jsolomon

The other thing is that aluminum has a very healthy specific heat (a description of how many calories it takes to make a certain amount go up a certain temperature). Pound for pound, aluminum's is actually higher than that of iron--not true volume for volume, though. So, you've got a large chunk of a good heat conductor that contains a lot of heat because of its nature.

I didn't purchase the initially proferred wine. I got another one that looked more promising. I'll post what it is when I get off work tonight and post my tasting notes in this thread... either that or I'll start a WTN thread for bottles < $15 US

I love college students. I really do. But... I was in my local wine importer last night. Alas, there are only three in my town who are worthy of note. And, then only barely. But, I digress. I got some champagne (Bellefon) and was perusing their wines when I went to the attendant and I said "I would like something quirky and red". So, he went and got "Menage a trois" Here is some info on it. Am I expecting too much that when I say "quirky" I don't want something labeled quasi-scandalously? Marketing psycho-crap just turns my stomach and makes me wonder what kind of profit-margin-driven product will be inside. What is my problem? Should I go to the wine shop at a different time? Should I mention to the manager that he's hired a dolt who needs retrained? Should I go to the other shops that I know is absolutely unhelpful (but has nearly as decent of a selection)? Some time, I think I'm going to go to the shops with a list of grapes and have several struck through. I will then tell the attendant/proprietor that if I get one of those struck through grapes suggested to me, I will promptly break a bottle of wine over their heads! I want to try new wine, but my wine shop is holding me back. Help me!!!!! What should I do?

Most rabbits are very slender. At the Bohemian Cafe in Omaha, I think they serve rabbit halves as a dinner, to give others an idea. Great place, and great dish, but expecting one rabbit to feed four requires many sides.

All is now right with the world. My dear girlfriend went to The Coffee Roaster yesterday and got me beans.

To redact my earlier flippant remark, there have been many studies between the connection of taste, smell, and sight. One such one I recall reading nearly a decade ago involved something along the line of kool-aid, food coloring, and sugar. The researchers were studying if hue intensity had anything to do with perceived strength of flavor. They made half-strength flavor, single-strength flavor, and double-strength flavor, and went from no color, half-color, single-strength color, and double-strength color in all of the variations of flavor. The strongest color, regardless of strength of flavor, was always chosen as having the strongest flavor. I believe this has some carryover into the minds of wine consumers, alas.

Yes, but no one has mentioned what my mother does... she makes Hidden Valley Ranch with Miracle Whip. Talk about processed, spamtastic, capitalist food. But, it reminds me of home. Of course, now, she's on a reduced-fat miracle whip and light hidden valley ranch kick which is, well, disgusting.

Have you tried turning the lights WAY down low (I'm thinking like in a dark room with those wacky red filters) during a wine tasting? You can usually pick them up off E-bay for a song, and it would be a wild thing to offer a "dark room" tasting. Heck, I'd pay $5 extra for it.

I had an experience this morning that just about threw me off of my feed. I went to my local cafe to get some coffee as I'm out of grounds at home. When I got there, at about 7:05 a.m., they did not have coffee made. No problem. I will just order an Americano and be on my merry way. So, the barrista goes and fiddles with the pods (I knew I was in trouble here) and then could not get the grouphead to attach to the outlet. Barrista then says, "!@#$$^@#%$! We got a new espresso machine and I don't know how to use it!" ??? Who gets a new espresso maker without showing their employees how to use it (either that, or said employee was on brain-break). Here's the rub, they make a durn good cup of coffee, even if it is sometimes in a dirty cup. I just needed to vent. Oh, they did end up giving me a large brewed gratis for my time and patience. But, as a former barrista, I am professionally offended.

Homemade, in my experience, is vastly superior.

You mean the dark chocolate M&M's aren't here to stay? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

What an ad to see before I even have coffee today. I might not make it to work now. That's on par with the Batman Snickers commercial.

LMF, if the onions are going to be cooked, I think you'll find that a standard yellow (or red for presentation) will fare much better. Cooked Walla Wallas are really hard to tell apart from cooked generics.

The Staten Island phone book is better, too.

It never fails. Whenever I begin to think that I'm starting to get my chops and can be on a par with most eG-ers, someone comes along and places me right back in reality...

Well, most of your ingredients ought to have some of the acetobacter or acidophilus on them, but if you'd point me to your recipe URL, I could see if there's some additional help I can give.

Well, you're certainly not asking the easy questions! Based on what I've seen in things like candy recipes and the like, if you want the sugar to remain in more of a solution, the easy thing to add it fructose (Karo syrup or the like). Based on some [faulty] recollection I would say between 5% and 10% by weight of fructose syrup to sucrose (dry). So it ends up being about 1.5 Tbsp of high fructose corn syrup to each cup of table sugar. Now, remember that the fructose is going to hinder the formation of any and all crystals in a blanket fashion. But, it will help in the creation of the cotton candy type of stuff. However, with the dry ice using the two sugars, you should even be able to get 4 types of crystals (possibly 5!) sucrose, L-glucose, D-glucose, fructose (possibly 2 types) and water. Good stuff, eh?

With some C-clamps, rubber bands, and a buffer pad covered with some aluminum foil placed into the chuck of a drill, you could make a suitable cotton candy maker. Perhaps a dremel tool would work better, so you could spin one half of the batch (while the dremel or similar is held in the C-clamp) while the other cools to form the crystals. One other thing you could do is divide the batch in thirds, and the third, put in a sheet cake pan and set it on some dry ice to really shock the crystals. Good luck!

Many have mentioned making several days' food out of one bout of cooking. To stretch that a little more (using crock pot, stock pot, pressure cooker, or oven braise), you can make many servings out of a soup or a stew and then freeze them and eat them over a longer period of time, which would give you a greater variety. 1 hour of cooking soups/stews a night over 4 nights could give you 4 different soups portioned out as you would wish (I find 2 cups per portion to be good, but I'm a big eater). 2 cups goes into 8 quarts 16 times, so you can see how this can stretch your food dollar if you choose your soups wisely (lots of carrots, potatoes, and onions!) Also, let your oven/crockpot work for you. If you trust it, set it at 225F or 250F with a large, cheap, tough cut of meat to braise for your whole workday. Be sure that there is a little moisture in with it and it's fairly well-sealed. Your patience (and courage) will be rewarded. Also, think about getting a second-hand bread-maker. $2+ bread is insane.

Fine, fine, fine. I'll cave. Rachel Ray is a real chef. Now get her skinny ass on Iron Chef America! Rachel Ray vs Cat Cora. That's the match I want to see! Sandra What's-her-name vs Mario. Or... Anthony Bourdain vs both of them! If only my idolized Anthony Bourdain were *ahem* proper enough to be an Iron Chef. That would be digging Iron's etymology as a proper name back toward the Iron maiden era (of torture, that is).

Whoo... that's a question that is a real poser. What happens when meat rests? Well, first of all, you are asking questions about cooking under very different conditions. The first, where you cook at high heat and "thermal disequilibrium" is generally what chemists consider under kinetic control. Different pieces are under different controls. Even using something fairly simple like Le Chatelier's principle you can begin to fathom that there are simply a lot of chemicals doing a lot of things. The second, Heston Blumenthal's method, is equilibrium control. Changes are more quantized as the whole of the chunk of material reaches temperatures at roughly the same time and then undergo roughly the same chemistry. Equilibrium control is good for things like dissolving stuff. Kinetic control is good for producing many different compounds that are "metastable" compared to the equilibrium control products. Equilibrium control generally favors reversible reactions. Kinetic control generally favors irreversible reactions. Beyond those generalities? That'd take some serious research.

Yeah. Okay. Someone on Slate likes teeny-bopper saccharine cuteness. So does my director. That's why we have crap in my laboratory that doesn't work, but gosh it looks nice. When I purchase things, I still go for craftmanship, not planned obsolescence so I can hit the next "big craze". That's why I think Rachel Ray is annoying. She and those like her take food to the same consumers-will-love-it-because-it's-"NEW" level of industro-profiteering that I would really like to decompress from at home. For some of us, cooking is therapy, and she spits in the face of it. Fie on her, and those like her. Would you catch her spitting in the face of people who use Pilates (or any other new exercise craze) as their decompression? Nope, but people who cook as therapy are reviled by her. Let her burn under our laser gaze. And Slate's editorial board is defnintely outside of my political purview, so they can burn, too.

Some of the newer, vacuum-thermos styled stainless steel ones are quite good, like the recommended Nissan. They also look really good, too. A good stainless steel will not impart a metallic taste unless your rinse water is pretty corrosive.

I have never failed to see them in reasonable hardware stores. Ace Hardware, True Value. Maynards and Home Despot may not carry them, but they're not real hardware stores.

Pickled pepper relishes are wonderful. I'll see if I can scare up a recipe for you.