Tri2Cook

I've tried mayo, it doesn't work for me. I'm not the greatest meatloaf enthusiast to begin with. I generally find it to be unexciting so mayo just makes it seem (for me) like rich, creamy unexciting... which somehow comes across as worse than ordinary unexciting. I need something that wakes it up, adds a bit of zing and excitement. Even then, once or twice a year is plenty to take care of my meatloaf fix.

I go for a whole lot of crust. I fry those slices until they're begging for mercy. I don't want them burned but I want that outside layer as crunchy as I can get it short of burning. Then I toss it on bread with bbq sauce or mustard (or, even better, South Carolina style mustard bbq sauce if I happen to have a batch made) or sometimes hot sauce, depending on my mood at the time.

No idea. I've rarely worked with it at all, much less tried to attempt something like this with it. Looks like your experiment is holding up nicely. If that's going to work, isomalt would be silly anyway. Just added cost.

I wonder what isomalt and a little white chocolate would do... I have both but nothing that would pulverize them as well as that.

I have the model 165 (4.8 gallons per hour) but like I said, I've had it for over 12 years. I honestly have no idea what the current models are. Yeah, just pastry work. I use it for velveting and spraying glazes. I've never tried using the Wagner for chocolates.

I'd agree 100% with that. At the very least, to get started and see if it works for you or you like messing with it. They're not too expensive and do the job just fine for most pastry work not requiring fine detail. I have over 12 years on mine with no issues and no temptation to upgrade to something more fancy. The biggest issue with the Wagner is making sure you use something, even just a cardboard box, as a spray booth because the overspray isn't horrible but isn't entirely insignificant either. I generally set the sprayer in container of hot-ish water so that it's container is mostly submerged while I'm melting chocolate and cocoa butter for spaying. Then I just put the filled sprayer back in the hot water whenever I'm not spraying to keep things flowing nicely.

Interesting. Doesn't completely eliminate the starch but it greatly reduces it and it solves her gluten free request. Sounds a lot easier than spraying chocolate or cocoa butter through a stencil for each cake too.

I was thinking the same thing about that salad. Lunch today was an experiment in seeing how well neighbors get along. Took a piece of leftover Nashville hot chicken from last night's dinner and put it on a slider bun that had been well soaked with North Carolina style bbq sauce. If that sandwich is any proof, Tennessee and North Carolina get along very well indeed. I think that chicken might be even better today cold than it was last night hot.

The problem is, commercial or homemade, without the aid of additives, sugar, especially a very thin layer of super-fine sugar, is going to struggle when confronted with moisture... which is going to happen when in contact with a cake. Maybe try a light spray of white chocolate through your stencil and see how it looks? That wouldn't increase sweetness any more than the sugar and won't taste like chocolate. If it's sprayed lightly enough, it won't taste like much of anything when eaten with the cake. Also less expensive long-term than coating every cake with cocoa butter would be. I have no idea how well it would work, never tried it, but it'd be a cheap experiment to try it on one cake and see what happens.

Nashville hot chicken... destined to be topped with pickles on slider buns.

I've wanted to borrow (ok, steal) that one since you first posted the pictures. I really like it. Amazon Canada finally made the little strainers available here not too long ago. They're significantly more expensive on Canadian amazon (a set of 10 for $46 compared to $11 for the same 10 on U.S. amazon) but if I can eventually get a result anywhere close to what you get, it'll be worth it.

Yeah, I've been using the same Wagner Power Painter for over 12 years now for pastry work (with zero problems so far) but I'd hate to have to fill that thing with colored cocoa butter. The price of that stuff makes me consider the possibility of just working in straight chocolate and living with the colors I can get from that. But then reality sets in and I realize that just wouldn't be as fun.

I have the H-series gun with a Paasche D220R compressor but I don't have a lot of answers to questions. I haven't even sprayed colored cocoa butter with it yet. I've only sprayed chocolate thinned with cocoa butter and wasn't going for a full coverage. That's been mainly just to get a feel for using it and to make sure everything worked. I've gathered a few colors to start playing with but I need to set something up to help with mess first. I'm just playing around at home while I try to learn this stuff and don't want colored cocoa butter mist decorating the entire kitchen.

When I bought my Paasche, it came with 3 needles (.5, .8 and 1 mm according to their website). It came with the middle one installed and I haven't messed with it. Think I'll give the bigger one a try.

Definitely gonna grab this one. I know it'll be a great book and it also allows me to give back a little in thanks for the wealth of drink recipes and information I've harvested from your blog.

I have an unopened small (30 ml) bottle you're welcome to. I know that's not much but it might help if you need some soon. I ordered two when I ordered some other stuff from Vanilla Food Company and I've only made a smallish dent in the first bottle. Turns out I'm not really using it as much as I thought I would.

I use the Roxy & Rich. I'm in Canada so the shipping from Chef Rubber and chocotransfersheets.com is just way too much. chocotransfersheets wanted $113 to ship $100 worth of cocoa butter to where I live and Chef Rubber isn't a whole lot better. They both look like they'd be good options if I lived in the U.S. but for where I live, I haven't found a better option than the R&R. I can get it through vanilla food co. with $7 flat rate shipping or, if they don't have the color I want, I can get it from chocolat chocolat for higher but still reasonable shipping.

I've wanted to ask this same question but I've avoided it because I more than half suspected that knowing the answer would result in having to buy another book.

I strongly suspect you are just looking from the outside at an inside joke.

Yep. I don't have any marble or granite surfaces to need to clean but the heat gun seems to work pretty good for getting hardened chocolate off of whatever I manage to get it on. On a bad day, that can entail a lot of area.

Rainy, somewhat cool Sunday with no interest in getting too fancy. Seemed like a good day for a Cincinnati 3-way... With apologies to anybody picturing something entirely different and not, presumably, involving a plate. I actually made the Cincinnati style chili yesterday with today's weather forecast in mind.

I had black forest ham and Swiss cheese with horseradish mustard on garlic naan (not homemade). Still not particularly adventurous but outside of my usual breakfast fare.

I like burgers cooked that way. I usually dice the onions when I do it but that doesn't make much difference in the result, just personal preference. I've done it with a mixture of chopped onions and chopped pickled jalapenos too.

I keep things cleaned as I go at work. I try to at home... but there are those days when it ends up being "clean when I get around to it". But knowing I have to clean up my mess has taught me to not make too much mess in the first place.

We agree on the figs but I think we have slightly different views on the dates. I just like figs better, I don't dislike dates.