Quiet Day...Think I will Stir the Pot Some...

[Major Matt Lewis]

First I will go over to the kitchen and get a big wooden laddle.  Then I will put it in the pot and stir in a smooth counter clockwise circle.....


Wake up folks, it's Friday (PAYDAY Friday no less).  We can live inside and eat warm food for the next 2 weeks   The weekend is upon us and there will be gratuitious steel ringing going on....

[Books OToole]

We've been here before.  A figure 8 motion is best for stirring pots.  (Jar-heads? )


Books

[Wymore Wrangler]

Nope clockwise is the only way to go....

[Lars]

Hey you guys, GEEZ, you need some vertical motion else you gonna be stirring that pot when ya could be doing something else, like eating the stew insteada stirring it.

Lars

[Delmonico]

Well I have documentation of the pots, I have documentation of the ladle but I do not have any documentation of how they stirred the pot or more important, if they even stirred the pot.  So I expect 3 pieces of documentation telling me your method is period correct or you will not be allowed to stir the pot.

And just to make sure I want 3 pieces of documentation for each of your documentations to be sure you have documented it right, also each of those need 3 pieces of documetation to prove it and here on and here on.

I know some will say it is logical that they stirred to pot to insure even heating and prevent scorching, but logic don't count here because they either might not have figured it out yet or else they liked burnt food, but I can not document that either.

[Delmonico]

There is that stirred enough.

[Lars]

OK, Delmonico, is that 3X3X3 documentation, or is it 3X3X3X3 or...? I got lost. Hopefully it is not required in triplicate.

Lars, that is lost in the gritty nitty swirllies

[Delmonico]

Ya don't understand, it's like that Greek Pi number in goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on till ya get tired of goin' on and on and on and on.

And if than don't confuse you got to Tall Tales and Read Newbrassky.

[Forty Rod]

ALWAYS  use a big wire whisk.

It doesn't do squat for the food but it sure makes you look like you know what you're doing.

[Delmonico]

Ya got a point, I used a stick one time to stir the soup when I was cookin' fer a church youth group, did not instill confidence.  One a the girls was in the other day, her dad works with me, she remembered "The Stick" 20 years later.

[Forty Rod]

It's more professionaler  Wolfie Puck uses one.  So does E. Merrill Loogosy.  Even Miss Julia's Child did.

Now that ol' Cajun gent that was on TV for so long, he didn't.  He cooked in a great big ol' pot and stirred with an outboard motor, but with his style of cookin' he could get away with it.

[Ol Gabe]

Yep, the 'Cookin' Cajun', Mr. Justin Wilson, himself, generally used his fingers more that a spoon, tongs or spatula. and even then it was usually a wooden one hand-carved from Swamp Cyprus or Live Oak, or so the story went.
Yan, on the PBS series 'Yan Can Cook', always used his Chop Sticks or one Stick to stir or whisk and both as a spatula to flip, an amazing technique but quite easy to learn. Once you get profecient at it you can even flip overy-easy eggs!
Of course, no P.C.( Prairie Cosie) would be caught dead without his favorite tools of the trade, I'm sure Mr. Carmen will back me up on this one; hand-carved wooden spoons and spatulas and a hand-carved wooden whisk made from a Red Willow switch cut down along the river. If the P.C.'s could locate a creative Blacksmith a set of hand-forged spoons and spatulas with a sharpened edge would have been in their prized tool drawer and never or rarely let out of their site. I'm lucky to have a few of them and enjoy using them out on the campfire or grill, ya' jist can't beat a handmade tool for fitting the bill!
Best regards and good stirring!
'Ol Gabe
P.S. If you use a Dutch Oven and need to 'stir', simply lift it by the bail and shake it gently side to side and everything inside will slosh left then right and back again, of course, this is just a somple figure 8 pattern that evenly coats anything inside and blends all ingredients at an even speed so as not to bruise the spices or comestibles.

[Delmonico]

I got hand forged tools, hand carved tools and store bought, all are PC.

I buy up all the old tin plated metal spoons with wooden handles at thrift srores and garage sales.  Gopher Grease and I take advantage of sevewral fine blacksmiths we know who love to eat.   Wait till you see the dinner gong.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I like stirring with a wooden spoon.

Slim

[Books OToole]

If any body cares what a NEW YORK CITY professional chef says;  one was on The Earyl Show using a wire wisk and using a figure 8 motion to stir his pot.  But I think he called it a "sauce pan."  Does that make a difference?

Books

[Delmonico]

Pro-fess-in-al don't mean good, it just means ya get paid for it.   Can't feed very many out of a sauce pan.  

However much reseach on this subject this weekend, caused me many sleepless hours, but I could not come up with a period correct way to stir that was quad-drupal documented.  How ever I did discover that on October 15 1887 that the "Wizard of Menlo Park" Thomas Edison patented an electric pot stirrer, that he brought out on the market in the fall of 1888.

More important an Italian version is now made by none other than Aldo Uberti and the only difference between it and the original is a modern safety device that is well hidden, required to meet import laws.  If any one is interested they can be bought here:

www.electricstirrer.com.