dtremit

We've ended up settling into a rhythm where we use Misfits / Imperfect to "fill in" during times of the year when local pickings are pretty slim. Despite them billing themselves as "subscriptions," it's easy to put either of them on hold. I particularly like that Misfits won't fill your cart automatically anymore; if you do nothing, nothing ships. (I've postponed Imperfect enough times lately that they just sent me a "50% off your next two boxes" offer. Max discount $25, but a $60 box for $35 is still a pretty good deal.)

That is an excellent deal on excellent spatulas — I paid about that for just the large one recently. They are quite handy for use in nonstick pans, and well balanced enough that I often find myself reaching for them in other pans as well.

The Gift of Southern Cooking (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock is $2.99 today. Other formats through BookBub

NP-GPC05 does have a "porridge" setting, though. I was always under the impression that "porridge" and "congee" were just different translations of the same option. The manual for my NP-NWC10XB (which has both "porridge" and "congee") seems to only differentiate the two based on the type of rice (short grain for porridge, long grain for congee, with a slightly longer cooking time). The instructions for preparing the ingredients are identical and clearly describe the same kind of dish.

I bought the NP-NWC10XB a few months ago — and at least from the pictures I can find, it appears that the pressure valve apparatus is identical to your NP-NVC18: The "grain filter" that covers the pressure apparatus is also the same part for both series: https://www.zojirushi.com/app/spare_parts/item/BU201011L-00 The line for the steel cut oats setting is much lower than any other measurement line, though: I'm wondering if that's actually the only real difference — a line to tell you not to overfill it. A lot of Instant Pot instructions also recommend adding a little fat to anything likely to foam — good enough excuse for me to put some butter in my oats!

@TdeV I don't have an APO, but I've run into some similar spacing issues in some of my other smaller ovens when trying to broil tall things. They don't fit with the rack in the top position, and the next position down moves them too far away. My solution has been to move the rack down one position, and then invert another pan as a "spacer" in between the rack and the pan with the food. If you used a spacer pan just *slightly* shorter than the difference between racks, it might get the pan to just barely clear the probe socket.

I'm speculating a bit, but my guess is there is probably not a universal answer here due to the different element diameters of various induction cooktops. One that works well on a small element portable burner might not work well on a large element cooktop, and vice versa.

@blue_dolphin and others — forgive my ignorance of the nuances of Brix, but in practice does the distinction between fructose, glucose, and sucrose matter for something like sorbet texture? I'm thinking here mostly in terms of using canned fruit and fruit purees, where the percentage of sugars is known — e.g., the can of unsweetened mango pulp I have has 17g of sugars per 130g serving, so about 13% sugar by weight. However, it doesn't break those down any further. If I add 62g of a 100% sugar syrup to that, I'd end up with something right at 25% sugar (48g of sugar in 192g of total mixture). That also doesn't seem too far off from the recommendations in the CIA document @blue_dolphin linked (ideal concentration of 40-60% for "sweet" fruits). Is that level of calculation sufficient for the lay person, or does one really need to delve into the composition of the sugars in the fruit in question?

You have all goaded me into another small appliance purchase! For those of you who are waiting for a deal, Woot! has refurbished Creamis on sale today — $99 for the 5-program and $116 for the 7-program. I was about to pull the trigger on that — it's definitely a good price — but it's not clear who refurbished it, and the warranty is just 90 days through Woot. After a bit of comparison shopping, I realized Kohl's had it on sale for $199, which after their current 25% coupon makes it $149 new. Plus you get $30 in Kohls cash (after the purchase is complete) which is just enough to get a 4-pack of the spare pint containers. I decided $149 for a new machine and four extra pints seemed like a better deal than $116 for a refurb (plus I can get it in a fun color).

@DocD out of curiosity, what's your favorite?

Staff note: This post and the next were moved from the 'Imperfect, Misfit, Etc. (The Food Delivery Services)' discussion, to maintain focus. Definitely a good plan for beef that comes thawed. I'm always looking for ways to avoid thaw-refreeze cycles, though (and I sort of assume most ground beef you buy fresh has been frozen). Though maybe that doesn't really matter for ground meat anyway. It occurs to me that I could probably also cut one of the 1lb cubes (the kind that come vacuum packed) without thawing it, given a little elbow grease. I have done that successfully with 2lb tubes of breakfast sausage from the warehouse club and a heavy serrated knife.

That would be great for something like mapo tofu where you only need ~4oz of ground beef. (Pity they don't have it for pork, which I use in smaller quantities more often.)

@Greg Jones Oh, interesting. Maybe yours is already the new rate for your area and I was on a grandfathered plan of some sort.

You might do better with Weee! — my impression is that Umamicart's selection is more skewed toward high-end products whereas Weee! is closer to what I find in a typical Chinese market. For noodles specifically I noticed they had a large selection from Twin Marquis (which is sort of ubiquitous here in the Northeast).

Email from Misfits last night — looks like they are raising shipping from $4.50 to $7.99 for existing members (with the suggestion that new subscriber shipping is higher). They also mention adding more grocery staples to the offering, and some kind of loyalty program that will include shipping discounts. I don't begrudge them the increase — $4.50 was almost certainly unsustainably low, and we can just place larger orders less often. Not ordering much from anyone right now — we are well stocked with vegetables from our CSA boxes. And fruit selection — a big reason we've used Misfits/Imperfect — is kind of dismal everywhere at this time of year, with citrus tapering off and not much else ramping up. Our garage stays at ~45F and has turned out to be ideal for storing apples; we're well stocked there from before the orchards closed, and just supplement with reliable stuff like kiwis, pineapples, clementines, and bananas that are easier and cheaper to get via local curbside. Still really want to try an order from Umamicart or Weee! — but I dragged myself to the local Chinese supermarket yesterday so it isn't really pressing.

I have nothing useful to add — but I'm really glad to know I'm not the only person who can't get a lame to work!

We got some good ones from Misfits recently, though they were in a ~3lb bag. The bag advertised them as "Raspberry Oranges" which I found myself weirdly offended by 🤣

Macys seems to have a bunch of A-C on sale as well -- that same set (for $10 more), and a few other things: https://www.macys.com/shop/presidents-day-sale/Brand,Business_category,Home_categories,Sortby/All-Clad,Home,Kitchen,PRICE_LOW_TO_HIGH?id=169742 I'm tempted by this oval baker — it's not "real" All-Clad (one of their "accessory" pieces, which means made in China and I think not multi clad) but it looks like a pretty nice big pan for $50 https://www.macys.com/shop/product/all-clad-stainless-steel-15-oval-baker-pot-holder-set?ID=4877689&CategoryID=169742

Weirdly this machine has completely disappeared from VacMaster's site -- though it's still for sale at WebstaurantStore and elsewhere. Terrible reviews there, so I wonder if maybe it was a rebranded model that didn't work out for them. Pity -- the wide seal bar in a smaller, affordable machine was a very nice combination.

Those seem like they may cover every region they operate in -- given turnover these days, they may just be standing requisitions to cover turnover. Looking at the detail, their drivers deliver "up to 150 boxes per shift" -- if it's an 8 hour shift, that's almost 20 an hour! I would imagine they have some turnover given that pace...

Baldor is actually doing home deliveries in NYC, DC, and Boston metros now: https://www.baldorfood.com/baldorhomedeliverymap I have never quite been able to figure out their website (though I have not looked in a long while). It seemed like at any given time, 80% of the items packaged in "home" quantities were sold out. Instacart is a bit of a mess, but if you're careful it can be useful. Different stores have different pricing policies, and you can find them if you poke around a bit. A small handful have in-store pricing. Most around here are cited as "up to 15% higher" — but that's just the item prices, not any of the fees. That said, I may try them soon for some stores we haven't wanted to trek to since Omicron hit. We also are now in Instacart range for deliveries from Restaurant Depot, which is kind of intriguing. Some of the Instacart fees are avoidable if you're shopping for pickup -- obviously not a great NYC option, but honestly we prefer it a lot of the time here. E.g., Wegmans in-store pickup is run off the Instacart platform; the prices are indeed higher, but there are no fees of any kind beyond that. (You actually *can't* tip, which is frustrating).

I think the Misfits / Imperfects of the world probably result in a much shorter, and better controlled, path from farm to consumer. We have been getting a huge proportion of our produce from Misfits / Imperfect and local sources (mainly CSA and a few farm stands) over the past few years — and it's gotten to the point where I forget how short the shelf life of regular grocery store produce is. I go to find it in the fridge and realize it's gone bad before I ever thought to use it. Which of course leads me to buy less from those sources...

I'm wondering if they had too many issues with UPS / FedEx deliveries -- that article about Imperfect's issues upthread mentioned that something like one in four orders had some sort of an issue. Our Misfits orders come in packaging that's clearly designed for long shipping times -- thick insulation on the outside of the box, and for cold pack items, a secondary inner insulated bag with another cold pack inside. Even the one time our delivery was a day late, the meat we ordered was frozen. By contrast, Imperfect has no insulation for most of the stuff in the box, and the cold sensitive stuff just goes in a mylar bubble wrap bag with an ice pack. On a good day the bag is sealed, but more often it's half open by the time it gets to us. We get deliveries from their fleet of trucks, which are refrigerated — but any meat we order is thawed about half the time. Not sure if they used better packaging for common carrier orders, but if they were using the same stuff, I suspect they were doing a lot of refunds. As far as I know, Misfits doesn't have a fleet of trucks -- probably good for @Shelby!

One thing I have noticed with Amazon (we've done WFM orders but I'm guessing it's similar for Fresh) is that a lot of perishable stuff "flickers" in and out of inventory. E.g., they'll have an item at the beginning of the day, it'll be gone later, and back the next morning, presumably just due to normal restocking. Very frustrating, and leads us to order from them a lot less often than other places.

I'm curious if anyone has suggestions for useful supplies one might get from a homebrew shop, for modernist or other specialty cooking. I'm looking to buy some amylase and it seems to be the easiest way to get it at a reasonable price. The homebrew shop I'm looking at does flat rate shipping, so I figure I might as well pick up a few other interesting things to play with. Any suggestions?