AlaMoi

as cited by various members in this thread . . . when life whammies you with unpleasant situations . . . one's focus does shift, and it is not at all unreasonable that 'putting effort & care' into cooking will settle to the bottom of one's priorities. after getting tossed on the trash heap of the aged out un-employable . . . I started working (independently) from home, and had time to devote to honing my cooking skills. my motivation is very simple - to have really delicious stuff to eat. and likely most of that motivation is making my DearWife happy. losing a spouse/SO through death/other is devastating enough - as a de-motivating factor to cooking . . . it is a huge factor. cooking-for-one, why? I can survive on hot dogs, hard boiled eggs . . and frozen entries . . . I have done remote "assignments" for months and months - living alone. there is very minuscule motivation to do anything 'above and beyond' absent external factors, I think the increase/decrease of 'man am I gonna' cook this up' feelings is quite natural. it happens. the pendulum will swing . . . and I'll be making oysters Rockefeller right quick, again . . .

tonight was beer-battered-butterfly shrimp . . . salt/pepper/curry - veddy good stuff . . .

baking soda reacting the 'the same amount' of acid will give up about twice as much CO2. in big broad brush strokes,,, denser batters often use baking soda (e.g. Irish soda bread) - or a combination of both. certainly with experimentation you could find how much baking soda is need for a specific recipe - I think the baking powder brings more reliability to the baking.

there are recipes that use both baking powder and baking soda. most baking powder is 'double acting' - first the acid-base chemical reaction, then co2 released at higher temperatures. unless you have accurate equipment to measure the pH and acid availability, plus a microgram scale to weigh out the baking soda, , , it's a bit tricky to match up the quantities exactly. then, not all milk/buttermilk/acid ingredient/etc is consistent from batch to batch . . . meaning you might have to test each carton/container/whatever each time you do the bake. I think mos use baking powder for the simplicity and reliable results. too much baking soda can indeed affect the taste of things - so there's little room for 'error on the side of caution'

tonight , , , Chesapeake Bay blue-claw crab cakes . . crab+minced shallot+minced celery+double sprinkling of Old Bay brought together with beaten egg and a touch of panko

for the oven racks, used a pet cage tray from Tractor Supply. pet stores/etc have a variety of sturdy shallow trays in many sizes.

""* A gathering of food trucks? 😄"" generically, a 'truckemup' but for this case, a 'fruckemup'

ah , , , it's such a thing. anyone have a count of haw many bakeries produce a panettone for the season? a while back, there was a video of an Italian guy rating the various brands. his choices of "best" - Maina & Balocco mediumish: Pauluani, Melegatti, Motta okay, all well and good. a local super Mediterranean fish place had La Cascina at check out. it was very good - nada complaint.... so be careful of 'the experts'

I did beef wellington one year - the butcher thought I was totally nutso buying four tenderloins . . . when the kids were young, did the Christmas Goose thing - which worked, tasty - but be aware, a goose does not have much meat on it. on a fling, I think I'd go for big lobster tails . . at ~$60/each, be careful with the guest list . . .

most east coaster find it unpleasantly oily - it's not a big seller . . .

the flavor of some herbs/spices are soluble in water, some in oil, some in alcohol, and some in one or more . . . I wish I had a a listing of which was which, but altho all the "experts" acknowledge the water/oil/alcohol bit, I have never found an actual list.... it's apparently a top secret thing . . . so depending on what you used to season the poaching liquid (milk) - it may not have had any effect - "flavors non-soluble in water aka milk" ps: you were right about poaching 'skin on' - not visionally appealing.... also right on the drying out - might use more than necessary poaching liquid, reserving some to keep the chick 'under liquid' while doing the rest of the prep. slightly under cook the chicken temp wise, as it will finish while "resting"

can't explain the specks - but I had the same experience with German flours in proven US recipes. 405 flour, butter, salt, baking powder . . . got specks. in USA AP flour, no specks....

"I'm not saying the study was good, true, or anything significant. I'm just trying (unsuccessfully) to focus on what the study is and isn't about. " uhmm. okay. might not be good might not be true might not be significant why are we discussing it if what it is about isn't?

"The black plastic is hard to separate by composition, so it ends up ground into very fine powder, where it used as a filler, instead of carbon black or some other virgin material. " so if it cannot be separated, how is ground into a fine power sold as a substitute for carbon black?

showed the presence of those compounds . . . except that's not what she wrote.