pep.

Well yes, but that's a completely different can of worms (if that expression is appropriate here). I can agree that I wouldn't want to eat steak tartare made by someone who doesn't take a lot of care in the preparation. But if someone is tasting the soup or some other food prepared by heating using the cooking spoon, I wouldn't consider that a hanging offense by itself. Mhm... Seems to be a difficult situation. I guess I wouldn't be as discreet in that case, I fear. I have a nasty tendency to either comment or take over the kitchen completely if I see things done The Wrong Way . Not one of my nicest traits, I know.

Well, we are still talking about home cooking. The solution is simple: Don't eat at someone's place if they do something you find "appalling". Personally, I think that some people (prevalently in the US, but that may simply be internet access bias) have a deep-seated fear of infections that verges on the irrational. This also manifests in things like always using antibacterial soap, which generally do more harm than good (resistant strains of bacteria etc.), If the food is being heated to 80°C and above, re-using a tasting spoon will not result in any appreciable transfer of live microbes. You can still find it disgusting (like I find worms in cherries to be disgusting), but that's more a psychological reaction than one based on actual risks.

I fully agree. I can't even watch someone do this without telling them to do it the right way. Also, bad/inefficient knife technique in general (e.g. slow, being afraid of the knife).

Indeed, that was my intended meaning. People can have (practically) non-functioning immune systems for a variety of reasons (AIDS, but not the HIV infection itself, being one of them). Also pregnant women, while not immune-compromised per se, need to be very careful regarding possible infections. When cooking for someone who falls into one of these groups, special rules apply.

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for. Its a bad habit if you then don't refrigerate properly. Food poisoning and all that. I'm not really seeing that in a home setting, sorry. If you are tasting soup/sauce/whatever, I would assume it is at least simmering. Pasteurization time at 80° C is below one second, so I doubt that dipping that spoon leaves behind a lot of germs (some spores, maybe). Lack of refrigeration is a whole other matter, of course.

Any new recommendations? I'm going to Prague with my girlfriend on Thursday and as of yet, I have no clue where we will be eating La Degustation would have looked nice, but they are closed for the whole of July.

It seems to me that part of good cooking habits is to make the procedures into 'habits'. Never, ever taste from the spoon you are cooking with. Then you don't have to keep track of who is going to eat your food. Oh, I agree that using a fresh spoon everytime is better, but that doesn't make the re-use horrific. And notice that I said "at home". When I'm cooking at home, you know exactly who is going to eat your food. If you are cooking for someone who is immune-compromised (or pregnant), you have to keep track of them anyway. No raw eggs, for starters (i.e. no tiramisu, mayonnaise etc.). Hell, probably no raw food at all. So that's a special case regardless of what your tasting-spoon habits are. Why, unless it somehow messes up the tempering or something due to the moisture? Again, I wouldn't necessarily do it myself, but I'm also not freaked out by it. Again, I'm talking a bout home cooking, not a professional environment. Edited for clarity.

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

Gelato di parmigiano (basically parmigiano reggiano, cream and milk) -Sshould be made fresh because without added stabilizers it will get rock hard very quickly. 4 hours at -25 °C was enough, unfortunately. Olive oil sorbet from Migoya's Frozen Dessert - Sweet, but with a strong olive oil flavor. Since it is basically oil, water and sugar, it needs some hydrocolloids as stabilizers (I roughly adapted Migoya's sorbet mix for Biozoon hydrocolloids with their measuring spoon). I served it with feta and candied cherry tomatoes.

I would second that recommendation. I own a 220 250 W Bamix immersion blender with the Processor attachment and the Powder Disc. The combination is perfect as a spice grinder and easily cleanable. I haven't tried wet stuff like pesto, but it's supposed to work for that as well. However, I'd probably just use the immersion blender for that. Update: wattage correction

I did a Mangalitsa pork loin roast yesterday: First I basted the meat with a spicy syrup that was leftover from candying green walnuts and seared it on all sides. After cooling, I basted the roast again and bagged it with a cube of brown stock. I cooked it overnight (~10 hours) at 58°C, followed by chilling and reheating in the evening. I used a stepwise cooling procedure (10 minutes at room temperature, 10 minutes in cold water, ~40 minutes in ice water). After the reheating I browned the roast with a combination of a really hot cast-iron flat pan and my blowtorch. There was no skin on this roast as I removed it together with the back fat for other purposes. However, Mangalitsa pigs a very fatty animals, so there still was almost 2 cm inner layer of fat (partly interwoven with muscle). I didn't eat much of that fat, but my girlfriend really liked it. All in all, surely the best pork roast I've had. Tender, moist and pink. Of course, next time I'll fry some of the skin separately and serve it along with the roast. (Didn't do that yesterday as there were already too many courses.) Interestingly, the juices in the bag where not much more than what I added with the stock cube. The beef that I've cooked sous-vide usually lost much more liquid (at even lower temperatures). Should I attribute this to the quality of the meat or to the cooling method?

"Marmelade" is the German word you are thinking of. It has somewhat fallen out of use in Germany due to a EU regulation that limits "Marmelade" to citrus fruits due to UK pressure. Commercially, everything else has to be called "Konfitüre" (which originally only meant confit, i.e. with pieces of fruit). However, there is an exception clause for Austria where "Konfitüre" was almost totally unknown before accession to the EU.

At the moment, I also use my Thermapen for sanity checking of my immersion circulator. To be on the safe side, I've applied the the indicated offset of -0.5°C (i.e. all temperatures are reported 0.5°C lower than the IC thinks they are), even though this is about the accuracy limit of the Thermapen. I think it's conceptually difficult for most people to read a temperature as being between 54.1 and 54.9°C when the thermometer displays 54.5°C. It certainly is for me. I'd really like to get something like the ETI Reference Thermometer: ETI Reference Thermometer Model: Reference Thermometer Manufacturer: ETI URL: http://thermometer.co.uk/919-reference-thermometer.html Price ca. USD: ~315 (excl. VAT) Resolution: 0.01°C Accuracy: ±0.05°C at 55°C Probe type: fixed Pt100 1/10th DIN Min/max function: no Comments: A 5-point UKAS calibration certificate is included.

I got about 10 kg of bone-in loin, all the fatback thereof and the skin. Also, half a tenderloin (had to split). About 2 kg miscellaneous meats for mincing, as well. Not really cheap (125 Euros for the lot), but very tasty. Only the skin is not for the squeamish. It's almost impossible to remove all the wooly hairs because their roots are embedded very deeply. I tried using my trusty flamethrower, but it was of no use. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the special pig menu I cooked for some friends, but here is the list of courses: Country-style pâté (based on a Catalan recipe in Colman Andrews' Catalan Cuisine), supplemented by some (store-bought) Italian truffle salami. A crisped cube of fatback with vacuum-compressed pineapple and chile strips Pork roast with roasted cherry tomatoes and sous-vide root vegetables Cuban-style chicharrónes The first two courses were a complete success, however, due to timing issues I could only par-cook the pork roast sous-vide and had to finish it in the oven. Of course, things dragged on and the roast cooked far too long (even if it was in a watered clay pot, i.e. a Römertopf). Still very much edible, but not what it could have been. The root vegetables were very nice, though. The chicharrónes were very nice by themselves (if you didn't know that there were some hairs hidden in them). Unfortunately I didn't make a dip sauce and they really would have needed one. I didn't think that they would be so dry and crispy.

OK, maybe I was too hasty (it's certainly been less than an hour, maybe 30 minutes)? But I will try the baking soda next time.

I did try with 0.9 liters (I added the rest after the milk had reduced by half without burning)

I'm making the adapted recipe from Cannelle et Vanille, but I had trouble "burning" the milk even on high heat. I used a large pot with with a relatively large diameter instead of a dedicated milk pot (as I don't have one). Was that the reason? Or did I stir too much? In the past, I've burnt milk accidentally several times, so I was flabbergasted that it didn't work this time. In the end, I poured off most of the milk, then the residue turned brown quickly. Then I re-added the rest of the milk and let it simmer for a minute or two (probably not long enough to really get the flavor). I had added a vanilla pod before and in the finished ice mix, I can barely taste the burnt milk aroma, if at all.

I purchased a brand-new Nemox Gelatissimo at a reduced price on eBay. The machine arrived yesterday, so with the mandatory waiting period for compressor machines, I'm making my first batch of ice cream. I've used the adapted recipe for Migoya's burnt milk gelato from Canelle et Vanille, with an added vanilla pod. The mix is cooling just now. I know it should ripen overnight, but I can't wait to try out the new machine. I thought long and hard about which of the Nemox machines to get. The Gelato Pro 1700 would have been even nicer, but it has the same technical specifications (and even uses the same removable containers) with a much higher price. The Gelatissimo is no beauty, but not an eyesore either, so in the end I opted for the cheaper machine.

That would depend on context. "pollo" is of course also an Italian word and in that case, any pronunciation with an actual L in it would be more appropriate.

I've never seen this done in public over here except when I was in primary school and they did some thanksgiving celebration at the school. Oh, and in kindergarten, of course. I'm sure some religious people do it at home, but not in a restaurant. If you care about statistics, about two thirds of the Austrian population are Roman-Catholics, at least nominally.

Addendum after talking to my guests again: The native born Viennese agree that the thickness of the broth was fine and that lighter version that I'm accustomed to is the result of being watered down by cheap-ass restaurants. Still, some additional water should prevent the accidental scorching.

No, sorry. But maybe there is a service manual on the web somewhere? Ah, found something. Replacement parts can be bought online as well, for example Seneca River Trading on eBay has almost anything. A new motor assembly for the 6 qt models costs about $70 there.

There is exactly one "plastic" part in a Kitchenaid Artisan: the worm gear. It is intentionally not made from metal to protect the motor in case the mixing attachment locks up. Replacing it is quite easy, even if you are not a Tool Time kinda person. Replacement parts are quite cheap in the US (not so in Europe unfortunately - eventually, I ordered the needed parts in the US because even with shipping it was quite a bit less expensive than over here). Also, every few years, the grease in the gear box should be replaced to ensure smooth operation of the gears. This is a bit of a mess, but nothing that can't be done in a living room, as long as you protect your working area with a few old newspapers. The service manual for the KitchenAid UltraPower (technically identical to the Artisan, except for the smaller bowl) can be found here.

Tapatalk does work with eGullet (and a plethora of other fora). It is available for iOS and Android. I use it regularly for eGullet, KaffeeNetz (a German coffee/espresso board) and several other venues. There were some bugs in conjunction with eGullet (extraneous "Logged in" messages) that have been fixed in the latest Tapatalk release. One annoying bug remains, however, namely that the setting to jump to the latest unread post when opening a thread does not work with eGullet (but it does with KaffeeNetz, which uses a different forum software). Other than that, it works flawlessly. Addendum: I just noticed that Tapatalk is available for several other platforms ad well: Windoes Phone 7 Blackberry WebOS

I don't know if it's completely neutral, but over here it was the standard neutral vegetable oil for long time (in recent years, it has been superceeded in this role by rapeseed oil).