eugenep

I got pisco (Peruvian/Chilean grappa) and American Fruit - Pear brandy liquor recently. The pisco was really interesting and seems more local to the Americas than European grappa or other grape brandies (cognac) and not as pricey. The American Fruit pear brandy from upstate NY was very high in fruit and the sweetness was balanced (not too sweet) - smooth enough to have on the rocks or with seltzer and ice. I just thought local things are higher in quality and better in price so I got these things.

mucho appreciate it. I'm trying to purchase and avoid the $120 state tax by purchasing from JB Prince. I guess we'll see. The strength of your recommendation convinced me that it's a good buy that I won't regret after purchase and using it. I just hope it'll last at least 5 years before it goes kaput.

I have D5 all clad, cast iron, carbon steel, and staub cast iron dutch ovens and braisers. I think they all work for induction maybe? Also, are you sure the Control Freak couldn't sear (like a steak)? The heat is very important to me. Thank you.

I needed to ask - do you think it will last a few years or so? I was worried about paying the high price for something that might break later. I read your thread and was very impressed by your posts and always thought about getting one. Now I have an excuse I guess. I don't mind paying the premium for design but...just worried it might break eventually without my getting the benefit of a longer use that makes it worth it etc.

I live in an apartment and my stove just broke - the main burner. So I can't sear things etc. anymore. My landlord likely won't fix it and I was planning to move soon anyway. I saw on a thread here that the Control Freak by Breville is good. Do you recommend any equipment or ideas? https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/breville-smart-cooker/?pkey=s|control freak|1 Do you know of anywhere I could get a good price in an emergency situation like this? I hate to buy something not on sale like this but..I"m really desperate (I can't cook anymore). Thank you

I learned to cook through Cooks Illustrated magazine. Chris Kimball (before he got fired) is one smart talented guy. They don't just give you recipes but they tell you why you do certain things - such as browning the meat or aromatic vegetables, toasting your spices, etc. that gives food maximum flavor. It was just not about recipes but about technique and most of their recipes/techniques turned out incredibly great tasting dishes. Also, the James Beard awards gives a list of winners of best food books of the year (like the Emmys for food books).

Hmmm....I read that pergamino just means beans in parchment/skin. So Invalsa is claiming that they do in fact separate by bean size. But it's not true from my lot after paying mucho $$$ and being stuck with 22 lbs. Hmmm...I'll be drinking the coffee tomorrow so...the taste test will determine whether or not I got burned here. Their Bolivians I got last time from Invalsa was all uniform in size and the taste really was superb. I just hope these Colombians will deliver.

I bought 22 lbs of beans from this single farm in Colombia. I'm a home roaster. The beans are from a small coffee tree farm with only 6,000 trees and 2 hectares and sold at a slight premium price. When they arrived in the mail, some beans are big and some are small. Only one coffee bean varietal is listed - Canturra. It looks like the small beans are from one plant and big beans are from another varietal. Do you think I got ripped off (like they just put a bunch of random green coffee beans and sold it to me as "premium" single estate) I got it here https://invalsacoffee.com/collections/colombia/products/colombia-micro-lot-emiliano-trujillo-huila-available-at-continetal-nj-salisbury-ma-new-arrival

hello hello. When you braise meat with super salty water the salty water will likely enter the meat until there is some kind of equilibrium that's established between the less salt content of the meat and the salty content of water (based on "science?"). When you braise meat in water, a lot of flavor from the meat will escape into the liquid turning it into a stock with flavorless meat at the end of a long cooking period. Some braises are trying to cook the meat without pulling out all the flavor from it - like pot roast etc. Which makes sense because you want to eat the meat as the main course. Some recipes call for heavy wine/herbs/msg in the braising liquid. Is the thought here that flavor from the msg/wine/herbs will enter the meat rather than pull it out? I mean...is there a technique where I can braise with a liquid/water without pulling out the fla-va? And does braising liquid with a lot of flavor actually put flavor into the meat (like how salt will go inside the meat in a brine)? I'm always afraid to braise with too much liquid or water just because I think the liquid will pull out all the flavor in my meat. thanks amigos/amigas

what kitchen equipment are you getting for xmas (either for yourself or from your family/friends/partner)? I think it would be crazy lucky if anyone would be receiving a viking stove, blast freezer, combi oven, robot coup, vitamix blender, dry-age steak refrigerator etc. or anything crazy and out of this world. I'm getting myself a le creuset 5 qt braiser and I asked my girlfriend to get me an Atlas pasta machine. How bout you?

Oh. I didn't see the bruises but it was pointed out to me in by someone in the grocery store. I thought they were talking about "bruised" as in ragged old chicken that wan't fresh like bruised vegetables. I looked to see if there was any water on the tray (indicating chicken was sitting in it tray for a while) there was none and the date was 11/7/18 for expiration so it looked fresh enough. The purple and red parts were mostly in the wings and I missed it until I took it out of the packaging. The only other time I ate cutter meat was when there was as skirt steak for sale at $8.99 a pound. What a deal! It's usually $13.99 or so so I bought it and seared it etc. The inside was dark purple and I thought it was because the meat was so fresh it didn't have time to oxidize and change color from purple to red. I googled it and found out otherwise and remembered that stuff I read in Modernist Cuisine. I read that cutter meat is sort of a normal thing in the meat industry and is sold at a discount (hence the price I got). It's hard to sell to consumers so it's supposed to be sold to government lunch programs etc. (from stuff I read online). Here is one link https://meat.tamu.edu/2013/01/22/dark-cutting-beef/ The highest price I paid for a chicken was the Red Bro chicken at $50 at about $10 a pound for whole. It was grown in upstate NY. A Manhattan lawyer and his wife owned it but they live in NYC. It was good chicken and does taste different from standard supermarket chicken. It was buttery and had this depth of flavor...like it tasted good and felt healthy at the same time (that's the only words I could explain the taste). But for $35 a week for a 3.5 lb chicken normally, I think it's way to pricey. So thank god for Perdue. I emailed Perdue and told them that I'm grateful for their super low affordable prices. I think I spent like $4.50 (not the $50 I paid for Red Bro) for this chicken so I don't care about a refund but I just wanted to grouse about it in a polite way and ask them for a "refund" owing to the flesh and processing. Just my 2cents. I might throw away the remaining parts. I salted the two thighs and drums sticks, added herb butter, and put them on a bed of Brussels sprouts in a 450 degree oven. The salt was about 4 hours in the fridge 1 hour on the table and didn't penetrate the meat that deeply. It wasn't tough meat insofar as I could tell and no big difference in taste experience. Ummm...the red bro does taste different than standard Perdue...but it's like this depth of flavor and yummy goodness in the protein that Perdue lacks. But at $10 a pound - fergetaboutit

I didn't see the a section for "moralizing" etc. here on egullet so please excuse me if I posted on the wrong section and feel free to move this thread to the right section. So yes. I bought a chicken from Perdue that was bruised and purple. I cut off the purple and red sections (most of it) and just took it apart and salted it. I read in Modernist Cuisine that purple meat is called "cutter meat" in the meat industry and that's because the animal's PH level changed before slaughter owing to fear, anxiety or pain. Cutter meat is usually sold at a lower price and the purple color can change if you alter it's PH. But cutter meat is something you want to avoid because the muscles are more tense and tougher to chew owing to the adrenaline boost the animal experiences from suffering. Ummm...my chicken was purple and red all over in it's flesh because it got the sh*t kicked out of it before it was slaughtered most likely. So the bruises showed up. I didn't want to waste the meat so I just salted and ate some of it for dinner with my girlfriend. But the thought of that disgusting bruised meat bothered me. I didn't know if I should write to Perdue and ask for a refund or something. My thoughts are: Have you ever gotten crappy cutter meat and did you complain about it to Perdue or otherwise? It's purple meat usually. But, as in my chicken case, the meat was bruised and red and purple. Like..did you do anything about it....or ask for a discount or refund? It kinda bothers me (of course) that the chicken got it's a$$ kicked before slaughter on an ethical level and I do kinda feel guilty and think about it at like past 1am at night (for being complicit because I paid for it and so paid for it's death in a brutal way). I guess I'll try to complain to Perdue but if you know of any other means.... please let me know.

I actually looked this up and, according to Professor Vere E. Boring, it looks ass was used before bacon owing to the high and delicious fat content. Modern groceries stores don't sell ass on the meat section because it's reserved for haute cuisine restaurants so cook books and shows aimed at the common woman/man uses bacon in Carbonara (and it gets passed down to the deprived home cook). But the guys in the video are pros' (haute cuisine) so they be tapping that good ass (for Carbonara).

yeah - that's the one. Kinda disappointed about that ATK recipe just because it's supposed to be tested so it should work. I don't think there is a relevant difference between Pecorino and Parmesano - unless the Pecorino has some kind of emulsifier in it that the Paresamno doesn't. But I'll try again with Pecorino. Maybe it'll come out different. I think the best explanation might be that restaurants reuse the same pasta water thereby increasing the starch content wayyy more than the home kitchen cook. But it would be nice to hear from a kitchen cook that dealt with similar problems and how they got around it. happy halloween

I used ATK recipe and saw it on the "Alex French Guy" youtube show. If aged cheese is melted, it will clump together. Cacio e pepe - pasta with just percorino romano and black pepper - melts aged cheese with pasta water. The claim is that it wont' clump because the starch content of pasta water will act as a thickener (emulsifier) keeping the water and oil separate so no clumping. The trick is to use very little water to cook the starch heavy pasta so that the water is super starchy. I did just that under the ATK recipe and my cheese clumped once it was melted with hot pasta water. I grated the cheese too. For anyone having this problem, how did you resolve it? Or did you have this problem? I'm thinking maybe modernism or industrialization etc. maybe changed our processed foods so pasta maybe has less starch now than in the past or our Percornio Romano changed and is now processed differently? I think this recipe might have worked in the past but maybe not in the present??? Oh. I used Parmigiano Reggiano and not the Pecornio. I don't believe this should make a difference as Pecornio has just a stronger animal aroma to brighten very simple ingredients. EDIT I tried NickRey's method (below) and IT WORKED!!! The clumping happens because I added water to the cheese following ATK recipe before it goes into the pasta. The water + cheese = clumping. So I toasted/bloomed the black pepper in a skillet and then put the pasta (al dente) on the skillet with pasta water on medium heat. I now add the shredded cheese in parts into the pasta in the skillet and stir. and - AMAZING - distribution of cheese with no clumping and video perfect cacio e pepe

Maybe I should try Sweet Maria's next time. I googled "Cup of Excellence" beans and the first site that came up was Invalsacoffee. From just a cursory reading of the Invalsacoffee site it seems like they work directly with the coffee bean farmers in Bolivia. The beans I get their have a package date of June 2018 and they have photos and name of the farmer that grew it. So it's like I know my product is not diluted with cheaper beans from god knows where. For a 10lb bag its like $8 or so dollars of pound green beans. I read these coffee bean score ratings on Sweet Maria and also the Invalsa site but it's like they don't make it clear that they are Cup of Excellence scores or just some employee of the vendor (with obvious conflict of interest issues). But it seems like COE is the only scoring I know of that seems objective (I can't tell for sure???). But Inval seems to really trace the source of the product complete with package date of the beans so I chose them over Sweet Maria's.

hello hello my amigos. I have tasted beans directly from the Bolivia's source from some kinda June 2018 package date at https://invalsacoffee.com so it's fresh enough to give a package date (which all bean sellers should do says I ) I roasted it on high heat at 4.5 minutes and it looks "dark enough" but not too dark - like a few seconds after 2nd crack. It was good and the caffeine was super intense for arabica beans. COE score was like 86 or something. Very short and fast finish with no lasting acidity (which is kinda good - considering I had this really bad free coffee with a very long acid finish that was terrible). check out this vid and let me know your thoughts about Bolivia's beans.

Oh. I wrapped it in a plastic bag and did the draining but not flipping and pressing. Thanks for the tip about the dark meat. I cut pieces of those off and tried it again and it didn't have that gross fishy odor. I heard that the bloodline of the salmon will be super fishy in smell and aroma and is too be avoided but I guess that applies to all dark parts - including the light brown color flesh??

I dry brined it in salt, gin, dill sugar for about 3 days. Texture changed to dry on outside and moist inside. A lot of recipes online are all the same. That's okay that it was uneven etc. on the dry texture but my biggest irk is that it has a fishy smell. Like strong fishy stinky smell. Not rotting and unsafe but stinky stinky fishy oil smell. Some guy said in a comment that wet brine will result in no fishy smell. You guys think this will work? Does yours stink as well? If yours doesn't, do you know why mine stinks? I tried the get fresh etc. as I can from my fish monger (but it's not like I could trace the veracity of the supply chain etc.). I checked out this thread but couldn't find or do a narrower search re the stink smell at

Hello hello My girlfriend got me a coffee bean roaster so I could roast my own green beans to ensure I get non-stale just roasted beans every morning (after de-gassing for 24 HR of course). I need a recommendation for a good source / purveyor that is reputable etc. I just googled and found https://invalsacoffee.com Ever hear of this outfit? They list the date of arrival of their Bolivian beans (not sure about other areas). Do you have a recommended source to buy the best beans? What are your thought about the AAA ratings vs. Cup of Excellence scores? And any info you might have for a new coffee roaster at home guy would be appreciated. I'm using SR500 roaster for like $170 or something and glanced through some roasting bean books by Kenneth Ross and Scott Rao (from an article I read in Cooks Illustrated). Thanks buds.