ElsieD

I read an article somewhere recently (Serious Eats?) which claimed that the addition of club soda in pancake batter produced fluffier pancakes.

Question: I buy a bread called Belgian Bread from a local outfit called Farm Boy. It is pretty much the only bread I buy any more and is used exclusively to make grilled cheese sandwiches. There is no better bread. It is a white bread that, when grilled, has a shatteringly crisp crust that stays that way until the very last bite, something no other bread I have had does. The ingredient lists nothing unusual, and lists untreated unbleached wheat flour, filtered water, sea salt and yeast, so standard ingredients. Does anyone have any idea why this bread would produce such a great grilled crust? I'll love to be able to make it.

My free yeast samples from Red Star arrived today. I am now back up to 40 packets. They sent an instant sourdough one and a sample of their platinum premium instant yeast.

Interesting that one ships to Canada, the other does not.

I do. But, I also like eating hard "boiled" eggs while they are hot so I just run enough cold water over them to be able to handle them.

Put eggs in cute little egg rack. Place in CSO. Set CSO to 210F steam and let steam for 22 minutes. Take all eggs out of the CSO at once because they are all safely ensconced in the cute little egg rack. Done!😀

Forget the pot - use the CSO.

I agree, Thai Kitchen is very good and one I always used until I tried Blue Dragon which is the one I always use now. When I open a jar, I put the rest in ice cube trays, measured by the tablespoon and frozen.

@kayb I wouldn't wait too long..........

Since joining eGullet, I have acquired many new gadgets. (Thanks, you enablers, you!) My favourite, by far, is my CSO and am very happy to have a back-up squirrled away.

Here is a shot of a loaf of bread I made today using the instant sourdough yeast. We used it for bacon and tomato sandwiches and could not detect any sourdough taste. The next loaf I make will have a longer ferment - we'll see what the impact on taste the longer ferment has. Bread is good, though. (38 packets of yeast left.)

Made some pancakes yesterday using the instant sourdough yeast. The recipe said it needed to sit an hour before use and that is what I did. The pancakes were all right, not great, but not bad. I had a lot of batter left so I put it in the fridge. Last night before bed I felt a hunger pang so I quickly cooked up some small ones. My, how this batter had grown! These little pancakes were much better that the ones we had for lunch. Today we had pancakes again. The batter had fully risen, the pancakes were nice and fluffy and they had that sourdough tang. Not really strong, but it was noticeable. Very good.

I have had that brand. It is good but too hot in the spice department for me. I use Blue Dragon brand and we like it very much.

Me too.

Maybe they re-formulated it. I just checked the web site again and they list it as new. I now have 40 packets of the stuff. I ordered and received 20, and my sister on her way home, saw a HyVee in Iowa, stopped in and bought me 20 more.😲

I thought the sourdough instant yeast was a new product?

The Red Star people have told me that if a recipe calls for sourdough starter, this yeast is not meant to replace that. This product is to replace regular yeast with recipes requiring up to 4 cups of flour. The whole packet is to be used. They have a few recipes on their web site. I just wrote to them to ask if there is a minimum amount if flour that needs to be used with this yeast. I'll post their answer here when I get one, likely tomorrow.

I guess I've never seen them because I've never looked for them since they are out there. Thanks for bringing me up to speed.

I won't be rushing to McD's to try one.

I do this whenever I want a hard "boiled" egg. The egg goes into the oven, it is set to the 210F Steam setting, and the timer to 22 minutes. Perfect eggs.

I've never heard of nor seen dehydrated onions. Did you dry them in a dehydrator and how do they reconstitute?

No, I haven't seen anything I'd care to make either but we haven't watched all of them yet.

@Okanagancook I'll have to try it.

I don't know if this counts as preserving or not, but the contents of these ice cube trays were once 8 pounds of onions. These caramalized onions are destined mainly for future grilled cheese sandwiches but I suspect they will also find a home on top of the odd burger. These were cooked for 28 hours in a slow cooker.

I used to really like his shows but I'm finding the schtick now to be almost unbearable. I tell my husband that there is way more of it than there was in the original series. He claims not. What do you think?