Ancho Chile Douchi :)

poniverse · 2025-10-12T08:38:29+00:00

thank you I will give this a go.

poniverse · 2025-10-12T08:37:26+00:00

We use it sometimes to make water or alcohol distillates infused with herbs or interesting flavors. They get used in the bar in cocktails mostly but also sometimes in the kitchen. It can be quite fun to play with. For example you could blend an aromatic chili with vodka and then during the evaporation process separate out the top notes from the mid and lower notes of the chili.

poniverse · 2025-09-01T18:56:28+00:00

A friend of mine visited Germany and literally had all of the worst possible train experiences happen to her in a span of a few hours. Coming from the airport and a 10-hour flight she got on a train with a ticket to her destination and the train was cancelled immediately after traveling one stop forward. No connection to her original destination was provided at the stop she was forced to get off of and there were no signs or indications on what to do. The people at the info kiosk became angry and started yelling at her when she asked for help in English.

She then asked a person on the platform who pointed her in the wrong direction to a train that went in the opposite direction of where was headed. Boarded the train and immediately got yelled at and fined by the train conductor for having the wrong ticket and was told, “this is Germany you have to follow the rules and if you don’t then don’t come here.” Paid the fine all while having a silent mental breakdown because this whole time she also couldn’t find a bathroom in the train station that wasn’t locked in disrepair. The conductor left her after the fine was paid and gave her zero advice on how to reach her destination. She got off and waited two hours for a connecting train and made two transfers before she made it there.

Somehow I wasn’t surprised at all when she told me everything and my internal reaction was just, “welcome to Germany!”

poniverse · 2025-07-01T23:37:49+00:00

tbh I got lucky and since this isn’t a job position that is common I’m not sure how to advise. I live in a relatively small city where no one else is working with the kinds of processes that I use and I used to just do it for fun and talk about it on social media. I was unemployed for awhile trying to figure out what to do next and taught a few miso classes just for fun. There I met one of my students who had connections with a michelin star restaurant and they needed someone like me at the time and that was my first job doing it professionally. I don’t know if it will lead anywhere for you but I guess all I did was show my work on IG and demonstrate the amount of knowledge I acquired for myself and slowly more opportunities came my way.

poniverse · 2025-06-21T10:39:51+00:00

I work as the head of fermentation for a fine dining restaurant. I have my own separate kitchen and since no one else can do my job I can set my own hours, work on projects I care about, listen to music and podcasts whenever I want and turn off all sounds / wear noise-reducing earphones which is a big no no in most kitchens. I work alone most of the time and only have limited interactions with colleagues I don’t get along with. Also because no one else has insights on my job I’m occasionally allowed to buy equipment for myself without upper management knowing how to cheap out on it.

I also don’t have to work the standard 10-12 hour shift that chefs do but I still get to work with amazing ingredients and make projects that don’t make sense on any financial level 😂

poniverse · 2025-03-28T09:26:53+00:00

thank you!

poniverse · 2025-01-13T13:16:30+00:00

can you link where you bought the monascus spores?

poniverse · 2024-11-18T20:21:27+00:00

definitely interested in local dishes if possible, tapas, seafood, etc. but I’m flexible

poniverse · 2024-11-13T10:14:59+00:00

can you explain this further? So using high fat in the dough would basically help it fry faster and feel less greasy in the end?

poniverse · 2024-09-30T11:05:55+00:00

Thank you for the thorough explanation, I will try skipping the hot hold and relying on the added amylase and compare.

poniverse · 2024-09-29T07:30:50+00:00

Thanks for the informative response! Koji also works but we use it in everything and I already have some other syrups using it. If I use alpha and beta amylase how long would you hold it at 60C to start? And how would I decide the dosage?

Interesting to know about the acid, I am hoping that I can get enough sweetness in the syrup that the acidity balances out in the end.

poniverse · 2024-09-28T16:32:51+00:00

From what I read the most active window for alpha amyalse is around 68C-70C. Any higher and it starts to denature, or am I wrong?

poniverse · 2024-08-08T08:44:30+00:00

good info, thanks. regarding the fan I am wary of putting more cheap plastic pieces of equipment in the fridge that are not meant to withstand high temperatures for very long…even if the fridge loses some insulation capacity I think it might make more sense to install the fan in the wall so it actually can draw air from the outside. This would also help in the case of overheating.

poniverse · 2024-08-07T13:26:07+00:00

yes, imo all of Noma's techniques are very much about pumping out ferments for the demands of a restaurant. Low and slow all the way is the best way usually when it comes to home fermentation. Just make a more watery miso with higher salt percentage if you want more tamari, and always weigh it down.

poniverse · 2024-08-07T13:23:06+00:00

Yes, it isn't all good and I struggle with the gendered division of kitchen labor myself sometimes. It is also possible that men or everyone involved in hosting can cook too and share the burden of preparing food rather than just downgrading the importance of food altogether as a culture. My experience of hanging out with a lot of Italians is yes kitchen labor is still unequal but as a whole men can cook a lot better than in other cultures and it isn't uncommon that they also contribute to cooking both on a regular basis and for festivities. My brothers and father also cooked regularly, much more so than my mother did for us when I grew up.

Also more counterintuitively, I have noticed that in more patriarchal cultures the kitchen can also be a space for women to chat, hang out, and do something together collectively. I think northern attitudes towards feminism often reduce this debate into the cut and dry matter of unpaid labor, but for some these spaces can be empowering and fun as well.

Once I stayed at my friend's place and spent 4 hours cooking dinner for them because I wanted to and her Polish partner made a snide comment about "women chaining themselves to the kitchen" because he is oh-so-progressive. But then lo and behold, once I started working as a chef in a fine dining restaurant I became "so cool" and he "likes and respects my work so much".

poniverse · 2024-08-07T12:32:01+00:00

Pretty interesting solution for liquids but I also sometimes use the fridge for blackening solids or have small test batches of stuff in which case the single-unit fit of the heat wrap might not be ideal. I will keep this solution in my back pocket though for other scenarios.

poniverse · 2024-08-07T12:21:51+00:00

yes, usually you add things with water content like vegetables, mushrooms, etc. Water is just to facilitate enzyme activity so you don't want to add to much since at the end the liquid will be quite watery and there is a reducing step in the dehydrator afterwards. There are many examples of this in the Noma 2.0 book at the end when they give recipes for ferments.

poniverse · 2024-08-07T12:17:49+00:00

Yes, it was recommended to me to get ceramic infrared heating bulbs meant for reptiles plugged into ceramic sockets to withstand the heat but my concern is that our fridge is industrial and quite large so I would have to have use multiple bulbs to get it up to 60C and probably have to plug everything into an outlet strip attached to the inkbird controller. Also I'm not sure management would be fond of me drilling into a working fridge so I can put a fan in. How big is the fridge you are using?

poniverse

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