Hi Vecchiouomo,
Looking for a working replacement isn’t really an upgrade by downgrading–but it sounds good!
Upgrading, IMO, should be tied in with growing–and growing within our hobby should be the most important aspiration.
Downgrading, IMO, involves a pushback against upgrading targets–and in kitchen knives it leads to a re-affirmation of familiar softer steel knives.
Buying a Mouli (NIB!) to replace a functionally identical WS that cost three times as much was a downgrade in terms of being pricey and fancy, but I like it better. I cannot wrap my head around your definition of an upgrade. I would think replacing an eight inch Victorinox with a $1000 210 gyuto would be generally viewed as an upgrade even if the owner uses it the exact same way.
Hi Vecchioumo,
My concept of an upgrade, often expressed, has a strong value component, and is intended to be constantly ongoing–and then subject to confirmation testing.
My most recent birthday knife just barely made it–and it took almost five years.
In my system, I’d be evaluating a Victorinox at about $30–and wouldn’t consider any possible upgrade that would cost me more than 3X= $90–and it would have to be a chef knife and not a gyuto. I did once purchase a Victorinox butcher knife as an upgrade that then failed my testing–and was given away.
As long as I stayed with softer steel knives, I never had to go over $100. It was my Wusthof Classic Ikon that was my most expensive softer steel knife purchase: exactly at $100. But I also purchased several knives for less than $10–and there were KIWIs and even $1 knives.
Hard steel Japanese knives began a prices close to $100–but for awhile I was able to stay below by purchasing utility and smaller knives–then larger ones when they proved their value. That’s when they jumped over $100.
Right now, Japanese upgrades for my larger knives cost over $200–even with my best efforts to keep costs down.
The only options that are still near my $100 target are from China–and, so far they’ve been great values.
Polish chop suey wouldn’t exist, and in my home. Home is where fusion starts.
Even though my grandma was Welsch, she made pasties, loved 'em. Then she’d make sauerkraut for her German husband, my grandpa. Used to be a UP pasty shop near where I worked. Very popular place back in the late 80’s.
I think of the upgrades I’ve made and remember my parents and grandparents sure didn’t upgrade anywhere near as people do now, including me. I try to resist, but when I found Mauviel M steel for cheap, and I read some reviews, I just needed that thing. I love it. Glad I got it.
Hi Greg,
The cultural fusion I’ve been reporting and observing is unexpected–sometimes unintended–and slow. The “cornish pasties” of Lucky Baldwin’s pub in Pasadena have a curry variant and different pastry from the one in Cornwall. The UP of Michigan pasty I linked has a spicy vegetarian version that betrays the Mexican Americans who now make them.
More than 50 years have gone by.
A truly American fusion amalgamation has yet to emerge.
Yeah, my grandma slowly learned what my grandpa like. Then she slowly learned how to make his faves. I’m sure she didn’t expect kraut to be one of her most made foods when she was younger.
By me, I’m seeing the slow roll of the fusion between our Latino and Amish communities. Strange bedfellows come together with food. Dass good stuff.
Hi Greg,
That’s not what I’ve been writing about.
It sure seemed like it, adding ingredients and flavors from one heritage to dishes from another heritage. It happens all the time. Heck, I made a scampi dish one night in a very classic and lemony style and added a pinch of curry powder. It stuck. My family and friends love it.
Hi Vecchiouomo,
Somehow, mysteriously, on it’s own, a truly American amalgamation becomes “automatic.” Mostly, there are just variations cooks play with.
Top sirloin cap is pretty common in the US, as is picanha in the US where you have a lot of South American immigrants (this is the steak you’ll see at Brazilian steakhouses bent into a U-shape and skewer for open-flame cooking, then they cut thin slices off the seared sides for serving), also in US I’ve seen it called coullotte and “beef cover”, and I’ve seen Brits call it beef rump cap. It’s one of my favorites, especially to buy as a whole piece and then cook whole or cut into steaks myself.
Hi, Damiano,
I use the LC 30 cm for long braising or stews. I use the SS for quicker meals.
If it was in a place easier to grab, I might use it more. It is an ordeal to get out. But I will be rearranging things again, I’ve got more basement storage cabinets and am going to rework how I am keeping things again. Even If a pan is stored in the basement, it is much easier to open a cabinet and grab something down there than it is to remove a pile of pans resting on top of it in the kitchen. I still do it for long cooking but again, not for quicker style meals.
Really glad to hear you enjoy this pan, I’d feel responsible if you hated it. I think it is a very versatile size and more so than the 26 regular DO, in my opinion. Although I did get one to hold back for one of the boys, it was a decent price. But the 30 rondeau has a lot of space for browning, but not too shallow like their braiser, which is more of a frying pan shape, but low enough for good reduction, and a large size that won’t crowd a regular size cooktop like a 32.
That’s a bold move and with not inexpensive ingredients. Good for you to take the risk. Though with your experience I think decisions like this are less of a risk as you’ve probably developed a good sense of whether or not recipe alterations are likely to work.
I was at Costco today and nearly bought top sirloin cap. Instead a picked some ribeye cap and some boneless short rib, as well as a pack of choice filet which was marbled as nicely as it’s prime counterpart. I made these into kabobs for myself and two friends since my family is away on holiday and I’m home alone.
That’s not what he’s talking about.
What the hell is he talking about?
So, those playful variations have included adding more to pizza that mozz and basil. General Tso’s chicken, tikka masala in England, the California roll, among a billion others. Play makes pay.
Apparently that’s something else besides fusion because they weren’t created at a glacial pace.
Is that a green egg I spy? If so, I’m jealous
Those all sound like forms of fusion to me. I am reminded of the bubble under the wall paper. It moves around but never goes away! In the recurring themes Ray posts - fusion, knife comparisons, Chinese cutlery, induction cooking, LC, etc. - it seems impossible to pin down precise concepts and terminology. Maybe that is tactical, enabling one to dismiss a contrary viewpoint by saying, “You just don’t understand” or the like. I remember once on CH I offered a suggested structure for something and got lambasted. I was not telling anyone how to phrase anything (I can’t), only offering one person’s insight into ways to enable more readers to follow along, contribute, and find the banter instructive. In most of Ray’s lengthy threads, I actually find the off topic stuff to be the stuff that interests me. Others seem to share the view.
It is probably a good idea for many of us, not just Ray, to work at nailing down our terminology and defining things that might be unclear. Cookware might not be as hard to describe as wine or whiskey, but there is a vast amount of confusion that comes from the marketing terminology employed. We also tend to talk about very old things and very new things in the same thread, compounding the confusion.
