Shel_B

Some people like it. Every now and then I am craving something gooey and runny, like the middle slice of a Chicago square pie. Sometimes even the crust, soggy or not, gets in the way, and then I make a little crustless "pizza." I melt the cheese in the microwave, and add or mix in the toppings, and then sometimes a rewarm to soften or a quick broil to get a little skin. A real bit of gooey heaven.

I have the mini oven, and it too has "only" two top elements. However, broiling has not been an issue. The key, perhaps, is to place the rack at the proper height for the task - there are markers that show you where to place the rack. Have you properly placed your rack? It's easy to overlook that step.

I don't think the cut is a determinant, not at all. But for some people, at least some of the time, portability is a factor. Example: Toots and I like to grab a slice at the take out window of one of our favorite places, sit on a nearby bench, and eat our slice while enjoying the nice weather and doing some people watching. I believe that one of the great things about the "triangle cut," regardless of the style of pizza, is its portability. To have to sit at a table and use a knife and fork to cut the pieces, or risk the gooey cheese and topping running down you hand, IMO, lessens the pizza-eating experience. It's somewhat like an ice cream cone without the cone .... Now, my feelings don't take away from the good taste offered by a square cut pie, or the enjoyment a few friends might share sitting around a table eating that pie, because there's certainly a time for that. I just find that the options offered by the square cut pie are limiting, if not limited.

The problems with Chicago square cut pizza, as far as this New Yorker is concerned, is that some pieces have no crust, can't be held in one hand and folded, and the crust is not thin enough (at least in all examples I've tried) or crispy enough. Can you buy a slice of the square cut pie? If so, how does one eat the pieces without crust? It doesn't seem possible to eat a slice out of hand without the cheese and sauce running all over the place. What's the technique?

I wasn't raised on box cakes, but I suspect that the cakes that were made in our house when I was a youngster, were made with oil or perhaps margarine. In any case, we weren't big cake eaters, and usually one of our housekeepers, who was from the south, made the cakes. I remember the cakes not being dry at all.

Haven't graduated to yeast breads yet. I've read that elsewhere, too. I made my recipe, which called for oil, with a 50/50 blend of oil and good quality, but not high fat content or European-style) butter. The results were excellent.

CI has some tests: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/798-dry-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/1308-liquid-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/1444-adjustable-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5450-dry-versus-liquid-measuring-cups?incode=MCSCZ00L0 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment_reviews/1218-kitchenart-mini-adjust-a-cup?incode=MCSCZ00L0 I use the AMCO stainless steel measuring cups for dry and some wet ingredients. They have rims flush with the long handles, making leveling off dry ingredients easy. They have been durable, and the most accurate measuring cups I've owned. CI also rates the Cuisipro measuring cups for liquid highly. In fact, the AMCO and Cuisipro cups were test winners for design, ease of use, and accuracy. FWIW, I have 2-cup, 4-cup, and 8-cup Pyrex measuring cups. The 8-cup is great because it can be used as a mixing bowl for - thus far - all the baking recipes I make, which, admittedly, are not many: brownies, popovers, lemon poppy seed loaf, banana bread, and a new recipe that just came my way, Irish soda bread.

I'd call it a pizza, or a pie, or whatever ... name's not important to me, but ... this creation has no subtlety, no discretion. It's overdone with excessive ingredients. So regardless of what it's called, I'm not anxious to eat one. We've got a Chicago-style pizza place here, and it's always, ALWAYS, crowded, so a lot of people seem to like these heavier pies. Even their thin pies have a thick, heavy crust.

That's what we did when making pizza at home many years ago. Joe, the owner of Joe's Pizza in El Sobrante, CA sometimes used that technique when making pizzas for certain customers. Just a guess here - couldn't the cheese be added soon after the pizza goes into the oven, or is that not possible? Thinking about how this might apply to brownies....

I'm sure there are ways to do this ... after all, I got a nice crust on about 1/4 of the edge while the top and center of the brownie was nice and chewy and fudgy. So, if 1/4 of the edge can be crusty, I just have to figure out why that happened and try to get the same result over all the edge. Some thoughts: Alice Medrich's suggestion of higher heat and shorter cooking time; using more butter to oil the edge of the pan but not so much on the bottom; preheat pan but, to avoid crust on the bottom, insulate the bottom somehow; there is a mixing technique that practically assures a crusty top, perhaps using that technique and in some way insulating the top of the brownie (tent wit foil, perhaps) to keep the top temp down and reduce the possibility of crusting; I read that baking brownies in glass or darkly colored pans often results in hard or burned edges, so maybe I'll use a darker pan, or one of different material. Cooling the brownie pan after removing it from the oven stops the hardening process around the edges. So, perhaps by letting the brownies rest longer in the hot pan, a greater crust might form around the edge. I read that the brownies pull away from the sides of the warm pan, which hardens them. I believe that this can be done, and I'm going to keep trying until I succeed, or until I exhaust the possibilities and my knowledge, and convince myself that I can't do it.

It's great that you're getting a crusty top that way, and more crust on the sides. I prefer not having a crusty top ... just the sides. There seems to be a way to get a crust you like without adding extra sugar: http://acselementsofchocolate.typepad.com/elements_of_chocolate/ACSBrownieChronicles.html Scroll down to Crust or No Crust.

Perhaps you misunderstood my question. I'm interested in getting that crispier crust without overcooking the inner part of the brownie, leaving that nice a chewy and fudgy. The pans you mention seem like they'd just give me more edge, but not a more crispy edge. Is that correct? In doing some poking around, I came across a suggestion by Alice Medrich. She says that rather than baking brownies at the more typical 325-deg F temperature, one should bake at a higher tem (400-deg she said) for a shorter time. Any thoughts on her suggestion for crispy edges?

If between our two houses we fill a 5-gallon bucket with trash, that would be a lot. I don't even have a trash can in my kitchen. Whatever is going into the trash gets put out almost immediately, and it's rarely food items. We compost most all of our food scraps, or, rather, the city does. They pick up the green bucket (30-gallons or so in size, depending on customer's needs) and compost the material. The compost is used by the city in their projects, and twice a year they have a compost giveaway - just stop by the recycling center with containers, and scoop away with the provided shovels. If there's something that has to be bagged and put in the trash, we generally use the compostable bags provided by the local organic grocery.

This afternoon I baked up a batch of brownies - my first ever - and they turned out pretty well. Rich, somewhat chewy, fudgy, and very chocolatey. One corner was cooked so the edge had a crispy kind of crust to it, something I liked quite a bit. The contrast between the crust and softer brownie was very appealing. I'd like to know if it's possible to get that crust around the edge without overcooking the brownie's interior. Maybe a heavier hand with the oil on the pan's sides, perhaps using butter instead of oil for the pan, or .... ? Thanks!

I found this thread accidentally, while searching for something else. Thought I'd bump it up as there have been a lot of changes in the landscape since 2008. In our area plastic bags are no longer available at most stores - grocery stores, liquor stores, household goods stores like Bed, Bath, & Beyond, department stores, and so on. Restaurants are allowed to use plastic bags for carryout orders. The only bags that are available in grocery stores are, by law, paper made with a minimum percentage of recycled material, and the shopper has to pay for them. Otherwise, it's bring your own reusable bag or buy one at the store. We have been using reusable bags for many years, long before it became a requirement, but I have a tendency to shop on the spur of the moment and sometimes don't have a bag with me, and this is especially true when I'm taking the bus or riding a bike. Otherwise, we keep several bags in the car. I found a very nice bag made of 100% recycled bottles and other materials. It folds very small, and stores in its own, attached pocket and the whole thing attaches to a belt loop with its own small, carabiner made of recycled aluminum. I hang that puppy on my door handle, and stick it in my pocket on the way out. It compacts to a size similar to a pack of cigarettes, so it fits easily into a jacket pocket, or even a pocket in my jeans. A couple of the markets use compostable bags instead of plastic to put your produce, grains, etc., into. These are great because they serve the same function as plastic bags for carrying out you veggies, but they go into the landfill and compost down. They are made of some vegetable matter. Our community takes plastic bags at the local recycling center and also picks them up when the recycling truck comes by once a week. We place our small plastic bags, such as found in packaging or food wrap, in a larger plastic bag, secure I, and of to the recycling it goes. We no longer put plastic bags in the trash ... never, never, never. All the plastic bags we end up with get recycled.

From the Oscar Mayer Institute for the Advancement of Bacon comes this new, downloadable app that provides the smell of coffee and bacon when the alarm goes off. Transform your iPhone into a bacon-scented alarm clock. What a way to wake up! http://www.wakeupandsmellthebacon.com/

Although my experience with this is limited (I've only made two seafood dishes thus far) I'd agree about the oil. I've read and seen enough from MC, Heston Blumenthal, and some other sources, to suggest that oil takes flavor from the protein, and that using little, or no oil, is a better alternative in many instances. In my situation, it seems that I can cook certain fish and seafood items in water straight from the tap, or pretty close to it. The temp from my kitchen tap is varied between 116.5- and 119.8-degrees, which according to numerous sources is adequate for many fish and seafood. I can always add a few ounces of hotter water to bring the temp up a bit if need be. I've got to work out a process by which the pot won't suck heat out of the water, and that will require some playing around. I thought that I could heat the pot somehow with hotter water to bring the temp of the vessel up, then add water of the appropriate temp, and set the pouch into the liquid for the requisite time. Unfortunately, I have electric burners, although thus far they have not been an issue. Perhaps using very thick and heavy pots keeps the water temp more even, but that's just a supposition for now. I've been using a large Le Creuset oven to hold the water, and I also have a D5 All-Clad soup pot which, based on experiences with a D5 saucepan, should do a good job of retaining heat. My thinking is to use the heavy pots and plenty of water to minimize heat loss. More experiments are needed.

I don't recall if I thanked you for the info. Decided to try the spread, and will order it online next week.

I thought I'd bump this up as I now have another question. It seems that using oil gives a moister result, and some people have said butter adds some flavor. If using ghee or clarified butter instead of oil or plain butter, might that result in the best of both options - more moistness because I'm using more fat together with a good butter flavor?

Then I shall call what I am doing Low Temperature Water Bath Cooking.

Thanks for the pointer. Not sure yet if I need such an item, but time and experience will tell me.

At first I hadn't thought about the vacuum business, and it's still not clear to me why cooking under vacuum is necessary, but as it happens, I may have a Foodsaver setup around here somewhere, if I didn't give it away some years ago. I'll certainly see if I still have it. However, I continue to wonder if it's really necessary, or necessary in all situations. From Modernist Cuisine: "Although sous vide literally means under vacuum in French, the defining feature of the sous vide method is not packaging or vacuum sealing; it is accurate temperature control." Additionally, in this video http://modernistcuisine.com/2012/11/watch-nathans-modernist-cuisine-story-on-nova-sciencenow/ - at 8:56 into the video - you can see Nathan serving Martha Stewart salmon cooked in a Ziploc bag, and from the image I saw, it sure didn't look like there was any vacuum involved. So, what's the story? Is vacuum necessary?

Tonight I did a very quick and almost haphazard SV of a couple of frozen salmon fillets. 5 quarts hot tap water into the Le Creuset. The pot and the amount of water helped, I'm sure, to keep the temp pretty stable. Set the burner on the lowest setting to keep the water warm. I mistakenly set the water temp too high. It hovered around 135-deg F for most all the cooking. Checking back here, it was suggested to cook at about 15 to 20 degrees lower. I did learn how easy it is to maintain a fairly constant temp with the setup I used. Next time, a lower temp. As an experiment, and because I was anxious to get started, I put the fish into the pot without removing it from it's cryovac(?) package. Not knowing what to look for, I don't know if this was, or was not, a good idea. I can see the downside is not having any sauce in which to cook the fish, but for me that's not a big deal. I don't mind plain salmon, sprinkle a little S&P and I'm good to go. I am definitely going to try this again. The fish almost cooks by itself, there's very little energy spent cooking it, cleanup is a snap, and there's no fish smell in the house, which bothers Toots quite a bit. Thanks to all for your help. Onward with experimentation!

There's a sporting goods store across the street from my apartment, and I'll have time to take a look at what they have. I figured out where I could keep a cooler of the size shown in your post. Thanks!

There is some frozen fish in vacuum packages (from TJ's freezer) sitting in my freezer. Could I just dump a package into some hot water of the appropriate temperature, and cook the fish in the package it came in? Any need to thaw the fish before cooking?