Gravy's Cooking Thread

lurkingdirk

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i have nothing against anyone using teflon/ceramic pans, as long as you use a safe sponge, silicone spats and don't go above 400degrees and replace the pan every 3 years, you should be safe.

i'm personally just trying to have a non pfa/teflon life, i even gave up my zoji rice cooker w/ teflon for a stainless steel, korean one.

i was just over a friends place for thanksgivin, shes also trying to be plastics free, but she can't cook eggs w/o a teflon pan. if she asks, i'll say something, like i spent time w/ her in an air bnb for the summer and you know those airbnb pans are scary, the teflon was all scratched up, so i made eggs w/ the cheap stainless pan they had (high heat, butter + oil, almost like you are searing a steak), and the eggs didn't stick.

and then we tried again for thanksgiving, i showed her, she tried, i showed her again she tried. went thru like 6 eggs, but i think thats fine.

Im pretty happy with Hexclad pans. Good non stick, had the for about a year and a half, not a single scratch even though I’m not always careful about what utensil I use in them. I’d buy them again.
 
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Siliconemelons

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saw one dude fuck his shit up



He had to be trying pretty hard to get it to that point. Wow.

Ehhh yes and no....

What hex-clad "is" - is simply patterned teflon or ceramic or whatever they use now. There was a good youtube somewhere about "how it is meant to work" - and essentially the stainless parts are a smidge higher than the teflon parts so they take and skate off any damage in theory - however, what it does is also add in a TON more "edges" of the teflon to the base material and /that/ is the main cause of failure as seen in the video above... so you are adding something for resiliency in one way, but adding a lot more, a LOT more points of failure that are naturally occurring in what the product is. You also have food that "sticks" to the patterned stainless the same as it would with any stainless, but the surface tension/adhesion area is WAY smaller so it is /not as bad/ obviously as all stainless etc.

Like, asphalt driveways, if you edge one in concrete it will last way, way longer than one that does not have and edge done - its the edges that generally cause the eventual failures.
 
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lurkingdirk

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Ehhh yes and no....

What hex-clad "is" - is simply patterned teflon or ceramic or whatever they use now. There was a good youtube somewhere about "how it is meant to work" - and essentially the stainless parts are a smidge higher than the teflon parts so they take and skate off any damage in theory - however, what it does is also add in a TON more "edges" of the teflon to the base material and /that/ is the main cause of failure as seen in the video above... so you are adding something for resiliency in one way, but adding a lot more, a LOT more points of failure that are naturally occurring in what the product is. You also have food that "sticks" to the patterned stainless the same as it would with any stainless, but the surface tension/adhesion area is WAY smaller so it is /not as bad/ obviously as all stainless etc.

Like, asphalt driveways, if you edge one in concrete it will last way, way longer than one that does not have and edge done - its the edges that generally cause the eventual failures.

Good information, thanks! Hadn't thought of it this way.
 
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Furry

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Looking forward to prime rib season :)

Hope we still get the big Publix sale on them soon
Kroger sometimes does ribeye steaks 1 for 5.97/lbs. Every single time I've asked they'll honor the limit one on a whole 18 lbs prime rib steak.
 
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Mrs. Gravy

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I have my sisters/bonus sisters holiday cookie baking and exchange tomorrow.
We all try to bake different varieties of cookies.
I have been assigned Snickerdoodles (the cream of tartar variety, not a cinnamon sugar cookie pretending to be a snickerdoodle). I also was thinking about lemon ricotta cookies, simple shortbread cookies, and double dutch chocolate chip.
I make a mean chewy oatmeal raisin, but my big sis called dibs on that, so I will bake those another time.
Steady and I usually do not eat a lot of carbs, this will put us in a Christmas coma.
What are your favorite cookies?
I have about 19 hours til the exchange to bake 11 doz.
 
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Dr.Retarded

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I have my sisters/bonus sisters holiday cookie baking and exchange tomorrow.
We all try to bake different varieties of cookies.
I have been assigned Snickerdoodles (the cream of tartar variety, not a cinnamon sugar cookie pretending to be a snickerdoodle). I also was thinking about lemon ricotta cookies, simple shortbread cookies, and double dutch chocolate chip.
I make a mean chewy oatmeal raisin, but my big sis called dibs on that, so I will bake those another time.
Steady and I usually do not eat a lot of carbs, this will put us in a Christmas coma.
What are your favorite cookies?
I have about 19 hours til the exchange to bake 11 doz.
I have an aunt who was the cookie wizard when I was growing up. Her best and my favorite are chewy oatmeal cookies. Never been a big fan of chocolate chip. My wife will try to make cookies every now and then but she doesn't understand cookies should be moist and chewy, to me it's blasphemy to make a crunchy cookie.

I do love me some buttery shortbread cookies though, between that and oatmeal are probably my favorites. I should really try my hand at making some, I just don't do a lot of baking because you got to follow that stuff to the letter.
Mom would make cookies every Christmas and I forgot what the hell they're called, spritz cookies maybe. It's like a version of shortbread but you use dyes and make little Christmas shapes. Those are pretty delicious and something we had every holiday season while growing up.
 
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Koushirou

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I've always been a basic chocolate chip bitch. In the past, I'd take signups every Christmas for whatever MMO guild I was in and mail out my cookies for folks. Did like 60 dozen one year. I hadn't done it in a while, but decided to start again last year and I don't know why, but my cookies just come out sort of deflated now. They still taste the same and still taste good, but the shape/texture is off from what they used to be. I'm assuming since I've moved and just have a different oven that maybe that's the cause? Problem is I'm not really sure how to fix it. I've tried putting them in slightly longer or slightly shorter, but doesn't seem to make a difference.
 
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Dr.Retarded

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I've always been a basic chocolate chip bitch. In the past, I'd take signups every Christmas for whatever MMO guild I was in and mail out my cookies for folks. Did like 60 dozen one year. I hadn't done it in a while, but decided to start again last year and I don't know why, but my cookies just come out sort of deflated now. They still taste the same and still taste good, but the shape/texture is off from what they used to be. I'm assuming since I've moved and just have a different oven that maybe that's the cause? Problem is I'm not really sure how to fix it. I've tried putting them in slightly longer or slightly shorter, but doesn't seem to make a difference.
Could be the weather or something. I know making pralines, the weather has to be a certain humidity otherwise they just don't set properly. Maybe it's also just a combination of butter to flower or whatever. Could be the type of all purpose flour you're using.

I'm just spit ballin because I really don't know that much about making confections. Bread pudding I can do all day long or homemade ice cream, but baking things apart from a cobbler I'm pretty lost on with all of the rules and ratios.

A pastry chef I shall never be, it's definitely some culinary esoteric lore.
 

Furry

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I've always been a basic chocolate chip bitch. In the past, I'd take signups every Christmas for whatever MMO guild I was in and mail out my cookies for folks. Did like 60 dozen one year. I hadn't done it in a while, but decided to start again last year and I don't know why, but my cookies just come out sort of deflated now. They still taste the same and still taste good, but the shape/texture is off from what they used to be. I'm assuming since I've moved and just have a different oven that maybe that's the cause? Problem is I'm not really sure how to fix it. I've tried putting them in slightly longer or slightly shorter, but doesn't seem to make a difference.
Environment is huge in baking. Some recipes literally become almost impossible in the wrong environment. High humidity and high temps generally make cookies flatter. If you moved somewhere warmer I think chilling the dough is probably want you need. If you didn't move somewhere warmer, I'd look into if your flour isn't the same.

Temperature of the butter is vital in tons of baking recipes.
 
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moonarchia

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I have my sisters/bonus sisters holiday cookie baking and exchange tomorrow.
We all try to bake different varieties of cookies.
I have been assigned Snickerdoodles (the cream of tartar variety, not a cinnamon sugar cookie pretending to be a snickerdoodle). I also was thinking about lemon ricotta cookies, simple shortbread cookies, and double dutch chocolate chip.
I make a mean chewy oatmeal raisin, but my big sis called dibs on that, so I will bake those another time.
Steady and I usually do not eat a lot of carbs, this will put us in a Christmas coma.
What are your favorite cookies?
I have about 19 hours til the exchange to bake 11 doz.
White chocolate macadamia is my favorite. Soft, not crisp. Soft oatmeal raisin is also great. Soft peanut butter cookies. Nom nom nom.
 
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Furry

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White chocolate macadamia is my favorite. Soft, not crisp. Soft oatmeal raisin is also great. Soft peanut butter cookies. Nom nom nom.
My favorite is soft pfeffernusse, the dutch style. I almost never bake anymore, though. Basically down to making whatever cookies the family requests for christmas, which is a toss-up between pfeffernusse or rolled sugar cookies with almond icing.
 
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Mrs. Gravy

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I've always been a basic chocolate chip bitch. In the past, I'd take signups every Christmas for whatever MMO guild I was in and mail out my cookies for folks. Did like 60 dozen one year. I hadn't done it in a while, but decided to start again last year and I don't know why, but my cookies just come out sort of deflated now. They still taste the same and still taste good, but the shape/texture is off from what they used to be. I'm assuming since I've moved and just have a different oven that maybe that's the cause? Problem is I'm not really sure how to fix it. I've tried putting them in slightly longer or slightly shorter, but doesn't seem to make a difference.
60 doz...nice!
Ovens definitely vary. I have to rotate baking sheets due to a hot spot, to make sure foods bake evenly. I am what Steady refers to as frugal and have not been able to break down for a new appliance when this one still works (mostly).
 

Koushirou

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Yeah, I haven't had any issues with the oven at all. I'm guessing the biggest thing might be elevation, since when I did cookies previously it was at my old house in the mountains. I'm just not quite sure how to adjust for that. I did also realize that last year I tried to prepare and actually let my butter soften before using it, when previously I'd always forget and just chuck it in straight from the fridge, so I'll try to go back to just throwing it in there hard (ho ho). Will see how they turn out this year!
 
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Dr.Retarded

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My favorite is soft pfeffernusse, the dutch style. I almost never bake anymore, though. Basically down to making whatever cookies the family requests for christmas, which is a toss-up between pfeffernusse or rolled sugar cookies with almond icing.
I've never heard of those before. Also anything almond or amaretto is delicious.
 

Furry

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I've never heard of those before. Also anything almond or amaretto is delicious.
Where I grew up in MN had a lot of dutch influence, so those were super common around christmas. The hard ones are aids and awful. The recipe I follow is a modified version of this. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/155182/pfeffernusse-cookies/

Biggest difference is I use fresh microplaned ginger, also mess with the spice amounts and add some white pepper and all-spice, and procedurally the biggest change is I add the spices and extracts to the cooled molasses mixture rather than into the dry. Don't cheap out on the molasses. And I don't always use all the flour. Usually its a bit tacky if you do it right, but sometimes the dough starts losing its tackyness and I decide to stop. Recipe is solid as is though.
 
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