dcarch

I have not posted in the past many days. I am amazed by the incredible display of gastronomic wizardries by everyone. Been very busy with work, getting the garden ready for spring and income tax obligations. So please pardon my enjoying your work but not commenting. I did take time to prepare an Easter meal. Sous vide leg of lamb on hosta shoots from my garden. Asparagus with oyster mushrooms. Real wild rice with tapioca. Strawberries with cream filling. dcarch

A non-customer uses your bathroom, falls down and gets hurt. He can sue you for big time money just the same. dcarch

Thank you everyone. SylviaLovegren, yes, forsythia blossoms are edible. They are just for looks, not nuch taste to them. Panaderia Canadiense and Rotuts, this was not a difficult way to stuff a cabbage. The key is to have a pot of very hot water to dip the head of cabbage in to cook the outter leaves just soft enough to peel back without damaging them, but not to cook them "welldone". Depending on your recipe on how much is your stuffing, at some point, you can cut out the heart of the cabbage. After you put in the stuffing, you can easily fold back the leaves, and it will look like the head of cabbage has never been openned. Just a tip: If you are doing a very large head of cabbage using pork ot chicken, make sure you check the internal temperature or precook the pork or chicken first. It was fun to see the surprised look on your dinner guests' face when you bring out a whole head of cabbage. They were surprised again when they realized the inside was stuffed. dcarch

When Cabbage was on sale on St. Pat's Day, I got too many of them. Got to use them up. Let me share with you one way to stuff a cabbage. dcarch Openning up the whole cabbage Stuffed Stuffed and cooked Plated

It is simple to stablize the chimney starter. Get three small C clamps to clamp on the bottom edge of the starter. dcarch

Get a small metal container that has a very tight lid. After you have done cooking, dump the hot burning charcoal into the container and cover it. The coal will soon be extinguished and can be reused. Somehow I think there needs to have some holes made at the top of the starter to improve vertical ventilation, otherwise it may not be hot enough. dcarch

If you can hookup a small charcoal grill with a hair dryer or a leaf blower, you can have a furnace hot enough to melt metal. Similar to this one: I recommend a variable motor speed control so that you can vary the heat. dcarch

It is possible that shorter people live longer, but of course I was only pointing out that there are places where non-organic food culture does not prevent long life expectance. dcarch

Oh come now, that isn't even remotely valid to your assertion. Many of those countries have very significantly different farming practices and regulations, different eating habits, etc. Their focus on "organic" may well be different, but partly because half the stuff US agri gets up to isn't legal there anyway, or not an issue in the first place. And their life expectancy are very tied up in availability of health care, diet etc. Correlating that to the concern over organic is utter hogwash. Or pink slime, or something... I have been to two of those places, Hongkong and Macao. They only import farmed seafood from China, pesticized produce, MSG in dishes, ----etc. No health care system in those places. dcarch

I'm a little curious about which locations you mean, and the source of information regarding indifference to organic food. I just Google "life span/expectance by country" dcarch

Random thoughts: 1. The more animal (beef) parts we don't eat, the more cows we will have to kill and higher prices for meat. 2. Areas with The longest life span, are areas where people don't care about organic foods. dcarch

Thank you for doing this whole topic. It has been fascinating. dcarch

You may want to consider this meanwhile: Use any ice cube tray. After the ice cubes have formed, take the tray out fron the freezer for a few minutes. Pour the ice cubes in a container that you put in the freezer. This is great for the summer time or when you have guests. You can make a big bucket of cubes and never have to struggle. dcarch

I've done it plenty of times. It doesn't turn out to have discernable little chunks of undercooked bacon in it. It mostly just adds some juiciness and that bacony smokiness. I'd suggest this falls into the "don't knock it til you've tried it" category. I am sure it will make the burger taste good. My point is eating raw bacon safety. dcarch

The ones I have read, about 20, made not much sense. My comments to the ones mentioned by the above posters: #15 from Joanne Chang: "When chopping herbs, toss a little salt onto the cutting board; it will keep the herbs from flying around." Use the correct knife and knife techniques. I have not found herbs flying around a problem. 27. Take the time to actually read recipes through before you begin. There are some many lousy recipes out there, read the reviews first not the recipes. 99. My general advice to home cooks is that if you think you have added enough salt, double it. My tip would be the opposite. 59. When grinding your own beef for burgers, grind in some bacon. I am not sure. You grind you own meat just so that you can make burgers not welldone. Imagine bacon not welldone. “I like 39 about smashing garlic inside a Ziploc bag; why didn't I think of that?” Because it takes time to look for a bag and cleaning the bag afterwards. Garlic taste on a board is never a problem for me. 91. Caramelize onions very quickly by cooking them in a dry nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat. They will caramelize beautifully in a lot less time than with traditional methods. I can’t see how non-stick pan can give more BTUs to caramelize onions. The fastest way I know is to microwave the onions to soft then saute on a hot pan. 76. Shoes off, music on, favorite beverage in hand — enjoy your time in the kitchen. Do not turn on your music, hearing what you food is doing while being cooked is very important. dcarch

Truly amazing parade of food everyone! Dejah, I wish I was your neighbor to get that coconut/panko shrimp basket. Kim, that burger is bursting with flavor! Is that a cut resistant glove in the first photo? Bruce, indeed, great photo. rarerollingobject, I can put my fingers on it, but there is something naturally beatiful about you food. I like the prawn dish with the design on the plate which symbolizes ocean waves. How appropreiate for prawns. robirdstx, nice plating! EnriqueB, Thank you. Your Roasted red mullet, so nicely done. percyn, Leftover Chicken Biryani and Lamb Dhansak? Master of gastronomic renovation! SobaAddict70, those are very colorful and delicious looking dishes. Poached farm egg, leeks, salmon roe, WOW! Prawncrackers, what a feast for my eyes looking at those beautifully photoed dishes! kayb, Cajun boiled shrimp, with frozen maragaritas, just lovely, lovely! patrickamory, very dramatic Pollo alla calabrese.. --------------------------------------------------------------- I saved all the corned beef juice and made corned pork. Pretty good. And sous vide lamb with mint sause. Dcarch ----------------------------------------------

I believe that article is fundamentally wrong about the phenomenon of boiling. In the conditions that general kitchen boiling and boiling over take place, it has nothing to do with the concept of “Superheating”. Boiling and boiling over in normal cooking is nothing more than the boiling point of the liquid mixture has been reached and vaporization occurs to dissipate heat energy based on the latent heat property of the liquid mixture. The temperature of the boiling liquid mixture is always constant, not higher and not lower. Superheating never occurs. dcarch

Boiling over has to do with the viscocity, texture, surface tension of the liquid and possibly many other factors. I am not sure if there is one solution that will stop all boil over situations. Perhap one sure way to stop boiling overs is to make sure the food never boils. If you put your food in a pot, and the pot in another pot with boiling water, the food will reach very close to 100 degrees F, but never boils. dcarch

If it happens that you over boil, you will need to clean up just that once. If you use that "Spill Stop", you have an extra thing to clean up every single time. dcarch

Haha! you are trying to trick me? :-) All matter has gravitational force. Therfore the force required to pull two glass plates apart in vaccum depends on their masses. dcarch

I rounded it off. Atmospheric pressure (sea level) is 14.696 psi, less if you are on high altitude. That will be a function of water's tensile strength, which I don't know; how much force is required to stretch and break water. The fact is you need no power to separate the glass in vaccum. Water boils and expand very quickly in vacuum. dcarch

If you have two glass plates of 5" x 5" together with a drop of water in between, it will take about 350 lbs of force to overcome air pressure. However, according to the law of physics, it will take no force to work perpenicular against another force, therefore to get the glass plates apart, you just slide the glass plates away from each other. Water is a good lubricant. The glass plates act almost the same as suction cups in principle. As a matter of fact, if you use two optical flat glass plates that are absolutely clean, you don't even need water in between. dcarch Air pressure experiement

I don't see any analogy between sticking two pieces of glass together with a drop of water and slicing a watermelon. With the glass you are exerting a totally different pressure (up and down) than with the back and forth effort with a knife. Non stick has noting to do with it. serration does. The original poster asks "Could nonstick coatings on knives possibly be a good idea?" and not just about watermelon cutting. Food clinging to knife blades while cutting is very annoying. Kuhn Rikon and other makers of non-stick coated knives claim, “Nonstick coating keeps food from clinging to the blade” Which I think is not completely true. Atmospheric pressure is what mostly keeping food adhere to the blade, that’s why you see knives with holes in the blade body and Granton edge flute designs on both sides of the blade (dimples). These features are to minimize atmospheric pressure. dcarch

Do you remember Physics 101? You put two small flat pieces of glass with a drop of water in between. Due to atmospheric pressure, you will not be able to pull it apart. What keeps food on the blade is mostly atmospheric pressure, not friction, therefore non-stick does not do much. dcarch

1. Whiting - has the most delicate texture and flavor, like eating crabs. 2. Skate - wonderful. 3. The absolute best - go to a Chinese restaurant, pick a live one from the tank. Steamed with plenty of garlic, ginger, soy and scallions. dcarch