I prefer colleague as the traditional, international word.

Tradition is good (except when it is intrinsically bad...).

To my American ears "colleague" is a word that often comes before "esteemed" and is said primarily in jest.

er. after*

Oh. Or in academia. Fellow professors would be colleagues before they would be coworkers in my mind.

Well, non-Germanic languages do not have a root "work", while all European languages have or can use "collega", it being Latin.

While studying French I remember learning a lot about how the French government (and maybe people?) take measures to try to protect the integrity of the french language. Like it's some kind of cultural faux pas to use loanwords and such. A specific example I remember was a memo that discouraged the use of the word "e-mail" in government correspondence (in favor of courrier électronique). Such an interesting kind of thought. I can't think of any American English parallels to stuff like that.

What you said about colleague just reminded me of that. I'd never consider a word's origin as having relevance to is usability. Or suitability.

@PrestonFitzgerald it sounds like a neologism i.e. a made-up word

Like Newspeak, it gives me the creeps.

This answer is horrible! Yeah, he does say let the dust settle before opening but that doesn't change the fact that you're violently agitating on the order of a kilogram of very fine combustible powder, in an electrical appliance no less. This is known in certain circles as a fuel-air explosive

@TomW wha?? I make superfine sugar like that all the time.

OK, so this isn't a very representative example, but this is what happens when stirring air into a fine combustible powder and applying ignition

If your experience suggests it's fine I'd defer to that but...I wouldn't, basically.

There's probably enough in there for a kitchen-sized fireball. Realistically you're unlikely to aerate it well enough and if you've got uncontrolled sources of ignition in your kitchen..erm, well you deserve whatever you get. Still, accidents are a conspiracy of errors

No one buys superfine or caster sugar in the US, but we run into recipes pretty often that call for it, so whirring sugar in a food processor is a pretty common thing. I've never heard of any kind of related accident.

Seems like a peculiar gap in the market. Retailers are usually really sharp in spotting an opportunity to sell a labour-saving product

Think pre-sliced anything

@jolenealaska no one buys icing or caster sugar in the US? Why not?

@ElendilTheTall I wondered that myself. WalMart at least doesn't seem to sell it.

A_mericans_

I can perhaps understand caster, but icing sugar? You have to blitz granulated whenever you want to make icing? That's not America! That's not even Mexico!

Maybe they buy it in a can

A spray can

They probably having icing shells for their shotguns

I can see Epic Meal Time having a go with that one

@ElendilTheTall oops...sorry, I meant caster or superfine. We do buy icing/confectioners

most stores don't even carry caster/superfine

madness

It's like the dark ages

I looked up, I did say it right. It's just the one type that is rarely seen here. When you do see it, it's sold in a waxed, cardboard carton like milk and is a lot more expensive than granulated.

Especially, if like me, you buy generic baking ingredients at Sam's Club, granulated sugar is very cheap by the pound, so 2 minutes in the food processor to make caster sugar isn't a big deal.

I would guess maybe 1 in 50 households ever has caster sugar on hand other than the food processed stuff.

It makes little difference in my experience.

Of course, if you insist on using volume measures it might cause problems.

I rarely use volume measures except spoons

I know, you're very good <pats jojo's head>

<runs>

Recipe #1 I plan to do at my new place

I say recipe. Take some meat and heat it up. Still, it's amazingly good.

Just laying the meat on top of the potatoes sucks up all the meat juice, it's outstandingly good

and jamming big fat cloves of garlic into the lamb is good fun

that method of cooking potatoes is called pommes boulangere

on a slightly related note, hasn't Tom Kerridge gone a funny shape since he lost weight?

He really does have a spare tyre

Mold is troublesome, but maggots are OK?

@rfusca You asked me to tell you how my sous vide chuck turned out. Awesome!

I did it at 131F and seared afterwards in cast iron. I had two steaks. I did one for 30 hours (even though my book recommended 48-60) because I was impatient. That picture is of the 30 hour steak. Blindfolded, I would have sworn it was ribeye. Very tender, very flavorful.

After 60 hours it was even better. All of the collagen had been converted, giving the meat that unctuousness. The fat was more dissolved too. In both cases the meat was more flavorful than anything I would usually buy as steak.