/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Cast iron.

Ideally vintage from the thrift shop; almost as good would be Lodge.

If you trust the heavy metal content in made in China ironware, Harbor Freight has ok stuff (but… expect to put in some work on refinishing the surface. Rough castings, NEED to be sanded down and then seasoned.)

If you're lazy, invest the $23 in a slow cooker. Throw stuff in it around morning, let it simmer all day, eat at night. Pack up leftovers, wash up, repeat.

>>11558

I don't trust ordering Chinese food, I'm not ordering from China as any first resort. Like I said, nothing exists locally, but I took a gander at Lodge and their prices seem reasonable enough. How is it on eggs and sticking and all that? I've seen reviews bitching about that sort of thing.

>>11560

Cast iron needs a little oil.

Cast iron needs seasoning.

The nonstick properties of cast iron are substantially different from teflon, silverstone, ceramic whatever.

That said, if you learn the technique, you can do ok.

But if your goal is to crack an egg into the pan and 3 minutes later slide out a perfect sunny up egg alongside your toast without using a spatula or a drop of oil (butter, pam)… yeah, no.

>>11530

>Jesus fucking christ how fucked is America power wise?

Typical residential is all 120v/15a, plus the occasional 120v20a for a window air conditioner. electric laundry dryers are typically 240v/30a; electric cookers/ovens 240v/50a.

Once you get a three phase feed into a building, you can pretty much get whatever you want.

So pretty fucked.

>>11532

Over here in The Netherlands it's 230V/16A for general use, 3-phase 230V/16 or 22A for cooktops, and krachtstroom/Power Current, 380V/16A

All of my appliances run 220V/16A, my Asko TL used to be 220V/10A after a rebuild because I wrongly connected the heater, after I redid it it uses 3kw instead of 2kw.

Still looking for the illusive Asko 770 countertop dishwasher.. haven't seen one in months on either Blocket or Marktplaats. (Swedish and Dutch eBay, basically)

How did it break? You can save more money repairing it than replacing it. Call a handyman and ask if they do repairs.

>wash dishes by hand

>use dish washer as large drying rack

>>11538

Not necessarily.

Really depends on what is broken.

If it is a minor thing, yeah. $25 in parts and an hour in labor, sure. Fix it.

If it has been 15 years and a newer model would be more energy efficient and come with a warranty and the replacement part is unavailable or more than 1/3rd the cost of a new machine, you're not really saving to fix.

but why?

>>11478

Am fat-to-/fit/, struggle with cravings, gained like 10-15 lb the past month so need to resort to drastic measures to kill these cravings like utterly revolting dishes along with 2-3lb of broccoli at a time. Otherwise I'm gonna go right back to that Mexican restaurant across the street which is why I gained 10-15lb to begin with.

>>11479

I've recently started calorie counting. In other words, just knowing how many calories various shit has in it.

Best foods for this are:

- green beans

- mushrooms (I pull out the stems and pour in rice wine vinegar - YUM)

- tomato soup with no added milk or cream or anything obviously stupid added

- water with a little bit of apple cider vinegar added (appetite supressant)

- almond milk

- coffee (again without anything obviously stupid added)

most days I don't top 500 calories. I started dropping weight to the point where I can now do light exercises without fucking killing myself. Yeah I'm a huge cunt. Being a hardcore alco for years made me this way.

>>11521

Green leafy vegetables in general are good.

Celery, various cabbages, spinach, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli…

… provided that if you cook them, it doesn't add a heavy sauce or (much) fat. So, steamed or stir fried with a tiny amount of fat.

Quick stir fry until beginning to be tender, a few dashes of soy sauce and rice vinegar at the end, quite good.

Make sure to get some protein here and there so your muscles don't atrophy.

>>11443

Ignoring Julia Child (or Rombauer, for that matter) is foolish.

Their stuff works, and they usually explain enough about what's going on so that you learn a larger concept, not just how to prepare one dish.

I will agree that Nigella is better with the sound off.

>>11449

Rombauer came from another era, I think. Much like Fernand Point, Escoffier etc.

My main issue with Julia Child (Pepin, Hazan, more recently Jamie Oliver…) is that they don't teach you enough to actually get that larger concept.

Perfect example is Gordon Ramsey: if you just watch his shows, you'll learn nothing substantial at all (in my opinion). Yet his book "3* Chef" is worth the while, whether you're a novice or trained.

Bocuse, Raymond Oliver (not related to), Bras, Troisgros… all had/have cookbooks that'll teach you lots more than those moneygrabbers ever will.

Buy the essentials like beans, eggs, lean meat, stuff like that. Don't worry about being fancy; it's essential to first follow a recipe, then improvise where you see fit (such as increasing pepper or cutting out an ingredient altogether).

>>11431

>>11448

This

>>11456

Well shit. Now I'm feeling old.

If you have (had?) grandparents who survived the great depression, then Rombauer isn't that much older than you are.

The Rombauer books (Joy of Cooking) were written right about the time when home refrigeration was no longer exotic, but it was quite common to hunt fresh game for dinner.

It nicely balances the options of going to the supermarket, growing food in the garden, hunting or fishing, stored food (pickled/preserved/frozen/dried)…

Covers it all, because it was from a time when you might not be able to rely on any one source of food. The baker might go out of business, but you might have flour. You might have a can of vegetable soup, but you can improve the flavor and nutrition with a handful of garden vegetables you froze.

So yeah; a lot of it may not be sexy, but you ain't going to starve because Rombauer let you down.

half of it's gonna be full of ice anyway

Don't you like being hydrated?

Nice channel. Thanks for the share.

May I suggest:

Brownberry Oatnut Bread (selected for ready availability in murrica, good crumb structure)

Whipped cream cheese

Deli Turkey or Ham (your choice; any grade will do… but better is usually better. Go for thinner slices rather than thicker.)

A roma tomato

(optional) brown mustard (your taste will steer you; some people like the coarse mustards with a wine base; some people like the finer ground mustards with a light vinegar base; some people like them polluted with honey because they think they're dipping pretzels… but i ain't gonna judge you unless you tell me)

Toast until just starting to turn golden

Smear one side with cream cheese

Layer folded thin slices across bread

Another layer of folded slices, 135 degree offset to the first layer's orientation

Slice tomato lengthwise, thin as you can reasonably manage, place slices to make a non-overlapping layer

(optional) thin layer of brown mustard on other slice of toasted bread

top sandwich with other bread

- Has the merits of only requiring a few items on hand, yet comes out suprisingly satisfying

Sharkfin soup

Jalapeno poppers are pretty nice snacks and they're not too difficult to make. Am I retarded for thinking that substituting in habaneros would be delicious?

>>11451

I think you may find the ratio of heat to cheese unsatisfactory.

Serrano?

>>11452

I do like a lot of heat, but serrano sounds like a better option. Serrano would probably synchronize with the other flavors better than habanero would.

>>11454

If you want to go absolutely nutso on it,

a tabasco or a cayenne is about the limit.

Neither will be off the charts with heat, should have excellent flavour, but their small size means you get barely a drop of heat moderating dairy.

Good luck in the kitchen.

I think they are both Nian Gao, a type of New Year's cake. Not sure about the Ludogao, but Zhimagao is Zhima (Seasame) and Gao (a type of cake).

Alright my fellow western bros, chinese man here to save your taste buds.

This the stuff OP bought is for steamed not dunk into water and boild or anything else.

Remember, steamed.

Oh btw, the left pack chinese words mean green bean cakes and the right is sesame cake, obvious pictures showing it anyway. Personally, i dislike sesame on anything sweet unless they're placed on meats with sweet sauce.

Cooking is what sorts man from beast.

>>11415

I think I remember the guy developing Soylent almost killing himself multiple times with his ignorance of nutrition. Now even if you get all the right components you're still fucking yourself up in all kinds of different ways, like deformed jaw because muscle atrophy.

>>11421

is there not enough protein or calcium?

>>11434

It's because if you don't eat solid food you don't use your jaw muscles to chew and lose the strength in your jaw. Bone also grows in response to stresses so no chewing or muscle will deform it too.

>>11377

Are you cooking in a fucking high school locker?

"Charcoal smoker" sounds like some chick who blows black guys. I'm going to use this term along with "Coalburner" now.

Maybe I'm missing it, but how does a mint tisane increase the caffeine?

Did you keep the oil? Whenever I fry seafood I drain, cool, and throw away the oil and wash all my fishy cookware asap.

It's how it is with deep frying food in your home. Main reason why I got an outdoor propane burner to use for deep frying and stir fry. Keeps all the funk outside. Great for bringing a big pot of water to a boil as well.

Brownies could be made in a cast iron skillet to good effect. I would suggest a caramel sauce and slicing into wedges.

If you really want a sandwich, for whatever reason, I would suggest pan-toasting two pieces of bread in butter, flipping, putting some bittersweet chocolate on one piece of bread…. cover, allow the chocolate to melt. Pull the bread out of the pan, smear cream cheese on the other piece, smoosh together (cheese to chocolate).

This will work better with a dense crumb white bread, like "italian" as opposed to Wonder bread or any of the similar squishy big brands… unless they are well toasted to stiffen the crumb. Whole wheat breads would be problematic, I expect.

Honestly, I think you would be happier walking down to the corner store, buying a chocolate hand pie and microwaving it for a few seconds.

If you wanted to try and improvise a hand pie out of bread, that might have potential. Not sure if it would be better to use two pieces or one piece folded on the diagonal. Either way, that is a definite job for Wonder bread. Take a Milky Way bar, chop up about half of it (1/4 for a single slice), sprinkle on the bread. Either top with another piece or fold in half. Trim crusts, press edges together with a fork to make a pocket sandwich. Toast in the frying pan. Flip it often.

Please learn to do proper paragraphs, they do make your message look like a human being wrote it rather than a redditor.

>What is the difference between those 2 techniques?

I think the main difference is going to be taste with these two. I'm no expert in chocolate preparedness but I imagine the texture is going to be more or less similar and the use of honey and butter vs cream is going to leave a taste difference. If you're new to cooking with chocolate go with the double boiler technique as it gives you better control over the temperature.

>And do i need to add sugar is the chocolate is 70% and it is dark?

Yeah.

>or does the milk/cream make it not bitter?

If you're doing that method it would make it less bitter, but you could always add sugar if it doesn't meet your desires. Don't for get that cooking is all about experimentation, a recipe isn't set in stone and you are allow to improvise along the way.

>>11211

>What is the difference between those 2 techniques?

One uses a double boiler. The other one is easier, but creates a slightly lower quality ganache.

> And do i need to add sugar is the chocolate is 70% and it is dark?

If you are starting with "eating" chocolate (as opposed to baking chocolate), you don't need to add sugar. Check the ingredients on your chocolate… if there is sugar in there, you don't need to add any. I would normally go with about 3 or 4 parts bittersweet or dark chocolate to 1 part semisweet or milk chocolate anyway.

> or does the milk/cream make it not bitter?

Unsweetened chocolate is going to be bitter, but the fat and sugar (lactose) in the milk is going to make your tongue not care so much. Softens the edge a bit; eliminates that tongue-drying intense bitterness and leaves a mild pleasant bitterness in its place. Thank goodness you can taste test as you go.

Chocolate is finicky about extra moisture; be quite careful to keep the steam from the double boiler out of the top bowl. This is the main advantage for the method of pouring hot cream onto the chocolate and melting with residual heat - not likely to drip water in. Downside is that with the typical proportions, it's a quite soft ganache, requiring chilling to keep solid.

>>11212

>>11213

>Lower quality

As in taste, texture or something else?

What i am not sure is about the use of honey, butter and milk while the other just uses heavy cream, how would the taste or texture differ using one or the other?

The chocolate couverture is dark but does have sugar in it so i hope it wont need.

What i mainly want to make is a silky dark chocolate ganache to dip profiteroles in it, so i will be putting it in the fridge so it wont be ultra liquid at the end.

What things do you use to make a ganache silkier and more smooth in general? And does the usual 1:1 cream/chocolate produce ganache that thickens in the fridge? Similar to a soft cream, not something really thick or really liquidy

>>11214

>What i am not sure is about the use of honey, butter and milk while the other just uses heavy cream, how would the taste or texture differ using one or the other?

Milk has had much of the butterfat removed.

Butter is just butterfat (plus maybe a touch of salt).

Cream is a mix of butterfat and milk, but it's hard to control the ratio.

By using the butter and milk separately, you should be better able to control the consistency and texture of the end product - easier to make it a bit thicker, for example. Adding honey should obviously add sweetness.