Dave the Cook

I realize that this is all over the internet, but that doesn't make it correct. Most of it seems to be the result of one person copying another copying another copying another -- the web version of a game of Telephone. The chuck-eye steak is fabricated from the chuck-eye roll (NAMP 116D), which is fabricated from the chuck roll (NAMP 116A), which is fabricated from the shoulder clod (NAMP 114), which is fabricated from the square-cut chuck (NAMP 113) (These are North American designations.) There are two square-cut chucks per steer, hence two clods, etc. Each of the two rolls on a steer can be cut into several steaks. Fabrication instructions can be found here.

I'm not sure if this is what you meant to say, but there are more than two chuck-eye steaks per steer. Depending on how thick you cut them, you can get at least three out of a chuck-eye roll. With two chucks (shoulders) on a steer, that's a minimum of six steaks each. There's an excellent photo of the chuck roll here (scroll down a little).

Three "yea" votes: I will order tots over fries almost every time they're offered. It's hard to screw up a tot. Likewise, i prefer Arby's potato cakes (do they still make them?) over their curly fries. But alas, a tot is not a fry. I figured Wienerschnitzel and Jollibee for California, or at least west-coast, chains, as I'd never heard of them. Del Taco is mostly west-coast, too, is it not? Though for a while in the (maybe 70s), there was a store in Atlanta. And because the LA Times didn't make it out here, they missed Krystal, the southern version of White Castle. They do a decent fry, served in a truncated drink cup, which does a decent job of avoiding the steaming effect caused by jamming a lot of hot fried potatoes into a waxy bag.

This is a sort-of fun ranking of the fries available at various fast-food outlets. It would be odd if I agreed with the entire list, but it does have some integrity. I also note that, in general, it aligns with my understanding of what eG members think about fast-food fries: I've read many times that while Five Guys' burgers are on the high range of acceptability, their fries are outstanding; I've also read that In 'n' Out's burgers are great, but the fries kind of suck. In the course of the article, I did find out a few things, like there's a chain called "Wienerschitzel" that doesn't serve wienerschnitzel. There's a chain called "Jollibee," with a dish called "Chickenjoy." Also, Del Taco serves fries -- and they're pretty good.

I knew I could smoke out a native, if I used the right bait.

I haven't been to NYC in a while, but I noticed recently that Sparks still gets really good notices. Bonus: just a straight shot up 3rd Avenue from Union Square.

Almost any Hispanic or Asian market will have it. It's less reliably found in mainstream US grocery stores, either in the "International"/"Asian"/"Mexican" sections, or wedged in the baking aisle along with other gluten-free flours (which, come to think of it, might be used as substitutes for rice flour in this application).

Thanks, Heidi. I'm just guessing about how it's put together, mind you. The show is what it is, and I don't really care that its genesis might be less than forthright. I learned a couple of things (but then I usually learn a couple of things from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, if it happens to be on when I'm in the room). I don't feel like the time I spent watching the show was wasted, though it's not a show I would normally choose.

This seems like a newish twist on the offers I used to receive (back in my corporate days) for our company to "sponsor" a video production based on our company. They would write the script, interview a few people, and handle the editing. They would also promise that the video would appear on TV (though they were coy about when and on which channel). All we had to do was cough up a few bucks. In the early 90s, the fee was about $10k; by the early 00s, it was up to about $40K, and the promise to get it on air had disappeared. (In the early days, cable channels were starved for content; fast forward a decade, and someone had invented ad-revenue sharing, flooding broadcast schedules with all kinds of already-produced material with at-least marginally profitable results and practically no risk.) Back then, I assumed that the production company pored over a business directory to find leads worth developing, based on the industry and company size/history/perceived budget. The twist here, I suspect, is that: Leads are developed after a chef mentions a restaurant on a show (one of the episodes I saw showed Alton Brown waxing rhapsodic over the fried chicken at some hole-in-the-wall place in maybe Alabama or Arkansas that probably got a previous highlight in his show Feasting on Asphalt) and a Cooking Channel producer follows up; In addition to some sort of remuneration for reading a script, chefs are paid a finder's fee if they provide a successful lead to the Cooking Channel; Cold-calling has been enriched with a "pick your chef-representative" option, and maybe a choice of upgrades, including an in-restaurant appearance. This would explain why most, but not all, of the on-site material comes from NYC restaurants -- it's cheaper to get Alex Guarnaschelli across town for an afternoon than to send Ted Allen on a two-day trip to San Francisco.

Thus showcasing the weakness of a wiki -- in some cases, an obscure source (onegreenplanet.org?) carries as much weight as one of recognized authority (Mrs. Beeton!) "Shepherd" is not gendered in the first place, so calling someone a "shepherdess" is like calling someone a "teacheress." That's not just sexist, it's awkward (and kind of dumb sounding). I suggest "gardener's pie," or "farmer's pie," if it's necessary to have a unique name for it. I'm not convinced it is.

Potatoes labeled just "white" (or "all-purpose," though you don't see this label in consumer locations much anymore) work pretty much the same as gold potatoes -- they're medium in starch, and have pretty thin skins. (Unless you're armed with a double-blind study, please don't tell me that gold potatoes have a buttery taste.)

Over the years, I've watched reruns of Good Eats, partly because I find that I still enjoy the show, and partly because I often picked up something that I missed the first (or second or third) time around, even after I realized that Brown was often just simplifying techniques and information from sources that were less accessible to the typical TV viewer. Almost as often, I'd notice that the show would misstate something, or that its source material had been superseded by more recent findings or technology. So I was actually looking forward to seeing this show, with its promise of corrected and/or updated material, even if it seems to be mostly a promotion for the new show, due out next year. Unfortunately, although some of that happens (along with, yes, several wardrobe/hair/technology snippets), a lot of shortcomings were missed, and a few new errors were introduced: The implication that the flatiron steak was "invented." I suppose that's technically true, but it's not like cattle breeders engineered steers to create a new cut of meat. It was always there. As rancher Coleman says near the beginning of the episode, "There are good steaks all over the cow." Maybe this is nitpicking on my part, but the use of "invented" struck me as peculiar. More time could have been taken to explain cast iron, though the new instructions for seasoning are refreshingly sensible. Still, the implication that cast iron heats evenly is simply wrong. And while I know that a lot of people swear by using nothing but salt and a paper towel to "clean" cast iron, Brown's embrace of the technique runs contrary to his "work clean" ethos. That is to say, if you aren't washing your pans, they remain dirty. He should -- probably does -- know this. He stops the replay to "correct" himself on the definition of "prime rib." This leads to an explanation of grading, which leads to a bit about the cast members who played the "inspectors" in the original episodes. The latter was mildly amusing (as were the inspectors, no matter who played them), but "prime" rib is not called that because of grading. It's called "prime" because of the cut. It was disappointing to have Brown bypass a chance to clarify this point (which confuses many people), just for the sake of entertainment trivia. Brown missed a chance to explain why meat changes color, leaving in place the implication that it has something to do with how the meat is cut, rather than discuss oxidation. The steak Brown cuts into at the end of the episode was obviously cold. What the heck, man. People on eG. for the most part, probably wouldn't benefit from these clarifications, but years of teaching people how to cook has convinced me that many folks would. Alton Brown made his reputation by making food science accessible -- even popular -- and I for one am grateful for that. I'll probably continue to watch the "reloaded" episodes, but I won't be able to completely suppress the notion that I'm a (mostly willing) participant in a cynical exercise.

I haven't personally tested the option, but the recipe in CI's The Best Recipe suggests bread crumbs, crushed saltines (my choice), or oatmeal. Oats are a little bit controversial as a gluten-free food, but the Celiac Disease Foundation says they're okay in reasonable amounts, as long as you're careful about processing-related cross-contamination.

The New York Times doesn't need me to defend them, and I have an all-access subscription, so Cooking isn't costing me anything extra. However -- If all you want is a recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich or a wedge salad, an NYT cooking subscription is probably not a smart investment. Just post a question here in the Cooking forum, if you really can't figure it out. @Anna N asked a similar question yesterday about macaroni and cheese, and in a matter of minutes, she had at least three-and-a-half intelligent answers. On the other hand, if you're looking for a recipe, and all you can remember is it was by Pierre Franey, using chicken breasts, about five seconds in the NYT recipe archives will yield more than 60 possibilities. Among major US newspapers, very few don't charge you for archive searches these days. Rather than carping about what the Times has done, maybe we should be a tiny bit grateful that they've split off their recipes, so you don't have to pay to be able to search parts of the paper you don't care about. Last I checked, a subscription to Cooking cost $40/year. It's not cheap, but aside from the bargains @Toliver tempts us with regularly, it's not much more than the regular price of a cookbook. Having said all that, I think the subscription model is a bad one in this case. I think they'd make more money by instituting a per-recipe fee. You sign up once, give them a credit card number, and agree to pay 50 cents or a buck (or whatever) per recipe, following a reasonable preview. After that, the micropayment could be automatic, or confirmed with a checkbox at each instance.

Hard to believe, and something we should rectify. This is dead-simple (none of that bechamel or emulsifying-salts stuff), and kids like it: 3-Ingredient Mac & Cheese.

So probably not fresh enough?

Per the USDA, the white from a large egg contains less than 1/10 gram of fat. Most of the fat is in the yolk: for a large egg, 4.51 g.

Yes, more or less.

As with many things Cajun, Chef Paul is a good place to start. Edit: @Okanagancook beat me to it. I'd only add that if you're new to Prudhomme, be aware that he is, let's say, assertive in his seasoning. Personally I love it, but some might find it to be a bit much. When I'm cooking for such diners, I start with half the amount of cayenne and black pepper called for, reserving the rest to add later, if desired.

In addition to what everyone else has posted, which has the benefit of being true, this ought to be addressed: This is ignorant, if you really care about salt levels. Regardless of whether you like the end result of the technique or not, brining -- especially equilibrium brining -- is pretty much the only way to precisely control the amount of salt in a finished product.

Oh yeah. They're not as common as whisk attachments, but lots of models come with them: here, here and here, for example. I'm pretty certain that I'd never use them (if I'm making something that requires a dough hook, I'm breaking out the stand mixer), or that whisk, either (if I've picked up the hand mixer, it's because a whisk can't do the job). For sure, I don't want to be paying extra for them.

What do we think about whisks and dough hooks? Ease of storage? Wattage? Number of speeds? Warranty? Parts availability? Reputation?

The handle on our GE hand mixer just cracked, so after 40 or 50 years (this was my mom's hand mixer), we're in the market for a replacement. Anything new in the way of products or advice since the community last (February 2014, I see; btw, @ElsieD: did you ever get a replacement?) visited the issue?

This is exactly what you should do. Please report back, including price, observations as to color/carbonation level,etc., and of course tasting notes.

I haven't worked in a restaurant kitchen or bar in many years; however, I've spent a great deal of time in teaching kitchens (adjuncts to kitchen retailers), all of which have had built-in under-counter ice makers. They've all been broken at one time or another, a few times for weeks while waiting for parts. Admittedly, these machines probably get worked harder than they would be in a typical household, but you'd still expect them to have a better track record than that. I would, anyway. You might want to check out an earlier topic here. I don't think much has changed since then.