Gordon Ramsey Makes Pancakes?

A clever edit of Gordon Ramsey cooking.

I love how this is such a simple idea but so effective.

Movie Theater Popcorn At Home - Results

 A while back, I shared a video which claimed to have cracked the code on movie theater popcorn at home and I teased that I would try the experiment myself. I have done so and can now report back from the field.

First off, using Amazon and area grocery stores I was able to obtain the recommended elements. Here is my own photo as proof.

The Results

It works. The result tastes exactly like movie theater popcorn in my opinion. In order to be authoritative, I would like to have tried other methods and recipes to determine a ranking but I have not done that so all I can say is this is as authentically movie theater popcorn as I can imagine any popcorn being.

Criticisms and Warnings

Jeers to the original video for not giving ingredient measurements. Yes, everyone is going to need to figure it out according to their own tastes but that's going to happen anyway, you might as well give a starting point. You can keep adding more coconut oil until it's enough, so that's easy, but I overdid the Flavacol and paid the price. So for that I will pass on to you: 1/3 to 1/2 of a tablespoon.

The video mentions using 4 test kernels and waiting until all 4 have popped before adding the rest. It's a small moment in the video but a very important point: wait until all 4 have popped. I lifted the lid and got a kernel pop as I was working with it. The result was a spray pattern of oil on the wall and myself and probably other places that I just haven't found yet. Wait until all 4 have popped.

Other Notes

Part of the movie theater experience is the fake butter chemicals. For the video, I believe that's the "Popping and Topping Oil" that is covered briefly. I love the fake butter chemicals and would have liked to evaluate that as well but here my completionist tendencies butted head-on against my sense of trying not to eat like an absolute madman and I excluded that aspect as overkill. A future consideration perhaps; if you try it, you  let me know.

One of the ingredients that he recommends (and I bought) was the "Movie Theater Butter Salt." That seems unnecessary to me. It's salt and the Flavacol is salt, so why both? Well, you might find at the end it needs more salt, but in that case, why not add more Flavacol? I say you can exclude this item but there may be a nuance I'm missing. Dunno.

What Is This Stuff?

Are you like me, are you horrified by a giant orange vat and a substance called Flavacol? What are we talking about here? Well, here are the ingredients.

Snappy Popcorn Colored Coconut Oil - Coconut oil and beta carotene. So that's actually, surprisingly, not horrifying.

Flavacol - Salt, natural flavors, artificial flavors, dyes. Hmm, so that's not actually horrifying either.

Popping and Topping Oil - Soybean oil, artificial flavor, beta carotene - Don't need more seed oils but not horrifying in the grand scheme of things.

Surprising result! Did not expect that.

The Key to Movie Theater Popcorn?

 

I have not confirmed this as true, and even though I am not Adventurous Chef Man, I'm very intrigued and have to try this.

I will try this, hold me to it.

Although I think the "everyone's wrong" drama is overwrought, I do enjoy the novelty of a cooking show hosted by Ned Ryerson. And "Groundhog Day" is approaching. What if I watched the movie with the popcorn?

What is The Gout?

I've heard of "The Gout" for most of my life, here and there, and I have to admit I had no idea what it referred to. So I found this history and description of the ailment interesting.

I have to say, I suspect there's something still out there that I'm missing. Gout attacks people who eat rich foods (and alcohol) but isn't 2025 America is eating more richly than any of the aristocracy of history? Shouldn't gout be epidemic today? An internet search tells me gout affects 3.9% of the U.S, which isn't great, but isn't as high as I would expect.

What are Sugar Plums?

It's Christmas time, basically, so naturally I've been wondering what sugar plums are and how to get hold of some. If you do a search on amazon you'll get sugar coated plums for sale, which are not the same thing at all. Then talking to a friend, he sent me a recipe but wikipedia warns:

"Another 21st-century take on the sugar plum instructs home cooks to combine dried fruits and almonds with honey and aromatic seeds (anise, fennel, caraway, cardamom), form this mixture into balls, then coat in sugar or shredded coconut.[8]"

... which is what the recipe was. I'm not looking for the 21st-century anything.

So this video explains what they are and how to make them and I guess I won't be trying sugar plums.

Except.

They mention jordan almonds are technically sugar plums and he also refers to some brand of coated pine nuts as being sugar plums; but he doesn't mention or link to whatever he's specifically talking about. Jordan almonds that fit the criteria are all over amazon, so that's obtainable. Pine nuts are trickier. With some work, I was able to track down the pine nuts he's referring to as being "1880 Candy Coated Pine Nuts." They appear to be obtainable but not from any place convenient to me. To be continued perhaps.

100 Years of Pasta

  

I don't know if other people will enjoy 25 minutes of pasta or if it's just me. But I'm throwing it out there.

The Last 100 Years of Steak

 Guga cooks and tests 100 years of steak:

David Letterman's Scrambled Eggs Recipe

 

Dave Letterman's Scrambled Eggs Recipe

Ingredients

• Eggs - As many as desired.
• Half and Half - 1 Tbsp
• Butter - 1/2-1 Pat
• Mustard (Plochman's) - As much as you can get out of the thing. [Substitute French's if necessary]

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, beat eggs to a homogenous consistency, whilst making "tsk" sounds with your mouth. 
2. Add half and half and mix into eggs (as above). 
3. Heat a pan to medium heat. Add butter. Once the butter has melted, add the egg mixture to the pan. As the eggs cook and solidify, massage with fork until fluffy.
4. Once eggs are done, pour onto plate and add mustard. Serve.

Review

So I tried this recipe, following the instructions completely, with the exception that I assumed the "as much mustard as you can get out of the thing" thing was an exaggeration. I'm no Julia Child, I'm no Gordon Ramsey, but that's my guess. I found that Plochman's Mustard is available on Amazon, I bought that. I even bought a pint of half and half even though I only needed a tablespoon.

A few things that I found confusing...Firstly, I'm confused by the complete mixture of the eggs. I always thought when you're making an omelet, you beat completely but that if eggs are scrambled, you would keep some marbling, some heterogeneity. I also don't know what "massaging" the eggs is in this context because, again, the way he describes it sounds like an omelet and I'm not making an omelet. The final thing I found confusing was: I was left to my own devices as to how much mustard to use. Given the charge to add the entire full, new bottle, I didn't make that disaster but simply added more than I was comfortable with.

The result? The eggs are fine but the taste of mustard dominates and it's unpleasant. That's going to differ completely from person to person but I personally don't like the strong mustard taste. I may try again with a different massaging technique and less mustard. When Dave mentions mustard, the audience gasps. I also was not familiar with scrambled eggs and mustard so I could relate. But I was trying to think why it's weird and can't find a reason. After all, I normally like scrambled eggs with ketchup so I don't have an objective leg to stand on.

Update: I tried again with the following modifications:

• Less egg mixing
• Added salt/pepper.
• Used my own method of "scrambling" rather than "massaging."
• Used a smaller amount of mustard - like "essence of mustard."

Result: Much better. Although it still seems like an acquired taste that I haven't acquired, still they're good and it seems at least possible that I could acquire the taste.

Late Night - Baking with Bev Tanner

 

A standard late night baking segment.

Adam Ragusea - What is Kosher Salt?

What Happens When You Microwave a Brisket?

 

I had a grandmother who used to make everything in the microwave. That scene in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" when the dry turkey explodes basically gives you an idea of some of the adventures my family used to have. But I enjoy when people ignore conventional wisdom to run the experiment and gather the data anyway because life is full of surprises.

The Fake Chef

A guy fools local news shows into thinking he's a real chef with a real book and gets on the air.

What is Baking Soda? Baking Powder?

Boxed Cake vs. Scratch Cake

An interesting video about the reasons boxed cake tastes different from cake made from scratch and the science behind it.