slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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From the description I would say that it controls the steam temp with a tight bang-bang controller.
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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.
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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.
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I agree with everything you say, Katie. Except about pineapple. It's wrong.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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. -
... the cheese was a quarter inch thick ...
<shudder . . . shudder>
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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."
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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?
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Actually, farro is the general-purpose Italian word that can cover three different grains in the wheat family. There is farro piccolo, farro medio, and farro grande (also known as farro monococco, farro dicocco, and farro spelta). When someone says simply farro, they are referring to farro medio (aka emmer wheat), which is not the same thing as spelt. Spelt is typically called spelta. This is a constant source of confusion for non-Italian culinary types, as farro and spelt do not have similar cooking properties. Try making zuppa di farro or a "risotto" di farro with spelt grains instead of farro grains, and you will see what I mean.
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The point of reproducing the recipe from Jerry Thomas was to point out that it is pretty unlikely that anyone in America was using anything like Grand Marnier as Curacao. And the region called Malines is in Holland, so using a Dutch Curacao seems more authentic than a French one.
I'm not sure I believe that there is a great deal to be gained from trying to base one's general-purpose curaçao choice on an idea of what a commonly-used curaçao might have been like in the middle of the 19th century. . . even if one is attempting to faithfully execute 19th century cocktails.
A brief swing through the online JT reveals that few of these drinks called for more than "1 - 2 dashes" of the stuff, which would amount to perhaps a half-teaspoon. Since I'm not sure if the choice between Grand Marnier and Bols would be enough to make much of a difference, I don't suppose there is any reason not to go with the superior product -- and I don't think it's particularly debatable that Grand Marnier is the superior product of its class.
Of course, if one is trying to reproduce Brandy Cocktail dating to circa 1870, and has been able to source 100 proof pre-phylloxera Cognac and Boker's bitters (or reasonably accurate facsimiles thereof), then some search for an acceptably "period reproduction" curaçao might be in order. Likewise, if one is able to source the various aged rums used by Trader Vic, or reasonable facsimiles, then there might be some point in attempting to get some of the DeKuyper curaçao he was using (provided that today's DeKuyper curaçao is anything like the product Trader Vic was using). But if one is using modern-day 80 proof Courvoisier VS in that Brandy Cocktail, and perhaps balancing it for a dryer modern palate, or various non-original rums in that Mai Tai, then the case for eschewing Grand Marnier in favor of Bols or whatever on some kind of historical authenticity basis becomes considerably less strong -- especially when one considers that Grand Marnier is, on the whole, a significanrly superior product. Now... if we could get real Bols curaçao here in the states, I might feel differently.
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That was my thinking.
Cointreau sets the standard for triple sec. Period.
And I think Grand Marnier is the best curacao. If I'm only going to have one curacao, I'd rather have Grand Marnier than Marie Brizard. That said, I do think there is some logic behind having two curacao liqueurs: Grand Marnier and Marie Brizard.
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Certainly the pinnacle of pizza making is the adornment of a superior crust with judicious applications of crushed tomatoes and fresh mozzarella such that there are some areas of bare crust, some areas with only tomato, some areas with only mozzarella and a few areas with all three. Post-oven lilly-gilding with a few torn basil leaves is optional but appreciated.
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Same thing for the capers. They're a condiment rather than a topping.
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Cointreau is better.
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If you have Cointreau and Grand Marnier, you're set.
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For professional work, actual jiggers make the most sense. I agree with John's recommendation of the half/three quarter and one/two ounce combination. One thing you can do is measure a careful quarter ounce into the half-ounce jigger and scratch a line at the quarter-ounce mark. It's also handy to use an adjustable spoon measure for amounts less than a half ounce. Jiggers are easiest to use in a professional setting because you can just fill them up and dump them in. That said, I don't find them all that convenient or easy to use in a home setting with bottles that are not fitted with pour tops.
For the home, the OXO measuring cups are often a better choice. One measuring device can be used for all your needs, you don't need to fill it to the absolute top (meaning that splashing and waste are less of a concern), it works fine without a pour top, it's easier to use for most people than a jigger, etc.
I have both metal jiggers and OXO cups, and tend to use whichever one my hand falls on first. People who work professionally are likely to favor jiggers, because that's what they know. My experience is that most home mixologists without professional experience prefer the OXO cups.
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I think it says in Leviticus or somewhere similar that pineapple on a pizza is an abomination before the Lord, and while it is not punishable by stoning, perhaps a serious shunning is in order.
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No, no, no... I need less than a kilo of Activa. But it is only sold in one kilo lots. Luckily a friendly eGullet reader gave me a few samples.
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Google suggests: http://www.drunkard.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=54013
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I prefer fabada (Spain's iconic "beans with meats" dish) to cassoulet.
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On Dec 23 2008, 01:26 AM, thirtyoneknots said:
Also, maybe I'm imagining it, but didn't the original Pegu Club cocktail call for Rose's Lime?
See here for details.
Rancilio Silvia Redesigned Espresso Machine
in Coffee & Tea
Posted · Edited by slkinsey (log)
"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.