Tri2Cook

When I use the bread machine, I toss everything in, select the bake options I want (or the dough cycle if not baking in the machine) and walk away until the timer goes off. I can't think of any argument that would show that as not saving time. It may not decrease the total time it takes to make a loaf of bread but it greatly reduces the amount of time I have to spend with it. That's not to say there aren't times when I want to spend that time with it, it can be therapeutic, but a bread machine absolutely saves hands-on time. Reduced hands-on time is time that can be spent doing other things... so it's timed saved. rotuts: help me understand the fear of the hole in the bottom of the bread. It's just a small hole, nothing nasty, dirty or scary if the mixing paddle is clean before using it.

At first glance, I thought they were some kind of fancy new pop-tarts. Then I read the text and looked closer and felt kinda dumb. Actually, a radish, butter and blue cheese pop-tart does sound pretty tasty...

I like the "screaming fudge". Subtle but kinda cool.

Chicken and beans. Brined the bird with 5% salt and 3% sugar, applied the rub and left it in the fridge on a rack loosely covered with cheesecloth overnight. Smoked with cherry wood at 250 F to 160 F internal temp. The beans are white beans with tomato sauce, mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire, pork rub and a mixture of diced bacon, onion and garlic sautéed together. I mixed in a diced pork tenderloin that I rubbed (same rub I mixed into the beans) and smoked to 140 F yesterday and tossed them in the smoker with the chicken. Potato salad (not pictured) completed the meal. Edit: left out some of the bean ingredients.

If I'm going basic, just mustard or mustard and onion. But I also like a slaw dog with mustard, onion and coleslaw or a chili cheese dog with mustard, onion and jalapenos. I have no problem at all with ketchup on a dog, I just don't use it very often myself. Same with relish, I like it but rarely use it. Mayo works nicely with some topping combos but it's another one I don't use often. But I don't eat hot dogs very often in any configuration. Not a snob thing, there are just other things along that same line that I like better. Hot links and brats for example.

Me neither. Good bread and a nice cheese preferred... but if you spread margarine on Wonder bread and slap a couple Kraft singles in the middle, I'm still in.

Several years ago, Ideas in Food did a Ritz cracker ice cream. No stabilizers, gums, egg or special sugars/sweeteners involved. The entire ingredient list was Ritz crackers, half & half, sugar and sour cream. It was a thick pudding-like consistency prior to churning and I didn't hold out a lot of hope for it. Turns out it was really tasty with a really nice texture that stayed nice for a surprisingly long time. So you may be on to something regarding starches in the mix.

The ethical thing is sometimes difficult for me to take seriously. I want to because I understand that it's something the person feels strongly about but then I run into someone like a local lady who proclaims "I'm vegetarian because (assorted ethical reasons, nothing medical or health related)" and then orders an egg white omelette. Basically, it's wrong to eat the yolk but she's fine with it being tossed in the trash so she can eat the white. That's just strange ethics to me.

They're likely to be told to BYOF (bring your own food) if they're that damn picky. Vegan and/or gluten-intolerant, I'll accommodate. "I don't eat (whatever) colored food" or anything on that level of picky can take a flying leap... even if it's family or a good friend. They don't have to eat it but I'm not going to plan around it.

A lot of things are easily overlooked or just plain unimportant if the food is good and the people are pleasant but I have to admit that the styrofoam cup of un-iced water might have thrown me off my stride for a brief moment. Just for a quick second because I didn't expect it, then it would cease to matter. Seems like an expensive (long term) way to serve drinks to people dining in the restaurant though... especially free drinks like water.

By putting the lid to the trash can over them after depositing them in said trash can.

Not directly related to what's being discussed but, speaking of milk flavors, I tried the burnt milk gelato from Migoyas Frozen Desserts and that was a revelation. The word "burnt" in association with food is rarely an appealing thing. "Burnt" in association with milk elevates that lack of appeal even further... but the result was delicious. Probably now among my top 5 favorite flavors.

Nothing fancy or challenging going in the tank today, doing a sirloin roast at 60 C/140 F for 6 hours or so. Serving it with crushed roasted potatoes (thanks Anna N), pickled roasted mushrooms, creamed fiddleheads and Yorkshires.

Howdy. Confectionery is not an area I'm well versed in so I doubt I can contribute anything to your learning... but I'll be happy to steal, errr, learn all I can from you. Edited because, apparently, I'm not very well versed in spelling either.

Just in my personal opinion, while I agree that glazes often tend to look nicer in a shiny sort of way, I think ganaches tend to taste better than most glazes I've tried. The glazes that were demoed here are, again in my opinion, more pleasant to eat than the cocoa/gelatin glazes (pretty close to a good ganache in flavor and not too gummy in texture but with the shiny finish of a nice glaze) but are not quite as easy to work with as the cocoa gelation type, require sourcing ingredients that may not be easy to find for some and pretty much eliminate any cost savings over a ganache. They are my preferred glazes though. I do like the look of the cocoa/gelatin glaze plus it's super forgiving to work with (if the item you're glazing is frozen, you can even peel it off if you don't get the finish you want, re-melt it and try again) and they're not at all unpleasant to eat... just not as pleasant as a good ganache.

While on the subject, I recently did these... We do an occasional spicy food challenge at work. Somebody makes something and brings it in for those brave (or dumb, depending on your viewpoint) enough to partake. The only rule is that it has to be an actual food item, not just a spoonful of super-hot sauce and a cracker or something like that. The super-hot sauces are fair game as an ingredient though. The meat is 2 lbs. ground pork and 1/2 lb. ground bacon seasoned with smoked salt, brown sugar, paprika, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, msg, 3 tbsp. cayenne and 1 tbsp dried chile flakes. This was to be the spicy but flavorful base to work from. I fried up a taste-test piece... a nice sausage, reminiscent of a good hot link. Time to make it bite. So I mixed in 16 fresh habaneros (finely minced, seeds and all), 2 pulverized dried ghost peppers, 1 tbsp. Ass Blaster sauce (~50,000 scovilles), 1 tbsp. Ultra Death sauce (~800,000 scovilles) and 1 tsp. Flash Bang sauce (~5 million scovilles). The Ass Blaster has a nice heat combined with a nice flavor. The Ultra Death is pretty damn hot but also has a nice flavor. The Flashbang is just evil. It has a nice enough flavor but you don't get to enjoy it for long before it punches you in the face. I stuffed the sausage in hog casings and tossed them in the fridge. They traveled to work the next day to be sampled. They were hot. They were even HOT. But they weren't as hot as I expected. I'd done a taste-test on the habaneros I bought and they weren't messing around, they were hot. I have noticed in the past that it can be kinda difficult to maintain the heat levels that go into something through the cooking process. I guess that was the case here. It's also possible that the ongoing challenges are dulling our sensitivity because the main 3 participants (myself and 2 others) that do these challenges on a semi-regular basis were much less miserable than the others. In the end, I was happy with the result. They were on the painful side of fun but still able to be eaten and enjoyed (by heat seekers) instead of being tasted and left on the plate because the heat was intolerable.

I always stuff right after mixing. Well, right after frying up a small piece to make sure I'm happy with the seasoning anyway. Any flavor melding that's going to happen will happen perfectly fine inside the casings.

Not to mention, especially in high volume situations, that it would over time be much more cost effective.

Looks like a lot of fun and sounds like a good learning experience. I'm enjoying the vicarious experience. That's insane. I think that thing has to go on my wish list. I can't see investing in the small tempering machine I was eyeballing when this is available for not terribly more money. If I'm understanding correctly, it will serve the purpose of a tempering machine without a batch size limitation?

The spayed chocolate is primarily a decorative texture. If you want something reminiscent while avoiding spraying, cover it with buttercream or gan;ache and while still tacky to the touch coat it in pulverized chocolate. If you're not concerned with trying to get a similar look, just cover it in ganache. edit: I wouldn't use the chocolate/oil mixture to cover it if not spraying. You'll get a better result from a cream ganache if you're just going to coat it.

I'm not sure if it falls into the same category being discussed here but I've been contemplating cold smoking beef to be ground for sous vide burgers. Cold smoke for a couple hours, chill, grind, patty, sous vide, sear. Seems like a ridiculous amount of work for a burger when I've never had issue with just grilling a burger but I'm curious about the sous vide burger thing so I figured I might as well go all-in when I try it.

Unfortunately, you really do.

I haven't been to Louisiana in about 17 years so I actually don't know what any of the events are like now, Jazz Fest used to be pretty laid back though. Mardi Gras was fun, just in a different way. The food is good anytime, and making it where I live is difficult due to ingredient availability. I make my own Andouille and Tasso but good fresh seafood, and crawfish of any type, fresh or frozen, are a nope. A picture tour is always nice though, thanks for sharing!

You can make any cake without a stand or hand mixer if you're willing to put in the elbow grease. The only real benefits to the electric mixers are speed and saving some wear and tear on the arm.

I know I'm really (really, really) late to this party... but I saw the Jufran hot banana ketchup in our local store and had to try it. We have a growing local Filipino community that's been really good for our only grocery store. Things are beginning to show up that I've never seen here before. I'd never had hot banana ketchup before and that's a shame. So many years I could have been enjoying this stuff. I tried the mild version as well, I'll stick with the hot but it's not bad.