Search results

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
  1. O

    Review: Brandless 8" Chef's Knife

    Brandless 8” Chef’s Knife ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a chef in possession of a good knife must be in want of a beater,’ said Jane Austen (didn’t she?). While scholars parse and prattle about the attribution, cooks debate the meaning of ‘beater.’ I’ve seen definitions ranging...
  2. O

    One More from the Tool Box

    I have seen people do some really risky things when faced with cutting truly stubborn vegetables--butternut squash, for horrible example. I have seen a man what his way halfway through the neck of a butternut and then slam down on the spine of the knife with his open palm. It hurts, and beyond...
  3. O

    A Swiffer WetJet Is My Pal in the Kitchen. Might Be Yours, Too

    Here are some facts about the Swiffer WetJet a tool that’s useful for cleaning kitchen floors, especially mine: I’m a serial spiller. They’re very effective. They’re cheap: between $25 (Target) and $30 (Ace Hardware), with Home Depot, Amazon and others in-between. Occasionally they’re free...
  4. O

    Baked On the Outside, Wet in the Middle

    Many folks have taken up bread-baking during the pandemic, and many of the give me loaves in return for the jam I give them. However, a lot of these loaves are unduly wet inside--wet enough to smear my knife with a broad, sticky strip of uncooked dough. What's the problem: too short a rise? too...
  5. O

    2 From the Tool Box to the Kitchen Drawer

    Jar-openers come in many designs, mostly clumsy and of limited capacity: to buy one is to discover on a sudden that you have an unlimited supply of jars and bottles either too big or too small. I use and recommend a strap wrench, aka oil-filter wench, available from any auto-supply store. Of...
  6. O

    Easy Apple-Coring

    I recommend splitting apples in half and coring with a melon-baller. Easy and fast; minimal waste and clean-up.
  7. O

    Butternut Squash Tips

    Hard to cut, hard to peel, hard to seed. To cut (crosswise) I help the knife along by poundings on its spine. Not with a hammer or a bare pal, but with a garage mechanic's 1-pound rubber mallet. It delivers force w/no damage. It has a short handle (ca. 8"), making it easy to stow, and it cost $3...
  8. O

    Before Reading This Cookbook, Put Some Pasta Water on the Stove

    . . . because it's sure to wake your appetite. What with major U.S. airports still short-listed for the title of Tenth Circle of Hell, I’m traveling by page these days. Miss Dickinson was right: “There is no frigate like a book.” And for cooks, few more so than this book by Maria Pasquale. Born...
  9. O

    For Loves of Casual Italian

    For more than a decade as the drinks editor of a monthly magazine I drew the otherwise unmerited attention of many publicists. That meant, for me as for my fellow scribblers, many fancy meals at bold-face restaurants. Truth be told, I didn’t find any of them memorable, and I don’t miss them one...
  10. O

    Has any serious cook had experience with making pasta in a pressure cooker of any kind?

    Thinking of saving energy, it seems that a pressure cooker might be just the thing. But can it produce pasta that is as good as I get from my gas stovetop?
  11. O

    Sell-By Dates Are Mostly Made Up

    And they have little to do with safety. They have everything to do with profit, and consumers can profit from them too. Every manufacturer knows his ideal (most profitable) rate of production: the number of units produced per hour that results in the best economy of scale. BUT--he has to keep...
  12. O

    Make Your Own Panko

    Or pay $5 for 8 oz. pf Kikkoman's ready-made. to make your own 'free' panko, simply save up stale bread ends and run them through the Cuisinart, using the grater blade. Results will not be perfectly uniform, but you can deal with that yu rolling them over with a wine bottle.
  13. O

    Make "Tools Utensils and Cooking Gear" a Separate Category?

    I've just skimmed 15 pages or screens of this forum, representing about 300 posts. 299 of them were about food. Cooking Gear needs its own home. I realize that there's the risk of fetishism (e.g., Japanese knives) gold-plating (e.g. $240 Laguiole corkscrews), but there'll also be serious and...
  14. O

    How to Make Pizza's Cornicione--the Puffy Neapolitan Ring of Chewy Crust?

    To me that always says REAL pizza. I've never been able to create it and no commercial pizza joint I know has succeeded either. Advice welcome!
  15. O

    A Recipe for REAL Focaccia--PLEASE!

    What we get here in NYC is big, fat, swollen slabs of bread masquerading as focaccia. What I want is real Genoese focaccia--THIN, oil-dressed, maybe with shut a few strands of thin thin thin onion on top. NO tomatoes! A recipe andany instructions and tips will be rewarded with eternal gratitude.
  16. O

    Adding Malt Powder or Ovaltine to Bread Flour

    I've heard people recommend these items--as well as powdered milk--to pancake and waffle mixes to amp up the flavor. Would I get good results from adding them to bread flour? In what proportion?
Back
Top Bottom