JoNorvelleWalker

Most of my Precise Heat Mixing Bowl observations are in this thread: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/156096-chocolate-making-things-i-learned-in-my-early-months/?do=findComment&comment=2192337 Note I had no trouble tempering a 1800g batch for the egg. Two things I ought to mention: I never used the chocolate tempering function of the PHMB, and for chocolate work I never used the PHMB on the mixer -- stirring was by hand.

How long is a bahn mi roll? For bread I used a 10x10x0.5 inch baking steel in my CSO.

I shall never again drop my wineglass and break it. From a distance of about six inches.

The width of the CSO is too narrow for baking a baguette. I could bake a reasonable approximation of a baguette in the APO but in practice I use a special Korean water filled baguette pan in my big oven. I would think you could manage an acceptable bahn mi roll in the CSO with the right pan.

Last night's dinner thread picture I linked above is from the Sony Camera. Overriding the the 1/30 second exposure setting is not an issue. In this case the camera seems to know what's best. If I wanted to change the exposure time I could. Sony advertises 5.5 stops of hardware shake reduction, so 1/30 is the equivalent of better than 1/1000 of a second with no compensation. The three dining room halogen bulbs are in a chandelier that gives a pleasant mix of diffused light and reflected light from the white walls and ceiling. One of the issues with my iPad food photography was iPad shadows on the subject. Another was excessive noise in shadow areas. So far the Sony setup solves both problems.

Update: after the above pictured over extended boom collapsed I returned to shooting hand held. Someday, someday I may again have a proper tripod. I lost a tripod* in 2006 when the camera company I worked for went out of business. Before that I lost another tripod at another job. Life is hard on tripods. By default the Sony chooses to expose my food for 1/30 second, however I can't see any camera shake in the result. Possibly due to good rum but more likely due to fancy image stabilization hardware. Since last posting I swapped out my dining room 40 watt halogen bulbs for 100 watt halogen bulbs. For a total of 300 watts. Very pleasing light. And the bulbs are on a dimmer, so pseudo candlelight is still possible. Halogen bulbs dimmed are particularly beautiful in my opinion. My current dinner photography setup is a Leica 50mm lens head, mounted on a Leica close focusing adapter (DIN A6). Unfortunately there is no focus adjustment for this. DIN A6 is what you see and DIN A6 is what you get. https://forums.egullet.org/topic/161954-dinner-2021/?do=findComment&comment=2293536 Thankfully with DIN A6 the focus distance and field of view is about perfect for how I like to portray my dinners. Tonight I found the polarizing filter and lens hood for my Summicron, Good times are ahead. *as well as a cardigan and a pair of shoes.

Last night: Lamb with roast root vegetables.

By coincidence I had just checked. They do offer instacart. Not sure how that would work. I wish amazon/Whole Foods had shad. My guess is they probably do if you went in the store, but it is not offered on line.

I don't do Uber or Lyft. It used to be because I don't have a cellphone. Now, thanks to someone's kindness, I actually have an older cellphone. But currently it is only partially set up, and I don't know if it will really operate as a phone. Speaking of phones, I just called the fishmonger I mentioned. They don't have shad in stock, and they do not deliver. Walk in or curbside only.

Samuels says shad season is underway and they deliver anywhere. But shad is not on their product list and the website has no shipping or delivery information that I can find.

Hopkins did not say anything about shipping shad unfortunately.

Problem is on a good day I could probably walk the four miles. I doubt I could walk the four miles back. I'm sure I've told the story of making it to the store in Princeton only to be told: "We sold our last shad last night." At my age I have a reliable food radius of about two miles.

Picking up where last year I left off... https://forums.egullet.org/topic/160640-buying-online-fishfrozen-fish-shellfish/?do=findComment&comment=2247810 As I've said, shad is my favorite fish. Sadly shad has not passed my lips for years. I live seventeen miles east of a commercial shad fishery. I live about five miles north of a noted shadmonger. I live four miles from a fancy grocery that has most wonderful fish and meats on offer, including lovely shad in season. In my circumstance they might as well all be on Mars. Who knows how long any of us may live? I'd love to taste shad again before I die. Two years ago @Katie Meadow suggested Citarella as a shad supplier. Last spring with much hope and trepidation I ordered shad from Citarella. The Citarella website accepted my shad order but Citarella could not supply the shad. Does anyone know of a reliable New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania fishmonger who can actually, really, really deliver exceptional fresh shad expertly boned? Not just those who talk the talk. Price is not (much) a consideration.

Forgive me, I'm just a visitor to this topic: last cherry season I dehydrated a bunch of cherries* and if I were putting them in ice cream I would add them dried. Maybe chopped up a bit. *a bunch of cherries dehydrated is not that much.

Two out of three.

I should ask for my new pan.

I had a granola dream last night. Aren't what are typically sold as currants really just small raisins? There is now a box of Familia in my Whole Foods shopping cart but I may yet try to make my own.

APO roast duck. One of the finest things I have eaten. Served with David Libovitz’s haricots tarbais and good bread. Beans were merely OK. Duck was exceptional. I spilled the duck fat on the floor.

And what was it?

What does the olive oil add? I was half afraid you were going to specify dried anchovies. My dentation does not do coconut. What else do you think might work? I have a case of Bob's Red Mill farro and several pounds of red walnuts I'd love to use up. For the oil, what about coconut or walnut oil? Or I could just buy a box of Familia.

My (pressure) skillet with the oil lives on the blast freezer in the living room. No space in the oven.

That is a gorgeous photograph. About how much did the piece weigh before cooking?

What eats iguanas?

Hsiao-Ching Chou -- Chinese Soul Food: A Friendly Guide for Homemade Dumplings, Stir-Fries, Soups, and More http://amzn.com/1632171236

Many thanks. It is the same walnut end grain block on which I've been photographing my loaves for years. The difference is the much lower noise of the new Sony camera compared to my beloved iPad.