TheTInCook

I'd also suggest getting a digital scale that has 0.01g resolution and like accuracy, in addition to your normal kitchen digital scale. For instance, I was making a batch of sponge toffee the other week and I needed 1g of gelatin for it. My regular scale has 1g gram resolution, but it is not sensitive or accurate enough to measure out just 1g of something. The recipe solved the problem by making a quintuple batch of hydrated gelatin, and taking a fraction of it. I avoided that waste of gelatin since I had that handy 0.01g scale. I just wish I could get my roommate to stop making drug dealer jokes when he sees me using it. (It got worse today. I was roasting some baking soda to get sodium carbonate for making raman noodles, and starts joking like I'm making crack cocaine @-@)

Even with that little xanthum the dough felt different. I was worried for a bit, because after the first two passes on my Atlas machine, it looked like it had bad acne scars, but it smoothed out. No problems sealing that I could attribute to anything other then my poor agnolotti skill (first attempt) the ravioli came out ok. The texture was definitely more toothy.

You got that right. I'm taking the Rhulman's Ratio recipe for pasta I've been using and adding half the xanthum and all the oil like in MC. Works out to: Eggs 100 AP Flour 150 Oil 15 Xanthum 0.75 Will report back.

I hadn't thought about that. I was more wondering if it would seal at all.

Does the modernist pasta with the xanthum gum work for filled pastas?

Read this article and the comments.Some insight. http://blog.khymos.org/2010/12/17/gelling-ketchup-with-horseradish/

I found this at Ranch 99 market today, and I would like some confirmation about it before I try and use it. Obviously it's a curing salt, but I'm wondering if its standard to our prauge powder 1.

I've been thinking of switching to a butter ganache to avoid this kind of problem, but I have no experience with them.

I've had great success with Grewling's method for candying citrus. Triple blanch, then simmer for a couple hours in a 65 deg brix syurp (iirc 45% sugar, 20 glocuse syrup, 35% water). Cool and store in syrup. I've also dried them out on the table for a bit, and they kept well in the cupboard after drying. You can also add sugar.

The coconut milk probably has a detrimental effect on the ganache's setting. Coconut fat does that eutectic thing with the cocoa butter. Other faults that come to mind is your chocolate could have too low cocoa butter content (had that happen to me when making ganache with chocolate chips). Or there is a formula error. Also, you get a better quality set if you let it set at roomtemp. Takes a while though, like overnight.

Blanquette.

1) You didn't pay $6,000 for the "right" to work for three months. I expect that the National Guestworker's Alliance is playing fast and loose with the figures. I would incur similar costs if I wanted to work abroad in a foreign country. 2) Nobody told them it was a graveyard shift at a warehouse. They were led to believe it would be a fun job at Hersheyland. So, Hershey and the Council for Educational Travel USA are the bad guys because a bunch of university students can't figure out that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a work of fantasy? 3) To a man (and woman) they insist that this work should be done by Americans -- with decent pay and benefits. And yet, there they are, taking the jobs they insist belong to another. They were getting fair pay for the work, and I bet you didn't know that the program even covers their health insurance. 4) They PAID for a cultural learning experience. How is a sweatshop a learning experience? Other than "school of hard knocks." No... They paid for J-1 work travel visa and connections for employment and housing. I went to the programs website. There is none of this pie in the sky promises of a Grand Tour of America nonsense. The only thing that is promised is a working vacation.

Have you ever worked a job where the cost of your timecard was deducted from your pay? This reminds me of the stories of the company towns, with company housing and company food where everything is deducted. Cue up the Tennessee Ernie Ford song: "You load the 16 tons (of chocolate bars), what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store." But don't get me wrong -- I'd like to hear the other side to this story. I've worked jobs where I've had to pay for stuff like uniforms, training, and tools, sometimes by paycheck deduction. Just recently, I had to drop 500 for a software license for work. Seriously though, run the numbers: They averaged about $8/hr, grossing $320 for their 40hr work week. Only spending ~62% of your paycheck on living expenses (rent etc) at that income level isn't doing too bad. Looking at the stated and implied complaints, we see: 1) Not getting paid enough. They are getting paid above min wage to stack and pack candy bars. It's literally a no skill job. 2) They are working too many hours (12!). It takes a lot of chutzpah to complain that they have too much work in today's economy. It's especially galling given they are displacing American citizens. Having worked similar hours many times, I don't have much sympathy for those who whine about it. 3) They haven't gotten to do enough sightseeing and cultural immersion activities. Whatever, I haven't had a vacation in over 3 years, much less international travel.

Sorry? They should be entitled to free rent, board, utilities, and transportation?

I like using creme diplomat for those kind of things. Pastry creme with whipped cream folded in. By all means add gelatin to the pastry creme to make it more stable. Depends on how big you make them. I'm say around 3-4 pounds. It ain't a croquembouche without caramel. Never been a big problem for me, it's not like you're using a lot to stick it. I suppose you could use coating chocolate or tempered chocolate, but it's not the same.

Time yourself.

Oh yeah, I think that was my thread too. I'm too much of a gweilo for salted eggs though.

Forget ice cream cake. I don't like the frozen cake part much. It's all about ice cream pie. We used to get grasshopper flavored ice cream pie at baskin robbins for birthdays.

Luffa is going on sale this weekend at my local chinese chain market. 3lbs for a dollar. Anyone have any ideas of things or experience with what to do with it?

You want a shrimp moussiline? The general ratio is 2 whites and 1.5c of cream per pound of meat. You can alter the amount of cream and egg to change the firmness and delicatness.

Somehow, I don't think liangfen will be a big hit. I'd go for a braised dish, like 3 cup chicken. Add the basil when you're heating it for service.

Because all the loose starch and the processing aids for polishing rice make for gunky rice. You can see it by all the scum the rice throws off in foam and boil overs while it cooks. I also think rinsing makes the rice taste better. Also, soaking rice (rinsing is part of it) generally makes a better textured rice. Never tried adding the seasonings to the raw rice.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by cook. If he means working the line, then he may have a point.

My thought wasn't so much about the airstone, but with the plastic parts of the filter. It's got a sieve type of thing that sits on the bottom that's connected to a pipe. The pump bubbles air through the pipe. So the water goes down through the sieve, then up through the pipe. Was thinking that it would be good hydraulics. Good thing it looks like the air pump +- the stone will be enough. I was going to use on of those cheapo styrofoam coolers at first.

I'm putting together a DIY sousvide cooker with a PID controller. What should I use for the circulating element? I was thinking something like an undergravel aquarium filter that's powered by an air bubbler.