blue_dolphin

Not a stupid question at all. @kayb's answer holds true in the US but in the UK, Europe, including Ireland, and Australia the finely processed product we call cornstarch is known as cornflour.

Those tomatoes look gorgeous which must make the lack of taste even more disappointing!

Savory omelet soufflé from At Home in the Kitchen Toast buttered with Bordier algues (seaweed) butter. The book has a sweet version of this omelet with filling of crème fraîche and honey and jam on top. Less appealing to me than this savory version but maybe I'll give it a try one of these days.

Lovely day for the farmers market today. Sunny but not hot or windy. Should have taken some photos but it's just a shopping mall parking lot. Here's the haul: From 12 o'clock, we have eggs, an oro blanco grapefruit (yes, still green, very early in the season but I have a recipe that calls for grapefruit zest so I got one), a nice hunk o pork (labeled side slab rather than belly, but similar, I think, some will be ground and mixed with ground pork for chorizo), Meyer lemons, four small blood oranges plus two larger cara cara oranges, holiday wurst from the German sausage peeps (I'm told they are seasoned with nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon and should be excellent cooked with sauerkraut, that's a 1 lb pack of 3 links), three small-ish heirloom tomatoes, two watermelon radishes, a bag of baby kale mix (nice as it can be used in salads or cooked), a massive bunch of flat-leaf parsley, a generous, but more normal-sized bunch of cilantro, sage & thyme and a jar of buckwheat honey.

I have not purchased it but it does sound interesting. I share your wariness with respect to Phaidon books. Often beautiful to look at but awful to cook from. This coming Monday, there's an author event with Virgilio Martínez in conversation with Andrew Zimmern that's accessible online. Jointly hosted by Bold Fork Books, Book Larder, Now Serving LA, Omnivore Books, and Phaidon. Register here.

I think I remember @Shelbymentioning that they'd tried a DIY wine experiment a long time ago. Not sure if it was a kit like this or something different. I do not believe it was a success. I think Nyquil was mentioned to describe the flavor.

I'm heading to TJ's in a bit and have eggnog on my list for exactly this purpose. Last year, I made some of Jeffery Morganthaler's eggnog with añejo tequila and amontillado sherry and liked it a lot. If I get around to making any of that, I'll give some a spin. He's got a non-alcoholic eggnog recipe up on his blog this year for those who choose not to imbibe.

I really want this right now!

Yes, the amount of thyme was almost comical. The thyme went into the cream/milk/glucose/stabilizer mix after it was simmered but while still warm and sat for a while as it cooled. The volume of dairy mix was not large so I could barely get it all submerged and practically had to squeegee off the stems to afterwards 🤣. The recipe said to infuse at least 15 min, possibly longer. I tasted periodically and left them together for ~ 30 min. I'm sure there are better ways! Two sorbets from fall fruits. Creamy persimmon sorbet from Serious Eats and a pomegranate cava sorbet found on Food52. Both were spun on the sorbet setting. I thought this would be a nice contrast between the warm, honey-like flavor of persimmon and the bright, tart flavor of pomegranat and the two brilliant colors. The textures were also a bit of a contrast with the persimmon super creamy, the pomegranate a bit icy. I think I can improve that icy texture (less sparkling wine, for sure) but since I was going for a contrast, I'm ok with it for now. These next two are my stab at a cheese & fruit dessert plate. They have almost zero contrast in color but the flavors couldn't be more different. On the left is the Parmesan ice cream from Hello, My Name is Ice Cream and on the right is the Riesling-poached pear sorbet from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home served on a Parmesan frico. I used the ice cream and sorbet settings respectively. No need to re-spin either. These are really fun to eat together. Could have added crystalized ginger to the pear or maybe break up some of that frico in the Parm but for this round, I just wanted to compare these 2 flavors. Both are smooth and creamy with the ice cream being very rich and the sorbet smooth as silk.

Thanks! I've not experienced the rapid molding or low quality issues with TJ's cheeses but I will admit to being selective in what I buy there so I don't have an across the board experience as you do. I don't like that the cheeses at TJs tend to be offered in pre-cut pieces rather than cut-to-order as in a good cheese shop and sometimes the chunks end up sitting in the case for quite a while. I always check dates carefully. Neither of those factors come into play with the small whole cheeses like the ones @rotutsposted about so I figured I'd ask why you deemed them barely passable.

I find that Langres quite nice. I can get it at an import shop in my area for a higher price than TJ's but it’s the same cheese. What makes it barely passable for you?

Not sure if this would be picked up by 23 & Me or the like but both sides of my genetic inheritance are staunch lines of ricers so I've never had need of a masher. Aside from preventing one from opening drawers, what else do you use them for?

Which sieve size(s) did you get? How would you think they compare to a nylon mesh nut milk bag (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)?

Yep, a brisky sando of some sort has been what I've been doing, too. I've been chopping the meat very roughly, just for easier eating, and warming gently on steam-bake in the CSO with any juices that have collected. Max Halley would mix the juices into the mayo for a gravy-mayo situation. Mmmmm! I need to deep fry some of those sweet potato starch noodles so I can riff on this one: Braised Beef and Kimchi Sandwich Recipe

I’d love to know your favorite uses for leftover brisky. I get some on occasion from ZEF but I don’t think I’ve made the best of the leftovers. Might be some still in the freezer. I hadn’t thought of Mexican but tacos sound good, as do quesadillas. Any other faves?

And there's a Black Friday special price of $4.90 each!

@Anna N's poached eggs are killing me! Bacon jam & sharp Cheddar cheese toastie

I'm a novice, so my 2 cents is worth about that much but here you go.... First, you don't need any speciality ingredients to get started. Plenty of normal kitchen ingredients function in those roles in conventional recipes for frozen desserts. If you have specific dietary aims (you need to avoid eggs or dairy or make vegan desserts or replace sugar with other sweeteners) you might call out that out here for specific recommendations. I recommend reading @paulraphael's excellent articles on stabilizers, emulsifiers and sugars. I see you've gotten good advice above by the more experienced @andrewk512. I agree with his recommendation of Dana Cree's book. Excellent background information and each recipe generally offers the option of using a commercial stabilizer blend, specific gums or pantry ingredients like tapioca starch or cornstarch. Also agree with his recommendation on ingredients and a little drug scale for weighing. If decide you want to invest in some of these speciality ingredients, Modernist Pantry has a 17% off sale running through this Monday, 29 Nov and they're a decent one-stop-shop for this kind of stuff, offering reasonable quantities, generally at premium prices. They also offer their own stabilizer blends for ice cream, gelato and sorbet.

About fifty cents? OK, I was kidding. But here's a small hint as to the difference between Maryland & Philadelphia styles. From the article, Fear the Turtle or Eat the Turtle:

Spotted on Twitter today. An amazingly extensive Thanksgiving menu from the Plaza Hotel, 1899:

That's was kinda my first thought but the surface of every electric hot plate I've seen is made of exactly the kind of stuff you don't want in a candy pot, meaning they're usually a thick slab of something designed to retain heat and would prohibit one from making rapid adjustments, other than by removing the pan for a quick cool. Or were you thinking of a gas burner? Many of the high power types I'm familiar with are outdoor-only. Or is there a whole category of high power indoor gas burners that I've been oblivious to?

Looks like long fusili, aka fusilli lunghi. I can read Fusilli Napoletani Lunghi pretty clearly. Is there there another name you know it by?

Speaking of Mr. Parsons his writing for the Irish Times, here's a nice read from earlier this month, Russ Parsons: Thanksgiving foods at the centre of the table for American traditions

For my next trick, I made honey thyme frozen yogurt. The result was a bit sweeter than I'd prefer. I suppose that's partly the nature of a honey-flavored mix and thyme helped balance out the sweetness so I'll call this successful, if not at all perfect. This was a modification of the Honey Chai Frozen Yogurt in Hello, My Name is Ice Cream. Instead of infusing the milk & cream with chai spices, I used thyme. Almost all the thyme ice cream recipes unhelpfully give the amount of thyme in "sprigs" but this one calls for 30-40g for what's probably ~ a 1 qt batch. Thyme varies a lot by variety, age, etc. but at least this gave me a starting point. I used 20g for a half batch, ~ 1 pt. When I tasted the mix before freezing, I thought it was both too sweet and too much thyme. If I'd had more yogurt, I'd have mixed up some neutral base to mix in but I was out so I just froze it as it was. As mentioned, the end result was still quite sweet but the thyme seemed more mild and overall helped balance the sweetness. I wouldn't mind trying this again with different sorts of honey. I used orange blossom honey here. I've got cherry blossom honey that's lovely but delicate and avocado honey that's very dark in color and has a much stronger flavor that might work.

My copy of Joshua McFadden's Grains for Every Season (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) just arrived so I’m settling in for a good read.