Serv-U Offers More Than Just Great Prices

By now, people know that Serv-U has great prices on thousands of pieces of restaurant equipment, bar supplies, and bar stool. However there are some lesser known and relatively new services that Serv-U offers both local customers as well as services for their national customers.

Roger over at servu-online.com gives us a run down on a couple of these great services in his blog today. You should head over and check it out – http://tinyurl.com/ya98qqs

Measured liquor pour: small investment equals large profit

How much money is your bar leaving on the table? For the bar owner, over pouring of liquor with a free flow pour can result in a huge loss in revenue. Today we are going to discuss one low cost change that you can make which has the potential to increase consistency and profit; that change is adding measured pours. Let’s quickly review the numbers pouring from a measured 1 oz shot out of a one liter bottle:

 

price per drink	2 more drinks earn per bottle	2 more drinks earn per case	3 more drinks earn per bottle	3 more drinks earn per case
$2.50	$5.00	$60.00	$7.50	$90.00
$3.00	$6.00	$72.00	$9.00	$108.00
$3.50	$7.00	$84.00	$10.50	$126.00
$4.00	$8.00	$96.00	$12.00	$144.00
$4.50	$9.00	$108.00	$13.50	$162.00
$5.00	$10.00	$120.00	$15.00	$180.00

 

When you reduce over pouring with a measured spout you can increase the number of drinks the bartender can serve by an additional two to four drinks per bottle. Considering the average number of liquor bottles in a bar, the impact using a measured pour spout will have on long term profitability is easy to see.

In addition to the revenue increase, you are increasing the quality of your customer service by ensuring that each customer is treated equally and consistently on every drink. The drinks won’t be too weak one night and too strong the next. This will hold true on busy nights when the staff can’t pay as close of attention as they normally do or on the first night of a new bartender.

 

You can find measured pours at Serv-U in the bar supplies section and are available in a wide range of measurement sizes, colors, and collared & uncollared. If you have addition questions, feel free to contact us via phone at 800-797-3788 or swing by the website and launch a live chat with one of our customer service reps.

Caffeine and Community

If you’re like me, you probably long for the good ol’ days when you stopped for a gourmet coffee every morning on the way to work (sigh).  How about some temporary relief?  According to Businessweek’s site, Starbucks is offering just that—one free coffee for the price of a little volunteerism.  From January 21^st through January 25^th, all you have to do is sign a pledge card to donate five hours of time to a local cause of your choice.  The promotion is set to coincide with the inauguration of Barack Obama as President; part of his campaign platform was a call for more community service.

 

Caffeine and community—I’m thinking it’s a great combination….and it may just lead to increased coffee sales.  (Dare I hope for a report from Starbucks post-promo?)

Restaurant Equipment: How to Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker

How to Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Using a rice cooker is a simple and effective way to cook rice. Many rice cookers keep the rice warm after it’s made. There’s no need to watch the rice cooker since this appliance comes with an automatic timer that clicks when the rice is ready. This article will show you how to cook rice with a rice cooker so that you can say good-bye to burnt rice and ruined pots.

Steps

1. Measure the rice with a cup and put it into your cooking pot. Most of the time, rice cooker boxes will have a cup inside or you can use your own scooper for measurement.
   • One cup of uncooked rice will generate roughly one and a half cups of cooked rice.[1]
   • The measuring cup that comes with your rice cooker is not the same size as a standard US measuring cup (240 ml or 1 cup). It’s a cup by rice cooker industry standards (180 ml or about 3/4 cup). Unless the recipe calls specifically for rice cooker cup measurements, you’ll need to adjust your measurements accordingly.[2]
2. Rinse the rice. This is optional. Read the packaging, as some rice does not need washing and is enriched with iron, niacin, thiamin, and folic acid; rinsing may be unnecessary and will remove any water-soluble vitamins and minerals in the rice.[3]
   • Run tap water in the bowl. While the water is running, stir the rice. Continue stirring until the pot is full of water.
   • Tip the pot at an angle and drain the excess water out. Hold the bottom part with your hand so that you can grab any rice grains that may fall with the water.
   • Repeat until the water comes out clear.
   • Drain as much water as you can.
3. Soak the rice for thirty minutes, if desired. This is not required, but some people prefer it. It may result in stickier rice.
4. Measure the water. Most rice cooker instructions recommend cold water.[4] How much water you add depends on what kind of rice you’re cooking and how moist you prefer it. One rule of thumb is to fill the cooking pot with the same amount of cups of rice you used, with an additional 1/2 cup. For example, if you made 2 cups of rice, pour in 2 1/2 cups of water. There are also graduated marks on the inside of many rice cookers indicating how much rice and water should be added. The USA Rice Federation[3] recommends following the directions on the package that the rice came in, or using these guidelines in a pinch:
   • White, long grain – 1 3/4 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
   • White, medium grain – 1 1/2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
   • White, short grain – 1 1/2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
   • Brown, long grain – 2 1/4 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
   • Parboiled – 2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice
   • Still, you can’t really go wrong if you just add two or 2.5 cups of water to each cup of rice; you don’t want your rice too dry.
   • For Indian style rices like Basmati or Jasmine, less water is needed as a drier rice is desired, use no more than 1 1/2 cups of water per 1 cup of rice. Use only 1 to 1 if you washed the rice previously. It is ok to add bay leaves or cardimom pods directly to the rice cooker to enhance the flavor.
5. Add a little bit of salt, butter or oil at this time, if desired.
6. Try to get any rice grains around the pot back into the water and level out the rice. Wipe the outside of the pot with a cloth or rag.
7. Place the pot into the rice cooker. Cover it, plug the cooker in, and press the switch to turn it in. The switch will click, like a toaster, when the rice is done. In some cookers, the rice will be warmed until you unplug the cooker.
   • Don’t lift the lid to check on the rice. The cooking process depends on the development of steam inside the pot, so letting steam escape by opening the lid may result in improperly cooked rice.
   • The rice cooker automatically turns off when the temperature inside the pot reaches boiling point (212 degrees F or 100 degrees C at sea level), which happens when all the water has been absorbed by the rice.[5]
8. Allow the rice to “rest” for 10-15 minutes before removing the lid. This is not required but is commonly recommended in rice cooker instructions, and is automatic in some models.[4]

Tips

• If your rice cooker has a non-stick bowl, wash the rice (prior to cooking) in a colander with several washes/rinses/drains. Replacement non-stick bowls are very expensive. Even though the instructions indicate washing is not necessary, especially with a keisenmai/musenmai rice, a few wash cycles will promote a better finished consistency.
• Use a non-stick spoon that will not scratch the inside of the pot to stir and “fluff” the rice after it’s done. The best tool for this purpose is a plastic rice paddle that comes with most rice cookers. To keep the rice from sticking to the paddle, dampen the paddle with cold water (works for fingers, too).
• You may need to make adjustments if you’re using a rice cooker at a high altitude. Since the boiling point of water decreases by 1 degree F for every 540 feet of altitude (1 degrees C for every 300 meters), the rice cooker may turn off before the rice has been exposed to a high enough temperature to cook properly. You can compensate for this with extra water so the rice boils longer–at 5000 foot elevation, use 3 cups of water per cup rice instead of 2.5. Consult the rice cooker instructions and contact the manufacturer if you are experiencing problems with undercooked rice at high altitudes.
• When your rice is nearly done, quickly raise the lid and throw in some broccoli.
• Use your rice cooker for oatmeal! 1 cup of oatmeal to 2.5 or 3 cups of water. Add apple pie spice, dried cherries & pineapples (from bulk food section), and a capful of vanilla extract. After cooked, add sliced almonds and peanuts and bananna. Now pour in 12 ounces of water to which you have stirred in (with a chopstick or wand mixer) half a cup of protein powder. The 22 grams of protein plus the oatmeal make this a fast and tasty nutrition dish. Try the protein powder and you will never again use milk on your cereal. Use natural Xylipure to sweeten, rather than sugar. One protein powder drink (which tastes like a milkshake) will take care of your hunger for 8 hours and is especially good for older people with low blood sugar.

Warnings

• Children can help clean the rice, but leave the rice cooker handling to the adults.
• Don’t overfill the rice cooker or else it will boil over and make a mess.
• If the rice cooker does not automatically keep the rice warm after it’s done cooking, you should consume or refrigerate it all as soon as it’s done to avoid food poisoning due to Bacillus cereus.[6]

Things You’ll Need

• Rice
• Rice cooker
• Water
• Measuring cup
• Spoon or paddle

Related wikiHows

• How to Cook Rice in a Microwave
• How to Cook Low Carb White Rice Without a Rice Cooker
• How to Microwave Refrigerated Rice
• How to Make Rice Cooker Bread
• How to Make Steamed Rice
• How to Make Indian Style Basmati Rice
• How to Make Fried Rice
• How to Make Spanish Rice

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/howtoselectaricecooker.htm
2. ↑ http://www.usarice.com/consumer/ricecookers.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.usarice.com/consumer/prep.html
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.zojirushi.com/user/scripts/user/recipe.php?recipe_id=23
5. ↑ http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question35.htm
6. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Restaurant Equipment Tips: Burnt Coffee in the Morning

Restaurant Equipment Tips: Burnt Coffee in the Morning

I love a good cup of coffee to start my day, but the morning can quickly slip by without anyone noticing that empty coffee pot baking on the heating plate…  What do you do about that burnt brew at the bottom?  I googled this question and found an answer I recall hearing once before (years ago–confided by a server at a steakhouse where I worked).  It may not exactly be a trade secret, but here’s a reminder about how to get those coffee pots sparkling: How to Clean a Blackened or Burnt Coffee Pot from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit Ever leave the coffee pot on over night? Can’t get rid of the discoloration at the bottom of your pot? This article will show you how. Steps Place 1 teaspoon of salt into the coffee pot. Add 2 cups of ice into the coffee pot. Swish around the solution to start melting the ice. If the ice isn’t melting, add a little bit of cold water into the coffee pot. Continue to swish the mixture in multiple directions. You should begin to see the burned color coming off of the pot. Tips If the pot is severely discolored you may have to repeat this several times, but eventually it will come clean. The swish motion is important. Make sure while you’re swishing that you are doing this over all the discolored areas. Missing areas will not get the pot entirely clean. Warnings When adding additional water, it is important that it is cold. Hot water mixed with the ice will cause the pot to crack or shatter. Salt and ice mixture on the skin can freeze it so make sure to keep them separate until you put it into the pot. Frostbite is painful and the skin can take several weeks to heal. Do not use cleanser, although it seems faster. Coffee pots often have lips that could hide a bit of the cleanser even when it is rinsed. Those bits could end up in your coffee. Think hygiene and not eating grit. This is especially important in restaurants where customers expect sterile equipment. Things You’ll Need A discolored coffee pot 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups ice Cold water Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Clean a Blackened or Burnt Coffee Pot. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.Serv-U proudly offers coffee makers and accessories by leaders in the industry (think the likes of BUNN brewers, Hamilton Beach urns, and Service Ideas French presses for example).  And if you’re ready to free your inner barista (hey, even McD’s is doing it!), we’ve got a great selection of grinders and espresso machines to choose from.  You’ll be producing latte art in no time!+                       = (Latte art pic courtesy of “adactio” on Flickr.)

Pizza Supplies

When you buy a pizza pan you should first consider what kind of pizza you want to make. Are you planning to make thin crust, deep dish, or thick crust? If you want to make a crispy thin crust pizza, I would recommend a perforated pan. Perforated pans are pans with several holes in them.  A couple of examples of these pans are the SuperPerf or the Mega Screen.  These pans allow a more evenly baked crust because they allow air to circulate beneath the crust. Therefore the pizza is crispier and the pizza stays fresher.  It also takes less time to cook the pizza with these pans.  Perforated pans are also good for frozen pizzas. Pizza stones are good for keeping your crust from getting soggy.  But if you don’t want your crust too done, it is probably a good idea to use a pizza screen in conjunction with your stone.  Pizza screens produce a more evenly baked crust. Another option for getting a crispier crust is getting pizza pans with “nibs” on them.   Any 2″ pan that American MetalCraft manufactures can be furnished with NIBS. The nibs are approximately 5/8” diameter and raise the pizza about 1/8” above the surface of the pan.  Raising the pizza off the surface allows moisture to escape and a fresher, crispier pizza may result.  Perforated pans, stones, and pans with nibs are definitely important pizza supplies to have. 

 

When cooking deep dish or pan pizzas, I recommend using special Deep Dish pans. They should be aluminum and be either 1” or 2” deep.   If you want the best, you should get the heavy weight aluminum pans.  You can get either round or square deep dish pans. One difference between thick crust pizza and pan pizza is that the thick crust pizza is often cooked on a pizza stone or a tile in the oven.   I hope you get an idea of what type of pan to use. If you need pizza pans or other pizza supplies you can find them at www.servu-online.com.  If you have any questions about pizza supplies you can call or chat online with a Serv-U sales rep.