Indy D

Far and away my most common use case for the searzall is melting cheese. Sometimes I just get too impatient when I am making a snack and cheese doesn't melt as much as I wanted it to. A quick hit with the searzall gets cheese nice and bubbly.

Dave Arnold mentioned that he adds it to his mashed potatoes during his podcast "Cooking Issues". I keep forgetting to try it myself, but sounds delicious.

So this weekend I had breakfast with my Persian brother-in-law and it was served with sauteed dates. You basically had various items on your plate and you mix and match the items however you want and put them on flat bread. Some good combinations I found were: Flat bread w/ dates, sarshir cream, and honeyFlat bread w/ dates, cheese, sarshir cream, and honeyFlat bread w/ dates, cheese, eggs, and sarshir creamYou basically couldn't go wrong with the sauteed dates, though. A note, the sarshir cream is a very thick, spreadable cream that has a slightly buttery flavor. The flat bread was relatively airy but not too soft (barbari, i think). The cheese is a briny sheep cheese that you rinse off before serving and is quite flavorful, so I used it in moderation. I was impressed by how simple and delicious this breakfast was.

Bacon wrapped dates with wildflower honey was probably the best bite of food I have ever tasted. I keep forgetting to try recreating it, but based on the comment above frying seems the way to go. Now I just have to try this chorizo variant.

FYI, Dave Arnold in his podcast 'Cooking Issues' discusses how egg yolks set at a different temp when they are not in the egg. He had no idea why, possible because it is not longer covered in an alkaline material (egg whites). Here is the link: http://www.heritageradionetwork.org/episodes/3439-Cooking-Issues-Episode-109-Pine-Yolks-Soup (its at the 23min mark). A caller said he tried cooking just yolks at 64 C for an hour and they were still runny. I would try upping the temperature even higher.

The 'How its Made' video above discusses how to get the right shape. The salt in the seasonings breaks down a protein called mysoin. Once the mysoin is broken down, it acts like a glue that binds the meat together. The myosin will set when the meat is cooked to around 130-135F (which you need to do at the end of the curing process to kill any remaining bacteria). This is how ground meat creates a nice uniform sausage. No meat glue necessary, just add a lot of salt and roll, weight, or vacuum the meat so that it is in very close contact. You can probably find a recipe for deli style chicken, but you have some serious botulism risks if you are not careful.

For making ricotta where the lemons are there to curdle the milk, lemons and limes should be functionally equivalent. Lemons are around 6% acidity, almost entirely citric acid. Limes are also around 6% acidity, but they are about 2/3 citric acid and 1/3 malic acid. Since malic and citric acid have the same pH, from an acidity standpoint, they should both do the job equally well. ​From a flavor perspective, the taste of limes is quite different than that of lemons (due in part to the different acid balance), but if you are only using the juice functionally, the little bit you use might not have a large impact. It might even taste better, I would just make it and see how you like it.

I don't have experience with it myself, but I do know that the TI lacks sodium caseinate, which the RM has. In the description for it on the Cooking Issues blog, David Arnold mentions that the RM "is designed to bond even problem foods like chicken breasts and cooked meats" [1]. This implies that chicken breast is not an easy application for meat glue for some reason. You might need to supplement the TG with another protein. Gelatin seems to be a common choice, but I don't know if you can find kosher gelatin. [1] http://www.cookingissues.com/transglutaminase-aka-meat-glue/index.html#section3

I'm curious how long those tacos/sandwich buns stay good and crisp before staling. I would love to make these and have ramen sandwiches throughout the week.

Thanks for doing this analysis, I have been curious about this as well. Interesting to note that you did this in a metal pot. Using a more insulated container would surely make this more efficient.

That's a very good point, Norm. A 17% ABV sherry would require a dilution of 1 part wine to 1 1/8 parts water to achieve my desired 8% alcohol. This does seem a bit more dilute than I would want, but its not necessarily a deal breaker. As for dosing sherry into a neutral vinegar, that does sound like a good solution but I don't drink Sherry enough to keep it on hand.

I just started making my own vinegar (red wine, beer/malt) and I was wondering if anyone out there makes their own sherry vinegar and if so, how does it turn out? The reason I ask is that commercial sherry vinegar producers seem to age their product for many years using the solera method, as they do with the wine. If you use sherry that has already gone through the solera process for many years, would the affect be the same? I could see this being the case if sherry vinegar producers turn young sherry into vinegar, then age the vinegar. However, if they age the sherry, then age the vinegar made from that sherry, I imagine the homemade result would not be nearly as refined.

Thanks Kenneth, I'll have to give it a try. Can I attach this to my kitchen faucet, or would I need to use the faucet in the yard to get the proper pressure?

DiggingDog, do you think you could elaborate on how to do compression with a faucet aspirator? That looks very interesting but my Google skills are failing me at the moment.