Cooking For Engineers®

Recently, I received a wireless thermometer from Thermoworks to try out. Their newest product is called Smoke and is specifically designed to help people barbecue and smoke food at home. Smoke has two parts - a base unit (which takes two of Thermoworks standardized Pro-Series probes) and a wireless receiver unit - which lets the user track the air temperature and the food temperature without going outside to the smoker.
Thermoworks is selling the Smoke at $99 and this would definitely welcome tool for anyone who likes to slow cook food outside.

These days when I reach for a spatula to turn food in a pan, I've been finding myself grabbing the GastroMax Slotted Turner more often than not. Tina bought this spatula for me after months (or maybe years) of listening to me complain about our various spatulas. After buying the GastroMax Turner, my complaining has stopped.

Unless you have a fully stocked kitchen, you're probably going to have to make a run to the supermarket at least once for any new recipe you try. At least I have to. Sometimes, I just don't feel like it, or I'm not willing to spend money on an ingredient that I might never use again. Will something in the pantry or spice rack work just as well? Maybe. The only way to know is to try it and see - but what should I try? Well, here I've compiled a list of possible substitutions from the web, cooking shows, cookbooks, and conventional wisdom.

Since a major aspect of cooking is the heating of ingredients, temperature is an important topic. In cooking, we are primarily concerned in the temperature of our cooking environment (such as deep frying oil) and the temperature of our food (like a roast). With some foods, if the temperature of an ingredient has passed a certain point, it's texture and flavor changes such that we call it overdone. With other dishes, like pot roast, a minimum temperature must be reached to produce the desired effect. With lean steaks and roasts, there is a very small window which enables us to serve the dish as the perfect temperature. A thermometer is an invaluable tool in the kitchen.