Hello and welcome to Cooking Issues. This is Dave Arnold, your host of Cooking Issues coming to you live from New State Studios at Rockefeller Center. Joined as usual with Nastasi the Hammer Lopez. How are you doing? Good.
Yeah? Got uh with us back again. John in the booth, how you doing? Doing good, thanks. And both of our like a Maestro engineering team, we have Jackie Molecules.
Hey, what's up? In the studio. Which I appreciate. And Joe Hazen. As usual, what's up?
Hey, how are you doing? Doing all right. Hey, uh uh Jack, you got the nice woe hop shirt on. I'm appreciated. Yeah, man.
I wear that for you guys. Yeah, I appreciate that. I like the wo hop. I've never been there. No?
What? Oh. Well, let me ask you this. It's a separate question. Do you appreciate his shirt?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you're with what are you, Queen of the Queens of the Stone Age? Yeah.
Is that an actual concert tee? Yeah. Oh no, I didn't get it at a concert. Oh. Oh.
Yeah. Okay, let me ask you guys questions. Questions. When you go to a concert, at what age? I saw Billy Eilish on Friday.
How was uh how was she? How was she? Uh good. I mean, I'm not not a fan, but I'm not a fan either. I wouldn't take you for a Billy Eilish fan.
The tickets are really cheap. It was part of the governor's ball. And uh I was like Is that on Randall's Island? No, it was at uh City Field. Oh.
But outside in the parking lot. It was weird. In the parking lot? You have a whole stadium right there, and they put you in the park at the listen, we got this stadium. We're not doing anything with it, but uh okay.
How about the parking lot? She was in a parking lot. The nice thing about a parking lot is that uh you can't see very well if you're in the back. Yeah, that was no crappy. No sloping.
Yeah. But it was actually pretty small. There's probably like 400 people there. Really? Wow.
Yeah. So you basically saw her at a small club that just had been knocked over by a tornado so that there was no walls. Yeah, yeah. The sound was bad, but she was cool. Is there anything worse than guys?
Is there anything worse than an outdoor sound uh without a like a nice setup stage with like an enclosure to put it out towards the audience? Like what sound could be worse than that? Terrible, right? Bad. Bad.
Uh all right. So, but was there for you guys a certain age where so when you're young, you're like, I can't afford that concert shirt, but I really want to wear it to school the next day, right? So you you you bought it, right? And then you you you you're like, please give me some of the money back, mom and dad. But they didn't, right?
So there's that. And then there's a certain age where you're like, I don't need this concert tea. Oh, yeah. I don't need this, right? What age is that?
Skip the merch. Um maybe like 22. 22, Joe. No, you know. See, but then the older I got, then then it returns.
Right. Then you want it again. Then you go back to the bottom. Oh, my goodness, yeah. Now, Nastasia, who used to be, we won't discuss it in full, but the queen of the backstage sly moves, right?
Did you used to steal merch or just get it? Like, did you somehow snake free merch? I would know. I would take their cigarettes, like cigarette butts, and take like random, like their water bottles, uh-oh. And like run my tongue around, like, oh my god.
I know. Wow. I got a water bottle once that Gwen Stefani threw off the stage. Uh it's one of my first concerts, Tragic Kingdom tour. Oh, wow, that's cool.
That was a good one. That was the water. I mean, there's no water in it. It was just like a crushed bottle. Let me tell you something.
When you're on stage and you're working, there's no way you finish every last drop of that water. As someone who has not in on stage, but as someone who has quickly drank and then crushed and thrown things for fun a lot. Like a lot. I can always tell you that there is some stuff left at the bottom of the bottle, unless you are being extremely careful and you turn it all the way upside down as you throw it to make sure that you eject everything, which you can, but it's very hard to do that on the sly. Well, there's the rock star move of spraying, like kind of just like tossing the rest of the water out.
I mean like out and then yeah, there's that point where like the people in the audience are like, we're not sweaty yet. What are you doing? You know what I mean? Especially if you're not if you're famous, they don't care. You could do whatever you want.
You know what I mean? Like if you're public image limited or something like that, you can spit on the audience and they're happy. That's right. Yeah. In fact, if you don't get spit on, it's it's an insult.
Anyway. What about you, John? You a concert T-man? Not really. I only have one t-shirt from one concert I ever went to, and even then there was I don't know, Bonaroo, so not like one concert, but which t-shirt did you buy?
Oh, you bought the overall shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The overall like everyone listed on the back and all that stuff. Yeah. That's respectable.
Yeah, it was neat. I know it's like very boneroo-ish, like super tie-dye and just like tribute letters, all that stuff. So I don't really wear it, but yeah. When you were young, did you make tie-dyes? When I was in like camp around six or seven, I think so.
But then I did it on my own. I never did it with a group of people because I was had no friends. I was lonely. That's right. Only shot lonely boy.
Who here, other than John, who here did not tie-dye? I've never tie-dye in my life. Yeah. Come on. Joe.
I've tie-dyed. Yeah. When I was a kid, they used to have uh uh this dye that they took off the market when I was a child because it was like so poisonous and um but it was so bright and it was so color fast, and it didn't you didn't need to have an industrial strength dryer to set it, you know what I mean? And so those tie-dyes lasted until like, you know, until the shirt was more holes than I was that kid with a lot of holes and all my stuff, not for fashion reasons, just because I had holes in all my stuff, and not because my mom couldn't buy me new clothes, it's just I'm like, these pants work, what's wrong with you? Right.
You liked keeping the same pair of pants. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The checks. Yeah.
Yeah. We saw Booker. Oh, yeah. I was gonna talk about that. So we uh we had uh Nastasia has this uh so Nastasia's obviously an intr interesting person.
So she has this friend that she went to high school with in Covina, Landon Goodburger, Land of Goodburger, and so it's kind of you know how like um you you'll create like an electron and an anti-electron, right? And they're opposite. Well, the you know, Nastasia and Shannon, this her friend who's a New York Times science writer, are opposites in that way on Elon Musk. So Nastasia loves Elon Musk, right? Regardless of whether he is an alien or a terrible person or whatever else, right?
Loves the concept of Elon Musk, right? You don't know him personally, he is a concept. You've met the brother, Musk Melon, yeah. But yeah, but anyway, so but Shannon, not only does she hate Elon Musk, but here's the here's the real he hates her, like personally. He has her his Twitter people go attack her.
Yeah, yeah. Wow. And like that's kind of cool. Like if you can get that's really cool, if you can get like now registered space alien, Elon Musk to personally hate on you. I mean, that's uh impressive.
Yeah, yeah. So now Nastasia, and this is why this is important for the show. So we had Booker, Booker came up, and you know. Booker hates leaving New York City, so it was a big accomplishment. You know how much he must like Nastasia if he leaves New York City.
She asked for it. Uh so Nastasia, a friend of hers had cooked these chickens by suspending the chickens over a flame and then pretending that they got cooked. Okay, no, it it was a famous chef. It was not my friend. Okay.
But whatever. Now listen, I just want to say something for the record. I looked at the setup Nastasia. Nastasia has a fire pit on and this is not a blame for Nastasia. Literally, she was going off of some famous chef's Instagram photo.
This is another reason why Instagrams are terrible at it. Uh so listen, people, it is true that it is an old, old, old school technique. Vertical, vertical roasting. I'm a huge proponent of vertical roasting. Has you know, has anyone heard me talk about the tandoor?
I was vertical grilling life for a long time, right? Old school spit roasting, vertical spit roasting, was done with a uh a vertical flame. So you built a very hot, radiant wall of heat, and then spun the thing, hung it, hung it whatever, pig, a small animal, chicken, you hung it and you rotate it in front of a flame, much like an Al Pastor situation. Right. Or or a hero situation or something like this, a shawarma situation, right?
That works. Building a fire on the ground and suspending an animal over the top of the fire so that its butt faces the sky ain't gonna cook the animal. It's just not gonna work. It's just not gonna happen, right? Unless you're sitting there and you're like, I'm gonna spin the bottom until the bottom is done, then I'm gonna turn it around, I'm gonna I'm gonna spin the top until the top is done.
It's just not the way it works. This was Chef Negro Piotoni's technique, or what he tried. Well, I didn't see his picture, but did he did he have a fire on the side? Yeah, sure, Dave. I can't.
I mean, you know I need to. John, you you parse this image for me. I mean. Not no, this isn't really what Dave's talking about. Though this is like the more popular way that people do it now.
It's like the way Francis Francis Mallman does it in his on his TV. He cooks on a TV? On the TV shows on Chef's table. Anyways. Listen, listen.
If you look at people who do things for a long time, like like uh, like let's say you don't want to build a big fire, you want to build a fire that's just over this. Do like they do in uh in South America where you you you turn the you basically splay it, spatchcock it out, you put it on a grate, and then you lean the grate over the fire and then you flip it every once in a while. To me, this makes sense. To me, this makes sense. You know what I mean?
Like, like trying to do something in an in kind of a it in an old school way. So anyway, so I took one look at it, I was like, I'm not getting involved. I also have five fire pits in the shape of the constellation of cancer on my lawn. That's true. What?
It's true. It's true. I've seen I've I've seen it. No, my friend the guy did it. I tried to.
Does that make sense? And she has a flock of mean uh uh geese that I tried to run down when I when I showed you. I don't know, Dave. So anyway, so it took like I don't know, she started cooking the chicken, I left like three hours later, they weren't done yet. Did uh did they ever get done?
Here's my theory. Yes. It doesn't actually matter. And that here, this is why I think people are gonna get mad at me. When you're hanging out with your friends and you're doing something that feels kind of cool, like having a bunch of hot rocks with a chicken like slung over it, and it gets mildly brown, whether it's overcooked or a little undercooked, you're just gonna skip the undercooked parts, you're gonna salt the hell out of it anyway.
You have a couple of bottles of rose, you're getting a little bit hammered. It doesn't really matter. And I think people need to realize this. Like, when you're gonna do something crazy, just accept like crazy, like bury a whole animal for the first time. Or this goes back to a question we had a couple of weeks ago about what kind of big camp meat should you do.
And we said it like, you know, at the time, the same way. Just and I I I'm saying this kind of as self-help. I'm doing a little self-diagnosis as well. Like I get all like bent internally bent and therefore probably at my family externally bent, uh, about like you know, is the quality gonna be great? And you know what?
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You finally think that, huh? Well, no, it matters to think about it beforehand. Like, I still, for me, it's the it's the it's the plan of attack, it's the game plan.
Trying to get the plan of attack such that you have the best possible thing. But, you know, on the other hand, there's also that, you know, people gotta eat. People gotta eat. And uh so for i i i if you are a guest where someone has some sort of crazy plan of attack and it's taking longer than they expected, don't be a butthead. Don't give them crap about it.
You gave her a little bit of crap. Who? Ariel. I didn't give Ariel crap. Really?
None at all. Not even one bit. Okay. Because it wasn't a good thing. You said to her, you said, you don't have to do this, Ariel.
You don't have to do this. Before she started, I was like, don't feel obliged to follow Nastasia's Instagram dream. If you if you I didn't even post it. It wasn't even like I was like, I want to show the world. I just was like, You like saw this and you wanted it.
That makes it your Instagram dream. Okay. Anyway. I think that's fair. Yeah.
So like my point was to her, and and then this, then people are like, oh, well, you know, go, I'm like, I'm not gonna help. Look, Ariel's a hundred, we're gonna have back on the show soon, I hope. Ariel, 100% capable. And like you don't want two cooks with opinions working on the same problem. You just don't want that.
So I was like, listen, I'll be scut work, I'll do scut work if you want scut work done. And if you don't, I'm just gonna leave you the hell alone. You know what I mean? And I think that's the way to deal with it. Um but anyway, I noted that by the time I had left, the chicken was not done.
Yeah, it was done like an hour after you left. Yeah, but it was really good. But an hour after I left. Hilarious. So listen, the great thing about Anastasia, though, is she had a giant table full of crap that people gave.
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. I knew that chicken wasn't gonna be done. Yeah, yeah. So people, I want all of you out there, because I know that the kind of people, uh uh uh a chunk of the people that listen to this show are the kind of people who like me get all bent out of shape and do all like jump through all kinds of hoops to get something done.
And I love that about people. I love I don't mind that about myself, but just you gotta learn to let go, and it doesn't really matter whether the stuff that comes out is the best thing since sliced bread, right? Just happened to me this weekend at the bachelor party I was at. I did a sous- vide carnitas, and it was like, oh I have to wait the full eight hours. And then they're like, we're not gonna wait till 11 p.m.
to eat these tacos. And I'm like, okay, we'll finish them a different way. Can I tell you something about Carnitas and specifically? Yeah. Uh so me after many, many years teaching Sous vide and low temperature, um, I actually if you do a side-by-side taste test of uh, we'll call it like low temperature sous vide, whatever you want to call it, um, meats that we are used to eating cooked at a high temperature, they're very different.
Okay. And it turns out that side by side for, and I'll tell you what I've tested on this. I've tested, well, mainly short ribs. Okay. Right.
Mainly I've tested short ribs, but I've also tested um confit de canard. Uh uh like it turns out that um while it's true that confie is viciously overcooked from a technical standpoint, right? The meat itself is you know horrendously hammered, if you know, if it were a chicken, let's say. Although you can also confirm, whatever. Uh and uh a short rib is also viciously overcooked from a from a steak perspective, right?
Yeah. That most people actually prefer the traditional product. And uh and so I've come to realize that most of the time uh on stuff that people want high cooked, I just cook it high. You know what I'm saying? Now, do I love the special effect of a low-temps short rib cut into a perfect cube and seared off as an appetizer and some sort of fancy restaurant sitch?
Yeah, but it's not gonna be like you know, a stick-to-your rib situation, like you know, with you know, you get your short ribs, you get some sort of you guys like gravy on polenta. I really like gravy on polenta. I like gravy on plenty. I know it's not what you're supposed to like. No, it's but it's good.
Imagine short ribs, polenta gravy. What could what's wrong with this? What's wrong with that? Nothing, nothing's wrong with that. Uh asebuco, uh, likewise.
I prefer my asebuco cooked like my mom used to cook the asebuco, not because I don't know how to cook it a different way, but that's just how I prefer it. So I actually so on things like uh carnitas, I'm a huge fan of the pressure cooker. Uh huh. Because sucker is done super fast. And if you do a side-by-side, if you use a non-venting pressure cooker, you do a side by side, um, you will notice that it actually has an even deeper meaty flavor.
You know what the problem with pressure cooking is, is that there is no reduction inside of a pressure cooking. And so you have to alter the recipe of pressure cooked uh products to um to deal with that. And in fact, I have a chapter in my new book on how to manage moisture inside of a pressure cooker. And uh uh I'm not gonna tell you 100% because my publisher will kill me, but uh I learned this uh my current version of the technique when I went to Belgium right before the uh pandemic. Uh John sent me to have one of his favorites, Carbonade.
Yep. And the people who have figured out how to make a delicious Carbonade have also figured out, even though they didn't know it, the problem with the pressure cooker. Got a caller? Caller, you're on the air. Hey, this is Jacob calling uh from Des Moines with uh a follow-up, uh, another question and a potential Patreon thought.
Oh, cool. I called back uh a couple weeks ago about doing uh lemon powder for drag queens. Oh yeah, how'd that go? Uh did anyone die? It turned nobody died.
Before you go, I have an Iowa State question, by the way. Go ahead. Okay, great. Um I'm happy to report that uh I gave many notices, many warnings, and I don't think as far as I know, nobody did it. So um as far as the actual product itself, I don't know if I had some issues with humidity, um, but it wasn't as light and fluffy as I had wanted.
Um I definitely nailed the flavor of it. It ended up being what did I do? Um I I measured the weight of the powder and the oil and then did 20% of that as powdered sugar, and then kind of hit tear in my mind and then did two percent of that as citric acid, and that was pretty spot on as far as uh flavor and acidity for palate cleanser and whatnot. I wish I could hit tear in my mind and just go to zero in my brain. Can you imagine?
Your brain has all this shit stuff in it, you're just like you hit tear and your brain goes to zero. Oh my god, that's my new that's my new thing now. I'm gonna hit mental tear. Boop! Mental tear nice at night.
I I'd buy I'd I'd buy that t-shirt if you guys put that on a t-shirt. Yeah, cooking issues, mental tear. Mental tear. Uh so yeah, it all went well. Uh but uh but um but it wasn't as light and powdery as I wanted.
It it served its function, but I don't know if it was a humidity thing or what the deal was, but it was still kind of clumpy. Yeah, yeah, that stuff's vicious with humidity, but uh you just need to add more of that maltodextrin. But the problem then is you you reduce the flavor. That's why it's very hard to get a good balance between flavor. So you so like the the the way that you do it is you the way that you'd either you have to use extremely concentrated flavors, or you'd have to like o like like like uh lemon oil, right?
Or um right, you know, or add an excess of the uh and zorb it, in which case you're gonna reduce the uh flavor delivery. So there's not like like most things in life, uh not losing is the new winning. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, pretty much. And that I that's kind of the point that I got to too, and I mentioned my my procrastination with the whole thing.
So I actually ended up using the lemon-infused olive oil from down the street from the you know, the spice shop and the colour. But we talked about this. It tastes gonna taste like olives. It didn't. It didn't though.
Once you had the citric acid and the sugar in there, it was it wasn't it probably wasn't like you know, three Michelin star level lemon quarry underpowder or whatever, but it served its purpose. I think once the citric acid and the sugar was in there, it kind of gave the lemon flavor more context and it all worked out. I was really happy with it. Everybody that reported back that it was freaking delicious. They were speaking of uh speaking of lemon olive oil, speaking of lemon envelope, we're gonna have uh Nick, what's Nick's last name again?
Um really? Yeah. What's his company? Um Grove and Vine. Anyway, Grove and Vine, we're gonna have Nick on who's an olive oil.
Well, he's like, he's like an olive oil hunter. He goes around the world hunting olive oils. Dave chased him around with the bottle. Yes. What's it called?
Okay, so there was a so he has all of this like super fancy, like he knows the farmer, like he's he's chases the harvester. Yeah, he's like he's pet the trees that came from, you know, like all over the world. And so he shows up, and Nastasi, of course, being Nastasia, has a giant bottle of colour on a picnic table that she's using to work with. And so I pick up the cola vita and I run after him like it's a dead fish on the beach. And he's like, and he goes, ah!
He started running away with me. All right, so here's my Iowa State question. Uh Isla State, uh, there was uh there are two people, uh Louise Pete and uh and uh Belle Lowe, or yeah, Belle Lowe, who were like the uh home ek professors in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s who did all of the amazing original kind of like science uh cooking work in the US, like five leagues above uh like uh Fanny Farmer and all of that stuff. Uh and so if you know anyone out there at at Iowa State, like uh I'd love I I I'm now currently buying all of the editions of all of their books from like the 30s up to uh you know 1970 to see kind of how it changes because these people not only uh did they uh kind of like pioneer this like hard science version of of kind of what we do, right? And kind of what McGee you know has done, not only that, but uh they modified their editions over the course of like 30 or 40 years, and so they went from an era where at the beginning they're telling you how to run a coal stove up until like microwaves are common in the kitchen, and so it's just this breadth.
And so like I'm interested in getting in touch with anyone at the Iowa State who uh I don't know, is interested or scholars or knew these people back in the day. So leave you. Give me what what are those what are those names again? I I might be able to connect you with somebody. Louise Pete.
What are the names again? Louise Pete and uh there's a murderer named Louise Pete, not her. They're not related. And uh uh Belle uh with an E and Lowe with an E. All right.
Yeah, like the German. Okay. Cool. But not Nerva Low. I think my mind goes to world of tanks.
There's a tank called the Lova or whatever. Anyway, um, so my question now. Uh oh wait, that wasn't the question? All right, what's up? Yeah.
That was a follow-up. That was a follow-up. So my question is um I do a monthly event where we make pizzas, and um I have the dough dialed in pretty pretty tight, and I usually make it in an uh industrial kitchen, obviously. Um, but the mixer that we're using is one of those giant, like six foot tall, probably sixty quart band mixers. Like a hobart.
Yeah, yeah, with like the turning the wheel that you have to turn to like lift the bulb, right? Things among things think the thing could rip a wheel off of a freaking freight train. Nice, nice um yeah. Um and so when I do that, it's usually 15 to 20 pounds of dough. I have no problems.
The dough comes out exactly as it should. Um when I try to make it at home in my kitchen aid, I cannot get the dough the same. It doesn't, it's it in fact the dough itself almost looks like a broken emulsion, like it doesn't get smooth. What which kitchen aid are you using? What size kitchen aid are you using?
Just the the the four and a half core one. Oh, the the tilt head? The smallest, yeah, the smallest one you can get. And how big is the uh how big a uh bread uh dough batch are you making I mean the one that I made yesterday was twelve hundred grams. Yeah that's a lot for that small guy.
Is it do you think if I did 1200 grams of 1200 grams total total. What's the high what's the hydration? 65%. I should be able to do it. But like the look at that little hook.
I borrowed someone's small kitchen aid uh the other day because I needed to do some experiments on uh on small loaves because my big the big kitchen aid let's just be honest I I've used KitchenAid my whole life my I I grew up my mom had one from like when I was born before I was born must have been given to her when she got married it was that weird yellow almond color you know I'm saying and like tilt head and I used that thing my whole life growing up when I got me married I was like I'm getting a kitchen aid in fact I think I got one beforehand maybe for graduation right like you know I had it I moved up the new kitchen aids blow you know what I mean like I know people love them but like the the really big kitchen aids that the dough hook doesn't touch the bottom of the freaking bowl. And so like it it doesn't like doesn't work. When I do the piece when I when I do this pizza dough I like when I do it in the big one I can throw I do it uh it's a pooler style so I feed it fermented overnight and then put some more flour in and let it mix for like 20 minutes. So and that thing incorporates the flour into that uh preferment in like a minute. This one when I do it at home, I have to like take the bowl out, lift like mess around a little bit with a spatula to try to get the whole thing to absorb because the very the very first time I tried to do it at home, it just didn't absorb.
So there was like this like hard packed layer of flour on the bottom, and then the ratio of the flour wasn't right in the dough, and it was just like ended up being this whole freaking mess. Anyway, so my question is uh I guess what this question is boiling down to is there any are you do you have any sort of uh connection with anybody that knows anything about scaling things up or down as far as like mixing times and because I I know it's the there's a lot that's a lot of things to consider because it's all like a physics thing, right? Like how well it works. But uh yeah, just like general guidelines for how you know Well, other than the next time we have Leahy on, right? Uh and the next time we have Leahy on, we can do that, or I can ask Wiley, I guess.
You know, Wiley's been doing uh his pizza, he's been testing his stuff on he's been testing it on a kitchen aid, but he has that even bigger giant one, that seven liter one. Let me ask you a question. Why do I have why should I have to pick the bowl up, lift it off of its pins and jack it back just so that I can make dough? It's ridiculous. Those guys put their bowls on washers on the pins to lift it up.
Why can't they just make it freaking work? It the kitchen aid is supposed to have an adjustment. People listen, listen. If you take the bowl off, there's a little screw behind on the kitchen aid on the column where it goes up and down. This is supposed to be an adjustment so that you can adjust where the bowl sits when it goes up and down.
But guess what? It doesn't work. You know what I mean? It it doesn't it doesn't work. Look, I'm a machine guy.
I like machines far more than I like people, and I can't get it to do what I want to do. Uh it's it's uh I had snare tint. But I like to do that. That's kind of that's that's the that's kind of related to this. So when I was younger, before I had my first Vitamix and I had my tax return, I was like, all right, I'm gonna get either get a tattoo, a Vitamix, or a KitchenAid.
What do you guys think? I asked the kitchen uh crew that I was working with, and I got I think the best response I could have gotten from the pastry chef. She said, A Vitamix, there's nothing that you can do to replace the Vitamix. Right. Ballpoint pen, you can give yourself a tattoo.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. She said, A kitchen aid is really more of a convenience thing. Kitchen aids do what they do, they don't necessarily do it as well as you were to do it if you were to like do it by hand, but it's something that just makes it a little bit more convenient, a little bit less work for you. And I was like, Oh, that's a that's a perfect answer. I got the Vitamix, of course.
Uh yeah. Yeah, well, that was a good call. Uh hit me back once you figure that up. Thanks for calling in. And by the way, I got I got one more thing.
One more one stash is gonna murder you. Uh I know. Make it quick. Suggestion for the suggestion for the Patreon. Okay.
Yeah. Jersey Bible. Uh well, we know that we want before the Patreon do the Jersey Bible. Do the dude something. Dude.
Something. Dude, Noah with his sons is not understandable unless you do it in Jersey. Like the fact that like they looked at the dad naked and that somehow caused all those problems, and one of them got like what did they say? What was the response? I gotta look at it.
I gotta look at it. Like one of them one of them backs up. Oh backs up. Oh. Oh.
And then they back up and they put it over. You looked at me didn't if you pr it Yeah. If you printed a version of that Bible, I would buy that. Like and I I fell off the the church wagon many years ago, but I would buy that and keep that like in prominent display in my in my apartment if you printed a Jersey version of the bike call. I mean, the the trick is to just do it like it's real.
Like that's like, you know, not like it's not about like changing the story or like, you know, poking fun at the story. It's just like, what if it was all folks from Jersey? You know what I mean? Yeah, you know, Staten Island counts too. We can get up to the island.
I mean, we'll get it. Maybe, you know. You know, it's like, you know, it's you got all the way like Israel, you got the Sinai, you got like all these different areas. I think it stretches from like Long Island down, I don't know, like uh, I don't know. How far down do you think we go, like uh Kearney?
Yeah. Yeah. That seems like a good place. Yeah, we don't go like Southern Jersey, though. No, no, no, no.
That's different. Southern Jersey is Philly. I'm not the one, no one's showing up and saying water. There's no that's North Philly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
None of that. No Camden Town stuff. All right. All right. Well, uh thanks.
Uh oh, little note of clarification for those people uh who listen to this that have the ANOVA steam oven. I had a little bit of a Twitter flurry last night with someone asking a question about holding chicken. And uh Scott, who no longer, you know, a Seattle food geek, who no longer works for ANOVA but still answers people's questions because he's a kindly fellow, uh, said this piece of information, which is actually not that easy to find on the internet. Uh when you have uh the steam oven set to sous vide mode. Are you with me, people?
And you set it uh uh at a temperature in sous vide mode below the boiling point of water, right? You are actually setting the wet bulb temperature. Do you understand what I'm saying? You understand what I'm saying? Yes.
The wet bulb. So you're setting basically what the internal temperature of the meat or food is going is going to get to, the wet bulb temperature. Got it. And then the percentage, right, uh uh of steam isn't actually doing the percentage of steam. What it's doing is just driving the what the the dry bulb temperature up as high as it can get without messing with the wet bulb.
That is how it actually works. So, like if you had fried chicken, which is what the poster was asking about, right? You set the you set it to sous vide mode, then you set it to the temperature you want to hold the meat at. And you know, he said 63, but I would recommend 60 because you know, don't actually set it at the temperature it's cooked to because it'll keep moving, you don't want it to keep moving. That's not what you want.
You want it to be stationary, whatever. So I would say 60, and then set the humidity level as low uh as you need to to maintain the crispiness on the outside, and that's what it's actually doing, which is unclear. It's unclear labeling. Or as it's uh said in the fan f was it fantastic, Mr. Fox, that's bad songwriting, PD.
Uh here's the thing. So Booker, we're talking about two things on Booker. Booker is extremely nervous that a lot of people are harvesting mushrooms right now, right? Because it's wet and falls coming, a lot of people harvest mushrooms. So whenever anyone sends me something saying, Oh, I've harvested all these amazing hen of the woods, which I know uh I know our man Joe loves over here.
I do. Yeah. Uh so I got someone who was like uh a friend of mine from Connecticut who's like, look at this, I got pounds and pounds of this crap. And I was like, Oh, nice. I'm gonna show up.
And Booker goes, What if you accidentally get a destroying angel, which is uh ammonita, which is an ammonita species that will kill you? And I'm like, Booker, they look nothing alike, but here's the thing that I want to talk about. Apparently, they are an incredibly delicious mushroom. So you can eat once you started eating an ammonita, you're gonna need a liver transplant anyway, or you're gonna die. So uh you might as well eat a bunch because apparently they are delicious.
They're just delicious. Yeah. Good for me. You imagine if someone eats one and they know they're gonna die, and and someone goes, yo, uh, yo, how's it taste? What was it good?
God's like, are you for real? Get me a transplant. What's wrong with you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I was it worth it.
Was it what did you use butter? You know what I mean? Garlic. You know what I mean? It's like I'm trying to imagine having the the stones to ask someone how it tasted when they had given themselves a desk.
It's also unpleasant because you have a couple of days of being a hundred percent fine. Anyway, whatever. Uh, but that wasn't what I was gonna talk about. So Booker, I wanna go around the room. What's a strawberry shortcake to you, John?
John, what's a strawberry shortcake to you? I guess like angel food cakes, a macerated strawberries whipped cream kind of a thing. Okay. Yeah, huh. Stas?
Those little like cup angel food cup things. Oh, the ones that you used to get in the store? Yeah. That have that weird shape. Mm-hmm.
Huh. Okay. That's exactly what I thought of. So that's you. First thing that came to mind.
Yep. Yo. I'm not a fan of angel uh uh strawberry shortcake. Huh. See, to me, strawberry shortcake is basically biscuits, whipped cream, and strawberries.
Like maybe with like some sauce on it, but like old school, old school. So I remember in the 70s those things being so sold as shortcake things, and I did like them, those orange weird spongy sh things. Um but at some point it's I think kind of almost lost its meaning with a lot of people. No one even remembers this biscuit thing anymore. Like shortcake is like biscuit dough, uh maybe slightly sweetened biscuit dough with cream and strawberry.
It's a very lightly sweet dessert. Anyway, so Booker has become obsessed with the what he believes is an Italian bakery phenomenon of the strawberry shortcake that looks like a standard cake. Looks like a standard cake. It's basically a light, like cross between whipped cream and and buttercream, and like a genoi base, right? That's not a full angel, it's not a full sponge, it's somewhere in the middle.
This is the weakest of all cakes. And it's got like glazed strawberries on top. And Booker travels around the five burrows on the subway, going to various bakeries to sample their version of this strawberry shortcake. And he will come home after a day's rail fanning with a whole cake, throw away anything that's important in the fridge, stick it in the fridge, and then proceed to eat it fundamentally on his own over the course of a day. Wow.
All right. So I need anyone out there, first of all, to tell me the on point strawberry, this type type of strawberry shortcake in the five boroughs that he can go visit. So I was like, you know, Booker, a lot of people love Veneiro's. Venero's is a widely loved bakery down here near Gramercy. It's been around since the 20s.
Uh, I haven't been there in many years, but they used to have an amazing box wrapping. Have you guys seen the box wrapper? Yeah. I have. I love it, right?
Yeah. So they they they put the cake or the pastries in the box, they put the box down and the box goes, whoa blah blah blah. And it like ties it in a bow without and you know. Yeah, I love it. Although I do appreciate uh seeing someone who can who can tie a pastry box wicked fast.
You know what I mean, with with the string that comes down from the ceiling. And then they they sit there and they somehow they go whip whip whip around their fingers and they break it, but they never cut their fingers. Yep. That's sick. It's a good skill.
Like whenever I try to do that, I like pull too slowly and it cuts into my fingers, and I'm like, oh, and then like you can't stop. And then when you pull it, you have that like line around it. And meanwhile, there's like this like 70-year old person who's just like shoot, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, pow. And then they hand you your box. There's skill in that.
Yeah. It's a good skill. Anyway, uh, so I was like, yo, what about veneros? And he's like, he goes online. They don't glaze their strawberries.
Oh, wow. And I was like, wow, hating on the I was like, Booker, maybe it's because they sell them so fast that they don't need to glaze them because they don't need to be preserved away. Does anyone, by the way, like those pastries? It's custard, sliced fruit, and goop on top. No, nobody likes it.
You are just in Brussels last week with my brother, we were outside of a pastry shop and they had those, and we're like, oh my god, we want to eat all of them. Oh, yeah. So you're who they've been built for. Yes, exactly. Because like whenever they show up, I'm like, well, they look good, but who's gonna eat these things?
And now I know like it's you. Yeah, it's usually, yeah. In my house, it's difficult to share. Yeah, don't want to share. Love those.
I don't know. What about like when they've been sitting too? Do they need to be maybe if they're hyper fresh, I would like them. Yeah, I mean, you still want I don't know, like good to be crunchy crust on the bottom and all that stuff, but yeah, I don't know. It's love it.
Okay, yeah. Okay. Interesting. You learn something new about people every day. Every day.
Speaking of Belgium, you have some Belgian products here. You want to talk about them? I do, yeah. So I got you at the checkout because it was in your own, I figured why not get it for you. It's uh Siro de Liège, so it's a like fruit butter from Liège.
It's really I don't know, typical kind of thing. It's got uh made of apples, dates, and pears. And is it is it like like an American fruit butter, like apple butter? Yeah, but I love apple butter, I grew up on apple butter. It's delicious.
This is really good too. But this also in Liege, you can find it's a local specialty. It's called boulet liégeous, so it's a big meatball that's braised in a sauce that's based on this and served over French fries with all the gravy and everything. It's really delicious. Wait, so like a like a fruity meatball?
Kind of, yeah. Like a little sweet. I like a sweet meatball. Yeah, no, no, it's it's delicious. And then I got you the mustard from Tiranten.
Fabulous mustard. Yeah. So, like, for those of you that don't know, if you're ever in Ghent, you gotta go to the mustard lady or her son's. She will not answer any of your questions. She will get surly if you attempt to continue to ask questions about how she makes the mustard.
It's piped up from the basement, and then she serves it with a big ladle into your buckets. And it is, I believe, uh, John, you said it is uh unparalleled. Yeah. Yeah. Which it is.
Yeah, no, I mean it's it's the best. They've been making it since 1790. They now have four or five other products too that they make, but this is the one core of it. I I had their like mustard pickles. They're fine.
Yeah. Uh this is let me ask you a separate question. Uh, have you had the so the name of it? Can you pronounce it for me in Tiranten? Like Varenne.
What is it? Tiranten Verlon. Right. Now, there is another mustard from Belgium with a very similar name that is made and sold in places other than that one store. And so they're kind of like riding on the name.
Yeah. Is it bunk or is it just not as good? I don't know. I've never had it. Because why would you?
Yeah, that's where my my dad was from and everything. So yeah, just went and it's what we'd always get. Yeah. Yeah, the Gentish, the Gentish mustard. Yeah.
What's the name of the nasty little Ghent pyramid-shaped candies? Oh, I had one of those. They're nasty. Yeah, they're not great. They taste super medicinal.
It's like an out diabetes and a bite, essentially. It's so sweet, but it's like a hard outer, not hard, gummy, hard outer shell thing with like the sweet syrupy kind of filming. Yeah. Cooperton. That's what's yeah.
It's like the shit's Dutch for the shape of Pinocchio's nose. Which also, it's like an early Pinocchio before he tells lies because it's not that big of a pyramid. It's true. You know what I mean? It's just an unpleasant thing.
Listen, if you're going to Belgium, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. If you're going to Belgium, they have many, many, many good things. Yes, the waffles are that good. Yes, the fries are that good.
Yes, they just are. Okay. Like a bad fry in Belgium is better than a good fry here. That's just the truth. I'm sorry.
You know what I mean? Look, you want to get someone, you want to choose one of the waffle places that's making it fresh, not people who sandbag them, right? But even so, even a sandbagged Belgian actual Liege style waffle is better than a fresh-made one here. Absolutely. It just is.
It's all true. But this thing sucks. You know what I mean? They're allowed to have they're allowed to have one complete fail. Yes.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep. Yeah. Never been to Liege.
I would go back to Belgium in a heartbeat, though. I like it there. Yeah, Liege is really nice. Yeah. Uh so who do we have as upcoming guests?
Because I want people to get ready. Oh, and by the way, let me give the telephone number because I realize I didn't do it. If you have questions, you're listening live on the Patreon. Call them in to 917-410-1507. That's 917-410-1507.
And if you're listening to this uh later, because uh you're not a Patreon member, if you want to call in or listen live, you can join us at uh what is it? What's our website for that? Oh blanking. Sorry, it's been two weeks. Gag, what is it there?
Patreon. What's our Patreon website? Patreon, do you just search cooking issues on Patreon. I don't even know if it's a dedicated We're good at this. Patreon.com slash cooking issues.
Slash cooking issues. There you go. Yeah, yeah. We're good. Uh okay.
Uh so who do we got coming up? Okay. Next week we've got Seth Godin. Oh, do you guys remember Seth Godin? Seth Godin uh wrote like a bunch of books on like how would you how would you describe these books, Nastasia?
They're marketing, they're B books for for marketing and uh yeah. Right, but they're like they're not like uh they're not like normal books. They have like all kinds of like graphics and like all kinds, it's like they're kind of like they're their own thing. Yeah, they're their own thing. Yeah, but he's also a food guy and claims to have had claims to have worked at a bagel shop that produced the everything bagel prior to prior to the uh person who claims on the internet to have invented the everything bagel uh during a high school job by just sweeping up all the crap that was left over and dumping it on a bagel, right?
So he's gonna come and talk about that and remember is he bringing his friend in? Yes, yeah, really Kathy, yep. Oh my god, people. Listen, you need to get you need to join so you can listen live and call in because you're gonna have the rare treat of being able to speak live to the person who invented Fudgy the Whale, someone who personally knew Tom Carvel, someone who really knows the meaning of Wednesdays and Sundays at Carvel. All right.
Now, for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, too bad you didn't live on the East Coast back in the day because Carvel Ice Cream. Carvel ice cream, Carvel Ice Cream is the truth, right? Now, I'm okay. Uh again, sorry, apologies to everyone who doesn't live in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Major Metropolitan area. Mr.
Softy doesn't taste terrible. I like Mr. Softy. I love the fake vanilla flavor. They're chocolate, man, but the fake, eh, maybe it's not even fake.
I don't know. Mr. Softy, I have good feelings. That weird dude, the Mr. Softy dude with the bow tie on the styro cup, right?
Oh, yeah. But Carvel ice cream is just good. I just like it. It's always been high quality. I haven't had it in a while, but I still love it.
What do you guys think about the car? Yeah, I grew up on it. Yeah. From Long Island. Yeah.
Yeah. Enjoyed. Yeah. Love it. Yeah.
Yeah. You know what other ice cream's from New York? Hagadath. I didn't know that. Not Scandinavian.
From the Bronx, right? Yeah. Uh, something like that. Yeah. You know, uh, and so like they were sitting around there like, uh, it's gotta sound foreign or ain't no one gonna buy it.
They've worked. Yeah. Yep. It's like, oh, it sounds fancy. Yes, hog like it has like eight A's and like three umlauts.
What's in that thing? Two A's, one with an umlaut on it. Yeah, that's just a ridiculous. Yeah. Ridiculous.
That was the uh talenty of the 70s, right? Like uh, but uh anyway. Where's Talenty made? I don't know. That's also gotta be something like that.
Hoboken. Uh well. Then also uh we have uh your well, somebody who you reached out to, Dave, Don Schaefer. Oh, Shaffner, sorry. Yeah.
Uh coming on to discuss uh food safety. Right. So listen, you're gonna want to get your stuff in, think about it, get into the Patreon beforehand. If you ask a question that is best for an upcoming guest, we're gonna save it for that upcoming guest. All right.
So like start sending in your food safety questions. And unless you say, I'm about to poison my family this week, we'll save it for when the uh appropriate guest comes on, right? Yep. Yeah. Then we have Eric Werheim coming on to discuss Foodheim's new book.
Right. Now really exciting. Uh he can't do it during our normal time, but I don't know whether or not we're going to be able to have the Patreon people listen live or not. We haven't figured it out yet, right? Right.
Still working on that, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's still get it early.
Patreon will always get it early. Yes. Yes. And maybe we can even give out a phone number so they can call with related questions if they have one. Yeah.
Okay, then after that, hopefully, I think we are having on uh Michelle Zauner from Crying in H Mart. Nice. Still being finalized. Um we've got Sandor Katz coming in. We have uh Chef Virgilio Martinez from uh Central down in Peru to come talk about his new cookbook, and then in December, we will also be having Amanda Cohen joining us.
Nice from Dirt Candy. Yep. Nice. And to go back to Patreon questions. Uh Rob Pascoe's follow-up on question from before.
Hey, reporting back. Sorry, my question wasn't queer uh clear. The original question is is it worth taking the time to grind slash sand back a new lodge cast iron skillet until smooth? Uh what I was trying to understand was if sanding a skillet back would result in a better product. Needless to say, I got the grinder norble sander and took about 30 minutes to get it down.
I used uh 40 and 80 grit grit flap discs. Flap disks sounds like flapjacks, huh? Yeah. Yeah. You like do you do you like calling a pancake a flapjack?
I I do. I should do it more. Yeah. Never think about it. Can I tell you uh pancake?
Can I tell you pancake thing? Please. Okay. So uh pancakes originally were done with um weaker flowers, right? Like lower protein flowers, right?
Uh so if you're gonna use uh a high like a relatively high protein AP, like you have like uh um what's it called? Uh what's that with with the with the night? King Arthur or you have uh like uh Heckers or one of these guys uh like a good way to get the lower protein and also like add some flavor is just toss some random garbage into it. So like I always toss like what you do is you toss the random garbage into the liquid base right so uh wheat germ is good random garbage tastes good uh oats good random garbage tossed up not the not the steel cuts please come on don't be an idiot like just toss it in there right low protein items things that aren't gonna do a lot of protein so pancakes are the perfect vehicle for just tossing random random garbage into so just if you're gonna use AP flour one good way to dilute the protein random garbage it's helpful if it's starchy random garbage I know that wheat germ is not starchy where should you store your wheat germ people freezer oh or fridge fridge at least fridge right because it kind of yeah and uh you know unless you use it a lot don't buy I mean I don't buy weed germ anymore because I grind all my whole wheat oh my god I've been doing so many tests on on uh hydration levels and whole wheat we'll see if we have any time to get into it. Okay so oh my god I lost my point my place in the question where was I very beginning 40 and 80 grit flap discs on the grinder.
Flap jacks. Um all right then uh 120 through 400 on the orbital sander with a bit of 800 through 1200 but geez Louise that's a lot uh you rightly point out that uh you should not start with 40 grit 40 grit 40 grit is like uh is like your driveway you know what I mean? Like, unless you're one of those places where you come where they have concrete driveways. Where I come from, we have like black top driveways where when your bike flies off of it, like you lose like half your arm. You know, you have any of these things?
Yeah. Yeah. So like that's like 40 grit. Like 40 grit is like hardcore. Although, like, do you guys, when you're asleep and you get like uh an itch, do you have dreams of taking extremely coarse sandpaper to it and just going chunk chunk chunk?
No. No, absolutely not. I'm the only one. I think I've had one like that. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I know Nastasia and I are alike in this. Like when when you have like a like an itch, I love burning the hell out of the shower. Like dry skin in the winter. Oh my God.
Burn the hell out of it with a shower. That feeling when the hot water just where you can stand it, where you feel like James Brown, like you're like, ah, like that, like that feeling. Yeah. Oh yeah. But doesn't a really hot shower like that make you itchier later?
Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Okay. The feeling at the time is so satisfying. But no one else will cop to this but Nastasia and myself.
No one will cop to it. It's true. I will do this. Even like if you have, let's say you have a uh let's say you have like a like a like a real bad itch, like a bug bite or a dry patch on your arm and you're in the kitchen, you're telling me you don't turn the faucet on super hot and then just go right on that thing? No.
Come on, man. Come on. I'll try it. All right. Uh yeah.
One tip that he passes on is don't start with the 40 grit. It created a few scratches that were difficult to sand out. Yeah, listen, if the grit that you're using is bigger than the marks you're trying to take away, you've made a mistake. All right. And also, you don't really need to take away everything on a cast iron.
You just need to knock away a lot of the high spots, right? Uh it's okay to leave a a little bit uh in there. It's gonna get filled in by the oil anyway. All right. Uh interestingly, with the surface being materially smoother, I've had some difficulty getting the seasoning to stick.
Any tips here? Uh love your work. Yeah. Uh you just go thinner, right? So, like those gloopy things, they take up like a lot of seasoning, but they tend to be uneven.
It's just going to take you a little bit longer to uh to season it. That's all. Um, yeah. And yeah, I mean, I I think the original ones that they did it, uh, I don't know that there's a I would assume there's not a porosity difference between uh modern cast iron and old cast iron. I don't know.
Uh but I would just say keep at it and it's gonna take a little bit longer to uh to season it. I don't know whether that they so the the folks at Misin are selling this uh seasoning wax, which is like a solid oil for seasoning, but I have no experience with it, and like I've never had a problem just waiting around for my because I always have a bunch of pans. So when I get something new that needs to be seasoned, I just put it into the rotation and eventually it gets seasoned, and like I just deal with the fact that like, you know, like kids. You know how kids they're like like you get them and you're super excited, and then they go through this period where you're like ah, and then they get seasoned and they're good again. You know what I mean?
Anyway, like that. Um, NFK wrote in. Uh I have an orange glow watermelon, which I can't read as anything other than orangelo, which is like some sort of orange yellow thing. But have you guys looked up this orange glow watermelon? It is purdy.
It is an orange, it looks like a creamsicle orange color. It's real pretty. But it's one of those things, it's like uh it's it apparently, according to NFK, it is a watermelon built for the Instagram. It really is. Yeah.
Uh while beautiful, it's not as intense in flavor as some other heirlooms I've had. Bradford is still the king in my book, says NFK. And apparently the Bradford is a delicious watermelon. I've never had it. I haven't either, but I've heard amazing things.
I see. It's like a longer one. Yeah. Well, it's just, you know, the apparently the taste of the flavor. So where where are we, by the way, in the room on watermelons?
Love. Great. Yeah. Okay. So so.
So so? Yeah. Why? I don't know. Because bad watermelon is really disappointing.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's, I think, most of my memories with watermelon. What makes it bad? Uh no flavor.
Right. But to me, I don't like when the texture gets hyper mealy in the middle. Oh, that too, yeah. Yeah. Or when it's too firm, also.
See, I'm gonna say something perverse. I really like the lower flavor parts of the watermelon near the rind because I love the texture of it so much. That's fair. Okay. You do you, yeah.
Yeah. Stas, what are your thoughts on the on the watermelon? I like it. When it's perfect, it's perfect. Do you like your watermelon room temperature or cold as ice?
Room temperature. Really? Mm-hmm. I love it cold. I mean, watermelon cold as ice.
It's willing to sacrifice my love. That song goes. Yeah. So NFK is planning to process uh this orange glow watermelon uh into a cocktail and could use suggestions. In the past, they've made a drink with Singani, which is the uh the booze that's being hawked by uh the uh traffic director.
Uh what's it come on? How about it? Oh, um Michael Mann? No, no, no, no. Oh no, no, no, no.
Oh, what's his name? Famous. Now he does the iPhone sports things. Come on, come on. Soderbergh.
Yeah, yeah. Michael Mann. Uh which I've never really worked with it. Everyone seems to like it. It's a product, but I've never worked with it.
It's it's okay. You had it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Uh and a co apparently, which I appreciate about it, he went down wherever he was shooting. Someone poured him. He's like, I like it. I'm gonna start selling this stuff.
Which yeah, I appreciate. Yeah, yeah. He wasn't like, I'm gonna become the face of it. He wasn't like, and I love him too, but he wasn't like on Clooney, like taking a moped around this city being like, drink Singhani, you know what I mean? It was just like, I'm gonna be a part of this thing.
All love for the colonium. No, no, it's not an anti-cloony rant. Anyway. Uh in the past I made a drink with Sangani and a cold processed watermelon syrup and then jacked it with lime acid and salt at uh out of balance without too much flavor, but I'd like to switch it up for this one NFK. Well, one problem you're gonna have when if if you're gonna clarify it, right?
So if you're gonna clarify the juice, um, I'm pretty sure that the colors in watermelon are very kind of lycopene based, and a lot of those lycopeney colors, when you clarify them, stay with the pulp. And so it's probably gonna come out, if you clarify, it's probably gonna come out kind of yellow. You know what I mean? Which isn't necessarily gonna be, you know, it's not gonna give you that orange glow love. You know, the color's probably probably gonna change.
That said, uh, I mean, I I have a tough time. I've had water other people's watermelon cocktails that I've really liked, but I've never made a watermelon cocktail that I thought tasted better than a watermelon. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That makes sense.
Yeah. Um the closest I've come is carbonating, right? So that in that case you're using like a lot of watermelon juice and you're keeping it fresh, like a zero heat situation, so like not a syrup, like just a lot of watermelon juice. And then you want I typically uh I stay with a very light flavored alcohol, like I'm almost even like vodka as a base, and then just try to be about the lightness. You know, it's about the lightness.
Other people obviously, you know, freeze cubes of watermelon and use them for ice cubes and your frozen drinks. Sure. Works. You know what I mean? A lot of pulp.
So, like, you know, Nastasia does not mind pulp in her drink. Why don't you talk about why don't you talk about your your uh pulpenstein's monster drinks that you were making over the weekend, Stas? Holy passion fruit and not a puree, by the way. No, it's just like uh I don't eat it's just the seeds. So yeah, it's just seeds and pulp.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we usually we put it in orange juice, but this weekend we did it in Prosecco, I think. Yeah, sounds great. It's good. It's cut like alien eyeball seeds floating around.
And I was like, Dave, do you want or you want it plain? And I was like, what am I saying? And yeah. Yeah, I was like, uh, yes, Daz, uh, you know I can't do goop in my drink. Yeah, yeah.
Quickly from the live chat, we have a lot of support for the Bradford. Uh Clayton says it's next level melon. And then someone says Moon and Stars is worth finding also. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What so where's the name? Is it is a dark colored watermelon? Um, it looks like the uh outside is kind of see. Is it like no, but the inside is it is it purple? Like why moon and stars?
No, it's got like yellow spots on the outside. Uh oh, yeah, that would explain it. Oh, all right. Well, you know. Looking right at that in my missed melon season this year, so we're hosed until next time.
Just like I missed the freaking mushroom festival at Kenneth Square because I was doing other work. All the mushrooms. I think you were doing cocktails for a wedding. All the mushrooms in California are in a bank in Beverly Hills. No, they're in they're in they're in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
They're all grown right around Kenneth Square in somebody else's name. And not just button mushrooms. They grow all them, all the mushrooms. They grow them all. And there's every year in September, there's a freaking mushroom festival.
They have a fried mushroom eating contest. They have sick t-shirts. Right? You can talk to the mushroom growers. They sit there.
They have like a whole bunch of mycelium that they bring with the stuff coming up. And you get to hang around. They have bad local talent, I'm sure. I mean, maybe great. Maybe great.
No offense, Kenneth Square. Wow. You know what I mean? And like, uh, and like, I was like, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go.
Because they didn't have it during the first wave of the pandemic, but they had it this year. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. And then I couldn't go.
Sounds awesome. People text me, they're like, how was the mushroom festival? I could out eat those sons of I could I could take that. If I was still in my prime, if I was just even three years younger. I'm still in my prime.
If I was still in my prime, I'm breaking out of you for mushrooms any day of the week. Any day of the week. Uh baby of three minutes to use them lines. Nick Robertson uh had a question about cocktails and turn times, and Nastasia's answer was shut up and just try it. Yes.
Yeah. Well, uh Braden Williams uh sent in a more helpful follow-up to that. Uh at Cooking Issues, pro tip for the question on cocktails and turn times. Look at the change in uh RevPash revenue per available seat hour. Good papers are available from at Cornell School of Uh Hospitality and something at Cornell SHA on what it is, why it matters, and how to calculate it.
We'll try to dig up later tonight. Well, Braden didn't dig it up for me, but uh he did give you that little piece of uh uh advice. Uh Dakbod wrote in hey, uh been kegging Moscow mules and gin and tonics, blitzers and corny cakes for a while now, all using CO2. Generally, we've had an entire separate regulator and tank to set to a much higher pressure to uh carbonate the drink, and then we hook it up to our beer PSI to push it at 12 to 14 PSI. Uh, I'm really wanting to do a great margarita and mezcal margarita on tap for a new concept.
Should I use nitrogen? Yes. Okay. Uh yeah. Yeah, you don't want to carbonate your margarita.
A carbonated margarita is entirely different spec. I've made them and they're good. But you have to lower the tequila usually unless you unless you use a very light tequila. You would never do it with mezcal. Uh, and you have to change the specs quite quite dramatically.
If you want to push a standard margarita out, yeah, you're gonna use uh nitrogen. Uh, but I would do it at a very high pressure so that you get some aeration as it comes out of the nozzle. You don't want it to just you don't want listen, a margarita is a shake and drink. So you don't here's what you don't want. Light margarita with the texture of a stirred drink coming out.
Please! Trash, garbage, filth! You need to have high pressure and a lot of aeration. Come on. Let's go high quality.
Uh from SN Gray 17 via Instagram. Now, I've never heard of this before, Staz. Get ready for it. I'm struggling to figure out how to make dog beers. Right?
Let me say this again. Hey, Dave, I'm struggling to figure out how to make dog beers. Now, what you may ask, is it dog beer? Answer? I had no idea.
I had to look it up. I think what uh SN Gray 17, and I'm just gonna go ahead and say that this is probably a guy. I'm just gonna go ahead and say that. I don't know. Fair assumption.
I don't know, but I'm just gonna say this is a guy thing. I hope it's a woman. I hope so too. Uh, but it's broth. So basically, what this person wants to do is they want to make canned broth for your dog so that you can pop open uh uh a mycalobe, pound it.
Do they still sell micelobin cans? You want to pound your mycalobe, and then you want somehow your dog is also gonna drink out of a can next to you, I think. Or you get to have the a feeling with your dog of like pouring it into their bowl, right? So it's broth in a can. Uh so I'm struggling to figure out how to make dog beers slash broth sell shelf stable in beer bottles or cans.
I know pressure canning is a safe slash obvious option, but mason jars are not exactly the marketing strategy I'm looking for. What are your thoughts? Any resources you could recommend to help me solve this problem? Thanks for your time. Yeah, you can just retort, you can just retort.
Look, the reason that you can't retort carbonated things like beer, don't carbonate the broth. That's crazy, right? The reason that you can't retort something like a beer is because the pressure on the inside of the can when you heat it to that temperature is gonna be a tremendous, right? And it's gonna like rupture the suckers. But if it's not carbonated, then you can just send it through a standard retort, like a like a canning facility that does like, I don't know, soup, right?
And then just put it into a can and those same things because there's not a lot of pressure, you could just put it through a normal canning procedure like you would have for a beer, and then just send it to be uh retorted, right? Make sense, time's up, Dave. All right. I think that's actually all the questions. I didn't get to talk about, I didn't get to talk about uh my failed bread experiments that I spent three months working on.
Uh we could talk about it next time and the advantages and why people, why you shouldn't listen to anyone who's only run an experiment one time. Yeah? Yeah. Cooking issues.
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