Author Topic: what I have learned today.  (Read 847207 times)

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4400 on: 23 July, 2020, 12:47:18 pm »
That a ml of water weighs a gram. My new kitchen scales taught me. I kept switching from mls to gms to check, and looking at it like a slack-jawed yokel.

How did I not know this?

How much time have I squandered in my life, rummaging about looking for a measuring jug when the scale was right in front of me?

 :facepalm:

Don't worry. I still take great pleasure in reminding my wife about the time she was following a recipe that called for 750ml of white wine and she used a measuring jug... :facepalm:

750ml?  That's more than an armful!
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External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4401 on: 23 July, 2020, 12:52:42 pm »
That I do not possess a cone spanner that fits my touring bike's dyno wheel. I possess 14/15 and 16mm models. Bugger.  New 17mm ordered.

This seems to be the way with cone spanners.  Presumably when you've fettled enough hubs you'll have acquired a full set.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4402 on: 23 July, 2020, 01:07:01 pm »
That’s enough to affect the outcome. Shan’t ditch the measuring jug yet then.

Oh yes? Because you need precision, eh? Why don't you carry out this little 'speriment.

Fill the jug to, say 500 ml. Check that on your scale. You may be surprised. Measuring jugs are easily +- 5% at the best of times.

robgul

  • Cycle:End-to-End webmaster
  • cyclist, Cytech accredited mechanic & woodworker
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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4403 on: 23 July, 2020, 02:42:06 pm »
That I do not possess a cone spanner that fits my touring bike's dyno wheel. I possess 14/15 and 16mm models. Bugger.  New 17mm ordered.

Hmm, IME 14mm is fairly unusual, I'd have filed it out 17  :demon:

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4404 on: 23 July, 2020, 06:17:27 pm »
The multiple and seemingly contradictory medical meanings of rigor:
Rigor: A word with two different but related meanings in medicine:

A chill, usually with shivering, as at the onset of high fever and chills.
Rigidity, as in rigor mortis, the rigidity of a body after death.
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=40571

And rigors:
Rigors are episodes in which your temperature rises - often quite quickly - whilst you have severe shivering accompanied by a feeling of coldness ('the chills'). The fever may be quite high and the shivering may be quite dramatic.
https://patient.info/childrens-health/rigors-leaflet

I'm not even sure if rigors is a variant term on rigor 1 or something slightly different!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Giraffe

  • I brake for Giraffes
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4405 on: 24 July, 2020, 09:14:21 am »
That I do not possess a cone spanner that fits my touring bike's dyno wheel. I possess 14/15 and 16mm models. Bugger.  New 17mm ordered.

Hmm, IME 14mm is fairly unusual, I'd have filed it out 17  :demon:
A bit much to file out - would weaken it a lot.
I made cone spanners from good quality open-ended spanners by gently grinding one side (so that the other side retained its treatment) to 2mm thick; 13 - 14 and 14 - 15mm. When a rider's bike wound its RHS front cone into the bearing (lock nut not tight enough) a standard cone spanner was wrecked trying to move it; mine worked with no damage.
Now, if you have access to a horizontal grinder...
2x4: thick plank; 4x4: 2 of 'em.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4406 on: 24 July, 2020, 10:30:18 am »
Today is World Tequila Day.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4407 on: 24 July, 2020, 03:47:35 pm »
How to make authentic sauce tartare. By which I mean "in the French style".

We're having fish & chips for dinner, you see, and in a whimsical moment, I thought I'd look up an actual recipe rather than just doing my usual improv throwing ingredients together and adjusting to taste version.

So I looked in Michel Roux's Les Sauces, which is a wonderful book - if a little too cheffy to be practical for everyday use. And it confused me. His recipe is an emulsion of hard-boiled egg yolks, oil and lemon juice, with finely chopped onion and chives. Conspicuously no gherkins or capers.

This threw me a bit, so I then referred to Larousse Gastronomique to check whether this was just a Roux idiosyncracy. But no, they have it pretty much the same way.

Roux's recipe for sauce gribiche corresponds more closely to what I recognise as sauce tartare. I always thought the difference was essentially that gribiche was made with hard-boiled eggs, while tartare was made with raw (hence my usual lazy method of using shop-bought mayonnaise as the base).

I did a bit of half-hearted googling to look into the reasons for the variation in the anglicised take on tartare sauce but so far have not found a satisfactory explanation.

Roux's recipe for sauce rémoulade is much the same but with mustard and anchovies. Mmmmmm. Love a bit of rémoulade. My favourite choice from the lovely French sandwich shop on Warren Street I used to frequent many years ago was one of their speciality mini baguettes stuffed with roast beef and celeriac rémoulade. You won't get that in Pret.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4408 on: 24 July, 2020, 07:06:34 pm »
According to my well thumbed copy of La Technique which has in its favour a French Name, a French born author and a comprehensive photographic guide to French cuisine, but against it, Jacques Pepin achieved fame in the US...

Quote
Mayonnaise can become sauce verte, a green sauce made with mayonnaise with parsley and spinach; sauce gribiche, mayonnaise with hard cooked eggs, French sour gherkins, capers and shallots; sauce tartare, mayonnaise with parsley, chives, chervil and sour pickles (etc etc)

Practical Professional Cookery (Cracknell & Kaufmann) has tartare as remoulade without anchovies, so capers, gherkin, fines herbes. I might take issue with that authenticity because in classic french, I think Sauce Remoulade is a mayonnaise with mustard instead of eggs, but it fits the classic idea.

Turning to my french volumes, La Code de la bonne chere (1950's) doesn't mention Tartare, but informs me that Sauce Verte was created by M. Blavay, the chef of Napoleon III.

Doesn't feature in the others which are for the most part regional cooking.

nicknack

  • Hornblower
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4409 on: 25 July, 2020, 10:42:31 am »
Francoise Bernard's Les Recettes Faciles (1965) uses egg yolk, mustard, oil, vinegar, gherkins, onion, capers, fines herbes (parsley, chives, chervil, tarragon), salt and pepper. She says it's traditional to use cooked egg yolk but it's easier with raw.
There's no vibrations, but wait.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4410 on: 25 July, 2020, 11:47:55 am »
All interesting information, thanks both. :thumbsup:
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4411 on: 25 July, 2020, 03:26:20 pm »
That an ICE trike has approximately half the stopping distance of a Brompton.  DAHIKT.   :-[

Andrij

  • Андрій
  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4412 on: 25 July, 2020, 03:29:12 pm »
I've lived in London most of my life, and consider myself to be something of a Londonista, but I've only just now found out that the box-like stainless steel structure in the middle of what was the E&C roundabout  is a memorial to Michael Faraday (who was born nearby in Newington Butts) and  (most appropriately) contains an electricity sub-station for London Underground.
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4413 on: 25 July, 2020, 04:06:45 pm »
I knew the last bit about it being an electricity substation for the underground, didn’t know the bit about it being a monument to Faraday.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4414 on: 27 July, 2020, 10:41:53 am »
Oddly, I know about the Faraday thing, but that's because our guide on one of those Hidden London things told us rather than it being anything obvious.

robgul

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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4415 on: 27 July, 2020, 12:29:26 pm »
Oddly, I know about the Faraday thing, but that's because our guide on one of those Hidden London things told us rather than it being anything obvious.

I knew both facts - partly because I was a student at the London College of Printing (now called the London College of Communication) which is the pale green glass/cladding building at the Elephant, when it opened in 1963 - our main classroom for the course looked down on the "biscuit tin" in the middle of the roundabout.  IIRC at our orientation session it was one of the facts given to us . . . . along with the one about Charlie Chaplin living across the road where the shopping centre is!

Rob

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4416 on: 27 July, 2020, 01:25:03 pm »
...London College of Printing (now called the London College of Communication)...

And thereby hangs a tale.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4417 on: 27 July, 2020, 06:29:38 pm »
That Wilko bike cleaner is equally effective on white boards that have not been wiped for several months
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Andrij

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  • Ερασιτεχνικός μισάνθρωπος
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4418 on: 29 July, 2020, 07:51:11 am »
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4419 on: 01 August, 2020, 10:47:47 am »
That WD40 lifts oil of a carpet!

We had a new patio laid and I must have walked through some oil by mistake.  Footprints all over the kitchen carpet and into the hall.  A little bit of googling and up came WD40.  It was literally amazing.  A spray of WD40, rub with a cloth and the oil just lifted out of the carpet.

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4420 on: 01 August, 2020, 11:14:27 am »
That the US prohibited all trade with the UK when  Royal Navy ships actively pursued and stopped illegal slavery ships off the west coast of Africa in the early 1800s.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4421 on: 01 August, 2020, 12:49:51 pm »
That WD40 lifts oil of a carpet!

We had a new patio laid and I must have walked through some oil by mistake.  Footprints all over the kitchen carpet and into the hall.  A little bit of googling and up came WD40.  It was literally amazing.  A spray of WD40, rub with a cloth and the oil just lifted out of the carpet.

Swarfega should work as well. ISTR that it was originally developed for cleaning silk stockings or some such.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4422 on: 01 August, 2020, 01:41:31 pm »
I think my dwarfed went walk about in the move.  Also needs more washing out.  This was literally spray and wipe

Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4423 on: 01 August, 2020, 01:51:30 pm »
I think my dwarfed went walk about in the move.  Also needs more washing out.  This was literally spray and wipe

Gotta love spillchuck

Mrs Pingu

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Re: what I have learned today.
« Reply #4424 on: 01 August, 2020, 03:21:36 pm »
Zinner Permawhite satin paint is so much better to apply than Dulux Diamond Eggshell which is shit, despite it's recommendations.

ETA: Yes, ok, it should have been Zinsser. I just wasn't concentrating.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.