ePressureCooker

You absolutely can. In fact, if you have a copy of Modernist Cuisine at Home, they have a caramelized ketchup recipe. And even if you don't, I'd say that's a hint that they consider pressure cooking the best method of getting the flavor out of the tomatoes.

I can't provide any information as to sous vide, never having done it, but I can add re the pressure cooking and the gelatinization issue (versus traditional methods) I can always get far more gelatinized stock than I can ever manage with stovetop methods. Pressure cook chicken bones and scraps for 90 minutes to make stock, and its going to be practically rock hard from the gelatin after refrigeration overnight. Cook a whole chicken for 20 - 25 minutes in the pressure cooker, and the cooking liquid is going to be pretty firm, after refrigeration. Even if I just cook chicken parts for a few minutes, I'll get some gelatinization. I never got those kind of results from traditional cooking methods, well, unless I simmered stock for a long time, and even then, I don't remember getting so much gelatin as I do now. And gelatinization means not only connective tissues breaking down (thereby reducing what many of us would call "gristle" / inedible parts in tougher meat cuts), but increased flavor. That's absolutelly true, ePressureCooker, and one of the reasons why stocks are better cooked in a (non-venting, spring valve) presssure cooker. Another reason is that aromatic volatiles are better retained, and yet another one that slight Maillard reactions take place, which improve flavour. In fact, "white stocks" are never "that white" in the pressure cooker. And, if you look for very subtle flavor & aroma, SV or low-temp traditional are better, for example I prefer those methods for vegetable & fish stocks. On the other hand, for stews I don't always want the strong gelatin extraction of the pressure cooker, and I may prefer a bit less gelatin in exchange of a not-so-dry meat. You can actually boost the Maillard reaction by changing the pH slightly by adding a small amount of baking soda (not sure if salt is required, but I always add it). I saw a reference to this technique for caramelizing vegetables in Modernist Cuisine (might have been At Home, not sure) and have been experimenting with it, then saw a reference IIRC to Nathan Myrhvold referencing increasing non-enzymatic browning by increasing alkalinity through baking soda. Cookingissues.com also had a multipart series on their testing of chicken stock made in the pressure cooker, and I seem to recall they said they even pressure cooked commercial (canned) stock to see if they got a difference. So I've tried the baking soda stock trick on canned stock for a few minutes, and sure enough, it turned a lovely dark brown color and even the taste had changed. Don't know how to describe it, but I'm definitely going to experiment with making gravy out of it. Also have started experimenting with roasts, got some darkening of the stock that I hadn't gotten before, but I think I might need to add more baking soda to compensate for the increased acidity because of the presence of the meat in the pot.

+1 on the thank you to Enrique for that explanation. Very interesting. I can't provide any information as to sous vide, never having done it, but I can add re the pressure cooking and the gelatinization issue (versus traditional methods) I can always get far more gelatinized stock than I can ever manage with stovetop methods. Pressure cook chicken bones and scraps for 90 minutes to make stock, and its going to be practically rock hard from the gelatin after refrigeration overnight. Cook a whole chicken for 20 - 25 minutes in the pressure cooker, and the cooking liquid is going to be pretty firm, after refrigeration. Even if I just cook chicken parts for a few minutes, I'll get some gelatinization. I never got those kind of results from traditional cooking methods, well, unless I simmered stock for a long time, and even then, I don't remember getting so much gelatin as I do now. And gelatinization means not only connective tissues breaking down (thereby reducing what many of us would call "gristle" / inedible parts in tougher meat cuts), but increased flavor.

Maybe I'm unusual for a pressure cooker aficionado, but I find it nearly impossible to just throw everything into the pot together to cook. I'm always doing various steps, like caramelizing the vegetables / mirepoix first, browning meat separately, adding ingredients at the end - very few of my dishes are chuck everything in together with no "layering" preparation. I also find myself combining various techniques increasingly, for example, parboiling potatoes and then finishing them off for a roast in the oven, or partially cooking a chicken in the pressure cooker to get that lovely softened quality to the meat, and render the chicken skin, and then finishing it off in the oven to crisp up the rendered skin.

Forgive my ignorance, but what makes it Genovese style? ;D

You could also quick / refrigerate pickle a small portion of that 20 pounds, just enough that you could eat within a couple of weeks. Family loves them on tacos, tostadas, green salads, potato salad, etc.

The thing is I don't use wine I couldn't drink to cook, so no keeping in the fridge for me. I'm not suggesting using BAD wine, merely wine that has gone flat but still has the proper flavor, if I understand correctly (I don't drink myself, only cook with wine, and I pretty much stay with fortified wines/alcohol as a result, since it takes a long, long time to use up a bottle.)

Interesting! Unfortunately, they didn't comment on the thin vs. thich cut fries, but their technique of determining the specific gravity (and presumably, the wetness or dryness) was certainly interesting -- one more variable to eliminate. And this might account for the earlier recommendation to use one to two week old potatoes, rather than fresh ones -- presumably they are somewhat dryer. Unfortunately, at the moment I am recovering from a nasty fall that severely dislocated my left ankle and broke the fibula in four places, requiring a 10" plate and a bunch of screws to hold everything together. So I won't be standing up and cooking fries anytime soon, but maybe somone else can try some of these techniques, and post their results. As an additional piece of information, as someone who has actually home grown their own potatoes, fresh potatoes, like corn, have a lot more sugar than the ones you get even in the farmer's market. That sugar starts converting to starch the minute you harvest them, and I would assume that conversion continues, albeit more slowly, when they are in proper storage. So it may also be a matter of maximizing starch, as well as minimizing water. ;D

You're right, making your own stocks is one of the great benefits of owning a pressure cooker. Although I rarely have enough to can it, it usually is used up so fast. (We're trying to eat a lot of homemade soups.) If you'd like to read two really interesting articles re making stock in the pressure cooker, I can recommend: http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/11/22/pressure-cooked-stocks-we-got-schooled/ http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/01/27/pressure-cooked-stock-2-changing-pressures-playing-with-chemistry/ Its really quite interesting to read about their experimentation and their comparisons of making stock conventionally and in the pressure cooker. Excellent read. Those are great reads; I stumbled upon them while I was perfecting my stock recipe and couldn't decide on what pressure to use. I ended up using 15 psi. Yeah, you pretty much want to use the highest pressure setting available to you for making stock, want to extract all the flavor possible from the bones, exploit the Maillard reaction, etc.

Interesting. If you have leftover wine you didn't drink in time, or that you took home from a restaurant and there wasn't enough to drink, you could also keep it in the fridge for cooking. You can still use it for cooking after its not really good for drinking anymore.

You're right, making your own stocks is one of the great benefits of owning a pressure cooker. Although I rarely have enough to can it, it usually is used up so fast. (We're trying to eat a lot of homemade soups.) If you'd like to read two really interesting articles re making stock in the pressure cooker, I can recommend: http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/11/22/pressure-cooked-stocks-we-got-schooled/ http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/01/27/pressure-cooked-stock-2-changing-pressures-playing-with-chemistry/ Its really quite interesting to read about their experimentation and their comparisons of making stock conventionally and in the pressure cooker. Excellent read.

My guess is if you used a conventional beef stew recipe in the pressure cooker, it probably wouldn't come out well. There's a couple of things you need to adapt. First, you need to reduce the liquid by about a third. There's far less evaporation inside a pressure cooker, therefore you don't need as much liquid. I usually will add a teaspoon or two of beef base to compensate for any lost beef broth I would have started with, depending on the volume of the meal. Second, if there's any alcohol in the recipe, you need to reduce that as well. I would probably start with 2 tablespoons at most, and see how that is. (You can always add more after pressure cooking, and just let it boil for a few minutes to get rid of as much of the alcohol as possible.) Third thing is, pressure cooking can dull some herbs and spices. I would add any fresh herbs in at the end, after pressure cooking. And although Jane Sass recommends increasing spices by a third before pressure cooking, I actually "bloom" them instead, that is, saute them for a minute in a little oil, before adding the rest of the ingredients and putting the lid on. Blooming the spices increases the fragrance and the taste, and IMHO, compensates somewhat for any dulling of the spices pressure cooking may do. so simple, how long does it take to cook herbs under the lid? so that spices lose no flavor and taste Herbs and spices can be a little tricky in the pressure cooker. The pressure cooker will enhance the flavor of some, mute the flavors of others. I can tell you from personal experience, never use a fresh bay leaf under pressure - it already has a strong flavor, boy does it get a really strong flavor. Fresh bay leaf is much, much stronger than dried bay leaf. If you're using fresh herbs, I'd personally try to arrange the recipe depending on whether the fresh herbs will be left in, or removed from the dish. If they're to be removed, I'd cook them only a couple of minutes. If they're to be left in, I'd add them after the pressure cooking is done, and then let them simmer gently for a few minutes before service. If you're using dried spices, there are two ways you can approach it, because pressure cooking can dull the taste of spices. You can either try to add the spices at the end, after the pressure cooking is done, or what I sometimes do is bloom the spices prior to pressure cooking, to enhance their flavor and aroma, before the pressure cooker dulls it back down a bit. Just in case you don't know (no offense intended), blooming spices means to take dried spices and herbs and to very briefly cook them in hot oil (like for a minute). Quickly cooking them in oil enhances both the smell and the taste. I think I read somewhere that many of the flavors in spices are soluble in oil, so that helps increase their "pungency".

I beleive I first saw the grated butter trick in a Julia Child book...There too? Well, maybe he got it from her, or came up with it on his own. There's not a thing cooking wise that one person can't think of that someone else (or many others) can't think up on their own, either contemporaneously or later. ;D

What Lisa said. Or if you don't want to keep the other onion half in the fridge, you could saute it and then freeze it for later use (that takes up less room).

Well, I was going to suggest wine in ice cube trays and using pyrex custard cups for the mise en place question, so I'll proceed on to my own "tips". The first two are baking related, when you are supposed to get butter into little small bits for your biscuits. ATK had a clever biscuit recipe where you melted the butter (I know what you're thinking, but wait for it) and then let it cool somewhat. You then add the cooled liquid butter to the buttermilk for the recipe, and then stir vigorously. The coldness of the buttermilk instantly solidifies the liquid butter and you have a bunch of little balls of butter. The second ingenious method for doing this is from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day, and you freeze your butter for a little bit before using it, until its stiff but not completely frozen, then you use a cheese grater to "grate" the frozen butter into your flour. Smart, huh? My general tip has to do with stains on your clothing while cooking. Don't waste money on stain sticks. Grab your bottle of dishwashing liquid (Palmolive, Dawn, it doesn't matter which brand) and rub some of the liquid, without water, into the stain. Dishwashing liquid because of its chemical properties will help prevent the stain from bonding with the fibers in your clothing until you can get the fabric into the wash. ;D

Sorry for resurrecting a somewhat older post, but I found this thread completely by accident when researching something completely different, and since I had tried some of the methods mentioned above (in a slightly different fashion), I thought I would add some additional information in case anyone who posted here is still interested (or for anyone else who finds it). Wish I had found this thread months and months ago, would have saved me a lot of experimentation! I had actually tried the vinegar solution method in a variety of different ways (soaking the fries in a water and vinegar solution, steaming them in a water and vinegar solution or both) and the vinegar does in fact strengthen the pectin in the cell walls, reinforcing the cellular structure of the potato. When I make cubed hash browns, I'll use a slightly vinegar water solution to pressure cook the potatoes (essentially parboiling them, or par-steaming them, if you are precise, since I have them raised above the water with a vegetable steamer). That makes them more firm and less crumbly when I go to do the quick fry for hash browns or hash. But it did nothing as far as I could achieve as far as making crispier french fries. I considered it a bust, at least as far as either presoaking or pre-cooking the potatoes in the pressure cooker. Saw Cooks Illustrated mention this on one of their TV programs this season, that's what gave me the idea for trying baking soda on french fries. But I've also done some experimentation with different fats to make french fries and other fried foods, and "How to Read a French Fry" is right, any fat that is highly saturated (like animal fats) will make crispier fried foods. I didn't try using yukons, but two things I can say about potatoes. One is that its better to use potatoes that have been in storage for a few weeks or more, than fresh. Even if I just keep them in the bag for a week before making fries, they're better. Another is that using smaller Russets, rather than the larger baking ones, also works better on the crispiness issue. In both cases, it seems that water loss explains the better results. I concur, you'll get limper fries with the baking soda solution because of the chemical reaction, whereas vinegar will strengthen. However, as I learned from my experimentations, which were not consistent until I consulted a chemist friend of mine, there is another important ingredient that should be included for optimal results (I'll discuss that below.) Very interesting! Now, why would the renowned Heston Blumenthal want limp potatoes? Could it be that the baking soda penetrates to the core of the potato, making the insides desirably softer, while the double frying step adds stiffness and crunch to the outside? I think a controlled experiment is in order, boiling the potatoes with water only, vinegar (maybe malt vinegar for taste), and baking soda, with or without sugar. (What does the sugar add?) I confess that I don't really understand technically what the first, low temperature frying step adds after the fries have been boiled. What size were those fries -- 3/8"? I'm still waiting for my 1/2" blade for my Weston French fry cutter to arrive, hopefully tomorrow, so I will have a bit more uniformity.I don't think HB wants limp potatoes per se, that is the side effect of the chemical reaction that takes place. To compensate for that, I started cutting thicker steak cut size fries, so they wouldn't break, but the chain reaction could take place on the surface without weakening it so much that it went limp or was prone to breakage. I also steamed the potatoes, not boiled them in the solution. I don't know about the sugar, I'll have to try that now that I've seen this thread, but I suspect it might aid in browning, perhaps? As for the baking soda, you just need a little bit, but what you absolutely should add to the solution is salt. At least on the TV program I saw, ATK didn't say anything about salt in the boiling solution (perhaps it mentioned it in the article referenced, but I haven't seen that). My chemist friend explains the chain reaction as such: the small amount of baking soda (a base) starts the chain reaction where a base comes in contact with the surface of the potato, meets the cell wall, which is composed of, among other things, pectin, and essentially breaks a cell, releasing both a second base and the starch inside the cell. This second base has trouble remaining soluble, and that's where the salt comes in, it helps it remain soluble in the water so the chain reaction continues. The second base very quickly meets an adjacent cell, breaks it, releasing more starch and more of the second base. Oddly enough, in researching what the second base was, I found out that its actually a food additive added to improve flavor, and that its actually put in vinegar potato chips of all things to add flavor (even though it has nothing to do with vinegar). The physical effect on the french fry surface (at least to the naked eye, I don't have a microscope) is a very tacky, sticky coating, which I suspect is the released starch. They were definitely the crispiest french fries I've ever made with a single fry (as opposed to double frying), and even without saturated fats.

I think we usually read about the value of making a friend of your local butcher. But perhaps we should also be learning the methods of the clueless or corrupt ones. God knows the supermarkets have an almost endless bag of tricks they use on us. Knowledge is power. I checked the local supermarket for every cut of pork derived from the pork shoulder, and the prices for same. Now, sure, you're going to pay less if you buy in bulk, and more if you buy only a little bit and there's labor involved, but the price for whole pork shoulder was $1.87 a pound, it was $5.99 for diced pork shoulder (although they labelled it something else). But there were more than a half dozen different cuts in between, all comprised of the same thing, just cut slightly differently.

Is there any reason you couldn't just use an oil mister and olive oil without the lecithin?

If the author has been printed by a publisher, rather than self-publishing, buying so that the publisher gets a benefit is an excellent idea. While the author only gets a small portion of the sale price as a royalty, the sale tells the publisher that this author is worthy of support. This means that the publisher may continue to make the book available to bookstores and, very unlikely but possible, might actually promote the book. It also means that the publisher will look favorably upon the author's next book proposal.I'm not suggesting somehow doing the publisher, if any, out of their share. And you're right, buying the cookbook is the best way to demonstrate to the publisher that the author has an audience and future cookbooks will be marketable. I'm merely suggesting that if you want to help your favorite authors, an ADDITIONAL means of supporting them is to buy their books (or anything else) through the affiliate links on their sites, so they make extra money. Nothing wrong with that. It is, after all, giving the maximum reward to cookbook authors you like.

Wow. That's not an enviable choice. Is there some reason you can't split it in two to create two smaller, but quicker cooking pieces? (Too bad you don't have a thermal cooker, it could continue to cook while you transported it)

This is just a stab in the dark, but it sounds like panko bread crumbs to me. I could be wrong, but its worth a check. I'd also do a google search for "karaage chicken" (not sure if I spelled that correctly, someone please correct me if I'm wrong) which is the Japanese equivalent of fried chicken. Maybe you can get some coating ideas from that. Admittedly, those are both Japanese, and your restaurant is Chinese, but there's been a lot of culinary "interbreeding" between the Asian cuisines. Worth a try.

Its highly dependent on where you live. When I lived in San Francisco, you're right, the Chinatown markets were the best place to get inexpensive produce. Its partially because they can manage their inventory better than supermarkets, they don't need to buy so much unripened produce so it will last longer, they buy just what they need of ripe, ready to eat produce, just when they need it, and they get a better deal because supermarkets won't touch produce that's that ripe. Where I live now, most international markets are at quite a distance, or they're in neighborhoods I, as a woman, don't visit alone. Though I must put in a good word for Henry's / Sprouts, which has significantly better prices than Whole Foods does on produce. But on the plus side, where I live now, I have room for a garden, and grow many of my own vegetables. Can't beat that for fresh and economical for most produce.

I've thought of getting a pressure cooker, but I'm afraid of spending money on one that might not be as good as I need it to be, or spending too much on one, although the fact is speeds up cooking so much might just convince me to get it, many people I know rave about how simple it is. You'll not be surprised that I would second, third, fourth, the recommendation of getting a pressure cooker (given my user name), but I really recommend you consider this. Since you're a student, I'd think the best option would be an electric model (my sister, my parents and I all bought the Cuisinart CPC-600, which is about $100). Now that may seem a lot, when compared with the cheapie pressure cookers (its nothing compared to the more expensive stovetop models) but its worth the investment for a couple of reasons. You can switch to cheaper cuts of meat, if you eat meat. I pay $3.99 or less a pound, often less a pound, and I eat beef for that, too. I signed up for Vons' just for you program, and they'll give me online coupons and deals every week to try to get me in to spend money. Often I'll get a deal, buy $25 worth of Ranchers Reserve beef, get $5 off. I've bought pot roast, London broil, etc. on sale, plus the $5 off, or if you want something specific that never goes on sale, like brisket, check and see what day all the briskets in the case expire, show up that morning and check the discounted items. Got brisket for 50% off, plus add'l discounts, cooked it up in the pressure cooker that night, nobody knew the difference. Plus you can pressure cook a lot of inexpensive, but nutritious things, like beans, brown rice, grains like barley, make soups, etc. really easily, and in a fraction of the time. I've been using my pressure cooker to eliminate a lot of the processed food in my diet, I'm eating better, and its costing me a lot less. Plus if you live in an apartment with all electric appliances as many student renters do, its a lot cheaper to operate a small electric pressure cooker than to run the stove top or the oven (tho a microwave beats the pressure cooker). Wish I had had an electric pressure cooker when I was in college, I could have thrown dinner into the pot, then sat in my room and studied while I let it do the cooking. Electric pressure cookers have timers, the alarm goes off, my machine switches from pressure cook to "keep warm" mode, and I can come get my meal when I feel like it.

You can also thaw out those Thanksgiving turkeys and bone them to save a lot of room in the fridge. The same deal for hams at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, can usually get them for 88 cents a pound with a $25 purchase - so you break up your grocery list into $25 bundles and bring some relatives. I bought post-St. Patrick's Day corned beef for 99 cents per pound this year. Bought as many as I could fit in my freezer, used part as corned beef, turned the other portion into "faux" pastrami. One of the best ways to save money on your groceries is to know when things go on sale every year. Its like clockwork. Canned broth goes on sale several weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas, but they jack up the prices right before the holiday to nail last minute shoppers with full sticker prices. Spaghetti goes on sale once or twice during the late spring and summer, when domestic tomato crops start coming in for the year, the manufacturers need to clean out their old stock and take advantage of low tomato prices, so pasta sauce and pasta go on sale together. Mexican food goes on sale right before Cinco de Mayo and right before the New Year (except fresh cilantro, chile peppers, etc. which are all summer crops). I know that every three weeks or so, one market has a sale on whole chickens, another market has a sale on whole chicken breasts once a month, and they're all staggered, so I can get chicken on sale somewhere. And with fresh vegetables, its knowing the growing cycles and the loss leaders at the store, and taking advantage of that. As soon as the strawberries start going up in price, the peak of the table grape season will happen, so I'll eat grapes instead. When grapes start climbing in price, stone fruit (apricots, peaches, and the like) will be coming in cheaper. (Actually, there's some overlap in that last example, but you get the idea.)

My parents have both a Bosch clothes washer and the dishwasher. The former I researched and bought for them, the latter was not researched but was bought when its predecessor broke. Fortunately, both have been great purchases, for which everyone is very grateful, especially after their purchase of a Maytag refrigerator turned out to be such an incredible disappointment (and my father, being my father, won't replace anything until it is unequivocally dead as a doornail and he has no other option). The dishwasher is very nice, very quiet, never had a problem with it. Gets the dishes nice and hot when cleaning them. I would like to add one piece of advice regarding WHERE to buy your dishwasher. My parents' big mistake was buying it at Lowe's, which arranged for the install. Since it had been so long since a dishwasher had been installed in their house, there was some work that needed to be done for it to work. Apparently, the gentleman who did the install was qualified to plug it in, and no more qualified to do electrical work than I am. Fortunately, thank god, the dishwasher stopped working a week after the install. So Lowe's was contacted and they sent someone out to check it, presumably from the same company who did the original install. He spent a minute or two checking things, declared it an electrical problem, and left. (I happened to be the only one in the family available for a couple of days, so I dealt with both this repairman and the next myself.) So, I called the electrical company my mother's been using for years, and they sent someone out to look at it. He pulled the machine out, took one look at what was done, and then asked to see the paperwork from the install. He looked at it and told me the guy who did the install was only qualified to plug it in. He told me it was actually a blessing in disguise that something had shaken loose, because the way the installer had done it, it was a matter of time before the dishwasher started A FIRE. The electrical work he had done was dangerously faulty. Now, to their credit, Lowe's did reimburse my father for having to pay the electrician to do the install correctly, but I would have felt a heckuva lot better if they had changed their installation company (they didn't). As far as we know, they didn't say a word to the installation company, in spite of the fact that they could have caused a fire in my parents' home. The electrician recommended that in future we purchase appliances from a large, reputable appliance store in a nearby town, who used a reputable installation service (not them). So my advice is, wherever you buy your dishwasher, ask who they use to do installations, and do a Better Business Bureau online search on them, and a state contractor's license check on them, check yelp, check Angie's List, whatever you have to do to make sure they'll do a good job. Risking a house fire because of unqualified personnel doing installations isn't worth the few bucks you might save.