I guess I can understand what you are saying. I have lived out of my vehicle off and on for about ten years, and having a full tine, good "chopping" knife that I can sharpen with what I might use on a shovel is really nice. I have had the same maine knife for 15 years. It is ok. I don't have to work on it much. It says "Chicago Cutlery" on it. It has been put up wet, been used in snow, and I have no money invested in it. It works great.
I also worked in a kitchen once, with really nice knives, it isn't that nice. But it was cheap. Full tine, and not that weird serrated but not serrated.
That absolutely applies to harder cheeses. Cheddar, provolone, parmesan all freeze and defrost with no issues. Cream cheese changes the texture and will not be that good anymore. Brie and camembert get a bit funny too.
I hate “recipe websites” that bury the instructions in unrelated bodies of text. Enjoy.
“Making vegetable stock
Get three large carrots, an onion, two leeks, and a bulb of fennel. Peel the carrots and onion; discard all but the white and light-green part of the leeks. Wash the leeks and fennel. Chop everything up finely and put it in a big pot with a few glugs of oil.
Now you’re going to sweeten up these vegetables by cooking them over low heat. You don’t want to brown them—that will make a darker, richer variant of this stock, which should be bright and clean. Add a large three-fingered pinch of salt to draw out the vegetables’ juices and turn the heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about fifteen minutes. Taste an onion. It should be quite sweet.
Add enough water to cover the vegetables, then add that amount of water twice more. Bring the water to a bare simmer and then let it cook for forty-five minutes.
Everything freezes fine, just a matter of how it’s packaged and how long it’s frozen. Only thing you’re sacrificing is quality of texture and flavor over long extended periods—if frozen properly, food is safe to eat indefinitely (whether previously frozen and then thawed food is enjoyable to eat is another story).
Freeze the meats in small quantities that are easily consumable within a couple of days. Absolutely do not freeze and then thaw and refreeze larger chunks of anything—if something previously frozen is thawed and is past its sell-by date, it’s usually safe to eat for only a day or so.
Also if you’re running into the issue of having too much bulk meat—stop acquiring more bulk meat. Influencers love to sell the idea of DIY bulk food prep but most of the time that doesn’t make sense for people, for a multitude of reasons.
Yeah, when I talk about freezing chunks of meet to thaw and slice later, I’d be cutting into 1-2lb chunks to slice as needed, not trying to thaw and refreeze a whole 5+lb log of meat.
And it’s really the quality I’m worried about, I understand it from a food safety standpoint, I’m just trying to figure out the best ways to freeze which things, don’t want to take a pack of meat out of the freezer and have it be tasteless mush or dried out or whatever.
Also the savings doing this are pretty nuts, in some cases I’m getting the whole thing for the price of just a couple pounds if I got it from the deli counter. I think I got a 6lb pastrami for about the price of what maybe 2lbs at the grocery store would have cost me, cheaper per lb than some of the cheaper lunch meats, so sadly even if I end up throwing half of it away (which is what I’m try to and so far successfully avoiding) I’m still saving money.
Generally, for freezing anything, the faster you can freeze it, the better. Ice crystals grow as things freeze, and if they grow slow, they grow big, and they disrupt the structure of the food, and make the texture mushy.
Something I frequently freeze is greens like kale. I’ll harvest more than I can eat from my garden, so I freeze it. I basically wash it, then lay it out on cookie sheets in a single layer, and put those in a chest freezer. After I’ve had enough time to wash the next batch, I’ll go down and peel the frozen kale off the cookie sheet and put it into a container of some kind.
Chili is much better the next day. There’s even a chili restaurant in Virginia that makes their chili the day before, refrigerates it, then heats it back up specifically because of this (the name of the restaurant escapes me at the moment, but I used to love going there).
I had a pair of $40 knives from ikea that lasted years (more than a decade, maybe close to two). They were moly steel so they didn’t loose edge quickly, and had decent balance.
I eventually upgraded to Whustoff ikon classics (the POM handle,) for the 3 knives I use (8” chef, boning, pairing.)
The reality is you can sharpen a shitty Walmart butter knife to a razor’s edge very easily. Being sharp doesn’t make a good knife- it’s the steel quality that affects edge retention; as well as the balance and the grip’s contour/shape; the stiffness and thickness of the blade, etc.
Imo, the cheapo ikea knives performed just fine. For their value… they’re quite probably better than whustoffs, no question. They’re both made with reasonable quality steel, both full tang, with similar contours in the blade profile and handle, etc.
But if you consider side by side, the whustoffs do perform much better. It’s not any one thing- the balance is better, the blades are thinner, stiffer where they they’re supposed to be, etc.
There are a lot of small things that add up to that. The distal taper, the taper from spine to edge (in the ikeas they’re flat in both directions,); the steel is better and holds edges longer while being more easily, less strain on my hand;
Ultimately, you don’t need whustoffs or anything expensive- and a lot of your expensive knives are shit knives with marketing (especially “japanese” knives of dubious provenance).
But if you can afford them, they are better. Especially if you cook a lot. If they’re “better enough” to justify their cost is a personal decision. My mom uses Costco steak knives for everything. (And in part because they can’t keep knives sharp so don’t see the point. They float around the sink… get stuffed in the dishwasher, etc,)
My favorite knives are vintage MAC. The handles suck, the tip is rounded, and they have a stupid hanging ‘cross’ thing at the tip which just catches debris. Use a magnetic knife rack like a normal person. They were $90 new. If blood clots on the brain were your thing I’m sure that was a good deal. It’s a $20 knife.
I had a few from the flea market. I ground tips on them and made new handles. They have a great balance between whippy and thin enough to do nice slices of Shitake mushrooms or Shallots, and strong enough to break down Squash.
That’s an example of an overpriced Japanese knife, yes.
That doesn’t mean all knives more than $20 bucks are overpriced, however. I would also contend that the modifications you made; make it no longer a MAC.
Just wanted to note that Indian cuisine is as varied as cuisines from China or many other countries. My wife is Goan, and her family loves meat, especially pork. Their dinners are very meat or fish centric.
Korean cuisine tends to be salty, hot, sour and/or sweet. Something like jjimdak is primarily salty and sweet, maybe with a bit of heat. Kimchi is of course sour and hot.
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