FlashJack

Indeed, palo, I have high expectations. I've done pizza, a sourdough boule, chicken Maryland. I'm sure it will take a bit of getting to know. Thank you for the rack recommendation. They are on the pricey side for what they are but if they fit well, they're worth it. regards, Jack PS: After just a few cooks the water tank is already showing signs of crazing. Come on: polymers aren't rocket science!

@JoNorvelleWalker Jo! You made me do it. I bought an APO. What a Sleek Black Beauty. I've only had it a few days so of course I have to buy accessories that suit such a gorgeous thing. I also know you like Team Farr, and I trust your judgement. Will these Team Farr pans work well? I'm concerned about the fit -- it looks like they will just squeeze in but would like that confirmed if you can. The bigger the better but the tolerances are fine. Second, do you have a full-width, slide-in rack recommendation? I can see using the APO for dehydrating and if I'm going to run it for, say, 12 hours I want to make sure it's full. Would like two more racks to maximise capacity. Any thoughts? Best, Jack

Imprecations is a lovely word. Doesn't often enough get an outing. Thank you

No we don't. At least not in middle-class Melbourne. Usages depend on place, time and class. That makes for confusing enough variants. My experience: Breakfast then lunch exceptionally rarely followed by High Tea, preferably at the Windsor Hotel, Spring Street, Melbourne, where the Indian owners preserve Victorian traditions and charge a lot of money for scones, tea and little cakes on multi-layered trays with doilies then dinner; in my Irish catholic working-class childhood this was called tea (and the earlier you ate it the more likely you were in a physically hard job) supper is had late evening, after the theatre if one is lucky (late-night pubs/live music places were sometimes known as supper clubs). If you are older/younger, richer/poorer, live elsewhere YMMV.

Jo is swift to respond. Note to self: avoid closely proximate references to Ireland, food and pink sludge because someone will always suggest eating children. These, as we know, are nutritious but lack flavour.

Chris, great to see you following matters here and you seem to be giving this plenty of deep thinking. Good. Meantime I have more and more products from Thermoworks and InkBird that don't quite do the job. So, um, when?

Not accurate, of course, but it *sounded* true enough. And I'm sure the supermarkets here have some sausages of reclaimed meat product. What was it Jamie called it? Pink Goo. You can buy/make good or bad of anything. I'll eat ćevapi to your health.

Another nice piece @liuzhou How naughty of you to talk of British sausages without referring to a lovely moment from Yes Minister in which Jim Hacker relates European (EEC) objections to the British sausage and displays his distaste for things European. I hope I've linked to the right bit on YouTube: here: EuroSausage. Speaking of meat content, I had an Northern Irish Catholic friend who was appalled that English sausages were, to his mind, full of fat and bread and ipso facto yet another way that he and his people were being misused. He might have wished for a sausage of 100% lean fillet but I couldn't think of anything worse. Re Lorne sausage: new to me but you've inspired me to have cevapcici tonight. Keep up the good work.

Thank you Liuzhou for your writings here. I am thoroughly enjoying them. @Anna N those are some lovely posts too. The 1/3 pint of milk has special memories for me. In Australia it never froze but was from time to time baked briefly in the sun. It was pasteurised but not homogenised. Lovely thick cream cap. Some children had a particular aversion to it, which was good for me because there were always extra bottles. Most mornings I drank a pint and most mornings it was cold and refreshing. To this day, I love a swig of cold milk. Nothing chills the internals so well.

Excellent tips. Thank you very much.

Yes, that's it. Made in a pan, immersion blended, then spooned in to a jar. But I'll try piping it.

You are a genius. Squeezing through bag eliminates air/consolidates the stuff. Brilliant. Thank you.

As in, squeeze though a bag? Never thought of that. I'm a barbarian on the squeezy-creamy-pastry style of thinking. Great idea!

Oh, I'd say the consistency is about right. Smooth but a long way from being liquid. It's pâté like.

Thanks PG. I'm not so concerned about safety: I guess absence of the pâté implies presence of air but they are under seal, protected by the butter, refrigerated and eaten fairly quickly. The air inside is less than the air at the surface once you start to use the pâté. Maybe the ant tunnels have been there all along but I've never looked from the side before using glass jars. It's like an elementary school experiment. @rotuts will demur, but it's only there because I looked!

A seemingly absurd question: how do I stuff pâté into a jar? Until recently I've potted chicken liver pâté into china or stoneware vessels. I spoon, push and pack it in, run a wet finger over the top to smooth it off then seal with clarified butter. When it's cooled and set and I dip into it I've never noticed air pockets and crevices in the pâté . I've been doing the same with shallow round glass preserving jars from Weck. These look great with their rubber seals and silver clips. Great for giveaways (hoping to get the glassware back). But looking through the side of the jar the pâté looks like an ant farm for very big ants. There are air filled pockets, gaps and tunnels. It's a bit unsightly. How can I fill a glass jar to avoid this problem? I've tried pressing down with a coffee tamper. Result: messy. OK, not a life-threatening situation but I'm curious. There must be a trick.

I've recently been on a binge of reading Elizabeth David. Grub Street publishes most of her books in really attractive uniform editions. I've been compelled to collect the set. She's didactic, witty, acerbic, practical and a thorough researcher. Her Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen is lighter on history than many of her works but it backs up your views. I'm sure you know it. I too am looking forward to this thread.

Jo, could you say more about your Korean pan? A link? I bought a nice two-baguette pan for the CSO. It was a Bakemaster from Amazon. Too long for the CSO but I trimmed it with a grinder so it would fit north-south (which is slightly longer in the CSO that east-west). My only minor criticism is that the Bakemaster would have made a better baguette if it was slightly wider. But good heavy gauge and highly recommended for fellow CSOers. Baguette pans are really difficult. Hard to get heavy gauge with just the right proportions.

Nice piece. Congrats on the Bob Dylan reference.

Grant Achatz's Next in Chicago is great. I went there once. Expensive. I left delighted and satisfied. It wouldn't be my first choice but it can be done.

I agree here. You already have good experience with sous vide and have worked out that it's simply about warm circulating water. I have the Anova Precision and it does all I need. I don't use any of the fancy features. I set it to a temperature and a time. It's not particularly expensive. It's reliable and nicely designed. I use a stock pot. Sometimes I vacuum seal, more often I use a zip lock bag. It seems odd now that at its inception sous vide was about expensive sciency tech. All way overcomplicated. Time x constant temparature. Easy. Get an Anova, the expensive one if it makes you feel better. Best wishes

Apart from not wishing to engage in politics, you'll get us both in trouble from getting off-topic here. Nice illustration though. I use good cheap Australian canola all the time. It is not fishy. I buy four-litre tins when it is half price at the local supermarket. Voters from across the political spectrum like my shallow frying.

Le tongue is greater than Le Science? Rotuts, you will make Nathan cry.

Are you sure it's dark? I mean, when the doors closed isn't this a Schrödinger's cat situation? You're pretty certain it's dark in there but you have no evidence.

Jo, this is precisely the thing I dislike. Thank you for the instruction. This is why I gripe against our overthinking robot overlords. It's the UI/UX. Can we not be allowed to dial these things on the device? Without a phone? I like to press buttons or dial dials. Does this frustrate you too? Much as I like programming, my feeling is that these too-smart machines are dumb.