Edward J

As the English would say "Wotcher" and the Germans would say "8-tung!" Merckens is not known for putting cooca butter in their stuff........... My rule of thumb, and for most other chocolatiers is, if it comes in pounds, stay away from it.

Was just at the supermarket tonight, and I had a good long peek in the dairy case. Two brands of "whipping cream" with carrageenan, both with MF contents of 33% One brand of whipping cream--organic, at 36% with no other junk added Now here's something interesting: "Cream in a can", the stuff with nitrous oxide, a bunch of stuff in there including carrageenan, but with a MF content of 26% And.... "Light" "Cream in a can", more stuff in there, including buttermilk powder and carrageenan, but with a MF content of 11% Coffee cream, aka cereal cream, aka half and half, has a fat content of 10% and is impossible to whip. So my guess is the carrageenan is in there to allow a lower fat content and still stay whipped.

UHT whipping cream has been around as long as the mid '80's, I know becasue I was using it in Switzerland and Singapore. Here in Vancouver virtually all the dairys offer whipping cream at 33% MF. That is a pretty low fat content, so my guess is that the carangeen (sp?) is added to stablizlize it.

Of course the customer is out of line. Thing is, both the waiter/owner and the customer know that this is an unreasonable request, yet it is requested. It's kind of like your Boss hauling you into his office and telling you that every August he takes a trek to Mt. Everest and does the climb. He reads your face and if he gets the slightest whiff of confrontation, will remind you that your bi-yearly employee review report is due and he will be doing it shortly. So, here we have "Catch 23": If you respect the customer, you will challenge his request, after all there is a very slim chance that he is indeed allergic and you might save the situation. If you don't respect the customer you will get him his (deleted) ketchup and hope he chokes on it. But with regards to IHOP and "white tablecloth" restaurants, I beg to differ. Yes we can swap bacon for fruit salad, and if there is a price difference we can adjust it. Yes we can sub the starch and vegetable garnish for the lamb with the one from the salmon, it is do-able and it shouldn't be a challenge for the kitchen. Demand that IHOP have ethically harvested and sustainable coffee? Fruit juices that don't come from concentrate? Do we have this right? Demand the high class restaurant have all of it's base sauces prepared without onions? Or tomatoes? Have a minimum of 6 vegetarian entrees and 3 vegan entrees? Do we have this right? See after 48-ish odd years on this planet I have made one very broad observation about my fellow humans: Whatever is free, undervalued, or available in bountiful quantities is to be treated with contempt and scorn. Think about it, this includes restaurants, but it also includes fresh air, clean water, public libraries, and good manners.

Why is this so? Using Scoop KW's example with the ketchup, how would you handle the situation?

Yes, there is a vary large plant located in St. Hyacinth, Quebec. Mind you, cocoa beans don't come from Belgium, never have, never will, and sugar is most likely from S. America. Milk powder could or should be Belgain though.

Maybe. I remember one place I worked at, had a regular, some kind of a rep. for a earth moving eqpt., I think. His special request were wierd. On day it would be "No alcohol in any way, shape or form", next time it would be no garlic, but booze was fine. He wasn't being a jerk about it, and tipped well. No one could figure it out. Then one day I asked the waiter if he was dining with Japanese when he requested the no garlic. Yes was the answer. You guessed it, he was wining and dining Muslims with the no booze request. Basically all for show. People are strange, no doubt about that. Look, this weekend I'm demo-ing my products at several high end grocery stores. I've got my samples in little cupcake papers. I go for a quick walk to stretch my legs about every hour, while doing so I notice one guy snatching my samples and scarfing them down. Hey, it's fair game, I'm not there, I understand, and I don't have a problem with it. These samples were the 70% dark chocolate.. So now I'm back at my little table, a few minutes later the guy comes back, but, "Do You have any milk chocolate? I really don't like dark".... Whatever.........

See, now that kind of situation separates the cooks from the waiters. I've got a big stupid mouth and no fear of being stiffed on tips---cooks never get them and owners don't get them either. (It just simply isn't done, doncha' know?) I'd probably say someting like : "I'll give you a free dessert if you can read all of the ingredients on the label". and then run like he** as the waiter comes over to administer damage control........

A loaded question...the answer most purveyors would give you is, "as much as the market can bear". My town (Vancouver) has this thingee about Callebaut. Granted, it is good stuff, but everyone is using it, and I find their 70/30 "McDonald's-y"--that is, very bland, one flavoured, but very consistent. Almost everyone uses it, and the main distributer has quite an attitude. If you don't negotiate prices with the purveyor--in which volume is always the focal point-- they(purveyor) will jerk the prices around like a yo-yo. I know of some guys importing direct from St. Hyacinth(callebaut factory in Quebec) for as low as $6/kg and I've chased out reps giving me a "steal" of a price for as high as $20/kg for the same 70/30. I use Lindt. Good stuff, and the prices don't fluctuate, AND they don't have a sales rep.

Matfer has a lot of sizes on their website, but they can be pricey. I would personally check out your dollar store/chinatwown/old-school hardware store. I don't like non-stick, as the non-stick usually fails after a few bakes. Problem with silicone is that they are all cast together in one sheet. Lining out each cavitiy when all cavities are stuck together is a nuisance and the person who figured that no one would notice or care should be taken out back and beat with a rolling pin. Here's how I line out a dozen -two dozen indiviual tins within 4 minutes: Roll out your dough , line up your tins on the table so that they are about 1" apart. Gently drape the dough over the tins, now push the tins together, and grab a wad of floured dough and press inside each tin. Use two pieces of broomstick about 12" long (or dowel, or 1" plastic waterpipe) and roll them over the whole thing. Each tart will be cut out and the remaining dough will fall down inbetween the tins.* *this method only works with tins that have no rolled rim or a fat "lip" on them Try doing that with a flimsy floppy silicone tray.............l

Check with Whirlpool in your area, if they don't have a repair center, they should be able to tell you about any authorized repair centers in your area. You should be able to get refurbished K.A. mixers at repair centers.

One of the famous navigaors, think it was Columbus, saisd something about "never have two ship's clocks, either one or three or more, but never two..." Here's my logic on probe thermometers: About twice a week I make a big batch of caramel, big, thick, sticky liquid, I need to get it to 110 C. I have cheapo probe thermometers, a traceable one, and an alcohol one. I prefer the alcohol one. With just one probe thermomter, I can get 4 or 5 different readings just by placing it an inch over or under the area I just had the probe in. If I use two probes, they will never agree, and if I move ther around, I'll get multiple readings. The surface area of the probe is very small, and very sensitive, and because of this, flucutates wildly. The alcohol thrmomter has a large bulb--much larger surface area, and for this reason doesn't fluctuate as much when I move the themometer around. My conclusion? The bigger the sruface ara on the probe, the less problems you will have with fluctuating readings

Try soaking them at a lower brix solution, and then slowly bring it up to a higher brix. I have this problem occasionally with lemon peel--I am guilty of skimping on the syrup so the pieces stick together and the syrup can't penetrate.

Oh, you can colour chocolate. There are fat soluable colours, or you can use ready-prepared coloured cocoa butter which is exactly the same thing--at 10 times the cost. I like to tint my white chocolate with coloured cocoa butter--nice pastel shades, or you can even add dry colour powder direct to white chocolate. The golden rule when working with fat soluable colours is to dissolve in warm cocoa butter and stir well--it won't dissolve very well. Let it cool down until it hardens, then warm up and stir again, it is now fully dissolved. The colours will settle down to the bottom of the cocoa butter eventually, so you have to stir or agitate it every so often. Hope this helps

Hi, thanks for the replies. No, what I did is to cover the quince with just enough water, no sugar. Tomorrow I will mix sugar with the juice and a little lemon, cook until it "sheets", and put up in 1/2 pint jars. I really like the smell of quince--like apples and rosewater, and am really anticipating the jelly. The juice has a rosy pink colour to it. First time with a jelly bag, it does plug up with pectin and solid matter. For a while there I was thinking to mash it all up, strain it coarse, and "clear" it with eggwhite, a'la consomme. Today, I just left the whole thing in the fridge and let it drip-dry.

Last week a "reg" customer dropped off almost 30 lbs of quince; firm, and still a tiny bit green with a minimum of fuzz. I've never used quince before, and dutifully researched what to do with it. I came up with two uses: 1) jelly 2) a dried fruit pastes or butter I opted for jelly, and went out and bought a jelly bag. I washed the quince, took the stem and blossom ends off, and cut then into about 1 1/2" chunks and then simmered them soft. But it takes forever to drip out. I know enough not to squeeze the bag, but at 4 hours I finally dumped the solids out and started straining another batch of solids. When I left work tonight, I still had another 5 lbs of solids to strain, so I dumped it all into the bag, set the strainer on top of a large pot, and shoved the whole thing into the fridge. I am uncertain of letting fruit juice strain overnight at room temps. Is this O.K. to do? Can I agitate the bag with a spoon to increase flow, or should I just wait?

O.K., here's long and well thought out answer: N.American culinary schools focus on "front end loading". That is, they cram you full of knowledge, with little emphasis on repetition or developing skills to compliment this new knowledge. The experience needed is left up to your future employer and you. Now, in defense of culinary schools, they do teach you the right way of doing things (or they should, in any case...) It is almost impossible to find an employer who will teach you the right way to do the variety of techniques (sauteing, braising, hot and cold emulsions, dough work, cold work, meat fabrication, seafood preparation, etc) that you really need. In defense of the employer, you will be shown how to work quickly and efficiently, you will be expected to develop your skills and to apply what you have learned to more and more elaborate dishes. In other words, both school and on-the-job-learning compliment each other. This is something the Europeans figured out a long time ago, and why apprenticeships are a three way contract between apprentice, employer, and learning institution--almost an ideal situation. Bear in mind, in the U.S. there are no national standards/benchmarks that defines a cook. This fact is one of the reasons that the hospitality industry is the way it is. Best advice I can offer you? Work for about a year before going into culinary school. Work p/t during culinary school. Remember this: If you go into culinary school with "0" work experience, you will graduate from culinary school with "o" work experience. This fact does not go un-noticed by future employers. Hop this helps

I don't quite follow your post, or the points you make, redfox. Could you elaborate a bit?

I dunno.... I much prefer the red alcohol type, yes it is a pain in the but to read, but I prefer it over digital versions, especially for caramels, and sugar work. Why? The probe on a digital thermometer is very small, you can get 5 or 6 different readings in a pot of caramel by simply moving it to different places. With the alcohol type, the probe (bulb, I guess) is much bigger, and you only get two or three different readings. Chocolate is different, I prefer the digital thermometer for this. I don't get 6 different readings in a pot of melted couverture,and the digital themometers are cheap--I get them at the drugstore--the very same ones you would use for taking your body temperature. The temp. zone range is pretty much the same.....

That is a table top dough sheeter, "Rondo" brand, from Switzerland. I've got one just like it at work. You have two conveyor belts that feed into a gap inbetween two s/s rollers/cylinders. A knob lets you set from "30" (30 mm or 3 cm) to "o", which is basically the gap inbetween the rollers. The belts feed the dough in one direction, dough goes through, then you stop, reset the knob to a lower setting, and reverse the direction. Sheeters are indispensable for all dough work, especially laminated doughs like puff and danishes. Sticky doughs can be sandwiched inbetween paper and rolled out--as can caramel, nougat, marzipan, ganache, or any other material. Cookie dough can be rolled out to consistent thickness and then laid ontop of a 18 x 26" template/cutter. Roll the dough down ontop of the template and the cut cookie drops down onto a sheetpan, perfectly spaced, ready to bake. The sheeter pictured above is the simple, plain jane version. More expensive models are wider and are computerized (punch in a code for puff, and just watch and occasionally dust with flour) and are combined with various cutters for croissants, rollers and tensioners for croissants.

Wine glasses don't get used every day. For us, growing up, the cups, bowls, and plates got used every day, 3 times a day, not really much of a chance for dust to settle on the bowls/plates. Wine glasses got used maybe twice a month, which was enough time for dust to settle in. I prefer my glasses hanging upside down--less chance of tipping over

Lots of protein in there, and water, in stock. Anything that does contain water will eventually go bad--this fact is recognized by every culture in the world, which is why drying, salting, and sugaring foods have been going on for centuries. In any case, concentrated meat stocks were used in laboratories to line petri dishes for many years--it is the perfect medium to grow any kind of nasty......

You can use a rubber hose to strain, a'la cleaning out the aquarium tank. Start making ice a week before, I like to fill well washed gallon milk jugs with water and freeze them. In addition to the ice batch, plop a frozen jug into the cooling stock, this will dramatically reduce the time to cool. The ziplock bags usually fit into a jug or pitcher, holding them upright without any hands; seal well and lay flat on a cookie sheet in the freezer. This accomplishes several things: 1) stock freezes very fast 2) stock takes up very little room in the freezer compared to a rounded blob of a freezer bag 3) frozen stock takes very little time to defrost. If in a hurry, you can break the bag in half and quarters and toss in soups/sauces frozen, it will come to a boil very, very quickly. Hope this helps

Yeah... the owners wouldn't last a week out here. This spring, "Worksafe" (the worker's comp. board) passed an edict making employers responsible for employee's domestic abuse (To be clear, physical and/or verbal abuse that happens at home). Naturally, there are hefty fines long in place already if an employer knowingly allows an employee to work under the influence--there need not be any accident to warrant an "investigation"--any employee can file a complaint with Worksafe where it MUST be followed up.

All depends in what kind of kitchens you worked in, I guess, but you never mentioned which places you did work in. I've worked mainly 5 star hotels and clubs, from Vancouver to Zurich to Singapore and a few stops in between. I have seen drunks come in to work, and I've seen them literally and physically kicked out of the kitchen. Labour laws are pretty stringent about allowing workers to work while under the influence, and the law comes down VERY hard on the employer; the employee sobers up, and does his best "ha_ha" Bart Simpson laugh at the employer's hefty fine, when an accident is reported. But I guess you never did work next to a drunk/stoned person wielding a knife, or deep fryer basket. I can assure you, the drunk will be kicked out, and usually by the meanest, heaviest drinking s.o.b. on the team Cooks have very little in benefits, and medical surly isn't one of them, neither is a few days off (without pay) recuperating from an accident at work. Now I'm not talking about what they do in their off -hours, I don't care what they do, I'm talking about what they do at work. Sex is pretty hard to complete in a busy kitchen, cold walk-in, or even freezer. It almost always happens in a bed, of which there aren't many in a kitchen