IEATRIO

I have the Bluestar Platinum with the 25K BTU burners, and I now find it difficult to cook on other stoves. I had also considered a Capital range, which as far as I know is the only other range available in the US with 25K BTU burners, but I preferred the Bluestar for the "Garland" shaped burners and the ability to fit a wok into a burner without a ring. While the Platinum burners are excellent, the oven is much less so, and some elements of the range design are ridiculous to the point of un-useability (i.e., I find the griddle absolutely worthless and for aesthetic purposes only because of the lack of real grease traps), and I have found Bluestar's customer service unresponsiveness to be horrible. If I had it to do over again I would consider a Capital range, or if I had enough space just go with the Bluestar cooktop (which is really better for Chinese cooking which I do a lot of), and put in a Rational or other good oven system (i.e., Wolf, Capital).

JBS is Brazilian company, and one of the largest meat processors in the world. They own Swift and Pilgrim's Pride brands in the United States and Australia. They are heavily involved in the ongoing Brazilian bribery scandals, and might fairly be said to be a disreputable corporate citizen. They are very much a mass market industrial producer, and at least in Brazil is not known for high quality products. The Cultural Revolution propaganda themed advertising is a large turn-off to me as well. I would give it all a miss.

I've tried these -- a major brand in the United States -- and I thought they were absolutely horrible, with extremely poor flavor.

I suspect that the missing step you are looking for is soaking the beef in baking soda and and "washing" it. Try mixing the beef in a bowl with 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder and then add 1/4 cup of water, and leave it for 1 hour. After the hour, you want to "wash" it by leaving the bowl under a faucet, and running a steady but light stream of water into the bowl for 5 minutes so that it dilutes the water, but does not agitate the surface of the meat. Then drain the water, and toss the beef in 2 teaspoons of potato/tapioca starch (or whatever starch you like). By the time you get your mise in place ready, the beef will be ready to cook however you would like it. This will give you a soft, but not too soft, texture.

Yes, in the US it is often sold as "AA Choy." I make this often when I'm feeling lazy because you really don't need to do much to it and its easy to put something green on the table. I prefer the bottoms, and simply peel it until I reach the "jade-like" inside and either slice it into coins or little bars, and then stir fry and finish with salt and sesame oil. Very simple and very good. I really think that Celtuce is a vegetable which has world conquering potential. It is very easy to cook and to enjoy.

I have had mixed success with sous vide Chinese dishes. I have had great success with char siu, Hoi Nam/Hainanese/white cut chicken -- dishes that I make almost exclusively sous vide now because of the superior results -- and various braised pork belly dishes. I've had much less success with vegetable dishes, and have had some really inedible disasters -- I wasted some beautiful spring bamboo shoots a few weeks ago which would have been much better poached or steamed but wound up horribly bitter (maybe from cyanide which won't flash off or dilute like in a wok or boiling water). For beans and greens there is even less reason, as these things cook so quickly. For beans, I "break the rawness" by throwing them in boiling water for a minute or so -- in a restaurant they might do that in hot oil -- before stir frying them. Since you want your beans crisp, I don't see how sous vide could improve the texture of the final dish in any way. If the idea is to do the whole dish sous vide, with the spices and other ingredients in the bag, I don't think there is any way that could work for several reasons, including that the spices would behave in unpredictable ways that are not likely to be good, and also that you would wind up with a watery, unreduced, and unthickened sauce. I'm a big fan of sous vide, and use it also for western simple vegetables (i.e., carrots, potatoes (packed with butter at 90C is a sure winner)) but for Chinese vegetables nothing is easier or better than a wok.

I placed my order and have the same problem. It appears that they want to be paid in cash, at their location in Buenos Aires. Apparently they also accept PagoFacil and RapiPago, but I don't know that they are any more usable for people outside of Argentina. I've asked PagoFacil if they have a site in Portuguese or English, and they don't -- (I don't understand Spanish well but it seems you need to fund your purchase locally). Not sure about RapiPago, but I see no English or Portuguese options there either. I sent a message to Darto asking them what can be done.

Or asking him over Twitter @cookingissues. He answers Twitter questions quickly, but the show has become more of a talk show lately and he doesn't get through too many questions so submitting one might be a slow process. Still the best cooking/food show on any medium, in my opinion. I can add that I still use my Searz-All, although I use my torch generally less since I upgraded my stove to 25K BTU burners and can now get a decent sear on most things. Still, if you use a torch regularly, it will definitely be useful to you.

I believe that the sale doesn't go online until 10:00 a.m. Buenos Aires time (9:00 Eastern U.S. Daylight Time). I suspect that once the sale starts, that out of stock stuff will disappear. To answer another question, it seems that shipping is included anywhere in the world for orders over $100. The only question I have is to what extent these pans are imperfect "seconds." The only thing you have to know is that shipping won't happen until August, so you have to be prepared to wait. Presumably they are saving money by being able to fill orders without keeping stock, and having the money in hand to finance the manufacturing (no small thing in Argentina). I will be backing up the truck. The prices are ridiculous.

I think Brandon said it very well. I have generally been a DeBuyer person, but the Darto pans are simply more special. Being forged from a single piece of metal, without any rivets, is simply badass. I would like it if they softened the edges on the handle a bit, but I suppose that they assume that you won't be touching them with your bare hands and will be using a towel, and its no big deal. But as far as I'm concerned they are really giving these things away -- ultra premium and unique cookware at a discount to the normal stuff.

Just to add another data point, my Anova, purchased September, 2013, died last night after running for about 3 hours at 194F. All of a sudden I heard silence, instead of the whirring of the circulator, and upon closer examination noticed a faint electrical smell that seemed to be coming from near the power button. Maybe a fuse, but I tried to take it apart to see if I could see where the burning smell is coming from, and quickly became convinced that I wouldn't ever get it back together, and that I had a lost cause on my hands. So nearly 4 years, which isn't great, but it was a bit of a bleeding edge product at the time of purchase. It was always a bit clunky, had an intermittent metal on metal noise and never seemed to have fit together too tightly. Still, it was a great tool, and I feel like I got my money's worth. It must have known that I was almost hoping it would die soon -- although not in the middle of a cook -- so that I could replace it with a Joule. I don't know if I'll like the interface but it will be nice to play with something new and closer to the state of the art.

Sorry for the delayed response. Pretty simple really. I mix cooked chickpeas and prepared tahina in abut a 1:1 ratio, add a bit of lemon juice, and blend. It makes my Vitamix very unhappy and often chokes it entirely.

I bet that wasn't a bad batch and they make it that way on purpose. That's the perfect way to describe some of the smokier bacons, especially Broadbent, and to a slightly lesser extent Benton. It can be a bit off putting on first sniff, but I think Benton is a world beating product -- their ham is even more magnificent -- and they are practically giving the stuff away, at very reasonable prices compared to other quality charcuterie.

Thanks. I've got that spatula, as well as the official Vitamix one (which is not nearly as good) and while it definitely makes it easier, I find that I still lose a lot of product at the bottom of the jar. The Blendtec was a pretty lousy piece of equipment, but one thing that was nice about it was that it had a flat bottom which was easy to empty. Maybe I'm looking for something that doesn't exist, but if it doesn't somebody should invent something and put it on Kickstarter (Dave Arnold, call your office). I was trying to make hummus the other day, and the machine overheated and stopped -- that shouldn't be that hard, and my much cheaper and lower tech food processor can do it without a problem. The food processor has worked better for me with nut butters too -- especially since that is a good which inevitably hangs on to the bottom of the jar. Being able to do this with a blender would be much more convenient, as its small enough to live on the counter, while the food processor has more bits and pieces and stays in the drawer most of the time. I really like that Waring spice blender, but I'm really looking for something to process wet ingredients, and not usually dry ones. I thought the Vitamix would work better for these projects than its turned out, but maybe the solution is to get an Indian style wet grinder or a concher. The Indian wet grinders aren't too expensive, but none of the ones on Amazon look too robust.

I don't think that batch time suffers too terribly -- on the second batch the container will need to get down to temp again, but that's the only added time. I would just split any recipe up to a liter 50/50. There isn't a heck of a lot of overrun in this machine, so I wouldn't worry about that too much, but I think they rate it for a liter pre-processing. I don't think you'll have a problem processing .5L, so it shouldn't be an issue either way. But don't think you are going to run an ice cream shop with the Lello -- it works (just) but its a pain in the ass to make it work properly, and a slower process than it should be.

I've now had my Vitamix for about a year, and although I like it better than the Blendtec I had, this is a piece of equipment that I just don't enjoy working with at all, and I'm liking it less and less as time goes on. I'm sure it makes great smoothies, but I've never made one and never will. For cooking applications, I find the machine severely lacking in that it cannot reduce things to a smooth paste, and its a pain in the neck to get product out of the bottom of the container. I returned my first container due to the black teflon dust, and I'm wondering if the redesigned container is not able to spin the blade as smoothly over time. I find myself using my food processor more and more, and looking for a replacement blender. Can anybody make a suggestion? It seems as if this market is very geared towards blending liquids (smoothies, juices, etc.) and I'm wondering if the Waring units are any better for cooking and processing solids, or if there is anything else out there. Relatedly, I'm also thinking about moving some of these projects that won't work well on a Vitamix (i.e., nut butters, spice pastes, hummus) to a wet-grinder. Might this be a good tool, and if so can anybody recommend one? There is an interesting pistachio butter on ChefSteps, and would love to make it (it was an expensive disaster on the Vitamix).

Its not unique to the Lello. There is a direct and declining relationship between batch time and ice cream quality due to ice crystal formation -- any batch time over 15 minutes will be less than perfect, and proceed to become worse and worse the longer the batch takes to freeze. Fortunately for you, I think that you can greatly improve your batch time with the Lello, by following two rules; 1) Not processing a full 1 liter batch -- this machine is not powerful enough to make a full liter of ice cream at a time, but it can successfully process a sub-15 minute batch it if you split your recipe and process your mixture serially a half-liter at a time; and 2) keeping your bucket in the freezer, getting your mixture down as close to freezing as possible by keeping it in the freezer for an hour or so before processing (I keep it in a mason jar so I can shake it up and make sure no crystals begin to form), and letting the machine run for at least 30 minutes or more before starting a batch -- your machine will squander its limited power if it needs to cool these elements any more than absolutely necessary, and you can help it along by keeping things as cold as possible and limit the work it needs to do. I find that I can get a sub-15 minute batch time with my Lello Gelato by following the above. I have had my Lello for over a decade, and although I would love something better some day, it can work if you are willing to make up for its limited power.

I have been thinking of getting a wet grinder, and one of the applications for which I hope to use it is to grind pistachio into paste. Does anybody have any experience with this and if so can you recommend a good value wet grinder?

I just bought the Blue Star Platinum 48" for my new kitchen, and chose it primarily for its wok capabilities. I have a Faber 48" Range Hood going on top of it, so hoping that will work out ok. I'll let you so in a month or two.

My wife and I went to the Porcelanosa showroom in Manhattan -- the only place I could actually see a live Krion countertop. I have to say, it looks great, and seems really easy to keep clean, but the floor models exposed what seems to be the big flaw of this product -- it scratches really easily. Apparently, it has little scratch resistance, and the countertops were filled with large and small scratches. They say that the scratches are very easily removed through sanding, but I don't think I want to take that on. Looks like we are going with Caesarstone, which despite its imperfections, seems to be a better choice.

I'm a bit familiar with the Lacanche, but not too familiar with the Rangemaster. The Lacanche definitely seems like a different quality level than the Rangemaster, and I wouldn't let the lack of warranty put you off too badly as there is really not that much that can go wrong on an all gas range with minimal electronics. As far as wok cooking, I see that the Lacanche has an option for a removable "french top" which looks like it would nicely cradle a wok, and would likely give much better results than the mid BTU Rangemaster hobs. You might consider also looking for restaurant style models with "open" gas burners, if your building code allows. I don't know if it is available in Europe, but there is an American manufacturer called Blue Star which has open "Garland" style 25K BTU burners, which are the functional equivalent of a wok burner once the grates are removed. There is another US manufacturer called Capital which makes open burner gas ranges (I think they max out at 22K BTU), and with dedicated wok burners.

Thanks for all of the replies. I am actually familiar with Corian, but I've never really thought of it as a high-end product like Caesarstone. Krion looks quite a bit nicer than the Corian in my opinion, but it is priced very well -- about 50% of Caesarstone. At this point I'm inclined to just stick with Caesarstone, as I haven't found anybody with personal cooking experience with the Krion and don't want to take any risk. Its not perfect, but the devil you know, etc.

I'm redoing my kitchen and wondering if anybody has any experience with a countertop product called Krion, made by Porcelanosa? Its a manufactured product made up mostly of natural stone mixed with resin, but is somewhat different than most of the other quartz based products like Caesarstone and Silestone, etc. I have used granite and Caesarstone in my kitchens. The granite was very dark colored and would not be very fashionable today, but it was bombproof and I often prepared food directly on the surface. The Caesarstone is bright white and much more attractive, and I am considering using it again, but I have found the maintenance to be more difficult and fussy than advertised (things like tea or tomato sauce are not easy to remove), and really don't like the visible seams. I want something that is a pure white, and would prefer something without seams and is less fussy than the Caesarstone. The Krion fits the first two requirements, as it is a very nice bright white and seamless, but I'm unsure about how it is to cook upon day to day -- this will not be a kitchen that will sit pretty but unused. I've seen the Krion in the showroom, but I have been unable to speak to anybody who actually has it in their kitchen to get their experiences. If anybody has used it, I would appreciate your views. Thanks.

I have a machine on order, but only after I was assured by Vitamix that all of the machines that they are currently shipping -- I ordered it directly from them so no worry about old stock at a retailer -- will not have the black dust problem. Vitamix seems aware of and acknowledges the problem, so I think this is not properly classified as a myth. I don't assume that the stuff is harmful, but speaking for myself I wouldn't want it in my food that I serve to my family. I would also think that this could be a more significant problem for restaurants and commercial users for whom "non-nutritive substances" in their products could cause FDA regulatory problems, or affect HACCP plans and other local food safety compliance problems. For me the biggest part of it is that I don't think that the way that Vitamix has handled this, by acknowledging the issue very quietly, but not publically, and therefore not allowing their user base to decide for themselves how much the issue bothers them. I also think they should be offering to replace the defective jars for free and without hassle. I held off on buying a Vitamix until I knew the issue was sorted, and others might have done the same if Vitamix had come clean about it and let people know.

I actually bought it instead of the Vitamix specifically because of the Twister jar, which seemed perfect for the spice pastes, hummus, and nut butters that I make frequently. Alas, I never bought the Twister because I wasn't happy with the blender itself and wasn't sure I was going to keep it. It could have been that it would have changed my mind about the machine, and I do agree that it would be smart of them to include it.