AlaMoi

Wegman's carries real Speck this is my 'klassic Speck&Zwiebel' version

I did all the research, checked out many options, considered everything from total homespun DIY to cast shells + outer DIY masonry. then . . . for the 'experience' I volunteered as a "fair" helper firing up, using a wood beehive oven. omg. takes 36 hours to get it heat soaked thru. cannot just go like the dickens to get it hot - if you do, it cracks/etc from the rapid temp changes. slow firing, constant attention - no, you do not take a nap or sleep overnight - slow fire, stoke regularly, constantly monitor. totally completely utterly impractical to do pizza in a wood fired pizza oven in the back yard. still love the idea, but a pizza stone and an oven that'll do 550'F at the push of a button . . . in the 1960's spent a year in Germany. small village, community bake oven. same thing - a day+ to get it heated up and hot for a 'every Wednesday bread bake fest' session. my biggest take away from that experience was the Flamekuechen - scraps of dough with savory toppings used to 'test' the wood fired bake oven temps.

I do luv's a good beef velveting - but I have learned to layout all the strips on a plate prior to starting the (very quick) frying. there's not really time to be doing the separate&shakeoff routine once the frying has started. I never add oil to the velveted beef strips.

when I bought the first Bourgeat copper, my DW posed the question . . . as it was coming out of the box . . . "And who is going to polish that stuff?" SS lined, it gets "polished" only rarely. really bad conditions get the CarbonOff treatment. we have natural gas, so my "precision" cooking thing involves turning the knob - and I'm very adept at knob turning.... I fry/saute mostly by ear - it's not difficult to tell when the pan is too hot/cold by the sizzle sounds.... braising is done by eyeballing the bubbles . . . the ability of any metal to even spread heat across the bottom is the metal (bottom) thickness. heat moves perpendicular to the heat application source. a thick bottom with a high heat transfer co-efficient moves the mostest heat the fastest across the bottom. this methinks this the origin of the 'thin copper can't hack it' idea. I've seen arguments that thickness past 3mm is 'wasted' in terms of 'performance' thinner copper in the oven / low burner temps will perform quite well. using gas, I have the thick BellaCopper diffuser plates - they are absolutely essential in many cases - using _both_ copper and 5 ply Zwilling Aurora. even the smallest BTU gas burner can be 'too much.' and one has to vigorously question the "thickness" as given by the brand. I bought Bougeat because it supposedly was a full 3mm of copper. could be - this was decades ago. but, the fused SS inner and copper out plate is made only by Falk. so while decades ago Bourgeat may have 'special ordered' 3mm copper plus SS inner, one is left to wonder if Bourgeat's 3mm claim was 'thickness of copper + stainless.' interesting questions, but I bought it, I own it, I'm very please with the Bourgeat performance - so facts notwithstanding . . . there is that. the ability of a metal to "hold heat" is controlled by the mass of the pot/pan. aluminum actually is better at "holding heat" on a normalized scale, but you're not likely to find an aluminum pot/pan as heavy - aka with same mass - as copper or cast iron or 'carbon steel,' for a similar size. that reality is usually overlooked by the pundits.....

toss the temperature idea in the dumper and go with eyeball observation. a simmer has gentle but regular "bubbles" a boil has vigorous continuous "bubbles" a hard boil has very energetic explosive "bubbles" it's really not that hard - cooktops have "knobs" - turn down the heat, turn up the heat. it's not "heat on" vs "heat off"

I pound/thin chick/pork/beef on the wooden cutting board - scrape off and wash. ueber non wasteful..

we did dinner at Morimoto's last night - been on my list for 3-4 years.... I took pix. no one objected on the other hand, there was a ~10 party group, drunk, loud, screeching females, ear splitting guffaws . . . continuous, non-stop.... we requested to be re-seated. worked, sorta' - but their obnoxious behavior could not be ignored or missed. other customers were canceling orders and requesting their check. absolutely ruined the whole dining experience for the entire restaurant. so, take as many pix as you like - there's definitely a lot of worse behavior. I'd say the best calamari - tempura batter type prep - greens dressed separately so no calamari was 'saturated'

camera phone, no flash . . . who - outside your table - is even going to notice? make a big production of it . . . that's a problem for me.

sounds like one of those AI recipes. there is no "creaming" of butter and sugar for two minutes

the nutritional balance of wheat flour and buckwheat flour is rather a bit even. I don't put a lot of stock in the livestrong sites - they're selling too much stuff,,, but they did tackle the subject with some factual information. https://www.livestrong.com/article/463615-buckwheat-vs-wheat-nutrition/ to me buckwheat pancakes are like wholewheat pancakes - same as refined white flour pancakes, just taste different. I ate a lot of them while visiting/staying with my grandparents - which is a nostalgia issue indeed - my grandfather was diabetic and buckwheat products were, at the time, a dietary recommendation.... buckwheat pancakes and black strap molasses - the breakfast of pioneers . . .

I cannot speak to insulin levels, etc. not been there, haven't done that. but, in 70 years of experience based on my grandmother pancaking on a coal stove . . . there's two methods to buckwheat pancakes. 'instant' rise using baking powder/baking soda or overnight yeast risen batter. "over night" is the operative clue. absolutely not "fast food" my grandmother kept a "starter" - vs "tomorrow's active yeast" she ran a hunting/fishing lodge - so a starter was the standard thing for everyday fixings. I keep buckwheat flour in the freezer - I make buckwheat pancakes as the mood strikes. done both instant and yeast raised. if you have the "luxury" of doing an overnight yeast rise - it is seriously better. I don't do the starter bit as I don't make buckwheat pancakes every morning for a plethora of B&B guests. my brother and my cousins used to have buckwheat pancake eating contests . . . so when they are house guests l, , , yeah, I go with Granny's starter . . . min five days alert time needed , , ,

if one is willing to make simple efforts like adding water and an egg, it's not much of a stretch to start with flour pinch of salt baking powder granulated sugar I use egg whisked into the milk, or buttermilk. powdered buttermilk is also available or use faux buttermilk or use real buttermilk. flavoring adds vanilla extract almond extract peppermint extract rum flavor other adds blueberries banana strawberries pecans the home made mix is always fresh, no 'funny tastes' from preservatives/flow agents/etc/etc. note: using buttermilk, after opening the container of powdered buttermilk, transfer it to a glass jar with tight lid - it will turned into a rock in about 2 weeks if left in the original container.

I've seen a lot of recipes on the web that look like they were written by a computer with no taste bytes.

cast iron has to be well seasoned before it is non-stick fry your bacon in it - flip so both sides get hot and the fat soaks in. wipe dry, do not wash. for cast iron fry pans, etc., I've found just cooking fatty stuff in them is a lot faster to 'well seasoned' than the oiling in the oven thing.

I have a pair of oven mitts with silicon stripes - they will "play handle" to any bowl or inverted pan.... push come to shove . . . get a big stainless bowl, punch/drill a hole in the top for the handle/knob of your big box store choice . . .

ss bowl 5x9 loaf pan

lavatools.co is another oft well spoken of. methinks you'll find you use an instant/quick read much more often than you may initially envision....

48 hours is not a problem in my experience. this took two of us more than 48 hours to consume . . .

I remember those little keys from opening coffee cans . . . and ye' who saved the key by unwinding , , , paid in blood..... the sardine cans had much "longer" keys . . . stretched across the tin . . .

I bought https://bellacopper.stores.yahoo.net/ bazillions of years ago. solid copper plates - outrageously expensive back then, less expensive now. cannot wear out - your greatgrandchildren will be using them....

I always prefer scrambled-in-the-pan vs some yellowish blob of egg 'something' here's my version of egg mcmuffin with sausage - egg is done in a ring, yolk punctured as the white sets....

fyi, Dave Smith, founder of The Boardsmith, passed away in April 2020. Prior to his death he turned over the business to long time associate John Loftis. the manufacturing/etc is currently located in Plano, Texas. I got a 16x22 Walnut with Maple field in 2017. it is used every single day, multiple times per day - it resides on a granite island top so it is the defacto counter top for cutting/prep of 'everything' just ordered a 16x22 Walnut with Cherry field (house warming gift) for our youngest. Boardsmith produces absolutely top quality products.

we have the typical 'can' lights - the bulb protrudes slightly, the bulbs are not recessed. I've switched most of them over the 'daylight' LED floods. very white light, I'm seriously happy with them. recessed lighting tends to be much more "restricted" to 'just down' - the protruding flood bulbs provide much more area coverage I got several of the three panel 'as seen on tv' LEDs - used in the garage and in my workshop. in the garage I had to make up & put them on a pendant cord - the old screw in sockets in the ceiling were not in a good location for the new adjustable panel thingies.

..many approaches.... now there's a truth! I completely agree - recipes with billions of herbs/spices generally don't turn out well. so many flavors nothing comes thru - bit like a mud pie.

best contributions, imho @FauxPas had a good reference - I've copied those recipes @lemniscate presented some interesting things to try @Bernie mentioned some on the sweeter side - I'm a (real) maple syrup fan, so that'll be tried