oraklet

wouldn't it depend on what you want to cut? i believe that an ever so slightly rough edge - like what you get when honing with a steel - works better for a ripe tomato than does a mirror polished edge. stropping is for razors, i think. edit: "with a steel"

i like both sorts, but don't feel they're interchangeable. the taste of curly parsley is slightly "dusty" when raw (my wife detests it in this form), and the taste of flat parsley reminiscent of coriander. curly is nice as a cooked "spice", whereas flat is fine both cooked and in a salad. the curly is more used in danish meals, mostly, i think, because it is hardier and thus more suited for our nordic climate.

but do you realy think that ANY fish-ANY cheese is wrong, wrong, wrong?

john whiting, or just any of you, "Any smallish board will do this, but a wet kitchen cloth between the board and the counter is as good as nailing it in place. " well, what is "smallish"? (i wouldn't call my ikeas smallish, they're c. 18"x14") i know the wet cloth trick from one of malawry's threads (i think), but i would like to be able to do without it. to be able to chop in all directions with a sabatier knife, the board should be plane, really. what kind of boards should i buy to be sure it doesn't warp, given that i can't afford or find room for several of the bouland style? must it be end wood? exotic hardwood? (no advice pointing me to american shops, please. remember, i don't live in usa...)

wild pegasus, the curvature of the blade on your knife is, it seems, rather "flat", like my french sabatier knives. this means that one must be very careful when sharpening so as to prevent having a hollow near the heel. it seems to me that the handle is very low. don't your knuckles touch the board when chopping?

"only as a larger culinary issue" but if you look to the culinary headquarter - france, of course - you will find that there, bread is a substantial part of a good meal. the french gourmet will make quite a detour to find good bread. for myself, i remember dining in a nice french restaurant in copenhagen and especially enjoying the bread. i asked the waiter if they baked it themselves, and you should have witnessed his shame in having to confess that it was from an italian baker... this weekend i baked my first baguettes. having baked a lot of bread, but never french style, i was surprised it was almost excellent, and very "authentic" (even had all the hairline cracks in the crust, thanx to the water-poured-into-pan trick). it was made from water, salt, "organic" yeast and 00-flour - with an over night biga as starter, and 8 hours of resting. dough was sticky (bakers percentage about 80 - perhaps a little too high). the difference from a bread made in 2 hours is unbelievable. and the amount of work involved is the same, only you need counter-top space for the dough for a longer time. and we're not even talking hard core bread here, which is robert's department! it's absolutely worth the little extra effort trying!

"painters or sculpters or photographers or musicians who define themselves as "artists" are usually lacking in craft. That much more so with cooks and chefs. To speak of the "art" of cuisine can give one a sense of on-going possibilities. To speak of what one has done as "art" or oneself as an "artist" closes down those possibilities into self-indulgence." (jinmyo) to be repeated by every craftsman when getting out of bed in the morning. (- though i'll have to speak of myself as a "graphic artist" in lack of other english denomination. doesn't mean that i think i'm doing "art".) the romantics felt that art was about "the good, the true and the beautyful" (and the opposites). so, if that's what you're striving at, you're an artist. as i see it, this rules out even the best of chefs, furniture makers or whatever. only an architect may be artist and craftsman at the same time. i'm not implying that an artist is a finer or better person than a craftsman.

1: "Actually, many wine tasters also like to aerate the wine while it's in their mouths by sucking air through it in sort of a reverse gargle. This does greatly enhance the flavor of wine, but is very rude at table)" - not rude where i come from. but we try to do it discreetly... 2: gordon, i once (c. -84) shared a minor -61 cru bourgeois with 5 friends at a restaurant. i made sure in advance that it would not be decanted, and when it arrived, i ever so slowly and carefully poured it into the glasses (not wishing the waiter to do it..). it immediatly filled the air with fine aromas. think what might have happened, had it been decanted! funny thing is, it had almost no power left in taste, but the nose was splendid. 3: until proven wrong, i believe that a larger surface will give better aeration. so, i pour slowly down the inside of the carafe.

new years eve, 1981, my father opened a cheval blanc -66 for the cheese. we knew it was supposed to be excellent, and it was fantastic. we sat there, four of us, enjoying it for several hours, barely being able to finish it, which seems silly but is the result of its being so rich and complex and filling(?). my second ch. blanc was a -70 in -92 with all the four proud grandparents of our first child. this time, we knew what to expect, but were sorely disappointed. not that it was bad, but it was sooo much inferior to the first one. now, the strange point is that the first time we were all a little sad that my sister was absent because she had to take care of a sulking boyfriend, and the second time was a joyful night. how to explain it? the vintage? the meteorological circumstances? the presence of my mother-in-law? over-expectations (this, at least, i can hardly believe, as i - as well as my parents - could vividly remember the taste range of the first)?

hmm. ikea cutting boards. i don't know really. i've got a few of those. they seem to be made of not properly seasoned wood, so if they are not already warped when you buy them, they will warp when you have cleaned them a few times. (and i'm not being tough on them) they will skate around on your counter top, and make fine chopping difficult if not dangerous. and how many should one have? taste and smell may easily transfer, as i see it, and cleaning in between tasks may be troublesome - so one should have at least 4: onion, leek etc. bread/greens fish meat/poultry which is also fine if you're more than one person preparing a meal - i've started involving the two big boys in preparing dinner. but a butchers block/board made of end wood(?) like the one on bouland's photo might absorb less, so that you can do with one in most situations. i don't know, really. do any of you?

as fat guy says, sabatier can mean anything from expensive crap to expensive wonders. the good ones are thiers issard "elephant" (both carbon and stainless), sabatier "k" (only stainless) and sabatier "lion" (both carbon and stainless), all of them produced in thiers, france. (there is one more called, i think, cuisine de france, but i know nothing about it) they are of a classic french shape, lighter than german, heavier than, say global. not, i think, for those with big hands, but perfect for me. as they are more "triangular" than the german knives, they can be troublesome to use on a warped cutting board. but - they are easier to hone and sharpen than most fully forged knives because they're not as heavy at the bolster/heel. my own favourite is a 10" lion carbon steel. it's a good length when you have to chop parsley, onion or whatever for a rather large family, and it's still a lot lighter than would be a 10" wusthof. wusthofs, though, are probably finer knives, or they wouldn't be the choice of the pros! the global knives: they are not fully forged - and i do think they can not be used professionally because they are too light and they have no bolster. i certainly wouldn't use them for "banging", i wouldn't consider them safe. but i may be wrong there... edit: sorry, schielke, i didn't notice the part about bread knives. there's a "bread knife" thread, too, somewhere. i use a c. 11" victorinox, wooden handle. it's stamped, not forged. the best i've ever had or tried. and paring knives - i use my 4" sab as well as a cheap solingen stamped one, which one i use depends on how tough a job to do. the wusthofs ar beautiful, by the way.

obviously, suzanne knows a lot about catering, and wants to defend her trade's honour (can it be expressed this way in english?). and obviously, malawry has a very busy life, and can't tell us everything in her posts. this seems to be a matter of misinterpretation, and perhaps such matters should be settled in private messages? anyway, malawry, it's a joy to follow the reports. as for the baguettes, try to take a look at the "bread" thread. robert schonfeld is the local guru of bread, and he can tell you just about everything you would like to know. the salt/yeast balance is only one of many factors. resting time, the amount of water, bakers percentage, bigas, as well as sourdough, it's all there! only, don't expect him to tell you that a good bread can be baked in 2 hours...

gordon, the limburger sandwich you describe does sound kind of interesting. i just might say yes.

red wine or beer may be the correct choice with steak and fries, and happens to be what i prefer. but a nice cup of darjeeling (not a first flush, or crap, and NO milk or sugar) is surprisingly good, too! you did notice the "surprisingly"? edit: the "sugar" bit

a wonderful stream of wonderful reports. on mayo: what size of whisk for a very small portion of mayo? perhaps not whisk, but spoon? and i must admit that i don't understand the how-to-hold-a-whisk instruction. what does "nearest to the thumb" mean? more like a pencil, perhaps?

i find it absolutely hilarious that the word "democratic" managed to sneak in somewhere on page something. the word means "ruled by the people". should i add that it doesn't mean "equal", "fair" or "free"?

"I don't see how on a food web site, one can draw an inference that takes exception to the commonly held standard." oh

soon, they'll be throwing pies

trillium, "When I was in Sweden and Denmark I was surprised to see that eggs weren't refrigerated..." sweden, no, cause they are free from salmonella. denmark yes. salmonella all over the place.

fish soup. wife feels it makes the whole place smell for days.

"A wine, they thought back then, should be of approximately the same sweetness as the sauce which it accompanied. Who is right? And why?" different standard taste, meaning that most diners then would want a unified experience, whereas we today want a more dialectical experience. inside these sligtly different traditions (slightly, when compared to other cultures), a meal could be better or worse, and the wines more or less well chosen depending on which role they are to play. but perhaps this is putting it in the wrong way, because even today you find elite diners who will want the unified taste. it is like with pipe tobacco mixtures: some are very like a hedgehog with taste impressions in every direction and yet pleasant, other are more closed in taste but equally fine. of course, that was not the original question...so: should those who fight for a better quality of the food available to the common man be seen as snobs? are you a snob for baking your own bread so as to get something very much better than what is generally sold in supermarkets? or for trying to make a sauce that is not made of flour, salt an soy colouring? is passing by the canned stuff snobbish? the answer is no. it is a matter of having a sense of quality, (in some cases bringing it into politics) and of prioritizing so as to have the time to live thereby as much as you can. which can be done to some extent on even a quite small budget as ours. on the "dinner" thread, you can see jinmyo - and others - doing it in the most exquisite way. (and here i would like to add an "envy-smilie")

though we almost always have meals all 6 together, it is most times very informal: the table is a huge old working table from the french embassy's kitchen, plates are semi-antique finds as are spoons. and knives/forks are victorinox. wine glasses are cheap ikea. no table cloth, and paper napkins. but music, tv or radio is banned - even if my favourite football team is playing. 12 years ago, before the arrival of our first kid, things were different. lots of inherited stuff (some of it 200 years old), lots of small candlelit dinners with friends etc. - but it slowly became more and more difficult to be civilized... these days, only christmas or similar occasions will make us dig out all that stuff from whereever we hid it. and perhaps this is mostly to live up to our families' expectations of continuing their tradition of formality in dining. i must admit that i kind of miss it.

thanks a lot for your post, karen - makes me even more dedicated in my efforts to know what i'm actually consuming. i've switched to grounding meat at home, i use organic flour for bread, and we drink organic milk. i simply don't trust the typical industrial handling of food. and besides, too many of our political parties are dependant on the food industry. things are apparently as bad in denmark - and most of europe, i guess, apart from sweden - as in usa. as for eggs that are used raw, i've been told to only use fresh eggs, and put them in boiling water for 15 seconds before cracking them. this should minimalize any danger of salmonella or campylobacter. cutting boards: i can't see why anybody would use only one...

a danish author and critic has written an essay on the tendencies of modern taste, stating that it is becoming ever more "childish". food, wine and tobacco is made to be sweeter than 50 years ago, and grownups consume much more candy, chocolate and coca cola'ish stuff, he says. and judging from my limited experience (i'm only 46 y.o.), he seems to be right. the general taste in wine seems to be slowly changing from the bordeaux ideal to the vanilla/oak/cherry mentioned above. from subtlety to the more obvious.

jinmyo, "deglaze with shallots and white wine" tried it a few times - with sancerre - and it was a bit too sour in my opinion. what to do? different wine, like alsace riesling? edit: what is a "double-mesh strainer"?