budrichard

Now that's my kind of tasting! I hate to admit to being plebian, but my favorite caviar is fresh salmon that is lightly salted. Some of the variety's out there have been heavily salted but if one can get a fresh lightly salted, its divine as each little egg breaks in your mouth. Its particularly good in Sushi preperations. Of course any well prepared sturgeon caviar is excellent. I've even tried some fresh paddle fish!-Dick

I've been using Kona Kamichi a farmed yellowtail from Hawaii for few years now and while the quality is impeccable, it is missing a certain flavor compared to fresh wild yellowtail I have had from Japan. Most of the yellowtail available has been frozen and has an oiler taste than the Kona Kamipichi. There was an issue of feed where they may have been using a Chinese source with additive but that has supposedly been resolved. I am eager to try this product as I usually get fresh bluefin from Browne Trading in the summer and really much prefer Toro or o'Toro. For the best one must get the belly cut which has a lot of waste. If I could get a fish with a lot of O'Toro, I would be happy!-Dick

About 3 months ago my purveryor in Milwaukee had live in the shell at $12.99/scallop. Excellent, I also cook the mantle along with the roe. It seems a shame to have to toss that overboard in some places. Taylor Bay's I get are farmed, small and a lot of work to shuck for cooking so just shucking and eating raw individually is the best use!-Dick

Vienna Beef makes uncooked corned beef and it is excellent.-Dick

"But these are not my real complaints. I am unhappy with the oven. For one thing, it smokes like a coal plant. Roast or broil anything, and you need a gas mask to open the door." Something is wrong with your installation. At the rear of the oven should be a small vent running across the entire back. With the convection fan on you should feel air flow, without convection it is natural circulation. Simmer is problamatic and needs the right touch of anticipation. Any oven temperature control and oven heating is somewhat unique to each oven and you need to learn how yours responds, suggest oven thermometer until you are confident. Grates are as you say but will outlast the geological record. After 15 years, mine are still going as is the entire range.-Dick

It's a pleasure to read the Posts by SeanDirty. He knows his scallops. I have found in the last 5 years or so in the midwest, more and more upscale stores are indeed labeling thier scallops, dry or wet pack. I can consistantly get Sea of Cortez giant scallops in dry pack, just about as good as from Browne but I don't prepare them as sashimi simply because i don't know the history. Nantucket dry pack show up in season at one purveryor in Milwaukee and are exquisite. We also order Taylor Bay scallops by the bag full in the shell. These are mostly consumed raw just like littlenecks and have the added benefit that they are very easy to open. I have never eaten a frozen scallop or IQF, so I can't help you there except to comment, that the Day boat we freeze are very good months later but we still don't consume them raw after freezing. Any wet pack scallop is impossible to brown whcih is how I found out about this treatment years ago when scallops i purchased simply would not brown. In the frenzy to make more money by increasing shelf life and water weight of the scallop. a whole industry was just about ruined.-Dick

Commercial and household sanitation are two different things. In a commerical environment one is faced with a large number of individuals that could be affected by unsanitary processess and a higher degree of assurance is required because of the varying skills and acumen of the commercial workers. Household sanitation will only affect a small number of individuals and if the household providers are scrupuliously clean, then the degree of assuredeness is less. EOT-Dick

I found this reference helpful http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FS077 . I was trained to act on objective evidence and in any safety endeaver there is always a risk benefit associated. Since my objective evidence does not indicate members of our household or guests having food borne illiness, I have to make the conclusion, that our methods work. If we were suffering frequent illness that could be food borne, then I would assess our methodology and change but for 30 plus years no problems. Frankly I am more concerned about chemical treatment of our environment and assess that i don't require it.-Dick

"Call us philistines if you must, but the whole family preferred our usual approach: briefly marinate steak with soy sauce, garlic, and black pepper; sear over a hot grill; " If you like that treatment, you may want to try this, http://www.dalesseasoning.com/ . A favorite of ours for years.-Dick

For skinning and butchering, one can procure from a Sportings Goods store, a Gambrel T type rack http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...1233&hasJS=true , that one cuts slots in the rear legs inside the tendons and then hang the deer from this device. Skinning in thus done head down with meat removal to follow. In Wisconsin, we now just do meat removal without cutting any bones or spinal column due to CWD. Head is removed and DNR analyses and Posts results on thier website. Until results are in, vension is not consumed.-Dick

I purchase 'Day Boat' scallops from Browne Trading and when they arrived they are at most about 48 hours old. At that point we consume them as sashimi. I purchase a gallon can, so the rest are frozen and after that only cooked but to a warm center, no problems. Most scallops that are not sold as 'dry pack' are bathed in a chemical bath and I would not consume those at all. Occasionally, I have had the opportunity to purchase in the shell and consume lightly cooked. So to answer your question, unless from a source that you know of 'Day Boat' or in the shell, I would avoid raw consumption and would not fully cook. Knowing the source and history of your fish is critical to consumption raw or lightly coooked. Most fish in todays distribution chain is not suitable for raw consumption.-Dick

I cannot remember a food borne illness from the methodolodgy I use to sanitise our countertops ,cutting boards and cooking instruments. I'm simply pointing out that the simplest and most benign methods are the best and maybe actually healthier than strong chemicals used constantly. One certainly can use these methods but one may be risking long term chemical exposure with no evidance that it is needed. BTW, I never use vinegar. -Dick

So, which Kennedy book would you recommend to a beginner but a beginner with access to a supermercado? And, conversely, which Bayless book should a beginner use? ← 'The Art of Mexican Cooking' which is a later work.-Dick

"because the aromatic grease is sucked up the hood and vented away " Actually most of these hoods and ducting arrangements have grease traps where the radial velocity imparted by the fan or fans causes the grease intrained in the air to deposit. These 'traps' must be periodically cleaned or a fire could occur. Inspection of the duct work periodically should also be done. I have Viking dual fan unit and inspect/clean at least two times a year.-Dick

I've had John Boss 4" thick countertops for over 10 years. We cut everything but raw fish and meat on them, clean with soap and water, no problem. I do use large poly boards for raw fish and meat, clean with soap and water and bleach occasionally, no problems. I would be seriously concerned with these high chemical concentration products in a non-commercial environment. Unless you have have had or are having food borne illness problems, it seems to me, that the most benign way to assure yourself of sanitary conditions is the best.-Dick

Whether the pan method as described here, a hot oven for browning and then resting or a charcoal grill using lump hardwood, the results all depend on a thick good piece of meat and resting to achieve a nice true rare, not bloody red raw, but just pink and uniform. I would think a steak being sent to a food writer would be better than the average steak Lobel's sends out. Order one 'blind' next time. I have ordered from Lobels' before and while very good, not the best available in the US. Last Sunday I did a dry aged 3# Rib in the oven ala Pepin. Works great and everyone was happy. Certainly one method is not better than the other but different. Personally all methods can achieve a great result but only with care and the right piece of meat. Usually I prefer grilling over lump and then resting for the flavor.-Dick

One last thought, you simply need to shop at a 'Supermercado' and use Mexican style products. The meat cuts are different, sour cream is different, oregeno is different and so on. Most of these ingrediants are now made Mexican style in the US. Those that are not, are readily available. Learning to cook authentic cusine is not just looking up one recipe in a book and using what's available at your local grocery store.-Dick

Amazon! Keep your 'Wish List' updated until you qualify for free shipping and 1-click away. About as good as it gets except for eBay sometimes, if you can find what you are looking for.-Dick

I have a number of Kennedy's cookbook's and have been using them for almost 20 years. I have read all of Bayless and consider Kennedy to be definitive. Her 'Cusines of Mexico' is as fine a treatise on Mexican cooking and ingrediants/methods as you will find. Her 'The Art of Mexican Cooking' is a later work and the two form as good a base as one could want. Even in Mexico I believe Kennedy is looked on as definitive.-Dick

Anyone know where the Bamix 350 can be purchased in the USA? Thanks for any replies.-Dick

Yes, the Hardy Rodenstock [?sp] case -- got a lot of popular press in 2007. (The experience I mentioned was a few years earlier.) Sorry if I expressed it poorly. Both situations are sensory evaluations. (Blind tasting is a practical technique to check claims of things improving wine; professional winemakers do it all the time in fact, to check results of steps or experiments). Sensory evaluation certainly has subjective components. (For instance some people inherently can't smell TCA or "cork taint"). But it has important objective components. You and I can taste a blind sample of quinine and likely both will agree it's "bitter." I've seen people blind-taste and correctly identify the alcohol content to a tenth of a degree, or which forest the wood for the aging barrels came from. It's the same idea, further along. Such people could tell if a gadget does or does not improve wine. ← If you think that it is worthwhile to purchase this item and hire a panel of wine evaluators and run double or even a single blind tasting to evaluate this 'gadget', then please do so and let us all know the results. If not worthwhile, then this Thread is purely semantics. BTW, I lied, it was not EOT for me!-Dick

This sort of fakery has been very well documented and one case traced to a specific individual who supposedly found Thomas Jefferson's wine behind a wall in France. Anyway, happnes all the time but what this has to do with 'snake oil' is beyond me? Blind tastings of wine and the evaluation of items pretending to improve wine are two different things but both are subjective. EOT!-Dick

I have no compelling reason to have a corked or screw cap bottle of wine except that one cannot get wine for long term aging except in corked bottles. I have purchased a case of a German Moselle QbA with screw caps and since this was not a wine for long aging, it was fine. The box concept for economy seems viable but here in the Midwest I have not been able to find anything but what one would refer to as 'jug' type wine. Does anyone have any experience, positive or negative with any box wines available in the US that they would care to relate? Thanks for any replies.-Dick

"Why?" That response is equivalent to, "Prove to me that it doesn't work whereas the correct response should be "Prove to me it DOES work." When dealing with subjective interpretation and human physchology, objective interpretation is impossible which is how claims like this can be made with relative impunity because it is often impossible to verify or disprove the claim objectively. Anyway, its pure BS without doing ANY further investigation.-Dick

"Many times the chef will start with a thick piece and then cut it gradually into smaller pieces, painstakingly searing every new cut edge. The pieces are sometimes set under a dome on a teppan grill for a bit of convention cooking, then the minute searing continues. It is a very skill-intensive job." For top grade (A5 I believe), this is the only way to go as each surface gets seared bringing out the full enjoyment. BTW, just because its Wagyu does not automatically guarantee flavorfull and tender beef. The are two Grading systems that I know of in use. http://www.nikuya.ca/products/JapaneseMeatGrading.pdf One grades from 1-12 and the other is a combination system that yields an A5 type designation. Beef is an agricultural product and as such one cannot guarantee each animal will be perfection and A5 is rare and costly but if you ever get to try it properly prepared, it's worth the treat.-Dick