budrichard

" What can you do to save them for later use?" What is your time frame? With your oysters you should get a Harvest Tag showing date of harvest and harvest location. We purchase from Browne Trading and invariably the oysters are harvested the day before shipping and with Overnight shipping the oysters are two days old when they reach us. I store a layer of oysters, a layer of ice with a drain at the bottom and use within 5 days of reciept. Govern your use by your harvest date. This is a living product out of its element. You can't simply preserve it for an extended period of time.-Dick

If you wrap your Foie lobe or what ever part you have in cheesecloth and pack with salt with Potassium nitrate or some other curing salt, you don't need to cook your foie. If you cook your foie not matter how you do it to insure pasteurization, then you don't need to cure. Personally I do it both ways and the methods yield distinctly different products. A cured foie is like a raw product but with salt, a cooked foie has a different texture. It's up to you.-Dick

About 10 years ago I embarked on your type of decision making process. You will get lots of opinions and that what they will be, opinions. You will get very little in the way of facts and you will get some very uniformed and potentially dangerous information. I will try to relate facts. Your contracter is correct, commercial appliances are not allowed by NFPA Residential Fire Codes. Since you want to keep to a budget and costs reasonable, constructing your kitchen to commercial codes is out of the question. I installed a Viking range. There are cheaper and there are more expensive options but the Viking has been bulletproof and it does not sit idle as a showpiece. The rest was Kitchenaid, fridge, dishwasher and all counter top Pro-Line appliances. Kitchenaid works good and they stand behind what they manufacture. I installed Boos 4" thick, end grain countertops. Don't need any cutting boards but you do have to sand and re-oil every once in a while, no problem. you can purchase veneer butcherblock and that's what it is, veneer. Since the function of countertops is food preperation, granite and the like seems strange to me. Sink was Franke Manor House, BIG, sturdy, takes a licking from the Falk copper pots I use with no dings. Franke faucet works great and there are a number of types to chose from. Oh yes, the under counter 60 bottle wine cooler is Kitchenaid also. Sub Zero has the worst frequency of repair record which is why i don't have Sub Zero. For a fridge, what i wish I had done is installed two Kitchenaid bottom freezer models side by side with the doors opening out. Looks like a huge custom for a lot less money and provides a LOT of storage. We use another in the basement. I made indeed do this at some time in the future. Pergo flooring is the best. Since Pergo started the laminate market, many have entered and installers don't do Pergo anymore because Pergo is so easy and sold in the Big Box stores. Installers can't get the markup using Pergo and so choose a brand that costs more and will tell you why it is better than Pergo. Don't let that put you off, i purchased Pergo at Home Depot and had my contracter install it. Absolutely no wear patterns. You MUST have a hood ducted to the outside, for a vapor and heat removal. Viking in my case and bulletproof again. Fans are nosiy and our kitchen is like the deck of an aircraft carrier with both fans spooled up but it works. In my opinion, kitchen designers are a waste of time and money. There are others that disagree. Make you own decisions, it's not rocket science but this is coming from a Nuclear Engineer, just so you know the source. I also have a background in Fire Protection as a Fire Chief and Fire Marshall. Good luck!-Dick

Holland Rusk! A nice platform for your poached egg. Made even better with Canadian Bacon/bacon and Hollandaise sauce!-Dick

Where does a 'Dirty Steak' fall in all of this? This is a method that can for a thin steak actually yield a pleasant product. I have done steak this way a number of times but only if about an inch. It's on, turned and off the coals very quickly.-Dick

2 yr extensions on my subscription for $9.99 here http://www.magazinepricesearch.com/j/netma...-saveur-18.html . Only way I would have renewed!-Dick

Actually I think it the definition of rare an how you get there that is more important than the char or lack of char. Most think that rare means blood red when infact that is raw. Rare, can only happen with a nice crusty exterior in a thick steak, usually about 3" or more. We get a nice crust, not charred or burnt and cook until the interior is judged right, usually meat thermometers don't help because there is just not enough steak to get a good temperature. Anyway, we then cover and rest for at least 20 minutes to much longer if a large roast. The rare we obtain is nice pink uniform color. It is not possible to get a nice crust and a rare or even raw, for the matter, interior in a thin steak.-Dick

Been using real salt cod for many many years. It has always been, even after multiple soakings too salty to be palatable without using it as an ingrediant as mentioned in fish cakes, or my favorite, chowder. Salt cod or fresh cod for that matter flakes so beautifully and holds together. Lightly smoked haddock on the other hand can be served as a fillet with a nice cream sauce.-Dick

Not everyone does! I purchase yeast in bulk at the Outpost Coop in Milwaukee. We keep a small jar of yeast in the refrig and the rest goes into the freezer to be thawed out as needed. Since it dosen't clump, it is readily poured out of the freezer bag.-Dick

Ask your fish monger if the fish has been in a preservative bath.-Dick

Wild Canada Goose livers simply do not have the fat of a domestic goose. You can make a pate but need to add a LOT of pork or other fat to where the wild goose becomes lost in the pate. Iv'e been hunting them for many many years and the best is simply fried in butter. -Dick

I had recently checked this book out of my local library. For me the test of a good book is "will i purchase it?" In this case, no. It's a nice read but that's about all. Very few Asian cook books are authentic because the stigma of not being able to get ingrediants presists. With the advent of stores like Super H Mart that has passed and I can obtain a lot of cusine specific ingrediants. For Chinese cooking, I have the Chinese Kitchen' as my go to book.-Dick

These responses are surprising me. Copper core pans, and I think All Clad in particular, got a very good rating from Fine Cooking. I have just one, a dutch oven, and it seems to heat a lot faster than my other pans and hold the heat well. Or can this be just suggestion? I looked at the Falk site and would have loved to have any of their pans, but just eyeballing it, I couldn't really see that they were less expensive than All Clad. "Proprietary informaton?" How dare they! ← I don't believe I ever said Falk was less expensive, just real copper cookware. None of my Falk goes into a dishwasher, in fact there are pieces I don't think would fit. If cosmetics are important, you don't want copper. If you have electrics, you don't want copper. But if you want the fastest performing pots/pans, can tolerate the copper finish and cook with gas, then its the best thing out there.-Dick

I don't purchase commercial plonk as you refer to it and am not sure exactly what the term means except that it sounds derogatory. Please don't bother with a lengthy explanation either. I don't like to be dissapointed. Most of my Bordeux purchases, some classified, some not, have not dissapointed me. Same for Burgundy, red and white. All my Beaujolais purchases for the past 15 years or so have been dissapointing. I used to look forward to a Beaujolais as a change of pace but no longer. My perception, whether you agree or not, is that the region has been trading on past glories. Continuing to purchase Beaujolais and be dissapointed is not my way of doing things. Jim, peruse the Sams Beaujolais selection for me please http://www.samswine.com and select a Beaujolais of the year and vintner you have had. Let me know and I will try a bottle. I will let you know my opinion. Just looked at the Sam's selection on line and its not much! Oh well, give me some names and i will see if any available in the Midwest.-Dick

Until THE Mayor Daley (not Richie) put them out of business, the best dogs were from the roving hot dog carts around the city. For a $1, you got two dogs and the fixings. Brings back memories of working in the LOOP. City Council passed an ordinance requiring all food sellers have running water, no more carts! I'm surprised no one mentions the Vienna Factory Restaurant. A good dog and you get to purchase the big 1/4# Vienna dogs!-Dick

I have no doubt that somewhere there exists some good Cru Beaujolais, but outside of the Noveau, the prices I see are just not worth the type of wine Beaulolais is. Certainly starting to enjoy wine in 1960's and starting collecting in the 1970's has caused my price point to be rooted in the past, but I still purchase Bordeaux futures, cases of Champagne and the odd case or two of both red and white Burgundy, so I will pay the price, if i percieve the value. I just don't percieve the value.-Dick

All of our Calphalon warped. We threw it out when I purchased Falk. As far as I could tell Calphalon contruction was just a cheap way to manufacture a pot and then anodize to resist sticking. The thermal coefficient of expansion of copper and stainless steel is just about the same with aluminum about 30% higher. Why Calphalon warps, I don't know. I wonder if the manufacturing process results in different hardness of the aluminum in different areas of the pan?-Dick

Did you use Pam in those pans? Pam leaves a residue that is sometime impossible to remove. Pam has recently introduced a supposedly Pro high Heat version to avoid the residue buildup http://www.pam4you.com/pages/products/professional/index.jsp I don't and won't use any of thier products.-Dick

Many, many years ago Beaujolais was a good relatively inexpensive wine. I remember purchasing cases of it at Zimmerman's for $12/case. We also drank many of the higher priced ones. Then as one of the articles points, out the Nouveau craze hit and the wine was thin and insipid. It took a few years but our taste for Beaujolais was dead. Coupled with the price increase for other Beaujolais, I haven't purchased any for at least 10 years. Every once in a while I would purchase a bottle of Nouveau and the wine just got worse. With the supply of good wine from all over the world at decent prices, I seriously doubt I could ever be convinced to purchase anymore.-Dick

Most pots/pans are punched in a press out of disk of the material. I assume that the various layers are bonded by high pressure at high temperatures. An episode of 'Made in America' visited the AllClad factory if I remember correctly.-Dick

A Search will yield a lot of discussion that has already gone on in the this Forum. The short answer is that ALL Clad Copper Core is not copper cookware but no different in performance than regular All Clad. All Clad uses a thin layer of copper and when asked for the thickness(Commerical copper ware is 2.5mm thick), All Clad says that is propietary information. The rest is aluminum. I purchased an All Clad Copper Core fry pan for my daughter who cannot handle the weight of commercial copper cookware. Using the same size Falk Copper fry pan with identical volumes of water, the All Clad took significantly longer for the water to boil. Falk is a brushed copper exterior and one doesn't worry about making it shine and its treated like any other pot/pan.-Dick

Gillette long ago learned that the money was not in the razors but in the Razor blades.-Dick

I conducted extensive blind taste tests on the Italian olive oils that were readily available in my area. Oils from Sam's and other large chains were in variably very light and without substance. Cheap oils were bitter and acidic. Colavita while not inexpensive has excellent deep flavor and color. I checked today and 3l is $30, less if you purchase a case of 4 which is what I do. Case lasts me a year. I don't purchase boutique oils because all though there may be very good oils out there, most is hype and overpriced. I like having a stable supply and not being dissapointed when purchasing an oil and will not use a substandard oil for anything. Right now, a red sauce with anchovies, red peppers, mushrooms, and real San Marzano canned tomatoes is simmering with meat balls fried in Colavita. This will be served on Italian Tagliatelle with a mixed green salad with Colavita. Life is too short to use crap!-Dick

I would think it was modeled after an Inuit Ulu.-Dick

Superior type chicken stock is the traditional base. Vegetables that will compliment can go with it. Steam the shark fins using some of the chicken stock until they curl and are tender. Shark fins supply texture rather than flavor. Red vinegar is also good. -Dick