IndyRob
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Posts posted by IndyRob
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I can tell you that scrambled is not the way to order in a diner. They are never pillowy mounds of eggy wonder. Invariably they are chopped up flattop disasters.
Well, this is kind of a good start because as I was posting, I was wondering if I could order "Scrambled Easy" or "Scrambled Medium" like I could with the "Over-" varieties.
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Checking in on the Breakfast Adventures thread, I was reminded of a breakfast story from long ago. My wife is a fairly worldly person. I mean, she's arranged golf dates between executives and movie stars, has worked a corporate booth in a Vegas industry show for years. Her mother was also a country cook (known locally for her fried chicken) who later in life had a great affinity for the Cracker Barrel.
So I was surprised one morning as we sat in a restaraunt ordering breakfast, that she appeared to be stymied by the waitress's question "How would you like your eggs cooked?" After some apparent consternation, she said "Um, fried?"
Maybe it was a case of brain freeze, but she said afterwards that she just didn't have the vocabulary (perhaps mom's affinity for the Cracker Barrel didn't appear until after the nest was empty).
And, although I tried to suggest some hopefully helpful suggestions (Sunny Side Up? Over Easy?, etc.), I later thought that my own knowledge was probably limited to only that which I had heard others order.
So in that spirit, I ask "What are all the breakfast egg preparation options? And what what should be one's expectations for each?"
(There is, of course, EGCI's All About Eggs - Cooking With the Pros, but I'm thinking about a more concise guide to ordering.
And relevant diner slang is always fun, as well as any "stump the breakfast guy" type preparations.
[ETA] Note that, unless anyone is bursting at the seams to display their encyclopedic egg knowledge, I'm not asking that any one person define the whole compendium. Just pick your own preference and expectations. The compendium will come.
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Lafayette and American Coney Islands in Detroit. And they're right next to each other.
Although I sometimes suspect that this was an expansion plan with a publicity twist. But I've never heard anyone else suggest that.
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Oh, and it has to have a USB hub and wireless internet.
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there are so many reasons i won't buy pre-ground meat. E .Coli (i like my occasional burger rare in the center), and now pink slime.
sorry--it may be perfectly safe, but i don't want ammonia-washed beef by-product in my beef. when i want ground beef for something, i either buy it someplace where they will sell me a hunk of chuck and grind it for me right then, or i will either use the kitchen-aid grinder or just pulse it in the food processor, depending on its intended use. just my solution.
Your diligence is admirable. But I'll trust my grandchildren to the folks with the lab coats. It's not a new science, and it feeds millions.
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The only thing I'm going to add to this is that I bet the Moto guys (who I was happy to see there going in) took some ribbing at the restaurant after this aired. "It's meeee... sob-sob-sob". Then the other one takes things that they actually do at Moto and does them extremely unwell. I wonder if Homaro has him in a prep area rolling cigars and carving potatoes all day now?
I think you're right. They did play into the MG stereotype pretty well, didn't they?
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IndyRob, thanks for providing the logical counter argument to our immediate, negative reaction to this subject. I think a lot of us (me included) don't know much about commercial meat processing. I'm easy to spook, I'll admit. This does sound like just another means of "maximizing" a product.
Still. I'm looking forward to that meat grinder attachment!
Thanks, LindaK. I don't mean to seem argumentative or combative. Yes, I am a logical person in a world where logical people sometimes make decisions for those of a more passionate bent.
Douglas Baldwin, for instance, helped to show us that we could cook meat to a desireable temp without needless worry. [ETA] He was just more public than others.
I worry that Jaime Oliver, while lamenting the paltry sums allocated to the nutritional sustenance of our youths, may be torpedoing that goal with pseudoscience.
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Selling this stuff in ground beef is misleading. Yes, technically it is beef, but it is not what the average consumer expects to be in their ground beef. When I buy ground beef, I expect that it was processed in a grinder, not a centrifuge.
If I was aware, especially on this forum, of all forums, of any post, by anyone, who ever said that "my ground beef from this market had too much pink slime", I might be concerned. But no one has.
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From what I understand about the pink slime, it is not actually beef, it is connective tissues that are added as an extender.
But I don't think connective tissue would be pink. And I don't see any benefit to adding connective tissue to ground beef unless you're looking to add gelatine. But surely, no one here has a problem with gelatine.
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Rob-
First, if I am buying ground beef, I want ground beef, not pink slime. And I think if they add pink slime to extend the ground beef, they should have to disclose this.
But it is ground beef. Granted, it's gone through one extra innocuous step and one more chemical step meant to improve saftey, but it's still chopped up muscle.
Second, the pink slime is exempt from the same testing for bacteria that ground beef undergoes because the beef is supposed to be sterilized by the ammonia, but spot testing has demonstrated that this is not true.If true, is that a problem with the product? Or a problem with the regulations?
Third, as a parent, I do not want my kids eating this crap. The nutrition is less than ground beef, and I am not aware of any long term studies on adding ammonia to foods.I wonder how many people who object to this pink slime stop by every Purell container they come across, unaware of the fact that water is more than twice as effective as the hand sanitizer.
On the other hand, if we can fully use every bit of the animals (in a modern continuation of the practice of native Americans which are so lauded) we can reduce the number of those slaughters and/or provide less expensive proteins to our growing children.
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I'm feeling really ignorant. How long has this stuff been added to ground beef? Is it only beef?
We're likely to get a better answer, but in the meantime it's interesting to note that the Wikipedia Ammonia article links to something called 'beef tea', which links to Bovril. That article traces Bovril's origins back to 1870, although the ammonia article indicates that the antiseptic qualities were known in 1895.
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I listened to a story on this on NPR the other day. I could not discern one fact as to why this was necessarily bad. Only that it seems yucky.
"Lean beef trimmings" could describe the chain of a tenderloin. Although I think we're talking about much, much smaller scraps. But no less worthy of consumption.
A centrifuge shouldn't scare anyone. It's an amped up salad spinner and it sounds like they're using it to separate fat.
The ammonia might sound alarming, but as Wikipedia points out, it "is currently used commercially to reduce or eliminate microbial contamination of beef." I would look on eliminating microbial contamination as a worthy goal for my children's food.
If it looks gross, well, I bet we could have a whole thread about gross looking foods.
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...And if we were having ham, she never failed to remind me, "Slice the ham thick, Darlin' - that's what Mr. Harvey always said. 'Slice the ham thick.'"
I might have to adopt that phrase as a general way of offering approving encouragement.
"Oh yes, my friend, slice that ham thick."
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Wasn't some iconic name made by reviewing road food in America? I thought it was Howard Johnson, but a quick read at his Wikipedia page doesn't appear to bear this out.
Duncan Hines was the guy. Salesman who travelled and made a list of good restaurants.
Thank you.
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Wasn't some iconic name made by reviewing road food in America? I thought it was Howard Johnson, but a quick read at his Wikipedia page doesn't appear to bear this out.
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I bought a Kenwood as a present for my wife after she asked for a KA. Price and power seemed to favor the Kenwood, so I opted for that. Later we remodeled our kitchen with a lot of black and stainless steel and a new KA (Artisan) was acquired to match. And the Kenwood was retired to a lower cabinet in another room.
By this time it had become established that I was the primary mixer user in the household. The KA worked fine, but at some point I dragged the Kenmore out again. They now sit side-by-side on our countertop.
The Kenmore is my go-to bread and pizza dough machine. It's clearly more powerful, and the plastic bowl is easier to clean. The KA only stays because of its looks and stainless steel bowl (better for beating egg whites that might be compromised by fat hiding in plastic).
I think that if I were looking for a new machine, I'd try to find one with both stainless and plastic bowl options.
Kenmore doesn't appear to be an option in the U.S. anymore.
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Mrs Hagerty is a honey badger.
What am I missing?
I think http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/honey-badger (Caution, bad words).
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Yeah. I remember when my parents took me on a trip around Lake Michigan, probably '63 or '64. Most of the diner food was not so good. I remember my mother saying that it was worth stopping "at the place with golden arches." As I recall, she said something like the food was not very good, but not very bad either.
This is a good point. I think there was a time when consistancy was more valued than variety - for good reason. I think McDonald's capitalized on this big time.
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Along the cheesecake do-ahead lines, I did a sort of American Kitsch Entreme that was pretty successful at Thanksgiving. While it could and probably should be improved, the reason I'll post it is that it turned out to be very rich, which made the serving size a very narrow wedge - which meant a lot of servings in single springform pan.
First do a half batch of brownies in a springform pan (I think I used some parchment paper on the bottom for insurance). Bake that off, cool, and add a layer of chocolate ganache. Then a layer of whipped cream with confectioner's sugar, cocoa, and grated chocolate (which replaced the originally imagined Cocoa Krispies which proved to get soggy in a test). Then prepare some Swiss Miss hot chocolate and add gelatin (originally I was amused at the prospect of a Gelee of Yoo-Hoo but it turns out that Yoo-Hoo is pretty much flavorless). Let that cool and pour over the top to cover. Then in the fridge to get a nice glossy and perfectly flat top.
It sliced and held together very cleanly and the individual thin wedges were very attractive (even with the steak knife I was presented with on-site). The finishing touches could have been better (better gloss, some shaved chocolate flower garnishes, a better outer edge treatment) and some more complex flavors (espresso, almond paste, etc.) could have been introduced, but the general concept proved to be sound.
The less tested strawberry version turned out to be a structural disaster. Shortbread base, white chocolate ganache (who knew that it burns so easily? Upon checking the web, pretty much everyone but me), strawberry mousse (this was the culprit), and a gelee of strawberry Kool-Aid. I should've went with my gut and dumped it all into a glass bowl with a big spoon, but yielded to my wife's insistence that it was fine.
It oozed out onto our host's countertop at the first slice. It turned out that we took almost all of it home whereupon she quite happy to eat it out of a bowl for the next week, often commenting on how good it was. Perhaps it was an insidious plot.
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I read somewhere that knife selection is a very personal thing. A knife comfortable for someone with dainty hands might be a knuckle buster for the large handed. Perhaps an adjustable handle might be an interesting design feature (might lead to balance issues though). Or, perhaps a blade that can accept a variety of handles that are all designed for the blade, but suit different people (that really doesn't go to the design goal, though).
Another thought is whether a chef's knife really needs a point. I don't think that it is (or should be) often called upon for stabbing things. So perhaps a point design that visually suggests that it's meant to be slid on the block. Taken to a ludicrous degree, it could have a roller at the tip. This would be stupid, of course, but would be a clear indication that it's not meant for hacking away at stuff.
[ETA]I was just reflecting on dicing onions. Normally I use one of my chef's knives, but if a santoku is the only one clean at the moment, I'll use that. Upon reflection, in these cases, my approach and mechanics change significantly, so I think you're on the trail of a good idea.
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An 85 year-old Grand Forks, ND food writer found herself in the news after writing a positive review of the area's new Olive Garden restaurant. A food blog picked up on the column and led to it going viral.
Sure, for most, an Olive Garden is hardly newsworthy, but methinks we point-and-snicker too much(?).
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A kilogram of water is exactly one liter, or a liter is exactly one kilo. Folks, it doesn't get much simpler than that. If your scale is accurate to 1 gram, then you'll be very accurate with measuring liquids on a scale.
BTW, I've discovered that wolframalpha has densities of various foodstuffs. Type in 'egg', for instance, and among the results will be Serving Density - 1 gm/cm3 (most liquid ingredient densities seem to vary little from water).
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Are three or four tines required, as opposed to two? It occurred to me that a regular fork (from Goodwill, a garage sale, or a box in the basement) could be adapted with the help of a grinder.
Table forks may not be suitable, but on a whim I looked in one of my kitchen drawers and found a set of three tined forks that came from a set of dubious pizza tools I received as a gift (along with some serrated knives with the word "PIZZA" done in a cutout on the blades). The forks have nice looking wood handles, the metal is stainless steel. The tines are a bit heavy, but that's where a (hopefully) artful application of a grinder wheel would come in. Perhaps followed by a progression of sand papers of increasingly finer grains.
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Bryan, my experience has differed from yours in one respect. Yes, I have often experienced the limited supply phenomenon, where a ration of lobster tails comes out every half hour and runs out in five minutes. But no, I have not noticed that they don't bring any out until the restaurant is full -- just the opposite, the last time I was at East Buffet (Queens) we went right when they opened and ate our fill off the first tray of lobster without much competition, whereas subsequent trays were descended upon by vulture-like crowds.
I was reminded of this thread as we again were invited to join my son and his wife at a Chinese buffet restaurant today. Again, I was not enthusiastic about it, but at least, I was assured, there would be the unlimited crab legs.
As it turned out, no, there were no crab legs at all. But they had added some sort of (barely acceptable) Texas toast. So I had the bread I longed for in my previous post (just two posts up, I think), but no crab legs.
Ironically, after coming home I found myself watching the Vegas episode of No Reservations again. In this, Tony Bourdain expounds upon his own buffet strategy - eschew the starches, and go for the expensive proteins, because the starches are meant to fill you up. (which, in fact, I was using as a justification for bringing my own bread).
It turns out that my son inquired about the crab legs, and was told that there were too many people coming in and eating only crab legs.
Oh, and there was another new item on the Chinese buffet - Pizza.
Much of our conversation centered on how crowded the restaurant used to be.
Clearly, premium protein offerings on a buffet are akin to a high wire act. Balance is everything.
"How would you like those eggs cooked?"
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted · Edited by IndyRob (log)
This seems similar to how Jacques Pepin said he liked his eggs on one of his programs. There's no 'over' part, just a 'sunny side up' egg (in a pan) with a cover so the top of the yolk gets a bit cloudy.