IndyRob

Grapevines: I ordered 8 vines online this spring and I got 8 vine sticks with bare roots wrapped in wet newspaper. Not without pessimism, I planted them all with varying care, and to my surprise, all 8 sprung to life and have thrived. The ones with the best light exposure are now taller than me. However, in the last month I've noticed a change in growth. Rather than continuing to grow large leaves, they seem to have shifted into a mode where they're trying to spread out by producing a lot of little parsley sized leaves at their ends. I'd like to interpret this as the vines finding their limits and feel like I should prune them all off to encourage more root growth. Would this be the correct course of action?

We recently had lunch at Boogie Burger and I'd put it squarely in the 'Skip' column. Burgers were dry, fries unremarkable. Also recently went to Ramen Ray for my for my first real Ramen experience. It seemed okay and authentic based on my limited knowledge of the genre. But I think I just don't get the appeal of Ramen. Even if I imagined my own version with sous vide eggs and pork belly, it's just seemed a rather expensive(~$13) bowl of soup.

I think perhaps, you give me too much credit. When I think 'Maybe I'll just let it go to the butter stage', I'm thinking.....well, man-like.....This could be funny.... But dammit, now I feel like I have to do it.....

If I walked out onto my driveway right now, I could hit a Chick Fil A by throwing a tennis ball. But I've never had anything from Chick Fil A. Not because I have a problem with their politics, but because I've never felt a craving for a Fil A o' Chick. (despite the adorable cows they use for marketing). Likewise, 'Black Olives Matter' is just a bad joke. It's just a stupid idea. The Chick Fil A cows are kind of clever. 'Black Olive Matters' is just dumb. To get worked up about it serves no purpose other than to give them publicity, Which is exactly what they were going for.

Actually, I started my post saying that I couldn't get President butter anymore (which Trader Joe's had stopped carrying). But as it turns out, I can now get it at my local Meijer (and I've seen it elsewhere). So it appears that the world is catching up with me. So I haven't been motivated to do further research. I'm not sure how much difference is related to the cow breed/feed/culture, but I'm sure that that there are some rewards to be found somewhere down those paths. I've recently been making a sort of soft-serve chocolate ice cream by simply dumping a pint of cream and Eagle Brand Chocolate Flavored Sweetened Condensed Milk in a mixer and giving the spurs. I've often been tempted to to take it to the butter stage to see what would happen. Surely, it would be awful. But what if it wasn't?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Julia+Child+-+Cooking+with+Master+Chefs+ Someday I'd like to create a page with curated collections of all the great stuff I've found on youtube. For instance, I think many Julia followers may enjoy these videos... https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=saveurs

I use citric acid, but have used vinegar and lemon juice in emergencies. I use a gallon of whole milk at a time and the taste difference is negligible. Whatever you use will impart just a very faint flavor. I am somewhat averse to vinegar, yet just a little bit did not ruin it for me. I think you should only need a couple of teaspoons per gallon and you can add more if things don't seem to be developing as you wish. The lemon zest in the original post is probably unnecessary. The acid is all that we're after. I get about 22oz of ricotta (okay, paneer) for a gallon of milk. Addition of cream seems to increase the yield a bit, but I'm not sure if the cost/benefit is worth it.

What should I search for on YouTube to find the French version? Surely it's not called the same thing.

I just got mine from the Target website. I've previously prided my self on using a $25 Presto Kitchen Kettle, or an oven hack, but for $170, the convenience factor won. I think I'd take mine on vacation. I already have a butane burner in the car, and would certainly bring a cooler. It would be a low risk move.

Has anyone been able to find gold potatoes as long as the largest russets? I haven't seen any. And I think that's part of the experience.

Last night I did spare ribs at 167 for five hours (4 hours was suggested by ChefSteps, but I went a bit long). These were very good, but didn't come cleanly off the bone. I've previously done 12 hours at 165 and it may have been a bit long. Perhaps 6-8 hours would be the Goldilocks zone.

I wonder if someone can provide a short intro on how a soft serve machine works. I've recently been fascinated by no-specialized-machine ice-cream methods. Generally, in it's simplest form, this means dumping a pint of cream in a mixer, along with a can of sweetened condensed milk and having at it with the whisk attachment. And freezing the result. Recently, I found that using Eagle Brand Chocolate SCM produced chocolate soft serve - worthy of your most basic fake Chinese buffet resto - right out of the mixer. It just wasn't cold enough. So then I look at the ChefSteps vid. They're not using SCM, but they are using milk, sugar and milk powder (yeah, plus flavorings like vanilla), Then they use dry ice to cool it. Seems like the same thing. The statement that a custard based mix will be turned into butter makes me think that there's a whole lot more going on in that soft serve machine than I would've thought.

I think this is the key. I came looking for this thread when I felt a bit burned today by Yelp for a four star reviews on a restaurant I recommended that turned out to be pretty bad. I probably would've gone there anyway at some point since it's so close to my house that it is only a matter of time before someone asks me about it. Still, the aggregate review score led me to believe that it would be pretty good. Not. There was one negative review that stuck in my mind that agreed with my experience. It was from a local, so I looked up her other reviews. I found that she had rated a certain hole-in-the-wall diner as highly as I would have. There were other reviews of hers that generally agreed with my experience. As well as one also recommended by Huiray. By contrast, one terribly negative review was by a guy who arrived 20 minutes before closing, saw the final cleanup occurring and was told that they'd have to package his order to-go. So he said okay, and then his party proceeded to sit down with their order. Regardless of the finer points here, I wrote this guy off as an asshole. After reading Scargo's quote above, I looked into his other reviews. He had a number of others, but not a single food service related review. So I think you don't necessarily have to have a Chowhound friend (at least for your own area). But you do need to yelp-visit all the places you're familiar with and find those people who generally agree with your assessment. I wonder if Yelp has an API that would allow aggregate scores from a given subset of reviewers. Perhaps an eGullet-trusted-reviewer-index could be created for a variety of localities.

I've been making frites lately after discovering how to do it properly. But reading through this thread I think a trick was missed relevant to the original question. After the first frying, I've gotten very good results from freezing the frites and carrying out the last step, say, a week later. My method it based on bourdain's. Cut the fries and soak them in ice water for about an hour with some water changes near the end. Fry at 280F for six minutes and remove to a sheet pan to cool. If desired lay out some on a silicone mat in a sheet pan and freeze for later use - bagging them once they're frozen. Finish at 375-380F. I have noticed temperatures dips on both fryings, but it's almost as though the completion of the rebound coincides the end of that step (as though the water content is regulating the temp)..

St. Elmo would be the classic place to go if you want to drop a lot of money on a steakhouse. That's where all the sports figures seem to end up. There's also a Brazilian steakhouse (Fogo de chao?) that I've heard good things about. A local informal favorite from way back is Acapulco Joe's for Mexican. But I'm not up on the downtown area as I haven't worked down there in many years. There's also the warehouse district on the southeast side of the circle for drinks/late-night wildness. The Fountain Square area is spawning a lot of interesting options. That's not too far, but probably a drive of a mile or two. And Broad Ripple has something like 80 restaurants, mostly independent. A nice place to walk after you drive there. I believe there's a farmer's market on Wednesday on Market Street in front of the City Market. Sorry we couldn't have cooler weather for your visit.

I'm not sure if this is the same recipe I've done, but it is certainly similar. It works. Even the hard crack temperature of sugar (310) is below the smoke point of butter, so no burning. Just the addition of browned butter taste which seems to me to be a feature of all caramels. Another version adds chocolate to make a hot fudge sauce for ice cream (the coveted Sander's Hot Fudge for any old Detroiters among us).

Truly cringe worthy.

Has brining (esp. chicken breasts) not done the job? Or is it somehow verboten? I'm all for sous vide, but brining (and perhaps poaching) would be my first recommendation.

Well, I do have some basil growing, but that's not where my questions are. More along the lines of grapes and mulberries.

This topic seems to have grown some legs since just November. It makes me wonder if there shouldn't be a gardening forum. I actually found it while trying to find answers a couple of specific questions but it seems like questions about, say, basil or arugula could better be put in their own threads - regardless of years.

That's the problem. We think that just because something comes from a small farmer, a farmer's market, a micro-brewery, we think it's good. That is BS. It's not. That's not to say that none of it is, and the people that are producing those exceptional products are being lost in the mix. The worst offenders, IMHO, right now are the micro-breweries and brew pubs. The craft beer crap. I love it that many people are experimenting with beer, but most of those experiments have not been successful (but must be marketed)l. Guinness is successful - has been for a long time. And it's actually cheaper now than almost all of these craft beers. We need more Guinness and less Harvey's Hoppity Hop Double Chili Ale. We are not producing prosciutto di parma, Roquefort, brie, camembert, etc. We think 'local' is a solution without understanding 'terroir' or 'craft' or 'good'. It's not enough to be local, artisanal, micro, craft, or whatever. You have to be good. California has proven that this can be done with wines. Wisconsin with cheeses. But there are crap wine and cheese makers in both those places. I guess it does go back to the consumer.

Call me a crazy pedant, but I think that if you have to seek it out, or grow it yourself, it qualifies as difficult to find. But I think we (the U.S.) are going through a positive change right now. We're starting to adopt more European attitudes. But we don't yet have the experience to back it up.

Yeah, but here's the problem - IMHO...(and I feel the need to point out that I did not grow up here, but...) If you look at the tenderloin in the pic above and compare it to the bun that is nicely loaded up, you'll see that it just doesn't fit. The bottom bun is presumably below the tenderloin but you can't even see it. Nobody would accept a burger that's three times the size of the bun. But it seems to have become the norm here as some sort of point of pride. But here's the dirty little secret, as I imagine it - if you know what a pork tenderloin is, you'll also know that no amount of pounding will make it that big. It must, therefore. be a pork loin sandwich. And is it even a sandwich if, in fact, most of the sandwich filling is not between bread? I call Shenanigans! Edit - I need to say that a properly sized pork tenderloin sandwich is one of the best things ever. I'm just objecting to the Tenderloinus Rex versions.

Tomorrow is the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. So how 'bout a 14 year, 149 page pork tenderloin sandwich thread.... http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php/25668-OT-Tenderloins Take that, Iowa.

I think that if I was doing a recipe for the first time - for people other than those I normally experiment on - I would stick to the recipe. That said, Mac n' cheese is usually not a high risk proposition. But I agree with pbear, you should do one or the other. The roux and sodium citrate are redundant and may well work at cross purposes. I think if you're looking for Velveeta.-texture, the sodium citrate version is what you will want. But I'll offer a warning. Ruhlman's recipe seems to be pretty flavor-intensive. At the same time, the sodium citrate cheese sauce tends to pass on a lot more of the other flavors in a sort of cleaner way. For instance I have had at various times things (e.g. soups, sauces and the like) called 'beer-cheese' on the menu. It always tasted like a thin cheese sauce with not much beer taste. But when I did a cheese sauce using just (cheap) beer, cheese and sodium citrate, the result screamed BEER!. I think refrigerating will be fine. I'd just save the final topping for just before the oven and heat gently under foil. My gut feeling is to do it covered it at 350 and then put the spurs to it and let it finish at recommended 425 for 15 minutes or until looking good.