BadRabbit

When I first started here, I really disliked the moderation especially the need to throw everything about a subject into unnavigatable giant megathreads. If I wanted to ask a question about SV, I had to post it into the leviathan and hope that someone in the thread decided to move away from the current topic in the thread and help me out. Most of the times my questions were just ignored. It almost made me stop posting. Indexing helps but being able to ask specific questions about a subject in a separate thread not only makes it more likely the question will be answered but it also helps someone in the future when they search. The forcing of everything into generalized threads makes it more likely someone will ask the same questions in the future because they likely don't have 2 days to read 98 pages of posts (and searching more than just thread titles often gives you more hits than you could possibly go through). I worry that these things will cause other people to feel as I did when I first came. It certainly doesn't feel like this forum is growing with new and interesting posters. All that said, I still prefer EG to the other forums for reasons similar to what first ticked me off. I appreciate that for the most part the posters in here refrain from LAMPs (Look at me posts). We don't get a lot of thread hijacking or inane posting like you get on most of the other forums. For instance, I asked a question on a bread baking forum about Brioche recipes specifically to be used for French toast. I made it clear that the actual bread recipe was all I was interested in. I got two posts telling me about what they would put on top, one post saying they use any type of bread to make French toast, and one telling me where to buy fluted molds. Very frustrating. I think to make sure that these forums survive you have to find some compromise between the two extremes or the forum will either become so elitist as to slowly dwindle away as people get bored or it will become useless because no one with actual knowledge will go to your board because of all the inanity.

I ran a restaurant while I was in college in the early 90s and we regularly sold wings for 10c\piece and that wasn't even using them as a loss leader. We actually made a little money at that price. Now the special price in that same college town is 600% higher (they run even higher than that when not on special). Inflation over that period is about 60%. So wings have risen at 10x the speed of inflation. That is insane.

It's just much easier because I don't have to pay any attention to it and it will hold temp while I finish everything else. If I used it twice a day I would just leave the rice cooker on the counter. The reason I don't use mine very often is that I have to get it out of the cabinet and set it up.

If I cooked it twice a day, I would definitely use a rice cooker.

I imagine for no other reason than that their politicians feel they can run the citizens' lives better than than the individuals can themselves and the ones in power choose to exert their power to do so even in areas in which they are ill informed (just like everywhere else in the world). Hell, a NY politician just recently tried to get salt banned and banning fortified foods makes a whole lot more sense than that lunacy.

I used to use my rice cooker a lot but now only use it when I have to make a lot of rice and don't feel like trying to time it exactly. It's just not worth dragging the thing out to make a efw servings.

Memorial day is always on a Monday. It hasn't been on a specific date since 1968.

Homemade Smoked Duck Ham on top of spinach salad with an Orange-Balsalmic vinaigrette Pork Ribs with my Molasses BBQ glaze(smoked very low for 6-8 hours) Beef Ribs with my Cinnamon\Clove BBQ sauce Whiskey-Maple Glazed Chicken Thighs German Potato Salad Baked Beans Raspberry Lemonade Icebox Pie

I'll try that too. I've got a bunch of it left over from when I mixed up some Ras El Hanout.

Thanks for that. Their recipe file is huge and nutmeg may be the thing I'm missing from my breakfast sausage recipe.

That's what I meant by microbatches. My thought about using heavily reduced stock was that I could use it to get things close and then start experimenting with actual meat. Otherwise I'm going to end up making pounds of sausage (in 100g batches) that I don't like and I really would like to limit the waste. However, if microbatches is the only way to do it, then that's what I'll have to do.

Ok. So problem one is solved. Any thoughts on the second issue (besides that I'm making it too complicated)? I really am trying to come up with an all purpose technique for making my own sausage recipes so if it helps you can pretend like I'm making chorizo or italian sausage (or anything else that has a lot of ingredients).

I find that not to be to my taste. I like a heavily spiced breakfast sausage. I found Ruhlman's to be very one note and not at all like what I like for breakfast. I like a southern style sausage with lots of red pepper, coriander, and sage.

I've started to try and work out a good recipe for my own breakfast sausage but so far I've had some problems. First, my sausage always seems to come out rubbery. I am achieving primary bind with a paddle in my KA. I am fanatical about keeping everything cold and generally follow the steps in Ruhlman's breakfast sausage. I understand the importance of this step in forming a cohesive sausage but it seems to run counter to the process for forming non-rubbery patties (i.e. minimal working to maintain space within the patty). Is this just a matter of finding the right balance in the primary bind step or are there other things I should do? Would finding a larger die so that I can chop the meat coarser help? Would adding more water during the primary bind step help promote tenderness? Secondly, I am finding that most breakfast sausages contain a lot of ingredients. Is there a better way to work through a lot of permutations than just making a lot of microbatches and changing one ingredient at a time? I was thinking maybe cooking up some completely unseasoned (except for salt) pork stock and then adding different ratios of ingredients until I found a good mix. If I found the right ratio between the ingredients, then it would just be a matter of finding the right ratio of ingredient mix to ground pork.

The problem is going to be the skin to meat ratio. It's what makes wings so awesome and it's what is going to be lacking on any other cut of chicken. If you could find a lot of chicken skin and use transglutaminase to glue it around chicken breast tenders or thigh meat cut into strips, then you might have something. Edited to add: I'm only partially kidding about the frankenwings.

From watching the show -- all 249 episodes -- I think that AB was reluctant to delve into anything too expensive. I think the show would have suffered if he touted $4,000 infrared sear grills, $1,500 immersion circulators and $2,000 commercial vacuum sealers. The FoodTV average audience doesn't have the means or the inclination. A lot of his cooking gear came from thrift shops and hardware stores -- much to the benefit of the viewer. To this day I use welding gloves instead of oven mitts. And I line my the bottom shelves of my ovens with bricks. He did some jury rigged versions of things like the flower pot smoker so there's no reason he couldn't have taught people about beer cooler sous vide. For most people that would cost them nothing because nearly everyone owns a cooler of some sort.

For chicken thighs I use the following rub and glaze: Rub 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2 teaspoons chili powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I use the xtra hot Indian Chili powder) Glaze 6 tablespoons honey 2 teaspoons cider vinegar From a recipe from Cooking Light. It's got rather pedestrian ingredients but it always gets as big a reaction as my more involved recipes from more venerable sources. It has just the right amount of sweet heat. You do have to watch it closely after applying the glaze though. Edited to add: I always grill this instead of broiling like the recipe calls for. I just wait until the last 10 minutes to start applying the glaze.

Did the heat treatment make any difference in taste\texture?

This trick is no longer available to the Danes. Denmark bans Marmite. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390419/Marmite-banned-Denmark-contains-vitamins.html?ITO=1490

I shoot for high 130s too. I'll pull a bigger piece (e.g. loin roast) at 135.

New recommended cook temp is 145. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43150921/ns/health/ That's still a little higher than I cook mine but it's much better than the old sawdust guideline. Where do you cook yours?

Mine's not grown but at 10 she has as eclectic a palate as any child I know. Her favorite dish is Vietnamese and she eats almost anything Indian. She can also handle heat far in excess of most adults and has no issues with eating less common proteins like mussels, squid, rabbit, and duck. She's just learning to cook but she seems to be enjoying it and has already mastered the general process of risotto. She has a horrible dislike for green beans that I can't understand but other than that she'll eat almost anything. I feel certain she'll carry this adventurousness into adulthood.

Bay's English Muffins They come wrapped in that stiff plastic that rips when you open it and is impossible to close back. You either have to rewrap the whole package or stick it in an old bread bag.

The other minerals in non-table\kosher salts are in such minute amounts that the delta in saltiness would be far below what would be discernable by even the most developed palates. The difference in perceived saltiness is strictly due to the way salts dissolve in the mouth. In a dish where they are dissolved before hitting the mouth, there would be no difference.

One other question about the duck ham: Has anybody sliced it thin and tried to crisp it in a pan? I thought it might me good on a spinach salad.