bleachboy

Unfortunately, I've never been far enough out west for a long enough time to actually try one of these fabled burgers.

Yikes! The location in Nashville is the first Houston's, so maybe it's cheaper for posterity or something. (Also you can get a G&T at Houston's, not so at McDonalds! ) The best burger in Nashville is at Sunset Grill, though. Kobe beef burger for like $9.95 -- sweet! I bet Sean Brock at Capitol Grille would also do a kickass burger if you asked him to. Maybe one day I will.

Somebody please tell me something about induction cooktops. Is this something you just plug into the wall, kind of like a hot plate, and then you set the temperature (JerzyMade's 190 F sounds like a good stock-simmering temp) and leave it be? If so, that's great. Put it in a GFP outlet and your worries are over!

Sorry to disagree with you, but what you'd actually have is a restaurant that a) charged at least 10 bucks for a hamburger or b) was losing money hand over fist. The cost of running a restaurant and the amount of competition around aren't close to what they were like in the 60s. There are plenty of options for better quality hamburgers and fries, with better service and cleaner dining rooms, but people simply don't want to pay that much for a fast food hamburger. I see restaurants such as the one you described go out of business every day in my city. ← I disagree. If I remember correctly, the original McDonald's ONLY sold hamburgers and french fries. Probably some sort of beverage, too. There was no breakfast menu, no filet o' fish, no McNuggets, no salads, etc. etc. If the restaurant sells only one thing and does it so well that people flock there, they can charge a very cheap price for their product and still make a tidy profit. That's just economics. Look at hot dog vendors, for example. There are still such establishments, by the way. Fat Mo's in Nashville is a good example of a local hamburger stand that has expanded to multiple restaurants, all of which offer up fabulous burgers for under $5. Admittedly, I prefer Houston's, which serves up a totally kick ass burger for about $8.

Vas is dat?

Well, I've heard conflicting reports. Can't say anything about headcheese, but I've heard souse described as either everything on the pig's head that isn't otherwise usable, and I've heard it described as everything on the pig (in general) that isn't usable. I've tried it, but my taste buds aren't sophisticated enough to know whether there was some tail in there, etc.

Ugh! A lesson learned the hard way!

My CURRENT top five flavorings: Salt Pepper Paprika Wasabi Horseradish My ALL-TIME top five flavorings: Salt Pepper Butter Lemon Garlic

I know this is the "Pennsylvania" forum and all, but we don't have scrapple in the South. We do, however, have "souse", which sounds like the same thing ... Is it?

Priceless!!

Well, I make a really teriffic red sauce, and that's what I'd be using the tomatoes for eventually anyway, so I think your suggestions make sense. I'll probably spend all day seeding, browning meats and simmering, but then I can put the sauce in a ton of pint-size containers, deep freeze 'em, and have a years' supply of sauce. Thanks for your help!

So I'm in my new house, and finally close to Costco. So I went and got a membership and loaded up my basket. I couldn't resist buying two cans of peeled whole San Marzano tomatoes. However, they're like 6 1/2 pound cans. What do y'all suggest I do with such a beast? If I open the can and only use 1-2 pounds of the tomatoes, can they be frozen, especially if I go ahead and drain and deseed them? Should I opt to make something like a tripled recipe of red sauce in my huge stockpot, then take it over to my mother-in-law's house for the deep-freeze? Or something else?

I go through butter like it was water. Ordering information?

And they are GOOD reading indeed! I want to take him up on his offer mentioned in the "German" catalog, "Let us write your order for you". How do I get in touch? It's illegal to ship person-to-person straight into Tennessee, but I'm willing to bet my local Terry Theise merchant would accept a small cash bribe in exchange for receiving a shipment of a few cases.

Recipe? Please? My Asian cooking skills are nonexistent. I'd like to start with some standards.

Well, I did learn one thing from this article, which is why in hell Anthony Bourdain was commenting so prominently (and, might I add, quite lucidly) during the PBS documentary about Typhoid Mary that I watched last night .. he's written a book about her. Once again, who knew?!

What about Baker's Joy? That's what I always use, pretty much.

I am in awe. No joke.

Wow. I have not seen most of these products, and Nashville has a HUGE Hispanic community. The product I buy most often is the Goya black beans, which are the best among the canned variety, IMHO.

You ain't kidding! These fucking FoodTV chefs and their catchphrases. Don't they know how to cook? They just rely on their catchphrases. Anyway, this is bleachboy. Bon appetit!

Well, now that I have a 100 square foot pantry ( ), a full gift set of Falk Culinair would be more than nice. I also might like a Shun Kershaw paring knife, although really I like my current paring knives just fine.

My new hero. *sigh*

I dunno. I've read both of Steingarten's books and I try to read his articles in Vogue, assuming my wife buys a copy. I thought he was WAY harsh compared to the usual Japanese Iron Chef judges (the fortune teller, food critic, actresses, etc) but frankly I thought he was right on. If this is supposed to be a cooking contest of the highest caliber -- even taking into account the challenging time limit -- the judges ought to be similarly discriminating when it comes to the food. Yeah, he came off as a jerk. But a correct jerk. Heck, I'd like to see him as a regular judge, just like some of the Japanese Iron Chef judges that tasted on multiple battles.

I use an F. Dick steel (the flat kind) pretty much every time before I use my knives. I get them sharpened professionally once a year. Frankly, this seems like an ideal plan as I've never suffered from a dull knife. Anyone care to tell me that I'm doing something wrong?

It must be sort of true. The other night I made for my parents a simple meal: Roast chicken (with shallots, rosemary, paprika) Rice pilaf (with homemade eGCI-style chicken stock) Grilled asparagus with beurre citron Tossed green salad with garlic croutons French bread with seasoned butter It was not a hard meal to prepare at all. Two years ago I would have struggled, but after teaching myself to cook (basically), I was cooking and hanging out at the same time, without much effort. Both my parents declared it to be one of the best meals they'd ever had. My mom declared the chicken to be the best she'd ever had, hands down (spatchcocked, brined, flavor stuffed under skin, high heat). And it wasn't really a big deal to prepare. Both my folks raised me on a diet of easy-to-prepare foods: Canned or frozen vegetables, hamburger helper, salmon croquettes, etc. I think that if people just learned some basics -- specifically, some basics of French cooking, of which I'm a proponent -- they'd be more willing to cook at home once they realized the truth. Hey, practice for two months, and it's not hard. You can crank out a simple protein and two simple vegetables with almost no effort whatsoever. Yay home cooking!