Mjx

If there's been a change to the actual texture of the wood itself, that's tricky to fix, unless the top is made of smallish pieces, which can be taken out and replaced entirely; getting this done properly would probably cost a bundle, unless you have a friend or family member who does this sort of thing. You might want to consider eventually inlaying some tiles in the scarred area, which would also have the advantage of being usable for setting pots and pans on the table, on occasions when you don't plate.

It seems as though the fewer connections need to be maintained, the less confusing things will become over numerous generations of changes, so keeping these separate, and your suggestion of just putting tables/lists in the topics would be simplest.

I never worked on a glass stove top until about eight years ago, so don't know about a change, but here, now, they are the norm, and I've worked on ones of every quality, from cheapo Gorenjes, to the Gagganau that seduced my boyfriend into getting itself installed in our kitchen (and it is a terrific stovetop, so I'm not complaining), and surface damage due to spills and and vulnerability to scratching don't seem to be major issues. I've found salt and misused cleaners to be the biggest offenders in terms of scratches (I may be mistaken, but this seems to be mostly cosmetic). I seldom slide pots far over the stovetop (this wasn't something I could do on other sorts of ranges, either), but if a pot slides a bit-off-centre on a burner, I do push it back. Although I don't make myself crazy worrying about it, I do direct my aim carefully when adding salt to water for pasta and the like, and add from lower down than I might on another sort of range, so none scatters outside the pot. When cleaning, it's a good idea to use a blade scraper to first remove major patches of muck, and removing all the cleaner is important too, or the surface can start to look hazy over time (sort of the way glasses sometimes do, when they've passed through a dishwasher many, many times) I've spilled every sort of crap on stove glass stove tops, and even had stuff ooze between the cooking pot and the stovetop, generating billows of smoke, but it wiped or scraped away, leaving not a trace behind (and I have to admit that I've sometimes left our stovetop in a fairly grotty state for several days, with patches of residues of all sorts sitting there, waiting for me to get to them). I would like to have a gas burner for one or two things, but apart form that, I'm extremely happy with the our electric range (I should mention that the single control knob is magnetic, and can be lifted off, leaving a 100% unobstructed surface, when I clean).

I'd be inclined to slice it across the grain (because it is rather fibrous) and perhaps dry it, to either eat as a snack, or perhaps see whether it makes for a nice infusion, perhaps in conjunction with ginger. To be honest, though, I've always treated pineapple as something intrinsically two-textured (a bit like a carrot), and have never cored (even though I'm incredibly finicky about the way I peal it); I just slice it across, and cut each slice radially, so each piece has a little bit of core.

In the shell; the things keep forever. The bowl is not that tall, by the way, maybe 7 or 8 inches. We also sometimes use a large dish with a bunch of votive candles in small glass holders (they're easy to dust, and you can fire them up for a dinner party). Again, nice low profile, pleasant to look at, not too intrusive.

I use a large bowl filled with nuts for a similar purpose to the one you describe. The bowl is a broad, relatively shallow one by Pillivuyt (the classic footed one, 13"), and the nuts are about as low-maintenance as you can get.

The published record is somewhat different from that, IndyRob. I became curious about this topic after recently encountering differing perceptions about the phrase "French-fried" on eG. I've been checking hardcore printed modern and historical sources (no idea to what extent their upshots surface online -- in some cases very little certainly, because of active copyright covering the past 75 years or so -- with information like this, my experience is that sometimes you do get what you pay for). Certain landmark food books reveal the practice and thinking of the cultures they came from. (Incidentally if anyone reading this is doing related serious research, you are welcome to PM or email me to discuss.) This inquiry (as food history research often does!) led to surprising side information that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. I'll add upshots to WikiGullet soon and post at least a link here. This might become an example (I'm sure others exist) of useful reference information that's online exclusively on WikiGullet. But in a nutshell, on the terminology, the phrase "French-fried" and variants have been used by major US, British, and French cookbook writers; it was extensively current in mainstream US sources for most of the 20th century; it's one among alternative phrases, never used exclusively in the US (I mentioned that in post #26 upthread); and it seems to've been particularly common in the US, other cultures having their own preferred folk idioms. (Pommes frites is especially international: its European use is not limited to le monde francophone, and it also appears in print as one of the British alternative idioms.) Cooking potatoes this way in the US emerges as one example of a broader historical shift, which one brilliant food historian documented. US popular taste and food writing, after following English traditions closely during the colonial centuries, shifted visibly away from English and toward French cooking starting around 1800. What's remains unclear to me, however, is whether you are saying that 'french fry' is being used as a verb, or as an adjective. The adjective, I've come across plenty, the verb, honestly, no: Are you actually finding this in extensive use as a verb, at any point in time?

This is my thinking as well. Also, adding gums and stabilizers means that producers can use the minimum fat for the labeling requirements. But surely, trebling shelf life isn't that related to the distance that dairy is transported..? As far as I can remember offhand, most dairy products in the US come from regional divisions of large industrial concerns, and don't travel that far (I'm basing this on my experience in NYS; I should ask my sister in law, whose parents were dairy farmers in Oregon). Sounds like there must be a pretty solid tangle of regulations involved in this, including what counts as 'cream'.

The probability that the the presence or absence of additives is most likely a national, rather then industry-related issue gets some support from the fact that a brief online search indicates that, actually in Denmark there is one massive dairy (Arla), and a number of smaller producers; the unadulterated stuff sitting in our refrigerator comes from Karolines Køkken, part of the Arla group.

I'm curious: Are the licorice sticks you refer to the pieces of dried root you can find in some shops, or the candy?

Exactly! I like to be able to retain some control over what is in the ingredients I buy. This can't be the whole story though, because I doubt there's a country left whose dairy industry isn't primarily industrialized. In Denmark, for example, there are just two or three huge, ultramodern dairies, and I don't even know whether there are any small independent ones left, but finding plain heavy cream isn't a problem. Many electric mixers turn unadulterated cream into butter if you over-whip it by even a few seconds, so perhaps in places where additives are the norm, this arose because of consumer complaints about that.

I have the same problem: Can't afford it, so I'm biding my time until further editions come along, and the price drops a bit. The chemistry and physics grab me a bit more than the gadgets.

I've always thought of heavy cream as one of those single-ingredient things (unlike 'convenience' creams that are pre-sweetened, or intended for coffee). The Homemade butter topic opened my eyes to the fact that, in many places, heavy cream containing various additives is the norm, to the point that finding unadulterated versions is almost impossible. In Denmark, there doesn't seem to be any difficulty in finding plain heavy cream: The stuff I have in the refrigerator, purchased at the local Fakta chain, lists cream as its only ingredient, and indicates a fat content of 38% (it is 'økologisk', which is roughly equivalent to 'organic'). Does the heavy cream you find in your area tend to be unadulterated, or does it contain extras? And, if it does contain extras, what are they, and what's the fat content of the cream?

That's amazing, at least to me. You'd think they'd have at least one version that was unadulterated. You might have luck finding pure cream at a health food store or farmer's market.

The Cook's Illustrated recipe for lemon layer cake (March & April 2007) involves a lemon filling that uses gelatin as a thickener, as well whole eggs and yolks. CI is pretty reliable, in my experience.

Could the cream you got hold of be specially intended for coffee? I've never heard of stabilizers being present in other sorts of cream (I just took a look at the supermarket cream we have in the fridge, and it contains only cream [38% fat]; I always have to be careful to not turn it into butter when I'm whipping it). Although it may not be the only culprit, it seems to me that carageenan would definitely interfere with breaking, since that's part of the reason it's there. Carageenan is also a thickener, which suggest that the fat level is fairly low, making it less than ideal for butter production.

The caramelized apricot that Steven was kind enough to provide a picture of, from his dinner at elBulli. I cannot stop thinking about it, and keep going back to the image to look at it. I want to know how to make this, even if it may prove technically impossible outside a specialized restaurant kitchen. It is self-containedly perfect.

If the yolk:white ratio is pretty close (I don't know where you could find this information, however) to that of a chicken egg, you could just beat them, and then measure out an amount of beaten egg that equals that required by the recipe.

Dessert blintzes, mayhap? Cherry and blueberry blintzes are wonderful things.

Andie, thanks: I would never have guessed that these juicers were intended to be used this way (this is not an intuitive design).

Paying for plastic (and some paper) bags has been standard here for about a decade, and runs from DKK2 to DKK4.50 (about 40 to 75 US cents each, if I've done the math correctly). I've never actually bought a bag, though, since like most people do here, I bring a backpack/reusable cloth shopping bag(s). I didn't realize this was happening in North America, too.

One thing I often bring back with me is Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix, it's almost guaranteed that what she'll be able to find in this category will be a bit dismal (she could make a mix herself from available ingredients, but if she's not much of a cook, she probably won't want to go there). BTW, write something like 'Happy birthday' all over the box; some friends of mine advised me to do this, since otherwise, there is the chance that she'll be required to pay an import tax, if the authorities decide that what you've sent is 'merchandise', even if it should be pretty evident that it's a care package.

All the restaurant dreams I recall, involve either trying to find a bathroom window to escape from, because I'm dining with a bore, or I'm trying to tell someone at table with me about something dreadful in their food or drink (I think I recall... a raw human eyeball in someone's coffee?), but can't, because I'm afraid of being accused and executed for killing the individual whose body part in the other person's food. Or, suddenly realizing I'm stark naked, and worrying that I'm going to be yelled at for this inexplicable transgression (and frantically trying to recall whether I left home like this, or my clothing just, you know, vanished). Yet, I haven't had particularly unpleasant restaurant experiences (although I have seriously considered escaping by a window from a boring dinner date).

I have no idea of the costs involved, but could this situation be tied in any way to it being financially risky for places that sell both, to invest heavily in both coffee and baked goods?

I saw this marinade as a way of giving game flavours to non-game mear. I'd like to try this with pork, to see if I can get a gamier hog/boar flavour. Does anyone know other flavours to use or even methods of cooking to give normal meat that extra dimension? gfweb has a point, these seasonings can't make meat taste more gamey (although they are popular seasoning with game, so it might evoke game dishes, even in the absence of gaminess). The best bet for adding a game-y note would be incorporating fat from game into the your recipe, although game animals do tend to be pretty lean. I had some rendered deer fat for a while, that I used in a lot of things. You could also try aging the meat.