[Mike Nolan]

Depends on how much of a hurry I'm in, I usually let the cake set for 4-5 minutes at most. If the cake is still hot/warm when the frosting goes on, the cake compresses a bit, which changes the texture.

I do things to my recipe that most printed recipes don't do.

I grease the pan with butter then 'flour' it with cocoa powder instead of flour. (For a white cake I often use powdered sugar -- baker's superfine sugar if I have it -- instead of flour.)

I use 4 tablespoons of cocoa in a batch of frosting rather than 3. For a 13x17 cake I always at least double the frosting recipe, I've been know to triple it.

I always make sure the butter/cocoa/buttermilk for the frosting gets to a good boil before I start adding in the powdered sugar, that way the frosting is more like old fashioned fudge. Then I keep it on low/simmer heat for a while so that it's fairly warm when I pour it on.

How can you make a 'cornbread' cake without corn meal??

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake on Saturday.

[Mike Nolan]

I use funnels for tasks like pouring into your ice cream maker.

I've got one of those ice cream makers where the outside of the container is a gel-filled freezer pack, I've gotten some good ices and sherbets from it, but I don't think it's got enough freezing power for a cream-based mix, even though our big freezer is set for 10 below, so the cold pack gets plenty cold.

I don't think my wife will let me spend money on a real ice cream machine, though. S'OK, the farmers market season starts later this month, and the gelato stand there is better than anything I could make anyway. And Freddy's has pretty good frozen custard, in addition to the best french fries in town.

[Mike Nolan]

The thing is ten inches tall, I'm not sure it'd fit in most ovens.

[Mike Nolan]

Cass, then you'd really hate Chef Joel Robuchon's puree de pomme, because it's really heavy on the butter, about 2 parts potato to one part butter.

I don't like either olive oil or garlic in mashed potatoes, and garlic mashed potatoes has become a restaurant staple. But these days too many restaurants will put garlic in anything, even oatmeal!

I've tried making buttermilk mashed potatoes a few times, somehow it always comes out weird.

[Mike Nolan]

I suspect that there are many minor variations on the 6 strand pattern and each baker might have his own signature look. The loaves might all look similar to us, but the bakery staff can probably glance at a loaf and know who shaped it.

[Mike Nolan]

Commercial farming is a volume business. It takes a lot less effort per plant when you've got many thousands of plants.

A farmer with 1000 acres of corn (a pretty big farm) might get 140 bushels of corn per acre, or 140,000 bushels from his fields. At $3.00 a bushel that's $420,000. Now, of course that's not profit, you have to subtract out the cost of seed, fertilizer, herbicide, insecticide, fuel, vehicle costs, any hired labor, property taxes and so forth.

[Mike Nolan]

The 2nd method of doing a six strand braid on this site looks promising:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-braid-challah-6-strand-method/?ALLSTEPS

[Mike Nolan]

I have 'Secrets of a Jewish Baker' on order now, should be here early next week.

Does Amazon Prime have a way to slow the video down for that scene? That's not something I've tried to do yet.

Do we have any members in Houston? That's where the bakery/deli featured in the documentary is located, I wonder if they'd be willing to explain that braiding technique to someone who came in and asked?

[Mike Nolan]

That's one of those books that I don't own yet. There are lots of places to see 6 strand braids, there appear to be several variants.

[Mike Nolan]

With a stick blender it takes about 15 seconds to make 2 cups of mayo, hard to beat that for speed. I've done it in a blender and in the food processor, but I think the stick blender makes less of a mess because you do it right in the container you're going to store it in. Rinse off the stick blender and you're done!

But whichever method you use, the taste taste still beats the daylights out of commercial mayo.

Welcome to My Nebraska Kitchen, Molly.

[Mike Nolan]

OK, I've watched the braiding sequence 3 times now (about 1:30:00 into the movie), it isn't really a 3 strand braid, it's a 6 strand braid starting with 3 strands that are rolled thin in the center and joined together to form one end of the loaf.

The real secret is the dough, dough like that is always the secret.

I've got 6 pieces of macrame yarn (in 6 different colors) that I use for practice braiding, I think with a bit of study and practice I might be able to do that braid. (Watching the baker do that braid was like watching a surgeon or a symphony conductor at work.)

And after watching Deli Man, boy do I want a good corned beef or pastrami sandwich! The nearest good deli is probably 400 miles away, though.

[Mike Nolan]

I googled the topic as well, the 3-strand braiding topics I found all seemed to use the standard braiding method. I haven't had a chance to watch the movie yet.

[Mike Nolan]

I may have to watch that movie to see the braid, it sounds interesting anyway, we used to live near one of the best deli's in Chicago, and they had something like 20 kinds of lox!

When I was going to New York on a regular basis (for work), I'd visit places like the Carnegie Deli (which I think has now closed), the Roxy (near Times Square) and of course Katz's, the deli made famous in "When Harry Met Sally". But some of the best deli's were the little neighborhood places.

Followup: Amazon Prime says it's not available at the moment, looks like a bandwidth issue! I'll try again later tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight I'm making my black bean and mushroom meatloaf.

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