fiftydollars

Great work, Russ! I'm glad you decided to tackle such an important, yet neglected, topic Any thoughts on tri-tip sandwiches?

Corn-fed, USDA Prime-graded beef

I am a strong proponent of smoking and resist any and all attempts to curtail the practice. I wish we could turn back the clock to the days when smoking was allowed in hospitals and churches. Smoking builds character, toughens up the lungs, and generally makes you a whole lot more cool. I lost this fight along time ago. San Luis Obispo, CA, the first city in the US, and possibly the world, to ban public smoking indoors and now in most public places, forced me to adapt to lawful drinking in bars and restaurants without the benefit of smoking. However, I never quite felt right about it. I have tried smoking and, during one particularly rebellious stretch in high school, have tried to get into the habit, but it just didn’t work out for me. It seems I lack the focus and dedication required to smoke full time, but I would certainly categorize myself as a smoking enthusiast and in such capacity, I would really like to smoke in hospitals, churches, and all domestic and international flights. I like smokers. I think smokers are cool people (not just because they look cool as most smokers do) while most non-smokers are decidedly less cool. I don’t mind people that don’t smoke, mind you. But I tend to dislike the people that strongly identify with this group (Non-smokers). For the most part, they are just not cool. I have resigned myself to the fact that smoking is an activity one should engage in privately or else in a group of other cool, like-minded individuals. And I have long accepted the fact that smoking could possibly be injurious to one’s health. But I will always love tobacco and smoking and you will never convince me that it’s not cool.

After one of the judges made the comment that Eric Warren’s potato salad could be the best they have ever had, I tried the recipe and it’s damned good, actually. Sure it’s your basic potato salad recipe and probably the first time I have ever made potato salad using a recipe, but it was very good. Much in the way I never refer to a recipe for deviled eggs, I thought my improvised potato salad was pretty good with it’s potatoes, dollop of mayo, a little mustard, salt, pepper… But Eric really dropped some science on my ass when he hit those potatoes with 2 ½ cups of mayonnaise. Wow! What was I thinking? At the most maybe I would put in a half cup of mayo or so… but never, ever 2 ½ delicious cups worth! I must agree with that judge; Eric’s potato salad could be the best potato salad I have ever had. Thanks Eric!

Exposure to acidity will break down the seasoning of cast iron and acidity will react with cast iron to alter the flavor of your foods. Now to what extent these events take place and whether or not they will affect or negatively affect your foods, is difficult to say. I like to braise short ribs in demi glace using cast iron. Then I deglaze the cast iron with wine and pour the stuff into a stainless steel saucepan to reduce. I don’t think the acidity in the wine affects the flavor during the deglazing. But I’ve tried braising in a more acidic liquid and I thought the flavor was off. If you are braising in a liquid with relatively low to no acidity, for example stock or water, then I don’t think you’ll have a problem.

Why did it take 9 months to confirm the find? The cow went down in November, at which time news reported a preliminary positive test, but it isn't until now that we hear it was confirmed. What happened during all that time? Now I don't know much about cows, science, laboratories, etc., but does it really take 9 months to test a cow for BSE? What about the supposed "gold standard" test that gave a false negative reading? The whole thing is as suspicious as delayed poll results in a Third-world election.

That's one of my favorite FOS recipes.

I miss KFC's Chicken Littles... Those little morsels of fried chicken slathered in mayonnaise are perhaps my fondest chicken sandwich memory.

Baby back ribs are great! I love them. I really, really love them. Of course I also love spare ribs and just about any part of a pig or cow that will fit into my smoker. And I do like serving spare ribs. But I love baby back ribs, too. I like their meaty-ness to fatty-ness ratio. I love their size... and how they look on a plate. I like saying the name. I love baby back ribs. Sure, these are "pork chop bones" but what's wrong with that? Their beef counterpart, the ribs from a standing rib roast (prime rib if you are lucky to have a great butcher like our VerBrugge), are my favorite part of the roast and my true compensation whenever I cook such a thing. Let's love the whole pig. Even the tenderloin has a purpose and can be delicious when prepared properly.

Not sure exactly what your question is, but my answer is he needs to dump her. I can’t say whether that ugly s.o.b. is an insensitive lout or not, but she is completely out of line and unreasonable for asking him to stop barbecuing. Sure she’s young and beautiful, but I need to cook, grill, barbecue… and I can’t be around a woman who won’t let me. She’s also asking for trouble… Doesn’t she know she is pushing him right into the arms of another woman (a woman who may very well be lurking about these forums)? Or at the very least turning him into a closet barbecuer? He needs to dump her and find someone who understands his predilections. She should try to find a guy at a Sandra Lee fan club meeting or a support group for carnivores with guilt issues. I'm sure there are plenty of ladies interested in an ugly guy who can barbecue and there is more than one guy out there that will put up with some crazy woman given that she is young and beautiful. Next?

I love Chapeau!

I've heard this a hundred times and I suspect that's why certain folks like it. He may like Britney Spears singing the Kurt Weil Songbook but that doesn't mean it's good! From Bombdog, my old neighbor who has deserted us for the Deep South: Well, if you really think I should.... ← Keller also said he had a fondness for Burger King Whoppers before moving to Southern California and finding In-n-Out. Hey, whattaya know… maybe there’s more to life than heirloom beans.

I agree. It is very interesting taking the whipped cream too far. It takes it a while, but after a lot of overwhipping (say double or triple what it takes to whip it properly), the cream suddenly releases all of its water at once. As soon as it reaches that point you can actually hear a sudden “whoosh” as the water hits the sides of your mixer. The churning is especially dramatic, and the sound is particularly audible, in the food processor, which I don’t usually use for making whipped cream, but which is great for making butter.

I wish your wife and fast and full recovery and I thank you very much for telling the story. I don't think we hear enough about the potential negative effects of this surgery.

You should also take a sharp, sterile needle and pop any air pockets you see. As kelautz said, you do not want any air pockets in your sausage. The casings, which I assume are packed in salt, will last you a long, long time. P.S. In his Complete Techniques Jaques Pepin says the casings preserved in salt can be kept "almost indefinitely, packed in salt in a cool place."

But La Folie is also excellent. Roland Passot is one of San Francisco's absolute best.

Michael Mina at the Westin is his flagship and the quality is in no way diluted because it is a hotel restaurant. Michael Mina runs a very tight ship and quality in his absence is not a problem I have observed. I have been to his outposts in Las Vegas and the food and service are very competitive with the San Francisco store. Even the more casual Sea Blue at the MGM Grand features excellent execution of his food. I expected that at the Aqua in Las Vegas(I believe now also known as Michael Mina), but I didn't expect it sitting at the bar at Sea Blue (which I highly recommend. It was a busy night and there was no tasting menu on the menu. But the excellent bartender had no problem serving one and he even paired wine and/or cocktails with each course).

I agree about Buena Tavola. It is one of the better restaurants in town. I have also had some good meals at Benvenuti.

At one of the butcher shops I frequent in Chinatown, I've noticed some noodlelike seafood product. It appeared freshly made, rather than packaged. I think there's been something in this thread or another about Wylie's noodles bearing some resemblance to surimi, the Japanese process that brings us "sea legs" and other ersatz crab. There's a whole range of traditional Japanese and Chinese fish and seafood products and to some extent they share a family resemblance to to fish pates and gefulte fish. Anyway, I had and enjoyed that dish at WD-50 but was mildly disappointed in the fact that the "noodles" didn't act very noodly. That is to say, the didn't slither on the plate, but were rather stiff and stuck together. They formed a mass rather than acting like strands that could be twirled on a fork. ← The night I went, a few weeks ago, the shrimp noodles had been replaced by a shrimp cannelloni dish. I marveled at the cannelloni and was very impressed. In cannelloni form the shrimp + TGA was definitely pasta-like and had a nice bite. But what really got me was the chorizo emulsion that was served along with the dish. I couldn’t get enough of it. Then there was the foie gras with the liquid center, which one of the staff members said had been developed by WD with the help of some people at Mars. I was suspicious at first, but you know me... I can't stay mad at foie for long... The lamb belly… whoa! While I was expecting to marvel at the shrimp noodles and they had been a big part of my reason for paying a visit, I left amazed at the wonderful weird things I ate. That WD is just a plain ol’ badass.

Great article! The part about the choron was my favorite. It really got under my skin that you decided not to make it. I kept thinking you would. It became an element of suspense. You kept bringing it up again... at once giving me hope and further dashing my hopes that at some point you would set the recipe straight. I became obsessed with it... which says a lot about how I follow recipes. I have an almost unhealthy compulsion to follow recipes exactly and completely. But it wasn't perhaps until you put it in those terms that I realized my rigorous interpretations border on obsessive compulsion. And it still bothers me that you didn't make the choron.

Chips suck for barbecue. But they're not too bad in some applications. These applications just don't happen to involve anything that requires more than a few minutes of cooking time. They are good if you want to add a litte smoke flavor to vegetables, shrimp, or even a kebab or two. Basically, they are good for light-duty grilling, not barbecue.

If your stove/pan are not producing enough heat, try Alton Brown’s method of searing tuna using a charcoal chimney. It works very well. Basically, Brown lights a chimney full of charcoal and puts a grill grate on it. The chimney produces an impressive amount of heat. It browns the tuna very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that a few pieces of tuna that I didn’t quite completely dry with paper towels still seared about as fast and well as the ones I very carefully dried. It is an awesome method for searing just about anything. Compared to my measly stove the chimney starter is like cooking over a jet engine.

Yeah, I bought my KA at Kohl's, too. I can blame fifi for that, a half dozen pieces of le creuset, and two pieces of black chamba. Thanks a lot, fifi...

I prefer the kitchenaid. My preference is largely based on my experience with a KA food processor I bought last year and my experiences with my 10 year old cuisinart food processor and some newer cuisinart products. The KA food processor is solid. It is quite heavy and when I hit the pulse button, I can feel the torque cause the rubber feet to tighten their grip on the counter. In the past year I have done things that really shouldn’t be done with a food processor, but since I got mine on the cheap, I have been treating it like a rented car with the optional damage waiver. I have crushed countless lobster shells, crab shells (fyi: don’t try to crush the large shell on Dungeness crab in your KA food processor. It gets stuck in a manner that reminds me of the incident Richard described in the thread that I suspect inspired this one), endless amounts of chiles, lots and lots of soups, and many pounds of pastry dough. So far the blades are still pretty sharp, the bowl has no cracks, and the motor unit is as strong and shiny as ever. I am very happy with it and it has far exceeded my expectations. My old cuisinart is also a solid machine. There are some broken bits on the old bowl and overall the bowl could use a replacement, but the motor is solid and I think it could easily handle another 10 years. However, the cuisinart blender and a food processor attachment it came with, along with the carving knife (just horrible. The design puts a lot of sideways pressure on the blade and after a few uses the blades are noticeably bent and grind up against each other as I try to cut anything. The design just plain sucks and it retails for about $50), and a few other assorted cuisinart products I have purchased or aquired in the past few years have provided only disappointment. The blender is horrendous. I would not wish it’s shoddy manufacturing and even crappier performance on anyone. There is nothing nice I can say about the smart-power duet blender/food processor. It is a terribly designed and terribly manufactured product. Go ahead and turn one of those crappy blenders over and you’ll see something interesting through the vents (Yes, that is cardboard you are looking at). I can say without any hesitation that the bulk of cuisinart products are crappy, shoddily designed, very poorly manufactured products. Nonetheless, I will admit that a friend bought a cuisinart food processor about the same time I bought the kitchenaid and she loves it. And having used it several times I will say that I also I think it is a great food processor, but I can’t forget about all that garbage that makes up the majority of cuisinart’s products. They must make their food processors using a much higher standard. Kitchenaid, on the other hand, has rarely made a disappointing product. Their blenders, coffe grinders, food processors, mixers, and all the attachments have always proven to be of solid manufacture. Of course there are some KA products I have not liked, but none have proven to be so remarkably disappointing as some of the cuisinart offerings. At this point, I avoid cuisinart products on pure principal. A company that can produce such a singularly shitty carving knife should not be encouraged by any form of repeat business.

I like what Eddie Murphy described as "welfare burgers." They are pretty much as close to a burger as I got growing up in Mexico City. My mother, unknowingly, made them almost exactly as Murphy described. She would take ground beef, add onions, bell peppers, egg and then fry it in a skillet and serve it in either plain sliced white or a bolillo with ketchup and mustard. Sure we complained. But at the time there wasn't a single place in the DF where we could find anything close to an American hamburger and so we learned to love them... or at least eat them quietly.