pbear

My guess would be that you're thinking of turmeric. It's not actually a dominant spice in Indian cooking, but it does have a characteristic flavor not much used in Western cooking, so it stands out for some folks.

As you doubtless realize, that works out to a 2% cure. You can only ascertain whether this suits your palate by cooking the chicken.

What's the weight of the chicken? That plus the water is what will determine how far the cure goes, i.e., the final salinity of the meat.

And spinach. Another solution to this problem is a food dehydrator. It's a scalable process, so one can evaporate the surface moisture without actually dehydrating the herbs (use a shorter time). For the OP's purposes, I'd dry before chopping. For storage, after chopping (in which event, fine-mesh screens are highly advisable). Obviously one wouldn't get a dehydrator just for this, but it has several other uses (e.g., making glace fruit) which, taken together, have earned it a space in my small kitchen.

Another way to do the egg - and the easiest IMHO if making only one - is by microwave. Indeed, I have a 3-1/2 inch (9 cm) ceramic tart dish for just this purpose. Melt 1/2 tsp butter in dish (20 second in my machine); tilt to coat sides and entire bottom. Crack in egg, pierce yolk with shell and spread out a bit. Cover (a folded paper towel will do) and nuke 3 minutes at 30% power. Let stand 1 minute before assembling sandwich. (Generally I toast the muffin before cooking the egg and nuke the canadian bacon during the egg rest.)

My theory long has been that the main reason so many folks find bone-in tastier is that bones slow them down, so they pay more attention to what they're eating. Can't think of a reasonably valid way to test the theory, though. Conversely, there are ways to focus on one's food besides cutting around bones.

Fair enough. FWIW, my way of avoiding the decimal point problem is always to use a leading zero, e.g., 0.8 qt. That's something I do in all writing, not just here.

Personally, I wouldn't have much use for two 8 qt pots, but maybe you do. (Multiple small saucepans is another matter.) OTOH, there's certainly an advantage to having a full range of sizes. So, in case it's not clear, what I'm suggesting is that you would be well served by getting both 3 qt and 4 qt flares, without bothering with conventional saucepans in either size. And, yes, a 6.4 qt or similar size would be quite useful, whether flared or straight (mine in this niche is 5.5 qt, flared). Returning to the OP, I should like to emphasize that I don't think flares generally have a utilitarian advantage in the sense of being better suited for making certain dishes. (Although they do, as you mention, work a little better for reductions.)* Rather, I prefer flares because I find them easier to stir and easier to scrape down with a silicone spatula. If you're more comfortable with straight sides because that's what you're used to, that's a perfectly good reason to go the other way. * The other big exception for me, but this is very much "off label," is that flares are great for baking bread in boules by the covered pot method.

I'd phrase the question the opposite direction: Why do you want to get conventional saucepans in any of those sizes? Tall saucepans I understand (and perhaps that's what you mean), as those are handy when you want deep-for-volume, e.g., when deep-frying or anticipate pureeing with a stick blender. As between conventional and saucier, though, I always take the latter because they're easier to work with.

I'm pretty sure the strongest herb flavor in bottled "Italian" dressing is oregano (dried, of course).

I agree CatPoet's suggestion is a good one. In addition to doing a test run, be sure your in-laws' oven can go down to 170ºF. In my experience, most American home ovens don't and that's a critical feature of the recipe. If this is a problem and/or you want to serve warm, the gas grill is your best option. As a back-up, in case of rain, you could roast the meat in the oven the day of the party, timing things so the oven is free when others arrive. From there, you can either serve at room temp or use the hold-in-a-cooler strategy mentioned by Chris Taylor in Post #5..

IMHO, this isn't a good plan. On account of its thickness, reheating a roast beef takes nearly as long as cooking it in the first place. So, if a BBQ is available (by which I assume you mean a gas or charcoal grill), cook the roast that way (by indirect heat) on the day of the dinner party. Another option would be to use a crock-pot with a rack as a slow oven, monitoring temp of the meat with a probe thermometer. A third option would be to do another beef dish, e.g., short ribs, which isn't so dependent on precise timing.

Another question is how much you care about national slant. For example, the Time-Life Good Cook Series was brilliant and designed for just this purpose, but very much directed at an American audience.

That's probably why HB can get away with selling one that cost three times as much.

To clarify, when I said can't vouch for "them" I meant the juicers. I've had plenty of good experiences with Webstaurant.

Can't vouch for them, but my go-to for stuff like this is Webstaurant, which lists four manual juicers, including the HB 932 (their "secret" price for which is $164). The funnel-type juicer, for $60, looks like it might suit your needs.

One that bugs me is the common mislabeling of poblanos as pasillas. They aren't. They're fresh (usually unripe) anchos. Pasillas, meanwhile, are dried chilacas. See Cook's Thesaurus, comparing fresh and dried chiles. FWIW, Cook's Thesaurus plunks for cilantro as the preferred name for the herb.

Finally got around to trying this. To recap, the idea is to sear a frozen steak, then bake in a slow oven until it reaches target internal temp. I made a few tweaks - using a slightly lower oven temp (250ºF) and pulling a few degrees early to allow for equalization - but basically ran the recipe as presented. Figuring out when to insert the thermometer (probe on wire) was probably the trickiest thing of the whole exercise (@ 20 minutes worked for me). Bottom line, the recipe delivers as advertised, but it's not a method I'll be adding to my repertoire. That is, yes, the interior was pink almost all the way to the surface. And, yes, the surface looked pretty. But the steak simply didn't taste as good as I get by conventional methods (generally pan-frying, flipping several times). FWIW, I have the same objection to SV/LT steak, so I'm not picking on CI. Conversely, anyone who likes SV/LT steak probably will like this also.

I've disagreed with Nathan & Co. before, and probably will again. I'm curious whether you've had any problems. I had an upright auto-defrost for years and did not. No longer having the room, I get by now with a small manual defrost and it's a PITA.

What dcarch and mgaretz said! For anyone interested, here's a Wiki article on the subject.

IMHO, one gadget you would find nicely complementary is a countertop convection oven. That's been mentioned a few times already, so consider this a bump. Not the halogen. That's a pain to use and limited in versatility. Not a micro-convect-steam oven. If those things can be combined, no one's done it well yet. Just a well-built, reasonably-sized countertop convection oven. Some like the Breville. I happen to like the controls on the Cuisinart models better. That's something you can research and make up your own mind. What the oven adds to the mix is a different form of cooking, yet very easy to use. One of the best ways to cook fish, chicken and other quick proteins. Brilliant for roasting veggies. Can bake a small tray of cookies or brownies. And great for reheating leftovers.

The first step in trouble shooting is to understand what you're doing. What's the recipe? What dispenser are you using for the batter? How many donuts are you doing in a batch? What's the oil temp? Have you tested it after product is in the vat?

Umm, where does it say that? As I read it, Figure 1 on p.2 of the pdf suggests a deactivation time at that temp of at least an hour, with the first no-death sample at 85 minutes (or so) and the projected best fit line at 100 minutes. Notice that all these samples were at pH 6.8.

Macaroni & Cheese

Don't know whether this will suit your needs, but here's a basic Mexican adobo. It's intended as a simmer sauce for 2 lb meat or equivalent, and so may be thinner than you have in mind. Makes about 3 c. Can be divided into portions and frozen. Chop 1 med onion; mince 6 cl garlic; seed 6 med dried ancho chiles and cut with kitchen shears or tear into small pieces (or use 9 tbsp pulverized). Saute onion in 2 tbsp lard (or oil) until tender, about 10 minutes; add garlic and chiles; saute until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Deglaze with 1 c vegetable stock; bring to a boil; let stand off heat 1 hour covered. Puree in blender with 14 oz crushed tomatoes, 2 tbsp red wine (or cider) vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp each black pepper, allspice, cinnamon, cumin and oregano, and 1/4 tsp ground clove. (Make sure chiles are smooth; if not, strain sauce through a medium-coarse sieve.) Rinse blender with 1/2 c water and add to puree.