fvandrog

As a biochemist and molecular biologist, I have some problems with understanding how one finds DNA of unknown origin with methods used in food-testing. Generally, one is only prone to find what one looks for.

Me, for sure I am not able to tell (I know, 'cause I've tried) I would mainly guess though that commercial yeast provides an improved consistency in the palette. It will certainly partially come down to what one is looking for, consistency between years, bottles etc., or the unique taste of a specific year, vineyard etc. I do have some impression, however, that there's a certain amount of marketing strategy and spin in the 'natural yeast' movement.

If your fridge keeps 4 °C, or close to it, most of the time your beet root puree should still be fine. If your fridge is more than two degrees or more warmer for a significant amount of the time it might not hurt to be careful.

Something tart, like not-over-ripe mango or pineapple, or citrus would probably be good, and not too overwhelming. Tomatoes, too (if you're willing to regard them as fruit), although you've already been there. Indeed, something tart sounds the most suitable. I was thinking about rhubarb, which allegedly you can cook sous-vide resulting in an visually attractive dish.

I got offered a fancy set of Flor de Sal d'Estrenc. I feel that it's far beyond the 'bascis', but some of them are very nice and definitely enrich dishes. I have especially come to like the olivas negras variant, which goes predictably well with pasta dishes.

Indeed, the 90% loss cited when comparing Dutch processed versus natural cocoa sounds very significant, but in the end it's very minor quantities. In addition, it seems the 90% loss is the worst case scenario, with generally between 25% and 40% of flavanols remaining.

Indeed, when we changed continents, we shipped part of our stuff by boat. We had to live rather rudimentary for two months or so (both kitchenwise and general), but it was actually an interesting experience. My cooking skill had gradually increased at the same time as the amount (and quality) of kitchen equipment; using only some cheap pots and the most basic of handheld mixers but with some experience and practice still resulted in very acceptable meals.

Well, I recently counted. My food-related book collection numbers 360.My name is Drew, and I'm a cookbook-aholic. Latest check is over 500 cookbooks... Yikes. I have seriously slowed down in purchasing/accepting cookbooks (I really have!). Most recent acquisitions: Tyler Florence's FRESH and Underly's The Art of Beef Cutting. This is a great thread -- I suddenly feel so much better, only owning about a hundred cooking books. I have recently begun buying some of them electronically since it takes at least less space -- but in general I prefer the paper versions, especially when they have nice photos and how-to's.

That's my favorite method as well; alternatively I preserve the chillies in oil -- though apparently the topic starter looks for other methods. Welcome to eGullet, fvandrog!How do you preserve chilies in oil and be sure they're safe from, say, botulism? Or is that not an issue for chilies as it is for garlic? Edited to add: Welcome also to Liz Ayers! What a great first topic! I checked a bit around, and it seems that chilies are definitely not save from botulism. Regardless, many preservation books don't seem to worry and put the chilies straight into the oil as I did. I have also seen some recipes where the chilies are first boiled for 10 minutes in vinegar, the heat and acid together killing any botulism spores that might reside on the chilies. One recipe even recommended boiling the chilies first in vinegar and subsequently have them simmer in the oil for 20 minutes. To play it save without going overboard, I intend to boil chilies in vinegar before conserving them in oil next time. Unfortunately, I guess I won't be getting my hands on nice chilies until summer is almost over.

That's my favorite method as well; alternatively I preserve the chillies in oil -- though apparently the topic starter looks for other methods.