Heat, ma am! It was so dreadful here that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
Take ice. Ice is fascinating to me. Ice is the one thing in our world that went from an agricultural product to being manufactured.
Most people who have encountered mercury have done so after breaking a mercury thermometer. And many of us who saw the liquid balls of mercury scatter across a floor or countertop considered the element the most beautiful on the periodic table.
Butter typically melts around, you know, 90 Fahrenheit, as opposed to about 20 degrees higher for lard. So what that means is that when you're working with it, the lard is going to stay more solid, which is great for flakiness.
Take to every Gallon of Honey, three Gallons of water, and put them both together, and set them over so soft a fire, that you may endure to melt and break the honey with your hands.
Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic weights.
Make your mold. The best flux in the world will not make a usable shape unless you have a mold to pour it in.
Imagine how many aspects of nature we would miss if we lived on the surface of the sun. Without inventing refrigerators, we would only know gaseous matter and never observe liquids or solids, and miss the beauty of snowflakes.
Yielding, like ice about to melt.
The summer of 1976 was so hot that bars of chocolate melted on the shelves before confectioners could sell them.
It's frightening and unnerving to watch a stone melt.
He that hath a head of waxe must not walke in the sunne. [He that hath a head of wax must not walk in the sun.]
The trouble with vitreous water is that vitrification should be impossible.
One has to arrive at a specific temperature, at which the objects become malleable.
Chocolate is one of the backbones of the pastry kitchen. It is one of the most important ingredients in our pantry. It is very versatile, it is complex, and it is extremely temperamental.
The last thing I have to say is that ice is the past tense of water. I've always wanted to write that sentence and now I have.
The jewel of the lard is right around the kidneys. But this is a fat that has a very specific crystalline formation and a high melting point.
I find dealing with tempered chocolate a bit tricky, but that's a chocolatier's job. So I dabble, but I wouldn't profess to be good at it.
