Tri2Cook

Yes.

Judgement of Solomon: split it lengthwise, stuff half and cut the other half up for soup. Although, I can't really get a sense of scale as to how big the thing is from the picture... maybe it's too small for that approach.

I already have 3 really good temp controllers that I used for cage temp control back when I had pet reptiles so I'm thinking about just using a small inexpensive dehydrator or something like that and running it through one of those controllers. I figure I can keep my airbrush and color cups in there all the time and just turn it on the night before if I have plans to airbrush.

The My Weigh 7001 came in yesterday and I'm already happy with it. Especially the included ac adaptor and ability to kill auto-shutoff. The baker's percentages function for the KD8000 sounds interesting but I don't see it as something I'd use very often, if ever, so I'm fine with the one I ordered. My high precision scale does .001 grams up to 50 grams. It has a fast reaction and stabilization time and I've yet to need .001 gram accuracy for anything in quantities greater than 50 grams. I paid ~$50 for it at least 8 or 9 years ago and it's still going strong. I think the brand is Escali or something like that. Edit: I don't think I intentionally lied, so it must have been bad typing. My little scale does not do .001 grams precision, it does .01 grams.

Nope, nothing to add. If your plan is to give what they suggested a try, that's all I was suggesting. Best of luck.

They can be used anywhere you'd use any other mild pepper. They're tasty pickled too. At the risk of spoiling potential surprises, though it's very unlikely, beware of the possible evil banana pepper. I bought a batch of banana peppers at a roadside stand once and they were HOT. Like, face burning hot where I touched skin after cutting them up because they were, in the words of the person who grew them, "mild and sweet" so I wasn't worried about not touching skin. I'm a fan of hot peppers so it wouldn't have been a problem had I known. The surprise was unpleasant. Still not sure how the innocent banana peppers wound up being hot though. The only thing I can think of is maybe they were saving seeds from previous crops and they somehow cross pollinated with a hot variety and produced hot offspring in the next generation. Not really sure if that can even happen though.

Don't be offended by what I'm about to say, just trying to be encouraging here. The first plan I would make is forgetting all about the manufacturer's site and anything it said. The second plan I would make is to follow the suggestions you received here exactly as suggested without trying to freestyle any of it or incorporate things from the above mentioned, and hopefully discarded for now, manufacturer's website (or any other sources for now). The people who are trying to help you here are the very same people who have been incredibly helpful to me when I started, and as I continue on, the chocolate learning journey. I didn't try to adapt or change anything. I just did what they said and, though I may pay dearly for saying this out loud during my next chocolate session, I haven't had to toss or repurpose a single batch. The idea is to get the problems you're having solved. Once that's out of the way, experiment with changes all you want. You'll have a reliable baseline you'll be working from which makes tracking down any problems related to the experimenting much easier.

Awesome. I was assured by several reviews that I would need an adaptor to use the Paasche with the compressor I ordered so I took their word for it. Now I'm wondering if I should have waited and checked for myself. Oh well, what's done is done.

Apologies for my laziness, Not bothering with a picture because the burgers we're having tonight don't look any different than any other basic burger. These are 200 grams of beef each, seasoned with just salt and pepper. Tossed them in the smoker at 250 F, gave them pecan wood for the first hour, brought them almost to temp and tossed some aged cheddar on top to melt while they finished. Took about 1-3/4 hours total. Smoky, juicy, beefy burgers. This was my first time doing burgers in a smoker... it will not be the last.

That goes a long way even when the food isn't as good as it could be. Even better when you get really good food to go along with it.

Manitoulin time! I can take or leave the homefries, don't mind 'em, don't mind if I don't get 'em. Not too picky about the toast but generally go for rye. Prefer my eggs slightly more done than either of those. The medium-ish custardy texture is my favorite. But I'll eat them however I get them as long as there's no egg white slime.

My apologies that I lost track of the discussion. I'm very much interested and I appreciate that you took the time to dive back into it with us.

I just showed them to my 16 year old daughter and she squealed and said they're adorable.

They kinda do... and I think I like them even more because of that.

Thanks Jim. There are some variations in there from what I had figured out based on their recipes and your posts so I really appreciate the walk-through.

Somehow this discussion got away from me. I had no idea you'd gone this far with the testing. I really like the idea of less sugar and cooking while still getting good aw readings. I also like the idea of not having to puree with booze because I have a couple of people I give chocolates to for whom alcohol is a definite no. Both recovering alcoholics (my sister-in-law being one of them, she's been off the booze for over 20 years but still takes no chances and I would never do anything that goes against that for her). Does Pomona have a recipe resource somewhere or do they just come with the pectin? I tried google and didn't come up with much. I have lots of low-methoxyl pectin on hand, I'm just wondering if it will work the same in their recipes as long as I also provide my own calcium source. I guess I could buy the Pomona to get the recipes and then try some tests using the LM pectin I already have. Edit: found the recipe for "jellied fruit candies, low sugar" (Is that the one you started experimenting with?) and it contained a link to the sheet that comes with the pectin. Edit 2: so I took the recipe and the instruction sheet from their site and I'm going to add what you worked out to make things better and more suitable as a notation. Thank you for your efforts and for sharing the results with us. Edit 3: two quick questions, the instruction sheet says to use 3/4 - 2 cups sugar per 4 cups fruit or juice. I'm assuming for this use, you're going with the high end? Also, is the 10% sorbitol replacing 10% of the total (doubled) amount of sugar you're using and is it in fact replacing 10% or in addition to the total sugar?

Thanks. Was mainly just curious about it. He doesn't use it in chocolates in the book, it's piped as a layer in his Black Forest Gateau.

The cinnamon should play nicely with the goat and salsa negra. Sounds tasty to me anyway.

I dug my copy of the Fat Duck cookbook out of one of the boxes most of my cookbooks are temporarily residing in because I was sure I remembered Heston using a PdF for piping somewhere in there. It took a little searching because I was mistakenly remembering it as one of his recipes using gellan. It's not. So this is what he does (paraphrased, of course)... Apricot Pate de Fruit 200 grams sugar 3 grams yellow pectin 250 grams apricot puree 25 grams glucose syrup 3 grams malic acid 5 grams amaretto liqueur Boil puree. Add combined sugar and pectin. Add glucose. Cook to 107 C (225 F). Set aside. Dissolve the malic acid in the amaretto and whisk into the puree mixture. Pour into a bowl, cool until set, puree with a stick blender and store in a piping bag until needed. Does this sound useable in regards to shelf life? I would think so but the number of times I've used a PdF that can be piped in a filled chocolate is exactly zero.

Nice! Pretty sure it would have been the goat enchiladas for me...

Sounds really good but if table grapes don't work in it, I'm out of luck. No wine grapes where I live.

Yes.

I'm relatively certain I'm a real man. At least, my dad's name definitely isn't Geppetto. I will eat quiche and not hate it but I wouldn't go as far as to say I actually like it. It's okay. If it's placed in front of me, it will be eaten. But I'd never go seeking it. Egg pot pie (quiche) kinda fits in the same slot as the Denver sandwich for me... I find them an odd choice for lunch or dinner. I rarely want that much egg that late in the day.

Not sure why it didn't work but I'm pretty confident you can eliminate the 137 F as the culprit, I melt gelatin in liquids a lot hotter than that all the time and they set just fine.

I'm doing filled and leaving the shells in the fridge for about 5 minutes-ish. Okay, good to know. I wish I could blame it on impatience, that's not an unusual thing for me, but this one I just plain ol' somehow missed or read and forgot. Not sure which, most likely the latter.