The Frying Pan

haha, I just imagined my brain being molded into a cast iron pan

Sounds uncomfortable

Nothing is comfortable right now. Have been having a cold for two days, and it worsened rapidly yesterday evening, no idea why. Nostril is stuffed, throat on fire.

But at least it's the first cold I've had this wintery season despite having had some very bad circumstances (falling into icy water), so it could have been worse.

Speaking of seasons, spring is showing here, making me all excited. How about your rainy island? Any signs of sun and warmth?

8:31 AM

HI ALL!

hi @Jolenealaska

LOL at cat man...I have a vague memory

Hi rummi...I am about to bake yet another batch of those Thai shotbreads

I'm going halvsies on the flour as per your answer to the question

They are so ridiculously easy that they don't seem like they could possibly be good.

but they are

shortbread cookies are good, yes

It's amazing...did you look at the ridiculous recipe?

so, who did beat who at Scrabble? How many versions are there of it?

@Jolenealaska no, but I've made some. Flour, butter, powdered sugar, mix until homogenous - at least for mine, that was all.

8:37 AM

I have averaged about 10-15 games a day (against computers when I can't firnd a real perrson) for like 20 years

I have the Official Scrabble Dictionary by my toilet

I have 3 strategy books.

But Tall has beat me.

but not today

Same here, but oil, not butter.

I am SOOO loving my package!

I have taken a few cautious nibbles of the fish

glad to hear it

I've eaten half of his tail :)

and, do you think you could learn to like the fish?

I kind of don't think so, but I'm trying to keep an open mind.

there is evidence that the taste is acquirable, but maybe you need to start your exposure early in life

8:43 AM

I could get snockered on those pink ball things.

Those are awesome...what are they called?

nothing special. I don't think I have ever had them before.

Well I still have 90% of the fish, I may acquire a taste yet!

I can go back to the store and look up the name on the label, but I think it was really something like "liquor filled candy".

I do like (in small doses) these:

amazon.com/Amarelli-Spezzata-Medaglia-Licorice/dp/B005VOE5CE/…

"Spezzata Licorice from Amarelli is pure licorice at its finest. However, before purchasing, know what you're getting. You're getting pure, bitter licorice without any sweeteners. These little pieces are hard and brittle and nothing like the licorice-flavored candy manufactured in the United States.

. Nor is it the chewy, salty licorice the Dutch prefer. Spezzata is designed to be eaten one little brittle bitter piece at a time. The taste of pure licorice from a single piece will remain in the mouth for a long time.

never had them

8:48 AM

-from a review

Do you know of Altoids?

but I'm strictly anti licorice. Hate the smell of anything anise and licorice related.

@Jolenealaska only of the tins. Very popular with the homebuilt electronic wearable gadgets crowd. Don't know what the candy tastes like.

I'm weird on it...I viscerally hate tarragon, but I sometimes like anise or fennel.

Yeah, pot smokers like the tins too :)

Once, when I was living kind of commune style with the legalization group (2000 election, we lost) I picked up a tin laying around, and it rattled...

I opened it...

"Wow, these things come with mints?"

The cinnamon ones are awesome...do you like hot cinnamon candy? Like Red-Hots? Or cinnamon schnapps?

I don't like anything hot. Never had any cinnamon flavored alcohol.

How big are you on mint?

Especially with chocolate?

I like it.

8:55 AM

@Jolenealaska hey hon

have either of you had Parma Violets?

Parma Violets

Parma Violets are an iconic British violet-flavoured tablet confectionery manufactured by the Derbyshire company Swizzels Matlow. The sweets are hard, biconcave disc-shaped sweets, similar to the Fizzers product from the same company but without their fizziness. Swizzels Matlow have also released a line of Giant Parma Violets. Ingredients include sugar; stearic acid; modified starch; glucose syrup and anthocyanin. == References == == External links == Swizzels Matlow Website...

@ElendilTheTall no. I've had violet flavored candy though.

Simple hard candy with violet aroma is common in Bulgaria.

they are foul

you either love them or hate them

I fall into the latter camp

I live swizzles, but I've never had purple

swizzles?

Maybe? They look just like that, but they're fizzy and multi-colored

But swizzles doesn't sound right

Maybe they use a different name in the US?

9:00 AM

Refreshers, we call them

Since you are both here

I have a question

I want to finally embark on macarons

haahhahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahhaha

sorry, go on

Now that I have actually eaten both of them in the package...

I at least have a a reference point.

I never really got mine to work as supposed, but I only tried making them 3 times. I'll still try to give advice if I have it, but might simply not be the best source.

Rummi, you said on main that the cookie part should be as strongly flavored as it is colored

Tall, you said don't flavor the cookie, just the filling

9:05 AM

@Jolenealaska I've had both the flavored and unflavored type, I think

The recipes I have found are all over the map

Do you prefer them flavored?

but subtle flavor is neither here nor there. Macarons and subtlety don't fit. They are about strong contrasts, at least the way I know them.

@Jolenealaska Hard to say. If the filling is well flavored, there is no need for the shell to be flavored too. The flavor is more of a smell anyway, what you get on the tongue is more the textural feeling.

What to you think of mint cookie with chocolate ganache filling, together with chocolate cookies with mint cream filling?

I would say perfect making unflavoured ones before you jump in the deep end

On that I agree

9:09 AM

you have no idea what you're getting yourself in for!

:)

@ElendilTheTall that's a good point. Macarons are complicated enough without adding flavor to the equation

just do a plain, coloured cookie and a flavoured ganache

But do use food coloring from the start. I tried without, thinking that it would be easier, because the color is said to sometimes interfere

white chocolate with raspberry jelly is simple enough

9:10 AM

but then I realized that coloring them would be a good indicator for the proper amount of mixing

as for colouring, use a proper gel one, not a liquid one

which is one of the hardest parts to get right

Wilton

I have good gel colors, so that shouldn't be a problem

good

9:11 AM

also don't bother with French meringue recipes, very hard to get the right consistency with them. Hermes' book goes straight for boiling syrup, works much better.

NONE of the recipes I've seen use syrup!

now I am soo confused! :)

I've always used French meringue

I haven't even started yet.

maybe I should

Then you have been looking at the wrong recipes. I guess they can be made to work if you have tons of experience, but seriously, how often have you made a perfect French meringue? It always seems to weep after staying around for a while.

9:13 AM

@rumtscho I've made plenty of perfect meringues

Or be underwhipped, if you stop early out of fear to overwhip.

i'm a pavlova master

but the bake is less critical on a full meringue

@ElendilTheTall OK, maybe I simply haven't learned them yet. All I know is that Italian works much better for me.

and you haven't got almonds fucking everything up

The Martha Stewart video (I don't like her, but this video is good) makes it look pretty easy..

9:15 AM

@Jolenealaska it's the variables, as I've said before

What annoys the hell out of me is:

@Jolenealaska Do you mean it makes it look simple? You know there is a difference between the two :)

67grams of X

basically what it boils down to is, you have to have practice

132 grams of y

78 grams of z

9:15 AM

you can't just follow the recipe to the letter and expect good results, like you can with other recipes

and 3 egg whites

you need a certain amount of trial and error

@Jolenealaska haha, yes. Hermes uses weighed egg whites.

yes! I want that!

i'm certain if I had a day or two just to make macarons, I could get a good result

9:16 AM

His process is spread over several pages, else I'd have scanned the base recipe for you

he uses tons of pictures

what I don't like about him is that he pretends that there is some magical mystery about his recipe

Re: simple vs easy:

the first time I made ciabatta I was way out of my comfort zone

"If you deviate a single milimeter from what I tell you, it won't work. There is no other method in the world which works but mine". Pretentious bastard.

Sure, randomly deviating a bit from his working recipe will cause problems, because macarons have such a low tolerance for errors. But there are tons of other good processes which work.

I just exactly followed the video...every fussy little step. I'm a good mimic

My results were great

@Jolenealaska the tolerances on ciabatta are huge. think an old wagon. the tolerances on macarons are like, I don't know, the Hubble Space Telescope

what the hell, I deserve some free time. Will scan his process for you, plus a recipe.

9:20 AM

Within a few days I will have done it once

YAY! :)

@rumtscho what the hell, a bit of book piracy won't hurt? O.o

sshh

@Jolenealaska this is a Google-indexed page, there is no 'sshh'

@ElendilTheTall I'm coming from a long tradition of pirates. Why do you think does Bulgaria have the highest bandwidth in Europe?

Not to mention that I have no doubt that at the very least my internet usage is occasionally checked by an NSA bot.

<wave>

9:23 AM

@Jolenealaska everyone's internet usage is checked by an NSA bot

well, yes, but they know me by name.

they know everyone by name

it's different

if you've logged into an e-mail account that uses your real name, they know your name

if your ISP account is in your name, they know your name

Yes,yes, but I'm just saying...they keep a special eye out on me...for life. You kind of have to agree to that before you ever walk into the building.

but back to macarons...

"aging" eggs

9:28 AM

yeees?

I found one recipe that says to "age the egg whites" for three days....

what?

On the counter?

shelled and separated?

yes, age them. In the fridge, but bring them back to room temp.

So separate them three days in advance?

yes

I don't age them in the fridge, but I keep my eggs on the counter (whole), so they are aged.

9:30 AM

I usually just do overnight on the counter

My eggs are American...

yes, so fridge and the next day a couple of hours on the counter in a flat bowl

that makes sense...Tall? do you concur?

Considering US eggs?

@Jolenealaska yes, but it will probably take more than a couple of hours to come up to room temp

i'd just leave them overnight on the counter

I'm good with 12 just for GP and splitting the difference

or overnight

same diff

OK that's the plan...I just bought the freshest eggs I could find in the store today

I'll separate some tonight.

9:35 AM

you know how to separate them for macarons? top-handed?

I always wash my hands well and quickly grab out the yolk.

O.o

No?

i was yanking your chain but you didn't fall for it

but still, grabbing the yolk?

Oh yeah! with fingertips

9:37 AM

I usually do the 'juggle between shell halves' method

but grab the yolk? you live dangerously

Posh!

Best way to contaminate

why not crack it into your hand and let the white run through your fingers if you don't mind messy?

@Jolenealaska contaminate with what?

salmonella...if there is any, it's on the shell

@Jolenealaska the shell which is porous, you mean?

Yes, but if you swab a contaminated egg on the outside of the shell...

then again along the inside...

you'll have 10X the salmonella on the outside swab

I've seen that in action.

I made up 10X, I have no idea...but it's a lot more

9:42 AM

in any case, the egg doesn't touch the outside of the shell

you pour from the inside of one to the inside of another

If you're passing the yolk back and forth, you're messing with it.

i'd like to see some actual solid science behind the inside/outside thing

I like just taking the shell out of the equation right away.

a hen's egg has on average 7500 pores

i fail to see how bacteria don't pass through them

I crack the egg into a custard cup.

9:45 AM

> Any part of the egg can harbor bacteria, and both whites and yolks have been implicated in foodborne illness. However, the yolk is the most common source, according to the USDA. The most common element in foodborne illness: Eggs were served raw or undercooked. Per USDA regulations, eggs are washed and egg processing plants undergo washing and sanitization. However, these practices do not eliminate Salmonella contained within the egg.

the yolk

I snag the yolk and drop it into one bowl, pour the white into another...next, same custard bowl as long as I don't have a broken yolk.

> chickens carry the bacteria in their own bodies, and pass Salmonella along to the yolk and white while the egg is forming in the ovaries. Chickens can also pass bacteria to the eggshell—**and through the shell pores into the inner egg**—when the egg is laid. Chickens can harbor Salmonella without being sick themselves.

What can I say? That conflicts with what I have been taught. Perhaps my lesson (very long ago) was with farm fresh eggs?

It sounds to me like something that has been repeated to the point of being just accepted as fact

But outside of safety issues, I just am married to the way I separate eggs. It's fast, complete (no white in the yolk or vise-versa) and I can be quick about it.

No, it's more than that...I have seen the swab thing...with petri dishes and colony counters.

It's just been a very long time.

I think the answer is farm fresh vs USA washed.

I'm doing of kind of experiment tonight.

9:55 AM

@ElendilTheTall so, were you planning to go poof? Give us some notice if so.

@FaheemMitha i didn't say that

I need to take off in 35 minutes for the next step.

I'll be busy for an hour or so

@ElendilTheTall That's true, you didn't.

It's like that weird xkcd cartoon, the one about the hidden BBS.

Then I'll be back

Are you still here @rumtscho?

@Jolenealaska when people say that, I always hear it in an Austrian accent. This is what mass culture does to people - it's sad.

9:58 AM

@Jolenealaska yes

I have one thing from the package I hope you can identify.

A picture right now would be a pia

And it doesn't pop up a box every time asking you to use your real name. In fact, there's no way to set your name at all. You just have to keep reminding people who you are.

AWW!

Fortunately, the Frying Pan doesn't currently have video ads either. Though one never knows, these days.

The cookie/candy thing looks like a pfeffernusse from a distance.

But it's not at all

10:01 AM

Someone should petition Randall to do a feature on the Frying pan.

Sorry, the description doesn't ring a bell

It's full of (I think) orange.

@Jolenealaska pfeffernusse?

It's a very German cookie

@Jolenealaska unless it is that Italian flourless cookie I told you about yesterday

10:02 AM

It may be flourless

it looks like a pfeffernusse 'cause it's that shape and it's rolled in powdered sugar.

It has a gummi candy pressed into the top.

it's probably that one, I didn't send many cookies

I don't remember much about it

When you cut it in half, it's orange.

If it is what I think it is, I wouldn't know that. I've never eaten it.

When it's not such a PIA I'll snap a picture of the half.

There was this place at the Weihnachtsmarkt selling them, I bought three different ones and never tried them, hoarding them for a special occasion. A month later there was your package, and I added one of them

I still haven't tried them, so I wouldn't have seen it broken in half. And the ones still here are other tastes, look different from the outside, so will probably be different on the inside too.

10:06 AM

I like it very much, and it seems like something that could be made at home.

But I would't know where to start Googling it...maybe it'll end up as an ID question on main! :)

I have no idea either. They don't have a special name, or if they do, I don't know it. They don't have a brand. There was no package, the lady sold them from a display and put them in a brown paper bag.

OOH, I love the chili chocolate

it has real heat that sneaks up

I am so much fun with this...

little nibble at a time :)

Trying not to OD on sugar:)

OK guys, I have serious work to do....

I have on my desk some Lindt Orange Intense

It's lurvely

yes, they make good chocolate

I don't like plain dark chocolate, but it carries flavours very well

10:14 AM

Oh, I love the plain one too. The darker the better.

I kidnapped an OP from main...

8 hours ago, by Jolenealaska

Any chance the meat was from the round?

@rumtscho their salted chocolate is lovely

and now I'm on a mission...

@ElendilTheTall now that's a combination I can't get behind. Don't like salt and sweet, or salt and chocolate, even bitter chocolate.

@Jolenealaska wait, still here?

@rumtscho ah yes, I forgot about your salt and sweet phobia

I love salt and sweet

10:16 AM

I just finished the scanning. Took some time because it turns out I hadn't installed the necessary software.

I'll be back...I'll see any and all of you soon if you're still here (I'm trying not to sound Austrian)

OOH

@rumtscho tsk, what do we pay you for?

OK I can wait for that

There is a 85 MB file, I wanted to upload it and give you a link. Don't know how long I can keep it up.

You know my email!

10:17 AM

@rumtscho dropbox!

or that

@Jolenealaska 85 MB might not go through

Drop. Box.

Ah, I don't know the limit...listen to Tall....he's yelling

Ahh wait! It is so large because my software chose 600 dpi as the output resolution! I was already wondering.

10:19 AM

AHA! That sounds like something I would do!

and it also saved the pages as tifs

I haven't even seen that extension for years

@Jolenealaska tif? very widely used, just not for online images

Now it's 6.7 MB. Much saner.

really? I used to see it all the time, but not for years (tif)

That does sound much more sane

10:21 AM

Tif is a non compressed format, so it is used in the print industry

That reminds me, anyone know the limit for uploading images here and on main?

drive.google.com/file/d/0B9eU5-sqE0zmVEtSLWVaWU9ZSDA/…

well, not all TIFFs are non-compressed

@Jolenealaska does the link work?

but they are lossless

10:22 AM

Yes it does!!!

@ElendilTheTall all right, you probably know more details than I do

Thanks rummi!

After I finish my mission:

8 hours ago, by Jolenealaska

Any chance the meat was from the round?

@rumtscho you can choose non-compression, but normally you'd use Packbits

@ElendilTheTall the link is not limited to a person, you can download it too if you are interested (and if it's compatible with your moral norms :) )

I will read every word.

10:23 AM

@rumtscho I won't be a party to it!

don't drag me into your pit of iniquity

@Jolenealaska There aren't many words there, mostly images. And sorry for the quality, couldn't tweak it much and the headings are sometimes too faint to read well.

as a side note, 'Iniquity Pit' sounds like a good name for a metal band

@ElendilTheTall At least it's creative. I think there are at least 5 bands called "abomination".

I'm sure it will very informative.

haha!

notalwaysworking.com/oh-jews/37391

We need oneboxing for Notalwaysright