dcarch

Very inexpensive, you can find it in most Chinese stores. http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00WBNQHFeECqlg/Portable-Butane-Gas-Stove.jpg dcarch

"----Yes, the gas will still flow, and you can light your burners with a match. But be careful that you don't burn yourself when it ignites. I keep long matches around for such emergencies. Presumably you could do the same with your oven,---" Not really. You can only do it if the oven has a pilot light. Many gas ovens use an electric heating element to heat up the valve. Don't damage this element with fire. dcarch

Unlike earthquakes, weather related disasters do not normally impact water supply and natural gas supply. In the many power outages we have had in the NY area, the only thing that was a problem had been gasoline supply because gas stations do not have power to run their pumps. For those of you who do not plan on having a backup generator, get yourself an inverter, very inexpensive. You can run your computer, internet, TV, and charge up you cell phone by plugging in your car and run the engine at idle speed. A used car battery can be charged up to power a 12v LED light for many days. Cheaper than buying batteries for your flashlight. dcarch

Keith_W, EnriqueB, and Scottyboy, thank you so much for your kind words. It weas very depressing to look into my freezer. So I decided to play with the food a little. I felt better afterwards. dcarch

Centrifuge is the way to go. A vacuum system will give you max 14 + lbs / inch sq. pressure, no matter how powerful your pump is. A compressed air system can give you much more, 100 lbs/in sq is easy. Let gravity do it's thing for a few days in the refrigerator then filter, if you insist on filtering. dcarch

Looking at all these incredible multi-dimensional extraordinary creations, I feel a little timid to post my dinner tonight. In doing my archeological excavation of my freezer trying to find things to demonstrate the use of vegetable plastic bags for freezer use, I discovered a lot of old odds and ends leftovers. I hate throwing food away, so dinner tonight was petrified historic freezer food discoveries. dcarch Tofu with truffle oil Re-baked leftover pizza and deep fried cod Couscous, Tapioca and radish

I've never heard of toasting salt! Intriguing. Please can you shed more light? When you go to a Chinese restaurant, that little dish of salt is often toasted salt. dcarch

It is a lot of fun and impressive to be able to toss food in a wok, I do it all the time, but there is no real purpose in terms of ending up a more delicious dish. It is mostly showmanship, IMHO. It is very useful if you work in a busy kitchen and have to handle three woks at the same time. Thank you for sharing the video. Very interesting and informative. Just a quick suggestion: I know most people know about being careful handling raw chicken, but for forum like this, you never know. You may want to add a quick statement to your video about food safety. This is not a criticism, not even a suggestion. Just my own preference if I was to make this dish. I generally add scallions at the very end. I find I get better flavor and color from the scallions (spring onion). I also like to add a few drops of sesame oil at the last moment. dcarch

Efflorescent? Efflorescence (which means "to flower out" in French) dcarch

Definitely not someone in Canada. dcarch

Why is it called "Hoisin" sauce? dcarch

I may be mistaken, but I think the OP's intention is to talk about what happens after you make the food delicious. dcarch

C Sapidus, "---I love yard-long beans, and the ribs are very cool. Do you have a bandsaw in your kitchen? " Thanks. What I did: I used a vegetable plastic bag, froze the slab of ribs and cut it into three strips on my table saw with a carbide blade. Very easy and quick. dcarch

Cooking is like circus acts. High wire walks, flying trapeze, juggling, ---------- all very impressive. But Circ Du Soleil transformed everyday circus acts to high art form. That’s what good plating can do to food. dcarch

Just came back from Katz's an hour ago. Go there. You will not be disappointed. dcarch

Amazing! Just amazing the kind of cooking by everyone. I would say the diversity is mind boggling, not too many of the dishes can be found on restaurant menus. ------------------------------------- Thanks to our friends from up north (Canada) sending us the crispy chilling weather. Reminder to all, there are not too many grilling days remaining this year. Grilled some ribs and shrimps, and putting away all the tools, charcoal, etc. dcarch

You are limited by the max wattage (1,800 watts in NY) at the outlet. It doesn't matter that much, all electric heaters are by definition 100% efficent. Try an induction cook top and the heaviest cast iron pan you can find. dcarch

"----but my Aunt Cherry made it to 92 and was always warned of her high cholesterol readings and Dr Morrison said when she was 3yo 'her heart has a slight murmer, but it should't cause her much trouble'. -----" I think we all know people who chain smokes, drinks, eats a pound of bacon everyday and is 100 years old. It seems to me that cultures whose diets are mainly vegetables and fish, over all, live longer and have less obesity issues. dcarch

Just curious what do you use pig's blood for. A few years back I knew someone who got some fresh pig's blood to make some kind of glue. You can buy a live chciken much easier and get about 1/2 cup of fresh blood. dcarch

No dcarch , people didn't live longer because of diet, they lived 'shorter' at that time because of the lack of penicillin, and Sulfanilamide.Well said andiesenji: Very true. However, let me ask the question in another way: Did people live longer in the old days who used mostly animal fat and who died from natural causes, not from infectious diseases? dcarch

Sorry, Kim. Don't neglect to take care yourself, so you can take care others. dcarch

Thank you everyone! It's up to you. If you let the dough rise to fill the tube, you will get a very smooth uniformly round loaf. Yeas, the loaf browns inside the tube. Silicone is a good conductor of heat. The crust developed is similar to the method of baking with a covered cast iron Dutch oven. dcarch

What is a baguette? According to Wiki: “A baguette is "a long thin loaf of French bread” that is commonly made from basic lean dough (the dough, though not the shape, is defined by French law). It is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust. A standard baguette has a diameter of about 5 or 6 centimetres (2 or 2⅓ in) and a usual length of about 65 centimetres (26 in), although a baguette can be up to a metre (40 in) long. “ Let me share with you a method I use to make good looking long baguettes. This method also has the benefit of having a baguette with crispy crust similar to that from a “steam oven”. BTW, Throwing water or ice cubes in a normal oven gives the steam effect only for a few seconds and can damage ovens which has an enameled interior, cracking the glass window or warping the metal walls. Material: 1. Two sections of steel gutter guard from a hardware store ($3.00) 2. Two caps made from empty cans of suitable diameter ($0.00) 3. Large silicone bake sheet which you may already have. Basic idea: Make your dough based on your preferred recipes. Form the dough to the same length you are trying to make the baguette. Maximum length is dependent on the diagonal size of your oven. I can bake a 26” long baguette in my oven diagonally. And score the dough like a baguette. Put the dough in a tube formed by rolling the silicone bake sheet and cap both ends with caps made from cans. Put the tube on the gutter guards. Let the dough rise in the tube at room temperature or in the refrigerator. You can check the dough rise by peeking into the tube. Bake the dough in the tube at the same temperature as you would normally. The baguette would be steam baked inside the tube, and perfectly formed by the support of the gutter guards. dcarch

Make your own. Using copper plumbing pipes. They come in various diameters. dcarch

I see once in a while recipes using buttermilk for chickens. I decided to do a little test. I got a whole chicken, boned it, and took out two pieces of breast meat with skin removed. One piece was marinated in buttermilk for 24 hours, and the other nothing. In separate bags, at the same time both were in the sous vide cooker for 90 minutes set at 150 F. At the end of 90 minutes, both were quick seared on a cast iron skillet, buttermilk was washed off. No seasonings were used, just salt and pepper. Taste test: Mouth feel - Both were very tender, and juicy, pretty much identical, couldn't detect any difference. Flavor - cooked at 150F, both were delicious with just salt and pepper, pretty much identical. I was unable to tell the difference between the two. Chicken at $0.99 a lb and buttermilk at $2.95 a quart, I don't think I will bother with using the buttermilk for my cooking. May be buttermilk will be good if you cook chciken to 212F. I am not about to do that test. However, as with any experiment, nothing is confirmed until the same results are duplicated by others. dcarch