oraklet

your reports are wonderful. i just listen and (try to) learn, listen and (try to) learn, listen and (try to) learn, listen and (try to) learn, listen and (try to) learn,....

i always thought that a "sauteuse" would not do for the "jumping", and most cookbooks advice me to sautee in a frying pan...and then, fish should not jump, no? so...no clear definitions?

suzanne f, thanx - and ..."and then "sauteeing" it to finish. But for me, sauté (from the French word meaning "jump") connotes too much movement."... does add to the confusion of vocabulary, right? so, what i really feel in need of, would be a "table" of sorts showing what is what etc. - but perhaps impossible?

well, it's not that i don't know how to prepare my steak - it's more that i'm a bit confused about the different methods, as cook books seem to disagree about: how much heat? what shape and weight of pan? how much oil/butter and what kind? when to use which method, and why? can general rules be given, or is it really a bit vague?

i may be in for some spanking, but: i have always believed that any kind of glass would block uv.

thanx a lot, fg

having trouble with one of my cast iron pans, i performed ze search, and here i am in the middle of an avalanche of infos. great! my questions are: should i not make tomato sauce on cast iron? or, should i then re-season it every time? and the big one is slightly convex. is there anything to do about that? (like slamming it real hard)

"Oats, unlike other grains, inhibit the absorption of dietary fat." now i know why i'm skinny.

jinmyo, most times i'm in awe of your lightness, inspiration and competence (and irony, too ) - but this one i don't get: you sautee meatballs in evoo? i really do feel that a more neutral oil, or butter, would be better, as evoo, i think, would call too much attention on itself, so to say.

along with the first pizza stone i bought, there was a leaflet explaining among other things, that one should always let it heat and cool in the oven (basically: let it stay in there!). i foolishly didn't take heed, and the second time i left it outside to cool: crack! did it split nicely in two. but maybe those guys are just selling an inferior quality pizza stone.

have tried a few, including vintages, but always go back to taittinger. so straight and yet refined. and it leaves no film, nor is it "oaky". i've never had any of the rely, relly expensive stuff, though. at one time we ran out of taitt. and had to go for the freix. bleah! as for the fridge: there was this french cavalry colonel who claimed that you should allways have champ. in your fridge - and as it won't last long in there, it should be drunk as soon as possible. he was a very nice guy, and of course knew the noble art of desabrer! but are (some of) you really drinking champgne from the marie antoinette's breast shaped cup? shame on you! it is only for those who dislike the bubbles.

don't, repeat, don't leave a very hot pizza stone to cool at room temp. it will break nicely in two, due to stress. if not the first time you do it then surely the second or third. spqr, i use a sort of "ever-lasting" parchment when transferring pizza to oven. i remove it when pizza is half-baked to make sure buttom isn't too damp. and by the way: convection turned on.

my kitchen is rather small, and i sometimes feel cramped in it. but i think that professionals will often have much less working space. i've seen a pro working in a kitchen with only 1.5 meter of counter space, and yet producing a wonderful five course meal. and was he fast!

robert, i could think of one excuse: that the topping will in most cases overpower the finer nuances of the bread. but i (almost) always let the dough rise for at least 8 hours to get some taste in the border and a good structure. i do use the same semolina flour for both bread and pasta. maybe my pasta could be even better, but it is, at least, better than any i can buy. takes a lot of work, though. spqr, is your dough sticky (should be)?

"Alton says that good pizza begins and ends with good bread, and because of this, one needs to use bread flour rather than the low protein flour that the Italians use and that has been recommended here many times" yes. absolutely. indeed. i would have to add, though, that as taste in the bread part of the pizza is not as important as in "real" bread, i'm not using a biga for the dough. texture, as i see it, is more important. key factor to shaping is, the dough should be QUITE STICKY! pour the risen, room temp dough onto thin layer of pasta flour, spread more pasta flour on top so that it wont stick to your fingers, make sure the dough has a more or less regular shape, then start shaping it from the center, leaving a border as suggested by spqr. it's sooo easy. takes very little practice. filling can be anything you wish, long as there's not too much of it. and right, oven should be as hot as it can be. stretching may be even better, but this works fine with me as well as anybody else that has tasted my pizzas. it's the one and only thing i really know how to do really good! edit: pasta flour = durum wheat semolina

i've tried a number of recipes, and never really made a good pesto. not until this summer: in the local small-town swedish supermarket, i found a sort of basil that was a bit different from the one you can get in denmark, and tasting much more like the real thing in a pesto. so, i think the kind of basil used will make a difference.

the single most miserable meal i've had was with a couple of misers - and they were french! can you imagine: they served raclette, and the ingredients were chosen at absolute random, and were bad. the potatoes were half rotten, and they didn't seem to mind. all 10 guests but us were french, too, and they were very very quiet. even the wine was horrible. it was an event that went down in history. almost unbelievable. but true. the host, by the way, was my wife's boss.

i would have to say two meals. both prepared by french cooks working in copenhagen. the first was at a child's 2 years birthday. the cook shared an appartement with the mother. my girlfriend and i knew only few of the invited people, and they proved to be of the kind one is supposed to know - and very self-centered. in spite of this, the meal had the effect of spreading a general feeling of brotherhood in the party. everybody seemed to see the world through a golden haze of joy! it is now 15 years ago, and i can't remember one single item of what was served, but it must have been excellent... the second was a few years ago. we didn't know the couple very well, but we knew he was a cook. so, we felt a little, should i say intimidated, at the prospect of re-inviting...- a 5-course meal very well executed in their absolutely minuscule kitchen and with details i would never have thought you could do there (like, how in the ever-loving blue-eyed world did he keep the plates warm?). those two meals have been matched by only one restaurant meal. and this has set me reflecting on the fact that the two cooks in question were not known around copenhagen. were they doing a special effort? were they not fighters, in the sense of pushing one's career? (one of them is now chef at the french embassy, though) i mean, had they had restaurants of their own, and upheld such a level, they would be in the top ten in copenhagen. can anybody tell of similar experiences, and offer an explanation?

searing is done with a hot pan. try searing on a no-so-hot pan, and the meat starts boiling instead, juice will flow freely, and the meat will be dry. point is: it maybe isn't the searing as such, but the heat, that will keep it from flowing. but of course, you will always have a juice flow, but then only later. am i completely wrong?

suzanne, thanks for answer on clar. butter!

"strawberry jam on a grilled cheese sandwich" you must be a dane in disguise.

why clarified? and cast iron... i love it, but only for meat, as anything else will leave a distinct flavour for a long time. so, no fish. any advice on cleaning it properly?

but how about post cromwell state of affairs and development in england? compare with pre/post revolution france, perhaps.

there was an effort made earlier on this (?) thread by somebody. something like peasants being ruled by a landowning lord, and farmers being (relatively) independent. distinction makes sense if applied to development of recipes, history of england v. france etc. edit: i made a few post which, though not precise, and one of them almost illegible, had a few things to say on this, feeling that it was an aspect that had been overlooked.

hey, how about talking about farmers instead of peasants? makes more sense in the light of the last several hundred posts on these matters.