Now add some almond milk from the chalice of the Gods!!!!

^^^^

From the YT site

lol

yeah that vid is ok, but the music gets annoying after a while. I like the cool setting though.

mmmmmm almond milkshakes

nomnomnomnom

Our climate is moderate enough you could do a pancetta or a lamb prosciutto in your apartment. Any season.

I've done several pancetta now and even my failures are pleasant. There are two places in the embarcadero farmer's market that sell the curing salts. One is that boutique to the south. The other the deli towards the north of it.

If you are interested in charcuterie seems like this is accessible.

Reminds me of the Indian dish Saag Panner, which I avoided for years based on looks until I lived with an Indian guy in college who got me to try it. Now it is my go to item at Indian restaurants.

indian steak doesn't really make any sense to me.

Theoretical question: is it possible to deep-fry in an oven? Like would it work to fill a pan with oil, put something like chicken in it, and then bake it in an oven at the maximum temperature? Would the oil boil? Would it turn out like deep-frying on a stove top?

I think you'd just start a fire that would destroy your oven. Why do you want to deep fry in your oven?

It's a theoretical question.

Theoretically, yes. Temperature is temperature. After enough time in a 400 degree oven, the oil will reach 400 degrees (or whatever cooking temp you want). My guess is that it would take a really long time since air is such a poor conductor of heat. The next problem will be that oil temp drops rapidly when cold food is added. Even if you could add food with the minimum amount of open oven door time, the oven would take far too long to bring the oil back up to cooking temp. Soggy, greasy food would be the result. Not to mention the danger of sliding an oven rack in and out with a full pot of 400 degree oil. I guess the only way to do it would be to calculate the amount of temp drop that you will get from the food and overheat the oil by the appropriate amount. Of course, that could cause the oil to smoke horribly, or to burn the outside of the food before the inside cooks through.

So, theoretically it is a really awful idea for pretty much every conceivable reason, but yes, you can heat up oil in an oven.

I read about doing sous vide in a cooler and decided to give it a try.

Beer Cooler Sous Vide

There's a link in the comments to an excel spreadsheet that uses the weight of the food, specific heat of the food, amount of water, and final desired temp to determine the starting temp for the water.

I started with a 3 lb round eye roast with the goal of roast beef for sandwiches. This is a fairly cheap cut which tends to be tough. I was hoping that sous vide would help to tenderize.

Seasoned with salt and pepper, put in ziplock bag, suck out air.



The calculator suggested 122 degrees water temp for a final temp of 117. I was planning on searing after that which would bring the final temp up a little more.




I ran into some temp control problems. I guess the lid of my cooler isn't very well insulated. The sides stayed cool, but the lid felt very warm, so heat was escaping. I ended up losing at least 2-3 degrees per hour.

So, I took a potful of water out, heated it up to 170 or so and added it back in. Recheck temp, repeat as necessary.

I started around 4PM with the idea that I might leave it overnight. The rapid temp drop made me give up on that plan, so around 11:30 I called it quits.

The internal temp was 118. At no point was the water warmer than 123 or lower than 115, so I think I succeeded in that respect. I would have aimed for a lower temp in retrospect.

I then seasoned with salt and pepper and seared in a cast iron skillet with a little oil until browned.



Into the fridge overnight.

After slicing:


The result was pretty good. Definitely rare throughout. The colors are a little off on the photo, but the overall color is closest to that deeper red area at the top left. It still needs to be sliced thinly, since it is still a tougher cut of meat.

I can't say I would do this again - the rapid temp loss was too much of a hassle for longer times. I will try this for thinner items (salmon, steak) since the time in the water bath will be shorter.

I made some beef pepperoni: Beef, wine, garlic, paprika, cayenne, ancho, pepper, salt

Blueberry crumb cake:



Sorry for the ****ty lighting in the pic. Was really good tho. It's a light cinnamony cake with a layer of blueberries, then some crunchy crumbly stuff on top.

112g butter
150g sugar
2 eggs
5g vanilla extract
175g ap flour
4g baking powder
1/2t cinnamon
80g buttermilk

cream butter + sugar, add eggs + vanilla, sift the dry **** and add it alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions, pour onto a 1/4 sheet pan lined with oiled parchment

Take 280g of blueberries and spread them around evenly on the batter.

83g butter
140g ap flour
33g sugar
33g brown sugar
1/4t cinnamon

melt the butter, mix dry **** in a bowl, pour the butter in, then mix it just until it starts looking crumbly, then sprinkle over the blueberries and press it down gently. Bake 350* for 30-40 minutes until the top is golden and crunchy.

I'm just started curing some salmon, what should I serve alongside gravlax? Most suggestions I see are for something like rye bread and cucumber salad, but that's not so appealing (the rye bread part at least).

PGUK,

On white bread with lightly steamed, green asparagus and some dill on top. That's standard in my part of the world(where gravlax was invented btw). It's kind of boring, but if the salmon is good and the veggies are fresh it tastes great.

Chopped raw dill on top?

Thoughts on putting some home made mayo or hollandaise on top?

Yup, wikipedia says it's called "dill weed" to distinguish it from the dill seeds.



You can make a sauce/dressing with mayo, fresh dill weed, dijon mustard, S&P, and a little sugar. It's supposed to be a rich dressing and a little sweet. Depending on what kind of salmon you used it can be a bit too rich with fatty fish and rich dressing imo.

Another classic dressing is 1 part sweet mustard, 2 parts dijon or some other spicy/sour mustard, 1 part white wine vinegar, fresh chopped dill, S&P, sugar, and then oil until you get the right consistency. It's still a pretty rich dressing with the same sweet taste.

Does anyone have an informed opinion on organic food?

I don't know if I am "informed" but do have a basic understanding. Organic is oftentimes a stamp used to increase the price of food based on it meeting certain regulations. I am excluding all processed foods here because for most of them organic doesn't help you all that much except for the exclusion of High Fructose Corn Syrup, etc. and you can find cheaper non-organic versions with very similar ingredients.

For meat, fruit and veggies, organic typically implies fresh and higher quality but is relatively overpriced. I would much rather buy "non-organic" (oh no they used pesticides) produce at the farmers market than much more expensive "organic" produce from Whole Foods any day. I buy organic when it is truly better in taste/quality than non-organic and otherwise just buy good local stuff. That being said, I live in NYC and have great markets and would think for most of the country "organic" is the only thing that will get you non-mass market fruit and veggies.

For meat, I actually tend to prefer non-organic and feel you pay a ton for organic without alot of benefit. You can get good grass fed beef, milk or cheese without paying the premium to ensure the animals never got antibiotics or whatever else "organic" requires.

I would imagine that for my hometown of 100k people in West Texas that the options are mostly likely "organic" and everything else as opposed to all the great "non-organic" stuff I get at local markets.

the main problem with the organic label imo is that really small producers often can't afford the costs involved in getting certified, even though they usually use less pesticides and follow the spirit of organic growing much more strictly than larger producers who have technically organic products. It's a perfect example of how government intervention in the market usually favors the larger competitor.

I think pesticides and all that stuff would be a leading reason to consume organic food. We're made of the same stuff in the end, and if the insects can't stand it... Not sure if it works like that though.

It is very expensive, good point about the labeling, gonna do some more research into it

Csa farm shares and farmers markets are where it's at if you cannot grow your own. Other than that I agree with RB, factory organic is just a marketing gimmick. Grass fed beef is a matter of preferences, but I think that pastured usually local pork and poultry is markedly better than the corporate alternatives.

I'll try to find some local markets, but it will be hard to determine whether they're not loaded with chemicals


Is it worth buying/making my own broth for soups and what not? Seems like a tad bit of a waste of vegetables to do it myself and I suspect commercial ones will be pretty unhealthy.

Does a dish lose flavor/nutrients by allowing it to cook without the lid on? So allowing lots of unnecessary steam to escape. If I've made a dish that is too watery, what will happen if I decide to "overcook" it? Let's say with a curry for example that looks too much like a soup

I don't really care about pesticides/chemicals but the fresh produce from local farmers just tastes fresher and more like it should imo.

Making your own stock/broth is absolutely worth it. Onions, carrots, and celery are cheap, and chicken bones are free if you buy bone-in chicken instead of boned chicken. Bone-in chicken is also disproportionally cheap compared to the weight difference for boned chicken since you're paying for the labor/machine to de-bone the chicken. In any event it's good to learn that chicken anatomy by cleaning the carcass yourself, it will only help you work with the birds in the future.

Steam escaping doesn't carry with it the flavors of the dish significantly even if it smells good. I usually leave lids on when I want something to cook slowly over low heat and lid off when I want something to cook quickly and reduce moisture like for a sauce. That's a massive oversimplification but there's reasons to do both for different dishes.

Usually to some extent you can reduce a watery soup, but you have to be mindful of overcooking the meat and vegetables in it. Over time you'll just get a feeling for how much liquid or how much heat particular ingredients can handle.

I don't make my own stock just because I rarely use stocks. Homemade stocks are generally going to be better, but there are respectable store brands. I often buy a brand called Pacific natural foods, they make a decent veg and chicken stock. Always get low sodium stocks if you're buying it, and add your own salt to taste. You never really know how salty it's going to be, and if you plan on making any kind of reduction sauce with it, you're going to concentrate the salt and make it super salty. I'm not sure why you think store brands would be so unhealthy.