budrichard

When these pink salt blocks first came on the market, I emailed the importer and asked if they had done an anlaysis for contaminants and heavy metals. Never heard from them.-Dick

Listen to Andrew! I'm suprised that a member of this Forum would not understand basic food safety?-Dick

First, I don't believe ther are 100,000 Pro cyclists in the entire world. Most of what you will see are USCF racers. The Pro teams bring thier own staff, cook included. The smaller USCF teams are looking for cheap, filling meals as they are usually dirt poor. What you will also get are fans/ groupies and press who couldn't care what they eat as long as it tastes good. I would have two types of items available; for the cyclists, meals that are cheap and filling and for the spectators something they can grab and go with. Good luck!-Dick

Now you did it! I have to find some oysters for a fry!-Dick

That IS NOT a 200#+ pig.-Dick

Shelling your own oysters is usually more costly than fresh shucked oysters. By law they will have an expiration date on the can/top. Pop the top, dry with paper towel, flour, egg, breading/seasoning and fry in peanut oil. Really simple, great for Po' Boys. The Acme Oyster House is my favorite.-Dick

That's a big pig and should weigh well over 200#'s when dressed. I have done a number of whole pigs and the only way is on a spit. Splitting amd BBQing does not allow for the pig to rotate which is needed. The Chinese Hat is another method but many results I've seen are blistered skin. Most areas have someone with a traveling spit that specializes in this type of thing. They show up at 6am or so, get the pig on the spit and tend it until ready. Be aware that you have no place to store an animal of that size so it should go right from the processor to the spit. Hard wood charcoal is the thing to use as wood for BBQing must be aged first to dry properly. Good luck, there is NOTHING like whole roasted pig!-Dick

I would think that Current Inventory as of 3/23/09 http://rarewineco.com/html/list.htm would be more accurate than the newsletter. Call and find out what's available. Its too boutique for me. -Dick

An electric wok simply cannot supply the BTU's(heat) needed to cook with a wok, you end up stewing, rather than frying. Even with 15K BTU/hr burners on my Viking, its really not enough heat but I make do. You certainly can use the gas burner on your BBQ.-Dick

From the website list of available items, there was only one listed? For use as you require, I use Romulo XV, a Spanish oil tha costs me $45/gal. For cooking I use Colavita XV which I purchase in 3l cans by the case for the best price. The 'boutique' oils are just too pricey for percieved quality for me.-Dick

DON'T.-Dick

There is a perceptable difference between Scotch, Cognac aka brandy or Bourbon. I have tried substituting Bourbon for Cognac as a cost cutting measure as Cognac prices increased over the years but it just wasn't the same. I acquired some good domestic brandy and that worked much better. So now the true XO is drunk and the cooking is domestic XO!-Dick

I don't know if i have recieved that issue yet because I hardly pay attention to the magazine anymore. The article is just a cost saving measure to fill space which requires no research and expenditure of funds other than some hack writing an article. Savuer once was a very good publication but it has changed hands a number of times since the original crew and now its not worth reading.-Dick

In the USA Chinese wine for cooking is sold with salt added to avoid the alcohol tax and regulations for sale. It is terrible stuff. True unadulterated Chinese wine has become difficult to obtain so we have gone to substituting jug sake from California which works quite well. We also have the Mirin salt problem and i just happen to get a gallon of unsalted mirin from a 55 gal barrel that somehow got imported into the USA. After that is gone, I don't know what i will do for real Mirin.-Dick

Here's the long and short of it! Your typical commercial pig is a very lean animal these days and you will not get a lot of fat if from a commercial hog farmer. Most operations have no problem trailering your hog to a commercial butcher, I don't understand these smaller operations that can't properly prepare a hog. I got into one once for a small pig(about 20#'s) and i will never do that again. Find a large commercial operation that will trailer your pig to where you want it so it can be prepped the way you want. If you want more fat, the 'berkshire' breed has been getting popluar at least with the Japanese market Mitsuwa but I don't know where they source thier product from. I really haven't noticed any difference anyway. In any event I don't know where to purchase one of these breeds locally anyway and I suspect you will pay dearly for the privaledge if you find one. Hogs raised for the County Fair competition are judged on the hoof, and the price you pay is considered a donation to the competitor usually if 4H raised. So find a pig at the size you want from someone that will take where it can be properly prepped the way you want i.e cut up, wrapped, frozen or whole for a BBQ. You should pay market price unless you want a small pig and it has to be taken before it reaches commercial size. Good luck!-Dick

The larger salt packed ones are really sardines but are handled essentilly the same as Posted by Jim Dixon.-Dick

Whole live king crab is usually available during the season in Chicago Chinatown. I've dispatched many of them. You don't need to freeze them as they are not as lively usually as the smaller crabs. You do need a large pot of at least 20 qts for an average king crab. You can steam or boil, it really doesn't matter. When cooked, remove and chill in ice water. Contrary to one Post, the body contains a substantial amount of meat. You disassemble the body like any other crab except its larger. Pull off the top carapace and remove the gills and pick out all the white meat from all the openings. Legs are handled with scissors or any way you want but try to remove the leg meat in whole pieces(looks better). They are expensive live but very very good!-Dick

Going to my freezer right now!-Dick

I routinely purchase Grade C Foie from Hudson Valley. They come cryovac packed and freeze very well. Wrap the unused foie very well and it should keep in your freezer for a couple of months but not any longer unles Cryovac packed. Salt cured Foie is one of the best preps I know of!-Dick

Only a few country ham producers certify ham for consumtion without cooking and are so marked on the procduct. If not marked for consumption without cooking, than you run the risk of listeria. Best to query the producer of the ham. Country hams are stored at room temperature typically. Long term storage of country ham runs the risk of mites eating the product.-Dick

I think that Tony 'hit one out of the park' with his 'Food Porn' show! Food/dining has become a pleasure that is sometimes glorified out of all relationship to its actual function. When people drop restaurant and chef names, photograph and publish pictures of each course with glowing descriptions on the Internet in efforts that must take vast amounts of time, then its time to call it 'porn'. I particularly like Martin Picard and his no nonsense dining routine of bare chests. Dining is not just about the ingrediants, preperation or the chef, its about having a get together with friends and good conversation, the food/prep and wine/beer or whatever, is an adjunct.-Dick

When I lived in Boston and spent summers in Maine there seemed to be prohibition about freezing a Maine lobster or selling one that was not alive. Most of what you see frozen as tails are not Maine lobster but a relative species, the rock lobster and of course the front part of the body containing the guts is removed which is not big deal as the Rock lobster does not have claws of a Maine lobster. I have been seeing Maine lobster tails frozen and once in awhile over the years whole Maine lobster frozen. I have to assume that the guts were removed from the whole frozen lobster. I don't purchase these things. So to answer your question, neither. Maine lobster should only be cooked and eaten if alive and lively. A drooping Maine lobster if for the trash as you don't know the stage of the decay in the internal organs and a frozen one is already suspect as the internal organs will be decaying as the lobster thaws out.-Dick

So, what if I used filtered or bottled water, with no chlorine in it, and then added some salt to it. Could the lobster survive in that environment? ← If you use regular table salt which contains iodine, you will kill them. For the rest, I never keep them long enough to need to do that. I suppose you could go to an exotic pet store, purchase an aquarium with what's needed to keep salt water fish alive and try it!-Dick.

Why not? Lobsters and shellfish live in water, right? So, I've never understood why we couldn't store them in water. ← Lobster gills take oxygen out of a salt water solution and to a certain extant if places in air there is some transfer but put a llobster in freash water and it will sufficate and put it in chlorinated water and you will actuall sufficate and poison it. I never forget telling an office mate about a maine lobster sale. On Monday he came in and said that his lobsters had died whem he hadd them at his home. I asked him how he had stored them. He said "I put them in the tub with some water(his water was City water).-Dick

You could spend a lot of time and possibly money trying to find out the reason for your headaches but its simpler to: "If it hurts, don't do it". -Dick