The Frying Pan

3:01 AM

@rumtscho beautifully, but I bought a premium carbon pan. its really quite heavy gauge. I can't imagine the heat that would cause it to warp

rfusca

5:30 AM

@rum @dero - its doing to be monday night for the blog entry - I'm running the bread now. I forgot this was father's day weekend

rumtscho

10:51 AM

@rfusca nice to know the post is coming along. We want to publish on Wednesday, so editing can get a bit hurried, but we should still be able to get it up in time

@rfusca about the pan: the DeBuyer site says it is 2.5 mm. My forged iron pan looks like the same thickness, and it deformed

Specifically, the middle of the bottom went slightly up, like a domed cake. It is a very regular change, yes. But when i am frying something, the juices flow to the edges, and the stuff in the hot middle burns without juices or oil, while the stuff on the edges gets soggy in the deep, cold juices

@mien do you know of Die Zeit?

This is one of the most serious newspapers in Germany

The audience is composed of the inteligentsia, mostly bearded university professors

It has not only political and economical news, but also cultural. Like the new dance spectacle by Pina Bausch or similar.

And guess what article they produced today

blog.zeit.de/tontraeger/2012/06/18/manowar-lord-of-steel_12983

There is one sentence in there which made me burst out in laughter they must heard in Hamburg (where their editors sit)

Mien

11:07 AM

@rumtscho I know of it, yes.

rumtscho

@Mien read the article. It is soo awesome, to see the way they look at things.

Mien

It's quite a long article :p

But I'll manage, I think.

No I won't :p

rumtscho

Well, you don't have to read all of it, if you don't find it interesting. But I think it is worth it.

I haven't had such an amusing read in ages.

Mien

My German isn't good enough.

I stopped after the 'true' part :P

rumtscho

Oh :( I don't know how much Google translate will mangle it

Mien

11:11 AM

Which already quite funny

rumtscho

Wenn true so etwas wie konservativ bedeutet, dann ist die CDU ein Haufen ungekämmter Cyber-Nerds?

Mien

I'm not using Google translate.

Ah yes :p

rumtscho

That's the sentence I loved the most

Mien

CDU is a political conservative party?

rumtscho

yes

The analogy says tons of the attitude to / level of knowledge of: true metalers, Cyber-nerds and CDU the audience has.

I couldn't help but think how a compulsive true metaler will react to the article, all the time I was reading it

rumtscho

11:37 AM

@sobachatina look here

warning: not for the faint of heart

Mien

lol

rumtscho

here is the complete gallery

zeit.de/lebensart/essen-trinken/2012-06/fs-parmesan-italien-2

Mien

11:50 AM

All that mold.

Mien

12:14 PM

@rumtscho could you paste the url of the ice cream recipe in the google docs spreadsheet?

rumtscho

@mien I don't have it online, I copied it from a book

I'll find some solution

Mien

Okay :)

I wanted to make a shopping list for it somewhere this week.

rumtscho

@mien I will also attach it to the spreadsheet in some way, some time later

Mien

12:33 PM

It's fine, I saved the picture on my pc.

Will you use cups or ml?

I want to do it as equal as possible :P

I won't use milk.

And how much fat is in your cream?

Perhaps we should weigh the salt too :P

rumtscho

@mien you should use the milk

else you will get butter

I used 30% or 33% fat cream

I'm even thinking of reducing the cream a bit

Mien

12:51 PM

Well, we never use whole milk.

We buy half-n-half

That should work too.

rumtscho

you mean 18% cream? yes, then leave out the milk

Mien

No, I expressed myself wrong.

I meant using half-skimmed milk instead of the whole.

I don't think that that 1% (?) of fat will matter a lot.

rumtscho

it is 1.8%

and no, it shouldn't matter that much

depends also on your ice cream machine, how prone it is to overchurning, etc.

Mien

Well, if I use cream of 36% instead of 33% or something, that made up for the less fat in the milk.

rumtscho

yes, if you can get it

I have never seen anything above 33% here

Mien

1:03 PM

We have 39%

That's the maximum I think.

I needed 40% once, that's why I remember.

rumtscho

there are lots of good recipes finely tuned to Konditorsahne - that's 42%, I think. But the consumer can't get it :(

ah, it is 40% in Germany and 45% in Switzerland

Mien

No, I must say they have 39% max at the store nearby. I haven't checked the others.

rumtscho

Yes, this is a difference between EU countries, German customers appear to have quite low requirements of their cream

Generally, food here is not so good quality. At least the food in the big supermarkets. It is cheap, but tasteless.

Mien

Here, we have cheap supermarkets, with modest quality. Or more expensive ones, but a better quality (usually).

rumtscho

There is this division here too

there are discounters like Aldi who have the really boring stuff. And then there are bigger supermarkets who have both the cheapest stuff sold under their house brand and big mass market brands which are OK.

Mien

1:11 PM

And of course the focused shops, with the high quality and expensive prices, but a small amount of things you can buy.

Honestly, I don't think Aldi's that bad. A lot of their things are pretty good, especially for their price.

rumtscho

And if there is enough space in the supermarket, there is also some better stuff, like cheeses from the wheel and fresh meat.

Mien

It's more than just edible, imo.

rumtscho

But supermarkets in other places are so much better. In Switzerland, the prices are much higher, but the quality and also the availability is great.

Oh, I shop at Aldi sometimes. The difference to the bigger supermarkets is not so big, and they are nicely cheap, yes.

But their cheese doesn't taste like cheese. It is bland.

Mien

Depends on the cheese.

rumtscho

The fruit can also be forgotten.

Mien

1:14 PM

I don't buy my fruit there.

rumtscho

Maybe Aldi carries better products in Belgium, I haven't seen good cheese in Aldi.

Mien

The camembert is nice, just as the mozarella and some grated cheeses.

But the 'real' cheese isn't very available.

They carried parmigianno-regianno for a while.

rumtscho

With luck, they can carry something like Bonbel or President.

Mien

But I don't know if it wasn't a good PR or if I just don't like PR.

rumtscho

They carry parmigianno-regianno here too, but it doesn't taste like the one from a cheese shop.

Mien

1:16 PM

I thought it didn't taste like anything :P

rumtscho

Even cardboard has a taste :)

rfusca

1:28 PM

@rumtscho odd

@rum one user on amazon does report warping with one of them - amazon.com/De-Buyer-Mineral-Steel-Country/product-reviews/…

Mien

1:44 PM

@rumtscho Yes, sure, I can't say I didn't like it. It just didn't taste much.

derobert

2:20 PM

@rumtscho I donno. From Google Translate, "'An album full of surprises,' promises the press release for The Lord Of Steel. What might this mean? Krautrock-references? Critical texts on the situation in Syria? Damon Albarn as guest vocalist?" is pretty good.

rumtscho

@derobert I am looking at the translation right now

this paragraph went quite well

The best sentence should mean:

> If true meant the same as conservative, the CDU [German's largest conservative party] would be a bunch of cyberpunk-nerds.

I didn't realize it, but maybe the style of Die Zeit journalists is somewhat complex

the translation isn't very good overall

derobert

Well, its Google Translate, so that's to be expected :-(

Try it on Japanese sometime.

Then you'll be lucky if you can even get the gist of the original.

rumtscho

I've never met an article in Japanese I wanted to read

derobert

Well, yes, you should beware of Japanese articles, Japan is definitely a weird place.

rumtscho

Japanese is a VOS language, right?

derobert

2:32 PM

VOS?

Checking Wikipedia, not sure, I don't know Japanese.

rumtscho

ah no, SOV

Subject-Object-Verb

as opposed to SVO like English

I just meant that Japanese is very different from English in grammatical structure, so Google probably has more trouble translating it than German, which is very close to English in grammar.

derobert

Google's problem with Japanese seems to be whenever it encounters a name...

It can't tell names apart, and attempts to translate them. Nonsense ensues.

rumtscho

But you baited me with this info on Japanese articles.

Can you give me an example? (One which is translated understandably?)

derobert

@rumtscho Uh oh, are you going to be hanging around weird Japanese articles, sneaking around the alleys of Germany?

rumtscho

It's impolite to leave me hanging, just telling me "it's dangerous" without letting me look at it by myself :)

derobert

2:37 PM

LOL

rumtscho

@derobert No, I will read them from the security of my office. And don't worry, we have a firewall. (I hope.)

derobert

I don't have an example at hand. I suppose I could check Marginal Revolution and find one, but they normally link to English translations.

rumtscho

@derobert English translation sounds good, Japanese is all Greek to me :)

derobert

google.com/… ought to find some .... looking

Darn, the first WTF I find, is actually an MSN article.

marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/10/… ... there we go, that one has links to Japanese sites.

marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/08/… ... gets both "Culture that is Japan" and "Markets in Everything", clearly a winner!

rumtscho

This yaeba blog, why does it repeat the same picture every third post?

derobert

2:47 PM

No clue, I can't read it :-P

Mien

@rumtscho how hot should that ice cream base be? Just enough to melt the sugar?

derobert

@Mien which ice cream base? Normally you want that cold before throwing it into the ice cream maker.

rumtscho

my eyeteeth are not fang-like, but I have slightly-too-large gaps around my second teeth. Does this count?

@Mien yes, once the sugar is melted, you are ready

Mien

@derobert I know, you let it chill in the fridge.

Okay, thanks.

rumtscho

I even melt it in the milk only and then add the cold cream. Chills quicker that way.

derobert

2:49 PM

@rumtscho no idea, guess you could see if you can get some Japanese dude away from this device and ask him...

@rumtscho appears they have robots like you there... marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/… .

rumtscho

@derobert I don't think I look sufficiently interesting to distract a Japanese dude. I haven't worn my short pleated skirt in ages.

2

I don't think I can compete with this look, nor emulate it.

Mien

Are you sure they are girls?

It is Japan, you should be very careful.

rumtscho

@Mien If they aren't, I don't want to know what they are.

derobert

@Mien All I know, is they're not mushrooms.

Mien

Being androgynous is quite 'normal' in Japan.

@derobert They do have a cap on their heads though...

derobert

2:55 PM

@Mien yes, but the metal supports sort of give it away...

rumtscho

@derobert are you sure they are not mushrooms? Maybe they are mushrooms disguised as dolls.

derobert

@rumtscho Well, if they are, its a pretty bad disguise. Notice the first thing that happens after you post that, is @Mien apppears.

rumtscho

It's not a question whether they can fool @mien. The question is whether they can fool Japanese dudes for long enough to distract them from their kissing device.

Mien

:D

derobert

@rumtscho Wait, why would a mushroom want to do that? As long as the men are engaging their kissing devices, the mushrooms are safe from eating.

Its saddening going through archives of MR that are only 2 years old, how many of the links are now 404, or redirected to the news sites home page.

@rumtscho why is it that every pan you try to season goes wrong?

rumtscho

3:23 PM

@derobert It is only one.

But it went wrong all the times I tried it.

There will be a new one to try soon

Unless my old one starts being non-stick again after I run it through the dishwasher, which is very unlikely

derobert

yes, that is unlikely.

rumtscho

Well, unless it is somehow "gummed up" invisibly and the harsh detergent removes the gumming.

So I have a slim hope that it might help - but really, really slim.

derobert

Maybe non-stick surfaces are just incompatible with robots?

rumtscho

It is a ceramic pan, they are known to fail. It is sad, because the thing is actually a rather good pan, very thick sandwich base.

derobert

Wait, I thought this was an iron pan?

rumtscho

3:30 PM

I have one big forged-iron pan which has resisted several attempts to season. I still use it a bit, but not often.

I also have a nice small ceramic-coated pan, which was non-stick, and I used it frequently.

Its nonstickiness failed in jumps. At first, it was like polished ice. Then it became like normal Teflon. Then it became a bit worse than teflon. This weekend, it started sticking worse than SS.

So I want to replace it with a new iron or carbon steel small one.

derobert

Maybe you can find a pre-seasoned one :-P

rumtscho

I don't think so.

I currently favor the idea of getting a cheap iron one, even though the reviews on Amazon are bad. If I can get it seasoned well, and if I am unhappy with the results for other reasons, I can still buy a better one. There is a Le Creuset CI one (not enamelled) with great reviews, but it costs 65 Eur for the 20 cm version. Staub are even more expensive.

Mien

Can't you cut off a piece of yourself?

derobert

@Mien I hear they still have money in Germany (unlike, say, Greece), so you don't yet have to pay in lbs (kg?) of flesh

rumtscho

@Mien I seem to detect some disrespect here. Would you cut off a piece of Mona Lisa's canvas if you need a rag to clean your shoes?

derobert

3:42 PM

@rumtscho Wow, you've achieved a new (personal) height in narcissism.

rumtscho

Besides, my super-modern titanium alloy is not suited to heating steaks in it. And this is only for the skeleton, not the humanlike skin. Oh, and I happen to need my parts.

@derobert No, my opinion of myself was always this high.

But OK, let's rephrase. Would you tear off a piece of your own skin if you needed a chamois for washing your windows?

derobert

@rumtscho But think of the wonderful aroma when you heat your parts!

rumtscho

@derobert Nah, it is easily imitated by heating pork. The difference is that my own aroma teases me but I stay hungry, while I actually get something to eat when I heat a pork steak.

derobert

@rumtscho Hmmm, you're going to have to work on that narcissism if you consider pork an acceptable imitation.

rumtscho

@derobert Pork is an acceptable imitation/alternative source of the delicious smell, not acceptable imitation for my other functions. I am sure that a very small script is an acceptable imitation of you when you are, say, copying a file, but you will probably disagree that it is adequate in other respects

hi @Sobachatina

Sobachatina

3:47 PM

@rumyanche- that cheese picture brought a tear to my eye. I am consoled only by the knowledge that I will never be wealthy enough to buy that much parmesan anyway.

rumtscho

I made the tomato confit sorbet

Sobachatina

@rumtscho How was it?

rumtscho

It is shockingly sweet - I should work on a version which uses something instead of the sugar

Sobachatina

@rumtscho Sorbet needs the sugar.

rumtscho

@Sobachatina they are rescuing it. These guys are called "the angels of parmesan", seriously.

derobert

3:48 PM

@rumtscho I don't think so. I mean, if you imagine a mushroom at a keyboard typing in a cp command, is a small shell script really an acceptable substitute? I think not!

Sobachatina

You might replace it with some alcohol- that will dissolve a bunch of the tomato flavors as well.

rumtscho

@Sobachatina This is more than normal.

I added some sherry, out of fear it will freeze too hard - it was thinner than my usual bases

Sobachatina

@derobert I would be really freaked out if I saw a fungus operating a keyboard.

rumtscho

I put it freshly churned in the freezer this morning, must look at its state when I get home

I am also not sure about the whole confit story

the sugar melted, and I got just pieces of tomato (still completely wet) swimming in molten sugar.

It would probably have gone hard, or crystalized even, if I had let it cool. But I pureed it hot and mixed it with the lemon juice.

Sobachatina

Interesting.

I imagined it being let to crystallize giving you little sweet/sour chunks in your sorbet.

rumtscho

3:53 PM

It isn't supposed to be let to crystalize. The recipe says to puree it and mix it evelny with the lemon juice+sugar base.

I also used a pinch of salt.

I hope that between the sherry and salt, it won't freeze too hard.

@Sobachatina now we know why we haven't seen pictures of him.

He is protecting you (and other inflexible minds like yours) from a shock. Sometimes I think that Americans get it too far with the self-censoring.

Mien

If I saw a fungus operating my keyboard, I would clean it.

rumtscho

@Mien would you clean the keyboard or the fungus?

Mien

I mean the keyboard. But obv the fungus as well.

It's all moldy.

derobert

@Mien Wait, I thought you ate fungi?

Mien

I do a lot of things with it.

derobert

4:01 PM

@Mien Do you boil the mushrooms in water for 15 minutes, like the broccoli?

Sobachatina

I sometimes eat it, I raise bread with it, I carbonate gently fermented beverages with it, sometimes I turn cheese blue with it... That's about it.

Mien

@derobert Funnily, my mom normally lets them fry in the pan for 45-60 minutes :p

I taught her that it's not necessary.

derobert

@Mien With the heat on? Or does she just sit them there...?

rumtscho

@Mien wait, how did your mom and my mom go to the same culinary school if they live 2500 km apart?

derobert

@Mien hard to believe the poor mushrooms aren't charcoal yet if the heat is on

Mien

4:05 PM

@rumtscho Haha :D

@derobert heat on, but low heat.

rumtscho

Mine puts the whole portabellos in the pot with a piece of butter. Each is maybe 3 cm across the cap, sometimes even more. She closes the pot and lets it heat for over an hour. When she is done, each mushroom is less than 1 cm across the cap, and the very definition of "rubbery". Then she lets it cool, so the melted butter congeals in these gritty pieces all over the mushrooms. Then she serves it.

derobert

And then you wonder if you've been served parts of the rubber ducky from the bathtub?

rumtscho

@derobert no, we have no bathtub. Also, the parts are a dark, mousy brown, not bright yellow.

derobert

Well, I suspect a rubber ducky wouldn't be so bright yellow after cooking, but confess I haven't tried. I should ask on the main site, obviously.

Mien

I remember how I felt when I bit the first time in a mushroom that was on the stove for maybe 8 minutes.

It was juicy and tender :o

rumtscho

4:09 PM

To defend her, after 30 years of daily cooking, there are three recipes which she has learned to prepare quite well. Four, if you count adding fruit to storebought icecream as a dessert.

@mien I don't let my mushrooms sit on the stove for 8 minutes.

Mien

Well, I was planning on doing it for 45 min.

I realised they were already done.

derobert

Poor mushrooms. Must call the ASPCF.

s/A/E/ I suppose.

rumtscho

@derobert I see. So, you agree that my treatment of them for about 4 minutes is humane?

@derobert an Essociation for prevention...?

derobert

@rumtscho just on the acronym!

rumtscho

For lunch, I had a pork steak, mornay sauce, and mushrooms with sherry. Very tasty.

derobert

4:14 PM

@rumtscho Well, know, but I hear they're still working on the most grievous offences.

@rumtscho European Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fungi.

rumtscho

Admit it. You know what the correct way to prepare mushrooms is. You must have eaten other mushrooms, you cannibal.

@derobert Ah OK, I didn't know the exact unravelling of the original acronym.

derobert

@rumtscho I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Donner Party.

rumtscho

Donner party?

derobert

Donner Party

The Donner Party was a group of 87 American pioneers who set out in a wagon train headed west for California, only to find themselves trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada. The subsequent casualties resulting from starvation, exposure, disease, and trauma were extremely high, and many of the survivors resorted to cannibalism. The wagons left Missouri for California in May of 1846. Encouraged to try a new, faster route across Utah and Nevada, they opted to take the Hastings Cutoff proposed by Lansford Hastings, who had never taken the journey with wagons. The Cutoff required the wagons to...

rumtscho

Santa's reindeer founded a political party?

> Most of these survivors also had resorted to cannibalism

How did the others survive, if only "most" had resorted to cannibalism?

derobert

4:17 PM

@rumtscho alternatively, you could try Trey Parker's first(?) film

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