nolnacs
-
Posts
244 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by nolnacs
-
-
I buy unsweetened dried sour cherries from Payson Fruit Growers. Most supermarkets and online vendors that carry dried sour cherries only have sweetened ones which I do not like as much.
-
Monstera fruit is sweet and tastes a bit like pineapple but not as sweet. One guy at Iovine described it as similar to jackfruit but I am not familiar enough with jackfruit to say if that is accurate or not.
-
Something else to consider is making dinner the night before. I've done this a number of times with long braises that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to do. Plus, stews and such often taste better the next day.
-
Did anyone else see the monstera fruit that Iovine has had the past couple of weeks? I picked one up and it was rather interesting. I wouldn't say it is my favorite fruit, but it is well worth trying
-
As for sausage makings, I have consistently used Butcher Packer, but I'm interested to know what other sources there are out there these days, particularly for casings.
I haven't found a better source for casings than Butcher-Packer although I must say the way that they handle shipping costs is extremely annoying as it is based on the value of your order instead of how much it would actually cost to ship.
-
Percival: if you count breakfast sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs, I know plenty of people who are 2-sandwich-a-day consumers. At least according to this source, the hot dog number alone is 20 billion (variants of this number are repeated all over the internet; I'm not sure of its actual veracity, though), leading me to think that maybe the people who came up with the 45 billion number weren't even going down the hot-dog path. I don't know. Certainly you have some people in the population eating zero sandwiches. But there could easily be just as many doing 10 a week.
Plus you have to factor in that many people eat more than one sandwich in a meal. For instance, eating two hot dogs is common and sliders have popped up on menus everywhere.
-
In my experience, most cooking oils would at least start congealing at 32 F, but I don't think that they would be frozen solid at that high of a temperature.
-
It's funny... when I first read this post I was thinking that I hardly ever eat sandwiches. But then I thought about my meals more carefully, sandwiches start popping up. In just the past couple of weeks I ate a roast pork sandwich from DiNics and a banh mi plus several quasi sandwiches.
Is cheese on a slice of bread considered a sandwich? How about tacos? The ideas are very similar...
-
The picnic shoulder will also usually have some skin on it while the shoulder but does not. Skin is a big source of collagen and that might have helped keep your sous vide carnitas together.
-
The Ideas in Food cookbook that is coming out in December might have some info on sous-vide. I'm basing that on having read the blog rather than having any confirmation of the contents. Anyone know for certain?
-
I used to exclusively use a VERY hot pan (somewhere around 700F) for searing but for many cuts of meat I find that a torch works better for developing crust without cooking the meat and even for cuts with an even surface (like rib eyes) I have switched to a torch because the result is just as good as with a pan and there is much less work involved.
Do you get less smoke when using a torch instead of a pan? I use a pan right now and the main problem is that the hood above the stove is ancient and practically useless (rental so there isn't much I can do about that), which means that the kitchen quickly fills up with smoke.
Yes, there is less (much less) smoke using a torch.
That is fantastic - an Iwatani blowtorch is going to the top of my shopping list. I'll certainly get fewer complaints from my wife that way.
-
Rice bran oil has smoke point 247°C/475°F, heat transfer is much faster than hot air or flame.
I used to exclusively use a VERY hot pan (somewhere around 700F) for searing but for many cuts of meat I find that a torch works better for developing crust without cooking the meat and even for cuts with an even surface (like rib eyes) I have switched to a torch because the result is just as good as with a pan and there is much less work involved.
Do you get less smoke when using a torch instead of a pan? I use a pan right now and the main problem is that the hood above the stove is ancient and practically useless (rental so there isn't much I can do about that), which means that the kitchen quickly fills up with smoke.
-
I grabbed a Wagner heat gun at Home Depot for $25; here it is on Amazon. Turned it up to high/1KF, brushed a bit of fat on the short ribs I just pulled from the SVS, and it did a great job. Maybe for restaurant production it's a bit too slow, but I can't imagine needing anything faster.
The heat gun works better than a blow torch for searing? I've been meaning to pick up a blow torch to finish off my sous-vide meats, but I may have to go for this instead.
-
It is actually is very good condition so rust or stuck springs are not an issue. What it boils down to is that either I am a dunce for not figuring out how it works or that I put it back together wrong when restoring it.
Here is a quick video I took that might make this easier to understand
-
Nolnacs -- those pies are beautiful! I love the sheen you're getting on your top crust -- what do you use? Is it an egg wash?
Actually, no. I use a milk wash (usually whole but I haven't really noticed a difference between that and 2%). I also sprinkle a healthy dose of sugar on top as well which I think helps contribute to the coloring. I prefer the look that I get with milk washes over egg washes. The milk brings out more color in the crust without looking like a separate layer on top - which is my issue with the egg wash.
Also, I'm not sure whether it makes a difference in the coloring, but my pie crusts are all lard.
-
I've been on a pie kick this summer and here are a few that I have made over the past month or so.
Sour cherry
Smiley face peach pie (sorry - picture isn't that great)
Peach pie with crumb top
-
Hello everyone - I've been a lurker for a while but finally decided to register and start posting
A while ago I purchased and restored an old Berkel meat slicer (made sometime after 1918). It has worked pretty well so far, but My problem is that I cannot figure out how the sharpener works. I have some cured meats that are about ready (coppa, salami and chorizo) and I would like to be able to use the slicer to get some nice thin slices.
None of the other Berkel slicers I have seen (either online or in restaurants) have this style sharpener, Does anyone here have experience with this kind of sharpener
As in the picture below, there are three notches in that plate (1, 2 & 3). The top part can swivel and fit into all three notches.
Then there are three more notches at the top which control the two sharpening stones.
I've tried a bunch of different combinations but none of them seem to work - the stones don't touch the blade or they would sit on top of it.
Unfortunately, the guy I bought it from is of no use since he just found it in the attic of an old county club on Lake Minnetonka that was being demolished.
Menu planning at home
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
I started doing weekly menu plans about a year ago. After I moved to Philadelphia, I quickly realized that I wanted to do most of my shopping at the Reading Terminal market, Italian market and the local farmer's market. As I could not go to any of those places on a weeknight to pick up any missing ingredients, I started menu planning every Friday. I have a long list of recipes that I have found online that I feel like trying and I keep all the recipes I have made in a database and between the two, I draw up the list pretty easily. Of course, it helps if what you feel like eating doesn't change significantly from day to day or moment to moment.
I don't consider the plan to be set in stone. I know things are going to come up or I won't feel like cooking so what I do is only plan 6 meals for 7 days. That seventh day we will eat leftovers, go out or just make something simple with the ingredients I have stockpiled. At the same time, just because bucatini al amatriciana is scheduled for Tuesday and roasted carrot fennel soup on Wednesday, I feel no compunctions about switching them if the desire so strikes me.
Overall, I think that it makes grocery shopping so much easier and it makes it easier to stay within budget than if I just went to the market and started buying things that looked tasty (very dangerous if you have been to the Reading Terminal Market before).