I didn’t like this movie half as much as I thought I would, for two reasons:

(1) The trailer gives away too much.

(2) The part the trailer doesn’t give away is the worst part of the movie.

I actually liked the trailer more than the movie.

What follows is a spoiler, so if you don’t want to know, do not continue reading!

The characters:

Nic – the macho side of the lesbian couple, and not an appealing character at all. She is hypercritical, alcoholic, and relentlessly insensitive to the feelings and needs of her family.

Jules – the more feminine side of the lesbian couple, sensitive but insecure, trying hard.

Paul – the gentle and appealing sperm donor who fathered the couple’s two children, Laser and Joni.

******* SPOILER ALERT: HERE IT COMES! *******

The kids go looking for their biological father – the guy who donated the sperm. He’s a sweet gentle guy, agrees to have his anonymity broken. He falls in love with both kids, and then falls in love with one of their mothers, the persecuted Jules, with whom he has has a torrid affair (she starts it). He’s so gentle and supportive and pleasant that she’s irresistably drawn to him, and you’re with her all the way. He’s way nicer than Nic.

But of course the movie can’t end with the lesbian couple splitting and Jules leaving the nasty, alcoholic, and completely unappealing Nic for the sweet, darling sperm donor. So with no further explanation than “marriage is tough”, she decides to stay with Nic. Paul is rejected by both children and Jules and is left alone and heartbroken – despite the great good he brought into the kids’ lives. For example, he was an effective dad with the boy and got him away from a mean, drug-addled friend who was corrupting him.

So basically, what the lovely sweet Paul gets for no greater sin than being receptive to the advances of both the children and Jules is to be kicked in the balls and completely rejected. He is left alone in his garden looking bereft, after Nic yells at him to go create his own family.

And we are supposed to celebrate this great lesbian marriage now? I left the movie theatre thinking that Nic didn’t deserve Jules, and that the entire group of them had cruelly and selfishly used Paul – just thrown him away like a used tissue when they’d gotten what they needed from him. If Nic and Jules were a heterosexual couple, the movie never would have ended that way. The triumphant end would be Jules’ escape from the horrid Nic.

So I didn’t end up liking the movie at all. But I loved the trailer!

Well, it turns out there are a million different recipes for English muffins, and they vary widely. Some are rolled out and cut like biscuits into circles. Some use a wet batter that is poured into crumpet rings. Some are baked in an oven rather than cooked on a skillet – either partially or completely. Some are cooked in a covered skillet (news flash: that is baking, not skillet cooking).

Judging from reviewer comments, most of the recipes lacked the large holes and sourdough flavor characteristic of English muffins. A few tried to correct this problem by the addition of vinegar for the sour flavor, and baking soda just before cooking to create holes. That sounded like artifice to me so I continued my research, and eventually discovered the authentic source of that characteristic taste and texture. I tested my theory with a recipe of my own creation, and the result was fantastic. Here is my recipe – with pictures!

Homemade English muffin with natural nooks and crannies.

Homemade English muffin, nooks and crannies filled with butter.

Authentic Technique for Authentic Flavor

English muffins – a yeast bread – are a 19^th century American invention. They’re probably called “English muffins” because the recipe is based on classic English crumpets, which have a very similar recipe. English muffins are an Americanized crumpet.

It occurred to me that the best place to look for authentic recipes for English muffins was in cookbooks from the time when they were invented – or at least not long after. I found a great site with links to dozens of cookbooks from 1900-1910, and it was here I found the secret. The 1901 edition of the Settlement Cookbook contains this instruction in its English muffin recipe:

Beat thoroughly, cover, and let rise overnight.

When I saw that, I thought I must have read it wrong. That would cause overproofing. Do they mean, cover and put in the refrigerator? No, that can’t be right. They didn’t have refrigerators in 1901. I looked through several more old cookbooks and saw the same instruction: mix the batter the night before, let it rise overnight, and cook in the morning for breakfast. One recipe even said explicitly to let the batter rise long enough to “collapse in on itself”.

If you’ve ever made bread you’ve heard the warnings about “overproofing”, letting the dough rise so high that it collapses. Bread recipes always warn to never allow this to happen. They say to let the dough rise to double in bulk but no more, or taste and texture are ruined. Would you like to know in what way overproofing ruins taste and texture? It creates a sourdough taste because the yeast eats all the sugar, and it weakens the structure, causing large holes to form. Sounds suspiciously like an English muffin!

The characteristic taste and texture of English muffins appears to be a happy accident, an invention of housewives trying to manage their time by making batter for breakfast bread the night before. It overproofed, but the result was tasty so they went with it.

Neither Molded Nor Rolled

Drop globs of dough in corn meal to form the muffins.

I read dozens of recipes for English muffins and crumpets, comparing the ingredients and – most importantly – the ratio of liquid to flour. In some the dough has the consistency of regular bread dough, and is rolled and cut into biscuits. Others are too liquid to hold together without support, and the dough – batter, really – is spooned into crumpet rings. But I wasn’t looking to make rolls with a bread-like texture, nor was I looking to make crumpets.

I settled on something in between: a gooey batter that wasn’t liquid, but also wasn’t firm enough to roll out. In my first effort I spooned the batter into crumpet rings, but I didn’t like the result. The shape wasn’t quite right. (Also, I set the temperature of the skillet too high so the outside was overcooked.)

When the ring experiment failed, I went back to the internet for a little more research and came across a recipe I hadn’t seen before. Like the old cookbooks, it said to make the batter the night before, let it proof overnight, then cook it in the morning. I knew this part was right.

The recipe produced dough with the same gooey consistency as my recipe, with an interesting twist: a no-ring, no-roll muffin-forming technique. The muffins were formed by dropping globs of batter into a bowl of cornmeal. Great idea! The photographs showed a final result that looked how English muffins are supposed to look. I didn’t use the ingredients listed in this recipe, but I used the technique and the results were perfect.

The Recipe

Let the formed muffins rise for about 30 minutes before cooking.

Turn over the muffins when the first side is browned – 10 to 20 minutes.

Let the muffins cool completely so they’re not doughy inside.

Split muffins for toasting by pulling apart with your fingers.

This recipe makes six muffins. You can halve it or double it if you want a different quantity.

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp sugar or honey
• 1 packet (2¼ tsp) dry yeast
• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp salt

Heat the milk to simmering, then drop in the butter and the sugar or honey. Stir so they melt and combine, and let the mixture cool. When it’s lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast, stir, and let it sit for 10 minutes until bubbly. Don’t use an aluminum bowl because that can interfere with the yeast. Glass is best.

While that’s happening, measure out the flour and salt and mix together well. When the yeast mixture is bubbly, add the flour and beat vigorously for a couple minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter (not in the refrigerator) overnight. It will overproof – rise and collapse. This is what creates the English muffin’s characteristic sourdough taste and large bubbles.

In the morning, scrape the sides of the bowl with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula and remix a little. Then use a spatula and spoon to drop muffin-size globs into a small bowl of cornmeal, as pictured in the previous section. Don’t try to handle the dough – it’s too sticky. Lift each muffin glob from the cornmeal with a slotted spatula, shake off the excess, and place in an ungreased skillet.

When the skillet is full, cover it (with a glass top, if you have one), and let the muffins rise for 30 minutes. They won’t rise much at this point because all the sugar has been eaten by the yeast, but they’ll puff up a little more when they start to cook. Remove the lid before cooking!

Set your stove’s burner to medium-low. If it’s electric, let the burner preheat. If you have an electric skillet, you’ll have to let the muffins rise somewhere else so you can preheat it. I’ve read that electric skillets should be set to 300°F, but I don’t have one so I can’t verify that. I used a cast iron pan and set the burner to medium-low.

Warning: don’t set the temperature too high. The muffins have to cook slowly or the inside will be doughy while the outside is burned. Don’t crank up the heat because it’s not sizzling. It’s not supposed to sizzle. Just because it’s not making any noise doesn’t mean it’s not doing anything. It’s cooking.

The muffins can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes per side, depending on how high you set the skillet temperature. Turn them over when the first side is browned.

When the second side is browned, remove the muffins to a cooling rack and let them cool completely. If you don’t let them cool, they will be doughy inside. Also, they taste best if they are fully cooled and then toasted. Split them for toasting by pulling them apart with your fingers, rather than cutting with a knife. This maximizes the nooks and crannies that are so great for holding butter and jam.

English muffins are a quick and easy breakfast because they were designed to be quick and easy. The batter is made the night before, and no rolling is required. You mix everything together, go to sleep, then cook them up in the morning. Overproofing is what gives the characteristic taste and texture – no vinegar or baking soda required!

Carbon is the black stuff that’s left after something is burned. A certain amount of carbon gets bound up in the polymerized fat when food is cooked in the pan. This may darken the pan, but does it make it more nonstick? Some say it does, though I don’t see the mechanism.

More interesting to me is the third element: magnetite.

Black Rust is Protective

Magnetite is an oxidized iron, also called “black rust” or “black iron oxide”. It’s magnetic; lodestones are magnetite. Chemically magnetite is Fe₃O₄. Red rust (or “hematite”) is Fe₂O₃.

Well, that may not be what it is chemically. I also read this:

“…it is not Fe₃O₄, but rather FeO. Fe₃O₄ is a common term denoting the what you have is not pure “black rust” but rather a combination of Fe₂O₃ (red rust) and FeO. Fe₂O₃ + FeO = Fe₃O₄, technically inaccurate, but not all that important.”

Here’s a good overview of the different types of rust (from the perspective of car bodies): Water + Steel = Rust.

Unlike red rust, black rust is protective and prevents corrosion. Also, things bond better to magnetite than bare iron (for example, polymerized fat). Black rust is not sufficient by itself to protect cast iron from corrosion. It must be insulated from air and water with a layer of oil, and also it’s easily removed. But when black rust is bound up in polymerized fat, the result is probably a better seasoning.

How to Create Black Rust

So how do you get magnetite on your cast iron cookware? Black rust forms on iron that’s under water or otherwise in a low oxygen environment. The type of oxidation you get on iron depends on how much oxygen there is – lots and you get red rust, not too much and you get black rust (magnetite).

There are chemical products you can buy that convert red rust to black rust, but these are generally toxic – not something you want to put on cookware.

It may be possible to convert a thin layer of red rust to black rust by boiling the pan, then drying in the oven and immediately coating in oil (before the black rust turns back into red rust). This is the traditional way of “bluing” a gun. But you have to have just the right amount of red rust to start with, and there are many other factors that are hard to control.

Heating accelerates the creation of magnetite (and many other chemical reactions). A home oven can’t create the ideal temperatures, which would melt the pan, anyway, but heating at even 450°F may encourage some magnetite to form. Many people put bare cast iron in the oven at high temperature for an hour before adding oil for seasoning because it blackens the pan. I thought this was just aesthetic, but now I realize it may create a layer of magnetite.

It also may be that the reason cast iron seasoning darkens with use from brown to black is because repeated heating causes magnetite to form. Many think pans darken over time because carbon from burnt food gets bound up in the polymerized fat, but I think it’s more likely magnetite that gets bound up. Or maybe it’s both.

So to my previous advice on how to season cast iron, I’d add the advice to heat the pan first, before smearing oil, at 450°F for an hour. This will bind magnetite into the polymerized fat of your seasoning. The polymerized fat will bind better to the pan, and your pan will be better protected from corrosion.

I can’t think why magnetite or carbon bound up in the polymerized fat would make the seasoning more nonstick, as some say it does. But maybe I’m missing something. If there’s a reason I’m not seeing, I’d be interested to hear it!

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cast-iron-seasoning/

In a previous post, I illustrated how I cleaned and reseasoned an antique cast iron popover pan. This was my first attempt, and my seasoning technique was somewhat haphazard because I couldn’t find consistent, science-based advice. I used a combination of organic avocado oil and strained drippings from organic bacon. This worked pretty well on the popover pan, which doesn’t have a polished surface. But the smooth inner surface of a skillet showed an unevenness of color and texture, and the seasoning wasn’t hard enough. It was too easily marred by cooking utensils or scraping against oven racks.

I wanted to understand the chemistry behind seasoning so I’d know how to fix this, but there is nothing that addresses this issue directly. A Web page on cast iron posted by someone similarly obsessed with the science gave me two crucial clues, the phrases “polymerized fat” and “drying oil”. From there I was able to find the relevant scientific literature and put the pieces together.

The pictures below are both of the same antique cast iron skillet. The “before” close-up on the left is from a picture of the skillet in my previous blog post on making German Pancakes. I stripped the pan with oven cleaner and reseasoned it based on my new understanding. The “after” close-up on the right shows the result.

Griswold skillet closeups: old seasoning on left, new seasoning on right

Start With the Right Oil (It’s Not What You Think)

I’ve read dozens of Web pages on how to season cast iron, and there is no consensus in the advice. Some say vegetable oils leave a sticky surface and to only use lard. Some say animal fat gives a surface that is too soft and to only use vegetable oils. Some say corn oil is the only fat to use, or Crisco, or olive oil. Some recommend bacon drippings since lard is no longer readily available. Some say you must use a saturated fat – that is, a fat that is solid at room temperature, whether it’s animal or vegetable (palm oil, coconut oil, Crisco, lard). Some say never use butter. Some say butter is fine. Some swear by Pam (spray-on canola oil with additives). Some say the additives in Pam leave a residue at high temperatures and pure canola oil is best. Some say it doesn’t matter what oil you use.

They are all wrong. It does matter what oil you use, and the oil that gives the best results is not in this list. So what is it? Here are some hints: What oil do artists mix with pigment for a high quality oil paint that dries hard and glassy on the canvas? What oil is commonly used by woodturners to give their sculptures a protective, soft-sheen finish? It’s the same oil. Now what is the food-grade equivalent of this oil?

The oil used by artists and woodturners is linseed oil. The food-grade equivalent is called flaxseed oil. This oil is ideal for seasoning cast iron for the same reason it’s an ideal base for oil paint and wood finishes. It’s a “drying oil”, which means it can transform into a hard, tough film. This doesn’t happen through “drying” in the sense of losing moisture through evaporation. The term is actually a misnomer. The transformation is through a chemical process called “polymerization”.

The seasoning on cast iron is formed by fat polymerization, fat polymerization is maximized with a drying oil, and flaxseed oil is the only drying oil that’s edible. From that I deduced that flaxseed oil would be the ideal oil for seasoning cast iron.

As a reality check of this theory, I googled “season cast iron with flaxseed oil” to see what came up. The very first hit is a page written by a guy who seasons his cast iron cookware with linseed oil from the hardware store because it gives the hardest surface of anything he’s tried. (I’m not sure how safe that is; I don’t recommend it.) Below that were several sites selling traditional cast iron cookware from China, which they advertise as being “preseasoned with high quality flax oil”. I don’t know whether they really use food-grade flaxseed oil (which is expensive) or linseed oil from a hardware store. What’s significant is the claim. Seasoning with high quality flaxseed oil is something to brag about.

With this encouragement, I stripped one of my skillets and reseasoned it with flaxseed oil. As you can see in the picture above, the result was a dramatic improvement. The finish is smooth, hard, and evenly colored.

Seasoning Is Not Cooking: Different Principles Apply

The first time I seasoned a pan I chose avocado oil because it’s monounsaturated and doesn’t easily go rancid. It also has the highest smoke point of any edible oil, 520°F, so I could heat it in a 450°F oven without passing the smoke point. I knew that when cooking, you should never heat an oil past its smoke point because that causes the release of “free radicals”, which are carcinogenic. I was careful not to choose a polyunsaturated oil – and especially not an oil high in omega-3 fatty acids – because these are especially vulnerable to breakdown with heat and the release of free radicals.

Ironically, it’s for exactly these reasons that the best oil for seasoning cast iron is an oil high in omega-3 fatty acids – in particular, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Free radicals are actually what enable the polymerization. Drying oils, which produce the hardest polymers, are characterized by high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially the omega-3 fatty acid ALA.

The lard that was traditionally used for seasoning 100 years ago was much higher in ALA than fat from pigs today, because back then pigs ate their natural diet. Today they are raised on industrial feedlots and forced to eat grain, making their fat low in omega-3s.

Since lard is traditional but no longer readily available, many people substitute bacon drippings, but this is a bad idea. If it’s conventional bacon, you’re baking in carcinogenic nitrates. But even organic bacon is not good for an initial seasoning because it’s filled with salt.

The reason that Pam seems to work well in seasoning is that its main ingredient is canola oil, which is relatively high in ALA (10%), making it a “semi-drying oil”. Flaxseed oil, a drying oil, is 57% ALA. But it’s not a good idea to use a spray oil, no matter what oil it’s made with, because of its additives. You’re doing chemistry here. If you want good results, use pure ingredients.

Fat polymerization can be triggered or accelerated in a variety of ways. As best I can tell from my reading, the cast iron seasoning process is an example of “radical polymerization”. The process is initiated when something causes the release of free radicals in the oil. The free radicals then “crosslink” to form the tough, hard film you see in a well-seasoned pan.

So what is the “something” that initiates the release of free radicals in fat? Iron, for one thing. High heat, light, and oxygen, for some others. To prevent cooking oils from going rancid – i.e., breaking down and releasing free radicals – you need to store them in dark, tightly sealed containers in a cool location. To initiate or accelerate the release of free radicals, put the oil in contact with bare iron and heat it above its smoke point, which will cause even non-drying oils to release free radicals.

I haven’t defined “free radical” or “crosslink” because that gets into details of chemistry that you don’t need to understand to season a cast iron pan. All you need to know is that the molecular structure of the oil changes and becomes something else, something tough and solid. The process is initiated with the release of free radicals, which then become crosslinked, creating a hard surface.

Free radicals are carcinogenic inside your body, and also a cause of aging. So don’t ever heat oil you’re going to eat above its smoke point. If the oil starts to smoke, toss it out and start again. When you’re seasoning a pan, you’re not cooking food. By the time the seasoned pan comes out of the oven, there are no more free radicals.

The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning

The basic idea is this: Smear a food-grade drying oil onto a cast iron pan, and then bake it above the oil’s smoke point. This will initiate the release of free radicals and polymerization. The more drying the oil, the harder the polymer. So start with the right oil.

Go to your local health food store or organic grocery and buy a bottle of flaxseed oil. It’s sold as an omega-3 supplement and it’s in the refrigeration section because it goes rancid so easily. Check the expiration date to make sure it’s not already rancid. Buy an organic flaxseed oil. You don’t want to burn toxic chemicals into your cookware to leach out forever more. It’s a fairly expensive oil. I paid $17 for a 17 ounce bottle of cold-pressed, unrefined, organic flaxseed oil. As it says on the bottle, shake it before you use it.

Strip your pan down to the iron using the techniques I describe in my popover post. Heat the pan in a 200°F oven to be sure it’s bone dry and to open the pores of the iron a little. Then put it on a paper towel, pour a little flaxseed oil on it (don’t forget to shake the bottle), and rub the oil all over the pan with your hands, making sure to get into every nook and cranny. Your hands and the pan will be nice and oily.

Now rub it all off. Yup – all. All. Rub it off with paper towels or a cotton cloth until it looks like there is nothing left on the surface. There actually is oil left on the surface, it’s just very thin. The pan should look dry, not glistening with oil. Put the pan upside down in a cold oven. Most instructions say to put aluminum foil under it to catch any drips, but if your oil coating is as thin as it should be, there won’t be any drips.

Turn the oven to a baking temperature of 500°F (or as high as your oven goes – mine only goes to 450°F) and let the pan preheat with the oven. When it reaches temperature, set the timer for an hour. After an hour, turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. Let it cool off with the pan inside for two hours, at which point it’s cool enough to handle.

The pan will come out of the oven a little darker, but matte in texture – not the semi-gloss you’re aiming for. It needs more coats. In fact, it needs at least six coats. So again rub on the oil, wipe it off, put it in the cold oven, let it preheat, bake for an hour, and let it cool in the oven for two hours. The picture above was taken after six coats of seasoning. At that point it starts to develop a bit of a sheen and the pan is ready for use.

If you try this, you will be tempted to use a thicker coat of oil to speed up the process. Don’t do it. It just gets you an uneven surface – or worse, baked on drips. Been there, done that. You can’t speed up the process. If you try, you’ll mess up the pan and have to start over.

The reason for the very hot oven is to be sure the temperature is above the oil’s smoke point, and to maximally accelerate the release of free radicals. Unrefined flaxseed oil actually has the lowest smoke point of any oil (see this table). But the higher the temperature the more it will smoke, and that’s good for seasoning (though bad for eating – do not let oils smoke during cooking).

I mentioned earlier there’s a myth floating around that vegetable oils leave a sticky residue. If the pan comes out of the oven sticky, the cause is one of three things:

• You put the oil on too thick.
• Your oven temperature was too low.
• Your baking time was too short.

It’s possible to use a suboptimal oil for seasoning, like Crisco or bacon drippings, and still end up with a usable pan. Many (most) people do this. But the seasoning will be relatively soft, not as nonstick, and will tend to wear off. If you want the hardest, slickest seasoning possible, use the right oil: flaxseed oil.

• The secret to learning from the Time-Warner Cable remote, which at first appears not to work
• What to do if you want to access more device features than the WR7 has buttons
• Tips on using the punch-through and macro features

Learning from the Time-Warner Cable Remote

URC-WR7

I rent a high-def DVR box from Time-Warner Cable. (The remote for the cable box also is made by URC, which I hadn’t noticed at first.) The default code for the cable remote assigned all the buttons on the WR7 correctly, but I wanted to add a few things (more later on how to add things when you’re out of buttons), and also I wanted to reverse the meaning of “Skip -” and “Skip +”.

On URC remotes, “Skip -” means “scroll the channel guide screen up” (channel numbers increase) and “Skip +” means “scroll the screen down” (channel numbers decrease). I could handle that on the Time-Warner remote because the buttons were arranged vertically with the “+” on top. That was positionally intuitive so I just ignored the labels. But on the WR7, the buttons are arranged horizontally with the “Skip -” on the left. I wanted the “Skip -” button to scroll backwards through the channels, and “Skip +” to scroll forward.

When I first tried to use the learning function to reverse these buttons it seemed to work – all the correct things blinked – but post-learning the buttons were non-functional. I tried over and over and couldn’t get it to work. And then finally, by accident, I discovered the solution.

To learn from the cable remote, the cable remote has to be at a 45° angle or greater, bottom up with nose pointing down at the WR7. Once I did that, problem solved – I could learn from any button on the cable remote.

To Access More Features Than the WR7 Has Buttons

URC-RF20

The easy solution to this problem is to buy one of the other remotes made by URC. I tried the RF20. It’s incredibly configurable, and yet quite easy to set up. It can accomodate up to 10 devices (the WR7 handles 7), and it has an LCD screen. Each device can have up to 8 screens of commands, 5 commands per page. If you don’t want to be scrolling through all that, you can set some of the pages to “invisible”. By default, only 5 pages are visible.

When you enter the correct code for a device (for example, the cable box), all the buttons are assigned automatically. If you want, you can stop right there. But everything is configurable. You can customize the names of the devices, the names of the commands, and what each command does. Almost every button can be used to store macros. It also transmits both IR and RF signals, so it can be used with a receiver base station to control devices that are hidden behind walls and inside cabinets.

The RF20 costs a little more than the WR7, but it’s still quite a bit less than the Logitech Harmony remotes. And as far as I can tell, it’s just as configurable as the Harmony remotes while quite a bit easier to set up. I found the RF20 intuitive enough that I hardly had to glance at the manual, and setup took just a few minutes.

But if you prefer buttons to an LCD screen, there’s a way to get around the limited number of buttons on the WR7 (which has an especially nice button layout). The only component where I really needed more buttons was the cable box. I used the Auxilliary (AUX) mode to add them on. In AUX mode, when I press “Skip +” in the channel guide, it means “Advance One Day”. In Cable mode, it means “Advance One Page”. I also programmed the four colored “My Favorites” buttons in AUX mode to Settings, Rewind, Live, and List. (See the next section for why you should not reprogram these buttons in Cable mode.)

Tips on Using the Punch-Through and Macro Features

First, I want to take a minute to better explain the punch-through feature, which I mentioned only briefly in my previous post. This is a terrific feature that I haven’t seen on other universal remotes.

Punch-through can be applied to four sets of buttons:

• Volume Control (Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute)
• Channel Control (Channel Up, Channel Down, Last, 0-9, +10, Enter)
• Transport Control (Play, Stop, Fast Forward, Rewind, Pause, Skip, Record)
• On-Screen Display (Menu, Guide, Info, Exit, Select, the four cursor controls)

I only use it for volume, but that one feature solves a big problem. All the devices that display through my television (cable box, Blu-ray player, DVD player, VCR) use my Bose Wave Radio for audio. I want the volume control for all these devices to control the Bose Wave Radio, rather than their individual volume controls. The punch-through feature lets me do that, and very easily. It’s just a couple of button presses to set it up.

The macro capability also is useful. You can program the “On” button, for example, to turn on both your TV and your audio device (in my case, the Bose Wave Radio). People with fancier setups than mine will find many other uses for macros. But there’s one way the WR7 manual suggests that you use the macro feature that you really should not: Do not program the four “My Favorites” buttons in Cable mode!

Don’t Program the Colored Buttons in Cable Mode!

There are four colored buttons along the bottom of the WR7 that correspond to the colored buttons on the cable remote: A-yellow, B-blue, C-red, D-green. (The RF20 does not have separate colored buttons, but A, B, C, D, etc. are available from the LCD screen.) These buttons have special meanings in operating the cable box – different meanings in different contexts.

It’s extremely nice that the WR7 has these buttons built in – I’ve seen reviews of other universal remotes complaining that there’s no way to duplicate them. But if you program macros into them in Cable mode, as the WR7 manual suggests, you lose their native function, and you will no longer be able to fully control your cable box. Do not override these buttons in cable mode!

I don’t feel a need to set up favorite channels on the remote. I use the cable box to store my Favorites, which I can then access through the remote’s “Fav” button. But if you really want to use the colored buttons to program favorite channels, do it in AUX mode, not Cable mode.

URC remotes are exceptionally well designed and not enough people seem to know about them. Everyone talks about the Logitech Harmony remotes, but I really think these are better, and they’re a lot cheaper.

Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000

I have a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 that I bought when I bought my new Thinkpad with built-in Bluetooth. At the time I was running 64-bit Vista and all was well. Then I upgraded to 64-bit Windows 7, and suddenly the mouse started constantly losing connection.

There was no detectable pattern. It would work fine for a while, and then start disconnecting all the time for no apparently reason. Sometimes it would not wake up after sleeping, but sometimes it would quit while I was using it. At first I got it going again by removing the mouse from the list of Bluetooth devices and then adding it back in. That took too much time. Then, by accident, I discovered that I could wake it up by opening my Bluetooth settings and toggling the checkbox “Allow Bluetooth devices to find this computer”. If it was off I’d turn it on, if it was on I’d turn it off. That was faster, but still a pain.

I searched the internet and found many similar complaints, but no solutions. Several sites suggested upgrading your Bluetooth drivers. There’s no new driver for the Microsoft mouse, but I updated the Thinkpad Bluetooth drivers. No joy. Then the other day the mouse started quitting on me every few minutes and in desperation I searched again. This time I found the answer. There are two separate settings that need to be changed.

Bluetooth Support Service Setting

Part 1 of the solution is buried in this Microsoft Knowledgebase article:

Connect a Bluetooth device that does not have or require a transceiver

And I quote:

How to make sure that the Bluetooth service is started

1. Open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in for Services. To do this, follow these steps.

    

   Windows Vista or Windows 7

   1. Click Start, copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER: services.msc
   2. In the Programs list, click Services.

      
      If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

   Windows XP

   1. Click Start, and then click Run.
   2. Copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Open box, and then press ENTER: services.msc
2. Double-click the Bluetooth Support service.
3. If the Bluetooth Support service is stopped, click Start.
4. On the Startup type list, click Automatic.
5. Click the Log On tab.
6. Click Local System account.
7. Click OK.
8. If you prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.

My log on settings were okay, but my Startup Type was set to “Manual” rather than “Automatic”. I changed it, like so:

Bluetooth Power Management Setting

But sadly, my problem wasn’t solved. So then I tried something else. I opened up Device Manager, expanded “Bluetooth Radios”, and double-clicked on the device to open its Properties page – not the enumerator, the device.

Double click the device (highlighted), not the enumerator

Go to the Power Management page and clear the checkbox “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. And finally, relief! No more disconnects. Apparently there is a bug in the power management of the Bluetooth driver under Windows 7.

Uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'

I can’t say for sure that the first step of making the Bluetooth Support Service automatic is necessary, or just turning off power management would fix it. It doesn’t hurt to change it to automatic so I didn’t test this. If you test it, post your results. Are both changes needed, or do you just need to turn off power management to stop losing connection?

First I tried to set the auxilliary button on my Time-Warner Cable remote to the Bose radio. The cable remote instructions list these codes for Bose audio equipment: 070, 170, 224, 374, 409, 460, 532. I tried them all, but none of them worked. So then I tried the scanning method, holding down the channel button until the radio turns off. But it never turned off.

I did an internet search on controlling Bose devices with universal remotes and found a plethora of contradictory information, none of which solved my problem. So I called Bose customer support. Their products may be pricey, but they sure have good customer support. I got someone on the phone immediately, and he was knowledgeable. He explained the problem instantly and gave me the solution.

And now I’m sharing it with you.

Universal Remote Control URC-WR7

You Need a “Learning” Remote

Many people think that the Bose codes don’t work because Bose remotes use radio frequencies rather than infrared. But this is only true in their high-end home theatre equipment. The Bose Wave Radio remote does use infrared, but – and this is the missing piece – Bose did not set up codes for programming a universal remote. You can’t find the right code because there is no code. To control a Bose device, you need a universal remote with “learning” capability. It has to be one of those remotes where you put the original remote nose-to-nose with the universal and “teach” the universal by pressing the corresponding buttons.

You don’t need a $200 Logitech Harmony remote to do this. I spent some time looking at the extremely complex manual for the Harmony and decided no way. I found another remote that is nearly a tenth the price and, in my opinion, far better: Universal Remote Control URC-WR7. I got it for $27 at Best Buy. Amazon is currently selling it for $21.44.

It took just a minute to get it working with my Bose Wave Radio. Even better, I have it set up so the volume controls for my TV and Blu-ray both use the Bose device. You can’t do that with any other universal remote. It’s a feature they call “punch through”, and it’s fantastic. You can make functions from any device available from any component. A reviewer for the Sony Universal Remote complained that it switched to the TV component whenever you pressed the volume control, so beware of that one!

Tip on using the learning function with the Bose remote: Holding down the volume Up or Down button is a different command than a single press of Up or Down. You need to program both into the universal remote.

The URC-WR7 also has macro capability. I set it up so when I turn the TV on or off, the Bose Wave Radio turns on or off, too. There are other things you can do with the macros – I haven’t finished exploring all the features.

So no, you don’t need a separate remote for volume if you use a Bose Wave Radio to output the audio for your TV. It’s easier and cheaper than you think – you just need the right universal remote.

Griswold #7 cast iron skillet, large logo

Griswold #7 cast iron skillet, large logo

I’ve been interested in recipes that use the skillet’s unique properties: nonstick, stove to oven, even heating, and good heat retention. So I decided to make a German Pancake – also known as a Dutch Baby – stuffed with apples. I looked at several recipes and then came up with my own spin on it. I’d never had a German Pancake before so I didn’t know what to expect. I was amazed when I took my first bite. It was exquisitely delicious. Here’s the recipe.

German pancake with apples in cast iron skillet

German Pancakes with Apples

• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup whole milk
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup unbleached white flour (preferably with germ)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 apples (I used Fuji)
• 3 tbsp raw sugar

Set the oven to 450°F. While it’s heating up, prepare the apples and batter.

Beat the eggs until they are light and frothy – maybe 5 minutes with an electric mixer. Add milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt and beat for another few minutes. Add the flour and beat until just smooth (no lumps) – don’t overmix. Set aside while you work on the apples.

Peel the apples, slice them into ¼” pieces about 1-2″ square. Try to make the pieces relatively uniform in size so they cook evenly. Melt the butter in the skillet on medium-high heat. When the butter starts to foam, add in the apples and sprinkle the sugar evenly over them. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then pull the apples about an inch in from the edge of the skillet and pour in the batter, starting at the edge and then filling in the middle. Put the skillet in the oven, and immediately reduce the temperature to 425°F. Bake for 20 minutes, until brown and puffed. Invert on a platter to serve.

German pancake with apples on plates

If you don’t wash the skillet immediately, the sugar will harden like rock candy. But no worries. Just boil some water in it, and the sugar will come right out.

I couldn’t believe how good this was. I don’t know what I expected, but this exceeded it! If you try the recipe, let me know how it turns out for you.

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

My fascination with popovers began with a new cookbook I purchased just before Christmas. This led to a search for the perfect popover pan, which turned out to be antique Griswold cast iron. That, in turn, led to intensive research on how to restore an old cast iron pan covered with rust and crud. I succeeded, as you can see in the picture below. In this post I’ll describe how to restore a cast iron pan, and then use it to make perfect popovers.

Popovers in my newly restored Griswold popover pan

My first popover efforts used pyrex cups. It worked pretty well, but I wanted to see if I could get them to rise even higher in cast iron, the “gold standard” in popover pan perfection.

Popovers in Pyrex

Lodge Logic Muffin Pan

Lodge Logic makes a cast iron popover pan, but it doesn’t have the space between the cups that I read is important. So I turned to eBay and found an antique Griswold popover pan that was perfect. It was no big surprise that the perfect popover pan would be a Griswold because old (pre-1940) Griswold pans are widely considered to be the best cast iron cookware ever made, and are highly collectible.

I wasn’t looking specifically for a collectible pan, just one that was well made, not too pricey, and in good enough condition to be used (perhaps after restoration). Here’s the one I bought – these are the original pictures from the eBay listing:

Griswold popover pan, before cleaning

Griswold popover pan, before cleaning

I could see from the listing pictures that there was rust under the seasoning, but I couldn’t see any significant pitting so I thought I could restore the pan to usable condition (though, admittedly, I had never done such a thing before).

Removing the Crud

When I received the pan, I found it had a fair amount of crud on it, and felt a little sticky from a bad seasoning job. The ideal way to clean cast iron is through electrolysis, which cleans off both crud and rust. An electrolysis setup involves a car battery charger, a large plastic tub, stainless steel pipes, and good ventilation – none of which I have in my tiny NYC apartment in the dead of winter. And even if I did have these things, I’d be afraid of doing something wrong and blowing myself up.

Another good method is a self-cleaning oven, but there are some risks. There have been reports of the crud catching on fire inside the oven, which is locked during the cleaning cycle so you can’t open it and put out the fire. There is also a risk of warping the pan at self-cleaning temperatures, which are 900-950°F. Most of the time, neither of these bad things happen and it works great, but I don’t have a self-cleaning oven.

Next best is a lye bath, which cleans off crud and old seasoning, but not rust (that requires a second step). That was also a no-go for me due to the lack of a plastic tub, and my general fear of substances that could explode and kill me. But oven cleaner usually contains lye, and I thought I could handle oven cleaner.

Oven Cleaner Method

I put some cardboard down in the bathtub and laid the pan on the cardboard. Before spraying thoroughly on both sides, I suited up like an astronaut – long rubber gloves (double, thin latex underneath, in case there was a tear), double mask over my nose and mouth (one isn’t enough – you still breath vapors), and goggles over my eyes. This is not excessive precaution. I somehow got a drip of oven cleaner on my upper arm and it burned right through my skin. I flushed it very thoroughly in water and then dabbed on some yogurt since lye is base and yogurt is acid – that soothed it.

After thoroughly spraying the pan with oven cleaner, I popped it into a large, thick plastic bag, closed the bag tightly, and put it in a small plastic wash tub in the general vicinity of my radiator so heat could help it along (not on the radiator, of course, just near it). I waited 24 hours, then donned the gloves again and took a look. A rinse and a scrub told me it needed another dose. I again suited up like an astronaut, sprayed it down again, and put it back in the sealed plastic bag near the radiator.

Twenty-four hours later I looked again, and this time all the crud was gone. But the pan was covered in thick rust that went way beyond my scrubbing ability. I didn’t take a picture of the bottom of the pan, but even the letters on the bottom were encrusted with rust.

Popover pan after treatment with lye to remove crud

Removing the Rust

Removing crud from the pan is dangerous to you but not to the pan. Lye does not damage iron. Removing the rust is just the opposite. You remove rust with a 50/50 solution of distilled white vinegar and water. This is safe for you but can destroy iron if you leave it in there too long. (Electrolysis is a safer method for the pan because it removes rust as well as crud so you can skip this step.)

When you put a pan in a vinegar and water solution, it sort of simultaneously rusts and derusts. The vinegar will cause the excess rust to lift off the pan and bubble up, but when you take it out of the solution it instantly starts rusting because the iron is utterly unprotected. A very thin film of rust is unavoidable – you just oil the pan and wipe it off that way. Don’t leave the pan in the vinegar indefinitely waiting for it to come out perfectly gray. It never will.

You want to leave the pan in the vinegar for the shortest time possible, so check it frequently, and never leave it in the vinegar solution for more than 24 hours. I checked the pan every couple of hours. At about the 12 hour mark I dumped out the rusty solution and put in new, clean solution. A few hours later, no more rust was bubbling up from the pan so I figured it was done.

I removed it from the vinegar solution and scrubbed it down with washing soda (like baking soda, but much stronger) to make sure the vinegar was complete neutralized. Washing soda is base; vinegar is acid. Then I put it in a 200 degree oven to make sure it was bone dry. When I took it out, I oiled it all over with avocado oil. I’ll explain the reason for avocado oil in the next section.

I want to emphasize how important it is at this point to rinse all the vinegar off using washing soda to neutralize, thoroughly dry the pan, and then thoroughly oil it. Do not wait even 10 minutes to do this because the pan is already rusting and you must stop the process.

Here’s how the pan looked after drying but before oiling:

Popover pan, cleaned of crud and rust but not oiled

Popover pan, cleaned of crud and rust but not oiled

And here’s how the pan looked after oiling but before seasoning:

Popover pan, cleaned of crud and rust, oiled but not seasoned

Popover pan, cleaned of crud and rust, oiled but not seasoned

Rub the pan really well all over with oil – especially in crevices – to wipe away the surface rust. Change paper towels frequently! You’re cleaning it with the oil. When you stop seeing rust on the paper towel, you can start seasoning. Note that you’ll still see dark residue from the iron before the pan is seasoned – that’s normal.

Notice how the pan is a medium gray, and not the black usually associated with cast iron? That’s because you’ve cleaned it down to the metal, which is gray. It’s the seasoning that makes it dark. That comes next.

Seasoning Cast Iron

To “season” a cast iron pan means to create a slick, glassy coating by baking on multiple thin coats of oil. This is necessary for two reasons:

1. It protects the iron from rust.
2. It makes for a glassy nonstick surface that’s better than any commercial nonstick surface, and far better for you.

(If you didn’t know that commercial nonstick pans contain extremely dangerous toxins, now you know. These toxins are released when the pan is old and the surface starts flaking into your food, or when you heat the pan above medium-low temperature, which people do all the time. Pet birds will drop dead of fumes from an overheated nonstick pan, and the fumes not so great for humans, either.)

When you start to research how to properly season cast iron, you quickly realize that no one fully understands the science behind it, and advice is based on folklore and superstition. Do you use solid fat or liquid fat? If liquid, should it be polyunsaturated or monounsaturated? Should you bake it at high temperature or low? Should you heat it above the smoke point of the oil you use, or below? You’ll find ardent supporters of all these practices on the internet.

I can’t say that the method I used is the only way or even the best way, but I did end up with a beautifully seasoned pan, as you can see. Compare these pictures to the ones above with the purple background, before the pan was cleaned. Much better!

Popover pan, cleaned and seasoned

Popover pan, cleaned and seasoned

Start with Avocado Oil…

It seemed to me that the important factor here was polymerized fat. That’s what’s so hard, glassy, and slick. The black color (as opposed to deep brown) comes from burnt material – carbon – bound up in the polymerized fat when you bake the pan above the oil’s smoke point. I didn’t like the idea of doing that because heating oil above its smoke point releases free radicals, which are carcinogenic. That’s why you never ever want to heat oil above the smoke point when cooking. I liked the idea of a monounsaturated oil because it doesn’t go rancid. You don’t need to refrigerate olive oil, which is mostly monounsaturated. And I thought that high oven temperature made more sense than medium or low for creating a hard glassy surface rather than a sticky surface.

Putting all that together, I decided to use avocado oil, which is monounsaturated and has the highest smoke point of any edible oil (see this chart of smoke points). Avocado oil doesn’t smoke until 520°F. If I had a decent oven I’d have baked it at 500°F, but unfortunately my oven only goes up to 450°F, so that’s what I used.

Coat every surface of the pan with the oil and then wipe it off with a paper towel so it’s very thin. You do not want pools of oil on your pan or they will stay forever sticky and you’ll have to strip it back down with the lye and start again. After oiling, put the pan face down in a cold oven (face down so as little surface is touching the rack as possible). Put a pan or some foil below the rack to catch any drips, but it should not be dripping much if your coat of oil is sufficiently thin. Then turn up the heat to 500°F (or as high as your oven can bake). When it’s done preheating, set your timer for an hour. When an hour has passed, turn off the oven and leave the pan inside without opening the door until it’s cool enough to handle. That takes at least two hours.

Then take the pan out of the oven, and rub it with oil and bake it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. You need at least six coats of seasoning because each coat must be very thin. You can’t speed this up. If you use too thick a coat of oil, it will never get hard and you’ll have to strip it all off and start over.

…Then Two Coats with Bacon Fat

After six coats I started to wonder if the glaze would ever be sufficiently thick, so in frustration I added two coats using a different technique. Instead of avocado oil, I oiled the pan with strained drippings from some bacon I bought at the Farmer’s Market – no nitrates or other chemicals in it. Again I wiped it out with a paper towel so it was very thin, but saturated fat (fat that’s solid at room temperature) always goes on thicker than liquid fat. I then baked it for two hours at 350°F and let it cool down in the closed oven.

When the pan had cooled, I opened the oven door and put a finger on the pan. It felt a little sticky, so I closed the oven door and cranked the temperature up to 450°F, leaving the pan in the oven while it preheated. When the oven was at 450°F, I set the timer for an hour, then turned off the oven and let the pan cool down in the oven. When I took it out, it had a thicker glaze on it and looked quite nice.

I went one more round with the strained bacon fat (organic! no nitrates!). The second time I baked it for one hour at 350°F, and then two hours at 450°F, letting it cool down in the closed oven. When I removed the pan, perfection!

Why start with the lower temperature when seasoning with bacon grease? It prevents smoking. I don’t know why, but it does. The smoke point of lard (pork fat) is 370°F. Baking it at 350°F changes it somehow so when I raise the temperature it doesn’t smoke. If you season a pan with lard without this first lower-temperature step, it will smoke like crazy. Reports on the internet warn you to open windows and door, turn on fans, etc. None of this is necessary if you bake it at 350°F first.

I’m not sure whether my pan got so lovely and well-seasoned after the bacon grease because it already had six coats of avocado oil on it (it did get darker with each application), or the bacon grease has some sort of special qualities. I’m about to season a skillet, so I’ll soon find out. Next time I’ll start with the bacon grease and see if I can get it to the beautiful point with fewer layers. I was starting to worry I’d wear out my oven (not to mention the damage to my electric bill).

Perfect Popovers

All of this was in quest of perfect popovers, so here is my popover recipe. I like to keep it very simple, just four ingredients: milk, egg, flour, salt. I’ve tried a little melted butter in the batter, but it rises less that way and I don’t find I need it for taste.

For the small, 6-cup popover pan I just cleaned (or three 6oz pyrex custard cups), you need:

• ½ cup whole milk
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup unbleached white flour (preferably with the germ)
• 1/8 tsp salt

I make it in a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup. Preheat the oven to 450°F. While that’s happening, pour ½ cup of milk into the measuring cup and crack in one egg. Beat that with a wire wisk. Add the salt and beat some more. Measure out ½ cup of flour and dump that in. Wisk it together until it’s smooth, then as soon as it’s smooth (no lumps) stop mixing. Don’t overmix it. Let the batter sit while the oven continues to preheat.

If you’re using cast iron rather than pyrex, rub avocado oil into the popover cups. At some advanced point when the pan is excruciatingly well seasoned this won’t be necessary, but for now it’s necessary to keep the popovers from sticking and it also serves to add seasoning to the pan. When the oven is preheated, put the popover pan into the oven to heat empty for five minutes. Your popovers will pop higher if the pan is preheated. You do this with oil rather than butter because the butter will burn.

When the hot pan comes out of the oven, put a tiny dab of butter in the bottom of each cup. This further ensures nonstickiness, adds seasoning to the pan, and adds flavor to the popovers. Then pour the batter into the cups – filling only about halfway. Don’t overfill the cups or they won’t pop sufficiently

Put the pan back in the oven, this time with the batter, and set your timer for 15 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 350°F (do not open the oven!) and continue baking for another 15 minutes. (If you’re making them in 6oz pyrex cups, bake for 20 minutes at 350°F rather than 15 minutes.) When the popovers come out of the oven, they will look like the first picture in this blog post. Here it is again for good measure:

Popovers in my newly restored Griswold popover pan

As soon as they’re out of the oven, pull them out of the pan (they should slide right out), put them on a cooling rack, and stab them with a small knife to release the steam inside so they don’t get soggy.

I like popovers for breakfast with butter and jam. They’re also good as sandwich bread for lunch. When they pop really high they’re hollow inside, and you can fill them with tuna salad.

So does cast iron make a difference? Popovers made in pyrex are perfectly good, but the ones made in cast iron are crispier on the outside and pop higher. And I enjoyed learning how to clean and season the pan.

Do you have opinions – preferably science-based – on seasoning cast iron? Liquid or solid fat? Smoke or no smoke? I’d love to hear other people’s experiences with this.

I had the opportunity to see the new movie It’s Complicated last night at a pre-release screening in Times Square. It didn’t knock my socks off, but it was pleasant and funny, and I enjoyed it. It was the first time I’d seen Steve Martin in a non-comedic role. He was totally believable.

It’s the story of a divorced woman, played by Meryl Streep, who ends up in an affair with her ex-husband, played by Alec Baldwin. And then there is the divorced architect, played by Steve Martin, who also is interested in Streep’s character. I won’t tell you who wins.

I thought the acting and direction were better than the script, which was a bit predictable. The acting was great; everyone in it was good. One very funny scene was when Streep’s character tells her children about the affair with their father, thanks to some inspired direction (or maybe it was in the script, who knows). I won’t spoil that for you, either.

The movie has many funny moments – one in particular is fall-on-the-floor funny. If you see it, you’ll know which one I mean. The film consistently held my attention, never dragged. But it became obvious fairly early on what was going to happen, so there wasn’t a lot of suspense. Nor was there much depth in the character development. This is okay in a light comedy, there just wasn’t a lot to it. It’s a simple story with simple characters.

I’d rate it good but not great, pleasant but not profound. It’s a pleasant way to spend a couple hours, but not the kind of movie you tell all your friends they have to see.