Food

Anybody else in Denver tune their water for brewing? Denver city water is insanely hard. I'm using a simple two-phase under-sink filter since I live in an apartment, but it doesn't touch the hardness problem. I've also read the city has drastically changed the pH to reduce lead leaching from old pipes.

In our house, we generally go for variety in our coffee beans. That means when we are finishing one bag, we're going to open a different bag with totally different beans inside.

Following up on the “Baking in the American South” post, I picked up some Nordic Ware pans today for bundt cakes and pound cakes.

The title says it short, this says it all, I want hot cereals! Breakfast, lunch, dinner, sweet, savory, wheat, oats, rice, you name it I want it! Give me your best cereal grain recipes!

I know, cool dry place, and it depends on your climate, etc. But what is your experience?

A lot of good cooking is in technique. What’s something that you discovered or was told that really changed something meaningful for you? For me, I had struggled a lot to make omelettes. They always wound up becoming scrambled eggs because I sucked at flipping them over to cook on the other side (I like my eggs cooked pretty well so this was important to me.) Finally, watching someone else make an omelette, I noticed they didn’t flip it. They put a lid on the pan, turned the heat down, and let the top cook that way. I tried it myself and now I make almost perfect omelettes every time. Have you had anything like this happen to you? If so, what was it?

I’ve been using James Hoffman’s recipe since I bought AeroPress, and I was pretty satisfied. While being simple, it produced rich, balanced cups of coffee for both light and medium roasts. I was happy with it. But then I started noticing that some light-roasted coffee was too bitter. It rarely happened, but when it did, it wasn’t possible to get rid of that excessive bitterness. When I tried to increase the grind size, I got watery, but still too bitter coffee. At first, I thought there was something wrong with the coffee beans, but then I thought, maybe immersion brewing was just not suitable for them. So, I decided to find another recipe.

The civet processed beans? I’m wondering if it’s all hype? Or worth buying a bag to try?

I’m currently wondering what to do if my favourite recipes go offline or if my mom’s special traditional dish where i have the recipe in written form gets lost. Do you have a (preferably FOSS) app to store such recipes? I’m currently trying Cooky which is FOSS but is difficult to use for cooking: you can’t really group cooking steps well and when cooking a recipe you can only view one step at a time unless you’re editing the recipe. I like however that you can tag the dishes so it’s easier to find specific stuff like vegan or spicy dishes.

My wife and I go through about 4lbs a month using mainly Chemex and Areopress. Used to get (decent) crummy coffee at Aldi and Grocery Outlet, occasionally splurging for local roasts at the coffee shops. Still, I calculate that’s about $35 or so a month on beans, Chemex filters should probably be calculated with how pricey they can be - napkin maths say $11 roughly for a months supply.

As per the title, what is a food that crunches/is hard to bite, but is also savory and sour?

Looking for some inspiration, my wife’s out of town this week babysitting he grandmother with dementia, so she’s been eating a lot of very bland, old-white-lady-palate-approved meals (her grandmother once described some jarred vodka sauce as being “too spicy”)

Or that it doesn’t make much difference in quality for the difference in price?

Or is it forever transformed?

I was frustrated earlier trying to figure out what to cook for dinner for a few picky eaters, so I typed:

For dietary purposes, I’ve been told to start including probiotic rich food in my diet and I figure since people in my house already like yogurt that’s the best way to go. But I absolutely hate the texture of yogurt. How can I change it and still enjoy the health benefits? I don’t love smoothies, but I’ll make one occasionally with yogurt. But I’d prefer to have some variety with this. Adding granola is alright, and definitely helps but even still I find myself just grossed out after two spoonfuls. Is there anything I can do? Is freezing it and turning it into something like frozen yogurt going to kill the cultures? It’s sad, because this is the only food I absolutely cannot seem to find a way to enjoy!

I put some asparagus in vinegar with garlic, red pepper flakes, and pickling spice a couple weeks ago. I just cracked it open, and they’re fantastic!

I've just reached the point where'd id say I have full control of the process (just bought a grinder, kettle has temp, I've got an accurate scale)

Am currently sick with a bad throat. While enjoying my cup of coffee, I had the thought; "Should I avoid coffee if I have a bad throat?". So, are there any studies or general consensus on this?

I have made chicken adobo (with coconut milk) many times with very good results. This last week, I tried the following recipe for pork adobo:

I have a recipe that calls for a dough to be autolysed (long bulk ferment while stretching and folding the dough). I'm fortunate to have access to a stand mixer. Is their any advantage to doing the autolyse? Should I just kneed it in the mixer to save time?

I'd like to experiment with a drip assist tool. Currently looking at Melodrip vs Hario v60 drip assist. The Hario is much cheaper, and I like the idea of not having to tie up both hands. Of note, I have been using less of my Chemex and more of the Orea big boy for multicup brews. It looks close, but I think the Hario drip assist might fit on big boy without falling in. Do you all think that these drip assists will have a bigger or smaller impact on these bigger multicup brews? Is channeling a real concern with the Hario and a bigger brew bed? What if I just rotate it between pours? How much are you adjusting grind size for these?