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I also love those cookies. For me they always make me think of Christmas... Another way you can use them is in Pumpkin Ravioli. I've had (and subsequently made myself by reverse engineering!) a really nice dish of pumpkin ravioli (you add some ameretti crumbs to the pumpkin filling) topped with some cubetti of Mustard Fruits and a dot or two of really thick balsamic. The amaretti crumb really seems to complement the pumpkin Although writing it down it sounds a bit odd it is actually a very nice combination.

yes more or less - but there is a different model that is able to be heated (also made by ISI) that is better if you want to make hot foams.

Thanks for your input guys. It wouldn't be something that I would plan on doing regularly but it could be useful now and again to make a pan sauce etc. Will look out for some cheap gastronorm pans and try the magnet test.

The title pretty much says it all - does anyone know if you can use a stainless steel gastronorm pan on an induction cooktop?

Thanks Nathan. This cut does have a nice amount of fat. I chose it particularly for that. It is an old English heritage breed which is fatty and delicious (tragically those two words often go together). I do want the fat to gelatinize so I will go for 180. Is 7 hours too much at that temperature? The joint is about 3kg and about 15cm thick. I plan on doing an intense pan sear after.

I have a nice 3kg rolled shoulder of pork - what do you think - sous vide for 7 hours at 60C/140F? Or should I go for a slightly higher temperature and a shorter time? Does the pork come out too pink at this internal temperature? I don't mind myself but will have some potentially squeamish guests!

Previously I've not been enamoured of sous vide fish (unlike meat sv which I love). However I have just tried an experiment with a small piece of sea bass cooked from frozen. I cooked it from frozen at 51C for 50 minutes. After this I flash fried at an extremely high temperature to get some nice maillard reaction. It was very nice indeed, so I am a convert to sv fish but only at the higher temperatures. I have seen recommended temperatures for fish from about 45C to 62C. To my palate the fish cooked at the lower end of the spectrum is too soft and has an unpleasant mouth feel and little savour or umami. I feel the flavours are much better at about the 50C mark. Anyway here is my question - can I sv some fillets at 51C (say for 20 minutes for fresh, not frozen, fish), pan sear for maillard and then chill for later service? If you are wondering why I would want to do this the answer is I am giving a long involved dinner party and my extractor hood is not working. By pre-searing I am avoiding a smoke filled kitchen and easing service.

Andy that's very funny! I must say I also am enjoying the second series. By necessity a lot of things can't be covered in an half hour program or are covered too briefly but at least there is some intelligence being utilised in perfecting things and questioning received opinions. One aspect of the program that niggles me slightly is when they make the perfect burger, tikka etc. whatever they don't give a final view on how it tastes. But that is just nit-picking. Overall this program is miles ahead of most of the other food related programs out there. Go, Heston, Go...

LindsayAnn - I feel your pain. I have the same problem as I also like to have a variety of cheeses on hand. Some of my observations - A specialist french cheese book that I have advises - - wrapping the cheese in waxed paper only on the cut edges and allowing the cheese to breathe through the rind. - storing the cheese in dark, cool room as opposed to the refrigerator. - never wrapping the cheese in plastic, tin foil or cling film Storing cheeses tightly wrapped in plastic can encourage the cheese to "sweat" and this leads to mould. I would recommend rather loosely wrapping the cheeses in waxed paper (like the stuff you deli uses to wrap prosciutto etc.). Many people caution against storing the cheese in an airtight container as the cheese contains living organisms that will die when deprived of air. I am not so sure about this. In Europe much of the good cheese is made from unpasteurised milk that allows beneficial and taste enhancing bacteria to thrive but I think in the states that most cheeses are made pasteurised milk so I am not so sure if this is an issue. Nevertheless I store my cheeses by losely wrapping them in the waxed paper as mentioned above and storing them in a plastic airtight container. This may not be optimal but it does mean that I easliy get a 3-4 week life from my cheeses so I am prepared to make the tradeoff. As a rule the harder cheeses last much longer than the softer ones. Happy cheese eating! PS I forgot to add that I do store mine in the refrigerator and have not noticed it being too detrimental.

I agree the Luna Rossa pizzas are pretty good but the service is appalling. They ran out of mozzarella (I know - in a pizza restaurant) one time we were there and tried to insist to us that what they had put on there was mozz. Unfortunately for them my dining companion was Neapolitan so she let them know, in dialect, exactly what the situation was! Try the bread though if you go - it is truly delicious. I'd also recommend Spacca Napoli just off Oxford Street. Don't let the location put you off the pizza is pretty authentic. I don't recommend anything else there - just the pizza - but it is very good.

Nice one Dougal. Looks like it would be worth a try... PS Everytime I look on here it's only you, me and Jason signed in on the forum. Has everyone else been charcuteried out?

Dougal, Chris et al, thanks for the input. Much appreciated as ever. I want to use oak for this one as that is traditional in scotland and Scottish Smoked Salmon is the standard for me. Would definitely be interested in trying some of the fruitwoods at a later date to see how they fare. You're right Dougal I was wondering how intense the Bradley is versus other methods. Can anyone pass comment on this? For example some recipes (on the web not Charcuterie) say smoke for a day but cut this to 6 hours or so for the Bradley. To smoke 3kg in the Bradley what do you reckon - 3-4 hours? The other big variable, apart from the cure ingredients and smoke time, seems to be the cure time. Charcuterie says 36 hours but other recipes have cures of only one or two hours! I am thinking 12-24 hours seems reasonable. Any thoughts? I am willing to experiment but just thought I'd jump start things a bit by canvassing opinion here. I was hoping to get things together in time to bring some to relatives in Italy at the weekend but I don't think it is going to happen as there's not enough time in the day at the moment!

Hi Dougal - I stand corrected on the Pink Salt. I was going from memory - never a good thing! Thanks for the tips on the Smoked Salmon. I'll be using Wild Scottish Salmon. Funnily enough I do normally buy my smoked salmon from Formans. It is very good but not a patch on the real hand done thing. There used to be an amazing little concern called the Old Knockelly Smokehouse on the Scottish borders and they made the most stellar smoked salmon. The flavour was amazing. Unfortunately it was just a small operation and they got overwhelmed and have now stopped doing it. A great shame. Anyway I'll try your suggestions. The Charcuterie recipe seems to have too many things in it for my liking. I am thinking of keeping it more simple to let the fish and the smoke shine through. I am planning on cold smoking using the cardboard box and dryer hose method that I've seen. I am wanting a strong smoke with an intense flavour. I rather like the fish to be more chewy (i.e. with the moisture loss you mention) as that is the way I've had it in Scotland. Web opinion seems to be that an hour or two in the Bradley equates to 6-8 on other smoking setups but I haven't tried the Bradley yet so it is hard to judge.

Actually visiting this thread reminded me that I have a couple of questions - 1) I believe that Smoked Salmon stateside is different to what we typically have in the UK. Does anyone have any pointers as to how to get a Scottish style smoked salmon. This a pretty pure flavour with a strong Oak smoke. 2) I am the proud owner of a new Bradley. How long do I need to smoke 3kg of salmon for to get the above mentioned strong flavour. The book says many hours but accepted wisdom seems to be that the Bradley smokes much quicker.

Hi Alex - the salt I use in the UK is not pink. Our equivalent is called Cure No.2 and it is white - the addition of some raw sugar would make it yellowish. I am not sure but I think the pink colouring is added to differentiate it from other salts (as it would be harmful in high doses if mistaken for ordinary salt). Just ask them what the composition is - you are looking for 6.25% sodium nitrite .

Don - I am using the one from the Babbo cookbook and it looks the same as what you posted. I guess Father and son use a different recipe! I think that the juniper would probably be a nice addition so I am going to try it. As for what I do about the hot summer - that's really not a problem here in London, tragically! But I do the same as you and cure and dry everthing in the fridge at the moment. I get good results so that doesn't seem to be a problem.

Abra - Thanks for the tip on the juniper. I envy you being so close to the source. I am wondering if I can open my bag and add some. Think I'll try it. Did you find the Mario recipe a bit salty?

Gwan - cha - lay. It just means cheek in Italian. I haven't tried Len's recipe yet but it looks good and he certainly knows his stuff. I normally use Mario's - it is very simple indeed and produces great results. The only thing I noticed was that it was pretty salty. In Len's instructions he suggests soaking the cheeks for 20 minutes after curing and before drying. I intend doing that with the two jowls I've made to Mario's recipe that are currently sitting in the fridge. Here is a picture of them in their vacuum bag - Can't wait!!!

Don - I make my Guanciale with the skin on and it works great. I remove it as and when I use the Guanciale (i.e. piece by piece). However looking at the Len Poli recipe more closely you can see that his doesn't have the skin on in the photos. I don't think it will hurt either way. I would definitely try to remove all glands - they are much easier to spot than you might think as they do look different from the main meat.

Alex - I can't speak to the quality of the salamis etc. as I am also at the planning stage for a curing chamber. I am planning on using a small fridge/freezer modified to the right temperature and rigged to inject humidity to the right level. I would think that your wine cellar idea would work but there may be more cost effective ways of doing it (e.g. Old fridge, thermoswitch, humidifier would work great). I can definitely support your theory that the other items are very good when home made. My Pancettas and Guanciales have turned out wonderfully so far. Based on the uptick in quality and flavour of the bacontype items I'd imagine that there is great scope for improving on the shop bought charcuterie. Especially since I have tasted fantastic home made items from French and Italian makers. There are also significant economies to be made as well as the ability to control the quality of everything that goes in there. For me that means traditional breed organic pig for example. Dougal - many thanks for your input. I appreciate it. I am currently curing my pancetta in a vacuum bag and it seems to be working very well. I'd recommend it to anyone running out of fridge space as it takes a lot less room than storing your curing items in a more traditional plastic container.

Jack - looks nice but rather skinny. I think they sold you a supermodel pig. The belly I am using has much more meat (Gloucester Old Spot). What breed did you use? I asked a question on the Charcuterie thread about vacuum sealing during curing but it looks like my answer is here as people are using vacuum bags to cure. I am making both Pancetta and Guanciale. The Pancetta recipe has nitrite in it but the Guanciale one doesn't. Do you need to leave any air space for the resulting liquid and is there a risk of botulism if one uses garlic?

Nothing on that one ... oh well here's another question - Can I cure my pork belly (for Pancetta) in a vacuum bag? If so do I need to leave some air in there and can I leave it in the curing liquid for the full two weeks it is curing?

Does anybody have a recommendation for a good grinder available in the UK? Preferably one that you have personal experience of.

Okay still got to be convinced on the fish angle but I reckon that crustacea and other shellfish are great candidates for sous vide. I've tried shrimp and lobster and they both turned out beautifully. Does anyone have some time/temperatures for squid?

Dougal - I want to build my own smoker system. So I am interested in finding the exact smoke point of wood. Do you know for sure it is 600F or is this just a guess? I am guessing if it is then my heating element would have to raise the temperature of the wood chips to 600F for say 5 minutes then reduce to what to stay just smouldering?