Dakki

Flipside to the flipside - things that are better when you make them not because of better quality ingredients or equipment (is it even possible for us "civilians" to have better equipment than a commercial kitchen?) but because you use a recipe that suits your taste better. I find commercial desserts, pasta sauces, etc. bland and much too sweet so I make my own.

Thanks, Rico. Very roughly, Argentine-style chorizo is an unsmoked sausage flavored with red wine, sweet paprika, nutmeg and garlic, unlike Mexican chorizo, which is (usually) a loose sausage spiced with vinegar and chiles, and Spanish chorizo, which is smoked. (I might actually have some of the details wrong, I'm no charcutiere). Anyway it's much milder and less salty than the Mexican variety and the flavor and consistency is very different. Dakki's whatever looks like it's going to spoil salsas. 6 overripe Roma tomatoes 8 tired-looking red jalapenos 1/2 large onion that's started to dry out, coarsely chopped 1/2 head of roasted garlic left over from last weekend's bbq last bit of sherry in the bottle (1/4 cup?) salt and cumin to taste Start by toasting the whole tomatoes and chiles in a dry griddle, turning them as the skins blacken until they are toasted all over. Meanwhile caramelize the onion in a bit of bacon fat in another pan. Remove the tomatoes and chiles from the pan and allow them to cool - they should be cooked through at this point. Remove as much as you can easily get off of the blackened skins on the tomatoes and chiles, remove the stems and navels (I guess you can devein the chiles at this point - I didn't bother) and dump them in the blender. Squeeze the roast garlic cloves in there as well. Wait till the onion caramelizes completely, then dump that in too, along with the sherry. Blend, correct the salt and cumin. Green salsa was made the same way, except I used tomatillos and some habaneros I found hiding in the veg drawer, and added about half a bunch of wilted cilantro. I did hold a bit of cilantro back to dress the quesadillas with red salsa. Knowing it was basically made with leftovers kinda sucks the romance out of it, innit?

Quesadillas with Argentine-style chorizo, in front with a tomatillo, habanero, cilantro, caramelized onion and roast garlic salsa, in back with a tomato, red jalapeno, caramelized onion and roast garlic salsa, with a cilantro garnish. Cheese is a well-aged Mennonite Chihuahua and the yellow corn tortillas have been fried in the chorizo's fat.

MAC International's website says the Damascus series is "Beautiful blades made up of 64 layers of stainless steel, and a core of stain-resistant MAC steel: The same high-carbon Chrome Molybdenum quality alloy with Vanadium that over the years has made our other knives so popular" so I'm going to say no. When pattern-welded damascus was invented, the purpose was to protect a thin core of very hard, brittle steel that could support a very fine edge with a cladding of of soft, tough steel that would stand up to the bangin' and clangin' of hard use. These days metallurgy has advanced enough that we can get homogenous pieces of steel that are both hard enough and tough enough for kitchen use. Like I said in your previous thread, I personally like damascus blades for their aesthetic value but if you don't care about looks then don't bother paying extra.

I think I have a thread-winner: a gadget so bad, so stupid, so incredibly obscure even andiesenji doesn't have it in her collection. I know this because they never managed to sell a single one. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, from the 1969 Neiman-Marcus holiday catalogue... the Honeywell Kitchen Computer!

There are many different types of stainless but rest assured that anything used by a reputable maker will be perfectly adequate. However, be aware that Western makers (and, I'm told, Global) use steels that tend to be "gummy" on the stone and therefore trickier to sharpen. We could get into details of the literally dozens of alloys available but that would be hardcore knife nerdery that wouldn't necessarily help you make the right choices. I think the only really practical question w/r/t materials (since we've determined you'd prefer a stainless knife) is whether you want a homogenous (plain) blade or damascus. I don't think there's any performance advantage to damascus but others may differ. I love 'em because they're pretty but if you don't care about the aesthetics we can just forget about them. The most important, absolutely #1, cannot compromise at all thing is that it fits your hand. A "cheapie" knife that fits you is going to perform a lot better for you that the latest wunderstahl knife handcrafted by monks in the mountains of Kanto if the handle on it is uncomfortable, no matter what the specs say. IMO you can get an extremely good knife (and a very pretty one, to boot) for $100. At this price point you're going to get almost all the performance of a knife costing $400 (or more). I'm hesitant to recommend particular brands because I haven't tried them all, or even close. But I agree with Shalmanese that Shun makes nice knives. One of my favorites is a baby chefs' from the Alton's Angles series, which I use for prepping small amounts of ingredients. Another knife I like that's available at a reasonable price is sold as Gekko brand through japanesechefsknife.com. ScoopKW is absolutely right about not letting some "professional" knife sharpener who wants to finish the job as quickly as possible (Time is money! Let's slap this baby on the belt grinder!) anywhere near your knives. I can't recommend the EdgePro strongly enough - it's as foolproof as tools get, has a reasonable learning curve and will make your knives sharp.

First of all, congratulations! $500 is more than enough to get some very good kitchen knives that will last your whole life with proper care. In your particular case I'd definitely go with stainless, unless you want to double or triple up on chefs' knives. (This is something to consider, I have four in regular rotation plus a couple more in storage, and I've been dreaming of Takedas since CMorris got his.) If you're making this a one-time purchase to solve your knife issues once and for all rather than following the Path of the Knife Geek, I think you should just go with a stainless gyuto. There's just too much that can go wrong if you share knives with others, and (simple) carbon needs to be cleaned immediately after cutting something acid, such as fruit. If the Napastyle set came with a relatively sturdy chefs' knife I think that, in combination with the gyuto, would cover your chefs' knife needs. Now, you mentioned you prefer the santoku over other knives in your existing selection. I wrote gyuto and chefs' in this post because that's my particular preference. I find using a santoku awkward but if you're married to that shape you can just substitute santoku for gyuto in my suggestions. As for the pieces you'll need, first of all is the chefs', chinese cleaver or santoku for general prep (your choice). You'll definitely also need a paring knife, and from what I read in your post, a carving knife and a bread knife. I feel shears are more or less indispensable as well. None of these have to be expensive, and usually I'd just recommend getting the best chefs' you can afford, but with your budget you can afford to get nice paring and carving knives to go with your shiny new gyuto. I would also consider a boning knife and/or fillet knife, depending on which you think you'll use more. I probably use my boning knife more than any others, after the gyutos. I'm not going to suggest any particular brand, but my preference is for Japanese knives. Western-style have their own good points but a well-sharpened gyuto turns prep chores into something you'll look forward to doing. For the really tough or hard stuff you'll want to have a Western one, though, and that's where your existing knife comes in. You'll want to hit a store with a good selection of knives, at least to decide the generalities of the knife. Do you want a Western or Japanese-style handle? Thin, triangular French style as used on most gyutos or German style with lots of belly as used on Shuns (for example)? Plain or Damascus? It's even possible (gasp!) you'll prefer the heft of a good German knife over the light, whippy Japanese blades. Even if you end up buying something online I think you should at least handle a few knives so you know what characteristics you're looking for. For shears just get some cheap ones, I say. I like the kind that come apart for washing. Steak knives I really can't help you with. I have some that were part of a Farberware (I think) set that got broken up and they're fully satisfactory. For the sharpening I recommend EdgePro. I usually hesitate to recommend brands but this one is pretty much universally loved. For storage, IMO the only real options are a block or a magnetic strip. If you dislike blocks that leaves us the strip, but you must train yourself (and others) to separate the knives edge-first. If you do it spine-first there's a good chance you'll dent your precious, lovingly-crafted edge. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions. Knife geeks like nothing more than talking about this stuff so you'll be giving us a treat.

My brother has one and swears by it. It just doesn't feel right in my hand so I'm sticking to steel. That said, I think you can sharpen them with a diamond stone, and I imagine that paper-thin blade, properly honed, is going to feel sharp as heck.

Even if you own a gyuto or four, keeping a regular Western-style chefs' around is a good idea, IMO. They're just sturdier and more versatile, so you can do stuff with them you just wouldn't dream of doing with a j-knife, particularly if you keep the edge relatively fat.

IMHO "you're doing that wrong, are you stupid?" is bullying, "I know a way to do that much faster and more even, may I show you?" is not. There's going to be a huge gray area where people will feel like you used the first form even if you did your best to use the second, so yeah you could just not give unsolicited advice. I'm all about spreading the knowledge, though - I'd still be doing a lot of things the hard way (and fancying myself an expert, too) if folks hadn't pointed out my bad habits over the years.

You won this thread. And illustrated we need this emoticon.

I think there's a few different kinds of food-related "bullying." Consider, first, the ethics and health guys. (Although there's no scientific reason I can think of for these two to be conflated, they usually are, at least in my experience). As a former roommate to a pair of militant vegans I have a bit of experience with this one. Then there's Prep Nazis - people who can't look at someone chopping an onion without telling them they're doing it wrong. I've been on both sides of this one - on the one hand I get an awful foreboding feeling someone's about to lose a finger when I watch people whack away at ingredients with a slicer, on the other the only culinary school grad I know IRL has informed me I chop onion "like a housewife." In third place I'd put the Read One Book guys - if you don't do it exactly like (insert celebrity chef here), you're obviously doing it wrong. I'm sure we've all run into these - I've found "you do realize he/she dumbs it down for the audience" shuts them up nice and quick. My personal favorites, though, are the Evelyn Williams' of the world (fans of American Psycho will know who I'm talking about). They don't have to taste something to know if it's good - the infallible, invisible hand of the free market does that for them. More expensive = better in every single instance, and if your stew meat isn't Kobe beef browned in EVOO extracted by pressing between the thighs of nubile virgins in Crete then it's obviously no good. I'm sure there's more (people who are the equal and opposite of that last, authenticity maniacs who want their ramen noodles flown in from Tokyo, etc). Has anyone else run into these people?

I don't speak a word of Japanese either and my Tokyo knife hunt went just fine. Just walk down Kappabashi and hit the different knife stores. I think I went into four or five and the staff spoke at least some English in all of them. The guy at the place with the suit of armor outside was especially helpful, and he even spoke excellent Spanish! Another place I liked wasn't a specialist knife store. They had a lot of Lodge cast iron cookware displayed. The guys there looked at the knife I chose and brought out a few more of the same make/model so I could pick the one with the damascus pattern I liked best. Globals are a love or hate thing. I personally think they're odd-looking and -feeling, and I'm told the steel is "gummy" like typical Western stainless, unlike the almost glasslike properties you'd associate with a typical j-knife. (This is hearsay, I've never actually sharpened a Global).

LOL! No fan of Global but hey, if that's RickBehl's thing...

I guess pork, salt and sage? I did the bread stuffing from JoC (modified), which has no meat in it, for my early Thanksgiving. It came out okay but I did feel it was missing something, so.

7 degrees? I'm more impressed every time I look at this thread. We use 3M diamond compound at work so that's what I use, but it's probably overkill. Ceramic abrasives like other people have mentioned will be slower but much less expensive, and perfectly adequate for the purpose.

I smear the paste on a page, strop (away from the spiral) and tear off the page when I'm done. The paper being rather delicate, it forces me to focus on the angle and use light strokes, which I think helps the final result.

I just use a legal pad, but if you want to get fancy, I'm sure the sorts of places that carry straight razors will have strops as well. Do you know the magic marker trick for determining bevel angles?

If you have the fine stone you might want to consider stropping with diamond paste instead of buying finer stones. It takes a bit more hand-eye coordination than the EdgePro but it is very rewarding. If I just had those two stones my next purchase would be the coarsest stone I could get, for faster reprofiling.

My experience is that you can get a much better edge by hand-sharpening than out-of-the-box, even on knives that are seemingly sharp from the factory. Did you ever get the EdgePro? I'd try for a fairly radical geometry since you have the Shun for heavy jobs, and polish the heck out of the edge with the finest stones. You have no idea how jealous I am right now. Take good care of that knife, okay?

Holy cow that's pretty. How's sharpening?

I did 1 1/2 lbs per guest for my early Thanksgiving. There were plenty of sides and no leftover turkey, so I'm going to say I probably undershot in my estimate.

O Lawd. You do realize one of us is going to have to make it and report back?

Early Thanksgiving dinner.

Tarragon yes, sage I'm not so sure about (although I can look). Thanks both of you. I was thinking about doing the simple bread stuffing from JoC with the addition of toasted pecans and mushrooms, using chicken stock and white wine to moisten. But the Bittman recipe looks doable and is probbaly better than trying to invent something at this late hour.