Modern Vespa

So you're in the hate-your-mother-in-law camp.

Thanks Jim. I'm going to send her that link.

Sometimes yes. She can be quite annoying but there was 110 there already and I didn't want to be bothered running a 220 circuit. The cooktop only requires 110.

you can have my cast iron and dutch oven when you pry them from my cold dead hands.

and yes, I do have all clad. and an assortment of other pans from professional kitchen grade to cheapie Marshalls pick ups.

but with you on the herbs right outside. only problem is I have to walk about 250 feet to get to them...

The design of the handle is one of the best on the market. The shape keeps the handle cool and allows you to maintain control of the pan in a fast paced professional setting. Depending on what you cook at home, that might not be something you would need or appreciate. The handle is a vast improvement over the one on my Cop-r Chef cookware.

D3 works very well with induction cooktops. And it's fairly light, compared to other quality cookware.

More secret cooking tips

Red Boat Fish Sauce, in moderation on veg, pork and shellfish dishes

Colatura di Alici on pasta. A little less pungent anchovy sauce.

Lemon Powder, from Thailand, gives incredible lemon flavor to just about anything. I use it in Paellas and seafood dishes.

S and B Oriental Curry Powder, about half a teaspoon, and soy sauce instead of salt, adds richness and depth to Mexican dishes. You don't want to use enough curry powder that someone says it tastes like curry though, so it's a bit of a learning curve.

50 year old Jerez Sherry Vinegar makes incredible salad dressings.

If you are cooking meat, season and bring it to room temperature first.

Add kosher salt to ground meat, mix it well, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight before making burgers.

Sous Vide-
A sous vide is basically a water bath, sort of like a low temperature bain marie There are two common types of sous vide devices. One is a water oven, a large pan of water and a heating element to keep it at a constant temperature.
The other is a stick with a fan and heating element on the end, that goes into deep pots, circulates the water and holds temperature.
I have both of them and rarely use the water oven anymore.
There are dishes where Sous Vide works very well, like lean meat, or cuts like chuck or round.
Where I think you lose with Sous Vide is if you cook something like a choice or prime ribeye, duck, or anything where you want a crispy skin or well rendered fat. You won't get the same flavor out of the fat and into the meat that you can in a pan or on the grill, even if you flash it in the broiler or pan prior to service.
When you take a steak out of the sous vide, you will see there is liquid in the bag. When you put the meat in the pan, that liquid steams and cooks the meat and fat.

One thing that you can do with sous vide is go straight from the freezer to the water bath, if the water is cold, then let the meat heat up with the water. That can be very convenient.

I call bullshit. Sorry. The All-Clad handles are awful. Easily the worst of the name-brand pans. I have numerous pans with handles that stay cool to the touch and are comfortable to use. The All-Clads are neither cool to the touch nor comfortable. They are objectively a complete design failure.

One of my favorite pans, with a great handle, is the Sur-La-Table house brand. It looks an awful lot like it was made by All-Clad, but with a fantastic handle.

Which goes to show that it is a solvable problem. All-Clad didn't even try.

Fill a two qt. Allclad D3 or 5 saucepan with water, bring it to boil, then quickly pour the contents into another pan using only your non-dominant hand, without spilling a drop, while someone's screaming at you to hurry up. Then try it with that scanpan knockoff. That's the problem they addressed with the handle design. Chaffed hands? Read the part in Bourdain's book about his first days on the job out of culinary school. It's not about how comfy and cozy you feel holding the pot (a fairly insignificant amount of time in the kitchen is spent lifting pots up and down), but about what the pot allows you to put on the plate. Allclad is about controlling the process.
I prefer copper, because it is lighter and heats faster. But good thick copper is a thing of the past. I've got a copper saucier that can reduce anything in about 50-75% of the time it takes with modern stainless multi-ply. I can't replace it today. Even Mauviel isn't what it was 40 years ago.

I hold it as self-evident that tools that are uncomfortable to use are simply bad tools. This point isn't up for debate.

I'd be very surprised to find all clad in a commercial kitchen.

maybe at the omelette bar or for tableside service, cuz it's shiny and pretty.

but everything else? when I was working in kitchens you never saw it. everything was straight industrial and terrible to hold. even now, my friends that own and work in restaurants don't use all clad in house. maybe at home, but most of them use cast offs or promo stuff because they do so little cooking at home.

I really can't remember picking up a pan, except old 1950s LeCreuset and a mid 1920's revereware skillet, and thinking the handle was a problem.
Fortunately, we live in a society where nobody can be compelled to cook with all-clad in the privacy of their own kitchen.

Winco. Cheap aluminum. The only places that used better stuff were the open kitchens. But they liked the look of copper. Or the corporate chefs. They had all the toys.
I had no idea all clad was so controversial.
How long you been out?

https://www.chowhound.com/post/hate-clad-handles-623123?page=2

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/dgptep/what_dont_i_get_about_allclads_handle_design/

The web is awash in threads about how bad All-Clad handles are. Invariably, someone will offer up that they are meant for professionals, or that one must always use a towel on the handle, and that's just the way professionals cook, or that one must use a bottom grip, which requires rotating the palm unnaturally.

To which I say: fuck that noise. Bad tools are bad tools.

I think I'll mount a knife blade on a ratchet wrench and post pictures of it on Garage Journal. When people object, I will just tell them that it is for professionals only, and that anyway they should be wearing gloves when they wrench.

Now that we got that settled...

So here's another couple secrets, that aren't really secrets to a lot of cooks

When you cut up a vegetable like a carrot or an onion to cook with, cut all the pieces the same size. That way they are finished cooking at the same time.

If you are going to stir fry or otherwise quickly fry vegetables, cut them at an angle, so there is a lot of surface area to touch the oil and they will cook quickly.

If you don't have good knives, and don't know where to start, a 7 inch santoku is a good start. But get one that is made in Japan, or from one of the trusted French or German manufacturers. No matter how much they use words like Japan, German or Swedish, if a knife is made in China, you are being hustled. Know where a knife is made before you buy it.
I like Japanese knives, because they are thinner, and hold an edge that scares people when they try to wash it. But most of my early experiences were using Mercer and Wusthof knives, and they are excellent too. The main difference between a Japanese knife and a European knife is that the Japanese knives are usually made with the idea that you are going to slice through the food to cut it up, whereas with the European knives, you are usually using the knife to chop down through the food. It's not an exact description, but reasonably close. Both are good, and once you know how you like to cut things up, you will gravitate towards one or the other.

You can get good, cheap knives that are used in professional kitchens all over the world from Victorinox. They are not forged, but they do have a high quality carbon steel and will take and hold an edge for a long time. Usually one of these will set you back $20 or so.

On this we agree. I have accumulated a nice set of Shun Classic knives, of which my current favorite is the 6.5" Nakiri. My wife prefers the Santoku.

My most-used knife is a Victorinox 8" chef's knife. I have the one with the rosewood handle. https://tinyurl.com/yy4vzde9 I have had it so long that it goes back to when the ones sold in the USA were called "Forschner". Victorinox are the Swiss Army Knife people. The rosewood comes with a layer of varnish on it which I don't like. So I removed it by running it though the dishwasher (the one and only time) and then sanded it with extra-fine sandpaper. I then oiled it within an inch of its life with Boos Block Mystery Oil. This knife has had almost daily use for maybe 30 years and is still in great shape and looks beautiful.

Quite a few years ago, I visited a knife shop in Solvang looking to buy a santoku. The shopkeeper laid out six high-quality 7" santoku knives for me to try. The one I was least attracted to turned out to have the perfect fit and balance for my hand. It has a very thin blade with a scary-sharp edge. My older daughter is vegan and chops up a lot of vegetables when she cooks in our kitchen. This is the knife she always uses. The knife is a Wustof Dreizack Culinar 7" santoku https://tinyurl.com/yy7unslc These are no longer made.

Good knives are essential tools and a joy to use. They don't have to be super-expensive (Victorinox). But every good knife is not a perfect fit for everyone. Take the time to discover what works for you and don't give a care for what anyone else might think of your choice.

A knife I've been considering is the German take on the Santoku. It's commonly called a Rocking Santoku. The chef who taught me the most about fine dining cookery uses one almost exclusively now, and it seems to be very popular in the industry. The appeal is that you can use it like a Santoku, but if you're classically trained, you can also use it to chop through veg like a European chef's knife. The tip on most of them is more like a Kiritsuke than a traditional Santoku.
My kitchen wall was starting to look like a Medieval armory, so I got to the point where I don't bring anything into the kitchen unless I'm willing to give something up. I've got way too many very nice knives packed up and put away.

one foot in the kitchen, one foot in the grave with a stop for scooters and getting my hands dirty in the middle.

so, not entirely out. still dabble, pick up shifts on occasion and help out friends.

this is very true. knives are tools. not everybody likes the same tool, or the same brand for reasons: fit, finish, balance, feel. find what works for you and damn the torpedoes.

I have all kinds of steel, from all over the world. some of it cheap some very expensive, but none of that matters if I don't like using it. I bought my first "real" knife at 17 when I was a prep cook and dishwasher. cost me damn near a weeks wage. but I still use it, it is still razor sharp and gets the job done properly.

to frank's point victorinox and Forschner are top quality. you can buy a victorinox 8" chefs knife for under $50 and it will take everything you throw at it and then ask for seconds. sometimes, price is not an indication of quality.

just remember, like tools they get cleaned and wiped down and put away after every job!

My parents briefly owned a toy shop in Solvang, and my father would occasionally ride back and forth from Lompoc on a Honda 55 step through. It was such a neat little town.

Drat. Killed another thread.

Everything doesn't need to be spicy or taste like bacon or be covered in cheese. Choose good quality ingredients and treat them well so you don't need gimmicks to make food palatable.

Spend time in the produce department and look at what you are buying. Pick it up, feel the texture, smell it. The eight best Roma tomatoes are the same per pound as the nastiest, mealiest ones in the box. Pick the best ones out.

There is a lot to good cooking that is not cooking.

#justinbieberxvesparunnyoctopus

O-Cel-O Scrub & Wipe Cleaning Pad, much better than the blue scrub sponges I was using before and they last a long time.

More like a cooking by-product tip:

Save those eggshells... don't throw them away after using the yolks/whites

Give the empty shells a quick wash (use your fingernail to break the seal between any white that may cling to the shell), and then microwave them for 1-2 minutes (depending on whether few or many shells).

The microwave dries them and also kills any lingering bacteria.

Then crush them in an electric spice grinder or with a mortar & pestle (I do the latter), and put them in an old jar near your coffee maker.

Any time you go to make a pot of coffee, ad a generous dash of crushed eggshells to the ground coffee. It lowers the acidity in the coffee using the same compound found in commercial antacids (calcium carbonate). I've been using them for years in my drip machine and aeropress, and the resulting brew tastes almost as smooth as cold brew.

As an aside, if you have acidic soil, crushed eggshells work to to adjust the PH of soil as well for the same reason.

[Edit: If you compost your coffee grounds (as we do), the eggshells are compost friendly. No worries.]

In conclusion, don't throw out your eggshells!

The 12 O'clock rule.

If there is something you are cooking in a skillet, and it needs to be turned, like fondant potatoes, hamburgers, sausage patties, etc, put the first one down in the part of the skillet furthest from you, 12:00 on a clock, and then place the rest of them down in a clockwise pattern. This way, you can turn them in the order in which they cook, without having to remember which one went in first, etc.

NOTHING kills the cutting edge of a good knife faster than washing it in a sink full of other cutlery...!

The knives I use are the best I can afford at the time (Victorinox and Wusthoff are aspirations) and I wash them individually after use under hot running water while I fill the washup for the other stuff.

too true! washed, wiped, sharpened and put in sheath after every use.

i bought this 8" victorinox chefs knife as a wedding present for friends.

as it so happened, I was over at their house and wound up using it and was impressed so I bought one for myself. I don't expect it to last 20 years, but it's taken everything I've thrown at it for two years and comes back for more. best of all the price is just right!

Victorinox are the best.

Mine has had over 30 years of daily use, so don't be surprised.

In my case, I am in the mother-in-law-hates-me camp.
I am totally indifferent to her.

Talking about deglazing a pan, I always invert the order for cooking mincemeat (ground meat) dishes.
Usually the recipe calls for caramelising the onions first and adding the mince after.
I do the mince first and fry until evenly cooked.

I remove the mince, add a dash of EV olive oil and allow the meat sticking to the pan to brown well while I prepare the onions. Adding more EV olive oil and then the onions deglazes the pan and lifts all the meaty flavour for incorporation into the dish.

Everyone has their own quirks about making tea.
A tip I got from a caterer who must be on standby at events to serve fresh brewed tea the moment the function ends has a way of achieving the impossible...

Ten minutes or so before the expected time of serving, they dampen the tea (either loose or bags) with cold water.
This causes the tea to reconstitute and the capiliaries to open.
The moment the guests are sighted, they add the boiling water and can start serving within a minute.

Snap!

It doesn't get used for much cooking, has cut up the odd wheel of cheese, but does open a lot of bottles.

"A wheel of cheese, a pony keg of ale and thou."
Wm. Shakesbeer

...and it sprays all over him.

O.k, now I'm ready to buy my first Santoku knife. It will be either German or Japanese. Should it have dimples?

I like the dimples, even if I'm not convinced that they usually perform the intended function.