jayt90

I have both pickling salt and Kosher salt, both made by Windsor Salt, and apparently from the Detroit salt mines. They taste exactly the same, but the Kosher crystrals are very uniform in size. The pickling salt was cheaper, and has particles ranging from very small to slightly larger than the Kosher. There is no reason not to substitute one for the other, except for religious observances.. I would add, that if the herbs are rinsed before salting, they should be dried in a salad spinner, which won't bruise them. They should not be damp before preserving. I've never had much luck drying in a microwave, or air drying without danger of flies around.

Sage,and other firm leaf herbs can be preserved in salt. Put a layer of pickling salt on the bottom of a jar, then add layers of herbs and salt until full. Screw the cap on, and keep for winter use in a cool dry cellar. This method comes from Elizabeth David.

I think this is common throughout Upper Canada, but I don't know about Quebec, or Eastern and Western Canada. The use of Northern Spy apples, and a lard crust is considered old fashioned now, but it will make a superb pie, without a lot of sugar or thickening. These apples are worth looking for. As children, my brother and I preferred Ice cream, but as teenagers, we graduated to cheddar, usually medium, but sometimes 'old rat trap'!

I like a smallish teaspoon of medium Quebec maple syrup in regular drip coffee, usually JBM.

I've had the same problem with dense battered food sticking to the basket. Although I haven't tried this, next time I'll put on gloves, or those heat-proof Starfrit mits, and suspend the fish pieces, one by one, near the top of the oil with tongs, until 'the batter sets'. There might be a little tear where the tongs hold the fish, but maybe the tongs can be prepped with a nonstick spray (prepping the basket with Pam was futile, however.) Marlene, your first effort at this was indeed valiant, and looks good enough for continued refinement. Any son returning home for a Sunday dinner would be proud of his Mom!

Today's Globe and Mail has a (mostly) rave review by Joanne Kates. It's her first review since last spring, and she probably thinks of it as a headliner. Kates really likes his food, and is especially fond of the sourcing done by Kennedy. She was cranky about service: Waiting a half hour in the bar past reservation, asking (and not getting) a server to take her wine glass to the table, and having to refill glasses on her own at the table. But then , she has always been our special princess!

Battered Halibut! Abusive flogging!! Frying in oil, medievel style? By a fish virgin!!! This should be a great dinner, and we are all waiting for the results. Here is a simple beer batter recipe by Albert Stockli, from his days at Restaurant Associates. He had problems using corn starch, eggs, and baking powder or soda, so he settled on: 12 oz pale beer 1 cup all purpose flour 1T salt 1T paprika Pour the beer into a bowl, and mix in the dry ingredients with a whisk until frothy. Use right away, dredging the fish (or vegetables, or blossoms etc.,) in seasoned flour before dipping. Stockli used corn oil for frying, but as a loyal Canadian, I use Canola (formerly rapeseed).

I can't advise on battering and frying, but this info is an easy look up, and it will probably appear in the following posts. But I'm a stickler for fresh fish, and halibut is problematic if you are so far inland. If you have a fishmonger you can trust, they will sell boneless fillets of good quality (i.e. only a few days old, and well kept at every stage of travel). Deep frozen is another possibility, and again you have to search for it and trust the fishmonger. My starting point would be Taro's at Victoria Park and Steeles, but there may somebody closer. In a previous thread, Jamie Maw recommended thawing 'deep frozen' on ice slowly in the fridge for a couple of days, and he says it will be hard to distinguish from fresh. Hope you can provide a story and photos on your quest, Marlene.

Feel free to speak for Toronto but you're way off base describing Montrealers thusly. Chauvanism? Sure. Inferiority complex? No way. First off, Montreal bagels are demonstrably superior to NY's, not to mention Toronto's also-rans. (I say this is someone who grew up eating NY-style bagels and who still eats them whenever I'm in the vicinity.) Yeah, you can claim they're different animals and each is good in its own way, and you'd be right. But forced to choose only one for the proverbial desert island, a majority — probably a vast majority — of foodies would opt for Montreal's finest. But, hey, don't take my word for it. Next time you're at the St-Viateur bagel factory, spend a few minutes perusing the wall of newspaper and magazine clippings: food critics from the world over (well, OK, the Eastern Seaboard over) agree on the superiority of the product. Heck, some of them even wax poetic about the Old World connection, the wood-fired oven, the irregular shape, the crumb, the perfect dosing of honey and seed. And name me one NYC or Toronto bagel shop that has a novel named after it. I'd also bet that most Montrealers don't feel an inferiority complex in the smoked meat vs. pastrami shootout, if for no other reason than most of them don't give pastrami a second thought. In fact, I doubt the majority of native smoked meat eaters — francophones, you know — have knowingly eaten pastrami. And those who have tend to prefer the taste they grew up with, hence the dissing. (Personally, I think both pastrami and smoked meat are a waste of good brisket.) And, by the way, I've never heard any Montrealer claim that our deli scene, even in its heyday, begins to approach the New York standard. It's just that Montrealers know their local versions of those two deli staples, bagels and smoked meat/pastrami, are second to none, and they're proud of it. And, yeah, a little smug, too. ← Well, here's a reply with chauvanism (sic), Toronto dissing, and New York envy. However, a bagel is just a bagel, made from wheat flour, water, yeast, salt, and a few seeds. It can be a fine medium for pastrami, whether formidable or soft textured. Several types are available in most large cities with east European bakeries. And as for putting smoked meat on a bagel, rather than pastrami, well, the consensus of many of the previous posts is that there is little difference between the two.

I grew up with Green Giant Mexicorn, and while it looked neat, it tasted just like niblets! I glad to have all the above information about the real thing.

I remember Sokolov writing excellent reviews for a couple of years after Claiborne left the post. I was amazed that he remained trim and fit!

My local Costco has a Quebec maple board (Roscan) at $36. I don't know if they are sending it to the eastern warehouses, but it is worth looking for, as it put together from end pieces, and is easier on the blade. I have bamboo as well, but it is not a heavy duty item.

Pan-seared (and rare) seafood, such as tuna or scallops, is a fashion statement in many restaurants, and home kitchens. But the flesh has been thawed, and is served almost raw. Does anyone complain? Or get sick?

Vacuum pot coffee is somewhere in between drip coffee and press pot coffee. It has more of the crucial flavor components that are contained in the coffee oils which paper filters leach out but it has less sludge and is a bit less full bodied than press pot style. Some coffees are better than others for vac pot coffee and you'll definitely have to use more ground coffee per ounce of water than you do for drip. But the results can be incredibly smooth and very satisfying. It was truly a revelation for me as I've consumed drip coffee for many years but have never been enamored of press pot coffee. I own and use a Bodum - not as elegant as a Yama but I think they're both made of tempered glass. I actually dropped my Bodum pot on the office floor accidentally when i first opened the box and it didn't break. We have concrete slab floors with thin pad and short nap industrial carpet - that's a pretty good testament to the durability of these pots. ← The vacuum pot is filtered: there is a small glass stopper or a mesh filter of some kind. I think the result is similar to a mesh filter in a well designed drip machine, except that is probably hotter. For Bodum owners: a replacement carafe from a lab supply company, such as Fisher Scientific, should work. Mine looks exactly like a 1 litre beaker.

I have a Cuisinart Grind and Brew, but with a glass carafe. I like it better than the French press, which never quite works for me. The Cuisinart sends a coarse grind through a wind tunnel, and it is messy, and requires a slightly larger amount of beans. But it works well every morning, and the coffee is hot, though not MacDonald's hot! I do find that I have to interrupt the sequence, and pre-wet the grind before the brewing starts. If noise was a problem, I would pre-grind the night before. Realistically, I'm to tired to do that.

There is also the Newfoundland variation called Jiggs Dinner. Salt beef ( a crude, very salty corned beef, bone in) is simmered with cabbage, carrots, parsnip, turnip, and potatoes. They like it very salty, but if this is under control, it makes a fine meal.

____________The Wine Glut_____________ Recent articles in the Economist, and the Guardian, describe a global wine glut, particularly bad in Europe and Australia. Some new chardonnay vineyards in the Melbourne area could not give away their first crops. There are many thousands of litres of wine, much already bottled, in EU that are being converted to brandy. And there is a lot of new wine starting to appear from distant shores, such as Georgia, Brazil, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. This should be good news for consumers, especially in the $10/bottle or below range. As the fall-out continues, there will be increasing pressure on better wines, $20 and higher, to become more competitive. The best way to force more competition in fine table wines, will be the appearance of new kids on the block. We have seen new, high quality Australian and U.S. products over the last few years, and hopefully there will be more (notwithstanding a possible U.S./Canadian trade war). Let's hope that the leaders in the industry, the critics, writers, and import/exporters, are right now searching for new upstarts, and sleepers, in all areas, to put pressure on the the established marques, and to keep new vineyards from becoming next years brandy.

Thanks, I'll have a look at the 2000 vintage ports. I think the LCBO is misleading a lot of buyers by asking for money now, and delivery in December. Some buyers will be tempted to make these ports part of their holiday celebrations, but the wine won't be ready. It is just now going from barrel to bottle.

Yes. I wish I had my pickling rercipe book in front of me, but I think the commercial version of pickling lime is calcium chloride; it is a frequent ingredient on the labels I buy, though none are as good as home made. I wonder of pickles in the barrel are still sold on Hester St., or Williamsburg?

James Beard, in his Fish cookbook, used to recommend freshening mussels in a salt water and flour bath, for a few hours. I never had any luck with this, and then farmed mussels from P.E.I. became available and were usually fresh and plump, without the beards. But once in awhile they are small-fleshed, so I guess that is part of the shell game in that industry. Susan, I agree that fresh shrimp are much better than frozen, even if they smaller and from a muddy bay. The frozen, farmed shrimp often have a barnyard scent, and it is not the one you get in expensive burgundies.

Forget the R months. That's old hat now. Mussels should be sold on open, net type bags, so maybe yours were old, suffering, but alive enough to open under heat. Most shrimp is sold frozen, or thawed. Most crab is cooked and frozen, or canned, in my area. You've asked a lot of questions, all with different answers. You need to talk to a good fishmonger.

What's pickling lime? I have pickling salt but I suspect that it isn't the same thing. Do the pickles turn out red? That would be kinda fun! edited to add...whoops! reading your post a bit closer I see that they DO turn out red. Dang. Never heard or seen of the like. Hm. A Valentines Day pickle , perhaps? ← I think pickling lime is a calcium mixture that adds crispness. It falls to the bottom and doesn't get into the final product.

Bordeaux Futures Catalogue just out. The 2004 Bordeaux Futures catalogue has been issued, and also includes Vintage Port 2003 pre-arrivals. Both lists can be ordered by mail, fax or e-mail by Sept. 9, to get in the selection lottery. Phone orders start on Sept. 20. The 2004 clarets are still expensive, and not as good as the excellent (and still available) 2003 selection. Parker has found no sleepers here, and most well rated wines are over $100. A few worth looking at include: Latour, $299; Forts de Latour, $84; Pontet Canet, $73; Calon Segur $65; Leoville -Las Cases, $139; Vieux-Chateau-Certan, $119; Pavie-Macquin, $69; Troplong Mondot, $69; Mouton, $265. Lafite and Haut Brion are in the same range, but the heavy hitters from the right bank are more ($799 for Le Pin). The list of 19 2003 vintage ports is more successful. They range from $55 to $129, and there are three well rated ones (95-100 by J. Suckling) in the lower range: Niepoort $85; Quinta De Roriz $65. Quinta Do Vale Meao $55. (92-94 W.S.) Quinta Do Vesuvio $79. I'll order some of each, hoping to get one or two. They will be here in December. I'll pass on the Bordeaux, as it may be a hard sell.

It's a matter of taste which is better. I've heard some people say pastrami is better, while I've heard some other people say smoked meat is better(from the people who have tried the best of both). However many people in Montreal diss pastrami. From what I gather, the difference in taste between pastrami & smoked meat is minimal. They both have Eastern European origins. -Steve ←

Because they're not the same thing? Smoked meat is made by dry-curing brisket with a spice rub that probably includes coriander, pepper, paprika, garlic and salt, after which it is smoked. Corned beef is made by brining brisket, flank or plate in heavily salted (and sometimes sugared) water, after which it is simmered for several hours in fresh water. Smoked meat and cabbage probably wouldn't hack it here and certainly not in New England. ← Smoked meat is clearly not the same same as corned beef brisket, but can someone tell me the difference between smoked meat and (smoked) pastrami? The foodf network show on the Stage Deli tells us that the pastrami gets a slow simmering after it reaches the restaurant. I haven't seen any definitive answer here, or in other threads, about what makes Montreal smoked meat so distinctive. ← Traditionally pastrami uses the plate cut, while Montreal smoked meat uses the brisket cut(although some pastrami is made with brisket). Plate & brisket are similiar cuts. Plus the spices are different for pastrami & smoked meat. I have a feeling corned beef could be slightly different in different parts of the world(just a guess). -Steve ← But is there a taste difference? Which is better?