Jump to content

memesuze

participating member
  • Posts

    521
  • Joined

Posts posted by memesuze

  1. I think there's a difference between rinsing, especially in gong fu, and decaffinating. The former is generally only a brief rinse, as in pour in and pour out, with the latter being pour in, let set for 30 seconds, pour out. Rinsing happens with greens and oolongs, decaffinating is more often done with blacks, or oolongs.

    And since the rinsing is for greens and oolongs, it would NEVER be done with boiling water - 155-170 degrees for greens, and 180-195 degrees for oolongs

  2. now, 3 years into my Cadco life, I realize that I never reported back - I found the smaller Cadco on sale at my local restaurant supply, bought three quarter-sheet pans and have been blissfully roasting and baking with little muss or fuss. The only wish I have is for a turn-off-the-convection button, for more delicate items. But, it has performed to expectations and has accomplished my goals - 7 minutes to preheat, quick to cool down, efficient in its use of electricity, and not a lot of noise or smells [other than the good ones!]

    It will have a place of honor in any new kitchen I create.

  3. I try to be frugal with my use of my old Chambers gas range, my B&D toaster oven, my microwave and my Cadco commercial countertop convection oven - figuring out the appropriate cooker for the meal/meals I'm cooking.

    With the cost of natural gas in today's market [especially after Katrina], I'm not sure that cooking with gas is or ever will be cheaper than electricity as it once was here in Texas. And it is likely that both fuels will take more and more of our budgets as we get older. This has concerned me as I looked at the possibility of going dual fuel - trying to figure out if using an electric oven would be incrementally costlier than a gas one. All I can probably hope for is that I will be an informed and frugal consumer.

  4. yep, I often sit there for a meal, since I live alone, and when I'm standing at the stainless steel workbench I created from Metro shelving from my local AceMart restaurant supply or at the stove, folks can sit and enjoy a glass of wine and give me grief. I was fortunate to grab those two stools for $15 at a garage sale.

  5. having never used imageGullet, I didn't want to take the time to figure it all out. I've posted two pix of the above-mentioned kitchen in my Yahoo photo album entitled: Kitchen. These will give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. For some reason the dining room wall looking into the kitchen shows up sage-y, rather than the Provence Blue it and the other accent walls are, and the far pantry wall is a deep Hunter Red, rather than burnt orange, [Hook 'Em], but that's neither here nor there.

    kitchen album

  6. I have a galley kitchen that originally had a door to the dining room/living room at one end. After removing the door, I had a contractor cut horizontally about 42 inches above the floor into the wall on the right side of the door. He then removed the drywall above that 42-inch line, and built me a breakfast bar into which I laid tiles. The opening as you look at it from the living room or dining room is a tad less than six feet across at the top, and 32-35 inches across from 42 inches high on down. It's really opened up the whole space from whichever direction one looks. When I get home, I'll take a picture and post it. BTW, I have standard 7-foot ceilings, the main kitchen itself is probably 8x12, and the dining room isn't big either. I also lengthened the original kitchen by creating a big pantry/refrigerator room/mud room at the other end by opening up to what was once a back porch.

    I'd say go for it.

  7. I think what I'd want to know is what is your sense of the owner's experience, desires, needs - will you be able to level with the owner when you need to take off after you have put in your 40 hours, but there is a crisis at the bakery? those times seem to come up time after time on the blogs and pastry/bakery threads

    is this the owner's first time as well?

  8. the onion and pepper will get mushy once the water in the cells freezes and then thaws, breaking the cell walls. I suspect that celery would do the same - possibly of use in a stew, but not for anything else. I'd blanch the carrots briefly before freezing, but all in all I think this is not worth it. Just keep your knife sharp and whip through what's needed for the meal in no time....the more you practice your chopping, the faster it will get.

  9. After I have poured in the defatted stock, I take a chopstick or something similar and mark the depth with a pencil. Then I measure that depth on the stick and divide by 2 or 4. Then I start to gently reduce. When the depth gets to the half or quarter mark on my stick, I know what I have, 2:1 or 4:1.

    From Alton Brown, I picked up using a tailor's measure with the sliding crosspiece for measuring depths in reductions

  10.     As to which model to get and what features comes down to one's own cooking preferences.  I wanted a gas cooktop, period, so electric was out of the question.  I also wanted to be able to get as much heat as possible on the burners.  I was also looking for the range with the cooktop best suited for stir fries and using a wok. When it came down to the oven portion, I wanted to have convection, but I don't do much in terms of baking but I wanted as good a broiler as possible.  I should add that due to wanting high output burners I had to get a good fan as well.

    .....

        The final choice came down to Viking or Wolff.  Since I wanted a good broiler  I opted for Gas throughout as opposed to a dual fuel range.  These two ranges had the best broilers I had seen and I think both were equal in this regard.  Both ranges were also at the top of the list in terms of appearance as well.  The final choice came down to the grates.  I really liked the Wok grate (available accessory) offered by Viking.  The swing though came as with the 30" range, the Wolff had an empty channell between the 4 burner grates while the Viking had grates in this center channel.  That swung the final choice in favor of the Viking.

    talk to me about the broiler issue - how did you determine that the gas broilers worked better than the electric broilers you might have found on a dual-fuel range?

    I haven't done much hands-on research yet. I'm struggling with the dual-fuel vs gas option. I'd been considering dual-fuel simply to get a more accurate oven, and a "true" convection, but am concerned about the daily cost of using electric power to fuel an oven vs. gas. I don't know how to research the fuel usage to be able to get a comparison of the costs when looking at my gas and electric bills. I know that gas is high this year due to the Katrina mess, but typically it has a lower cost here in Texas.

    Can anyone point me to a method to figure out how many cubic feet of gas or kilowatts of electricity would be used for an hour of 350 or 450 degree cooking for a particular model/brand name of range?

    I do have a Cadco commercial countertop convection oven - but the convection never shuts off. I bought it to save me from having to crank up my gas Chambers just to do a quick oven job.

  11. I'm not Chinese, but I love my Zoji - the only thing I'm not crazy about is its large size - I was only able to find the 3L size locally when I was looking around. But it keeps water at 140 or 205 for as long as I want to keep it plugged in. I've been known to keep the same water in for a few days running, unplugging it when I'm not making tea, with no ill effect. It did take about ten or so fillings and keeping heated all day to rid it of a plastic taste to the water, but once that was taken care of, it hasn't come back. I know that it's available online - you can search for the lowest price - I just wanted mine NOW

    I think newer models have three temps, with a 175 mid-range. That would be even better.

    For your online vendors, try my favorites: SpecialTeas in Connecticut, Harney & sons in New York I think now, Capital Tea in Toronto, In PUrsuit of Tea, Rishi, TeaTrader in Calgary. Silk Road Teas in California doesn't have an online presence [there is a Silk Roads online, but it's not the one], but they're worth hunting out. David Hoffman is terrific.

  12. I think you may be talking about 2 different varieties of lime:  the Mexican, or Key, lime, and the Persian lime.  The Mx lime - usually light green, smallish, skin ripening to a yellow color, thin skin, little pith, and a rounded, floral juice typically sells for a buck for 10 to 20 of them, sometimes more.  The big, suspiciously deep green Persian lime is often dry, hard to juice, with a violently green skin and a rather thick pith.  Due to their picturesque appearance, their size - quality of juice notwithstanding - and their durability, they are the most common lime out there.  And yes, Whole Paycheck does often charge a bundle per each of them.

    Now the Key lime or pie fame often fetches a purse-pinching price, yet is is the same species as the Mexican lime ... it is exactly the same thing.  So if you want to make pies, be sure to visit your Mexican, Central American, or Caribbean market, and run away from Key limes at .65 each!

    Theabroma

    I'm not so sure that the reference was to the difference between Key/Mexican and Persian - as snowangel noted, it helps to feel that baby - same as with lemons - the rounder ones that yield to gentle pressure tend to be thinner-skinned and juicier. Both lemon and lime bins are plagued with dry, thick-skinned frauds.

  13. Katie, whacking off that knob or severing those tendons down by the knob help eliminate that stringiness, greatly.

    Absolutely! Cut off the ankle knob before braising or roasting. When cooked thoroughly, the tendons revealed at the end slip out easily, leaving just the meat.

    I bought a mini-hacksaw just for this....

  14. These honeycrips sound intriguing. I wish I could find them in Austin.

    Central Market [and probably HEB] has had them steadily - but I don't like paying 2.50 a pound for an apple unless it's organic - my favorite always-available eating apple is the Pink Lady

    EDIT: oops posted before I finished the thread....

×
×
  • Create New...