slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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I'd have to imagine that a really well made, professional quality, stainless rotary grater would cost $50+. But maybe I'll wander by Bridge and try one of those.
There's some question in my mind as to whether there is a great deal of demand for a really well made stainless rotary cheese grater for professional use. I can't say that I recall seeing a lot of the rotary type in use in restaurants. The kitchen, of course, is likely to bulk grate for their use (perhaps on a daily basis). I'd guess that the vast majority of restaurants in the States offering "would you like some parmesan cheese on that?" are spooning from a bowl of pre-grated cheese, and most of the others are using a regular plane-style grater. I've had cheese grated for me at the table out of a rotary grater probably less than 5 times.
There's also the fact that the vast majority of restaurants aren't spending more money for equipment that's made better and made to last. As you know, the most common pan to be found in restaurants is the battered, warped, blackened raw aluminum frypan.
. . . All of which is to say that a "really well made, professional quality, stainless rotary grater" simply may not exist.
What do you like using this style of grater for? Just hard "grating cheeses," or do you also like to use it for things like cheddar and mozzarella?
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Is this what you're looking for?
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It has pretty wide availability at all the good liquor stores, for example:
Astor has Asyla, Hedonism, Spice Tree, Peat Monster and Oak Cross.
Sherry-Lehmann has Hedinism, Peat Monster and Eleuthera.
Park Avenue Liquor has Hedonism, Asyla, Peat Monster, Eleuthera, Oak Cross, Spice Tree and Orangerie.
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The 1828 Webster's dictionary defines offal as: "Waste meat; the parts of an animal butchered which are unfit for use or rejected."
The current (10th) edition of Webster's has it as: "1 : the waste or by-product of a process: as a : trimmings of a hide b : the by-products of milling used especially for stock feeds c : the viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal removed in dressing : VARIETY MEAT"
The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the word origins as: "1398, "waste parts, refuse," from off + fall; the notion being that which "falls off" the butcher's block; perhaps a translation of M.Du. afval."
Edited to remove bizzare quote that somehow got into the original.
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I've had the sandwich at La Foccacceria. It's awesome.
Since there has been a little in-thread discussion of what constitutes offal, I'd say that the easiest definition would be the "fifth quarter" -- which is to say, all the stuff that's left over after the animal is separated into the four primary quarters of muscle meat. This would include the organs and glands, of course, but would also include things like tendons, blood, feed, head, ears, nervous tissue, etc. -- and, of course, the products made from them, like scrapple, blood sausage, haggis, head cheese, pölsa, etc.
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IMO the Fee's lemon bitters doesn't really have the complexity you'd like to have in a straight bitters. I see it as more of an "accent bitters" -- which is to say, something I might use in single dashes to accompany another bitters I'm already using in the drink.
Edit to add a note that this is my 7,000th post.
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I've spent considerable time in Le Marche, in both the mountains (Urbino) and on the coast (Pesaro) -- although both are in the North of the zone. I'll see if I can contribute any information.
The one dish that comes to mind when I think of the mountains is pollo in friccò. This more or less consists of chicken which is browned in olive oil, then braised in white wine with fresh rosemary, garlic and juniper berries. The way I was taught to make it, you keep only a shallow layer of white wine boiling furiously over high heat, and replenish as necessary. When a bottle of wine is boiled away, the chicken is ready. Grocery stores would package cut-up chickens together with fresh rosemary, garlic and juniper berries "ready for friccò."
The cooking by the coast, as you may imagine, is quite different. I had a lot of fritto misto out there. One thing that I thought was interesting and unusual is that, in the locals' seafood restaurants I frequented where one price got you everything, they typically served many different small dishes as the antipasto. There is also a tradition there of serving seafood with fresh pasta, which is not the common practice throughout Italy.
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What he said. The best thing to serve with risotto is a nice glass of wine.
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Baggy, what vacuum sealer are you using? My FoodSaver Professional III doesn't do well with liquids, but I always just use the trick of freezing he liquid (this works just fine with olive oil) and vacuuming the bag while the liquid is still frozen.
Anyway, 400 ml doesn't sound like a small amount of oilve oil to me (that's around 1.7 cups), and I'd also worry that stacking fillets one on top of the other would mean that some surfaces wouldn't be covered by the oil. But I can see your point regarding your cost when using the cheap oil. I tend to use a significantly higher quality extra virgin olive oil for this.
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When I mentioned ‘direct contact’ I meant was that the food is in contact with the water or oil and not packed sous vide. I generally put the items with water/oil in a gastronorm pan just so I don’t have to clean out the water bath.
Makes sense with respect to water. For me, however, it doesn't make sense to do it this way when using oil. If I want fish slow poached in extra virgin olive oil it takes (at least) a cup of oil to completely submerge the piece of fish. And then, when you're done cooking the fish, you have a cup of fish-infused oil you have to throw away. On the other hand, I can seal as little as a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil in a bag with a piece of fish, and the fish will be completely surrounded by the oil on every side. The great thing is that the fish doesn't know the difference.
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that gomme arabic is massively expensive and cost prohibitive to your syrups....thats probably why no one really uses the real stuff.
I see some gum arabic right here at around 22 bucks for a pound. Considering the amounts one is likely to use, that doesn't strike me as prohibitively expensive. Isn't the classic gomme syrup also supersaturated?
Here is Dave's recipe from the (currently offline) Esquire pages:
To make it, slowly stir 1 pound gum arabic into one pint distilled water and let soak for a day or two. When this solution is ready, bring four pounds sugar and one quart distilled water to a boil, add the gum solution and skim off the foam. Let it cool, filter it through cheesecloth and bottle it.I assume one could make an even more concentrated syrup, if desired.
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What's the theory behind the 52C pre-treatments for the broccoli and cabbage? What is is supposed to do? Is this something you read about, or something you came up with on your own?
Also, when you say "direct contact in a gastronorm pan," does this mean you have the vegetables in the same water as the circulator? Or that you have the vegetables in a water-filled gastronorm pan that is sitting in/heated by the water bath?
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a syrup that i've been using regularly is my fake arabic gomme syrup. finding a substitute for arabic gum was one of the biggest culinary related industrial quests of the late nineteenth century.... the solution....maltodextrin!
I don't see it on their web site, but I believe Kalustyan's sells gum arabic. There are also other places where you can buy it. So, no reason to make a fake gomme syrup.
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I make a std mix of 99% fat free ground turkey (2-3 lbs) add 1 egg and 1 white, lots of parm reggiano (sometimes cheddar or grated raclette) and about the same amount of bread crumbs I'd use to make meatballs. I form a log with saran wrap then vacuum over the top of that. In about 2-3 hours, the texture may seem slightly rubbery, but it's tasty, low fat, microwaveble, and can be spiced in just about any style you desire. I've done the quick outside sear in evoo for color or even bruleed with my benzomatic torch. Maybe not so far away from eraser as you would like but I try to eat healthy half of the time.
Very cool. What temp do you do? 65C or so?
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Well, I was speaking of the whole sous-vide shebang which, to my mind, has to include the precise temperature control. Simply boiling something in a bag doesn't seem to offer the home cook too many advantages over non-bagged methods.
Puisque nous écrivons en Anglais, nous pouvons dire "quotidian," en Anglais, au lieu de "quotidien," en Français.
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The point of cutting against the grain is to sever the muscle fibers into managable pieces. Otherwise the meat ends up tough and stringy.
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Could you describe your turkey meatloaf procedure? I assume the point of doing it with turkey and sous vide is to make it lower in fat? Ground turkey always ends up so dry, and I've been trying to figure out a way to make turkey meatloaf that doesn't turn out like a pencil eraser.
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Prices vary widely depending on condition and technology. I got mine fully cleaned and reconditioned for around $500. But they can be had uncleaned and un-reconditioned for less, and in anolog for a lot less.
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The only curcumstance in which a salt mill makes any sense at all is to dispense superfine sea salt when seasoning to individual tastes at the table.
Preground superfine salt has a tendency to clump in the shaker unless it is combined with an anticaking agent like sodium alumino-silicate. These anticaking agents are not usually used in superfine salts (they're usually found only in regular table salt size), and also some people don't like the flavor of the anticaking agents or the added potassium iodide.
Also, it is very easy to control the "dose" of salt with a salt mill whereas salt shakers can be extremely variable in that regard, being especially prone to pouring out too much superfine salt per "shake."
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This phenomenon is called "boar taint".
Hmm. I always thought "boar taint" was what they made sausage out of.
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Now that we have a number of home cooks who have invested in various levels of sous vide technology, I'm wondering how often we use our machines and for what purpose. Sure, it's great that we can make those 48 hour short ribs and salmon mi cuit and all that, but these aren't the kinds of projects one is likely to do on a weekly basis.
Lately, I've been using my rig (Lauda digital recirculating water bath heater, 5 gallon stock pot, FoodSaver Professional III) to make lunchmeat for the week. I'll pick up a turkey or chicken breast, a pork loin, a brisket, beef roast, or whatever looks good and is on sale, vacuum bag it with salt and whatever other flavorings suit my fancy, cook it in the water bath as appropriate, toss the bag into an ice bath to cool down and then into the fridge. I usually do this on Sunday evenings, and on Monday morning I pull the bag out of the fridge, slice up the meat, and I have incredible sandwich meat for the rest of the week. This is not only a huge savings over buying sandwich meat at the deli counter, but there's just no way Boar's Head can ever compete with what I can make at home. What's nice also is that it's a complete snap to do sous vide -- easier than any other method, really.
Anyone else use their sous vide setup for mundane everyday stuff like that?
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The public untimately decides the success or failure of just about anything.
While this is often true, I wouldn't say that it's universally true. For example, the music critic for the Boston Globe more or less ran conductor Erich Leinsdorf out of town.
I suppose one could also say that Mimi's right, if her point is that Bruni has the last word with respect to his validation of Chodorow's work.
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Of course he's in it for the money. Ultimately, they're all in it for the money. If there's one measure that the culinary arts haven't reached the same level as the classical arts, it's that people aren't willing to do it as a money-losing venture just so it can be done.
I'd say that what's reasonable is whatever one plans to make on these ventures. I'm quite sure that Chodorow has charted out what he feels would be an reasonably good return on this investment.
I broke my Zyliss grater
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
I think the Oxo Seal & Store Rotary Grater looks pretty good for that kind of home use.