pmillen

I thought so—the octagon shape and the heat-sink handles...

Finex cast iron? Whatever the manufacturer, that's a desirable pan.

Yes…a great write-up. Most of it, and the subsequent comments, were new to me. Do we have members that are ServSafe certified? One would be a welcome addition to this kind of discussion.

Not many serious cooks use iodized table salt but non-iodized table salt is readily available.

John, I agree with everything in your post. Also, you wrote, "For more AWESOME information about cooking with salt, check out the book called "Salt Fat Acid Heat" by Samin Nosrat." I heard her interviewed on National Public Radio yesterday and ordered the book today.

Why do recipes call for kosher salt when it’s usually dissolved in the process? All salt is kosher. Some salt packages have the kosher symbol on the label. It’s there not because the salt has been koshered, but because a kosher certifier has confirmed that the salt doesn’t also contain non-kosher material. So why then is some salt plainly labeled Kosher Salt? It’s because it should be labeled koshering salt—salt used for koshering. Meat is salted during the koshering process to drive out any remaining blood (blood is not kosher). Koshering salt has grains that are flat, like flakes, and they’re the best shape for staying on the meat during koshering. So you can use table salt in any recipe that calls for kosher salt. But since the flat kosher salt grains settle in a measuring spoon differently than the table salt grains you shouldn’t use the same volume. Any volume of table salt weighs about 25% more than the same volume of kosher salt. Here’s a table for converting table salt volumes to other salts https://www.mortonsalt.com/article/salt-conversion-chart/. To convert from kosher salt to others you can either use the table backwards or do the 25% math. I can’t find an appropriate table.

I think that the black peppercorns are also dried green berries. They're sorta' roasted to dry them.

I've never cooked scallops but I've wanted to for a long time (Marcia says that she doesn't like them). Perhaps she would if they were prepared in the best way possible. She may give me one shot at preparing them for her but I'll not get another if she continues to not like them. You wrote, "The soapstone delivered a robust flavor to the scallops." To what do you attribute the robust flavor? Was it the charcoal? Was it something generated by the soapstone? Please consider posting your scallop and mushroom recipes in the <Recipies> <Seafood> and <Recipies> <Side Dishes / Veggies> sections respectively. I'm kinda' stoked to give them a try. Oh, yeah...welcome aboard. I can already tell that I can learn a lot from you.

https://www.popsci.com/cook-steak-koji-fungus

Amazon and PayPal are just as active in this realm. They all mine data from their subscribers and sell it. Subscribers more resemble their product than their customer.

That's a great price. I paid $400 more than that from an Internet retailer. I've never seen a KJ in my Costco.

Of course! Why didn't I think of this? Could I be stupid? (Maybe being stupid is like being insane—those that are don't realize it.)

Do me a favor? As their Customer Service Department if they have the KJ charcoal basket. I asked them (that's where I bought my KJ BJ) and was told that there's no such thing.

After a few failures, we bought the Peugeots. They are perfect. One caution...don't use the multi-colored peppercorn blends. Some of the corns are not truly peppercorns. They're softer seeds of some sort and can plug grinding mechanisms. Stick with black peppercorns. We prefer Black Lampong, they grind well and seem more flavorful.

Please help me find a study that shows that smoke penetrates to an appreciable extent.