jedovaty

Hi: Are there other sources of cacao beans, butter, etc, besides chocolate alchemy for the home chocolate maker in the US? Or just being able to source no more than a couple pounds with variety. Clearly a much smaller market than green coffee Thank you for your time!

Hi, I tried from-cold fry with potatoes, confirmed, worked well, so far the crispiest fries I've been able to make, including the double and triple-cooked methods, freezing, etc. Super easy for a single portion! 😁

Hmm okay thank you all, I will give it a go next time I get potatoes. I'd actually like to try this with wings (I prefer them without batter/breading/coating). And curiosity leads me to wonder whether battered goods would work, too, probably not.

Last week while perusing the dinner thread for both inspiration, appetite building, and awe (you all are so friggin' awesome), I learned about the thrice-cooked fries at chefsteps through this post by @btbyrd. I have yet to be successful making fries (heck, I'm terrible with fried foods for some reason, just don't "get it"!). Researching the chefsteps recipe made me hopeful I could finally overcome the frying hurdle. End result? Disappointing. The fries tasted great - note that I don't like potatoes - but they were not crispy. They retained a hard shell initially, but after a few minutes they were soft everywhere... except along the edges! My process was nearly identical to what they did, except I used corn syrup for glucose (same thing, right?) and I vacuum sealed in mason jars instead of bags. Fried at lower temp, then freezer for 18 hours. Pictures attached. I'm not looking to troubleshoot what went wrong right now, but rather, I'd like to hear your opinion on this other method I learned yesterday, where you start with the potatoes in cold oil, and bring them up to temperature. There's no blanching, freezing, double/triple cooking, etc. I am curious to try it, given the simplicity, however, I'm concerned they'll be very oily, with the assumption that foods in oil temps below 350F absorb the oil... If it works, then it seems like a great method for the occasional single serving of fries. Thoughts on this one-step method? Thanks for your time

@jimb0 sorry for not being clear, I did not like the flavor imparted by the dried parm into the red sauce at all - just not my thing

Facial scrub with sugar, olive and castor oils? Umami-cleansed pores are the future.

I've made udon noodles a few times this week now, they are my new favorite. The noodle uses 50% fresh milled sonora wheat, bolted to reduce brand and graininess. Delicious stuff. Here's a curry udon soup BTW, stirring the roux for 20 minutes, what a PITA!

I saved ends and bits of parmesan for precisley this purpose, and put a small, 1 year old piece in a recent batch of red sauce. It was rather unpleasant, definitely not my thing. That said, I wouldn't steer anyone away from trying this, as I can see how some might like it. So, use this as a gentle caution and try with something small just in case you might not like it. @TdeV make lots of cheese bread or pao de quiejo! Or dog/cat treats! It'll be a workout grating it, maybe the food processor would come in handy.

@JoNorvelleWalker and @Tri2Cook thanks. I couldn't find my blade grinder, and was looking to do a very small quantity, so seems like this would be a bad way to go. I rarely do spice grinds, so was looking to use something I already had in the house (way too lazy to use the m&p). Ended up borrowing a relative's blade grinder. They work all right sifting.

Have any of you used one to grind down dry spices only? Is there a drawback to this? I tried an internet search, and all I found was "it can't do it".. but I don't understand why. I know these can be used for making curry pastes and things, which I've done, but haven't tried dry grinding. In another thread, I read some people use it on sugar only to break it down to powdered sugar, so... ???

Laminated doughs so far including yeasted, reverse puff, and even the asian-style oiled doughs. I also had luck rolling oats. 😁 I tried rolling out noodle dough but it didn't work well, so I'm sticking to the pasta roller. When I first started using the roller, I used parchment paper on the board that came with it, and it was a rather unpleasant, messy experience. I'm still procrastinating this purchase haha :p, but mostly because the weather's warmed up.

The others are teasing, but I hear you loud and clear 🖖

I gave this a go with some cacio e pepe last night. Eerrrrrmmmm.... after searching around, I chose 60g romano, 60g water, and the homemade 2.8g sodium citrate (made about a year ago) for my ~150g egg noodles (1 egg, 70g ap, 30g semolina). This was default for mac-n-cheese. The sauce was so smooth out of the pan, but once plated it cooled down and there were small glops of very soft cheese between some noodles and mostly on my plate, with no actual sauce. Its texture was between havarti and brie. Should I have chosen fondue? Hmm. The world of melty cheese foods is quite befuddling.

Pinch of salt into porridge or sweet foods, pinch of cayenne into savory foods, pinch of brown sugar into chili, etc. It's not to taste lemon, it's an enhancer, like teo said. When grocery store shopping returns to normal and I can get the ingredients I don't have, I want to give these a try as written, and if they are good, I'll do more batches one without lemon and one with another acid (vinegar, citric, tartaric, whatever feels easy). If no one does it before me, then I'll share findings. Why is no one talking about the low baking temp?! It's very suspect!

Okay, that's what I was afraid of, I don't have much experience with melted cheese foods in the home. I did a brief search earlier for recipes (not here) and most used volume measurements, so I'll just have to try harder and look for mass, or, do the measurements ahead of time. I miss the days when my mac-n-cheese was simply grating colby-jack on warm elbow noodles.

How do you know how much cheese you want to use for the dish if you are not following an actual recipe and just winging it? For example, mac-n-cheese. Say I have 200g noodles. Or 364g noodles. I can plug the numbers into the calculator, but I don't know.. 120g cheese, 200g cheese, 30g cheese? Hmmm.

Dude, it's a lot easier to just cut a lemon, and let it turn into a science experiment 😁 In this case, with this forum, people will want a fancy ice-pick to chip away and get 1/4tsp from the frozen cube. 😜 Up until about a year ago I would've thought that it contributes nothing. However, last year some forum got me curious about chili (which I don't like to begin with), and after reviewing some "award winning recipes" I believed the addition of 1/4tsp brown sugar amongst a *massive* spice bomb with extra MSG, all the meats, dg-al-a-peenose [sic], etc to be a ridiculously stupid recipe item. To confirm my ever wise wisdom, while making my first ever award-winning-recipe chili, I split the batch off into three: no sugar, scaled 1/4tsp and one which I gradually increased the amount of sugar over the course of the cook until it was cloying. Surprisingly, it made a difference, especially once cooled to warm temps - a justifiable amount was, indeedly-doodly, somewhere between 1/4-1tsp! I still don't like chili. Perhaps the suggestion of using vinegar would work. Or, other alternatives, maybe a little yogurt, butter milk, pinch of citric or tartaric acid, etc.. ;D But don't omit it. The Hiltons are watching! 😈

THANK YOU. When the recipe was released, despite being thankful for another cookie recipe, I was disgruntled with the video in that the baker clearly was using weights but the instructions used volume. I don't like volume 😛 I've been wanting to make these, but don't have walnuts. The cookie seems like a "let's throw all the good things together" cookie. Has anyone noticed the low baking temp?

I did not know that, thank you I will try it next time I give mac n cheese a go

With a name like FeChef, you've probably already considered adding a slice or two of processed cheese to the sauce? I'm presenting this in the unlikely event you hadn't already heard of it. If you've tried it, I'd be curious to hear your impression. I haven't tried it, but read it works similar to, if not just like, sodium citrate. Discerning palatte might taste it, though? I should try. Guilty pleasure of mine, don't judge me, I prefer american cheese on burgers... 😶 I've been largely unsuccessful with smooth cheese sauces, probably because I'm making them wrong. My statement here isn't to look for a way to fix this and I'll try again some other day, but rather, let's focus on why does a roux make the sauce grainy? I've not understood that, the science behind it. Actually.. now that I think of it.. a creme pat made with flour IS grainy.. WOAH. 🤯 Rambling: when I made creme pat a few times for eclairs and choux, I thought to myself, this is exactly like pudding (americanski definition, not british), but uses flour instead of cornstarch. I was disappointed by the texture everytime...!

You can sort of do similar recipes that you would with cornstarch or arrowroot, so I guess.. uhmm... pudding? Oh! You can make the boba teas. A quick search shows crepes are popular, too.

Now compare cassava flour with all purpose or bread flour

In case anyone this helps anyone: - Cassava flour is the flour from the cassava root - Tapioca flour is the same thing as tapioca starch is the same thing as cassava starch; all are derived from the cassava root, they are the extracted starch from cassava - Manioc is also from cassava, however, it's somewhat unclear to me whether "flour" is actually cassava flour or tapioca starch, or the fermented starch, the terms seems to vary depending what country and even region recipes you read

Happy to help, but note the eggs.. I originally put 2 eggs, it's what I had in memory, but I'm pretty sure it should be 1 for 200g after rewatching the video. If that's too dry the first time, then use 2 next time

Oh... one more thing! Cassava flour is amazing stuff. Make tortillas with it, using baker's math, do 80% hydration + 20% fat. So, 100g cassava flour, 80g water, 20g fat (duck, coconut, lard, butter, olive oil, ghee, etc). Or.. was it 60% hydration plus 20% fat? I forget, sorry. But I think both should work. Mix up, let rest a little wrapped in plastic, divide, smush out, roll on parchment, and dry-fry for some amazingly decadent tortillas. It helps if the liquid/fat is heated to HOT or even boiling, but not necessary. Be careful, cassava is extremely calorie rich... 🤤