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haresfur

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Everything posted by haresfur

  1. Your post is absolutely correct. There are whole levels of complexities in mixing stuff that may or may not matter in practice. Like you pointed out, mixing two liquids can change the total volume - if I recall the example in my chem class was mixing acetic acid with water and ending up with a smaller volume due to delta-V of mixing (it's thermodynamics, it's the law). But most people don't have volumetric flasks at home. The people in the know in the food world have taken to doing more by weight for solids because the amount of, say, flour in a cup can vary a lot. But most of the liquids used are pretty close to a density of 1 or are at least consistent in their density so recipes work using volume. Well, that is except my Australian measuring cups and spoons are different from American ones. So that's one reason I recommend weighing everything in this instance - it's easier to calculate exactly what you are doing correctly. For example, in the original post, adding 1 g of stuff to 1000 mL water will give you a total of 1001 g so not exactly 0.1%. Probably doesn't matter, but it's easy enough to get right when you stick to weight. The other reason is that it is much easier to weigh things precisely than to measure volumes precisely - the uncertainty in volumetric glassware is much higher than the uncertainty in scales for a given range. Don't get me started on people who talk about % without specifying weight:weight or volume:volume.
  2. Or you can do a serial dilution. The first thing to do is to ditch the volume measurements completely. Weigh out, say 10 g into a container and add water until it weighs 1000 g. Note this isn't exactly the same as adding 1000 L water but is 1 %. Then 10 g of this contains 0.1 g of bromelain so weigh that amount into another container and add water until the weight is 100 g - 0.1 g/100g = 0.1%. Then you can use the rest of the first stock solution to try different percentages. Better check my maths first, though.
  3. Nice thread, even though when I read the title I keep thinking you are talking about St John the sixth
  4. I think I need to hack back my warrigal greens before they take over the rest of the lawn. I don't eat them that often. The will climb so I may try to plant some where they can spread vertically.
  5. I did a major pantry cleaning that included dealing with some jars stuffed towards the back - some green walnut pickles that didn't work out so well and some proto-nocino. I think I may have thrown out some nocino thinking it was the pickles but am not sure. We are talking about 5 year old stuff. I finished the one jar of nocino and it is pretty good but a bit too sweet. If I recall I used Wild Turkey 101 because high-proof vodka is unobtainable here. Guess I should use up what I have before I start a quest to acquire more green walnuts.
  6. A haul from Nick's Wine mail order except the Chartreuse, which was a dusty bottle at IGA that I thought I'd better pick up, given the current scarcity. The Luxardo Gin was clearance so almost inexpensive. The Teelings Irish Whiskey is aged in whiskey barrels that they sent to a brewery to age stout and then the brewery sends back to age whiskey. Very meta. It does have a slight chocolatey flavour but not overpowering. Their single grain and single malt whiskies were out of stock.
  7. You should see what a Samoyed looks like after they roll in it
  8. Missed this one previously. Not exactly a quick meal but a desperation meal when a friend and I were assigned to cook at our Uni share house the day before the coop run and pickings were extremely slim. We had broccoli and cheese and nothing else fresh. So we made popcorn surprise casserole with a layer of brown rice and steamed broc, a layer of popcorn, Campbell's mushroom soup poured over, and melted cheese on top. Told everyone it was an old family recipe so they wouldn't insult it.
  9. I've never met a kohlrabi I liked. Cooked, raw in salad, whatever, I'm unimpressed. I do like brussel sprouts, cabbage (usually), broccoli, cauliflower. Go figure.
  10. I'm not usually a fan of pork belly and partner almost never likes it. Sometimes it is pretty good if it is more meat than fat and cooked correctly. I never understood SV pork belly because the jelly left over is pretty disgusting to me. "Fat is flavour" Yeah, but it's the flavour of fat. The crispy pork belly from my local Korean place was good the one time I tried it. Much better than the duck bills.
  11. Finished up the vacuum seal hot sauce I started in March. This involved cutting up pepper, removing most of the seeds and pith and sealing in oversize bags with 3% salt by weight. The bags puffed up but not so much I had to vent them. I processed each bag separately. After experimenting on the first bag I decided that the consistency was right with all the solid and supernatant blitzed together in a blender as-is. The first bag used only hungarian hot peppers and the second was a mix of hots and jalapenos. Ended up with a bit more than a quart of each The first was a bit one dimensional so I mixed some of each for the working sauce and keeping everything in the fridge unprocessed for the probiotic voodoo. I'm calling this a success - easy-as to make and no funny growth detected.
  12. A few random thoughts. Asko makes an induction cooktop with a gas wok burner. I would have preferred that to my all gas one had it been available when I was remodelling. I don't want to give up counter space to a steam oven so a built in one would be fine but was out of my budget. I like having on decent sized sink instead of two small ones but if you have room for two large ones... I have cupboards hidden away under the island for those things that seldom never get used but I don't want to get rid of. One of my favourite things is a narrow cupboard next to the oven and cooktop with a basket that pulls out for keeping salt, pepper, oils, etc. handy for cooking. One mistake was putting three large cupboards above one of the counters when it should have been 4 narrower ones. Turns out the large doors get in the way when they are open and it is a pain to squeeze by the island or keep closing and reopening them when putting dishes away.
  13. I dunno, on my trip to N America this year, I stayed with so many friends who drank bad coffee at home I was glad to get to a Starbucks. It's funny how people complain about how expensive it is to go out for coffee but are accepting of the cost of going out for a beer or a meal. Hey, I don't smoke cigarettes, coffee is a pretty benign vice.
  14. haresfur

    Dinner 2023

    No photo, but the other day I made a nice vegan stir-fry with soba noodles left over from a previous soup. It was only vegan because I forgot the prawns, though.
  15. haresfur

    Dinner 2023

    We see ready to eat "slow cooked" bags of pork shanks in sauce in the store sometimes, but more often lamb shanks because this is Australia. There is a whole section of pre-cooked sous-vide stuff, most of which is ok.
  16. r/chefknives is closed due to reddit stupidity It would be good to post location when asking about purchases. My recommendations in Australia might not help you.
  17. I haven't tried Starbucks' instant coffee but the roaster that supplies my coffee joints makes a surprisingly decent instant called Magic Bogan* Dust. *Bogan: an insulting word for a person whose way of dressing, speaking, and behaving is thought to show their lack of education and low social class** **social class, not economic class. Probably even more derogatory is "Cashed-up Bogan"
  18. One time in DC we went to the local coffee shop near where we were staying and had probably the worst espresso drink of my life. After that it was the Starbucks across the street, where the coffee was consistently average. Can't drink their drip but the espresso is adequate, not up to Melbourne standards and they haven't done well in Australia. Then again, you can get a coffee in the afternoon there and it is a good place to hang out, which isn't really part of our coffee culture. I confess to liking a little darker roast than you usually get here. And green tea frappuccino. No syrup and extra matcha. Guilty pleasure.
  19. I found it worked well in a Negroni and some other drinks. Wouldn't be my first choice for a G&T
  20. I'd consider just planting the tree over top of the rock. Figs can have pretty aggressive roots. The larger varieties can benefit from being a bit root bound so I don't think the rock will do any harm.
  21. Haven't tried those two but am fond of the Sevilla Orange. Tanqueray seems to have the ability to change up gin but still make a tasty product rather than some who seem to come up with an idea and then produce it without worrying about whether it is any good.
  22. Brie And Camembert Just The Cheese Version Of A Latte And Flat White
  23. haresfur

    Dinner 2023

    I prefer real spinach but this is much easier to grow. Picking the leaves off the vines is a bit tedious. Topping is sunflower seeds and a sprinkle of paprika. I toasted the seeds this time but they tasted a bit burnt. Of course I used a can of Campbells mushroom soup. What would you call this?
  24. haresfur

    Dinner 2023

    Lazy meal of tuna casserole with leftover spaghetti and warrigal greens. The warrigal greens are like spinach (also called New Zealand spinach) but really need to be blanched. I have a large patch of volunteers growing in what should be lawn.
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