It's an old school skills test like making a perfect souffle, most people don't notice or bother anymore. A perfect consomme was expected to have not a speck of fat on the surface and be as clear as glass.
Another test I'd always heard about was making an omelet (omelette?). I attempted my first one last week and discovered why. 
On the positive side, we didn't have to use the fire extinguisher.
On the positive side, we didn't have to use the fire extinguisher.
Scott, yeah, it's great to have clear stock if you want to store it for a long time in a jar on the shelf, but if you're going to use it soon, or put portion blocks of it in the freezer, there is not the same need to perfect it, since the potential of degradation is lowered to such a small degree.
I love a good omelette, my favorite meal to start any day off work. I never put salt in my omelette (or salt any kind of meat when cooking), it tastes exactly the same if you salt it on your plate, but the omelette can be made much more juicy, because the salt draws the fluids out. Other than that, better to have few ingredients in an omelette than many, less is more. I'd say 3-4 ingredients max, not counting the spoon of water or tiny splash of fresh milk. And temperature is crucial to any cooking, and very often less is more regarding temperature also.
No teflon or other kind of coated pots and pans in my house, all stainless steel for pots, and cast iron for pans.
I love a good omelette, my favorite meal to start any day off work. I never put salt in my omelette (or salt any kind of meat when cooking), it tastes exactly the same if you salt it on your plate, but the omelette can be made much more juicy, because the salt draws the fluids out. Other than that, better to have few ingredients in an omelette than many, less is more. I'd say 3-4 ingredients max, not counting the spoon of water or tiny splash of fresh milk. And temperature is crucial to any cooking, and very often less is more regarding temperature also.
No teflon or other kind of coated pots and pans in my house, all stainless steel for pots, and cast iron for pans.
I bought a Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker last week and have been playing with it.
Tonight I did "Select" ribeye steak at 135 for three hours, then seared it in olive oil and garlic.
Best steak I have eaten since Fillet Mignon last spring.
My son thought it was too rare, but I thought it was perfect.
Select is all they had in the display case at Food City (6.99/lb marked down from 9.99/lb) , and I refuse to buy beef at Wal Mart.
Tonight I did "Select" ribeye steak at 135 for three hours, then seared it in olive oil and garlic.
Best steak I have eaten since Fillet Mignon last spring.
My son thought it was too rare, but I thought it was perfect.
Select is all they had in the display case at Food City (6.99/lb marked down from 9.99/lb) , and I refuse to buy beef at Wal Mart.
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In Calif, Costco sells USDA Prime filet mignon, rib eye, and New York Strip. All of these cook up amazingly well for us in our sous vide cooker. Vacuum sealed individually the day we buy the meat, using a "Food Saver" brand tool, then frozen. Straight from the freezer to the water bath, 2.5 hours under water. Remove, cut open bag, pat dry, let rest 10 min. Sear in a smoking hot cast iron pan, 45 seconds per side. Optimum!
Same here, we've been very disappointed vs local 100% grass fed (yes it is 2X the price) the last couple of years, it seems to have gone down a notch in quality. We just eat luxury cuts so rarely we don't bother anymore with industrially raised meat. It's a subjective matter everyone's mileage varies. On second thought I should just disqualify myself I've just grown to prefer a nice lamb shank to any cut of beef.
Costco is my wife's religion and even she was convinced at our last DB taste test.
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We have been getting a lot of these lovely Cold Snap pears lately. A couple of weeks ago I bought two big ones and we caramelized them and used leftover pie dough to make a "rustic tarte tatin". It was so good I bought a basket of pears and tonight made a proper pear tarte tatin. I used the Gordon Ramsay recipe with star anise, cardamom, and cinnamon, and a deep caramelization before putting it in the oven. The camera on this tablet sucks, the tarte looks almost burned, but while it is a deep brown it is not burned, and the pears retan their texture and sweetness wile swimming in a dark caramel sauce.
Delicious with some vanilla ice cream.
I just can't get the white balance right on this device. My Nikon DSLR takes great photos but I have to downliad them to my computer to do anything with them.
Delicious with some vanilla ice cream.
I just can't get the white balance right on this device. My Nikon DSLR takes great photos but I have to downliad them to my computer to do anything with them.
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We are firmly in the camp who finds grass fed beef to be Much Too Much. We've tried it from a number of sources including the wifty woo woo butchers in Marin County and our verdict has, every time, been: no thanks. Glad other people like it, we certainly do not. Not even in burgers, not even in chili.
P. U.
Pew
Glad other people like it, we certainly do not. Please keep buying it to keep Alt-Meat a commercially viable option and to encourage small agri-producers to stay the course.
P. U.
Pew
Glad other people like it, we certainly do not. Please keep buying it to keep Alt-Meat a commercially viable option and to encourage small agri-producers to stay the course.
I guess no lark's vomit or crunchy frog for you. Diversity makes us all better.
When you pop it in your mouth steel bolts spring out and plunge straight through, both cheeks.
No thank you.
No thank you.
"We use only the finest baby frogs,
dew picked and flown from Iraq,
cleansed in finest quality spring water,
lightly killed,
and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope
and lovingly frosted with glucose."
dew picked and flown from Iraq,
cleansed in finest quality spring water,
lightly killed,
and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope
and lovingly frosted with glucose."
The Emlenton Truck Plaza on US Rte 80, around mile marker 43, has wonderful burgers. It's the slowest food in a truck plaza in the US, but the food is good and the folks friendly.
Me and my college roomate decided to search for NY's best hamburger circa 1971 -- there was a place on Fordham Road west of Jerome Ave. (near the VA Hospital) which had the best, and they served a Manhattan you could swim in. When "Hamburger Heaven" opened up it was really great but faded in just a few years.
In that era we never made it to Brooklyn to sample Luger's -- probably too expensive for us. (While we weren't particularly scruffy, we were asked to leave Mario's Villa d'Este even before we could order.)
You can still join Shula's 48oz club. They had 5th's of Jack Daniels on the wine list to wash it down. They didn't make up "Florida Man".
48oztest
I would never claim anything like extensive experience of burgers in NYC, but a few years ago I had one at O''Reilly's Pub on 31st St which I still dream about. Best burger I ever ate was in a diner in Palm Springs around 1968 (I think we were there Christmas 1967 / New Years 1968). I was just a kd at the time but I have never forgotten that burger.
Jack,
The Emlenton truck stop has long been a good place to stop. Any meal time near there is worth the trip.
Never bothered to rate hamburgers. I do prefer to grind my own meat. Gave some to a friend once for his cookout. He did them all well done.
A down the street place bakes his own buns and cooks the burgers individually after you order. Decent but Google only gives him 4 1/2 stars.
I always thought the secret was the blend of meats and the wood you use to cook it.
The Emlenton truck stop has long been a good place to stop. Any meal time near there is worth the trip.
Never bothered to rate hamburgers. I do prefer to grind my own meat. Gave some to a friend once for his cookout. He did them all well done.
A down the street place bakes his own buns and cooks the burgers individually after you order. Decent but Google only gives him 4 1/2 stars.
I always thought the secret was the blend of meats and the wood you use to cook it.
Looks like you did well, what passed for restaurants and reviews for that mater in the 70's.
Restaurant Reviews - The New York Times
As for quality of beef I often think it has as much to do with handling as with origin. My favourite butcher around here does not sell local beef, for the simple reason that there are no certified grading plants around here. If you want to sell certified grade A or better beef, it has to come from away. Conversely, if you raise beef cattle here and want to sell it as high grade, you need to ship it elsewhere to be slaughtered and graded (or something like that, I'm not in the business).
So this butcher shop brings in all their beef from Alberta. I have been in the shop when they took deliveries, nothing was wet-packed, it was whole sides of beef. I assume just shipping it 3,000 miles from the foothills of the Rockies to the Atlantic coast contributes to aging, and they have a big meat locker where it hangs tor a bit befire it is cut. I'm not talking about extended dry aging or mould on the surface, just a little more time hanging up in a cold room, and not sealed in plastic. I am also not saying it is top range restaurant grade meat, I'm just saying it is head and shoulders above meat from any other butcher around here. Sadly it is over an hour's drive from here so I stock up a few times a year, more in the summer. Their pork and chicken are local, they make good sausages and they have their own smokehouse where they make the best bacon.
So this butcher shop brings in all their beef from Alberta. I have been in the shop when they took deliveries, nothing was wet-packed, it was whole sides of beef. I assume just shipping it 3,000 miles from the foothills of the Rockies to the Atlantic coast contributes to aging, and they have a big meat locker where it hangs tor a bit befire it is cut. I'm not talking about extended dry aging or mould on the surface, just a little more time hanging up in a cold room, and not sealed in plastic. I am also not saying it is top range restaurant grade meat, I'm just saying it is head and shoulders above meat from any other butcher around here. Sadly it is over an hour's drive from here so I stock up a few times a year, more in the summer. Their pork and chicken are local, they make good sausages and they have their own smokehouse where they make the best bacon.
There is a German diner on the other side of the harbour that makes pork burgers, which are justifiably popular.
Typical, it becomes financially necessary for the farmer to get the grade to command the price. Here we can buy from the farm ungraded almost DIY.