Raw Ingredient and Mise en Place Appreciation thread.

itsstillmatt · Mar 29, 2011

Yeah, it is a little like a network newscast where the anchor only has underwear on. if you turn it around, you see the cuke was cut in half, so each segment makes two of those.

Oops, did you mean the thinly sliced one? It isn't cut all the way through. Each cut leaves about 2mm attached so that you can bend it as you like. I used a chefs knife, and didn't slice the bottom.

Manton · Mar 29, 2011

I can live to be 100 and practive every day and I will never be that good.

itsstillmatt · Mar 29, 2011

Stick a small cucumber between two long bamboo skewers set like train tracks. Then make even slices so that your knife stops when it hits the skewers.

Manton · Mar 29, 2011

Originally Posted by iammatt

Stick a small cucumber between two long bamboo skewers set like train tracks. Then make even slices so that your knife stops when it hits the skewers.

I don't think I could get a slice that even without a mandoline.

kwilkinson · Mar 29, 2011

Originally Posted by Manton

I can live to be 100 and practive every day and I will never be that good.

The cucumber stuff is beautiful, but not hard in any way whatsoever. In fact, to show you, I will do my own tonight or tomorrow and it will rival Matt's.

impolyt_one · Mar 29, 2011

I had a bunch of mushrooms so I was f'ing around with them:

I still haven't really gotten to the point where I can get a nice twisted flute going, but I don't really hold the knife the right way for it so that's probably why. I just kind of do things the way I like.

randallr · Mar 29, 2011

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

I had a bunch of mushrooms so I was f'ing around with them:

I still haven't really gotten to the point where I can get a nice twisted flute going, but I don't really hold the knife the right way for it so that's probably why. I just kind of do things the way I like.

It looks like those little butter molds you see at banquet centers.

mordecai · Mar 29, 2011

Tourning, fluting, and other knife patterns are impressive, and very nice to look at, and I want to learn them, but they all seem old fashioned to me. There's little I find more appealing on a plate than well julienned or even nicely chopped or halved vegetables. That said, impolyt, that mushroom looks great. I have almost no idea how you did it. Back of the knife?

kwilkinson · Mar 29, 2011

Originally Posted by mordecai

Tourning, fluting, and other knife patterns are impressive, and very nice to look at, and I want to learn them, but they all seem old fashioned to me.
Buy 50 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of carrots, and a flat of mushrooms. Lock yourself in your kitchen every night. When you're completely ******* disgusted by the sight of a potato, carrot, or mushroom, you might have learned how to do it well, and you will have channeled my first three weeks of culinary school. Anyway, about the old fashioned part, Manton had a quote in his culinary school thread that I liked so much i put it on my facebook:

Originally Posted by Manton

This is not something that will impress a real foodie. But that’s not the point. The point is, there is a repertoire, and that’s what we are learning. It’s like playing a Chopin etude. It doesn’t matter if everyone has heard it 10,000 times, and no serious artist plays it anymore in concert. You still don’t know how to play if you can’t play it. So learn, you lazy bastard.

mordecai · Mar 29, 2011

That's a constant argument on SF, malleable to clothing, art, food, decor, etc... but I'm not trying to start an argument. As I said, it's stuff I'd love to know, but I doubt I would use it much in my dishes as some here do.

Manton · Mar 29, 2011

I love tourne and do it at home all the time. Julienne, too.

mordecai · Mar 29, 2011

You, in most matters of taste, also seem kind of old-fashioned to me. That isn't meant as an insult.

Manton · Mar 29, 2011

you can't do tourne and are jellis.

SField · Mar 29, 2011

Originally Posted by mordecai

That's a constant argument on SF, malleable to clothing, art, food, decor, etc... but I'm not trying to start an argument. As I said, it's stuff I'd love to know, but I doubt I would use it much in my dishes as some here do.
sigh... You think being able to tourne doesn't make using a paring knife for simple uses much faster and more efficient? A few hundred years of culinary tradition isn't just founded on bullshit, just like piano technique. There's a reason you do it. Things like that build speed and fluidity. I think matt's little jacques pepin tricks with cucumbers and tomato flowers and fluted mushrooms are cute, but I'm sure he knows how to do a proper even dice or brun faster and better than most people as a result.

foodguy · Mar 29, 2011

i think the disagreement here is between the ability to do these things and the desire to put them on people's plates. i do see the point in tourne. i do not see the point in fluting mushrooms. and god knows i did enough of them for the damned belgian i worked for. there are plenty of finger exercises that will build up your knife skills without resorting to tomato flowers or other decorations that are now most commonly (and appropriately) found at hilton breakfast buffets.

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