[0:00] Broadcasting live from Roberta's in Bushwick, Brooklyn, you're listening to HeritageRadionetwork.com.

[0:20] Hello and welcome to Cooking Issues. This is Dave Arnold, your host of cooking issues coming to you live from Roberta's Pizzeria every Tuesday at an undetermined time. Supposed to be 12. Happy Valentine's Day, people. This is the Valentine's Day issue of cooking issues. Call in all your questions live too. 718-497-2128. That's 718-497-2128. Here again with Nastasia the Hammer Lopez and the engineering crew in the other room. How you doing, Stas? Good. So the reason I'm late today. Today, literally, most of the time my fault. Most of the time, my fault. Check this one out. I'm on I'm on the subway because I still haven't fixed my bike yet, mainly because I'm lazy. And, uh, I run, run, because I see the train coming, right? The, uh, the, uh, J train, M train, whatever it is. I run like a lunatic, run, so I have a huge headache now, like almost like I'm going to like get an aneurysm or something like that. Jump into the car, door shuts, and then promptly sits on the platform for 20 minutes. They finally come on, open the door and they say, hey, uh, yeah, there's some lunatic. This is Valentine's Day in New York for you people. There's some lunatic walking across the tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge, like stumbling back and forth. Apparently, I don't know, some star crossed idiot. Like walking back and forth across the tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge. So there's no train traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge, and they don't open the doors to let us out. They trap us like sardines in a box. Thank God my son wasn't there because that's his worst nightmare on earth. So I had to run out and get a taxi so that I could talk to you fine, folks, today. Anyhow, happy Valentine's Day. Styles, what are you going to do for Valentine's Day? I'm babysitting your kids. Yeah, because I have to go work at Booker and Dax, the bar. And 1st of all, it's only till 10 and Nastasia's night doesn't even begin until 11. I should be getting the pity party because my wife is away on Thanksgiving. I won't even, I mean, Thanksgiving. On Valentine's Day, I won't even see my wife on Valentine's Day. I don't get a pity party for that. And check this out people. Today, Valentine's Day is the 20th anniversary of me starting to go out with my

[2:26] wife. 20 I started my 1st day with my wife was on Valentine's Day 20 years ago today and I'm not even going to see her dad. There you go. See, I believe I deserved a pity party for that one. But, yeah, I used to hate Valentine's Day. I hated Valentine's Day. so much. Like the 1st 20 years of my life, Valentine's Day, worst day in the world. But, uh, you know, ever since then, ever since I started going with my wife, it's been

[2:53] good day. Except today when she's not here. Anyway. Okay. Oh, by the way, I realized, I don't remember where it was last week or the week before, someone asked a question on Japanese Western style knives, because they had a, I forget which brand it was. I don't know. I forget. But Japanese Western eyes, which are sharpened differentially on the 2 sides, like 3070 and whatnot. And the question they actually asked me, I realized this morning as I was showering, I was like, they actually asked me, how do you use a steel with a knife like

[3:22] that? And I realized I didn't actually answer that question. I didn't, I talked a 1000000 for a 1000000 years about sharpening and different knifestyles and everything, but never about how to actually use a steal. You can't. Don't use a steel on a knife like that because it's almost impossible for you to accurately steal

[3:35] it with the 2 different edge angles. What I would recommend, though, is something that back when I used to have sharp knives in my house, and that means before I had a babysitter who would use my knives,

[3:46] I don't know, I don't know what the hell she does with them juggle, I don't know what the hell she does. But I can't keep them sharp anymore. So I stopped trying. So my knives are now. I went from having like very, very sharp knives. They're having very, very dull knives. There's a cute kid, by the way, looking in the window of our radio station pulling her hat on, staring at Nastasia. I think in horror. I think she's staring at Nastasia in horror. Anyway. So what I recommend to keep knives like that super sharp is the same thing that barbers use for, you know, generations for razors, which is get yourself a leather belt, like a leather strop, wide one, hang it

[4:21] up somewhere in your kitchen, and strop your knife. And that really helps to bring like a light bit of an edge back. You can either strap just with an oiled leather band, which is what I did or use a super, super, super mild

[4:34] abrasive. But the reason it's okay is because you're going in the opposite direction than you would do

[4:38] and you're stealing and so you're not going to dull down your knife. And it helps to knock a little bit of

[4:43] the, like, minor burrs that happen as you're cutting. So I would go invest in in a straw. I love it. And plus strops look badass. When you're stropping a knife, it looks kind of badass. You ever stropped a knife in? No? No? You don't like straps? I wasn't really listening. Good, good. Well, it's good to see you're doing your job here, as always. Okay. Hi, hi, David Nastasia. A quick sausage question. I found some information on the cooking issues blog about cooking sausages directly in a

[5:09] liquid in a liquid with a circulator. One thing the blog didn't mention is how long it takes to get an average size sausage to temperature at a 60 degrees Celsius bath. Additionally, what is the maximum amount of time that sausages should be held at this temperature before the quality goes south? Thanks, Matthew. Okay, well, That's an interesting question. I should think that the interior of the sausage, I mean, any reasonable size sausage, is going to be done probably in 40, 45 minutes, something like

[5:36] that. If you think about it relative to an egg. If you actually want to measure it, you can use one of the programs like sous vide dashboard that you

[5:42] is available on your iTunes or whatnot, and you

[5:47] could check exactly, but within 45 minutes or so, the average size, thick, you know, sausage should be done.

[5:53] Now, I would hold it for longer than that because the deal is, is typically you have some tougher cuts of meat in a sausage and you're tenderizing it via grinding. one of the reasons why you grind it, right? Well, if you hold it longer and longer, the meat gets more and more tender. So depending on what cuts of meat are in it. You could hold it for quite a long time at those temperatures quite a long time. Now, I've never held a sausage longer than, Oh, 6 hours or so, but they were good at the end of 6 hours. The trick, remember, when you're when you're cooking sausage and a liquid like that, is to have the liquid be so flavorful that you're not leaching flavor out constantly over

[6:35] time. I would not cook them for any longer than necessary in an excess of flavorless liquid, or you could put them in a

[6:41] Ziploc bag with a small amount of oil and cook them forever, not forever,

[6:45] but you know, for a long time, hours. And they're just going to probably get better, probably not get worse, depending on what kind of kind of meat

[6:52] that you put into it. Anyway, does that help? Anyway, it's a good technique. I do that technique all the time. Everyone's like, I think I told this, I've said this on the show before, but I bought some really cruddy, not cruddy, but like, you know, cheap, cheap sausage and

[7:05] cooked it that way, 60 degrees, 60 or 62 depends. It's going to be a little pink at the center at 60, some people freak out about. So you might want to do 62, depending on what kind of meat is in the sausage. And depending on whether the sausage is already cured. The sausage is a cured kind of sausage. If there's any sort of nitrates in it. It's going to be pink anyway, and then you can cook it to whatever temperature you want, which case I would do 60. If not, ah, you might want to do 62. Depends on how people feel. Uh, but, uh, anyway, I bought this cheap chorizo. And there were people like, this is the most delicious sausage in the whole world. I was like, it's a circulator. not me. Anyway, I have something else with that, but I forget what it is. Oh, yeah. Anyway, uh, my brain's a little fried because uh, I'm saying like, we, we here at cooking issues haven't been burning uh, the candle at both ends recently. We've just been taking the candle, throwing it in the oven and melting that sucker down. You know what I mean? It's like years ago, it's hilarious. Like, uh, you know, I heard Drew Nipron, you know, the famous restauranteur, he was giving a talk somewhere. I forget where I was. I was attending to talk and he said this. He said, uh, people always ask me, how do you balance, you know, like a family life and a restaurant life? And he said, you don't, ha. you were like, I can do it. Well, you know, yeah, whatever. Anyway, funny. Okay. So, uh, here's the thing. Like, uh, working at the bar until all hours of night, right? And then putting your kids on the bus in the morning is not not

[8:41] like that no work, no work, right? So my brain, therefore, is not working. So if I'm a little frazzled today, folks, it's just because I'm stupid. Okay. Uh, Dear Dave and Nastasia, uh, a friend of mine recently found out she has celiac disease and therefore cannot have any more gluten. I was attempting to create for her some of the homemade goodness that the rest of us get to enjoy.

[9:01] Uh, i.e. uh, gluten, delicious, delicious gluten. But when looking on the internet, I found many conflicting suggestions for the use of

[9:08] Xan and Guargum, as well as suggested non-wheat flour blends, tapioca, potato, millet,

[9:13] et cetera, without rhyme or reason as to the ratios used. Do you have any experience or advice for working with gluten-free breads, pizzas or pastas? What changes in properties can I expect from different brands of flour? What is working in xanthang gum that is intended to replace the gluten structure? Thanks for any help, Alex from Florida. All right, well, 1st of all, uh, I don't have any actual experience, uh, cooking gluten-free because I haven't had any, uh, I haven't had any need really to

[9:42] to do it, you know, for my own family, and I cook occasionally, I'll cook some gluten-free stuff if I have someone specifically coming over

[9:48] my house, but I've never done a thorough, thorough researching of it. But I do have some advice. The reason, look, here's the reason it's tough to, and there's so many recipes out there is that wheat flour, right, is fantastic stuff. And, uh, there's, and all of the recipes that, you know, we've been developing since Time

[10:12] and Memorial are based on the properties of wheat flour. So, you know, one of the pop properties of wheat flour is its flavor, right? which we have all come to appreciate. And the other one, the other ones are it's gluten, which provides structure. There's a bunch of properties. And the issue with making a replacement for wheat flour is that no one grain

[10:34] flour or no one flour has all of the properties of wheat.

[10:41] So if you're trying to actually mimic a wheat flour product in terms of its texture, right? You're going to have to use a blend of flowers, right? So that said, and I'll get to the Guar and Xanth in a second. That said, you know, a lot of people base the initial part of their recipe on rice flour, right? Because it's fairly bland, fairly neutral, right? And, you know, it's not that expensive. It's easy to obtain, right? But if you use it exclusively. then it tends to make kind of dense, leaden, gritty things. So they add other, you know, starches and flowers to it, like tapioca, for instance, which is going to add some

[11:25] stretch because it's really kind of weird gluey stuff, adds some lightness or potato, which helps absorb, which helps keep things moist and also make things lighter. So it's a balancing act between choosing those different things. Now, when you go to add things like bean flowers, which some people do. That's going to also add its own kind of holding capabilities, ability to hold bubbles and trap bubbles, which is what one of the great things about wheat flowers, its ability, and this is what the gluten helps

[11:52] here is the ability to hold bubbles and form a nice structure when things are baking.

[11:56] So, Each flower has this different thing. But if you're going to add bean flour, the problem is if it's a very light flavored thing, you start tasting the bean flour in

[12:06] it and it's kind of gross. So if you need something sturdier and the flavor can be covered up, then you can use things like that. And if they can't, you have to use something more neutral. In addition, a way to hold bubbles is to make things thicker. So people add starch is to help thickening. So they're adding things like arrowroot starch, even though it's quite expensive, right? A good thing I saw on the on the interwebs about this is from, and

[12:30] this, what I like about it is just her opinion on what the different flowers do. You go to gluten-free mommy and she has a list of all the different base flowers and kind of what her opinion on kind of what they

[12:43] what they contribute or don't contribute to particular mixes, including sorghum flour, white flour, white rice

[12:50] flour, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, the one problem I have with all these websites, actually, is that they, look, if you have an issue, like you can't have gluten, then focus on that. But everyone also throws in a bunch of nutritional mumbo jumbo about what's good for you and what's not good for you. I hate that. I hate thank you. And my kids even do this. I hate it so much. is my kids are like, is this good for you? Is that good for you? I'm like, it's all either good or not good for you, depending on the balance of things you eat in your diet. There's no, there are very few things that are bad for you. And there are very few things that are good for you. You know what I mean? Like if you ate only carrots, you would turn orange. You know, I told my kid that and then he won't eat carrots, freaked out about carrots. He thinks he's going to turn orange. I'm like, no, no, you have to eat like many, many sacks of carrots. But the point is, variety is the spice of life, my friends. And you want to eat a lot of different things. Do you know what I'm saying? Anyway. All right. So another issue on that. Now, so that's just a different ratios of flour, and what the rhyme or reason is, is you want to get a balance that mimics the texture of wheat flour without having

[13:50] an overly assertive taste. Usually the tastes are beanie. They call them beanie or kind of like, you know, weird kind of like dusty, like, you know, like, like chickpea flour or like, uh, what's that?

[14:05] Black eyed pee flour, things like that. Okay. Now, as for Xanthan gum and Guargum, Xanthan gum is used to replace the protein because like protein, Xanthan gum can form a gel and really hold a light gel, right?

[14:22] And really hold air bubbles well. So it's used directly as a gluten replacer. Guargum is cheaper than Xanthan gum, right? And the guargum that you typically buy in the store has an awful, awful kind of beanie taste. So I hate using it and things like ice cream. There's really nice, nice guar gum called flavor free guar from TIC gums that is very neutral in taste. But Guar isn't really as good a replacer for gluten as

[14:51] Xanthan because Xanthan has the ability to form a loose gel structure that holds bubbles during the baking process, whereas

[14:59] Guar is simply a thickener. So I wouldn't replace, like, I wouldn't say that Guar on its own, is going to do your job for you. But Guar in conjunction with Xanthan. Guar could be used to replace some of the Xanthan and make the Xanthan a little bit cheaper. Uh, now, uh, another thing you can use, if you're not like, multiply going to make your life difficult is eggs. The protein and eggs is fantastic, uh, and and easy to use. And so that, the protein and egg, egg white, and, you know, I guess also an egg yolk can help replace some of the gluten because it holds structure as well.

[15:37] Uh, so, you know, eggs, xanthan, uh, glar. I mean, whatever. Then I came across a website that's actually pretty interesting and apparently it's won a bunch of awards, a gluten-free girl and the chef. And here's something that they said that very interesting. By the way, I have some issues with the site. For instance, I don't know whether it's the gluten-free girl or the chef who's writing

[16:01] this because I don't know that much about the website, but, you know, they stopped using Xanthan and Guar. They, the recipe I soften and they use a lot of eggs because it's their opinion that they're having a negative reaction to the Xanthan and to the

[16:14] guar. It could be that they're having a negative reaction to the guar. Guar is, you know, you don't really digest Guar. And so if you eat 8 boatloads of guar, it's like, you know, it's like eating a serving of colon blow. You know what I mean? And you're gonna, you know, you're gonna have some fiber issues, you know, it's like eating a whole boatload of fiber. It's going to give you some swelling and some poop. Yeah, anyway. But you know what I mean? It's like, so that that can be an issue. The good thing about Xanthan is I doubt anyone's actually having a reaction to the Xanthan because you're using it in much smaller quantities than you would use the guar. So it has less stuff that can go in there and cause you to bloat and swell and poo and all that kind of stuff, all that good kind of stuff. Anyway, gluten-free girl and the chef, they don't use gum replacements like that. They don't use Guarzanthem, but they do use eggs. But they brought up an interesting point, which I hadn't thought about, which is, I mean, I always bake with grams,

[17:07] always, 100% of the time, I bake in grams. That's not true. Sometimes ounces. But by weight. And by weight is obviously, everyone knows it's the best way to bake, and everyone in the world thinks that we Americans are small children in the kitchen because we use these dumb cup measurements to measure things out.

[17:25] And in general, we can get away with it because we're measuring the same thing over and over and over

[17:30] again. And even though we're plus or minus about 10% with our measurements, our recipes still

[17:34] work, I say we should switch away from using cups not because of the accuracy, although that's great, but because it's really messy to measure with

[17:42] cups, it's much easier to measure and to change recipes when you're using a scale. I mean, a scale is just the best thing to have. Anyways, uh, turns out that these different flowers that you're substituting in when you're making

[17:53] your uh, your gluten-free flour mix have radically different densities from AP uh, wheat flour. And so if you switch to going by weight, your substitutions are going to be much, much easier. And so that is what I think a good recommendation from the

[18:10] gluten-free girl and the chef. Anyway, let's go to our 1st commercial break and come back with cooking issues.

[18:58] I love you. I love you.

[19:21] All I'm seeing, baby, baby.

[19:31] And welcome back to Cooking Issues. Jack, what was that? That was the pixies from Carlos. That was some weird stuff, Carlos. Yeah man, that's what I was saying. That's some weird, weird business. I mean, I know where some weird people, but that's some weird, weird business. Uh, calling 100 questions too. 718-4972128 that's 718-4972128 pixies. That's what? Bjork? No, no. Bjork was the sugar cube. Sugar cubes. Man, you know what? And that was my era. Like, I should like, this should be on the tip of my tongue. That just wasn't my scene. You know what I mean? That was more fishbone chili peppers, kind of a guy. Yeah, anywho. Okay. The only reason I say that is because that's also weird. You know what I mean? Bjork. All right. Oh, I forgot to mention, the gluten-free girl and the chef. Those guys also use flax seed or chia seeds. You ever cook with that crap, Stas? You blend it with a liquid and it turns to like a mucilaginous goop. So they also use that as a structural replacer. But my point is this. If you're using a mucilaginous goop as a structural replacer, just use

[20:33] Xanthan. Xanthan's a great mucilaginous goop, and you don't have to go grind up flax seeds to do it. My opinion, my opinion. Just me, just me. Okay. Oh, I had something else. Oh, yeah. So when you're dealing with the gluten-free stuff also, remember what you're using it for. A cookie doesn't need a lot of gluten. A cake doesn't need a lot of gluten. So there you're just trying to mimic the texture of the texture of a wheat flour stuff, not necessarily the super, when you really need the hardcore gluten isn't a bread. In a cake, you want it to be fairly light. And this is another point that the gluten-free girl and the chef bring up, which is good, is that remember batters, recipes, a lot of times will tell you not to overmix, not to develop the

[21:09] gluten, and when you're dealing gluten-free, you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. So in a cookie or a cake, you can just focus on the taste and the texture of the kind of starch balance, the flour itself,

[21:20] uh, with just enough structure from the protein to give it some structure, and you don't have to worry about it holding air in the way of a breadwood. So that's another reason why there's no one-to-one substitution because you're trying to do different things with wheat flour depending on what you're doing. Okay. Now, uh, by the way, we got uh, something in from uh, Elliot Papineau, uh, about uh, stropping. Bob Kramer has a strop kit. so you can go online, look up Bob Kramer and purchase a straw kit. Strops are really badass. I have to say, you look like, you look like you're going to, like, like, Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber of Fleet Street, like you're going to go slip someone's throat as soon as you start dropping. Like, if you were stropping a knife behind your kitchen counter, somebody like, man, I'm not going to mess with that dude. That dude's dropping a knife by the counter. Equally, doesn't have to be a guy, woman. You know, when I say dude, it's kind of a gender neutral dude. Is there any sort of gender neutral? All of your appliances are women. What are you talking about? Not all my appliances are women. Take her, make sure she's, when you're talking about the centerfuge, the roto app. You're crazy. You're a crazy lady. Okay. Elliot also has a 2nd point, which is that if you need to find the edge of your

[22:29] 70-30 knife, you just lay it flat on a stone and raise it until you feel the edge. That's good. Or I don't know if I mentioned this using a sharpie on the edge. You can feel, you can look and see whether you're being accurate to do it when you want to test your ex. Anyway, okay. He also writes same with a question. Elliot does, and says, whenever you get on the air, can you talk about the different sources of glutamate? I've been experimenting with various free glutamate containing products, such as tomatoes, mushrooms,

[22:54] combo, katsuobushi, and what's the best way to pair of foods containing free glutamates. Well, that's good and interesting. I always find it hilarious when someone eats something that contains 8 boatloads of, you know, free, you know, glutamate

[23:09] there, and then they say that they have a reaction to MSG, Nastasia. I'm talking about you. I know. Anyway. So, I mean, the best thing to do is like, so the classic thing about it this way, the classic pairing, classic, classic, classic pairing, obviously, is kombu, which

[23:27] has a high source of free glutamates and katsobushi, which has

[23:31] high IMP. Those 2 things go together, uh, and basically synergistically react to make like mega mommy, mega umami, which is why kombu, uh, which is why the,

[23:42] like kombu and katsobushi are so good together. And Nastasia hates, by the way, kombu broth. I do. But you like it once you add katsubushi and turn it into misos. You just don't like the Stevie broth on it. zone. Anyway. So it's good to have... What? It tastes like cavity fillings. Well, I wouldn't know. My teeth are fine. I don't have any cavities. I've never had a cavity, and I've never heard anyone describe it like that, so I'm sure you're being crazy like usual. Cavity feelings. Why would kombu to stock taste like cavity filling? What do they make cavity fillings out of? I don't know. aluminum? No. Aluminum? Aluminum? Aluminum. think so. No, they used to be made out of a mercury amalgam, but they're not anymore. It's aluminum no. No. Why would you put aluminum in your mouth? Crazy, crazy person. It's nuts. You know, people, seriously, people, seriously. Okay. Uh, so, how do we get on there anyway? Oh, yeah. So, uh, when you're when you're pairing things together, I mean, obviously, uh, you know, it's good to

[24:41] add. I mean, I just throw a bunch of those things. I have to cook a lot of vegetarian stuff because a couple members of my family are vegetarian and they come over. So a lot of my sauces that I used to umami up by throwing in anchovies,

[24:53] uh, because anchovies are delicious and everything. You could throw anchovies into just about anything. And I'm not talking about the white ones that, you know,

[25:01] everyone like, you know, they they love like the book runners and stuff like that, which are great. They're great, fine, whatever. But, like, you know, good old-fashioned salt cured anchovies, uh, in the can, uh, are, like, you know, one of God's great ingredients. And they make almost anything taste better. Everyone says they don't like them and no one has ever said they don't like them when it's mixed into a pizza sauce. Pizza sauce good with anchovy, yeah? Stash is not incredible now. salad dressing, good with an anchovy in it. Any of that stuff. You want to you want to umamilate something? Bang, hit it in. you're done. Anyway. Umama late? You heard it here first, cooking issues, a malade. Uh, but the, uh, the point is, so like, you know, you have to, you have to add other high umami stuff. Now, you can go and work on things like tomatoes and yes, I use boatloads of tomato paste when I'm because it's like super concentrated tomato. Obviously, use lots of mushrooms to get that meaty stuff up. Parmesan. These are, you know, all obvious, and you end up, you know, you end up doping stuff back with a whole boatload of soy,

[25:56] right? The problem with me is, is that trying to get meaty and high umami flavors by just adding high umami ingredients like

[26:06] that, specifically soy and whatnot. Really, let's makes everything kind of taste the same. It kind of it makes all of the food have a similarity to it that you don't

[26:18] get from just, for instance, adding salt. So like, I think I talked about this like, you know, I don't know, a year ago or something like that. You know, a lot of companies are trying to lower the sodium content of their foods. And the only way they can, this is the world's worst term, and it shows how people think. But increase the palatability of the things that they make when they reduce the sodium. Isn't that gross? trying to reduce the sodium, but increase, but keep the palatability, just gross, right? Not like, we're going to make some delicious stuff. It's like, you know, we're going to we're going to make it more palatable. Anyway, so they, they dope it with um, with a non-sodium form of uh, glutamage so that they can keep the quote unquote sodium level low. Uh, and they do it using that, like also quote unquote, natural sources, which means that they'll take like 8 tons of seaweed and turn it into a powder. Might as well use MSG. Anyway. Problem is, when you dope foods with, specifically with, like, lots of free glutaments like that, they tend to then all taste like

[27:16] dashi to me, right? You've had that also happen too, right? I was tasting somebody's pasta. I think I mentioned this. I was tasting someone's pasta and it was a fettuccine Alfredo, right? Which is what I, strangely what I call my wife sometimes because it's like Jennifer, Jenna, Fred, Fred, Freduccini, Fred, any whatever. Anyway, like all my everything I say in private when I'm not on the air is some stupid, stupid combination of

[27:40] crazy, dumb, random inferences. You know what I mean? Anyway. So fettuccine Alfredo, I was like, this tastes good, but fettuccine Alfredo's not supposed to taste like dashi. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Right? Anyway. Anyways. So that's my feeling, Elliot, on that. Should we do one more commercial? Before I go on the more commercial break. I was to say this, my favorite Valentine's quote of all time. Last year, I was in the Rite Aid outside of my house, which is a pharmacy for all you people that don't know what to

[28:08] write. It is, Nastasia hates them because she only shops at CVS. She literally went... Okay, okay. She literally last week, Nastasia had a root canal, right? So I hope she was high on Vicodin, which she made this choice. She went to his, she went out of her way to go to a CVS, even though they had a 2 hour wait for the medicine. She could have got it 10 minutes at the right age. She would 2 hours look out of her way, 2 hours wait for his medicine because she likes to hold music better. No. Yes. So the store music, the store music. Whatever. Whatever. That's old. You're on hold. tabs on like the stores and what music they play. Really? I know. I know, crazy, right? You know, put on your iPod. listen to whatever music you want and don't wait 2 hours for your Vicodin, your antibiotics. That's my point. Anyways, I'm in the right A like a year ago. And they had the Easter decorations out right around now and someone let lady walks in. She goes, Easter, it ain't even Valentine's over yet. anyway, commercial break. My name is Cupid Valentino. The Martin Bailey Cupid. Just want to say one thing. Happy Valentine's Day. Every day, the 14th. I don't think I heard, man. I just wanna say happy Valentine's Day. Every day, the 14 Can y'all dig that? Now, when arrows don't penetrate, see. Yeah, nah. Now look at here, Pete, straight for your heart. Now, he won't miss you. But that's all right. Y'all won't believe in me anyway, but... You won't believe in me, but you... Every time I'm on brown hall,

[30:02] so... Then all this talk about Santa Claus, but

[30:09] see, love. We'll rule supreme Happy Valentine's Day. Every day the 14th. You got it. When a cute hit knocks at your door. You can ignore me There's no need to run. So happy Valentine's Day. Hey, you can't, you cannot ignore the Cupid. By the way, I just looked out the window and Indie Jesus looks like he's having a fine Valentine's Day. Oh yeah. Yeah, you can smile on any Jesus' face. You know what it takes to get Jesus' smile? You know? Anyway, today's show is sponsored by the modernist pantry supplying innovative ingredients for the modern cook. Do you love to experiment with new cooking techniques and ingredients, but hate, hate, hate to overspend for pounds of supplies when only a few grams are needed per application? Modernist pantry has a solution? They offer a wide range of modern ingredients in packages that make sense for the home cook and enthusiast. And most cost only around 5 bucks, sending you time, money, and storage space. Whether you're looking for hydrocolics, pH buffers, or even meat glue, you'll find it at modernist pantry. And if you need something that they don't carry, just ask. Chris Anderson and his team will be happy to source it for you. With inexpensive shipping to any country in the world. Bonitous pantry is your one stop shop for innovative cooking ingredients. Modernist pantry carries sequestrans, including sodium citrate and sodium hexametophosphate. These ingredients act as a preservative and also mop up stray calcium ions, which is helpful when working with hydrocollards and gel in the presence of calcium. a.k.a. sodiumalgenate, and... Okay, which is Joanne. Fans of cooking issues that place an order of $25 and more before next week's show, we'll get a free package of sodium

[31:47] hexameter phosphate to play with. Simply use the promo code CI 72 and placing your order online at modernestpantry.com. Visit modernestpantry.com today for all of your modernest cooking needs. Hey, Chris Anderson. Good for you for doing the sodium hexametaphosphate and not the sodium citrate. Sodium hexometaphosphate is the baller sequestrian. Sodiocitrate is more of a buffer. Sodium hex metaphosphate or shimp, as they call it. That stuff's the ball. It's good stuff. Oh, also, Colin, longtime writer and Colin writes. Because, you know, I always gripe about what's the difference between a home cooking enthusiast. What are we talking about? So Colin writes in, regarding enthusiasts. You don't need to cook anything to play with hydrocoloids. Science nerds love that stuff, but some can't actually feed themselves. Thus, I believe, the distinction, Colin. Other topics, my wedding anniversary, which it's not my wedding anniversary. No, no, no, no. That was my note to you. Oh, I thought Carlin did my anniversary when I was crazy. I was like, how's Carl going to know that? It's not my wedding anniversary. I got married in June. It's my anniversary of going out. No, you know what? Like, listen, Nastasia, when you put this stuff on there, put our comments in a different color. Just so you know how this show runs. Like your comments when you write them are in black. And my comments that I make to jog my memory when I'm yapping on the radio, I write in

[32:58] blue, so I can tell what's us and what's you. And the headline of your question, I write in red. Not that anyone gives a rat's patoot. Okay. Now. What? I can't say patoot? topics. You're not calling new. I thought Kyle was like other topics. That's random. Okay. Okay, so we have a question in from Marvin Woodhouse saying, I love the show. and been listening from Ireland and now Germany since day one. From Ireland to Germany. It's pretty cool. I wonder what I wonder what they do. Yeah, what do they do that they're moving from Ireland to Germany? I wonder, curious. Anyway, question one I'm in the process of moving to Germany. Most apartments here do not come with kitchens, just a bare room with tiles and connections. So I'll be starting from square one. What's a must have list of stuff in it if you were starting from a bare room. Nothing, not even extraction. That's hood for you and I in America. The kitchen will be about 20 square meters. So Nastasia, look up what 20 square meters is in square feet, so my brain can wrap my head around it. Okay, 1st of all, I know there's plenty of people here in New York City that wish their apartment came with no kitchen because it's just wasted space. How many people do you know that use their oven as a bookcase? I do, which is crazy. First of all, just a separate note. Anyone out there, never store crap in your oven, right? It just means that you have a mental imbalance or a problem. Don't ever store stuff in your oven. It's just, it's just not right because it implies you're not going to use it. If you're going to cook, don't store anything you haven't, my 2 cents. So what's 20 square meters? Oh, thanks, Google. Thanks AT&T with the slow Google. All right. First thing is first. As you mentioned, extraction. It's my feeling that a huntlet, like the biggest, it's eventually going to be seen as a health issue, right, for people who cook a

[34:40] lot. 215.2 square. Oh, that's good. 215 that's about the size of my kitchen. That's a good space. It's a good size space. I mean, it's small by suburban standards, but, you know, my kitchen's pretty comfortable 200 square feet, right? Yeah, I could have 8 people cooking in my kitchen, but it's very well designed. Anyway, if I do say so myself. Uh, but uh, extraction, hood is the most important thing. Everyone here is under designed in terms of their hoods. Home hoods suck. They're the worst. They're useless, not useless, but they're they're of limited usefulness. I would invest in a really good fan vent that this is illegal in the U.S. I don't know whether it is in Germany, vent it straight out the window with a straight pipe straight out the window. I purchased a large blower and it, the hood itself doesn't need to be expensive. It's just a piece of metal. It's the fan that you need a good fan. And bigger fans rotate at slower speeds, and therefore are not as annoying as little fans that rotate at high speeds. So I would say if you're going to spend, you know, your nickels, 1st of all, go with good hood. Secondly, if you're in Germany, I haven't checked it recently, but I assume it's similar to France in that the gas prices are relatively high relative to electric compared to the US, get an

[35:55] induction, get induction. If you're going to be in this apartment a long time, then go ahead and get something that's built in. Otherwise, you can get really nice induction Hobbs, that you can take with you when you go. In particular, some manufacturers now make front back induction units so that you can mimic an actual traditional range by stacking induction units next to each other and having front back on induction.

[36:20] So I would, you know, I would definitely go that way. If you want to go more permanent, you can get an induction, uh, you know, a regular induction

[36:27] overrange, but the overrange, the over things don't necessarily work that well, but I'll go separate. Uh, get a good convection oven with uh, a good convection oven would be nice uh, electric there as well. I'm assuming that you're, again, I'm assuming that electricity is going to be the best for you there in terms of cost. So, uh, again, I really don't have any idea what you're going to. I tell you what I have in mind, which is about the same spot. I have I have a large oven that could take a full sheet pan. If you're gonna cook, you wanted that. It's not necessary, but full sheet pan is, again, baller. I have 6 burners. You're probably not going to have that if you don't have extraction, especially if you're going to go induction. I also have a salamander, which you're probably not going to put in your place, but I love

[37:08] it, and a deep fryer next to it. I find that that combination, which I don't expect you to emulate, is I can cook. I can bang out like a small restaurants worth of food in my kitchen without breaking a sweat because it is the setup that you would have in a small restaurant

[37:21] kitchen, basically. I have a fryer, a salamander, 6 burners, and a full sheet pan oven. Obviously for me, it's important to have an espresso machine. Uh, but you know, whatever. Since you're building this yourself, you can do some cool stuff. The coolest thing that you could possibly do is put foot pedals on your sink. Every sink in the world, in a kitchen or bathroom, should have foot pedals installed so that when your hands are disgusting, you don't have to touch the faucet. So I have a, I have hot and cold foot pedals on my, on my floor and my wife, who didn't think it was so important or such a good idea. She was like, really, really? Now it's like, yes, really, you need that. Everyone who's used them, loves it. And since you're installing from scratch, Get the foot pedals. Don't skip on your sink size. sink size. you never going to need to, you know, sink size is important, right? Don't you hate a tiny sink? What do you think? Yeah. Hate tiny stinks. Hate tiny things. Is there anything else what do you think? No. That's good. Good recognition. Oh, no, my iPad hurts. Hey, Patrick Martins, founder of Heritage Foods, coming into the studio. Hey everybody. Yeah there he is. Oh, he's got some really nice orange corduroys that I now covet. I covet Patrick Martin's orange corduroy pass. Okay. 18 miles, baby. What? What happened? of what? In 2 days I ran. Oh, Patrick's around 18 miles in 2 days. I don't know that it's not good for your knees. That's, you know, that's bad for your knees. you know, anyway. Okay, question 2 from Marvin. I have a badass poly-science lab circulator, model 8812. By the way, I couldn't find 8812. But the unit is so big that it's difficult to fit food around in the small bath that's designed to fit. I removed it from the lab bath, but there's no mounting bracket. Do you have any experience of mounting these things to or over a sink? I haven't actually mounted one of those to a sink, but you might want to look at this as an alternative. Uh, though, some of those units, the, uh, and I couldn't find your exact one, but I have one that looks similar to it. have 2 screws in the back of it on the bath itself that allow you to circulate in and out of that same bath.

[39:21] So you could literally just put hoses and circulate into a sink and put the whole circulator into a cabinet next to it.

[39:29] And I've done that many times. That's how I chilled my rota app, for instance. You just have to make sure you get the water levels relatively the same so that you don't overflow your circulator bath. But I would do that or else you could just make a 2nd, I mean, if you could weld,

[39:45] obviously, you could do it, but you could easily mount one by just having someone cut out a stainless steel bracket with the same whole mounting pattern as the one that was in the

[39:52] bath and then cantilever it over your sink. I would make it with wing nuts so that you could take it off very quickly without taking up too much space. But yes, it's definitely possible, but look into just using the bath as a holding binge so

[40:05] you can circulate stuff in and out. Question three. I'm throwing a cocktail party next month to Marcus leaving Ireland. Can you, I have a color? And finish up in 2 minutes. Wait, I have a caller, caller. You on the air. Hey, Dave, this is Todd Bryant. Got a quick question for you. Go ahead. On following up on your knife discussion a couple weeks ago. How often do you use a steel on your knives? Uh, well, back in the day, on my German, uh, on my German knives, I would use them pretty much, uh, you know, before and

[40:37] after, pretty much all the time. Or when my strop was hanging, I would strop them before and after. I mean, it all depends on what kind of what kind of knife. So my German ones, I used to sharpen, uh, I, you know, just not a quick one. You know, I wouldn't like go through the whole sharpening process, but I'd touch up the blades on the stone probably once a week and then, you know, I'd drop and or steal every use, my Japanese knives, you touch them up every time you use

[41:04] them, basically afterwards, you know? Uh, and, you know, the, the real traditional Japanese ones and the Japanese Western ones, I never had much of a knack sharpening them. I got, so I ended up, ended up not using them as much because I was not so good at sharpening them. Okay. All right. So just touch my before and after then. How do you know? All right. And how do you know when it's time to do a full sharpening? Or you just do that automatically once a week? Yeah, I would just do it automatically or if they start dulling out or someone picks up your knife and uses it for something inappropriate, you know, it's

[41:36] like, you know, you know when your knife is getting dull. You know when you can't bring it back and the tomato, you start having to push into it, you split the tomato, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's just, you know, you could do it by that. I find it easier if you just choose a time to do it. It depends on how much you cook. You know what I mean? But if you just choose a time to do it, then your knives are always going to be in fantastic shape and you're not going to get creep and start using

[41:58] a dull knife when it could be sharp. So back when I could have sharp knives in my house, I would just have a

[42:04] routine and, you know, every Sunday before I started cooking family dinner, I would just go through my knives and

[42:09] sharpen it. I used an edge pro, which was easy to set up because I could just keep most of my knives at a similar edge

[42:14] angle and I could rip through them pretty quickly. An edge pro is not a good sharpening system to sharpen one knife. It's good to sharpen your whole set of knives. You know what I mean? Because you have to set it up and all that stuff. Yeah. Okay, great. Well, that's what you answer my question. Thanks very much. Thank you. All right. Thanks a lot. All right. so question three. I got to answer this one. again from Marvin. I'm throwing a cocktail party next month to Marcus leaving Ireland. Can you suggest some interesting cocktails and canape combos, or as I call them, canaps? I have an ISI, but no proper carbonation rig. I also have agar gelatin. I also need some non-alcoholic cocktails that are not lame as there will be some pregnant ladies in attendance. Okay, well, I hit the non-alcoholic stuff. I say make coriander, the coriander syrup, right? So if you make coriander syrup, just take make a simple syrup, crush up coriander, put it in there, add a little bit of like a hot pepper, preferably red, like Thai, red or serrano or something like

[43:05] that. Um, that syrup makes a fantastic soda and you can carbonate in an ISI.

[43:11] It's just gonna cost you more. And the way you carbonate in an ISI is by shaking, adding some water, shaking the syrup with water, and then putting one CO2 cartridge in, shaking a little bit, venting that entire one

[43:23] off. You've cleared out all of the air in there in that now. Now put a 2nd charger on, shake it, and you'll get a good 2nd CO2 charger in your ISI. Vent very, very, let's sit for a couple of minutes after you shake it, let it vent very

[43:36] slowly and you can get a decent soda, and that's good. That syrup is also really good as a cocktail for old-fashions. It makes a great old-fashioned, uh makes a good tequila, old-fashioned, good mezcal, old-fashioned. We've been using that and everything that if you do make an old-fashioned using coriander syrup, it's called a cliff

[43:53] old-fashioned, because, you know, cliff are, you know, ex-intern cliff came up with the idea of making

[43:59] a, what's it called? An old-fashioned with them syrup. Uh, you have any? Nastachi is going to think of good uh, knaps. Well, I answer your last question. And not, you have a next month. I have a week to think. We have a week to think of your connaps. Cannap. Can I pay? So I'll come back to it. And also, I will next week suggest some things you might be able to use with your one kilogram of Enzorbit it's in your kitchen. Listen, Marvin, if you have one kilogram events orbit in your kitchen, that's almost going to take up your entire 200 square foot space because one kilogram of

[44:27] events orbit is a giant giant amount of insorbit. Insorbit, for all that you don't know, is the stuff that you make oils into powders with. But I'll come back with you on that Marvin next week and we'll do it. And that has been this week for cooking issues.

[44:46] Thanks for listening to this program on the Heritage radio network. You can find all of our archived programs on Heritage Radio Network.com as well as a schedule of upcoming live shows. You can also podcast all of our programs on iTunes by searching Heritage

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[45:09] up-to-date news and information. Thanks for listening. Got my head all twisted.