Gift ideas for the culinarily inclined

I followed a link which led to a link which led to... a blogger's quite good piece on essential kitchen equipment to either give, or ask for. She's hoping you'll buy from Amazon and she'll get the kickback, which is fine, but it's a good piece in any case:

http://www.janegalt.net/archives/009546.html

HI,

An ingredient I had never heard of until this week and now have heard of it twice: chocolate extract. This was an ingredient in the first place winner of the Chicago Tribune's Christmas cookie competition and now in this blog. It's funny how you learn something new and then almost immediately bump into it again.

Regards,

Heck, we've got chocolate extract in our cupboard. The spice house started carrying it last winter. It's a really great way to make chocolate whipped cream.

Hi,

If Spice House started carrying it last winter, then it is a relatively new ingredient available to masses. I will guess it is likely a known commodity to commerical enterprises.

Regards,

My brother has expressed a Hannukah-type interest in a pasta maker/machine. I see that the blogger recommended an electric pasta extruder.

Has anyone had positive experience with a pasta machine? Hand-cranked or electric? Atlas and Imperia seem to be the big names in the hand-cranked variety. Are they all of essentially the same quality?

Do share.

I've owned an Imperia pasta machine since my sister gave it to me five years ago. I used it for the first time in September or so. I had this idea that it would be incredibly labor-intensive, but that's the point of the machine-- it isn't. There are some techniques that take a little learning, but it's substantially easier than making bread has been, for instance. (At least, making particularly good bread.) So I think your brother would find it a fun addition to the kitchen for the price, and you don't need to spend a bigger wad on the electric version-- cranking is part of the fun (indeed, it's one of those jobs that my Teamster-like youngest son immediately appropriated to himself, no one touches the crank but him, which is fine since it takes several hands to finally crank the stuff out and keep it from clumping together).

Things I learned the hard way or at least along the way:

Biggest challenge is keeping the cut pasta from sticking together before you cook it. Easiest thing is to simply dust very liberally with flour as soon as it comes out of the cutter.

The machine is hard to clean. If you made your pasta right, you basically won't have to. If you made it too sticky, you'll have a hard cleaning job ahead. Ergo, don't make it too sticky.

Pasta with a storebought egg and regular flour is not really worth the trouble over a bag of dry pasta. However, since I got semolina flour at Fox & Obel and have mainly used local farmer eggs purchased at Green City, the pasta has rocked. There's a reason Terragusto has a big thing of local eggs in its window!

Basic dough-making technique is demonstrated very well in Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian, p. 122-3. Go to Amazon and you can look at the page-- search for "Simili" (sisters who teach a pasta-making class), then go to p. 122.

Gnome...

I don't profess to be a super ultra mega expert on the subject, but I knows me some pasta, and I'm personally of the opinion that home pasta extrusion machines are PURE EVIL. Maybe I saw bad machines, maybe the people operating them had no idea what they were doing, but on the couple of occasions I've had to try something from one of those monstrosities, I don't know what came out, but it sure wasn't pasta.

I used one of the cheap, simple hand crank pasta rollers for years, and recently splurged on the roller attachment for my KitchenAid mixer... mostly because I frequently do pasta for 10 or 12 people, and that's a lot of hand cranking.

Beyond that, I can't say I've done much research, but I feel pretty comfortable in saying that any pasta maker that in any way resembles a meat grinder has absolutely no place in a home kitchen.

gastro gnome wrote:My brother has expressed a Hannukah-type interest in a pasta maker/machine. I see that the blogger recommended an electric pasta extruder.

Between my mother and myself, we have owned several different models of electric pasta machines, and they have all sucked. In fact, my mother once gave me one that was very highly rated (I think it cost $300+). It came with a bunch of different dies. For a while it turned out phenomenal pasta. Then one day, shortly after it was out of warranty (of course), it self destructed. The manufacturer told me the gears stripped because my dough was of the wrong consistency. Maybe they were right, but it is not a hard mistake to make. It requires tremendous pressure to extrude pasta, and only the most expensive professional machines can stand up to the wear and tear. Based on my initial review, my mother bought the same machine for herself, after she had a cheaper machine bite the dust. The same thing happened to hers. Anyhow, that was a while ago, so maybe they have gotten better. Actually, I would love to have another pasta machine. So if anybody has any positive experiences with an electric pasta maker that has lasted longer than a year with regular use, I would love to hear about it.

There's a good round-up of food-related gift guides here.

I am looking at using a pasta extruder to make cheese straws. I have been using a cookie press but it is a stiff dough and I have broken 2 presses in as many days.

Can anyone suggest a brand/model for of pasta extruder that will work for this purpose.

GeekQ

Mike,

If and when your youngest son notices minimum wage has increased and his union-negotiated wage hasn't, then you can revert to a technological solution. Please see the white hand-mixer sized attachment to the otherwise manual pasta maker:



It is my understanding these can be fitted on any manual pasta maker, though they are hard to come by.

Extruding a pasta and gently rolling then cutting a pasta are two very different processes. Why do you want to replicate a commercial practice at home? I desired a pasta extruder until I woke one day to the realization it was imitating a commercial process, which is not the same as homemade rolled pasta. This overcome desire saved me a lot of money.

I have two pasta machines. One I bought maybe 30 years ago for $40., which has never been easy to work with because it is stiff. The other I bought at a resale shop in Highwood, which moves with great ease. I have this fantasy it was the little appreciate relic of Nona's kitchen the family now regrets giving away. It is considerably easier to work with because it belonged to someone who seemed to work with it regularly to break it in.

Regards,

Cool - I'm going to get that travel mug for hubby - he'll love it!