runwestierun

Are you just buying a large container of oil or do you bring your own containers to fill them up? How is it sold in bulk? I think I am being a little dense, sorry..

Where do you get this?

Yup. For me, this is great. When you think about it, its almost the exact opposite what "buy in bulk" means to a lot of people. To many, bulk is that giant 5 pound container of cumin you get at Costo. It's NOT getting a a couple of table spoons for 30 cents. Yes, and most grocery stores have bulk spices. I love Whole Foods' bulk spice section by the bulk foods. They also usually have a table someplace near cheese with preportioned amounts of a spice they are just offering for a short while. They are priced like the bulk spices but are usually something not that common, like long pepper or Ras el hanout, two things I've found there recently. I got a decent amount for about 2 bucks.

Herbs and spices. You can buy as much or as little as you think you might use in a reasonable amount of time, and they can literally be one tenth the price of spices sold in tins or jars.

Hmm, I would start testing at 20 minutes, especially if your muffin pan is dark metal.

Nothing tastes better than fries fried in duck fat. Nothing.

I finished (and finished off) the pastrami tonight. I used boneless shortribs, 3.5 pounds cut into 8 pieces. I only made enough brine for the recipe, which uses a kilo of meat; I didn't scale it but it was fine, there was enough instacure to turn all the meat pink. I did scale the rub though for the amount of meat I had. It was very moist and delicious. I smoked the meat for 4 hours at 171F per the recipe but I though the meat was a little too smokey. I used applewood. What kind of wood are you all using for your pastrami? I thought maybe mine was too smokey because I had so much surface area. All in all it was a success, my dinner guests said it was the best pastrami sandwich they ever had, and the beat sandwich they ever had. This book rocks.

I wonder if any of you have tried to age your sardines? They really improve with age (the oil packed fish). I read that the optimal time to leave them is 4 years and they really are delicious then. They get very buttery. Very delicious. Very smooth. Years ago a woman on Chowhound, rworange, did an exhaustive tasting of tinned sardines. I printed out the list and with my 83 year old neighbor, the biggest sardine lover I know, we have slowly been working our way through the list. We also always put tins away to age. Here are 2 versions of rworange's list: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/301342 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/301739 We really liked the Angelo Parodi and the Albo sardines, and also the little King Oscars in 2 layers. Wow the Angelo Parodi were good after 4 years. We had to buy most of the sardines online. Some of the popular Portugese and Spanish brands would typically sell out the day they came into stock, so it was a challenge acquiring some of them. It's been alot of fun though. We have only tried to age the oil packed fish, we haven't tried to age any of the sauced sardines. We really liked alot of the different brands. We didn't try the French sardines exhaustively, though, because they were so expensive. Also, a good portion of the sardines we had laid away got eaten by the new husband before I realized what he was doing. Bad new husband.

Kir royals.

Waah, I cannot view the video in the US.

I bought my instacure on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Instacure-Slow-Cooking-Meats-pound/dp/B001UPRY1W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303801652&sr=8-1

I just wanted to point out that Tuesday Morning's website has several Riedel wine glass and decanter styles this week at nearly half the price that I am seeing elsewhere. Here's a link: http://shop.tuesdaymorning.com/index.asp?ssid=1&navptypeid=717

That is GENIUS! Thanks.

I like those little mini food processors, they maybe hold 2 cups. I give them as gifts when people are just starting to cook. I just use a whisk in a bowl for salad dressings but I love the mini processor for pestos, pistous, mayo, etc. It says it has a 4 cup capacity but one or 2 cups are just fine in it. Thhe one I have is the Cuisinart Mini Prep: http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-Mini-Prep-Food-Processor/dp/B003DCPASE/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1303696601&sr=8-16

Will these errors be corrected in the second printing? From the blog post, it sounds like it. As much as I understand that they couldn't possibly root out every error in the books, I'm taking this as further proof of my usual philosophy that it never pays to be an early adopter. Thanks, mkayahara, I didn't think to read the blog. And respectfully, I am sorry but I think you are wrong about the early adopter thing. Having seen these books firsthand and knowing what is in them, the mistakes (most of them are so inconsequential) don't bother me at all. I would willingly wade through the text if it was written in Pig Latin if I had to. These books make me so HAPPY.

Will these errors be corrected in the second printing?

I'm a woman! I bought 2 books and sold one to a guy in Dubai to pay for both sets. I've made the mac and cheese, the mushroom ketchup and the beef glaze for the hamburger. I bought a Sous Vide Supreme last July and truly love the ease of it. We had 72 hour short ribs for dinner tonight, and I've got another batch of ribs in the brine for the pastrami. I live in a very rural area without any interesting grocery stores. We are going to the city next Thursday and I will get the Korean pepper that I need to make the kimchi, now that I know not to let it sit on the counter for 24 weeks. I've worked in restaurants, mainly in the 80's. I have a degree in biochemistry and spent that career working for the USDA. The new husband doesn't want a centrifuge in the kitchen. I've tried. He freaked out a little bit when the second set of books arrived. I want me some pea butter. I am going to have to find a hiding place for the centrifuge. I got the Texturas experimental kit and about 6 other Artistre ingredients all from Zach at For the Gourmet. I am just thoroughly enjoying Modernist Cuuisine, both reading it and trying the recipes. So far I have been safe and tried things others have posted about in the MC threads. I am now feeling confident enough to try things on my own. For me this book is just so very exciting, so much fun. Does that mean I'm a boy nerd?

Thanks, JeanneCake, that sunflower pan is almost exactly what I was looking for. I would like a little more of a depression just so it would hold more custard, but I can just cut out a little of the center of the cake. Thank you so much. THanks, highcake, I have a Walgreens within a reasonable distance, I will check out that pan.

I want to buy a cake mold that is like a bundt cake mold with one difference. Rather than having the center open, like a ring mold, I just want a depression because I want to fill the center with a relatively runny custard and I don't want it all to escape out of the bottom. Is there a mold like this? I don't want a Maryann pan because I want the cake to look more like a bundt than a tart. I want more cake visible on the top and the Maryann is usually mostly fruit on top.

I use duck eggs regularly in baking, but not goose eggs. The duck egg yolks have more fat per gram than chicken eggs and the whites have more albumin per gram. As a result, baked goods are noticably fluffier. I found this document which looks like it will most likely tell you the albumin and fat breakdown of a goose egg, but it is quite riddled with ads so I lost my patience looking. It looks like that information is somewhere around the 40 page mark. http://www.scribd.com/doc/30164876/EGG-AND-EGG-PRODUCTS

I make a lemon cake that I frost with Italian Meringue. Once you torch it, it'll hold for the whole day. I pipe it with a large star tip, I like how all those burnt little ridges look.

A surprising number of people I talk to list these cookbooks amongst their favorites. I think they are good cookbooks both for recipes and for inspiration to improvise.

But the maddening thing is you shouldn't have to replace them! They shouldn't be crap to begin with. What are they rated to, 375F? I think that's right. I use a dutch oven at least 4 times a week at 450F. Le Creuset must know that people hate those knobs. I want to buy their cookware, but the knobs piss me off.

It's maddening. #1 reason to buy Staub.

I have the Precision Digital Pocket Scale. I only need to weigh things to the tenth of a gram, and it works great. If you really want to weigh .001g, such a small fraction of a grain, you are going to have to put out some money. You'll need a controlled environment, too. If you really only need tenths of a gram, the PDPS works great and it's cheap.