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Chili Oil Notes

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Re: Chili Oil Notes

#101

Post by barrkel »

RugnirViking wrote: post #100
ChrisKnott wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm struggling to believe this can be done by taste; I could understand it if you went milk+teabag, then added water, but this seems like brewed tea in a pot added to milk in cup v.s. milk added to brewed tea in a cup, which will get totally mixed either way...? The only difference I can think of in these situations is the temperature of the bottom of the cup. Can this really detectably affect the taste? Maybe she wa…

I do know that brewing tea with not-quite boiled water (70-80 degrees C) instead of boiled water 80-90 is recommended because otherwise the leaves go bitter. Perhaps if they were using water fresh from the kettle the milk-first way was preventing the "scalding"

Bitter tannins are what you want in black tea, they're smoothed out by milk but a good cup needs to be grippy in the mouth. Black tea made with anything less than boiling water is usually not very nice, in my experience.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#102

Post by ReptileMan »

mbakke wrote: post #70
jonahhorowitz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine started a company based entirely on the premise that grind quality matters. They did many blind taste tests and found that they could taste a 50μm difference in grind size when they controlled the other variables. Can you tell the difference between a $50 spice mill and a $200 burr grinder? Yes, absolutely. Can you tell the difference between that and a $1,500 expresso grinder, probably. His little s…

Even amateurs will notice the difference between a "perfect" pour over from a $50 grinder and a $200 grinder. The GP clearly does not own a V60 :) Above the $200 range really only matter for espresso. Manual brews don't need that fine grind precision, just consistency (no fines, no rocks) at medium grind levels.

Get two laboratory sifts for 10 bucks each and ignore the grinder quality altogether.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#103

Post by esperent »

nosefurhairdo wrote: post #74
elhudy wrote: post #58

I love nerding out on food as mich as the next person. On food and cooking is one of my favorite kitchen tools. Sichuan chili oil is a staple condiment in our house. That said, i find the following to be an oft-repeated bs phrase parroted across the internet. You can find it tracing back to reddit threads over ten years ago. > You can end up with what are called fines and boulders, fines being tiny, dust-like pieces…

Your argument is "I dare you; you won't notice a difference." That's not convincing. Those of us who've spent time in the industry can even detect differences between high end conical vs flat burr grinders, let alone the difference between a bladed spice grinder compared to a burr grinder. There are substantial differences to be found in many variables of coffee brewing. Just because you don't have a palate for it do…

Are you aware of any blind tests done on this? I'm fully aware that I can taste the difference between my Specialita and a blade grinder.

What I'm less convinced by is that more and more expensive grinders taste better to any noticeable and consistent degree. Personally I'd say that the taste changes day by day, maybe according to my mood, whether I brushed my teeth or ate something sweet in the last hour or two, the humidity, bean freshness, whether any defect beans got into a particular cup, and probably a ton of other factors.

I'm willing to accept that my tastes are not developed enough. But I need real double blind tests to back that up, not just people saying I should trust them because they claim to be an expert. Are there any?

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#104

Post by klausa »

c0pium wrote: post #88
mafuyu wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? The grinder is the most important part, in my experience. When I first got into aeropress and pourovers, I was frustrated for years with bland and inconsistent brews. It was only after I upgraded to a decent burr grinder that everything fell into place. It’s just impossible to tweak anything else without first starting with a good grinder. I make adjustments of a few micron at a time with my grinder, and t…

Quality of beans and water in some order, followed by temperature and time, then grinder. Grab some 6 month old beans and brew them with metallic water at 85c, no grinder in the world will make that palatable. > adjustments of a few micron at a time Lol, no you don’t. Microns are much smaller than you think.

>Lol, no you don’t. Microns are much smaller than you think.

You absolutely do.

Many stepped grinders will have steps on the order of magnitude of 5 microns, EG-1 being probably the easiest one of the bunch to prove [1].

But note that this is talking about the difference in the _burr distance_, not the ground particle size difference.

In a world where we figured out how to make perfect burrs that produce uniform particle sizes these _might_ be the same, but even the most expensive and fanciest coffee grinders produce a relatively wide distribution of particle sizes.

[1]: https://weberworkshops.com/products/eg-1

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#106

Post by michaelt »

klausa wrote: post #104
c0pium wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality of beans and water in some order, followed by temperature and time, then grinder. Grab some 6 month old beans and brew them with metallic water at 85c, no grinder in the world will make that palatable. > adjustments of a few micron at a time Lol, no you don’t. Microns are much smaller than you think.

>Lol, no you don’t. Microns are much smaller than you think. You absolutely do. Many stepped grinders will have steps on the order of magnitude of 5 microns, EG-1 being probably the easiest one of the bunch to prove [1]. But note that this is talking about the difference in the _burr distance_, not the ground particle size difference. In a world where we figured out how to make perfect burrs that produce uniform part…

Speaking as a someone who does DIY CNC, it's easy to add an adjustment dial labelled in 5 micron steps. But those labels are basically decorative if other imprecision in the machine means adjustments aren't reliably reflected in the output.

Even if your coffee grinder is in a room temperature-controlled to within 1 degree, the heat output of the motor could easily cause more than 5 microns of thermal expansion.

But obviously, if the coffee tastes good to you, then that's a coffee making success regardless of how precisely you're grinding things.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#107

Post by schwartzworld »

civilitty wrote: post #18
throwaway892238 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would this concern you more than anything else? If you cook the fish, it's not going to "go bad" as quickly as if it were raw. If you cook anything to a particular temperature and time, it should kill most bacteria in it. Then the acidity of the tomato should help resist bacterial growth a wee bit longer than something pH-neutral. On top of all this, "obvious death" from bacteria in food is some serious hyperbole…

> it's quite rare to die of food poisoning. I’d go so far as to say it’s virtually unheard of for healthy adults to die of food poisoning from cooked food going bad*. It’s mostly children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised that are at risk. The fast majority of microbes that cause food born illness are really common in our environments and we’ve built up plenty of immunity. * fecal contamination and other toxins…

You'd have to add controls before making that statement. Unsafe food practices by definition will raise your likelihood of getting sick from cooked food. Most people don't leave cooked fish sitting on the counter overnight, therefore getting sick from cooked fish is going to be relatively uncommon.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#108

Post by gmac »

barrkel wrote: post #101
RugnirViking wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do know that brewing tea with not-quite boiled water (70-80 degrees C) instead of boiled water 80-90 is recommended because otherwise the leaves go bitter. Perhaps if they were using water fresh from the kettle the milk-first way was preventing the "scalding"

Bitter tannins are what you want in black tea, they're smoothed out by milk but a good cup needs to be grippy in the mouth. Black tea made with anything less than boiling water is usually not very nice, in my experience.

100% this. Which is why, as a Brit, my heart still sinks when ordering tea in most European countries: nine times out of ten you get a glass of once-boiling water to add a teabag to.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#109

Post by gmac »

RugnirViking wrote: post #100
ChrisKnott wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm struggling to believe this can be done by taste; I could understand it if you went milk+teabag, then added water, but this seems like brewed tea in a pot added to milk in cup v.s. milk added to brewed tea in a cup, which will get totally mixed either way...? The only difference I can think of in these situations is the temperature of the bottom of the cup. Can this really detectably affect the taste? Maybe she wa…

I do know that brewing tea with not-quite boiled water (70-80 degrees C) instead of boiled water 80-90 is recommended because otherwise the leaves go bitter. Perhaps if they were using water fresh from the kettle the milk-first way was preventing the "scalding"

I believe the point is to avoid overheating (any of) the milk, because that changes its flavour. For example, tea made with UHT milk tastes very different (and, to me, much less nice) than tea made with pasteurised milk.

When adding the tea to the milk, the temperature of the milk will never exceed the final temperature of the mix. When adding the milk to the tea, it will.

Re: Chili Oil Notes

#110

Post by Adverblessly »

ChrisKnott wrote: post #92
nycdatasci wrote: post #64

The discussion here reminds me of the lady tasting tea experiment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_tasting_tea

I'm struggling to believe this can be done by taste; I could understand it if you went milk+teabag, then added water, but this seems like brewed tea in a pot added to milk in cup v.s. milk added to brewed tea in a cup, which will get totally mixed either way...? The only difference I can think of in these situations is the temperature of the bottom of the cup. Can this really detectably affect the taste? Maybe she wa…

The difference is that if the milk is added first, slowly pouring the prepared tea will gradually heat up the milk from its initial temperature to the final combined temperature. If the tea is added first, the milk will start at tea temperature and gradually cool down to the combined temperature.

Imagining a scenario where the milk starts at 0 degrees and the tea at 100 and having a 1:10 milk:tea ratio, the difference is whether the milk gradually heats up 0->90 or gradually cools down 100->90.

Thus, in one scenario the milk will experience more extreme temperatures that can "burn" it whereas in the other scenario it won't.

To me at least I'd say the difference is barely noticeable, if I had to guess I'd say that in a blind tasting I might be able to get 55% of my guesses right.

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