This episode of Cooking Issues is brought to you by Bob's Red Mill, an employee-owned company that has been offering organic stone ground products for decades. Their flowers and whole grains are the highest quality and are minimally processed at their stone mill in Oregon. Visit Bob'sRedmill.com to shop their huge range of products. Use Cooking Issues 25 for 25% off your order. I'm HRN's communications director Kat Johnson with a preview of this week's episode of Meet and Three, our weekly food news roundup.
We decided it's high time we do an episode about Mary Jane. Marijuana, things are happening. That's right. This episode is about pot. We're exploring the rhetoric surrounding legalization in New York's recent gubernatorial primaries.
And a cheesemonger turned cannabis consultant shares the tricks of the trade. Great. So do you want to conquer the world? Do you want to have hazy eyes? Do you want to, you know, just relax all day and be floaty?
And we find out how one exemplary South Carolina farmer is trying his hand at a new crop. Every plant that comes up from seed is different. And so it's it's learning how the plant grows, how it responds, and then familiarizing myself and my senses with this plant. Plus, Hannah Ford and I taste test the hottest new cocktail ingredient, CBD. So subscribe to Meet and Three wherever you listen to podcasts and be the first to know when the newest episode of Meet and Three drops.
It's supposed to be noon, but it's like 12, 1215, to about, you know, 1.45, uh, 1245, 1 o'clock. Front of Earth's P3 in Bushwig Brooklyn. Joined as usual with Nastasia the Hammer Lopez, who's she has a mic malfunction here. Okay, I got it. Remember back when Janet Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction?
Yeah, and you know who's responsible for that? Me. What do you mean you? How are you responsible for that? I wrote the I was working at MTV News, and the day before I put up an article that said there's like gonna be something crazy happening on the what was it?
Super Bowl or VMAs? I can't remember. Super Bowl, I think. Yeah. Um, and then that happened the next day, and then I took down that article because they told me to, because it looked like we knew about it.
And then everyone was like, oh my god, I took down the article. And then I had to put it back up. It was a whole thing. Little did they know that they were dealing with one of the world's great conspiracy theorists, Nastasia Lopez. Nastasia has all sorts of massive magical thinking about I wish, I wish Nastasia could cause half of the harm she mentally inflicts on people.
Uh yeah, or the good. I have magical. When do you think good thoughts about people? I think good thoughts about it. What was the last good thought?
Example. Yeah. Oh. Speaking of which, that's Matt in the booth. And by the way, people, ring a ding-ding.
Matt is our permanent new engineer. Per really? Permanent. He accepted the job, huh? Yeah, and I will have you know, cooking issues listeners.
Dave, formerly Dave in the booth, saw him at existing conditions. Indeed, does not hate us, just got a different job. Awww. Yeah, got a different job. Doesn't hate Dave in the booth, not a hater.
So that's good. I like to think he's just in a different booth now. That's true. That is true. He's in a different booth hat.
I don't know whether he wants me to talk about what his new job is, but it seems pretty cool. Um I hope you enjoyed the drinks he had at uh at the bar. Uh so yeah, Matt, how was uh wait, wait, wait, finish this example of a good thought you've had about people, Nastasia. Well, I think it's more I want something and then I make it happen. So a good thought about yourself.
Yeah. When was the last time you wished something good for a human that was not yourself that didn't benefit you directly? Never. Boom. A little insight, people.
A little insight. Uh speaking of doing good for people, uh Nastasia and the Pasta Flyer crew, including my son, Booker Arnold, pasta flyer employee. Um did the Michael J. Fox uh benefit how'd that go? Good.
Have we discussed Michael J. Fox in the air before? Which D bag go well. I can't say who it is. You call them a D-bag to their face?
No, but in a roundabout way, and I regret it. Well, hook me up. It's a roundabout way of calling somebody a D bag. He was affiliated with the event. Right.
And a supporter of not Michael J. Fox, though. Supporter of the fund. And I uh like an hour into the party, I was like, man, the D baggery here is strong, huh? And he was like, I don't understand what you're talking about.
Wait, wait, so you're saying that what he had organized was real douchey, thereby calling him a douche? Yeah. And he was like, then you must think that I'm a douchebag. And you were like, no comment, yes. You're like, Oh no.
Yeah. If the vinegar and water fits, I feel fill it up. I do feel bad about that. Yeah, you sound like you feel you look like that. No, I do.
I feel like that's a good one. She has a dry smile on her face, people, so she feels real bad. I feel bad about it. So have we have we discussed Mojo Nixon and Michael J. Fox before?
I think so. On air. Probably not. I think I've discussed it with you a million times and you brought it up. But for the anyone out there knows the musician Mojo Nixon, formerly of Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper.
Their sec first or second most famous song was Elvis Is Everywhere. The theory of the song. On air? I don't think so. Anyway.
Anyway, Elvis is everywhere, Elvis is every being, Elvis is everybody, Elvis is still the king. Elvis lives inside of you and me. Basically, how the lyrics go. And the theory of it is that every one of us, everything, has Elvis in it, with the exception of the one evil anti-elvis. The anti-elvis has no Elvis in him, and then he goes, Michael J.
Fox has no Elvis in him. Nope, like that. And so I I want to know all these years later, everything Michael, because this was back in like when he was playing what's his name on what was his show where he was the uh family ties? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was back in those days.
I want to know if at long last Mojo Nixon believes that there's Elvis inside of Michael J. Fox. What do you think? Do you think there's any Elvis in him? I can see how there could be Elvis in him now.
You think there's Elvis in him? Mm-hmm. I don't think I think no one who no one who wasn't actively listening to weird alternative music in like 1990 has any idea what the hell I'm talking about right now. I mean, I don't think they're correct. I don't think Mojo Nixon ever made it beyond like hyper niche.
I own several of his albums. What about Reverend Horton Heat, Matt? You know that stuff? I am aware of Reverend Horton Heat, but no, not really. Wow.
Wow. Alright. Sorry. Alright. So any other good uh food and or drink stories, Nastasia?
No. Did we ever talk about what we did in LA? We did. We ran out of time, right? Uh we Yeah, we didn't really talk about the demos and the major domo.
Is there anything important to talk about? Major Domo was really, really good. That's the uh the Momofuku outfit out of uh out of Los Angeles there. Yeah, but did we talk about what we did? I don't even remember.
We talked about the party and the the barbecue. Yeah. Because I feel like before that we hadn't been here for a long time and we've done like lots of stuff, but I can't remember what the hell we've talked about. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Like, did we talk about did I talk about my lecture at the Harvard? No. Really? Mm-hmm. I didn't talk about meat and salt and enzymes.
I did a little bit. Anyway, whatever. Let's go to some questions. Oh, by the way, call in your questions too. 718497-2128.
That's 718497-2128. And uh I'm interested whether Mildred, remember last week? Mildred from Watervliet? Yeah. I'm interested what's going on with I w I haven't had time by the way, people, I don't know if you know this.
Like uh I'm running a bar now. So other than other than I take like one and a half days off. So I don't have as much time for cooking anymore, and I don't have time even really to cook at the bar, although we have some cool new stuff coming up. By the way, our turkey sandwich got written up in uh in the magazine the other day. You see that?
We have a good turkey sandwich. Uh I don't have as much time for cooking. It's kind of pathetic. I need the br I need to make some time to cut out to do some cooking, especially because I'm actually starting. You hear this people?
I'm actually starting. Nastasia doesn't believe it. October 2nd. I'm actually starting. 2018.
Let's remember that date. To really write the book. I'm actually starting to really write the book. Um and I'm about to order. You know how I work, Nastasia.
I'm about to order a bunch of crap so that I can I saw it. What? Was it Amazon stuff? No, not that. I oh I have a I have a bunch of secrets that I wish I could tell you about because all you guys would love it.
You guys would really love it. I have. For those of you that know me, uh, for years, what have I always wanted to have at the bar, Nastasia? Uh I don't know. Come on.
Well, something that I've never been able to really do at the bar that I've always wanted to do. Oh, pinata? Yeah. Yes, pinata. So you told me about this.
Yeah, but you, not anyone out there. So I have figured out, I think, people, I think I have figured out a set. So the have I talked about this on air at all? Probably. I can't remember.
What's the problem with pinatas in a bar? Dangerous. Why? Your mic isn't working then. Oh no.
Okay, now we can hear you. What? I'm good. Um hey, you got not one, but two callers on the line. Alright, alright.
So if anyone cares about pinatas, we can talk about it later. Yeah, bring it back. Caller, you're on the air. Hello. Caller?
Alright, were we waiting for the caller to come on? Yeah. While we're waiting for the color, pinata. The dangerous part about a pinata is what? Could hurt somebody.
Because? Because of bat. And if you're gonna have guess it's not even even if they weren't drunk, right? It's not a good idea to swing a bat around inside. Yeah.
Especially because at our bars, we are known to have bats around because all of our employees signed a bat anyway, right? So that there's a couple of problems. First of all, you can't let someone swing anything inside. Second of all, a drunk person swinging something inside. So what's the solution?
You want me to say it? No, no, no. Mentally, what do you already know the answer? So, people out there, I have the solution. I own the solution.
I own nine-tenths of the parts for a solution. By next week, this time. How much are you gonna charge for it? That's a good question. So, like, it's an amazing, first of all, I have not.
Don Lee, my partner, is gonna hate this freaking idea. He doesn't even know. No! No, of course he doesn't know. I have to finish it and demonstrate it because he's gonna say no out of hand.
If I just tell him what I'm gonna do. Are you gonna fill it with candy or with little alcoholic bottles? Not with little alcoholic bottles. You can't have any first of all, you can't give alcohol away like that and have people running around with alcohol. Secondly, you can't uh, you know, you don't want little like you know objects like little bottles flying around.
Uh you can get plastic minis, but plastic minis can still break, and plastic minis hurt when they hit you. You ever been hit by a plastic mini? I mean, I know you've hit people with plastic minis before. Nastasia, well-known fact, about eight years ago, threw a beer can across a bar at someone and hit him square. You know that point in the back where when like someone's running a zombie is running away from you in a video game and you hit them and the arms just fly out like in in Jesus pose, and then they just like fall over flat like a board or crumple down.
Nastasia did that with a big old tall boy of marragansett at a bar about eight years ago. And I was like, wow, you are one crazy person, Nastasia. You are just loony boons. So I think that's a perfect place. I believe I have the caller back.
Alright, cool, cool. Caller, you're on the air. Hello, oh Dave. Hello in a second. Hey, how are you doing?
I'm doing great. Hope you're doing great too. Yeah. I have a chemistry question. Oh, good.
I'm entering a chili cook-up. There's a prize for most innovative. I'd like to make crystal chili. Clear chili. Clear chili chili.
Is there a chemical way to remove the color from a broth? So it becomes like totally clear, like crystal Pepsi. Like crystal Pepsi. Well, how are you gonna make the meat clear? Um, so what I've done so far, I've done a couple experiments.
Um I've managed to do pretty good by making it chili, straining it, um, using agar clarification to make it fairly transparent, and then gelling that uh into agar meat cubes. Um I don't know about agar beat tubes, like nothing solid is getting further than strain. Right. So it's just like chili juice. So this is more like a chili-flavored consume, is what you're saying.
There's not it's not gonna be chunky like a chili. Correct. Unless I chop up the jelly part of it and make it into like a mask band. Right. If you want to go really gross, by the way, you can bleach all of the color out of uh meat with a strong basic solution, like the way they do for loot fisk, and you can fundamentally make it transparent.
I think it'll probably taste even after you leach the bleach bat, uh the uh sorry, base I say bleach, I meant base, uh like basic, like a basic solution like sodium hydroxide. I think they use potassium hydroxide though, but um you can uh use a uh a base to wipe out the proteins, leach out all of the uh color. You want to look at a procedure called clearing and staining, which is fairly similar, like I say, to a technique used for curing loot fisk, but the the problem is is that I think it's gonna taste like garbage if you do that. That's horrible. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, imagine a lootfisk chili. Now, there's some Scandinavian person out there saying Lutfisk chili sounds good. I mean, like there's someone out there who's like uh thinking that, but in my mind, no. Uh, but I get what you're saying. Um flavors are just associated inherently with colors.
Any volatile, uh any volatiles, right, aromas, uh, can be separated from their colors, right? So, because you could distill it. So you could theoretically do a um, I mean, I don't know what access equipment you have, but you could theoretically do a distillation and get a lot of the aromas of a chili and then form those back into a consumme, and if you did it all in a sealed system, you might be able to kind of seal the flavor in a little bit because aromas tend to be very fugitive in it. You would make a fluid gel, like probably like a you'd make a gel an fluid gel, and then you would uh you know do a distillation, recapture into the gel-m fluid gel, suspend it. Do it, you'd have to add back acidity, which doesn't distill, you'd have to add back sugar, which doesn't distill, you'd have to add back salt, which doesn't distill, and there are probably various non-volatile uh things that are in there.
I think you're gonna have a tough time getting rid of all of the color because you could, for instance, charcoal filter some of the color, but um the problem is is that those um that will also strip a lot of the volatiles, right? So you use uh charcoal filtration, activated charcoal. By the way, not all charcoal is the same. There is you can go down like a like a many, many, many, many, many hours, days, weeks long rabbit hole in different styles of activated charcoal and how they work and pore size and et cetera, et cetera. But any one of those technologies isn't just going to strip color, although by the way, it will strip color.
Uh it will strip uh aromas and volatiles as well you could go for a uh I'm trying to think here you could like distillation would be a way to go the flavors are always going to be in inherently lighter but they would definitely be there um you know like those brown characteristics just aren't gonna I mean like you can get a very light straw color so for instance if you do a if you do a meat stock and you don't brown the meat beforehand right then you're going to get a uh a a almost clear kind of consume and then you could add your you know whatever your cumin your coriander your capsaicin all that stuff can be added with little to no color um you know mmm cumin is actually that true cumin's gonna make it go brown but the vol the the the brownness isn't important to the flavor of the of the cumin so you could almost like you could do uh you could make a cumin tincture like a very strong cumin tincture and you could probably strip out a lot of the color from that with uh charcoal and still get a fairly heavy cumin note back back slop that into your consumme to get your cumin without getting a lot of the of the color onion you can clearly get in without a lot of color right garlic you can get in without a lot of color obviously capsaicin you can get in without a lot of color uh so you're left with the meat I would do a very blonde um I would do a very blonde um stock and you'll you could probably get a good straw color, and if you add enough of it, you could probably get a heavy meat taste, but it's still never gonna have that brown, that brown, brown, brown taste. I wonder, I mean, those brown colors are, again, I don't know how much work you're really need to go through. Those brown colors are fairly um water-soluble. They're very water-soluble. Like all those Myard products are that I know I know of are extremely water soluble.
Um I don't know, but the thing is I think like I think probably the aromas and everything are gonna leach out at the same rate. Ha! How about this? What if you did a like an enflourage, like a fat was? So you did you got like like 83 million pounds of uh you know meat, and then you did like a um the thing is I don't know if that stuff fat washes.
A lot of that stuff's water soluble. I was wondering whether you could do almost like a fat wash and then enflourage the fat wash and get the and get the aroma back off into like an alcohol, dope that back in to a blonde stock to try to get your meat plus your plus your cook. But I just I mean, having had fat that's been in Oh, like enflourage, so they used to do they would take like uh things that were fragile, let's like you know, uh rose petals or whatnot, you'd embed that into fat uh in very, very thin surface area, you know, a large surface area, so like a thin layer, and then the um the aromas that were kind of lipophilic would trans would transfer over to the fat. Uh you then throw away the the petals, now you have only those kind of lipophilic uh flavors in there. Then you you can wash uh high-proof ethanol over that, that'll leach the flavors back out of the fat without leaching the fat out, and you have now, you know, a perfume of rose or or whatnot.
Um but I don't think that's gonna work here because I mean, think about it, like most of these flavors are that you're looking for here. I mean, there are fat-based flavors, but a lot of these flavors are kind of water soluble flavors this is why like if you take uh and you you even if you have let's say a a confit or a riette you know the flat the fat is flavorful that you render back off of that but it's not like you can substitute that for meat you know what I'm saying um I mean obviously flavor houses know how to do this crap but typically when they're doing this stuff they also dope back in care like literally caramel color because 999 people want it brown you know what I mean yeah exactly um I mean I think the best you're gonna be able to do unless you have access to distillation if you have access to distillation rig this problem is is relatively solved but if you don't have access to a distillation rig yeah because you have the tomato too what are we gonna do with the tomato paste I have distilled tomato well we got some tomato water yeah but that's not clear tomato water is tomato well here but you also if you want tomato water to taste more like tomato paste you have to really boil it down. Tomato like like I mean I don't know um usually when I'm do I don't know how you do your chili like I'm usually like the the like a small amount of stock and paste together. You know what I mean? Because I like a thick chili.
But um I mean tomato water still so if you're okay with the color of tomato water I would say just try to do a relatively blonde stock. You know what I'm saying? And then reduce your like reduce the hell out of your tomato water to boost your umami because you're gonna need it. And then if you want to try if your cumin is getting too brown, do you know them did you know Nastasia Lopez makes chili without cumin? Or is that Piper?
No. That was Piper? No, that was me. You so is that as someone who's gonna enter a chili cook-off, is that chili or is that a tomato beef stew? You know, I'm not gonna put myself up as a chili expert here.
I'm trying to create this abomination. I don't have any like to stand on. Well, listen, don't you leave out the cumin because then you're as like, you know, even lower quality individual than Nastasia Lopez. And by the way, that's very difficult to do. Well, my first attempt was boiling dried peppers in bean water.
So nowhere to go with a butt up. Oh, bean boiling bean water. You had me at bean water. That's like a it's like uh, I mean, I know everyone uses it. You gotta use one of the more like uh I know it's chickpeas and not beans, but like that's why the person wasn't like, have you ever used have you ever used bean water to make cocktails?
They always say aquafaba because it sounds so much better than bean water. Do you know what I've never used? Aquafaba. I know everyone's gonna get mad. Remember back like two years ago, Nastasia?
Everyone was asking us, have we worked with aquafaba? Remember that? Yeah. It was like every week we would have an aquafaba question. Yeah, that's so weird.
And then I'm so lazy that even at the time I had the time, for some reason I was resistant to the aquafaba. I'm still somewhat resistant to the aquafaba. What about you, Nastasia? Yeah, no. I didn't we open it or something.
I mean, we I've opened how many cans of chickpeas have opened in my life? A billion million? A million billion millions? This is like the one time where mainstream culture has sort of like overlapped in its interests with you, and you've decided like, ah, screw that. I don't want anything to do with it.
Like they're this is like the closest people are getting to being as nerdy about food as you are normally. And you were just like, no dice, I'm not interested. I know, isn't that crazy? What? It I look, here's an insight into me.
Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, but like the thing is is that I can be interested in almost anything for a short period of time. It's one of my actually greatest downfalls, because I'll go into a hole on the internet. Nastasia's seen me do it.
She's like, shouldn't you be, shouldn't you be making it? And by the way, should be, shouldn't I be writing my book? When you guys hear about the next food product I'm working on at the bar, not just the pinatas, but the next food product I'm working on. Oh my god, people are gonna lose their minds. True or false, Nastasia.
Right. If I ever get it done. I've done this is the inside out. What? The inside out.
Reverse fried. No, Jesus, that? That's not safe for work. No, I'm talking about the uh no, you know, we can't talk about it. What?
The one I used to talk about, reverse sear? No. No, that's not safe. Can't talk about that. By the way, I told, I told last week a story on the air here about what Nastasia's mom thought happened in You should just say it.
I someone asked me at the bar. So if you want to know, you have to approach me at the bar and ask me, I'll tell you. You ready for caller two? Caller, yes, yes. Let me know how the chili works out.
Will do. Thank you very much. Michael. We now bring you our Bob's Red Mill Food Fact of the Week. Baking soda is primarily used in cooking as a leavening agent.
But also, it's basic. So what that means is that it reacts with acids and then forms gas for leavening. But beyond its technical use just as a leavening agent, if you omit baking soda in recipes that contain a lot of acid, you'll notice that as they cook, this is pancakes, especially like buttermilk or biscuits, if they contain buttermilk. Basically anything that has buttermilk. Even if it doesn't have buttermilk, if it just has milk, if it's on the acidic side, the crust is going to be very blonde because having a slight basicity to your uh to your dough or whatever you're cooking off is gonna cause it to brown a lot faster.
So adding baking soda is a leavening, right, in conjunction with acid, but not neutralizing the acid in these recipes is gonna lead to a kind of sallow looking, not as pleasant crust. So if you find that your pancakes aren't browning properly or that they don't look right, you know, add a little bit uh of baking soda. Now, if you add too much baking soda, it takes on that soapy taste that Nastasia hates. Nastasia hates the soapy taste of baking soda. Uh, but anyway, there you go, food fact.
Thanks to Bob's Red Mill for supporting cooking issues. Visit Bob's Redmill.com to shop their huge range of products. Use cooking issues 25 for 25% off your order. That's cooking issues 25, no spaces, 25's a number. Hey, caller, you're out of the air.
Hey Dave, Kyle from Baltimore. Whoa, Kyle, you cut out. Kyle from Baltimore? Yeah, Kyle from Baltimore. Nice.
How's it going? Not too bad. You guys. All right. All right.
Um, my question is uh I'm getting married next August, and I kinda need to fill out a wedding registry. Um I have an immersion circulator. Wait, how old are you, first of all? Oh, 26. Nice, all right.
Yeah. Uh for uh nostalgia's demographic there. Yeah, yeah. My fiance does not like me spending a lot of money on kitchen equipment. Nastasia's giving her a knew it face.
I tried convincing her um not to get the food saver um vacuum sealer and to get the vacmaster, but that didn't play. Really? But how much is I look again? Vacmaster is one of those things. If anyone out there ever wants me to say something nice about the Vacmaster, send us one for even three weeks.
We'll send it back to you. I'll test it and let people know. I've never used the Vacmaster, but go ahead. How much is the Vacmaster? How much is it?
It's like a $700 um oil pump chamber. Oh wait, Vacmaster makes an oil one now? Yeah, it's like $40 more than the uh piston. Oh. Well that sounds like a good deal.
I wouldn't mind trying it to see what's going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Um, so I make her back seal everything with the food saver now just so she realizes how difficult it is. Let me tell you something.
This is not a good way to start your marriage. I think Nastasia might have life advice for you. Never mind cooking it. Did you read my lips? Well, Nastasia, oh man.
I don't know. I I wasn't looking. I was I was actually concentrating on what you're saying. I can't say it. It's too funny and too mean.
I was like, my point is is that like while I genuinely appreciate you punishing your fiance for uh, you know, her forcing you into a substandard choice of vacuum technologies, it it uh you you're only gonna get more resentful of things over time. You know what I mean? Like Nastasia back me up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh sure.
All in fun, half in jest, whole in earnest, as I used to say. Uh all right, so so go ahead. So um uh like I said, I have an immersion circulator right now. Um we do a lot of low-temps cooking. Uh we have an electric range because we live in an apartment presently, and it has no heat output whatsoever.
So searing is an issue. When you say electric, you mean the old style resistance one with the coil? Oh, even worse, yeah, with a glass top over the Oh Garbage! Garbage. Yeah.
Don't you wish you could take whoever invented that thing out behind the woodshed and just beat them senseless? Uh yeah, it's it's awful. It's nice to clean, and that's where the good things to say end. You know why it's nice to clean too? You never use it.
Boom! Cause it sucks so hard. Like it's easy to keep something clean that's impossible to use. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
I mean, presently my my uh ANOVA container goes on top of it, and then uh I usually sear in the boiler. All right. So it it gets used. How how many uh so the broiler on the uh electric I mean electric ovens can be good for baking and the broiler is decent? Uh no.
It's usable. All right. And uh is do you have do you have adequate ventilation in your kitchen? No. No.
We we uh put a fan in the door and uh the dog's my fiance get smoked out every time. Hmm. Let me ask you a separate question. How long do you plan on living in this place? Two more months.
Okay, so I've I've already looked for a a place with a nice gas stove and good ventilation, and I I think we're settling on a place. So the other the other, by the way, the other choice is in I don't know how uh power in apartments in Baltimore is in New York, old apartment buildings power is very sparse. So uh but if you're in a place with electric, for instance, I mean I don't know, it depends on how long you're gonna be there. Electric stove places typically have 220 in them. So you could throw, if you know, if you had the money, like let's say you were gonna let's say you were gonna take a place that was 400 or 300 cheaper a month, right?
Well, within four or five months, you could have bought yourself a really nice induction uh range, and induction is nice, especially you know, uh when it's like hot in the summertime, having like an induction range is nice. It does require, but you're getting married, so it does require having pants that are induction friendly. But I even during the summertime, a lot of times, I mean, I have a range that you know, I I could light fire to the moon with my range, and um, you know, because it puts out so much heat, but still in the summertime, I'll use my induction from time to time. I have like a super high quality, you know, one of the poly science uh brevel induction things, but I also have cheaper ones, and you know, I'll use a couple from time to time. So, I mean, I'm a big fan of induction in new build outs.
But anyway, so go ahead, register. Yeah. So that's actually um part of the question because I was looking at like the sort of fifty dollar Chinese induction burners, as well as the um the control freak that is by Breble. Right. Um kind of as a replacement for you know, my substantial uh electric clip top there.
Um I was wondering, I guess if the I mean the price difference is dramatic between the two there, and I was wondering if the like sort of fifty dollar ones were any good or if I should look to go with the high end. So I have uh at the bar, we just received one called uh Heston. I haven't played a lot with it yet. I don't know the price point on that one. Uh, but it seemed it's another one of those controllable ones, but it talks to the pot.
And I haven't used the pot that it talks to. I've just been using it as a as a hob. Uh I'll use the British term there, hob, which doesn't make any sense to me. Um I have the control freak is is is great. I love it.
Everyone who has one that I know of loves it. I've never heard of one uh crapping out. I need to clean mine a little bit, the sensor. It's a little bit off now when I'm running it off of the um off of the the you know, the push button sensor on the top. The um I mean the really nice thing about it is you can do so like when I'm the on the on the expensive one on the control freak, I, you know, when I'm reheating, I'm never worried about scorching.
You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, like I'll take uh I'll I could take anything, and as long as I have enough time, I can throw it in there and I can have it reheat at, you know, at a temperature that's gonna heat it through fast enough but never scorch. So you're never gonna how many times in your life have you had like a layer of burnt like the collar before? Let's say you're doing chili, how many times have you had some scorched chili on the bottom? A lot.
You know, I've told this story many times on the air that in my stepfather's family, the worst offense that you could commit is not murder, it's not adultery, it is burning the uh it's burning the gravy as they call it, which is spaghetti sauce in in in uh, you know, in in Boston parlance. So it's like, you know, if you burn if you if you cheat on your spouse, that's like a ten-year problem, you know, of getting getting past it. If you if you burn the gravy, well, I mean, we're still talking about it like 30, 40 years later in the family. You know what I mean? And so uh if you've ever burned anything like that, uh that won't happen on the uh on the control freak ever, which is kind of a miracle when you think about it.
You know what I mean? Or just for like hot holding stuff and not having to worry about it. Uh pressure cooking, I use it for um, you know, it's even you know pretty decent at the higher temperatures uh on frying. So I love it. I've also used the cheap ones, and you know, they are just as powerful as the control freak because there's a maximum amount of energy you can suck out of the wall.
Some of the cheaper ones, the problem with the cheaper induction burners, and it's not like the control freak is dead silent, but though if you've never used a lot of induction burners before, um the way induction burners work is is they they create an like an alternating uh an alternating field that then causes a current flow inside of your of your pan. Now that there's there's two there's two things that are happening, right? You can theoretically, if you have enough power with an induction unit, you could heat up something that's non-magnetic like aluminum. You're doing something with called I square R losses, the actual resistance of the pan. Yeah.
Typically, that's not how you're heating things, induction on a stove. You're using what's called the hysteresis loss of um of putting the current through something that is ferromagnetic, which is why typically you're only heating things that um you know have uh steel or something in them that is, you know, that works well with induction, which is why you need induction friendly pans. Commercially, industrially, you can melt any any conductive thing, including aluminum with uh with induction furnaces, but it's not the same kind of style. So, in order to get the right uh frequency to make the pan heat up actively, they you can hear it hunt. So it's like you hear this.
I hate that sound. Yeah, it also hurt my throat. You hear that with induction. So yeah, I understand the induction uh pretty well. Yeah.
So, but I mean hopefully what I said is accurate then. Uh but um but you know what I'm saying. I don't I I I think that the cheaper ones do more of a of a of a hunt, and so they sound worse. I don't know whether it's just that they that the electronics are worse in them, and so that they, you know, they they have more kind of overtones that you can hear. Uh I hate a squealing induction unit.
Hate it. You know what I mean? And sometimes the uh sometimes the um the the control freak will squeal, but not nearly as much as the I've never used a $30 IKEA one. But for $30, I mean, if you use it, what the hell? You know what I mean?
I have uh a relatively recent $120 one, uh, a Burton, I think, that seems to work pretty well. I've had bad luck with the circa six years ago $80 ones. So it used to be for catering events, like, you know, right remember when we got the lab nostasi, we got some of those cheap catering ones, and the cheap catering ones um were woefully uh the circuitry in them was like was like uh the heat sinks were no good. And so like halfway through a cook, they'd be like, I'm not gonna cook anymore, and they would just shut off. And then you're like, but I wasn't done cooking, and they're like, oh yes, you are, and they just wouldn't come back on again.
But I've not had that happen with any of the more modern ones because the the sad fact is is that once one factory in, you know, wherever they're made, I'm gonna say Shenzhen because a lot of that stuff's made there. Once one factory figures out the electronics since they don't break anymore, then everybody knows how to do it you know what I mean um so there's that so I've never had any ex much experience with the mid-range ones like the two three hundred dollar range but I've used the 150 dollar ones and they're fine for what they are and I've used the $1500 ones and they're great for what they are that's not very helpful as well yeah what else you registering for uh I think that kind of covers my question about the induction burner yeah what else you registered for you gonna register for a blender or do you already own it what's that are you are you registering for a blender or do you already own it? Oh no I've got like a $400 Vitamix on there. It sounds like your fiance is fairly forgiving if you already have the the Vitamix. You know what I'm saying?
No no no it's on my registry. Oh yeah I mean um I'm in culinary school right now so she kind of has to you know let me do a little bit. Yeah yeah I'm familiar with that Nastasi's like uh I'm familiar with that problem hey hey honey it's my job I have to do it I don't know well it's even worse I'm I'm in culinary school just for fun kind of I'm a software engineer oh yeah so this is but she she reaps all the benefits she gets all of the baked goods all the bread all the you know the quality dishes who cleans I do who cleans the kitchen afterwards oh I do I clean as I go oh so I don't know Nastasia Nastasia doesn't believe you she has an idea no no no I you are you are my perfect beta male wow wow the Stasia has a new theory of the beta male. What why is why is he a beta male? Because he cleans the kitchen after he cooks?
He cleans he works neat, he's in culinary school. Nastasia is just an unforgiving person. Yeah. She's rough. I mean, I'm a very clean individual regardless, so man.
Nastasia is so rough. Alright. But um, I guess the follow-up with the burner was uh Kenji always suggests getting just like a skillet, a saucepan, and not buying the whole set. But should I put a whole set of like uh all clad pans on there? Or let me put it this way.
Uh have you ever been like, holy crap, I need another pot because I'm cooking two sauces at once? That's fair. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, if you're cooking for one and you're doing like dump meals or like you know, Rachel Ray 30 second, you know, uh dinner parties, whatever the hell they're called, great. But you know, if you've ever been like, I wish I had more burners because six isn't enough for what I'm doing, then guess what?
You need at least a vessel for every burner. Okay. You know what I mean? So, like, yeah, you know, how many times have you been like, I'm gonna sweat down the onions in this one stock pot, then I because I'm gonna make something there. I have another one boiling because I'm cooking uh I'm parboiling veg, or I'm you know, I'm cooking potatoes off or something else.
I have another one that I'm doing uh a saute in for a third thing, and I'm also busting out the apps at the same time this stuff is going. Well, do you have enough for that? Uh also there's oh hey, guess what? Sauce pots come in different sizes. Sometimes I'm making a small quantity of sauce and putting it into a big one's gonna cause too much freaking evaporation, and I'm a moron if I don't have both sizes.
Or, whoa, I'm doing like I'm doing two containers of Brussels sprouts. So am I gonna take my big stock pot out to boil water for my two lousy containers of Brussels sprouts? Am I gonna crowd it into my tiny saucepan? Or am I gonna suck it up and do my mid-sized saucepan, put enough exactly enough water in for the two things of Brussels sprouts, bang it out and be done with it. So I mean, like for me, if you're gonna be a serious individual, sure, start with wherever you want.
You need a decent mid-size fry pan. You need a big ass one for when you're doing something like a like a larger braise on stove pot and you want to brown a lot of stuff at once and have it going, or for God, you know, if God forbid you want to do something like a paill or some crap in it. But I use that stuff all the time. Like let's say let's say you're doing cheap food, like let's say you're just busting out an old school like beans and escarol, right? Are you gonna do a beans and escarole thing in a stock pot?
No, that's dumb. You would never do it in a stock pot. Can you do it in a small fry pan? No. Sucker's not big enough to put the escarole in before it wilts.
What are you gonna pre-wilt it all in a freaking stock pot and then put it back in the? No. You want like a big enough uh pan to put it in and then cover it, let it wilt down, and sure it's gonna melt down, right? You need at least two saucepans, right? You need a decent tall, heavy bottom stock pot that can brown things, right?
And then you need a cheap stock pot just for boiling water, like bare minimum. Bare minimum. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
Um before I give Nastasia an aneurysm here, what's kind of your uh can't live without kitchen gadget that you would put on there? Dishwasher. Spinzole. That comes with the apartment. Oh, dishwasher comes with the apartment.
I mean, what do I use all the time? I'm I guess you're asking for something I use that is not standard. Uh see, I use my food processor all the time. I'm just looking at my kitchen. I use my blender all the time.
Yeah, I have a uh Kitchen art uh cuisine art rather uh like hundred and twenty dollar food processor. Works. I wouldn't I that's what I use. Uh so I have the Queens Art, I'm just looking at my kitchen. I have the Cuisinart, I have the Vitaprep.
Uh I've loaned out my Nix Tomatic to the museum and my wet grinder. I like them, not essentials, right? Uh I have uh hard to uh to justify. Right. I have two I have two varieties of scales for weighing two different sizes of thing.
A decent set of um airtight uh vessels for holding things like flour and rice. Gotta go airtight so that bugs don't get into them. Um a bunch of pick three to four sizes of stacking, stacking, stacking stainless steel bowls and do not stack the same size uh different sizes on top of each other ever. Uh a whole I use more quart containers. I have quart containers and pint containers in huge stacks and I use them constantly as though I was in a regular kitchen at home.
Uh commercial size of plastic like Cambros? The the little quart containers, like delis, like what you would get soup in at a Chinese restaurant. Uh commercial size of plastic wrap. Uh and then yeah, knives, moco jete and an espresso maker. Oh espresso is the only one I guess uh I don't really have.
Do you like espresso? I love it. Um I showed my fiance the price of a machine. Even though she loves it, she was not about that. Are you handy?
Yeah, yeah. Didn't it? I mean, it used to be you could buy an old commercial machine at auction or on eBay, and let me tell you something about espresso machines. Is there's uh uh I just fixed my espresso machine. Have I talked about this, Nastasia?
No. Nastasia hates me to talk about it. But like I had one, I had one I bought for it's uh like a several thousand dollar machine. I bought it for two or three hundred dollars on eBay. It was broken.
I disassembled it, reassembled it. It just broke um after 15 years of daily use, it broke a couple of weeks ago, and you know, again, I took it apart and the heating element had finally gone bad on me. So I replaced the heating element for $135. So hopefully I'm gonna be good for another, you know, 15 years on it. Um new espresso machines, like I love them.
Like I had the breva one, although it's partially broken now, I need to get it fixed. New machines are like new cars. You keep when you open them up, they're they've been designed on a computer, everything's routed very tightly, it's hard to get to everything. They're a real pain in the butt to work on. The old school espresso machines are a lot like old cars, right?
The panels bolt on in a way that they can be unbolted and rebolted back on. You can see all the parts. It's like I remember once uh I was given a uh 1967 uh Plymouth Valiant, and I remember opening the hood of it and being like, oh my god, air in gas in, you know, exhaust out and power. I was like, I can understand everything on this car, and that's pretty much the way old school commercial espresso machines work. You can fix anything on them.
Uh now, if a couple of things are broken, you know, the cost can go up. So if you know your heating element's broken, you're out, you know, a hundred bucks or so, and if your solenoids start breaking on you, but you can pretty much fix them. Um, and you can get a lot of the parts. So if you like tinkering and you don't mind dealing with someone who hasn't taken care of it, meaning you have to like completely disassemble, descale, and boil all your parts. You can totally fix an old commercial espresso machine.
And um, the one groups are are 120 typically. They're 20 20 amp dedicated 120s, so they can fit into normal kitchens. You do need to plumb it, which is uh another thing you need to kind of be careful about. So typically you keep them close to the sink because they need to be plumbed, and you're gonna keep your pump underneath the sink right by your water filter, and then you have to drill a hole in your counter or route it in some way behind it so that you have uh you know a quarter inch uh pressure hose coming up to the machine, but it's not that big a deal. Well, it might be an issue right now with the apartment, but maybe I guess long term with the house.
Yeah, two months, two months. You're only there two months. Oh yeah, moving to another apartment though. Yeah, all right. Well, okay.
You do what you can. But all right, uh, I think that covers everything. Uh thanks. All right, good luck with uh good luck with the marriage. Yeah, I'll let you know how it goes.
All right, cool. Uh so we're gonna wait. Are we done? We're done or we're gonna take a break. We're done.
Don't we have to take a break? We'll be the done-ness. Yeah, Nastasia, you're so mean for no reason. So we help somebody with his wedding registry. All right, all right, all right.
So uh I still haven't gotten to uh Austin's uh still haven't gotten to Austin's question on the uh Pearl Diver. We'll do that next week on cooking issues. Thanks for listening to Heritage Radio Network. Food radio supported by you. For our freshest content and to hear about exclusive events, subscribe to our newsletter.
Enter your email at the bottom of our website, heritageradio network.org. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Heritage Underscore Radio. Heritage Radio Network is a nonprofit organization driving conversations to make the world a better, fairer, more delicious place. And we couldn't do it without support from listeners like you. Want to be a part of the food world's most innovative community?
Rate the shows you like, tell your friends, and please join our community by becoming a member. Just click on the beating heart at the top right of our homepage. Thanks for listening.
Timestamps may be off due to dynamic ad insertion.