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IndyRob

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Posts posted by IndyRob

  1. I think there are two things to learn straight out of the gate...

     

    1)  To paraphrase Emeril - those knobs on the stove?  They're there for a reason.  Never cook on high - or even medium high - unless you have a specific reason for doing so. 

     

    2) Taste your food as you go along - and especially towards the end.  I can think of multiple occurrences from my experience where someone has placed a dish on the dinner table and said "I hope it tastes good..."  Hope is not a good cooking strategy or technique.

     

    Ok, and a bonus one...

     

    Think small.  As a learning exercise, boil a small portion of spaghetti.  Drain, and over very low  (or maybe even no) heat, add a little pat of butter and mix,  Taste.  Add a little salt and mix. Taste. Add a little pepper and mix  Taste. 

     

    If at any step it's to much, throw it out and start over.  Don't make your failures traumatic.  Use them to remember what not to do.  Because cooking well is about adjusting.

     

    Edit: Link didn't work.  youtube: "Jacques Pepin Recipes"

     

    "

     

  2. On 5/9/2011 at 7:51 PM, dcarch said:

    See if you can find a throw-away large screen rear-projection TV.

     

    Crap.  I believe I have one in my basement that is destined for the dump.  I'll now be obliged to take it apart.

     

    But it kinda' seems like the cooking equivalent of wrestling a grizzly bear.

  3. I impulse-bought some Irish Bangers I found at ALDI last week and served them the other night with pierogies and sauteed onions.  The bangers had a very light texture - almost souffle-like.  I guess that's the bread content.

  4. On 3/7/2017 at 10:41 AM, cutter said:

    With grilled cheese sliding around until i seen not suppose to saw the sandwich but chop straight down....

     

    Oddly enough, I recently had to develop a unique cutting style for my grilled cheese sandwiches.  I've been using Texas toast bread (i.e. thick white bread slices) and three slices of American cheese.  So I've got a tall grilled sandwich with oozey, slidey, cheese in the middle.  I needed to cut it without smashing the height, or pressing the cheese out.

     

    What I came up with was to use a simple table knife (the one that portioned the pats of butter for me), held vertically and repeatedly gently stabbed from top to bottom to create a perforated line across the sandwich. Do this once or twice to create a path that can be finished off with a normal slicing action.

    • Like 2
  5. I've used a technique from Jacques Pepin that worked out very well for me - but not so much when I tried to add sous vide to the mix....

     

    First, make a cut halfway through the thigh on each side of the bone.  This helps the skin to lay flay completely flat.  Then place the thighs skin side down on a hot pan and cover.  No oil, no seasoning.  Nothing.

     

    The fat from the skin will render and crisp up the skin perfectly while the steam cooks the rest of the thigh.  My first attempt was perfect, but subsequent attempts taught me that the heat management was non-trivial.  So I thought sous vide would be the answer.  But it altered both the moisture level and shape of the thigh.

     

    I think I'm going to go back and try to perfect my use of his technique.

     

     

     

     

  6. There's only one thing that bugs me about the new show.  And that is Bridget appearing to act surprised about some sort novel technique.  We all know damn well that she's been poking her head into the test kitchen for weeks.

     

    Yes, ditto with CK, but he had stepped back into that role many seasons before.  That had become his place.

     

    All they had to do was hire someone personable with some experience in TV production.  Every local TV news team in the US probably had a viable candidate.

    • Like 1
  7. I use a rub before and after.  I currently have two racks of ribs in the bath.  Both were rubbed before they were cryovac'd.  When they come out, they will be glazed and then get another sprinkling of rub.

     

    Then they will go into a hot oven whose only job is to crisp up the outside and warm them through.  Hot and fast.  On the order of 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

    • Like 1
  8. 17 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

     

    The price is good these days for beef rib eye steak, and the portion is generous for two. Probably, the steak is a normal cut and just crammed into a heart shaped pink container. Raw meat is quite malleable and boneless rib eye is good. It might pulled off with a T-bone too, with more gaps in the tray. You would have to make sure you showed it off in the container before cooking for the heart presentation, though. As a person who has experienced much consternation at what to give a male for Valentines, I think this is the perfect, brilliant thing. I can't think of a man I know who wouldn't be thrilled with it, but I'm sure there are many vegetarians and beef haters among the male species as well. I would be thrilled with it as a woman too, much more so than candy.

     

    In keeping with my matchless luck, though, this product has come out at a time where Valentines will be pretty much a nonevent for me for the first time I can remember.

     

    The price shown *is* really good.  Our local Meijer is trying out this gag, only without heart shaped packaging.  They just butterfly an otherwise unsuspecting ribeye so it looks like a heart (well, not a real heart of course, but that B.S. shape that we're all told is heart shaped, even though it bears no resemblance to any internal organ - which, when you really come to think about it, is probably just as well).

  9. 41 minutes ago, paul o' vendange said:

    Hi Rob, I'm sorry, I'm not following the stat. I think you'd probably need to do something else, like total dairy, per capita, and so forth - right?  We own 13% of the nation's total dairy, but we're a ghost town compared to some places.  The concentration of farm capital is large, and expanding hotly.  And that concentration exerts its influence on laws in my state. 

     

    One example only - again, anecdotal though it's easy to look up.  We, for example, are the only state in the union requiring cheesemakers to undergo state licensing.  To the tune of 240 hours of official apprenticeship, and required courses from one sanctioned place only, UW.  The sum cost to the would-be cheesemaker is about $3,000.

     

     

    I didn't mean to suggest that I had eliminated the possibility of corporate influence from cheese making regulation - just that raw milk sale-ability doesn't seem to correlate with the presence of Big Dairy.

     

    An interesting outlier seems to be Georgia where you can buy raw milk cheese, but not raw milk.

     

    Random thought:  I've read that traditional French cheeses are also under assault by French mass market corporations.  Yet, like Italy, they have these..what's it called?.. Protected Designations of Origin?

    These are also very rigid bureaucratic standards, no?  The old ones are good?

     

    I don't mean to take a side.  Just to get everything on the table to be sorted.

     

  10. 52 minutes ago, paul o' vendange said:

     

    I can tell you it's a war here in Wisconsin, and I believe that is squarely explained by the huge corporate dairy interests that inform our state's policies.

     

    I find myself becoming increasingly cynical about corporate influence in state lawmaking.  So I wondered if the nation's largest dairy states would have the most prohibitive laws against raw milk.  Looking at the results on this basis, I don't think it's proven (although I probably would've been ecstatic if it proved otherwise).

     

    Below is the result of combining two web pages:

     

    http://stuffaboutstates.com/agriculture/livestock/dairy.htm

     

    http://milk.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=005192

     

    I don't claim any degree of accuracy by either of the sites, and even less to the accuracy with which I've quickly combined them.  But it doesn't appear that there is a correlation between big dairy states and prohibiting raw milk.  I wonder if there may be other state rankings which might correlate.

     

    (And, BTW, dcarch, the second link does indicate states where raw milk as animal feed is legal.  It doesn't seem like very many - but it could be it was only included if it was readily apparent from the statutes)

     

    Rank State Value ($1,000) % of Total U.S. Status
    1 California 5365992 19.61% Allowed
    2 Wisconsin 3687749 13.47% On-farm
    3 New York 1950144 7.13% On-farm
    4 Pennsylvania 1768976 6.46% Allowed
    5 Idaho 1358400 4.96% Allowed
    6 Minnesota 1336334 4.88% On-farm
    7 Michigan 1020380 3.73% Cow-share
    8 New Mexico 1000224 3.65% Allowed
    9 Texas 975718 3.57% On-farm
    10 Washington 857010 3.13% Allowed
    11 Ohio 751980 2.75% Cow-share
    12 Iowa 620052 2.27% Prohibited
    13 Arizona 570381 2.08% Allowed
    14 Indiana 490646 1.79% Prohibited
    15 Vermont 433823 1.59% On-farm
    16 Florida 431616 1.58% Prohibited
    17 Oregon 359520 1.31% On-farm
    18 Colorado 343281 1.25% Cow-share
    19 Kansas 339570 1.24% On-farm
    20 Illinois 308819 1.13% On-farm
    21 Virginia 308417 1.13% Cow-share
    22 Missouri 298808 1.09% On-farm
    23 Utah 250415 0.91% On-farm
    24 Kentucky 236640 0.86% Prohibited
    25 Georgia 235536 0.86% Prohibited (Raw Milk Cheese okay)
    26 South Dakota 220440 0.81% On-farm
    27 Oklahoma 218575 0.80% On-farm
    28 Maryland 196010 0.72% Prohibited
    29 Tennessee 193368 0.71% Cow-share
    30 North Carolina 170796 0.62% Prohibited
    31 Nebraska 168480 0.62% On-farm
    32 Maine 109260 0.40% Allowed
    33 North Dakota 83945 0.31% Cow-share
    34 Louisiana 77220 0.28% Prohibited
    35 Nevada 74947 0.27% Allowed
    36 Connecticut 67124 0.25% Allowed
    37 Mississippi 63336 0.23% Prohibited
    38 Montana 53165 0.19% Prohibited
    39 New Hampshire 52923 0.19% Allowed
    40 Arkansas 52080 0.19% On-farm
    41 Massachusetts 51275 0.19% On-farm
    42 South Carolina 49416 0.18% Allowed
    43 Alabama 43497 0.16% Prohibited
    44 New Jersey 32308 0.12% Prohibited
    45 West Virginia 31515 0.12% Cow-share
    46 Delaware 21488 0.08% Prohibited
    47 Hawai`i 20175 0.07% Prohibited
    48 Wyoming 9828 0.04% On-farm
    49 Rhode Island 3434 0.01% Prohibited*
    50 Alaska 2822 0.01% Cow-share

     

    * Interesting note:  Apparently, in Rhode Island you can buy raw goats milk directly from the producer if you have a doctor's prescription.

    • Like 1
  11. 2 hours ago, GlorifiedRice said:

     

    Ive always thought shorts were dangerous.

     

     

    Well, they were during the Larry Bird era, but they've gotten longer since then.

     

    I have a rule of thumb that says whenever you call a professional into your house, you are out $200 as soon as they walk in the door.  But with appliance repairmen, it won't likely be much more.  Because the parts are just that cheap.

     

    As you've said you've watched the Youtube vids and haven't fixed it yourself, I'll assume that you're not willing to do that (although it could reduce the bill to like, $10 or something).

     

    But you've left out a crucial part of the story.  Do you like this particular heater-upper contraption?   You're going to be spending around $200 to fix it.  Another $200 will get a brand new one (or something similar).

     

    I think you have to take five minutes in deep contemplation.  Stare at the thing,  Ask yourself whether you want to spend the rest of your life with it.  Are you committed?

     

    If you aren't, the nice delivery people will often take the old one away for free - thus relieving you of the burden of the separation..

     

    [spousal related punchline edited 48 times, and finally discarded entirely]

    • Like 4
  12. I was at a local Meijer store the other day and noticed a sign over their seasonal section in the back of the store - Mercato Italiano.  I had to check it out.  It appears that they were still stocking it, but had sections for various regions of Italy and various dry, bottled and canned goods appearing on the shelves (it's on the other side of the store from the grocery).  I looked in another Meijer today and the same was happening.

     

    I found a short release on their website:

     

     

    Quote

     


    The Meijer Mercato Italiano experience will take place at all Meijer stores, featuring more than 400 authentic Italian products like artisan Italian pasta, San Marzano tomatoes, Italian wine and Italian extra virgin olive oil for a limited time beginning mid-month.

     

    • Mercato Italiano 1

       

      Meijer is teaming up with the Italian Trade Agency to bring an authentic Italian cooking experience to select Meijer stores hosted later this month by The Food Network’s Iron Chef America Judge, Mario Rizzotti.

     

    •  

     

    I didn't notice anything famously lustworthy, but I wonder of those with more knowledge might point to specific items we should snatch up.

     

    I also envy *someone* in the Meijer Corporate office who got to design this project - regardless of how well the may have succeeded (or not).

     

    • Like 1
  13. 4 minutes ago, Ranz said:

    I'm not American and we don't have the "Diner" culture here in South Africa. So when I first saw DDD, I was captivated by the great food that seems so readily available in the US, one every few miles, while every 'rest stop' we have here lies in the clutches of one of our woefully inadequate fast food chains.

     

    Is Fieri an amazing chef? Doesn't look that way, but he brings red-faced, bottle blonde enthusiasm to every show, and hopefully a lot of traffic to small restaurant owners. Why the hate?

     

    I think it's because he celebrates the exact sort of excess that may make you envious, but perhaps should, on another day, make you angry.

     

    Diner food is not about this excessively ugly display of audaciousness.  It's a nice grilled cheese sandwich, or a good burger....Things that will leave room for a nice piece of pie.  And sometimes those pies will become locally famous by being just a bit more - a little bit higher - a little bit lighter than the last place.

     

    But when it becomes all about the the national spotlight, when they are encouraged to be more spicy, more heavy, more, more, more....they become a caricatures of themselves.

     

    And they are no longer diner food.

     

    • Like 2
  14. 20 hours ago, GlorifiedRice said:

    Marinated Pork Belly.

     

     

    I happened to be in TJ's today and saw a similar product for $6.49 for 8oz.  It looks like the Aldi version is $5.99 for 12oz (at least on Wednesday).

    • Like 2
  15. We just got new upgraded cable boxes sent to us.  My wife dreaded the trip to the trip to the Comcast Gulag to return the old ones, but I found out they had cut a deal with the UPS Stores.  All I had to do was bring them there and they scanned the bar codes, typed some incantations into their computer and printed me a receipt.

     

    That reminded me of reading a story in Tom Friedman's book The World is Flat where Toshiba(?) cut a deal with Fed Ex for their computer repairs.  If a customer called Toshiba and it was determined that the computer needed to be send in for repair, he would be given instructions on how to ship it back via Fed Ex.  And shipped back it it was - to a Fed Ex hub where Toshiba trained Fed Ex employees would effect the repairs.

     

    That sort of thing could work for knife sharpening, I suppose.

     

    But then again, I got a knife sharpener for Christmas, so, yeah, whatever. ;)

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