Home cooks tend to worry about dull copper, dings in pan and pot covers, how to get rust off a piece of cookware (using it frequently comes to mind) and a whole host of distractions other than what’s in the pan and on-heat for tonight’s meal. They worry about ‘edge longevity’ when the mise for a meal for six shouldn’t take a decent home cook fifteen minutes. How do I replace a plastic gear? With a piece of equipment that doesn’t use them… getting the theme? If not, read all the posts.
The two or three essential pieces of equipment with moving parts and a cord attached – that probably is worth spending money on for the active and prolific home cook. You won’t find what you need at Williams-Sonoma, as much as that new W-S credit card beckons.
You were looking for a piece of equipment a while back. I can’t remember what it was but I offered to buy it for you as a gift. That offer still stands. Maybe re-read through your posts to refresh your memory.
There was something about your posts up to that point that made me think you weren’t just a gear hound, Jonesing for your next ‘buy.’
I think it does in my beggings of pizza . I have the oven to 550 . Measured with the infrared thermometer. Different heights on the rack in the oven . Trying my fourth pizza tonight . Pizza Napolitano recipe from the pizza bible . Calculates to 62 % hydration. Its going to be good but …
I need higher temperature. At the moment reviewing the Ooni koda 16 vrs the Gozney Xr .
Now leaning towards the Gozney. Tools do make a difference. Based on reviews I’ve read a hundred times . The Gozney has the edge for a hundred dollars more @ 699.00 .
An amusing and entertaining take. I have not cooked for a living for ages, but I treat the beautiful old pieces I have been collecting for over half a century the same way I treated the owners’ things in kitchens where I was working, i.e., with reckless abandon. So my heavy copper pans have their dings indeed. I never even thought about rust on my handles until I read about it here recently. I walked over to the iron handled pans and lids, saw no rust, and shrugged. No rust. My carbon steel pans are dark but smooth and clean inside and nearly black enough for their annual Carbon Off treatment. My knives are all stained, and I have never scrubbed or oiled a handle, but they get sharpened two or three times a year and honed lightly every time they are used.
It is interesting to ponder what highly skilled cooks use, but it is not necessarily useful. As has been noticed, a home cook must keep all of the elements going at the same time and plan for the entire meal to come together on the plate in a simultaneous moment of perfect completion, not just aligning cook times but planning for slicing, buttering, saucing, dressing, garnishing, plating…A careful and thorough mise and a well developed sense of timing are going to be more valuable than using the same knife as Marco or the same pans as Keller. That does not mean, however, that using good tools commensurate with your skill and ingredients doesn’t make sense. Given that the most difficult of all of these elements to acquire is that well developed sense of timing. If you are not yet fully developed in that regard, erring on the side of slight under cooking and using pans with enough mass to hold things (if only for a couple of minutes) is probably a smart way to compensate.
There were various opinions, and yours was that I should discard the piece of equipment because a black substance had formed after washing it in the dishwasher.
You generously offered to replace it with one of my choosing ( and I tried to think of a way to get that offer to someone more financially deserving).
I thought about it, felt I knew at least as much as most about the health risk, and for me, it was just, as you put it, a “distraction”.
Again, thank you, and I appreciate your generous offer, but not replacing it (yet) is not a financial issue.
Neapolitan pizza in a “regular” oven won’t work independently of the hydration level. You will need to spend your money on some ooni or comparable pizza oven which reaches the required temperature
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
83
I’m late and didn’t read all the responses, but I read quite a few. Outside of some really exquisite pans for very particular uses, I think the equipment matters very little. Yeah, I like the stuff I’m using right now, and certainly I can get a much better sear on a tuna or swordfish steak (or any beef steak, too!) with my current pans than the stuff I used 30 years ago.
But knowing what I do now, I could have gotten a pretty great result with the crappy pans I was using 30 years ago, too - knowing what I do now.
NY style pizza doughs tend to be different than neapolitan style (different flour, use of oil etc) which leads to a quite different result (and technique ) - a pizza screen wouldn’t be helpful for a neapolitan pizza
Our late friend Cullen was a fountain pen repair man. He was also a machinist and so could fabricate any parts he needed.
Pen collectors are a very interesting subculture.
He knew folks all over the world.
I’m afraid the Youngs don’t know how to use them. On several occasions I’ve bought boxes of disposable fountain pens and packs of nice notepads and handed them out to my college classes - then I ask them to try writing - most don’t even know how to put the nib on the paper correctly (think upside down). I tell them to enjoy trying, and make sure that they put the caps back on securely when the throw them in their backpacks.
I my opinion you have not described a better car. Just a car that’s smarter than the typical driver. Modern cars can make up for the lack of attention and skill of a typical driver.
A better car is something else. It’s got a higher power to weight ratio for more acceleration, a taut suspension so you can hit the corners just right and ideally manual transmission so you can adjust the gears to the conditions or at least flappy paddles.
I have a high performance coupe that I take out on sunny days and drive on the wonderful windy road over and around hills where I am up and down shifting like crazy. The engine howls and makes sounds like a bass symphony. It corners like it’s on those proverbial rails in tight turns. Does it make me a better driver? No. But it makes driving so much more enjoyable and when you know how to use a car like it, it’s glorious.
Perhaps I can jaccard a steak with it.
