Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

It's done for. The clove oil will stay in the plastic for a long time, and may weaken it at the scratches. Clove oil is a strong plastic solvent. I worked with someone who left a plastic spoon in a 2 LB jar of ground cloves, when he pulled it out after a week, there was only the handle left.

Perhaps they have changed since I worked for them. Nothing was better than their buttery greasiness. I worked for Their parent company in R&D in the 70's and 80's and we had " Fang" our two needle injector designed to baste the whole birds with margarine. I forget that Butterball is now a company and not just a single product anymore, i think they have many product levels. Almost every major turkey processor uses a basting blend that is injected into the breast. usually it is a salt phosphate brine. It may be flavored with spice extractives, onion flavorings, broth, or a little hydrolyzed vegetable protein or autolyzed yeast extract to enhance the broth flavor.

There are no dirty secrets in meat processing. We are required to label EVERYTHING we put into a meat product. The real problem is consumers don't understand the labels and why the ingredients are there. To be USDA inspected means the USDA has to approve our processing plan and the labeling and food safety plans before we can produce a product. We have inspectors in plants verifying what we do after the USDA approves the product. That is one of the reasons you see meat recalls, required testing and record verification finds problems and hopefully recalls occur before anyone gets hurt.

Well, you have a lot of half science here, and have ignored some basic issues. Salt is a critical issue in brining, but Osmosis is equally important to brining. If your brine is too high in salt and sugars, you can very effectively draw the moisture out of the meat. 5-6 % salt solution is ideal for short brining times. Also, in using straight water, the salt naturally occurring in the meat is leached out of the surface, removing something essential to increased yields. Water is absorbed, but not bound. Time is important with static brining as Osmosis is an issue. As the salt is absorbed, the solution within the meat will try to equalize the pressure on the exterior and interior solutions. If you brine for several days, your 6% salt solution may equalize into 3%-5% salt in the meat if the amount absorbed by the meat does not substantially decrease the strength of the exterior solution. So, if the brining is done for longer than overnight, salt concentrations should be reduced. I have seen people wet curing/ brining pork and turkey in saturated salt solutions, and have had no salt absorbed, while the moisture levels of the raw meat dropped so far that it became dehydrated.

6% salt does not denature protein, it solubilizes the myosin. It allows it to stretch and open up to hold water and if tumbled, bind more tightly to other proteins forming a batter. Cooking denatures protein, removing its water binding capacity. Other additives enhance the water binding.

Now to further explain some of the reasons that your brined prepared turkeys contain certain ingredients, the most common ingredient beyond salt is sodium Phosphate in one of several forms. This is added because it greatly opens the protein structure to allow it to absorb more water. It also binds the water in as the meat cooks, and reduces the amount of physical shrinkage. As an example, bacon cure with sodium phosphates shrinks in size about 40% less than salt brined bacon.

Your local dairy farmer is most likely a corporation. Most family farms are held as corporations now. Why? inheritance taxes. The reason that many have gone under is the family can't afford to pay taxes on an inheritance based on a hundred acres of land and the thousands of dollars of infrastructure needed to run a "family farm". Even more so if you have a few hundred cattle grazing. Corporations are not evil, they are essential.

As for Harris Ranch's threat to drop contributions based on their feelings to Mr Pollan. He was a paid speaker. He was not donating time. Would you want your donations used to pay for speakers whose views are in opposition to your business interests or personal interests? I would do the same thing. It is amazing that you are offended a corporation would refuse to support paid speakers that portray them as evil. You call it censorship, but Mr. Pollan's supporters can replace the funds to the college if they view the message as important.

Most scientific studies show that fully a third of the world will starve with the current state of sustainable agriculture. There is a middle ground that must be reached to make everyone happy and healthy, panels can discuss and learn, individual rants only feed polarizing views.

Are you using the right speed? Different models recommend different settings based on the wattage of the motor. Using too low or too high motor speed puts excessive wear and tear on the motor. The model I have calls for speed 2 with a dough hook, others i have used with fewer speeds called for high speed using a dough hook. Re read your book to be sure you are using the right settings. Yes they warm up, but if you smell the motor, it may be overheating. It also may be getting old, and it needs to be cleaned and lubricated.

Based on the pasta it could be celiac Sprue. Intestinal pain is also followed by diarrhea in a lot of celiacs. Or a little recognized allergy is to onions. But looking also at your list, there are a lot of complex carbohydrates which many people have problems with. These are a problem when your body doesn't produce the enzymes required to break the complex sugars into easily digestible simple sugars. Try the digestive aid sold as Beano or one of the generic knock offs. If it is sugars and not food allergies, it may help.

Captain Buzzkill here,
this technology is great when used correctly. Done correctly it is safe, done incorrectly you are dealing with environments that can produce all sorts of problems. When used incorrectly, say cooking something below 140 degrees for 3 days is a potential food safety nightmare. Sous Vide (without air) means you can grow botulism if the finished item is temperature abused, or even during the cooking cycle. Not hitting kill temperatures for salmonella and staph are possible as well. This is where cooking and science can collide, possibly with disastrous consequences, so learn the food safety before you jump into this.

What I find intriguing (scratch that, RIDICULOUS!) about the attitude toward molecular gastronomy is that when I design a packaged food product using the same ingredients these chefs use, it triggers the rants about additives in food. Don't use them in a $2 can of soup, but as an item in a $200 + tasting menu its good eats. It makes no sense to me.

Molecular Gastronomy is Better living through chemistry, to steal an old tag line. The things you see in those restaurants used to be the parlor tricks ingredient companies used to trigger developers of Industrial food products to try their products, only with more trendy ingredients. When I went to Alinea, I could remember which company showed me similar items way back in the 70's. Don't tell me these guys are so creative, good marketers maybe, but they are standing on the shoulders of giants (Dow, Monsanto, FMC corporation etc (good thing they are international so they fit into the buy locally trend)) to succeed in their niche. Sous vide was a food industry practice before chefs made individual entrees using the technology, industrial processors made the equipment reliable and affordable for chefs to use.

Not Black lights but Cheap fluorescent bulbs, not the highly treated daylight color fluorescent are the ones i am talking about. if you walk into the room and everything seems to have a green tint, you've got them. These are usually in commercial applications, grocery stores and such. We use these where I work occasionally to test shelf life on some spices and blends (especially for pepperoni seasonings). If you've ever worked a deli counter, you can watch the color fade on ham and pepperoni due to the fluorescent bulbs in the case. There is some wavelength that does a job on the natural pigments in spices and cured meats tied into the fluorescent lighting.

I cross the street, but make sure I do it safely. Don't sue the meat producer when you get sick and its your fault. Don't expect me to feel sorry for you when you get food poisoning from any source you could have prevented.

You would think with all the e coli concern, one wouldn't show a picture of a rare burger, or not include in the recipe to cook the patty to 160F

Buy a new one. Fuses within the equipment usually only blow if there is an internal power problem. If you did not get a surge in the house that took out other devices, there may be a greater issue than the fuse. I came to the conclusion that most small appliances should be treated as disposable as the repairs usually cost more than a new machine, especially electronics like a microwave. Oh, and the screwdriver trick could be fun in another way, if the amperage is too high, or the screwdriver is a cheap metal, you can weld the screwdriver to the frame while discharging the capacitor. If you try it, where rubber gloves to insulate as well as the insulated handle, can't be too safe.

With kids in school and the running around it requires, the quick reheat times make it invaluable for reheating meals to get to conferences, games and other activities when every adult in the house works. Left over arroz con pollo tonight.