AlaMoi

there is a product: Carbon Off a super strength "oven cleaner" in a spray can - I use it on burned on gunk from boil overs on copper pots. works like a charm - use outdoors!!! I have a very old - pre-1920 - Griswold from a flea market that I cleaned to bare metal and have since never done a 'severe' cleaning. outside it has crusty gunk, inside less-crusty. it's smooth as a 'baby's bottom' and is about 99% of Teflon in terms of sticking. bottom line to this is just: don't fret the minor crusty stuff - keeping cast iron 'sparkling clean' is not an especially good goal..

anyone concerned about meat sellers not properly labeling stuff . . . . buy bone-in beef/pork. check the videos of how blade/needle mechanical tenderizing is done - bones in the meat are not going to work with that process. . . .

beef that has been mechanically tenderized must, by Federal law, state that on the label. so, there is that . . . . I buy Costco pork chops - splendid stuff. I buy Costco USDA Prime beef because it's same or less than supermarket USDA Choice. and it's dang good beef. we have a local butcher - his stuff is always top notch - they supply the resto trade in a wide area . . . when I'm looking for a special cut - he's my goto. I also make a point to not over-cook my beef or pork or chicken or duck or . . . .

my never fail pre-heat oven to 425'F/ 218'C qty: 3 144g AP flour note: I use KA AP; you may have to increase decrease for other brands!! if the batter is too wet, you get pancakes.... 1-1/2 t / 7g baking powder pinch of salt cut in 2-3 Tablespoons (30-45g) cold butter - I use the low end when the oven is hot stir in 146g milk - 1% to full - your choice drop / bake immediate on ungreased sheet

((LOooooooooooooong story)) but I deal with metric a lot, so I wrote my own, thence adapted to cooking stuff from strictly engineering stuff....

culinary/cooking schools usually have a "student run" resto - gives them real world experience for the 'heat of battle' and 'how to serve soup without spilling it on the customer' type stuff. I was thinking perhaps they'll do similar 'fixed price catch of the day' kinda' thing with all the new flavors and dishes developed . . . ? we had a community college type culinary 'student resto' thing here - collapsed during covid - I've been watching to see if they bring it back.

I rather suspect you have been bitten by the "not the same flour" as-the-recipe-poster-grinch. flours are different - that does not mean better or badder or worser - it means different. they absorb water/liquids differently. so while one baker has super results with 130 grams per cup, other bakers with using other flour will not get the same result. frankly it's quite unusual for me to get 'ooooooooooh" results first time thru - I use KA exclusively and usually have to adjust the qty. over proofing can give you the collapsed look in the big bowl - but not the over flowing "love handles" the loaves developed. if you want browned sides, use dark pans. here's a batch of dough divided, one baked in the silver pan, one baked in the dark pan. care to take a guess? note that the browned sided one also had a smidge more oven spring . . . the center get baked more faster....

the peach cobbler/buckle is in an 8x8 pan. I think somewhere we have/had a "Cooking for Two" book - but generally DW finds stuff on-line, and I pick stuff up from cooking fori....

there is no nitpicking about it - different flours hydrate differently and xxx grams per cup is not a number set in stone. for decades I used Ceresota Unbleached. then our local market stopped carrying it. I had to rework, painfully . . . one by one all my recipes to work with KA . . . pancakes to cakes to breads . . not nice . . . .

I've experienced two issue with "small batch-for-two" #1 - you need a gram scale and weigh the ingredients - liquid and solid. #2 - the recipe should be written in grams, for the size. the exception is 'the qty' recipes with tablespoon/teaspoon of liquids - those are still workable. the failing exception is "cutting down" a larger recipe - where the "cups" measures simple do not "reduce" to a measurable c/T/t amount. here's a proven one: [[[folks who do grams will adapt as needed to 1/2c=65g flour - as they have experience with what a cup of their flour is...]]]] ============================================================ Peach Cobble 4 large or 5-6 smaller peaches, soft peel, slice, macerate with 1/4 cup sugar in fridge 2 hrs to overnight pre-heat oven to 400'F melt 1/2 stick : 56g butter in a bowl mix 1/2 cup - 65 g - AP flour 1 tsp baking powder - 5 g 1/8 cup (25 g) white sugar + 0.5 cup (105 g) brown sugar pinch of salt almond extract or nutmeg (optional) when oven is ready, add 1/2 cup (115 ml / 116 g) milk to dry ingredients, mix pour melted butter in pan pour batter into pan add sliced peaches - arrange to cover entire pan bake 25-35 minutes - batter should rise to top and brown ============================================================== looks like

Copenhagen has enough tourists / visitors (covid excepted....) that would easily support a starred resto. so whether this is a financial 'we're going broke' decision or an ethereal "we must better mankind" decision remains to be seen. do note - how the new "cooking invention center" will be funded is quite absent from the announcements....

it seems well supported that creaming will assist in the 'rise' - a couple good articles cited above . . . but the question, at least for me,,,, is the point where it is 'necessary' or 'beneficial' to do so. something like above/below baker percent of water/fat/liquid . . .or whatever . . . "creaming is advantageous" bit of a windmill tilt, methinks, because any serious 'recipe developer' would be testing and testing and . . .

if one has issues with mushroom + fish, yaw'l wanna not come here for flounder, striper, salmon, steelhead, etc.

prolly need to draft some pastry experts into the conversation. I cream the b&s as directions call for it - some cases are obvious, other cases not so much. I'm thinking that some batters are wet enough they will dissolve the "free sugar" without issue during mix & bake.... where the borders are, I do not know. pancakes for example - you don't find sugar grit in a pancake . . or a waffle or a muffin the creamed butter is reported to add fluff to a batter - same as beating egg whites for an omelette. the entrained air expands and ....

flour self-rising: 1 c. flour + 1.25 tsp baking powder some suggest also adding salt. why do people use self-rising? no clue, but perhaps because their can of BP is 5-10 years old . . . almost all BP now is "double acting" - it releases CO2 when wetted with acid ingredients, it releases more CO2 when heated. bicarb is "single acting" - it releases CO2 on by wetting with acidic stuff. why both? provides an extra "boost" to leavening at the start. purpose of creaming butter&sugar: (1) beats air into the butter - you'll notice the color goes to very pale yellow with time.... (2) allows the water in the butter to dissolve the (granulated) sugar for a smoother texture - esp for icings for batters it may not be necessary to cream the butter&sugar

Pepin has made hundreds of videos about omelette making. he endorses both a country style which is browned, and the 'classic' style which is never browned. btw, he does the rap-on-the-wrist trick to ensure nothing is stuck.... I think he used to work in a couple restaurants . . . so maybe he knows how to do it in that setting . . .? see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1XoCQm5JSQ https://youtu.be/KveBXEIYaIU

personally, I have opted to CANCEL all those people who get offended at the sillest stuff. they simply do not have a place in my world. my "goto" cook book is 'The United States Regional Cook Book' - a CIA 'issue' from 1939. it has all the pre-war goodies, no short-cuts, no MSG,,,,

" . . . It seems some in the UK were less enthusiastic: . . . " so . . . they adapt to spam and kale casseroles . . . and in the future, when things improve, the re-runs will be blasted for being such cheap SOB's at Christmas time . . .

too many "experts" on the Internet. one site says: "Brown onions are also called yellow onions." that'll settle it, eh? typically in my mid-Atlantic area yellow onions white onions red onions sweet aka Vidalia onions not often: Spanish onions specialty stuff like Cipollini and pearl onions I sorta' keep aside.... one could turn to the plants people, but they do latin, not colors.

the chuck wagon was typically ahead of the herd - most times cookie had the time. and....btw...etc... early 'crackers' more resembled 'hard tack' than Nabisco Saltines. the advent and availability of 'baking powder' considered . . . . note: if you choose to explore hard tack, the poster disavows all responsibility for your dental bills.

the cookie thing is well done . . . I like to do scratch fresh home baked breads - timing the bake to present still warm & odoriferous loaves . . . .

"It's a chili without beans or tomatoes, which were too heavy to carry on the cattle drives" uhmmm, beans were, and remain, a thing on the trail https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-chuckwagon/ Food carried in the chuck wagon was generally easy-to-preserve items such as beans, salted meats, coffee, onions, potatoes, lard, and flour to make biscuits. https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore/the-chuck-wagon/ Biscuits and beans made up the majority of what was served on the range, but the occasional dessert did make its way onto the menu when possible. https://freerangeamerican.us/chuck-wagon/ Other common food the cookies served included black-eyed peas, beans, corn, and cabbage. Beef and bison steaks were plentiful, sometimes mixed into stews with chiles, garlic, and onion. Catfish and shrimp caught from the nearby rivers, lakes, and coastal waters added variety. Sourdough bread, biscuits, and skillet cornbread were among the most common sides served with the meals.

hmmm. he got off easy. when DW was preggers with #1 she swelled up, got put on zero salt . . . . I was up all hours veddy veddy thinly slicing potatoes and making saltless potato chips.

I have nothing aka _nothing_ against Saltines - but . . . for a cheese/pate/broiled/charcuterie/ etc "cracker" platter there are many cracker 'more better suited' to that task.... just saying . . . the Nabisco Saltine Tin packaging was discontinued in the ~1970 period. ebay has many offerings - very good condition late tins in the ~$15 range, older 'antique' and even 'the last production' examples in really good condition get pricey.

indeed. defining "chili" is like defining a soft boiled egg - oops, a soft cooked egg . . . . depending on the area, chili is with or without beans. chili con carne . . . would that not imply a bean chili with meat added? a meat only chili would simply be a carne con carne, no? or the definition of 'shepherd's pie' . . . or how to peel a hard boiled/cooked egg . . . . the "best" <anything> people who are inflexible with definitions are in for an interesting life . . .