dcarch

. Example? dcarchI bought mine on ebay about $50.00 long time ago. I think today if you pay about $100 you should be able to get a fairly good one, There are cheaper ones if you are on a budget. The thing to look for is one that can read from an acceptable distance for you, and one with a laser beam to show you where you are reading the temperature from. The laser beam is just a pointer, it does not measure. You can tell exactly how hot your frying pan is so that you don't kill your non-stick pan, or too hot for your cooking oil, check surface temperature of your meat being roasted, etc. dcarch

A good remote read (non-contact) infrared thermometer has been very useful for my cooking. dcarch

The irresponsibility is in the individual who takes any one single source of information from the internet as the ultimate authority, especially issues regarding food safety. A reporter, possibly a graduate of journalism, will report on a whole range of topics from art to science to economic to politics to ------------. He/she cannot be professionally trained in every field. American Test Kitchen should not be on air, because few of the principals are trained in the food business? dcarch

Start with youtube first. Second, find out if you have good fish suppliers near by. Third, buy some expensive knives. Fourth, buy books. dcarch

It does not matter what your heat source is, cooper will cook more evenly and faster than all other metals, including aluminum. Silver can be better, if they can make silver cookware. Copper cannot heat up your kitchen more than other metals. Your stove does. How hot your kitchen gets is dependent on how many BTUs your stove puts out. Cooking with copper will keep your kitchen cooler because it uses heat more efficiently. dcarch

You can find all kinds of metal skewers on eBay. A suggestion: Many foods will slide down hanging skewers vertically. You can use these paper clips to clip on the tips of the skewers. I have seen these clips in stainless steel (may be just chrome plated). dcarch http://myitchyfingers.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/clip1.jpg

Exactly my concerns. I also worry that the door which you can see inside may be designed specifically based on the wave behavior inside and wave length of the microwave. Suppose what you are doing changes something and the door may not be shielding the wave anymore. dcarch

Cut them in halves and steam them. Then use a small spoon to scoop the meat out. dcarch

Even nothing harmful seems to have happened when you place a St. Steel bowl in the microwave oven. Actually you may not always know what can happen because you cannot see microwave. Microwave is a very strange form of electromagnetic energy. It can be focused with lenses made of wax or paraffin. It can be reflected from large, plane sheets of metal, as light is reflected from plane mirrors. Metal parabolas may be used to produce parallel beams or high energy focused beams. Microwave can travel in tubes like plumbing as in microwave communication systems. The frequency, or wave length interacts with objects in a very complicated way. I would not use anything in it that is not recommended by the manufacturer. dcarch

In the video mentioned above http://www.finecooking.com/item/11058/video-how-to-kill-a-lobster, the technique was to put the lobster in the freezer for 20-minutes, not hours. The freezer doesn't kill them, it just slows them down and numbs them to the experience, like an anesthetic. But if you look at that video again, you will see the lobster is fully conscious the entire time, and the reaction to the knife is very strong. I cannot see how that is anymore humane than other methods. It seems to me for the lobster, it is 20 more minutes of additional half frozen suffering in the freezer. Don't forget, lobster's nerves are very used to be alive in very cold water. On the ocean floor it is always between 32F to 38F. dcarch

In boiling water, it's oven in a few seconds. In the freezer, it takes hours. I wonder which way the lobster likes it better. dcarch

"-----I've bought a CFL bulb but I think I need a more powerful one (I bought a 15W one), ----" That is not good enough. Get 50W to a lot more (Daylight balanced CFL). Stores do not have a very good selection. Go to eBay or Amazon. BTW, I am sure you realize, you need actual power wattage, not 50W equivalent bulbs. Reflectors: Try looking into reflectors that you can fold to very small package and springs to full size. I don't know if there is a technical name for it. Also silver reflector umbrellas. Which also take very little room to store and quick to deploy. BTW, fake ice cream is important for photo studios which use many thousand watt incandescent focused lights hot enough to BBQ. Not necessary for CFL bulbs. dcarch

Go to a farmers market, and ask one of the egg/chicken farmers to get you one. dcarch

I hate ultra modern kitchens. They are for show only and not for cooking. You have a difference kind of kitchen. Very comfortable and user friendly in feeling. You just want to cook something in there. Look forward to your blog. dcarch

"I suspect you are thinking of what is commonly called "Malabar Spinach" in English"? Does it look like this or l-------" Yes, it looks like that one. Very slimy and delicious. dcarch

You people are big babies. :-) The whole idea of eating okra is because it has the "slime". Otherwise you might as well eat beans. Okra without slime is like risotto without the creamy "cream". There is a vegetable you can get in an Asian store that is very slimy, which I enjoy. I don't know what it is called. dcarch

You can regularly find old chickens in most larger Chinese stores. You also can always find free range chickens with head and feet in those stores. For those of you who are making Halloween dishes, you can find Silkies there; chickens with black skin and black meat. dcarch

I am insane. :-) I am very interested in this topic because I think there are many more possibilities to explore and possibly to go beyond what is considered "The Best", pasta, once we understand the basics. The following technologies are very interesting to create very complex holes in dies for extrusions: 1. Electro-discharge machining (you can do at home). 2. Laser cutting (not that expensive) 3. Digital 3-D printing, (soon) 4. High pressure water jet metal cutting (been around for may years. Yes, water can cut metal) ---------------------------------------------------------- If micro surface texture is so desirable and important to pasta taste, why don't they just make flat (noodles) pasta using rollers? You can get any surface texture you want using rollers. dcarch

I apologize to those of you who find this discussion boring, irrelevant and meaningless, but I am interested in finding out the answer, before I pay extra money for one type or the other when I buy pasta. I refuse to let advertisements to tell me which one I should feel will taste better. In comparing the two, plastic die vs. bronze die, the geometry of the die must be completely identical in every way. For instance, if one is thicker than the other, the comparison will not be valid. In my test, I use my lath to machine two identical discs, one bronze and one with a cutting board soft non-stick plastic. I secured the two discs together and used my drill press to drill holes through the two discs at the same time using the same bit. Each hole I drilled, I flipped the discs over to drill the next hole from the opposite direction, so that the directions for drilling holes are the same for both discs. Drilling was done on low speed RPM and well lubricated so temperature was not a factor. The surface textures produced by the two dies, using the same dough, at the same temperature, using my home pasta extrusion machine, were identical. I had only tested two dough recipes, therefore I acknowledge my results were only valid for the two recipes I had tested. I also recognize that my home pasta machine has limited compression force, which can also have unknown effects. dcarch

As I remember, lots of sunflower fields in rural France. dcarch

Me too. Keeping in mind, "---in a country with sunflowers and occasional ancient crosses in the landscape.---" dcarch

Latin America; no peppers? dcarch

"----I'm sticking to my guns on Latin America.----" Are those typical Latin American common vegetables? I still think Kansas. Next picture please. dcarch

It's in a place where no more leafy veggies are in season. dcarch

"-----I'm now thinking we've got a Latin America blogger for sure....-----" Not necessarily. Certain German speaking Russians in Kansas also have a tradition of cast iron crosses in their cemeteries. Therefore "Sunflower State" Got it? dcarch