Mike Nolan
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Chili and most hot soups are what I consider cooler weather foods, when it's in the 80's or higher, I think they overheat me.
My mother and grandmother were both big on rhubarb, I think it's one of those dishes that after cooking is best thrown in the trash.
I'm kicking the chili to tomorrow because it is much warmer than expected today (high around 70) while tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 40's with rain. Also, I have some other tasks on the schedule today.
Planning ahead, tomorrow I plan to make a big pot of chili, most of it for the freezer, because it looks like all the batches I froze have been used. This will probably be the last batch of chili until fall, we've got another week or two of highs in the 50's.
I'll make another batch of the tangzhong cinnamon rolls, too, most of which will also go in the freezer. (They freeze well and thaw quickly in the microwave.)
Left over pot roast here, my wife had some of the meat sliced and on a bagel, she says it was good but a bit chewy.
Left over pot roast here, my wife had some of the meat sliced and on a bagel, she says it was good but a bit chewy.
I made 96 mini banana nut muffins today, with enough leftover batter for a mini banana nut loaf.
I've updated the previous post several times.
I'm also not a big fan of cocoa nibs, and I find they're usually outrageously priced, anyway.
I forget where it is, but there's a minimum amount of cocoa butter that you need to have before chocolate can be tempered, which is manipulating the state of the cocoa butter so that you mostly have Form V (Beta 2) crystals.
Things labeled as chocolate coatings usually have fats other than cocoa butter in them, so they can't be tempered. But because cocoa butter is one of only a few fats that melt just below body temperature, chocolate coatings generally don't have the same luxurious mouth feel as a good coverture chocolate.
50% (by weight) cocoa solids is sort of the border between light and dark chocolates, but there's no official standard.
That's why I tend to stick to brands I know and trust for coverture chocolate, like Callebaut/Cacao Barry or Valrhona. They'll tell you how much cocoa butter and how much cocoa solids is in each type. Scharfen Berger always seems to be higher priced than I'm willing to pay.
In Chocolate School, we tended to divide chocolates into 3 groups, mainly for handling and temperature sensitivity.
Dark chocolate, which has no milk products in it. Unsweetened chocolate is a subset of this category.
Milk chocolate
White chocolate, which has no cocoa solidsOf course, the school is run by the Callebaut folks, so their nomenclature and recipes tend to favor their products.
For allergy purposes, advisories about tree nuts, eggs, dairy products, etc tend to be on the extremely cautionary side, if there are nuts anywhere in the building they're listed.
I've also seen stuff labeled 'dark milk chocolate' in stores, heaven only knows what it really is, because retail chocolate makers generally don't list proportions of cocoa butter and cocoa solids or other ingredients. Hersheys won't even give a precise number for the amount of cocoa solids in their chocolates, calling it a trade secret.
The ruby chocolate is interesting, it has fruity undertones, but not something I've worked with much yet, it was not quite on the market when I went to Chocolate School, so they couldn't talk about it.
Until fairly recently, you couldn't legally call 'white chocolate' a form of chocolate, either, because it has no cocoa solids in it.
I've never tried the tub cream cheese in a frosting, so I don't know how it would impact consistency, which is important in frostings. My wife likes it on her banana muffins.
I think some of the Traeger wood pellet systems have thermometer controls, so it adjusts the rate it feeds in pellets to keep the temperature more or less constant.
Whether you think burning pellets (which I think are basically compressed sawdust) is the same as wood is a separate issue.
There are also electric and gas smokers that have thermostatic controls. Opinions of them vary a lot, I gather. I know some people who basically devote many of their weekends to tending their meat smoker. I can think of better things to do.
The chemists say that sucrose technically doesn't have a melting point.
However, at 366.8 degrees (F) it inverts, which means it separates into glucose and fructose.
Now, here's where things get messy, literally.
The melting point of glucose is 294.8 degrees (F) and the melting point of fructose is 217.4 (F), so by the time sucrose inverts, your pan is well above the point at which either glucose or fructose do melt.
So, low and slow is the way to partially caramelize, AKA toast, sucrose.
We're doing fish and broccoli for supper.
When I blind bake a pie crust, the oven is at 400 degrees, anything much above 300 and granulated sugar will melt.
My wife isn't fond of corned beef and cabbage, and making a brisket is a lot of work, so our St. Patrick's Day meal the last few years has been bagels with corned beef. 🙂
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