JohnT

Pure stainless steel should not pit with the addition of salt in your water, irrelevant of which stage it is added. The problem with pitting is that in the modern time we live in, a lot of so called stainless steel is so cheaply manufactured that it contains impurities of iron and other metals which pit (corrode) through galvanic action. A lot of the nice shiny new stainless steel pots and cookware coming out of China is absolute junk with huge amounts of impurities in the stainless steel. If you use these on an electric range, they may also be affected by electrolysis from stray electrical currents which would not be of an issue when cooking on a gas (propane / butane) range. In the marine industry we use 316 stainless steel for above water fittings. A few years ago the Vietnamese and Chinese entered the supply chain and boat yards thought it a good idea to buy these as they were around 25% cheaper. The exercise turned out to be an expensive one as the stainless steel had so much impurities in it that they started to corrode as soon as the vessel was in the water. What I am trying to convey is the message that a lot of the so called stainless steel cookware available is not pure and the impurities will leach out during cooking. Even the common thin walled stainless steel mixing bowls found everywhere these days will start pitting the moment you add any acidic food. I still have a few battered stainless steel pots I inherited from my father that were manufactured in Germany. They must be over 50 years old and show no sign of pitting. However, I purchased a few heavy duty stainless steel pots (made in China) about five years ago. They do stain and show slight pitting already. I doubt they will even last 25 years before having to be replaced. Basically, most cookware ain't made like it used to be. John.

DanM, I really would not wast the money on purchasing a grinder for making even a large batch of gefilte fish unless you want to do other grinding at a later stage. The use for a food processor will do fine for doing the vegetables and fish if you just pulse it to get the correct constancy. Grinding the fish will produce too much mush - using a fork to break up the fish will give you a good texture and not a paste. John.

Yes, that is our Rand p/kg converted to your US $ p/pound. And yes the wine is good.All this said, the price of lamb is far cheaper in the large supermarkets, but I am very hesitant to purchase any meat in the supermarkets as there is no way to determine the region it comes from, how long it has been in their distribution centers or how long it has been in the supermarkets cold room. I have seen too many supermarket "butchers" with their little meat scrapers cleaning cut meat to make it look fresh in the display! John.

p/pound = per poundBeef rump was $3.77 p/pound and no fat beef mince was $3.62 p/pound - also bought today. John.

Wow! I just bought two A Grade legs at my high-end butcher in Cape Town, equivalent to $3.55 p/pound - and I thought he was ripping me off! Lamb is our most expensive meat here but is also very common as we farm sheep extensively in South Africa. The one leg is for an Easter roast done the Greek way and the other is for cutting up for a big pot of curry.John.

Shel_B, for many years I delivered sailing boats all over the world. Never had any type of mixer other than a big spoon and a good arm stirring motion. The following is my "No Need to Knead" bread, that has produced thousands of fresh loaves of bread: Wholewheat / Nutty Wheat / White Bread 750 ml (3 Cups) Nutty Wheat or Wholewheat or White Bread flour 500 ml (2 Cups) Cake flour (All Purpose) 1 Tbs salt 1 Tbs sugar 1 Sachet instant yeast (10g) 1 Tbs sunflower oil (I often used EVOO) 630 ml (2 ½ Cups) warm water Mix all the dry ingredients together well then add the oil and warm water and stir well. Place mixture in one large or two small oiled bread pans. Place the pans in a plastic shopping bag and let rise in a warm place for about an hour or until just below the rim of the pan(s). Note: The rising time will vary depending on the ambient temperature. Remove from packet and bake in a preheated oven (180°C) for 35 to 45 minutes if two pans or 45 to 60 minutes if one pan. John.

Shel_B, if you are using ghee or clarified butter with a yeast dough, just make sure that it is at a cool temperature so it does not kill the yeast! Otherwise, with a batter, it should be good to go. John.

Test Results A quick feed-back. I made a test batch of mousse on Monday, using the exact original recipe I posted at the start of the thread, except I added 8g of powdered gelatin, dissolved in 20ml hot water, to the egg yolks before mixing the yolks into the melted chocolate. I whipped the egg whites and folded into the mixture and then whipped the cream to soft peak stage and folded that into the mixture. Portioned it, chilled it, wrapped and labeled then froze. Defrosted a couple overnight and an excellent result - no separation and cannot detect any difference in mouth-feel. Thanks to all that responded to my query. John

Nice experiments! In mid 2012 I delivered a sailing yacht from South Africa to the Seychelles and stopped off at Nose Be, a small island on the NW coast of Madagascar. I asked a "dock rat" to find me the price of a few beans, as they are hellishly expensive in South Africa. The next morning he told me it would cost 4,500 Ariary for a small bag. I did not know what the exchange rate was but asked him to get me a small bag. That afternoon I had 2 kg of beans for the equivalent of US$ 2.00! Hundreds of the most incredible beans! I managed to smuggle them back home and made 4 litres of the most potent extract using cane spirit, a flavourless white rum made in South Africa. Used 30 split beans to a litre and filtered the extract through a paper filter to remove the seeds and other bits after 12 months. Where a recipe calls for 5 ml extract, I need to only use about 1.5 ml. And luck was again with me last year when I was contracted to bring a sailing yacht from Seychelles to Cape Town. Another stop off at Nose Be resulted in another 2 kg of the best beans - inflation did have an impact on the second purchase as the price had skyrocketed to US$ 2.30. Still got a few hundred beans in jars and extract coming out of my ears. The beans make wonderful Christmas gifts and so do small bottles of extract! It will be quite a few years before I run out. John

Hi Teo, Thanks. However, I have done it your way and that is worse! I am not using it with any batter, but as a stand alone dessert chocolate mousse that I set in portions in the refrigerator and then freeze, once they have set. They are then defrosted in the refrigerator for the day they are needed. It is when defrosting the product that it separates slightly. If they are not frozen, I have no separation problems. But, they have to be frozen due to the business I am in! John

Thanks, that makes more sence and will give it a go. I will report back after doing a test batch. John

@ Shel_B - I should have stated that Bournville Chocolate is a dark chocolate produced by Cadbury. It is high in cocoa solids and used a lot in cooking. They also produce Bournville Cocoa Powder. We have a limited choice of chocolate for cooking available in Southern Africa. Our main chocolate suppliers are Nesle and Cadbury but Nesle chocolate is pretty bad when heated to make a ganache, as it cristalises into a solid lump with even slight heat. @ jmacnaughtan - Thanks for the gelatin idea. I was thinking along these lines as I did it with a non-baked cheesecake and it freezes well and defrosts extremely well and still holds up - tastes darn good! However, what I was thinking of doing was to whip it in with the cream as that is the last ingredient that gets folded into the bowl. I will give this a go during the week with a test batch and see if it holds the mousse together after defrosting. John

Hi All, this is my first post on the eG forums. I make pre-cooked frozen meals in Cape Town and have started adding some desserts to my menu. One I am struggling with is a chocolate mousse which tends to separate slightly (gets a bit mushy on the bottom) when defrosted. I am using an old recipe used for many years (but never before needing to freeze), consisting of: 6 large eggs, separated, whites whipped to hard peak stage 300 g Bournville chocolate, melted 500 ml cream, whipped to hard peak stage Yolks mixed into the chocolate when slightly cooled then egg whites folded in followed by the cream folded in and refrigerated. Any suggestions or pointers to a chocolate mousse recipe that will not separate when frozen and then defrosted? John