Recent content by jim262

After a "watt" has been given to the marketing department they are folded and mutilated to the point where they are unrecognizable by engineers. When you connect a Professional 600 KitchenAid to a watt meter, it will typically run at 250 to 275 watts depending on load. I am pretty sure that...

Hi Rose, I have had some thoughts of doing laminated dough for some time and I like the size of the recipe you have posted. I need to see if I can find some European style butter and would probably use 2 grams of instant yeast instead of fresh yeast, but I will try to test it. I would...

Considering the 500 degree operating temperature of a baking stone, it is not drawing moisture out of the pizza or absorbing moisture from the dough that sits atop it. It is conducting plenty of BTU’s to the bottom of pizza, but a steel, aluminum, or cast iron can do the same thing with a...

The Original Professional 5 [KP 50 or KSM50 ?] does have a nylon worm gear and there is not an optional metal version available as a repair part. When a Classic mixer breaks, it is almost a certainty that the worm gear is the cause. You should be able to verify it by putting a paddle or...

One thing that will help graininess is to process the nuts thoroughly before adding the sugar. I use confectioners sugar and I have seen some recipes that use half cane sugar and half confectioners. Corn syrup often appears in recipes as well. I do not remember seeing at that use simple...

I got a 7¼ quart round LC pot just a couple of months ago and I have already used it more than I have used my 6.75 quart oval in the nearly ten years I have had it. I have have only used my 5 quart once since I have had the big pot. I have a lot of Cook's Illustrated magazines and recipes and...

I just ordered Mark Kurlansky's "Food of a Younger Land" from my local library. Descriptions lead me to believe that it is primarily about the 20th century before World War II. Can you recommend any titles that focus more on the 18th and 19th centuries?

I have found that I can reduce the amount of bag required for the sealing process by placing a cutting board in front of the Food saver. By raising the food and packaging closer to the vacuum slot, you can still get a seal without quite as much bag material. It may only save an inch per bag...

Since most clay and brick ovens have an active fire in them, they will always have the advantage of direct radiant heat from the fire source that speeds the heating and charring of the top of the pizza to help balance the intense heat of oven deck. In a conventional oven the only radiant...

The purpose of adding fruit or fruit juice to a beginning wild yeast starter is to acidify the water and flour mix to make it more friendly to yeast growth and less friendly to growth of an undesirable bacteria. Grapes or grape juice and pineapple juice seem to be more prevalent for this...

I do not believe that there are any health concerns as the aluminum in contact with the pizza cannot rise to any temperature higher than the pizza dough. The aluminum is soft enough that it cannot scratch a pizza stone. If there is an issue, it would relate to softened aluminum being...

In Jeffrey Hamelman's book, "Bread, A bakers book of techniques and recipes", he says, "If the window is completely clear and the gluten totally developed, the dough has almost certainly been overmixed. Appropriate gluten development does not necessarily mean full gluten development." For...

A food processor that is 11 cups or larger can make good bread or pizza dough and can usually knead it in two minutes or less. The downside of using a FP is that they do not have as much capacity as mixer and recipes designed specifically for a processor are not as numerous as those for a...

The head locking mechanism should be secure enough to prevent wobble and all that should be visible with heavy dough in the bowl is slight flexing around the hinge pin. You should be able to pick up a locked mixer by its head without feeling any movement. Check the hinge pin and make...

Parts availability issues with newer design KitchenAid mixers appears to be limited to early models manufactured between 2000 and 2002 and limited to the Original Epicurean model and early Professional 6 models. On the used market, I would avoid all Epicureans and look very closely at a...