weinoo

I like Bugialli's (from The Fine Art...) meat sauce - though caution that he suggests snipping beef with a pair of scissors. Easily portioned and frozen once cooked. Meatballs freeze nicely.

Agreed - except when taking one for a test. Agreed. This is a bit interesting... https://civileats.com/2018/06/06/who-gets-to-define-heritage-chickens/

Yes - and with the realization that he's defrosting "super frozen" bluefin. Though I'm pretty sure that some of that fish from Alaska is super frozen as well.

The other day a second venture into our local Trader Joe's happened. Taking my time, enjoying the uncrowded, heavily air-conditioned store, I stumbled upon these (which evidently have been available for quite some time)... Somewhat intrigued, and at $2.99/lb. a relative bargain compared to some other "heirloom" birds, I took one home and gave it the Cook's Illustrated from a long time ago poule au pot treatment... It's quite simply not much better (if better at all) than most battery birds. I find the best chickens to be the Sasso, freshly slaughtered ones purchased at a place in Brooklyn, D'artagnan's free-range poussins, and when they appear, a true favorite, Joyce Farms Poulet Rouge. Others tried include D'artagnan's Green Circle, Cooks Venture's heirloom chickens, Snowdance Farm's heritage, and others surely forgotten. Heritage and heirloom sure seem to be words thrown around willy-nilly, from chickens, to turkeys, to apples and pears, and on and on. What's your experience, if any, with these words and how they relate to what we put in our mouths?

It's interesting to see how one of the top fish suppliers to sushi restaurants thaws high-end tuna...

Actually, the Kitchen Aid with the freezer bowl set up that @paulraphael prefers, has variable speeds to spin ice cream. Here you're talking about commercial ice creams, not home made stuff. The Whynter I have now (probably similar to yours) spins much faster than the Lello Gelato previously in my kitchen (for like 15 years). While I think it makes ice cream at least as good, or better than the Lello, it seems that the ice cream is looser when it's finished. A little more quirky than the Lello, but I suppose the more ice cream made in it, the better it will become.

Actually, the first question is: what happened to the label?

You know, @David Ross, many of the places we go to which are more informal...often, they'll scoop ice cream using a spoon (or 2) (like for us, soup spoons) and make a quenelle:

So basically the most important step before scooping: wash your hands.

I think it really helps for the ice cream to be at the proper scooping temperature, if there is such a thing. I have so freakin' many scoops, but the Zyliss at 1 o'clock, and the one filled with antifreeze at like 5 o'clock probably do the best job. It helps for the container to be rectangular, in my opinion. And it also helps to not use a finger to get the ice cream out of the scoop... I would never refreeze - that's just going to lead to ice crystals.

Funny I thought Thailand and Vietnam were also being discussed above.

This stuff isn't neon?

Taylor Zwilling I use an escali (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) - it's not any more utterly boring than a pot or pan, I guess. And for spices and such, some sort of $15 digital thing which sits in a drawer until I need it. Question - if you're measuring spices and such down to the .1 gram, isn't your kitchen basically a lab?

Give the people what they want, I guess. I'm a classicist. Vanilla, chocolate, coffee are the flavors I tend to buy if we go out for ice cream. I'll do the occasional mint chocolate chip, pistachio, or its ilk. At Il Lab, sometimes they'll have an interesting gelato flavor and I'll get a taste, but then order my standard coffee or espresso.

https://www.laboratoriodelgelato.com/ https://www.morgensternsnyc.com/ https://www.adirondackcreamery.com/

See above - too much barbecue?

When I lived in Santa Barbara, it was all McConnell's, all the time. I have even better (or just different) local options now.

The sarcasm escaped you - too much fruit!

From Wild Alaska:

Stop that!!

I've done it both ways and don't find much of a difference, at least not one that I can tell. The company does suggest taking it out of their vacuum packaging to defrost. I'm wondering how fish gets waterlogged, considering they tend to spend their whole lives - in water?

Mentioning wine glasses elsewhere...I definitely believe Zaltos are awesome, and there's no reason (other than expense) not to use good stuff on a daily basis. However, I was turned on to different wine glasses by a friend in California wine country, and they are quite good at a reasonable price; mostly, I leave the Zalto and their concomitant expense/need for care to the restaurants we go to which use them. These are called The One (though there are two), and they're very nice... https://andreawine.com/theonewineglass/

I do take it out of the vacuum pack.

I tend to do the quick thaw in a bowl with cold running water. For these thinner filets, it can take as little as 15 minutes. I don’t think there’s a problem with cooking them even if they are a bit icy still on the inside.