Chris Hennes

Right, I was able to get it thick enough using the exact same technique (hey, even the same blender), but I think the flavor is off: too much vinegar, not enough mustard.

I know the hard shells are totally gringo, but I still love 'em. I'm partial to the super-thin La Tienda brand, myself.

Unsurprisingly, Modernist Cuisine considers the subject in some depth. As inductioncook mentions above, "moistness" is a very complex sensation that is not driven purely by the quantity of water in the meat. It has a great deal to do with the way that moisture is actually released into your tongue when you chew the food (and the same goes for fat, not just water). I think that when you mist meat so that its surface is always wet during cooking, what you are really doing is changing the temperature the meat is cooking at to ensure that it is always at the wet bulb temperature. So you are effectively cooking at a lower temperature, helps prevent overcooking.

That's the video I checked out from the local public library a decade ago to learn how to do this, thanks for digging it up!

Gallontine or ballotine would be the classic next step, right?

Damn I hate New Yorkers sometimes.... you know what I can get at MY local market right now? Okra. Oh, and... okra! Did I mention okra?! <grumble> That stuff looks gorgeous...

I've done them using a sort of tempura batter: never actually tried to bread them, even though almost all the store-bought ones are. Mine tend to be more like "fish nuggets" than "fish sticks", too.

I'm going to dispute the notion that these aren't "real food" -- they may not be Mexican, but I don't see how seasoned ground beef in a shell with some fresh vegetables and cheese isn't real (whatever that means...). I make my beef mix with onions, garlic, chile powder, cumin, coriander, MSG, and a can of tomatoes pureed in the blender. I like it better than any of the mixes I've tried, though of course to each their own.

Unrefined, then? Or what is the logic behind that? I've always just used whatever oil was at the front of the cabinet...

Do the eG Forums count as kitchen equipment? Nothing has impacted my cooking remotely as much as the internet.

Over at Serious Eats I just read about Sour Beer, which is totally foreign to me. What brands are readily available in the US? Anyone here drink or brew this stuff?

I love black pepper: it's hands down my favorite spice. But it seems that in a lot of cultures around the world it doesn't appear at all. Or maybe that's just the recipes I've had. In the US anyway it's basically ubiquitous, it seems like every recipe ends "season to taste with salt and pepper". What's it like elsewhere? Are there analogous spices in other cultures?

How does the Golden Dipt compare to Golden Malted?

Does corn oil have any flavor, or is it completely neutral?

Same here.

One of the staple meals in my family when I was growing up was ground beef tacos, made from the Ortega "taco kit" (it came with shells, seasoning for the beef, and hot sauce: you supplied the lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese). Well, I've sworn off the kit... but not the tacos. Surely I'm not alone here: who else makes this quintessential Tex-Mex favorite from scratch? What do you put in yours?

I don't expect anyone to be 100% right 100% of the time, so the fact that a few of GE's 249 episodes had some facts wrong doesn't seem like a deal-breaker to me, as annoying as the errors are. But I simply couldn't stomach the schtick. I tried to like GE, I really did. I failed.

Yes, but I added more water than the recipe called for to make the dough a bit more elastic. Then it rolls like normal pasta dough. Thanks, i'll try that then. Did it still remain stickproof? Could you fold and fix tears? If so did it still remain stick proof when in bundles? Yes to all that, I think. I didn't have any tears, but it folded and rolled fine. I unfortunately didn't track how much additional water I added, but the end result behaved as normal pasta dough, except in the end it didn't stick to itself, and it had a slightly different (and I think better) texture when cooked.

Yes, but I added more water than the recipe called for to make the dough a bit more elastic. Then it rolls like normal pasta dough.

I bought mine from Sausage Maker.

Sure, but a pound is like five dollars. I was happy to see they didn't have a minimum order.

Oh good god. I figured out why they wanted bone in ribs, and it has nothing to do with bacon at all. For lunch I just steamed those off-cut rib sections and ate them like BBQ ribs. Holy shit. Bone in belly it is.

You can get it at Nuts Online, who will sell you "one yummy pound" of the stuff...

I've made a couple dozen batches of bacon in my life, using a number of different recipes: so far, this is the best I've ever made, by a healthy margin. I followed the recipe to the letter, except that I had to have the belly cut into smaller chunks so they would fit in the Foodsaver bags. I did include both the Fermento and the Sodium Erythorbate. The cure is actually pretty lightly-flavored compared to some others I've tried: mostly salt... The pork belly is bone-in, skin on: To seal up those sharp bone edges I used paper towel to pad the area: That cures for a week, and comes out looking like this (after rinse): The next step is a new one, at least for me: it dry-ages in the fridge for another week, coming out looking like this: Next it's hot-smoked (I used applewood) for seven hours: Rested overnight and then sliced: Cutting off the skin and ribs leaves a lot of trim: a bunch of this is in with some beans as I type.... Finally, cooked up: The salt level and flavor balance is superb: here is a bacon that actually still tastes like pork, with the other seasonings there to complement that flavor, not cover it up. It has a nice long, tangy finish that I'm guessing is due to the Fermento (though I can't swear to it: someone who has made some without should try with and see if they can make out the difference). My one complaint is with regard to using bone-in belly: when using a Foodsaver that's quite the headache. MC team, what's the reason for leaving the bones in?

At the eG Candy and Confectionery conference we used a bunch of Mol d' Art melters and they held the temper all day without much trouble, just the occasional application of a heat gun to the surface and some stirring. If you are doing dipping I think you are going to want a melter regardless of whether you use it for tempering.