runwestierun

My grandmother made an apfelkuchen that was delicious but she never taught me how to make it. I remember she made a yeast dough and put that in a 9x13 pan after it rose. Then she pressed apple slices into the dough in rows. At some point she poured milk or cream over the top, I think before baking (maybe halfway through?). Does this cake sound familiar to anyone? She probably learned how to make it sometime between 1905-1930. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks. Weird, though, it's still $500 at Amazon.com in the US. Hmmm.

I got this email from Kitchen Arts and Letters today: Greetings, We're very pleased to be able to say that Pierre Herme's Macaron has finally been reprinted and that we have copies in stock. These are French-language copies, available at $69.95 (formerly $74.95). If you'd still like a copy (and we know some people have been waiting for a long time), we'd be delighted to send it to you. The most secure way to order is by telephone (212-876-5550) or by fax (212-876-3584). If you prefer to email us with your information, we can accept payment by Visa, Mastercard, or Discover. We suggest that you break your credit card number into two separate emails; please also include the expiration date, the security code from the back of the card, and of course the address to which we should send the book. Shipping costs will depend on your distance from New York. Good wishes, Nach Waxman Owner Matt Sartwell Manager

If it's unravelling and you glue it, will you be able to thouroughly clean it? Wouldn't a new one or a roll of disposable ones be safer?

I make soups and stews and corned beef in the crock pot the regular way. The only unusual way I use it is in combination with my grill or smoker. I like a little bit of smoke flavor in some meats, but not alot. I will sear meat on the grill and then finish it in the crock pot (slow low moist braise). Same thing with the big barrel smoker--I'll put something in there for a couple hours and then finish it in the crock pot. There is nowhere I can get such a moist environment with such a low temperature. That is, until I bought the Big Green Egg. But the crock pot was $30 and the xlBGE was $1000. I LOVE the BGE, but dollar for dollar the crock pot wins. So, for example, take a 7 pound pork shoulder, Boston Butt. I will let it sit overnight with a rub with a decent amount of brown sugar in it. Then in the morning I will fire up the grill. It takes about an hour to get decent color on all 6 sides of the beast. In that process I'll throw a couple three handfuls of wet applewood or hickory chips on the flames. Then I'll put the seared butt in the crockpot on low with maybe a scant cup of applejuice for about 10 hours. Yay! Pulled pork sammies for dinner!

I have 3 things that allow me to slap a meal on the plate the second I get home. 1) The Sous Vide Supreme. You know about that, you just have to get the right thickness of meat for your projected cook time. And you have to do side dishes separately, generally. 2) The Crock Pot. Do not hate it because it is beautiful. Meat, vegetables, everything is done and delicious when you drag your tired butt in the door. 3) The Big Green Egg and the BBQ Guru. This is what God cooks with the days he has to work late. Prep your meat the night before and slap it on the Egg in the morning. You stick a BBQ Guru probe into the meat and another probe is hanging free inside the Egg. One measures meat temp, the other BBQ temp. You set the BBQ Guru cooking temperature and then also tell it your target internal temperature of the meat. As the target temp for the meat gets close, the BBQ Guru ramps down the Egg temp until they both arrive at the same place. If you set the Guru to cook your pork roast at 225F until it's 150F internally, at the end the pork and the Big Green Egg temp will be 150F and it will hold it there until you get home. The BGE is closed enough that it holds moisture so the meat doesn't dry out in this process. So, you can have BBQ spare ribs or brisket midweek.

OK. I have an appointment with the boat motor at sunrise tomorrow. Will report back.

I imagine their shipping calculator is more familiar with the whereabouts of NZ than the probable weight of this book when it's finished (will it break 50 pounds??).

I've always thought soft pretzels were one of those things you had to eat within a few hours of baking, like bagels. Would it work to freeze them right after baking and then thaw and warm them right before you sell them? Could you partially bake them, freeze them, and then on the morning of the sale thaw them, apply an egg wash and salt and brown them?

Hahahahahhahhahhahhhahahhahahahahhhhaaah!! I can never eat this again.

I agree that the older model extruders were a bit whimpy, but I have the new (it's been out about a year) pasta press KA attachment and it works like a charm. It does exactly what it says it will do, and I love being able to make tubular pasta and spaghetti. I also have the ravioli maker and that was hard to get to work. It took 2 trips back to Sur la Table to get a pasta recipe that would work--not be too sticky but still would adhere the top and bottom sheets of pasta. I like it now but the last time I looked at Amazon it was rated only one star. It's lame in that it doesn't use the KA motor in any way. You just fasten it onto the KA, which acts as a very expensive anchor. I have the ice cream maker. It works well but the parts don't go together in an intuitive way, you should watch an instructional video online if you get one. I like that I don't have to store an extra small appliance to make ice cream. I just have the bowl in the freezer. I have the pasta roller and cutter. The roller is the thing I use most unconventionally. Anything small you roll goes so fast--crackers, tartlet shells, canape shells, cookies. I have never had any trouble cleaning mine. I hope you enjoy your machine. I am very attached to mine.

Yep. At least one a week. Last night's dinner is tomorrow's sandwich.

How about a roasted red pepper and smoked salmon savory cheesecake? I normally serve it with crackers, but it is delicious stuffed into those little gluten-free Brazilian gougeres.

Yep, seriously. Years.

We will buy a regular chest freezer at the same time, so I think I will keep our ice cream in there. We do have a Foodsaver vacuum sealer and we use it on all proteins. We live in the Pacific Northwest and most of our proteins come from hunting and fishing, primarily razor clams, salmon, tuna, halibut, elk and dungeoness crab. We also pasture our neighbors' cows for the summer and they give us beef. So the 2 freezers will need to hold our proteins for the year.

Could you elaborate a little? Does everything get icy, or just ice cream?

I need a new freezer. Reading the topic on the energy efficiency of freezers made me realize that I probably need a new one because a) mine got tweaked mightily in a move and b) you have to jam a board under the handle just to get it to close. So I went to one store and they had a beautiful upright with wire "drawers" that slide out on each shelf, my dream freezer. It's self-defrosting. Then I went to another store and they said self-defrosting freezers are evil and will freezer burn everything in it and turn your ice cream to crystals right before your eyes. Of course they didn't carry any self defrosting freezers. I am wondering if anyone here knows anything about the relative shelf-lives of foods stored in a self-defrosting vs. regular non-defrosting freezers? It sure would help me make a decision.

I ordered the eight foot probes but they sent me the ten foot probes and I am glad I have them. I didn't want any side tables on my Egg (I have a weird 60 degree corner I shove my egg into and I thought the side tables would get in the way), so it's good to have that extra length to rest the control box anywhere I want. Also, the surface of the Egg heats up to about 245F, so I didn't want the electronic control box sitting right next to that heat for hours a day over years. The 10' leads let me put the box a distance away. I got the 10 cfm fan because that is what Mr. Guru recommended on his site for my Egg. So far it has worked perfectly. Per. Fect. Ly. But I am the exact opposite of an expert because I just heard about the guru here for the first time 2.5 weeks ago and have owned one for only one week. Kerry, maybe you might want to start a BBQ Guru/Stoker thread? Other people on eGullet must have much more valuable experience than I do with it. I'm still in the starry eyed heart thumpin' giggly phase of BBQ Guru ownership. They might be more jaded errrm levelheaded.

Which Guru unit did you choose? DigiQ DX. We chose not to get the Stoker or a bigger Guru because we don't do competition or run multiple cookers at once. It's nice that the Guru's are digital now, though. I like that.

Sushi oke and paddle I am fascinated by the Argentinian grills that have fire above and below but they might not qualify as a kitchen appliance.

Per ElsieD's recommendation I got a BBQ Guru online and I could not be happier with it. I'd never even heard of it before so I am very thankful for the recommendation. If you are unfamiliar with it, it's an electronic device with probes that has adapters to make it fit on any BBQ or smoker. It regulates the temperature of your cooker and keeps track of the internal temperature of your meat so you don't have to babysit your fire. You mount a fan in your cooker and then you stick one probe in your meat and another on your grate. The Guru uses the fan to keep the cooker temperature exactly where you want it. As the meat comes up to the temperature you've set, the fan ramps the cooker temperature down. It's genius and it works exactly like it says it will. You don't have to watch your fire all day if you are doing something low and slow. I love it. Thanks ElsieD.

I have a couple pair of the Coolskin gloves (gift) but they are only good to 350F which does me little good. I bake bread daily at 450F. The Ove Glove says it's good to 540F and that has also been my experience. The silicon mitt I have is good to 620F, I think, but if you touch anywhere that there aren't those little nubbins (like on the back of the hand) you get burned quite quickly. I like the Ove Gloves best of what I've tried--the ones with the non-skid silicon palm and finger grippies. With those stuff is easy to grip, a problem with the slide-y old ones.

I do use a pair of the Ove Gloves. I have found that as long as they are dry they protect against very high heat for quite awhile. I also have a pair of silicone mitts for anything that might be wet, but they are more cumbersome. We lived in a temporary furnished household for a few months a few years ago, and they only had potholders. I was not used to paying attention to where I sat them down (the gloves stay on your hands until you take them off) and I set FOUR sets on fire. Bad renter.

Anna, I am having an identical experience with Amazon in the US!

I am with Badianne, I freeze them in quart or gallon Ziploc freezer bags. I bet I have 30 bags of frozen herbs in the freezer right now. They retain their color and flavor, and some of them even their texture (which is creepy). When you thaw sage, it springs back to it's original turgor and totally looks fresh. Weird. Cilantro is the only herb that won't freeze that I've found. It just doesn't taste like anything, it loses all it's flavor. I chop leafy herbs (like basil) to the size I use most often. I freeze thyme on the stem and then just crinkle the frozen bag when I want some, the leaves fall right off the stem. Same with rosemary. While this method won't give you a fresh basil leaf, it will have most of the flavor of fresh if you use it in a cooked dish. I will use it in a salad dressing, too. I've tried freezing herbs in ice cubes with water, but I like the flavor frozen dry in a bag much better. Herbs freeze well in oil, but for the amount of herbs I freeze it's WAY easier (and more space saving) just to chop them and pop them in a bag. Plus I don't want to use that much oil in my cooking always. And I can use frozen herbs in rice without making it all greasy from the oil cube if I freeze them in the bag. Call me the bag lady.