I wouldn't mind a cooking subforum. Almost everybody likes food... would start slow but given enough time I can't see how it would fail

This
and this.

There are so many different threads that could be made. I think enough of us are foodies to keep a solid foundation until others show up. There could be a vegetarian/vegan thread, a dessert thread, an appetizer thread, etc.

I like food threads, but I don't think I'd check a food subforum as often as I check OOT, and then subsequently the steak thread.

But you would check it.

PFFFT, 53K posts, and involved in every single thread I have ever subscribed to (across 2 user names), I think you will have no trouble keeping up with a food subforum.

bet ya this won't be true when you're updating our "2+2 Food&Drink Forum's 1st Annual Steak Challenge" thread every 10 seconds for a week.

Actually, screw a sub-forum, it should have its own section.

There's a musician forum?

Another "No" vote to cooking forum.

you have my vote!

thx, I'll continue to follow & add ay cool stuff I get to be a part of (just got back from work...LONG hours on my feet but I really like it and the down to earth peopple I work with are awesome)

would be cool

I hear ya, I'm in a very fortunate situation, I'm semi retired and dont need the income from this job (couldn't survive anyway at 9 bucks an hour---> dont know how my co workers do it). The way I look at it, it gets me off the couch and I get paid to learn how to cook some great stuff and they let me work part time (20-30 hours/wk).

There's also the main restaurant with very reasonable prices, so the 5 course dinner isn't your only option if you come to Dallas. The area i work in is turning into restaurant row and is loaded with some amazing food:

Chocolateer: Dude Sweet,
French-inspired rustic bistro:“Boulevardier
Italian: Lucia (6+ week wait for reservations)

All of the above are within 100 yards of each other and only a quarter mile from where I work.

The place I work has a similar vibe to Austin and most everything they do is farm to market, so the menu is constantly changing, its a great gig. Only prob is I'm too tired to work on my poker game which I'd realy like to do in case internet poker comes back, oh well..choices...

I'm in charge of all the charcuterie (here's a great book we use: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. I'll try to write up a post down the road on some of the stuff I get to do, I've got some stuff curing that wont be ready for another month or so that I think you folks might find pretty cool (pepperoni, chorizo, coppa & Bresaola). Its pretty interesting and amazes me people figured out all these techniques...they were mainly born out of necessity back in the day when preservatives, refrigeration and freezing wasn't available. Kind of cool to repeat these time tested methods. I also make the sausage (Brat, Italian Sausage & wild boar) and I get to make some amazing pastrami and smoked turkey breast for our sandwiches (making me hungry thinking about it). I was surprised to find out pastrami is just brined, smoked and cooked brisket that undergoes a dramatic change of flavor in the process.

Here's an amazing book I want to buy (its $500 bucks):

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Here's another one. One of the chefs i work with apprenticed with a chef who was instrumental in the writing of this book:

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs

The chefs I work with refer to these often.

great thread bro, keep up the good work!

+1

Yimyammer, definitely post your air drying and sausage making projects. You can get MC from the library. I had to wait a couple months to do it. Then again it's so voluminous it's difficult to process in two weeks in your spare time even with only one volume at a time.

In re: the pork butt, my main tip would be to use a fair amount of raw or turbinado sugar in the rub, since it won't burn as easily. Then cook between 230 to 270 with no foil depending on your preference until it jiggles like a fat booty. I've used mops in the past to build bark but I think it's not necessary if you have lots of rub. You can re-apply rub like 4-5 hours into the cooking process once the first application has melted.

Another way to get lots of rub on the butt is to either pre-salt to draw out moisture (using salt free rub) or use L&P "thick" Worcestershire sauce to allow the rub to adhere.

I'm also against the cooking forum. Outside of the steak thread there was no cooking activity in OOT for like 50% of 2012.

Snipe/other sous vide guys

how are you calibrating your thermocouple? do you just stick a calibrated thermapen or w/e meat temp you have in the water to see if the temp on that matches up with the controller?

I calibrated against thermapen. Have 2 thermocouples that are 1.8C different.

Calibrated with a second thermometer. My sous vide thermistor is ~0.7 degree C below the other thermometer. Probably will buy a low temp thermometer (fever/ovulation) to get an extra data point.

Man, that PID looks really well-built. I used similar resources, but mine is like 4x as big and looks awful. But it works!

What do you use for sealing? I guess from the vacuum pickle, you have a chamber vac?

About the food section or sub-forum, I think it would definitely work.

This thread alone could be split up into a few threads:

A cooking utensils/equipment thread
A recipe thread
A where-to-get-food-info thread
A food pron thread


There are, right now, two food threads on the first page of the H&F forum.


healthy foods that can be made in batches

and

post your most recent meal (food pron encouraged).


It could definitely work.

that first thread is 5 years old and has less than 100 posts. i'm not sure it's helping your case particularly.

If you've been in H&F, then you'd understand that it's easy for it to get bumped a ton every day since people update their fitness/weightlifting logs all the time. If that same thread were in a food sub-forum it would easily thrive. The fact that that thread lives in that forum is a testament to its staying power.

need a good french toast egg-wash combination

have cinnamon raisin bread I'm gonna use

just egg+milk? I see some people use vanilla.

Vanilla is good, not too much though, you don't want to overpower it.

The main thing with french toast is the ratio used. Some people like it soggier and eggier than others, and some people do it really well. I for example tend to dip the bread in an egg-milk mixture (with a large milk to egg ratio) to stop it from getting too eggy.

I just got a Vitamix and have been using it to make awesome healthy green smoothies to start the day. What else do people like to make in theirs?

Here's a sample recipe. I mix up the fruit all the time depending on whats in season and looks good
handful of red and regular kale
handful spinach
4-5 baby carrots
cucumber
apple
kiwi
ground flaxseed
hemp oil