyweight 10" Revere fry pan from when they were made in Riverside, California. $5.39. I don't think the original owner ever cleaned the copper bottom once. 3 Cambro cold/prep pans for the grand sum of $2.00. My wife said "I thought you weren't buying any more Cambro stuff." Well ...

Overall the teams we have now are very good about caring for the equipment. I don't really add much these days. I have shelves full of steamers, pasta pots, stock pots, fry pans, sauce pans, steam table pans, etc and enough plastic cambro pans and storage tubs to open a small restaurant with. And because you can never be too rich, too thin or have too many of those I picked up 3 more at a thrift store for $3 for them all. Now if I could just find a replacement griddle at a thrift store...

After drilling the 1/16" hole and not being able to convince myself that I had absolutely gone beyond the end of the crack I had already decided to drill it out to a 1/8" hole.

His version is that it was cracked when he went to use it so it becomes a "I said - he said" sort of thing. My wife was there but I was out of the kitchen at the time and she can't remember when he said it was cracked.The griddle had been removed from the kitchen area. He went to where is was and brought it back in. It's possible that he may have asked my wife first before getting it. My DW has some minor brain damage (for real) that affects her short-term memory and something as minor as being asked about a piece of cooking gear is precisely the kind of thing that would not sink in. My wife are the team leaders in this kitchen. Most of what I bring I expect everyone to use. One of the things I have to do is to remember that the equipment I bring can be damaged by others (let me tell you about the chef knife with the bent -over tip that someone used as a pry-bar to open something). Since I can't definitively say "you did this" and since most of the equipment I bring is for community usage I get to grin and bear it. The timing of when the crack appeared just sucks, that's all.

Where would I buy this?

By the way, the borrower works in the same volunteer kitchen that I do and borrowed it without asking. This was his first year and he didn't know that a lot of the equipment is my personal stuff.

There is a pound of Brussles Sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper in it right now.

So I am ready to drill the stress-relief hole in the griddle. What is a small hole? 1/16, 1/8", 3/16?

Roasting veggies, warming drawer, and (hangs head) reheating store-bought crusted cod filets.

I can't speak for the bay area stores but the stores I use all have the manager on the floor. There is an elevated area near the registers and that is where the manager conducts his business from. Customers are free to walk up and engage the manager at any time. It is only because of my experience with multiple TJs in southern California over a period of 35 years coupled with having patronized one store (with the aforementioned raised manager's area) that consistently was mis-handling wine that I think corporate should become involved. Not asking anyone else to share this opinion and in general I have a very high level of respect for TJs. About a year and a half ago there was an empty box of a single malt with a shelf tag at "my" TJs. After a couple a visits of only finding the empty box I asked for help. They checked for stock in the back room and found none and brought out a computer printout related to stock and looking it over found that they were no longer carrying that scotch. Instead of suggesting something else on their shelf they recommended 2 competitors that most likely still carried it. That is real customer service.

The only reason I would by-pass the manager at this point is that it has been multiple bad items on different trips. Just my viewpoint ...

I agree. I had a TJs that used to mid-handle wine. Particular bottles bought at a different store would be fine but if bought from that store tasted "over the hill." Happened more than once. That is why I second the 800 number because if there is bad management at your store your concerns may not be taken seriously, whereas a corporate-level customer complaint will alert the company that something needs to be looked at. The TJs I use now has excellent customer service.

DW and I bought the Oster a few months ago. As a counter-top convection oven we like it. HOWEVER, after less than a week we pulled out the toaster and put it back on the counter. Setting the time for toast on the Oster is very hard to do accurately and repeatably. We are fortunate to have just enough room for both.

That indeed is me but the faires I do are over for 2013. It was at a faire in California that just closed that the damage occurred. Even though I have been doing these faires for the last 14 years I haven't gotten to know many people outside of my group. As my expression goes "I hide in the kitchen." I can ask around in the spring when the next faire I do starts up. Thanks for the suggestion. P.S. I hide in the kitchen because it takes a whole crew to feed the 70-80 actors that eat our mid-day feast. After 5 intense hours of doing this catering-style gig I'm done for and go take a nap.

Being as I am currently unemployed and going deeper in the hole every month the option of finding someone to weld it is out - I have no friends I could prevail upon. Stress-relieving the crack and filling it requires a much more delicate hand than I have. I have a well-earned reputation as someone who should never do anything more delicate than build a basic wooden fence. I have been openly laughed at by colleagues watching me try do do any form of metalwork. Please know that I do appreciate your various suggestions. Using it as is seems to open the door for toxic poisoning if something got into the crack and went wonky. Still thinking about that one. As far as I know it is cast iron. It came with my 3-burner 30,000 BTU per burner free-standing camp stove (Camp Chef brand).

Since I don't need it again until April I will most likely see what a couple of square cast iron griddles would cost. Seeing that the crack is already a third if the way across has changed how I am thinking about this.

. Yup

The crack goes all the way through and on closer inspection is 7" long, way farther n than I initially thought.

I have owned this griddle for 8 years and it is used for about an hour on low heat about 25 times/year. Someone borrowed it this last weekend and used it for some high-heat meat grilling and said the crack was there when borrowed. I didn't notice the crack when I was done earlier that day. That is the background. I am looking for opinions as to its continued usage (I will make the final decision myself so no one is on the hook for their reply). For my low-flame applications is there any reason to mistrust the grill now?

A quick question about durability and putting copper into the dishwasher. I have never looked at copper cookware. I am hard on my cookware and I put it all through the dishwasher. Does copper (2.5 mm) hold up to less-than-delicate handling? Can it reasonably go into a dishwasher?

While this was on ebay, not at a yard sale or a thrift store, I am doing a major happy dance. I have a 9 1/2 inch chef's knife that I have had for over 30 years that I love. It has long since gone out of production. I found one just slightly used on ebay for under $30.00 including shipping. I will need to put a new edge on it but my EdgePro will handle that. The new knife will be for veggie prep and such and will never see the inside of my dishwasher (most of my knives do go in - but separated so as not to bang into each other or other things). My old one with the very rugged-looking handle will still be for the protein chores. This is a birthday present that I will remember for a long time. The original knife was Christmas 1982.

I would go for something closer to 4 quarts so that you are not up to the brim when using it. Below are pictures of my 3 qt and 5 qt size S/S bowls.

Yes, I will have salted the water.

Tomorrow night my DW and I will be traveling for about a 6-hour drive. I am going to start 8 cups of pinto beans soaking when we leave. They will be in a stainless steel vessel. Since I often soak beans overnight for use the next afternoon, just sitting on the counter, I see no need to refrigerate the beans just because they may sit for an extra maybe 2 hours. I just want a sanity check that I haven't overlooked anything. Since the bean dish will be something my DW will be making, and she believes in always soaking beans, then draining and cooking in new water, no-soak methods are of no interest to her. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I can not speak to the comparative quality between Wustfof and Victornox but I do have a slightly more general observation. My leaning in knives is towards Victornox. I have never owned a Wustfof but that is because I am a rather cheap guy when it comes to many things for the kitchen. I figure that if Victornox knives are found in the knife drawers of line cooks in "good" restaurants then I will go with that. Back in '83 my sweet wife bought a 10" knife from a maker I have never heard of since, Mighty Oak, but 30 years later it is still my workhorse knife, even in deference to my Spanish Henckels.