runwestierun

These "after market" beaters have been out for Kitchenaids for a couple of years but they are the new gadget I've been happiest with. They have little windshield wiping blade looking things on the side so you don't have to scrape down your bowl. http://www.kitchenkaboodle.com/gotm.php?gotmid=133 I have found that they really make a marked difference in things like cheesecake where scraping is imperative. Other things just go faster because you don't have to stop. I discovered them at the Kitchen Kaboodle site which has a "Gadget of the Month" feature that I like.

Oooo! Oooo! I have one! I was trying to create a memorable vegetarian entree but the new husband said it looked like an electron micrograph of a 14 year-old's chin.

Yep, it works. You peel a piece about the size of a fingernail off of each end, support the egg with your hand cupped around it (so the egg doesn't blow out some place other than the end) and blow. Hard. It makes a weird squeaky noise before it comes out. The baking soda is the key. It can flavor the eggs ever so slightly, so try it before you boil 100 for a giant batch of grandma's deviled eggs. It's a great trick at a family gathering.

Ah, hard boiled eggs. Why my nieces think I'm cool: They blow right out of their shells.

My house blew away in December 2007 with everything in it, so all my kitchen stuff is new. Reading this post it made me realize that I feel weird not having a sentimental attachment to anything in my kitchen. I had my grandmoter's potato ricer, but now I have a new plastic one. It works better, but it doesn't give me any joy. I had my grandmother's cast iron pans, now I have new cast iron pans. My kitchen feels like a restaurant kitchen. If you work in a restaurant, everything runs very smoothly and all the tools are designed to be efficient. If there's any sentimentality about something, it's a method: "Ah, this is how Chef Maurice taught me to do this." Losing my house and possessions made me aware of the things that make a house a home--music, artwork, and heirlooms. Not super valuable, irreplaceable heirlooms, but things handed down through generations that tie you to your ancestors. Grandma loved me and made me pie and now I am making pie in the same plate for the family I love. Things like that. That's what I don't have anymore. But on the flip side, just so you don't think I'm a whiner, I am very aware that even though I lost everything, I lived, the new husband lived, and even the little dog lived. I wouldn't trade that for any dusty old pans.

Meredith! Thank you! I tried setting the SVS on a half sheet pan once but so much water accumulates that it made me nervous--the whole running appliance sitting in a pool of water thing. The condensation makes me nervous to leave it running while I'm not home, but I sure loves me some 48 hour short ribs. Now I can make them without worrying about electrocution. I was laughing at myself just recently because I wrote a big cautionary post about botulism to a beginning canner wanting to develop their own recipes, all the while running an appliance in a pool of water. I will call them now. You rock.

I bought mine last February. Perhaps the Drs. Eades would like to replace mine with one that does not leak? I know that they read this thread. I know that it doesn't leak, it's just condensation. The first time I used it for short ribs I left the water in it for 3 days after I'd shut it off just to make sure. Not one drop of water. But it does lose a significant amount of water onto the counter during use and I don't like that. Maybe it was just the early ones that do that? Maybe all we need is a new lid and the fix wouldn't be very expensive.

I got a SVS in March and I am surprised at how much I use it. I bought it so I could make mind-blowing modernist entree proteins, but I find now I use it in the most mundane ways. It's become a sort of futuristic crock pot. I make chicken breasts for chicken salad (63.5 for 80 minutes). I cook proteins from the frozen state. I'll even cook kind of elderly borderline freezer burned things in it because the cooking process won't hurt it any further. While the SVS cooks regular proteins spectacularly, I've found withered things turn out, well, regular. The only thing I don't like is the pool of condensation around it. Anyone else get this or is there something wrong with mine?

I recently sold a gob of books on Amazon and I packaged them to send in bubble wrap. My local appliance store was happy to give me a carload of it. They recycle their cardboard and hang on to that, but their appliances all arrive from the factory wrapped in bubble wrap inside the boxes. They gave me as much of that as I wanted. So the bubblewrap is in big dishwasher or refrigerator shaped pieces with some tape on it, but it's free. I wrap the books in 3 layers of that and then wrap it in craft paper which was about $4 for a giant roll. That's the cheapest book packaging I've found. I used the USPS Media mail service, most books were under $3 to ship.

Chris, Sorry to dig up this old post, but I wonder if you were ever given the recipe for the peanut and coconut chutney? It sounds so delicious.

Chris, I have been looking at these for awhile and I wonder if you can talk a little about cleanup? I am most concerned about strong flavors from pastes carrying over to batters and things with delicate flavors. Now that you've had yours awhile, how do you clean it and does it clean up completely?

Back at ya, Melon Kittie. Boy howdy do I have a jar of home canned salsa for YOU!

I hope I am not hijacking this thread by asking about yet another type of oregano. I have a giant cuban oregano plant in my garden. The leaves are quite thick, almost succulent-looking. I've made the basic "open recipe insert herb" applications--rice, beans, chicken. Does anyone have any specific experience with this type of oregano? Here's a picture I snagged off of Google Images: http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2009/05/19/RxAngel/085d56.jpg

I was at the grocery store just yesterday loitering at the cookbooks. There was a cookbook called Party Food that was authorless. I was pointing out to my friend, Georgia, that all the food was beige and not very party like when she noticed a little beige party sandwich for children. It was a whole wheat sardine sandwich. I just can't imagine getting a whole party's worth of children together who would enjoy that and not mutiny. It was a great party until missy down the road called child protective services.

Please forgive me for interjecting my two cents but I want to caution you to proceed very carefully. Each food has a different acid content. That's the hard part. And botulism is colorless and odorless and grows in an anaerobic environment. You say you've recently started canning. I understand that you would want to develop your own recipes. Before you do that, though, you have to very honestly inventory your understanding of every part of the process because the consequences are so great. I feel very strongly about this because my neighbor accidentally killed her husband by tweaking her canned asparagus recipe. And it took him months to die his horrible slow death. Botulism poisoning is so awful. It's sort of like my neighbor, Lyle. He read a book about mushrooms and went hunting. He found some that looked right and thought they'd probably be OK but they weren't and now he's blind. Please make sure before you strike out on your own that you are not doing something that's "probably OK". As you go through your learning process, be absolutely sure that what you are doing is safe. And good luck!

Many dorms today don't allow hot pads or microwaves in the room, but most allow rice cookers. This is a book that teaches college kids how to cook in a rice cooker essentially using it like a hot pad with the lid open. It's about $10 in the US. http://www.amazon.ca/Cooking-Cookers-Todays-College-Students/dp/1413782167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282239780&sr=8-1

Alex, I have owned both the white handled and black handled Jaccards. The black handled ones are vastly superior in my mind because the cassette of blades is removable for cleaning. You remove the blades and pop the blade cassette and the plastic housing in dishwasher. The white one requires meticulous microscrubbing, and I was never convinced it was truly clean. I would go for the 45 blade black one, that's my favorite. The rows of blades seem to be the ideal width apart and I try to match that separation when I move the jaccard over for another cut. If you just keep mashing and mashing and mashing on the meat, it will spread. I also don't go quite all the way through the meat, I stop short of the board and then flip the meat and Jaccard the other side, but with the blades at 90 degrees to the cuts on the first side. Stopping short of the board protects the blades from dullness and bending, they are delicate. I've found that if I stop short of the board the Jaccard lasts much longer than if I don't. I've wrecked 3, but I use them very heavily. Two were Jaccard brands, and one was what I call the Crappard. Do not buy imitations.

Hands down my favorite! Lucky, ungrateful Ed. Thanks, Maggie. It is funny to be at the grocery and hear it, "Mike saw Skeeter on Tuesday and he says you tried to kill Ed again." Lord. But for me it is the most unbearably funny when Ed LIKES something because he is so consumed by suspicion. He doesn't like that he likes it. And if it's something that he likes well enough that he is going to want to eat it again, then it has to be brought into his world. Does that make sense? Here's a real example: he can't like char shu pork bao, why, that's just not American. But he can show up at the door and shyly inquire if I have any of "them meat hand pies".

Veal stock and lots of salt.

"That lady who keeps trying to kill Ed". I have lived in an urban environment all my life but 3 years ago I married a mountain man. We live in the sticks and the neighbor farmers will drop by at lunch. Lunch is when I do the majority of my experimenting. If something fails miserably, I still have dinner to recover. The least adventurous and most vocal farmer is Ed. If he has to try something that a) isn't boiled or b) is from another continent, even if it is boiled, all I will hear in town over the next few days is how I tried to kill Ed again with my kim chee/salt cod/thai chili. I am that lady who keeps trying to kill Ed.

I'm in. I preordered it. Nathan's right, even though it's $500 now, you get the lowest price at Amazon between now and the day it ships. I was happy to see that when I typed "modernist" into Amazon's search window, the top of the "search suggestion" list was "Modernist Cuisine". I think that bodes well for an early success. I am so damn excited I could sphericate the cat.

Thanks for the heads up, Chris. I just preordered my copy.

Pam, I made a mistake. The Jaccard brand needler with the removable blade cassette that I have has 45 blades, not 48. This is the Jaccard: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jaccard-Simply-Better-Tenderizer-Stainless/dp/B000A3G0F6/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2 This is a knock off: http://www.amazon.co.uk/meat-steak-tenderiser-tenderizer-needles/dp/B003CF3H32/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2 I don't know how they compare. I was given an 18 blade cheapo knock off and it sucked. This is the 48 blade Jaccard. It doesn't have removable blades so it's much harder to clean. http://www.amazon.com/Jaccard-200348-Supertendermatic-48-Blade-Tenderizer/dp/B001347JK6/ref=pd_sbs_k_1 Both are available at Amazon here in the USA if you can't find them in stock in the UK. I really love the removable blade feature. It's easy to clean the gunk out of the holes the blades pop out of. You just take the Jaccard apart and put it in the dishwasher.

I like them medium to thickish. I more often than not grill them and the thickish ones hold up to the fire better and IMHO taste better. Not so grassy, more asparagussy. Also, I feel the skin on the larger ones is more porous and will absorb marinade flavors better.

I've had the 48 blade Jaccard for a few years and have given at least a dozen as gifts. I love it. I take the meat from the fridge and jaccard it before I let it warm up. I Jaccard the meat in a pattern that matches the way the 3 rows of blades are fixed on my device--if the rows are 7mm apart and I punch down, then I place the next punch 7mm above the first one. This is the way I've found I am able to tenderize the most without flattening out the meat. I also try not to go all the way through the meat. I Jaccard one side, then flip the meat over and Jaccard the other side with the blade strikes at a 90 degree turn from the first side. I do this for maximum tenderizing and also to save the blades. I found that if I am pressing through the meat onto the board I tend to bend the slender blades. One note on cleaning the Jaccard: you can buy a Jaccard that is one piece (bad) or you can buy a Jaccard that has a cassette of blades that is removable for cleaning (good). You can completely clean the Jaccard holes if you can remove the blades. The latter is an infinite improvement on the former. I do believe Jaccarding reduces marinade absorption time, esp if I use a tumbler. I also like the results from Jaccarding the meat, oiling it and rubbing it with aromatics and letting it sit to warm up. I have done exhaustive personal experiments with the Jaccard, enough so that I even am embarassed by my geekiness. But I love the thing. One thing I have noticed is that the tenderness of the meat depends somewhat on the angle of the blade's penetration into the meat. If you Jaccard a NY strip perpendicular to the face of the steak it will be more tender than if you Jaccard it from the side while it is still a roast and then cut it into steaks.