Tri2Cook

Can't help with this one Rob. I researched them just enough to know that, for me, the benefit wouldn't justify the expense. I know your situation is different, I don't have a store. I'd like to have one in the restaurant but don't actually need it. Actually, I guess I shouldn't assume you want it for your store. Maybe you are wanting it for your restaurant.

That general idea would be my answer so if price excludes it I can't help. I don't like extracts and compounds as a general rule. Real vanilla and almond extracts, I'll use. That's about the extent of it. Pretty much anything else, if I can't get the flavor from the natural source, I just don't do it.

Consider the possiblity that it's the cake, not the chocolate. If you're using quality chocolate that you like and don't like the end result then the problem quite possibly lies elsewhere.

You can combine chocolates to taste but do a little taste-testing of your own before writing darker chocolates off as "dirt". There is a wide range of quality out there as well as a wide range of opinions. Dirt, to a farmer, is a good thing.

I've worked with a cocoa and gelatin based glaze (thanks Rob!) and it's easy to make, easy to work with, looks nice and doesn't taste bad (though not as good as the glazes with chocolate in my opinion) but I don't love the texture. Sort of a cocoa jello thing. The only way I can use it and be happy is to work really quickly to keep it as thin as possible, then the jello feel isn't as pronounced. One upside to that type of glaze is that, once it sets for a minute on the frozen/cold item, if you don't like the way it looks, you can peel it off without damage to anything underneath and do it again.

I haven't tried it either but I'd be willing to just for the curiosity factor. Only problem is, I don't think the local grocery carries frozen lemon juice concentrate, just frozen lemonade concentrate, so it wouldn't be an accurate taste test. I was planning to work on an experimental grapefruit curd idea today or tomorrow so I don't mind doing an additional test while I'm at it if I can find a frozen lemon juice concentrate but I know the store pretty well and I don't remember seeing it there.

You rock Kerry. I've never even considered making my own gianduja. All that skinning hazelnuts...

I agree competely. I make our burger buns and our pizza doughs at work and just keeping up with that in addition to everything else can be a handful. I've seriously considered contracting the buns from the local grocery's in-store bakery. It's a small place (only 24 seats in the winter, more in the summer when we can open the deck) so it's just me in the kitchen and a server in the front with a part-timer as an extra kitchen hand on the busy nights. My prep time is already pretty extensive (and that's not including inventory, ordering, opening, closing and actual cooking time... and I don't even own the place). I can't imagine trying to keep up with the demand of doing several artisan breads in-house. And that doesn't even take into account the expense/equipment/space issues.

I think that's exactly right -- and it's the reason that listing our preferences for favorite sandwiches or good bread isn't ultimately going to be helpful to the OP's shop. ← I agree as well... but the OP said that's what he wanted from this thread.

I've been waiting a long time for this one, looking forward to it. Now if Michael Laiskonis would do a book, I'd be really happy. I've kinda lost hope for a Sam Mason book but it still sits at the top of my list of wish-books.

True enough. I was just seeing several comments about snow and winter sports. I thought maybe they were based on his saying the tourism increased in the fall/winter. Just wanted to point out that that may not be the case. Those of us who live in the lands of (almost) eternal winter like to vacation somewhere warm.

The information listed under his screen name says he's in Texas. I'm guessing snow is not a major concern and snowmobilers, skiers, etc. are not really his target market.

Make a really good muffuletta with a truly excellent olive salad and I'd be a fan. That and a reuben with a really good sauerkraut. Other than that, I'd have to agree on the bread thing and would add that a great pickle can be a nice thing as well. Are soups part of the plan?

I don't know the answer you're looking for. I've adopted the glazes from Dejaq's demo and use them almost exclusively now but they do require quick and decisive action on frozen bases. No more so than any other I've used though. I've attempted modifications to increase working time with glazes in the past but was never happy with the results. I got more time to play but also got sagging (and, in extreme cases, tearing) on the final product after thawing. I've decided I'd rather just work on my speed instead. Nothing worse than checking on carefully constructed items thawing in the cooler and seeing glaze drooping down the sides or detaching.

Sounds like overkill on the poultry paranoia to me but whatever makes you feel safe I suppose.

Since I'm not financially qualified to travel the world visiting restaurants and exploring cuisines, carefully selected cookbooks help keep me in touch with what is being done in other places. I'm not a random collector and I use them more for information and inspiration than recipes. I don't feel like they constrain me in any way. For example, if I know what people in Thailand use as their major flavor components, I can make Thai influenced food without having to use a recipe. It may be completely seperate from anything people in Thailand actually eat but the flavors would still take them home. That's what cookbooks do for me anyway.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. We used to donate extra soups and such to the local "out of the cold" and women's shelters. I would chill them down in an ice water bath, seal them in sanitized pails and keep them in the cooler until pickup time (despite not really having the extra space for it). Then it degraded to "please keep them hot so we don't have to heat them" which soon collapsed to "yeah, is there any chance you could deliver the stuff... nobody wants to go around collecting". End of donations. I'm all for helping people but if they're seriously too lazy to come get it or heat it then I'll just toss it. When they called at the beginning of this winter to ask about donations, I told them to understand up front that the donations would be held in a food safe manner so they would have to heat it and they will be required to pick it up. They said they'd get back to me, they still haven't. It kinda reminds me of a place where I used to live. A local church (that I wasn't a member of but a close friend was) grew a huge garden every year. They would tend it, harvest it, distribute it to those that needed it, can what needed to be canned for distribution to avoid waste, etc.. There was always the same group signing up to receive every year but they never showed up when there was work to do. Basically "we're gonna sit here on our collective ass while you do the work then we'll be glad to accept the donations thank you very much". I suggested to my friend that they implement a "no work, no receive" policy. She said they tried that once and it didn't budge them at all. That would have been the end of the charity garden work for me.

Don't think of it like that. Imagine all of the things that wouldn't exist if nobody tried it because nobody else was doing it! Experiment. If it works, awesome. If not, at least you'll know for sure. I've done a few things I'm proud of that I've never seen/heard of before. If I hadn't given them a shot because those who know more than me hadn't done it (that I'm aware of), I'd never have known. I very rarely post my day-to-day stuff here, in most cases the things I post are the results of experiments and ideas. Some good, some not so good... but still fun.

So you have 2 copies now? Nice! It was hinted that I'd be finding it christmas a.m. as well... I didn't. Dammit.

Great stuff everybody. I'm loving all of the holiday baking, I used to do tons of it up until a couple years ago. Now I just don't. I don't really want to post pictures since my camera died, the piece o' junk I'm using temporarily just isn't the same, but... pecan pralines (I did cream and buttermilk versions) - pistachio and sea salt divinity - triple ginger cookies ...it's the return of the humbug. This is all of the holiday goodies I'm doing for friends this year (no, not just the three pieces ). It's more than they got last year.

For some reason, the store here only brought in 2% and skim eggnog this year. I drink eggnog and eat fruitcake once a year and they didn't bring in the good stuff this time? grumble, grumble, grumble Eggnog ganache does sound tasty though, I'll have to try it.

I don't remember where I got it, but I have a fondant recipe that calls for cooking the syrup, pouring it into a food processor, letting it cool to 60c, then blitzing it. Works well for me but I don't do large batches or use it to fill chocolates, I usually only make it because the large pail of purchased stuff I keep on hand ran out. I'm going to try it with the mixer next time, never thought of that. Actually, while on the subject of using a machine, I made a few batches of New Orleans style pralines yesterday and while I was graining the second or third batch by the good ol' beat with a wooden spoon method I wondered what would happen if I dumped it in the kitchen aid instead. They were fairly large batches which required close to 15 minutes of steady beating so it was sounding like a good idea but I didn't try it. I think I'd be worried about the pecans being broken into tiny pieces as well. I made them with cream yesterday, today I'm doing a buttermilk version so maybe I'll give it a try.

Sometimes it's both, if you were expecting just noise.

I don't care if a guest judge spent some time at club fed, we all make dumb decisions and mistakes. Fortunately for most of us, ours don't get played out in the media for everybody to gloat over. What bothers me, for the second week in a row, is the huge lack of creativity with the theme. This one was easy, I had ideas bouncing all over the place once I realized what the theme was and I'm not a top chef. 12 Drummers Drumming: pot pie... ok, at least it kinda looked like a drum. The judges got it and the people liked it. Good enough. 11 Pipers Piping: I'm pretty sure the song isn't referring to pipes you smoke but at least the food was enjoyed by the people eating it. 10 Lords a Leaping: leaping from cheese to cheese huh? Sounds cheesy to me. 9 Ladies Dancing: Fabio gets "ladies dancing" and the first thing he thinks of is crabs? Hmmm, wonder where he usually goes to see ladies dance? 8 Maids a Milking: "Steak and cheese are from a cow." Ok then. 7 Swans a Swimming: 'cause scallops are kinda like swans. Really, they are. Just ask Jamie. 6 Geese a Laying: Deviled eggs. Skating away... 5 Golden Rings: More like "onnnne chunk of pineapple". 4 Calling Birds: Actually, no calling birds. 3 French Hens: chicken on puff pastry. "Puff pastry is French." Fair enough. *Yawn* 2 Turtle Doves: chicken under a mushroom... errr... turtle shell. Yeah, that's it. It's a turtle shell. Turtle Doves have mushrooms, I mean shells, don't they? A Partridge in a Pear Tree: duck breast and pear chutney... this one can fly by virtue of the fact that obtaining partridge probably wasn't a possibility. I envisioned a different presentation to bring in the "tree" idea but at least it wasn't the huge lords a leaping stretch most of them were.

It's quantity. If you overwhelm the chocolate with enough liquid it can't do it's little "screw this, I'm outta here" thing. Edited to remove irrelevant babbling.