IndyRob
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I'm watching a program called Hooked on The National Geographic Channel (a current show with a 2011 date). This particular episode is about the invasion of Asian Carp in the Mississippi basin, their impact on (or the complete destruction of) the traditional fishing industry in the area and their threat to the Great Lakes. In searching, I found that these fish have been mentioned many times on eGullet but apparently haven't yet warranted their own topic.
This is a very fascinating story. A guy with an algae problem in his catfish pond finds success by importing Asian Carp. Within a couple of months, his algae problem is just a memory. But then come the floods and the Asian Carp, with no natural predators here, get into the main waterways and begin taking over.
I had been aware of this as a news story. Later I learned an important mitigating factor. Asian Carp are apparently very tasty. Upon review, they're most often compared to cod, but Wikipedia notes that many say that they taste like something between scallop and crab.
Sweet! And they're targeted for complete elimination. A veritable genocide of tasty fish is in the offing - all in the name of the environment and sustainability.
The only fly in the ointment seems to be that they are rather boney fish. And, well, okay, Americans don't find carp to be an appealing dining option. Most of the current catch is shipped back to China (apparently, 80% of farmed fish there is of this variety).
But these are not your bottom feeding variety of carp. They only eat algae, so they don't accumulate mercury. What bad stuff they pick up in the rivers, they store in their fat which is easily cut away. But in dining on algae, they do cut the bottom out of the food chain.
Bizarrely, the Silver Carp have a tendency to get spooked right out of the water (leaping as high as 10 feet), making them a hazzard for boaters and an aerial target for bow fisherman.
It's all a very complicated environmental balance issue. But listening to the biologists, it appears that the best environmental option is to kill them all.
Might as well eat 'em.
But somehow, I suspect that this wouldn't be the first time in history that we've made this choice. This seems a very tricky situation. -
I've developed some weird preferences with respect to potatoes and butter/cream. For mashed potatoes, it has to be butter and cream. For baked potatoes, I prefer putting equal parts I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (formerly Parkay until they changed their formula) and sour cream into a ziplock bag with some salt and chives. I'll mix that and leave it in the fridge for the flavors to marry. Then I cut off a corner of the bag and insert a pastry tip and pipe it into the opened baked spuds.
I don't have a good explanation for the difference other than texture. If you're going for creamy, anything short of cream is going to be, well, less creamy. So perhaps there's a kernel of wisdom in there somewhere. Play to the ingredlents you want to use rather than trying to replicate the results of the ones you're trying to avoid.
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I think I'm feeling the intent of the original question and it's a good one. Although I propose that we narrow in on a specific cut (or a specific comparison). Beef Round seems like a good choice. I've done a round roast sous vide and sliced it thinly across the grain and it was good. But not filet good.
Still, someone with good knife skills and a good eye could probably cut up a round roast and a tenderloin and present us with two pieces that most of us could not tell apart visually. But they'd have totally different properties.
Could we use brine/acid/braising/sous vide/jaccarding/injection/transglutaminase/molten lava/philospher's stones/Ginsu knives to transmute an eye of round into a filet?
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I think the final challenge on top chef masters for the first 2 seasons (cook a meal that tells the story of your culinary career) is the best challenge on any cooking show, so if they screw that up I'm going to RAGE.
I agree, but I think they'll get there. Hubert K had to cook in a dormroom bathtub on his way to that challenge. Top Chef has done a great job to create something that will attract these chefs, but with Masters they have to walk a tightrope. Most of Masters is like a company picnic with three legged races, maybe the egg on the spoon race.
Like Top Chef: Regular, it's a game, but even moreso when they're dealing with established reputations. It's not about world domination. It about us getting to get to know these chefs in a slightly charged, but comparativey relaxed environment.
I'm sure they'll let the final two or three show off.
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I think the best way to keep ribs moist is to keep them covered for most of the cooking time. My standard methodolgy is the following:
1. Apply rub to ribs night before or at least 3-4 hours before cooking.
2. Wrap in foil with a tiny amount of liquid (I like beer)
3. Cook in oven at 250 for 2-3 hours depending on size of ribs.
4. Apply bbq sauce and finish on grill or oven on higher heat until bbq sauce forms a glaze.
Ribs this way are always tender and moist, but still have just enough bite to the meat. It took me a long time to come around to abandoning the grill in favor of the oven for most of the cooking time, but once I did my ribs improved greatly. The downside is that the ribs aren't as smoky as some folks like. I generally prefer a lighter smoke taste so for me this way makes a lot of sense.
I agree completely. I have followed the same roads and arrived at the same destination. Not too concerned about smoke myself. Or what I can call it (other than words like succulent).
I had what Bon Appetit called the best ribs in America and they were very good. close to the bone. However, I found the much vaunted 'bark' akin to shoe leather.
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As to the ethics, which was in fact the question posed. I think it is appallingly unethical to take any bags beyond the ones you need to safely and convieniently transport the produce you are buying from the produce aisle to your home.
Appalling? Really? 'Unethical' I could get on board with. Entitlement-minded? Yeah, I might jump on that tram. But Appallingly unethical?, Um no, I'm not riding on that train.
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Hmmm, What if I threw some blueberries in there? An egg? I could let the poolish sour. What if I used pastry flour? Cornstarch would likely help with crispiness.
I followed up my waffle bread experiment with some gut level modifications. Much to my own surprise, I nailed my goals for color and texture - A nicely thin crispy golden brown exterior with a very light, airy, tender, slightly eggy crumb. The flavors could be more complex, but I'll feel very comfortable further developing that aspect. Still, with a pre-planned external application of butter and syrup, these were exactly what I was going for.
For two 7" diameter, 1.5" thick waffles....
75g White Lilly Flour (for lightness...)
75g All Purpose Flour (...but hedging my bet)
10g Cornstarch (for crispyness)
4g Sugar (for browning)
3g Salt
3g Active Dry Yeast
225g Water
1 Large Egg (50g)
Whisk together dry and wet ingredients separately. Then mix together. Let proof for an hour or two until risen about 50% over original level.
This basic recipe could use a bit more salt, but is okay as is. And as waffles go, these should be pretty healthy. I'm almost ashamed of that. But as my original goal was to drizzle butter over the top, I'm okay with it.
Future flavor enhancement plans:
- A touch more salt
- Cold ferment in the refrigerator overnight
- Vanilla
- Malt
- Replace some water with cream
- A touch more salt
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I stopped by the store this morning to ask if they pay for the bags. I didn't speak to an owner or authorized corporate representative -- just one of the section managers -- but what I was told is that they don't pay for bags. There's a company in Brooklyn, apparently, that sells bags to product manufacturers and prints advertisements on the bags. The product manufacturers offer these bags for free to the stores as a way to get their logos out there. The company is called Mediacy if anyone wants to do more research.
Well, in that case, the unethical act was quietly stuffing them into your pockets. You should have tucked the tops of the bags into your shirt collar and wore them like bibs for all to see. Then the question turns on how long you would have to keep them there until Mediacy owes you money.
I just checked a couple of produce bags in my kitchen (while wondering if I should start a "Silly stuff eGullet posts have caused you to do" topic
). No advertising. Well, unless "Fruits & Veggies - More Matters" is some sort of industry association ad. -
I think Alton is getting a bad rap for this home brew episode. I read the comments on the episode's page on the website. I thought, "Cool, let's see how bad Alton is being ripped." Then I watched the episode and was amused to see that the very first thing he points out is that he was wrong in a previous episode. This is immediately followed by the title 'Brewing 101'.
Let's be honest. We could rip any Good Eats episode if we attacked it with the fervor that the home brew community has mustered. But Good Eats is not about the best possible result. Its about putting the basic knowledge into the hands of Food Network viewers.
In a pizza episode, AB stepped in some doo doo with his insistance on kosher salt. It turns out that most people don't the same brand of kosher salt he does and, because they used a volume measure, they had to put a disclaimer on the episode's web page.
They do make mistakes. 20 minutes of TV will not make you a master brewer. But as many experienced home brewers have chimed in, this technique will likely make an acceptable beer.
Most of us have chlorine bleach and table sugar already. He points out many tools that would be good to have, but that they wouldn't be using.
Any given episode of Good Eats is like a gateway drug. It's never meant to produce the ultimate result, but to get you past the first hurdles.
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Having been on an inexplicable frozen waffle kick for a few weeks, I decided to breakdown and buy a Belgian Waffle maker. I found this thread and read through it first.
The recipes provided with the machine were very similar to the ones here so I decided start with those. First I tried a yeasted version and opted to just let it rise at room temp instead of leaving in the refigerator overnight (impatience). The results were okay. A little dense maybe. A few days later I tried the whipped egg white version. The results seemed pretty much the same. In fact, I was impressed by how similar they were. I was pretty sure of my technique, except for the heat setting and the amount of batter I was using. I suspect I'm using a bit too much batter and that's not leaving enough room for expansion.
One thing that struck me was that although there ws a lot of butter in the batter, I didn't feel that the results were all that buttery. I thought the same amount of melted butter poured on top of a baked waffle might be better. Having never had a proper Belgian Waffle, I had no preconception about what it was I was after. So I decided to throw convention to the wind and just start playing.
Thinking of similar baked things, the first thing that came to mind was pate a choux. Could I get a crispy exterior and a very light interior? I tried it, adding an extra egg to loosen the paste. I still had to pipe the dough onto the machine.
Perhaps because of the extra egg, I didn't get a crispy result. But it was eggy and buttery in a good way. Actually, it was a crepe in waffle form (a creffle?). I like crepes, so I may explore that path further.
Later I thought "Hey, what about funnel cake batter?" Looking it up, I discovered the potentially useful bit trivia that funnel cake batter pretty much is waffle batter.
Being generally fascinated by yeast leavened things, I then decided to go minimalist. What if I just poured a poolish in the thing? (a poofle?) Well, I had to find out. I took 150g flour (hi gluten), 200g water, 3g salt, and about a gram of yeast, and mixed it in a measuring cup. I let it bubble up and poured it into the hot waffle maker. It became waffle bread.
I'm still trying to decide what I think about it. It's bread - nice and freshly baked - but in a weird form. Visually, it would fool pretty much anyone (okay, maybe a little light in color). As I chew it, I think "Why isn't this a waffle?" Maybe a bit too chewy, not crisp enough on the outside, needs something in the flavor department....
Hmmm, What if I threw some blueberries in there? An egg? I could let the poolish sour. What if I used pastry flour? Cornstarch would likely help with crispiness.
Or, what if I poured brownie batter into the thing...?
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I own two of his books (still, after a major purge of cook books), and was a Good Eats early watcher. But, I'm actually a little surprised to hear that Good Eats is only now ending. I had completely lost track of it. I thought it was over.
I thought Alton had moved on to Iron Chef, Feasting on Whatever, and The Next Food Network Star.
Good Eats did seem to start to run out of ideas, but oddly, he never latched on to things like sous vide, or other modernist things that seemed right up his alley. He could have even brought some healthy skepticism to the whole discussion. Instead, he was entirely absent.
If he has a new project in the works, I must say that that I'm hopeful, but not expecting much. I fear that 'TV Alton' (enabled as it is by his clique of Current Food Network Stars) has taken over his wonderfully curious cooking side.
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As a side note, as this book is over 100 years old, it's out of copyright and the whole thing can be downloade or viewed in electronic form here...
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Don't let the central part of the 'flame' - the blue cone - touch the food.
It is (cold) unburned (as yet) gas.
So if you don't want to taste the gas, keep the blue cone off the food!
Same goes for any torch flame, not just butane.
Are you sure about that?
Yes.
High pressure gas exits the orifice thru a Venturi cavity that draws in air and mixes in the torch head. The gas/air mixture burns completely, which is indicated by the blue flame. The blue cone is where the burning temperature at the hottest.No.
The blue is unburned, therefore cold.
The hottest part is just ABOVE THE TIP of the cone.
In the UK this is taught in schools before mid-teenage.
I use a propane shop blow torch, I have never experienced propane taste or smell on the food. In any case propane and butane are highly volatile; they will evaporate immediately even if they somehow are deposited on the food.The problem isn't entirely the gas itself.
Most (all?) fuel gases have tiny traces of 'very smelly stuff' added to them so that you can "smell gas" if there should be a leakage.
You want that stuff to be burned before it hits the food.
This sounds like one of those perennial arguments that will need to be settled by an authoritative source.
Long before I ever thought of applying a torch to food, I was in metal shop and was told in no uncertain terms that the tip of the blue flame was the hottest part of the flame. So I have a problem reconciling the 'hottest part of the flame' with 'unburned fuel'.
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Butter. You need a churn, right? And spend hours churning for all you're worth?
Nah, pour some cream in the KitchenAid and put the spurs to it.
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I get that that the show is simply a piece of TV entertainment. But surely they can come up with challenges that are challenging without being silly. At least, they should eb able to fo the "masters" version of Top Chef.
It's like if they seem some interesting results with bizzare silly circumstances, every challenge has to be silly.
When it comes to Top Chef: Masters, I think the first commandment is "Thou shalt do no harm to a Master's reputation." Therefore, the sillyness is required. Nobody is going to lose their reputation for not being able to cook pasta in a dorm room bathtub. But, as in the last episode, you could acheive fame among your follow-on peers for having pulled it off (Hubert K).
Although it may seem counterintuitive, TC: Masters cannot be viewed as some sort of Superbowl event. It's more like the events surrounding the Pro Bowl where the top quarterbacks are trying to drop a football into a moving basketball net. The real game (not the Pro Bowl) is deadly serious. This is for fun.
Top Chef: Regular is where they can make people cry and make or break careers for our entertainment. As such, it's more compelling.
Still, some of the concessions they make in Masters are interesting. Such as letting the chefs view the quickfire judging on a TV in another room and letting them say what they want. I really like that twist.
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I like lo heat. Lots of stirring. Yields smaller, creamier curds. I've even done double boiler method. That yields really small curds. Takes longer, though. Would be a good method if you wanted to fill something (like an empty egg shell) with softly scrambled eggs.
Same here. I've tried the double boiler, but think I can do it as well over direct heat if I'm in the mood to be careful.
My discovery for the year is using a silicone spatula. Clean up is much easier if I don't get to it right away. Oh, and sriracha, but that was posted here years ago.
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So has anybody been able to go? I've looked for reviews but haven't found any. The only new news I've found is that Jumawn will be able to see 'his' concept realized, will receive a manager's salary (MOD?, store manager?, regional manager?...), and will receive a percentage of profits (I imagine somewhere between 0.00000001% and 1%).
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Handling lasers can be extremely dangerous unless in very controlled conditions.
And we ask why men tend to rise to the top of the trade. Because we revel in being idiots!
Fire, smoke, lasers...Hell, Navy Seals (and other Special Forces) cook over a small bit of C4 plastic explosives.
DISCLAIMER: Please wear rated eyewear when using lasers of any sort. And never cook with C4.
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Sounds interesting.. I have dental drills!!
Cool, then you can do this.
Actually, there is a lot on the web regarding laser cutter hacking. I've never dealt with such things, but it looks like with the very basics - laser diode, power supply, a slow rotating gear motor - and a clever mechanical setup, you could pretty easily build a laser eggshell topper. Add a cam mechanism to move the egg up and down during rotation, and the top edge could be scalloped.
[ETA]Oh, and I bet any non vibrating power sander could be used with a fine grade sandpaper and some care (and a good rinsing afterwards).
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My mother was from the same area and I had an uncle who fished Lake Superior nearly every day of his life. He passed some years back and his ashes were scattered in the lake (sorry about that
).As a child I had gone out with with him many times, and still have pictures of me as a child holding up a trout in each hand and can still (40 years later) mentally feel the bones behind the gills digging into my thumbs as I held them up for those pictures.
I learned how to scale and clean them and my mother was always given the assignment of cooking them. Now, while my mother taught me some good things about cooking, as a general cook, I now realize that she could struggle with some things. But this she knew. She had grown up up there. She knew how to cook fish.
This is my touchstone whenever I hear a great chef say to respect the ingredient. Get it fresh, and treat it simply. She used nothing but butter, S&P - maybe some flour. It is still the best fish I've ever tasted.
IMHO, you can't make fish good. You just have to avoid screwing up good fish. Get it off the boat and treat it simply.
[Edit]To be clear, Mom did it simply in a pan on the stove.
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I liked this show, and it's interesting that it has spawned something that we can actually sample, but I think it vindicates Top Chef's sudden death, one loss and you're out rules.
At least for the last two episodes, I was pretty confident that I knew that Soul Daddy would be the winner. That's good for the selection process, but not as good for TV.
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no fried chicken. But there are waffles.
I guess Bobby lost the argument. Perhapss this is explained by this item that says that Chipotle is buying Mr. Ells' interest for his cost - $220K, and that they're pumping over $2M into ANGR Holdings in exchange for equity. Presumably, the other judges have the same $220K share as Mr. Ells, so it would appear that Chipotle will be in control.
ANGR Holdings also owns the trademarks on all the other concepts.
Well played, Mr. Ells. But I want crispy fried chicken.
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Ah, here we are... http://www.souldaddyrestaurant.com/
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I think I've lost my grounding with respect to garlic bread. Kind of like pizza, I've discovered that there are styles which can be just as good as whatever your own tradition may dictate, but in different ways. I literally can't decide what garlic bread should be.
Actually, I came to like the unlimited garlic breadsticks at, of all places, Fazoli's. But only if they were fresh out of the oven (which is sometimes a tall order). My son was at the time at a high school cross country team member and before meets, it was traditional to have parents host a pasta party to load these boys up with carbs prior to the run the next day. I never hosted one, but I noticed that the 'cool' parents always had Fazoli's breadsticks.
But recently I tried something I had been thinking about for awhile. Instead of using prebaked breadsticks as Fazoli's does, do it from almost fresh. I took some frozen supermarket white bread dough, thawed it, formed it into sticks, and let it proof. Then I brushed it with garlic butter before and after baking.
I thought they would be good, but they were great. Screw Fazoli's prebaked crap forever.
Can we stew a piece of steak (or other lean meat) and make it tender?
in Cooking
Posted
With all due respect to NathanM and his contributions large and small - to eGullet and the general culinary world - I hope that discussion at eGullet will not devolve to quoting chapter and verse of MC.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the cheek - in any animal - have anything to do with moving the jaw?
That's why I thought that it would be most instructive to select two similar cuts, rather than one lean cut like a filet and another fatty one like cheek.
But it ignores the question that was asked. Can we make a lean cut more tender?