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sigma

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Everything posted by sigma

  1. Some grass fed beef has a slightly fishy smell to it. Possibly it is just bad grass fed beef smell intensified in a bag.
  2. I will never again tourne zucchini with a 300 mm yanagi rather than going to grab an appropriate knife.
  3. sigma

    Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)

    And I didn't say I could see if it was oversalted or whatever, I said I could see the texture. Texture isn't taste either, but can be apparent to the eye. Anyway, this has gone on long enough. I was just offering some help to dcarch on his sous vide cooking, which seems to be the best possible use of this thread. To show, to help and to improve.
  4. sigma

    Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)

    Sure you can. You can see in a piece of meat with little to no connective tissue where there has been an over breakdown of the meat just like you can tell if something is over or under done from a picture. I laugh that the standard assumption here is that if you think something looks bad then you simply aren't familiar with the church of sous vide and must prefer eating wild dingos over a wood fire like a caveman when it might actually be a keen eye and a little experience.
  5. I too am split. I love early summer when the fruit smells are so strong, but it is also the time when the markets are filled with muggles, which kind of ruins it.
  6. sigma

    Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)

    They look overcooked to me. Not temperature wise, but time. The texture seems to have deteriorated, and my guess is that it was in there more than three hours.
  7. You are begging the question here. If there is a single correct angle for any given knife, then the EP would be fine, though still insufficient for retaining cutting performance over time due to the issue of the lowest thinning bevel still being too steep, but since there is no correct angle along the blade of the knife, rather several angles at different areas, the concept of holding the "correct" angle isn't a feasible one.
  8. I have no complaint about the edge the edge pro puts on. They can be great. My worries are more about how they affect the longevity of the knives. But sharp knives are always good.
  9. I want to put into words what it is that I don't like about the edge pro, so bear with me. It is exactly its selling point, that you put a consistent angle at all times on the edge, that I don't like. The tip problem is emblematic of this. Basically, the bevel at the tip is always too wide in comparison to the bevel along the edge. Well, that is because the same angle is being put on an area of a knife where the grind of the knife is not the same, hence the edge pro is grinding (sharpening) a wider bit of metal than on the other parts. That isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it tends, over time, to leave a birds beak on the tip which looks bad and is kind of annoying. With stones you can follow the geometry of the knife, so you are keeping a consistent bevel but the angle of it changes with the angle of the knife. The compound bevel issue is similar. Yes, compound bevels are fine, but putting a 10-15 or 15-20 compound on a knife doesn't keep you from creating the same problem of thickening that you get by just sharpening at 15 or 20 or whatever your bevel is. As long as the secondary bevel is still greater than the grind of the blade, which is usually something in the 5-7 range or so, you are still thickening the knife. Better just to lay the secondary bevel (they all have one in some degree or another) on the stone and grind until you get just up to the edge, then put your normal bevel on. That keeps the knife in better shape. So, I guess it is the fact that the edge pro sets an angle and unthinkingly applies it to the knife that I don't like. My hands can react to the stone and the knife allowing me to be, perhaps, less perfectly consistent as far as angle, but more effective as far as sharpening.
  10. What kinds of knives are you guys using who use the Edge Pro? I wonder if some thing react better than others.
  11. I sharpen on free stones, and probably too often. I've used Edge Pro in the past, but I find I can get the knives a good bit sharper by hand, which I have been doing for 20 years or so, and there are some things about the edge pro angle I don't love, mainly how they deal with the tip.
  12. Or the top ramen burgers...
  13. sigma

    Dinner! 2013 (Part 4)

    Thanks for the response. I guess both names are applicable and probably depends on where one is. ETA: There is another name/type - celtuce - although the leaves for this are more romaine-like in general or at least less spiky with few side-lobes if any, and the Chinese name(s) is/are different (i.e. not "麥菜"). Linda Lau Anusasananan in her cookbook "The Hakka Cookbook" (pg 251, in section: 'The Hakka Pantry') refers to celtuce and lists the alternative names as "Chinese lettuce, A-choy, stem lettuce, celery lettuce, asparagus lettuce". In the end they all may be just variants of each other! Celtuce is wonderful. We can't get it too often, but on occasion one of the large Asian markets in town will have it. The leaves are not so exciting, but the stems are so delicious.
  14. sigma

    Ramen Burgers

    I thought the same, but un-egged, the noodles go from slippery to gluey before you can say "holy shit, all my noodles are glued together" lol Omit the egg if you like, but I rather liked the texture that they imparted. You are making a noodle cake, you want it to stick together. If you add egg you are making a spaghetti frittata, which is great, but it doesn't seem do be the goal of a noodle hamburger bun. The egg doesn't seem to serve any purpose in this, really, unless it is for flavor. The whole thing seems kind of unseemly, in my opinion.
  15. sigma

    Help on making steak

    No, sorry, he is not. At least according to modernist cuisine he is incorrect. The problem you are both having is that you are making the mistake of carrying the logic of the period before the crust level dries to the entire cooking time. Using his now amended statement that +/-20 degrees won't make a difference, I have no problem, but the difference between putting a steak in a 250 degree oven and a 500 degree oven will be significant, as will be the target internal temp for removing the steak.
  16. sigma

    Help on making steak

    Snark all you like, but are you still holding to your "scientific" suggestion that oven temperature, as long as it is above 100 C, has no effect on the time it takes for the core temperature of a steak to rise to the desired level? I mean, this is a thread asking about how to cook a steak, so I am just trying to pin down your advice here.
  17. sigma

    Ramen Burgers

    You shouldn't need eggs. Just cook the noodles, drain, don't rinse, and place in oiled ring molds to cool. Then cook them in the ring molds and unmold them. They should be perfect.
  18. sigma

    Help on making steak

    That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable. Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking. The outside layer may get dried out, then there is the next layer, the next layer, the next layer ------- each layer has water, meat is about 75% water. Until all the water is boiled away, no temperature can get higher than 212F (normal atmospheric pressure). You may be able to find on Youtube many videos showing you can boil water on fire, using pots make of paper. The water will not allow the paper to get hotter than 212F. "The heat of the oven changes that variable." Conductivity is a constant, not a variable. Nothing can change thermal conductivity of a sustance. dcarch Uh, I never said that conductivity is a variable, I said that the temperature and thickness of the outer crust is dependent on oven temperature, a fact which none of your water boiling paper refutes, or even contemplates. The Point is that meat cooks as a result of conductivity, and the time to temperature of the center of the meat depends on the conductivity, the thickness and the exterior temperature, the last of which is determined, in large part, by the heat of the cooking medium. The fact that water cannot get hotter than 100 C is a limiting factor to how fast the center will cook, but it does not follow that the heat of the air inside an oven has no effect on cooking time once it is above 100 C. I am absolutely not sure why you need to get to that degree of details in the thermodynamics for the purpose of general understanding of major factors effecting cooking. I said "A little science", water boiling point, and conductivity are all you need to be aware of when you cook to control quality of the end result. Otherwise you will need to know the boiling point of fat, conductivity of bones, relative humidity of air, velocity of convection in the appliance, surface infrared radiation conditions, insulating quality of the crust, capillary action of the meat's grain structure ----------------------------------------------!!!! Of course the heat in an oven effect cooking, it burns the outside quicker, but water's boiling point and conductivity constant prevents the heat from getting to the center quicker. However, a 2,000 F furnace will turn your steak to vapor in a very short time. dcarch I don't know if you are babbling to hide that you don't know what you are talking about, or whether you still believe that the time it takes a steak to get to temperature is not affected by the temperature of the oven so long as you are above 100 C.
  19. sigma

    Help on making steak

    P That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable. Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking. The outside layer may get dried out, then there is the next layer, the next layer, the next layer ------- each layer has water, meat is about 75% water. Until all the water is boiled away, no temperature can get higher than 212F (normal atmospheric pressure). You may be able to find on Youtube many videos showing you can boil water on fire, using pots make of paper. The water will not allow the paper to get hotter than 212F. "The heat of the oven changes that variable." Conductivity is a constant, not a variable. Nothing can change thermal conductivity of a sustance. dcarch Uh, I never said that conductivity is a variable, I said that the temperature and thickness of the outer crust is dependent on oven temperature, a fact which none of your water boiling paper refutes, or even contemplates. The Point is that meat cooks as a result of conductivity, and the time to temperature of the center of the meat depends on the conductivity, the thickness and the exterior temperature, the last of which is determined, in large part, by the heat of the cooking medium. The fact that water cannot get hotter than 100 C is a limiting factor to how fast the center will cook, but it does not follow that the heat of the air inside an oven has no effect on cooking time once it is above 100 C.
  20. Fat increases viscosity, and allows liquid foods, be they meat juices or sauces or whatever, to sit on your tongue a little bit longer. That, along with the issue of fat soluble flavors, is what gives the impression that fat increases flavor. The same is true with gelatin. As you reduce a stock you loose some aromatics but the increased viscosity lets the liquid stay on your tongue longer and thus you perceive more flavor. In reality, both fat and gelatin mask flavor to some degree, but there is a big difference between perception and reality. Do a test. Take some orange juice and taste it, then add a small percentage of xanthan gum to the juice to give it a more tongue coating texture and see whether the taste becomes stronger because it stays longer on your palate. Or just recall the intensity difference of a wine with a long finish to a short one. There are downsides to lingering flavors, though. They are neither a positive nor a negative, they just are.
  21. sigma

    Help on making steak

    That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable. Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking.
  22. sigma

    Happy Rosh Hashanah!

    You interpret incorrectly what I wrote and what I might have implied. I didn't at all say that nobody should post anything without perfect execution. Far from it. Posting things is a great way to get better as others are able to help tell you how you could improve, what looks delicious and what doesn't. What I said is that as things are plated more intricately they require a higher level of skill in order to make them look appetizing. This is a pretty benign and common statement and mirrored in the reality of what we see dining out. Technical skill level and time designing tend to go hand in hand, and when they don't there is something decidedly weird about it. That's not to say that a coq au vin at a bistro presented in a homey way is not delicious looking, it is to say that it is far more delicious looking than if the same dish were to be touched and tweezed like you would find a very intricate and sophisticated dish.
  23. sigma

    Happy Rosh Hashanah!

    You certainly can judge technique from pictures, and I should clarify I wasn't commenting on the technique of the liver crown molding, but as a general comment on some of the plated food I see here, just as dcarch was making a general comment on my feelings about plated food. Anyway, you can tell technique when you look at cleanness of cut, evenness, how colors are retained etc. My suggestion above was that people should focus on technique before arrangement because bad technique shows through, raw fish poorly cut etc, and it is exceedingly difficult to put lipstick on a pig, though given the OP, anything is possible .
  24. sigma

    Chamber stove

    http://www.chamberstoves.net/Features.html Apparently there is a fan site.
  25. sigma

    Happy Rosh Hashanah!

    dcarch, I am glad you appreciate constructive criticism. I think you misunderstand me if you believe I dislike plated food. I actually enjoy it very much, but I think that in order for intricately plated food to be attractive, and thus appetizing, it both needs to be executed with a high level of technical skill and it needs to have a well thought out reason for taking the form it does. My feeling, in general, is that much of the plated food here suffers at least on the first criteria, mm#&!@* would be a counterexample, and while the second is somewhat in the eye of the beholder, it is probably a good rule of thumb that the food either looks like food, or is so perfectly executed and conceived that it is beautiful as an object and easily explained to somebody else. Crown molding of liver doesn't fulfill this. I do appreciate your interest and zeal, I would simply suggest that you focus first on technique and when you have that down move on to more experimental things. I hope this was constructive.
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