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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • It’s a little strange because I dont actually really know who the audience of the book is supposed to be. The main text seems aimed at people who would purchase the stuff, but the appendices seem aimed at people who would be producers. The content seems like something that a library should have, but it’s printed like a phone book with paper that probably wouldnt hold up to library usage.

    I could almost see it as a “coffee table book” in a store that sells locally made, quality stuff, but that can’t be a very big market.




  • I’ve never bought a jar of pasta sauce or pizza sauce, and it somehow perplexes people. It’s like 3 times the price of making it at home, and all I need to do to make it at home is open a can of crushed tomatoes and usually stir in some spices that dont even need to be measured. If I want to get really fancy, I might simmer some garlic and tomato paste in olive oil first, but still, it’s all just one saucepan with no measured ingredients, and it’s done before your pasta is done cooking, anyway.


  • If you have something that works for you, ignore me, but personally, I don’t like cans of diced tomatoes. Diced tomato typically has calcium chloride added. Without getting into the nerdy detail, the calcium prevents the tomato from breaking down. You dont want to open a can of diced tomato and find that it’s all turned into sauce.

    When you do want sauce, you do want the tomato to break down, so any tomato product with added calcium hinders that. I like to buy cans of crushed tomatoes because that’s basically the same thing as diced but without the added calcium.


  • If you have something that works for you, ignore me, but personally, I don’t like cans of diced tomatoes. Diced tomato typically has calcium chloride added. Without getting into the nerdy detail, the calcium prevents the tomato from breaking down. You dont want to open a can of diced tomato and find that it’s all turned into sauce.

    When you do want sauce, you do want the tomato to break down, so any tomato product with added calcium hinders that. I like to buy cans of crushed tomatoes because that’s basically the same thing as diced but without the added calcium.




  • That’s a little out of scope: the catalog is all stuff you’d wear for the most part. There is a section for companies that make costumes, though, ranging from stuff you’d wear to a ren fair to serious re-enactor clothing.

    There’s also a decent amount of leatherworkers who do sheaths.

    I wish I had an equivalent resource for tools, because there’s still a good amount of small businesses making tools.



  • My mocktail approach is essentially all daiquiri format: 2 parts something with body or heat to 1 part acid to ~1\2 part sweetener.

    The majority is often tea, or something with tannins. Ginger is really good since it has a “burn” like alcohol. Milk punches also work well for body.

    I like acidifying various juices with citric and malic acid. Personally, I like to target lime acidity over lemon because I think malic acid has the sensation of more body.

    Recently, I did 2 parts gunpowder tea to 1 part acid adjusted orange juice to .75 parts agave syrup.

    I’ve never used any purpose made liquor alternatives.