btbyrd

Tacos. Sear and shred the legs. Warm your tortillas over a flame or in a skillet. Brush on some hoisin sauce, add the duck, and garnish with your choice of toppings. Shaved radish, pickled red onions, and a brunoise of jalapeno and yellow/red bell peppers work well. Or go with a shredded/julienne-peeler-thing mix of cucumber, carrot, and dikon. Or whatever.

This spatula is a close to ideal tool for getting product out of the bottom of a blender jar. (Edit: Other colors may be cheaper. Check out other colors if you're looking to save a couple bucks.) Blenders in general aren't that great for processing hard solids into pastes without added steps (like soaking nuts or what have you). The ChefSteps pistachio butter starts out using a Vitamix to turn pistashios and sugar into a powder, but they move that mixture to a conche to reduce the particle size to a smooth paste. Making something that smooth would be impossible in a blender. Getting smooth hummus shouldn't be a problem; smooth pistachio paste -- not so much.

I like the No. 23 quite a lot. In the past, I'd used the No 27 for omelettes, but made one in the No 23 after reading your question and it worked even better. Because the omelette was thicker, it didn't tear like it often does in the 27. (I must confess that my omelette skills aren't as good as I'd like them to be.) The 23 is still relatively heavy for a pan of its size, but it's definitely much more manageable than a size up. The No 23 weighs 1545g or 3lb 6.55oz ; the No 27 weighs 2121g or 4lb 10.8oz. But the weight is going to be an issue with any carbon steel pan, so that's not a Darto-specific issue.

My order arrived and it's spoon city up in my place. I got 8 of the offset soup spoons (and they slipped an extra one in by accident) along with the offset serving spoon. The serving spoon is HUGE. I think I'm going to like the soup soons as well. And I like the meat mallet quite a bit. (It should do the job nicely). The only thing I'm sad about now is that realized I should have ordered another set of the smaller offset spoons. I freaking love those, and having another small, medium, and large one on hand would be quite nice. But now that I'm all Ruhlman-ed up, I don't know that I'll be ordering any time soon. The shipping's too high if you're just ordering a set of the spoons. If you're ordering $100+ of stuff, it doesn't seem so unreasonable. I'd be nice if he shipped some of the smaller items via USPS Priority in flat rate boxes.

The Argentine company Darto is offering free worldwide shipping on their excellent carbon steel pans. I have the No. 27 and the No. 23 and love them; I'll probably pick up a couple more thanks to the free shipping. Their DHL international service is FAST, by the way. I think I got mine four days after I placed the order. I love cooking with carbon steel, and I especially love the design of the Dartos; they're made from a single piece of metal,so there are no rivets or welds for gunk to get caught up in. Here's some hot, buttery basting porn featuring the No. 27: I first found out about them from the folks at ChefSteps. They rock a Darto in this pan-sauce video:

Put some spoons in the bag.

Curing foie changes its texture, flavor, appearance, and safety. Whether it's safe and whether it's delicious are different matters. Properly prepared torchons are safer than untreated raw product, but eating raw foie isn't especially risky compared to eating other raw animal products. From an eating standpoint, frozen, untreated, grated foie gras is going to be much different than grated, cured torchon. I'd actually want to eat the latter. The former, not so much. Especially if the "cook" was too lazy to de-vein it.

Humbug aside, I bought a couple sets of the Ruhlman acacia wooden paddles, the meat mallet, 8 of the offset soup soons, and the offset serving spoon. That's a buncho spoons n' paddles. And a mallet. FYI, it can be cheaper to buy the paddles a la carte than buying the bundle of 3. The set of "one small + one medium" plus the single large "spanker" is cheaper than the bundle.

Ruhlman's tools are 35% off through Saturday with coupon code "cheer." I must say, this BlackFriday/CyberMonday has been a bit of a bust (at least for me). I haven't seen any good deals apart from the Anova and Instant Pot (and I already have 2 circulators and an IP). The grass is always greener? Last year, Ruhlman's discount was 40%, and the year before that was 50%. Bah humbug.

It doesn't really have to be that tall. I've cooked eggs in an 8"X8" glass casserole dish. (Try that with any other circulator.) And I've used several dutch ovens and All Clad pots with the magnet (which is great). The clip from the factory is pretty small (too small to clip on the classic "big Cambro" that many use for SV) but they designed Joule so you can swap the clip out for a larger one that will fit Cambros and premium coolers like the Yeti. The bigger clip isn't on the market yet, but should be soon.

I've been very happy with mine so far. It's so much smaller and SO much quieter than my Polyscience. It also heats marginally faster. The pump isn't nearly as strong (which is a good thing -- the PS is, if anything too strong) but it doesn't need to be because its impeller sucks in the coldest water from the bottom. Apart from the size and noise benefits (which are substantial) I think my favorite thing is that you can use it in basically no water. It's feasible to use it in pretty much any pot or container, however small. This not only saves water but also heats up faster so you're ready to cook in a shorter amount of time. While I'm kinda tempted by how cheap the Anovas are, if I was going to get another circulator, it'd be a Joule for sure. Now, if only they'd update the software so you can control multiple Joules from the same device...

How Guy Fieri ruined nachos.

Reheating isn't any faster than cooking (unless you're holding something to tenderize). With something four inches thick, the earlier you throw it in the better.

The dip needs to happen at the beginning or not at all; after it's been in the bath for a while, the ship has sailed.

Not especially. After 2.5 hours @ 142F, the surface of your meat is as pasteurized as it's going to get.

It's my impression that all induction burners under $200 (and perhaps under $450) are essentially the same, with the differences being primarily in aesthetics and fit/finish. They're nice if you need a cheap, extra burner and don't need much in the way of temperature control. It's hard to maintain a simmer with these units; the power settings are either "not really a simmer" or "full-on boil." But if you're not using it for simmering work, pressure cooking, or other application that requires finessed heat, I'm sure it'd be fine. I am, however, wary of any sort of burner that comes as a set with a pan. Or any pan that comes in a set with a burner. Or any other unnecessary package deal.

This pan is overpriced and underwhelming. Making a cast iron pan lighter doesn't do anything for it and actually makes its performance worse (since the main advantage of cast iron is its mass). Just buy a carbon steel pan. Lighter than cast iron, smooth interior surface, excellent non-stick properties, and has the gently rounded sloping sides of a saute pan (rather than the almost straight sides of cast iron). Oh, and they're (generally) much cheaper than this lightweight cast iron pan is.

Mine too! If you happen to pick the book up, let us know your thoughts. I would have bought it myself, but I have to leave some affordable things on my wishlist for the holiday season...

I recently added Ronni Lundy's book Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes to my wishlist after hearing an interview with the author on the Eat Your Books podcast. I haven't gotten to really look at it yet, but it seems like an excellent addition to the recent round of books on Southern food. I appreciate its emphasis on mountain foodways, which are often overlooked in the cookbook world. Most "southern" cookbooks I've seen are either generically southern or focused on the cuisine of the low country and coastal planes. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Any more thoughts on this one? It's currently on my Amazon wishlist (where most of my Christmas presents will ultimately come from) but I haven't really been able to get a good sense of the content. Hoping it's not style over substance.

Or just use less water the first time.

I bet it would make for a decent to pretty good burger. You may have to add some fat to the grind though.

Utility is a USDA grade of beef that ranks lower than select, standard, and commercial. Speaking only for myself, I can't imagine purchasing meat described as "utility," even if that wasn't the USDA certification for some of the lowest quality beef around.

One hour is not a long time at 60C, and I doubt that the core even got to the temp of the bath in that time frame (especially since you say "the rolls were huge"). Whatever the problem was, it wasn't going too long or too hot. 60C isn't too hot and 60 minutes is, if anything, not long enough.

It is the best thing in my kitchen for melting cheese. That's mostly what I use it for. I also use it to touch up the top of fried eggs. I'd use it for post-SV work more if I didn't have a grill. But even on the grill, I'll often sear the top with the Searzall while the bottom is grilling, flip the steak/whatever, then sear the new topside with the Searzall. I love my grill, but it doesn't get nearly hot enough to put a good crust on a fresh-from-the-bath SV steak. (It's a Weber Genesis E330, and it gets plenty hot... I can push it to near 700. But it's no match for a grate directly on top of charcoal.) I like having the Searzall. Like I said, it's the king for getting cheese nice and bubbly; that alone is almost worth the cost of admission. If you already have a torch (or 3) and are looking for a new gadget, the Searzall is a great choice. I never liked using my "naked" TS8000 on steaks (or my low-powered Rosle kitchen torch) but I'm much more torch-happy with the Searzall in hand. I don't know that it's a "must have" for most people, but if you love torches, it's a must have.