dtremit

I've been searching for years for a specific creamy cranberry Jell-O salad that was a favorite of my mother's; sadly the recipe got lost somewhere along the line. I don't think it was an original, probably out of a common cookbook or a pamphlet or something. I have found a few similar ones, and I can probably recreate it from what I remember and some tinkering, but I figure it's worth a shot. What I am sure was in the recipe: Cranberries in some form Mandarin oranges Walnuts (or nuts, generally -- my family tended to put walnuts in anything that called for nuts) What I think was also in it: Sour cream -- definitely some kind of creamy element Lemon Jell-O Celery What was not in it, but is in a lot of similar recipes I've seen: Strawberry Jell-o Pineapple Marshmallows Does this ring a bell for anyone? As gratitude for searching the memory banks, I'll post the (non-creamy) cranberry salad recipe from the other side of my family, which is surprisingly different, but also good. Cranberry Jell-O Salad 1 lb. (4 cups) cranberries 1 juice orange (i.e., a thin-skinned orange for juicing) 2 cups sugar 4 cups water 2 pkgs. (3 oz.) JELL-O Lemon Flavor Gelatin 1 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped walnuts Grind cranberries and unpeeled orange together in food processor (or food grinder if you're retro); add sugar and let stand. Dissolve Jello in hot water; chill until partially set. Mix Jell-o and cranberry mixture with all other ingredients. Pour into serving bowl and let stand until firm. To mold the salad, it's best to reduce the water by 1/2 cup.

Cool, thank you for the data point! I'll give 5 minutes a try. I'd been doing closer to 20 minutes in the CSO as it's similar to how long I keep the lid on a dutch oven. I don't have any problem getting a normal crust out of my loaves, but they're always pretty dark on the bottom by the time they are cooked through. I'd really like to experiment with a deep mahogany crust, but I know that would leave me with carbon on the bottom.

Did you use the "steam" setting in the CSO for this, or "steam bake"? I have tried some par-baking of boules on "steam bake," but even loaves that are too short for sandwich slices seem to burn on top before they're cooked through. I went way longer than 5 minutes, though. Still trying to figure out the best method to get a deep crust color on top without burning the bottom.

Entirely possible -- Tiger does make bread machines in Japan, though they're better known for rice cookers here. I think the current Breville bread machine has folding paddles.

My first bread machine (the Cuisinart CBK-100) actually does have that in the instructions -- and the machine beeps at the appropriate time to remove the paddle. I do miss that feature on the Zo. So maybe someone got your letter!

I'd say that if you are fine with continuing to use your main oven to do most of your baked goods, go with the CSO. The CSO will do great things for roasts -- the steam will let you cook the meat "low and slow" and then sear it up at the end. A CSO roast chicken is a beautiful thing. As @gfweb mentioned, the steam is great for peeling fruits, and it's also fantastic at roasting peppers so the skin slips right off. It is also amazing for heating up leftovers that are otherwise difficult to reheat. The downside of the CSO is its size and (in my opinion) the configuration of the top heating elements which amplifies that issue. Any baked good taller than a sheet cake is likely to get overbrowned on top. For straight up baking, the BSO has better heating elements and shields over them to disperse the heat. I will mention that the toast is a matter of some disagreement -- I find no real difference between CSO and BSO toast, but I am not picky about toast. Finally I will note that a CSO will fit quite nicely on top of a BSO.

What do you want to use it for? I have both (well, my Breville is a slightly smaller model), and IMHO they both do things that the other can't do (well).

Costco appears to be carrying the CSO for $129: https://www.costco.com/cuisinart-combo-steam-and-convection-oven.product.100147110.html They picture the older model without Steam Clean, oddly. Deal good through 12/2.

They have PDFs for most older models here: https://www.zojirushi.com/support/manuals_breadmakers.html

The manual for mine specifically notes that the "preheat off" option doesn't work on the homemade cycle.

@lindagThe Zo dough cycle does include preheat, at least on the older models -- but only to slightly above room temperature, in my experience. Maybe 85F at the most? If it got hot enough to error out and stop, then I suspect something is wrong with the machine. @JoNorvelleWalker -- what cycle did you use? apparently "preheat off" doesn't work for all of them (though again, I don't think it should have gotten more than slightly warm even with the preheat).

Sadly W and P/L values are just not readily available for flours sold to consumers in the US. We are lucky if they even list the protein percentage clearly. So specifying only that would make the book useless here. I'm not a huge fan of MB but I understand why they made that decision. I think part of the issue is that there's so much variation between KAs. You probably would have to make dough out of lead shot to destroy one of the old Hobarts. The newer ones are not built to that standard -- nor are all the modern models built to the same standard. The "pro" models from 15-20 years ago were made with metal gears, but a plastic gear housing; unfortunately in a KA the gear housing is placed under a lot of stress, so most of the plastic models will crack under load. When the housing cracks, the gears start slipping, and chew each other up. They moved back to a metal gear housing for *some* machines around 2010, I think -- so two people with what looks like the same model ("Pro 600") may have vastly different experiences.

I have the older Universal (procured from eBay; there's a lot of good ones out there) -- but the two are very similar in terms of design and function. People sometimes complain about small batches climbing the center column in the plastic bowl on the Universal. That is counteracted somewhat by the scraper on the newer dough hook design, though. Ironically, the Universal that does best with small quantities is the model with the larger, stainless steel bowl. That has a completely different bowl-and-hook arrangement -- there is no center column, and the three-pronged hook faces upward. The smaller, tilt-head Bosch actually gets a lot of good press for small batches. I was specifically looking for large-batch capability so it wasn't on my list.

I think you may be right. When I was making dough in my KitchenAid, there's no way that 10 minutes on low + 2 minutes on speed 2 would have formed any reasonable quantity of gluten in my dough. Does Modernist Bread specifically call for a KA in its timings? Are you letting the dough rest and autolyse between the 8 minute mix and the salt slurry? That might help the gluten form on its own a bit. Rather than increasing the speed, I would let it continue running on speed 2 at the end until you get more structure. Final thing I might try is backing off on the water a bit -- I make another bread around 68% and humidity can really mess with it. Sadly I can vouch for this from personal experience. Granted I have one of the early-aughts "Pro" models with the plastic gear housing. Need to actually take it apart this weekend to start the repair.

I'm really hoping I can use it to "dial in" perfect settings for a stovetop pressure cooker. Being able to brown at high heat and then ignore it like an Instant Pot is a bit of a holy grail.

Oh, brilliant! You're reminding me I have this Kuhn-Rikon "fourth burner" pot that would work similarly. Though I like your mesh basket better.

If making dough exclusively for the freezer, you can always add some extra yeast to compensate for the freezer loss. I think the wrinkle here is splitting a batch between fresh baked and frozen -- they'll both work, but they'll rise differently.

@robirdstx the polenta looks amazing too!

It seems to be "hong you," or red oil doubanjiang. Stealing the description from the Ma La Market website's description:

I’m lucky if I remember the brand of flour in my canister, let alone the batch code. 🤬

Haven’t had much to report lately — lots of work travel and have been cooking non-ovenish things — but I used the CSO on steam to do something I thought impossible: reheat fish. We had some excellent fish (fried slices of tilapia) in chili basil sauce at a local Thai place that I couldn’t bear to toss. On a hunch, I reheated it on steam at 210F for ten minutes, and it was delicious. Not crispy anymore, but still perfectly cooked, not dry, not smelly, and didn’t stink up the kitchen.

I think this may just be "sold by Amazon" vs 3rd party sellers.

It looks like the refurbished one is back in stock as well, though the price has gone up $15 from when I bought mine. Haven't had a bit of trouble with my refurb.

So what you're saying is I can justify buying more Breville appliances because I'll get a replacement smart oven out of the deal. Right? 🤣 (I wish I had more -- everything I do have from them has been great. Got the stick blender last Christmas and it has been a fantastic upgrade.)

It claims that the non-skid bottom is silicone, which has never been a problem for me in the IP. But who knows of what quality. The main issue I see with all of those is the design of their rim -- the wide, flat rim will reduce the usable capacity quite a bit. Not an issue for a smaller bowl, but not ideal for a larger one. I tend to use bowls with straight sides and unadorned edges for IP use. Most are things I've had for ages -- in particular, smaller bowls that came with old Sunbeam Mixmasters work great. For current production stuff, this IKEA bowl works great: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/blanda-blank-serving-bowl-stainless-steel-20057255/ It's only ~2.2qt, but I'd think a taller version rather than a half sphere would be almost ideal.