btbyrd

The angles on most cast iron pans makes them better suited for making cornbread than doing what you'd normally do with a flared skillet or frying pan. The shape makes them not great to saute with, or even do simple things like flip a fried egg. The Dartos are also probably thicker than most vintage cast iron, which tends to be thinner than modern stuff like Lodge. I use the carbon steel much more.

Listened to them all, and I've called/written in a few times. About two weeks ago I finally made the connection that Hassouni was "Chris from the Green Zone in DC." Good times. There's a good amount of ranting and rambling and raving on Cooking Issues, and that's a benefit as well as a drawback. If it doesn't bother you, then you're in for a free-wheeling treat. If you need a host that doesn't have attention deficit disorder, it may not be the show for you. It's definitely the show for me though.

I use the largest ones the most, in part because the flared edges mean the smaller ones are pretty darned small. The redesign changes that considerably, so it's hard to say. But I'd still say to go with the two largest handled pans. The 15 is very small, almost a novelty. Almost. I end up using it more than I thought I would... usually when the stovetop starts to get crowded. It still gets used less than anything else though. I've always wanted to try the paella version, because i think that'd be great to cook and then serve to guests individually. The only reason I didn't get one of the 15cm paellas is that I fear I'd end up buying eight of them. I am also a fan of the Number 34 paella, though I've never actually cooked paella in it. Thick, spacious, heavy... It's almost like someone took a big heavy cast iron dutch oven and just lopped of everything except the bottom two and a half inches (or however tall it is). For a big, flat searing surface it's hard to beat. Its walls are high enough to shallow fry, as you saw in my chicken video above. It's also where I make my pancakes. It kind of just lives on my stovetop. I use it more than I thought I would. I cannot even begin to imagine how large the Number 50 is in person. It's even thicker than their other pans, apparently. Weighs 7kg. That's over 15lbs, if you count in the King's English. I bet it would rock the party on my wok burner. Definitely a "special occasion" or "professional/catering" sort of thing. Looks awesome though. Anyway, I can't say that I'm feeling the need to buy anything since I already have a full set of handled models. If they'd made a Number 31 available, I would have gotten it and replaced my Matfer. And if I had infinity billion dollars, I'd buy two of every animal and buy a set for you fine folks as well. But I don't. The redesign and the new paellas are an exciting move. One of my only complaints of the Dartos was that the flare was a bit too gradual so that the actual cooking surface of the pan was much smaller than its total diameter would leave you to believe. That lead the pans to cook like they were smaller than they are (though the 27 is still pretty dang big). That's been fixed in the redesign, and the slope of the walls is supposed to improve the saute action. If that's all true, it's a win win. And +1 to the notion of using the little paellas in the CSO. That sounds like a dangerously good idea. Spoonie G and the Treacherous Three's "New Rap Language." From 1980. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

The problems with texture aren't primarily caused by crushing but by rapid boiling of water in the protein at low pressures. Sealing your proteins when they're very, very cold can help with this. But there are some textural problems with squishier meat that are brought on by having the bag press down on it. That's where some mushiness can come from. If you want to avoid crushing while vacuum sealing, get a chamber vacuum that has a "gas flush" option. These pull a vacuum on your bag but then fill it with inert gas before sealing it up so that the atmosphere doesn't crush your product when it floods back into the chamber. Speaking for myself, I don't really feel the need to pull a vacuum on fish because I'm never sealing to store it for extended periods. Or cook it for more than like 30 minutes. I don't even seal the bag most of the time... just clip the top to the cambro to keep it from swimming away. For everything that I do pull a vacuum on, I end up sealing at whatever the maximum pressure my VP112 achieves is. And it's mostly robust stuff like beef and pork where there's no texture loss from high vacuum. I'm not really a big fan of sous vide chicken; I'd almost always rather do something else with it. SV turkey, on the other hand...

Here's the piece at Cooking Issues.. The vacuum levels in KennethT's post above are much too low. 90% was the lowest vacuum level they tested. The takehome points are that robust meats like beef and lamb don't suffer much, but the texture of chicken and fish do (fish moreso than chicken). Sealing the protein with oil seems to help. But lower vacuum levels -- 90% -- were strongly preferred for chicken and salmon.

While I won't pretend that this has never happened to me, I won't pretend that it was the knife's fault. But even if it were the knife's fault, the solution is a bolster or a Dremel, not making the blade go directly underneath your hand.

If you have Netflix, you should check out Mind of a Chef Season 2: Episode 3, which is dedicated to rice -- Anson Mill's Carolina Gold in particular. If you're going to place your first Anson Mills order, the rice is probably essential. And if you're getting the rice, you might as well get some of the sea island red peas so that you can make some proper Hoppin John. Apart from that, the other main thing I've cooked with is the grits and cornmeal. The grits in particular are especially good. And I love the visual pop of their blue grits (which taste just like the normal grits, only bluer). I've eaten their farro at restaurants but haven't cooked it. Not sure which varieties I've had, but they were delicious. My next Anson Mills adventure will be attempting soba with their buckheat flour. Wish I had more experience with more of their products, but it's just a matter of time.

Thank you! I did a stovetop sear and then moved it to a low oven. The "bookends" are mounds of horseradish-beet.

I didn't know you could embed Instagram stuff on the forum until today. So here's a few Insta pics of the bottom of my paella. And here we are making some fried chicken and seared endive. Good times.

Anson Mills offers a variety of heirloom grains and their website has a number of useful recipes. The recipe instructions tend toward the insanely detailed side of things -- even for familiar and "easy" grains like rice or corn grits. But I've found that to be more instructive in the long run, as it helps you get a sense for what's happening with the grains as they cook. I've also started cooking rice in a ceramic donabe recently, and have been meaning to try some other grains in there as well. I asked Glenn Roberts from Anson Mills about that, and he informed me that pretty much any grain can be cooked in a donabe, provided that one gets the hydration right.

Ribeye and rice.

Like I said. The announcement was on their Instagram. The official drop is May 1st. It's not on the site yet, but many of their "old" pans are out of stock. As far as a redesign, the handle is probably the most likely thing to have changed. The cooking part of the pans themselves are the perfect thickness as they are (in my opinion) but they're somewhat awkward to handle on account of the... handle. But I've found that these problems mostly vanish when you grab the handle with a side towel or pot holder. I also think the way that they mold and imprint their logo on the pans will have changed. My suspicion is that the old production process was a 2-step process, where the pans are first stamped and formed out of the stock steel, and then later stamped with the logo on the handle (or the bottom of the pan, in the case of the paella pans). The new process (that I'm totally making up and have no actual knowledge of) may combine those steps, so that the pans are imprinted with the logo as they are stamped out from the steel. This way, the pan's shape is formed as the logo is imprinted and there won't be any room for pans to get bent out of shape when the logo gets stamped on (or for other errors). I'm interested to see what the new products will be. Like I said on the previous page, I asked Darto if they had plans to make a "No. 31" and they replied that it was 'on the list,' so maybe I'll be replacing my 31cm Matfer soon.

Speaking of danger, Darto just announced on Instagram that they've redesigned all their products and have four new ones coming. May 1st is the official launch date, so keep your eyes out. There should be a pre-sale with a discount coming up quite shortly.

Seriously. If you want to blow a ton of money on a fancy knife, there are better options than these things. Güde makes some awesome knives, notably their serrated bread knives. I'm not sure "The Knife" is one of them. And for the money, there are hundreds of Japanese knives I'd rather buy.

These knives look stupid. At least the first one's cheap. The second one reminds me of a saying about a fool and her money.

Import Food sells a charcoal-fueled "tao" wok burner made from clay and concrete set into a metal bucket. It's the upgrade pick to the budget chimney starter method. But for sheer convenience and maximum therms (without resorting to forced-air for the charcoal) nothing can beat a high pressure gas powered wok burner. I can't ever imagine choosing charcoal over gas if I had the option.

I prefer kicking it up notches. ANOTHER NOTCH! BAM! Country bacon fat is one of the best notch-kicker-uppers...

How would I cook it? Drunk carbonara at 2:30am seems likely. Also good as a ramen garnish. Otherwise, use it as a seasoning meat for vegetables, legumes, and sauces. If you're looking for recipe ideas, search for guanciale. They're not exact substitutes -- bacon is smoked and doesn't typically have spices added to it -- but they're close enough to find inspiration. I prefer smoke anyway.

I had been using Pepin methods until I recently stumbled across Julia Child's omelette technique. It's gotten me better results faster and more consistently. And it's fun to shake the bajabbers out of the pan. The slightest little bit of browning on an omelette doesn't ruin it for me, but I prefer for it to be uniformally bright yellow -- to come off just before the color starts to go toasty. As for bacon grease, I always make a sheet pan at a time. Overwrap the pan with heavy duty foil for easy cleanup. Pour the fat off through a mesh strainer. It heaps up quickly that way. I also pressure cook a pound of Benton's in water when I do my variation on the Momofuku ramen broth. This yields wet-rendered bacon fat and bacon stock. The decanted fat is very nice, though you obviously lose some smoke and pork flavor to the stock.

I mean... they use a lot of veal bones in their veal stock. Skip to 3:55 for a shot of dem veal bone trees.

Add a dollop every time you braise something. You'll manage to use it up before forever.

For commercial stock/glace, there is no beating More Than Gourmet's products. They're basically made from Escoffier's recipes, contain a boatload of gelatin, no added salt, and are highly concentrated. I keep their roasted chicken stock and their roasted beef stock (glace de viande) on hand at all times. I get it in 16oz containers from Amazon. It keeps essentially forever in the fridge. For. Ever. Their website has a bunch of recipes for quick sauces. It's also useful to fortify other stocks or soups. One of the best things in my pantry.

That's a philosopher doing some yardwork. A rare sight to see them in their native habitat....

Visited with some friends in the Shenandoah valley over Easter and brought my konro and donabe with me. We did a six mile hike and then proceeded to feast. The meal opened with miso soup made with Father's country ham dashi. Second course were some pork shoulder saam lettuce wraps served with Carolina gold rice. Third course was white meat yakitori with an assortment of grilled vegetables, more rice, and a gallon of Yum Yum sauce. We never made it to the final course, which was to be pork shoulder and pineapple skewers. When I butchered the shoulder, everything got Jaccarded and the thin cuts went straight on the grill with salt and pepper; the larger, thicker cuts went for a 24 hour swim at 63C. I've yet to break into my supply of those. No pictures of anything on the plate, but I did shoot some video while cooking: I grill all the veg first and move it to a low oven so it's ready to go right when the protein comes off.

Precisely what prompted my reply, my good man. Here's a commercial for Andres's products where they actually deep fry the egg. I'd only ever seen him do a shallow pan fry before.