jrshaul

Have you looked at some sort of cart? Aside from the obvious convenience and possibility of selling perishable product at farmers' markets, the congestion of sugary fat vendors lined up outside the university bars suggests serious profit potential. They appear to do brisk business even in the frigid months. The main restriction on cart ownership (at least, around here) is the requirement of a permanent licensed kitchen, providing brick-and-mortar establishments like your own an advantage.

Any food truck that's less expensive than the brick and mortar places down the block. It's cheaper to eat at a table.

I know a guy who has a fairly successful semi-commercial bakery. (They sell a lot to grocery stores.) A few things he's brought up include: 1. Waste. Doughnuts stale extremely quickly, and stale donuts are useful only for making bread pudding. 1.1: A "day-old" bin will cannibalize profits. Go all Paula Deen and make them into something else. 2. Wholesaling. Unless you're operating at peak capacity (in which case you don't need my help), you may derive significant profit from selling to other vendors. It's hard to compete with semi-commercial places using prefab ingredients, but not an opportunity worth overlooking. 3. Promotion is a bitch. The majority of advertising is extremely expensive for the customers it brings in, and discounted or free merchandise can translate directly to lost sales. 3.1: Groupon is evil. 4: Not hiring a graphic designer is a bad idea. Paying too much is a worse idea. 5: Find some way to vent your donut exhaust outside at 2AM, and don't close until 60 minutes after bar time. It works fabulously for the cookie cart. EDIT: Also, mgaretz is 100% correct. Find a lawyer with experience, and he'll save you thousands down the line.

I find the comments of disappointment in $30 plates highly amusing. These days, I find myself filled with regret over $10. A combination of inclement market conditions, low consumer expectations, and bare-fisted greed has created a truly appalling standard for anything but the most luxuriant food. A 1/2-lb grass fed beef burger small fries at a burger joint off frat row is a whopping $16.50, and is par with $5 equivalent at Five Guys. Hummus comes from a tub. God forbid you order pasta priced below a round-trip megabus to Chicago. Maybe my standards have become inflated over time, but the prices keep creeping upwards while the quality, at best, remains stagnant. I actually make a point of eating out at sub-$6 establishments when possible on the basis that they aren't charging enough to afford Sysco. My lunch might be 80% masa harina, but at least it's the genuine article. My one major exception is high-quality steak. A local place does a very nice Neiman Ranch grass-fed flatiron for $18, and while the mark-up is no doubt gonzo, the fact is I'd be spending at least $9 to obtain an equivalent cut at retail. Also, should my rare beef luxuriance be overcooked, they're obliged to give me a new one. (I'd be more steamed about receiving a medium-well steak when I'd ordered rare if I hadn't done the same dang thing last week.) And it's only $3.50 more than the burgers down the street.

I made a batch of honey ice cream yesterday. Due to available ingredients, it came out like this: 1 cup heavy whipping cream 2 cups whole milk 4 small egg yolks 2/3 cup honey It came out edible, but the whole process was something of a botch-fest. Stupid mistakes include: 1. Unceremoniously mixing the eggs with the rest of the custard before cooking. In order to keep the eggs from going funny, I stirred the stuff constantly until it was hot. 2. Grainy texture. The liner in my ice cream maker has trouble bringing merely chilled custard to a soft-serve texture, so I left the custard in the freezer until the edges were starting to freeze. I did try to mix in the frozen bits to produce a homogeneously unfrozen liquid, but the results weren't great. I also might be running it too fast. Next time, I'll put it on "slow." 3. Inadequately custard-like. Aside from the issue with the tempering, these had really dinky yolks. The coconut custard was honestly pretty crap. The coconut milk used had something of a sour flavor; furthermore, the end result was inadequately sweetened and lacked an appropriate texture. Next up: Kiwi sorbet! I'm getting xanthan gum.

Is this recipe appropriate for a variety of fruit purees? The peach recipe above is very nice, but it is more of a sherbet than ice cream; while the reduced dilution of flavor is great for less than superior produce, an easily mutable base recipe is a fabulous thing to have. On a related note, if anyone has a recipe for ice cream using lemon, I would be anxious to hear it. The local ice cream parlor doesn't do citrus flawlessly; I suspect they're making heavy use of canned products and extracts, and citrus does not fare well. The possibility of making a "cheesecake" ice cream using cream cheese also has great appeal, if anyone can verify an effective recipe.

Does the cooler in your display cost have the ability to dehumidify? It may be possible to place some sponges near the refrigerant condensor to absorb moisture. While there are several ways to further reduce humidity, the most convenient is the addition of a cartridge of reusable silica desiccant to the case. Depending on the degree of airflow in and out of you display, an inexpensive carton of beads will keep humidity at very reasonable levels for 24 hours or more. The cartridges, once saturated, are then dried in a conventional oven for re-use. They're affordable, too. http://desiccantsonl...d&productId=321

The inclusion of the peel was suggested in order to add color to the puree. I may remove it in the future - the apples used were unusually small, and this seemed an efficient way to cook with them. A run in my curbside find margarita blender reduced peel to an unobjectionable level, though the flavor was a bit diffuse; next time, I may use apple juice instead of water. I have a batch of banana ice cream chilling in the freezer. I used about 1.75lbs of bananas (before peeling), 3/4 cup whole milk, 3/4 cup cream, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup corn syrup, and about a teaspoon of vanilla. I tried adding a ribbon of peanut butter, but it didn't go over well; instead of a neat swirl, I have brown speckles everywhere. (Should taste great, though!) I currently have a sack of grapefruit and a friend with a dairy allergy. I'd like to do a grapefruit sorbet, and would appreciate suggestions on the ideal method of production; while I'm not much for filleting grapefruits, I do have a centrifugal juicer. I've heard a ratio of 4 parts juice to 1 part sugar to 1 part corn syrup is effective for a soft sorbet, and it seems that the inclusino of alcohol allows further sugar to be substituted for corn syrup; can anyone make further suggestions? , Also, has anyone here done dairy-free ice cream? Lactose is an issue, but the use of eggs is fine.

The peach ice cream recipe above came out very well indeed, though I would describe it as more of a sherbet. And peaches are on sale! I've noticed this very issue. I've been making small batches to get my feet wet, and they tend to come out a bit on the dense side. I also prepared a cooked apple puree, but my blender couldn't get all the peel and I can't seem to force the stuff through a sieve. Short of finding a Vita-Mix, any suggestions?

The ice cream I've been making so far has been good, but needs work. I think part of the problem is that the ice cream is not freezing entirely in the ice cream maker (it's a bit flufffy, as per cheap ice cream that has partially thawed and refrozen). I suspect that part of the problem is an improperly frozen liner; I had assumed 10 hours was adequate, but the manual specifies as many as 24. I currently have some semi-frozen peach ice cream (from Smithy's recipe) in my freezer. I might end up needing to thaw and refreeze. I'm also interested in additives I can use to maintain texture in the freezer. Invert sugar/corn syrup is an option, and I've had some good sorbets with gelatine in them. I need this recipe six ways past thursday. I know a Vietnamese girl who's returning to Wisconsin in August and has a truly massive sweet tooth....

The sour cream and lime ice cream came out very nicely. I think I might actually ramp up the lime and add some milk next time I make it. Can anyone here elaborate on the use of condensed milk in ice cream? I've seen a few recipes that use it.

1. Have you looked at the benefits and disadvantages of a career as a chef? I learned a long time ago that long hours, high pressure, and perpetual heat exhaustion do not make for my ideal choice of working conditions. Executive chefs make good money, but working your way up to the top of even a chain hotel is a daunting task - there are many, many chefs, and only so many jobs. 2. Cooking school can be expensive. I've heard of $28,000 a year - more than tuition to a good state school! - though alternatives provide the basics for less than a quarter that amount. As a general rule, most non-profit or state run schools offer good value for money; however, beware of private "colleges" and "universities" that are full of lying scum-weasels who will take all your money in return for subpar education. If it advertises on primetime TV, it's probably best avoided. Alternately, consider your education as an apprenticeship. I have met chefs who worked their way up to strong careers. An entry-level position at a prestigious restaurant is not a bad place to be, and while the pay is crap, it's a free education. 3. What do you want to cook? While cooking schools will give you a background in the basics, speciality cuisine like barbecue or pastry require a more specialized education. A pit-master can't make six hundred napoleons a day, a pastry chef won't give you much in the way of a smoke ring, and the average chef de cuisine can do none of the above.

That peach ice cream recipe looks like a hum-dinger. The apple sorbet recipe uses, much as you suggest, apples simmered in a bit of lemon juice. Hopefully this will produce the desired texture.

I was actually thinking of sorbets with the fruit. Herp derp. First on the block is a sour cream recipe, which is going to go through the machine as soon as the liner is done freezing. The recipe - adapted from an adaptation from the Momofuku cookbook - goes like this: 2 cups sour cream 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar zest and juice of of one organic midget lime. (if you buy from Trader Joe's, you know the ones I'm on about.) Combine water and sugar and bring to a boil; once solution has boiled, remove from heat and immediately add lime zest while still hot. Allow to return to room temperature, add lime juice and sour cream. Pour in ice cream machine and hope for the best. Up next is an apple sorbet, though it might be somewhat interesting to make - my scale recently bit the dust, and the recipe is metric. Oy. If anyone can suggest further information on the use of gelatin or other things to produce a softer sorbet, that would be splendid.

I was actually thinking of sorbets with the fruit - I should'be been more specific. First on the block is a sour cream ice cream, which is presently running through the ice cream machine. The recipe - adapted from an adaptation from the Momofuku cookbook - goes like this: 2 cups sour cream 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar zest and juice of of one organic midget lime. (if you buy from Trader Joe's, you know the ones I'm on about.) Combine water and sugar and bring to a boil; once solution has boiled, remove from heat and immediately add lime zest while still hot. Allow to return to room temperature, add lime juice and sour cream. Pour in ice cream machine and hope for the best. Up next is an apple sorbet, though it might be somewhat interesting to make - my scale recently bit the dust, and the recipe's in metric. Oy.

A stroke of good luck at a garage sale brought me a like-new electric ice cream maker for all of $3. I proceeded to freeze the liner, throw in a mixture of 2.5 cups whole milk, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar, and a bit of maple syrup and corn syrup (it seemed sensible at the time) to test it, and it appears to be working flawlessly. It was a little bit grainy, but I chalk that up to not actually using any cream - it was, after all, a system test, and I didn't want to waste a pint of the good stuff on an appliance of unknown provenance. I've never made ice cream before, though, and would be up to some idiotproofed suggestions. Especially those that involve apples (I have a temporary surplus), peaches (ditto), grapefruit (especially if it has campari in it,) and sour cream (don't ask.)

On a semi-unrelated note, has anyone done SV meatballs?

145F is referenced as a convenient temperature for safely holding a sauce. A crock pot doesn't do this very well without the addition of PID.

Waterpoof submersible probes are expensive to buy, but cheap to make. I bought the thermocouples for about $2 each on eBay, and the remainder of the stuff is just bits and pieces sitting around. I'll be moving to a better SV setup shortly, but I'd like to have the versatility of being able to keep food in my crock pot at a safe ~145F. Also, my last thermocouple shorted out from water, and I don't want to lose $20 in T-bones due to a second failure. There's no kill like overkill.

Before anyone accuses me of being a more competent chef than I actually am, I'd like to emphasize the possibilities of SV for labor-saving and idiotproofing. Crock pots are rather crass and unreliable devices, and the two settings on mine translate to "Hard boil" and "Not hot enough." It's not strictly necessary to use a PID controller, but since I have one rigged up anyway - why not? I'm an amateur cook who sometimes cooks for groups as large as 25. I'm not even very good at it - I'm lucky to get out of the kitchen in less than three hours on a relatively basic meal. The ability to start two batches of pasta sauce in under an hour then cook them outdoors, in disposable containers, with zero oversight is miraculous; the ability to hold them at a safe 145F indefinitely, even more so. One of the most time-consuming foods I know has now become one of the least. I hate canned food. I'm sick of the price, sick of the taste, and sick of the nutrition. And now, thanks to modern technology, I get to eat a little less.

Neapolitan pizza, around here, starts at something like $14. You buy it at a fancy, sit-down restaurant. Tack on another $3 for a tip. I can get a gratuitously oversized slice of noveau-NY pizza from Ian's for $3.50. It's not bad, either - they're big on fresh, and source locally what ingredients they can. They had a roasted pork loin and peach pizza that was more than passable, and the Mac & Cheese is quite good. I would much rather have the neapolitan pizza. However, given that the cost of admission at Ian's is equivalent to the gratuity on the alternative, I just don't see the point.

I was referring to the sauce, not the probe. Currently, my crock pot *is* my SV cooker.

The Ziploc bag solution is a good one. I had hoped to just place the probe in the slow cooker at ~185F as suggested, but a Ziploc both simplifies the setup and means I don't actually have to clean the crock pot. I also like the idea of making a meat and vegetarian sauce simultaneously. The problem is a combination of low-quality stove (which I don't particularly trust unattended not to light the house on fire) and inadequate air conditioning. Anything that can move my food outside is a good thing.

I've seen beer probes (at least, they were labelled as such) constructed of a thermocouple in a nonreactive plastic coating with a long waterproof lead. You throw it into the beer, and away you go. I do have food-safe (nickel-silver jewler's) solder, and some uncoated thermocouples. If I were to close off the length of a thin piece of copper tube with solder and glue the end of the probe near this end with nonconductive thermal epoxy, would I be on the right track?

I recently used a stupid quantity of very-nearly-expired vegetables and made a very serviceable ragout. I've never been much for simmering things for hours on end, but I braved the heat and, after much sweating, turned a lot of truly garbage canned tomatoes into a thoroughly edible sauce. Sadly, I cannot justify the four hours of simmering required to repeat the experiment. I don't mind 40 minutes of mincing vegetables, but an all-afternoon cooking session just isn't worth it. Filling a crock pot with a completed sauce for several hours of unattended simmering would make this a highly time-effective endeavor, and also allow me to cook on the porch - greatly reducing my risk of heatstroke. Has anyone done this? Should I just turn it on "Low" and hope for the best, or would using my PID controller be advisable? Also, on a semi-related note for the next time I cook for a dozen or more: Can I get away with coarsely pureeing the carrots , garlic, and onions in a food processor? I'm not a big fan of carrot-bits in my sauce, and cutting onions is a PITA in a one-room apartment with no ventilation.