slkinsey

If there is only two feet of clearance between your head and the ceiling, I would say that it's unlikely you'll want pans dangling from the ceiling where you are going to be working. Many frypans are more than two feet from the end of the handle to the other side of the pan.

This assumption is that the blender is literally ON for four hours a day - hogwash. I've worked in restaurant kitchens, and when the soup needs to be pureed, or whatever needs to be blended, the blender is on for maybe 10 minutes - unless they're making enough soup for 1,000 portions. And then they're buying a really big blender made by John Deere. If it's a professional kitchen that is using the blender for multiple items such as pureed sauces and marinades, coulis and the like, smooth soups, house-made mayonnaise and other dressings, nut butters, and more at any real volume... it seems very likely that they're using the blender at least four hours over the course of a 10 hour day. You use it for one thing, clean it out, and use it for something else. Looking at some of the higher-end cookbooks, I have been surprised at how often one would like to use a high power blender. Meanwhile, of course, the vast majority of home Vita-Mix users is actually racking up something closer to an hour a week (and probably more like 2 hours a month) rather than an hour a day of operation. I don't think it's reaching at all to suggest that a blender in a restaurant is getting 4 times the use of a typical home blender. It's actually being quite generous in favor of the home user. But perhaps that person was going to buy a $100 blender to start with and has now upped that by 300%? So, the $100 buyer would have to go up by 300% to get a 5200 and 380% to get the VP3. They're still in the position where the VP3 costs only 20% more. For sure there isn't a huge list of things you can only do with the VP3 or that you can do significantly better/easier with the VP3 compared to the 5200. But, then again, the list of things you can do in the 5200 that you can't do in the $134 L'Equip R.P.M. the Cook's Illustrated guys liked isn't all that long either. Why not buy that and save yourself 266 bucks over the 5200? The reason is that you're spending that 266 bucks in order to be able to do the few things you can't really do in the L'Equip R.P.M. If you don't care about those things -- don't buy the 5200! I could say similar things with respect to buying the VP3 over the 5200, but the price difference both in terms of percent and real dollars is much smaller than the difference between the 5200 and the L'Equip R.P.M.. The reason I would still recommend buying the VP3 over the 5200 is simply because if you want the 5200 it's already clear that you want to do these things, and since the percent increase in price is small relative to the percent increase in power, why not have the extra capacity? So, your blender is used for none of the following, which CI tested: ice crushing, smoothie, soup puree, hummus and peanut butter? I realize they did not test the ability of the blender to do wood chips. I often have problems not only with the things they test, but also how they test them. I wouldn't say that ice-crushing is a major priority for me. But I also have my doubts as to whether the CI people used the adjustable speed in the 5200 in the best way for this task. In addition, as I have done myself to satisfy my curiosity, the VP3 (and the 5200 as well, I imagine) can turn a container packed full of ice cubes into dry snow in relatively short order. Is this something any of the other machines can do? Meanwhile, the Vita-Mix excelled at making smoothies and soup purees, both things that are important to me. But how about how well the various machines were able to make a smooth puree out of a fibrous raw vegetable such carrots or fennel? How good were they at making a thick puree of parsley or cilantro, including the stems and without any added liquid? While we're at it, just how smooth were those soup purees? How long did it take to pass them through a chinois? Were they making a potato puree (easy) or a carrot puree (significantly more difficult to get smooth)? Could they do what I did yesterday in making a shrimp bisque, and drop in cooked rice, boiling shrimp stock and raw shrimp that came out silky smooth and passed straight through a chinois? What technique were they using to make the hummus? Since I often find that their criteria for various dishes are not the same as mind, I also have to ask: What were their goals in making the hummus, and are they the same as mine? I could go on, but suffice it to say that my preferences for cookware and also for cooked dishes do not often coincide with CI's. Some of CI's conclusions directly contradict my own. For example, they say that having a tapered base is critically important. Really? Well, I suppose this is true when you have a lot of liquid in there. But my experience is that if you want to make a relatively thick puree, a narrowly tapered base makes this impossible unless you add enough liquid to create a vortex -- which is exactly what you don't want to do.

Those are deep discount eBay prices. A typical retail price of the VP3 is around $650, and I've seen it listed for more. Also as mentioned above, I found that this wasn't true with respect to blenders. That's assuming that they fail immediately after the warranty period. Which I do not assume would happen. But if you want to look at the warranty, we shouldn't look at your assumption, we should look at the manufacturer's assumption. The manufacturer issues a warranty because they assume that you won't need to use it. So, Vita-Mix assumes that the 5200 won't need warranty repair for at least 7 years of normal home use and the VP3 won't need warranty repair for at least 3 years of restaurant use. So, let's assume fairly heavy use of both machines and do the math. Someone who really used his Vita-Mix a lot would be using it, say, an hour every day. This is an extremely generous assumption, by the way, because most culinary home users of the Vita-Mix won't use it nearly this much (serious "health juicers" might). This means that Vita-Mix is confident that you can use the 5200 for around 2,555 hours without anything breaking. In a restaurant, on the other hand, heavy use can be conservatively estimated around, say, at least 4 hours a day. This means that Vita-Mix is confident that you can use the VP3 for around 4,380 hours without anything breaking. If we extend those hours back to the assumed one hour per day habits of home users, we get 12 years. So, if we follow your calculus and assume that the product will need to be replaced based on the warranty expectations, then after ten years, we have spent $800 on the Vita-Mix and only $480 on the Vita-Prep. More to the point, from a purely money-wise perspective, I don't quite understand why someone who is already willing to spend 400 bucks on a blender wouldn't be willing to spend 20% more on a model with 50% more power that is designed to stand up to the rigors of being bashed around a professional kitchen. Your lawnmower comparison fails, because you will always have the same lawn. If, on the other hand, you might need to mow different kinds and sizes of lawns on different days, then you would be well-advised to acquire the more powerful mower. Because a lack of power will limit your ability to do certain things, not having too much power. No one ever said: "My blender is too powerful to make this mayonnaise. How I wish I had a less powerful blender!" This is because you can always adjust the blender speed down. On the other hand, plenty of people have lamented that their blender is not powerful enough to make a smooth, thick puree out of fresh parsley with no liquid added, or because they choked the blender on that second batch of hummus for a dinner party. As for Cook's Illustrated... let me just say that they rarely test for the things I am likely to find important.

Fudgie the Whale, yo.

In This NY Times article, Ben Benson is quoted as saying that "up to date we’re off 6.2 percent . . . In the restaurant business, if you’re off between 5 and 10 percent, you’re knocking profits down 25 percent. What surprises me is our food cost has not come down." Another example he makes is that "last night we did 350, which is terrific. Last year on the same night, we did 450." He concludes saying that "in the '89 recession we were resistant. After 9/11 we bounced back. But this is lingering. Last summer, we were supported by the Japanese and European tourists who thought we were an inexpensive restaurant. I’m concerned about whether they’ll be back this summer."

I suspect you're missing the point. Three years of restaurant use is thousands of times more than 7 years of home use. Calendar days are meaningless. It's the miles you put on the blender that matter. I'm not saying that the 5200 isn't a good machine. I'm sure it's a great machine and that you'd be happy with one. But, just doing a casual search on eBay, I see that a new 5200 goes for around 400 bucks. A new Vita Prep 3 1005 goes for around $480 on eBay. For an additional 80 bucks, you're getting 50% more power and you're getting a machine designed to stand up to the rigors of use in a professional kitchen. Seems like a no-brainer. One interesting demonstration I saw on youtube demonstrates the difference that a 3+ horsepower motor can make compared to the 2 horsepower motor. When you want to power through some tough, thick, fibrous material, that extra power is going to be the difference.

Specific gravity? Anyway, if I were going to suggest a cocktail setup for the newbie or infrequent home cocktailian, I'd suggest the OXO measures and an all-metal Boston shaker. The OXO measures are easy to use for someone with little experience, and it's both easier to hold for shaking and easier to separate an all-metal Boston shaker setup (it also has the advantage of producing a colder drink).

That's certainly worth considering. Although I should point out that were talking about 7 years of predicted home use versus 3 years of professional restaurant use.

Whatever, grampa. Why don't you admit that broccoli rabe gets stuck in your dentures, and that's why you won't endorse it? It's delicious on pizza, not to mention being appropriate by tradition.

I think that a 50% increase in power over the Vita-Mix 5200 definitely makes a difference. A lot of what makes the Vita-Prep so great, and what enables you to do some of the things you can do (especially without burning out the motor) is the power. This is not to say, of course, that the 5200 isn't pretty cool.

I'll make another axiomatic statement about pizza: It needs to be comprised of ingredients that can reasonably fall within the culinary range of Italian flavors. "Somewhat flat bread with stuff on it" is, after all, not a uniquely Italian phenomenon. Why should we devalue the Armenian tradition by calling lahmajune "Armenian pizza"? Why would the French want to call tarte Alsacienne "Alsatian pizza" or pissaladière "Provençal pizza"?

Just for fun, I'd be interested to try this cube jigger that measures 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.25 ounces. It is quite large, however, clocking in as a 3-inch cube.

Yea, the adjustable teaspoon is awesome. This KitchenArt measure is the one to get, I think. (This one is less useful, but also worth having. It goes from 1 teaspoon down to an eighth.) I know some people who have the Nuscüp from Dalla Piazza, and I'm not a fan.

"Controlled by the same unit" isn't exactly the same thing as "controlled by the PID." Otherwise, why would they say that it's "controlled to 1 degree (F or C) difference" when a PID would be accurate to within one-tenth of a degree? Things are explained a bit better on the PIDKits site, and their equivalent offering describes it as: "Control of brew temperatures is still very tightly controlled using the highly accurate PID algorithm built into the SD3C. But now, we can add a second output to this versatile controller. This provides tight deadband ON-OFF control for steam temperatures as well." The Auberins SYL-1512A 1/32 DIN entry-level PID sold by Auber has two possible modes: PID and on-off. I assume that they configure it so that the steam temperature takes advantage of the on-off mode. The Watlow Series 96 1/16 DIN dual display PID that PIDKits sells has, among other capabilities, the ability to have two different pre-programmed setpoints for the PID. This is a capability that the Auberins PID does not have.

From the description I would say that it controls the steam temp with a tight bang-bang controller.

Vita-Mix? Mix?! My Vita-Prep laughs at your Vita-Mix! So... any fun tricks anyone does with theirs? Last night, as an experiment to text the VP3's usefulness for everyday cooking (as opposed to advanced cooking projects) I tossed a few pounds of carrots along with some onion and celery and chicken stock into a saucepan and simmerd everything until tender. That went into the VP3, where I added some fresh parsley, and then through a sieve. A touch of cream, some salt and a few curry spices later, and I had a silky-smooth curry carrot soup as good as you're likely to find in most restaurants. Probably took 10 minutes of actual work. I could have diced the vegetables in the VP3 as well, but I was chatting with a friend and didn't want to make the noise.

There are two places that sell PID kits for the Rancilio Silvia. Auberins and PIDKits both selk them. The kits from PIDKits are more expensive, although I'm not sure why. I wanted a kit that controlled both the brew temperature and the steam temperature with the PID (most kits either control only the brew temperature and let the stock thermostat control the steam temperature, or control the steam temperature with a more tightly configured bang-bang thermostat), so I bought mine from PIDKits.

I agree with everything you say, Katie. Except about pineapple. It's wrong.

I say (and I have said it before, so I'll keep it short) that America has often flipped Italian culinary ideas on their heads in transforming Italian food into Italian-American food. There are a lot of reasons for this that I won't bother elaborating, but to make an obvious example: In Italy, pasta dishes are first and foremost about the pasta. They may be considered "pasta with a condiment," and the amount of condiment is likely to be modest. In America, we have changed this idea so that the pasta becomes a mere vehicle for the sauce and the condiment becomes the game. This may be considered "sauce, with some pasta," and the amount of sauce is likely to be copious. In this case, and most others, this transformation has had a detrimental effect. Something similar has happened with respect to pizza. I don't think that pizza needs to adhere rigidly to Neapolitan orthodoxy, but I do think pizza should be about "crust (with some stuff on it)" rather than being about "a big pile of toppings (on a crust)." We call that second idea "pizza" here, but I firmly believe that it is something else entirely. Something that can be good? Sure, sometimes. Personally, it is not usually to my taste and I don't believe it can aspire to the heights of perfection that can be obtained through the crust-centric approach. All of which is to say that, while I don't "insist only on the three official variants" I do think that the paradigm that calls for toppings piled high to the heavens results at best in a pedestrian product, and usually something that could perhaps aspire to edible. The degradation of the noble pizza, indeed. As for pineapple. That's just wrong. But hey, don't take our word for it. But, at the same time, don't be surprised when the pizza delivery guy turns out to be Bernardo Gui, and you're dragged before the Pizza Inquisition as a heretic.

Yes, it voids the warranty. However, most of the better kits are designed in such a way that the PID can be entirely uninstalled and the machine restored to its original wiring configuration.

If decrying pineapple and inch-thick layers of toppings on pizza makes me a gastronomic chauvinist, then I will gladly accept that honorific. However, I will point out that "chauvenism" may be commonly described in this context as "unwarranted bias, favoritism, or devotion to one's own particular group, cause, or idea." I don't accept that disapprobation of pineapple pizza is unwarranted. To paraphrase Rev. Brown: If hatin' on pineapple pizza is wrong, I don't want to be right!

My latest acquisition has been the Vita Prep 3 1005. I realized I "had" to have this after making several recipes from Keller's Under Pressure which featured some variation of the instruction "puree in a Vita-Prep, then pass through a chinois or fine-mesh conical strainer." I noted the specification as to brand of blender, but since my experience is that my KitchenAid food processor can do most anything specified for the Robot Coupe food processor, I figured: "how bad could it be to just use my Osterizer?" The answer was revealed to me when I had to add extra liquid to to the container in order to get a vortex, and over the course of the multiple hours I spent passing the various purees through the chinois. It could be very bad indeed to use the Osterizer instead of the Vita-Prep, and I had picked recipes that seemed to feature an unsually large number of purees. The Vita-Prep 3 is to other blenders as a Ferrari is to a Vespa. The blender base is 3+ horsepower. You could use it to power a lawnmower! I used it extensively in my preparations for Christmas dinner. One dish I made was a double recipe of Keller's Puree of Sunchoke Soup with Arugula Pudding and Pickled Radishes from Under Pressure. I had made this once before, in the pre-Vita-Prep era. This involved, among other steps, blanching, shocking, squeezing out and pureeing over a half-kilo of arugula leaves. Using the Osterizer, I had to add extra liquid to the container to get the leaves to blend. It took forever to pass through the chinois, and I had to cook it down to eliminate the added liquid. With the Vita-Prep, I simply tossed the chopped-up blanched/squeezed arugula to the container with a few ice cubes, revved up the blades, and after finding the right angle with the "accelerator tool" I got a vortex in a few seconds. 30 seconds later, I was passing a thick, bright-green puree through the chinois with little effort. Later on, after I had finished removing some lobster from the shell for butter-poached lobster, I tossed the shells into the Vita-Prep with some water and ground them into little pieces along with some aromatics. That went onto the stove, and within a very short time I had made a strong, fully-extracted lobster stock that formed the basis of an amazing sauce for the lobster. I even turned a blender full of ice cubes into snow in short order. These sorts of things simply can't be done using a regular blender. I'm already imagining all kinds of things I can do with this blender. To me, one great advantage is the ability to make silky-smooth, thick purees without having to add any liquid or do any post-blender cooking of the puree to thicken it. Finally I'll be able to make the roasted red pepper sauce I've imagined.

<shudder . . . shudder>

Still sticking to my idea that the commonly understood culture of a decade typically starts about 2-3 years in and extends another 2-3 years into the following decade (which would put us now just past halfway into the aughts), I think an interesting case could be made for the Last Word Plus Variants and Derivatives being the cocktail of the decade. Like the Aviation, it came to prominence and cocktailian ubiquity very rapidly and argely via the internet. It features two popular and resurgent cocktail ingredients (maraschino and Chartreuse). And it has been featured in a number of popular variations via the "theory of unified substitutions."

Interesting info, Dave. That seems to mitigate in favor of Grand Marnier as a curaçao of choice for early recipes (again, with the understanding that we are already making a number of comprimises having to do with the nature of the other ingredients, the evolved modern palate, etc.). My going-in assumption is that the slightly less old-fashioned column-distilled version would typically have been called for by name as Cointreau (or at least as triple sec). Does this seem reasonable? When do we start seeing Cointreau or triple sec specified in recipes instead of curaçao or its various spelling variants?