russ parsons

actually, there's kind of an interesting side to all of this (from an ag geek perspective). these fruits are somewhat controversial. there is something called the california tree fruit agreement (did you know they ever disagreed?), that is a marketing organization that represents all plum, peach and nectarine farmers in the state. its members are assessed a certain amount for each box of fruit they sell. so far, aprium, pluot and plumcots have been exempt, because they are not plums, peaches or nectarines. but the CTFA has now started doing dna studies on some of the crosses and are arguing that, in fact, they are really nothing more than new varieties of plums (hence, assessable). just thought you'd like to know.

interesting question, but i think it would be against the law in several southern states. seriously, it would probably be someplace in the middle. pluots are usually derived by crossing apriums with plumcots (thereby concentrating the plum side of the lineage).

i think apriums would work better in cooking as a substitute for plums rather than apricots. one of the things that's great about cooking apricots is that they have such a firm, meaty texture. to me, apriums are much grainier, kind of like the difference between a peach and a plum (though apricots are usually meatier than a peach). as for taste, the only way to tell for sure is to try one. to me, they resemble an apricot, somewhat. but a very good apricot. if your husband's only experience has been with commercial 'cots, that's not nearly the same thing. other people, though, think they taste more like plums.

just to be clear: these are old-fashioned mendelian crosses. weird, but not unnatural.

that joke was the pits.

couple things: 1) what happened to the apricot is that they're a complete pain in the ass to grow. they tend to be tiny. they're early, so they're susceptible to all kinds of weather-related problems. the good varieties are even very irregular-bearing (one year you'll have a lot, the next year hardly any). the newer varieties were introduced to remedy these problems. problem is, they're just not very tasty. 2) there is a range of apricot-plum crossing: apriums are apricot than plum, plumcots are 50-50 and pluots are more plum. there are only a few apriums and even fewer plumcots. most of what you find are pluots. and they can be very, very good (look starting mid-july for the best ones).

most aprium varieties i've tried are fuzz-less (or, in teh language of fruit breeders, non-pubescent). to me, the best of them have the flavor of an apricot and the texture of a plum. the real story, as far as i'm concerned, is the incredibly sorry state of modern apricots, which makes a new fruit desirable in the first place.

i just finished reading that chapter and there is a slight difference between what was said and what has been reported. in the book, it quite explicitely says that batali said that only a moron would "wrap" the meat in foil. that i agree with.

we should be clear that the decision to use volume rather than weight measurements is more likely to be made by the publisher rather than the author. cookbooks go through many hands with many decisions being made by people other than you (having just come through a one-month search for a subtitle that involved everyone from my agent to the head of the house).

i think we've pretty well established that this is not an italian-american invention, though some derivation of it may be more popular here than it is in italy. in my experience, marinara sauces in the us tend to be long-cooked tomato sauces while in italy they are very fresh and quickly cooked. the etymology i'd always heard was that it was a sauce prepared by the fisherman's wife, who could begin it when she saw her husband's boat in the harbor (for modern sensibilities, of course, you can imagine a husband preparing it when he saw his wife hauling in her nets).

i haven't eaten there in a couple of months, and things may have changed, but to tell the truth, i didn't find their wine pairings to be particularly revelatory. they're certainly not bad, they just aren't at the level of, say, the french laundry where you really understand more about wine through the pairings. that said, the list is really wonderful, with many bottles of great food wines for around $50 and a good number under $40. my suggestion would be to pick out two that you really want and go that way. they also have a fair number of half-bottles and good wines by the glass.

if francesconi says it, it's good enough for me. but just to be sure, i looked it up in the "Grande Enciclopedia" and (excuse any sloppy translation) it defines alla marinara thusly: it is a generic term that indicates only the presence in a recipe of tomato sals and aromatic herbs from the mediterranean such as basil and oregano, or olives, capers or salted anchovies ..." but you know, the tuscans know everything about italian food ...

for the most part, i agree about the french laundry book (as opposed to the bouchon, which i cook from regularly). but two words: sauce gribiche. it is absolutely amazing, really fast to put together and it goes with so many things. i'd be willing to bet there are more like that if i cooked through it and maybe someday i will.

this is an interesting thread and pontormo brings up very good points. i just wanted to add that different books serve different purposes. the madison books are a good example (obligatory disclosure once again: she's a very good friend and in fact wrote part of the greens book at my house). Greens is a very specific book: written about the cuisine of a restaurant in the first place, and a restaurant that was famous (justly i think) for breaking teh nutloaf and tabbouleh image most people at that time had of vegetarian cuisine. her later books are simpler because they are reflective of her home cooking (as opposed to restaurant cooking). there are authors, like st. marcella, who mine the same vein through their whole career (and still come up with gold). but i think there are just as many whose work evolves over time.

edit (too early in the morning): since the poster asked about lunch, i didn't mention the wine cask, because i believe they are dinner-only. but if you have a chance for dinner, i have always found it to be the most reliable of the santa barbara restaurants. and the wine shop has the most complete selection of the best central coast wineries short of driving to los olivos.

did he say what the temp max was? because usually these are poached, 170 to 180 degrees, not 212.

there are many good wineries in the area around santa barbara, but almost all are about an hour's drive, in the area around buellton. in town, you can check out santa barbara and lafond winery (same owners, i believe). lunch is a no-brainer: la super-rica tortilleria on milpas st.

i hate to disagree with st. mario, but i always rest roasts under a LOOSE tent of foil. the foil keeps the meat warm while it's resting (so the outside doesn't cool off before the inside gets to temp), but because it's loose the moisture can escape. but then again, maybe i'm a moron.

when thomas keller was writing a column for me, he did one on cooking in plastic wrap. as i recall, he rolled a boneless, skinless chicken breast around a stuffing of something, rolled the whole thing in plastic wrap, tight, like a sausage, poached it, cooled it, then sliced it into medallions. i did some reading beforehand about the safety of it. there is some controversy, but it seemed to me the "con" argument was about like that against using teflon pans. these days you can find someone who will argue against almost any cooking method (and, come to think of it, most ingredients as well). edit: just noticed where you live gfron, wow, since when is silver city hippy-dippy? when i knew it it was pretty hardscrabble mining and res.

that's all good stuff, though i'm sure someone will correctly point out that it contains a substance called domoic acid which is bad for you if you eat too much. i have never been in a position where i could make a diet of dungeness crab, so i don't worry about that too much. i use both the white custardy stuff (body fat) and the green stuff (tomalley). they have a very strong crab flavor. the easiest way to use them is to mix them with mayonnaise, minced tarragon and a little bit of tarragon vinegar, sieve this through a strainer to remove any tough bits, then spread it on sliced baguettes. run this under the broiler and it will puff slightly and brown. delicious.

just outof curiosity, where do you live alienor? the sticky skin is a great tip--it's the same thing as my "sugar spots." but in the us, produce managers usually wash and polish their melons to the point that doesn't help. also, where are you getting great melons today?

i'm afraid melons are like strawberries--once highly seasonal fruits that have now become breakfast parsley. but they can still be amazing when you get them at the right place and time. the book does focus on produce and agriculture. working title is "how to pick a peach."

reticulatus melons (netted melons) will ripen after picking (they will become more fragrant, but they will not gain sugar). inodorous melons (smooth melons) will ripen some, but not nearly as much. catew: water (or the lack thereof) is critical at harvest of most fruits. there was a study by some stone fruit scientists that found that withholding water the last two weeks of picking did more to increase sugar levels than an extra day on the tree.

i've read both. this is a very different, very personal book. if you liked htat section of "appetite", you'll love it.

uh, good point ludja. you'd think the seasonality nazi would have included that. melons are hot weather fruits. they really need extreme high temperatures to build sugar. (traditionally, in california they've been used as a second crop to grow in the worst part of summer in cotton fields). i almost never buy melons until halfway through july. they are pulling them now out of the el centro area on the mexican border, but even there i don't think they come close to that splendor that is a great melon from the west side of the san joaquin valley picked in mid august or september. mendota is the cantaloupe capitol of the world!