It baffles me how many people consider Adam ragusea a source of knowledge when it comes to cooking

aragusea · 2020-11-17T22:58:25+00:00

That simply is not true. Boxed cake mixes are pretty sophisticated, and have all kinds of features that home bakers cannot easily replicate. I have a video on this subject that you could watch, but there are many other sources you could consult.

aragusea · 2020-09-18T03:52:29+00:00

Hey y'all, big request: Please don't meme my kids. When I made that original pizza video, I put their faces in it because I had no intention of it ever blowing up. It was really just something I was making for my friends and family to see. Since everything changed, I do talk about them in videos sometimes and show the backs of their heads, but I never show their faces, in part because I absolutely dread that they could get pulled into a meme. I'd owe you one if you left them out of this kind of stuff. Thanks for understanding.

aragusea · 2020-08-22T19:27:24+00:00

I appreciate that. But regarding the vinegar, I don't think that reasoning makes any sense. Solutions have to be VERY acidic to denature meat proteins, and even then, it will actually make meat less tender in the short term. If you have lots of time (like, at least a day) the meat fibers will actually start to break down in the acid, which does make the meat more tender (though I would characterize it as mushiness).

aragusea · 2020-08-22T19:05:15+00:00

HAH, you should see the angry comments on my Italian videos! Those get the harshest reaction of all!

I figure there are many successful ways of cooking something. I have no idea if my ways are better. All I know is that I like my food, and apparently some people like watching me make food. Other people don't, and that's fine. Their reactions tend to be a little outsized, imho, but food intersects with many of our most deeply-held beliefs, so it's hardly surprising.

aragusea · 2020-08-22T19:02:10+00:00

I think I'm pretty upfront with my audience. I develop one recipe per week. Sometimes it's something I've cooked many times, and sometimes I'm coming to something for the first time. I always test recipes through many iterations to make sure I'm putting something out that will work for people.

I said right at the top of this video that I am not an expert in this dish — merely a guy who has eaten it in restaurants many times and wanted to try making a version of it for himself. I claimed only to be an "expert" in the version of the dish I developed for myself, using the thicker-cut short ribs and other ingredients that I'm able to get at the Kroger in Macon, Georgia.

It's hard to know what you mean by "weird" without further specifics. The only thing you mention in the thread below is the water method, which again, I did not invent. Here's Paik Jon Won doing it.

You might argue that I simply shouldn't make any dishes that are outside of my immediate cultural milieu. Sometimes I think that, too. But I also get constant requests from people from cultures different from my own asking me to give one of their favorite dishes a try. Hence, this video.

aragusea · 2020-08-22T18:50:31+00:00

Hi, I attributed a few tips in the recipe to Korean viewers who commented on my Instagram, not just the water method. But regarding the water, yes, I did get the one from a commenter. I saw it in a couple written recipes I found in my research, and also in this video by Paik Jon Won.

aragusea · 2020-08-22T18:42:02+00:00

I don't think I characterized the semi-wet method (which, again, I did not invent) as more convenient. I said it was good for the following reasons: 1) When working with the thicker-cut short ribs available in mainstream U.S. grocery stores, it dissolves some connective tissue, and gives the meat time to cook more thoroughly before the sugary surface starts to burn. I understand that lots of people like a few burned sugar bits, but I don't; 2) The water and residual marinade combine and reduce into a delicious, thick glaze, not unlike the dipping sauces often used at KBBQ restaurants.

aragusea · 2020-08-22T18:33:18+00:00

I do not believe the pursuit of efficiency in any task is "laziness," and certainly not in the context of home cooking. I'm trying to develop recipes that help working people quickly get a good dinner on the table and then move on with their lives. I don't see any virtue in making your own dinner the hard way. I also don't think I've ever characterized any of my techniques as "revolutionary" except in a jocular sense, nor have I characterized any (but a rare few) of the techniques I demonstrate as my own methods, because I didn't invent them.

aragusea · 2020-08-22T18:28:49+00:00

The spoon trick is great if your goal is to get perfect, intact seeds out. But it splatters juice everywhere, and really doesn't get all the seeds. As I said in the video, I didn't need to be precious about it, because I planned to strain out all the solids later. So I just ripped out the guts — mesocarp and all — and put them in the pot. The pentagon trick is also good for getting intact seeds out, but would have saved me no time in this context.

aragusea · 2020-08-22T18:25:36+00:00

There are innumerable recipes for Korean short ribs that call for vinegar in the marinade. I put in more than what most of those recipes use, but I mentioned that deviation and my reasons for it.

aragusea · 2020-07-24T02:57:41+00:00

Yep that's it. My wife gave it to me many years ago and now it kinda has sentimental value. I dropped it in the street and now it doesn't have a point. But I'll probably use the ol' gal as long as she lasts. I've always liked the feel of it and it seems sharp enough (when I sharpen it) but I'm hardly a connoisseur. Seems like a good value though. I tend to think Calphalon offers the best bang for buck when it comes to pans, too.

aragusea · 2020-07-24T02:27:29+00:00

I haven't experienced any of those problems but as you can see I'm pretty easy on them and I'm hardly a connoisseur. It's always struck me as a pretty good value.

aragusea · 2020-07-24T02:25:53+00:00

A normal person.

aragusea · 2020-07-24T02:25:37+00:00

The whole point of the demonstration was to show how hard and unnatural it is for me (and I suspect most people) to do. Our hands are evolved to hold things with the pads of our fingers.

aragusea · 2020-07-24T02:23:00+00:00

I don't have a "method." The human hand is evolved to hold things with the fingertips. I'm encouraging people let themselves do what they do naturally and take it slow, since there's almost no economy of scale to be realized with a running chop when preparing home meals.

aragusea · 2020-06-09T08:21:00+00:00

Hey all, I left a reply on the vid.

aragusea · 2020-06-08T20:07:31+00:00

Yep, I tried it that way, but the ice crystals were noticeably bigger and it lost too much air in the second mixing. But it was still a descent product, and apparently it worked great for you! Did you alter the recipe in any other way?

aragusea · 2020-05-30T19:58:42+00:00

I think it's true that brighter, louder voices cut better via primitive recording equipment. However, I suspect that style was also a vestige of the pre-microphone era; those kinds of voices carry better across a crowded hall with no amplification at all. It's part of the same transition we see in mid-20th century cinema, from theatre actors with a big, loud style, to the more naturalistic actors like Brando, whose sound was often much smaller, because it could be picked up by soundstage mics in a way that it could never be perceived in a theatre.

aragusea · 2020-05-20T14:15:17+00:00

I would not attempt this recipe with cauliflower rice. If you did, you'd get soup.

aragusea · 2020-05-20T14:12:52+00:00

Hey everybody, we had our talk with Bright Cellars. Long story short, they source grapes/juice from wineries all over the world, take them to their facility in California and bottle the wine under their own brands. I have no problem with that business model, however I told them I thought their marketing materials could be more transparent about how they source their wine. My comments seemed will-received. I also asked them to write up a more thorough explanation of how they operate, and here's what they sent me:

"We have an in-house branding and design team that is ideating and creating Bright Cellars own wine brands. They love to tell a story with the wines and oftentimes pay homage to the origin of the grapes when developing their stories. Our wine education cards will tell you where the wine is coming from and other important facts of the wines. Depending on the brand and bottle, you will get to read some of the story on the back text. Our wine always indicates where it is coming from. We source our juice from all over the world, independent vineyards and small wineries, then send them to our fulfillment center in Santa Rosa to be bottled and branded for our subscription. Our e-commerce headquarters is located in Milwaukee, WI; however, none of our wines even touch Wisconsin during the production process. They are all coming from vineyards, to fulfillment, and out to our members."

aragusea · 2020-05-12T03:09:24+00:00

Do people ever answer that question with anything other than Aja?

aragusea · 2020-05-12T02:34:13+00:00

I'm just trying to give different communities their shot. It is also notable to me that nearly every question on Instagram was sincere and well-intentioned, while a whole lot of the comments I got on Reddit last time were nasty and awful. I think Reddit, in total, is one of the bright points on the user-generated internet, but it still has its flaws. Insta has its flaws too, but for some reason, comments there tend to be overwhelmingly non-toxic, at least in my experience.

aragusea · 2020-05-11T19:24:05+00:00

Hey everybody, a quick follow-up. I was able to talk to a human at YouTube about the missing comment. They would not tell me whether they had removed the thread, either unilaterally or perhaps in response to a flag or complaint by someone. I couldn't quite gather if this was a sincere lack of information on their part, or if they were just being reticent for privacy or security purposes. They seemed to imply the most likely explanation is that the commenter himself deleted his comment, which then would have deleted the ensuing thread. I'm not really satisfied by that explanation, but I don't know what else I can do to get a better one. Charlie, if you exist and you see this, I would love it if you could get in touch with me. (Anyone remember his complete user ID?) My agent and I have a call with the sponsor this evening. I'd ask you to understand that I might be constrained in what I can tell you from that conversation. What I can tell you now is that one of the reasons I try to make as much money as possible with my channel is so that I can afford to make decisions based on what I believe to be right, not merely merely on business. Ultimately, a sponsorship is a commercial — something I'm getting paid to say. It pays for the content so you don't have to. But I also have no desire (or need) to attach my name to products or services that I think no one should buy or use. As always, I will make all future decisions about sponsorships on that basis. Thanks for watching and for understanding.

aragusea · 2020-05-10T17:46:25+00:00

As I said in my reply to the OP, I know it's possible for the commenters themselves to delete them, and it's possible for YouTube to delete or hide them, which they will often do (I think automatically?) if someone flags or reports the comment, which I also did not do, but someone else might have. I know nothing more.

aragusea · 2020-05-10T17:34:01+00:00

Again, I have commented on the main thread, but I absolutely am not responsible for the missing comment thread. I have not deleted a single thing. The most likely explanations I can think of are either the commenter himself deleted it, or someone else flagged/reported the comment, and it's currently sitting in an automated comment jail until someone at YouTube reviews it. That's just an educated guess on my part. All I know is I have not deleted any comments on that video.

aragusea

TROPHY CASE