teonzo

Next months are going to be brutal. Social eating will be killed, both by regulations and people's fears. It's impossible for things to get back to normal before a vaccine is created and applied everywhere. During these months there will be good chances for a part of the businesses. If a restaurant is near an office zone or similar, and is able to adapt to take-out / delivery meals, then it will have good chances to make money. People will get back working and will have the need to eat. Some of them will rely on food from home, others will seek to buy food in a safe way. If you already own a business then you should be able to get a feel of what your neighbourhood will demand in the next months. If not, like in your case, then it's a blind jump, much much riskier than usual. So better leaving the diner there. If the actual owners will be able to make profits during these brutal months, then good for them and we all hope so. The big question is what will happen after people will be vaccinated. I think the reaction will be polarized, no in-betweens. Or people will continue to be scared as hell (so we will enter a long recession), or people will be so sick of being restrained to cause a slingshot effect (so we will enter a big progression). I'm faithful for the second: the will to live will be much stronger than the fear to die, we will learn this lesson, become better humans and lead a happier life. If I were in your shoes, I would wait for when the vaccine will be released, then try to get a grasp of what will happen. At that point all prices will be at a minimum, if there is the slingshot effect then you will buy at the minimum and will be able to ride a huge wave. Buying before the vaccine has no sense. Teo

When you will forget to stock ice cubes in your freezer and you will be in need of a mai tai, then you will start to kiss your blast freezer. Teo

At home I have a 20"x25" PEHD cutting board. I got it because I have granite countertops and that's the worst ever when rolling dough, or it sticks like glue, or you need to dust it heavily with 1 kg flour, then the dough slips like soap, no middles. With PEHD I don't have much problems, the dough tends to stick a bit but it takes just a light dusting to solve everything. Wood would be better, though. But my experience with PEHD for rolling dough is pretty limited, I use it only at home and not frequently. I use it for laminated doughs (puff pastry, croissants...) or for pasta for ravioli. Teo

I hope the dirt towels were used for some jokes with the faire attendants. Teo

If you can get a Paragon induction unit then you can use it with the silicone mat. If you already have an induction unit then try reading the manual if you can set the temperature. I've seen many cheap portable induction units that have the option to set the temperature. You can set it every 10°C and it ranges +-5°C (not much useful for real cooking, except if you want to keep a sauce at serving temperature), should be good enough for this use. Another solution can be buying a heating pad with various settings and put a sheet of parchment paper on it. Teo

"Good" in the sense that it won't harm your health? Most probably yes. "Good" in the sense that while eating it you'll say "this tastes good"? Most probably not. Teo

@Haley, those eggs are gorgeus, especially because they are true to the spirit of Easter eggs! Teo

It's hard to give a precise answer, since it depends on too many factors. There are "good" (not harmful) micro-organisms that prevent the "bad" (harmful) ones to proliferate in the dough. So it depends on the balance of the micro-organisms that live in the dough, which depends on the recipe, on the kind of yeast / starter you used, on how it was stored (temperature and humidity), so on. I heard of various people forgetting sourdough starter in the fridge for weeks, it going dormant / dying, but never heard about it developing molds or other. The risks with sourdough / levain / natural starters are almost null, since that's the natural balance in those conditions. But I heard of some doughs made with yeast that developed molds, that happened after 2-3 days. In your case I would say the micro-organism balance went towards the natural starter conditions, both due to the low starting quantity of yeast and the long time in the fridge. If it developed molds then you should have been able to see and smell them after 12 days. Teo

I put my heart in peace years ago about this. If you want to do a good job, then you are going to invest tons of hours every week. If you look back, then you'll notice that the amount of recipes / ideas / whatelse you wanted to save and try are WAAAAYYYYYY MOOOORE than the amount you could do in the rest of your life. So I just let them go with a few exceptions. All the rest I try to absorb the useful techniques/ideas and not more. Teo

Thanks as usual! If you are going to make these again and can find a way to take step-by-step photos (asking to someone else), then it would be super duper helpful! You can caramelize sugar, add boiling water, cook it again to the desired temperature for the boiled solution. This way you have the best of both worlds. Teo

This is much more in line with a blast freezer performance. Probably @StumptownGeek received a defective unit. Teo

That's some serious under-permorfimg, especially in the liquid-to-solid stage. You should contact their support and ask for clarifications. Teo

I would say this. Before giving my address, you need to visit a Star Trek forum and build a transporter. Teo

More proteins, yum! Teo

Thinking about it, you can try this solution. Buy a plastic container that will act as your booth. If it's food grade all the better. Dimensions depend on your needs, it should be no problem since nowadays you can find containers with a super wide choice. Drill a hole (about 2") at the center of the bottom surface of the container (which will become the back surface of your booth). Fix an attachment to the hole, so that you get a screw pipe end on the outside of the booth. Assemble a filter holder to that screw end. For filters, you can buy the replacements for home stove hoods, then cut them in circles with a pair of scissors. Assemble a powerful fan to the end of the filter holder. Look for a fan with variable speed (or various speeds, not only one). Assemble a flexible pipe to the fan. Drill a hole on the window or wherever you can drill a hole that can vent outside. Fix another attachment to the hole in the window, so that you get a screw pipe end on the inside of the room. Mount the flexible pipe to the window. All components should be ready for sale in any hardware store. For the plastic container just look at some restaurant suppliers. The handyman should only need to drill a couple holes and assemble everything. So at the end you should be in the $300 range, hopefully less. It's better to use a flexible pipe (like the ones for vacuum cleaners), so that you can place the booth wherever you want and move it. When you are doing the due mainteinance it will be pretty easy to clean in a sink with hot water. If you want to be 100% safe, then ask to your local inspector to come there with a tool to measure the oxigen content of that room while the booth is running. Just to see if you need to drill another hole for the vent-in (make-up air). Teo

Industrial pasta makers dry their pasta at high temperatures, around 80°C, this to speed up the process and save money. The result is a glass-like texture, which is less pleasant. This is why it takes less time to cook than artisan pasta. Artisan makers dry their pasta at lower temperature, around 40-50°C, so it takes up to 2 days. But the pasta keeps its original texture and is much more pleasant to eat. It takes more time to cook, when you overcook it the damage is bigger than when you overcook industrial pasta. If you compare an industrial producer (like Barilla) with an artisan producer (like the ones from Gragnano) then the difference is pretty big. If you make fresh pasta at home (I'm talking flour + water, no eggs) then it's better to freeze it than drying it. At a restaurant we tried to freeze half a batch of orecchiette and dry the other half batch. The frozen one was a clear winner for everyone. Beware cooking times are much shorter. Teo

I can give these suggestions: - use a pasta recipe with high fat (all yolks, or at least 50% yolks 50% whole eggs); - use a filling with low water content (avoid thickened sauces and similars); - roll them uniformly and try to avoid pressing some zones while forming the ravioli (meaning to be careful not to press the pasta with your fingers, if you do then that zone becomes thinner); - seal them carefully after enclosing the filling; - put them in a single layer over a pan and freeze them immediately, freezing must be the quicker possible, if you make multiple layers then it will take too much time. Nothing really complicated, there aren't big risks if you have a bit of experience. Teo

It's the perfect base for the chamber vacuum machine. Teo

It's useful for many things. It can be set in 2 cycles, "positive" and "negative". Positive means that it chills to near 0°C, remaining in the positive zone of the Celsius degrees, this is helpful to avoid the danger zone and limit microbial proliferation. Negative means that it freezes below 0°C, it depends on the model, usually it should reach around -30°C. These are some of the possible uses: - quick-cooling hot stuff to avoid the danger zone, like pastry cream, vegetables and so on, the difference is noticeable both about taste and duration; - blast-freezing fruit, blast frozen berries taste like fresh, normally frozen berries taste like dead; - blast-freezing partially cooked bread (small loaves), you cook them for about 75% time, take them out of the oven, let them cool about 2 minutes, then put in the blast freezer, when you want fresh bread you just need to put the frozen ones in the oven for about 35% time (without waiting for de-frosting and proofing); - blast-freezing fresh fish, especially when you want to eat raw fish that is at risk for anisakis, the difference in taste for fish is pretty sensible (fish and berries are the cases with the biggest difference, as far as my experience goes); - blast freezing all kind of pastries, you get much better results with mousses (you avoid syneresis), cakes (after defrosting they seem like new) and so on; - blast freezing filled pasta like ravioli, you limit the risk of breakage during cooking. If you have a good amount of freezer space then it can help you save quite some time and money when preparing your food. You gain in taste quality too. Teo

I worked in restaurants and pastry shops, so I used the professional ones, mainly Irinox and Koma. I have zero experience with home models, I suppose they work exactly the same, just smaller dimensions. But I can try to explain how you feel after spending 3 hours in a row vac-packing things that are going in the blast freezer. Or what happens when you put a human being in a blast freezer for some seconds (don't try that with a home model). Seriously, if you are retired and willing to get it the next year, then there's not much sense in waiting. You are always going to spend your money, but if you get it now then you use it for more time. And you can take advantage of this situation: call the producer, cry at the phone "I'm sooooo saaaaaddddd due to all of this, I need 70% discount". I'm pretty sure you know how to sanitize it with all the due precautions. Only problem is if you need to lift it up the stairs, but in this case you know who to call for help. Teo

If you make fettuccine / tagliatelle / similar, then after shaping them you can weigh a single portion (about 100 g here, but it's personal as everything), roll them lightly in a nest / ball (no pressing, just to make a cluster), lay it on a pan with parchment paper, proceed again. Lay each nest / ball a bit far from the others, so they do not stick together. Then put the pan in the freezer, when they are frozen put them in a bag and store in the freezer. When you want to eat pasta you just need to pick how many servings you need, put them in boiling water and proceed as usual. Similar goes with rigatoni and the small formats, you can freeze them just after shaping. So you have fresh pasta whenever you want, without the need to mix, roll and shape each time. Better than drying it. Teo

There's only one way to know, I'll give you my postal address. Teo

...then he will find where your welding torch is (even if you did not know to have one) and use it to open it (and for other uses nobody could dream possible). Teo

4 times a day is a good number! And we do not know their production volume, meaning the amount of hours per day they use the booth. If it's 4 times per day, with a full time person spraying continuously, then it's one thing. If it's 4 times per day while using the booth an average of 2 hours per day, then it's totally different. Even considering you save 50% buying the roll, it would still be $2 per day, which totals around $400 per year. You can buy way more than 1 new fan with that money. Teo

Absolutely no problems, done that countless times without troubles, both with solids and liquids. Teo