Stan S.'s Profile

My problem right now, is that there are so many recipes which specify a Cuisinart (and it's cousins from other mfg-rs) to make something; dough, sauces, mousse, etc. For many cookbooks and cooking sites it's the 'one' gadget they assume you have. Frankly between my stand-mixer with a grinder attachment, a blender and knives, I think I do a better job making dough, puree and even making a more evenly ground/chopped whatever than a Cuisinart. I gave up my mezzaluna/wooden bowl and chopping with two knives on a cutting board techniques when I got a grinder, two passes and you're done and it's not total mush. (And as for stand mixers, I hate the tilt function, I have what was the cheapest lift model at the time; K5SS - but I've had it for 30 years now. BTW, buy white it goes with any decor; can you live with apple green or majestic yellow in 30 years?)

Hard to find but I like Aero Housewares brand which are food safe plastics with a screw lid and had containers that could hold 10lbs. Unfortunately they went out of business in 2008.

Have you considered buying plastic containers at your local BJ's or Sam's Club, etc., which have snack stuff like Utz's Cheese Puffs or Snyder's Pretzels? these things are huge screw lid containers that can be re-purposed into storage containers (for free). I use them to store rice, and flour (specialty rices like Basmati are cheaper in larger bags).
If you find these too big, store them in the closet and get smaller containers like those used for Rice Selects for ready access on the shelves. The Rice Selects brand even have good hand holds built-in and are square which means that you will fit more of them in a small space.

Frankly having lived in a brownstone in NYC, everything should be stored in something (even boxed goods in a huge baggie) to deter pests.

Just a comment. TV food shows generally over-salt and season so that you can actually see the stuff on camera and for the flair shot. Even Julia did this and admitted it in interviews (but I don't have time to find a link). I hate it when chefs say, 'ahalfa teaspoon' and they proceed to sprinkle a tablespoon and other measuring gaffes (a quarter cup of oil for a tablespoon), gigantic pinches of whatever. It's particularly funny when they do it into a measuring cup looking at the camera, and it's obviously not what they said.

Justin Wilson (who originally brought Cajun to national attention) was the only TV chef whose unmeasured measures were actually the right amount as he often demonstrated. Watch a few of his shows to see what real measures actually look like on TV. Sarah Moulton - who worked on Julia Child's set - is particularly aware of this and seldom doesn't measure on camera and her 'ego droppings' are noticeably smaller than most. Free hand unmeasured seasonings lead to oversalting, etc.

Everyone should do what Justin Wilson did, measure into your hand once you understand how much area a given measure covers.

1. Never run a partially empty dishwasher if you want to save energy. It's 7-9 gallons of hot water no matter what's in there. If you run water while hand washing, the dishwasher is more cost effective.
2. Even a dishwasher that claims to have a 'garbage disposal' will clog the jets with food particles (I have one that does), so scrape everything off, but don't rinse. Learn how to clean your jets and any internal filters. Bosch is one of a few that don't have this problem.
3. Prewashing is usually a waste of water unless it's incredibly dirty.
4. Normal is the best cycle with the Heated Dry turned off, but 'Added Heat' turned on so that water that is too cold or that cools off with all those dishes maintains the proper temperature.
5. Dishwashers and soaps are made for water that is 200 grains or less of hardness. Many cities and towns do NOT have this (you can ask your water company). You can put a couple salt tablets (those that are made for water softeners) in a cut stocking or if you can find it a hanging perforated plastic dispenser cup (like the ones they had for JetDry years ago) in the machine to reduce the hardness. Don't block the jets or put it in the bottom of the dishwasher, inside the back of the upper rack is fine.
6A. NEVER put in more than a tablespoon of dishwasher powder/liquid unless the mfgr says so. You are ruining your dishwasher (especially true where you have soft water 100 grain or less).
6B Powdered detergents can etch glass and china since they contain sand to keep the powder free flowing.
6C Switching from a phosphorous to bleach based based dish-washing cleaner can cause havic and chemically stained stainless. You need to run a few cycles empty.
7. Monthly put two cups filled with vinegar upright in the bottom rack and run the cycle to remove any calcium build up and help reduce the possibility of mold.( Get down on your knees if you have to and check for mold in the back upper corners even if you have SS tub.) Wipe the door frame where it joins the dishwasher as well as the gasket to remove debris and other mineral buildups. (Or you can buy $4-6 dishwasher cleaner packs but the vinegar is cheape, you still have to wipe the gasket/door framer.)

In this age of the Cuisinart, it's hard to find current recipes for stand mixers. But before there were the original Robot Coupe, stand mixers and the attachments were the go to kitchen appliances.

I have shredder/slicing, meat grinder, puree/strainer, sausage maker attachments. There are also as mentioned above the new Ice Cream attachment as well as Acme type pasta makers. I have a ice (or hot water) bath attachment (for cooked meringue as well as using ice and rock salt to make ice cream instead of the frozen inserts of today's attachment). I also have extruder disks for pasta for the grinder, and a solid copper bowl insert for whisking egg whites. Using these attachments and the higher horsepower mixer makes it possible to much larger batches of dough or double batches of cookie and cake mixes. A second bowl is a must. And unlike Cuisinarts, there's a much larger limit on the diameter of vegetables to slice, and the bowls being steel don't crack.

The Cuisinarts require meats and seafood to be ice cold (or add ice chips) when making a mousse to prevent it from cooking but two passes through the fine disk of the meat grinder won't and then you can mix it with whatever you whisked in the regular bowl. Meat will be more uniformly ground than with the chopper blades and less likely to turn to mush, grind your own hamburger; grind mushrooms for duxelles too. A shredder/slicer attachment will let you do unlimited amounts of vegetables instead of whatever cup size your Cuisinart is. That is one of the great advantages, stand mixers can do continuous processing (into as large a container as your have) so processing a bushel of summer ripe tomatoes or a peck of apples isn't a problem. They are workhorses. Yours should have come with a recipe book, give it try.

forgot, you never said what type of port you get. CI likes ruby port for cooking.

Even with salt the cheapest preservative, most spices were used to cover up rancid food tastes as well as extend food's shelf life.

Seasoning preferences have changed over the centuries as spices became cheaper and more available. Mace and allspice were the popular flavors a couple centuries ago among the rich. Today everything is spiced up with some chile flavor which would have been unheard of only 10 years ago. Even 30 years ago, fresh garlic wasn't in many American homes unless they were a couple generations from immigration.

Anyway after salt and pepper, I would say garlic cloves, and Ancho Chile powder are my favorites; Ancho isn't hot.

You have to all remember that today's Barilla is not the Barilla from a few years ago, today Barilla sold in the US is made in the US and is not imported anymore. There is a world of difference between the imported and the US mfgr'd version. You may be able to find the imported version at a specialty store.

Unfrozen fresh wild shrimp are a rarity where I live but available on occasion and worth the price.

If you buy your shrimp at the grocery store, remember that anything they have out defrosted can be purchased frozen though you may have to buy two pounds or more (up to five lbs) if they won't open a bag for you. My supermarket often has the US wild caught but only defrosted (unless you ask and they'll toss a couple extra into the bag to make up for the frost). I'm wary of defrosted seafood at the grocery store, particularly in open displays where the items are not fully covered in ice. The closed displays without ice that fog up periodically are fine. I've bought 5 lbs bags at discount/wholesale chains or when there is a really good sale.

IQF Shrimp defrost in 10 minutes under a slight stream of running water if you forgot to take them out.

Shrimp can also sold in ice blocks of usually two lbs or more, and is one of the few foods that 'net weight' actually means drained weight, and doesn't weigh the frozen water. While harder to defrost, shrimp in ice blocks can be frozen for a longer period of time than the IQF shrimp which tend to get freezer burn or dehydrate with time. If I bought a 5lb bag of IQF, I portion it up in zip locks and add water to cover and freeze.

Since I hate peeling shrimp, I buy at least 16-20 count for cooking. Anything smaller, I only make boiled/spiced shrimp with so I don't have to deal with the peeling and share that job among the guests at the dinner. I never buy peeled or ez-peel, since they are usually treated with some sort of bleach/whitener or preservative.

Avoid any shrimp treated with any 'phosphate.'

The foil/towel method is guaranteed to turn any crispness in the skin to rubber, tent loosely with foil if you must. Turkey skin is a pretty good casing trapping steam, Leaving a 12lb or bigger bird out to rest for 30 minutes isn't going to make it cold (unless you have the room temp to 40, put it in the garage... etc). You will still find that the meat will be plenty warm (steaming hot if you cut the breast meat off whole to slice on the side) and that you will have at worse; warm turkey after an hour. And if you do not believe this, heat your plates with the dishwasher (some have a setting) or a warming oven, no one will notice. You're more likely to serve cold gravy unintentionally.