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There are many paths to deliciousness, and I have no doubt that @TdeV's roast is going to be delicious. Those photos look *TASTY.* I realize I'm late to the party and the roast is already in the oven, but my informed a priori thought would be to do a pre-sear (if you can) and then wrap the whole shabangalang in foil, then put the foil on the grate in the cooking vessel and cook it in the APO. Using foil is sort of like doing the "Texas crutch" in BBQ-land; seal the meat up so there's no evaporation and cook it slow and low until tender. The "wrap it in foil" APO suggestion comes from Dave Arnold's comments about doing extended cooks in the APO.... you'll want to have a barrier between the food and the steamy environment because if there's any sort of water soluble flavor on the outside of the meat, it will drip out when the steam condenses on it and drips down. I might use a cooling rack set over a brownie dish or something. If you do it that way, there should be enough convection around the foil package that you shouldn't need to worry about flipping it. Once the roast comes out, I'd let it rest, pat it dry, oil it up with some salt and pepper, and then throw it in the APO cranked up all the way in air fry mode. At least if I was going for a conventional roasty exterior. Since I linked to the ChefSteps chuck roast video, I just wanted to add that I've never had much luck making pan sauces with bag juices the way that they show in the video. That might just be a skill issue on my part, but cooking the junk in the bag has never yielded good eats for me. For jus, I just take beef stock and season it with Minor's beef base and it tastes "restaurant-y". Chefsteps's egg white herb crust finishing technique is a nice way to put some herbs on the meat and have them stay in place. But in the summer time, I'd probably be blasting this with chimichurri and wasabi rather than using woody herbs like rosemary and thyme.

Yes it is definitely sad. The hurricanes destroyed most of it, and some is growing back, but as I am sure you know, it is a long, slow process, and some places have seen more growth than others. The overly warm ocean water is not helping matters. Yesterday we finally had a chance to revisit Caneel Bay beach for the first time since the hurricanes in 2017. The National Park has fenced off the ruins and created a path to the beach using the old paved walkways of the resort. The destruction was still shocking to see up close after all these years. This was one of the restaurants, housed in the sugar mill on the old plantation grounds The boiling tower chimney cracked in the storms but is still standing And here are the remnants of some of the resort rooms The entrance to the one reopened public beach (five of the seven beaches on the resort property are still inaccessible due to dangerous conditions) The beach is still beautiful, peaceful and calm. We once stayed in a room on that point you can see. All traces of it are gone now. The last time we were on this beach, that big sea grape you can see was about four feet tall Here are a couple of snorkeling photos. Lobster hiding Feather duster worm and coral Mid phase French angelfish Stoplight parrotfish Grouper eating an octopus Beautiful flamboyant tree that we saw on our walk out Dinner was at STJ Speakeasy. Menu Drinks. I think we have two margaritas and a cucumber wasabi cocktail of some sort. There were no mocktails which was a little disappointing. I remember having something nice here last year. We shared three starters. A wahoo seveche with plantain A special of hogfish crudo and the tuna rose from the menu All were fantastic. We could not decide which we liked best.The sun set as we finished our appetizers This is really boring, but all five of us got the same thing for dinner, the catch of the day (grouper). It had a fantastic green curry sauce, which is hidden behind the fish in this photo. We shared two desserts, a chocolate cremeux with nougat and a flambéed pineapple with ice cream This was a fantastic meal, and will be hard to beat.

Despite being rainy and cool, my favorite summer meal again. (Nevermind that a roast or stew would have been welcome, the calendar says it's summer!) Afterwards, partner said "new blt rule, we make 3 each, not 2." Who am I to argue that logic!

Its pretty bad looking, isn't it?

@weinoo Indeed. however , I plate better than that , do not even try , and charge less.

For anyone who might wonder, Louisette was one of the authors of Mastering the Art!

As a once-famous chef once said: "Take it to the plate." Eel Bar Foul Witch is not so much how beautiful the food looks on the plate, but how beautiful it tastes once in the mouth!

raspberries . ' Wild ' at best i get 2 - 3 / year. birds or other Locals get the rest. almost none ripened last year.

I am certainly not a caramel expert, but I have never had caramel crystallize. Can you provide your recipe for the raspberry?

@weinoo that sea bream plating leaves a lot to be desired. but im sure it was tasty.

Foil looks fine , just keep it loose. you might not have to flip it so many times you can tell by how the top looks. thank you for the pics. its going to be very tasty and tender.

During all the packing and prepping for moving, I found a box of cookbooks that I'd packed in 2009 and it never got unpacked when we moved here! I made myself wait until I got it to the new place before I opened it. It had the cookbook with the recipe I have searched high and low for for several years! This was what I was making for 13 people when I first spilled the apples all over the floor. Then when Don went to buy more, goose fat dripped in the oven and started a fire. Don got home to every door and window open, smoke alarm blasting, dog barking and me nearly in tears. I got the fire out immediately, goose was unharmed and it was a delicious dinner after all. Not sure I'd make it again. It was a lot of work. I had working hands and a lot more energy back then!

I hadn't intended to have pizza this week. But when I went to Sprouts for bread, I spied the brand of frozen pizza I loved that I used to get from my milkman. The dairy hasn't carried it in a very long time and I've not found it elsewhere. So, they had the brand but only cheese-stuffed crust. I decided to give it a try. The crust is the same crust I fell in love with. Just has cheese in it. But not so much that it is greasy or gooey. I added a few pepperoni because I have some in the freezer to use up and sprinkled a bit of cheese over. I'm delighted and hope Sprouts continues to carry it!

Stumbled upon this topic in the right time. I'm going to make a cherry sorbet on Friday. However, it has Brix : 18° +/-2°B. I'm going to measure it when I get home though to get the exact reading. But how do I recalculate the base recipe? I feel like I should understand it, but my brain doesn't right now. Maybe I'll figure it out later, but just throwing it out if it's just as simple calculation that someone know.

I have that book, but I didn't read it too much as it used your American units - if I'm not mistaken. 😀 Let's revisit and see what I can learn from it. My main issue with only reading etc is that I believe I do everything right, and the sugar still crystallize at times. Like I made this raspberry caramel, to use for my special take on a Snickers, and the sugar crystallized after like a week. Whhhhhhyyy? Yeah, I probably messed up.

Some of the worst misrepresenting images of food advertising. The promise: Jianbing - Breakfast Pancakes What they served: No comment. I'm speechless.

Most Yunnan mushrooms are wild and so foraged. They can be rather rare and seasonable and therefore on the pricy side but price also vary widely with the season and the harvest. One of the more common is 鸡纵菌 (jī zòng jūn), chicken mushrooms, umbrella mushrooms and sometimes termite mushrooms. The latter name is important , but somewhat misleading, in that there are many species called that. The Termitomyces family to which they all belong contains 52 types. The importance lies in that they grow in a symbiotic relationship with termites. In other words, they feed each other. They grow in Yunnan, but also in Guizhou and here in Guangxi on termite mounds in the mountain areas. It is said that there are seven varieties in Yunnan. I have access to these three. This 👆 is known just as chicken mushroom as it is the most common. These 👆 are 'torch chicken mushrooms'. And these 👆 are open umbrella mushrooms, Termitomyces albuminosus. Care must be taken when foraging these as they can easily be mistaken for Chlorophyllum molybdites, which are poisonous and can causes potentially serious vomiting and diarrhea. They are the most consumed poisonous mushroom in North America. All these are simply fried, often with ham, and often used in soups where they can take long cooking. Some people think they taste like chicken; others like enoki mushrooms. I’m in the middle. I find that mildly sweet with a slightly crunch texture 黑皮鸡枞菌, black skin chicken mushrooms are a related cultivated variety which are more widely available in recent years.

Everything I know about caramel I learned from @Chocolot

Couple of dinners out this past weekend. Friday night - the new Ops Pizza, on 2nd Avenue in the East Village (the original is in Bushwick, Brooklyn.) Known for both their pizza and their well-curated natural wine list, it was a place i always wanted to try, but failed to get to the Brooklyn location. Now that it is within walking distance, we went on opening weekend. I always have to order a classic Margherita - and this one did not disappoint. And we had a calzone, which was fine, if not terribly exciting. We did start with (no picture) fritto misto, an excellent platter of beautifully fried shrimp, haddock and some veg. Cocktails were good, and the wine by the glass selection was fine. We'll be back for more. Saturday night was dinner at Foul Witch, which interestingly enough was borne from the loins of Roberta's, another Bushwick stalwart, which also begat the much lauded (and sadly, now closed) Blanca, as well as Heritage Radio Network. We started by sharing the excellent focaccia, along with a plate (a huge plate, I might add) of the Finocchiona. Pastas followed, with Significant Eater enjoying the wonderful Chitarra with bottarga and yours truly, the lumache pomodoro, another fine dish. We were stuffed, but able to share the roasted sea bream... No room for dessert, but we were comped two glasses of the house amaro, and left happy for the walk home. And last night, back to local fave Eel Bar, where my only picture was taken early on... Eggs mayo, white prawns, burger, half chicken and cheesecake were all consumed.

A quick late-day update: Ivy gave us a litter of 10 kits, and Hester popped out 13. So far we're at 6 quail and counting, so we'll see what the morning brings (it typically takes a solid 24 hours or so after the first one hatches before we know how many will make it).

It's been awhile. Today the 15th July, I received Ammi's Kitchen: Heirloom Recipes from Rampur by Pernia Qureshi. The book came out in India in June 2025. I managed to pool together tips money from cooking for a few families I serve. It took 11 days transit. Book arrived immaculately perfect, complete absence of any cosmetic defects! Corners are sharp, you can poke an eye out! If it arrived with cosmetic damages, e.g noticeable rubbing or dents/dings, etc, I know Cold Books will exchange with a copy that meets my stringent specs. It is currently my 45th book in my collection of regional South Asian (Desi) cuisine. Most of my books are are purchased from Cold Books in NYC. They are aware of me as one of their loyal customers of repeated business going back to March 2023. 🙂 It is not yet released in the US. I think it will be available April 2026 for North America, UK, etc. If you're the US, indie seller "Cold Books" from NYC on Biblio book marketplace has a few copies already on US-soil. Please excuse the reflections; book is covered in Brodart mylar.

Have had quite an experience trying to do a chuck roast sous vide (after success with a pork roast sous vide). The beginning of this discussion starts here (and has some direct response from Anova Culinary):

I took some ideas from ChefSteps video referenced 3 posts up. Removed most of the fat and gristle which made 6 pieces which were laid out on this as follows Granulated garlic from Penzeys, salt, and 8 pepper blend from SpiceTrekkers added Placed in cooking vessel Then, per @rotuts, covered with a strip of aluminum foil, but . . . should the foil be closer to the top of the meat? Please advise if I should stick the foil closer to the meat inside the vessel. Also rotuts said to flip halfway, but that will be in the middle of the night; so, roast went in at 2:30 pm and I plan to flip at 9 pm, then next whenever I get up (5:30 ish). Then I could flip again at 11:30 ish?

@ElsieD , @curls Yes that’s correct , they are now King Arthur Baking.

Any version of Amazon does the same. Not just UK. Using the one relating to your own country is generally more likely to give goods available locally. Amazon.com : spice books