Priscilla

Thank you. Looks very good, Jackal. The chilis are in my experience uncommon, excepting of course in full-on Indian chutneys like Suvir's incredible tomato chutney, which I will happily make when the beefsteaks get themselves ready. Would be a good addition -- the sweet-hot-sour flavor profile is irresistible. A lot of tomato-apple preserve recipes peel both fruits, although I think the skins, provided they are not in huge sticky sheets, add interest. And my vinegar would be cider vinegar, as you probably know malt is a precious commodity in the U.S., seen only in little shaker-top bottles for condiment use. Edit: No e, i not a.

No longer summer -- but preserving carries on. I have nice Anna apples and flavorful smallish tomatoes of unknown variety, and aim to make guess what tomato-apple chutney. (Ripe tomatoes; green preserving will come later -- Elizabeth David's green tomato and apple chutney is a fave.) I have not yet surveyed my books. Is this a preserve anyone's got any ideas on?

Ah yes, the old case of Gerolsteiner. 'Cept ours comes from Trader Joe's.

Jackal, in the wholemeal bread roughly what percentage is whole wheat flour and what is white (only from the starter, I assume)?

Yes yes interested -- watching bread bake is my idea of a good time. By whatever method suggests itself, but with a vote for Yahoo if you go with video.

What an beautiful array of bread-in-potential. Just inspiring, it is. Cleaning up bread dough is an endless task, there's always a bit more a bit more a bit more. Really one of the (many) tests of the baker's resolve, I think. As you said, Jackal, a rubber spatula for smooth-inside bowls and such, and a bench scraper for flat surfaces. Sometimes I think cool or only tepid water works better than truly warm, but this could be my imagination. And yes, get it on the dishcloth, and it, the dishcloth, is a goner.

Jackal, there is an excellent apple tart in La Cuisine de Mapie by the Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec, custard with embedded tiny dice of apple, sugar sprinkled over the surface to caramelize.

Thank you, Jackal. (Here is Jackal's Apple Pizza description of nearly a year ago upon which I've been ruminating.)

Wow this is wonderful, Jackal. If you get a chance will you enlarge on the onion gravy/confit -- a hybrid of onion gravy and onion confit? The single apple tree in my Southern California garden (Anna variety) seems to draw itself up a little ... will you make apple pizzas at your gathering? I have been planning to try to emulate that since you wrote of it before (was it in the blog?), and my apples are finally ready.

Maggie, I have two Dutch friends who would certainly appreciate the excellent suggestions thus far in this discussion. One thing that comes to mind is rissoles, ground meat patties. (There is a special seasoning packet available at Dutch groceries for these.) Characters eat them throughout the 800-some-odd pages of The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch, while all the other very interesting stuff is carrying on simultaneously. A suggestion I can make from hard experience is make sure you refill the old pepper grinder if you're having Dutch folks at your table. They do like their black pepper -- a legacy of the Dutch East India Company, I like to think.

Heather, on the jar front, specimens can often be found for cheap in charity or thrift shops, sometimes whole cases, sometimes quite new, sometimes beautiful older examples. As long as the jars are not cracked or chipped (inspect the rims closely for tiny chips) with new lids they are good to go.

OK, I got Mes Confitures ... looks pretty great. I also remembered, was reminded by the hundreds of green cherry tomatoes on the vines, about Paul Prudhomme's pickled green cherry tomatoes, for use mostly in martinis. I usually make them at the end of the season with those that won't have a chance to ripen, but all these hanging on the vines here at the beginning are sorely tempting!

And here's me thinking Laguna BEACH was "the OC's" "artists' enclave," when all along it's been L. Niguel. Somebody had better tell all the artists. Not to mention the sushi farmers.

Majorly digging catching up on this discussion. Heather, so glad you brought up Fine Preserving -- Trillium, I thought of it immediately when you mentioned small-batch preserving in particular ... I have tried may wonderful things over the years thanks to Mrs. Plagemann's revolutionary (to me at the time) small-batch philosophy. There is an M.F.K. Fisher-annotated reissue extant, which is interesting, but the original publication is a beautiful little book all by itself. And unusual and wonderful flavor profiles. Got a row of nearly triffidic towering Sungold and Sweet 100 cherry tomato vines burgeoning with green fruit just now, planted predestined for Mrs. Plagemann's Spiced Cherry Tomato Preserve, which is the BEST THING EVER with roast chicken, according to the Consort, who is an authority on roast chicken accompaniments. Also, got some beautiful Red Flame grapes I'm watching like a hawk, or at least like the local Scrub Jays, to be harvested at just the right moment for her Spiced Grapes, another great table relish with winter menus. I have remembered and forgotten about 20 times to get a copy of Mes Confitures -- must take care of that little problem TODAY. I am intrigued by the 80% sugar by weight ... I have always used 75% sugar by weight, and eschew pectin. This year's strawberry preserves, put up at peak of season, turned out very well, riffing on Mrs. Plagemann's instructions combined with those in the Ball Blue Book. And as for apricot, I think thyme is good apricot, and basil with peach. And on food safety: If the jars are clean but not pre-sterilized, doesn't a 10 minute water bath after filling also sterilize? I have usually sterilized the empty jars and then also processed in a water bath, but man wouldn't it be nice to eliminate one of these boilings.

Please to be explaining your last sentence? Um, use the ones not eaten with smoked oysters for pork chop breading as discussed earlier?

Oh my goodness the irrepressible uncompromising Marcella. I have learned so much from her! Like, about how to live. Thanks, Trillium, I must read this issue.

More notes from Saltine Nation-- Heather, I hope it works for you ... be sure to brine for a couple of hours, I think the brined-in juicifulness is key. Are Premium saltines Nabisco? Never have heard 'em called Nabisco before reading this discussion. My Dad was from the center of the Oklahoma panhandle, and saltines & chili were an immutable combination. He preferred Krispy brand, which came in stacks of big old 6-cracker sheafs, I think. It wasn't until I was buying my own saltines that I was able to indulge in Premiums and their perfection in squarity regularly, although they certainly were the standard among families other than mine. Most people don't even consider Krispys to be a saltine. Also I forgot perhaps the fave adult way to eat saltines In Today's World, which is as a raft for a canned smoked oyster to accompany a stiff 100% alcohol drinky like a Negroni. A good way to generate pork-chop-intended leftovers.

Oh my saltines are among the closest thing to perfection extant, I think. Mags I hope you are writing from the yes-saltine camp. And I keep learning things about them. Like, for instance, talking to a friend about how I don't buy saltines unless there is a Saltine Occasion on account of their irresistibility, and the concomitant problem of once a sleeve (funny how everybody calls it a sleeve, ain't it?) is opened how the crackers just aren't as wildly good the next day, no matter HOW nuclear-annihilation-proof one tries to store them, and she told me her Mom used saltines to bread pork chops before frying the living hell out of them in shallow oil. I said, I can use that. So I have, here in middle adulthood, crushed up day-old or older saltines and used them to coat nicely brined pork loin chops before frying gently in butter with plenty of salt and pepper, and it was one of the very best pork preparations ever ever EVER. Ever. And not even as homely as anticipated.

Hello Mario. I am on a continual and so far life-long quest for congruence between cookery and rock music. So far, there is precious little in the pointed ovoid intersection in the old figurative Venn diagram. You have from time to time been pictured playing a guitar. What are your thoughts on cooking and rock music, and any possible congruence?

Yes, it's that's California Franciscan Ivy, I got the set at a flea market for $35 as a student many years ago. It's really my favorite daily serving set. There plates are three different sizes, and there are 2 sizes of bowls. I have been looking for replacement pieces and some of the things like a soup tureen, sugar set, etc. I understand that a British manufacturer now produces it new, and that would be the logical place for me to get the pieces. Hey, thanks for asking! Ah, I thought it was the vintage CA stuff -- sure shows itself well. (As does all your tableware.) Wedgwood Group owns Franciscan and is still producing some of the patterns, I think, not sure about Ivy. Might make an interesting eBay survey.

The TdeV mold certainly looks fantastic in the photo -- but of course I defer to your judgment. The lentils are downright inspiring. And izzat Franciscan Ivy I see?

Wow what an incredible trip. Fifi, your pix are astounding and inspiring. Ain't afeard o' lard atall atall. But, I AM deathly afraid of veg shortening. Could I use all lard and still be in the realm of respectability? Reading about this dish, perhaps due to provenance and poultry, put me in mind of Craig Claiborne's Mother's Chicken Spaghetti ... same sense of Special Occasion (in the time before cheap chicken, particularly) and many servings. Mrs. Claiborne was preparing her Chicken Spaghetti at her Sunflower, MS, boarding house, if memory serves.

Wow, MM, what a beautiful sentiment. What a beautiful, exceedingly well-written sentiment. You are sososo lucky. However what is very nearly best is how you KNOW you're lucky, you know what I mean? And THAT, I believe, is how one can tell that your downright inestimable Mother did a very good job.

Thank you, Malawry. I am SO brining shrimp right quick here. On the salt front, on the salt-butter front, perusing the selection at Whole Foods for the first time in months, it seems, there was an English butter, of the famous Double Devon Cream, only butter. Roll shaped. "Lightly salted," according to the nice foil label. Superultradelicious! Cracking open our second roll tonight with an LBB baguette. Oh steak and frites and haricot verts, too, alongside.

Malawry, shrimp brined in fish sauce?! Yeow. Brillant! I have been chewing on the brining shrimp thing since you all were going on about it back at the Pig Pickin' ... could you elaborate on your shrimp preparation?