dscheidt

I noticed with some amusement today that my local trader joe's has a display of $115 bottles of wine. (Something red, 'for cellaring'. I'm not their customer for that, so didn't look harder.) Long way from two buck chuck...

None of the meat *I* buy is mechanically tenderized. I doubt I'm alone in that in this crowd. In the US, meat that has been mechanically tenderized now requires labeling, and instructions to cook it into oblivion-- 165F, treat your steak like it's a hamburger, for the very good reason the blades of mechanical tenderizers do indeed carry pathogens into the meat, and from piece to another. (There are documented contamination cases, so it's not theoretical)>

It's fermented with bacteria, and then has water removed to further concentrate it. it's pretty well indistinguishable from a nitrate solution added in traditional meat processing. It's somewhat more dishonest then concentrating sea water to a nearly saturated salt water solution, adding it to food, and claiming "no salt added" would be.

It's not "celery juice". It's "celery juice that the food chemists have been turned loose on, to make a high sodium nitrate extract that we can tell lies about". Trader Joe's is the home of processed food.

I wish the FTC would enforce the rules that make those claims illegal. (Claiming you have no added nitrates when you have added an ingredient because it's full of nitrates is a false claim, and they used to go after such lies.)

A non-contact infrared thermometer can be very accurate, and still very misleading. they measure the surface temperature of whatever you point them at. In the case of melted chocolate, it's usually a couple degrees cooler than the interior. Depends on how much you're stiring, and what the chocolate is doing. A normal thermometer is a better tool. (it's the 21st century. "normal thermometer" means quick reading digital. Not mercury or alcohol or dial.)

Depends on the casters. Metro-style shelving isn't usally equipped with them, but there are plenty of casters that allow adjustments. Some by lifting the wheel off the ground, others by raising the wheel.

There are plenty of commercial ones of smaller size, to tuck into whatever odd corner is available in kitchen. They tend to be taller than residential ones, though, because clearance for overhead cabinets isn't a concern. Non standard sizes are more expensive, though.

If you're looking for something to fill out an order there, we very much like their 'peppercorns royale', which is blend of black, white, green, and pink peppercorns. I also have found their dried lemon and orange peel zest very handy.

Amazon has the six quart Instant Pot as the deal of the day (10 August 2016), for $69.99. That's cheaper than it was during the garage sale.

Yeah, I was talking about the plastic ones, not wood ones. I'd sand wood ones.

If you know a woodworker with serious power tools, the boards can be sent through a planer, which does a fine job on them. Also, when washing boards, allow them to air dry.

Feces. From animals in wheat fields, from rodents in storage facilities, and rodents in flour mills. Sequencing the bacteria has nothing to do with it. Nor does GM wheat.

Our kitchen is sorely lacking in places to put stuff. (Who the heck remodels a kitchen without upper cabinets?) I've got a 30" range (bog standard american gas range), with nothing above it, and we'd like to put a shelf there. How high are shelves like that typically mounted? And what's a standard depth? I'd like to be able to hang some stuff (pots, or utensils, or both) from it, at least in the back.

There were three IP boxes where amazon's awful delivery service leaves packages to be stolen at my office yesterday.

Another thing that happens is that some chain or group of restaurants goes from using X piece of equipment to Y (or gets out of needing one at all), and a bunch end up on the market at the same time. But investigating why they're for sale is a good advice, for any used piece of equipment.

Spoons work well, and most people have some around the kitchen. I also use a spring clamp attached to the bag. Usually, just the clamp is enough to hold it down, but you can attach things with it if you need to.

There are a whole bunch of mango flavored products featured in this month's flyer. Some of it is old, soe of it is new.

This thread reminded me I should go to the Aldi I drive by when I pick my daughter up from daycare. I hadn't gotten around to it, and then two weeks ago, I stopped, only to discover it was closed. This week, a fence has gone up around the whole site, and the house on either side of the store. Don't know if it's being replaced, or replaced with a condo building....

They work a whole lot better when they're frozen. Lots of energy in the heat of fusion. Depending on how big the hole in the top is, you can fill it with cubes. I use a gallon milk jug, that I freeze in advance. Cheap and ice, works great. Smaller things, I use the blue ice packs for coolers, which I have a bunch in the freezer.

The vacmaster vp215 is on sale for $630 for the next two days. https://www.vacmasterfresh.com/vacmaster-vp215-best-selling-commercial-chamber-vacuum-sealer/

It's all about money. Canning lines are expensive, and small breweries don't make enough beer to keep one busy. If you don't run the line all day every day, you're not getting the most you could from the money. There are some mobile operations that come to the brewery and can, and there are a few companies that specialize in small canning operations (one of which has their corporate offices down the hall from mine, I've been meaning to talk to them if I ever see them...). And I suspect that there are breweries that are canning other nearby breweries stuff, because keeping the canning line running makes financial sense. One other issue is production run size. minimum order for printed cans is something like 50K to 250K, depending on size and where they come from. Small runs are done with shrink wrap labels, and their are some ways to print on the can post filling, but both add to the per can cost.

It does make a big difference. I've got a brandless[1] 130+ year old skillet. It's very smooth, and it sticks much less than modern rough cast stuff. I have a modern lodge skillet, which I suffered with for years, before sanding (~400 grit) the bottom smooth. It works much better now, when I bother to use it. Oh, despite the marketing bullcrap on the field skillet kickstarter page, it seasoned just fine after being sanded. [1] I originally wrote "nameless", but that's not right, it's got a name, named after its original owner who died in 1890.

That's the same price as it is in Chicago. It's also what the local chain store charges for their brand (Roundy's), which is just as good, and has the decency to be printed using an Elgin printer. Land o Lakes goes on sale for about that, sometimes less, at holidays, and its notably superior to either. The little greek/mexican grocery I buy produce from has a wisconsin brand, which I buy sometimes if it's on sale. It's hit or miss, sometimes I think it's very good, sometimes I don't.

USA-wide, as of March 1, 2016. Still need a quarter to use a shopping cart, though.