dscheidt

They undboutedly mean "MAP PRO", or however they style it, which is propylene (AKA propene (not propane)). It's maybe 10% hotter, and has a little higher energy content. Not worth the price premium over propane for most uses.

My experience is I want two kinds of peels in my kitchen. A wooden one for launching the pie, and a metal one for pulling it out (and moving it around, it you do that). Metal peels stick more than a wooden peel, but they're thinner and easier to get under the pizza.

I have a somewhat fancier (and more expensive) version of this. Mine has a 20K BTU front left burner, the other front burner is 18K, a different center burner (it's got the ring mode like this, which works for the griddle, but also a center section that's got a pot shaped flame), came with the center grate (and two griddles, but I think that was a mistake). It's also a free standing model, with oven controls on the back. I'm generally pleased with it. I'd prefer the higher output burner on the right, which is an artificat of my layout. I find the oven controls a little annoying, and it always takes me five minutes to reset the clock. Oven thermostat went wrong, and I had to fiddle with it to get it right, but once I did that, it's been fine. It came with three oven racks, which I find annoying. It's great for baking cookies, and stuff like that, but the extra rack gets in the way, and I never remember to adjust the racks before I turn the oven on. (Were it up to me, I'd simply remove one of the racks, and put it back when I needed it, but it's not, so it stays in.)

Blade is removed only for replacement or belt replacement. It weighs about five pounds and is razor sharp, so removal is not a routine task. when the blade guard is removed, you can get to the whol front of the blade, and about 1/4 of the back. Rotate it acouple times to clean the rest.

Cleaning is take the output tray and blade cover off (they're stainless, and could go through the dishwasher). Then remove the move the part of the carriage that touches the food (it's probably not dishwasher safe). Wash those components. The bit that adjusts to set the thickness of slices swings up and back, so you can easily wash it, and access the space under the cariage. Remove any food crumbs, carefully wipe the blade clean. Then spray with steramine, let dry, reassemble. that takes a few minutes, not really worth it for a single tomato, but if it were on my kitchen counter, I might use it to slice everything for a single sandwich. It's less of a hassle than the plastic chef's choice I have is.

My wife insists that I can't put it in the kitchen, and makes me keep it in my office. not the handiest place for it, but the table is on wheels, so it will roll to the sink for use. so far, I have resisted the urge to make a sandwich during a meeting. this thing was a horrible mess; I think it was stored in a barn. Grease and crud packed everywhere, including places you'd not think it could get to. Lots of scraping, degreasing, and cleaning. it cleaned up well, and need just a set of feet (sourced from the well-known food service equipment supplier McMaster-Carr), a belt, and a set of sharpening stones.

Not cutting my fingers off! I am going to use it at home, to do normal household slicing stuff. I've got a little chefs choice slicer, which for what it cost, is good. But it struggles to slice cheese, and it doesn't slice very thinly. So it's not really good enough for what I want to do. It's also a pain to slice something with a high aspect ratio (like a pepperoni.)

I will, but ITW are awful about anything they didn't make. I've also had horrible dealings with their service departments ("you can't buy parts, you have to have them installed by our service people. Oh, you're not a commercial user, we can't service you." is not atypical).

yeah, It's completely devoid of markings. There's a number in the main body casting ("F 25660 37"), and that's the only marking I've found on it. I expect it's going to need a few parts, and I don't know how universal they'll be. At the absolute minimum, it's going to need feet. Probably a set of sharpening stones, and possible a blade. Also, god, it's heavy.

I bought a slicer. The only label is "Berkel". 12" blade. Needs some cleaning...

Thermoworks is discontinuing the thermapen mk4 (and replacing it with something they say is better.) the Mk4 is on close out for $69, while they have them. https://www.thermoworks.com/Thermapen-Mk4?quantity=1&color=16

I don't know what your willingness to work on such stuff is, but if it dosn't extend to resoldering battery packs, a few calls to cell phone repair places will find someone who will do it, probably pretty cheap.

A former office was recarpted overnight, while I was working the overnight shift. It was not communicated to anyone working in the space it was going to happen, the guys just showed up at about 8pm. So no one had done any cleaning or other prep. They cleared a small area, ripped the old carpet up, glued the new stuff down, and put stuff back. This was carpet tiles, not rolls of carpet, which made it easier. Huge crew, they did several thousand square feet by five am. Apparently, many people didn't even notice the work had happened (it was a different color carpet, but not by much).

use it in place of celery in mirepoix in hearty soups or stew.

Or at least get a good video?

There's a company called Dolly, who provide muscle for hire. I've used them move radiators from one floor to another, and to have some furniture moved from one location to another. Don't know if they're where @JoNorvelleWalker is, or not, though.

the assets from many of the recently closed Godiva retail shops are up for auction. https://www.grafeauction.com/events/upcoming There are around 87 locations for auction, online only, closing 19 February. there are tempering machines, fridges, blenders, tools, display stuff, and other random things.

It's relatively expensive in the most of the US, and it's not as dramatically pretty as walnut (which is also expensive). In areas where it's common, it gets used for cutting boards. I have a large edge grain board made of birch; it came from a restaurant supply place. It claimed to ave been made in finland, home of many birch trees.

We had a whole bunch of really good pears this fall. Normally, two or three I buy are okay. This year, we had them every week for five or six weeks, and they were excellent, once ripened.

After replacing the one that got stuck in my ear, it's been working pretty well. Scrapes jars well, small enough to get into even little jelly jars, doesn't seem to have odors stick to it. I'd buy another, but we lack space in the counter utensil canister./

There three imperfect vans parked in front of my house the other day when I came home. I was afraid they were going to get me for saying bad things about them, but I think they were just doing inventory transfer between them.

So have various grocers in inner cities. Very little of the produce imperfect et al sell was in any danger of going to waste, at least before they ended up in a consumer's kitchen.

Carefully block the spout (don't burn yourself) when it's boiling. If it it whistles, the problem is in the spout. If it doesn't, it's the lid.

I bought lots of used text books in college, saved lots of money. the markings in them told you a lot about the prior owners. Most had random highlighting and underlining, some had interesting marginalia. One, I was sure had never been used, until I got to chapter five, where nearly every single word was highlighted, as words, with gaps in the highlighting between them. Just the one chapter, which was on legislative process or something. Similarly, I mark up my cookbooks. Notes about "needs more parsley" or "leave out the parsnips", or cooking instructions, or scaling.

Everyone reuses casting sand. It's not just sand, it's sand with stuff in it to make it behave the way the foundry wants it to. Typically that's a clay, and water. As you pour molten iron into the sand, some of the clay gets cooked. As the amount of used up clay in the sand increases, it behaves poorly, so it has to be discarded. Most foundries discard part of the sand, and replace it fresh stuff, more or less continuously. It's possible to separate the clay from the sand, and just add the appropriate amount of clay back. That's expensive. It takes time, it requires expensive machinery, etc, and sand is cheap. So it's not commonly done.