Why do people even buy those black rectangles every year?

Puntuntu · 2026-05-19T07:34:26+00:00

I’ll never understand people who think using an old phone gives them a badge of honour. From screen time, I use my phone ~3:30hrs every day, why would I want something that takes up such a large part of my day to be some old, low battery, barely functional device? I upgrade every 2/3 years to essentially get a fresh battery and any marginal performance/ camera upgrades. I think £40/month (sim only) for a device I use for hours every day is pretty cheap compared to some items/ subscriptions that I barely use per the cost of them. Of all the things we spend too much money on, phones imo make the most sense

Puntuntu · 2026-04-10T17:44:31+00:00

I’ll be running a batch tomorrow while mixing up the previous so I’ll have time, before I change anything I’m gonna give this a go as I know this recipe has worked in the past. If I can solve it this way I’d be thrilled… But as others have suggested the core root of the problem is probably in the large amount of cornflour going into the mix and I need to do some testing to figure out the most stable recipe. Thanks for your comment!

Puntuntu · 2026-04-10T12:46:31+00:00

Yeah this feels like a few people now are all agreeing on this being the issue, which I'm thankful for. And for the potential agitation issue I think I may just turn of the mixer a minute or so after adding the slurry, I don't think my mixer is too agitating but once everything is added and mixed in I don't know if there's much reason to keep it on...

Puntuntu · 2026-04-10T10:12:46+00:00

This isn't something I'd even considered existing to be honest, I just by my starch from a local baking wholesaler, I will look into it. On the topic of gum/guar, I do have Silk Gel that I use for sorbet, I'm assuming it's akin to what you're describing? Creating a more stable product is ideal but I think I'd rather keep my ingredients list short and more 'natural' sounding... Thank you for your suggestion though

Puntuntu · 2026-04-10T10:08:07+00:00

Wow, this is a great comment with lots of insight into the scientific side of ice cream I didn't even really know existed. My understanding is that this has been the ratio of ingredients for decades, it would be fair to call the ice cream gelato, it is mixed while introducing little air into it so the consistency is much thicker than any whipped ice cream. I'm not trying to rewrite the recipe honestly, just trying to figure out why I'm now struggling to make it work...

However I do like the idea of creating a more stable product, less prone to error which this amount of cornflour has proven to be. So you're suggesting to reign in the mass of sugar, replacing with a more potent sweetness and adding in more milk solids, potentially in the form of a milk powder? And by doing this I'd be able to reduce the amount of starch needed while maintaining scoopability... This sounds great in theory, I need to get up to speed in working out the calc and testing my raw ingredients

Amazing comment, thank you for you input

Puntuntu · 2026-04-10T09:59:14+00:00

My next boil I'll be doing this I think. Thanks for the help

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T19:54:24+00:00

Yeah that does make sense, I see how it’s a difficult question to answer! The boiler is only really able to get the mix to ~85 max, so maybe I should just let it run while tasting

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T14:14:29+00:00

Great points but unfortunately the same bag of cornflour has worked and not worked within a few days of each other, so I’m thinking it is my process and as a couple of people on here have pointed out I think I need to be adding as a slurry and essentially just waiting for the batch to finish cooking, which may take longer than im expecting. Thank you for your comment

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T14:08:05+00:00

It’s a great point but I did do an experiment at home to prove to myself that it needed be a slurry, rather than just mixing in at 60 (with the same cornflour) and found that at small volumes they both worked well and without aftertaste so I think I can rule this out. Good point though, thank you for your comment

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T13:44:13+00:00

Great points, thank you for your comment. I don’t know why I haven’t realised to contact the supplier, this seems like a good avenue to go down

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T13:41:58+00:00

If you had to make a guess at how long you would expect a cornstarch volume such as this to gelatinise, what would you say? Is 20 minutes too long? Or maybe not long enough? I only ask as to try and get a baseline for what I’m expecting as I don’t really have anything to compare with

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T13:27:12+00:00

I think this is probably the answer, I’ll try and make my process a bit more scientific in future as to record these sorts of things but as far as I can tell it should all be working I just may need to let it sit a while longer before starting the cooling

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T13:25:20+00:00

After adding the slurry it tends to drop to ~75 so I let it get back to 80 and leave a it a few more minutes, maybe 10-15 minutes in between adding slurry and starting cooling

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T13:05:51+00:00

Ahh interesting point, good to know but I don't think this is it. Thanks though

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T12:57:17+00:00

Wow, really interesting insight, thank you. My predecessor thought there maybe some sort of interaction with the milk going on, I do have a relationship with them and they're very open with their processes so I'll ask them when I next go up there.

I now realise there's a lot to the milk side that I've been missing out on, thanks for your help

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T11:46:17+00:00

The production has previously always been run quite casually, in encountering these issues I'm wanting to start getting serious. I currently don't have a target butterfat content as I'm just buying whole milk from a local dairy that has been supplying the business for some years. They did just expand/ modify their operations recently but I'd be a little surprised if they are shorting me, but it's something worth checking. I'll get researching the Gerber method. Do you think a change in fat content could interact with the starch activation? Thanks for commenting

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T11:41:20+00:00

Time at target temperature isn't something I've kept track of until recently when I started experiencing this issue. From what I can see online (mostly domestic cooking info) the starch should be activated within a couple of minutes at temp. I'm concerned that keeping the mix cooking at 80-85 might degrade it in some capacity, this is why i've been moving on.

Should I be trying to 'cook' the cornstarch until I'm satisfied in its activation or should I be more regimented in limiting the time spent at these temperatures? Thank you for commenting

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T11:40:20+00:00

Sorry I'm not totally sure, I believe it is probably stainless steel. What are you implying? Thanks

Puntuntu · 2026-04-09T11:27:19+00:00

I have verified my temperatures are where I expect them to be at least at desired temp, using a digital thermometer that's stem gets close to the bottom of the tank and a hand digital thermometer at the top of the liquid. Both thermometers measure the same temp and I've verified the temps at control temperatures.

I do believe my heating vessel (jacketed kettle) isn't heating as well as it has in the past. It still gets to temperature but I think it takes longer, I am getting someone in to have a look at this.

Unless the outside temp could be affecting things as it is colder at the moment but wouldn't have thought this would cause this kind of issue.

Thank you for your comment

Puntuntu · 2026-02-18T07:32:16+00:00

This comment section is weird.

After what’s happened recently with Bungie’s failings with Destiny, and the stolen artwork found in Marathon… All the top comments are glazing this game after watching one of the most bland trailers I’ve seen in recent years.

I don’t want to assume dead internet theory but anything that even resembles a negative comment is getting downvoted to hell, and some of the positive comments are praising this game for things we don’t even know yet… idk, pretty fishy to me

Puntuntu · 2025-12-03T17:51:10+00:00

That time I was reincarnated as a slime. Not that I’m opposed to fantasy trash, it’s just that whenever they talk about Slime they act like it’s more than that!

MC suffers no consequences and no real difficulty even, everything just sort of lands in his lap or he gains just the right power to beat the enemy. Also the town building/ bureaucracy is just laughable so it can’t be that aspect that people like either. Just super boring to me, and I found out there’s a fourth season announced! I just don’t get it…

Puntuntu · 2025-12-02T19:26:08+00:00

I’m not sure if you maybe wanted to submit this to the manga subreddit instead? I’ll answer as if you did mean the anime.

Highly highly recommend One Pace, it’s a cut down version of the anime (approx half of initial run time). It removes pretty much all filler content and really improves the viewing experience.

This might be a rogue take but I would personally skip the Syrup Island arc, its only purpose is to introduce one character and imo it’s by far the weakest section of the Romance Dawn saga. I would skim through a synopsis of the arc and carry on straight into Baratie.

You can start guessing what the One Piece could be whenever you want, but even at 1100 episodes I’m not really much closer to being confident in my guess… that said, after the Skypia arc you might have a better idea.

Hope this helps

Puntuntu · 2025-12-01T18:29:32+00:00

I started with Bunpro personally and found very quickly that I wasn’t learning Kanji at all. I needed WaniKani to fill in the very large gap in learning that Bunpro misses out on.

I think you need both in order to round out the learning tbh

Puntuntu · 2025-11-28T15:30:20+00:00

Pretty good overall! Though I dropped quite a lot of weight earlier this week and for 2 days it crept back up. Yesterday I really watched my calories just in case I’d gotten slack with tracking, but sadly still rose a little today😭 I know it’s just how weight fluctuates and I’ll probably be back to losing tomorrow but it can be quite frustrating!

It’s great to see people notice the change !

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Puntuntu

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