daveb

Parm can be cut up with a chef knife, the sturdier the better. Ensure that you do not use any torquing movement. Though somewhere on my wishlist are a couple of the chisel like cheese knives meant for the purpose. For the size question I grate two sizes, if it's going to be used to melt into a larger dish, meatballs, lasagna, etc, I'll use the med holes on the box grater. To use as a garnish I'll use the fine holes on a box grater, a microplane or the above mentioned Zyliss - it should look like snow on top of the dish. If you have a recipe that you like / use a lot, note the weight of the parm used. 1/2 cup will be less cheese if grated finely, more if grated coarsely, but always right on by weight. The rinds go well in most cream based soups, I think they are spectacular in Bolognaise. A little scrape to ensure you're not adding wax. At a former restaurant we used enough parm that we would use rinds to make stock. Simmer long time, let cool, scrape wax off top, reheat and strain through cheesecloth. Sublime flavor, again used in cream soups. Could be done in smaller quantities if someone had a couple bags of rinds laying about.

That 20qt stock pot probably has replacement lids available for it. I did this one for a friend. Easy, squeezy.

One of the benefits of singlehood. What would be "her" side of the closet has storage containers, sous vide stuff, induction stuff, isi whips, sushi stuff and extra knives. Some people think that's weird. It may be why I'm single.

I've roasted in that pan. Or one like it. An exact match will probably be tough. Agree with Lisa that it looks like a commercial product and not one designed for homeowner use. Restaurant supply stores will be your best place to find a match. I like http://www.webstaurantstore.com/ and http://www.wasserstrom.com/ Should you not be able to find exact match, Volroth makes some excellent product like this. I prefer the fixed handles to the folding ones but most newer commercial roasters have folding handles for efficient space usage or some such crap. (designed by an engineer, not a cook) Can't tell scale from your picture, nor brand info. Some dimensions would be useful.

No room in mine, that's where all the induction stuff goes....

I also like a mix of cambro round for prepared foods, and square for pantry items. Though I prefer the Carlisle to Camsquare cause they have handles on sides. . Very easy to add more as requirements grow/change. Blue, i tape to mark them. Inexplicably the square lids do not interchange between Cambro and Carlisle, if going this route pick a brand early. Wasserstrom and Webrestaurant have best prices

Hi Paul, You may be misinformed about my being misinformed. Way back in the pre-stone dark ages, I owned what is now the 110 model Chef's Choice. The first stage I called a wheel, it appears they call it a "conical shaped disk". Regardless, it grinds hell out of the blade to sharpen it. Probably goes round and round doing so. Descriptors like "better than razor sharp", "bite", "durable" are all euphemism s for a coarsely ground edge - and there's nothing wrong with that. That first stage, granted you may not use it often, 60 - 120 grit. Not trying to be argumentative nor bashing electric sharpeners but will reiterate that such devices do not thin behind the edge and that such thinning is a required part of maintenance to optimize performance. Regards

The Chef Choice has a very coarse grit stone as it's grinding wheel. I recall 60 grit but it may be slightly higher. That's going to grind a lot of metal - it may leave a sharp enough edge and the little stropping pads may polish out some of the grind marks but no thinning will occur. A local culinary store I do product demos for uses a Tru Hone http://www.truhone.com/store/pc/pdf/Knife_Sharpener.pdf for in-house sharpening. I use the machine once a year for a day of charity sharpening and sharpen all manner of Kitchenaid, Martha, Calphalon and all the other wally mart brands. The Tru Hone is a Chef's Choice on steroids and puts a decent edge on all manner of knives but suffers the same disadvantage of not being able to thin. The resultant edge from this type system even has it's own description, "A sharp knife that doesn't cut very well". And as it happens very gradually it would not be surprising for the user to not notice it.

I'm helping cater an event 2morrow evening where steak and pesto bruschetta is among the heavy hors d'oeuvres. Chef has let me SV the ribeyes we'll be using. (His first time with SV) Did a blister sear on the flat top 2day then bagged and tagged them. In the bath 2 hrs @ 128F. He sliced one open and it was exactly what he wanted. May have created a convert.

Just like you would a Vnox. Perhaps with a little more caution. If you're close to the city you could probably watch a bit of it at Korin. So much wrong here. But first a nod to the Porky rejoinder. Like it. If one has to "find out" if a knife is a single bevel or a double bevel, one should not be considering sharpening it (or anything else for that matter) Exact angles are not important. Consistent angles are. Holding consistent angles are learned through some practice - it's not difficult to become proficient, very few are expert. I count myself as closing on the former 1K worth of stones? Hardly. One can readily sharpen a 1K knife with a cheap King. To remove scuffs, to polish the edge, to highlight the contrast between the jigane and hagane, a natural stone, 200ish, would be nice. I've seen it done with a King 800. To sharpen the knife? No. I've seen pics of the knives and the gizmo..... If it works for you thats all thats important. I've owned and sharpened knives that are north of 1K. If anything they are easier to sharpen than knives at the other end of the spectrum. Still working on that polishing though. I am not a sushi chef but have worked with. Do own some "sushi" knives,. There's nothing magical about them. Back to the subject at hand, sending the knives off is a good idea. I've done it when receiving a semi-custom knife the maker did not bevel or sharpen. Dave Martell did a great and timely job.

Nobody grew up with an immersion circulator. At least no one older than 7. For practical home application it's a pretty recent innovation. That said I can certainly see how it may be intimidating to the eatie foodie as opposed to the cookie foodie. It's different. And the circulator is the easy part, the sealer is more complex, more expensive and affords more choices. Pretty cool to have a sealer in your bag of tricks though. But it's ok to be a late adopter (or not adopt at all). A lot of people have been cooking a long time without SV. I've worked with many more chefs that have not / will not use one than those that have added it to their repertoire.

http://www.japaneseknifesharpening.com/ Dave will get them as sharp as they've ever been. Website says only Japanese but could ask about any others.

Tofu is never the best thing.

Amazon has the Flaxseed oil, several variants of it. I use it in the oven, light application, wipe, into hot oven for an hour, turn oven off, let cool. Repeat. Have done same on stove top and outside on the wok burner. In "Breath of a Wok" Young talks of final seasoning of a wok with Chinese onions or spring onions for luck. I need all the luck I can get in the kitchen so my last seasoning session I'll saute a qt or so of onions until carmalized. No defensible reason just my thing. The only time I've had flake offs was when I tried to shortcut the process and use to much oil at once. Don't do that anymore.

"Mandy's will always be thirsty. Suppose you could design one with a protective chute over the top, a bowl to catch product in and maybe a gizmo to drive the blade instead of having to move the product. Merry Christmas all!

Electric Mandy? Say it isn't so.

I could accept Chili as a spiritual thing. Awaiting a report. .

Looks like you're off to good start. I'm not a fan of zip locks for a long cook, but if that's what you have to work with then..... 2nd the part about clipping the edge to the top of the container so that the seal is not submerged. Your container should be fine with a circulator though I would prefer a 12 qt Cambro for most SV. For long cooks I like a Coleman "stackable". For either container (or yours) a 2 1/2" hole saw will cut an opening for the Anova bluetooth unit. (2 3/4" for Anova 1) If you still have concerns about doing it as a roll you can steak it and do it as pieces (my preferred method) or whole but not rolled per David Chang. The belly pictured was done at 140F. (Pork likes 140F) It was seared outside in a wok. Your oven, cranked up and on broil will work fine but will take it out of commission for dinner rolls, warming, finishing sides etc. Super hot grill, esp with cast iron skillet will work well. Don't forget the liquids in the bag make a great addition to sauce. SV Porchetta stuffed with chick food. Duroc belly steaked: (Note: When steaked you can do as much or as little of the belly as you would like, Freeze other pieces for another day.

Sister Schubert (sp?) rules at our holiday get togethers.

I find the "blanch" step analogous to wearing a seat belt while driving. I don't think I could drive down the street without buckling up. I've had 1 SV cook go funky, now I blanch all long (overnight) cooks under 140F. Rustwood described it well, the spoilage is a continuum, not a binary yes/no.

I have and enjoy the perforated egg spoon for poached eggs and many other tasks. Someone also makes a "Roux" spoon that I put to good use. I like the "Kuntz" spoons but for the price I usually buy the Richmond knock-offs from CKTG. I've not tried the off-sets, mainly because they solve a problem that I don't feel like I have.

From your description it sounds like it's gone "off". The first (and only) time this happened to me I was doing short ribs for 40 and I noticed some floaters on the second day. Made the mistake of opening one of the bags - the smell would gag a maggot. I posed the question here and other sites and concluded there was probably a surface bacteria on one or more ribs, (there was some cross contact during marinating). It was probably no fault of the butcher or the cook (me) and it probably would have been killed off without incident had the ribs been cooked conventionally. It was suggested that the bagged product could have / should have been immersed in boiling water briefly prior to the long/low temp cook to kill any surface "stuff". I've done this brief immersion anytime I do an overnight cook now and have had no further issues. For your first situation I'would have eaten the ribs but not served them to others. This time I would round file the whole lot. Next time? Thirds a charm or something like that.

Not sure if I should report that or go shopping for some chrome plates. I've not done a sauce SV (yet). Are the air bubbles a function of the technique or the handling?

Noodle soup? Done that once or twice or a few hundred times.

I would eat it. But not serve it.