rustwood

I just discovered the Flavor Bible is one of a long-ish list of cookbooks that are a Kindle Daily Deal today. I am not sure if that link is going to work for everyone, but they can be found on Amazon easily enough. It includes the Red Rooster Cookbook ($3.99), Tartine ($2.99) and many others. As the sale name implies, presumably this is today only.

The Kindle version of The Flavor Bible is currently $6.99. The usual price has almost always been more than $15.

This makes a lot more sense to me. Any way you slice it, this has to be good for the Anova founders. There are a lot of unknowns in the deal though. They may have debt. If so, Electrolux may or may not be assuming it as part of the deal. They may also have venture capital investors who are going to get a big piece of the pie. The oven launch is probably going to require a lot of capital, but this deal should allow Anova to proceed without the founders having to risk everything on it. If so, they may be doubly delighted that they can safely bank some of their gains right now. Like @teonzo, others have speculated that Electrolux may be able to repeat Anova's success in many other markets around the world - especially if they can develop a series of connected appliances (and/or add smarts to existing Electrolux designs). The strategy of developing Anova into "the" smart appliance brand seems consistent with the large contingency payments.

At the current time, one could go to this page: http://www.morethankitchen.com/product/1872696030 and legally view an image which appears to show the tool being used like a standard grater as you have described. Now that I see that your parmesan is very fresh/moist, perhaps the idea is to crumble it - sort of like making tiny versions of the chunks you would break off with one of these knives: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parmesan_cheese_knife_on_block_of_cheese.jpg.

I am an avid user of Paprika recipe software so I would second @MattKal's recommendation for it. It runs on my phone, tablet and PC, so hopefully it will continue to be supported for a long time. FWIW, I find I use it on my phone far more often than I would have expected. That is my primary device for referencing recipes while cooking or shopping. I use the shopping list feature whenever I am going to cook one or more recipes that that require more than a few ingredients that aren't staples. This thread had me wondering about conversion though so I just played with it a bit. Recipes are synced between devices via the free cloud service that is included with purchase of the program so backup is not a huge issue. I did add a copy into a backup folder though - just in case. The export function allows you to save in their (apparently) proprietary format or in html. It is not designed to create cookbooks, but the html files it produces are cleanly formatted so they could easily be opened and edited in MS Word. As a last resort, exported html files could also be imported into another program if necessary.

I've used the shaking method to peel several heads of garlic in a large bowl and it worked amazingly well. I would imagine a few cloves in a small jar would be far easier.

I suppose this topic has just about run its course, but for those of you who don't receive EYB emails, here is one final list of lists: https://www.eatyourbooks.com/blog/2017/1/30/best-selling-cookbooks-of-2016 Perhaps it is to be expected that books that books that came out in the fall might not make a big splash on a list of top selling books for the year.

I have to agree. What many proponents of "less" regulation seem to be in favor of is no regulations that will interfere in any way with what they personally want to do. Hypocritically, as in the honey capping example, those same individuals will sometimes be in favor of regulation that will give them a competitive advantage. I am sure many people honestly believe that a given regulation is unnecessary and in their particular case it may not be, but that doesn't mean it isn't still needed to protect the public from someone else who has less common sense (or is less scrupulous). That sort of thing can be very frustrating for some, but it also may be a necessary evil. What we need to focus on is making and reforming regulations so that they are both effective and reasonable. There is always a little more we could do to improve safety, but at a certain point the incremental gains in safety are very small relative to the burden of the regulation. We seem to have lost the ability to reach a well reasoned compromise. Instead issues are framed as black vs white and us against them. I believe in most cases the best compromise will leave neither side entirely happy but no one seems to be willing to compromise in any meaningful way - certainly not whichever side currently has the upper hand in Washington. The notion that markets will police themselves is ludicrous, Upton Sinclair must be rolling over in his grave.

I agree. I finished the first module and then withdrew/canceled. There may be some interesting stuff in there, but not enough for me to put in the time right now.

Looks like a double recipe will be about right for an 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inch (21 x 11 x 6 cm) loaf pan. I am not sure when I will get to this, but it will be on my list.

I googled this but could not find a pan with those dimension (or even a reference to one). Just to be clear, is this a 10 x 2.5 x 2 inch pan? I want to be sure I have something that is at least close to the correct volume - even if I double the recipe.

... except maybe if you really like the way it looks when it is hanging in your kitchen (I guess). I think several of these makers have touted their smooth finish. That may be an attempt to lure the people who who have old cast iron with a smooth finish. They often seem to view the new stuff with bumpy finishes as inferior.

Dan Dan noodles again, this time with hand made & cut noodles. This was clearly not precision cutting, but it was good enough to fill a weeknight craving. I am going to have to try it at least once more and break out the pasta roller/cutter.

Yet another entry in the high end cast iron market. $160 for the 10" and $200 for the 12". They are 100% made in the USA, but so is the Marquette Castings 10.5" and that goes for ~$115 (other Marquette sizes are not made in the USA). Suddenly I am more interested in keeping a closer eye out for nice examples of vintage cast iron.

I am not a connoisseur, but after smelling the coffee a co-worker made every day I bought a Clever Dripper for home and put my Keurig on a shelf in the basement. It works well for me because I usually only make on large mug of coffee a day. It takes me about 10 minutes in total - usually while I am fixing something else for breakfast. According to this site: "The Clever Coffee Dripper combines the best features of French press and pour-over drip brewing, eliminating the drawbacks of each. A French press allows for full immersion brewing, meaning the coffee grounds are evenly saturated and extracted through the entire brewing process. The drawbacks are typically heat loss and lots of sediment in the cup. Brewing a personal pour-over with a paper filter is easy and convenient; the problem is lack of control over steeping time (i.e. the coffee begins to drain immediately and the grounds rarely have consistent contact with the water. In addition, inconsistent turbulence from the pouring motion can easily lead to over or under extraction, which can lead to very inconsistent results from cup to cup). By adding a stopper to a filtercone, the Clever Coffee Dripper combines control over steeping time with a sediment-free cup." I don't know about all of that, but it is at least some food for thought in response to your question. I have read more than a few times/places that all of these methods generally start with a lot more coffee per cup than most people typically use in a traditional drip system. Recommendations for grind size, brew time and amount of coffee to use with the Clever Dripper vary widely. I am kind of happy about that because I am not very exacting - I eyeball my beans and often leave it steep too long when I am busy with other things.

FWIW, I ordered the Jamón Tasting Trio from La Tienda and had a little tasting during the Packers-Falcons game today. La Tienda shipped it the morning after I ordered and packed it very well. We apparently aren't worthy of the iberico and iberico de bellota because everyone preferred the serrano. I also bought some spicy chorizo. We enjoyed it, but it didn't strike me as obviously better than some of locally produced chorizo I have had in the past. We had a good time trying them out though. The sampler, along with the chorizo, some bread and manchego cheese was more than enough for 6 adults. At some point I would still like to do the same sort of thing with one or more of the raw iberico cuts alongside high end heritage pork that is raised and sold not far from us.

I have started the course, but at this time I am leaning towards more of a passive audit of it than actively participating. I don't expect I would have any problem doing the the equations, but it remains to be seen if I will really care to do them. Similarly, while I am sure there is a lot of underlying science knowledge I could learn from the course, the depth of what they are presenting may exceed my level of interest. I am happy to learn the science if/when it furthers my culinary "skills" (such as they are), but I am not as interested in leveraging my interest in cooking to further my general science knowledge. Thus far the course seems to be focused on the latter more than the former, but perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised. Who knows, I might end up being more interested in the science than I expect. This is the first edX course I have taken and the one thing that bothers me is that I haven't been able to find a detailed listing of the length of each video for the week/module. I believe all of the Coursera courses I have taken have had those details readily available. That info helps me gauge my progress and re-adjust the amount I need to complete the material for the week/module. Has anyone else seen anything like that for this course? Perhaps I am just missing it.

Or they don't worry about it at all and the children go hungry through no fault of their own. People should take proper responsibility, but they aren't always going to do it (or they may suddenly find themselves without the means to do it). These programs didn't create these problems, they were created to address problems that were already long established. It would be nice if there wasn't a need to help people get enough to eat, but I don't think that is the case.

I think we may be reaching the point of agreeing to disagree. The review article I quoted says, "Restrictions on SNAP and similar benefits have been criticized for singling out and stigmatizing poor families, potentially discouraging them from participating in government benefits programs [58,63]." The first reference is the article @DiggingDogFarm quoted and the the second is another by the same author. The abstract of the first citation says "Other objections question the equity of excluding sweetened beverages from SNAP; these objections are important but not ethically decisive." The second reaches a very similar conclusion. So yes, be careful, but those concerns need not be an ethical barrier to reform. Plenty of other references support the dietary benefits of reducing SSB intake. Of course there is no such thing as 100% conclusive research (e.g. climate change) - especially in an area such as this. I personally tend to believe these arguments and that the SSB industry is going to leverage whatever angles it can to maintain their profits. With that said, some will use the statistic that started this discussion to build support to to eliminate or significantly cut funding for the SNAP program. I am 100% against that. I am open to compromising on well reasoned reforms though - especially if the compromises are necessary to maintain overall support for SNAP and similar programs. [potentially inflammatory political comment self-censored here] FWIW, I very much enjoy Coke, but I generally don't drink it very often because I suspect my enjoyment is far outweighed by the deleterious health effects of freely consuming it. That notion has recently been reinforced by Gary Taubes. His book, The Case Against Sugar, has just been released so he has been appearing in the media a lot lately. I haven't read the book (yet) but I heard an lengthy interview with him somewhere. I can't imagine completely eliminating sugar in my diet, but there does seem to be a large body of evidence to support at least reducing sugar intake. I think about it whenever I reach for the sugar, but I still reach for it.

Here is a more recent and broader review article from a top-shelf journal: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494810/ It seems there is a good case for restricting these purchases in the SNAP program (and elsewhere).

I certainly don't make my own cheese, nor do I make crackers, tortilla chips, or can my own tomatoes and vegetables. Of course I realize one can make them from scratch and many do on a regular basis (especially bread), but I consider such things pantry staples and not "prepared foods". To me, prepared foods are generally heat and eat or ready to eat foods. In the past year, I have bought some frozen ravioli and perhaps a few potato or rice side dish packets/boxes for convenience, but I think that is about it. I do buy breakfast cereal on a fairly regular basis (the un-fun types) so I guess I should count that too. With that said, I dine out at least once a week and get takeout 2 or 3 times a month. I usually only cook actual meals on weekends and holidays. My weekday schedule is fairly irregular and I typically get home too late to do much beyond raiding the fridge. Usually that means leftovers from the weekend or maybe something I've pulled from the freezer in advance. When they run out, I either improvise something quick and simple or grab takeout.

I completely understand the frustration and anger that is often engendered by statistics such as these - as well as by anecdotal reports of abuse. With that said, these are complex issues. Add to that the fact that incentives to do or not do something are very tricky animals. They rarely exist without unintended and/or unexpected consequences. It strikes me as less than ideal for soft drinks to be the most popular category of purchases in this program and it seems like a good thing to try to avoid it if possible. Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, one has to be very careful how you try to accomplish that goal. Any program is susceptible to being gamed in some way and it is likely impossible to design a program that can't be gamed in any significant way; however, I believe even the worst instances of abuse are relatively small in comparison to the benefit that is delivered as intended. I think we would all be thrilled if government in general was able to operate within 10-20% of the ideal effectiveness and efficiency (whatever that might be). If you click the USDA report link and download the appendices, there is a far more detailed list of subcategory rankings. It is shocking how similar they are between SNAP and non-SNAP households - with one glaring exception: Infant Formula Starter/Solution ranks #10 for SNAP households and #190 for non-SNAP households. I think that item alone goes a long way to show that people who need help are being helped as intended and they are not simply wasting the support they are receiving.

Good to know. Thanks much.

I am almost ashamed to post this after @jmacnaughtan's fantastic looking cheeses, but while I was waiting for my tire installation at Costco I discovered my store is now stocking Sartori Raspberry BellaVitano for $7 or $8 a pound. I think I paid about twice that last time I purchased it. They have had the merlot variety for some time and it is good, but I greatly prefer this one. As is often the case, I ended up in a line of huge carts full of food while checking out with one item. I almost always get a comment or a look from the person checking me out when I have just one small item.

@jmacnaughtan goat cheeses are hit and miss with me (largely miss), but I am hard pressed not to enjoy any blue nor amarone. Wish I was there!