gdenby

If you are using a pressure cooker, you can get some of the flavor that occurs from roasting. Roasting is more effective at producing the really good flavors, but sometimes those flavors can be very strong. Or so it seems to me. Typically, I have a mix of roasted carcass, and the bones left from de-boning thighs. I too add some vinegar to extract calcium from the bones, but that seems to inevitably make the stock sort of "milky" translucent, not clear. Another key to good flavor is natural glutamates. As I understand it, celery has a good bit of that and is important in traditional stocks. Chef Thos. Keller says he doesn't use celery, because it can impart bitterness. I was reading about the development of celery production, and one thing that was mentioned was that early on, different "golden" strains were used, and those were often grown in way to reduce the stalks exposure to sunlight, and render them almost blanched. Later, Pascal celery came to dominate, which grew very well in California. It can be noticeably more bitter than other celery. To avoid some of the celery bitterness, I add celery seed to an herb sachet. Also, save your papery onion skins. They can add a lot of flavor and color. A few times I've been roasting enough stuff, and making enough stock that once a week I could use a remnant of stock from the previous week as a base for the new batch. One time, I was able to do this 5 times in a row. The results were amazing.

I have a Hattori petty w. VG10 core. I don't go higher than 1200 grit ANSI, which is about 2000 for some Japanese stones. Around 6 microns for the grit. I don't need extremely fine cuts, and 1200 is more than enough. I've tried stropping w. diamond paste, 3 microns, and the results weren't worth the effort. From what I've read, VG10 won't hold an edge at 10000 grit, and may not even take one that fine.

I've made purchases from Chef Knives to Go and Japanese Chefs Knife Good service from both. Chef Knives to Go offers Japanese, Euro and American, but the Japanese selection is good.

Hello, I happen to be in Portland just now, and agree that the food scene here is vibrant. The natural surround is pretty wonderful, also. So, about "teaching low income people how to cook nutritious foods for themselves and their families with an emphasis on getting away from convenience foods." There was a thread some months ago that talked about teaching a mature adult how to cook. You might want to look that over. Likewise, search around for lists of primary kitchen utensils. I suspect a lot of people may only have a microwave, a coffee maker, probably a fridge, but possibly not a stove. While they are not basic utensils, my family relied on a large electric skillet and a slow cooker for many years. Beyond that, our big pot for pasta, a good knife, and a spatula had continual use. I suppose you will encounter people who do not even know how to boil water. I've run into 2 young fellows who honestly did not know how to bring water to a boil. No pasta, or boiled eggs or 'taters for them. Another big hurdle will be getting people to take the time to cook. That is the down side of non-convienience cooking. The up side is that if one cooks in big batches, and portions food for storage, the cost may drop dramatically. But I suppose there may be many folks who will have some problem buying bulk items, or even standard portions. Gotta go, good luck on your endeavor.

I've done a few tongues. Not very easy, but worth the effort. Depending on how the tongue was cut and its size, it needs to be separated into 2 or 3 pieces. Namely,( tip ans middle) and root. The root section has a good bit of meat similar to ordinary beef muscle, but more than a usual amount of connective tissue. Might have some bone bits in it. The front sections are full of connective tissue. The middle can cook into something similar in texture to bologna. The front portion is hard to make gelatinous. By making 2 or 3 portions of the same volume, they will all cook about the same at the same time and temp. If you cook it in one big piece, the tip and the root end up very different. Getting the skin off can be difficult. I'd suggest pressure cooking for a few minutes, and having a really sharp blade on hand. Or just accept losing some of the meat slicing the skin away. No need to foil, tho beware the tip section getting too browned. Your finish temp range is good. Depending on the texture of the meat, some can be sliced thin and served cold, other portions may need to be sliced and briefly steamed. Assuming the tongue was pre-cooked enough to let the skin come off without too much work, it will take lots of flavor. Smoke flavor can be quite strong. Depends on what you like, but I rarely eat more than a few slices at once. Its very rich and flavorful.

Hi, Lisa, If you have the time/energy to take courses besides doing your job, cooking credits will at the very least let you spend some time in a kitchen, which can be a reward in itself. Better, you will learn to cook well for yourself, and most folks have lost that skill. But, based on 2 children who are/have worked food service, as well as several friends, it may be a fall back, but often not much of one. My youngest is up to average wage for a line cook, and he does get a free meal. But he is also young and unattached. Another who is an old friend has another job, and his wife is a physician. Thinking back over the jobs that people I have know had, I recall that one woman took courses that allowed her to get a medical lab job, and from there, she went on to take more courses. In the end, she got a masters in speech therapy, and had a good job. Not a job counselor, but maybe play your strengths.

I've had daylilly beds for some years. I've only used the tubers a few times, but the flowers are standard summer fair. Used to pick dandelion, but they eventually got out of control, and so those are mostly gone. Have beds of chive and wild garlic. Wonder if ramps would transplant. Hope to get a mushroom log going in a portion of the lot where trees now make too much shade for most plants. Used to have some beds of chufa grass. While it is usually planted as a wildlife forage, the rhizome nodules, if toasted, are quite good. Mine didn't naturalize well, so I took them out years ago.

Thanks much for the link, but my unit appears to predate even the 2010 replacement part. My Future model has the pressure controls and the handle as 1 piece all on the top. I may contact them and see if there is anything compatible, but I am dubious. I think I bought mine around 2002, which in appliance years may be several generations old.

I suppose you saw the same Cooks Illustrated article that I did a few years back. I did buy a Fagor Futura set. It has performed very well, and I couldn't imagine making stock without it. Great time savings. Rarely need to concentrate the stock w. further evaporation. All but the thickest bits of collagen turn to gel. Often I get an aspic like mass once everything cools. Unfortunately, I dropped the lid a few months ago, and the plastic latching thingy shattered. Can't find a replacement. Also, I have over pressured it several times. My current range delivers too much heat even at its lowest setting. I think the over pressuring has somehow lessened the seal, because I will sometimes hear boiling inside the vessel. I may replace w. a KR, which looks a little sturdier,

I don't have "Under Pressure," but I have read of people working from the book cooking short ribs at 135F for 72 hrs. I have done that 4 - 5 times. No problems. Merely anecdotal. MC published several charts, and made inferences about safe cooking below 140. There was a US gov. site that offered an online charting program that would show how long it took for pathogens to reach hazardous levels at different temperatures. The online source seems to be changing around, but you might want to look at: http://pmp.errc.ars.usda.gov/PMPOnline.aspx If I understand what I've read (fingers crossed) , foods can be pasteurized below 140F, but the time to reach sterilization is extraordinarily long. If the foods are very contaminated, probably not worth the time and energy to sterilize.

Do wish the Perfect Beaker was a little more durable, but for measuring, its really good. My scale and the Beaker agree to about 1%

My mother taught me to fry eggs for myself when I was six. My wife and I passed that on to our kids. Not long after that she taught me to make what she called "Buck Rogers," or "Flying Saucer" eggs. It was the basic egg in a hole in bread, but the name made it more interesting. Shortly after leaving college, I was renting space in an old farm house with some other folks. One of them tried raising chickens and ducks. The ducks managed to escape the pen. From there it was a short waddle to a stream, and away they went. But they still hung out around the farm property, and would raid the garden. I lost many rows of pea sprouts. But, I found that during early spring they would come up around the house, and sit under the warm parked cars during the cold nights. I got up one morning, and found 2 fresh eggs. Yum. This continued for some time, and the best egg dish I've ever had were fresh really free range duck eggs, fried over easy, and plopped onto grated fried potatoes from the same garden the ducks raided. A stall at the local farmer's market has duck eggs each spring, and so its a special treat, tho' they are not quite as rich as the foraging ducks laid.

Let me offer a few observations. My first attempts w. tongue were in a PC. Edible, but nothing special. The up side was that I learned that 10 - 15 minutes at high pressure cooked the skin just enough that it was possible to remove without much trouble. Uncooked, cutting the skin away was about like cutting thru leather. Next, I started rubbing the skinned tongue, and doing a standard low and slow smoke. Very good flavor, but the texture was very uneven. I started dividing the tongue into roughly the same volume pieces. Usually three sections. Much better results over all, altho the tip portion often ended up somewhat dry, and still not tender. I've only used SV once for tongue. I left the tip portion in for a couple of days. Turned out tender, but I've been very sparing w. seasoning and SV, having over salted a few roasts early on. The rest, I skinned, spiced and smoked as usual. It was fine. I've done some experiments w. doing pork ribs and "country-style" pork ribs with a mix of smoking and SV. The results I liked best were smoking the meats for a short time, an hour or less, and then letting the flavor concentrate in the SV bag while the meat finished cooking. I finish the ribs w. a few minutes at high temp to improve the surface texture. When I started w. SV, the meat was so fragile, and so little fat had rendered away that the pieces fell apart before getting enough smoke flavor, and they were too greasy. My next experiment will be to slice the tongue into 6 pieces, rub and smoke those, and then finish in SV. The skin should fall off at the end.

Recently I started keeping either Swanson's or Knorr's concentrated broth on hand. Since I started making my own stock some years ago, I've become very sensitive to salt, and most of the commercial offerings are now unpleasant to me. The concentrates seem to have the taste i want, and work well as an extender when my own stock is in short supply. I've also used the Demi-glace gold products. Very good, but never found any way to get it other than mail order, so nothing I can have on short notice.

Not long after finishing college, and having almost nothing to cook w., I bought one of the whole canned chickens. Don't know why I thought what was in the can would be anything like the golden roasted bird on the label. When I opened the can and slid the product out, I recall a feeling of horror. I was hungry enough, and poor enough that I picked the breast meat out of the gelatinous mess. It was edible, but scooping away the skin was pretty disgusting. But, having sat in a frigid house for nearly 4 days after a winter storm power outage, I keep a few cans of chicken, ham, corned beef waiting to be heated by a camp stove.

Hello, usermot, I too am a home cook, and have been considering buying a sujihiki. I can comment on one portion of your question. I find VG-10 quite a bit more difficult to sharpen than white2, but the VG-10 has better edge retention. I prefer VG-10, and other stain resistant steels because I never used a carbon steel blade until quite late in life. I have very poor habits keeping the carbon steels clean and corrosion free. And I have one question. Why not consider a 300 mm suji? As I understand it, the best slice is made w. a single cut, no sawing. The longer the blade, the easier that is. I have an old 10" Chicago cutlery slicer. While the steel is certainly not outstanding, my main reason for looking for a replacement is that I sometimes wish it was just a little longer.

Here's my .02. Actually, .005 cents. I'm not going to haul out the MC volumes to find the explanation on microwave cooking, but from recollection, microwaves are most effective heating items around 1.25" thick. Very thin items are not well heated. The heat generated in thicker items must diffuse thru, just like conventional heating. When microwave cookers first came out, I was told the food needed to have water in it. I was told it was the water that was being heated, and the hot water/steam was what cooked the food. That's not entirely true, but water does respond to microwaves very well. As I've learned, so do (some?) oils and some minerals. Mostly, foods heated by microwaves will cook as if boiled, or steamed. Not so good for items that need to be caramelized, or have Maillard reactions. Re-heating works pretty well.. I've come across a couple of problems w. reheating. Breadstuffs and some meats become tough. Adding some water to the re-heat vessel or into the chamber reduces that, but only some. At present, my favorite microwave use, aside from re-heating, is a quick omelette. Whisk one or two eggs w. some milk, add some cheese, and/or spices and/or croutons, etc. Set 'wave to mid power. I use various small bowls, but an old Corningware soup bowl works best. Cook for no more than 2 minutes. The egg mixture should puff up. If the center is not quite set, give it a few more seconds if you like. The microwave pulses seem to fluff the egg mixture better than stirring.

I've made purchases from Native Harvest, and from a place in Minnesota call Christmas Point. While Christmas Point was less expensive than Native Harvest, it was still more $ than what you found. FWIW, 2 pounds will make a huge amount of rice. Typically, I soak a cup overnight, and the volume increases perhaps 4 fold. Then cooking doubles that. Takes quite awhile to become soft. At first, the house smells like grass, then like nuts.

There is a broaster franchise where I live. Not quite as good as KFC from decades ago, no secret spice recipe, but exceptionally juicy w. good breading. The shop used to have a link to the hardware vendor. Appeared to be an automated pressure frier, if I recall correctly.

Both the infomercial and the web site failed to answer a number of questions that are crucial to me when considering a knife. First, and formost, what is the angle of the edge bevel? Then, is there distal taper? Where is the balance point? Is the blade stiff or springy? Etc. (My opinion: an edge bevel needs to be 15 degrees or less for the knife to be considered sharp.) They mention Vickers Hardness, but don't specify what their blades number is. And the comparison is made to "steel." Which steel? There are dozen out there used for cutlery. Finer kitchen knives in the same price range can run between 700 - 800. How does the amorphous material compare to powder steel blades w. embedded carbides? Seems that the main selling point is "carefree." I'd be far more convinced if someone w. lots of experience cutting foods did a side by side comparison, and showed that it made cleaner cuts w. less force that other fine knives. And, altho' more carefree, is it more economical than buying 10 Forschner Fibrox and having them sharpened 1 a year for 10 years?

If it's like my Sab (it might not be, the Sabatier brand is a designation of origin, not a single factory's brand) it has a bolster that gets in the way of straightening off that hollow. I suggest taking it to a machining job shop to have them grind it off. If they can't/won't do it "wet" (liquid cooled), find another job shop. Yes, from what I've read, even in the mid 1970s, Sabatier was a conglomerate. As I mentioned, the knife we were given also had Hoffritz on the blade. For stainless, it takes a remarkable edge, tho' somewhat brittle. I maintain it at 18 degrees per side. What I bought for my Mom came from the same shop, and the knife looked the same, tho' it was carbon and not stainless. Working on the blade is mostly for nostalgic purposes. And, waste not, want not. The steel might be better than average, so I've slowly ground away the heel manually without over heating the metal.

As I started doing more cooking, I realized my knives were fairly dull, despite steeling them w. every use. I tried to improve them w. hand sharpening. I had previously only sharpened smaller carving knives and gouges. I found that I could not manually keep anything like a consistent edge over the 8"+ of a chefs knife or slicer. Ended up w. an Edge Pro Apex. Pretty happy w. it. I have started touching blades up w. fine grit papers on glass. Perhaps if I had started 10 or 20 years earlier, I might feel confident working by hand, but the mechanical assist lets me keep a decent edge on my knives. A story about machine sharpeners. My wife and I received a very nice Sabatier/Hoffritz chef's knife as a wedding present. I was so impressed with it, I bought a similar one for my mother, who was a spectacular home cook. Hosted parties w. 30 people several times a year, had 2 stoves, 2 'fridges and a freezer, etc. She bought a mechanical sharpener to keep the Sabatier keen. I understand the home models now can be decent, but not back then. I recall the rasping grinding sound as she pulled the blade thru. After she died, and my father moved from the house, among the things I gathered from her utensils was the Sabatier. Sigh. It was in sad shape. I've been re-profiling it. When new, it was advertised as an 8" blade. It is now 7.5" The long tapering point had been ground away to a blunt curve, and at least an 1/8" of the blade had been hollowed away towards the heel. I've spent hours w. a coarse diamond plate, plus the EdgePro coarse stone and almost have it flat again.

Clueless is pretty common. One of my son-in-laws didn't know how to bring water to boil, and one of my son's college mates couldn't make mac-n-cheese from a box. I think your base ideas cover a lot of ground, maybe more than can be covered in a few weeks. Find out what utensils he has. When my wife and I were newly weds, our cooking utensils were a large electric skillet, a big pot for boilings stuff, a colander, a spatula, a decent knife and cutting board, and a box grater. Spoons and forks. We added a slow cooker to those pretty soon. If he has those, there are large numbers of good things that are doable. Before my kids left the house, there were 2 things they had to learn. How to fry and scramble eggs. How to saute' ground beef, mix w. pre-made sauce and dump that over boiled spaghetti noodles. One son loved bacon, and so he became the house bacon fryer. They didn't have to learn other things, but I did show them how to make fried rice, which was the first dish I learned to make for myself after college. Likewise, "elevate" packet ramen w. broth and fresh sliced veggies. I'd also suggest introducing him to spices and condiments. Even bottled of garlic powder, onion, ginger, paprika, celery salt can add so much. Good soy sauce, Worcestershire, a hot sauce and some lemon juice should be on hand. Good luck, it could be a lot of fun. Hopefully he really is interested.

My mother made succotash when I was a kid. Ca. 1955 and on. I'm pretty sure she used just frozen lima beans and frozen corn. There was a little bit of bacon. As a child I found several tastes unpleasant, including cooked onion and uncooked or partially cook tomatoes. I recall I loved the succotash, so I don't think there were any onions or tomatoes. My wife's experience as a child was that lima beans and later "baby lima beans" were, as she puts it, "sacks of sawdust." She has come to sometimes like butter beans. Real lima beans are not often cultivated where I live, No. Indiana, but I can usually find them once or twice a year. As is common, the fresh unshelled beans are so much better than frozen. I now sauté lima beans, corn kernels, and a small amount of onions is some bacon fat. Then simmer in water till cooked thru. The only variant i have found my wife accepts is a south American version that added lime juice and a small amount cream, as I recall. I can't ind the recipe, and think I was told "That was OK, but you don't need to bother again."

There are 2 places where my wife and I have had anniversary dinners that you might like. According to Google maps, the Hesston Super Club, in Hesston, IN is a little over 6 miles away. About 10 miles away along the Red Arrow highway, there's the Soe Cafe, just outside Sawyer. In the opposite direction down the highway, about 6 miles, is Stop 50 Pizzaria in Michiana Shores, IN. A pleasant place w. very good Neapolitan style pies. Nice decor, but not cozy. Still, really good food. Another place we have heard is quite fine is Timothy's in Union Pier, also about 6 miles away. Have fun.