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boilsover

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Everything posted by boilsover

  1. IMHO: Pros: Probably the best-performing clad sauciers made. Rivetless, welded handles Triplinduc base performs well on induction and stays flat Silvinox lining treatment is actually easy to clean (see below) Cons: Relatively pricey Silvinox is a queen bitch to clean of polymerized oils Hard to find a B&M retailer to fondle the wares Still not quite up to copper
  2. I find it interesting in the academic sense, but if everyone at WAP (Whole Amazon Paycheck) is twiddling their fecally-infected smartphones in between picking up every piece of fruit, hoping to bump the needle to "good", there will be blood...
  3. I'm not exactly sure what you're after here, but I would suggest that you investigate winemakers' sulfur pastiles. These are small pucks of pressed sulfur that are burnt inside wine barrels in order to kill off spoilage bacteria. See, http://www.piwine.com/sulfur-disk-5-gram.html There are also nurserymens' sulfur candles for fumigating greenhouses. Be careful. Even a tiny snootful of SO2 is an unpleasant experience.
  4. Catastrophe At Take Off, i.e., totally and permanently broken.
  5. The wisdom of an extended warranty depends on the return policy of the seller. The BSO is notorious for CATO'ing right after the warranty expires. This is because the thermal fuse will blow at a lower temp than the oven reaches. In later models, this fuse has been made inaccessible to replace unless you're a sewing machine tech or brain surgeon. The BSO is one of the rare things I recommend buying at Bed Bath and Barf, because they will replace it on the spot. How do I know? Same way I know about the fuse. In my case, I was allowed to upgrade to the "Pro" by simply paying the difference. When this one CATOs, I'll try the "Air"...
  6. The only thing that makes sense is that it was perceived as a zonker gift, and 86'd without even opening it.
  7. Today: Thermoworks ChefAlarm, regular price $59, new in sealed box (with probe) at Goodwill for $3. http://www.thermoworks.com/ChefAlarm
  8. Not if there are more than 2 impulse items in the basket--or on the giant flatbed cart! When I find someone to share it with, I'll buy one Serrano ham...
  9. Today's find at Goodwill: A Reidel Sommelier Zin/Chianti for $0.69. Compare at $80 new. At that price, the wine is indeed better...
  10. We're also a twosome, and it's still worth the membership price, IOO. No one has mentioned gasoline, which here is priced dependably below average. Staples, things we can break down and freeze, everyday clothes, etc. I'm getting their house-brand hearing aids this week, and the low price and 6-month no-hassle return/refund is worth a decade of membership fee. Likewise some over-the-counter meds, e.g., 5 bottles of Kirkland Aller-Flo for 1/2 the price of 3 bottles of Flonase. Interestingly, Costco is no real bargain for booze in my state, and the selection in virtually all items is poor. When we know we need selection, we go elsewhere. Our approach is to go only whenever we need something like gas, TP or paper towels, and then peruse the other stuff. We also have a rule to put at least 2 impulse items back on the shelf before checkout.
  11. Clearly (1). Tell them both the knives are now much sharper than they're used to. Clear conscience and better results.
  12. My Breville BSO 800XL just died on it's second birthday, after only *extremely* light use at my beach house. Just won't power up. Reading online, I learned that a common failure mode is the thermal fuse blowing -WHICH IS DESIGNED TO BLOW AT <450F. This is a $3 part at Radio Shack, and there is a detailed instruction on how to replace it here: http://virantha.com/2014/03/02/fix-your-breville-smart-oven-by-replacing-the-thermal-fuse/ So I guess I'll give fixing it myself a try and report back. Has anyone here done this repair? Was it successful? And why would Breville use a fuse that is lower than the appliance's top heat settings? Thanks!
  13. Walmart (of all places) is selling the Demeyere Proline 5* 9.5" skillet for 1 Franklin: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Demeyere-Atlantis-Proline-Stainless-Steel-Fry-Pan/884060316?u1=j2982ow0un01jvv50009i&oid=500376.1&wmlspartner=je6NUbpObpQ&sourceid=04295489923624497382&affillinktype=10&veh=aff This is arguably the best skillet on the planet.
  14. Hi, btbyrd: Having worked both ends of the "custom kill" operation, and having raised my own beef for others, I understand your frustration as a consumer. But you have covered an awful lot of ground in your OP. Hopefully my graze will help. Excuse all puns... First off, No one should believe this. It's unprovable hype and tripe. It is possible to find Prime beef that never saw a grain, but it's rare. It's more common in grain-fed and grain-finished animals, yet only then around 2-10% (depending on where the beef lived). A small operator has to sell what she has--she probably doesn't see enough Prime to regularly put "tender cuts" on her own plate. Do you know that a single cut--between the 12th & 13th ribs--determines the grade of the whole animal? People who buy a quarter-share or half a beef are dismayed both by how little meat there is (about 250 pounds for a half) and how little of that can be cut and wrapped into better steaks and roasts. Second, your second steak looks like it was thawed and refrozen, and the seal looks defective. Either that, or it was cryovac'd without dry aging. And the "good" photo looks suspiciously bright red with snow-white fat--suspicious enough to wonder about Devil Corn. The point here being that there is a huge element of trust involved, even when you can see the meat. Third, your OP is silent on what breeds of animal you select. Do you ask before you buy? If not, can you complain if you got a Jersey instead of a Kumamoto? IMO, breed makes more quality difference in the final product than does grass-vs-grain. Good luck with that one. Good commercial vacuum sealers can cost several thousand dollars, money that could have been used to feed several animals another year hoping one could grade Prime. And bending to your wishes also brings downsides, like UV ageing, customers pawing through bins, breaking seals and cherrypicking, leaving the spoiled, the old, the small and mispackaged behind. Frankly, from a freezer storage perspective, I prefer the classic double wrap with paper. What I suggest you do is find one or a small group of providers whom you trust, based on quality. Don't buy again from providers who break that trust, or at least contact them with your disappointment (take photos). Next, look at the calendar. We are so accustomed to having anything we want, the instant we want it, we lose sight of things like grass not growing as much in the winter. I always slaughtered in the late fall, after the forage and fresh green chop petered out, and after a short grain finish. IMO, timing the kill like this is one of the best reasons to prebuy an animal and then freeze it. In Seattle, we have turned the corner a bit on bespoke (read: old-fashioned) butchers. There are more now than at any time I can remember. Their prices can be high, but usually not a lot higher than at the farmers' markets. I'd go this route ahead of Whole Paycheck. A final hint, if this is even possible for you: If you have a nearby 4H program, consider buying a prize animal. You may have to do this at auction, and cattlemen can bid these animals up like Tokyo fishmongers bid up prize bluefin. This can be the ultimate assurance that the animal is a particular breed and age, was raised in a particular way, and you can see it on the hoof. Cheers!
  15. Sure. If you think a little retro, there are plenty of uses. Bottle/reseal your limoncello or May wine, verjus or whatever. Aside from bottling the occasional 6L bottles of wine, I use mine to cork my wicker-covered water bottle so it won't leak. Works a lot better than a trial cork.
  16. It is a vintage pharmacist's cork press, from the day when drugs and tinctures were locally bottled in glass and then stoppered with real cork. The operator rolls a slightly oversized cork between the wheel and anvil, working it down to a size that will fit his/her bottles. How do I know this? Well, these old machines also work quite well at working modern large-format wine corks down to the point you can get them in a wine bottle. The alternative is a $1500 unitasker. Definitely closer to $50 resale than $5. People collect these things.
  17. I can highly recommend the ThermaQ kits. Simple, loud, readable, great magnetic boot... I can also let the Gullets in on a small secret: If you don't see the probe you want in the offered kits, call them up and ask for a substitute with equivalent discount. I got the Pro Griddle (contact) probe, which gets a lot of use with my pan project; it also takes the guesswork out of knowing when to oil a pan at the Leidenfrost Point.
  18. At the 2017 IHHS show, there were many new gadgets. Most were unremarkable. One that intrigued me was the West Blade grater line recently introduced by Lifetime Brands/Sabatier (It's exclusive with W-S for the time being). They're "tineless", meaning there are no raised teeth or serrations. They do not feel sharp at all--the holes seem to be just holes. You can run your fingers over/across the business end and they won't grab you. Two things about them I found really cool: (1) the citrus grater will grate the peel but not into the pith; and (2) they cut just as well in both directions, so you can use a back-and-forth motion. Most gadget makers have jumped on the water- and insulated-bottle bandwagon bigtime. Considering you can make, ship and distribute them for $2 and sell them for $25, who wouldn't want some of that?
  19. I could only use the phone in speakerphone mode. It was otherwise fully functional.
  20. The Apilco mark is usually very distinct, so you may have a facsimilie. They look right, though.
  21. Not necessarily. Never underestimate the possibility of drying out soggy electronics. I once dropped a cell phone in 8" of bloody goo in the bottom of a failed freezer unit. A combination of partial disassembly, a commercial dessicant (Dry-Eaze in a ziplock bag for 2 days) and another day in a very low oven restored it to 95% functionality. What do you have to lose?
  22. That would still make it a non-tip ladle. Just saying...
  23. 24 years ago, I received one of these as a wedding gift. I hated it, thought it was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen. I kept it only because the giftor was a closer friend who might notice if it disappeared. Eventually, I wised up. Now it's like Charlton Heston's musket to me...
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