slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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m-w.com didn't help me with "flocculate."
It didn't?
Flocculate means, roughly, "to aggregate into a mass formed of a number of fine suspended particles."
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Right. Doppel Bock is a dark, very rich and malty German beer. Dubbel is a pale, ester-ey, light but often surprisingly alcoholic Belgian beer. Two totally different beers.
For the record, there are two main types of beer: Ale is fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast that flocculates on the surface of the liquid. Lager is fermented with Saccharomyces uvarum (once known as Saccharomyces carlsbergenisis) yeast that flocculates on the bottom of the fermenter. Lager is also lagered, which means that it is aged at low temperature for a period of time. Both ale and lager are beer.
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That's an interesting question. Part of it, I think, is that they don't really care about the sandwiches that much. It's more or less totally divorced from the restaurant salume business (many, perhaps most of the good Italian places in NYC get their salume from Salumeria Biellese). My guess is that it exists as a working man's lunch counter as an afterthought just because they happen to have a street-level place in an area where they can do some business. FWIW, I've had a perfectly acceptable, if not exceptional meatball hero there.
Take it from me... buy a guanciale from them and make yourself some bucatini all'Amatricana. Then you'll see the light.
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Lenny's on 98th and Broadway boils, AFAIK. But, needless to say there is more to a top-rate bagel.
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But, if you go the small counter furthest from the door, you can order their excellent salume by the pound (most of which are not available on sandwiches, AFAIK).
aha! Still, I will not be back.
As a lunch counter, they're mediocre. But still... if you want guanciale, zampone, cotechino, etc., they're the best in town.
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Any decent, traditional bagelries in the City left?
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Sounds like you were in the right place. AFAIK, there is only one Salumeria Biellese, on 8th Avenue at 29th Street. There are two parts of Salumeria Biellese: Most apparent is the mediocre sandwich/hot table takeout store. But, if you go the small counter furthest from the door, you can order their excellent salume by the pound (most of which are not available on sandwiches, AFAIK).
They sell the vast majority of their salume to restaurants, and likely do very little retail business in salume. Thus, there are no hanging prosciutti, salami, etc.
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Yea, I'd call ahead about that if you really don't like foie. It's pretty integral to that particular burger, and they may have trouble making it or it may be difficult to make it without.
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It is mostly used in pasta dishes, in my experience.
I find it strange that you say you had it with pappardelle (a fresh pasta) and ragù (which usually, but not always, designates a dish made with meat).
Bottarga is the compressed, salted and dried roe of either grey mullet (bottarga di muggine, usually from Sardenia, and the best) or tuna (bottarga di tonno, usually from Sicilia, and also very good). Most often it is served grated onto very simply dressed pasta asciutta. A good example might be the maccheroni alla chitarra (the dry kind rather than the fresh kind) with oven dried tomatoes, red chiles and bottarga di muggine served at Babbo or, for a more elemental presentation, a simple dish of spahgetti with great raw evoo and a heavy shaving of bottarga. For a new-world presentation, Otto, I think, offers a pizza with tomato, mozzarella, pecorino, raw fennel and bottarga.
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My mother and father got Willie Gluckstern's "The Wine Avenger" and a box of Maldon sea salt, respectively, as stocking stuffers. Gave copies of Bourdain's and Steingarten's best books as gifts. Um... got an interesting pair of wood salad tongs, plus The Art of Eating by M. F. K. Fisher.
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Hi, guys. Since El Bulli is in Spain, we're moving this thread from the NY Forum to the Spain & Portugal forum. Carry on!
Hey Sam, it seems like things are drifting toward the French Laundry. Maybe it should be moved to France.
Don't make me give you the eye with all your funny talk, now!
Oh... wait...
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Hi, guys. Since El Bulli is in Spain, we're moving this thread from the NY Forum to the Spain & Portugal forum. Carry on!
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I don't know the price, but I have always been able to find reasonably priced duck legs at the Chinese butcher on Bayard.
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Whoa. Bummer, dude. That's not too cool.
One thing you might consider doing is calling the guys at Bridge Kitchenware and talking to them about shipping to you in Canada. I am sure they do some business up there.
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I read your post in regards to buying something with a thick aluminum base, as opposed to buying a multi-clad pan, since a saute pan has most of the cooking done at the bottom anyway and therefore a multi-clad pan with 2mm aluminum core will not be as good as something with a thick 7mm aluminum disc base. You suggested Sitram Pro or Paderno Grand Gourmet. Sigh. Slight problem. I live up in Western Canada, and stores here don't carry either (well as you pointed out the Canadian Paderno is different...inferior quality using same name). Any other brands with a thick 7mm aluminum base?
Stores up here sell: All-Clad, Anolon, Chaudier (some pieces), Cuisinart, Cuisinox, Demeyere (some pieces), Kitchen-Aid, Scanpan (available through an Canadian online retailer). Other than Paderno or Sitram, any other brands I should look out for?
I really don't know what's available in Canada. But, I'd like to point out that there is this wonderful thing called the Internet that helps you to buy cookware from companies that are located in America.
Just because you live in Canada doesn't mean that you can't buy cookware from Bridge Kitchenware, for example.Anyway, if you're set on buying locally available cookware, I'd look for a Chaudier (also called Chaudier 5000 in the US). It's very good quality, heavy stuff.
I noticed that most companies don't tend to advertise how much aluminum is in their base. Scanpan Stainless proudly says they have a 5mm aluminum core. Still a good buy? In the photos their handles look pretty comfy (unlike AC).Yes, it's a pretty good buy. I don't think the specs are quite as good as some of my favorites, but I wouldn't mind owning a few pieces.
I also wonder if a straight comparison of the thickness of aluminum is the end all of measuring sticks. For example, I wonder how much difference is in the different grades in metals and alloys used by manufacturers and how they affect the peformance compared to just the thickness of the disc. I assume there are different grades of aluminum that can be used in the construction process...so one 5mm aluminum disc pan might not be equal to another 5mm aluminum disc pan. Which in the end I guess only means that you need to test different types of pans side by side to really test their heating properties. But then who really has the time to do that other than something like Cook's Illustrated and Consumer Reports? (and they tend to recommend All-Clad as top choice in their comparison tests. bleh.)Yes, this is a complicating factor, and something I will probably discuss in version two of my class (whenever I get around to revising it). That said, my working assumption is that there is not a significant difference in the kind of aluminum used by the high-end manufacturers. One does't really need to do CR-style testing to understand the differences, however. All that is required is to have the materials specifications for the alloy they are using. These specifications are all public knowledge.
Both Demeyere and Scanpan use 5mm aluminum discs. On the Demeyere's website, they mention they use an aluminum alloy to sandwich the pure aluminum for the base disc of the pan. Even though the alloy layer is really thin...I wonder if that changes the heating properties compared to a company (like Scanpan) that does not claim to use an alloy material. So would that perhaps justify Demeyere's higher price?No, it doesn't significantly change the heating properties and no, it doesn't justify their higher price. As I say in my class:
Some manufacturers claim to employ special “multi-layer” interiors that are better than pure aluminum layers. Don’t be fooled by this marketing ploy. The interiors of these pans are 99% the same as those employed in the other fully clad designs.You can draw your own conclusions about which manufacturer I was thinking of when I wrote that.
Anyway, any thoughts or recommendations?One word: plastics.
No, seriously, if you want a big sauté pan, I'd get Sitram Profiserie or, if you don't want to buy from an American company (due to tax reasons or whatever) I'd go with Chaudier's heavy line. You'd probably be pretty happy with Scanpan Steel as well -- it looks good.
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Heh... I don't know if it's a goal per se. When I make it, it's just a consequence. I also use fairly fatty cuts of meat.
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I take care of the oiliness factor by A) including ground pancetta as one of my meats, and B) starting the whole thing with insane amounts of both butter and evoo.
Looks delicious, Tommy.
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On their web site they say:
Calphalon® One is a revolutionary hybrid cookware that combines the best qualities of both traditional metal and nonstick cooking surfaces. Calphalon One lets you sear, sauce and cook exactly the way you want without being at the mercy of sticking, staining or tough clean-up.What sets this cookware apart is its unique infused anodized cooking surface. By means of an exclusive, breakthrough anodization process (patent pending), interior and exterior surfaces of the pans are infused with an advanced release polymer. Unlike nonstick coatings that simply sit on top of metal, this material actually penetrates below the surface, into the pores of the metal. The infused anodized surface offers superb durability and versatility in the kitchen.
Doesn't sound too promising to me, but you never know...
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A fun glaze to do is a Coca Cola glaze. It works really well, tastes very good and it's always fun to tell your incredulous guests that you glazed the ham with Coca Cola. Here is a recipe for a whisky and cola glaze or, for something simpler, there's this recipe for a cola glazed ham.
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Why do you think there aren't as many ethnic places upstate? Is it the case that there aren't enough people of these ethnicities living out there? I have always found it interesting that there can be areas that have fairly large concentrations of certain ethnic groups and still have no good restaurants associated with that group. I've been in some midwestern cities with sizeable Asian populations and no good Asian restaurants. It also strikes me as odd that, even in Manhattan with its huge Dominican population, Dominican restaurants are fairly scarce.
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Brazilian ironwood burl.
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Custom made kitchen knives are indeed cool. I hace a number of custom made cast dendridic steel knives in my kitchen. Wouldn't trade them for anything. Haven't done any "at home modifications" though... yet.
Sam, I'd love to see photos of your knives. Any way you could post a couple?
Hopefully Santa will be bringing me a digital camera. Then I'll see what I can do.
Here's a picture I already had (the picture was folded, so that explains the crease in the image):
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So, I suppose your generalization is true (at least it was true in the South until the sixties, you don't see it so much any more).
How's this for a generalization: my youngest sister is Shannon Michelle, my oldest sister is Cathleen Marie, my brother Thomas Franklin. Also, growing up I knew a Keith Brian, a Brian Keith, and a Roger Nelson.
And my mom used to try to convince me that the Beach Boys wrote a song about her, Barbara Ann.
Unfortunately one rarelysees the truly colorful Southern names of old any more, like this one from one of my favorite Faulkner novels: Admiral Dewey Snopes.
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Custom made kitchen knives are indeed cool. I hace a number of custom made cast dendridic steel knives in my kitchen. Wouldn't trade them for anything. Haven't done any "at home modifications" though... yet.
TDG: The Way Of The Knife
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
"Dendridic" steel is steel that is cast rather than forged. This provides certain desirable properties.
Steel, fundamentally, is a bunch of carbide crystals held in a matrix of iron. The carbide crystals stick out on the edge and are what give a blade its actual cutting power. If you look at a polished blade edge under a microscope you will notice that it still looks like a saw. The carbide crystals are the "teeth" of the saw.
Forging steel, among other things, involves banging on the hot steel with a hammer. This has the effect of breaking up the carbide crystals and making them smaller. Forged steel with smaller carbide crystals is said to have a finer "grain size." So, if one has a blade made with a steel that has a very fine grain size, the "teeth of the saw" will be smaller -- is a very valuable property in certain applications. It is very good at "push cutting" (cutting something with no side-to-side motion of the blade) and it does very little tissue damage. This is why one would like to use a forged steel with a very fine grain size for a scalpel or a razor.
One disadvantage of forged steel with a very fine grain size is that the edge dulle fairly easily. This is because the primary way a steel edge becomes truly dull (as opposed to simply needing to be straightened on a steel) is by having the carbide crystals that form the "teeth of the saw" pop out of the iron matrix. The smaller the grain size is, the weaker the iron matrix's grip is on each individual carbide particle and thus the greater the probability that the particles will pop off of the edge.
Dendritic steel is made an entirely different way. David Boye, the modern-day pioneer in this kind of steel, started thinking about fine-grained forged steel and asked: "who cares about minimal tissue damage and clean push-cutting ability when you're cutting up a chicken?" The answer is, well... no one really. Certainly not the chicken.
So, what Boye did was to make steel that was not forged at all. Instead, it is cast in blade-shaped molds. When the steel cools, the carbide forms in a large network of interlocking crystals throughout the steel. Since the steel is never forged (i.e., never beaten with a hammer) the carbide crystals stay very large. This has several benefits: First, since the carbide crystals are very large, the "teeth on the saw" are also very large. This gives dendridic steel blades what knife fans call an "aggressive edge" -- which is a fancy way of saying that it will cut the crap out of anything you drag it across with a sawing motion (as opposed to a push-cut motion). One can somewhat mimic this effect with a forged steel blade by sharpening with a course grit, but it's not really the same thing. Second, since the carbide crystals are so large, the iron matrix has a very firm grip on them, and since the crystals are embedded in a network of interlocking carbode crystals, they all have a very firm grip on each other. The result is that the carbide crystals at the edge are very resistant to popping off. The result of that is that the edge stays sharp for a very, very long time. When I was deciding which knives to buy, I tested the dendridic steel knives against a variety of forged steel knives for edge retention (cut a 1" piece of hemp rope and counted how many cuts it took to dull the blade). The dendridic blades retained a keen edge something 300% longer than the forged blades.