Equipment & Gear
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Equipment & Gear
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Recently, I received a wireless thermometer from Thermoworks to try out. Their newest product is called Smoke and is specifically designed to help people barbecue and smoke food at home. Smoke has two parts - a base unit (which takes two of Thermoworks standardized Pro-Series probes) and a wireless receiver unit - which lets the user track the air temperature and the food temperature without going outside to the smoker. Thermoworks is selling the Smoke at $99 and this would definitely welcome tool for anyone who likes to slow cook food outside. Read complete article
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These days when I reach for a spatula to turn food in a pan, I've been finding myself grabbing the GastroMax Slotted Turner more often than not. Tina bought this spatula for me after months (or maybe years) of listening to me complain about our various spatulas. After buying the GastroMax Turner, my complaining has stopped. Read complete article
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Kitchen Notes
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Kitchen Notes
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One of the most embarrassing moments of my life involves baking muffins for a visitor in my apartment back in April of 2007. These "muffins" I was making actually had to be good, not the barely eatable non-sense I usually made. Having no other game plan I threw something together, prayed, and dished out my questionable muffins to my guest. What a bad host I am!
That day, I thought really hard... so what exactly are baked goods? We say "pie crust, muffin, cupcake, coffee cake, puff pastry, and croissant", but do we know what they actually mean?
Michael Ohene is an electrical engineer by profession with an interest in the modeling and classification of artistic disciplines including: baking, knot tying, and floral design. At the heart of his research at www.whatsthesequency.com he demonstrates the ability to transform random logic into more accessible visual logic.
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The use of yeast gives baked goods (such as breads) both flavor and an airy lightness. Unlike chemical leaveners which react upon contact to produce gases, yeast are living organisms that digest sugars and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. Because they are living, we promote their growth and their production by providing them with warmth, food (sugars), and time. Yeast is used for a variety of purposes outside of baking (such as for brewing beer, for fermenting wine, and for ingesting as a nutritional supplement) but we'll focus on yeast for baking in this article. Read complete article
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