mikeycook

Safely is the operative word here. In my opinion (and by my standards), no. Bacteria thrive between 41 and 140 degrees. BUt you can cure duck safely in a refrigerator. When I get home later, if Mikeycooks doesn't mid, I'll post my recipe, technique, some background info on why I believe this method is safest and maybe a few pictures. Don't mind at all. I would love to see more recipes (in fact, I will probably go buy the Petersen book as well to have a third method). I have a series of professional charcuterie books by Marcel Cottenceau and for dried hams (somewhat similar process) it talks about an initial rubbing and resting period at around 41-44F, following by a drying and aging at 53-57F with 75-80% humidity. This is consistent with how most charcuterie is made in France and, I would assume, in the U.S. as well. That is what gave me the idea for the using the Eurocave. I am under the impression that it can be done safely in a wine cellar provided you have the proper humidity control. A true wine cellar would be even better that the Eurocave, because you can circulate the air a lot more easily. All the recipes seem to agree with the temperature range (at least I hope they wouldn't publish them if they were not safe). I would try one in your wine cellar following a recipe and if you have a problem, throw it out. That being said, I understand the concern about bacteria growth about 41F (harkening back to my ServSafe), but I also wonder if too low a temperature inhibits some of the natural chemical reactions needed to develop the flavor in the meat, however not having tried it I couldn't say. Certainly the refrigerator should be used for the initial salting period. There are a couple of other points I should also mention. 1. Paula specifies fresh breasts only (not frozen), so this is one requirement I have been following in all recipes. 2. The ideal PH level, at least in pork, is between 5-6.5. Too much water or too high acidity could cause problems. (I would assume the same is true of any meat being cured.) Not having a PH meter on hand, another possibility is that my meat had a PH that was too high. Perhaps I will try and get some test strips for my next test.

The duck ham seemed fine, had no off odors and tasted great, so I am not letting the mold worry me. I didn't realize that about Bayonne ham, but that makes me feel better since the process is similar (as far as an initial salting, following by hanging in a climate controlled environment.) I have two more hams that will be done in another 2 weeks. I will report on the mold growth on those as well.

The "marinade" is a dry-rub of salt and pepper (Paula's recipe) in one case and salt, pepper, coriander, and thyme (Danko's recipe) in the other. I had considered that I may need to increase the amount of salt and try again. I tried to avoid the refrigerator, because the Danko recipe specifically recommended against it, but I may try that as well (although it is hard to find any free swinging space in my refrigerator). :) The breasts do not touch each other in the Eurocave and are free-swinging, but I was wondering if the fan was necessary to inhibit mold growth (there is no real air circulation in the Eurocave - it is a 50 bottle wine cellar). We live in a one-bedroom apartment and there is no good place to hang the breasts in the living room (can't leave a window open because of the cat and my wife would object to decor anyway.) :-) Is the constant blowing of air on the breasts a key to inhibiting the mold growth? For what it's worth, I ate some of the meat after removing the mold (stupid I know) and didn't have any problems (it was a few days ago and I figured I would have gotten sick/died by now).

I recently made two different variations of duck ham, one the recipe for Air Dried Duck Breast in Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of South West France, the other the recipe for Duck Prosciutto from Gary Danko in Culinary Artistry. Given that I was using Moulard Duck breasts, I used the Danko recipe's recipe's specfications for marinating (including the amount of salt) and hanging (the Wolfert recipe calls for a smaller variety) and I marinated for 36 hours instead of the minimum 24 recommended. I made two breasts for by each method with the intent of hanging one of each for 15 days and one of each for 30 days. I wrapped them in several layers of cheesecloth and chose to hang them in my Eurocave, because the temperature and humidity seemed to be in line with the requirements of most dry-cured charcuterie. When I pulled the first pair of breasts out, both had a bit of mold growing on the meat side of the breast. It was easy to scrape away and the rest of the breast was fine, but, obviously, the mold was a cause for concern. I was left with the following possibilities. 1. While the breasts were able to hang freely, perhaps the Eurocase does not provide enough air circulation or perhaps the humidity level was still too high. 2. The cheesecloth was not thick enough or not wrapped tightly enough (although I wrapped it in several layers) or perhaps it was too thick and didn't allow enough air circulation. 3. The mold was natural, similar to the molds that develop on dried sausages as they age. 4. Some other problem I haven't thought of. I am less tempted to think #3 is the right answer (and, besides, figured it best to rule out everything else first). None of the recipes I have found speak to this as a potential problem. Has anyone else made either of these recipes or had a similar experience. If anyone has made duck ham, by this or any other method, can you tell me the conditions under which you marinate and hang the breasts and whether you have had any issues?

How about Quail?

Someone can perhaps give greater detail on this, but Vietnamese cuisine is heavily influenced by France, due in large part to their long-term occupation. The same can be said of Thailand and countries in other parts of the world where the French had strong influence, like Lebanon.

So, when are we going to see more episodes? Do we have to wait for a while or are they currently taping more? Seems like a lot of effort to have the four episodes, do all that promotion, then lose audience by not having more in the queue.

I miss La Colombe d'Or. It was the first upscale place I went when I moved to New York and one of the first places I went with my wife (obviously when she was my girlfriend.) More recently, I was disappointed when Clementine closed (Otto is now in the space) because it was one of the best delivery options (Kumquat) we had. It's nice that Otto delivers now, but I miss some of the healthier options from Kumquat.

Prepping... Billie Holiday If I am actively working with a flame.... Hendrix. If I am slow simmering or using the oven... Beethoven. Plating... Motown (or 60s soul, like Otis Redding).

Thin pancetta wrapped around oysters is another nice option (bacon works too, but I find the smokiness of the bacon can overpower the oyster flavor.) Frankly, I love any opportunity to pair shellfish with pork.

Not sure it counts as a gizmo, but my newest fun kitchen toy is an asparaus peeler. I have been making Paula Wolfert's Asparaus w/Asparaus Sauce recipe a lot recently and it is a huge help.

People who are more intimately familar with search engines than I will have to comment further, but from what I understand, Google's algorithms take a number of things into account before pulling up its results. Although one of them is no doubt the registered keywords and metatags which the website designer should have taken care, also very important is how many people visit the page, how many links there are to the page, and other indicators of a page's popularity. I suspect just that no one uses their webpage (for info about the restaurant, hours, phone number, etc.) and they haven't bothered to link to many other web pages. A few points on search engine placement for Google (gleaned from my own experience). 1. To get on Google, you usually have to make a submission to dmoz.org, which Google uses as a database (unless your web site is affiliated with another site with a Google relationship, like Adsense). Based on this, Google will come and spider your site. 2. The number of sites that link to your site is a major factor, as is the ranking of THOSE sites at Google. One of the best ways to improve your ranking is to get links to your site from sites that already rank highly on Google for the keyword(s) you are targeting. The more prominent the link on their site, the higher the ranking. 3. Google looks at the URL, page title, text headers and first few paragraphs of a page to do their ranking. In my experience they ignore meta tags (some search engines use them, others don't). For instance, if you wanted to come up highest on the word "lobster" and you owned a restaurant called "Bob's Seafood House" in Portland, ME, the following would be the idea way to organize your homepage. URL: www.lobster.com or www.lobsterhouse.com. Page Title: Lobster in Portland, ME at Bob's Seafood House Page Header (i.e. first major headline, best if it's an HTML H1 tag): Lobster is king at Bob's First Paragraph: Lobster, steamers, and fish are caught daily at Bob's Seafood House...blah, blah, blah In this example, Lobster is the first word in each category, which would be ideal. A lot of restaurants just put the name of their restaurant in the title, which limits their search engine effectiveness. By putting lobster and portland in the page title before the name of the restaurant in this case, one would be more likely to get matches from people who are searching for lobster in portland and not just people searching for Bob's (who are most likely already familiar with it and will find it by other means if they can't find the web site). (This is obviously a very simplistic example, since most sites want to come up under multiple key words.)

Probably not the most typical thing, but I like to make a potato-leek soup for myself when I am sick. It is simple, tastes good, and it relatively easy to make if you don't want to spend too much time on your feet, plus I usually have all of the ingredients on hand. I love Chicken-Matso Ball soup as well as other types of chicken soup, but when I am sick I am definitely ordering it rather than making it.

We had a large party in the garden at Gascogne for my wife's 30th birthday, so I would have to wholeheartedly endorse them for Southwest cuisine. Provence (on MacDougal in SoHo) has (obviously) Provencal cuisine. I am sure there are probably a couple of other Provencal spots in NYC, but right now I am drawing a blank on them.

Thanks for the great tip. I just picked up 6 of them ($18 for $125 worth of gift certificates.) Can't thank you enough. :-)

That didn't seem to be a problem with ICJ. Do they film the episodes so far in advance that this is a serious concern?

Does anyone know who the upcoming challengers might be? Is there a published schedule anywhere (didn't see anything on FoodTV.com)?

If that is the reason for the curious reactions, it is unfortunate, because it really took away from any genuine tension IMHO.

Not to be overly cynical, but my wife and I watched all of the episodes over the weekend and came away with the distinct impression that these first episodes were not on the up-and-up. The comments from the judges often seemed at odds with the final result, not just the winning and losing, but the margin of victory as well, which was quite large, particularly in the Batali-Morimoto and Puck-Morimoto battles. What really surprised us was the reactions of Sakai and Morimoto, who acted almost like they expected to lose (they almost seemed jovial in defeat.) It makes a certain amount of sense that the Food Network would not want their new Iron Chefs to taste defeat the first time out and the whole weekend felt a lot more like a passing of the torch and coronation of the new Iron Chefs than a real competition. I realize the judges weren't the most enlightened group I've ever seen, but the results and reactions seemed a lot more scripted than we would have expected.

Speaking on a personal basis, I am thrilled that the stench of old fish will no longer be part of the neighborhood. Standing to the north and west of the market is not the type of thing that makes you want to eat fish.

My last dining experience at Bouley was probably 18 months ago and, while overall I probably would rate my experience then a little higher than yours, I wholeheartedly agree that the "Kobe Beef" is a disappointment, particularly when you are paying an additional for it. Sounds like something that should come off the menu entirely. Over the years I have enjoyed a number of meals at Bouley, and the Kobe Beef is probably the biggest clunker I have had (and it was the same preparation).

My wife and I just came back from Savannah, GA and had a great time. Excellent hotels and B&Bs, delicious low-country food (particularly recommend Elizabeth on 37th St.) Very relaxing. We have a house in the Hudson River Valley, so I would second that as well, particularly if you can get a table at the CIA (good luck.) :-)

I am a huge fan of Les Santons in Grimaud, which is inland from St. Tropez. They have 1 Michelin star.

I have also made the Keller foie gras "au torchon" and thought it was wonderful. One of the most interesting foie gras dishes I have had recently was at L'Impero in NYC. It was a green apple risotto with foie gras and balsamic reduction. The risotto was light and creamy with a slice of seared foie gras on top and balsamic reduction poured around the rim of the place (so it sunk into the sides of the risotto). The creaminess of the risotto, richness of the foie gras, and sweet and sour notes of the balsamic and green apple were a wonderful combination.

Also, I must say that any bagel that tries to immitate a potato chip flavor is a bad idea (i.e. sour cream and onion).