Edward J
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Posts posted by Edward J
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You are not going to find Belgium waffles in Belgium.
dcarch
Nor will you find "french toast" in France
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What I was taught in Switzerland was that if it didn't come from Champagne region in France, it could not be called "Champagne". While the Germans and Spanish have some very good ones, we were taught we could NOT call these champagnes, but rather "method chamagneoise" or made in the style of champagne.
Then again, what's the difference between brandy and cognac? Both are destilled white wines, but only alcohol from the Cognac region of France is allowed the destinction of "Cognac".
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Fair enough, but why hang on to a name then? If Emmethal can only come from the Emmenthal Valley in Switzerland and someone in N. America makes a real good cheese in that particular style, why not get past all that heritage baggage and call it cheese from the (insert name of place) valley from N.America? Vancouver island produces some really excellent goat cheeses in a variety of European styles, but the makers are not hanging on to traditional European names, rather, inventing their own new names.
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Although I don't care for the way the EU demands everybody , even on other continents stop using names improperly, I think they may have a point. Yesterday I went to the local cheese shop to buy some Brie. I was offered double cream and triple cream bries. Bries with walnuts, or cherries, or herbs. I told the person behind the counter that I just wanted a plain Brie, no additions. So I bought what she said was a basic Brie although it wasn't. It was fromager d'Affinoise, which I like so I bought it. At the Italian market I go to to buy cheese, they sell "Italian Fontina" which is from Wisconsin. I use it in my Mac and Cheese, and it's a nice cheese, but it's not Italian, and fromager d'Affinoise is not Brie, and when I ask for Stilton I want Stilton, not Stilton with walnuts, or chutney, or peaches. I also want it to come from England. Another sore point is Italian bread. Italian Bread comes from the Philadelphia-Atlantic City area. Anything else is a poor substitute, and I feel sorry for the people who will never know what Italian Bread should be.
I'm getting mixed signals here. I'm with you on the cheeses, can't stand to hear "Danish Emmenthaler" or "American Gruyere". Stiltons do come from England, but I'm confused with the "Italian Bread"
I always thought "Italian bread" came from Italy, not Philly. Or if not made in Italy, made with genuine Italian flour or some kind of authentic Italian wild yeast sour dough culture or some such. So I dunno, does the "Italian bread" in Philly have a heavy bottom crust, typical of being baked on a stone deck oven, or does it have the typical "polka-dot" pattern on the bottom, typical of being baked on perforated 18 x 26 baker's pans in a roll-in convection oven? Then again, to digress a bit from the subject, most Italian pasta is made from Canadian Durham wheat, and the finished product exported back to N.America. France buys a lot of it's mustard seed from Saskatchewan (Canada), and then exports Grey Poupon and Dijon back to N.America.
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Meh....
In 1997 I opened up a catering business and part of the local health requirments was to write a selection of dishes to be cooked following the haccp plans. This was submited with a lot of other criteria and inspected before a business license could be issued, or even my premises inspected.
It's not all that difficult and actually makes a lot of sense.
Lets say I want to make chocolate chip cookies.
ingredients:
flour
butter
sugar
eggs
vanilla
chocolate
salt
baking powder
1) Where do the ingredients come from?
2) How were they transported?
3)How long are the expiry dates?
4)What procedures are in place to accept or decline the ingredients?
5) How will the ingredients be stored?
6)What method is used to store and track down batch numbers of the various ingredients should a incident occur?
7) How are the ingredients scaled out?
8)What sanitation methods are used to to clean the various utensils?
9)What methods are in place to ensure proper sanitation?
10)How will the ingredients be mixed?
11)What sanitation methods are used to clean the mixing equipment?
12What methods are in place to ensure proper sanitation?
Repeat the same questions for scooping out or deposting the cookies
How will the cookies be baked?
What methods are in place to ensure cookies are baked at proper temp and time?
How will the cookies be cooled down?
What methods are in place to ensure cookies are cooled within time guidlines?
How are cookies packaged?
What methods are in place to ensure cookies are packaged to guidlines?
and then,
-labeling
-best before date
-Storage
-Transport
-What procedures are in place if cookies are still being sold on or after the Expiry date?
and,
Most importantly,
Recall procedures should an incident occur
(example the egg company declares that batch 209/exp. 15/07/14 may contain salamonella)
-Did you purchase this batch of eggs?
-Can you pull them or get them pulled of the shelves of your customers?
-What procedures are in place to destroy the cookies?
Basically it's a system that makes you think and anticipate any problems that may lay ahead.
Vancouver Coastal Health wants every food service establishment to do this with at least 5 dishes
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But the truth is that most servers like the current system just fine. If they didn't, there'd be a big revolt, and that would be that.
Oh dear, I was afraid of that.
It's not servers who make the hospitality industry go round and round.
It's the customers.
No customers, no industry. Same as every other industry.
And the customers don't like forking out 20% in tips or even higher, nor do they like the fact that someone lobbied to get servers paid a "tipping wage".
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In-house samples
and
on-site samples for demo's
Thing about melting them down and re-using them again for fillings, is that it is very hard to replicate the exact same recipie mext time.
I have, from time to time, thrown them in a pot with extra cream and used it to glaze a cake or two, but not for truffles or bon-bons.
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Was bacon from the late 19th and early 20th centuries substantially different than what we generally buy in the supermarket these days? Was it cured differently, perhaps without nitrates/nitrites, made by smoking it more, or were different cures used? Thanks!
Don't know much about the nitrates and stuff, but I do know that refrigeration didn't exist in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and that bacon was sliced to order in retail stores.
My guess is that bacon "of old" was saltier and heavily smoked as a preservation method, as opposed to refrigeration and vacuum packing in supermarket bacon
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I've been in your situation a few times and feel for you, but what you have described is pretty typical.
First off, restaurant owners...
Q: What qualifications or standards does a restauranteur need?
A: None
Look, if the guy is short a Chef, you can pretty much guess that he's working 18 hrs straight to cover that position plus his own, and not in the best of moods to answer phone calls when he gets home when he thought you had agreed verbally to his request. Yes, I know your side of the story, and I'm all for you. I'm not apologizing for the owner, it's just the way things are.
Resumes. I'm with you on the no responses. Sending off a resume via e-mail is like sending off a rocket ship into space: No guarantees that it will return or that you will even know what happened to it. What I see with most employers when they recruit is the following caveat: "Only those who are short listed will be contacted. We thank you for your interest with "X" "
Recruiters. I call them head hunters, and not in a mean way. What I describe below is typical of my experiences with head hunters in my 30 years in the biz:
Back in 2006 we sold our catering business, and after a well deserved vacation I started to look for a job. I called up Headhunter "X" and asked if I could send them my resume. They asked for everything, employer's testemonials, photos of work, menus, etc. Send it off and hear nothing back. Call up and ask to confirm if they have recieved it, they wouldn't give me a straight answer. Meh, whatever. Five years later, that's five (5) years later I get a phone call from the headhunter asking me if I'm interested in relocating to another city for a choice Exec Chef job with a catering company. First question I ask is if the guy know what kind of odds there are in calling me up at the same phone number and the same e-mail address after 5 years. No answer. Second question I ask is if the company confirmed receiving my resume, and if so, informing how long they keep resumes on file. No answer.
Meh, whatever....
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Also, Lisa Shock's comment is spot on:
It really is high time that all publications of recipes publish by weight, and preferably using the metric system. All publications I come across out of the US that are for the professional chef are in metric weight, and have been for as long as I can remember. A kitchen scale is, in this day and age, a necessity in every kitchen. Publishers, especially in the US, need to get "with it" and evolve with worldwide trends.
The question is, HOW do we convince the magazines to do this. Last time I bought a C I magazine, there was a caveat in the front page about weights and measurements, seems that flour should be weighed (scaled) out, but everyting else is measured out in volume--except chocolate which comes in standard 1 oz sqaures (but only in the US).
So the magazines are very well aware of the situation. Both a nurse and a long distance truck driver use scales in their daily work, and everyone has jumped on a scale in the bathroom at home or at the doctors, and anyone who has traveled by air knows how much their suitcases should weigh, and how much they actually weigh. It's not a foreign concept. Why then, the absolute refusal to acknowledge that professions the world over have been using scales for centuries, and continue to do so?
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I did have the opportunity to visit a hot dog plant in S'toon, Sask. (Canada) waaay back when, as a boy scout. The mental image of two uh..."gentlemen" in white rubber hip-waders shoveling various animal parts with s/s shovels down a hatch that was part of meat grinder built in the floor.
O.T.O.H. there have been rumours of dumplings made and sold in China with cardboard used as a "meat" filling.
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The non-stick coating is a good option, and it is totally foodsafe.
Chrome plating, while very expensive, is not a good option . Chroming is a three step process, where a first coat--nickel- I think, is put on, then copper, then finally chrome. As any chrome plater will tell you, the layer of chrome is full of tiny fissures and cracks, and it is not good to have chrome in constant contact with water or it will develop rust.
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Check out bakery equipment dealers in your area and find out who glazes sheet pans and bread pans. This is a non-stick glaze that is obvioulsy food safe, but it does wear out and is accelerated by contact with sugar. It's factory applied though, but It's still fairly cheap to do. Last year I paid 2 bucks per sheet pan and 10 bucks per 3-er bread pans. Alot of the HVAC guys use the same service to coat fans and impellors. Worth checking out.
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My chocolate room at work is 8' x 6', but I have a full kitchen with sink, dishwasher, etc. right next door. Within this room I produce 200, 50 gr bars per day, maybe 100 bon-bons per day and a few other items. In this room I have a 6' table, 2 full sized D+R 20 kg melters, one with a wheel, one D+R 10 kg melter, and one D+R vibrating table, aprox 100 molds, and one baker's rack.
Prior to last year I had the marble slab on a cheap s/s 8' prep table--lousy idea, and I had the melters either on this table or another cheap 36" s/s table--another lousy idea. Some of the molds I had in Ikea cupboards above my work space--another lousy idea. I worked this way for almost 5 years and was constantly daydreaming on how to streamline and clean up the place.
During the past 9-12 months this is what I did:
I made a little cart for each D+R melter, each cart has guards on the corners so the melter can't slip off. The carts are enclosed on 3 sides and underneath the melter I have shelving (cannibilized from an old baker's rack) that will accept the 12"x18" "Cafeteria style" plastic trays. I hasten to add each cart has two front swivel castors that lock two ways and two fixed rear castors with no brakes.
I took my marble slab (I'm cheap, it was only 3/4" thick, glued to a piece of 3/4" plywood) to a marble guy and got it chopped down to 6'. Then I constructed my own work table out laminate covered wood. It is 6' long and 30" deep, but the underneath is only 5' 8" long, so on one end I have an "overhang" of about 4 inches of the marble. Underneath the table I made two huge drawers on glides that will accept the largest food grade plastic tubs available which is 18" x 26" and, I think, 12" deep. All of my regular molds go in these tubs, and when I close the drawer, they are out of sight and out of mind. I can take the tubs out of the drawers and hose them out when I need to. The excess piece of marble slab will slide into the baker's rack, and it is on this piece that I pour out my caramel, and also makes a great weight for slabs of Italian nougat that need pressing.
Because I have the 6' table along a 8' wall, I have a empty space along this wall and the corner, and this is my "Docking station". My melter carts are made so the top of the melter is just shy of the underside of my marble slab. So when I wheel in my cart, the marble slab overhangs right into the melter. Not only is my melter now at belly-button height, (no reaching high above the melter anymore) but I can scrape off any drips from the slab directly back into the melter.
I don't endorse having a cupboard right above your workstation, as crumbs, lollipop sticks, colours, etc have opportunity to fall down. I should really take the cupboard down, but haven't yet.
The on/off switch on the vibrator was driving me crazy and the machine is loud, so I can only run in in 30-45 sec blasts. Use your imagination when I tell you the switch was a mite chocolate covered. I got a foot operated switch (this one uses a puff of air from a bulb on the floor) from a woodworker's catalouge and installed it on the vibrator--hands free now!. I also cut an old Sil-pat mat to fit inside the vibrator tray so it's easier to clean--just take the mat out and scrape off the crumbs.
I also used to have the melters swathed in cling film in a feeble effort to keep them clean--lousy idea. Basically the D+R melters are just giant soup warmers, a full sized hotel pan sits in tepid water. When crumbs drop in the water it goes skanky very quickly, and if you don't have the melters on carts they are a bear to walk around with and empty into a sink. What I did was cut up another old Sil-pat mat to sit around the edge of the melter--basically behaving like a gasket, but also with a 1" lip around the permiter to catch any drips--think of those rubber baby feeding bibs. I used to wash out those melters every day, now maybe once a week, and the water is crystal clear. Also, with the D+R melters there are 4 threaded studs on the top, two on each long side. These are supposed to be for clips to screw down and keep the hotel pan from floating up, but also for the optional wheel assembly. I cut a 4" wide piece of of plexiglass and drilled holes to accept the threaded studs. This acts like a ledge, and stops spills, but can be removed quickly and scraped down and tossed in the d/washer
On the walls I glued on sheets of laminate (aka arborite), you know the stuff you see on cafeteria table tops. Compared to tiles, the stuff is very cheap, easy to install and provides a hard, smooth surface that allows you to scrape off plashes and sanitize very easy.
I'll try and post some pics, but I've been having trouble posting on this site
I st
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I'm amused by accounts of how "difficult" it was for girls and women of other times to cook on hearth stoves and woodstoves. Difficult for them, or for us?
Difficult, in the fact that firewood had to be fetched, kindling had to be ready, and a fire had to be built using the embers of an existing fire. Of course, that is assumed that there is sufficient firewood split and cut to stove lengths nearby, and the wood being sufficiently dry.
Jewish law forbids cooking and baking on the sabbath, why? Becasue in order to bake in oven, ca -100 bc, the oven has to be hot. How do you get a beehive or stone oven hot? You build a fire in it, let it blaze for a good hour or two until the walls and hearth have absorbed the heat, then remove the remnents of the fire, sweep the hearth free of ash, and finally load the load the oven.
Difficult.
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Waaaay back when, as 1st year apprentice, we had to polish the tin plated copper pots and pans that we used for serving entrees in. Our standard was a paste made of flour, vinegar, salt, and of course, elbow grease. Me, being a few years older than the 15 yr old 1st years, and a "Auslander Kanadier" to boot, figured it was a waste of time. Since we had to work alone from 2-5 pm, I'd fill the big 80qt steam kettle with tepid water and a good splash of vinegar, a handful of salt, and dumped all the service ware in. Pickle brine made a good substitute as well. After a good 20 minute soak, I'd pull them out and wash in clean water. Since we never cooked in the pans (flimsy thin guage stuff) they never got grungy or burnt on with crud, just tarnish. Things went pretty good for a few months until one day the Chef came in during the afternoon, had a peek in the big kettle, and freaked out. I assured him it didn't harm the service ware as I had been doing it for several months. That didn't go over too well....
I visited my Chef a few years after completing my apprenticeship, he was 6 mths away from retirement, and I brought him a big bottle of maple syrup. I had a peek in the 80 qt kettle, the (deleted) (deleted) had instructed the apprentices to polish the copper ware "Nach Kanadische Art" (Canadian style). Apparently he instructed 1st years to do this a few weeks after I completed and left....
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The new 7qt KA is probably the burliest mixer they've ever made. It has a motor and gear box design that's closer to the non-KA hobarts in many ways. It uses electronic speed control like the other KA mixers....
I dunno about that. The n-50 Hobart--well actually ALL Hobarts and clones use a 3 spd gearbox, no electronic speed control. The only commercial mixer I've seen that didn't have a 3 or a 4 speed gear box is the "Bear vario-mixer" which uses a belt and two pulleys that can be adjusted in diameter to allow speed changes while the mixer is running, all the commercial 3 spds have to be shut down before changing gears.
I've got a "Costco special", a 5 qt "professional HD" Kitchen aid at work. Had it for 7 years now, and use it daily for doughs, small bread batches, grinding dried fruit, and the really tough one is Italian nougat, you can hear the motor bog down when the meringue stiffens up, but it has never failed me yet. But I use the mixer especially for panning chocolate covered nuts. The nut pan is basically two large (14" dia) bowls that clip together, one bowl has a shaft welded on to the back and is inserted in the shaft drive of the mixer, the other bowl has a hole cut into the bottom. The two bowls are clipped together, inserted into the mixer, the mixer set on a special tilted stand, run on slow speed, filled 1/4 full with nuts, and layer after layer of chocolate is ladled in. This procedure goes on for hours at end, and several days per week.
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1) it's not ganache that will break the strings, or a 1 mm thick foot of tempered chocolate, it's caramel, nougat, nuts, and chunks of couverture or any frozen chunks that eventually break the strings. Usually the strings weaken and fatigue with excessive rubbing against the cutting base. Of course if tension is very high, the strings will snap. Some people use a musical pitch to "tune" the tension on the strings. I dunno, I'm about as musically inclined as a sledgehammer and go by touch rather than pitch.
2) most, if not all firm ganache recipies will work. I've cut pate de fruit with the guitar no problems
3) Place the slab where ever you like, I've done lozenge (diamond) shapes and rectangles.
4) Cleaning is a (deleted) Some places will allow the ganache to dry on the strings, then rub a towel over the strings and let the crumbs fall off. The dedy is, I believe, made to be taken apart and the base is able to go in the d/washer and so can be sanitized
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Ummm.... Why not use the dishwasher?
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My way of thinking about food is, "everything in moderation".
After 30 odd years of professional cooking, I'm trying to grasp the concept of eating without enjoyment; enjoyment in the procurement of ingredients, in the cooking, and in the eating.
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Got the same mold--only mine is about 12" tall.
I do, however have a giant Santa mold, 22" high. Usually make about 4 or 5 of them for charity auctions and freebies.
Firstly, does the mold have an open bottom?
If it doesn't, get thee to a belt sander, or a bandsaw, and shave or cut down the mold so you have an open bottom.
Pipe in the details. I never bother with a brush, just a cornet with different colours of couverture
Brush the mold with a layer of couverture. This "locks in" your details so they don't flick off or drop off when you ladle in the couverture. It also allows you to see any bubbles and get them before they harden. I like to use a silicone bbq brush, perfect tool for this, really.
Now here you gotta act quick. Couverture shrinks as it dries. The mold has an enormous surface area. Once you brush on your first layer of courverture it will start to harden and shrink. If you allow the first layer to shrink conpletely, when you ladle in more couverture, it will creep in behind your brushed in layer. If it is the same couverture you will only get a slightly raised surface, if it is a different colour, it looks like he77.
Put your mold together. My Santa has a raised edge and didn't come with clips. I just wrap the two sides tightly together with masking tape, looks like an S & M /bondage shot..... I suggest the same even if you can clip your squirrel together, since you will be holding the mold close to your chest, the clips might flick off or fall off.
Ladle in couverture to about 1/2 full, swirl around and dump out. Scrape that bottom clean, if any couverture creeps around the edge of the bottom it will shrink and make cracks as it pulls .
Very brief visit in the fridge, no more than 5 minutes. If one area cools down too fast it will develop stress cracks. Your squirrel is very smooth and organic, so this isn't big issue. With my Santa I get cracks at sharp junctions like where the legs meet the body or at the neck. I like to lay the mold on a sheet pan and have a fan blow into the cavity. When I do my Santa in the winter I just put it on a trolley and wheel it out into the (unheated)corridor where it is around 12-15 C.
Ladle in a second layer after a few hours.
If you want a base or a closed mold, ladle a puddle of couverture onto a parchment layer sheet pan and set the hardened mold into the puddle.
Hope this helps
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Yes, but you have to factor in the water content in cream (67-ish%) water content in fruit purees, water content in the butter (18-ish %) and any water content in the corn syrup, honey, or other sweetener or invert sugar. Add to the fact that if you use 50% alcohol, 50% is still water, and you have a lot of figuring and balancing to do. One way is to use 100% alcohol, but this doesn't give you a nice flavour (whiskey, eau de vies, coffee, rum, etc)
In his third book Wybauw didn't discuss alcohol much, but went into great detail about balancing formulas using glycerin and all the "Weird-ol's"--- sugars with names ending in "ol".
In the end I gave up, implemented a 3 week shelf life on bon-bons with cream ganaches, and used dried fruit, nuts, and caramels in the wholesale items with 9 mth shelf lives. Life became a lot easier after that....
One caveat about seeking the holy grail of long shelf life with cream based ganaches: Just because you can formulate a long shelf life doesn't mean that the flavours of the ganache won't change over time. They do, and most of them aren't what you started out with.....
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Pure alcohol (99-100%) does. The 40 and 50% booze doesn't do diddly squat to increase shelf life. D.A.M.H.I.K.T. .....
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Dried fruit (i.e. dried cherries, figs, cranberries, raisins etc) typically have a moisture content of under 12%. They are shelf stable for at least two years.
The garnish you describe should not go mouldy, but might dry out. You can combat this by lightly brushing the fruit garnish with gum Arabic or cocoa butter.
However, if you think a food processor is adequate to chop or puree dried fruit, you will need a food processor with a turbo-charged 10 HP motor and a blade made of re-purposed Samuri swords forged by mythical smiths.....
I use a meat grinder.....
Article: Finding The Source Of Poor Reviews
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Yeah, the article does seem to be a bit "mysterious", but that said, it does have a lot of valid points. When dining out, I see a lot of tables just staring at their "devices", don't know if this affects service or not.
I will agree with the observation that a lot of the server's time is spent with the (deleted) Wi-Fi code. While I don't own any "devices", my 16 yr old does. Every time we go out, the first thing he asks is for the (deleted) wi-fi code--drinks, food, it can all wait. And then he just stares at his device and laughs occasionally.
I haven't bothered with installing wi-fi in my place, I'm surrounded by indie cafes (and McD's AND two Stah-bucks) that offer that free, or give the code with the purchase of a beverage. Some customers come in and the first question they ask me is if there's free wi-fi, when I tell them no, the look they give is one of me refusing medical treatment to a terminally ill patient. Meh, whatever.....
With pictures, I find things a bit different. One the one hand, whatever you buy is yours and you can take as many pictures as you want of it. Getting out of your seat, sticking your butt into the aisle, kneeling on the chair, or other antics to get a good shot are frowned upon, so is using a flash. Where I get really p.o'd is with customers taking pictures of other customer's food, boldly asking other customers if they mind taking a picture, taking pictures of the staff without asking, and taking pictures of the café itself--décor, features, chocolate displays, etc.
With all that being said, I don't find things being any different from 2004, other than this simple fact: 99.9% of people today have a device that they carry constantly, and the majority are addicted to it's features . I'm quite proud of the fact that I'm one of the .01% ers