Comments by "John h Palmer" (@johnhpalmer6098) on "Adam Ragusea"
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One reason I think people in the US at least are so fat is the portion sizes, that is, people think they need to eat a lot per sitting. A case in point, I was watching Kenji Lopez Alt do crab cakes, and he had 3 of them made up, one small, one medium and one larger for him, his wife and 3 year old daughter and several people kept saying they'd eat them all in one sitting, but I think they also forget there will be other sides to go along with the crab cakes too.
That said, I do find I'm watching my portion sizes, especially when it comes to pasta and rice as both are hypoglycemic. Pasta is not as high as white rice though as it runs a 46, whilst white rice is 64, so keep the portion size to about a cup to a cup and a half of either, but not both at one sitting though.
That said, adding protein to either will reduce the hypoglycemic tendency of each, or so I've read and that is often how I eat pasta and rice when eating white rice. I do white and brown, but brown takes longer to cook though.
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@filmpjesman1 The problem is, you are trading one source for another as the electricity you USE to use that stove can come from FUEL, be it gas, or coal. Not so bad if it is hydro based (water), but the NE is not known for that much, most of their electricity comes from gas or coal (used to), or nuclear when it was not as controversial as it is now here in the US. Think on THAT for a bit.
I have an electric glass top and it was NOT my choice, came with the house, with exception of the shitty wall furnace from Williams that is gas, the rest of the ENTIRE house is electric, and is the bulk of my utility bill during the winter months, and part of that is for cooking, and heating (three electric baseboard heaters, 2 in bedrooms, one in the laundry porch and does not work). The rest is with either LED or fluorescent lighting.
Now, mind you, I live where hydro is king (Pac NW) so it's not as bad, and if the power DOES go out, then I can't even cook but do have a single burner gas burner (butane) that I can use and my grill, when I have gas for it.
The big issue is not the gas, but the LACK of ventilation. I have NONE in my unrenovated kitchen from the 1920's and when I try to reverse sear a steak say, or cook in a wok, I can set off the smoke alarm, and it's at the FRONT of the house (kitchen is in the back of the house) and that IS the issue I think, more than gas in and of itself.
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@nighteule What you are saying is all true, but one fact I forgot to mention is that the electric grid as it is now is fragile here in the US and may be on the precipice of failing completely as we continue to move to electric everything, and if it fails, then what, unless you have a generator or have solar that you can continue to use when the power is out, THAT factor alone is not the answer to blindly ditch fossil fuels completely.
Until induction can work on a wide range of pans like a wok well and manufacturers make the elements big enough to cover the entire pan bottom, warping is going to be prevalent, I have radiant glass top and yes, pans warp, even my cast iron pan warped when I cooked on calrod (it's my Mom's vintage 10" skillet from the 50's I believe).
Also, to get wok hei at home, need a small torch (can be had for oh, $20 or so) and use it to generate that wok hei.
Also, in many jurisdictions, the wires are still overhead wiring (like it is here) and I live in an old neighborhood that is mostly working class, fortunately, the electric here has only gone out a half dozen times for short periods in the past nearly 7 years I've lived here.
At the moment, I do run 2 window air conditioners at times during the summer and unlike California, Washington St has not had the brownouts or had to force people to run certain appliances at certain times when demand is lower so there is that. I am thinking of ditching my gas furnace (a Williams wall furnace that's old) for a heat pump mini split when I can afford it and maybe move to a gas stove as I have it, might as well use it, right?
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@ezgolf1764 If not mistaken, you don't reduce the pasta water, just boil your pasta as usual, then add it to a saute pan (a 3" tall straight sided pan), that has had bacon or prosciutto cooked in it, then you add the pasta, meat, egg, and a splash or two of pasta water and the cheese and stir, then add the freshly cracked pepper, that's it in a nutshell. At least that's how I do it, and I think Kenji Lopez-Alt does it siimurely.
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@TacoTuesday4 That is old information as in the past 10-15 years, heat pumps have improved with variable speed fans, improved compressors and can now keep an entire house comfortable, even when the temps are down as low as -10F. The caveat is, how well the house is insulated and sealed up for drafts though, and most can also keep your house cool during the summer months.
This does include mini split systems too, and it also depends on how well they are installed or they can struggle when it gets really cold. Two videos here on YT show this, one guy lives in Massachusetts, the other in Minneapolis MN and both went with cold weather heat pumps and have stayed comfortable during really brutal winters and one I think saved energy, the other just broke even, and both are modern heat pumps. One gent had his installed in 2016, the other in 2020.
Now, thermal heat pumps that utilize the heat in the ground have been around for a long time, but have always been very expensive, air to air based heat pumps have too, but only in the past 10-15 years can do really cold weather well.
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@chickenfishhybrid44 I lived in an old apartment built in 1913 that initially was a hotel, then it was converted to apartments in the 30's (during the depression) and it had gas stoves, and likely a gas fed boiler for the steam heat, and this was in Seattle.
In Medford OR, I briefly rented a 2 room flat that had a brand new Kenmore gas stove in it, both in the 1990's, and every place since then has had an electric calrod stove, which IS more commonly found in post war or newer rental units. Many new condos have gas in the area, but not all.
The house I lived in had a gas furnace, but electric everything else and it was built in the early 60's so yes, gas stoves are not as common here, but they do exist.
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Agree about Kenji. He is after all, a food scientist that knows about cooking.
The biggest issue with heating a pan or pot without any oil, no matter the pot is when you overheat butter especially, as Adam said, it'll burst into flames. Been there, done that and used to have the pot to prove it, LOL.
Yep, back in about 2015 I did a stupid thing one night when preheating the pot to make risoto and it took a bit longer to get things ready, while the pot was heating up (stainless steel) and even then, I KNEW it was likely too hot, and STILL put in the pat of butter and it immediately went, POOF! into flames, had to grab my aluminum universal lid from the storage drawer, and clamp the lid down on the pot and take out to my concrete balcony to cool off and die down.
The pot was nasty looking when I went to clean it and used Bars Keeper's Friend and boiling water to remove the black staining from the flames on the bottom and the water was nasty and brackish initially but eventually, the pot cleaned up and got better over time. Finally, in 2020, the bottom had been deteriorating for a time and finally had to replace it (rusting), so yeah, best to begin getting it to heat up, then add the oil, or add it to a cold pan, then heat up together. One to reduce overheating the pan or pot, but also to reduce the tendency for the food to stick.
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This is very good and a few years back, tried to do a deep dive on the rubber scraper (spatula) and little online then about it and my take was to look at it as an indispensable tool in the kitchen as it is used to scrape foods from dishes into another dish or trash. It's been around a long time, and until oh, the past 30 years or so, was largely made of rubber, now mind you, MOST rubbers are man made as natural rubber, made from latex, grows on certain trees that were largely only grown down near the equator, and is limited in quantity as a result, so man made rubber was developed. Most rubber products are man made, and then vulcanized to get it to an elastic state we now think of as rubber.
Problem with mostly man made rubber, but natural rubber too is they will degrade after several years, chemicals will leach out, become sticky, shiny, some will crack as they dry out, especially if put in the dishwasher. You may notice this with old pencils, the erasers they have will harden and dry out. This is why many belts in tape decks, be it cassette or R2R etc will often degrade to a gooey mess, or simply loose their elasticity and stretch out from age and why belt drive tables it's often recommended you replace the belts every 5 years or so.
That is why I stopped buying rubber spatulas, and began getting silicone ones instead as they are inert, and so far have not had them leach out as they break down. I have 3 silicone ones that I've had for about 18 years, and often cook with them too. They have held up well in hot pans. 2 are a touch discolored from the heat after many years. Yet, they still are stable, have not dried out, nor cracked, nor leached some gross/gooey, sticky chemical. One has lost a corner after many removals of the head to allow water to dry out as they get moldy if I don't do this. I know not all spatulas like the one Adam holds here but many are made to have the heads be removable, and most of mine are like that.
I don't have the capability to smell much if at all so am not aware of their holding in odors. I believe America's test Kitchen has tested for their absorption odors as part of their tests and some may be better than others about this, but knowing that tossing them into an oven (mind you minus their handles if possible if the heads are removable) and "bake" them at 400F for several minutes will remove the smell is a good thing.
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To be honest, I DO think the emphasis is too much on the gas stove itself but look at where those stoves are housed, in kitchens without any sort of ventilation, even a window in some cases. I live in an older home, has no exhaust hood of ANY kind, but, I DO have an electric glass top (not induction) and it does not take much to cause a lot of smoke in the kitchen, if not to set the smoke alarm off at the OTHER end of the house from the kitchen. I do have a window, but nowhere near the stove itself.
So I'd say, instead of BANNING gas stoves, might as well require ALL KITCHENS be retrofitted, or remodeled to have exhaust hoods, and not ones that recirculate back into the room, but vents outside instead, and make this mandatory for any stove type, regardless of the fuel used as if not using gas for cooking, you may be using it by the electricity your electric utility company has sourced to power their generators (coal or gas is quite common in the NE of the US, or coal once was). That said, the electric grid is not as robust as it should be and may not handle the load always well to begin with.
Add in all the heat pumps and AC units now in use, the time is ripe to cause more problems than it solves by requiring electric stoves, without looking at the entire picture without requiring an infrastructure rebuild of the electric grid across this vast nation.
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@SeattlePioneer There is a budget to content, with, or the lack there of, or I would have by now, I'm just saying that is a hidden elephant that no one is talking about.
Hoods typically don't cost nearly as much as many stoves, unless you buy a top end hood, and those can get quite spendy, and then to retrofit into older structures that never had them can get expensive too. I can do it a little easier, and cheaper by usurping my gas wall furnace flue to vent outside when I get around to replacing that too, so $$$ I just don't have right now.
Also, I should add, I used to live in Seattle, and my last place was a 1960 modern concrete slab apartment building on Capitol Hill and it did have an exhaust fan/hood, the hood was there for light but recirculated into the room, the exhaust fan vented outside through a vent chase to the roof and was shared by other units in the same stack. Did the job, but could have been better, yes, I used it always when I cooked. I live in Tacoma now in a single family home from 1905-1908, the kitchen is original to the mid 20's.
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Looks like you got some of the same type commenters America's Test Kitchen got when Julia did her eggs, sunny side up, a touch crispy around the edges this morning on her segment from the full ATK, At Home episode. I saw the original full ep on YT I think a month to a month and a half ago.
It's funny how many say crispy eggs is NOT right, taste bitter etc, when it's a perfectly valid way to do them. She likes them runny, same with me, I fry, I soft boil, I hard boil if making say egg salad filling for sandwiches, and I will poach them, which I did this morning, using the pot method, a technique I've come to turn to now instead of a dedicated egg poacher and I even have 2 vintage ones. One a single Mirro poacher, and another one that poaches 3 at once.
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I'd heard of autolyse but have not done it, as right now, my bread baking is when I make pizza.
I use the Fleishman's yeast recipe that's found on the pizza yeast packets and online on their website. I initially found the recipe off the packets, then got it from online.
Anyway, it does not require any rising, but I do that step as I almost never use pizza yeast these days (it helps with reducing spring back and is much easier to roll out for inexperienced bread bakers).
Anyway, I use the food processor for the initial kneading by putting in the ingredients and yeast/water/sugar mixture (to proof), the oil and salt, and about a cup and a quarter of flour or so and whizz up until it forms a ball and cleans the bowl some, then let it run for about 3-5 min, then turn out onto a floured surface.
I do what I learned from the late, great Julia Child, and that is slap the dough around on the counter no more than 3 minutes before rolling into a ball and into the rising container, a 3.5Qt Cambro container that's been spritzed with cooking spray, then I spritz the top of dough and put the cover on it, and place it at the back of the stove while the oven is heating up to rise to almost double. That is the ONLY rise I give it, it's also like letting it sit and rest, except it rises to almost double in size.
Then I pour it out onto a floured surface, and gently fold it several times then form a ball again, by this point, the dough is smooth and then roll out into a 12" pizza. This same dough can be rolled out to 16" for a thin crust if desired.
It's easy to do and I can have the dough made up, rolled out, ready for the topping(s) and then bake at 550F for 10 minutes. Works every time if I don't screw something up in the process and happens every so often.
I should say, I've done this for a while and have honed it and refined it to where I now use active dry or rapid rise pretty much exclusively and have added the rising step. This became the way when I got yeast whichever was available during the height of the pandemic when many food staples were scarce, like yeast, flour and sugar.
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Actually, from what I know, salting to taste is not to TASTE the salt per se, but how the overall DISH tastes.
So add salt at the beginning, but be conservative as said, then add salt later, and be conservative, and add more until it tastes just right. Some of us are more sensitive to the taste of salt, and some like Morton, or store brand kosher salt can be easily oversalted and be too salty, whilst Krystal Diamond does not have that issue, and why you should use table salt in the beginning, and then kosher near the end, when adjusting seasoning.
As to enameled cast iron? Yes, definitely, especially for Dutch ovens as they are a true workhorse in the kitchen for most cooks as they can go from stove or oven to table, and is heavy and can stand acidic foods without fear of ruining your seasoning.
As to lower priced enameled pots, best to not go for the aluminum ones as those may be too thin, unless doing canning or boiling lots of water for a big batch of pasta.
America's Test Kitchen has done tests to cast iron enameled pots and found some worked alright, some had handles that were too small, others chipped easily, and both Staub and Le Crueset both came out well, but did edge the LC over the Staub due to the less dark interior. One brand has been found to be well worth the price and is quite affordable (in the $50 or so) is from Cuisinart, believe it or not. I have an older one, but the enamel does not hold up well in the dishwasher as it's gotten all chalky and matte like, but I've had it over 10 to start with and is my 3Qt pot. I believe Lodge did alright too. So there are alternatives, just have to know how they performed is all.
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@ezgolf1764 I don't use as much water than is usually recommended to boil the pasta itself and don't usually pour in my salt, do what Kenji Lopez Alt does, a couple of good pinches and that's all. Usually the water just covers most pasta. I will use a bit more for long pastas such as Spaghetti, fettuccine etc and even then, a saute pan works great for that, unless its in use, which is typically is for the sauce.
Your reply makes sense now, but I don't reduce that can increase the saltiness of the water. The only time I reduce anything is once the sauce is made, I'll add some sour cream and reduce that just so when I move the spoon in the pan, it does not come back together right away as a way to thicken the sauce some, only exception is when making carbonara as the cheese will do the thickening, along with the bacon renderings.
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I just watched the French Chef with Julia Child and for Beuf Burgenon, she did brown the meat first before the wine and into the oven to cook for something like 4 hours and she says, to leave it alone while in the oven. Hands off in other words. She even shows how to saute mushrooms, clean them and to cut them, and how to do the pearl onions, as in, how to boil them briefly and then peal then, though these days, you can get them frozen in bags in your grocer's freezer case.
Anyway, fun to watch her in her this show doing her thing. I suspect this was the preferred way to do a dish like this even back then, or earlier.
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