OliverB

I'd say depends on what you want to do as well. If you want nice potato pieces, I'd cook first, actually I'd steam or pressure cook them (best) and then cut them once they're cooled off a bit. For mashed I cut them into even size pieces though but I never cook them cut into small pieces. It might be interesting to see how that works with steaming or the pressure cooker and a steamer insert though.

maybe I'll try it sometime. Just seems fun in an odd way. I'd probably just leave the whole thing in the oven at other times, I don't use it all that much. If in the way for something, pull out that tray and set it somewhere for the time being, then back in the oven. I generally leave my pizza stone in there as well.

good info, just getting back to this thread. I'll try the cast iron pan I think. I also have a recipe somewhere to bake bread in a dutch oven in my Big Green Egg, at the Eggfest somebody made that and it was really good. Have to try that when it gets a bit warmer outside.

don't you need a "mother" to make vinegar? That slimy thing? I guess you can get some going by just leaving a bottle open and having some luck, but adding a tsp of vinegar, does that work? I tried turning a bottle we didn't like into vinegar, after weeks of nothing happening I threw it out, but I'll try again once I have some vinegar with a mother in it.

The Splendid Table is great, focuses on Emilia Romagna.

youtube! I just searched for "blow sugar" and found a lot of videos, I'm sure there are more with other search terms. It's becoming an invaluable source, you can have Thomas Keller show you stuff, Ramsey, etc etc etc and random people with home video. I learned a lot of great techniques there, not only for the kitchen by the way, art, home repair, and so on and so on.

fresh is really easy to use, but it might also be interesting to try what they sell as wasabi paste. Real wasabi is crazy expensive and hard to grow, what you usually find is horseradish with green food coloring. That might add to the fun of the dish (or not) and it's certainly hot stuff. Just and idea that came to mind.

some awesome stuff here! Love that beet broth with the heart shaped veg, what a great idea for V-day! And I love beets, I'm convinced that most (if not all) people that "don't like beets" just never had good ones. Don't have time to look for images right now and I made a lot of good stuff (never once the same though), but a highlight was my first experiment with planking salmon on the grill. Best salmon I've ever had, ever. And so simple. Can't even remember what we had with it, the fish was so good. Two other discoveries that are high up there: "board dressing" from scruffed and charred (or the other way round), basically herbs and chopped garlic, rough sea salt, pepper, olive oil. Mixed and crushed right on the cutting board that then will receive your steak. The bomb! And herb salad, a salad made only of herbs. Parsley, cilantro, green onion, mint, (add/replace/adjust) and a simple dressing. So super flavorful with anything off the 'cue!

some (!) grinders you can also take apart, but be warned, some you can't, and some you can take apart but never put back together again. If cheap, throw out and replace, if expensive try Andie's recipe if they don't easily come apart. Never heard of pepper going bad, but I guess mold could e an issue, but should also be easy to identify by nose. I have some peppers that are many years old (yeah yeah, I know, throw out what's not used once a year....) and they all taste fine. Probably less strong than when new, but I honestly can't tell the difference w/o comparing directly and since I'm not made of money, they stay until used up :-D

I use the stock separator too, but I have a lot of stock. The cold worked great though, just lifted off a nice layer of wonderful fat. I'll simmer it a bit later, remove the last liquid, then I'll freeze it and cut it into smaller blocks to keep. Worth the experiment.

oh, roasted chicken wing stock sounds too good! Soon to be made here :-) I'll skim or scrape off the fat of my pot now, had it outside over night, bungee cord and packing tape to keep it safe from critters. 45 degree, should have solidified nicely... I'll keep it in the freezer.

generally recipes call for it to be skimmed (or scraped if cold) off and discarded. But why? Can't this be kept, used somehow? Skim/scrape off, warm until all liquid is gone, strain and freeze? The beef fat could be great to brown some SV steak, chicken fat can be great for many things, pork fat is already heavenly by name. Why only keep duck fat after roasting? I'm gonna keep the fat from the beef bones I'm currently turning into pressure cooker stock and play with it. What do you do?

I think the salt later for water is just because salted water has a higher boiling point. But as suggested above, at home a minute more or less hardly makes a difference. Never heard about the pitting, can't imagine simple table salt would do that to stainless? My pots are close to 17 years old and I see no evidence of anything in them. I'd not be overly concerned there.

no mayo in this one, but thanks! I think it might have been something with the taters, either coming out of the dirty ground or being part of the nightshade plant family.

save some more now and get the real thing, what ever else you buy you will most likely burn out with heavy use, long before you'd kill a Vitamix. A couple years down the road, the Vitamix will probably start making money for you, since you don't need to replace it. That's what I'd do, until then I'd make do with what I have or get cheap things at the thrift store.

I use a recipe from an old Bavarian book to make my salad, it says to not keep it over night, as it's "dangerous" to do so. But it doesn't say why and I've kept it with no ill effect for a day or three. But I'm curious, is this an old wives tale? An old pre refrigeration thing? Is there some toxin developing? I have some left over from the 24th and plan to eat that just fine, but... Any idea why this might be - or hopefully have been - an issue?

Fridge and use it up soon I think. I've never made it, but if I recall correctly from the FL book, it doesn't keep well? Freezer just seems out from considering the color veggies and leaves turn? Or try both for future reference. I doubt you can dry it, or we'd be able to buy it....? And yes, what did you do with it?

don't they turn out much too fatty SV? In the pan or on the cue they loose a lot of fat while cooking, which seems to be part of the idea, I'd be concerned that I get something way too greasy SV? I might try it now though, this makes me curious.

I'm mostly concerned about cold or even warm/hot water hitting the glass window. I seem to recall a thread here where that blew the window out which costs a lot to replace. Maybe not? I might be wrong. Interesting ideas here! I never liked baking much, but lately I had fun with the cookies and am considering some bread or maybe even a cake :-)

good ideas, I'll stick to the pan and ice idea I think.

that's a good idea with the grill pan! I think I rather try that than the super soaker.

I just got Keller's Bouchon Bakery book and in the bread section he suggest to put a tray with rocks and a fat chain on the bottom of the oven, then when you put your dough on the backing stone he appears to suggest using a super soaker or something like that to add a lot of water and slam the door shut. Now, that idea certainly can work, but isn't that really dangerous? Seems he has a glass door on the oven (like mine) though it's not quite clear to see. Get some cold water on that super heated glass and you will have a great big expensive and potentially quite dangerous mess, no? Same with the baking stone, if you don't aim well and get water on that, won't it shatter? Has anybody here tried this method? I kind of like the medieval look of rocks and chains in there, but I don't want to risk oven or burns either.....

while I'm not sure how cooking safe the plastic is, I'd think it'll be just fine since you won't have it swim for all that long. The plastic sure won't melt at that low temp. Maybe also consider a waterfilled pot in the oven, door cranked open a bit. If you have a thermometer handy you could experiment what oven temp/door crack would work out. I've never worked with a whole one, would the veins be an issue? They might not be easy to remove after cooking. You can also unpack and devein and season, then put it in a big ziplock bag and sink that into wather to get the air out. Poor man's vacuum :-) That's probably what I'd do.

I'd also use a hack saw or battery powered saw (that's only used for this purpose, not cutting that crusty pipe yesterday). If you have a cleaver you don't care too much about, you could also position it and use a hammer, but I'd just go with the saw. If you want really nice pieces (for xmas for example) maybe see if a local butcher would cut it for you on their band saw? That's really the only tool I know that will do a great job that's very even. They might even do it for free, for a tip, or not at all of course. Worth a try though.

you'll be just fine, MC@H is overreacting IMO. You're not supposed to pull a vacuum like crazy, you're supposed to remove air so the bag does not float and the heat can get in there evenly. You're not removing air to remove oxygen (no household vac machine does that), you want the food in the bag to have direct contact with the hot water. Water transmits heat a lot better than air (or you could sv in the oven) and that's what you want. If there's so much air that it floats, try again with a new bag. Squeeze out as much air as you can and squeeze some more while the machine runs. You'll be fine. For most things the water displacement in a ziplock bag is perfectly fine. If your bag floats up a bit, put something on it, a fork, spoon, nut cracker, what ever is handy. It's not about the perfect vacuum (which doesn't exist) and the complete absence of oxygen. I have not read much in my MC@H, but I'm surprised they say that. Every other SV book I have lets you go with the ziplock bag for most, food saver or similar for everything else. Not a single one of the home machines pulls anything close to a strong vacuum by the way, you don't get that with a butcher shop/restaurant machine either. If I recall correctly from 30+ years ago, a complete vac is impossible to achieve? Anyway, you'd just squish everything to a mush if you could get it :-) Get a different machine eventually, maybe use the water displacement together with the machine, make a longer bag, submerge the food, attach to machine and run, even a crappy machine should suck out enough air, since most should be gone from the little nooks and crannies of the food that way. Just don't drop the machine into the water.