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A customer asked me if I had made any chestnut bonbons. I have not but I do think that it is an interesting idea. Has anybody made one or tasted one that they like? Any favorite brands of chestnut puree? Please help.

I'm a metric lad as well!

I used to make menudo for my husband all the time. I wouldn't touch it with a 10-ft pole but he loved it. I used the pig's feet in that. A Puerto Rican friend suggested that I soak both the pig's feet and tripe in one to one lemon juice and water for several hours. It made a big difference in the flavor and especially in the smell while it was cooking.

Dinner # 4 : and checking on the TB : This was 4 dinners , as I cut the TB ( 20.4 oz ) into 4 portions . The carrots were on bag of ' babies ' Broccoli 2 large heads. as an aside the carrots ( re-heated ) and broccoli -first time around. the broccoli for me was fine 2 1/2 min micro , trimmed a little , cold from the refig. the carrots did fine @ 2 minutes . but there were still a little wet . not as much as dinner # 1. I also pan sauted the TB 3:30 min each side , 30 seconds more . still a tinge rare , but not vey very rare . and improvement . I learned a lot , and once i get the carrots under control, a tasty winner for me. I thought i iPot'd them , pressure steam HP , from the refrigerator , 4 min. but I didnt keep track in The Red Book ( engineering lined ) , my Bad. the ref's I pulled up suggested 2 min HP seam , quick release . the outer 1/2 was cooked , a little wet , and the inner still a bit firm, , at what ever time I used. next bag : Ill pull the carrots out , quickly rinse in cold water , then pat dry and put under a preheated CSO broiler to both dry out a bit , get a little color , and finish cooking the core. tasty each dinner was , w significant improvement over the 4.

with any innards / trotters, we boil them (rolling boil) for 5-7 minutes in vinegar+salt+water first. It removes most of the stench. About 2 Tbsp of vinegar (5% acidity) to a liter of water. I am sorry I cannot define this in the US system. Then drain, rinse, use as new.

Most likely they were off to begin with. Yes, trotter do have a certain smell, but soaking (in salted water) and blanching has always given me a product to work with. Try maybe a proven recipe with oroper seasoning next time, maybe with a fresh batch. I’d highly recommend Fergus Hendersons trotter gear (a somewhat 1:1 copy of the recipe can be found at Serious Eats). Good luck !

Thank you for sharing this. I thought I'd seen Itami's entire catalogue, but somehow this one got by me. Until now.

Well minding my own business , watching NFL on my over-the-air computer feed ( I get to scroll over the commercials ) this came up as I was hurrying buy : and dinner was a few hours away moved up a bit. Arby's https://www.arbys.com/menu/top-picks/steak-nuggets-5pc/ no doubt excellent food photography , and outlandishly misrepresentation . probably round ? Soooooo : who is going to take one for the team and report back ? wonder what they charge Big Macs in some places cost $ 7 . P.S.: found this: https://www.thetakeout.com/1987564/arbys-steak-nuggets-review/ ''' The meat was not juicy, but instead dry and stringy. '' they seem to go for $ 5.99 soo , unless you've already tried them , consider putting you $ 5.99 elsewhere ?

I think I'll leave them to the professionals in future. I had Kauffman's stuffed trotter many moons ago but I lack the skill and knives to debone one myself

well, a surprise . we will have to wait and see what @Duvel says about pigs feet.

A valiant effort. I only use pigs feet for one recipe…… trotter spring rolls which are phenomenal. So unctuous. From Michel Richard (RIP) .But those feet…so much work to get the little bones separated from the fat and cartilage. The asian flavours in the springs rolls mask any barnyard odors. They are a rainy Sunday afternoon project.

Nuwave and Salton came up in my searches for "with probe" Salton seems to be 'only x left' on most sites - are they still a viable company? the Nuwave - at 1/10th the price - looks like a decent alternative . . .

They were fresh yes and well within the use by date. They smelt a bit farmyardy coming out of the package, but cooking them seemed to really enhance that element in spite of a thorough clean and blanch. Coupled with a very sparse amount of meat and a bit too much jellied cartilage and skin for my palate and I rather lost my appetite.

@Ddanno these were not smoked ? ' fresh ? ' what did they smell like initially ?

I'd never heard of Tate's Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies until Michael Ruhlman mentioned them on his Substack, so I thought I'd try Stella Parks' copy-cat recipe... Mine baked darker than Tate's/Parks', probably because of the dust from using chopped chocolate rather than chips; they also spread more, which might be down to differences in French flour/butter/sugar. I quite liked them: thin, crispy, chocolatey... job done.

I thought I'd try pig's trotters - 2 quid for two, what could go wrong? After a 3 hour soak in cold water, a 5 minute blanch, a scrub, another 5 minute blanch in fresh water followed by 90minutes in the Instant Pot with star anise, clove, ground fennel seed, garlic, ginger and soy they still came out stinking of the farmyard and were promptly abandoned. It's duck for me tonight.

I just throw the uncooked bacon in and after cooking you can keep it or toss it. It is just for flavour. I use olive….a couple of tablespoons but i might try Naomi’s recipe. Thanks for finding that which describes long cooked beans perfectly. RIP Naomi

@Okanagancook, I believe you put bacon into this dish. Do you cook the bacon first? Do you add olive oil?

I almost copied @Duvel with a pack of noodles but went with something even easier - poached eggs on toasted sourdough “buttered” with 'nduja

Leftover apple crisp for breakfast. Mrs. C made it with equal parts apples and crisp - the perfect ratio.

As I posted over in the dinner thread, we had Perfect Manhattans the other night... What I didn't mention was that I found a few bottles of this classic white-label Pikesville Rye, 80 proof, out of production since about 2016 in favor of the 110 Proof stuff Heaven Hill is now making. When I was driving back and forth to DC, I would often stop at a liquor store at the state line of Maryland; I think this stuff waws about $11 a bottle back then, and you could get a handle of it for about $15.

I have had the Freak for numerous years. If it died, I would run, not walk for a suitable replacement. I may not replace it with another Freak, but it would be something with "temperature" control and a probe.

Just found interesting notes from Naomi Pomeroy, famous for her work at Beast in Portland, Oregon. Not sure how much I can copy here without copyright violation: Long cooking vegetables is something of a lost art, Long cooking calls for a very low temperature and lots of olive oil to bring out all of the natural sweetness of the vegetable. I cannot overstate the importance of keeping the oil over very low heat Long-Cooked Green Beans | Naomi Pomeroy, Taste magazine

Two nights ago: Started with perfect Manhattans. This became penne with assorted mushrooms ( a la Marcella). Last night: A great version of Chicken Scarpariello, using Kenji's method of finishing the dish in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes. The chicken cooks through, while the skin becomes nice and crisp, as it cooks above the liquid below. A couple of caveats to Kenji's method: 1. There's no way this is a quick, easy, Tuesday night meal. I actually used chicken thighs which I had cut in half, salted, and rested in the refrigerator over 2 nights. Sure, you don't have to do that part, but it makes the dish measurably better. 2. There's no way I'd use 8 hot cherry peppers. The cherry peppers I get are really hot; 8 would make the dish inedible, in my opinion. Although I suppose you could use sweet cherry peppers, for a different version. Otherwise, go to town.

Breakfast of lazy champions, Sunday “hangover”* edition … Couple of extras … Spicy 🌶️ ___ * of course I wasn’t hung over. But my former self, that occasionally was, would have enjoyed this tremendously, too …