IndyRob

I'll take the middle ground and say that while heating from frozen would work fine, if you have the luxury of being able to thaw them in fridge overnight, take advantage of it. Reheating will go very quickly. I've baked uncooked frozen meatballs in a toaster oven in around 15-20 minutes. They get up to temperature very quickly because they're so small. If it were it me, and if it was important, I might add a few extra sacrificial meatballs that I could pull out and test prior to committing to the batch.

Maybe proofing and baking them in rings? Burgers are not something I've worked on much, but would like to. But just looking at the thread title and imagining my ultimate bun (although this is a very subjective thing), I think there might be an easy way out... I love to make baguettes and boules and pizzas from scratch. But when it comes to American style breads I have an easy proven alternative - frozen dough from the supermarket. It's nearly fool proof. It's a little more rustic than your supermarket buns - slightly denser, a larger crumb. More moist, for sure. And freshly baked. That crumb is exactly what I'd want for a burger. Crustwise, I'm a little more unsure about what I'd want. I think it depends a little on the burger style. But there are all sort of tricks to play with. Brushing with butter, milk, egg yolk wash, egg white wash, egg wash, cornstarch glaze, etc.

Thanks, I also have a Silpat and silicone mat available for deployment.

In Collichio's blog, he acknowledges that many people are saying the competition is not up to the levels of past seasons, but promises a strong finale. Best food of the season. Unfortunately, he didn't address the freeze-dried parameters.

I'm considering buying three half sheet pans and dumping all my larger rectangular teflon coated baking sheets. They seem to have a very limited life and the various sizes cause a storage problem. But would I regret not keeping something teflon?

I had to laugh at Bourdain's reference to Ripert's "dark world view". Ripert did a stint on the line at Le Halles for a No Reservations episode so they obviously have a good relationship. I think they just have different points of view. I agree that the challenge seemed ambiguous. The one restriction that made it to the air regarded sweetness. But it appears that the sweetest dish won.

I think this question falls under 'things you need an electrician for'. I'm personally pretty audacious when it come to home improvements, but I would draw the line short of this decision. Regardless of your intended uses, over the life of the installation there will invariably be counter top crawling babies and Alzheimer's affected grandmothers. But really, if you just purchase installation with the appliance you'll rarely go wrong. Especially if you express your concerns and have someone out to take a look.

I don't know all the facts or the law, but on its face it seems like a legitimate claim. I'm not a savvy New Yorker (if that's a legal standard) but I was a little confused as to who was who just reading this story ("Wait, isn't BLT 'Bistro Laurent Tourondel? Oh, they must have split. He just dropped the B?")

For me there are only two cases in which I care at all about something being 'authentic'. First, as a matter of advertising - like in the club sandwich examples. But adding a qualifier to the menu can easily solve that. If I saw, say, 'Mr. Frisbee's Club Sandwich' on a menu, I would infer that there's some sort of twist involved. The other case is finding an authentic example to use as a benchmark when I try something for the first time. I mentioned in another thread that I've never had risotto but see it all the time. This has made me curious enough to want to try it. There's obviously some technique involved, so I could easily screw it up without ever knowing it if I tried it myself. So I need to find an 'authentic' example. Perhaps 'representative' would work just as well. But once I've sampled it and recreated it (if desired), then authentic goes out the window. I'll put cream in it if I want.

Nom Nom is looking pretty unbeatable. I was expecting others to steal their ideas like calling the media. But I didn't see anyone doing that this week so I wonder if that tactic was quietly 86'd by the producers. Must've been rough for the crepe folks to get sent home by Ft. Worth before they could get to New Orleans.

Describe the food show you'd like to see. Maybe someone will notice and we'll actually see it. For me, it would involve Wylie Dufresne and Homaro Cantu teaming up to try to beat a pair of top traditional BBQ chefs in a pork rib challenge. Rivals teaming up for a battle of new vs. old.

Technically, I don't know. But I like brined things and dislike pickled things, and I'm vinegar averse. I associate pickling with vinegar.

I watched the first two episodes today and thought that it exceeded my expectations for a Food Network show. I'm on board. It's a pretty open competition. Go get your own press. Pretty cool. Banh Mi appears to be well timed, but it's not just that. That team has it together.

I think this shall become my standard response to any cooking problem.

I think anything with a corporate brand in the title could qualify. How about Crunchy Topped Mini-Biscuit Wedges...? 1 (10oz.) can Hungry Jack Refrigerated Flaky Biscuits 1 TB margarine or butter, melted 3/4 cup finely crushed corn chips Cut into quarters, drizzle, toss, add crumbs, toss. Bake. Or, Mini-Biscuit Wedges...? No corn chips. Replace with grated parm and paprika (or garlic powder). Kinda' like Doritos in biscuit form, I guess.

Deep fried butter has been the (largely incredulous) talk of the Indiana State Fair this year.

I wasn't trying to make a statement. I was just amused by the thought of, say, Italian immigrants being cheerfully offered prune sandwiches and having second thoughts. Mark Twain was out front in extolling the benefits to culture and cuisine.

This is a bit off topic, but with a kismet spin. As I was reading this thread my wife gave me a found copy of the New York Times Book Review section. I paged through it and was three pages from the end when I noticed the title "Your Tired, Your Poor and Their Food". The review begins "One of the sights that greeted immigrants in New York, right after the Statue of Liberty, was a prune sandwich." I haven't read the rest of the article, or indeed the book, but I wonder if more prune sandwiches might go a long way to solve some of our immigration issues.

While watching the elimination challenge I had a hard time coming up with better ideas. But after thinking about it for a while several strong ideas came to mind. I say that because I didn't know they were able to think about it overnight. With that in mind, I think the general offerings were weaker than I originally thought.

At the risk of being annoyingly repetitive, this Presto Kitchen Kettle/Multi-cooker can do pretty much anything and is dirt cheap. It can deep fry, steam, boil, poach, slow cook and sous vide. In a pinch I bet it could saute or even work (sort of) as an oven. If challenged, most people could be convinced that it's a rice cooker (it might be able to do that as well). Or, in a box with the temperature control/cord stowed away out of sight, it just looks like a pot.

On the back of some discussion about whether chefs should expected to be knowledgeable in all global cuisines, Kelly is my personal favorite this week for coming in in the top three without knowing anything about Asian cooking. Checking labels for ingredients was smart. In a way, she was back in the quickfire, but with a set of ingredients that was not meant to stump her.

For a ribeye this would be my choice as well. This is a family favorite. But better IMHO, is a filet with some hollandaise to dip in like fondue.

Search for "under cabinet lighting". There are a variety of configurations. Some 'pucks', some 'tubes'. Some A/C, some low voltage D/C. I installed DC pucks under our cabinets and they work well (although one side of the kitchen interferes a little with radio reception in the room). They're also nice in the middle of the night to get a little light without lighting up the whole room. [edit]You might look for ones where you can change the wattage. I've found that in some places I wanted more intensity than others.

A few years ago one of our local supermarkets started to include French Crullers among their doughnut selections. More recently, their competitors have followed suit. Until I saw these examples, all things named cruller were frilly but boring cake doughnuts. These French crullers were fantastically light and tender. I had no idea how they were and tried to no avail to image how they got their distinctive shape. I decided to figure this out this morning and got to googling... One part was easy. Fried pate a choux. Of course. Duh. Or at least something very similar. But how would one pipe it to get that shape? This was much harder. Most recipes tell you to make one or two circles. Eventually, I found that showed me how this should work, but it's clearly not the same shape (but probably acceptable). Finally, I found part of the puzzle. A commercial French Cruller Cutter. That was a little disappointing, but it made sense. No Rob, there are no master choux pipers working in your supermarket's bakery.But, ok, the shape had to come from some hand crafted origin, no? And how does a culler cutter cut a paste? Anyone know?

How 'bout a monthly culinary preview of global holidays, festivals and/or events. Regional Ramadan foods, Christmas foods around the world.... What's cooking at the Formula One Grand Prix of Monaco? Etc, etc, etc. Or, a monthly update of what's coming into season where? Like the above, but more about harvests (harvest festivals?) and game seasons.