boilsover

Yes. When the first oven failed, I read up on how to "fix" it by replacing the fuse (about $1 from Radio Shack). There are YouTube vids, but don't waste your time--they changed the design to prevent user replacement.

The racks are heavier, that's true.

Good luck. I'm on my 3rd BSO. Would've completely quit them if not for BB&B's replacement policy. The build quality is not very good, considering that $29 toaster ovens' are better. The controls are flimsy and fritzy, and that f^c&ing thermal fuse Breville uses (less than the top set temperature!) is enough reason to never buy one of these.

Speaking of synchronicity... Yesterday, as I drove past my Goodwill of choice, I witnessed a woman loading a nested stack of 5 rectangular woven storage baskets through her hatchback (You know, the ones that aren't really any good for anything). Three days earlier: A woman in front of me in the donation lane was handing the same stack to the attendant. And it was the same car and woman. As long as I live, I will regret not stopping to ask, a la Nancy Kerrigan, "Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy??

Because they rushed it to market. The better question is why doesn't it have a suite of manual controls?

Matfer-Bourgeat usually offers them. About $1500 IIRC. The Cristofles are 10x that. I scored a very small used press for $200. Only used it a few times, more for lobster and crab than duck. In a pinch, you can also use those old vintage fruit and sausage presses. Dehillerin, MORA and A. Simon would be good sources to find a new one.

George Jetson, this one's for you: https://thespoon.tech/the-founder-of-reviewed-com-wants-to-reinvent-cooking-with-robot-cooking-appliance/

Happy to share what I learn.

If you do, I hope you have a last frenzy of roasting! Also, give a head's up here. How does the Black Angus model function as a salamander?

I'll play with it awhile, but a systematic trials-type comparison would probably be best left to our chef friend.

Wow, thanks. Snuck under the wire--2 years for $12.99! FYI, at payment, you have the OPTION to auto-renew, but it's at the locked-in rate of $12.99/year. I chose not to auto-renew, and it was easy. But remember the discount code!

Thank you. I feel better about my $69 investment now.

I don't know, everyone looks sexier eating from a pink plastic bedpan, don't you think?

I've heard eating melon seeds from a bedpan can result in pregnancy...

Then there's this: https://vermontrollingpins.com/shop/tutove_rolling_pin.shtml And this, from https://www.cookstr.com/recipes/wheaten-croissants "A tutove (ridged) rolling pin can be used, for added ease in rolling, for the first four turns, after which the dough layer becomes too thin, and the butter could break through."

This doesn't make sense to me. The butter is 'placed in the dough' by putting the butter block on the dough, folding it up, and rolling... Well, let me offer an idea that makes sense to me. I suggest that, when rolled with a smooth pin, the forces are such that the dough (paste and butter layers alike) is moved almost completely in the direction in which the pin is rolled. With the longitudinal ridges (which are rounded), a pushing motion along with downward pressure will exert both forward and rearward forces in all the layers. This might mean more consistent thicknesses of paste and butter layers after the chosen number of turns. This may well be part of what was said about avoiding tearing; then again, perhaps there's more to it.

I'll see what I can do. I'm still a little surprised that, with the huge wealth of experience here, this is tabula rasa.

It was $69 on Ebay. The seller told me after the fact that they retail for $275. I don't know of she's a pastry pro. Coincidentally, when an acquaintance in San Francisco heard I'd bought this one, she told me she has a few in her vintage cookware shop. Anyone who's interested, let me know, and I'll put you in touch.

OK, for the less incurious, I found this in Larousse Gastronomique: "Professional pastrycooks use various specialized rolling pins; fluted metal pins to pattern the surface of caramel or almond paste; fluted wooden pins to roll out puff pastry (this keeps the pieces of butter separate and ensures uniform distribution)...' From The Cooks' Catalogue (1st ed., Beard, Glaser, Wolf, Kafka, Witty, eds): "In the loose amalgam which is pastry dough, the fat must always, by one means or another, retain its separate identity--it must not, in other words, soak into the flour. When a flour-and-water dough is stacked in hundreds of layers separated by layers of butter--that is, when it is being transformed into puff pastry--the segregation is even more essential. And although any good-quality plain rolling pin can be used to make puff pastry, the ultimate instrument for this purpose is the French grooved rolling pin with the trade name Tutove: the manufacturer proudly calls it a "magic rolling pin" The magic lies in the 1/8" grooves which run lengthwise on the wooden roller; the rounded ribs separating the grooves distribute the butter evenly between the layers as the dough is rolled and as the layers become thinner and thinner and multiply in number with subsequent folding and rollings. The bite of the grooved pin is also effective in softening the dough when the pin is used to beat it after it has been chilled between workings. Made of hardwood, with black plastic handles, this is an expensive piece of equipment, but worth the price if you intend to make puff pastry: bouchees, puff-paste croissants, vol-au-vents, napoleons, crust for beef Wellington, or any number of delights." From Child & Beck: "The French Tutove pin is sometimes available in import stores; its cannellated surface is designed especially for distributing butter evenly throughout the dough when you roll puff pastry or croissants."

Well I think that because I was told that this morning in meetings with Zwilling's head of cookware innovation. He came from Solingen to discuss, among other things, how to put semiconductor chips into pans designed to work with these PICs. Software based extrapolation is the way induction hobs work.

Gosh, no popularity contest was intended. Just checking familiarity with the tool is all. Obviously some cooks have found a Tutove useful. Cheers.

OK, you've never seen one in use, and one of your teachers told you he thought a Tutove was a waste of money. That counts for something, I guess. I'm still hoping to hear from someone who has actually used one. Thanks.

OK. But the coil is going to cycle on and off, and as long as the PC is venting, it's a crude gauge of temperature. To understand this, it helps to visualize a very large pot.with a large thermal mass. The PIC software extrapolates what it thinks is the inside temp from the exterior reading. It takes awhile to reach a steady state, and when it does, the coil cycles off waiting for the signal to switch on again. There are overshoots and swings.

This is a very crude measurement. The water and PC will moderate the swings.

Pardon my ignorance, but isn't the idea of a Tutove that it better puts the butter throughout the dough in the fewest "turns"? It would seem to me that the grooves/humps of this pin would do that better in 4 "turns" that the same number with a smooth pin. I can visualize the latter as being like roll-formed Damascus steel, and the former like raindrop or wave Damascus. What do I have wrong here? Has anyone here actually used a Tutove?