The Difference a Good Pan Makes.
While in Philly recently I bought one of the IKEA Brigad hard anodized alluminum saucepans, just to try it out. I made several ‘tricky’ things in it, from butterscotch pudding made with soy milk, curried rice, and shells & cheese of various sorts. It has performed in excellent fashion: quick and even heating, no burning, no sticking (it isn’t non-stick technically speaking), and the cleanup was quite easy, especially compared to a stainless pan.
So, as one might have determined, I also determined the saucepan to be good enough to keep and purchase more in different sizes. :) Last Tuesday in College Park I rounded out the set with 3L pot, 5L pot, 1L saucepan, and an 11″ frying pan. I really love that the frying pan is 11″, versus 10, because 10″ is always too small it seems, and 12 is enourmous.
It hit me this morning (thank you Food Network) to make peanut butter fudge. Yes, very random and of course I was driving around in the heaviest fog I have ever seen in Chambersburg to get ingredients, lol. I’ve never made fudge, btw, and while my mom and a brother have on regular basis, well.. it wasn’t ever quite as good as the hideously expensive stuff one tends to buy — with the exception of the dreg sold at grocery stores. I’m assuming it is because they’ve always used the ‘easy make’ sort of recipes that don’t involve bringing molten sugar to specific temperatures… at least I don’t recall anyone other than me ever actually using the candy thermometer for its intended purpose.
Wouldn’t you know, almost a certainty, that I couldn’t find the candy thermometer? Yeah, so… I think it was at soft ball stage, though I’ve never really had a lot of luck with doing the little water test, haha. I used natural peanut butter instead of the processed stuff, I’m hoping that’ll be a nice addition… no extra or weird crap involved. So far as good, definitely tasted good while still warm, and it is setting up very nicely at room temperature too. :)
