Dave the Cook

Asparagus is cheap at the moment -- $1.69 here in Atlanta. This doesn't seem unreasonable to me. At no other time of the year could you hold this contest so inexpensively. Besides, Mongo, why anticipate failure so readily?

Kendra Bailey Morris cooks for a living. But behind her professional demeamor lurks an adventurous soul, a life-long student, and a pyromaniac with a purpose. Be sure to check The Daily Gullet home page daily for new articles (most every weekday), hot topics, site announcements, and more.

These days, a session in the self-cleaning oven does the trick. Works for ultra-nasty grill grates, too.

I have zero experience with 100-year patinae, but I have plenty with stripped cast-iron. This is absolutely no problem, Jensen. The oven thing will work, as will many other seasoning techniques, a number of which are listed here. If all else fails, a stripped cast-iron griddle is a great excuse for frying bacon.

A variation on ducphat's low-temp method: poach in 160 F chicken stock to 150 F. For optimum results when cooking in the oven, brine them first, especially when employing the searing option. The point of both these methods is to handle the proteins gently, so they don't seize and squeeze out any more moisture than necessary.

'splain, please.

I can't remember if I read it in Parson's book or somewhere else -- something from Cooks Illustrated, maybe -- but I recall the advice to add a tablespoon of strained bacon fat to fresh oil. My own results have been inconclusive, but it's worth trying.

I'm doing an eGCI unit on deep frying -- it's scheduled for sometime in May. Since you've already started a perfectly titled thread, JennotJenn, maybe you won't mind me hijacking it in order to gather any questions people might have about deep frying. I can't guarantee to answer every question, but knowing what people are looking for in a tutorial will let me target the material much better.

Nice catch, bigwino. I think that's the same one that's on sale at Big Tray for $500 less -- and they'll ship it for free. BTW, I'm pretty sure there's a misprint in the W-S item. The motor is almost certainly 1/6 HP, not 16 (!). Incidentally, horsepower is a much better way of describing the output of a motor than is the wattage/consumption.

. . . or aluminum rather than the expected steel. IIRC, the housing on the Viking is aluminum; that alone would account for a significant weight differential. There's not necessarily anything wrong with design compromises, as long as you know how they affect performance, and you're comfortable with those effects. For instance, if the housing is indeed aluminum, how does the lighter weight and difference in flexibility affect the rigidity of the body? On the KA, the housing is integral to the head of the mixer, and lends overall strength, helping to keep the machine stable. If Viking has a design that doesn't rely on the housing for structure, it can be made out of anything -- including plastic -- that will keep dust and dirt and grime away from the motor, and it might not affect performance or durability at all.

The wattage rating on an electric motor only tells you how much power it consumes, not how much power it puts out. Generally speaking, input and output are related -- a motor that consumes more power can usually be relied upon to actually be more powerful, but it is not always the case. And when it comes to motors that are coupled to gear trains and transmissions (stand mixers have both), a lot of power can be lost through inefficent design. All of this is to say: wattage isn't everything. As for the Viking, I have only second-hand information. I recently visited the kitchen of a chef who had one for evaluation. The motor burned out while mixing a batch of pasta dough. Admittedly, this guy makes really dense dough, but it was a bit surprising to hear that this supposedly powerful machine had died such an unseemly death. Whether or not Viking makes decent ranges is another debate, but knives, cookware, refrigerators and mixers are not their traditonal business. Overall, I've not been impressed with any of their forays away from the range and into the rest of the kitchen. If I were you, I'd keep looking.

My experience is that brined turkeys and chickens cook faster, but YMMV, of course. And no, the difference between four hours and four-and-a-half is not necessarily a big deal, given everything else that's usually going on -- but it is less time. And if memory serves, a whole chicken goes even faster, proportionally speaking. Regardless, I think we can agree that Raynickben doesn't need to allow more time for roasting, which was his concern.

Brining usually makes things cook faster. As a percentage of cooking time it's not very much, but with an item that normally takes hours, there will be a noticeable difference. By "temperature," I assume you mean oven temperature. No adjustments are necessary, especially if this is your first brined bird. Note your results and adjust accordingly. A brined turkey can better withstand high temperatures, a big plus if you're a fan of high-heat roasting.

You've probably figured out that with this shape, thickness matters a lot more than weight. Once the roast is browned, it's going to take around an hour, an hour and a half at the outside, at 250 F. Rather than browning first, I'd consider starting it as low as 200 F. Cook it to an internal temperature of about 115 F (maybe two hours?), let it rest, then crank up the broiler to brown it at the end. You get much better control of the finished product, and much more evenly done (and juicier) meat throughout. Even better, cook it low and slow to 125 or 130 (you'll get less carryover from a low-temp process) and brown it with a torch.

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I don't think so. I often just lay the spears on a sheet pan, drizzle with EVOO, salt and pepper, and run under the broiler. Sitting in the oil has no apparent deleterious effect.

Welcome, BDM. We've discussed pizza stones a bit. If I recall correctly, soapstone is the material of choice. If you've got the bucks, you can have one cut to your dimensions. Here's one source: Vermont Soapstone; I'm sure there are others. There's a pretty good thread here.

Check out these eGCI courses, oatmeal: Pit-roasting a whole pig Smoking And for entertainment and educational value, don't miss: Varmint's Pig Pickin' (the cooking starts about page 30). If you've still got questions after that, there's lots of folks here to help. And please keep us posted.

We're all thrilled to have another member of the congregation, Lily. One pointer: if you're really an Emeril (not to mention a Shrimp 'n' Grits) convert, you need to know the proper pronunciation for the plural form. Not shrimp, not even shrimps, but s'rimps. Because Emeril is overexposed, he's often underrated. But anyone who's cooked from NNOC knows that book rocks, and so does he.

First of all, he's dead-nuts on about the English version of the English breakfast, in my experience. Second, I want to go to Greece and have lamb chops for breakfast. Third, his mention of Brennan's reminded me of one of my favorites, which makes use of the previous night's etouffee (on the rare occasion when there's any left): Mix the rice with a beaten egg and a bit of flour, then press into cakes and griddle in butter. Warm slices of Smithfield ham, and place one on top of each rice "cake". Mount a poached egg, then ladle reheated etouffee sauce over it. Top with the most perfect leftover crawfish tail or shrimp you can retrieve from the gravy.

I'm not familiar with the finished product (although I must say it sounds good), so I'm not sure what to tell you. 300 is peanut brittle temperature -- glassy and hard. 240 is more like what you use for buttercream, I think, and that seems too soft for something with "crunch" in the name, though crunch must also come from the nuts and matzoh. There's too much other stuff in the recipe for me to make an accurate prediction. Here's what I'd do: make small batches, using temperatures ten degrees apart, from 250 to 300, and evaluate. But then, I'm not in a production situation, and maybe you don't have time to do that. If I had to put a stake in the ground, I'd say 255 -- mid-hard ball stage. Good luck and keep us up to date on your progress, please.

OK, I'm not a baker or a candy maker, so I might be off base here. But I wince when I see confectionery instructions like "boil for three minutes." If just water were involved, it might not be so complicated, but when you add sugar to the equation, it's a recipe for frustration. It seems to me that what's being attempted here is to ensure that the sugar reaches a certain temperature. That's because sugar that has been heated and then cooled can exhibit a variety of results, depending on how hot it got. For the author, three minutes does it, and that's a nice round number, so there's no need to be more specific. But the only way to guarantee consistent results is to use a thermometer. Most likely, the three-minute thing works for the person that wrote the recipe. But cooks, stoves, altitude, humidity and moisture content of the sugar are all variable (not to mention: just when is the mixture boiling -- does a simmer count? does it have to roll before you start the timer?), and it might not work for you. The great thing is that this is predictable. Crack open a book of candy recipes, or even a good general-pupose book, and you'll find a table that lists the temperatures and the effects. Here's one on line: Candy Chart

I will never take nutritional or medical advice from Bux.

Thanks, Andrew.

Lately I've been using a Jinmyo "procedure" for tonkatsu sauce: I use ancho for the chile, with a pinch of cayenne. This is great stuff.