emsny

In Chinese butchers, you can generally get shank ends, bone in, of US dry cured hams of the Smithfield type (or, for that matter, thick slices cut straight across the leg). Not the same, of course, but if the bone is important to you, you might try it.

At least in NYC, you can buy prosciutto "ends" - as fiftydollars said, the shank end - at stores like Agata and Valentina, for a quarter of the price of nice neat slices.

I agree with FatGuy, mostly. I have long cooked all "grilled" meat in a skillet, finishing it in the oven if the piece is enormously thick. But I keep a grill pan for one remaining purpose: making lots of toast / "grilling" bread for crostini, etc. It is useful enough that I wish I could find a range-top cast iron grill measuring 24 or 25 inches in length that would fit over two burners of a big ol' Garland six-burner range. That is actually why I am posting: to find out if anyone knows of a source for such a thing. I have yet to find one longer than 19 or 20 inches.

We took home half a dozen pastries on Sunday; all impeccable.

You can use whatever you'd use for risotto: arborio, carnaroli, vialone nano . . . . These make a creamy pudding and won't get hard when chilled (important for those moments when you can't resist eating the pudding right out of the fridge).

To revive this thread (my wife will be spending a week in NCL soon): anything new in or near Newcastle that might be worth a visit?

I cannot find the actual book at the moment - my bookshelves are in great disorder - but here is a very good book on Sicilian cooking based on the premise that that cuisine is firmly rooted in Arab foodways: Clifford Wright, "Cucina Paradiso: The Heavenly Food of Sicily".

Rice-based dishes often reheat well in the microwave. I certainly brought risottos to my hospital-incarcerated wife last year; make them a little on the loose side, or you can add a bit of liquid to them. But pilafs, etc., should be fine without extra liquid.

Last time I checked, cacao was a plant, not a mammal. So there is no dairy in chocolate, apart from milk chocolate.

Surprisingly, Steven, Morton's kosher is damn near as dense as table salt. I have the figures somewhere, but not on this computer. I've now switched computers, so here are some figures for a 1-cup measure of various salts, rounded off to the nearest 5g: Morton’s kosher: 250g Diamond Crystal kosher: 135g Table salt: 300g Coarse sea salt: 210g Malden sea salt: 120g

Be aware that Morton's kosher is nearly twice as dense as Diamond Crystal, as it is made in a very different way. In other words, there's as much salt in a tablespoon (or a gallon) of Morton's as in nearly two tablespoons (or gallons) of Diamond Crystal.

Let's remember that the salted meat of Irish tradition that became the US St. Patrick's day corned beef and cabbage was pork in the old country. And the Welsh do it with lamb. Salting never hurt any meat!

What does the title of this thread mean? Is "the new black" a reference to some pop culture thing I'm not in contact with here under my rock?

I generally buy fish at Wild Edibles - I live a couple of blocks from Grand Central Terminal - and they're very up-front about what would be suitable for eating raw. I'm not a sushi-maker, but on occasion, when I've asked whether a given fish would be good for a tartare or other raw dish, they've said, "not today". Commendable.

'Cause that's not what I was looking for - which did NOT stop me from going to that web site and ordering a sampler of their five varieties!

Any sources for ultra-high-quality Japanese-grown rice?

Greetings. We are about to take our first trip to Amsterdam (amazing that we haven't been there before). Any experiences with the following restaurants? Blue Pepper Tempo Doeloe D'Vijff Vlieghen. De Kas Thanks.

Thanks, Andy. I don't know why I feel that he should go back to work when my personal goal is to stop as soon as I possibly can.

For what it's worth, long pepper was much used in medieval European cooking.

Corti Brothers in San Francisco might have it, and if they do they'll mail it to you. I've bought other Japanese salts from them in the past.

There's also balsamico tradizionale from Reggio Emilia, by the way.

The large mesh infuser on this page comes close; if not quite big enough, you could always use two: Tea Infusers

Nearly six months on from the last post on this topic, is there any news about Koffmann's London or other plans?

For the record, both Vong and Jo Jo pre-date Jean Georges.