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I think this is what happened. When the meat thawed, it realized it was situated in an entirely different magnetic field from where it started, so it tried to head back home. Unfortunately, only the water was able to escape in time.

I don’t think I have frozen them.

On our way back from Spain on Tuesday we stopped at Besançon to refuel the car and pick up some cheeses, that finally made our dinner tonight… From 12 o’clock: Roquefort, St. Maure, Le Chevrot, Langres, Rocamadour, Comte and a Petit Billie in the middle. Pickled gherkins, olives, artichoke hearts and red beets on the side. And also some pâté to go with it … And made some baguette - simple poolish-raised dough, then folded in some extras (from the left): Walnut/cranberry (unfortunately not scored deeply enough), caramelized onion, dried tomato/olive & “au nature” No complaints 🤗

I made another roasted veg salad from the Good Things matrix: roasted sweet potato wedges, lentils, pickled red onion, goat cheese and Calabrian chili crisp on baby kale & frisée lightly dressed with house dressing. The Calabrian chile paste from Good Things is kind of a PITA to make. At first, I thought I’d just as soon but one of the many ready-made versions, but it’s growing on me and the crispy crunch from all the nuts and seeds is especially nice in this salad. Not sure why @Darienne hasn’t arrived yet. Perhaps she is waiting for @Smithy to give her a lift in the Princessmobile?

I would soak them first, to rehydrate and remove any dirt/dust, then chop them to add to your dish. The soaking liquid can be strained and used as well.

Hello All, Started making bean to bar chocolate back in October on a whim, thought that was going to be the main pursuit, but now I've been bitten by the bonbon bug. Particularly inspired by Dubovik's techniques and have tried a few of them out as well as others I've seen posted here and on Instagram. I appreciate all of the great info that members of this forum have offered, and I've learned a great deal in a short time from perusing various topics, so thanks for that. Here are a few that I like.... Cheers, Phil

I have some dried mushrooms. What happened is that I forgot them in the fridge, but they were packaged properly so no mould. Can I just blitz them in the food processor and add to any old casserole?

I wonder if some of that has to do with how cooked it became during frying... meaning muscle tissue is mostly water. If you grill a steak to medium rare, you're only desiccating the outer edge, leaving most of the water content intact. But with ground beef, how do you know when it's done? If it's done so that it's browned and crispy, much more of the water content would be removed than in the steak example. On a side note, most recipes that I've seen using ground beef have you fry until browned, and then some water is reintroduced, the pan covered and cooks for a few minutes so that the water is absorbed - it's not saucy, but the meat is much more moist. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think it has anything to do with the meat being on sale...

"Lean ground beef" has no real definition in markets in the USA at least. Here the fat/lean percentages are front and center on the package, though if they're by weight or by volume I don't know. 80/20 is common, you see 90/10 and 75/25 around as well. If it is getting crumbled into tiny bits and fried I'd expect to lose almost all of the fat and some water too...

Did you try this, @ElsieD ?

This is old, but no one answered me. Advice please?

Yesterday Ed bought some New Zealand 'lean ground beef' on "Special" (aka: on sale) 450 g. 2 packages, total weight 900 g. He fried them on the stove in the normal fashion and the after cooked weight was 573 g. That's a loss of 37.5%. In US terms, that's 32 oz of meat and left with 20 oz after cooking. Of course there's always expected to be some water in the meat...but so much? Was there more because the meat was on sale? Is it ever worthwhile buying meat on sale or is so much loss simply to be expected, no sale or sale? All thoughts on the subject are welcome.

I find it very annoying that after Christmas you can't find Cranberry and White chocolate shortbread cookies, or at least not the ones made by a local bakery and carried in a number of grocery stores. They taste homemade. It is almost like someone made a rule that shortbread is only served during the Christmas holiday period. So I had no choice but to bake a batch this morning. My idea of breakfast. Cranberries and Callebaut white chocolate, chopped into chunks. Moe just told me these are better than the ones I was missing.

and those ribs were placed on the Yoder ; along w a turkey breast . these were wrapped . hopefully Ill get a final pic. BTW : The WHPS has moved , just a mile or two . Now it has its own beach and , as they call it in New England , a Groyne : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groyne looking forward to some fishing in the Spring. then a trip to Bleu : its the Official WHPS Restaurant. The view from WHPS at dawn.

after the trim. tallow ?

Indeed there was.

Hello @JAZ, I have many of your cookbooks which I dip into regularly. Shortly I'll be having major surgery, so I'm wanting to pre-cook meals and freeze them. Could you please suggest what to consider when choosing between your recipes for which dishes will freeze best? Right now I'm intrigued by @Smithy's post for Instant Pot: Spicy Chickpeas with Sundried Tomatoes and Olives. How well does that freeze? (I'm not a very knowledgeable freezer) TIA

Do you freeze this dish after you've cooked the beans? (Thanks. You popped up in my research for freezable meals.)

As an afterthought to the Christmas 2025 thread, I'll mention that my rocket-scientist friend (the one I'd visited with on NYE) brought me a calendar as a small gift. What kind of calendar, you ask? Why, one with images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, of course. What else? https://lroc.im-ldi.com/images/downloads ETA: Not food-related, I know, unless you subscribe to the whole "moon=cheese" hypothesis, but I'd missed my chance to sneak it in with a food-oriented post, and thought some of y'all might still find the images pretty cool.

@ElsieD, we had lots of lore about great British pies, so a reverence for them (deserved or not). The Pie Room pays tribute, and develops wholly new content, I think. Lots of Dutch favourite cooking in your youth?

A chicken stew that a friend brought me. Good winter supper!

The book is interesting but the title perhaps somewhat misleading. It's basically a recipe book of classic French cooking as cooked in a 2 Michelin star restaurant by French chef. Certainly not a guidebook for beginners as you have described yourself.

My usual Saturday night catch up with the other Caroline changed to Friday this week. Taramasalata, dolmades, crudités and pita bread. Enough.

Mine were in occupied Holland.

I don't know. I'm just glomming on the photos. And finding the text charming. Famous British pies! (My parents were in London in WWII).