slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Notwithstanding the OP's use of the word "spaghetti" (which I recall from my first reading of this thread, if it makes any difference) and deliberate melodrama aside, the title of the thread made it quite clear and continues to make it quite clear, along with his follow-up post, that the OP is asking about fresh pasta and not dry pasta. That there is, technically, no such thing as "fresh spaghetti" is neither here nor there.
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If you need a summary:
1 lb fresh = 1 lb dry, because a pound is a pound is a pound
Well... not exactly. A pound of pasta asciutta has virtually no water content. It's all semolina flour. A pound of pasta fresca has quite a bit of water content from the egg, water or other liquid ingredient that was used to moisten the dough. This is why uncooked pasta asciutta is hard and stiff and takes a long time to cook whereas uncooked pasta fresca is soft and flexible and takes very little time to cook. Since a pound of uncooked pasta asciutta contains more dry ingredient than a pound of uncooked pasta fresca, the pound of pasta asciutta will weigh more than the pound of pasta fresca once they are both cooked (this is also due to the fact that pasta asciutta absorbs considerable liquid as it cooks whereas pasta fresca does not).
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This all depends on what style/effect you're going for and what equipment you're using.
For thin crust pizzas cooked at high heat, I prefer San Marzano (or other high quality canned) tomatoes, drained and lightly crushed along with coarse salt and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil. No cooking required, as the heat of the oven takes care of that.
Other people like a cooked pizza sauce with lots of dried basil and oregano, garlic, etc. This is similar to what you'd get at a deck-oven "pizza parlor."
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And what's the correlation between WATTS and BTU's? I know how to think in BTU's, but gas WATTS??
Have a look here for a page where you can convert BTUs to kilowatt hours and watt hours, etc. For example, a 30,000 BTU stove burner is also a 8,792 watt hour stove burner (not to mention a 31650000 joule, 7560 kilocalorie or 6.863 pounds of TNT stove burner).
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Right. Something like immitating the distinctive viral logo and design of a big chain is one thing. That's easy to understand. You can't be like Cleo McDowell and say: "Look... me and the McDonald's people got this little misunderstanding. See, they're McDonald's... I'm McDowell's. They got the Golden Arches, mine is the Golden Arcs. They got the Big Mac, I got the Big Mick. We both got two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions, but their buns have sesame seeds. My buns have no seeds."
This case seems a little less clear-cut to me. Like Nathan, I doubt it will go to trial. But it would be cool if it did. And I do think it's likely a matter of time before someone attempts to sue someone else for "copying" or "stealing" a recipe (which could include distinctive plating, etc.).
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eas, I think there needs to be maraschino in there for that to be an Aviation. The ur-Aviation did contain some crème de violette, but I think the primary modifier was still maraschino.
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A few answers to Nathan's points:
- Pearl Oyster Bar is, to a certain extent, an "upscale NYC take" on New England beachside cookery. She's making lobster rolls and fried clams.
- Anyone who would confuse Ed's Lobster Bar with Pearl Oyster Bar would also confuse, say, Wolfgang's with Smith & Wollensky.
- As the article points out, there are already several other Pearl Oyster Bar knockoffs (e.g., Mary's Fish Camp).
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We've had a number of threads here on restaurants, recipes, cuisine and intellectual property rights. Here is a representative example.
Now, it appears that someone is going to test intellectual property law as it relates to restaurants and cuisine. Pete Wells in the New York Times tells us that Rebecca Charles or Pearl Oyster Bar is going to sue Ed McFarland for copying her restaurant in creating his "knock-off" restaurant, Ed's Lobster Bar.
The suit, which seeks unspecified financial damages from Mr. McFarland and the restaurant itself, charges that Ed’s Lobster Bar copies “each and every element” of Pearl Oyster Bar, including the white marble bar, the gray paint on the wainscoting, the chairs and bar stools with their wheat-straw backs, the packets of oyster crackers placed at each table setting and the dressing on the Caesar salad.Mr. McFarland would not comment on the complaint, saying that he had not seen it yet. But he said that Ed’s Lobster Bar, which opened in March, was no imitator.
“I would say it’s a similar restaurant,” he said, “I would not say it’s a copy.”
Lawyers for Ms. Charles, 53, said that what Ed’s Lobster Bar had done amounted to theft of her intellectual property — the kind of claim more often seen in publishing and entertainment, or among giant restaurant chains protecting their brand.
In recent years, a handful of chefs and restaurateurs have invoked intellectual property concepts, including trademarks, patents and trade dress — the distinctive look and feel of a business — to defend their restaurants, their techniques and even their recipes, but most have stopped short of a courtroom.
If this suit moves forward, it will be very interesting to see how the courts view this kind of intellectual property.
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As far as I can tell, rules for this kind of thing change all the time according to the whim of the USDA and politicians. But a cursory google search for the string "imported pancetta" reveals plenty of people who claim to be selling it or using it. And, of course, there are plenty of things you can get (like <60 days aged raw milk cheese) if you know where to shop.
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Interesting article on bitters in today's NY Times: A Bit of History, Reborn in a Glass, by Roh Willey
The article more or less follows two threads about bitters today. One thread is about the re-emergence of bitters as a central cocktail ingredient that is happening as part of the nascent cocktail renaissance. More and more cocktail bars are stocking multiple brands of bitters (many of them house-made or privately-sources), and cocktailians view bitters as an integral part of mixology. The first bar in NYC to feature an extensive collection of bitters was likely Pegu Club, where Audrey Saunders also has an interesting and unique take in the other direction by featuring multiple single-flavor tinctures, which we might view as breaking down bitters into their component flavors. Another bar with a large bitters collection is Death & Company, where head bartender Phil Ward is an expert in matching bitters to different spirits and cocktails:
"It’s almost like glue that holds a cocktail together," said Philip Ward, the head bartender at Death & Co., in the East Village, where 17 of the 37 house drinks include bitters. "Add a dash, and the other three or four ingredients in the cocktail are in some way going to be able to relate with at least one or two things in the bitters."The challenge is figuring out which bitters form the strongest bond in a given drink. "I think that’s why bitters are so cool," Mr. Ward said. "You don’t really know what they do. You just find out what they do by using them."
There's also another thread throughout the article, concerning the efforts of our own John "johnder" Deragon at formulating a recreation of Abbott's bitters.
LAST October, John Deragon began tinkering with a recipe for Abbott’s bitters, a cocktail ingredient that has beguiled drinks fanatics for years. Over the next two months, Mr. Deragon, the chief technology officer of Waterfront Media, an online health and wellness company in Brooklyn, tweaked the formula drop by drop, using single-spice infusions known as tinctures. After about 18 test runs, he had a version he thought he could work with, and by March he was aging his second batch in a five-gallon rye whiskey barrel purchased from a distillery in upstate New York.John can (and hopefully will) fill us in more on his bitters experimentations. All I can say is that I've got several of John's bitters in my home bar, and they're all outstanding. The Abbott's in particular is delicious, and several NYC cocktail spots have his bitters behind the bar.
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In NYC, the source for guanciale is Salumeria Biellese. They make their own, and it's as good as any I've had anywhere.
I want to mention that DiPalo's carries guanciale as well - it's from the Iowa farm called La Quercia...
Yea, I've had their guanciale as well as some from various Arthur Avenue vendors. I've bought imported chunks from Italy. You can even get guanciale at Fairway. It's all good. I mean, it's guanciale, rightt? What's not to like?
What, in my mind, makes the guanciale from Salumeria Biellese stand out is that it has a funkier, more "fermented" flavor than any of the other examples I've sampled in the NYC area -- and to my palate, it's not a particularly subtle difference. That "fermented funk" (which is also what distinguishes some of the best salumi at Lupa from other local examples) is what made me fall in love with guanciale, so that's what I look for.
Perhaps we should have a guaniale tasting?
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The future Mrs. slkinsey is quite the fan of crab legs and all things crab.
Any good places for crab in the City?
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In no particular order:
- gnocchi di patate
- real Gratin Dauphinois
- potato puree
Part of my criteria was for dishes that preserve the "potato-ness" and actually taste of potato. Things like Belgian-style frites and latkes -- both things I love dearly -- don't taste of potato so much as they taste of "fried."
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Yea. That, to me, is one of the funny things about panchan. You get all these interesting non-American things, but then you're likely to get cubed potatoes with peas, corn and mayonnaise that would be right at home at an Asheville church picnic, or maybe salad greens dressed with the ubiquitous balsamic vinaigrette.
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And let's not forget potato salad!
Actually, one of my favorites is something that seems like it's made with raw or partially cooked potato shreds.
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Warehouse Wines & Spirits is at 735 Broadway, between Waverly and 8th.
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The amount of detergent I used is so small (1/2 teaspoon or perhaps less in a large kitchen sink full of water) that I would bet I could have not rinsed at all. It might have had a bit of a funny taste, which can also be true of things soaked in VeggieWash and not sufficiently rinsed, but I don't think it would have made me sick. I'll give it a try and see how it goes. What other things should I try? Blackberries? Broccoli? Lettuce? Anything else?
The point of all this, for me anyway, is that I suspect two things: 1. that using small amounts of surfactant does result in cleaner fruit and vegetables, and 2. that when it really comes down to it, these vegetable washes amount to extremely dilute (and expensive) detergent.
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Heh! I'd say I like a half-ounce of St. Germain with around 3 ounces of gin (see my Elderflower Julep above), but I've found that a half-ounce of St. Germain does work well with only two ounces of other spirits (rye in particular). Don't know why it seems too sweet to me at 4:1 with dry white spirits.
Sticking with my recent Julep kick, I recently did one with 2 Rittenhouse, 1/2 St. Germain and a float of Lagavullin. Was pretty good.
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So... I did an experiment. Came home from the cheap Korean-owned, Mexican-staffed fruit stand on my corner with a big bag of citrus: a dozen juice oranges, a half-dozen grapefruits and a half-dozen limes (all for around 7 bucks, which is why I love this place). Filled up the sink with cold water, added around a half-teaspoon of Dawn dishwashing liquid, swished it around and dumped in the citrus.
The water took on a greyish cast almost immediately. I rubbed each piece of fruit with my hands under the water. Interestingly, each one felt a little slippery when I started rubbing it, but after a few moments became slightly tacky. This felt like (and I assume it was) something washing off the outside of the fruit. I drained the sink, sprayed off the fruit and refilled the sink halfway for a final rinse. The outside of the fruit now has the non-shiny appearance of unwaxed fruit friends with citrus trees have given me from time to time. I licked the outside of one orange, and it didn't taste of soap at all.
A very mild solution of Dawn and water seemed to do the trick, and washed away easily. I think I may start doing this with some of my vegetables.
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I can only speak for myself, but here's my experience with the Edge Pro:
I own a very large set of custom-made and antique carbon steel knives. I'd assume that most anyone who was willing to shell out for an EdgePro at least has Wusthoff or Global knives, or something like that. These are perfectly good knives, used by famous chefs around the world.
When I bought my EdgePro, I spent around 20 minutes looking over the instructions, set it up and began sharpening. I had a hair-shaving edge on my very first try. Can't say that my technique with the Edge Pro has "improved" too terribly much with experience, because it really is that simple.
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Manhattan real estate is too valuable, and the demand is too high for ethnic restaurants that largely serve ethnic populations (as opposed to ethnic restaurants that serve foods with more widespread popularity) to stick around for very long after the target ethnic population moves away.
The reason the classic Jewish places are disappearing from the Lower East Side (and let's not forget Ratner's!) is because the Jews disappeared from the Lower East Side long ago. The Jewish places that remain there are largely vestigial -- kept alive by non-Jews, tourists and nostalgia visits back to the old neighborhood or, in the case of Katz's, because they are best-in-category for a food that has attained mainstream popularity.
East Harlem up around 118th Street used to be Italian. Same thing happened up there. Now it's Patsy's, Rao's and that's it.
Aren't there new Jewish shops, restaurants and bakeries springing up in the current neighborhoods with a high density of religious Jews? To a certain extent, I wonder why places like Gertel's don't play "follow the Jews" and move out to someplace like Boro Park.
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Strangely, I find the idea of egg salad revolting. Too squishy.
On the other hand, I love a sandwich made with sliced hard boiled eggs in the middle and lots of mayonnaise spread on each slice of bread.
So eggs + mayo squished together in advance and put on bread == revolting. Eggs sliced and places on bread coated with mayo and squished together by mouth == delicious.
Exactly!!! But, I'm telling you, there's something about the saladification process that makes egg salad more squishy than sliced eggs.
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It should be noted that there are two kinds of people when it comes to high-end home sharpening. There are people who just want to have a great edge on their knives, and are looking for the easiest and most effective way of getting one. And then there are people for whom home sharpening is a hobby in and of itself. Those in the former camp are likely to appreciate the EdgePro, because it's the easiest way to get an amazing edge without going to the time and trouble to develop a new skill that doesn't particularly interest them. Those in the latter camp -- the sharpening hobbyists who are likely to touch up their knives on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis -- are going to gravitate towards freehand sharpening and things like Japanese water stones.
Personally, I can't be bothered to acquire the skills that would allow me to effectively sharpen (and not ruin) my knives freehand. All I really care about is that I have a nice sharp edge at the angle and degree of polish I want. If there was a home machine that did that, I'd use it.
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fwiw, my typical Aviation is 4:1:1, and I might sometimes split the sweet component 2:1 between Luxardo and creme de violette.
Vitamins: Tablet form
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Unless you have a vitamin deficiency, your body absorbs maybe 10-15% of the vitamins from a tablet, and excretes the rest in the urine. My understanding is that those of us lucky enough to live in the Western World are not likely to suffer from nutritional defficiencies unless our food consumption is significantly reduced (say, less than 1,500 kilocalories per day).
I only take multivitamin tablets if I have reason to suspect that I may have a temporary vitamin shortage (most often, this means taking one with a big glass of water after I've spent a long evening indulging my cocktail-related interests).