haresfur

Decided to give the oven a bit of a test with Modernist Cuisine's low temperature steak. Seared it first in a cast iron pan over the wok burner on full whack. Verdict is that the burner with the broader outside ring going as well as the focused flame is great for this. The ample smoke was handled very well by the exhaust fan with very little smell in the room. Put the oven's temp probe into the meat along with my needle thermocouple probe. Then into the oven at 60 C, which turned out to be too low so I bumped it to 65 then 70. However, the meat temperature stalled well beyond supper time and it barely reached 55 C. The temp probes in the meat were a couple of degrees apart, which is a bit of a problem if you were really wanting to have the oven turn itself off at temperature. Probably better for a roast where the oven's probe could be inserted all the way into the meat (I think it is an RTD). But the oven temperature was rock steady and within a degree of a separate thermocouple I put in. The oven temperature can only be set to 5 degrees but goes down to 30 C. I think that is sufficient. Don't know why I had so much trouble getting the meat to temperature since the oven was holding the proper T. Anyway the meat was great cold today. A couple of pictures. Sorry about the spill on the door. Spock gave it the seal of smell-approval.

We tracked down the message to the cabinet guy specifying we wanted rounded safety corners on the bench top. "Don't laugh but I'll kill myself running into the island if we don't round the corners" said DB. He did the ordering for us and we had discussed what we needed to ask for with the fake stone company. So after sending him a copy of the message a few times, he talked with the bench guy who offered to come out. He rounded the corners with a grinder sans charge. He didn't want to take too much off because it would not look right and said this would keep it from catching if you hit it and make more of a glancing blow. "I have rounded corners and kids and can tell you, if they hit the bench, they're going down." 😄 I would have liked to see a bit more taken off, but it is certainly better. The carpenter came out and finished the trim. Painting is done, so about all left is staining/varnishing trim and the backsplash.

“When life gave her lemons, she made limoncello,” - best epitaph ever

I eventually managed to turn on the oven *and* set the timer to heat up a quiche for supper.

I usually use a large pot or bowl for this. Bonus if it was already dirty.

We had a double sink previously and I''m actually looking forward to the single, since I always had trouble washing big cutting boards and sheet pans. We will just have dirty dishes on the island as before.

So I was getting ready to was some dishes before putting them back in cupboards, looked down and thought, "You know, since the cooktop was moved towards the pantry, we probably could have swapped the sink and the dishwasher so there would be room for dirty dishes on one side and the dish drainer on the other." That has been one of my issues with the old design. It would have at least been worth discussing with the cabinet guy. Hard to see everything when you are headed down a certain path, and I'm still happy with what we have.

A kitchen 😎

Yeah, like a swamp cooler that they use in places like Arizona. Air up on the roof runs past wet pads and is cooled then is blown into the house. It's a single pass system so you keep windows cracked to vent. I suppose it blows heat from the oven out, too. It's very energy efficient but does use water. Of course when the humidity rises, it doesn't do much.

I'm glad people are thinking about what they like and what they would do differently. There is so much to consider, and so many compromises to make.

They were supposed to round over the edges and corners but did not. At this point, I can't see fighting it.

You are right, I am concerned about that, too. Something to keep in mind if we get wild in the kitchen.

Forgot to mention, the good thing about a reno in summer is being able to cook on the barbie. The bad thing is a house swarmed by flies. 😝

Busy day today. There were some scheduling issues with people showing up unexpectedly. I think my partner who has been at a conference asked the sparkies to come out because our evaporative cooler wasn't working - a breaker up in the attic on the unit had flipped. The bench tops came early in the morning and were installed. Then some remaining electrical work and installing appliances. So almost everything major is done. Still to do: A little trim work that had to wait for the bench tops The exhaust fan needs to vent up through the ceiling. Plumber forgot that. Backsplash. The cabinet guy got a little testy with me because I forgot that we wanted holes for the knife rack, and made me do the measuring. Hope I got it right We will do the painting. We haven't even picked out flooring but are going with vinyl that will be installed on top of the old floor. We probably will have to plane a bit of the bottom of the door to make it fit. I need to install a pot rack that was over the cooktop, but will now be over the window. Then there's figuring out where everything is going to live. Bench tops were in by 9:00 AM. I tried to go to work for a few hours but it wasn't meant to be. I don't really like the microwave there but we will give it a try and see how it goes. Don't know if the induction plate will stay there. I wish they had mounted the oven a few cm higher. The cooktop and oven are made by Asko and they seem really well designed. I'm so excited to try the wok burner, and hope it has enough oomph. Dishwasher is a Bosch.

Speaking of messy dining tables, here's ours with the kitchen stuff I thought we might need. Microwave, induction plate, sous vide, and the barbie outside should get us by.

I'm not quite sure what you mean with the Plexiglas - so we don't splash on the window?

I don't like wasted space so before the island gets its counter top, here are the not-very-convenient cupboards that will be mostly hidden by the overhang on the sitting side. Should work for that pack-rat stuff I don't want to throw away but don't use often. Of course, the high cupboards will be used for some of that, too. Another idea would have been to make the island even bigger and forgo the seating for more drawers, but the dining table is usually covered with sewing stuff.

In that case, he should check out the cultural experience of an Aussie Fish and Chip shop. I had some good Trevalla in Tassie.

We have started into fixing the kitchen after starting planning several years ago - almost as long as the dishwasher has been dead and the oven barely functional. And don't get me started on the non-exhaust fan. Before the destruction but after removing all the crap: The fridge was replaced not too long ago and is staying where it is. We had to have its alcove expanded. Perhaps not the best ergonomic location but it fits. We aren't moving the other appliances or sink very far so are hoping the plumbing and electric are no big deal. End of first day. We caught a couple of things in time. The fume hood and cupboards over the cook-top were set too low. They were going to set the sink as an over-mount when we had bought and under-mount. Apparently it could be done either way but silly us for not making it clear that the sink described as an undermount should be under the counter top. We decide the cupboard to the right of the oven should open the other way so we can get in there when cooking. Our mistake but I hope we can keep the oil, salt, pepper, etc. there rather than cluttering up the counter. The cabinet guy insisted that the cook-top couldn't be centred over the oven. I still don't understand why but not a big deal. It will be easier to get around the island when someone else is cooking but harder to squeeze past into the pantry. It seems to me that the walls should have been re-done before the cabinets went up. I think this was easier on the cabinet guy who is doing most of the coordination but probably will be a pain for the plasterer. And we have some trim issues to work out. Day 2 fixing things, electrical work, and measuring for the countertops. Now we wait for them to be finished before much else can happen. Spock is not impressed.

Yeah, I know you can use a metal plate. It actually will still be quite efficient - similar to heating the bottom of a pot, but there will be some heat loss. I thought about it for my new range but am going with gas.

unless you cook with clay 😉

I'd call the size of half a plate average. Huge is when it drapes over the sides all around.

Wouldn't you want to do the dark meat at a higher temperature than the white?

Had to pick this up, because, how Aussie, even if they import it from Italy (seems silly to ship all that way). It was actually very good. Also bought a steel-mesh fisherman's glove to use with the mandoline.

If you want to pull the breast, I'd go with the pressure cooker. I do whole chicken for about 25 min to make chicken chili. I think that time would work for turkey breast.