probably because it was my first one
2 favorites:

1) On Cooking: This was my culinary school textbook, and it’s a great resource for pretty much anything you want to know about cooking. I like it more than the New Professional Chef (CIA textbook), it seems more in-depth.

2) Taste, by David Rosengarten: This book doesn’t have all that many recipes for its size, but each recipe it has is very in-depth and well researched. I’ve read it through countless times, and it’s excellent each time.
i have an old better homes and gardens cookbook. it has some good recipes
I don’t use cookbooks

But if I had to guess, my favorite would actually be I use them often if I want something different.
Joy of Cooking my mother gave me when I moved.

(not gay)

they are so great – a lot of recipes take wayyyy too much time to prep but in they end they are always right – for some of their recipes without the science and the comparisons check out America’s Test Kitchen:

My Joy got a lot of use when I was starting out as well – entertaining read too if you ever need to know how to stuff a wild boar’s head

edit – I made ATK’s lasagna a couple of weeks ago – absolutely the best I’ve ever had and used no boil noodles which I’d been extremely leery of using – i used a combo of 1/2 lb ground round and 1/2lb italian sausage:

Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen

His first book, and it teaches you the basics of the finest food in all the world.

Sounds cool. i’ll check it out.
On Cooking, and The Professional Chef, 7th Edition. Two great books.

I’m using my dad’s which he got from his mom- it’s like an ancient tome

although I’m liking a lot of the recipies I’m finding on here- even if they don’t break it down into a step-by-step how to do it form.
bump…

Any others?

I just ordered “The Best Recipe” and subscribed to America’s Test Kitchen

Used to be S.O.A.R.

Real nice grouping also, for taste or styles.
Still searching for a decent one, let alone my favourite. I find 90% of cookbooks are of no help unless you’ve had that dish before. (ie. cookbooks that resemble textbooks with no pictures)

Some books are too artsy. They’re more about the pretty photos than the recipe.

Too many ‘quick and easy’ cookbooks and other dumbed down recipes. If I wanted quick, I’d eat ramen. I want quality. Time shouldn’t matter.

I hate cookbooks that resemble scrapbooks.

That’s my cousin.
i have subscriptions to southern living, better homes and gardens, taste of home, and womans day…i cut out all the recipes i like (and write on index cards recipes i have collected from friends and family) and tape them on printer paper according to what kind of recipe it is and now i have the best cookbook evar…its got all the good stuff i want and none of the stuff i dont…i also like southern livings annual cookbook…i have several of them!

that’s a good idea, I have a big 3 ring binder with things I’ve cut out – I put them in plastic sheet savers then the recipes don’t get lost if something spills

a lot of the recipe web sites offer printing options for 3 x5 or 4 x 6 cards – if you print them out on card stock you can file them right away in the recipe box

/martha

Excellent site. As for actual books, I dig my New York Times Cookbook.
I have an international cookbook at home; it has some great stuff in there! If only i could cook :’(
I prefer online recipe sites because you can read user reviews, which I find extremely helpful in deciding whether to make or alter a recipe. My three favorite are:

no shit???

Those are all excellent, but unless you’ve got a lot of relatively obscure/expensive ingredients on hand, epicurious? Meh.

EDIT: This page is MINE. Sorry, had to.

Some of the recipes on epicurious are more of the fancy-schmancy variety, but most of them are actually pretty down to earth (it really all depends on what type of food you are looking to make). I like epicurious because it has a huge variety, is well designed, has a great rating/review system, is easy to navigate both by browsing and by using their very detailed search feature, and has a lot of delicious recipes… Sure, if you’re the type of cook who thinks an herb sage is a specialty item, then it wouldn’t be for you, but for most exeperienced or semi-experienced cooks its a great site.
internet: , epicurious.com, foodtv.ca, americastestkitchen.com

books: I’d rather list authors because anything by these chefs is golden: rick bayless (mexican!) nigella lawson(book- how to be a domestic goddess), marc bittman.

When picking out cookbooks i judge the book by its cover, table of contents, pictures, size of index and the little headnotes before the recipe. I love those little notes, they are great to read.
Yep, On Cooking is a very good book… i actually saw it on sale at Barnes and Noble

for some gourmet food though, you might want to try The French Laundry by Thomas Keller, or anything by Charlie Trotter
“The Three ingredient” cookbook, always gets me out of bind when needed

Ju
If you’re interested in an Australian flavour try

Always a reliable source for me… chow
For good french bistro food, Anthony Bourdain’s new book “Les Halles Cookbook” is great.

Aussie cuisine being?

Me != money

eh, it’s only $20 or so on amazon, vs $35 in the bookstores.

Like I have $20 to spend willy nilly.
Joy of cooking is a must have for me as well.
Also really enjoy Rick Bayless’ Mexico: One plate at a time
I just received the new best recipe and the quick recipe – i’m sure there’s some overlap but they were a good deal when purchased together and a summary of all the magazines… such good reading…. so many new things to try

The Fanny Farmer Cookbook (original version). Can find a better little cookbook than that one. Lots of basic stuff…a bible for those who cook.
I flip through “The French Laundry” cook book by that thomas keller guy. tons of interesting stuff

Great book, but does the average person even have half the ingredients required to cook a meal from there?

> yuo

“The soul of a Chef” by Michael Ruhlman, u go to culinary school…..do urself a favor and read this book..
The New Professional Chef
Not really a cookbook, but Cuisine at home magazine. No ads, just cooking. Their back issue volumes come bound like a book, so essentially they are a cookbook.
bump

I ordered New Joy of Cooking and New Best Recipe yesterday.
Here’s why I don’t like epicurious:

Sorry, no results found for Chicken

3037 results for:
chicken

dunno what you’re doing that results in no results…
havent gotten internet hooked up at home so i use the James Beard American Cookery. its a 600+ pg book.. and JB is a GOD.

only problem is that it has no “prep time” and no “serve” count… but most of his recipes are 4-person

the joy of cooking or southern living cookbooks
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan. Some fantasic recipes in there, not too insanely complicated, just good classic Italian.

Joy of Cooking for the basics.

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FIRST THING BEFORE ALL: WASH YOUR HANDS

In this, I will be making a total of 6 cups Sushi Rice to make –
Maki (rolls): California, Rainbow, Unagi (Eel)
Nigiri (raw fish over rice): Sake (Salmon), Tuna (Tekka), Unagi (Eel), Yellowtail (Hamachi)

First off, you’re gonna need some Rice and a measuring cup!
Quick note though, make sure you use Calrose Rice. It’s a Japanese rice that is stickier and a shorter grain

I make 3 cups rice, with 3 and ¼ cups water, because I use a rice cooker. If you use a pot, use 1:1. Generally for every cup raw rice, is 2 cups serving. Anyways, first step is to wash the rice

You want to get a big sieve to hold the rice, and a nice stream of water over it. Move the rice around with your hands, shake the sieve. Do this for at least 2 minutes. Hold a cup under the sieve to capture the water, wash the rice until this water is clear

Now that your rice is washed, you need to let it drain. Shake all the water you can from the sieve, and now push the rice up against the sides, to help it drain faster

You’re going to let this drain for about 30 minutes. In the mean time you have plenty to do! First is the Vinegar-Sugar-Salt mixture simply referred to as Sushi-Vinegar. For my 6 cups of rice I’m going to be using, I will need:

2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup Vinegar – I use Rice Vinegar, found in any Japanese market and most grocery stores

Now, you put these all in a small pot and place it on the stove.

Mix the ingredients till it’s a dusty white cloud. Heat this mixture until all of the sugar and salt dissolve into the rice. You want it to be clear like this:

After its done, put it in a small bowl to cool. Set this aside.

Since you should still probably have time to kill (waiting 30 mins for rice to drain), you can start preparing the fish
First off, lets take a look at everything else we will be using today

In this picture from top left, going to the right, then proceeding down each row: Nori-Seaweed, Sesame Seeds, Eel Sauce, Soy Sauce, Wasabi powder, Pickled Ginger, Cucumber, Avacado (Haas), Tobiko (Flying Fish Roe), Hamachi, Salmon, Crab, Unagi, Tuna.

First, you need to defrost your fish. They should all be in sealed, plastic (since they’re frozen). Place them in water, in a bowl

To keep them from floating I place another bowl with water in it, to full submerge it

This will defrost the fish. You should be using cold water. By the time the rice is done cooking, and sitting to cool, the fish should be ready to cut/prepare.

Now back to the rice. By now it should be dry. You want all the wash-water to have drained away

Now you place the rice in the Rice Cooker, or if you don’t have one a pot. Put in the Water. The rice should be fully submerged.

Turn the rice cooker on. If you don’t have a rice cooker, you bring the water to a boil. Once it’s boiling you let it simmer for about 10 mins, then let the rice steam for another 10. Let the rice cook

While the rice is cooking, this is good time to make the Wasabi. The powder stuff I use is 50% real wasabi, and it needs time to develop good flavor. First, two teaspoons powder

Add two teaspoons water (Use 1:1 waterowder ratio)

Once its done, set it aside next to your Sushi-Vinegar. Now you need to start preparing the ingredients for your rolls. Before you cut anything on the cutting board

CLEAN YOUR CUTTING BOARD

First up, the cucumber

Cut it lengthwise so they lay flat on the cutting board. Cut them into long strips

Now go get your Ginger. This really is personal preference but I like chopper ginger in my rolls. Just chop some up and throw it in a small dish

Next up, dish out some tobiko (Flying Fish Roe). Again, this is personal preference. It doesn’t add much to the roll, and can be expensive, but since I make this for my family/friends I go all out. It also makes for a nicer presentation

Next you want to get your Nori

Fold them, and pull them apart into two pieces. One piece per roll

Set all this stuff aside. Put the cucumber, ginger, tobiko in the fridge. Your rice should be ready by now

Here’s what you’re going to need to setup before mixing your rice. Get a cookie sheet. Cover it entirely with aluminum foil pretty well. This will make for a nice cleanup, and the purpose of this is to let the rice cool off quickly. Next get a Large Glass or Wooden bowl. Not metal. Glass/Wood allows the rice to cool more quickly. Also use a wooden spoon. Also you’re now going to need your Sushi-Vinegar.

Put all the rice in the glass bowl

Now, pour half the Sushi-Vinegar in with the rice. You’re going to want to fold the rice. Don’t crush it. The Vinegar will go to the bottom of the bowl so you’re going to want to keep mixing the rice, displacing the rice at the center constantly. I like turning the bowl, and folding the rice away from me at the same time.

Pour in the other half of the vinegar and continue. You will probably be mixing this for about 2-3 minutes, you want that vinegar distributed evenly. The rice should be very shiny by now.

Now, once you’re done mixing, you will be pouring all of the rice on the foiled cookie sheet.

Spread it out so its even

Now you let the rice sit and cool. Taste it if you like. It should be sweet and have a mild vinegar taste to it, and be very sticky. Just set the rice aside in a cool/dry place. The fish should be defrosted by now. Before handling the fish with your hands wash them again, as well as washing your cutting board another time. Open up each package, and rinse the fish under cold water. Dry it with a paper towel and place it on your cutting board. The fish should be pretty moist and soft.

Cut the fish into thin slices. This will all be used for nigiri, but you just want to slice the fish for now. You can make them nigiri size later.

Place all the fish on a plate, and place it in the fridge with plastic wrap

Also, now you can cut up your crab. I prefer to use real crab, but they didn’t have any at the store today, so I am reduced to fake crab =(

Place on a plate and put in the fridge. Now the Rice should be at room temperature by now. You can go ahead and put all the rice in a smaller bowl and put away the foil/cookie sheet.

OKAY! The rice is done, all the ingredients are prepared. Looks like we’re ready to roll! Pun intended. Get everything out. You need your fish, rice, crab, avocado, cucumber, nori, ginger, wasabi, cutting board, knife, bamboo mat and plastic wrap.

First step is to get your bamboo mat, and wrap it in plastic wrap.

Then start with a half sheet of nori

Next, you want to make sure your hands are moist. Run them under water to cool them down. The rice doesn’t stick as much to cool moist hands as opposed to hot sweaty hands. You will be placing a thin layer of rice on top of the nori.

Next, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of the rice

Now, you take a sheet of plastic wrap and place it on top of the rice. Flip this over, so now the rice is facing down and the nori is facing up.

Now you place your roll ingredients on the nori. I start with some wasabi

Add ginger if you like

Throw down some crab

Lay down some cucumber

Now you can cut your avocado open. Just cut it in half and grab a teaspoon. You want to scoop out the meat

Put some avocado in your roll

Now take this beast and place it back on your bamboo mat. Keep the plastic wrap under the roll, between the roll and the bamboo mat. You will be rolling it inside the wrap to keep it secure.

Now you add more rice above your roll. This makes sure the roll wont fall apart, and also makes it more solid.

Now the tricky part which gets easier with practice. Actually rolling the maki

If done correctly, you should have your maki wrapped in the plastic wrap which was underneath it

Now use the mat to shape the roll. You want to give it a square shape

Bring this baby to your cutting board.

You want to get a moist cloth before cutting. In between every slice, you want to wipe off your blade, and remove any rice stickyness, so each cut will be using a fresh clean blade.

Cut in half, three times to get 8 pieces

Now you need to unwrap the plastic, and place the roll on a plate

Add some tobiko on top of the roll for some extra jazz, flavor and appeal

Now you’ve completed your first California roll!

Make another one!

When you’ve got your 2nd roll done you can place raw fish on top of the roll to make a rainbow roll. Simple addition really. Since you have 8 pieces, and I like Hamachi and Tuna, I use 3 slices of Hamachi and Tuna, and use 2 slices of Salmon.

Now on this plate you have:

1 California Maki – Crab, Avocado, Cucumber
1 Rainbow Roll – California inside, raw Salmon, Hamachi and Tuna outside

Next up: Some Nigiri. First step is to make all the rice pieces. You shape these in the palm of your hand. Make a cup in your right hand, and place some rice in it with your left. Grab the rice in your hand and use your left index finger to push down. Shape these and place them on a plate

Next up, put a little dash of wasabi on each rice ball

After this, you just place your raw fish ontop of the rice/wasabi

For my guests I give them 2 of each. I have only 2 guests tonight so I’m making 6 of every fish, so I’m making 6 salmon, 6 tuna, 6 hamachi, 6 unagi Nigiri. And yes, now this brings me to the Unagi, my favorite. This is saved till last because it is best served hot/warm. First take it out of its package and place onto some paper towels

I buy the prepacked already cooked unagi. It already has its bbq eel sauce on it. I microwave it for 1 minute. Remember this is already defrosted. Cut into sections

Use some of the Unagi to make Nigiri, some to make an Unagi Roll. You start off the same as you did the California, except you only place Avacado

and Unagi inside the roll

Roll, cut and place on a plate just like the other rolls

Now congratulations you’re finished! Take an awe inspiring look at your work

(that’s some miso soup I also made in that picture)

Enjoi!

hosting these pics, and writing this up made me starving
i REALLY need to find where they sell unagi here ..
that stuff is so damn nice
Good thread. Too bad I’m too lazy. How much did everything cost?
you might also want to add that the fish are sushi grade fish, so people won’t die trying to make this
awesome. even though the only sushi i will try is the one with fried chicken and crab from a local place. i’m still too scared of the rest

well the Hamachi I caught myself in loreto mexico. dunno how you wanna measure the price on that lol. At the store it could be expensive though.

All together in this edu, I’d apporximate 30 bucks. Now that will leave plenty of stuff for next time you make sushi, so its deceiving.

dont be afraid! Its the best part!

thats pretty much implied. you just have to be smart, keep your place clean… plus the worst that’d happen if you have really bad fish is you might throw up or feel sick for a day. Either way, in this edu I used frozen stuff, and showed how to keep it clean when cooking.

ive only been able to find it at japanese markets. Even then, it can be a pain to find it in the store. Found this next to the frozen shrimp.

goodluck, if its your first time making it, Id recommend just doing some california rolls. Make sure you have like atleast 2 hrs to do it too. First time is mostly a learning experience if you want to do it right.
ginger is just to cleanse the palate!

anyway, nice edu. great knife also. i use the same one.

yes true, but I also like the taste. Just a tiny bit in each roll. like I said, personal preference really. I always ask my guests before I put wasabi/ginger in any rolls
how much does this cost? because i love sushi and if it’s cheaper than all you can eat sushi i’ll do this everyday.
That looks absolutely delicious! Nice EDU!

but seriously

clean your stove, that is gross
Great thread!

Unagi is also my fav, but I’ve never made it. I’ll have to try to find some.

But your avocado didn’t look so good… looks like it is bruised on the top

Haha was waiting for the stove response

and yeah, the avocado was bruised on top, but in the middle its fine.

I always get grossed out when my avacado is bruised on the inside.

Also, why not pull all the meat out of the avacado and slice it instead of slowly spooning it out? Just trying to keep it from oxidizing?

yep. Thats why I wait to cut it too. Cut it open right before you make the roll. I just had a bruised avocado. Tasted great still.
AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGG

how much did all that cost? itemize it plz
It would be best if the fish were fresh and you didn’t have to defrost it…

/.02

well yes of course, but that makes it extremely inconvienent to make at home. If you get frozen, yet good stuff, its available whenever you need it. The tuna and salmon I got at the local Japanese market, come in those size packets, perfect amount for making sushi, so I just defrost one packet every time I make it.

Also if you must know, I caught that Hamachi myself in loreto mexico. I made sushi with it, within 2 days. Best stuff I’ve ever made myself.

best bet is a Japanese Market. If you can’t find one, just ask at your local fish market, or grocery store.
check out the good eats episode of making sushi if you dont get it from the EDU its a good one

you can see in this picture on the left is a plate of nigiri. When I make sushi, everyone gets their own plate of nigiri, and the rolls is community take however much you want.

All this fish here, fed 3 people.

EDIT: Actually Im sorry, there was a good amount of leftovers of the fish. That amount of fish should feed like 4-5 people

I’d love to see that

All sushi restaurants (excluding the ones on the coast who can get their fish fresh) are frozen fresh before being shipped.

You know that expensive toro (fatty tuna)? Yup, frozen. Too expensive and not enough people order it so its frozen and thawed.
Oh and nice Edu coming from a Sushi chef. Nigiri could use work but no ones expecting perfection especially when you don’t do this for a job.

Edit* btw I have the same knife, muthafucker cost me a 100 bucks.

yeah making the rice with the nigiri 1-stay together, 2-the right size is, is hard. Great Knife though

.
excellent edu , except for the frozen part, but i guess im spoiled because there is so much fresh fish available around here.

ive made sushi a couple of times at home but i always end up feeling the same way : id rather just go out and eat it at a restaurant, its way too much work to do at home and i *enjoy* cooking

Yeah that’s why I try to not do it too often. Once a month at the most. But it is alot of fun when you do it with friends, plus the bill for the night is 80% less than if you just went out heh
true, true… but its soo much work..and for me its just not fun. I have fun cooking other things because im very "freestyle", but with sushi you have to be so meticulous it sucks the fun out of making it
everything in this is great except

frozen fish

its hard to find fresh ocean fish when you live in wisconsin. and river salmon doesnt quite have the same taste to it
i cant believe i just read all that but damn, looks great!

I just found that on google

your local asian grocery has one, at least all of mine do

yes lets see you get fresh fish everyday of the week or when you need it on a spur of the moment decision to make sushi that night. Frozen fish still tastes great when thawed and its extremely convenient. Of course fresh is better, its about availability

werd, and properly thawed, flash frozen fish is used in many sushi restaurants that arent near the coast
ive gone out for sushi 4 times this week lol im addicted, and i think ill be goin for it tommorrow too.

im really starting to LOVE good sashimi
Wish I had more time to make Sushi this week/weekend. Last week, and this week, and this weekend – will total 6 times going to get sushi. fuck so much money
excelent edu, I havent made sushi in a long time but thats pretty much the same way I do it. always gotta have the avocado.
i swear this thread needs to stop being bumped because every time I see it I start craving sushi.

That just fuckin happened to me. Mmmm . . . sushi. What the hell, today is payday.

Great thread. Thanks for taking the time to photograph everything.

my pleasure
is it considered fucking retarded to eat with your hands at a fancy sushi place?

rofl YES. Only thing afaik thats ok to eat with the hands is the handrolls.

if you can’t use chop sticks (learn how nooblet), most places will gladly give you a fork.

my chopstick game aint bad, but after the first bite, the sushi just explodes all over the place as if dr. hannibal just disemboweled it. which way should i bite into it?

If you really get to using them without any problems ask for chopstick trainers. You are basically using the same chopsticks but they give a plastic piece that is placed towards your hands that help separate and align the chopsticks so you can grab things much easier for beginners.

As for your sushi exploding the only way to solve that is to be a man and devoure the whole piece of course you are eating a hand roll then you are just a greedy fat ass if you do that in one bite.
looks good, but that sushi isnt cut correctly. not that it affects the taste
you should put the whole piece of sushi into your mouth, dont bite it. unfortunately ALOT of places now make them too big for some people to even try to do this.
Fuck, it’s not even 9am and now I’m craving sushi! Thanks!

You did forget the Sapporo though.

haha yeah

i went to this seafood buffet today. they had sashimi and it was damn good.

I never like eating any type of sushi at a buffet..maybe because I don’t know how long it has bueen sitting there

I waited until they put out fresh new plates, was delicious

I lived in San Jose for 7 years. Used to go to Todai (sp?) at I think the Eastridge mall. A tray of 40-50 pieces of salmon coming out is pretty awe inspiring. Some of the stuff though, you could see the very edge of the fish was dried out from sitting too long.
been so long sice i made some i think i might have to do this again next weekend. ill post more pics if i do

i feel honored to have brought out such a lurker
Is there going to be an edu for the ginger dressing used in salad?

Awesome edu…I’m gonna hitup the store tomorrow.

have fun
they sell sashimi grade tuna at Randalls and Krogers by my house here in houston, mmmmmmmmmm.

awesome edu! thanks.
Do you really need to buy sushi grade fish? Because I don’t live near a big city, and none of the grocery stores around here sell it.
I would have to see it, to really say yes or no. Generally no it won’t taste good raw. Ask the guy at the counter if he knows anything. Try to find an asian market?
first time I went to a sushi bar last night, had the boats floating by with the different plates. Was insane cheap and amazingly delicious
oh my god. THANK YOU! i will most definitely make this tomorrow.

tell me how it goes
I must make this sometime, lack of an asian market but I’ve been told Krogers sells sushi grade fish. Stupid small towns
krogers might, if they don’t just ask the guy at the counter where you could
aweosme thread man, i’ll move it to the edu archives here in a bit – thanks for the help

ur salmon looks really watery and your tuna looks frozen…

when u get good at rolling maki’s you can make these

lol sry i thought u were a sushi man but it looks like ur just a guy that self was self taught… not bad at all… Practice more on that nigiri(go buy some Cooked Shrimp sushi)… No prep needed in that and very good to practice on getting your form on w/ sushi. and your rice looks a bit swollen..

yeah i taught myself heh, my rice is cooked too much and i used too much sugar with it aswell

post pics
never used frozen fish before, I use sushi grade fish i get from the fish market. I am suprised you don’t get sick using old fish and eating it raw

So you’re professionally trained?

I need to try all this, except I won’t use frozen fish.

Its harder than you think

A California roll should be made, cut evenly, and plated in about 30-45 seconds if not less, thats a good way to gauge yourself. And of course, the rice shouldn’t fall apart yet the rice shouldn’t be so compact where its just one giant glob of rice.

Nigiri was one of the hardest things I had to learn, I truly hate it when people are like "its just fish on top of rice, how hard is that? "

haha yeah it is, ive found the cuting and plating isn’t so hard anymore, i can’t get the rice correctly done yet

looks good, but those rolls are huge, i would try splitting the nori into smaller sections so you get the normal sized rolls. easier to handle, cut and serve not to mention eat.
dude make me some fucking sushi with that hamachi you caught already. asshole.

im going to mexico again this summer, ill be bringing back some yellow fin tuna
it got the point, where we would not cut them up, and just eat them like borritos

hahaha, have a hard time cutting them? If you ended up doing this, you should try just making handrolls. Essentially it’s a roll, thats rolled up into a sort of cone, then you eat it just like that.

i didnt catch any quality fish this year – quite unlike last summer, but even if i had the answer would still be….. no
great edu!

not that it’s a big deal, but if you want to save some time & not drain the rice, i always make mine in my rice cooker with just a little bit less than a cup of water for each cup of rice.

personal preference, i guess.

i wash it, after you wash it you let it drain; no point in washing it, if you don’t let the water drain out or else washing the rice is pointless.

sometimes there some bs coated on the rice and this can effect it’s stickyness – besides washing the rice never hurts.
i love sushi but dude, learn to cut the fish properly
I came across this article today, and immediately thought of this thread…

The problem is that when it comes to eating fish raw, freshness is not the only thing you have to worry about. Parasites are another hazard. Depending on the fish, they might pose an extremely small risk (to read all about them, see my posts on parasites, and ). But if you want to eliminate that risk completely by killing the parasites, the only way to do it is to freeze the fish for at least 7 days. Cooking kills them too, of course, but that doesn’t help you much with sushi.
I’m thinking I should make this soon, I just need to get all the ingredients. I’m guessing my local Asian market should have all of this stuff.

I probably wouldn’t buy fish at the local asian market. Ours has some older stuff that I wouldn’t be comfortable eating without cooking.
Thanks to your rice recipe (we were really missing the drying/cooling part) we make awesome sushi now.

Pic:

From left top, counter clockwise:
Plate 1:
Tuna and Yellowfin Nigiri
Plate 2:
Tilapia Nigiri (was a tad tough)
Marilyn Monroe (stole from a local shop, this is spicy tuna roll with salmon and roe on it)
Plate 3:
Spicy Tuna Roll
Unagi
Philly roll on rice paper

Mostly seafood market for ours.
pretty good EDU. I use a TB of dashi in my sushi rice. And I use a box fan and fold the rice until it is cool
so you let your rice dry for 30 minutes then you put it in water and cook it

it has to do with cleaning the rice. removing the talc (sp?) that most botan rice is coated with nowadays. It affects its stickiness. it is counterintuitive, thats why most don’t do it, thus why most never get good quality stickiness

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what are your top ten sodas?
it can be from any soda brand in the world or USA!
10.Coke
9. Hansens Vanilla Cream Soda
8. RC Cola
7. Cactus Cooler
6. Squirt
5. Dr Pepper
4. Mt Dew Code Red

3. Kemper Root Beer
2. Coco Rico Coconut soda
1. Hansens Sarsaparilla
1. Coca Cola bottled in glass bottles in Mexico. Uses cane sugar instead of corn syrup.
2. Coca Cola from a fountain.
3. Coca Cola in a can.
4. Barq’s Rootbeer in a can.
5. Surge, in a can.
6. IBC Cream Soda, in a glass bottle.
7. IBC Root Beer, glass bottle.
8. A&W Root beer, fountain, frosty mug.
9. Vanilla Coke, can.
10. Mixing everything in a Quick Trip together in one cup.
Dr. Pepper
squirt
coke from a bottle
Red Tale Ale (one of my favorite alcoholic sodas)
DR.PEPPER
CHERRY COKE/WILD CHERRY PEPSI
SANGRIA(the mexican soda kind)
COKE/PEPSI
FANTA
Dr.Pepper.

Nuff said.

Or maybe Jones Green Apple or Bluer Sky’s Black cherry.

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Got one for my birthday and I’m absolutely loving it so far The readability is great, the wireless link for buying books is super easy with decent price points. I’ve got a business trip coming up next week and am looking forward to brining it instead of a couple of books.

The page refresh was a bit off putting at first, but I soon found a rythm of hitting the next page button as I’m reading the last line of the current page, so now the refresh happens as I’m moving my eyes back to the top of the page and I don’t really notice the refresh anymore. The one weak spot I’ve noticed so far is that you can’t add a folder structure to organize your reading material. All your books go in to you books folder. Not a big deal now as I’ve only downloaded 10, but I can see that getting cumbersome as I add more titles.

I learned about those in my Media and Modern Society course. I didn’t like the sound of them too much, but hey whatever works for you really. I guess it isn’t so convenient to carry around a bulky book every so often, especially if you are always on the go.

How many books fit on it?? Do the books cost money?
With the built in memory it will hold about 200 books. With a SD card it will hold a few thousand. Books I’ve bought ranged from $2.99 to $9.99. All were less than I would have paid for the paper equivalent. I believe there is some free content available, but I’m just using it to read books I would have bought otherwise.
are you able to upload books on your own or do they need to be purchased from amazon?
I think Barnes and Noble or Borders offers books online for Kindle. I’m not sure though.

I know you can get content from other sources, but everything I’ve bought has been from Amazon. It’s definitely set up for Amazon to be the easiest content provider — you can shop wirelessly at Amazon directly from the device.

im saying lets say i have a bunch of ebooks on my hardrive, can i convert the format and upload them?
The Kindle can’t read PDFs or un-protected eBooks, and the format it can read is proprietary, so Amazon can discontinue support for it at any time and you can’t read your books anymore.

Therefore, it’s a piece of shit. End of story.

I know there is a way to send in documents (including PDFs) and get them converted and uploaded to your kindle. I believe the cost is $.10 per file, so the suggestion was to zip a bunch of stuff and send that in. I don’t honestly know much about that as it wasn’t a concern for me.

For me this is essentially a replacement for buying and reading dead tree books and for that, I’m finding it to be excellent. I’m on vacation right now, so it saved me the trouble and weight of packing several books. In the airport yesterday I saw a new book that I wanted. Rather than pay $25.00 at the airport bookstore, while waiting for my plane to take off I fired up the wireless, connected to Amazon and bought the book for $9.99.

Yes, I realize I’m wed to Amazon for content, but since I buy the majority of my books from them anyway, I’m not overly concerned with that. And yes, there is a bit of risk in Amazon deciding to pull the product, but I think it’s a pretty good business model for them and likely to succeed, so I’m willing to gamble that my $399 bought me more than just a future paperweight. Even if Amazon pulls support in the future, I should still be able to use the device to access and read all the books I’ve purchased up untill that point. A more realistic concern is that 6 months from now version 2.0 is going to be out and cost $100 less. That’s the price of being an early adopter, and for how much I’m enjoying the device now, I find it a small price to pay. When that happens, I’ll give this one to my wife and buy version 2.0 (and, BTW, you can share books with multiple devices, up to 6 I believe — it’s not quite loaning out a book to anyone you want, but it certainly meets my needs).

All in all, no, I don’t find it to be a piece of shit. Rather, I think it the best thing since my first digital camera.
Is there anything of a decent size that can read PDF files? doesn’t have to be in color, but I use a lot of protected pdf files for work and school so it needs to have internet connectivity or the capability to crack.

why dont you try one of those new asus super small form computers.

Amazon isnt going to offer the free internet it uses forever…. I’m waiting to see what the second generation looks like

I’m not going to fucking pay for the device and for some bullshit service to convert files that I own into a format that their device supports. They can stick their cute marketing gimmick where the sun don’t shine.

Even the iPod, made by Apple (THE most proprietary company on earth, to the point of changing the plugs for standard devices just to be a pain in the ass), supports playing unprotected MP3 and AAC files, though you have to use their free software to copy the files onto the device. The Kindle isn’t even that flexible.

Also, why were you reading books on your vacation? You can read books at home.

Not only can it read PDFs, you can write on it too, or type, or surf the web. It costs 6x as much as a Kindle, but at least it’s good for more than one thing.

Also, I dunno how much the Kindle weighs, but if it’s more than 2lbs, this thing has it beat.

I just saw a kindle today at work and I have to say it was pretty slick. I read constantly and have tons of books stacked up taking up space. This would certainly help with that. The whole e-paper thing is pretty cool. Oh and to deus, reading is very relaxing. Sitting on a beach or at a pool reading is awesome.

Yes, I understand, that 10 cents is a bit out of your reach. But again, you could zip up 1000 files you wanted converted and it would still only cost 10 cents for the 1 attachment.

If I wasn’t clear ealier, I have no interest in having PDFs, technical documents, whatever on this device. I have a laptop and a PDA for anything like that. This is quite simply, a replacement for the book.

I read 2-3 books a week. I also travel a lot for business, which means lots of time in airplanes and hotel rooms. Just got back from a 1 week trip to Mexico (business, working 12 hours a day, but with lots of down time while I worked), read 3 books during the span of the trip. It was nice not to have to carry 3-4 books with me.

With some improvements in the dsiplay technology, I think this would really be great for textbooks. Imagine as a kid only having to lug one lightweight device around instead of a backpack full of heavy textbooks.

I find this akin to my first digital camera — taking an activity I’ve always done and making it better.

It’s to a point now where I’m tempted to buy the Kindle version of some books I own but haven’t read yet because I’d rather read them on the Kindle.

The kindle way 10.3 ounces. The non-backlit display is much easier on your eyes. Also has about 2 weeks of battery life. Guessing that might be slightly better than the laptop…

Plus, the Kindle doesn’t run on Vista, so it’s got that going for it…

When you work on your car, do you have just an adjustable wrench, or do you have a set of tools and use the appropriate tool for the appropriate task? If I want to surf the internet, I use my laptop or my smart phone. When I want to read a book, I use my Kindle.

I’m guessing you’re wrong, the free internet will probably continue simply becuase "free" is only an illusion — I’m sure the cost is built into the price of downloads you purchase.

Good news, you can get your PDFs and stuff on to your kindle for free. Here’s an excerpt from Amazon’s website:

There’s also been a great deal of confusion about Amazon charging for the conversion and delivery of our own content into our own Kindles. Amazon *only* charges for wireless delivery, the conversion is 100% free. If you eMail your content to it’s converted and downloaded into your Kindle for 10 cents. But if, instead, you eMail your content to it’s converted and a link to the converted file is eMailed to your registered eMail address at NO charge. You can then download it and use your PC’s USB connection to transfer the content to the Kindle.

Moreover, the FREE MobiPocket v4.2 Creator will convert many formats — HTML, MS Word Docs, Text, and Adobe PDF into .PRC files — nicely compressed and encrypted if you wish — which, when transferred into the Kindle are directly readable. I have converted two large eBooks which I already had in PDF format into native Kindle format and they work perfectly — no cost and no Amazon involvement at all. And I’m sure that quite soon there will be all sorts of free Kindle content converters popping up all over the place.

wow, that’s good. that takes away one fear about the Kindle being worthless if Amazon drops their service. you still have ways of getting your own stuff over there.

i think any haters of the kindle haven’t actually seen one in person and don’t really understand what they are talking about. i was in the same boat until i saw one at work. epaper makes no sense until you see it. without seeing it, you can’t comprehend that it is not an LCD display, that the lack of backlight is actually a benefit because it is incredibly easy to read in bright light. on top of that, it is made to be used in situations where you would use a book, not a computer.

the guy at work who had one showed me his and said it is awesome to use on the train to work. while standing he only needs one hand to read, switch pages and everything.
It’s also great at the gym doing cardio. You don’t have to try to keep it propped open, and turning pages is a snap. I also like being able to adjut the font size. I normally use the smallest size, but at the gym I bump it up a couple of notches to make it easier to read while moving.
Here, since a picture is worth 1000 words, this pretty much sums up why I love my Kindle. I currently have 19 books on the Kindle. Here’s the Kindle next to 19 books.

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I have a wheat that I am going to be bottling in the next couple of days. I was actually just thinking about what to buy next.
I have a vanilla porter in primary right now(boiled on thursday) and I have an amber that’s bottle conditioning.

I’m gonna get a kolsch going in about a week for a lawnmower beer, followed by a citrusweizen, and another go-round of american red.

Nice!
I have a honey porter that I finished and bottled 3 weeks ago, but now it looks like I didn’t wait long enough since the caps are starting to bulge I just hope they don’t start exploding so I put them in the fridge.

How long did you let it ferment?

I would definately start using a Hydrometer if you arent already.
I just finished another lawnmower batch (in keg) and transferred a pale to secondary. w00t.
Just got back from the homebrew store. Making a slightly modified American Red and a Wheat-blonde with a kolsch yeast that should be interesting at the very least.
I’ve still got about 20 gallons of mead aging in their carboy. I might have to bottle some so I can make some wine or more mead.
I just bottled a Wheat and am getting ready to start a Austrialian Pale Ale.

Wow that is a lot of mead.

I am going to start working on a blood orange hefe based on a recipe from Dog Fish Head. It sounds tasty.

Make sure whatever you are fermenting in stays nice and cold. Lagers need colder temps.

Well its not all straight mead. I just cannot remember all the different names it gets when you add things to it. I do them in 5 gallon batches. I have a great vanilla bean/cinnamon going, a blueberry, a strawberry, and then a dry and sweet straight up batch. I’ve also been aging them for a few years. As soon as I get some more carboys though I’ve got a few more pounds of honey to make some more.
What is involved in making a steam style of beer, i remember reading some where that it used loger yeast and let it firment at ale temps. if some one knows please let me know.

I think I have a book or two with some info but here is a recipe kit that is suppose to be a clone of Anchor’s Steam Beer.

Transferred my vanilla porter to secondary (finally) and put 2.5 bourbon soaked vanilla beans in after it. Should be tasty in about 2 weeks.

I’m doing the boil on my strange Wheat-blonde w/ kolsch yeast tonight.

Nice.

I am waiting on my latest Amber Ale to finish up. Should be a good one.
I’m trying to drink some of the beer that currently fills every inch of my 9cu-ft chest freezer so I can homebrew again. Gonna keg this time around. Thinking about making a lager too.

Yeah, ive been through HBT’s recipe database.
I’m working on an American Red recipe right now, but my next brew will likely be an APA. I’m pumped.
I just got a Scottish 60 Ale in the mail from Northern Brewer yesterday. I will be starting that this weekend after I bottle my Austrialian Pale Ale.
Brewing the hefe tomorrow. I couldn’t find any blood oranges local so im just using normal ones.
I just bottled my Australian Pale Ale last night, it smells good and I am looking forward to trying it.
Kolsch just finished brewing (literally) and im about to do a lawnmower again.

It’s hot as hell. I hate brewing when its hot.
I ordered a propane burner for outside a few days ago. $30 from amazon, so I’m waiting for that to come before I start my APA. My mom’s neighbor apparently has a full sized keg (15.5 gallons) that he wants to give me, so I’m going to have a free keggle once I cut the top off, so I can do full boils.

Oh, and I’m making a kegerator in the next 2 weeks. 2 Corny kegs, so I can stop storing so many bottles.

Oh, and I boiled my Wheat Blonde 2 weeks ago yesterday, and the krausen STILL hasn’t fallen yet. It’s intense. I’m thinking of leaving it in primary til I have time to do the boil on the apa.

Making the jump to kegging will be the greatest thing you’ve ever done.

Are you doing a 4912 kegerator or a keezer?

And stop whoring the free lifetime membership thread with your pictures.
I want that.
lol, I ran out of photos, I’ll take lots more this weekend for that thread.

I’m doing the 4912. It’s going to be a dual faucet. On wednesday I almost ordered it from fry’s online, but after discussing it with my bf, we decided to wait til friday(today) to order it, because we’ll be driving by on our way to and from a shooting competition. I looked at it yesterday morning and it had jumped $50 in price overnight! Turns out that Sanyo discontinued the 4912, so it can’t be gotten at bestbuy. Luckily Costco offers free shipping and a slightly higher price.

I’m getting a dual tap tower + CO2 +a perlick faucets + all the other stuff from kegconnection, and Brewtopia’s selling me a few of the kegs he picked up for his brewery, so once he gets those over from the peninsula, I should be ready to roll! I just have to get the stuff from kegconnection ordered.

I have a propane burner showing up on tuesday (for full boils) and the Sanyo showing up wednesday. I’m sure my apartment manager lady is going to think we’re crazy. This week we had 500 10mm bullets shipped to us also.

I’m SO pumped to start kegging. After my "wtf is this" bottling mishap I’m certainly ready to be done with all that hoopla and storing it.

Its so much easier. The only bitch is not having bottles around when you need them. ie a homebrew competition or if you want to give a friend a few beers. The beer gun is good, but still.

I did the 4912 and it was easy as hell. I got mine from Best Buy the week before they were discontinued.
Yeah, I think I might get some carb drops (whichever ones don’t have malt extract in them) and keep them on hand in case I ever have more than a flat 5 gallons of beer to go in the kegs. That’ll make bottling a few easy, and then there’s the simple counterpressure filler. After spending over an hour bottling a batch of porter that I’ve been putting off til last night, I’m MORE than ready to start kegging. It’s like racking to the bottling bucket, then sealing it and being done.
Where could I find a list of things I would need to get started on something like this?

Homebrewing or Kegging?

I ended up overpaying for my kit, but it had literally everything I needed and I haven’t bought more supplies(except ingredients) until recently (5+ batches) when I decided to move up to kegging and full boils. If you like to "watch" things and stay informed on the progress of your stuff, you’d be better off getting a carboy as a primary fermentation vessel, because you can watch the convection currents, the trub building, and the krausen doing it’s thing, instead of just watching a bucket bubbling. There are 2 choices to go with as far as "carboy" style fermentation/clearing vessels. Many people use "better bottles" which are food-grade plastic jugs, similar to water cooler bottles. These are lighter and don’t break if you drop them. They also can develop scratches inside if you use a carboy brush to scrub off dried on protein and dead yeast, which makes keeping them effectively sanitized very difficult, they also show "wear" by scratching and whatnot on the outside. They’re also fairly oxygen permeable, so aren’t suitable for long-term bulk aging such as a mead or barleywine would need.

Glass carboys are heavier, cost more to ship, are breakable (ever spill 5 gallons of water all over the floor? Imagine 5 gallons of very sticky water!), but they also "last" better, you can scrub them all you want and not worry about scratching them, IMO, they look better, and if you’re careful with them at all, they’re really very easy to handle.

Here’s what mine came with, and I use all of the stuff, so look into getting everything
Detailed Description
The Deluxe Homebrewing Starter Kit Includes:

6 Gallon Glass Carboy Fermenter complete with Stopper, Airlock, Carrying Handle, and Stick-on Thermometer.
5 Gallon Glass Carboy Fermenter complete with Stopper, Airlock, Carrying Handle, and Stick-on Thermometer.
Siphoning System featuring the "Auto-Siphon"
Funnel
Bottling System with Bottle Filling Wand
2 Cases of 22oz Beer Bottles
Bottle Capper and Bottle Caps
20 Quart Stainless Steel Brewing Pot
Boil Proof Brewing Spoon
Floating Glass Thermometer
Hydrometer and Testing Jar
Carboy and Bottle Cleaning Brushes
Cleaning Kit containing PBW Cleaner and Star San Sanitizer
"How To Brew" Text
Your Choice of any Coopers Pre-Hopped Beer Kits to get started!
where did you get that kit?

Also, how would you rate your homebrews compared to standard bottled beer, and/or microbrew bars?

Do you think your beer tastes better than most nationally distributed beers, or is this mostly for the fun and pride of brewing your own?

I’ve never had any homebrew stuff so I am curious as to how it compares.

I really love beer, and I am constantly trying to find new stuff to try out and learn about. I’ve been thinking of doing this for some time now, but didn’t really know where to start.
I picked it up locally, but the shop I got it from has a site. Like I said, I overpaid, and the price listed on their site is more than I ended up paying in store.

My homebrew is at least as good as commercial craft beers. The main reason that I do it is for the fun and pride, but I also like to cook, and this sort of goes along with that. There’s a ton of interesting science involved in it that I totally dig also. I had a batch not turn out very good, but it isn’t the end of the world, it has a strong coriander flavor, so I use it for cooking. Besides, I’m only out about $25 in ingredients, and I learned a lesson – Don’t leave coriander in the fermenter. One advantage of homebrew is the huge amount of recipes out there, and so many different styles. "I wonder what a vanilla porter would taste like…" well, make it! I did. I’ve found that for the cost of a 6-pack at specialty beer stores, you can make 2 cases of whatever style beer you like. I just got a 1 gallon glass jug (super cheap wine) to try an "apfelwein" recipe which is essentially apple juice, corn sugar, and dry white wine yeast. I don’t know of anywhere to get this locally, so this is my only chance to try it.

When it comes down to it, you can pick up a hobby which is relaxing, requires some level of drinking to perfect, and has you drinking craft quality beer regularly, instead of breaking yourself buying bottle after bottle of specialty beer and having no understanding of the components and processes, and nothing tangible to show for it.
Did you hear about carboys? The company that makes them in Mexico went out of business. No more 6.5 gallon glass carboys for a while, if ever.

I might see if I can have a welder I know make me a large steel fermenter. I am guessing the issue with it will be keeping it air tight so I need to do some research.

Why not just get a pony or corny keg to ferment in? Or you could use the ever popular Ale Pail. I have a 6.5 gallon glass carboy, and I’m sure many can be found on craigslist if you keep your eyes open for them.

I hadnt heard that. So, there is only one place that makes those carboys? Sounds like a business opportunity!

Thanks for the heads up, I had been thinking about picking up another 1 or 2.

They’re still making carboys in Italy, but now they have to retool for the 6.5′s

They said that 5 gallons are going up to 50-60 each and 6.5′s are expected to get up to 100.00 until shipments start rolling back in again.

This is the time to either go with a conical or switch to Better Bottles.

Since I brew so much, having (and paying for) 10 conicals just doesn’t make sense.
I’ll wind up buying one and going to better bottles.

I just checked and the two places I would normally buy from have them on back order. That sucks. I guess I will be looking into Better Bottles.

Austin Homebrew, Northern Brewer and Midwest all have them still, at close to the same price.

I didnt check them because I imagine shipping would raise the cost but it may be worth it giving the current situation.

All 3 places have good prices on shipping.
Hefe turned out great. Wonderful nose of banana, clover, and some orange sweetness (from the orange zest).

Taste was strong banana, clove, some wheat, and a light hint of orange.

I just cracked my first beer of an Australian Pale Ale I did and it turned out to by my best beer yet. It is excellent. I may have to do another batch of it.

Nice!

I am going to do this one again for sure. Cheap, easy, but wonderful tasting.
I just got them in the last few days. 3 of them will be full in the next week. Then I’m going to work on stockpiling beers that need some time to age like ambers and maybe a Christmas beer.

Beats the hell outa bottling!

I need to get my kegging equipment. I have 7 kegs and a small fridge now.

Congrats!

What are you paying for them out by you?
I paid $25 for the two double handled ones locally from a guy I know who’s setting up a brewpub, and I got 4 single handled ones from the Chico Company in CA for $96 shipped. All got new seals and a nice long oxyclean soak.

25.00 is actually a pretty decent price.
I catch them on sale from Adventures in Homebrewing for 20.00 once or twice a year.

Watch the oxy soaking..
I soaked one of mine to clean it when I bought it and forgot about it. 3 days later it had pitted it a little bit on the inside. I’ve read others having the same problem on HBT.
Yeah. The oxyclean is basically just hydrogen peroxide. I only leave glass to soak for more than a few hours.

I’m making a blonde on the cheap today. It’s getting apricots later this week, but I may leave some out without them, and I want it to taste super clean, so I’m filtering all the water through my brita, and decided not to use bottled water to top off, so I’m filtering a bunch, then I’m going to boil it, cool it, put it in bottles, then chill it. I forsee this being a LONG process. lol

It is, i’ve done the preboil before.

What I am trying now is using camden tablets. I use a very small amount to purify the water and it seems to work great. They are usually used in wine making but at low doses are great for purifying water.
Oh really? Like how many tablets per 3-4 gallons of water? I just got some to kill all the bugs in the apricots I’m putting in secondary with this blonde.

I’m using Oxyclean.

1 tablet is good for 30 gallons.

but using 1 tablet for 5 gallons is suppose to be okay.

I used half a tablet for 5 gallons and it came out just fine.

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