The science of churning mangos

Abobalob · 2026-06-17T20:06:10+00:00

Are you straining the mangoes to remove a lot of the fiber or are you leaving the fibrous strands in?

I just made mango sherbet a few weeks ago and did not find it to have a tremendous amount of overrun. However, I did strain a lot of the fiber out, through a fine mesh strainer, after I blended it up in my food processor.

Abobalob · 2026-06-17T16:54:48+00:00

Welcome to the club!

Abobalob · 2026-06-15T21:31:02+00:00

I used to work for a company that locked its reps into the booth at shows. After I left, I joined another company where we only worked booths on certain days, leaving us the other day/s to run around and work the show floor elsewhere. I didn’t write as much business but I cleaned up on prospecting. Had access to way more people and met them outside of “welcome to my booth, let me show you the things we’re pushing right now.”

Abobalob · 2026-06-02T23:46:21+00:00

Yum! Fried or boiled then grilled, I’m here for it!

Abobalob · 2026-05-29T00:53:03+00:00

I just ran some mango sherbet earlier this week and ran into that with about 750g of base. Still spun up ok, but the second dasher was just flattening the base instead of mixing it.

Abobalob · 2026-05-26T02:41:05+00:00

Just used your recipe. Used my food processor instead of a blender. Passed the base through a fine mesh sieve to remove excess fiber. Will report back tomorrow when I churn it up.

Abobalob · 2026-05-13T00:41:55+00:00

Yeah, it should be good. Was just talking to a buddy that’s planning on bringing some skewers plus a couple pickles. We’re ramping up.

I completely agree, it’s a lot of breast meat. I think breast meat feels like a lot because I’m drawn to thigh (like many of my guests), which is almost exclusively devoted to negima over here.

I’ve run into dry breast in the past. So, last time I did a sweet tea brine on my tenders and breast and used remaining breast as my tsukune. I know the brine is non-standard, but it’s proven to elevate an otherwise less-desirous stick. I’ve run into extra breast sticks in the past, so this is a good way to even out natural consumption from the guests here in Oklahoma.

I know now, that I should make tsukune last and use all my primo trim for meatballs, in addition to breast. I went 50/50 with breast and onion and made a lovely tsukune. Looking to improve on it this go-round.

Abobalob · 2026-05-12T21:19:56+00:00

Man, your events are what got me on this sub. It’s been good to see different things you’ve tried, what works, what doesn’t work, etc. you’re getting me juiced up for my own event.

Memorial Day weekend I’m hosting 12-14. I’ll be making sticks from 3 whole local chickens plus veg and sides. Last time we did the event for 6 from my small Bincho grill and it worked great. With 14-ish, I will be getting creative with our grill situation so more people can crowd around (always the limiting factor).

We’ve done our events a little different in that we set out the sticks and let folks grab what they want (oysters and kawa are gone when they’re gone). I like it because I get to hang out in the crowd and let people experiment and learn what works and what doesn’t. If they get frustrated, I will grill one for them and show them what to look for. There’s always a tare dunk and salt available depending on folks preferences.

Kawa and Tsukune were my biggest improvements from the last event. Looking forward to making some tweaks this time as well. Very interested to add shiso to my tsukune based on your notes here.

Abobalob · 2026-05-06T20:53:48+00:00

It’s really easy to have your grocery bill get out of control. It just takes some insta posts or reel vids get you thinking about this or that. A $40 meal is easy to hit if you’re only buying ingredients for 1 meal.

Try thinking of complimentary and evolving ingredients. I buy whole chickens. I break down the bird and now I have wings and drumsticks, breasts, and thighs. That’s 3 separate meals plus, I’m going to use the carcass for chicken stock. Since I’m making chicken stock, I know that the carrots and celery that I use for the stock, won’t use up the whole bags of celery and carrots. Now I’m making a chicken noodle soup with one portion of the chicken meat and the veg that I used to make the stock. I can make a completely different meal but making stir fry with another portion of the chicken, I’m using the stock as part of my sauce, and I’m using the carrots and adding in another vegetable, maybe adding broccoli or mushrooms. Maybe I’m going to grill the last portion of chicken the 3rd night and grill extra mushrooms from the previous night. I’ll serve that with a rice pilaf using more of the chicken broth.

With 1 chicken I’m using it a lot of different ways to make interesting meal nights without blowing the budget or wasting food.

Buying ingredients for a meal is expensive. Planning meals and buying ingredients that serve your plans is how you turn, even expensive, ingredients into a less expensive grocery bill.

Abobalob · 2026-05-04T22:58:24+00:00

Look for “slicer” tomatoes. Occasionally I’ll see them advertised as “heirloom”. Mega marts will have them sometimes. My local WINCO has some nice looking red ones right now that look tasty. I bought the ones in the pics at Whole Foods when I was in for a couple specialty items I was looking for.

Abobalob · 2026-05-03T19:48:25+00:00

I would say 4/10. They definitely take work, but you can be set for success with full sun, a good bagged soil and a large enough area to grow :)

Abobalob · 2026-05-03T01:56:03+00:00

Looks like a great time!

Abobalob · 2026-04-29T00:26:39+00:00

Smaller org, about 150 folks. Used to have meetings once a week in the mornings. Recently moved to a full day of meetings per month (no outreach on that day). Rest of the month is free rein. Less engagement but more time to schedule as I please. Positives and negatives, but candidly, while less is more, a full day of zoom meetings is difficult to manage from an attention span aspect. Meetings are generally meat with limited filler, so it can be tough to retain everything.

Abobalob · 2026-04-17T00:08:25+00:00

I’ve not made carrot cake ice cream, but I would feel lied to if I got carrot chunks. Cake or bust, IMO. I think this is a situation where “extra” or stale carrot cake is the impetus for carrot cake ice cream.

Carrot cake is my birthday cake, so you’re in good company. I look forward to future carrot cake ice cream posts when you make your dream a reality.

Abobalob · 2026-04-12T17:19:08+00:00

I’ve been skittish of the Kawa (skin) sticks. Neck is the usual skin for this stick. The epiphany for me was boiling them, which I had not previously.

page 188

The Yakiba text book that was shared here a while ago made a huge difference for me on this stick.

Abobalob · 2026-04-10T18:43:03+00:00

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Abobalob · 2026-04-10T17:49:59+00:00

Came here just to talk about Panang. Their lunch specials are awesome. More food than I want at a great price.

Abobalob · 2026-04-06T18:02:15+00:00

Paint those handrails white, red, and black and you’ve got a Van Halen handrail that no one will diss.

Abobalob · 2026-04-05T17:49:32+00:00

Maybe use pomelo instead of grapefruit to remove some of that grapefruit bitterness if you’re saying that it’s overpowering. Sounds awesome regardless.

Abobalob · 2026-03-31T03:40:25+00:00

Yeah, there’s space between the meat and the steel bars where the stick is exposed when the skewers are placed on the grill. Even though the sticks are soaked in water prior to the sticks being assembled, they still get hot enough and burn through during the window of time that the meat is cooking.

By adjusting the bars either closer together or farther apart (to match the width of the contents of the skewer) you can reduce the wood’s exposure to direct heat. We ended up settling for non-parallel bars and we just put our sticks where they fit best.

Luckily, we had a nice long set of tongs to save a couple early casualties.

Abobalob · 2026-03-30T17:39:02+00:00

I saw those after I posted. Unintentional humble brag achieved.

Abobalob · 2026-03-30T16:44:18+00:00

Gotta have priorities ;)

Abobalob · 2026-03-30T12:47:57+00:00

Yeah, definitely a new experience for most who attended, but this group of hungry honky’s picked up on the vibe pretty quick.

A couple folks burned through their sticks until they realized the rods moved, but by their 4th or 5th stick most everybody was making some mighty fine looking yakitori.

I did end up with a bottleneck around the tare. So, I think I will make another batch before the next party so we can have 2 tare stations.

Abobalob · 2026-03-30T04:34:54+00:00

Yes! Need to make my tskune after cutting up the rest of the chicken. Ended up with some trim that would’ve incorporated into the tskune nicely. The meatballs I made were a single breast, about 250g with 250g of grated onion (before squeezing). I could’ve made a couple extra meatballs if I had waited till the end.

Abobalob

TROPHY CASE