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The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

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Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#51
post #39

Kenji's obsessive and hilarious seriouseats.com research into the world's best burger and the world's best steaks and the world's best whatevers are priceless. What surprised me is how this site kinda came out of nowhere and took the crown from the more staid web presences of well-established "serious eats" publications like Cook's Illustrated, etc.

Well... I did used to work for Cook's Illustrated so it's not a huge stretch to say it's a major influence!

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#52

Haha! My friend is in the Chicago Tribune today for his new pizzeria in Chicago and he managed to sneak in a reference to the grease chalice: http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/restaurants/ct-paulie-g...

Your friend is Paulie Gee, or the pizzaiolo at the new Paulie Gee in Chicago? Either way, get your butt in there because Paulie is the MAN. He was a regular on Serious Eats for years before he opened up his first pizzeria. He was in a totally different field but loved making pizza in his back yard. He did tons of research, got amazing at his hobby, then finally took the leap, quit the corporate world, and opened up one of the most successful pizzerias in Brooklyn, now in a few other cities as well. Such an inspiring guy - so much so that he actually inspired a former Serious Eats editor (Adam Kubam) to open his own pizzeria as well. He makes some incredible bar-style pizza at Margot in NYC.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#53
post #35
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unbelievable. The last months I've been enjoying his crazy good lasagne and ragu recipes. Like the best I've ever had, made by me. Yesterday I bought this book and now it's in hn... If you love food and try to be a better cook, here's some good material. Too bad some ingredients, like chilies are a bit tough to find in Germany...

Peppers aren't that hard to find in Germany. You appear to also live in Berlin. As a Texan and significant cooking hobbyist (I ordered Kengi's book from the US before it was available in Germany), here are some tips: Major grocery stores: - Real usually has fresh cayenne peppers, bell peppers, and some long sweet peppers. Occasionally they also have habaneros. - Edeka more often has habaneros, and often tabasco peppe…

Thanks for the chilies on the web tip. They have a bit pricey postage, to Berlin almost 10 euros... But let's try them, because they have all the chiles needed for the chile paste. These Berlin shops mostly have the basic chiles. Once there was a chili hamburger place in Neukölln selling home grown chiles with different variety and they went bankrupt in a year. It seems germans don't like spicy food that much.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#54
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Planning to do that chili con carne next Sunday, so no time to grow the plants... Also electricity is super expensive in Berlin, so any artificial growing lights will break my monthly budget.

I'd love to visit (or work in) Berlin. Can you find whole dried chili peppers, or canned? They're obviously not as good as fresh, but they'll still be delicious. Dried chiles are very lightweight, so probably not very expensive to have shipped to you in bulk. They're easy to rehydrate (and you can use hot stock instead of water for extra flavor): http://www.chilipeppermadness.com/cooking-with-chili-peppers...

Germans don't like spicy food in general. There are a handful of restaurants serving something that actually burns in your mouth, but you have to beg them to actually cook it for you. For chiles in supermarket, you get the basic jalapenos and if you're really lucky, habaneros with a premium price.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#55
post #44

Pepperoni is a disgusting low quality topping. I mean "cheese pizza" is basically a pizza without toppings. But when the cheapest possible pizza is being made, the topping is always pepperoni. It makes sense - it's cut paper thin and sparsely arranged around the pizza to save on costs. The next cheapest topping is Canadian bacon, which is not even bacon, but a type of ham. That's basically false advertisement, since…

Why exactly did you feel the need to share any of that drivel?

Morning coffee didn't kick in yet.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#56
post #35
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unbelievable. The last months I've been enjoying his crazy good lasagne and ragu recipes. Like the best I've ever had, made by me. Yesterday I bought this book and now it's in hn... If you love food and try to be a better cook, here's some good material. Too bad some ingredients, like chilies are a bit tough to find in Germany...

Peppers aren't that hard to find in Germany. You appear to also live in Berlin. As a Texan and significant cooking hobbyist (I ordered Kengi's book from the US before it was available in Germany), here are some tips: Major grocery stores: - Real usually has fresh cayenne peppers, bell peppers, and some long sweet peppers. Occasionally they also have habaneros. - Edeka more often has habaneros, and often tabasco peppe…

I don't know whether the postage from these UK guys will be any better - I'm just mentioning them as they are relatively close to me and I have been in their shop a few times:

http://chillipepperpete.com/

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kenji's (cook)book, The Food Lab , is also great, though it doesn't include everything he has on the blog. It's also inexpensive enough to make a great random gift for foodie friends, despite being a hefty hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393081087 If you like his stuff, you might also enjoy the Cooking Issues podcast, particularly the earlier episodes. It's a bantercast mixed with food science, cooking cal…

Agreed on Kenji. Searching for Kenji + name of dish you need a recipe for is the pro-est of pro-tips.

I would throw Pioneer Woman on as the second Google option. She doesn't have the geeky bent that Kenji does, but has amazing recipes.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#58
post #46

His articles and book don't suit my tastes, they're a bit too wordy for me and his "science" is more from experiments, less on the chemistry (proteins, salts, molecules etc). For a more layman's chemistry view on food science, take a look at Harold McGee's book called "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen". It really gave me a good foundation to actually understand what is going on when I cook. Wh…

> His articles and book don't suit my tastes, they're a bit too wordy for me and his "science" is more from experiments, less on the chemistry (proteins, salts, molecules etc). Not sure I understand the scare quotes. Experimentation and hypothesis testing are the bedrocks of science. Okay, he didn't use chemstry theories to create his hypothesis, but that's not a crime. In particular, the fact that he figured out tha…

The scare quotes were unintentional. Poor punctuation. Just defining his science as experimental.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on Kenji. Searching for Kenji + name of dish you need a recipe for is the pro-est of pro-tips.

I would throw Pioneer Woman on as the second Google option. She doesn't have the geeky bent that Kenji does, but has amazing recipes.

Except that eating Pioneer Woman recipes on a regular basis will take years off of your life. You will have have delicious years but fewer of them.
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