btbyrd

I’d just blitz freeze dried berries in a blender.

I like it just fine and can't understand why people wouldn't like it, aside from the staining risks. I like the fresh stuff added to smoothies or juiced with ginger (which is some powerful business). I think my favorite recipe that uses a goodly amount is Alison Roman's "The Stew" which is basically turmeric, coconut milk, greens, and chickpeas. I amp up the turmeric by using a combo of fresh and dried. There are oodles of clinical studies on curcumin, but these are almost always done with an extract that provides a standardized dosage that is much higher amount than one is likely to consume from food alone.

The biggest element I've seen in a consumer model is in the Max Burton 18XL. I haven't used it personally, but have been curious because I have the same problem with the elements on all the 1800W countertop units around. It makes me reluctant to invest in a fullsize 240 cooktop because I can't abide hotspots. I mostly use my Vollrath Mirage Pro to boil water and to deep fry (and sometimes to melt chocolate) because the heat is too spotty to saute or fry large portions evenly -- even with very conductive/heavy cookware like All Clad D7 and Copper Core.

Chris Young has committed to doing a YouTube teardown, and they say a video is worth a thousand pictures. But if you just want an idea of what the internals look like, here's a rough indication of what's going on under the hood.

Kyl Haselbauer of ChefSteps has this to report after some limited testing. "So far I am a fan of the thing for sure. The biggest differences I have found so far [between the Ninja and the PacoJet] would be the results when you use whole fruit chunks with syrups or ice cream bases. It just doesn't have the power to blend them Smooth, But it is still pretty dang good. I would just recommend throwing everything through a blender before you freeze it. I highly recommend it for $200. I'll probably be ordering one to keep at home for sure. I won't bash any other products directly here, but it is 10x better than any other brands counter top ice cream machines for way less $$. Not sure about the build quality and how long it will last, but for now I'm a fan.

The air pressure controls the amount of overrun, thereby letting you adjust the texture.

Um... The Standard Pacojet blade looks like this: The Ninja knockoff blade looks like this: There are a couple other blades available in the Pacojet coupe set, but they're designed to process non-frozen products (and they still look like blender blades). There's also a whipping disc. Anyway, it's no stretch to call the Ninja a competitor to the Pacojet. Whether or not it's a worthy competitor remains to be seen.

Purees and sauces and whatnot. It doesn’t have to stay frozen. I recall some Pacotized liver mousse or pate or something. But it’s mostly for sweet stuff.

Chris Young and Dave Arnold are going to do a teardown/review (according to Twitter). ChefSteps has ordered one to try out. I’ll wait for the expert opinions. Cream cheese is for children. Use stabilizers/hydrocolloids like an adult.

I almost never use my No. 15, but broke it out the other day to "deep fry" two thinly sliced shallots without wasting too much oil.

Mushroom miso ramen.

@Anna N Maybe next time. 😄

Mushroom burger. And a pretentious little video putting it together.

Salt penetration and equalization don't really take that long (a couple months, not years) even on something big like a ham. They're aged longer so that they can lose moisture and develop flavor.

Water is a thief of flavor. This can be useful if you want to turn something flavorless (like water) into something delicious (like soup). But it works against you if you're trying to keep food itself flavorful. Traditional braising uses a flavorful liquid to cook meat so that the meat itself becomes seasoned by its (moist, watery) cooking medium to a similar extent that the (moist, watery) cooking medium extracts soluble flavor compounds from the meat. The result of this two-way exchange is that you end up with flavorful meat and a flavorful integral sauce (or the base for the sauce) with minimum effort. Using water instead of stock would leach flavor from the meat, contribute nothing in return, and fail to yield an acceptable sauce. If you're going to make a sauce separately anyway, skip the middleman and just braise the meat by itself with a circulator. This will keep the flavor where you want it.

Just cook in a bag. This kind of thing is exactly what sous vide is best at.

I don’t fully submerge when I braise, and I often leave the lid ajar.

The Wired review gives a good overview.

I really want a VSJ but don't have the space for it. It's the sort of thing that needs to live on my counter so I'll actually use it, or else it will sit tucked away in the dark until the one time a year I remember to use it. Several times a year, I go on a juice kick and cold pressed juices are really expensive ($10+ for 16oz/500ml). But the inputs are really expensive, so I don't know how much juice I'd have to drink to save money in the long run. I'd also press a juicer into cocktail service. The model I want is the Omega VSJ843, in large part because it's the easiest (or among the easiest) to clean. Omegas go on sale all the time on the manufacturer's website, sometimes for quite substantial discounts. Don't pay retail. If I ever pull the trigger on one, I'll order through DiscountJuicers.com and have them price match the official Omega price. I've watched so many juicer comparison videos on the Discount Juicers YouTube channel, I feel like I owe it to John to give him my business. All his videos are too long and kind of rambly, but there's something about his goofy juice energy that sucks me in.

Curious about your favored bacon brand for BLTs. There are many excellent options, but this year I’m partial to Neuske’s.

Crispy chicken breast, orange glazed roasted beets, grilled carrots with coriander, sautéed chanterelles.

I like this shape a lot and hope they're able to scale up production so there's not a perpetual three month wait for it. It's something special -- even more tooth-sinkable than rigatoni and it holds sauce like nobody's business. Here's some with pistachio pesto: And a closeup to show the sauce holding abilities a bit more. I just kept throwing more and more pesto at it, and it kept drinking it in. And with a spicy red pepper, sausage, and cream sauce. Good stuff.

Awesome!

Guess what you can't do in North Carolina. (It's the last of your suggestions.)

Here's a photo from a news story of an ABC store in Charlotte. Things are no better here in Winston-Salem. Their selection sucks even in the best of times, but this feels like shopping for groceries Soviet Union.