["Just Mayo" not really 'Mayo'?]

Maybe they should call it Yayo

[Storing compost in condo to take to beach house]

What are the local rules at your beach house for harvesting seaweed that washes up on shore? That's limitless free nitrogen material for your compost pile and garden.

[Commercial mayonnaise – likes, dislikes?]

Homemade mayo is my favorite if I can remember to bother to pasteurize my eggs sous vide or sometimes without pasteurization.

After that it's best foods and it's not really close for me.

[Chicken breasts]

I always butterfly chicken breasts for the reasons you mention. I guess it might be easier to get even thickness by pounding or to avoid cutting a hole in the breast by accident, but once you learn how to do it, it's pretty easy to stay consistent.

 

Butterflied breasts do better on the grill, too, in my opinion. Just when they've taken on good grill marks on both sides, they're cooked to a proper internal temperature. And no later.

[How To Manage to Cook in High Temperatures]

No AC here. I stick to quick cooking wok dishes and bulk sous vide for chilled chicken applications.

Or mostly when it's really hot, I cook outside on one of my webers. With a little technique both the kettle and the three burner gas grill make perfectly serviceable ovens.

[Your Cooking, and How You Began]

I think every member of this board must like cooking or why are we here?

Mom was a phenomenal cook and I grew up assisting her in the kitchen but not really tasked with anything on my own.

In high school I dabbled with toasted sandwiches, some grilling and lots of frittattae.

Then in college in NOLA I volunteered to cook for my fraternity and so learned volume cooking.

Onwards pursuits of the mind at the expense of the commercial kitchen and I still like to cook and even do some part time catering these days but I'm not quitting my day job.

Mostly I just try to feed my family high quality varied ethnicity and healthy food at a fraction of the price of buying this variety and quality prepared.

[Twelve years with eGullet]

I'm only a member in the last year, but you can all rest assured that I was lurking and reading your posts for the last 10 years.

[What side down in knife block?]

My knife block is in a drawer and so storing knives edge side up would present the edges to unaware fingers, edge down and regular honing keeps them in tip top shape anyway.

[Spiralized vegetables and vegetable rices]

Get the manual spiralizer, it works a peach.

[Whole Brisket Recipes]

204F in the point is a good target indeed but the real trick to brisket cookery is to monitor it very closely for softness/wobble/tenderness starting at about 195F (in the flat). Some briskets need even higher than 204 to get tender, somehow. It depends on the cow.

 

Don’t pull it too early, it has to be pretty much totally soft or what is called “probe tender” to be ready.

 

Anyway since your smoker won’t fit it, you could try cutting it in half or you could just wedge it in there, knowing it will shrink as it cooks.

 

Another option is to lop off a few inches from the flat and save that for another purpose: sous vide comes to mind, or burger grind.

[Pizza nei testi]

Cool technique, would've been cooler if the video showed what the pizza came out looking like.

 

Seems like a huge bit of kit for cooking pizzas at home, though.

[Dinner 2015 (part 4)]

I'll give recipe cowriting credit to my three year old for this dish tonight

Rotellini, peanuts, garlic, mint, fish sauce, sugar (my two additions)

I think it works better with orichette but there's no stopping my toddler when it comes to wheel pasta. Very tasty. Needs a squeeze of lime.

[Sous vide - uneven cooking]

It looks like you've stumbled upon some potentially sloppy recipe writing, but it also sounds like you have the tools (knowledge, sous vide dash app) to make sure your food is the way you want it.  

[Japanese Cooking at Home]

Ooh, an authenticity debate!

[Worst cooking show ever]

its all a set. no cookn' going on anywhere.

I see what you did there.

[Worst cooking show ever]

What do you think he's doing with all his smokers and ranch kettle fired up in the background of each shot?

[Le Creuset]

Yes the enamels are more durable and easier to clean. Compared to Mario Batali brand Dutch oven.

[Le Creuset]

I'm tempted to step in to defend ECI cookware vehemently but quite frankly I have a couple pieces of it that I will profess love for but in practice I very rarely bust them out to use.

Fond development is great on enamel. So for stews I like using it if I have the luxury of and patience for cooking a stew for hours instead of for 45 minutes in the pressure cooker.

For baking bread boules I prefer my naked cast iron Dutch oven as the enamel tends to stick.

The le creuset enamel performs better than lesser brands I own. And the le creuset warranty is wonderful to have. But I can't imagine needing to send my lodge Dutch oven in for warranty service.

On scorching, i use open burners and it doesn't seem to be an issue for me.

[The Harvard Smoker : for a better Brisket]

the BGE can be configured for indirect heat smoking using an accessory called the "plate setter"

As far as optimized I need my smokers to use computer modeling for optimal digital brisket cookery.

[The Perfect Burger]

When cooking leaner mixes I agree that medium- is the way to go.

I need to pasteurize some 90% lean ground bison burgers one of these days at 130F. But sous vide burgers have their own thread.

[Screaming Toddlers in Restaurants]

Pro move for owner is to calmly ask the family to leave, and when they don't, call the cops and charge trespass.

[The Perfect Burger]

If you have enough fat in your mix IMO a well done burger can be perfectly delicious and juicy.

Recently I have been preparing a half half mix of brisket and chuck, coarse hand ground, formed into a log and pre sliced into 4oz patties, then individually frozen.

I cook them directly from frozen on pan or grill. I cook them to medium well+ even though I know the provenance of the meat for safety purposes. The crust I get from this technique is out of this world. And I have no juiciness complaints.

Also requires mayonnaise and dill pickles. Other toppings optional.

[Screaming Toddlers in Restaurants]

Parent too cowardly to defend child on the spot; takes revenge from behind computer screen.

Owner exhibits lack of self control by allegedly yelling at a child.

Sounds like bad behavior all around. I mostly blame the parent though. I have a toddler and all it takes is a little foresight, consideration, and flexibility to keep him happy as a clam.

[Gardening: 2013–2015]

Heck yea that looks amazing.

[Dinner 2015 (part 4)]

The wife and I watched The Search For General Tso about the ubiquitous chicken dish.

So I was inspired to haul out the wok and try it with some firm tofu based on a googled "authentic" recipe from Chef Peng the creator. The sauce recipe surely needs some tweaking but it's tasty.