rustwood
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Posts posted by rustwood
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On 5/9/2018 at 11:05 AM, gfweb said:
My ramps are done with the arrival of hot weather.
Mine are just starting to fade. Unfortunately, they also don't look any bigger than they were 2-3 weeks ago. Hopefully that is a function of how long the bulbs have been growing more so than how much they like the growing conditions. At least the deer haven't been interested in them. It doesn't look like they have even been sampled - even though the azaleas adjacent to them have been getting munched.
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On 4/29/2018 at 11:56 PM, DiggingDogFarm said:
"Shelves were/are often bare.
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"Another rewarding trip to Wegman's!!!!!! GRRRrrrrrrr!!!!!
To their credit, they did have 2 of the 10 items that I needed!!!"
I am a big fan of our Wegmans; however, I routinely come home without one or two items because they are out of them - sometimes even basic produce like broccoli. With that said, it is somewhat understandable as our nearby Wegmans is one of their smaller stores (relatively speaking) and it is a very popular location.
Our store seems to carry the full array of the prepared fresh foods and the ready to eat stuff - which makes sense since that seems to be their major profit source ($7.50 lb for spiralized zucchini!) . The "reduced" store size seems to primarily impact the selection and available quantity of pantry items. They do try to keep things stocked though - as evidenced by people stocking shelves even during peak times (which otherwise would make no sense at all).
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On 4/20/2018 at 5:13 PM, Okanagancook said:
I used to have one of these propane units. It got really, really hot but you could adjust it. Sounded a bit like a jet engine but not like in a commercial kitchen. Propane I believe gets hotter than natural gas. But, it's not a charcoal fire as per the original question.
+1. I have one of these and love it: King Kooker 24WC Heavy-Duty 24-Inch Portable Propane Outdoor Cooker with 18-Inch Steel Wok
The first time I used it my oil burst into flames. I hadn't even started cooking anything yet so it wasn't from a spill. Lesson learned! I use a more moderate burner setting now and I don't put anything on it until I am 100% ready to cook - all my ingredients at hand, a clear plan for what I need to do, and a vessel for the finished dish (basic wok protocol).
I have a kamado, but it takes a while to get the charcoal hot enough for stir fry. My weber chimney gets more than hot enough in a hurry, but as @FeChef said, it gets dangerously hot. I would want to corral it with some sort of fire-safe surround if I were going to wok on it as it is might be too easy to tip it over. I have occasionally used one to do quick sear on steak though.
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Ramps have appeared in my local Wegmans - I believe they were $16.99 a pound. I didn't notice an origin for them. They had roots on, but were very clean. They had very skinny stems and mostly had no, or almost no, bulb at all. The bulb ends were mostly just a slightly thicker white stem. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were still very tasty. I am wondering if they were skinny because it is early in the season and it has been a cold spring, or if perhaps that is how they are being commercially raised and harvested. Any thoughts?
On the plus side, because they were clean and had small bulbs, it only cost $1.50 or so for more than enough to make a delicious egg scramble (butter, eggs, ramps, salt, aleppo pepper, and a bit of mild cheese on top). I had been thinking I might take some from the fledgling patch of ramps in my back yard, but now I won't. I planted them in 3 areas 2 years ago. They came up in 2 of those locations last year, but it looks like only one patch came back this year. They seem healthy so hopefully they will start to thrive in that location. I am still a long way from being able to sustainably harvest more than a taste though.
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The food is likely just as good coming off of the Masterbuilt. As long as you have enough room and can hold the temperature you need for long enough, then everything else is gravy. Of course you don't get grilling with a WSM either, but you probably have a grill.
I don't know about the Masterbuilt, but the WSMs seem to have a fairly narrow range of temperatures that they like to run at. When I cook on mine, it reminds me that backyard BBQ is more of an art than a science. The cooker is probably the least important element, plus it is nice to just light it and not fuss over the cooker temperature. The meat almost always comes out tasting plenty good.
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Clearly there are many points of view when it comes to BBQ. For me, 140 is low for foiling, 190 is low for pulling it and 210 is high (although not unusual). Typically I will wait until at least 160 before foiling - if I foil at all. I will pull when the meat reaches ~200, let out a little steam, wrap it up tight again, put it in a blanket or towel and drop it in a cooker to rest for a couple of hours.
Wrapping in foil can affect the bark, but mostly it is just about getting your timing right. If you get a late start, foiling is definitely your friend. I general cook at 250 for "low n slow" and 325 for hot and fast, but I adjust as needed to make the timing work out. I have no problem pushing up to 350 after it has been foiled if I need to speed things up. I generally don't do hot and fast without foiling though.
@Smokeydoke weren't you looking at Kamado's? Did you get one? I am just curious as to what type of smoker you are using.
With all of this said, I have to admit that I cooked my last 2 butts in a pressure cooker. That's obviously a totally different thing, but it is pretty great to have it come out so nice in just 90 minutes. Works great for recipes that don't go well with smoke.
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I thoroughly enjoyed it - informative, but also quite humorous in places. I have to think that was the intention - especially on the question side. It was long, but I think necessarily so. I can't say there was much in there that was new to me, but I was happy to have the current state of things clearly stated and confirmed. I ignore so much nonsense that I sometimes start to wonder if I am missing anything (apparently not).
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We have been very happy with these cabinet organizers:
We have 3 racks on one cabinet shelf with enough space left over for a line of the bulk spice shakers (e.g Costco red pepper). It is easy to slide them part way out and grab what we need. Not all jars will fit side by side on the bottom, but I can usually make them fit. The top half works well for most of our oddly shaped spice packages.
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Has anyone seen or tried those pebbled ceramic coated skillets? I am not sure what they are called*, but I cooked on one at a vacation home we borrowed and was impressed. I bought a set for my mother and she seems to like them a lot. I wouldn't say she is a cookware connoisseur, but she has owned and used many different pans (including a Griswold 43b that I covet). I was afraid she wouldn't like them and she was skeptical at first, but she has been surprised by how well they work.
*update: J. A. Henkels calls this a Ceraforce surface (link to frying pan)
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FWIW, I usually make the KA recipe for crumpets (scaled 50%) once or twice a week to use up my extra starter. My results don't look the same as the picture on the KA site, but I enjoy them.
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3 hours ago, Anna N said:
I caved and I’m glad I did. Did you?
After reading some reviews and browsing the recipes on eat your books, I decided to pass. It may be very good, but nothing made me want to add it to my growing cookbook backlog. Plus I can get it from the library. I'll probably want it after I see it, but it will be cheap again sooner or later.
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I haven't bought Nutella in years, but I felt compelled to buy the Kirkland Hazelnut Spread this weekend - $7.99 for two 1 kg jars. I am not an aficionado by any means, but it tastes petty good to me. I probably won't buy it again, but only because I don't want to eat so much of it.
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9 hours ago, Anna N said:
I suspect that if byrek is anything like borek then you probably need something much closer to phyllo.
Yes, there are many "easy" recipes that use frozen phyllo and recipes that use a very lean dough; however, some recipes call for rolling pieces dough very thin, brushing it with butter (or oil), stacking them, then rolling it again. That seems to at least start to approach the realm of puff pastry.
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9 hours ago, Anna N said:
I used this recipe for the pastry
What flour did you use? I might have to try it. A food truck near my work sells wonderful byrek and I have tried making them myself, but the dough is completely different. I suspect this dough isn't exactly right either, but it looks like it would be a lot closer than my previous attempt.
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I am a mix. When I have the time, I enjoy exploring completely new dishes/recipes. I probably do that maybe once a week, but I generally only cook dinner a few times a week at most. I often make the same basic dish on a recurring basis, but I rarely end up with the exact same result - nor am I trying to. Sometimes it is an experiment with a different recipe (or combination of recipes), sometimes it is just a matter of what I have on hand (or not). I usually keep notes about what worked well and what didn't.
I suspect as is the case for many, part my reason for repeating is simply lack of imagination/recall when planning my meals and/or shopping. Part of it is that I simply enjoy eating certain dishes though. It is not unusual for me to seek out something from my recipe database that I haven't made in a while, but that is still a repeat. Of course the seasonality of some ingredients also helps to change up the favorites throughout the year.
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Oops, I should have refreshed my page before posting. In any case, I can't find a list, but it certainly appears Random House has put a number of their cookbooks on sale. I just bought Simple Thai Food: Classic Recipes from the Thai Home Kitchen.
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1 hour ago, Smokeydoke said:
@rustwood Any thoughts on Nopalito? It's on sale too. I'm not a taco-person. I have no idea.
I am not familiar with that one. At a glance it certainly looks like it ought to be worth $2. I will probably buy it - after a few hours of impulse control.
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Tacos: Recipes and Provocations by Alex Stupak currently on sale for $1.99
Initially I thought this might end be a book of endless taco variations but I was so wrong. It is much more about making the sauces and components of amazing tacos. IMO it is well worth $1.99, if only for the Cochinita pibil recipe. It is fantastic - especially when it is fresh (although I am not convinced the banana leaves added any flavor with the easy method). One of these days I will get around to trying the chicken tortillas.
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My spouse has celiac disease an an uncompromising vegan so I routinely work around those restrictions. I am sure we make many substitutions, but not many come to mind at the moment.
I have found that gluten free flour mixes (both store-bought and ones we have mixed) work well as one to one sub in many dishes. Not long ago we made a vegan GF cake with vanilla buttercream icing (vegan butter) and it was surprisingly good. The texture was less than ideal, but it wasn't terrible. The GF flours have also worked very well in batter-dipped fried food (General Tso's cauliflower).
As kayb said, many off the shelf Asian sauces contain gluten and often it is used in/as the thickening agent; however, many sauces also contain soy sauce and it usually isn't gluten free. Fortunately, those sauces can often be created from scratch using gluten-free soy sauce or tamari. Doubanjiang (Sichuan/Pixian broad bean paste) has been tough to work around - especially in something like mapo tofu where it is prominent. We usually substitute some combination of whatever GF Asian chili sauce(s) we have handy, fermented black beans and/or fermented bean paste (homemade). Gochujang is an option when the sweetness doesn't clash with the dish.
When I am at the Asian market, I stock up on various rice noodles on hand as they can often be subbed for wheat noodles. Of course it often isn't quite the same, but it is usually OK - especially in Asian dishes.
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18 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:
If you're feeling especially ambitious and you're able to find good fresh hams—you can easily make your own.
I've done it many times—years ago.
Obviously people have successfully cured hams for hundreds of years - under whatever the local conditions might be; however, given all of the things that can go wrong and the amount of time involved, it does make one appreciate the relatively modest price of quality country ham.
I don't doubt the statement is correct, but I wonder if the text in bold (my emphasis) has been seen by any of UKY's attorneys:
"Small black dots or spots have been reported on the surface after the mold has been removed. These spots are caused by a species of mold that is difficult to remove from the surface; chances are the spots are harmless."
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I finally got around to making pulled pork in my pressure cooker. I should have done it a long time ago. In addition to saving a lot of time, the pressure cooker method allows you to save all of the delicious porky jus - a luxury you don't get when you make pulled pork in a smoker. I used Melissa Clark's recipe for pressure cooker spicy pork shoulder. FWIW, I tried it both ways and I am unconvinced that the final step of broiling it in the oven adds much to the result.
My sample wasn't especially photogenic. I should have taken a picture of it on the steamed buns I had last night as they looked much better.
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On 2/26/2018 at 10:57 PM, btbyrd said:
After reading Peter Kaminsky's Pig Perfect, Newsom's was on my list of hams to buy but I never got around to it. I may have to revisit that list. Has anyone had any experience with them? Looks like I have another month or so if I want to pull the trigger on one other their premium aged hams this year.
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2 hours ago, Tempranillo said:
HERE's a link showing what is fairly common in cooking the chicken now
I did make some great ribs yesterday, so, not many worries there. I am using an Americanized sauce that is vaguely Chinese.
That link gives a clear view of the prep. Many teams do the cupcake chicken thing, but many don't and they definitely aren't braising in butter.
Many judges are looking for a fairly narrow range of seasoning - with the "ideal" varying to some extent from region to region. If your seasoning stands out in some way, it will almost certainly be a topic of discussion after it is judged - as in, "What the heck was that in #4? I did not like it." Obviously that is less than ideal from a culinary perspective and many are not happy about that, but I doubt it will change. One time I judged a chicken entry with a mustard herb sauce. I thought it was quite tasty and a pleasant change of pace, but it came in dead last on our table (probably overall as well).
With that said, I think there is more leeway given with brisket seasoning so that would probably also be true for beef ribs. The beef flavor seems to stay in the lead with almost any seasoning. With chicken and pork, the seasoning is more prominent and therefore, I suspect, more closely scrutinized and/or criticized.
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I agree that it is hard to justify spending $1k on kamado on a purely economic basis. You can buy a cheap offset smoker for $200, but in my climate it will rust out in 3 years. It is also going to burn a lot more fuel and it won't be easy to get it to hold a steady temperature. The same goes for cheap charcoal grills - at least in terms of rusting out. On the other hand, you can buy a 18.5" WSM for $300 and it will last a lifetime (with reasonable care). For another $150 you can get basic Weber Kettle that will also last, but if you go for a kettle with a shelf, that is another $100 and now you are at the same price as the Vision.
I think it is true that you can get longer and steadier cooks on a Kamado with minimal care and feeding. It you want rock solid steady temperatures, then a cabinet smoker is the way to go. They need to be refueled every 8 hours or so, but it is easy to add fuel. Plus they will continue to stay relatively hot even if they run out of fuel (much like a kamado). They are overkill for almost any backyard cook though. The less expensive kamado's seem like a reasonable compromise if you are interested in investing in something that will hold steady over a long cook and last a long time.
Of course the ultimate kamodo is the Komodo Kamodo. When you see one in person, you know it wasn't cheap. I had heard all about them, but when I first saw one in person, I was still surprised at just how impressive it was - down to the last detail. Some day I'd like to have a house with a great outdoor entertaining layout. If that ever happens, I could see myself taking the plunge on a Komodo as the centerpiece for it. It would be a lot less expensive than splurging on a "show" car or or a boat.
Wegman’s Brand Products
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
We routinely purchase many of Wegman's house brand staples and have never been unhappy with them - canned goods, condiments, foil/cling wraps, freezer bags, TP/PT/tissues, trash bags, dish/laundry detergents, and cereal come to mind. They also seem to be a good value - I think usually cheaper than Costco. We rarely buy their prepared foods so I haven't tried any of their fancier refrigerated soups.
Speaking of Costco, @MetsFan5 has your husband tried their Manchego? If so I'd be interested in hearing how he thinks it compares to Wegman's. Costco routinely puts it on sale at a great price. I am certainly not a connoisseur, but I enjoy it - when I can find a wedge that isn't huge (not often).