dtremit

@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.

Yeah but do you really want a "Kitchen Overlord"?

Believe it or not, the metal citrus squeezer I had snapped in half -- they're often cast from very soft metal. I ended up replacing it with the Chef'n Fresh Force at the recommendation of (I think) an ATK testing. It's got a geared compound action that makes it much easier to use. The handles are plastic, but the piece that presses against the citrus is metal.

Late to this thread, but it is encouraging to see that your Duo was holding the slow cooking temperature it was supposed to, per the IP website: Obviously "low" is hotter than you wanted, but it's good to see it's at least doing what it's supposed to.

The Tovala has been discussed on eGullet before -- there's a thread here: The Sharp is I think intended as a pizza oven -- it's low and wide. Much shorter than the CSO, which really limits its use. The Emerson is more interesting -- I'm guessing they're just rebranding something from China, as it appears identical to the rather generic-looking "AUG" I noticed before I bought the Cuisinart. Way cheaper, though -- $229 versus $385 -- and from a brand that actually exists. Both of those are points in its favor. (Edited to add: apologies for the giant animated gif, I can't figure out how to remove it...)

I do wonder if leaving the door open one stop would create crunchier toast for those who prefer it that way?

Is there actually a form of "toasted cheese" that is made in toasters (or toaster ovens)? I have always seen that describe something made in a skillet. (I'm actually curious here -- every item that combines toasting and cheese needs to be in my life.) But yes, get the CSO! I rather like the toast from it.

Was yours still in warranty, or out of warranty? If the latter that's a great deal for the upgrade. My dials are starting to act up in much the same way...

The risk for soda glass Pyrex is pretty specific -- rapid cooling of a hot pan. As I understand it, you're more at risk taking it *out* of the oven than putting it in. I always try to put hot pyrex on a dry, insulated surface (like a cork trivet) when it first comes out of the oven to avoid any issues. I'll probably buy borosilicate going forward (there's lots available to buy), but I have a lot of Pyrex already, and this has always served me well.

To get a crispy crust on steam bake, I think you'd want to use a pan, rather than the rack. I've noticed that things flat against a pan tend to brown much more than exposed surfaces. A little counterintuitive relative to standard ovens.

Really depends on the type of bread, for me. Most white flour, yeast-raised breads have pretty short staying power, with an edge to the enriched ones. But I find a lot of sourdough (particularly with whole grains) actually tastes better after resting a day. I’m told that tangzhong helps a lot with keeping sandwich style loaves nice for longer, but I’ve only really used it in breads designed for it, so I can’t really compare.

Delayed photos of latest experiment. Decided to split my usual dough in half. I mixed the dough, autolysed, mixed in the salt, then divided. This half was machine kneaded, and baked in a Lodge combo cooker. Other one is resting in the fridge; I'm going to leave it for a few days and then try baking it off the same way. I noticed recently that I was really pleased with the flavor of my bread after a few days' dough rest, and if I can reduce the kneading at the same time, all the better.

I wonder if that mix uses a "devitalized sour"? I noticed those on the Lesaffre site recently when trying to figure out the difference between the different SAF yeasts 🤣

It's never going to be faster than a microwave for those very quick tasks -- but it's also not as hard on the food being reheated in a lot of cases. Maybe it's just me, but I rarely find myself just reheating food, and often if I put the thing that would most benefit from gentle heat in the oven when I begin cooking, it's done before I'm ready for it anyway. And of course, you can use it at the same time as the microwave. Also, for reheating, putting the food in at the beginning of the preheat can save quite a bit of time. That's actually a Breville feature I wish the CSO had -- the former has a "reheat" function that starts counting from the beginning of the preheat cycle rather than from when the oven hits temperature.

This is not exactly the same preparation, but I have made these pocket-stuffed chicken breasts a few times, and they come out well as written: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-with-herbed-goat-cheese-recipe-1914098 Not sure if you've already bought your chicken, but the bones and skin do a pretty good job of shielding the meat.

My other recent experiment was Detroit-style pizza (the Pepperoni Deluxe) from Reinhart’s “Perfect Pan Pizza.” His technique is frankly a pain in the rear — several folds spaced ~15 minutes apart followed by a 12+ hour chill, then four rounds of dimpling 20 minutes apart and a ~5 hour rise in the pan. I ended up baking the dough a couple of days late because I hadn’t read the times in the recipe right and didn’t want to serve dinner at midnight. But the result transported me to the Downriver Italian bakery my grandfather used to get most of our bread from. Really on point, flavor wise. I used his suggestion of Muenster in place of locally unobtainable brick cheese and really couldn’t tell the difference. Made his bacon and potato focaccia with the leftover dough, which was a bit past its prime by then. That one needs more tweaking — way too much herb oil as written (I cut it in half and it was still a bit excessive), and it needs a source of acid; the bites I ate with some roasted cherry tomatoes were *way* better. Still, looking forward to playing with more of these recipes, particularly with summer produce.

Late posting of some larger format loaves from last week. Needed a loaf to take along for a weekend away at a rental house, and as an added complication, I was only home for about 36 hours between a short business trip and leaving on vacation. So I decided to try putting my usual 50% WW sourdough in the fridge on Monday evening for baking on Thursday. Below is the result, baked in a Le Creuset and a Lodge combo cooker. I ended up trying to nudge color development on top with the broiler, and overdid it a little, but the tiny bit of char only affected the looks. I didn’t see a ton of difference in the dough after the long sit in the fridge, but the sourness was significantly more pronounced, almost at “San Francisco” levels. I think a shorter chill might end up being part of my routine.

There's no great option to restore them to their original glory, I don't think -- but they are an awfully good shortcut to a sorta tortilla española. Chopped up in a breakfast hash is good, too.