Culinary Conversations

[worth1]

Today I dug out a bag of frozen scallops I bought on special just before Christmas. Starting to worry about the condition but there was no ice forming in the bag and when opened, the heavenly smell. A great chowder, and I will keep an eye out for more of these in future - something I wouldn't do if this bag was still buried among the icebergs in the chest.

I love scallops.

[bower]

Scallops and salmon are two things so flavorful I have to enjoy very plain. No fancy seasonings.

[worth1]

To celebrate spring I picked up a 16 pound brisket at the store.
Going to go back to the way I used to do it and liked.
The devil with central Texas BBQ with just salt and pepper.
I saw Meat Church BBQ on YouTube do it on his last video or close to it.
I'm going to slather it in low octane Valentina hot sauce and then put on the various dry ingredients.
Then on to the offset smoker.

I also bought something from the store I've had my eye on.
Silver swan special soy sauce.
Made in the Philippines.
$4.98 for 34 ounces or a quart and 2 ounces.
Just from a taste test it's way better than the usual brands you see.
And a richer soy flavor than Polar soy sauce.
I just tried them back to back.
Polar first.
Sodium.
Polar 1030 mg.
Silver Swan 1020 mg.
Could that small amount make a difference?
Of course not, there has to be something else involved.

[Uncle_Feist]

I like tamari for it's more robust taste, but a good soy sauce will do.

[worth1]

I like tamari for it's more robust taste, but a good soy sauce will do.

Thanks.
I'll look for it.
I love the soy flavor but not the salt.

[worth1]

Why I don't use Crock Pots most of the time.
At least not for long meat cooking or dried beans.
Meat first.
It doesn't matter how much liquid you use in a crock pot you can dry out the meat if you cook it too long at a temperature set too high.
It can be swimming in liquid and look really juicy but the roast will be stringy dry and like chewing gum.
And there isn't any saving it.
I have literally ruined meat like this and tossed it to the dogs.
Back when I was making chili with prime rib in Alaska I would cut up all the meat and add the fixings.
Set it on high to get a head of steam going for about an hour and turn it on warm for the remainder of the night and go to bed.
About 8 hours later it was ready.
Not perfect but it worked with what I had for free.
It also wasn't prime rib but just rib roast without the ribs.
There wasn't anything (((Prime))) about this meat.
Low grade SYSCO brand.
Warm in a crock pot is around 165F just the right temperature to braise and break down collagen.
This is also the reason you cook chicken and poultry thighs and legs to 165.
Many people took my exact recipe and instructions home to their wives and they could never duplicate my chili.
They could never grasp how important it was to cook at such low temperatures.
They over cooked and dried out the meat boiling away thinking it would be even better.

Next beans.
Dried raw beans are poisonous.
They need to be boiled to kill this poison.
Many crock pots simply won't come to this essential boil.
In years past I didn't know this and crock pot beans or beans slow cooked on low heat without coming to a boil did a number on me.
It wasn't until I joined garden forums that I finally knew why.
I may be wrong but since I started beans off at a good boil and then turning down did this problem stop.
Don't get me wrong,Crock pots are great but a person really needs to know how to use them to get the best results.

I can't count how many times I've politely ate someone's dried out roast and said nothing.
Then they would have mine and the question would come up.
How did you do this, mine is always dried out?
What kind of meat did you buy?
You ate mine and didn't say anything.
Well my reply was and is.
It's your food and you invited me to eat.
It would be rude to complain.and it wasn't bad anyway.
I'm not Gordon Ramsay or a mean food critic.
Then I would explain to them how I did it.
Have a wonderful day and good eating.

[Tormahto]

Scallops and salmon are two things so flavorful I have to enjoy very plain. No fancy seasonings.

Scallops and butter, for me.

Years ago, shark was cut into medallions and seasoned, being passed off as scallops. The direction of the grain structure is all wrong on a shark medallion.

[worth1]

Scallops and salmon are two things so flavorful I have to enjoy very plain. No fancy seasonings.

Scallops and butter, for me.

Years ago, shark was cut into medallions and seasoned, being passed off as scallops. The direction of the grain structure is all wrong on a shark medallion.

I can't possibly see how they pulled that off but they did.
I never and I mean never buy anything but raw scallops.
But the price now is over the top.

[worth1]

So Cowboy Kent Rollins has reviewed and unboxed yet another way over priced black cast iron skillet.
I looked at the website and it was $249 for a 10 inch skillet.
Had a 5% discount but really.
Oh and how light it is only 4.1 pounds.
Seriously!
The Lodge weighs only 4.45 pounds.
Can a person really tell the difference in less than half a pound.
Oh and you can chalk that half pound up to the extra holding handle on the other side.
Something the high priced skillet doesn't have.
Oh look it has two pour spouts on both sides.
So does Lodge.
Lodge comes in at 20 dollars or so now due to inflation but they used to be 14 something.
Still yet.
Rick Bayless uses Lodge.
But it's a lifetime investment.
Well most people that are young I know can't cook on cast iron and paying close to 300 dollars isn't going to make it any easier.
They will probably get disappointed and set it aside.
Maybe even let it rust.

In the blurb.
Made for people that truly love to cook.
Really, I truly love to cook and I don't have one.
Maybe I don't truly love to cook anyway and I'm just a poser that makes crappy food on a cheap crappy skillet.

This reminds me of the guy I knew that bought a 2 thousand dollar guitar thinking he would be a guitar hero in a matter of days.
He sold it for half as much a few months later.
To end this commentary I have but little left to say.
No matter the stove the BBQ pit or the cooking tools no matter how much you pay there are limits.
Those limits are your hard work and failures along the way.
The ability to recognize your mistakes and learn from them.
No 249 dollar skillet or 2 thousand dollar guitar is going to compensate for hard work and the love of what you do.
Now off to the LL Bean website to order my new lumber jack outfit.
See ya later at the whiskey shot bar for lumber jack theme night.

[Danny]

If you do not learn to use the tools you have. and how to not use them. no matter how expensive whatever gear you buy will do you any good.

[Tormahto]

So Cowboy Kent Rollins has reviewed and unboxed yet another way over priced black cast iron skillet.
I looked at the website and it was $249 for a 10 inch skillet.
Had a 5% discount but really.
Oh and how light it is only 4.1 pounds.
Seriously!
The Lodge weighs only 4.45 pounds.
Can a person really tell the difference in less than half a pound.
Oh and you can chalk that half pound up to the extra holding handle on the other side.
Something the high priced skillet doesn't have.
Oh look it has two pour spouts on both sides.
So does Lodge.
Lodge comes in at 20 dollars or so now due to inflation but they used to be 14 something.
Still yet.
Rick Bayless uses Lodge.
But it's a lifetime investment.
Well most people that are young I know can't cook on cast iron and paying close to 300 dollars isn't going to make it any easier.
They will probably get disappointed and set it aside.
Maybe even let it rust.

In the blurb.
Made for people that truly love to cook.
Really, I truly love to cook and I don't have one.
Maybe I don't truly love to cook anyway and I'm just a poser that makes crappy food on a cheap crappy skillet.

This reminds me of the guy I knew that bought a 2 thousand dollar guitar thinking he would be a guitar hero in a matter of days.
He sold it for half as much a few months later.
To end this commentary I have but little left to say.
No matter the stove the BBQ pit or the cooking tools no matter how much you pay there are limits.
Those limits are your hard work and failures along the way.
The ability to recognize your mistakes and learn from them.
No 249 dollar skillet or 2 thousand dollar guitar is going to compensate for hard work and the love of what you do.
Now off to the LL Bean website to order my new lumber jack outfit.
See ya later at the whiskey shot bar for lumber jack theme night.

Well Lovey,

I shall turn my nose at such bourgeois culinary craft.

A Duparquet copper silver-lined saute pan in the gifted hands of my resident master chef is the only way to live.

Thurston Howell III

[worth1]

I just discovered we have been eating green olives all wrong according to a chef on YouTube.
The guy isn't pretentious and has some good advice.
He's been soaking the brine out of the olives and adding simple spices like coriander seeds to the fresh water he is putting the olives in.
He says it brings back the olive flavors without all the salt or vinegar.
Naturally the olives don't keep long this way and need to be refrigerated.
I'm going to give it a shot.

[worth1]

I'm conversation with a young one at work the other day cooking oil came up.
He asked me about stir fry oil and what I thought of it.
To his astonishment I told him it was a re branded ripoff.
Say what he exclaimed.
Yes I said re packaged and re branded regular less expensive high heat cooking oil.
One popular brand is nothing more than cotton seed oil put in a small bottle and is charging a whopping 4.87 for 10 ounces.
There are 228 ounces in a gallon.
128÷10=12.8x4.87=62.336.
$62.336 for a gallon of regular cooking oil.

That's a whopping mark up simply by putting some fancy Chinese symbols on a wee bottle of oil.
And people buy this stuff all the time.

[worth1]

I did a whole thread sometime ago on products that were over priced due to repackaging.
Lots of it was stuff you wouldn't eat but I got into it back in my early 20s ot even before now that I think of it.
Coleman lantern fuel is nothing more than what they called white gas.
Ronson lighter fluid is naptha.
Bug and tar remover was basically kerosene.
I use BBQ starting fluid to remove such things.
Self rising flour is regular flour with baking powder added.
Pam is aerosolized cooking oil.
You could use a spray bottle just as well.
Besides I don't want a can of flammable gas next to the stove.
More later.

[worth1]

I'm conversation with a young one at work the other day cooking oil came up.
He asked me about stir fry oil and what I thought of it.
To his astonishment I told him it was a re branded ripoff.
Say what he exclaimed.
Yes I said re packaged and re branded regular less expensive high heat cooking oil.
One popular brand is nothing more than cotton seed oil put in a small bottle and is charging a whopping 4.87 for 10 ounces.
There are 128 ounces in a gallon.
128÷10=12.8x4.87=62.336.
$62.336 for a gallon of regular cooking oil.

That's a whopping mark up simply by putting some fancy Chinese symbols on a wee bottle of oil.
And people buy this stuff all the time.

[worth1]

Ate Cains chicken yesterday.
Not impressed.
Came in covered styrofoam container which meant everything got steamed and soft.
Fries flabby and chicken tasteless.
Suace sucked and the slaw lacking anything of desire.
Nothing even close to all the rave reviews I've heard from people.

[karstopography]

Ate Cains chicken yesterday.
Not impressed.
Came in covered styrofoam container which meant everything got steamed and soft.
Fries flabby and chicken tasteless.
Suace sucked and the slaw lacking anything of desire.
Nothing even close to all the rave reviews I've heard from people.

I’m with you. Stupid it is to put something hot from the fryer into sealed styrofoam.

[Danny]

I like Cains sometimes, but not the fries or the coleslaw at all. The chicken is salty, but I like salt.

[worth1]

I've been turning the house upside down looking for my lost cumin seeds.
I mean everywhere for days.
Decided to give up and just buy more so I did two days ago.
Then it dawned on me look in the freezer idiot.
Low and behold there they were.
It didn't take 5 seconds of looking.

[Danny]

I have misplaced a 5 pound container of whole black peppercorns, LOL, so finally gave it up and ordered another pound of them. It'll get here and I will find the big one I bet !!