takadi

Woohoo! Score one for the home team!

Yea it's been a while since my last post and I've drastically changed alot of the things I do. The last time I tried making pho, I used alot more meat (I use those cross-cuts of shank meat with a two inch bone section in them) There are two things that seem to happen when I make pho. Either it's too bland and stale, or it's too salty or medicinal tasting (adding too much ginger or spices). I just can't get that perfect combination of ingredients. I haven't tried experimenting with different ingredients like adding pork or chicken bones, so I might try that as well. Sometimes I feel like it's either too simple or too complicated, just never right. I plan on making a batch some time in the next weeks, so I'll write down what happened and hopefully try to get pictures so everyone here can critique what I'm doing Also, I think it would really be a sad story if I ended up liking MSG more than the real thing

I ran across an article that describes what I've been trying to do with my pho broth. http://www.cookthink.com/blog/?p=719 Does the French consomme method do anything to the taste of the pho broth? It just seems like extra work for nothing (plus it seems like it takes away some extra flavor components). It seems like consomme method is only practical when used in aspics or extremely concentrated broths. Doing it for pho seems like overkill to me (unless the extra beef added for the clarifying process adds more flavor)

I would assume yogurt from the South to be tastier considering the South has heavier French influence

That is a beautiful steak Marlene. Care to share your own personal steak cooking method?

EXACTLY!!

Bacon should really be classified as a drug rather than a meat. It is interesting to note that pigs are incredibly smart though. So one would have to justify eating dogs if pigs, also kept as pets, are even more intelligent than most pets.

I agree there are some risks. That risk really comes with most foods, but I don't see any reason to outlaw it. Consumer reports such as these can warn people of potential dangers and possibly locate farms with bad sanitary practices. I think warning labels should also be required for raw milk products if there were ever a chance that it was legalized. I don't think the risks are any higher than eating raw eggs or fish, or as in recent cases, raw spinach. Heck, I've even eaten raw beef at some restaurants. I think it's a personal choice that comes with risks, but shouldn't be legislated.

I don't know about you guys, but I find that Popeye's quality has dropped in the past years. Something tastes missing. I heard they added MSG to their ingredients as well

hahaha I love that I've drinken regular milk all my life (hated it) until I put my lips around a glass of raw milk straight from the cow in France. The taste was so mind blowing and complex, I've pretty much been on a quest to find some in the US. No luck so far though, I live in a pretty suburban/urban area. I also believe in farms were more local, there would be less mistrust of farming practices because there would be a stronger personal connection with your food, as you stated. You can actually shake hands with the source!

Congressman Ron Paul (who's also running for president) introduced H. R. 4077 on November 5th to legalize transportation of unpasteurized milk. http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.4077: Also his speech on the house floor about the bill http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul422.html I personally feel pretty strongly about the health benefits of raw milk and feel like we are somehow being robbed of nutritional benefits with pasteurized milk. Although we did need pasteurization in the past, I feel it's the 21st century and milking procedures and techniques have greatly improved. I find it odd that unpasteurized milk has to be pushed to some pseudo-black market. Congressman Ron Paul is pretty active in the small farms movement (I believe he cosponsored the "The Family Farm, Small Business and Home Tax Relief Act") so I encourage you all to look up some of his past work, it's pretty refreshing. I haven't found out whether this bill has passed yet, so I have some more research to do.

hhahaha I'm sorry I just had to laugh at the title of this thread

Have you tried medium-high heat plus butter? Several chefs recommend that method, and achieve excellent results. From an article in Nation's Restaurant News last year, by Florence Fabricant: Hmm I'll try that out. To tell you the truth, I learned the cast iron method from Alton Brown, and I tend to put alot of faith in him when he said that insanely hot cast iron was the only way to get any crust on your steak on your home stove. Certainly it'll save me alot of time from having to preheat the thing for 10 minutes.

Can't technically reminisce about "the good ol days" just yet. I'm pretty much in my experimental phase. The most successful dish I made was a mediocre bowl of homemade pho after having some pretty ravenous cravings while away at college last year. Needless to say I never knew that pho could take so long to make. As of now, my goal is to make the perfect steak and sauce.

I actually find in my personal experience that a super heated cast iron pan is the only way to really get a nice malliardized crust on the outside. Of course it's not the same as a broiler, but I find it's second best.

Hi Ce'nedra your char kway teow looks amazing. I've been trying to find the right noodles for ages but to no avail. Did you make them yourself or is there a special noodle sold in stores?

I heard that fructose has to be processed in the liver first, so not only does it make you fat, some people who drink excessive amounts of soda come out with livers worse than alcoholics

Well considering the fact that I have a pretty terrible stove, I don't think it's impossible to properly sear meat and even form a crispy crust on steak. I do it all the time with my cast iron pan. I just wish it had more responsiveness and I would be good to go

Yes I've read that already (three times in fact). I'm just stating testimony from avid cast iron users. Subjective opinions aren't measured by units and numbers

Really? Everybody I talked to about cast iron swears by it and its properties. Especially the nonstick seasoning that "beats out any teflon pan"

Well, it might have to do with my lack of skill, but I always find myself either burning the sauce or having it way too watery. I just find myself constantly having to adjust to the slow responsiveness or the residual heat, it just seems like a huge hassle to make a sauce. And off flavors do pop up sometimes if I cooked something in the pan previously that was pungent, like curry. Anyways, this issue is not as life and death as it seems. It's not that cast iron is unusable, but in any case I was merely scoping out for an ideal pan to keep for life. But if I don't have to pay as much for copper to get the same results with aluminum, that makes the pan worth much more to me.

I wouldn't say the cheeses themselves are dangerous. That's like saying canned vichyssoise is dangerous because people died from botulism. Aside from that, I don't see how raw milk cheeses are any more dangerous than any other food if they are carefully and safely made

haha yes sorry about that, I actually just read most of the Q/A thread. I preferably would like a pan with high heat capacity, but I'm really looking for an all purpose pan. It sounds to me like the perfect lifetime all-purpose pan would be a straight-gauge very heavy, large, wide saucier type pan with SS interior (preferably exterior too but I haven't found one suitable yet). Right now, I just set my sights on making the perfect steak and sauce. I bought a cast iron pan specifically to form the crust for the steak, but later figured out that cast iron is terrible at making reduction sauces from the leftover fond. While a thick disk bottom aluminum might do a good job at forming the crust, is it suitable for sauces and reductions? I feel that copper is really the only one that can really do the job because it can form that desired crust while at the same time is responsive enough for a sauce afterwards. I'm not really afraid of shelling out cash because this will be a pan to keep for a lifetime and a pan I plan to do most jobs with, but if there's a pan out there that can do the same job, if not better, at a cheaper price, I'll set my sights on that one.

Thanks for the reply Kinsey. Do you have a range of prices for how much one of those would cost in comparison to its copper counterparts? Are there any brand names you can throw out there? And are there differences between disk bottom and straight gauges? I assume that straight gauges have a thinner bottom but have the material more dispersed throughout the pan (would that make it more expensive?).

Mauviel has copper cookware with stainless interiors, but they are copper on the outside. It isn't a sandwich, just heavy copper explosion bonded with stainless. Very expensive, very heavy, very durable and oh so beautiful (if you like to polish copper that is). I know there are other copper mfgs out there but am only familiar with Mauviel. (My DH bought me a rather large set for Christmas several years ago. ) Edit to add: there are different levels in the Mauviel line. For best performance, you want the 2.5mm line. ← Wow I am so incredibly jealous. I've never seen a Mauviel in real life, but whenever I pick up an all-clad one, I feel like I'm sinning. Just for the sake of being too lazy to polish copper, are there other ones that have SS throughout the entire exterior but don't have aluminum?