IndyRob

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.

Interesting. Would/should the cutting be reflected in the ingredient label? All I'm seeing is dextrose and Stevia in some form (other than cellulose in one case and 'natural flavorings'). So, powdered milk is out. Wouldn't this exclude the whole whipped cream thing? Perhaps I'll learn something(s) here. Does cream not contain the sugar?

Thanks for the considered response and especially that ratio. I think the ATK recipe used a partial can of the SCM, which is pretty awkward. Incidentally (not for your purposes, but for anyone intrigued by the SCM/No-machine method), I was at Walmart today and noticed a clearance cart - Everything under $2!. It had cans of Eagle brand chocolate-flavored SCM for $1.98. Had never seen that before. I bought three, but don't have any results yet as I've been doing other things. I hope they're going to eliminate an entire ingredient for my chocolate ice cream. Then again they were on clearance, so we'll see.... So, anyway, I thought that I'd be whipping up some cream soon, so why not steal a little bit for an experiment? I looked at my wife's sweeteners and came up with Sweet 'N Low, and two stevia based sweeteners (Stevia in the Raw and Equal Stevia Extract). I asked her if she wasn't using any of them and she said she wasn't using any of them. Ok, so I looked back and I believe you said that Stevia would be acceptable, if not for brand differences/variances related to taste/aftertaste issues. Well, I'll never be able to anticipate your personal taste and I anticipate any level of success would not be as good as the sugar for me. But it's about the texture, right? Alright, so gosh, I wonder if anyone has made SCM using Stevia. I found this recipe... https://myreecipes.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/stevia-sweetened-condensed-milk/ Not only does she claim that it was a success, but the ice cream she made with it was 'amazing' Hmm. I'll just need some powdered milk. I think I have some powdered buttermilk somewhere. That ought to do.... Edit for a note about the temperature issue - I put my mixture in a 32oz deli container which fits nicely in the door of the freezer. So that's where it stays and it's probably decidedly warmer than if I put it in the back of the freezer.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I hate Rodney. And yes, Rodney, I'm hating you because you're beautiful.

From ATK, I think...If you're going to apply cooking spray to a pan, open up the dishwasher door and spray it over that. Then close the door and the overspray is contained until the next wash cycle. Also, Mary Ann is handier with a spud than Ginger.

The condensed milk ice cream is very scoopable.I can attest to that, But I have a hard time believing that the ingredients besides sugar are not playing a role. Otherwise, why not just add sugar? I think the egg yolks may help. Heck, throw some tofu in there. But I think the fact that you had a success with a whipped product might lead you further down that line.

I don't know anything about the sugars/non-sugars (back in the day, I think people would be saying "Um, so you're using two cups of heavy cream and you want to reduce the sugar?!??!), but since you said this, it reminded me of the way I've been making Ice Cream. I had been wondering what happens if you just freeze whipped cream and found my answer with a YouTube search. It turns out the simple addition of sweetened condensed milk can turn a simple whipped cream into a passable ice cream without a machine. America's Test Kitchen has a video where they do this with the addition of chocolate, vanilla and coffee, while another woman simply whips the condensed milk with the cream to create a base into which she customizes individual cups with different flavors. The result is simply frozen. No machine. I don't think the ingredients in sweetened condensed milk are going to meet your needs, but perhaps the mechanical aspects of the technique could offer a way to try several formulations at once. Just whip the cream and divide and fold in other ingredients in separate containers and freeze individually. I was able to make mint chocolate chip and chocolate ice cream out of one batch of cream. Seems a perfect test bed for testing various ideas quickly.

The tongue is where we taste the salt, no? That's where the final judging is done.

Puff pastry. Raspberries. Maybe dots of cream cheese. Freeze. Bake. Enjoy.

Do we need salt for the meat? Or for the tongue? Granted, the tongue may need more salt if it's covered in fat, but there's plenty of water on the tongue - especially when presented with a great steak. But here, we're not talking about great steak. Just chuckeye vs. strip.

Well, you can't argue with that. So, naturally, I'm going to argue with that. They chopped the meat up and I think that makes it a very different thing. If my filet mignon is seasoned on the inside, I'm going to wonder what they did with it (and why). Some of it is about the contrast. And that steak pictured above posted by btbyrd - I don't know if I'd want to salt the bejeezus out of it.

I'm taking that picture to bed with me tonight in the hopes that I might dream of eating it.

I've never heard of salting different steaks differently. I think if you have some top quality Kobe or something, then it might bear some serious contemplation. But for regular steaks, I've never heard of such a thing. In fact, the one example I can think of is salting a round roast a day ahead (basically a dry brine). But this is to try to salvage a truly inferior cut - which is kind of the opposite of the question. In the last week I have run across a couple of people who like to aggressively salt steaks just before cooking. I usually like to salt well about five minutes before cooking. The idea (Alton Brown inspired) is to dry out the surface a bit for searing. Here's my best guess and I may be completely wrong - A chuckeye (which I also really like) has a much more open texture. More nooks and crannies for salt to get into. If you are at all rubbing the salt into the steak then I'd bet $1 that the chuckeye will grab and hold onto more. A strip steak has a much more homogeneous surface. My local Meijer stores have started to sell something the call a Manhattan steak. I think it's half of a New York strip. Versions using sirloin are also starting to appear. Both are cut to resemble filets, and they look quite convincing but, if you find a deal, can be less than $2.50 per steak. As I've lately been on a steak frite kick, I've taken to putting them in a bag with some heavily seasoned flour for about an hour before cooking and then dropping them into the frite oil (375) for about 90 seconds and then into a 425 degree oven for 6-7 minutes. If I've correctly judged the size of the steaks, and adjusted the 6-7 minutes right, the result is perfect med-rare with a crispy exterior.

Well, five years on, I've gotten pretty close, but no cigar yet. I know now that I can nail the filling. My Maltese uncle confirmed that it is cow's milk ricotta, and I've discovered only home made ricotta will do for its low moisture content. This allows you to add more eggs for more flavor. Then quite a bit of S&P to make it perfect. But I haven't yet perfected the ratios. But I always knew that would be the easy part. I nailed it once - I know I I can do it again (and eventually repeatedly) Now I'm on to fine tuning the pastry. The technique is one thing, but I've got it close and is just something I'll have to work on. But now I'm having a crisis about which flour to use. My latest (and even a bit photogenic) result was with Caputo "00" flour. But my previous attempt used high gluten flour and wasn't really that different (and might've had a better flavor). There are more videos out their now, but none of them explain the characteristics of the flour you want.