ePressureCooker

I'm quite late for most of this conversation, but I'll gladly add my two cents for anyone who reads this thread hereafter... Regarding mashed potatoes, I actually get a great texture on my mashed potatoes. You do need to use a trivet, or even better, a vegetable steamer, to keep them above the water and out of contact with the bottom of the pan. The second trick is to add everything together hot, steaming hot potatoes, milk and butter heated *almost* to the point of boiling. You have no idea how much milk the potatoes can absorb when you do that, its quite astounding. Regarding the dulce de leche, not surprisingly, Hip Pressure Cooking has a page on that: http://www.hippressurecooking.com/dulce-de-leche-pressure-cooked-condensed-milk/ Regarding stocks, its my understanding that most cooking schools and many restaurants produce their stocks in pressure cookers, and not just for speed. I'll also include these two links from cooking issues regarding making stock in your pressure cooker: 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/ One of the things they noted was that they got vastly better stock results from a pressure cooker that did not have a jiggle top, and that they believed this was because the jiggle top pressure cookers release more of the cooking liquids (and one might presume, some of the volatiles that create flavor as well). I have an electric pressure cooker which only reaches 10 PSI, not the standard 15, but I have read that actually they do reach 15 PSI at points during their pressurization process, and then settle back down to the advertised PSI. I primarily make poultry stock, and find that chicken bones will remain intact for about 90 minutes, after that, they rapidly break down. Turkey bones will last longer, they don't break down as fast as the chicken bones do, but I haven't really experimented with cooking them longer than 90 minutes. I suspect more people are cooking at altitude than they realize. The USDA apparently categorizes anything 3,000 feet and above as high altitude cooking. 1/3 of the country, mostly in the West, is above altitude. If you don't know your own altitude, I found a neat little link where you can use Google Maps and your own address to find out what your exact altitude is: http://www.daftlogic.com/sandbox-google-maps-find-altitude.htm (The standard rule of thumb is you're supposed to add 5% cooking time for each 1,000 feet (305 meters) above 2,000 feet) As for carmelizing onions in the pressure cooker, I have never done it all the way in the pressure cooker, I generally don't want mush, but I have actually used my pressure cooker to do PART of the carmelization process, to speed it up a bit, or perhaps more accurately, to do the first part (sweating the onions and getting the water out of them) in the pressure cooker, while I do something else. I slice the onions, add 1 cup of cold water, put the onions on top of the vegetable steamer, and pressure cook on high (10 PSI) for 4 minutes. For those with standardized pressure cookers (those at 15 PSI) I'd experiment with 3 minutes. Use quick pressure release. You end up with this white onion juice or "stock" in the bottom, and you don't throw it out. The last batch I made, I made for brisket and carmelized onions, so I measured the onion "broth", added enough beef broth to make 2 cups, and then cooked the brisket in the beef broth/onion juice mixture. I finished carmelizing the onions in a skillet, and added them to the brisket before pressure cooking. They imparted a lovely carmelized onion flavor to the broth. But you could also use the onion broth with other vegetables to make vegetable stock. BTW, if anyone wants proof how little things move around in the pressure cooker, even under high pressure, look in the pressure cooker after pressure cooking some sliced onions (assuming you've placed them on a vegetable steamer). They'll have lost some of their water and juices, but not a thing will have moved out of place.

The most important part, to me, is: "Sub-Commandment i: The Perfect Prime Rib must be cookable without the use of heavy or specialized equipment, including propane or oxy-acetylene torches, sous-vide machines, or C-vap ovens." :-) I'm not quite sure if you meant to link to my post, or the one below mine, because as far as I read, there was no heavy or specialized equipment, sous vide, torches or C vap ovens (although I'm not quite sure exaclty what the latter is).

I actually learned about this a couple of days ago, when running a search for something unrelated I stumbled upon a page on his website, and immediately spied the image of the upcoming Schmaltz book. Alas, no iPad, but according to Amazon, it'll be released in October of this year. (Don't know if frying is covered in the book, but as an aside for those who have not tried FRYING with chicken fat (or other kinds of animal fats), oh boy, oh boy, consider trying it, you are in for an experience. Have made the crispiest, most delicious, decadent chicken fried steak and fried chicken with home rendered chicken fat, and of course, french fries cooked in duck fat are the ultimate fried food, so I'm told.)

I must admit my preference (eBook versus physical cookbook) depends on the cookbook. I really like my eBook version of "The Flavor Bible" because its searchable. Want to find out what goes well with Worcestershire sauce, and for whatever reason, they don't have an entry for it, then I can search, find other items that have Worcestershire sauce listed under them, create a note, list the items, and voila, I have the information. It would be incredibly hard (read, impossible) to do this manually. I do love physical cookbooks, though, despite space and green considerations. As for supporting the publishing industry, I'd be willing to bet publishers make MORE off digital cookbooks than physical ones. Not only are there no printing costs involved, they're not having to pay for wherehouse space to store them, bodies to package and ship them, shipment fees, and there are no remaindered books coming back that need to be disposed of. But there is an issue related to digital cookbooks many folks haven't thought of, that you might want to contemplate in making digital purchases. Hopefully this won't apply to you for many decades to come, but if you're hoping to leave your digital cookbook library to a child, you're out of luck. When you buy an ebook, you don't actually purchase a copy, you're licensing its use. For you alone, its non transferable. So your collection can't be left to your favorite library, a cooking club, or that daughter who loves to cook. It goes poof. As for supporting the authors, I'm not sure how much they actually make off a cookbook. Its probably far less than we could imagine possible. Several years ago, a very prominent quilter and quilt book author, who probably made close to top tier as far as quilting book deals go, told me that quilting authors made about a buck a book. That would be about a buck out of a $25, $30 quilting book, a mere fraction of the cost. Many of them made their money off the book in other ways, as a promotional tool, using it to launch specific quilting classes, or buying it wholesale from the publisher and selling it to their students (at quilt shows and seminars) for full retail. I suspect the same may be likely true for most cookbook authors as well. If you really want to support the authors (and that's laudable in my opinion), there might be other ways of doing it. Find the author's website, and buy their cookbook through their links. Odds are, they may be affiliate links, and the author may make more from their affiliate commission (up to 8 percent of the purchase price) than they would from the publisher. Let me give a couple of examples (and before anyone asks about it, I have no connection with any of these folks or their websites, no financial ties, they were chosen almost at random to provide examples for the OP). The other day I was searching for something, and stumbled upon this page from Michael Ruhlman's website http://ruhlman.com/2013/05/twentywood-spoon-giveawaywith-butchers-string-attached-need-your-help/ which interested me because it had pictures of several books, including a book on schmaltz he's releasing in October I'm very interested in. If you hover over those book images, those aren't traditional Amazon affiliate links, but they're worded in a very specific way, including with a /ruhlmancom on the end, that leads me to believe there's an affiliate relationship there. Which means, most likely, if you click on the image to go to Amazon, and purchase stuff in the next 24 hours, Mr. Ruhlman is probably making a commission for referring the purchase. Or if you go to Dorie Greenspan's site, http://www.doriegreenspan.com/ then click on "Books" she's got a whole Amazon astore set up there, with not only her books, but recommended cooking equipments. If you hover over the pictures or the text links, the links will say "doriegreenspa-20" somewhere in them. That's the affiliate code. So you're helping support the site, and presumably the author. Or since Lynn Rosetto Kasper was mentioned above, I found her website, http://www.splendidtable.org/books , went to the books section, and if you hover over the links, say for the book on top, that Amazon link with the "tsplent-20" at the end is an Amazon link, and I think the other two (B&N, etc.) links are also affiliate codes. Whatever format you end up buying, new, used, digital, if you want to help your favorite cookbook authors without it costing you a dime, find their websites and look for affiliate links. Even if you buy something unrelated, golf clubs, a TV, video games, you name it, as long as you make the purchase within 24 hours of going through their affiliate links, they get a commission. (And again, I have no affiliation whatsoever with the above, no financial interest, they were chosen as semi-random examples).

Thanks for posting this! I signed up! (Can't wait)

I fourth, fifth the recommendation to roast / char the peppers first next time. As for the "chemical weapons" effect, if its really bad, consider buying what is called an "acid gas respirator". It covers your mouth and nose, and filters everything you breathe through (I think) a carbon filter before the air gets to you. Fabric dyers use it when they use bleach for discharge dyeing - very little is getting through this thing. You need to store it in the packaging so its exposed to as little air as possible when not in use (it continues filtering) and periodically you'll need to replace the filters, but if you don't mind having a mask over the lower half of your face, it can really relieve the "chile burn"....

I've used club soda instead of beer in batter for fried fish (as in, fish and chips). To my palate, it has a much lighter, more appealing taste in the batter than beer does. (Promptly ducks while all the beer batter lovers toss their bottles at me.)

I'm not a potato salad maven, but I am a potato maven, so I'll leave the advice as to choice of potato to others more versed in the ways of potato salad, hot and cold. As to the method of cooking your potatoes, not surprisingly given my username, I'd recommend using a pressure cooker (if you have one) as the best method to cook the potatoes. Its fast, it uses the least amount of liquid (no waterlogging) and if you're using flavorings, it keeps as much of the volatiles, the flavoring agents, in the cooking chamber as possible. I personally use the pressure cooker to force salt into my potatoes, regardless how I will ultimately prepare them. As was mentioned above, you can add a small amount of vinegar to the water to help reinforce the pectin in the potato cell walls and keep the potato pieces intact. In my admittedly non-scientific opinion (I can't prove it, its just personal observation), it also does the best job of getting that flavoring into the food. My second choice would be steaming, with a lid on top of the steamer, to hold as much of the steaming liquid flavorings in the pot as possible. But if you were making a "boil" dinner, or say corned beef with carrots and potatoes, that would be a different thing. You'd probably want the potatoes boiled, and steeped in all those flavorings, even if the potatoes became more "waterlogged" as a result.

I was essentially going to say what Lisa said. In the past, I've tried just browning the flour in a small saucepan by itself, without butter or some form of fat, and even on low heat, its pretty hard to cook it enough to remove the flour taste, and not cook it too long and end up with a burnt taste. And that doesn't relieve the problem of clumping, you'd probably want to create a slurry, which is a thickening agent (in this case, flour) and cold water, mixed together, then added to the gravy, stew, etc. If you don't mind my asking, what are you making that calls for roux? It would probably help our advice if we knew specifics.

I'm too late to help PassionateAmateur's co-worker, and hopefully his/her prime rib turned out great, but for anyone else reading this thread, I have two links for you. The first is Paula Deen's "foolproof" prime rib recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/foolproof-standing-rib-roast-recipe/index.html We haven't used her rub, but the method, whereby you cook the roast for x amount of minutes, let it stand for 3 hours, then finish it off (a time consuming method, admittedly, but it turns out GREAT). Its our family go-to method for standing rib roast / prime rib. Now, this second link, I haven't tried it yet, but I'm intrigued: http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/12/the-food-lab-how-to-cook-roast-a-perfect-prime-rib.html They have a different method, that I'm interested to try. Basically, you cook the roast low and slow for a certain amount of time. Then you let the roast rest while you crank up the oven really high. Pop the roast in the very hot oven for a short amount of time to let it brown the outside. Very interesting. If anyone has tried this already, would love to hear how it turned out.