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slkinsey

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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    elusive beverages

    in Ready to Eat

    Posted

    Just to be nit-picky... it's Limonata with a "t" not Limonada with a "d."

    limonata.jpg

    Anyway... It's great stuff. Fairway always has Limonata and Aranciata.

    Better yet, IMO is Chinotto (also called Chino), which has a flavor I can't quite describe.

    soda_chin.jpg

    bibimbap!

    in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Why would a flame-tamer be needed when using a gas stove? I would think that the heat would be pretty much even. I wonder if this is mostly a need for electric stoves...

    Also, I find it interesting that the site recommends not preheating the dolsots, which seems to go against other instructions I have seen. According to the writer preheating can cause spalling (the breaking off of chips, scales, or slabs). I've preheated mine in the past, but perhaps will try doing it this way instead. Thoughts/experiences?

    TDG: Watch Your Language: The MPI

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    An earlier discussion ensued here. I am in favor of portobello as the standardized spelling. Priscilla's Yahoo research, my New York Times searches, and my personal sense of what seems most mushroomy support portobello.

    Hee! Strangely, the scientific names seem most mushroomy to me. When I was growing up we used to spend all our summers in my Grandfather's house way up in the mountains of Western North Carolina. We were literally in the middle of the forest on the side of a mountain. Anyway... it is very damp up there and mushrooms are literally popping out of the ground all over the place. My parents wanted to be able to pick and eat the mushrooms growing there and, being the scientists that they are and not wanting to kill the whole family, decided to learn everything there is to know about North American wild mushrooms. There are still some mushrooms that I mostly know by the scientific name (lost of tasty boletes about). I knew Boletus edulis before I knew porcini, and I always knew to stay away from Amanita virosa (not that "Death Angel" sounds particularly tasty either).

    TDG: The Billion-Dollar Myth: Soy

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    The most relevant standard is what one would apply to a submission from a newspaper columnist. Did the New York Times reject Bob Herbert's editorial today because it depends on Citizens for Tax Justice (as cited by another journalist) as its only source?

    This makes sense to me. Most TDG submissions strike me as being much closer to editorial writing than they do to regular news reporting. I don't know anything about the newspaper business, but my guess is that the NYT doesn't really care what sources Bob Herbert uses when he writes his editorials. Editorials are opinion pieces trying to make a point. There is no presumption that the writing will be free of bias or solidly supported (although the presumption must be that there is some support, as Mike Barnacle was fired from the Globe for inventing some things in his columns). I assume the Times feels that Bob Herbert will be called to task by his colleagues/adversaries and the reading public if he relies on questionable sources to support his editorials.

    This is why these pieces are confined to the editorial pages, and why Bob Herbert's columns aren't included among the regular news reporting.

    Espresso Machines

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Maybe I can't taste the difference but the procedures I've chosen don't cost me anything other than an extra two minutes per day - that much time I can justify in the interest of having a quality drink at home.

    Oh, I totally agree. For many of us (and I count myself as one) it becomes a hobby as well as just a way to get a good cup of coffee, so going the extra mile is all part of the game. This is one reason I want to get the doserless Rocky. That said, of course, I highly doubt that I'll be able to taste a clear difference once I do get one. Sometimes I sweep my doser out and sometimes I don't. I have been able to get such a drastic improvement in cup quality merely by switching to home roasting, that I just don't feel a pressing need to do it. That said... I do tend to sweep out the doser when I've been away for a long time.

    I guess my main point was simply that the presence of a doser in the Rocky (or the Mazzer Mini for that matter) isn't exactly a fatal flaw in terms of cup quality.

    Roasting Peppers

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Hee! Looks cool!

    I have to say that, in terms of blasting off the skin while cooking the flesh as little as possible, I have not been able to beat a big old blowtorch from the hardware store.

    Cuisinart vs. All-Clad vs. XXX Cookware

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    What cookware pieces were you thinking of getting?  Saute pan?  Sauce pot?  Fry pan?  Stock pot?

    I'm pretty well set on stockpots & fry pans. (Le Creuset & Lodge, respectively.)

    I was thinking about one saute pan & two or three sauce pots, at least for a start. I'm not really into big sets, etc. I'd rather purchase what I'll use.

    Thoughts?

    Well... as you may have guessed, I really like the Sitram Catering saute pan with the 2.5 mm copper disk bottom. The Sitram Profisserie pan with a 7 mm aluminum base is pretty killer as well. If you want a curve-sided saute pan, Paderno Grand Gourmet makes a deep "fry pan" that might fit the bill. I also have what Paderno calls a paella pan for big sauteing jobs. This 14 inch pan wouldn't be my first choice for Paella, but the huge aluminum base really soaks up the heat and allows you to put a lot of food in the pan -- the lack of a long handle saves space on the stove and in storage.

    In terms of sauce pans, if you think you'll ever be making emulsified sauces or doing big time reductions, you might think of spending bucks on one fully clad pan. Otherwise, all you need is a good conductive base to spread around the heat. I happen to think that the Paderno Grand Gourmet saucepots with a 7 mm aluminum base really kick ass, but the two Sitram lines are also very good.

    Cuisinart vs. All-Clad vs. XXX Cookware

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Hmmmm.

    I asked about the Calphalon as I've been planning to purchase some Falk pans when I felt like giving up the money.

    But after reading this thread, I'm doubting that I would get much advantage from the Falk with home cooking.

    What to do, what to do?

    Whether or not you would get much advantage out of a heavy copper pan really depends on what kind of cooking you do, what food you most often make, what style of pan you like to use the most... that sort of thing. I certainly wouldn't say that I get a huge advantage out of using copper every time I cook, but it's great to have for those times I do want it. Going back to an earlier analogy, it's kind of like having a Ferrari... you may drive it <60 mph most of the time, but for those times when you want to open it up to 120 mph, there is no substitute. Since it is expensive, I was pretty picky and choosey about the copper pans I acquired and only bought pans styles I was sure I would use very often (saute and fry pans) or occasionally-used pans for which copper offered a real advantage (sauce pan for actual sauce making, reduction pan).

    What cookware pieces were you thinking of getting? Saute pan? Sauce pot? Fry pan? Stock pot?

    Cuisinart vs. All-Clad vs. XXX Cookware

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Anyone have any experience and/or opinions with/on the Calphalon Tri-ply Copper?

    I haven't used any of it (nor did I know it existed until you mentioned it)... but I did look it up on the web and found the following description from the Calphalon web site:

    Calphalon Tri-Ply Copper cookware’s brushed copper exterior not only brings lustrous warmth and classic beauty to your home. It also contributes to the superior conductivity and cooking performance of each pan. (Copper is among nature’s best conductors of heat.) Calphalon Tri-Ply Copper pans feature an inner core of pure, heavy-gauge aluminum. Aluminum is another highly conductive metal—and the thicker the aluminum, the more conductive the pan. Together, copper and aluminum guarantee quick searing, beautiful browning and the precise cooking control you need to achieve spectacular results in the kitchen.

    Calphalon Tri-Ply Copper cookware’s 18/10 stainless steel interior surface is non-reactive. It won’t tarnish or change color when you cook acidic foods like tomato sauce. It’s also highly reflective. That makes it easy to see inside the pan—to judge color and texture changes that indicate when foods are properly cooked.

    This description strongly indicates to me that the main conductive material is aluminum and that the copper exterior is more or less a thin outer lining for looks, which would make these pans very similar to All-Clad's Cop-R-Chef line. If the Calphalon Tri-Ply Copper really included enough copper to confer a significant thermal advantage, I have to think that they would make a big deal about it in their prommotional materials. The fact that they refer to it as a "copper exterior" makes their claim that it "contributes to the superior conductivity and cooking performance" a little disingenuous, if you ask me, especially when combined with their later claim that "the thicker the aluminum, the more conductive the pan." Basically, it seems to offer all the performance of aluminum with all the maintenance hassle of copper.

    On the other hand... if one is into this kind of cookware, the prices compare quite favorably with what I believe to be near-identical Cop-R-Chef from All-Clad. A 1 qt Cop-R-Chef saucepot retails at $170 and sells at around $110 as a second. Amazon.com is selling a 1.5 quart Calphalon Tri-Ply Copper for 70 bucks.

    Cuisinart vs. All-Clad vs. XXX Cookware

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I was suggesting that eGullet offered a good market for retailers to try and tap with a discount offer. I don't know if it's workable or worthwhile or not, but it's certainly ethical.

    Yea... I figured that out as noted in my post above.

    I wonder whether eGullet would generate enough business for an online retailer to make it worth it for the retailer... I kind of doubt it because, in order to generate enough sales, they would not only have to offer a wide enough range of brands to satisfy the varied preferences (and wallets) of the readership here, but they would also have to beat things like the occasional Amazon.com Calphalon sale. I also wonder how they would react to the users, and especially the leadership, publicizing cookware deals here that were offered by other retailers.

    Espresso Machines

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Actually...

    I backflush daily at home (and three times a day at work). Shrug. What can I say, I know it probably makes little to no difference - but it's that "little" that is an issue for me.

    You backflush with a cleaner like Urnex daily?! Whoa. You are dedicated, my friend.

    I have been known to do a daily "mini-backflush" using only water once upon a time... but that seemed to still leave some residue and I found it just as effective (if not more so) to wipe out the grouphead with a clean dishcloth.

    Cuisinart vs. All-Clad vs. XXX Cookware

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Lots of cookware shops offer professional discounts to restaurant cooks. Someone could tap into a nice market by offering that discount to eGullet members, perhaps.

    On the one hand that would be totally cool... but on the other hand, I wonder whether or not it would be terribly ethical.

    So long as nobody is misrepresenting credentials, I can't see an ethical objection to offering a discount to a group of potentially excellent customers.

    D'oh! I misunderstood... somehow I got the idea he was suggesting that someone in the restaurant business buy cookware with an industry discount and resell to eGullet members. Upon re-reading, it doesn't seem to be the suggestion he was making.

    Cuisinart vs. All-Clad vs. XXX Cookware

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I'm with FG on Sitram (a home cook really can't go wrong with either of their lines), but as long as you're in the neighborhood, check out Demeyere. They have a comparably priced line called Apollo that (I think) rivals Sitram in quality of material and perhaps exceeds it in construction. If you're lazy like me, you'll appreciate that Demeyere is the only major top-of-the-line manufacturer that actually recommends the dishwasher.

    I love Demeyere. I have several pieces of their higher end, copper-core line, Sirocco. The Apollo is great too, but I like the way the Sirocco looks (yes, I know, serious cooks don't care about the looks of their cookware, but I do). It's very expensive, though...

    Yes, it is very well-made... and very expensive indeed. Dave, I hate to condradict you, but I have to disagree that Demeyere Apollo is comparably priced to Sitram or competitive on a cost/performance basis. I took a few minutes to poke around and get an idea of typical Internet prices for a 1 qt saucepot and came up with something like this (numbers rounded):

    All-Clad Copper Core:_______$160

    Demeyere Sirocco:_________$130

    Falk Culinair:_____________$120

    All-Clad Stainless:__________$110

    All-Clad Copper Core (second):_$110

    All-Clad MasterChef:_________$80

    Demeyere Apollo:___________$70

    All-Clad Stainless (second):____$60

    All-Clad MasterChef (second): __$50

    Sitram Catering:____________$50

    Sitram Profisserie:___________$30

    So, really, the only products that Demeyere Sirocco is competitive with in terms of price are Falk Culinair, All-Clad Copper Core seconds and All-Clad Stainless at full retail. The Falk, IMO, should clearly beat the Demeyere in terms of performance, if not ease of maintenance. I'd also be awfully tempted to buy the All-Clad Copper Core over the Demeyere for that price as well, since it has a full internal layer of copper as opposed to Demeyere's copper-plus-other-stuff disk bottom design.

    Demeyere Apollo is roughly competitive price-wise with All-Clad MasterChef at full retail and All-Clad Stainless at a discounted price. Sirocco, as you can see, is almost three times the price of Sitram Catering, and Apollo costs a good 40% more than Sitram Catering. I would say that Apollo is roughly equal to Sitram Profisserie and Paderno Grand Gourmet in terms of basic design, as these three employ a thick aluminum disk bottom design (Paderno doesn't make a 1 qt saucepot, so I did not include them above). Sitram Profisserie is less than half the price.

    My feeling about Demeyere is more or less my feeling about All-Clad, only more so: very nice product, but horribly over priced. If I could get the deep discounts that I assume JAZ is able to get, I'd probably give it a try and get a piece or two. I like having cookware from a lot of different manufacturers, so I'd love to have some. But at these prices? No way. Hmmm... maybe JAZ can hook me up? :wink:

    Espresso Machines

    in Cooking

    Posted

    If you think a gram or so of stale grounds won't affect the taste of your espresso, think again.  You wouldn't use "just a bit" of some other stale foodstuff in preparing a fine dish to eat, now would you?

    Assuming you are referring to my remarks earlier in this thread... who ever said anything about a few grams of stale grounds? I just fastidiously swept out all the stale grounds from my (very dirty at the moment) Rocky doser and it came to around 1/4 of a teaspoon. Given the fact that it takes a little over 11 teaspoons to fill my filterbasket, we're talking about something like 2% "old grounds" as a maximum. -- or, a little over 1/3 of a gram per 17 gram double shot (sorry, I don't have a lab scale at home so I will have to estimate from volume). Mind you, this is a maximum amount and does not really reflect actual usage, which I would predict to be below 1%, or .17 grams per double shot.

    Do I think 1% of old grounds will significantly effect a shot made in a home machine? No way. Picking this kind of nit is like buying a $1000 CD player when you have $300 speakers. Think of all the things that would have to be perfect in order to detect this kind of difference. The beans would have to be at peak freshness. The machine would have to be producing the precisely best temperature. The grind would have to be exactly right. The water would have to be soft and free of any chlorine or other chemicals. The grouphead, filterbasket and portafilter would have to be scrupulously clean with no coffee residue whatsoever but also no trace of degergent. Then maybe we can talk about whether or not one has a palate that is capable of discerning the presence of 1% - 2% old coffee grounds.

    Now, I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't spend 30 minutes every day backflushing my machine and scrubbing out my portafilter to make sure that no trace of today's espresso remains to potentially taint tomorrow's cup. Commercial establishments do this every day (well... the good ones) and regular citizens do it a lot less often. If you do it daily, well... then you take your espresso making a lot more seriously than just about anyone I know. I should also point out that every place I have bought espresso in Italy used a doser -- typically a kind that automatically fills the doser with grounds whenever the doser drops below a certain level. The fact that these dosers are always full demonstrates that they are not being cleaned of "old grounds" well... ever. And these places produced by far the best espresso I have had.

    I cannot contradict your experience that sweeping out your doser has improved the consistency of your shots -- especially if you sometimes go weeks between uses of your grinder. But it certainly has not been my experience that I need to do a great deal of that kind of thing. All I do is sweep out the grinder chute using the end of a screwdriver (I keep a small one top of the machine for when I want to unscrew the screen for cleaning) and click the doser until it seems to stop making a difference. I only vacuum out the doser when I take the grinder apart to clean the grinder plates.

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