Deryn

It is not inconceivable that a mixing bowl could have been made that included both stainless steel and aluminum - although I have not yet found a manufacturer of same. I think the chances are though, that if they were produced, they were clad, not mixed, metals. Here is my logic: 1) Mixing bowls can be used (if made of oven/heatproof materials) for baking cakes. Ehow tells us 'how': http://www.ehow.com/how_7744382_bake-stainless-steel-bowls.html. I have done this myself when trying to make things like 'doll cakes' without a proper mold. 2) Stainless clad aluminum cookware exists - because it was a good combination engineering-wise for conducting heat via the aluminum core while protecting contents from the more problematic 'features' of aluminum with the use of stainless as cladding (http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/120/Common-Materials-of-Cookware). 3) Revere made metal mixing bowls, and went through many phases where they used an aluminum/stainless combo and their history in the cookware industry is very, very long and their products varied greatly over time http://www.revereware.org/info/id10.html. I would expect this particular company (and maybe others) may have at one time experimented with mixing bowl construction as well as with their other cookware lines. On the other hand, I have no doubt that the particular one that you have been enquiring about is not a stainless/aluminum combo. However, I also do not fault someone who, given the age of that bowl and its appearance in the picture, might have questioned its composition. See this whole page of vintage ebay aluminum mixing bowls - the veneer appears very similar - http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=aluminum+mixing+bowl. As we know, copper clad or tin lined surfaces can be eroded over time so it seems possible to me that a bowl that was aluminum on the outside or was clad completely in stainless might also have eroded somewhat if used extensively for many years - producing that 'patina' which could be easily mistaken for aluminum. Obviously the finish on your bowl has 'faded' over time too.

Now I am really confused. I thought the question posed in this thread was "Can aluminum even be successfully mixed with stainless steel? What would happen to the properties of a stainless bowl mixed with aluminum?" (per your first post). How does the reply to your query of Westbend answer those questions?

Melt some cheese, add wine .. fondue for lunch!

No, I haven't yet tried drying peanut butter. I think either fully homogenized or a natural one (with every bit of oil you can get squeezed out of it removed) 'might' sort of dry (although I am not sure how much of its content is water, not oil). Butter doesn't do well (if it is just butter, as opposed to mixed in with other foods) as we all know but maybe peanut butter, with its solid base (peanuts) would do better. I believe that peanut butter powder is made either by spray drying or maybe by never allowing the peanut mixture to not quite ever reach the oily state in the grinding process. If I knew what the commercial process was I might know a bit better whether we have a decent chance to replicate it in our home freeze-dryers. That said, I am not sure we would ultimately find a cost savings over buying a pre-made #10 can so I would do it only as a fun experiment. I'll report back here if/when I try it.

Thanks, Tony - for your Harris post. I knew you would be able to help him more than I could. Please check back once in a while - I feel quite lost when my technical gurus are not here. As for what you have done with your pump - snazzy red! When you have all this figured out, I will just have to send you my pump so you can do all the mods for me - but I am certainly enjoying your experimentation reports!

If kimchi is such a national treasure to South Korea (as I think it is and should be), it seems to me that a political countermeasure on the part of the Koreans (declaring some similar reason why imported kimchi should not be allowed to cross the border from China) is in order. It seems that China is playing foul with their declaration that South Korean kimchi does not meet their standards while it is sending masses of jars of their own product to S. Korea, flooding the Korean market with cheap versions manufactured in China from inferior products, and destroying the desire and capability of local Koreans to continue a long held tradition - one which is a large part of their cultural identity. That said, I wish I could answer Smithy's questions because they interest me too. I guess one could say that pickles are a) in sterilized jars and b) probably at least water-bathed and could argue that is 'sterilization'. I don't know if doing the same to kimchi would change it substantially as it is essentially a 'raw' product that doesn't require heat but I suspect it would change at least the texture, if not the taste. Mind you, we can buy 'canned' (jars of) kimchi in North America and I presume it has been put up in sterilized jars and processed somehow to get by our import laws too. On the other hand, maybe the South Koreans could freeze-dry their kimchi and get that through the bureaucracy and the borders! I am sure they are less concerned about the authenticity of the process or product once it crosses the border out of the homeland, as long as they can keep the good stuff for themselves, the jobs from making it and the tradition alive while also making money from its production on the side. Since all this however makes China seem rather bully-ish, I think I better read the jars more carefully when I buy some myself in future to be sure what I am buying is a Korean product, not Chinese.

Exactly which recipe is 'this recipe'? If you don't have a mandolin, try cutting the head of cauliflower in half from top to bottom through the stem so you have a large flat surface to set it on and then just slice as thinly as you can (again from top to bottom). Yes, there will be small bits that crumble off - but the small bits are the ones you say you enjoyed the most so that sounds perfect to me and the rest should be much thinner than any floret would be.

I am willing to bet they anticipate the retail price will be $175 as that is the first pledge level where the description does not say 'get it below retail'. Their funding seems to be coming along fairly well now - seems to have doubled in the past couple of days. I guess though it will be more and more difficult to get the last x # of dollars when the only benefit is 'get it by the holidays' at no dollars off. Good luck to them though. I hope they are successful.

I too can tell what kind of fat is in most foods/recipes just by taste. I avoid most fatty foods. I particularly dislike (and I can always tell it is present) margarine (never been fooled - it is definitely NOT butter), but, I am not a fan of lard or vegetable shortening either. Looking back at the beginning of this old thread, I see according to research, I should have a much lower BMI as a result. I wish that were true.

Interesting. Very different from anything I have ever eaten or prepared that was Japanese, or even Chinese, in origin. Your friend suggested you bake them? And he/she calls them 'potstickers'?

Scott - Why did you quote me there? I didn't say that 'all sweeteners have issues' - that was someone else (even though I agree they do - none of them are probably THAT good for you though there may be some minor redeeming nutritional benefits to natural sweeteners like honey, molasses and maple products, etc. if taken in moderation, and to the ingestion of natural fruits even if they contain fructose, again in moderation, for the fibre and other nutritional components). But, since you seem to know so much, what is the exact percentage of all the 'sugars' in WheyLow? That was the point of my post - that I could not find that number especially for the fructose. In short however ... our bodies don't NEED sweet things. We WANT them. We CRAVE them. But we don't need them to survive and prosper medically. We can run around the block all day looking for a completely safe and healthy sugar or sugar substitute, but, we might be better off just weaning ourselves from them. I am no model citizen nor a fanatic however. I like the sweet evils in life as much as the next person. When one starts to get too much into the chemically assembled or dissembled realm, just to save a few calories, I think we are playing with fire - it could take a millennium before we really understand what the effects of these sugar substitutes are on the body. I'll go for the devil we sort of know in this case.

They may have been a bit sloppy on how they wrote much of that kickstarter site, but, it is also possible they just didn't translate (at least some of it) correctly. Seems to me the first language of the person who wrote everything there is French, not English. I am sure that Mr. Kelp Caviar is competent at what he does (making kelp caviar and, one would hope, designing systems to do that, both commercial and 'personal' size), but, whether he is a good businessperson or marketer is not evident enough right now. He should have at least had the 'copy' proofread, preferably by a native English speaker, before listing it on kickstarter. I think the system is very interesting - but frankly didn't really get a sense of 'how it works' well enough to have the confidence to plonk down a $100 right now. I too would be interested in what the eventual market price is intended to be.

WheyLow, as I understand it, has a fairly low GI # but that is due to the presence of fairly high percentage of fructose. I have read the WheyLow site and I find it a bit strange that I cannot find an exact percentage of fructose in its mix. Maybe I just missed it. The issue with fructose is its effect on the liver (again, as I understand it - I am not a doctor or scientist) as it contributes to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. That is a big concern with agave, for instance - which is a prime reason I avoid it. I really just think the answer for everyone (diabetics and non-diabetics alike) is to reduce the use of sugar as much as possible and use real cane sugar when you must have a sweetener at all. Every one of these artificial (even supposedly naturally derived) sweeteners seems to have some issue or another - even if some taste better than others. Real sugar contains fructose as well, of course, but, apparently it is better balanced with sucrose than the artificial sweeteners are.

Maybe someone should fire off a suggestion to the GustoTV folks that they try to track down the series to use on their channel.

Lemon verbena doesn't seem, at least for several years, to lose its smell when dried. About 10 years ago, for Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me a huge bag of dried lemon verbena. It perfumed my whole kitchen for over a year before I even got around to using any. I think I used about half in 3 years and finally chucked the rest figuring I would probably never use that much - but it was still fragrant even then. A little does go a long way - dried or fresh.

The first Panera opened in 1987 so I guess that means back in the 1960s. Wracking my brain but I cannot think of many (if any) such places in Canada (at least in north Toronto or the Yukon) at the time, unless it was a mom and pop place. Of course, I was pretty young so I only went where my parents took me for the most part. I would love to be able to 'smell'/envisage that bread you are talking about though so I hope you recall where it was from so perhaps you can recreate it. Food memories can be both very strong and very frustrating when it comes to pinpointing where they came from if not from one's own family kitchen - at least when they are that far back.

Just not necessarily true, especially these days. I am from 'north of the 49th parallel' and my opinion seems to vary considerably from yours. I also have lived in the US (and still do to some extent). This could just as easily have happened in Canada - and indeed I have seen incidents which have come pretty close to turning out similarly up here too. Had the parents responded as they should have, the owner's response would never have been necessary.

A Canadian 'fast food' place? If not, perhaps was it Panera? Kerry - you definitely must be your own worst critic! Those favours are absolutely beautiful. What a lucky wedding couple to have you jump in and make sure they could impress their guests. I just hope they were not inviting 400 people!

I took my kids to restaurants (admittedly not truly upscale ones) from the time they were a few weeks old and could tolerate grains of rice dropped on their face while being snuggled in a Huggie on my chest, at the local Chinese restaurant. (I wasn't that good at using chopsticks in those days!) Aside from being cheaper and easier than finding a babysitter, I felt it was a great opportunity to teach my kids how to be civilized and consider others in society, but, of course, with a baby or very young child, it is the parent who has to be responsible for making sure the child is soothed or removed till they are calm again (and to make sure the child is not taken at all if he/she is ill, or desperately needs a nap and you know your child will not just sleep through dinner). So, it was raining outside (oh dear, but you know what, a few cold splashes of rain on the child might actually have had the desired 'shush up please, child' effect) but what about hustling the child to the washroom for a minute instead then? That mother was rude beyond belief in my estimation. That doesn't perhaps justify a complete stranger yelling at the child - but it worked (element of surprise often does with kids). I call that a win - at least this once. Had I been that mother, I think I would have thanked her profusely. The owner had a lot of other diners to consider too. She may have lost her cool in the moment but tell me, what else could she have done if the parents would not remove their child from the situation after being asked politely? And, definitely, had that been me and my child the LAST thing I would have done would have been to publicize my own terrible and selfish behavior on social media afterwards. Shows a total lack of consideration for others and that has unfortunately become too prevalent in our society these days. Mind you, I tend to be TOO considerate of others rather than the other way around, but this mother was, in my opinion, way out of line.

Hi, Charlie. Glad you found us. I hope you will love it here and I see you have already contributed a wonderful recipe so I am sure you will be an amazing asset to our community. I am really looking forward to hearing about Spanish cuisine from your quarter. I am not disabled but my father, now deceased, was. He had only one arm he could use (and it was his left one so that compounded the problem oftentimes - and he was not naturally left handed either). There was however very little he could not do, in or out of the kitchen, using a bit of ingenuity and perseverance. He always impressed me with the ways he managed to do things like cutting and peeling potatoes and other hard vegetables in particular, especially back in the day when there really were few to no tools designed to accommodate a left handed, one armed person when it came to cooking tasks. I definitely developed a different way of looking at and doing things as a result of his disability - and I had much to thank him for in that department over the years. That said, whether or not any other disabled persons surface here, I do hope you will tell us your tips and tricks for accomplishing things in the kitchen. I am sure we can ALL learn from you. And I hope you will also benefit and learn from everything else we post/discuss here on eGullet.

Dehydrating eggs, either complete eggs or yolks and whites separately, can be done but the product will be cooked in the end (even if you don't do it beforehand) so it won't be any good for baking. Freeze-drying works great though if the eggs are uncooked - because very little heat is used to dry out the eggs - but frankly it is a lot of work and I don't think it is really worth it in the end. Either method requires that you 'scramble' the eggs first - you definitely cannot dry or even freeze-dry a whole yolk as far as I am aware. Since you should not try uncooked eggs in the dehydrator, you may as well scramble and pre-cook them anyway. The other issue I think with the dehydrator is the length of time it takes to dry them (cook out the water) - keeping them long term may not be a great idea after that long process - I am not sure I would trust there would not be a safety issue. So what can you do with dehydrated scrambled eggs? I would recommend you make a very thin sort of egg crepe, dehydrate that and then powder it. It should rehydrate but won't be your standard breakfast fare I am afraid. I have made both dehydrated and freeze-dried and frankly, if all you have is a dehydrator, I would recommend if you want eggs to store for baking or even just for making scrambled eggs later, that you buy cans of pre-dried ones. Ova crystals are supposedly liked best by those who want their eggs for breakfast dishes/scrambles. Commercially dried egg whites are a staple for me - I bake with them all the time - but you can't make those with a dehydrator. Others may report different experiences and be able to recommend better ways for you to try using the dehydrator for egg preservation. Wish I could tell you different but I have not found it worth the time and trouble.

Jello. My parents had all the above suggestions at various times when they had a grownup dinner party, but we kids had .. jello. Once in a while we had jello that had been mixed with whipped cream or had a can of fruit cocktail added to it.

Yes, yes, please!

So, you changed out the milky oil before you ran those apples through? And then you opened up the pump? Given all that, it certainly sounds as though your food will never dry since the vacuum must move between 500 or below and 600 or above to kick in the next cycle. The way you described the mtorr cycling now still sounds like a leak somewhere to my uneducated ears - it always has been the case on my system when that sort of thing happened. However, your description of the pump noise sounds backwards to me - mine usually makes a cycling louder noise at first and then settles into a (not quiet but steady) hum. You might try PM'ing TonyC or Gypsyman before you call HR. Neither has posted lately and I am not sure they have been reading this thread for a while but a PM may reach them. Those guys really know a lot more about these pumps than I am ever likely to. Not sure whether the pump warranty is voided by opening the pump up though so if you call HR perhaps you won't want to mention that at first till you are sure. Have you ever had ANY run go to the end and the food seemed to be dry as it should be? When I first got my machine, I watched it wayyyyyy too much (once the pump started) and panicked several times when I didn't understand exactly what was going on. I soon learned it was 'magic' that no one yet has completely explained to the point that I totally understand it - but so far so good - it worked to do the job it was supposed to do whether I understood it or not. Wish I could help you more but someone - either here or at HR - CAN I know. I just want to see you happily talking about all the foods you have dried successfully - and soon. I know the frustrations when one spends so much money and something doesn't work well from the beginning. However, your system IS under warranty and HR has been great in the past (as far as I know they still are) about responding to customer issues.

If you are talking about only ordering in a restaurant or pub, perhaps all you need to do is order 'top shelf' (and then if you like it, ask them what they poured).