Mjx

Eh... inhaling the 184.3 °C/363.7 °F vapour is kind of painful, though. I personally don't notice much difference among salts, although some certainly are prettier, and dissolve better; I'm perfectly willing to accept the possiblity that some may have flavour nuances (from traces of various things) that I simply don't pick up, however.

There's also Gaggenau's own stone, but it's not cheap, and I have some doubts about it (although again, I wouldn't say no to a free one).

Ever read Beard On Food? He recommends using fingers as the primary mixing tools to "get the feel" of whatever you're mixing, be it a dressed salad or whisked egg mixture for an omlette! What really bugs me is that whenever I see images of TV chefs, their nails are almost invariably too long. If you work with food, it's the same as working in a health profession, you take the nails down to the finger tip, so you have a far better shot of getting your hands really clean. It isn't even hard to do: I've more or less constantly kept my own nails in this state ever since I first became an LMT; you just file them a bit every night, which keeps them short without the risk of opening even the top layer of skin. And long nails on people who prepare food? URGH.

Hmm. I thought capsaicin was oil-soluble: My link. . . . . You're absolutely right, it is: 'Capsaicin is insoluble in cold water, but freely soluble in alcohol and vegetable oils.' (Fire and Spice: The molecular basis for flavor). And oil can't coat your mouth, for the same reason that milk can't coat your stomach: fats sit on water, and your mucous membranes are constantly secreting water-based fluids).

The... inscription does lack the clarity of the one on your cake, which is remarkably pretty, by the way (I somehow managed to miss it, previously). Is that pistachio-flavoured marzipan? Love the little red cubes! How did the strawberry and port mesh with the peanut butter and caramel pairing?

Yesterday's birthday cake: classic devil's food cake layers and chocolate cream frosting (both from The Best Recipe), ginger preserve filling. The layers and frosting included black pepper, cloves, smoked salt, and vanilla bean to round out the chocolate flavour, and the Mackay's spiced ginger preserves were brightened with a bit of citric acid (I moistened the two layers with a bit of Borghetti before filling and icing). (The ridiculously illegible mysterious inscription on the cake is my boyfriend's name... no, neither of us is a tween girl, why do you ask? )

In the spirit of treating this like an important subject that is worthy of restrained and respectful debate, would anyone care to cite (or present a relatively brief, contextualized quotation from) an article addressing this topic, based on solidly constructed and reviewed research, and published in a widely respected journal?

I'm wondering whether this is a strictly NA phenomenon. I know I can find at least one form of wine vinegar in pretty much any local supermarket (and I'm not in Copenhagen, either), and I've noticed it being as much in evidence as ever in Italy. Anyone outside of North America notice a reduced availability of wine vinegar?

Despite their use of metric measures (industry standard, I believe) and the day-month-year date system (increasingly used in the US, too), the prices are in unqualified $$$s, so that's proabably UD dollars... which suggests thay're US-based. But there's no real information on their site regarding who they are or where they're located, which I find odd.

I have two small pheasants (455g and 495g, or about a pound each; they're skinned and frozen) that I'm planning on browning, then braising (at 120C/250F) for 45 minutes, the length of time sheepish mentions using for pheasant halves. Unless... anyone have other recommendations for braising small whole pheasants?

I second weinoo's suggestion (but add, don't ditch the FF when you get tired of it, sell it on eBay or something, add add to the Silvia fund).

A punch based on cider (hard cider, I guess? if that doesn't have more alcohol than EU cider) has a quite light alcohol presence. Plus, a lot of punches incorporate some fruit/spices, and the cider meshes well with that (I'd go with a dry cider; a sweet cider based punch would probably be a bit cloyinging).

I don't understand the use of 'feral' in this context, since it describes the state in which an animal lives, not any sort of breed (e.g. feral dogs are domestic dogs that no longer have owners, and fend for themselves in an essentially wild state; they can just as easily be purebread poodles as nth genration mongrels). Leaving aside the politics for a moment, has no lawyer pointed out the intrisic meaningless of the wording, 'feral hog/swine'? I'd argue that the same goes for 'wild' (unless the ownres are allowing their livestock to run free, which would surprise me very much), not to mention, in animal husbandry, 'boar' is simply a male pig, and 'swine' is a synonym for 'pig'; does the US government/legislature actually actually assign alternate meanings to 'swine', 'boar', 'feral', and 'wild'?

I've eaten them and enjoyed them. It's been a long time, but... I might still. So, where was I? Oh... right! What I do not get is the reason people buy fake citrus extracts. Seriously, the ones made from real citrus peel are not expensive, not even if they're certified organic, fair trade, produced and bottled by virgins who have never, ever been exposed to the Star Wars prequels.

From your perspective, it's true! Since I didn't grow up with Bisquick, it wouldn't hold true for me, at all (I just don't care for Bisquick). But with a lot of the food items mentioned in this topic, there's a nostalgia aspect that cannot be explained (or resaoned away) by logic. Case in point is castagnaccio. Made primarily with chestnut flour, when finished, they resemble brownies. For anyone expecting brownies, they are a cruel disappointment (possibly just cruel). To me, they're a contemplative, mildly nostalgic treat. What I can't understand people buying are time/labour saving foods (e.g. prepared pasta dishes, most prefab. pasta sauces) that don't take a significant amount of time/effort to make in their from-scratch versions. I mean, if someone has that little time, a halfway decent sandwich just seems like a better bet.

Assuming the conditions in which they were raised and slaughtered were virtually identical, would you feel that the seller was justified in charging signifcantly more for 'Wagyu' beef, than that from a breed that is known to be an excellent meat breed? Also, I'm curious: How many of you have throughly read either or both articles?

We're in temporary quarters, now, but when we were living in our own place, the counter had sitting on it: electric kettle, the Silvia, coffee mill, two cutting boards resting against the wall behind these, knife block. Other things (e.g. the slicer) were sometimes camped out on a temporary basis, but these were the permanent residents. I have a bit of a fetish for keeping down kitchen clutter.

If there's a registry it must be an American agribusiness construct, if the USDA, let alone Japan, does not acknowledge the existence of 'Wagyu' as a breed. The article noted more than once that the quality of the US beef was not being questioned, but the ethics/honesty of the use of 'Kobe' [and 'Wagyu'] outside of Japan, not to mention the use of the terms to inflate prices with what are apparently lies.

But that's silly of them, to say the least. You'll recall the passage of the article that notes (after a detailed discussion of what lies behind this statement): 'The gist of it seems to be that in order to be labeled Wagyu under USDA rules – rules that apparently apply only to specific brands and not to all domestic or imported “Wagyu,” – the meat in question can come from the breeding of a cow whose grandparents were both 94% “Wagyu,” even though there is no such breed.'

I really hate the voice over. The script is cack. It annoys me every time. How many times was "molecular chef" said. Mayhap it was a wee cheffie?!

Is the consistency at all like that of polenta?

Fair enough. But it is certainly possible to nicely and politely decline to permit the public to use the loo; I've been to a few places where I was told 'I'm really sorry, but it's for staff only', and that was just not a huge deal.

What on earth is that?! I'm fascinated...

Wait, if being open to the public means you should be expected to allow the public to use your facilites, why aren't more people going into government offices, hospitals, physician's offices, and so on, to use the loo? My asking this goes pack to the opening post in this topic, rather than more recent ones, because it seems to me that something has been lost sight of, here. Accepting that people are annoying doesn't mean that a restaurant or shop owner should be expected to allow the public to use the loo; it's a nice touch, a courtesy. But saying no seems perfectly reasonable to me (barring evident emergencies).

Would someone please remind me why restaurants or shops should be obligated to provide loos to the public?