COOKING

[benhall.1]

I am not sure how many of these I still have: https://www.amazon.com/All-American-2-Q ... B00004S88Z

Wow! That does look serious.

I just can't see me using it. I 'can' straight into Kilner jars. Works for me. And no aluminium.

Just one thing, Bob - you were running eight of those at a time??? What sort of cooking equipment do you have? You must have industrial amount of hob space.

[an seanduine]

I am not sure how many of these I still have: https://www.amazon.com/All-American-2-Q ... B00004S88Z

Wow! That does look serious.

I just can't see me using it. I 'can' straight into Kilner jars. Works for me. And no aluminium.

Just one thing, Bob - you were running eight of those at a time??? What sort of cooking equipment do you have? You must have industrial amount of hob space.

Yes, we were using these primarily as autoclaves. The next step up is enormous: boiler driven autoclaves. Some nearly ´walk-ins´.
The ´aluminium´ is simply not an issue. Sterilising 5 lb bags of heavy duty polyethelene filled with enriched sawdust the only interface is the steam at 15 lbs (250 degrees f. at sea level). Same is true for sterilising my various lab implements and gear. My agar for petri-dish culture was done in lab pyrex vessels, inside the pressure vessels. I built a ´clean room/lab´ in an unfinished basement. Positively pressurised, fed through HEPA filtration (two-stage) lined with lexan polycarbonate (think formica). I did have to do a little rewiring, and at full bore employed some propane camp style burners to augment four caterer style electric burners. Not really much more space than some flute makers´ workshops. The growing environment was outside in what amounted to a poly-tunnel with minimal air-flow/filtration, and water/ misters/ heaters. I also had a storage area (think large garden shed) for aging/lagering growing blocks.
Altogether quite an adventure.

Bob

[benhall.1]

Bob - that sounds absolutely fascinating. And you really went for it, didn't you? I thought we were doing things on a big scale this year with home-made, natural wines and other products from the garden*, but it's not remotely on the same scale as your operation there. I'd have loved to have seen it.



* Two batches of a gallon each of nettle wine plus another gallon just bottled, a gallon of medlar wine, a gallon of marrow wine, two gallons of dandelion wine, a small amount of grape wine (I know! ) from grapes from our garden, and I'm just about to set a gallon of oak leaf wine going, plus we've got a kit of wine from concentrate on the go which will produce 30 bottles of perfectly drinkable White Zinfandel. Oh, that reminds me - I've got to bottle my sloe port.

Then there's all the other garden products, like ash key pickle, nettle soup/quiche/pesto etc, dandelion leaf salad, nasturtium seed 'capers' and various other things. I kind of like to 'forage' in my own garden, which is a tad on the wild side!

[Wanderer]

I already don't use the convection setting on my big oven

And why is that? Some people seem to really like them. I've never had one, myself, so I have no point of reference.

No real need. I fry the things I want to fry. The things I cook in the oven, I already know how to cook without convection. Convection ovens will cook things slightly faster, which I really don't care that much about to relearn all my cooking times for the slight speed improvement.

Usually, I'm working to make sure the main dish and all the side dishes come out at the close to the same time. Having a dish get done sooner would throw off my game.

[david_h]

I don't do much frying of any kind - when I do, it's usually scrambled eggs

Is this one for the "divided by a common language thread"? For me fried scrambled egg would be a label for an omelette gone wrong.

Have never encountered an air fryer. I can see the single portion meal justification for the kitchen space. Or rescuing yesterday's croissant.

[benhall.1]

I don't do much frying of any kind - when I do, it's usually scrambled eggs

Is this one for the "divided by a common language thread"? For me fried scrambled egg would be a label for an omelette gone wrong.

I quite agree. You don't fry scrambled egg. It's just not possible.

[Nanohedron]

I don't do much frying of any kind - when I do, it's usually scrambled eggs

Is this one for the "divided by a common language thread"? For me fried scrambled egg would be a label for an omelette gone wrong.

I quite agree. You don't fry scrambled egg. It's just not possible.

Well, what else would you call it? Omelet or scrambled, there's still butter involved (or whatever your lipid of choice would be - gawd, I miss bacon fat). Unless, of course, you Right Ponders normally scramble your eggs in some other way that I can't conceive.

I don't know about other Yanks, but for scrambled eggs I would be equally as likely to say "fry" as "cook". Interestingly (or not), I only "cook" omelets; I haven't "fried" them yet.

[benhall.1]

I don't know about other Yanks, but for scrambled eggs I would be equally as likely to say "fry" as "cook". Interestingly (or not), I only "cook" omelets; I haven't "fried" them yet.

I agree that you can only "cook" an omelette, not fry it. I take it that's why David referred to "an omelette gone wrong". Similarly, you can only "cook" scrambled eggs. It's very different from frying. I think part of it is that frying implies that there's something solid to begin with. You can't fry a liquid.

[Nanohedron]

I don't know about other Yanks, but for scrambled eggs I would be equally as likely to say "fry" as "cook". Interestingly (or not), I only "cook" omelets; I haven't "fried" them yet.

I agree that you can only "cook" an omelette, not fry it. I take it that's why David referred to "an omelette gone wrong". Similarly, you can only "cook" scrambled eggs. It's very different from frying. I think part of it is that frying implies that there's something solid to begin with.

I suppose that's largely right. YET: we must account for fried eggs, then. Eggs always occupy a terminologically liminal area for me that way.

You can't fry a liquid.

I still seem to manage, somehow.

[benhall.1]

YET: we must account for fried eggs, then.

Fried eggs are different.

[Nanohedron]

Two batches of a gallon each of nettle wine plus another gallon just bottled, a gallon of medlar wine, a gallon of marrow wine, two gallons of dandelion wine, a small amount of grape wine (I know! ) from grapes from our garden, and I'm just about to set a gallon of oak leaf wine going, plus we've got a kit of wine from concentrate on the go which will produce 30 bottles of perfectly drinkable White Zinfandel. Oh, that reminds me - I've got to bottle my sloe port.

Then there's all the other garden products, like ash key pickle, nettle soup/quiche/pesto etc, dandelion leaf salad, nasturtium seed 'capers' and various other things. I kind of like to 'forage' in my own garden, which is a tad on the wild side!

How wonderful! I haven't heard of a lot of those, notably ash key pickle and oak leaf wine. Searching around, I notice that the latter seems possibly to be a Welsh thing (although maybe not exclusively); I came across its name, Gwin Dail Derw, when the writer - a Welshman - mentioned regularly gathering lots of leaves for it with his grandmother, who called it that.

[Nanohedron]

YET: we must account for fried eggs, then.

Fried eggs are different.

Yes, of course. How silly of me.

[Michael w6]

I've been quite interested in all the comments about pressure cookers. What advantage do they offer over a standard pot? I eat rice and beans or split peas nearly every day. Would pressure cooker behoove me?

I make my own hummus and pub cheese. I also roast and grind my own curry powders. Thus my two most favorite kitchen appliances are a mini food processor and a spice grinder.

[david_h]

I don't know about other Yanks, but for scrambled eggs I would be equally as likely to say "fry" as "cook". Interestingly (or not), I only "cook" omelets; I haven't "fried" them yet.

I agree that you can only "cook" an omelette, not fry it. I take it that's why David referred to "an omelette gone wrong". Similarly, you can only "cook" scrambled eggs. It's very different from frying. I think part of it is that frying implies that there's something solid to begin with. You can't fry a liquid.

I think that in frying a surface is in contact with the heat of the pan for a significant time* so that it is done differently than the material in the middle. With scrambled eggs, as I understand them, the idea is to move the material in contact with the pan away from it quickly and mix it up with the stuff in the middle before it does anything other than firm up a little. So that's not frying**

Also I think that anything called a 'fried xxxx' was already an 'xxxx' before it was fried.

* So I find 'air fryer' an odd term.

**Stir frying is a different action. I guess if I saw 'stir fried egg' as a translation on a menu I would expect something like scrambled egg.

[Nanohedron]

I've been quite interested in all the comments about pressure cookers. What advantage do they offer over a standard pot? I eat rice and beans or split peas nearly every day. Would pressure cooker behoove me?

Pressure cookers significantly reduce cooking time, water use, and energy expenditure. They also are excellent for braising tough cuts of meat into tenderness, faster than the low-and-slow oven method.