Dave the Cook

Given the way Silpat words their instructions, I imagine they're less worried about product liability than trying to ensure long-term customer satisfaction across an array of customer types, including commercial kitchens, where conditions can be a lot rougher than in homes. Still, I've seen a lot of Silpat pieces in regular use in restaurant kitchens. It wouldn't surprise me if my Silpat eventually deteriorated after years of automatic dishwashing -- and being rolled up inside a paper towel core. I wouldn't complain to Silpat, but if I did they'd just say, "Dude, we told you not to do that." They'd be right. And I'd buy another one and "mistreat" it, too. But enough about Silpats. How do people treat their PTFE (aka Teflon) cookware? The only reason not to put it in the dishwasher is aesthetic: the anodized aluminum that usually comprises the body of the pan starts to look chalky and etched. The part you cook on -- the non-stick coating -- couldn't care less.

Maybe I'm missing something. You're weighing after mixing?

No tare function on your scale?

You left out the acid.

Peeps who love All-Clad will love this special offer: 4-Qt Deep Sauté Pan with Splatter Screen and Lid. Decent price for A-C, and an imporvement on their usual saute design, which I think is too shallow.

The easiest and perhaps most informative thing to do is start at this very topic from the beginning (here's a link to take you to the start: click! Then post a plan here. We've got plenty of bacon experience, and we'll be happy to help (or second-guess, as the case may be)!

I think tea strainers are too fine; they do admit some bubbles, but they also kill off a significant proportion of the aerated population. I'm thinking in the neighborhood of maybe 50 per inch (20 per cm), though that's a very rough estimate. I want to exclude raspberry detritus, citrus pulp and the like, but nothing much smaller.

Tonight I was at a friend's place. She had some great-looking raspberries, and when I see raspberries one of the things I think about is making a Clover Club. Of course the drupes get smashed to smithereens in the shaking, so one must double strain (meaning, in the case of cocktails, the usual strain our of the shaker through a secondary apparatus). In an appropriate size, all she had was a very fine-mesh strainer -- so fine that by the time the drink had been dispensed into glasses, half the work the egg white had expended was for naught; most of it was consumed or retained by the strainer. At home, I have a mediumish two-inch strainer that does a great job at this particular task (it also excels at refining sauces, holding back the garlic mince and herbage, but allowing finer body-building particles through). Unfotunately, being constructed of black plastic, it's on the homely side. Which brings me to my dilemma. I'm assembling a gift package comprising a set of essential bar tools. A medium-mesh strainer is one of those, but since the rest of the set is glass or stainless steel, the black plastic seems insubstantial and, well, an ugly duckling. But all I see in stainless in the proper size (say, 2-1/2 to 4 inches; 60 to 100 mm) are extremely fine-mesh. Say buh-bye to pretty egg drinks. Anyone know where I can find a small, medium-mesh stainless-steel strainer?

We're giving Society members a pair of presents! First, everyone (except Society volunteers) takes a long weekend off. Second, when you come back from your vacation (which we assume will be filled with grilling, barbecuing, braising, drinking and getting reacquainted with the loved ones who suffer because of your addiction to eG Forums), you'll find brand-new digs. The reason: on Thursday 3 September we'll be taking eG Forums offline for a major software upgrade. We hope to be back up and running at some point over the US Labor Day weekend. The upgraded software offers a variety of new features and enhancements, many of which are designed to give you better access to our content.

Hi, Anthony! Welcome. Can you tell us about your pork? Supermarket pork (no shame there whatsoever) or something from a more exotic source? The difference usually manifests itself in marbling, and that matters when giving cooking advice.

I'm not sure about specific seasonings, but the easiest way to introduce a meaty flavor is to add glutamate. the chemical associated with umami. Lots of things are glutamate-heavy: tomatoes, aged cheeses (especially Parmagiano-Reggiano), mushrooms. Any of those are likely to throw off the flavors of what you're trying to do, but glutamate is available almost unadulterated in the form of Ac'cent seasoning. I don't know if it's distributed in Australia.

I agree that Mount Gay Eclipse and Bacardi 8 are great gateway dark rums. The flavor is authentic enough to let you know what the category is like, but they still play well with many others.

More congratulations to Steve, who has just been named one of Bon Appetit magazine's "Hot 10" culinary figures for 2009: Full article here.

You're probably already planning on this: at the start of the class, go around the room, starting with the instructor (who breaks the ice with a bit of self-deprecation) and have everyone explain why they're there. This does two things that might be obvious but are nevertheless very helpful. First, it relaxes everyone because even though it's very grade-school (or AMA, take your pick) in concept, everyone is equally embarrassed, and at the end, no one is a complete stranger. Second, it addresses Mistake #1 by creating a sense of community that includes the instructor while asserting his or her role and by replacing preconceptions on the part of all parties with actual facts. This has the further benefit of allowing the instructor to steer the class according to what's revealed.

I've not been to any of these places, but my brother, who lives in Denver and is not entirely unreliable on food matters, recommends: Garbanzo for Mediterranean fast food (he compares it to the Chipotle chain); Jerusalem for cheap (the place is not very clean and the service can be iffy, but the food is usually very good); and Sahara for the closest thing to upscale dining (without actually being upscale) in the category. Do let us know what you find!

A 17/35mm lens (roughly equivalent to a 50/105 lens on a film camera) is perfectly usable for food photography.

Photoshop Elements (and a number of other programs) can adjust for exposure. You can manipulate many things -- color balance, white and black points, even depth of field -- but you can't make an out-of-focus photo appear to be in focus. Concentrate on getting a sharp picture with maximum information (RAW is best). If the subject of the photo is blurry to start with, you're stuck.

Manual focus is difficult with today's progressive eyeglass lenses and contact lens options. If you make the autofocus system do its job, you'll get what you want within a few seconds. The food isn't moving, after all. Adobe CS (regardless of the application) is an occupation-level endeavor. Elements is a more efficient app to master, and fits within the 90/10 rule.

If the Nikon D-90 is anything like Canon SLRs (and I suspect it is), it has an excellent auto-focus system that is nevertheless easily fooled. This is borne out by your results: the rim of the plate is perfect; the actual food is blurry, and I don't think it's because of motion (though one of those little tripods is an excellent accessory). Auto-focus systems look for bright spots first, and that's how they adjust focus initially. But if you use the pre-focus feature (hold down the shutter button halfway), you can get the camera to zero in on what you want. Just watch the highlights in the viewfinder to see what the system is focusing on (this is especially important when using aperture-priority mode). When you invoke pre-focus, you'll see what's in the focused field. Just keep caressing the shutter button until the displayed choices align with your desired composition. If you can't get the camera to concentrate on what you want, make it focus on something far away. Then return to the food, zoomed in as close as you can, while holding that shutter button halfway. Once you've got the focus scenario you want, shoot. When you have a nice sharp photo, cropping is less nerve-wracking.

My own visit is not the only data point I'm using. There are posts on this topic (here, here, here and here) that support my view, as well as conversations I've had with people who have eaten at Eleven Madison Park. As I've said more than once, I think EMP is an excellent restaurant, regardless of how many stars it has. But I also think that Bruni didn't make the case for four.

← Saying so (which is all those quotes do) doesn't make it so. I just re-read the review. It's 1200+ words, only half of which Bruni uses to actually talk about the food.

I'd be curious to hear about those extraordinary Atlanta restaurants no one has heard of. But in any case, whatever you may think of EMP, it is still just one of six four-star restaurants. One review, even an erroneous one, isn't the End of the World. This isn't the place to discuss Atlanta restaurants, and you missed my point, anyway. My experience at EMP was very good. It wasn't extraordinary. So either EMP has improved vastly (a possibility I'll grant, but one that's not supported by Bruni's review) or the bar has been lowered quite a bit.

Of course, congratulations to Chef Humm and Mr. Meyer. Eleven Madison Park is an excellent venue. And, well, condolences to New York. If Eleven Madison Park (a restaurant I liked very much) is really worthy of four stars -- "extraordinary," in the words of the Times -- there's no point in the rest of the country coming to visit for the very best that the US has to offer in dining. Unless EMP has improved dramatically in the last 18 months (a case that Bruni doesn't make to my satisfaction), I can get the same level of food and service at more than one place right here in Atlanta. Bruni also fails to explain how EMP is the equal of Jean-Georges or even the late Alain Ducasse (which, if I recall correctly, got only three stars), let alone Per Se. I've been to the former two, both of which exceeded EMP in every measure (including, of course, price, but that's not supposed to be the point).

I fall in between on the Art of Choke. I wouldn't decline one, but neither would I buy a bottle of Cynar just to make it.

Here's a traditional (almost; there's one classic French technique involved) chile-and-beef recipe designed specifically for chili dogs: 1 pound ground chuck 6 ounces beer (an IPA works well) 1 T tomato paste 1 medium onion, chopped 3 medium garlic cloves, minced (or pressed a la minute) 1-1/2 ounces dried ancho chiles (or California, New Mexico, chipotle, etc, or a mixture to taste) 1 T cumin seed 1-1/2 t dried oregano 1 t salt 1/2 t black peppercorns 2 C stock vegetable oil Toast the cumin and pepper in a 3-quart Dutch oven or saute pan over medium-low heat until they're aromatic. Set aside to cool. Pour the stock into a blender jar. Tear the stems off the chiles and pour out the seeds. Add 1/8 inch of oil to the skillet and turn the heat up to medium. Working in batches if necessary, toast the chiles and, as they're done, drop them into the blender jar to rehydrate. Drain off most of the oil, leaving a thin film in the pan. Add the ground beef to the pan. Chop the beef as you cook, then cook until the beef has lost its pink color. Remove the beef to a strainer or paper towels. While the beef is cooking, grind the cumin and pepper. Allow the chiles to steep for at least 15 minutes. Then add the cumin, pepper, oregano, half the salt, garlic and stock to the blender. Blend until you have a smooth puree. If necessary, drain more fat from pan, again leaving a thin film. Saute the onion, seasoning with the remaining salt, until the onion starts to brown. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the tomato paste to the onions, stirring to distribute it. It will stick to the bottom of the pan (that's the point). Be brave, but don't let it burn. Deglaze with the beer and reduce to a syrup. Add the sauce and the beef, stirring to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cook for another 15 to 30 minutes, until the chili tightens up enough for bunnage.