Abra

On this epic thread there's a ton of great discussion about how to make cannelés at home. But when in Bordeaux, it would be folly to bake them yourself. I'm planning to find myself in Bordeaux before too much time passes, and I want to devote some time to cannelé sampling. Who gets your vote for baking the most fabulous cannelés?

Dave, try uncured meat over cherry as compared to other woods. The cherry has a beautifully sweet light fragrance that I don't find in apple. And although I know it's sacrilege, I don't find that alder imparts any flavor other than "smoke." Alder is a trash tree here, almost a weed, so I think smoking over alder is just making a virtue out of necessity.

The cake is gorgeous, and what a good idea to sub cognac for the vanilla! I didn't know you could easily get pecans. And no speculaaskruiden if you want to claim it's an American cake! My Dutch is improving, no?

I've never had access to pecan, but I now use cherry for pretty much everything. I still like hickory for turkey and sometimes chicken (thighs especially) but I even prefer cherry to alder now for salmon.

I had a personal chef business for 4 years, and while I was making two weeks worth of dinners I also baked for my clients regularly. My advice is that if you want to bake, you need to charge by the hour and not by the product. As a personal chef you can have 3-4 things on the stove, something in the micro, and someting in the oven all at once, maximizing the use of your time. Unless you have clients with several ovens, baking more than one item isn't very practical, since you really can't be opening the oven and popping different things in and out while others are baking. I highly recommend the organization I used to belong to Personal Chefs Network for tons of help, advice, and support. The other organizations out there have the reputation of just taking your money.

Probably you need to add more fat to your muffin batter. How about posting the recipe here for people to analyze?

I keep all my shrimp shells from peeling raw shrimp in a bag in the freezer. A five minute simmer in white wine and water and you have a lovely delicate shrimp stock.

Has anyone done a review of cannelés in Bordeaux? I'm going to have a pastry chef friend visiting and we want to go to Bordeaux and stuff ourself with the best cannelés there are.

Sazji - that's a beautiful pepper shot. Prawncrackers - what's mooli cake? It looks like turnip cake. JMahl - will you share your empanada recipe? Those are picture perfect.

I'm kind of surprised by Sam's suggestion that making one's own starter is really far out. I've made the Silverton grape starter twice over the years, and both times it worked wonderfully right from the start. Maybe because no one told me it's supposed to be hard to make your own starter? Rob, your bread looks really nice. The chewiness you describe and the relatively fine grain of the bread suggest to me that your dough was lacking in oomph by the end. Did you slash the loaf, or are those cracks in the crust? Do you detect any juniper influence?

I'm curious about why you say that librarians especially enjoy food, as that's an association I wouldn't have made.

What an excellent resource, and a ton of work besides. I look forward to being able to contribute, but for the moment I'm in awe of the high level of organization of all this information!

Am I the only one who finds Salvadoran food, and pupusas especially, to be really bland? Or haven't I had it at the right place?

Yes, the cake with its glaze is fine for 2-3 days. It's a very moist cake, so it keeps beautifully.

This cake from Edna Lewis is my favorite apple cake in the whole world. I've never tried it with unripe apples, but I'll be really interested to hear about it if you do.

Hey, that's interesting to know. I would have thought a fat roll of pancetta would get really dried out on the outside edges.

We'll try Le Transversal for sure if you can get there by metro from Institut Gustave Roussy. We won't have a car there since we'll be coming up on the TGV.

A lemongrass and lime leaf infused simple syrup sounds good with chile vodka.

It's not hard to smoke it yourself, if you have a little smoker or a grill. The high fat content keeps it from drying out in the smoker.

That's it, father and son differ. And truth to tell, Dad's guanciale is awe inspiring. I wouldn't hestitate to add it a bit later. Even though it's seldom hot here in the summer, I only do charcuterie in the cooler months, and then I hang it in a little chamber in my garage. You can see it here.

Holy cow, that is the most amazing cake collection I've ever seen!

I used Mario's recipe, then went into the shop here where Mario's Dad makes fabulous guanciale and asked him why his was better than mine. Without even taking a breath he said "juniper." I haven't tried it yet, but evidently the wild and exciting flavor comes from some ground juniper berries in the rub.

Wow, I didn't know it was a taboo topic! In any case, we'll be going back to the Gare de Lyon after each Villejuif visit, so if there's nothing worthwhile there we won't try to invent a reason to eat out there. But we're bound to get mad Asian food cravings, so we'll undoubtedly make a few forays out that way.

We'll be in Villejuif about once a month, and I'm wondering if there are any interesting restaurants there, or whether it's better to go back into Paris to eat. I think I've heard that it's a center of Chinese immigration - does that translate to really good Chinese food?

You have to get the walnuts while they're green, soft in the middle, and easily cut in half, which is usually mid to late June. I have to agree that aging vin de noix is a good thing, as my 2006 tatses better than ever now. I'm going to put some away for another year - by then it should be stellar.