scubadoo97

I've been using a pressure cooker to make stock for the last 6 months. I toss in all the chicken parts along with onions and carrots and cook at pressure for 1 hour followed by a slow release. The stock is very flavorful. No vegetal off flavors and the stock is remarkably clear. I find all the scum has coated the bottom of the pot and is a little bit of a pain to remove. The gel factor is fantastic. The bones are intact and crumble between you fingers if squeezed. It's a winner as far as I'm concerned.

pricse wise it's really not too bad when compared to high end waterstones. My Shapton glass stones put me back further than the price of the EdgePro Apex. I'm doing more freehand now but won't get rid of the EdgePro.

It's currently 54* F and we have been roasting a lot of vegetables. Anything to use the oven. Have soup planned for tomorrow. It's all relative. To us Floridians it's freezing. Must go south!

We use the term chop but rarely are we chopping vegetables like one would chop a bone in half with a cleaver. The chop motion commonly involves a elliptical motion of vertical and horizontal components so you are in a sense slicing with a downward motion. My knives can push cut very well but they are more effective with a slicing motion. So that makes me a slicer.

It is all in technique. For good microfoam, don't stretch to long and get a good whirlpool action going while steaming. You should be able to get very silky microfoam from 1 and 2% milk. Good enough for latte art. When the milk has a smooth sheen that reminds me of marshmallow cream I know I've done it right.

I suspect weinoo's beans are in the air tight mason jars and he grinds on demand. No beans in my hoppers as well.

I purchased a Masterbuilt electric smoker recently and have been playing around smoking different things. Here are a few shots of my most recent attempts. smoked brisket was my first thing to smoke followed by a few spatchcocked chickens a salmon fillet. Part was used to make a smoked fish spead and today I took a prepared corned beef and after an all night soak to leach out salt coated it and smoked it to make pastrami

Nakji and Chufi, wonderful looking soups To start off the new year I made a black eye pea and mustard green soup. We were heading out on a cruise new years day so I threw this together so we could eat when we got back. I had recently made smoke chickens so used the carcasses in a pressure cooker to make the stock. What a nice smokey stock that had great color and gelled very well. I cooked the peas and greens in the stock and added extra aromatics.

Not exactly for the kitchen but I just bought myself a Masterbuilt 30" electric smoker. So far it works real well. Smoked a brisket last night and have salmon and chickens going on today. All will be served tonight.

Not thrilled with the handles. I would want to feel those in my hand before purchasing.

Great post. I've only had deer a few times and didn't really care for it but recently had deer backstrap and it was a revelation. Wonderful, just wonderful

Andrew, I've had great success using this homemade smoke generator. I've posted about it on the cured salmon thread http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...0entry1626715 Post #34 I did not place the smoke generator directly under the fish when smoking as it cook the fish a tad if it's that close. I just wanted to get the fish and smoke generator in the picture. I can get about 2+ hours of smoke on a full can of wood pellets. You can cover your smoke box to contain the smoke. It's been my understanding that a thin stream of blue smoke is better than bellowing thick smoke. I made a smoked corn soup and cold smoked a 1/2 sheet tray of cut corn for 2 hours. The corn picked up plenty of smoke flavor. Came through very well in the final soup dish.

I'm quite curious about the lotus ozone generator. Low cost and seems to use a ray generator of some sort to produce ozone. I have antique violet ray generators and tried to see if I could create the same effect but it didn't work. There is another product called nature kleen but it's more expensive. I had not really thought of ozonated water as a means of disinfection before. mmmmmm

I was seriously looking at the Cookshack but today bought a Masterbuilt 30" Electric Smoker. Not my ideal smoker but for the price and loads of positive reviews from the smoking meat forum to everywhere they are sold it sounded like a good first start. You can't cold smoke per se in the MES but I've got that covered using a homemade smoke generator and can use the MES as a smoke box for the cold smoking events. I'll report back on how it works

The Edlunds I described have the good type of lock that you just tap to release. I have tongs without locks and use the big pink rubber band to hold them together but it's a pain. The Edlunds you just whip them out, give a quick tap on your side and your are ready to go. Bad locks are bad locks. Good ones are worth it.

My favorites are my two Edlund scalloped extra heavy duty stainless locking tongs.

Totally agree with both statements.

Agree with Tela T, greens and black eyed peas are a must

With regard to the butcher grinding your selected steaks, yes I have heard that too. The Publix grocer near me has a very large commercial grinder but when customers ask for steaks or roasts to be ground they most often use a smaller commercial grinder which is set near the window. I always liked to watch my roasts get broken down and feed into the grinder. Some grocery stores have the big grinders in the back and I always wondered if I was getting what I asked for. I have a cousin who would pick out two roasts or steaks to be ground. The first one he would put back in the meat case and keep the second. I certainly don't advocate doing that. I grind mine at home or just don't use ground meat.

I agree the Togiharu Molybdenum Gyutou is a great value. I sent a 210mm gyuto to a friend. I had a chance to inspect the knife and it was beautiful. It is soft enough to resist chipping, hard enough to keep a good edge and thin enough to slice through food like butter. It was very sharp out of the box.

Just a comment on the QUICK FIRE challenge. I was perplexed that some had difficulties in naming ingredients. Even as a home cook I was struck by the fact that one would not have to use their palates to correctly identify the ingredients. If you know it's a mole' or a Thai curry you should be easily be able to identify at least 6 ingredients that make up that dish without tasting it. Especially if salt and pepper are ingredients. Doing a making your own sushi for a bridal shower was a lame as it gets. It was like dumb and dumber working together. I like Gene but thought he really went south on his thinking on this. Danny, well what can you say. I think he deserved to go home.

The last time I did a duck confit I tossed the gizzard and heart into the pot with the legs and wings. The gizzard came out great. I've never had a better gizzard.

I agree with you rconnelly. Kathy Lee was just wrong to act that way on national TV. I can't believe that there was anything that offensive for her to spit it out as she did. Poor etiquette for anyone, much less someone in her position. For tonight, well gee I don't know half the contestants at this point since they don't have time to show them all.

I have a 46" Viking hood with a 600CFM motor above my rangetop. It has two baffless instead of screens. Every couple of weeks I do a full cleaning. I remove the baffles and clean with Greased Lighting. http://www.greased-lightning.com/ With the baffles removed I clean every part I can reach. Be surprised how much grease builds up in a short period of time. If I could clean the fins in the motor I would since they are caked in grease but I just can't get to them well.

My only experience killing animals has been in spearfishing. I've had the opportunity turn bulls into steers years ago. Not a pleasant job but something that needed to be done. There is a big disconnect between food and it's source. I find myself trying to get closer to this source while the mainstream moves away. While I agree with Fatguy that you don't have to want to kill an animal to eat meat since there are people skilled in that job, I find it hypocritical that there are those that eat meat find it so offensive that animals are killed for whatever reason. Protect the bunnies, protect the ducks......while they eat their chic fil a sandwhich.