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From Serious Eats

Gadgets: 4-in-1 Flavor Injector by Progressive International

Based on past experiences, avoid plastic like this unless you use it once and throw it away. You cannot get it clean. It's very hard to wash butter/fat off of plastic by hand, and it's not dishwasher practical.

Also look at the needle length and tip, it's short, and has no side vents. You are not injecting into a vein, you want the material to be spread out sideways not down.

I love out metal injector, the only downsides are the needle bends easily in a drawer with other utensils unless you remove it for storage, and the O rings don't last.

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

Remember to order them minus ketchup and pickle!

Those who've only had the frozen microwave burgers may not realize they commonly come with a TON of ketchup, and nasty sour pickles which completely overwhelm the delicate taste of a small soft steamed onion burger.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

Sorry to be the lone hater, but I hate pumpkin pie, this is a great excuse to make a double pecan pie instead!

Just follow the recipe on the dark Kayo, and double the amount of Pecans (use good ones, Sunnyland will ship you some). The extra pecans balance out the super sweet caramel custard filling.

If you are too lazy to make a crust, buy the Pillsbury Just Unroll, which Cook's Illustrated rates #1 in premade. It's bland, but not offensively bad.

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

Might be a bit too sweet from the burger bun sweetness. Otherwise that bread, soft sauteed onion, animal fat, well seasoned, all steamed together is amazingly close to a simple bread stuffing.

I bet it's better than any cornbread stuffing I've had (too sweet, over seasoned to cover up the sweetness, bad texture), or any wild rice stuffing (way too dark a flavor for mild turkey, chewy off texture).

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Video: ‘Taco Bell’s New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature,’ from The Onion

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From Serious Eats

Gadgets: 4-in-1 Flavor Injector by Progressive International

Based on past experiences, avoid plastic like this unless you use it once and throw it away. You cannot get it clean. It's very hard to wash butter/fat off of plastic by hand, and it's not dishwasher practical.

Also look at the needle length and tip, it's short, and has no side vents. You are not injecting into a vein, you want the material to be spread out sideways not down.

I love out metal injector, the only downsides are the needle bends easily in a drawer with other utensils unless you remove it for storage, and the O rings don't last.

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

Remember to order them minus ketchup and pickle!

Those who've only had the frozen microwave burgers may not realize they commonly come with a TON of ketchup, and nasty sour pickles which completely overwhelm the delicate taste of a small soft steamed onion burger.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

Sorry to be the lone hater, but I hate pumpkin pie, this is a great excuse to make a double pecan pie instead!

Just follow the recipe on the dark Kayo, and double the amount of Pecans (use good ones, Sunnyland will ship you some). The extra pecans balance out the super sweet caramel custard filling.

If you are too lazy to make a crust, buy the Pillsbury Just Unroll, which Cook's Illustrated rates #1 in premade. It's bland, but not offensively bad.

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

Might be a bit too sweet from the burger bun sweetness. Otherwise that bread, soft sauteed onion, animal fat, well seasoned, all steamed together is amazingly close to a simple bread stuffing.

I bet it's better than any cornbread stuffing I've had (too sweet, over seasoned to cover up the sweetness, bad texture), or any wild rice stuffing (way too dark a flavor for mild turkey, chewy off texture).

From Talk

HELP! Butter free stuffing?

@Lorenzo - you are forgetting the onions and celery, without those it won't taste like stuffing, just wet buttered bread. The fat in the butter carries the seasoning and aromatic vegetable flavors. Leave out the fat and vegetables, and stuffing is wet salty bread.

From Talk

Homemade "Pepperidge Farm Stuffing"?

I've never had Pepperidge Farm stuffing, but I assume it's like Stovetop Stuffing, which none of your homemade recipes will taste like unless you add a ton of potent industrial seasoning.

My little cousins would only eat fake mashed potatoes made from instant, wouldn't touch anything made from real potatoes.

I'd make real stuffing for the turkey stuffing, keep it simple (mostly bread, add butter, onions, celery, salt, pepper, sage or thyme) and make a little side dish of fake crap for the picky brats.

From Serious Eats

Costco Stops Selling Coke Products

Costco prices for soda used to be special, now they are better than inflated supermarket prices, but higher than any decent sale. We don't bother with soda at Costco anymore.

Sadly that's the story for a lot of Costco, the value oriented customers seem to be displaced by the upwardly striving consumer. At times, it feels more like a big ugly Trader Joe's than a discount warehouse store.

From Serious Eats

Photo of the Day: Big Ass Hot Dog

Someone took a full deli bologna, and decided to label it a hotdog.

YAWN

I'll take a Boar's head mixed meat (made with pork and beef) bologna anyday other this gimmick!

From A Hamburger Today

The Burger Lab: Turkey Burgers That Don't Suck

Great article. I've never been tempted to make a turkey burger (tough, bland, dry), but you have tempted me!

Wouldn't all this apply to lean ground beef?

From Serious Eats: New York

How New York Gets the English Breakfast Wrong

English don't eat chips with breakfast? HA!

You don't get more British than "Little Chef", and the standard Olympic Breakfast includes chips:


From Talk

HELP! Butter free stuffing?

@queenblue how do you saute the onions and celery without fat? If you add them raw, they will not cook, if you boil them.... well, then they are boiled (yuck).

From Talk

HELP! Butter free stuffing?

I'd use turkey fat, or if you don't have it, some other poultry fat like goose fat, duck fat, or chicken fat.

If you cook the stuffing inside the turkey, it doesn't need to be very fatty since it will absorb fat and juice from the turkey, particularly the part under the neck flap.

If you are not stuffing the bird, you can cut off the extra skin, chop it up fine, saute to render the fat, and use the fat plus crisp skin in the stuffing.


From Serious Eats

Should We Keep Chocolate Milk in Schools?

I'd bad fruit juice, particularly apple juice before I'd ban chocolate milk.

S few kids won't drink plain milk, but will drink chocolate milk.

From Serious Eats

The Varying Food Preferences of Conservatives and Liberals

Most of their correlations are with income, and geographic region, not political affiliation.

pathetic article.

From Serious Eats: New York

How New York Gets the English Breakfast Wrong

Look at that pathetic giant puddle of canned Heinz baked beans.

How are we supposed to take this seriously when half of the plate are cheap sweet beans right out of the can?

Would you take an American breakfast seriously if 1/3rd of the standard plate was Skippy peanut butter?

And what's with the quality of most English sausage? Often more filler than meat. They are obsessed with only "quality" cuts, yet fill it with rusk. Give me snouts, ears and tails any day over bready filler.

And fry bread? It's plain white bread dunked in the deep fryer. Mega high calorie, and blah. More like a giant unseasoned crouton for the sea of canned beans than proper toast.

From Serious Eats: New York

Brooklyn Star Brunch: The South Has Risen Again in Williamsburg

Ed, How the heck can you review this food and not starve yourself for a week afterwords?

From Talk

Dry vs. Liquid Measures

Cups are lame and error prone.

buy a cheap scale!

Nothing to wash, and much more accurate.

From Serious Eats

Alton Brown Says No to Stuffing the Turkey

How can you compare all the delicious turkey juice and fat that mixes into the stuffing as it's slow cooked inside the turkey to some lame bread casserole?

Simple, homemade bread stuff made with homemade white bread (no crust), butter, onions, celery, salt, pepper (and a little thyme), cooked inside a big turkey is fantastically delicious! One of the tastiest things in life!

Anyway, Alton has turned into a skinny lo-carb freak. Who cares what he says about food anymore?

From Serious Eats

Is Mayo Making a Comeback?

Hellman's / Best Foods has changed in the last few years, it's now moving towards a Miracle Whip/Lite Mayo sort of flavor, more sweet and sour. Maybe people's perceptions of what Mayo is supposed to taste like has been distorted by Lite Mayos (which are all sweet)?

It's quite off-putting.

(yes, homemade is great, but has no shelf life, you going to whip up a batch to get a couple tablespoons for a BLT?)

From Serious Eats

Complimentary Korean Hotel Breakfast of Deliciousness

For Brunch after a full nights sleep, and then lazing about for a fews hours, it looks great!

But, after being jarred out of sleep by an alarm clock, feeling nauseous and tired..... I don't want food, I want a shower, and to get moving. If I have to eat early, give me strong tea (milk & sweetner) or a cola, maybe toast & eggs, or oatmeal.

Spicy or greasy food when I feel morning nauseous? NO WAY!

From Serious Eats

Video: How to Eat a Chicken Wing

It does depress me to see the waste from all the people who take a bite out of the middle, and throw away the rest. They skip the deep flavor from all the end bits. But then those are the same people who prefer boneless fried chicken, hate eating ribs unless they are overcooked "falling off the bone", and never eat all the fantastically delicious meat from a steak bone.

Same sort of people who order filet mignon steak.

From Talk

The Almighty Chicken Wing - nothing without the sauce

Good fresh wings (not the nasty frozen injected junk).

Fresh fat to fry in, peanut oil is great.

Don't overloaded fryer (otherwise they dry out from low temp frying)

Don't overfry, they should be crisp like chicken bacon on the outside, but still juicy (not greasy) on the inside.

Fry the drumettes separately from the forewing, the drumettes dry out quicker, and need a shorter cook time. The forewing has fat deposits in a thick skin that are tastier if rendered, so they need a longer cooktime.

I'm partial to seasoning them with Old Bay.

Most "wet" sauces ruin that fantastic chicken bacon crisp skin effect.

From Serious Eats

Watch It with Us: 'Top Chef Las Vegas,' Ep. 10

Yes, there was corn in the banana polenta (forgot that).

But why use butter, but no cheese, or cream, or milk, or rice, or pasta?

My guess is she is a sorta vegan (except butter), and sorta low carb (except potatoes and corn). The tempura coating might be cornstarch, which would go along with the no grains, only corn or potatoes.

From Recipes

Dinner Tonight: Easy Hot and Sour Soup

Rice vinegar to me tastes like diluted white vinegar with a splash of sake added, very different flavor profile from black vinegar, bland, kind of yeasty toasty smelling, not sour enough.

I agree industrial balsamic (the stuff you buy at the supermarket) is sort of in the same direction as black vinegar. Real balsamic is not, it's far too sweet and thick.

From Serious Eats

Watch It with Us: 'Top Chef Las Vegas,' Ep. 10

I'm confused. They said "vegetarian", but clearly there were more limits.

I would have thought vegan, but there was butter used.

I saw:
No EGGS
No CHEESE
No MILK or CREAM
No RICE
No PASTA
No WHEAT
No CORN
No GRAINS (except perhaps rice flour in tempura not served)

Huh?

I think there were a LOT more unspoken limits.

This looked like vegan + butter - grains

From Serious Eats

The Varying Food Preferences of Conservatives and Liberals

it's the domino's observation in further detail. Delivery pizza places in DC can figure our which side is working into the night on an issue by what kinds of pizzas are ordered.

From Serious Eats

Should We Keep Chocolate Milk in Schools?

the days they ran out of chocolate milk before I came through the line were the days I didn't drink any milk at school.

I did sometimes drink plain milk at home, generally with ice cubes, because really cold was the only way I could stand it. (Or, over cereal. Mom bought only unsugared things like shredded wheat & grape nuts, but we were allowed to add sugar or honey. so, yum.) the milk at school was never cold enough for me.

My weight gain didn't begin until I was nearly 20 years out of school. When I no longer habitually drink cow's milk.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

Don't forget the citrus! We have big lemon fans in my family and it's really nice after a big meal. I'm making my own meyer lemon curd this year *fingers crossed*.

From Serious Eats

Gadgets: 4-in-1 Flavor Injector by Progressive International

@peekpoke -- a baby bottle brush does the trick just perfectly. The sideways/down thing is why this isn't good for turkey, but it works well for smaller proteins like chicken breasts. Enjoy!

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

From the bizarro world of upside-down "pizza", and hot dogs topped with chopped tomatoes and pickles, now comes this. What do you call a turkey stuffed with ratburgers? Ratburgkey!

From A Hamburger Today

The Burger Lab: Turkey Burgers That Don't Suck

These food lab articles are wonderful. I can't wait to try these turkey burgers. Keep 'em coming!

From A Hamburger Today

The Burger Lab: Turkey Burgers That Don't Suck

The Burger Joint, a small new chain in the D.C. area, is featuring the Thanksgiving Burger as the burger of the month.
While their regular burgers look to be significantly better than Five Guys Burgers and Fries, this sandwich should be called something other than a burger, I think. Gravy, stuffing and cranberries do not a hamburger make.
My article here.

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

Depends on where you live? The White Castles in NYC and Long Island come with Ketchup and well as McD's & BK It's a no Mustard type of town unless you ask for it...

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

I've never been a fan of pumpkin pie, so any other alternative is a welcome treat! In my family I'd have to say Banana Cream Pie is the favorite of most of those who aren't on a diet!

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

Even canned pumpkin is not always pure pumpkin. Sometimes there's other varieties of squash in it. Just substitute your favorite squash. Delicata makes really good pie.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

this pear pie is another good option (if I do say so myself)

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

What? You mean you guys don't grow your own winter squash? :-)

(Actually, I didn't get a crop this year either. Drought.)

Isn't canned pumpkin actually cushaw squash? I think I heard that somewhere. The only difference between a "pumpkin" and a "squash" is cosmetic, anyway.

Sweet potatoes seem plentiful, and sweet potato pie seems more forgiving than pumpkin pie. They're a lot easier to peel, for starters. If you really must have a custard pie made with an orange vegetable, it seems sweet potato would be the way to go. Butternut squash is probably a runner up. Much higher flesh to seed ratio than pumpkins.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

There are other brands of canned pumpkin out there too! It's silly to think that Libby's is the one and only brand to buy. We have a regional canned pumpkin here and it is cheaper and better than Libby's. No shortage where I am either. Also, one of our grocery stores sells their own generic brand of pumpkin. Don't feel like you need to buy name brand food just because it is the most popular or most advertised (like on SE).

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

Sliders don't come with ketchup... what White Castle puts ketchup on their burgers??

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

That should have read "I was able to buy canned squash as usual"

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

My "pumpkin" pies have always been squash pies. Very similar flavor, but more delicate. I was able to buy canned pumpkin as usual, but I got it back when the shortage was first noted. Hubbard squash will make a great pie if you want to use fresh.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

Hrm, I've had no problem finding canned pumpkin, either (Southern California). I read about the shortage and saw that my local market was out one week (thus confirming the story to me), so the next time I saw some I stocked up. However, ever since then (it's been a couple of weeks now) the market hasn't run out. Either no one's buying it, or SoCal is hoarding the nation's canned pumpkin.

From Talk

Homemade "Pepperidge Farm Stuffing"?

I think pepperridge farm stuffing is weird stuff.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie, but isn't this Serious Eats? Shouldn't this article be about how to transmogrify a real honest-to-goodness pumpkin into a gourmet pie?

Oh, and also, since Canadian Thanksgiving is long past, and I've got like four cans of the stuff in the pantry that I won't need till next year. I'll ship it to whoever makes the best offer :)

Actually, it's pumpkin puree. But it's only about four common ingredients away from being pumpkin pie filling.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

Well, I love pumpkin pie, and I don't just eat it at Thanksgiving - I enjoy it all year long. But if pumpkin wasn't available - well, sweet potato pie tastes just as good, and you don't even need canned anything to make it.

And pumpkin or sweet potato pie at least have some nutritive value - not a lot, but there's some fibre and beta carotene hidden inside, as well as a whack of Vitamin A. Tarte au sucre? I'm Canadian, so it seems unpatriotic to say so, but you may as well mainline the sugar into your blood. Same thing with most pecan/shoofly/etc. pies - all sugar, no nutrition.

From Serious Eats

Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving

I, too hate pumpkin pie. Or at least the "traditional" slippery, overly spiced canned pumpkin pie with the wet crust. But give me a sweet potato pie and I'm all over it. And fresh pumpkins don't do much for me, either. The smell of the innards makes me gag. Don't tell my family but the pumpkin pies they've loved for so many years have actually been sweet potato pies (evil grin).

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

I have to say this sounds revolting on a conceptual level, but if its getting so much love there must be something redeeming here. I may have to drive down to the nearest White Castle and try it...

From A Hamburger Today

How to Make Tasty White Castle Stuffing

I've gone to two thanksgiving dinners where white castle was used to make the stuffing. Really good stuff.

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