Mjx

Sooo... no one even skimmed halfway down the article to where the author states, very plainly? Yet, despite being a grown man with a penchant for Billabong clothing, Guy shouldn’t incur all the blame. The real fault should be assigned to the people who gave this madman a platform from which to spout his nutso rants. (bold, mine)

Hey all, as you have (I hope) noticed, the OP chose to post this discussion in the Cooking forum, so the focus needs to remain on actual cooking, rather than the medical issues underlying the reasons for reformulating recipes. Although brief, explanatory comments related to the health and science behind various decisions are fine, extended explorations of them will not remain in this discussion (also, please go to the moderation topic, for any discussion of this post).

I'm not at home, so I can't check MC, but I can't think of how you could melt dry[ish] sugar at a temperature that's low enough to do that without browning. I wouldn't go with really high heat, myself, because you get so little wiggle room in terms of being able to stop at the precise point you want to reach. Once the sugar and water mixture reaches the temperature you want, you don't need to boil off any water: you just start working with it (in this case, pour it out in a sheet, I guess, so you can grind it).

Could you simply use a recipe for hard candy/boiled sweets, substituting part of the water with onion juice? When using some mixture of sugar+glucose syrup+water, as long as I've kept an eye on the thermometer, I've never had any problem with the mixture browning before it reaches the hard crack stage (300–310° F° /148–154° C). I know that onion juice has some sugar of its own, but I don't think it should increase the browning significantly (although there may also be enzymes in there that factor into browning)

Since you're using bread that has no salt, you may be better satisfied with a Tuscan recipe (traditionally, Tuscan bread is unsalted, although most savoury things are unusually salty). Or, panzanella may just not be your thing: damp bread is kind of an acquired taste. If you're feeling adventurous, try a search for [panzanella toscana ricetta]. Because the vocabulary is so limited, recipes are easy to figure out, even if you don't know the language they're written in. Translation of a pretty standard-looking recipe (from teladoiofirenze), described as serving 4: 200 g stale bread (the bread specified is [Tuscan] 'pane casalingo', which is unsalted, and also high in gluten, if I'm not mistaken–at any rate, it does not easily disintegrate when wet–sliced, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, squeezed dry, crumbled, and placed in a tureen (a bowl is fine) To this you add, 2 ripe tomatoes, 1 red onion and 1 cucumber (peeled and sliced) Dress the works with oil and salt, mix well, and refrigerate. When you serve the panzanella, add a little vinegar, and garnish with some fresh basil. If you're in a video-watching mood, here's a demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44KzOto90DI

Not clear from your post whether or not this needs to be a vegan recipe, or whether or not dairy is off the table, but regardless, how about chocolate sorbet? Frankly, I like it better than chocolate ice cream, since the flavour is more intense, it doesn't taste like a dessert based on restrictions (of which I've eaten my share, and make me sad), and it hits all the bullets you mention.

There's never a good argument for sloth and incompetence trumping fairness; you have to do your best, and the possibility of someone else dropping the ball isn't a solid reason to put it in your pocket (unless that's your 'best', in which case, you've set up an argument for anyone else appropriating all that you have).

Simplest and most effective solution would be to install floor heating, and put the mat of your choice on the floor. It won't be warm as in 'toasty warm' but definitely comfortable, and you won't need to worry a bit about dropped anything causing damage to the system, since the flooring itself shields it. If your kitchen is small, it should be relatively reasonable install. Floor heating is now the default in Denmark, and it's easy to see why: From what I've seen it's possible to install it under any sort of floor, and even when it's installed under something typically cold, like brick, it's amazing to walk on. We split our time between London and Denmark, and every time we come back to Denmark, we revel in the floor heat, even mid-winter.

How about this recipe, from an actual Irish food site: https://www.goodfoodireland.ie/recipe/burren-salmon-summer-salad-asparagus Although I'd skip the crème fraîche/sour cream, since that just sems to add needless heaviness to a summer dish.

+ dulse (or some other sea plant) and something like Spring Bank? Something aromatic, but sharp and almost austere (juniper berry?), to contrast with/offset/cut through white chocolate's tendency to be relentlessly sweet and mute flavours.

[This was originally part of the preceding post; that has been split, to create a clear introductory post and a distinct, descriptive guideline post.] Here is the outline for the Food drying results section. The Big Picture: Scope: Collect our experiences for future reference who are new or want to know more on the freeze drying process and equipment. Make a Reference document that will help summarize the topics and discussions for Freeze drying. Objective: To help prevent repeat questions for previously posted discussions. To reduce the learning curve of new owners or anyone trying a new food item or technique. To share experiences that other may not have considered and share specific problems with resolving issues for a specific problem or experience. Goal: To keep freeze dryer owners from having failures that can be avoided. To shorten “The learning curve” of the freeze drying process. To make a better product YOUR HELP IS NEEDED: Posting your efforts-results will be used for the foods that have been tried-dried and the good or bad results. Input needed: What is needed is your list of foods dried, the equipment used, and the results of the end product and if possible, reconstitution ratios (if you have done this) for what did- did not work. Most have tried similar veggies, dairy products, meats etc. It's OK to have multiple posts for a single food item as some will have different experiences. I/we want to take those experiences and collect them for the reference of the group. Some of you have posted your results of all your efforts to date and that is an excellent start. Please re-post here. All of your results are needed. Questions for this guide: What food item was dried, Make and model of freeze dryer, Size of product- sliced, diced, whole size (measurement in inches, oz or lbs.) Liquid-puree-paste etc and how much oz. did you dry. Process Results: Product,-amount dried, approx. time to dry and results. What would you do different. Success-nothing to total fail for drying, results from drying are what were are needing. There will be a "recommendations section" on each item for the problems that we have faced and what/how it can be improved/reduced/eliminated For instance: Maraschino cherries. Whole cherries w- w/o stems, 2-3 cups each, Time dried was 30 hours, Multiple foods dried with the cherries. Results- gummy-sticky. High sugar content is suspect for not drying. Not a good candidate for long term storage. Will not do again. Pepperoni: Sliced, 5 lbs, 24- hour cycle, Results: “Crispy” but a very greasy mess. Cannot store long term. Will not do again. Strawberries. Whole, 10lbs- 40 hours dry time. Results: Too much product in the dryer. Overwhelmed system with ice build up. Recommended 5 lbs drying- sliced in half or thin sliced worked to completely dry product. Longer drying cycle needed. Again- This is just ONE aspect of this Reference guide see link here as posted in the Moderation and Policy section for the Other topics proposed for the Freeze drying guide. Your input for the other related issues. please post there. We want to keep the topics from being "blurred" in these posts. This is for US and you have input on how this could be improved Note: I have pulled together previous posts to help with the structure for the other sections of the guide. Thanks for your interest. Mr. Mike

If you want to make an actual ganache, which by definition involves chocolate, going with one of the white chocolate options seems the way to go, although personally, I'd prefer dark, barely sweetened chocolate with olives. I don't think any of the gels (maybe agar?) would contribute to a ganache-like texture. Might want to consider a small proprotion of almond butter, or something similar.

Partly, it's just the pleasure of browsing. Also, Denmark has a somewhat narrow selection of goods, so from the standpoint of actually buying things, places with broad arrays of 'standard' items are of interest, and I'm also interested in things related to making sweets, modernist ingredients, assorted Southeast Asian cooking ingredients, and traditional local items (if there is any such thing, any longer).

Is marzipan an option? There is an Italian bio marzipan that you can sometimes find at Whole Foods (I can't remember the name at the moment) that is really pleasant to work with (holds a high level of detail, and does not slump), and tastes lovely (assuming you like marzipan).

Thanks for the suggestions so far, and please keep them coming (and apologies for not responding sooner: I was in transit to/from airports, flying)! Brixton and Divertimenti are sounding particularly good, and I actually kind of like Borough Market, but just cannot deal with the crowds, and will be taking a look at Maltby Street. We've been staying at different places, and are not far from Bloomsbury Square at the moment, but I'm most interested in anything that is within a one-hour-walking-distance from, say, London Bridge (I'm impatient with public transit, and don't love crowds), although I'd certainly consider breaking out the Oyster card for someplace that is farther away than that.

I'll be spending a fair amount of time in London in the near future, but the city is completely new to me, so my knowledge of its particularly worthy features is more or less non-existant, and we've done any food shopping at the big supermarkets and department stores, which are relatively well stocked. However, I'd love to find shops that carry unusual, specialized, or otherwise interesting and useful selections of ingredients and kitchen articles. Anyone care to share their favourites? Thanks

Erm. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/36630-potato-chips/?p=1959436

A hot tamarind-based drink would be pretty good during cold, grey, and clammy season. Have you made/come across any? Also, I wonder how it would work out, replacing some other liquid in something baked (the puree I have is very runny). It's pretty sour, so it might do strange, pH-related things.

They're cookies with sprinkles (dough is traditionally flavoured with flavoured with rum or anise liqueur). The name comes from La Befana (elderly woman/witch who does Santa's gig, but on Epiphany). I admit that my wanting to make befanini mostly reflects my desire to use the hell out of our new kitchen [i'm not supposed to eat them, blablabla], and I'm trying to figure out who to give them to, since my boyfriend won't eat them all.

Happy new year! I really like seeing and hearing about what others are doing, so I'm extending this a little beyond December, in hopes of seeing what others may be doing for Epiphany/Twelfth Night. Even if/especially it is not traditional. I'm planning on baking Befanini, a nod to La Befana, and my parents conceding a point and giving us gifts on this occasion when my siblings and were small. Between now and then, the plan is to use up every perishable thing lurking in the refrigerator; anyone else do this at the beginning of the year? Or, have lots and lots of ideas for tamarind puree?

Yesterday, I killed off the last of the fruitcake I've been more or less living on during the past week, tarting it up with sour cherries, and dustings of cacao, smoked salt, cayenne pepper, and citric acid, because this year's fruitcake insanely sweet: Today I'm essentially fasting, in order to accommodate this evening's festivities, which, per tradition, are taking place at the home of friends, one of whom is well over 6 feet tall, and has expansive ideas about the human body's capacity to hold food. Our host will be serving roast lamb, soup, salad and bread, and the guests will be bringing drinks, cheese, and dessert. I'm bringing the dessert, and my tentative suggestion of marshmallows (since I've pretty much fallen in love with making these squishy, bouncy things, and the seem light enough to follow a lot of heavy food) was seconded and approved. This time, they're vanilla and lemon: Certainly the perfect pairing with the award-winning Nugan Semillon that is being served with dessert <cough> (the guy in charge of bringing the wines asked 'Anyways, what type of drink goes with marshmallows? Red soda pop?'). Anyone else dining out (or drinking in; I did that one year, and it was brilliant)? Any special food-related preparations for tonight's festivities (or avoidance thereof)?

They may be edible and taste okay, but it seems like they'd be mostly water and chitin, which might give you an impressively hairy-looking crunchy snack, but 24 bucks a pop seems kind of steep...unless it's question of simply wanting to satisfy your curiosity and there being nothing available at a lower price point, then sure, why not? I've certainly spent more than that to satisfy my curiosity.

Seems like the sort of price I'd expect for any 'novelty' ingredient that is being pushed asspecial; I'd bet that if few go for it, the price will come way down, as sellers try to get rid of their spider overstock. How many tarantulas are considered one serving?

My boyfriend always takes charge of making the brune kartofler (he knows I don't really get behind the concept, and may suspect that I'll make them somehow 'different'), and his method is identical to Anna's, athough he uses pre-cooked and -peeled new potatoes, since his patience with peeling vegetables is close to zero.

Happy whatever-you-celebrate! My boyfriend's parents dined with us last night, and the planning for that began a month or so ago, when I first steamed the pudding. Plan A included roast goose, because it is delicious, and my boyfriend's mother enjoys watching him eat it. For me, December means an RTI with one of those robust, tearing coughs that guarantees a free seat beside you on public transit, so my hunt for a goose was not particularly energetic; in fact, when I came across a good-sized duck, I closed on it, and got that. Then, I was shopping for various last-minute odds and ends at a not-cheapo supermarket, and saw this (DKK325/each): No sane person would blow that on a goose, after dropping a wad on a duck. When I got home, I drank some tea (second-to last liquorice Advent calendar offering), and set about unwrapping the goose and hoping it would fully thaw in time. After doing this and that to it, it was ready for roasting: I set about starting the gravy and the latkes, then set the table for the traditional afternoon-preceding-Christmas-dinner coffee and tea. Traditionally, this involves plenty of bread, cake, and sweets, so by dinner-time, you're still packed pretty solidly. Since dinner on a full stomach never strikes me as pleasant, I discussed this with my boyfriend's mother the day before, and she fell in with my plan of having just coffee and tea, and 'a few light things to nibble' (coffee, kettle, not yet on the table): She arrived with a substantial number of chocolates and biscuits, and also a red cabbage dish and beets, for dinner (traditional Danish Christmas dishes). My boyfriend looked at the [to him] naked table, and dumped a heap of 'fun-size' Mars, Snickers, and the like on the table. I mused on the many, many intepretations of the concept of 'light snack', as I shuttled back and forth between the table and the various non-goose preparations. Finally, after 3 hours, the goose was done, and a thing of beauty (I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe, which worked out well for me before, although I skipped the stuffing, since there was so much other food): On the menu: Goose with brown gravy Latkes Brune kartofler (small potatoes in what is essentially a butterscotch sauce) A red cabbage dish Pickled beets Green salad with fennel Traditionally, a Danish Christmas dinner concludes with cherry-sauce-garnished rice pudding that has an almond embedded somewhere in it, and the person who gets the porton with the almond gets a small gift (mandelgave). A little discussion revealed that feelings about the time-honoured and beloved rice pudding tradition ranged from 'Eh' to 'HELL no', so I got some ice cream, portioned out a number of scoops, shoved an almond into one of them, and passed that around instead (and forgot the cherry sauce). I'd also assumed the reponsibility for the mandelgave, and decided that rather than the usual keychain, puzzle, or packet of sweets, something practical that virtually every adult could use was in order: This was followed by dancing (read 'walking': everyone had just eaten roughly their own body weight in food, brisk cavorting would be disastrous, or at least messy, and personally, I've never seen actual dancing involved in this) around the tree and singing holiday songs, then unwrapping gifts. By this time, the plum pudding was done reheating. My boyfriend lit and poured a cupful of whisky over it (it's currently drying out a bit, since it got very soft and wet): And that was that! Next: preparing (aka 'Will fasting a day in advance mitigate the appallingly overdistended feeling that has become the norm for January 1st?') for the culinary assault that is New Year's Eve with friends who happen to have an awe-insipiring capacity for food, combined with the metabolism of a couple of racehorses. Still a week of December left: anything doing for New Year's Eve?