IndyRob

I think we also have to take into consideration that many of our fore bearers were self aggrandizing morons with no conception of global cuisine. That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed the book and all the contributions to this thread. Snarky or otherwise.

The OED may be definitive for Oxford, but not elsewhere. It turns out that the word Orient has been used very differently regionally. But that being said, what I mentioned may be most true in Britain In America, which took its lead from Britannia.... But the point is that - at that time - the definition of Oriental did not veer far from the British understanding of the time.

Of course it is. Why on earth wouldn't it? [Edit] Oh wait. I just noticed that his eyes are on the side of his head. But for his nose, he shouldn't even know it's there.

A substitute for 'turtle fungus paste'?

Back the in the day in America, perhaps around the time of Charlie Chan movies, Oriental meant far east (i.e. China, Japan, etc.). For some reason (perhaps Charlie Chan) that came to be viewed as politically incorrect and Asia/Asian was substituted. But that only muddied the picture as Asia (Afghanistan, Persia/Iran, etc) was expanded to include the far east (or the somewhat nearer west if you're in California). That's not meant to be a definitive historical statement, but simply my observation of how the words seem to have evolved during my lifetime. But anyway.... ORIENTAL SANDWICH Mix one cake of cream cheese with a little maple syrup, then add sliced maraschino cherries. Place be- tween thin slices of lightly buttered bread. Garnish with a spray of smilax and a cherry. This doesn't vaguely sound asian or oriental. Not even earthly, really. And BTW, do not even think of doing the the drinking game I was going to suggest while reading this book - taking a shot whenever you read 'lightly buttered bread'. You would surely die. Wait, what the hell is 'smilax'?

I got one of these for Christmas today. I've been watching YouTube vids to get some ideas, I'm kind of torn as to whether to use it primarily as a cooking or serving device.

Ah, good. Plenty of cat storage.

As far as a lid goes, plastic cling wrap should be fine. I really want to do this same thing but don't have the guests for it. I think the oven is the thing to finish it (a fryer would be crazy if you haven't done it before). But if you could figure out some rotisserie action....

I have a bad feeling about that sous vide arrangement. A cooler might be better. Lay it on it's side. With a rack in the bottom.

It's holiday time at my Aldi and that means Prosciutto Di Parma and Jamon Iberico are on offer.

Same with regular ovens. There's a huge degree of variation from one to another. No matter what type of equipment you're using, it pays to pay attention and adjust to how yours performs. But back to microwaves.... Boil a small amount of water. Heat some cream (perhaps with some garlic to pour onto your potatoes au gratin). Melt some chocolate (if you're gentle enough, you might not even take it out of temper). Melt some butter. Steam a hot dog bun (you'll want to wrap in in a paper towel first) Heat a hot dog (this goes well with the previous tip) Bring back some stale bread (again with the paper towel). Cook a potato. Cook some instant rice. Nuke a soup. There's a whole lot more, but most of it would take too much 'splaining. Suffice it to say that I think microwaves too often get a bad rap for being ham handed cooking devices when the ham handedness actually comes from the element in the equation that actually has hands - and the requisite fingers to start and stop the damn things. .

Okay, did that. 80-95% of the results were general complaints about various foods being over salted (without regard to remedy). Among the rest, I found no credible arguments. Comments like "The potato thing doesn't work" don't work unless supported by something other than the statement itself. I don't really care what the truth is (I didn't suggest the potato thing), just that in the end we end up with the truth. Perhaps we keep going 'round and 'round because that hasn't happened..

I don't see how that thread helps. There's nothing definitive there. Does anyone have a salinity meter, a potato, and a Michelin judge?

This, apparently from Epicurious user/commenter kmmackie . I don't know why I'd take that as a definitive source. There's a lot more going on in absorption, like in brining, than it may seem on the surface.

I like the potato idea. I think I've used some sugar in the past to reduce the impact of the saltiness. I think it may be why brines often include sugar (often implied, but no one ever seems to come out and say it). Cream could probably also help if its inclusion does not run counter to what the soup should be.

Especially since this topic is specifically labeled as a 'newbie' topic, I was thinking about the worst case scenario and came up with the following possibility which I present for general comment... So you've got your piece o' meat, and a heavy duty bag suitable to to the task, and will not seal it - reasoning that the meat will be below the water level - so no air could get to the meat's surface and it will remain firmly in contact with the plastic for good heat transfer.. Fine, but you did slide the meat into the bag and likely left meat juice smeared all over the inside of the bag. So now the part of the bag that's above water will be left for an extended period in a warm, moist, aerated environment. Is that small residual amount of meat-matter enough to cause a serious problem when you slide the meat back through it? I don't know. But I think I'd really like to vac & seal, or at least submerge the whole bag.

Were the eggs satisfactory? Some I had bought before had very small yolks. But I was there today and the eggs were 29¢/dz(!).

I like that feature, but how's the clip? Although more clunky, the Anova clamp seems more versatile.

That was sort of my line of thinking before starting the topic. And I can't say that I've been completely warned off of it. But the point raised by chefmd gives me pause. Why are there different temps recommended? And if we're talking about salt, what equivalent salt concentration allows one to hang a pig leg in a Italian cave as a method of preparation? There's duck prosciutto, but why don't we have Chicaciutto di Parma?

From the "Wait, what? Really?" department.... http://jalopnik.com/guy-fieri-a-muffler-expert-for-when-america-gets-elbow-1784524084 (you might have to click on the YouTube logos at the bottom of the video links to see the videos)

(If you're using a Windows machine, oddly enough the short answer, (Alt+0162), doesn't seem to work here. But I thought it was a good and worthy complaint and I can now tell you how to change your machine to allow it with Ctrl-Alt-C, but it's a pretty annoying process. But I now have my cents ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢¢) Anyway, I'm an almost religious follower of these pamphlets, but mostly online, and as others have indicated, only for things I would buy anyway. Soda prices, for instance are the classic example. If you're buying soda for more than 1/2 the list price at a supermarket, you're a rube (or desperate). Likewise, if you're lured into a store by low soda prices and fill your cart with other stuff you are, again, a rube. Grocery stores will rely on this and will sell soda, milk, etc. at a loss knowing that they will make it up with other things you buy. Discount places like Walmart and Aldi will almost never have the best prices on soda because they're not playing the same game. It would be really cool if someone mashed up all of the weekly flyers in an area into one publication. And included stores without flyers like my local Asian and Hispanic marts.

Yes, it is for home use. As it turns out, the usual recommendations for brining pork chops turned out to be much longer than I thought. So I did those overnight and that brine is now gone. So the chicken will be done separately. I don't think I'd ever think about doing in a restaurant kitchen no matter how strong the science might be. The mere perception could sink the ship. I was still interested from a theoretical standpoint though.

Thanks, this makes sense. I will do them separately. It's just a bit more salt and time. Plus, I had envisioned doing them all in my big Cambro container but I don't currently have room the the fridge for that. But would this suggest that one could brine the pork first and the re-use the brine for the chicken?

I have 10 chicken thighs and a pork loin I'll portion into steaks. I'd like to brine both. I don't think I'll try this since neither will need a long time in the brine, but nonetheless, I wonder if there's any need to keep them separate. I did a search and it appears this is not the first time this question has been raised on the internet. Yet, I think only one answer seemed authoritative (and that said it would be fine). It seemed reasonable to me as well. But, again, I don't need to do it, so I don't think I will. Still, the question has been nagging me. [Edit] Another point raised out there is that the flavors may mingle. Not a horrible prospect in my thinking, but it seems unlikely to be to a detectable degree unless all the pieces are densely packed.

I don't try to make my own cookies anymore after finding economical refrigerated doughs at the grocery store ($1.79 for 2 dozen). I like these. They're what I grew up with, but more convenient. But what they appear to do is to spread the dough into an even rectangular layer, refrigerate, and then cut into squares. Each square (cube?) goes round in the oven.