Hello and welcome to Cooking Issues. This is Dave Arnold, your host of Cooking Issues coming to you alive on a newsfamera Rockefeller Center. Join as usual with Nastasia. Oh, the hammer Lopez. How are you doing, Nastasia?
Good. Good. You're good? Yeah. Are you are you alive?
I can look at you. I see you. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Nastasia, I don't think wants to talk about it, but she's had a uh It's still going.
I mean, it's in pieces. Having a banner week. I would say a banner week. Actually, well, we'll talk out. You and I will talk after.
Oh, there's the actual good news? I think it's good. It's work for you. It's the thing that I've been like, maybe you're gonna have to do work. But people will be excited.
Isn't that fantastic? Yeah. Uh joined as usual also with uh John. How you doing, John? I'm doing great.
Uh we got Joe Hazen. How you doing? Hey, how are you? Doing well. Anything good happened this week, Joe?
What's going on here? Uh well, studio's finally hitting its its peak, so I'm happy. And last but of course not least, back from Mexico, Jackie Molecules. Hey Jack. Hola.
Uh Aaron Polski's here, so not here. Well, no. Not here. In Manhattan or somewhere. Not in the studio.
He's afraid to come in because that have to be. Um, think about it. Merlot. Yeah, no, I I I know. I know what it means.
Well, then why do you say what does it mean? Oh, the answer is no. All right. For those of you that I don't know, for some reason are still listening, if it's the first episode you've ever listened to, which I can't imagine. Uh it's Nastasia, Nastasi and I have a dream of getting Aaron Polski, who used to run our favorite drug front bar in Los Angeles, uh, to wrestle in a jello, uh a jello wrestling match with Jackie Molecules in jello made of Merlot, cheap Merlot, specifically if we can get it yellowtail merlot wine because of a smackdown argument during COVID that Aaron and Jackie Molecules had regarding uh whether or not in the age of COVID, bringing the yellowtail Merlot to the first date was a no-go for future.
That was the that was the discussion, right? Yeah, and we were like just to be clear, yeah. I I was not bringing this wine. This is the date who brought the the bad wine. See how far Corey still is on it?
He's like, whoa, whoa, in case you ever meet me and I'm invited out, I'm not bringing the yellowtail. That's what you're saying. But you know, uh Nastasi and I just believed that the most honorable thing for you guys to do would just be to wrestle it out. I mean, right now the rink is under renovation, so we could use it. Imagine Joe, do you think we could do it in the Rock Center rink?
I have no idea. That's above my pay grade there. Would you do it if it was in the Rock Center rink? I mean, that seems like to be the ideal place. What if I can like what if what if I can be in like a lucha mask, you know, like uh that's totally fine.
That's fine. We were gonna have Claire Garden. Yeah, we might be I mean, if you're okay with the appropriation, it's fine with me. Oh wow. We need some kind of we need some kind of measurable goal for Patreon subscribers.
Ooh, okay. I like that, yes. Okay, you know, what do you want it to be? There has to be a what do you want it to be, and I'll lower it by half. What do you want it to be?
What do you like to be how lower by half? No. A million. I'll tell you. Come on.
That would pull our bits. I'll have to look, I'll have to look at the numbers. What are we at right now? How many people do we have right now? He's not gonna, he's not gonna he's not gonna commit right now.
Uh he's not gonna commit. Uh anyway, all right. Any of you guys uh do any good uh any good cooking over the uh last week? Eating, not cooking. But uh Mexico City is pretty damn good.
But by the way, if you are listening live, call in your questions to 917-410-1507. That's 917-410-1507. Uh oh, and there we have a caller. So, John, we'll get back to what you were cooking and what Jack was eating later. Yeah, caller, you're on the air.
Hey yeah, hey, this is Dave. Yeah, how you doing? Hey, good, man. How are you? All right, all right.
Good, good. Hey, this is Jud over here in Kentucky. Wow. And uh where in Kentucky, you gotta Oh, you know our bowling green, bowling green area. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you eat you eat you eat ham? Ham, oh yeah, yeah. Shoulder, shoulder. You ever heard of shoulder? Yeah.
You need to you need to Oh, it's awesome. That's this Monroe County is the best place for shoulder. Vinegar sauce and all that. But let me ask you though, in terms of Kentucky country hams, do you have a favorite or do you not play favorites with Kentucky country hams? Well, I don't I'm not really.
I'm not a big huge country ham. It's too salty, some of it for me. But here's what I recommend. They they have it everywhere. Here's what I recommend.
And then I will answer your question. But I'm just saying, here's what I recommend. Get there's a bunch of great ones, obviously, in Kentucky. But uh have you tried 'em sliced thin like prosciutto, like like you eat it like prosciutto? Because it's not that salty that way with some bread, eat some bread and some ham that way, some nice uh you don't want to go too salty if you're gonna eat it with cheese.
Then that's too much salt. But have you tried have you tried it that way? Right, right. I haven't, no, no, I need to try it. You have to.
Anyway, all right. So what's your question? I'll I'll do it. Well, hey man, you got an awesome show. Um I like it.
I like you know, issues, um fixing issues and stuff, grilling and all that. But I was listening to your show the other day, the uh oh mystery of the sour patch kid uh name of the episode sounded like um and anyhow you're talking about the Kalamazoo grills, how how cool it'd be to have a have a grill that you could just dump charcoal in it and have a lighter and you know, it'd start the charcoal and and you wouldn't have to mess around with it. Mm-hmm. Um hey man, I've I've got that grill. I just thought I was gonna let you know, talk to you about it.
We we actually uh my partner and I have a patent pending grill that actually does that. We can you can dump dry charcoal in there, no lighter fluid, no um no match even. You just push the button in two to five minutes every single time we can have charcoal. I like that ready to cook. I like that.
And uh yeah, I thought maybe you'd be interested in checking it out, man. It's the coolest grill. I mean, we we it's all stainless stainless steel. Um you can clean it out real easy. Thing it has a ton of other accessories that we got that can go on it.
Like you can it's got the big old burner in the bottom, so we've got it where you can actually sit a fryer in there and fry fish or I like that or do a low country bowl or anything. What's your uh what's your name of it's target price light right? Light right. Like wait, what's it called? Light well I light?
Light right. Light right. Light right. Like light like light bright but right. Yeah, light right.
Yeah, we our slogan is don't fight it, just light right it. Yeah like I say charcoal in two to five minutes ready to cook. Actually I have a manufacturer there in uh Leola, Pennsylvania. We haven't we haven't went retail with it yet and released it, but we've got a guy that builds them there in Leola for us. So we're just starting kind of getting it started.
So yeah I'd like to uh if you want to see it sometime I'd I'd I'd love to show it to you. No you know I I love any sort of grilling equipment for sure. Well I think it's fixed a lot of raw issues. Charcoal issue that's the biggest thing I I I you have a green egg I tell you the biggest issue you know is it it has a few issues. I love a green egg but there is a few things with it that I wish it was a little different.
But chimney in there I don't I don't really like starting with the chimney. Yeah well the other thing about the green egg is uh uh yours is is uh it's not an insulated grill right so it's more for high heat or is it insulated like uh like it like yeah I don't I don't cook that way I don't like I don't I'm not a retained heat grilling guy or like a I'm uh I want like you know I want like a disco inferno you know what I'm saying like I've I've actually you know I've changed almost all of my recipes when I grill to be uh relatively not relative fast you know what I mean uh so I do I do almost all of my grilling such as I can grill now that I'm only living in Manhattan but uh the uh you know I I had converted all of my stuff to either like low temp and fast grill or to do almost uh tandoor in this in the sense of off on, off on. So I do almost all of my stuff. So I want like 'cause you know, uh I'm busy, man. I got kids and stuff.
What I want is I want the thing to become instantly hot as hell, and then I wanna do my work and then I wanna go inside and have have some have some uh beverages, you know? That's right, right, absolutely. So what's your what's your MSR print? That that's that that's what we ran into. It'll be around twelve hundred.
All right. So, like, you know, you know, so it's it's in the it's in the hey, I want something nice, but hey, I can't afford to spend twelve grand on my grill. It's in that range. Right. Oh yeah, it ain't no twelve grand.
No, we wanted to take an everyday grill and turn it into something that everybody could have, you know. And uh, you know, we the way it came about is I was lighting my chimney with newspaper and all that stuff trying to get it lit, and I called my friend and told him we need a burner in this chimney. And uh he said let's stick it in the grill. So we did, and we can have charcoal. That's the thing.
I come home from work and I need a grill. I want a grill, but you gotta wait and wait and wait. And yeah, I don't have that kind of time. Yeah, no nobody likes to work. That's how we came about it.
All right, well send us send us information. I'll take a look at it and try out some uh Kentucky country ham sliced thin uncooked. I think you'll enjoy it. Yeah, I will. What where do I send that to?
Uh the inform just uh send it to uh on the Patreon, I think, or John sent to uh uh info at Booker and Dacks? Yeah, yeah. Or on through Patreon. Yeah, through the Patreon messages would be great. Please.
Okay. All right. Hi man, it's been a pleasure talking to you. All right, good talking to you. I look forward to uh seeing that stuff.
I like any new grill technology. Cause you know what? Okay, man. Everybody likes to grill. I think.
Everybody does. Everybody likes everybody likes to grill. And and I'm hoping that the grill is moving away from being a gendered, a gendered implement. What do you guys think about it? Yeah, you can give that to me since you don't have uh country house.
I don't know that he's gonna give us a grill. I think he's gonna send us information. Yeah, that's what I think's gonna happen, Nastasia. But yeah. Uh and then you'll notice what?
Like leave it outside and let it rust and then be like, nah, I'm not gonna use it. Like a girl would. No, not like anastasi would. Nastasi is the only person who calls uh grown women girls in this quiz. That's not true.
And it doesn't. It's not because it's it's only for the reason that I am also a girl. Uh-huh. It's true. Uh-huh.
I never say I'm a woman. That's such a it's also an extra syllable. Maybe that's it. I was gonna say Nastasia transcends gender, but I'm a frat boy, according to Dave. My only frat boy friend.
And in general, I don't make friends with frat boys. And you know, I had to make an I'm a frat boy. Ew, really does. I have nothing against frat boys. Come on.
I mean, I just did they never liked me. The thing about frat boys is they never really liked me. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, I was that you ever go to like a uh you know how like, well at least at Yale, frat parties were in the basement, right? They're always like in the basement, and it was like at Yale, the frat most of the frat people were kind of football-y kind of people.
And so there was like the two and you know, college age. So there's the two girls who could tolerate being in that basement with all of those like dudes, and then like almost like a ring of football dudes like surrounding them, and then I'm just in the corner drinking the worst beer on earth when I have even at the time better skills and technology than you know, a frat boy, you know, basement full of like you know, a keg of knickerboard. Oh my god, I was at a frat party on Saturday night by accident. What? Yes, yes.
That shuts out. Oh my god, yeah, here in the city. Yeah. What? I know.
Okay. Dish. I went to the that subway bar that you met me at. That was not allowed to talk about it. Is it a secret?
No, it's not. All right. And then uh, and then with the two of my girlfriends, and then we went to another bar that's on it. You go through a five guys in five guys' burgers in Greenwich. Now you're upstairs.
Now you have dam damdrops going to Great Greenwich, Connecticut. No. And then uh, and then we were walking down the street, and these three guys were walking toward us, and one of one of the girls I was with said, uh, hey, where are you guys going? And they were like, We're gonna go pregame. You guys want to come?
And the other girl I was with said, Yeah. I mean, are these actual college age girls or are you people your age? They're my age. Women, grown ass women. All right.
And we go, and it is a frat party, and there's flip cup, and there's no wine. There's only what are they called? Uh beer. No, but no, the other beer is jello shots, Kool-Aid. No, the like ones everyone drinks right now.
What are they called? Oh, the white claws. Yeah, like only that. Yeah. It was and then they were like stuff makes barrels and james look good, dude.
They were like, How old are you guys? And I was like, We're 26. And they're like, well, that's old. Man. Oh, geez, Louise.
All right. Uh Joe's telling me uh that's priceless. Uh Joe's tell did you go home with anyone? Ew, no. Not tell me later.
Tell me later. Uh caller, you're on the air. Hey, um, I have a question about uh sugar syrups for cocktails in a home bar. Specifically, you know, recipes I've seen for them say, oh, you know, they're given the fridge for one to two weeks. Um, but in a home bar setting, you know, oftentimes I want to keep them longer, you know, months, etc.
And I guess my questions are twofold. One is even when I have kept them in the fridge for you know a couple months, seems like they don't grow anything or do anything that makes them look like they're gonna kill me or smell like they're gonna kill me. So is it safe? And the second thing is if there's something I could do to prolong the shelf life if the node the first one. You don't need to prolong honestly, you don't need to prolong the shelf life.
Like uh, so okay, so there's different syrups, syrups. Okay. Regular simple syrup is just water and sugar, and one-to-one ratio is gonna be in good in your fridge for a long time. A long time. Like a long time.
Yeah, it seems like I've almost never seen it grow anything. Right. Um, if it temperature cycles a lot, if it temperature cycles a lot, you can get some mold growth in it. And what will happen is is that, you know, especially like let's say you pick toilet off for a party and you leave it out overnight and then you put it back in, the mold that starts in it isn't gonna die. And so it'll eventually will grow.
And what you'll see is you'll eventually see, even in the fridge, you'll see like like almost like a wisp of like a gray cloud running through it. And because it's thick, where the mold is growing, it usually stays almost as like a almost like you drew like a smoky cloud through the syrup. And it's still ain't gonna kill you, but it's like not good. I wouldn't, I mean, I don't think that there's aflatoxin growing in it, but whatever, I wouldn't necessarily do it. You're you're gonna if if yeast starts growing in it, which it won't at those sugar levels, right?
You'll see puffing. So, like, because the yeast will make gas that'll puff it, right? So it'll puff the lid on it. Uh so if you see puffing, uh, you know, it's an issue that yeast is growing, but yeast is actually better than mold because yeast is a hundred percent pretty much safe. It's just gonna ferment it, but it's not gonna happen in what in a simple syrup like that.
And the mold, I mean, maybe it shouldn't, you shouldn't eat it with the mold on it. John's giving me the aflatoxin shake of the head over here. I I grew something black and blue on one of my simple syrups, and I just I don't know. No, don't do don't eat that. Don't eat that.
But I'm saying when it starts, but it and it generally it tastes bad at that point. So you'll notice. Like, have you ever had maple? So even maple syrup will grow mold, right? And when maple syrup grows mold, it is terrible, terrible.
Which is why you need the if you are the kind of person who doesn't use your maple syrup quickly, and this same thing goes for simple syrup, seal the bottle, put the bottle in a hot water bath, bring it up to above about 160 Fahrenheit or so around that range, and just hold it there until the entire thing is warm through. You will then wipe out all of the molds that are are there, maybe 180, I don't know, but you'll wipe out the molds. And then once it cools, you know, that's the only thing that's gonna grow in there. You're not gonna grow botulism, you're not gonna grow any of these. There are some bacteria that can survive those temperatures that theoretically could, but they're just not gonna happen.
You're gonna be fine, especially if you're in the fridge. So uh every once in a while on my large things of maple syrup, I will bottle them down into smaller bottles and pasteurize them and then you know, to kill the yeast, the molds and yeast and put them in the in the fridge, and then they're good basically for infinity. If you're using fruit-based syrups, the fruits can taste bad after a while, but that's more of a taste thing and less of a safety thing. All right. I wouldn't bother with like benzoating or any of that other nonsense because then you have to tell people you did it and bam meh, ma'am.
And some people can taste it and some people can't, and it's really just unnecessary for what? For like a for for like 80 cents worth of sugar, you're gonna go buy pans away? You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
All right, awesome. Alright, cool. Thanks a lot. All right. So, so John, you said you you said you made something good.
What'd you make? Yeah, no, so I did that um in air quotes Cape Cod style stuffed lobster. Oh, all right. So describe. Ooh.
So yeah, no, this was really good. So I made a Ritz cracker stuffing, uh lobster stock, one egg to bind, two sleeves of crackers, oh my god, it's garlic. One egg to bind. Is that your memoir? Yeah.
One egg to bind. I'm trying to figure out what it's about. It's like one egg to bind. It's almost like last week when Pierre was like, he took everything I owned. What a blessing.
Yes. Anyway, sorry, sorry. So Ritz crackers, and by the way, can you kind of interrupt you? Call for in the recipe, or this is just your favorite cracker. Favorite cracker.
Most of them are done with um like saltines. Saltines, premiums. Used to probably be with pilot crackers, which is kind of like the the last vestige of the hard tack biscuit that you could buy here in the U.S. All right, okay. So Ritz, because you like it a little more buttery.
Yeah. Ritz crackers are also just delicious. Yeah. What are your guys' thoughts on Ritz? What are you, writz people or not writz people?
No. What? I'm a Ritz cracker. Why? Stasi.
No, it's not. It again makes my teeth feel weird. Oh, you know what? Because of the well, let me ask you this. Do you like saltines?
Yeah, that's fair. Okay. So it's it's it's the it's I I kinda understand what you're saying. I kinda kind of get it. Okay, so ritz, one egg to bind.
And what else? Lobster stock, onions, garlic. Um pre-sweat or no pre-sweat on the onions. Um had to kind of like chop up the stuffing halfway through cooking because it started to brown quicker, because they're already brain. So wait, so wait, so wait, wait.
So you took the tail, you cut it, you sliced it, put the stuff in. Okay, no, no. So I did everything completely separately. So I took I took all the meat out of the lobster. Uh so I did lobster.
Dead raw or pre-steam to to kill. I started with fresh, killed it, blanched it. The knife killed it, then blanched it in shell. Yeah. Okay.
Tried to do the tie, you know, where you tie it to the nose of the tail to keep the toe. Oh my god. It's so embarrassing for them. Yeah. Well, didn't even work.
What do you mean? Why didn't it work? I they curled up. I guess I just like didn't do it firmly enough. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You have to do it. Yeah.
Yeah. Have to get really, really rigid. Because it like what happens is that if it's not tight, they have to look ridiculous or it doesn't work. Like if it's just a little bit up, they can curl as they shrink and flap underneath and then they'll curl. You gotta make it like I'm doing the uh uh Buffalo Bill pose front right now from uh from Silence of the Lambs, and it need to be like that.
Like they're they need to be like this and going like that, and then like you like then you tie it, okay. When you tie people, when you're tying a lobster up like this, which I know it's all BDSM and I have other techniques that I I do now, but I've done so many lobsters this way. Tie the tail first, tie the tail first, and then uh leave yourself um enough extra. So there's two ways to do it. Did you do a one tie or did you tie did you tie as a loop, or did you do a loop around the tail and then a loop around the the nose?
That's the easiest way to do it, instead of trying to get it to be like a cat's cradle loop around them. That's what I tried to do. It's it's easier to tie like uh tie a figure eight and then pull down and throw a half hitch over the tail than because they're gonna start flapping if they get wind of what you're doing. So you just tie it around their tail when they don't know what's happening, like around that last thing, and then up and then like pull it around the the that point on the nose like you're hitching a ship to a cleat. And then you can throw a couple half hitches over the over the nose and lift them up and man is it indignant for them.
Man they stick their claws up they're like come on man and then little do they know into the pot. Exactly they also they're more dense that way though so you need to have a uh sorry less dense that way uh in terms of pot space so you need a decent amount of pot space. No I made sure that I had that before going into it. It's also a good handle to pick them up when you're done if you do it. Yeah you see that yeah because the the the the string never has enough thermal mass to burn you.
And so as soon as you wait for the steam to flash off like you don't have to be like oh my God with the tongs and then they slip and that that that noise shib bit shib bip shib you can just kind of go in grab the string pull them on out and then just go boop right into the ice water. Yeah. All right so go ahead. So you you you you you part and you whatever we call it blanched them to kill them. All right now what?
Yeah uh took the meat out then while everything was cooling down made a sherry cream sauce so some more garlic and onions. What kind of sherry? Like what style? Something from the coast of Portugal. Um like more of a dry or more of a dry dry like little briny little bit lemony.
It was good. You know as a 70s guy I always use Harvey's Bristol cream and everything. It was good. I ended up adding some sherry vinegar too to just give it a little bit more acidity and tang. Um and then added some uh Paul Purdum seafood spice seasoning.
Oh nice up a little bit, yeah. And how was it it? It was really good. Okay, and then so once that was ready and everything was uh the lobster was cool, cut up the lobster into little pieces. And so this wasn't really stuffed because once the curl the tail curled, I was just like, whatever.
It's not gonna look good. So I just took all the meat out, took the claws off, took the meat out of the claws, cooked everything in the pan, then shrimp, scallop, crab meat, cream sauce, and then that was that. Yeah, it was super tasty. All right, all right. We may have another caller, which I appreciate.
Caller, you're on the air. Hi. Um this is this is uh Anthony from Seattle calling in. I have a question around uh making takoyaki. Okay.
Uh so I was making the takoyaki and it just wasn't coming out uh you know quite as crispy as I would have liked. I'm wondering if it might be an issue with like the burner I was using, or maybe like the the batter I'm using is no good. Uh I'm using like uh kind of like this electric heater, um, you know uh electric griddle for the takoyaki. I'm wondering maybe if I should try to go for uh uh maybe like uh like uh those uh plates that you put on the gas grills or whether maybe it's an issue for the batter. Well, so well, okay, so let's go through this.
So what shape what shape is it? Uh oh, it's uh circular, uh the plate circular. It's a circular plate and it's it's the two it's two-sided or the one-sided. Um no, it's just it's just one-sided. So it's like uh so it's like uh like a I think it's cut probably like a nonstick plate that's like attached to uh an electric heater that you just plug in.
Right. So tell me the battery. I'm gonna I'm gonna look it up because I'm getting a little tired. Tell me the battery. Uh so I was I found a recipe called uh just one cookbook uh and then you just uh add tapiaki.
And uh Right, but but they're they're typically you'd make it aren't they almost made like in an able skever pan? Like very similar, right? I'm not familiar with that, no. Uh what is that? Uh you know that you know Abel Skever or Skyver, they're it's they it's the the Scandinavian, like Danish, and they sometimes put apples in them, but it's it's the same kind of batter, right?
So in Japan, they're also using a like typically a single sided that you have to flip during cooking, right? They're not they're not no one's doing it with a double sided pan, right? Right. No, no. I I I like that yeah, it's uh it's typically flipped.
So I think you you pour the uh the batter in and you let the bottom side sit or just set, and then you're supposed to flip it almost like immediately. I'm wondering maybe it's because I'm taking too long to add everything in that the bottom side's like setting too much and it's becoming like too thick and like well maybe that's is there is there is there any sort of uh I'm trying to remember because I I I went through an ableskiver phase which is very similar. Does the batter have whipped uh does the battery I can't remember whether a batter has whipped egg white in it or not? Does it? No, it's uh in this case it was just uh the one I'm using was just uh plain flour, um baking powder, some salts, two eggs, a little bit of uh dashi, and uh some soy sauce.
Okay, so uh and no no fat? Uh no fat. Right. So it's like pancake batter minus the fat. Okay.
Uh I mean, I would first of all to crisp it up, I would put a little I mean I'd put a little fat in. Um I mean, maybe it's not traditional. Like some butter or like I mean, I I like butter, but I don't know. I don't not if it's not traditional. Don't add it if it's not traditional.
But I would say maybe it's your pan, like uh uh I mean I'm assuming if you are you're using if you're using a Japanese pan, they also use uh the same low voltage that we are, so you're not running into a power issue. Like in other words, like if you are designed if if this is designed for a home in Japan, it would also work here because the only difference is the number of hertz of uh of the power and not the voltage. So the power output in a heater would be roughly the same, so it's not that's not gonna be an issue. Um that said, you can find a really nice cast iron ableskever pan that it rocks the house and you can make you could brown the hell out of them, right? Because any sort of batter like that that you're putting into a small unit is a relatively high thermal load because it's a wet, relatively wet.
So the higher your thermal load, the harder it's gonna be to get like a very good uh recovery on it. And if it's not crispy, you could go a little bit longer and put a little oil into the into the cups. In general, nonstick things are never gonna give you the kind of crisp usually crispiness because you're using less oil in them, and really that oil at the surface is gonna help you get that crisp because it's gonna help desiccate the outside of the surface uh and give you kind of you know nice good contact. So either add some oil to the batter, try using nonstick, um, you know, try a little more oil in the cuffs, but it can be difficult to oil a nonstick because the oil doesn't stick to the pan the way it would to like cast iron. You know what I'm saying?
I see. Okay. Right. Also, the aluminum in a nonstick is the aluminum in a nonstick, you know, it isn't gonna have as much retained energy in it, right? So the advantage of a cast iron pan is that because it's so heavy, right?
It's because it's like so much heavier than aluminum, it has more heat energy stored in it, even though uh, you know, even though the the thermal physics of it would make you think it is, and it's just so much heavier than the aluminum that it tends to store more. Okay, I see. And uh I the electric griddles I'm using right now, I know I think it's just uh some generic one I bought online. I'm not sure if it's actually a Japanese brand one. So uh yeah, I think maybe I'll look into the maybe getting a cast iron griddle and um seeing if that would help and adding some fat in.
Yeah, look up that look at those able skever pans, because they're able, they're available. Uh not that I want you to shop on Amazon Prime for anything other than Searsols because I know I I already have one. Yeah, yeah, all right, all right, yeah. So uh yeah, check it, check check out the uh check out the able skever pans and see see whether those are uh give you they're nice to have anyway, and then you know, you can also start experimenting with the with the scan dough with the scando ball-shaped pancakes, which are delicious. Start without the fruit fillings though, on the on the on the able skevers, because just get down the the aspect of flipping it.
In fact, I have an Instagram post from a year or so ago where I think I give the recipe that I use, but I'm not sure. And the recipe that I use does work. Yeah. Okay. Alrighty?
Awesome. Thank you. Goodness does. All right. Now, wacky Jackie molecules.
Oh you said you had a good eating experience in Mexico. Where in Mexico were you? Uh I was in Mexico City in Roma Norte mostly. Did you did you make it to uh to the uh Merced market and get those squash blossom tacos that I dream about every once in a while? Uh not this time, but I have been.
And though I haven't had the squash, blossom tacos, where? I mean, it's the Merced market is enormous and overwhelming. You go you go to this one entry. I have it on the if you would want it to go, I have her pinned. I have a photo of her exact location on a like GPS pinned.
I mean, assuming she's still there. This was like three or four years ago. But just, oh my God. Like, if you want to cry, tears of joy. See a woman making the tortillas, pressing them out, taking the masa ball, pressing it, putting it on the comal, then reaching with two hands into a trash bag full of squash blossoms.
A not a not like a kitchen trash bag, like a freaking contractor bag full of squash blossoms and pulling out the squash blossoms and just going on the comal with some freaking oil and then hack a hacka hacka with the knife, like, and then just like saute that, and then without even looking at her hands, shredding the freaking Oaxacin string cheese, and then melting that stuff into the squash blossoms and putting it onto the tortillas that she just cooked, just pressed, and you're like, Well, you're like, yes, yes, yes. You know what I mean? Like, we went, we it's one of those things where you're like, shouldn't you try a bunch of different places? And you're like, why? I've eaten a lot of things, right?
I've been alive 50 years, I've eaten a lot of things. If you find something like that that's that good, just keep going back. Nastasi, I know you're a little bit of a believer in that, right? Yeah, so Jack, what did you eat in Mexico? Uh, this place, the the best, the best meal um was at a place called Expendio de Mais.
Um wait, what does that mean? Like expensive, expensive, expensive corn? What is that? Wait, expensive. I think it means like sale of corn or like selling corn, you know.
Um but it's like an open air, it's like it's on the street, it's very unassuming, like an open stall kitchen kind of thing. Um kind of like mixed the mold, nixtimalization happening. I it's it's elevated dining in like a street food setting. Um and they kind of just like you show up and they'll keep bringing courses until you tell them to stop. Well, I like that.
So worth it. I like that. Like, do you have a little coin like yes, the yes no coin? No, you just yeah, the service was actually really great. Um, they're very communicative.
Do wait, John. Have you been? No, I haven't. Website now that looks or their Instagram, it looks really tasty. Oh yeah.
Do do they have like different varieties of corn like on any given day? Is it like the blue bottle coffee of corn that you like? You're like, I'll have the I will have this corn. I mean, good good question. I only made it once.
Um, but I mean everything I tasted was unbelievably delicious. I had my first poke there too, which I like. Um how was it? Yeah, like what was it flavored or was it straight to Pool K. It seemed flavored, but I have no point of reference.
So I don't know what plain pulquet would have tasted like compared to this. I have yet to go to a pulquet bar. I have yet to go. I need someone to take me to a pool bar, but where it's just pool c the kind of one where like where you you try to have one and then the person walks up behind you with their hand and forces you back into your seat and pours you another one, that kind of a place. Like where they're like, oh, you want the experiment?
You want the experience? You're gonna get the experience, like that. One of those places. I need to go to learn those places. But well, anyway, if anybody's ever in Mexico City, hit that place up.
It was amazing. And it's called Selling corn, but in Spanish. Or sale of corn. Expendio de mais. Corn sale.
Yeah. I should learn Spanish. I should really learn Spanish someday. Nice. All right.
Yeah. All right. So let's get to some uh Patreon questions. Uh Anthony. Oh, by the way, someone uh sent me on Twitter and I have no idea.
So I'm I'm calling out for someone to tweet uh to them on my Twitter, which is cooking issues in case you you needed it. Uh good places to go in uh Nashville, because I've never been to Nashville. I've never been to Nashville. The last time I was in Tennessee was for the 1980 Knoxville World's Fair. Yeah, I enjoyed the Knoxville World's Fair in 1980.
I was nine though. So what did I know about anything really? Yeah. Yeah. Uh Karsville's cool.
What World's Fair? Uh what was Nashville. Oh, Nashville's cool. Oh. The World's Fair, Knoxville.
I remember the kudzu on the drive-in. Do they still have kudzu everywhere? I hate kudzu. I don't know. Really?
Nastasi, you hate kudzu? Did they have it in California? No. Just the idea of it? Yeah.
The idea of this green monster invading your life, invading everything, growing over your car. Yeah. You're like, ooh, ooh, they I got a flat in the I got a flat in the uh in the Corolla. And so then the Corolla doesn't drive for a month and it's kudzoed. It's just covered in kudzu.
It's kind of creepy. So creepy. Kudzu. Uh Anthony Din writes in, what are your thoughts on using a carbon steel pan on an induction burner? I have the control freak, and I'm wondering if it's worth the effort.
Thanks. Also, uh, were I to get one, would you recommend getting a 10 or a 12 or both? So uh I've actually been using uh a carbon steel quite a bit recently from um uh JB Prince. So JB Prince has an uh a new carbon pan that they have out that's kind of cool. It's made by this uh dude in Australia, uh, but he's now making them for JV Prince in the U.S.
Uh and what's cool about this particular pan is it's no rivets. John, you'd like this uh from a professional kitchen standpoint, no rivets. So it's never going to, there's nothing to break on it. It's stamped out of one piece of metal, but they they they've made the handle like a curve in such a way that the handle doesn't get that hot. Uh because it, you know, one of the reasons people that the handle material is different from the pan is also to make a thermal break, not just be not just because it's hard to make it in one piece, but also theoretically, I guess it provides a thermal break.
But uh not that you're ever supposed to grab the handle of a pan in a professional kitchen anyway, but you know, we all do it sometimes, every once in a while. Although Wiley laughs at me whenever I do it. You know what I mean? Like the first thing they teach you in a professional kitchen is don't grab that handle. Don't grab that handle.
You know what I mean? Especially if you're you know in the habit of throwing your pans in and out of the oven, right? Never grab the handle of a pan. What are you an idiot? That's why you have the towel.
The reason you have the towel is to grab the handle of the pan. Anyway, uh, so I really like uh I haven't used me as in also has some uh uh pans now, some uh carbon steel pans that are uh they're relatively inexpensive. Uh I I actually really like them. You know what I mean? Like uh I use it quite a bit.
It's got the same nonstick properties as cast iron, roughly, but it's a lot lighter, right? So it's not gonna have the kind of I don't think heat retention uh uh as a as a cast iron. Uh so if you're doing something like, I don't know, baking in the in the oven cornbread, I'd probably still use the cast iron. I still use both my cast iron sizzles and the in and that pan. The issue on an induction with uh that it works great on induction, by the way.
Um, you know, the bigger the pan, it depends on what you're gonna use it for. Like the induction burner itself is only so big. So if you take a pan and put it on your control freak or any induction burner that you have, and then dust the bottom of it with flour and then turn it on to like 370 or something like this, 375. And then uh if it browns totally evenly all the way across at 375, then you're getting good enough heat conduction across it such that it makes you can have a larger pan and still use it kind of for fine for frying or for things like this where you need even. And then try it again where you just crank it as high as it'll go and see how much of a burn ring you get where the actual heating element of the induction unit is.
I use bigger, bigger, much bigger things on my um on my induction unit all the time, but typically then I'm doing larger things, like I'm doing like a batch of greens, where I'm either using a low temperature such that it can go across the the entire pan like I'm sweating onions and there's a lot of oil, and so you know, it doesn't matter that it's gonna be a little hotter in the center, or I'm putting a mess of greens in that I need it to cook down, in which case it doesn't matter that it's theoretically hotter because the the temperature of the steam from the water is keeping everything at roughly boiling point anyway. So it you know, don't expect a large pan to be even for something like frying eggs, right? Unless you have a lot of water in it. So I would get both of you could, because it's always, you know, having a pan that's too small is like it sucks. You know what I mean?
Like if you need to cook X amount of stuff and you have X minus something that you can fit in your pan, then all of a sudden now you're in two batch fill. You know what I mean, John? Yep. No one wants to be in two batch fill. No, definitely not.
But don't expect your induction burner to uh, you know, a whole section of my book, which is gonna be I'm trying to figure out which is gonna be the most boring section of my book. Uh right now, I think it's the thermal properties of water is gonna be the most boring section of the book, but since it's the miracle of moisture management, kind of have to deal with it. You know what I mean? Uh my wife, Jen, who's reading all the stuff, she's like, she's like, if your section on mushrooms is not the least boring section of your book, then it's gonna be, because I wrote the mushroom section already. She's like, I'm like, oh, don't worry.
The water section, real boring. But you need to know it to get it right. The other thing that's gonna be real boring is where I discuss how to relate the power output of your equipment to what you could actually accomplish with it, right? So, you know, it's the akin to don't try to put 10 pounds of poop into a five-pound sack, right? And you know, it's very simple math to figure out what you can get out of your wall socket, what you can get out of your microwave, what you can get out of your toaster oven, what you can get out of your standard oven, what you can get out of your burner.
And I have to get into it, but it's gonna be deep and boring. Right? Yeah. Nastasia, uh look, do you want it exactly the same size? Because I know you lost your copy of Liquid Intelligence.
Do you want this book to be exactly the same thickness? Yes. I'm shooting for it. I'm shooting, I'm just gonna try to make it exactly the same dimensions so that you know it fits exactly the way that the old one did. Today is the day I tell someone that they can't stay with me because they're not vaccinated.
Oh, well. So we're we're name nameless. Namelame, yeah. Oh my god, it's it's uh is that what's his name? The actor from uh he he got killed in in uh House of Cards.
He's the con who's the congressman in House of Cards who got carbon monoxided. Well, he's alive. You mean they don't kill him in the real life? Acting. Oh, speaking of acting, get this.
So uh I had a I had one of those uh Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy. I'm walking over here, I'm walking over here. I had that such a moment like that because I was trying to get here and I was a little bit late, and I was like, people, it must mean the tourists are back, especially in this neighborhood. I'm like, yo, yo, yo, I'm walking over here. You know what I mean?
Do you know that scene, which is fantastic? It's uh uh what's his name? Um uh Angelina Jolie's dad, uh uh John John Voigt and Dustin Hoffman, right? And they're both, you know, Dustin Hoffman's not hot, but Voigt is hot as hell in that movie. You know what I mean?
And he's like a J-Golo kind of guy. So they're they're walking around like kind of this neighborhood almost, more like Times Square. And they had uh, when they were filming it, they had they had roped off the entire area, and so he they're walking across the street without looking because they're shooting a movie. You know what I mean? And then classic New York style, a taxi driver just boom blows through the blows through the thing and almost hits Dustin Hoffman and he goes, I'm walking over here like that.
Like, and it's like it was totally unscripted, but how good acting is that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's like completely unscripted. He doesn't break character, and then does his thing, yells at the taxi driver, and then continues walking and talking to Voigt.
Blocked off the streets. They did. Oh. I mean, are you familiar with us as a as a as a group of people? Well, that's true, yeah.
You know what I mean? Yeah. Anyway. Oh my God. I've talked about the uh the what's it called, right?
The uh, oh my god, his name just went out of my head, Marathon Men. I don't think so. Who played oh my case is it is it uh is it uh I always forget, is it it's Lawrence Olivier, right, who plays the the Nazi doctor, isn't it? Anyway, I think it's Lawrence Olivier. He plays an he plays a Nazi doctor.
Yeah, so it's is you should see this movie. It doesn't, I don't know whether it's I loved it. Dustin Hoffman plays this like kind of young character who's who is being got like kind of he's kidnapped by this Nazi doctor who's trying to figure out what's going on. And he's drilling holes in his teeth and then putting like uh like he's just causing immense pain and he's just saying, is it safe? Is it safe?
And Dustin Hoffman's like, I don't know what you're talking, I don't know what you're talking about. You know what I mean? Because he has literally no idea what he's talking about. It's a great scene. So anyway, so to study for being in this immense pain where he's drilling his teeth out uh without anesthesia, Dustin Hoffman was in his like trailer and like icing his junk down, like sitting in a seat with just like his all of his like Frankenbeans covered in like ice, just completely iced down, like shivering or shivering, like and like Lawrence Olivier walks in.
So, the hell are you doing? He's like, Well, I'm trying to get in like a physical emotional space, you know, where I can really live the scene. He's like, just act, dude. Just act. You don't need the nice, you know, you don't need to ice your junk down.
Just act, man. Anyway. I mean, he hasn't talked like that because he's British, but whatever. Uh and they're all, he's dead now, so he doesn't talk like anything anymore. All right, let me see.
Next question. Uh from Alexander, and I believe it's pronounced tailguard, right? Isn't that correct? I think so, yes. Yeah.
Uh and I guess it's how it's written, too. It's not Talgard, right? It's Tilguard. Oh, yeah. I think so.
Anyway. Uh hey cooking issues, people. Uh, thanks for the answer on ginger. Uh, and no worries about being late. We were late, remember?
We were late. Yeah. Uh and uh likes our decision to go on Patreon. That's good news. Uh so got some of the ginger juice to clarify uh just by doing it with time, which is the only way to do it.
Uh, but it lost all of its ginger cake, so I ended up using a mix of heated uh ginger and just uh juice, giving s like giving up some of the carbonation, and it was excellent. Another thing you can do, by the way, is uh ginger is gonna lose its kick over time. And so what a lot of people do is try to find the most neutral um capsation note that you can get and add a little bit of capsation heat to the back, and it's not the same, but it pushes a lot of the same buttons. So uh, you know, if you don't mind uh the flavor being a little bit red, like something that's fairly neutral, like Italian crushed red pepper is a fairly neutral reddish heat. And like usually those kind of, I don't know if you you know what I mean red, right?
Yeah, yeah. Usually like those kind of red hot notes work with well with uh with ginger. They don't cloy because you're not adding, you don't necessarily want to add a vegetable note, you don't necessarily want a greenish hot note, and you probably don't want a vinegary hot note, um, or even floral, like a habanero style note. So I think you want like a, but red usually doesn't, that reddish, red, straight red pepper flavor doesn't tend to conflict very often with uh ginger. And so uh that's what I uh I typically use crushed red.
The only problem with crushed red is is that it's very um it's very finicky with steep time. So you want to just I I usually over add because I'm looking mainly for heat, and then I keep tasting until the heat's exactly where I want, and then I drain. I don't let it sit for a long time because uh like uh anyone who's ever eaten a pizza with me knows that I put stops. How much crushed red do I put on pizza? Tons.
Like tons. Yeah, I mean like it's red. Yeah, yeah. It's bright red. It's like and sandy, right?
So like if you make me, if you make me laugh when I'm eating pizza to the extent that I have to breathe in, like if I breathe in while I'm eating pizza through my mouth, if any air goes into my mouth, in to my mouth while I'm eating a pizza, it's like almost like a like a guaranteed trip to the hospital. Because I'm inhaling like a like a like a blanket of crushed red pepper into my mouth. But it doesn't actually make the pizza slice that hot because crushed red pepper is not hot until it gets hydrated, right? It's just not that hot until it gets hydrated. Take that same amount of crushed red pepper, put it in a sauce, or as they say in Boston, put it in the gravy, and then you heat it up and you're, you know, you're done.
Does anyone else call it gravy sauce gravy or just the Boston Italians? I'm watching the Sopranos and they call it gravy in that. Really? So Jersey Italians call it gravy too? Yeah.
At least based off the Sopranos. But yeah. All right. Yeah. It's gravy.
Long Island Italian sauce. Sauce? Huh. Per Long Island, yeah. What's the worst thing on earth that you can do in an Italian household if you're a cook.
Oh, definitely add ketchup to your uh to your linguini and clams. Oh, I didn't even think about that. That's like that's like you wouldn't even that's like uh as the as they say, you would be dead to me at that point. I mean, like the worst thing you can do and still be a member of the family. The only reason I say that, and it's so close to me because I had a friend come over for uh a birthday at my father uh for my father's birthday, and my mother makes my mother's sicilian, she makes an amazing linguinian clam sauce, and like my friend Harry, we're skaters in like high school, and he goes into the he literally leaves the kitchen table, goes to the refrigerator, brings back he actually brings his plate into the kitchen because we're sitting in the dining room and puts ketchup on the linguine, comes back to the dinner table.
My mother's like, get the f out. Like, get out. All right, this is the only cursing that's allowed because I appreciate that. Kicked your skater friend out, that's amazing. Oh man.
I got it. And rightfully so though. Rightfully so. I got laughed at at that restaurant in Rome when I asked for a wedge of lemon to go with my uh fried artichoke. Yeah, you said that uh server literally laughed at me and said no.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. As uh Louie's lunch in New Haven says, This isn't Burger King, it's not how you want it. You know what I mean? But uh so I was gonna say, uh I'll just say this.
So like um my stepfather, he had three maiden aunts. They never married. They, you know, they lived together until they until they all died. It was crazy. And one of them is the bank rabbers?
No, but it's the same people. So like uh I told you, like, there was the the one who was kind of the kind of ruled the roost. Uh her name uh was uh Annette, and there was there was Annette, Auntie, and and Annie. Those were the three maiden aunts, right? And you know, Annie died first, then it was Annette and and um and Auntie.
But anyway, Auntie started like to go a little bit soft, but she was never the one that ruled the roost, right? It was always like it was always Annette that ruled the roost. And uh and Annette was one of those most closely related to Uncle Diamond, who's the guy who who had the safe deposit box. Anyways, so you know, everyone would say, Oh, oh Auntie. Oh, Annette, she thinks she's the boss.
She's the boss of the toilet, she's the boss of the toilet. So, like, whenever anyone says that they're the boss, I'm like, yeah, they're the boss, the boss of the toilet. But anyway, they were making the gravy. So the way that they used to do it is they'd make the gravy and then they the tomato, you know, they'd put it through the strainer thing, they'd get the stuff, they'd cook it down, and then they'd put all the meat in it. So they'd put the you know, the brijol, the sausage, the pork chops, everything into the gravy, cook it in the gravy, pull it out, cook the pasta, serve the pasta with the thing, the meat on the side.
That's the vote it was. And one time, I wasn't even alive yet. It was like in like the it was in like the 60s. Annette burned the gravy. And tried to serve it.
So she scorched the bottom. The entire pot then is tinged with the burnt tomato. And it was one of those things where literally 30 years later, you know what I mean? Like in the 80s or 90s, they were like, There was that time Annette burned the gravy. And we're all like, it was like in the entire table, because I got, you know, the whole thing I used to do family dinner every Sunday.
And it came really from Gerard's family. Had the family dinner would be like the aunts were there, his dad, his grandpa, like a whole thing. And yeah, every once in a while, if he's like, burn the gravy. And then like Gerard's dad would just go, like it wasn't like, oh, it's okay. Don't worry about it.
It was just like remembering and sucking in. Yeah. Uh, gracious. Uh all right. Andrew Kay wrote in question.
Uh I'm making You didn't even get to Alexandra's question. Oh, I didn't? Oh, shoot. You went off a tangent. All right, all right.
Tangent. Okay. Uh these without tangents because you're going to be able to do that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Now to my question.
I'm trying to recreate a cocktail version of Dalgona coffee. Now that's that one where you whip instant coffee, right? You whip instant coffee and then you serve it either hot or cook. Well, we've answered a similar one. I don't think we've answered.
Well, no, it's it's a it's a COVID thing. Can't be eight years ago. This was invented during COVID by someone who couldn't leave the house. I don't know. It's all the same.
I like how you're getting you you're not even close as old to me, and still your entire life is blurring together into one big mess. Don't let it happen yet. Keep your dates separate for at least another 10 years. All right. Uh I'm trying to recreate a cocktail version of Dalgona coffee.
Dalgona's kind of a good word. Is that why it's popular? Because Dalgona's. I don't know, but answer the question. Wow.
Jesus. Man. I want it to actually taste like coffee and not instant crap. I'm using a mocha pot and an EC Whipper. I've tried using foam magic, which is a maltodextrin, uh, methylcellulose and Xanthan gum from Modernist Pantry as a foaming agent, and it worked okay, but the foam got that goopy texture from the Xanthan.
Is are there any other agents that would work better to give a lighter but still stable foam? I'm looking for a texture uh like egg white foam on a sour. Thanks, and keep up the good work. All right, so let's take a look at that. First of all, I really get bent when people um write in their ingredients, and they do it so that you can't copy the methyl cellulose, because there's a bunch of different methylcelluloses and cellulose derivatives that have different properties.
I'm guessing this is what I think that is. Maltodextrin is just a filler, right? It's just solids. So if you're using instant coffee, I tried to look up what's in instant coffee. Does instant coffee always have cream or crap added to it?
Or can you get black instant coffee? I think you can get black black, yeah. Yeah. Like, but the standard like taser's choice is black. I I couldn't find the ingredients for taster choice coffee on the web this morning for some reason.
Isn't that it like the most ironic name on earth, Taser's Choice? Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's like they gave a bunch of crap to a bunch of tasters and the taster had to choose one, and that was the taster's choice. It's anyway.
Uh so the maltodextrin is there as solids. Also, you gotta remember in um in an instant coffee, it's all coffee solids, and coffee solids have good whipping ability. This is why uh coffee is such a nightmare to carbonate, because it foams up uh a lot, right? So the maltodextrin is there just for adding solids uh and and viscosity. The methylcellulose is the actual whipping agent, right?
So you need both that uh uh maltodextrin and the methylcellulose. The xanthan, but it's the methyl cell you need to use is called F50, F50. Just get methyl cell F50 straight, and then get some maltodextrin and use that and just nix the Xanthan gum. The Xanthan gum is a stabilizer, but you probably will not need a stabilizer because coffee is already foamy enough. So coffee plus methyl cell, uh methyl cell F50 plus maltodextrin will probably give you what you need without that snottiness.
And if not, it methylcel doesn't always work in milk-based systems. So if you're adding the milk before you whip the coffee, you might need to move to a versa whip. Versa whip is just whey protein. So it's uh, and there's two different there's a soy protein versa whip and a and a milk protein versa whip. So you could try versa whip, but versed whip takes a lot longer to whip up, or just try straight F50, the coffee and the um and maybe some maltodextrin if you need more solids content.
But try to make the coffee as strong as possible. Uh what do you think? Good, go. Good answer. Good.
All right, all right. Okay. Uh oh, and then see there's also a liquid nitrogen thing, John. Parse that out for me while I while I get Andrew Kay's question. All right.
Uh Andrew Kay writes in, I'm making a pyrolized banana. I'm making pyrolized bananas, which I guess means burnt. Oh, no, no, like uh black garlic. Yeah. That's what that means.
Yeah. Uh although it's not mean like it's not really the technical not like you know what I mean? Like I'm not gonna get into it. All right. Uh from the Aviary cocktail book, where you peel bananas, you vacuum seal them, you boil them for 10 minutes in the bag, and then you place them in a hundred and fifty-five degree Fahrenheit environment for four weeks.
I'm using a rice cooker on keep warm. Uh, one problem. After a week of cooking, I checked on the bananas and the bag had blown up. It was found to have a small hole uh in the side, not at the sealed end, which I suspect let in air that expanded in the bag. I sealed the hole, but a day later I found a new hole in the bag, possibly due to the temperature being higher than estimated and melting my cheek bags.
Uh the bag was minimally inflated this time. That was that's uh that was my nickname, minimally inflated, minimum minimum minimally inflated. Uh my main concern is botulism. Uh I am reading that 10 minutes of boiling can neutralize the toxin. Is this true?
Uh I know this would not include the spores, but if I were to uh boil the bananas for 10 minutes again after the four weeks of uh blackening, would it be reasonable to uh uh consume the product? It's just for myself, so I'm not particularly concerned about other food-borne illnesses, thanks in advance. Yeah, uh, you know, the botulism toxin is mainly heat labile, and boiling it should do it. Bananas are really fairly thin and they're high in uh moisture, so it should make it through. But also uh if your temperature is 155, botulism is not gonna grow there, right?
That's you know, that's well above the thermal death point for uh the vegetative uh stuff. So if it smells off off, you're getting some sort of thermally um there are thermoactive bacteria, right? That will tolerate living in those temperatures, and they're typically not pathenogenic, and it's not gonna be botulism. Botulism just won't grow. Uh I I would guess maybe that your temperature, I mean I would just be a concern that your temperature wasn't as high as you thought, right?
So just if you can guarantee that that temperature was at 155 the whole time and it smells good, it doesn't smell like like uh like it's gone bad, then I would say you're okay. I would consume it. Um and botulism wouldn't be a concern in that point, and especially if you're gonna reboil it. I think you're you're fine. What do you think, John?
Think that's accurate? Yeah, I think so. Uh all right, so was there more in that question you need to parse out where liquid nitrogen? He's looking to get Ellen for his bar and trying to convince the owners he needs to know the price, how much is used. Isn't that like on the blog somewhere?
Well, well, it's old. I don't even know if you can still get to the primer. But the the issue on price is just the price of liquid nitrogen varies widely depending on uh your locale. So just call up two or three local welding shops and figure it out, you know, what they what they're gonna charge you. Liquid nitrogen, it costs almost the same to fill a like 30-liter doer as it does to get a full 160 or 180 liter doer of liquid nitrogen.
Uh the issue with the liquid nitrogen doers, and if you're gonna use it in a bar, you really want to get the big containers is if you don't use it constantly, it boils off. So you have to use it all the time, or there's no point in having it. And if you get the big cylinders, um, you know, usually you have to put a deposit down of like, you know, a couple grand, and then uh when you cancel your account, you get the two grand back, and then they just swap the cylinders out and they'll typically charge you a delivery cost and the and the liquid nitrogen. We we went we had two at existing conditions and we had one at Booker Index, and it was like we spent on the order of like 150 dollars a week on it. Someone all in that order in that.
And to convince the owner, you got to do all your safety. You gotta do all the safety stuff. I mean, like, you know, uh, you know, maybe this re yeah, read the liquid nitrogen primer. Uh, you know, it's all about, you know, it i i if the people aren't gonna respect the safety, if they're not gonna listen to you, if they're gonna be kind of fast and loose with it and like let your guests ever touch it or get near it, then don't even bother. But if you're gonna follow the rules and like not let people take it home in their car, and you know, if you you know, you're not gonna like store it, you know, in a basement and you're not gonna like try to walk it down the stairs and you're not gonna do any of the stuff that's evil just read the read the blog post it's still current and even though it's like 10 years old it's still true.
Um yeah follow the rules right yep rules you have one minute uh all right so someone just uh someone just said basically they they want to know whether we want this is uh Dustin Meldrum wrote in has pawpaws in the Yonkers area right says during during season if not we can get some pawpaws aren't you're interested in that right John Yeah definitely uh also um is it as an engineer at the Domino Sugar Plant we've got to have some information we want about engineers and domino sugar plants um and a calcium chloride plant oh uh something somebody asked me once um and also says can get some good dogs because they're going to Michigan should we have a Michigan hot dog should we get in contact with Dustin and have a Michigan dog versus a Connecticut dog off where you cook them both John so that they're both done exactly the same way served in kind of a standard bun situation and we can do get in contact and we'll see we can figure out we can have a uh Nastasia you like hot dogs right if they're playing Joe you like hot dogs like you are you interested in a in a in a dog off and like a Michigan versus Connecticut dog off definitely all right but like no no adornment just mustard mustard kraut or do we have to have it with nothing? Nothing. Nothing I prefer mustard and kraut. You have 30 seconds mustard and kraut right okay uh someone wants asked me this, and so uh here it is. Salted butter is one salted butter can be a range of different uh uh salt contents, right?
But in case you're wondering how much extra salt you're adding when you add butter, uh the standard I looked at the one in my fridge, which it's a little bit off, right? Because they said, you know, according to the the decimal points don't go out far enough. The minimum fat content of butter is 80 and the maximum is 90 in the US, right? The rest is water, milk fats, non solid, and salt. Uh in the one in my house is 1.6% salt by weight.
1.6% salt. Remember, people, when you read the sodium on the side, if you just have a sodium content in milligrams and you want to know salt, multiply by 2.5, 2.54 technically, right? So if there's if there's one milligram of salt, there's actually uh of sodium, then there's actually 2.54 milligrams of salt. Does that make sense to you? Yeah.
Okay. In a stick of butter, there is about 1.85 grams of salt. Okay? So when you're cooking with butter and you want to know I'm putting a stick of butter in, and you want to cut back on the salt, it's like 1.8 grams. All right.
All right. Cooking issues.
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