[Mike Nolan]

Several years ago one of the winners on the Food Network's 'Next Food Network Star' series posted his recipe for Chicago-style Italian beef, one of my favorite foods from the 10 years we lived in the Chicago area.

I've made it several times.

It uses bottom round though that's not the cut that most restaurants that make Italian beef use, and I had to slice it by hand because I don't have a deli slicer (and one recipe isn't quite enough to justify buying one), but it was pretty close to the Real Thing.

I did, of course, leave the garlic out.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

I doubt there are many things that SOMEONE isn't allergic to. I wonder if it's the sucralose or the maltodextrin that is used as a filler? (Especially since maltodextrin is often made from corn.)

[Mike Nolan]

Some cookie recipes have both baking soda and baking powder. (For example, my mother's Oatmeal Crisps chocolate chip cookies.)

Perhaps the baking soda serves to balance the pH of those recipes and the baking powder does most of the leavening work?

[Mike Nolan]

We bought a standalone induction cooktop at Sams Club a few months ago, and like it a lot. It does take a little getting used to, it gets warm VERY fast, you can brown butter in under a minute. It cuts a good 5 minutes off the time it takes to do hard boiled eggs compared to either an electric or gas cooktop.

If we ever have to replace our ceramic cooktop (on the island), I'd think seriously about replacing it with an induction cooktop.

The only downside is that you have to use induction-capable cookware. If a magnet will stick to the bottom of the pan, you can use it, though they recommend against using cast iron cookware, because the sides can get really hot.

Induction cooktops come in a variety of sizes and loads, the one we have won't handle a really big pot (like my 12 quart stockpot.)

They're said to be more energy efficient than either gas or electric cooktops, and they definitely don't heat the kitchen up as much.

Some have continuously variable temperature controls, the one we have has fixed settings, the lowest will not get water all the way to boiling, it seems to top out at about 150-160 degrees, which means it could almost be used for sous vide cooking.

You're right about most modern pans being pretty flat on the bottom, the main exception being a wok. They do make an induction wok pan/coooktop, you can't use a wok on a standard induction cooktop.

[Mike Nolan]

SFBI is in San Francisco, Chicago has the Chocolate Academy, which is where I'm going next month. They specialize in teaching chocolate and sugar work.

Having grown up in NW Illinois and having lived in the Chicago area from 1967 (to attend Northwestern) and until 1977, returning there is kind of an old-home week for me, there are a number of old favorites I plan to return to, if they're still there, and a few new places I'd like to check out (especially for pizza.) But I'm also hoping to make a visit or two to Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill, which is just a few blocks from my hotel.

[Mike Nolan]

I just bought two big bottles of McCormick Vanilla at Sams. BTW, the bottles are clearly labeled 'NO CORN SYRUP, NO GMO'.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't mind getting the emails from KAF, though I haven't ordered from them since last fall. When I run out of pastry flour, I'll order it from them, the only pastry flour I can find locally is whole wheat pastry flour.

BTW, for those who haven't seen the news, KAF has opened a second location for baking classes in Washington state. Still too far to be a viable option for me.

If I'm going that far for cooking classes, I'll go back to SFBI, since they're only a few miles from where my son lives in San Bruno CA. I am, however, going to Chicago next month for Chocolate Boot Camp at the Chocolate Academy, and I plan to write a series of blog posts about it. SFBI founder Michel Suas suggested I go there instead of to the once-a-year chocolate class at SFBI.

[Mike Nolan]

The New York Times had an article on this, as I recall.

I haven't been making either pretzels or bagels lately with my wife on a low-carb diet, but this is still on my list of things to try. I've got a digital pH meter now (for our hot tub) and I think I may try several solutions made with various equal weights of both in the same volume of water to see how much difference in pH it makes.

I did talk to a chemistry professor about this when we first talked about this several years ago, to confirm that putting the baked sodium carbonate in water wouldn't turn it back into sodium bicarbonate. He wasn't sure how much difference it would make in pH, but he did think the sodium carbonate would be a stronger alkaline solution.

[Mike Nolan]

I think she has her good days and her bad days. (Don't we all?) But it sounds like she's got someone lined up to help her this year.

[Mike Nolan]

Although it's 91 here today, we've had several cool spells this summer and I made that eye of round during one of them. Last week we had a day where the high was in the 50's. It's supposed to be in the 70's next week. The crew putting a new roof on our house next week will appreciate that. Now it just needs to NOT rain!

I've got the ingredients for vegetable beef soup ready to go, just waiting for a cooler day.

[Mike Nolan]

Chocolate chips and raisins always seem to sink to the bottom for me, too.

Coating them with flour is supposed to help, I haven't tried it enough to say whether it does or not. (Not sure how you would coat chocolate chips with flour, anyway.)

[Mike Nolan]

I think it's a common mistake to assume that 'Madagascar Bourbon' refers to the type of alcohol used to create vanilla extract. In fact, Bourbon is a reference to the former name of the island nation of Reunion and generally refers to vanilla grown in that part of the world, as opposed to Tahitian or Mexican vanilla.

The ideal approach for someone making their own vanilla would probably be to use pure grain alcohol, which has no flavor profile whatsoever. Most vodkas have some flavor profile, or at least I think they do. This could then be diluted with distilled water to the appropriate strength.

I find it interesting that according to the food renegade site some bottles of McCormick Vanilla Extract say they contain corn syrup but others do not. I have not tried to confirm that report. However, of the 3 bottles of Vanilla Extract in my cupboard at the moment, the Schilling one lists sugar, the McCormick and Sonoma ones do not.

[Mike Nolan]

Looks like avoiding getting any corn syrup with vanilla extract is not easy to do, I wonder if the Mexican vanillas are the same?

For those with a corn allergy, that could be a serious problem. (Most of the people that I've read about with a corn allergy have so many other allergies that there probably aren't many things vanilla is used in that they can eat anyway.)

[Mike Nolan]

aaronatthedoublef wrote:

McCormick has no sugar in it if anyone is looking for that.

According to this site, that's not always the case, so check the label:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/decoding-labels-mccormick-pure-vanilla-extract/

[Mike Nolan]

My wife likes the Watkins vanilla, but I generally just buy the large bottle of McCormick Vanilla Extract at Sams Club.

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