Aucbvax.6745 net.cooks utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!upstill Wed Apr 14 08:16:55 1982 High Tech Cooking The most "advanced" items in my kitchen are 1) a pressure cooker, 2) a food processor, 3) a fancy centrifugal juicer, and 4) a pasta machine. I am a sworn believer in pressure cookers, but not for cooking vegetables (brocolli would probably be cooked before the pot came up to pressure). It is a lifesaver for people who, like me, simply cannot think about a meal more than three hours before eating it. I am referring to dried beans. The alternatives are 1) soak the beans overnight then boil for 2-4 hour the next day, and 2) dump the beans in the pressure cooker with water, cook under pressure for 20-45 minutes. Usually by the time the beans are cooked I have everything else ready for them. There's been too much said already about processors. I finally bought one after years of indecision. They do one thing perfectly: cream butter and sugar together for cookies and the like. You can have chocolate chip cookies ready to bake before the oven is warmed up, often. I only mention the juicer because it does make possible foods I could never have fixed before (carrot juice???), even though I hardly ever use it. The old rotary orange juicer gets a lot more use. I bought a pasta machine, in spite of my prejudice against one-use gadgets, because I like luxury. Try once wrestling a stiff pasta dough into a form thin enough for noodles (let me tell you: gluten fights back) and you will either buy your pasta out forevermore or buy a machine. I feel the product is indistinguishable from hand-rolled pasta, and the machine takes on all three of the principle tasks, kneading, rolling and cutting. Besides, the son of a bitch is as tough as nails; I expect it to outlast me. Steve ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.