jk1002

Did anybody look into work-balancing by not having for example a cocktail menue on the table with the hope of stearing customer towards simpler drinks when it is busy? I would think similar to what goes on with menu design and steering customers towards high profit items a bar operator could employ certain tactics to influence how and what the customer order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh_wJnQmETE The other site .... Now not all ducks are raised like that and that is where I sort of agree with Miss Winslet

They do promote it, that doesn't mean though that people who work there endorse it neither that it is a safe environment for kids. It is really busy and people push through with their small powered vehicles and scooters and even though they seem to be able to stop on a dime i amnreally surprised that nothing happened yet.

I saw the cookingissue post. That doesn't go into the safety concerns though and I know for sure they have better fish then what I pick up at my local wholefoods. Question is, what risk remains assuming they had it frozen properly before selling it and they stored it like they should. The Keller book doesn't comfort me much since as the FCI he has access to excellent fish. Cheers JK

I did different types of salmon as well as chilian sea bass at 60.5c timed to hit pasteurization. The wild coho tonight came out horrible dry. The seas bass was ok, other types of salmonnas well. I googled sushi grade and it seems that the term is not really defined by the fda. It also seems that if the fish was previously frozen that this wouod kill off possible parasites. So what is the actual risk if i lets say do a salmon at 50c? I know pasteurization is not really an option at these low temps since i would be in the danger zone too long. From a safety prospective, assuming i dont want to go aove 55 and pasteurize are there different levels of time and temperature that lead to higher safety? Or can i do whatever I like if i stray from pasteurization. I noted that Keller is all over the place in his recipes but he is staying far away from pasteurization.

I actually would ebay them, ice cube trays are actually somewhat rare these days since many fridges come with a ice maker. You will have a hard time finding them in a dept store. Whse77c is where i bought mine from on ebAy. He has some right now, 1 1/4 inch diameter, is just that the plastic breaks easily when they are cold so be careful.

http://www.amazon.com/Noma-Time-Place-Nordic-Cuisine/dp/0714859036 It's coming end of September.

I got some that looked like these off ebay (new). Unfortunately the plastic broke cause I wasn't carefull enough getting the ice out.

Throwing in a foreign view, back in my home Germany we do not have a school lunch program as a general rule. Some schools may, but these are typical exceptions. We used to have brown bagged sandwiches. Looking at what they eat in Huntington I don't think it would be much worse.

I am not sure if making home edu part of the curriculum will help in that age. That said, having lived in NYC and now Boston I see tons of young people shopping at wholefoods and trader Joe, this is clearly income driven though. Unprocessed food is just much more expensive compared to processed and fast food. I just looked at jamies stir fry recipe, I didn't see any vegetables in it. That is often the expensive part unless you switch to frozen, which he seems to do in his show. That said, that the whole foods trend catches on and even walmart starts offering organics, that is big to me. That you see somewhat healthy fast food chains flourishing as well. It just hasn't reached the entire US yet and something has to be done about cost that it reaches lower income families as well.

I think the smoke pipe is only good for things that take on flavor quick , it is to be used as a finishing step rather then a cooking method.

I have a circulating vent microwave combination ... It doesn't do much when it comes to preventing grease ... I have an open cookware shelf on the wall, about 3 feet away and within 2 or 3 days of cooking I can see the grease on my cookware ..... I strongly agree that a kitchen integrated into the living area is a lot of fun to work in .....

I have never tried but was always wondering what liquid smoke would do here.

I have my kitchen in my living room and yes I do spend much more time in it. The big but is, smell and fat settles everywhere. Curry and Duck sometimes smells even after days. Did you consider extending the kitchen into the dining room? I.e. you could create a prep area and just use the kitchen for active cooking.

I can see that. I did flank steak twice at 55c and it was awesome. Like you did I would advise for a bit longer then 24 hours, the first one I did was incredible, the second one had a tiny bit of toughness left. I would probably do 26 or more hours next time just to be sure.

I bought the Iwatani as well. I am using it to finish off fish. Williams Sonoma is selling a black version of it with their own branding on the box for 60 bucks. The good thing about that is, they do carry the original Iwatani Gas bottles for 8 bucks. I picked mine up there realizing they are probably cheaper elsewhere but for convenience I didn't care. JK

For a quick sauce, I sometimes take a little demi glace and mix it with port wine or madeira, little cream done. Not making demi glace from scratch but using "More then Gourmet".

While I think they project him like an idiot, I mean the crying was over the top I do believe he has honest motives. That just seems to be his thing, the "15" restaurants run as a charity and even if he makes money from this let it be. He is using his status well in my opinion. Compare him to Rachel or Martha. And lets not get started with Alice Waters who has the same message yet doesn't manage to get onto major television.

@ emonster The fat in wagyu melts like butter. It will actually melt based on your body temperature so that is why I didn't SV mine. There is another thread around here how to prep it. That said, I had both the japanese (with noseprint of the cattle) and the american. The american I did pan sear because the marbling wasn't that crazy and I was sort of unprepared. The japanese, well see below: I guess I would make the call upon seeing what you get in the mail. I did salmon over the weekend. I had farmed and wild. Huge difference in texture, farmed was mushy and soft, the wild one was nice and firm yet moist. Both were done at 60.5 for a 70 minutes. P.s. For those interested, I got Jose Garces Latin Evolution. He has a few Sous Vide Recipes in there.

I thought about it but stopped. I had a somewhat thin slice, maybe half inch american wagyu strip steak. I felt if I SV it and then sear it for a nice crust I would loose too much fat. If you have a different shape, maybe more cube like or a thicker cut I would give it a whirl.

In one of the Keller books he is sprinkling corn starch over the potato slices for pommes maxim so that they hold better. You could give that a whirl for your beats ...

<<Kudos to Eater for picking up on "TAILOR MADE BAD FOOD" out of all the insightful and interesting stuff in this thread. << They are hovering for news, it's becoming ridiculous what is going on with that site. The big white elephant in the room starts to smell I guess .....

You use a lab type circulator - expensive - or a product like fresh meals solution PID controller or sous vide supreme.

I am pasteurizing my fish too. I buy some at whole foods and it is very visible that it is not always super fresh. Texture is great, no smell, and cooking times are very doable.

I think also it is important that it is not just about penetration, marinades sometimes contain an acid component that helps tenderizing the protein. I think the benefit of using bags and vacuum is that you will need much less marinade then if you float the protein in a container.