EMichels
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Posts posted by EMichels
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19 minutes ago, KennethT said:
Bumping this old thread - has anyone used this competitor to Edge Pro?
You don't note whether you have previously used the EdgePro. Looking at the Wasabi, I note a couple of things different from the EdgePro. First, it would appear that the only way to use it would be to clamp the knife, which is done by way of two allen screws, which strikes me as likely quite secure but a bit fiddly. I have found on the EdgePro that I tend to simply hold the knife by the handle against the base (not clamping it as intended) as I can then quickly run through multiple knives before changing out the stone. It also allows me to easily reposition longer knives for a better angle against the stone. I find this to save me a bunch of time versus running through the range of stones on each knife and then starting over again on the next knife. Also, I've found that the clamp can capture some of the swarth and scratch the knife. Second, it might just be me but I would not be excited about having the blade protruding out from the edge of my counter - even assuming that I would not leave it unattended. Finally, I have always had difficulty with anything that is required to be clamped to a countertop/tabletop. In every instance my countertop has been either too thick to fit inside the clamp or there is not enough overhang to install. While this clamp appears to have a large jaw, one still needs to find a counter with enough overhang to use it.
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Central MA - I had that exact same same blender. It was purchased sometime around the year 2000 so I'm guessing that your date code is accurate to 1998. It wasn't especially expensive when purchased (perhaps $60-$75?) and it never was much good. The jar looks cool but nothing moves in it. The blade will whip around the contents immediately surrounding it but the tall narrow jar with all the nooks and crannies takes hold of everything else and you spend most of your time shaking the jar or pushing the contents around with a spatula. I will agree, however, that it looks far better than a Blendtec.
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I can confirm that the Fissler works fine on induction.
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3 hours ago, Darienne said:
At this point anyway, we've decided to take a 'loss' at reselling instead of redoing what needs to be done.
We are planning to sell a home in which some family have been living that needs some basic improvements prior to sale. We have spoken with both the Redfin and Zillow teams. They both have groups that will purchase your house as-is, do the work the needs to be done, and re-sell. The offers were very fair though this may be somewhat dependent on geography. Redfin also will arrange to have the work done for you with their own teams at cost plus a small fee - well worth it, in my opinion, particularly if you account for the time difference in how long it takes them to complete the work vs. arranging it or doing it yourself. This is the route that we plan to take once the house is vacant. Finally, the commissions with either of these services are materially lower than a traditional agent.
By the way, the Redfin agent was very, very knowledgeable and professional. Zillow not so much.
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I used this grease that I purchased from Amazon for a repack several years ago and the mixer has been working well:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041S1OUM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
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The first thing that I would try would be to plug the radio and the microwave into separate circuits. That might mean running a cord from another room for the test depending on how your house is wired. Agree that it is odd that it would be causing interference while not in use but it could be that it has added some noise to the power circuit for which your radio is not well shielded. If that's the case, it could be an actual flaw in either the radio or the microwave, poor electrical engineering of the microwave and/or radio, or that there is an issue with the wiring on that circuit. Annoying problem in any case.
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My wife uses a google home for the purposes. I prefer the Thermoworks Extra Big and Loud. I might be tempted to get the Timestack if I were looking for one now but with multiple Extra Big and Louds I can position next to the thing that I am timing so that I don't forget which timer is which.
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52 minutes ago, m61376 said:
Thanks- yeah, that's why I'm not sure if I should repair it.
The other one that was interesting is the new Vacmaster 220- I like the size and the no maintenance. It's really for light home use so not sure I need/want the maintenance of an oil pump. It's a new machine- any thoughts?
Anyone have any ideas on how to repair it easily?
On my Vacmaster those pins are secured by threaded nuts. The pins on the Polyscience have to be attached somehow and it wouldn't surprise me if it were similar. As they protrude into the vacuum chamber the space below the chamber (where it sounds like your problem lies) should be accessible (not sealed). I would definitely pop it open before pursuing either the Polyscience repair or purchasing a replacement machine.
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2 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
Just turn it on a bit before you want to use it.
Thanks, Jo.
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I tried to Google search this yesterday but couldn't locate a good result in a reasonable amount of searching. I suspect that the crowd here will know the answer. If one were to use the blast chiller to rapidly freeze an item for storage, can it them be stored in a traditional home self-defrosting freezer and retain the quick freeze benefit of the blast chiller (smaller crystals, less detrimental impact from freezing)?
How long does the unit take to chill itself? Do you need to leave it plugged in at all times to be practical or can you just chill it a bit ahead of time when you know you want to use it?
The production units pictured above do look better than the pre-production units that had been pictured on the web site.
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We have been very happy with ours. It has served us well so far (about 5 years). I can't offer much in the way of a comparison, however, as I've never owned a similar unit from competing brand (had always been a renter previously). We also have an oven/stove, range hood, and dishwasher from the same line. They have all performed flawlessly save for a power surge that knocked out a control panel in the stove (but much of the neighborhood had damaged electronics/appliances so can't blame Thermadore). The damaged control unit was easily replaced.
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Yes, that's the fridge - Thermadore.
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2 minutes ago, Porthos said:
I love this. It looks like a pot rack seen in the kitchen of Downton Abbey, and I liked seeing it there.
Thanks for sharing.
We have just been re-watching Downton Abbey and noticed it in the kitchen there as well!
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Two of our more recent solutions pictured below. The cabinets are from Ikea, are very inexpensive, and are much better quality than one would expect. The pot rack is by Enclume and is sold by a variety of places. It is excellent quality and comes in a couple of different sizes.
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1 hour ago, Dave the Cook said:
Funny: after trying the handle style for the first time, I disposed of my bowl-style juicers.
Well, there you go. Proof that I don't have the answer to all the world's problems! 😁
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15 hours ago, KennethT said:
Years ago, I also snapped the handles of a lime squeezer on an especially dry lime. Hurt like hell! Now I'm a lot more careful when I use its replacement.
If you have only ever used the 'handle style' citrus juicer, I highly recommend picking up one of the style pictured below. I immediately disposed of all of the handle style after the first use of the 'bowl style'. I found the handle style to make a giant mess and leave a lot of the juice behind while the bowl style never has overspray, is very effective at separating all the juice, collects it in a handy cup (with ounce and ml measures on many) and has a convenient pour spout. I use the smaller one for lemons and limes when making cocktails and the bigger one for larger volumes or larger fruit like oranges, grapefruit, or big lemons.
The smaller one is made by Trudeau and available from Amazon. I also have a couple of knock-offs that look exactly the same (but are not as good) sourced from our local $0.99 store. The big one I purchased for less money than the small one at Smart and Final. It is very high quality with a heavy glass jar and very strong hard plastic top. I have multiples as I use them nearly every day and always have some cycling through the dishwasher.
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Thanks for the early review. Do you have any idea how hot of a temperature you can sustain? Over the weekend I tried deep frying on my Avantco induction hob, which didn't work out well. The hob overheated three times before the oil reached cooking temp. Once at temp I put the hob into temperature hold mode hoping that it would quickly recover after adding the food and not go over temp like I sometimes do when manually controlling the stove. Unfortunately, that didn't work either as the unit is very conservative with power adjustments while in hold temp mode. I would be interested in your thoughts on whether this would work with the Polyscience unit or whether anyone else out there has had success deep frying over portable induction.
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On 5/31/2018 at 8:45 AM, hongda said:
Anova on clearance at Target. Ringing up at $64.50 around me.
https://brickseek.com/target-inventory-checker/?sku=072-10-0414
Plug in your zip code to check local availability.
Note that there is some uncertainty to this deal, despite prices reported by Brickseek. I visited Target today to pick up a unit shown by Brickseek as priced at $64.50 but in-store the unit was marked and rang-up at $90.30.
Edit: Edited to add that it Brickseek was merely a day ahead of the store in marking down the unit. I returned a day later and, while it had not yet been re-tagged, it rang up at $64.50. Credit to a fellow egulleter for alerting me to this phenomenon.
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The KitchenAid 6qt KL26M1X is available direct from KitchenAid in brand new (not refurbished) condition on EBay right now for $249.99 with free shipping. Using the EBay coupon code PHoliday10 brings the price down another $25.00 to $224.99. This is the best price I've seen on the 6 qt, which I've been watching for this year. Available in Black, Red, and Silver.
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I have not yet seen it mentioned in the thread so I thought I would add that I've found an old Saladmaster manual rotary cone food processor to be perfect for shredding cheese. I hated using the food processor because of the clean up and found that when I did I would inevitably end up with half of the cheese smeared between the blade and the cover. The Saladmaster is extremely quick and easy to set up, use, and clean up. I can be through a whole chunk of cheese in less time than it would take to dig out the shredding disc and set up the food processor. I put the cone in the dishwasher and do a quick wipe down of the main unit and I'm done. They still sell for pretty good money on EBay but if you watch for awhile you'll find a deal. Even less expensive is the same set up for the accessory port on a KitchenAid mixer, which could work if you have space to keep your KitchenAid out on the counter all the time. The KitchenAid attachment has been designed with much more of a safety mindset, which I think would make it a bit less functional, but should still get the job done for shredding cheese.
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I remember my mother and grandmother always using a prong style Tupperware masher (like this: https://www.fishpond.com.au/Kitchen/Vintage-Tupperware-Potato-Masher-Almond-off-white-Rare/9999131688942) to mash their potatoes - not because they were trying to protect the pot, that's just the only masher they had. It should work perfectly for this situation.
I noticed that OXO is selling a very similar model if you don't care to hunt down the Tupperware on EBay or the thrift store.
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This is a classic problem in off-site storage locations. Many, many people (including many professional offsite storage warehouses) store in cardboard boxes without issue. However, many small wine coolers have an issue with humidity control. I'm not familiar with Climadiff but one of my cabinets of a similar size has a persistent mold problem near the condensation collection area. That could quickly get out of hand with cardboard in the cooler.
The best solution that I've heard of (short of sourcing additional shelves for your unit) is to cut to length sections of PVC pipe with a diameter large enough to fit a wine bottle inside the tube and stack them inside your cooler. They will be very stable and inert so won't smell, get moldy, etc. and it makes accessing any particular bottle very easy. It will, however, seriously reduce your total storage capacity (as you've noted with the cardboard dividers).
The only other issue that I would point out is that with any similar solution you'll likely want to leave some space at the front or back of the cooler (don't cut the tubes to the exact depth of the cooler) to allow for air circulation. Without proper circulation, temps in the cooler can diverge significantly from top to bottom.
Eric
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4 hours ago, PositiveMD said:
Hello everyone,
I recently purchased the VP112S; but it doesn't seem to be sealing correctly. According to their website food saver bags should work with the chamber sealer, but I'm having trouble getting anything to seal. I've set it to the max vacuum and seal time level without any success. I've been trying to vacuum some dried pasta.
The black seal bar doesn't seem to be making contact with the seal bar on the bottom. When the machine runs, the lids seems to be locked into place. I would have to pull quite hard to open the lid at that point, so I know there some sort of seal going on. The issue seems to be that after the timer finishes, I don't hear any air being let back into the chamber. The machine just stops running and the seal time starts. It makes me think that I perhaps installed the black seal pad on the lid and the bottom gasket incorrectly, but as far as I can tell they can only be installed one way.
Have you guys run into an issue like this before?
I have a VP112 and my machine will display a problem like you describe if I don't press down on the lid to make a good seal during the first few seconds of a cycle. Fortunately, mine has the pressure gauge so I can tell when a vacuum has been achieved and let go. You should still be able to tell by the machine sounding slightly different once the vacuum has been achieved.
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On 9/9/2017 at 8:04 PM, Lisa Shock said:
Just came back from visiting several shops. I picked up some cups and saucers that match my everyday china, and, for a big $2 a sixth edition (1954) copy of Bottoms Up by Ted Saucier. No pics because the book is full of saucy pictures of topless and nude ladies. The dustcover is clear plastic with a cup image printed on it -which only covers a small portion of the cloth covered hardback with the repeating image of a nude, front, back, and spine. Inside, there are full page color glossy pin-up type images, plus every page has tiny drawings of people, mostly topless ladies, in compromising positions. The recipes seem to be pretty basic, though. (sample recipe: a couple cubes of ice, enough gin to make the ice float, a dash of bitters) The art may be the actual highlight of this volume.
That's an amazing find. That book is highly sought after in the cocktail world. It sells for a minimum of $50 on EBay. A copy in good condition with dust jacket will sell for over $75. I just recently picked up a copy myself but haven't had a chance to make much from it yet.
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High-end Cookware - What you get for the money
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted · Edited by EMichels (log)
All-Clad have released multiple lines of cheap stuff in past couple of years. The strategy really puzzles me. In most cases it is a playbook move to start high quality/low volume and use that brand value and recognition to expand to high volume/low quality to maximize profit. However, All Clad have had such a lock on the high-end market for so long that it seems folly to burn so much of that brand equity in order to move a few more $30 non-stick anodized aluminum skillets. I suspect that there is a large portion of the current All-Clad consumer base that buys for the name. It does not take long for that market to move on when All-Clad becomes just as known for cheap skillets at HomeGoods as for the original high-quality fully clad cookware. I suspect that this is a reaction to the rapid disappearance of their traditional retail channels (Macy's, Sur la Table, etc.) and growth of the discount channel (TJ Maxx/Marshalls/HomeGoods) but this direction strikes me as more likely to kill the brand than to offer a way through the retail transition.