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.

Chances are you've used a knife that doesn't seem to do what it was made to do: cut. When you start to cut, the knife slips on the food or twists in your hand so your cuts aren't straight. Sometimes, the knife doesn't even cut - it crushes the food instead. Obviously, the solution is to sharpen the knife, but what if the knife just isn't any good? Buying an expensive knife should guarantee good performance, right? I tested eleven different chef's knives with prices ranging from under $30 to over $200. Conclusions Cooking For Engineers Recommended: MAC MTH-80 MAC Mighty Chef 8" with dimples ($110)

The baguette is at once the simplest of breads and the most difficult to perfect. It is the most demanding test of a bread baker's skill. In recent years the secrets of professional bakers have been drifting out to the general population of amateur bakers. Techniques can be gleaned from variety of sources. Bread baking cookbooks today do more then provide recipes; they explore and explain the process. Bread baking courses for amateurs are becoming more popular at professional cooking schools and even being offered by some bakeries. Articles appear in magazine and newspapers with a different take on some aspect of the process. This article will attempt to distill this wealth of information to present the techniques required to produce a professional looking and tasting baguette.