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I suppose what I could do is leave the slicing to the Benriner, and just use a knife to julienne the stack of slices. But that's  so kitchen towel it is!
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Jan 28, 2016 20:02
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Hey, restaurant kitchens use towels all the time
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Jan 28, 2016 21:17
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I asked a housemate to do me a favor and pick up a 12qt anodized aluminum stockpot, but they picked up a raw aluminum stockpot because it was cheaper and I guess I didn't do a great job of stressing the importance that it be anodized. I'm going to be making a tonkotsu ramen broth this weekend, pork bones and fat aren't going to mess up a reactive pan, right? Is it crazy to just keep this pan and use it to do large volume boiling and then just strain the liquid into a smaller, non-reactive stock pot if I want to add acid or alcohol to the stock?
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Jan 28, 2016 21:40
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Pork bones and fat are perfectly fine. You could transfer it to a smaller pot and be fine. Personally I would return it for an anodized one because I am an uptight nerd and I'd be worried about that one hypothetical time that I might cook a giant stock with acid even though such a day has not come yet.
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Jan 28, 2016 21:49
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Is the Swissmar Borner dishwasher safe/easy to clean? I'd like a new mandolin slicer, but I don't want to spend loving $100+ on one right now.
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Jan 29, 2016 02:21
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Instructions say to hand wash.
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Jan 29, 2016 02:47
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Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:Is the Swissmar Borner dishwasher safe/easy to clean? I'd like a new mandolin slicer, but I don't want to spend loving $100+ on one right now. My understanding is that basically anything with a sharp blade is not going to be dishwasher safe, at the risk of denting/dulling the blade.
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Jan 29, 2016 07:30
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Wanting to get my wife a kitchenaid mixer as a surprise gift, shes been wanting one for a while, from looking online it seems theres different levels, she cokks just about everything, will the ~250 one work well for standard cooking?
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Jan 30, 2016 08:45
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Ace of Baes posted:Wanting to get my wife a kitchenaid mixer as a surprise gift, shes been wanting one for a while, from looking online it seems theres different levels, she cokks just about everything, will the ~250 one work well for standard cooking? If you go to amazon you can get one for $250 that isn't the artisan. Here's a good example of what to get.
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Jan 30, 2016 08:58
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Ace of Baes posted:Wanting to get my wife a kitchenaid mixer as a surprise gift, shes been wanting one for a while, from looking online it seems theres different levels, she cokks just about everything, will the ~250 one work well for standard cooking? Might be a good idea to look at used ones. Kitchenaid mixers last forever. My wife still uses the one my mother bought in the 1960's. It wobbles a bit but it works as just as effectively as the modern, high-end one her parents bought her a few years ago; the only real difference is the newer one came with a few extra attachments. EDIT: She says the new ones come with a breadmaking paddle, so if your wife makes bread, make sure to get that. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Jan 30, 2016 |
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Jan 30, 2016 10:18
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You could also look into refurbished models. I got mine for $180 last year and it's perfect. I had to return the first one that was shipped to me because the motor was hosed but they have a good warranty/return policy so I just got another.
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Jan 30, 2016 18:00
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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If you have a Costco membership they have the Kichenaid professional 600 bowl-lift model on sale right now for $299 with a $50 MIR on costco.com, and that model will blow away any of the tilt-head models.
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Jan 30, 2016 19:31
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What's the best cheap meat grinder? For burgers n the like.
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Jan 31, 2016 19:01
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M42 posted:What's the best cheap meat grinder? For burgers n the like. Kitchen aid attachment or a manual grinder (optionally attached to a drill).
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Feb 1, 2016 14:21
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So this is a random question, but what's the best way to obtain a replacement oven rack? When I moved into my current apartment I saw that my current roommate had just stacked up glassware so we can balance a pizza stone on top to bake things 
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Feb 1, 2016 18:36
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What's your oven make/model? There are a lot of appliance parts resellers who sell odds and ends like oven racks for specific models.
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Feb 1, 2016 19:29
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This is one of the things I miss about living in Vermont... at the dump, there is a huge section of appliances you can pick parts off of for free. People in VT love to reuse things. The light fixture over my kitchen table was a Vermont dump-pick, I just had to buy new glass shades for it.
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Feb 1, 2016 19:32
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Are oven racks a standard size?
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Feb 1, 2016 21:26
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Steve Yun posted:What's your oven make/model? There are a lot of appliance parts resellers who sell odds and ends like oven racks for specific models. I'll look that up and see if I can't maybe Amazon Prime myself a replacement, unless you had a specific place in mind?
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Feb 1, 2016 22:38
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http://www.ereplacementparts.com/ This is where I got refrigerator shelves and blender blades for discontinued appliances, but look around several places.
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Feb 1, 2016 22:52
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I have a relatively low end vacuum sealer that at best takes a while but 75% of the time sucks and sucks and never gets a seal it's happy with, I have to interrupt it with the Seal button just to get it closed. What's a decent replacement? It won't be used heavily but I would probably use one more if it was a quicker, more reliable process to freeze such as large buys of meat or prepare SV a bit more often if I could seal a few day's of dinner and just toss them in the water when I get home.
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Feb 1, 2016 23:05
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Adult Sword Owner posted:I have a relatively low end vacuum sealer that at best takes a while but 75% of the time sucks and sucks and never gets a seal it's happy with, I have to interrupt it with the Seal button just to get it closed.
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Feb 1, 2016 23:12
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SubG posted:Check the gasket(s). I don't know what model you're currently using, but on my cheap-as-poo poo Rival there are two foam rubber gaskets that are supposed to mate. Every once in awhile the sealer will start getting finicky about pulling a vacuum, but all it needs to sort itself out is for me to remove and re-seat the gaskets (on the older models you could flip them over as well, but the newer ones have notches on one face so they don't slide around in the machine). What ARE some good vacuum sealers? And what's the consensus on them around here? Useful or garbage?
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Feb 2, 2016 00:09
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10 Beers posted:What ARE some good vacuum sealers? And what's the consensus on them around here? Useful or garbage? My opinion is that unless you're going to spring for a chamber vac---they start around US$600 and general consensus is that the cheapest decent chamber vac is the VacMaster at around US$700---then there isn't any meaningful difference (in terms of performance) between the cheapest US$20 sealer and a fancier US$200 FoodSaver. Some people are willing to spend more for things like internal bag storage and a builtin cutter, but that's down to personal preference.
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Feb 2, 2016 00:51
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Yeah if you don't care about accessories like vacuum jars just get the cheapest consumer vacuum you can, they all basically perform the same at their main job: vacuuming bags about 75-85% and sealing them.
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Feb 2, 2016 02:48
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Steve Yun posted:Yeah if you don't care about accessories like vacuum jars just get the cheapest consumer vacuum you can, they all basically perform the same at their main job: vacuuming bags about 75-85% and sealing them. I mean my FoodSaver can take an attachment so in theory I can do more than bags I'll try to refit the seals. I would be fine with dropping for a nicer, quicker one, but if we're talking $600 to see a marked difference, I'll suffer I guess. e: oh so looking up the one I have, it's actually not cheap. It was a gift so I didn't know the price but dang http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-V22...s=vacuum+sealer
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Feb 2, 2016 05:28
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I would add a caveat to the cheapest sealer rule: spend just enough to get separate seal and vacuum+seal buttons.
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Feb 2, 2016 19:06
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Johnny Truant posted:I'll look that up and see if I can't maybe Amazon Prime myself a replacement, unless you had a specific place in mind? I'm not an expert on renter's rights but I think your landlord should be fixing it. It's usually on them to fix the appliances that come with the apartment.
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Feb 3, 2016 05:02
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We need to replace our cookware set; I've had it for more than 10 years and being a non-stick (yeah, yeah, I didn't know any better back then) the coating has been flaking up lately. We're considering a Zwilling TruClad 10-pc set that's on ~54% discount at several places. We've held them and they feel great handle and weight wise. I wanted to check if anyone has any good or bad experiences or comments on them? Here's the link to the set: https://www.zwilling.ca/zwilling/cookware/40160-000-zwilling-truclad-10-pc-cookware-set#.VrPmQGQrKX0 Related question. I mostly shy away from using the oven in my cooking, as right now I only have a cast iron skillet I can use for that. This set is oven-safe at up to 500F, most other sets that we've seen in that price range are safe up to 350F/400F. Given that I have little experience oven-wise I'm not sure how often I'll need to get up near 500F; I know at least some fish recipes that call for 420F. What's the minimum acceptable oven-safe temperature?
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Feb 5, 2016 01:18
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Depends, because usually when there's a temperature limitation on stainless steel cookware it's because of either A) plastic knobs/handles or B) because of glass lids. The metal part of the pan itself can go much higher before warping starts to become a concern in some cases. If you have plastic knobs/handles, you're stuck with that temperature limitation, but if you have glass lids you can buy a cheap all-metal universal lid and cook with it.
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Feb 5, 2016 01:43
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rgocs posted:We need to replace our cookware set; I've had it for more than 10 years and being a non-stick (yeah, yeah, I didn't know any better back then) the coating has been flaking up lately. Even America's Test Kitchen uses this bad boy almost every episode. http://amzn.com/B000GWG0T2 Non-stick totally has a place in my kitchen. Some posters can be hyperbolic and say that there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to use anything other than cast iron for non-stick but they're mostly full of poo poo. As for all-clad I had a windfall about 5 years ago and dropped about a grand on the D5 all clad set. Great investment because I'll probably never have to replace it and they are amazing. Super expensive though I mean holy gently caress I spent a grand on loving pans.
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Feb 5, 2016 01:46
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rgocs posted:We need to replace our cookware set; I've had it for more than 10 years and being a non-stick (yeah, yeah, I didn't know any better back then) the coating has been flaking up lately. We're considering a Zwilling TruClad 10-pc set that's on ~54% discount at several places. We've held them and they feel great handle and weight wise. I wanted to check if anyone has any good or bad experiences or comments on them? Roast chicken is 425F, a lot of things are >400F.
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Feb 5, 2016 02:22
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Croatoan posted:Even America's Test Kitchen uses this bad boy almost every episode. http://amzn.com/B000GWG0T2 Yeah, I'm not against non-stick entirely; but my saucepans/pots and fry pans don't all need to be non-stick. All-Clad is a bit out of our budget, the Zwilling (J.P. Henckels) TruClad 10pc set is $300 CAD now, which is as high as we're thinking of going right now. VelociBacon posted:Roast chicken is 425F, a lot of things are >400F. Have a separate pan for roasting a chicken; but you're right, 350F does seem quite limited.
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Feb 5, 2016 05:58
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rgocs posted:We need to replace our cookware set; I've had it for more than 10 years and being a non-stick (yeah, yeah, I didn't know any better back then) the coating has been flaking up lately. We're considering a Zwilling TruClad 10-pc set that's on ~54% discount at several places. We've held them and they feel great handle and weight wise. I wanted to check if anyone has any good or bad experiences or comments on them? I really hate sets of pots, even if they're top of the line. The reason being is because they come with pieces that are too small and/or redundant. With the linked set, I think everything is too small. For a skillet, I'd want at least 12 inches. That way I can fit 4 chicken/beef/fish filets or burgers/whatever in it at the same time. 10 inches is too cramped and 8 is near useless. Same goes with the sauce pans. 4 quart is a good size for a sauce pan. It won't overfill for larger jobs (rice, beans, grains, smaller sauces) and it's not too big for the smaller ones. You do get a 6 quart pot, but I think it's trying to be more of a stock pot than a sauce pan. For a stock pot I'd want it closer to 8 quarts. That gives you plenty of room to boil lots of noodles or make a decent sized batch of soup/chili. The good thing about buying kitchen gear, is you quality stuff, you'll probably have it the rest of your life. It's cheaper to buy the right stuff once than it is to buy not quite right again and again. So in my (heavy influenced by cooks illustrated/ america's test kitchen) opinion, I would get: 1. A 12 inch skillet: Namely the All-Clad Stainless Steel Tri-Ply, which happens to be a great deal right now with a lid for $101.99 if you're American. I have this along with my 12 inch cast iron and it complements it well. I prefer to use it when I'm cooking acidic things like tomatoes (which seem to mess up seasoning on the iron) and pan sauces. It's great for pan sauces because you can develop a fond on it and the shallow walls promote better evaporation when reducing. 2. A stock pot or preferably an enameled cast iron dutch oven or even better, both. The reason I prefer, the cast iron is because for one, like the iron skillet, it holds the heat well and has excellent heat distribution. This helps out a lot for doing any kind of low and slow cooking. Secondly, because of those same properties, it can be used to deep fry, which most stock pots cannot. Le Creuset is the gold standard here, but it's priced at a wallet crushing $350. I have a knock off I bought on sale at a department store for about $80 and it's perfectly fine. This $87 7.8 q Lodge is probably pretty good considering it's 5 stars and almost 4000 reviews. The only draw back is that it's very heavy. I don't have a problem, but I'm a pretty big dude. With that said, there is a good reason to also buy a stainless steel 8+ quart stock pot/ dutch oven as well. If you're like me, you'll eventually find yourself in a situation where you're making a lot of sauce in one pot, and need another to boil noodles at the same time. If you already have a nice cast iron dutch oven, it's ok to skimp a little on a stock pot that is used mostly for boiling pasta. I have, and CI/ATK recommends the [url=http://amzn.to/1UPs2ZW[/url]Cuisinart Chef's Classic[/url]. I have the 8 quart, but wish I had the 12. The 8 is fine for family sized servings but the 12 can also be used for large batch/crowd sized jobs or other big things like lobsters. Very reasonable at $56. 3. For sauce pan, the gold standard is the 4 quart All-Clad, but it's pretty expensive at $221. I wouldn't say it's not worth it, as it's a very frequently used pan, but that is a lot of money for one pan. CI/ATK puts the Cuisinart MultiClad as the best buy for $72. I have the Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless 4-Quart that costs $36 and works well for me. 4. Sauté pan or Saucier. They're not as critical as the previous 3/4 but they're good to have as well for stuff that needs lots of stirring like polenta and risotto or you need something with side walls. I'd go with one or the other, it's really all personal preference. I have CI/AKT's best buy sauté pan, the Cuisinart MultiClad Pro Stainless 3-1/2-Quart Sauté and it works decently. I use it mostly for polenta and risotto and acidic sauces that I don't want to cook in the iron skillet. I haven't used a saucier, but I'm starting to think I'd prefer it more since it has rounded walls that make stirring easier. I've been looking at the All-Clad, but CI/ATK says that $250 Le Creuset Tri-Ply is their winner. One of these days I'll get one, but I'm not in a big rush since it's not a critical piece of gear. Croatoan posted:Even America's Test Kitchen uses this bad boy almost every episode. http://amzn.com/B000GWG0T2 The thing about non-stick is it eventually wears off and stops working. Some people have valid reasons for wanting one, but I don't think their a necessity. CI/ATK recommends that one because it's cheap and they don't think it's worth investing a lot of money in something that's going to wear out. Personally I never need non-stick because I find that butter/vegetable oil/olive oil/Pam works well enough. Secondly, some times I do want things to stick, mostly when I'm cooking meat and making a pan sauce. The only time I wish I had non stick is eggs/omelets and crepes. It's probably worth $25 just for those things.
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Feb 5, 2016 05:58
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rgocs posted:Related question. I mostly shy away from using the oven in my cooking, as right now I only have a cast iron skillet I can use for that. This set is oven-safe at up to 500F, most other sets that we've seen in that price range are safe up to 350F/400F. Given that I have little experience oven-wise I'm not sure how often I'll need to get up near 500F; I know at least some fish recipes that call for 420F. What's the minimum acceptable oven-safe temperature? If you like roasting chicken, get one of these Vertical roasters. It's kind of the same concept as beer can chicken but it catches all the drippings so you don't catch fire in the oven. Also for chicken and roasting or grilling any other large pieces of meat, I'd highly recommend getting a probe thermometer, it makes roasting/grilling a breeze. For example with the chicken, all I do is put a spice rub on the outside, set it on the rack, stick the probe in the thigh, then throw in the oven at 400 until it hits 155 (it will hit 160 after resting). Super easy and very good. I use almost every time I cook meat that's even somewhat thick. The best probe I've ever used is the Thermoworks DOT. It has a metal braid probe that holds up to lots of abuse. Most other probes I've used have rubber like (maybe they're silicone?) wires and they go out and misreport temperatures at random times. Sometimes they'll last a couple months, sometimes only a week. With the DOT I've had it for almost 2 years and it works as well as the day I bought it. Haggins fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Feb 5, 2016 |
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Feb 5, 2016 06:14
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Haggins posted:I really hate sets of pots, even if they're top of the line. The reason being is because they come with pieces that are too small and/or redundant. With the linked set, I think everything is too small. For a skillet, I'd want at least 12 inches. That way I can fit 4 chicken/beef/fish filets or burgers/whatever in it at the same time. 10 inches is too cramped and 8 is near useless. Same goes with the sauce pans. 4 quart is a good size for a sauce pan. It won't overfill for larger jobs (rice, beans, grains, smaller sauces) and it's not too big for the smaller ones. You do get a 6 quart pot, but I think it's trying to be more of a stock pot than a sauce pan. For a stock pot I'd want it closer to 8 quarts. That gives you plenty of room to boil lots of noodles or make a decent sized batch of soup/chili. Thanks for this email, that was a lot of good information. Certainly given me food for thought for the weekend. I get the thing about the somewhat small sizes in the set I linked. Looking at my needs though, the pots would actually be replacing similar sized ones. We're 2 adults, a 4 year-old and a 4 month-old at home, so for our daily cooking needs even the 1.0 Qt saucepan (1L) will actually get quite used (e.g. we cook oatmeal every morning and it fills little less than half of a 1.3 L saucepan), it's also a great size to heat up a lunch for my wife and son, for example. The 6.0 Qt (5.75 L) sauce pot would be replacing a 5 L sauce pot that I've used to make chili, bolognese and other similar sauces/dishes for a long time, so it should also get used often. The 2 Qt saucepan would be replacing one of the same size. We already have an enameled cast iron dutch oven, so we're good there. I am not sure about big stock pots, I've never really needed one; on the other hand, as you say, big batches of sauce might call for one. I recently started doing big batches of chili to freeze in lunch-portion sizes, the 5 L sauce pot was filled almost to the top; did manage to get ~17 lunches out of it though. The skillets. We have a 7" one that gets used a lot too so the 8" would also work nicely. The 10", as you say may be it is on the small side; my cast iron skillet is 10" and indeed it gets cramped, but again, it fills the needs for 2 adults and a kid. We have an 11" skillet that is still in in working condition, so the 10" stainless steel would be a new addition. I guess a 12" would be a thing to consider. All these measurements are lip-to-lip, the Amazon website on the All-Clad had an answered question saying the base of the fry pan was actually 9", is this correct? Similarly, the 10" of the one I linked appears to also have a 9" base. The saute pan. I don't have one now, but I'm looking forward to it. I usually have to negotiate between the skillet for protein and sauteing veggies, thinking it might come in handy in these situations. The pieces you recommend sound great, but they might be over our budget with Canadian prices. I will have to look around and see what deals I can find around here. rgocs fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Feb 5, 2016 |
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Feb 5, 2016 10:32
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Haggins posted:The thing about non-stick is it eventually wears off and stops working. Some people have valid reasons for wanting one, but I don't think their a necessity. CI/ATK recommends that one because it's cheap and they don't think it's worth investing a lot of money in something that's going to wear out. Personally I never need non-stick because I find that butter/vegetable oil/olive oil/Pam works well enough. Secondly, some times I do want things to stick, mostly when I'm cooking meat and making a pan sauce. The only time I wish I had non stick is eggs/omelets and crepes. It's probably worth $25 just for those things. DING DING DING I have that pan that the Test Kitchen uses, and it's great. 80-90% of it's use is cooking eggs, but I do use it for other things. And once it wears out (as all non-stick do), I'll just buy another one for $25. It's a bargain.
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Feb 5, 2016 12:18
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Before you dive into allclad, spending like 2x more than other ply cookware, hold a handle.
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Feb 5, 2016 13:33
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Since the All Clad handles are pretty polarizing, before I bought any All Clad pieces, I went to a store to handle them, and to me they felt strange. I bought one anyway, and it turns out that if I'm actually cooking with it and not just standing there thinking about it while I hold it, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. The D5 and Copper lines do have slightly fatter (whether they are more comfortable or not is personal preference, like anything else) handles than the standard Tri Ply line or the MC2 line.
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Feb 5, 2016 13:58
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rgocs posted:Thanks for this email, that was a lot of good information. Certainly given me food for thought for the weekend. If you already use the small odd sizes it may be worth it to you if you have the space. The main reason I like bigger pots is they work just as well for smaller jobs as they do big jobs and take up less space in the kitchen. quote:
It's hard to tell without looking at them side by side. However, I have the 12 inch All-Clad and it's as big as you'd ever want to use on a standard home burner. Any larger and it'd significantly drape over the sides.
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Feb 5, 2016 18:50
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