IndyRob

Apparently, Jacques Pepin (according to him) and Julia Child had a disagreement about whether butter should go into crepe batter. He said it should, and she said it shouldn't. They had a cook-off and he had to admit hers were better. I still put melted butter in mine. I like it (but it is a tablespoon or two, versus three eggs). Look on the last page here. (Oh, wait, it has one egg, but I bet it has a shot at success without it). The upshot is to start with a poolish or sourdough starter and add a good quantity of cornstarch (probably around 3TB, although I was probably measuring by weight) to provide crispiness.

We must be using very different definitions for the phrase "nothing like", since dosa are pretty widely defined as "a crepe" by people who make and sell them. Sure, they're crispy and made of rice and lentils... but they're still a thin batter-based crepe. To me, a crispy crepe would be akin to a crunchy omelette. It doesn't make sense. A vegan crepe seems an an oxymoron. Crepes are mostly egg. Still, I'm intrigued, because I have developed a good Belgian Waffle recipe that happens to be vegan compliant (but not gluten-free). So, the problem solver in me is wondering what the standard vegan substitutes for eggs are.

I'm not going to go to the effort to find their actual press release. But... When McDonald's and other fast-food chains announced last month that "pink slime" was no longer being used in their burgers, some thought that the product, beef trimmings treated partly with ammonium hydroxide, had disappeared from the nation's food supply.... (and then on to the school thing).

But it's not 'anything from a cow'. Note that the centrifuge is used to remove fat from beef trimmings - leaving what? Beef. No two ways around that. And if there was a labeling requirement, it would probably read "Contains boneless lean beef trimmings". The only thing I find potentially controversial is that ammonia is used as a food safety instrument. But it appears to work as.... (from the above link) Food safety experts in 2011 acknowledged the role of such processes in protecting the United States’ food supply against events such as the European E. coli outbreak.[5] Okay, so it's safe, but it's an inferior product, right? On December 24th, 2011, McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell announced they would discontinue the use of BPI products in their food.[6][4] Has anyone noticed a difference? I haven't. Anyone care to claim that they're awesome now?

Okay, so to try to enumerate, we have... Over Easy/Medium/Hard (I assume Hard is an option although it seems, like a well-done steak, something that should be eschewed). Scrambled - Easy/Medium/Hard? I'm not sure what Hard would be. Sunny Side Up - Almost always I've found this to result in a lightly cooked cook egg with a very running yolk. Is the Easy/Medium/Hard qualifier accepted here? Steamed/Braised/Covered - Some clouding of the top of the yolk? Pepin's preferred preparation. Boiled - Soft/Hard - Is there a Medium? Poached - Usually, the instructions found for poaching eggs are very precise without any guidance for variation. Poached is poached? Shirred - Again, are there degrees? Omelettes - Maybe I'm wrong, but I think these tend adopt their own personalities and are less adaptable to be done to individual preferences. Usually, when I cook an omelette it's in the Julia Child tradition. But I also do another hearty rustic American lumberjack sort with ground sausage and cooked in the sausage grease. These have a browned exterior.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Oh, and it has to have a USB hub and wireless internet.

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.

I think you're right. They did play into the MG stereotype pretty well, didn't they?

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.

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.

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.

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. If true, is that a problem with the product? Or a problem with the regulations? 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.

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.

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.

I might have to adopt that phrase as a general way of offering approving encouragement. "Oh yes, my friend, slice that ham thick."

Duncan Hines was the guy. Salesman who travelled and made a list of good restaurants. Thank you.

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.

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.

What am I missing? I think http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/honey-badger (Caution, bad words).

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.

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.