emsny

Yes, I can buy the more nuanced term "not fully baked", at least for the center of the loaf, but at that temperature the flour has surely been cooked, no? So - why does it give you a belly ache? I googled around a bit last night, and found nothing useful. Mostly quotations from classical writers such as Galen and from nineteenth and early twentieth century household-management writers. Moderator: I wonder whether this thread ought at this point to be broken off and placed in the baking forum.

"Technically raw"? Surely not.

Slightly warm, as opposed to hot, bread is in fact very good and not at all stomach-clogging. As to cold, hard butter sitting unspread on a morsel of bread, it certainly has charms of its own that, for me, evoke childhood memories involving rye bread. For those lacking such memories, warmer butter (though cool enough not to be greasy) is probably more appealing and is certainly more flavorful. Does anyone know, incidentally, WHY hot bread can cause belly-ache (clearly it is not literally indigestible)?

We just got back from a vacation, part of which was spent in south-western France. We ate in one Michelin two-star and one three-star, and between the two of them they would have made FatGuy pretty happy. The three-star (Guerard) offered only two breads, both freshly baked in-house in long loaves which looked rather like strudels when they were presented, warm, to diners on black steel baking sheets: one plain, one with a few olives in it, both spectacular, with thin, very crisp crusts and just the right amount of salt. The two-star (Thierry Marx) is obviously gunning for a third star and therefore offers all manner of dining-room circus acts including, get this, a butter trolley. There were four butters, wheeled over on a cart: sweet, salted, sheep's milk (excellent) and a very soft "beurre a la creme" which was like a light whipped cream-butter mixture with salt, pepper and herbs - not really sure what it was. Each one was set on a square of slightly dampened muslin with the corners folded up over it. The waiter gracefully flipped the corners of the muslin back with his table knives and served the butter like cheese: with two table knives (apart from the soft creamy mixture, which was spooned). Very elegant. And the butters were all delicious.

Turtles may be seen in New York's Chinatown(s) too.

The bakeries / cafes that used to be called Yura's and are now called something like The Corner Cafe (main branch, where the kitchen is, Third Avenue and 93rd) makes excellent black and whites. The cake part is lightly flavored with almond extract, which works for me, but if you are outraged by the idea don't even bother making the journey.

You seem to be right about Corti's site no longer listing them. They appear in some of their old newsletters - such as http://www.cortibros.biz/WEBSITE/Newslette...02/Win02Pg4.asp - but, as you say, they're not among the current products. You might e-mail or phone them and ask about their source. I wonder whether Buon'Italia in New York could get them; they sell other Sicilian pistachio products. Their number is 212.633.9090, and they definitely do have a wholesale department.

By the way, the reason Morton's seems so much saltier is that it is nearly twice as dense as Diamond Crystal: because D.C. is "fluffier" there is much less salt per tablespoonful. I've weighed them, though I don't have the figures available right now.

Since they're already cut into 1.5" steaks, this might not be possible, but if you could slice them very thin against the gain (as in the stir-fry suggestions above), you might be able to manage some plausible Philadelphia-style steak sandwiches - as long as you also cook a lot of onions to provide some extra moisture.

Here - http://www.thegrownupsguide.com/data/ - I found a reference to this: http://witmerproducts.com/pbutter.html , a gizmo for stirring the oil back into separated natural peanut butter. Overkill, perhaps, but I find this a surprisingly onerous task when attempted with a table knife, and if the thing works as promised it could be a boon. Has anybody tried one?

This from Cuozzo in the NY Post of August 8: 'WHEN Bar Boulud opens at 1900 Broadway (at 64th Street) in early November, it will follow a time- honored Upper West Side tradition: 'Its charcuterie (basically French for "deli") items will be available for takeout, although "we won't have bicycle delivery," Daniel Boulud laughed. 'The charcuterie bar run by famed Parisian master Gilles Verot will be the main, but not the only, focus....'.

Although I've never tried this, I think you could also use duck or goose fat; Pierre Koffmann of London's La Tante Claire (now closed) used to do that with salmon.

Note that Union Square is by no means the only Greenmarket that has fish vendors. Pura Vida comes to our little Wednesday market on E 47th Street (actually, not so little anymore) and invariably has impeccable fish, fresher than almost any I've bought in fish stores. Is there not fish at the Lincoln Center market on Thursday? Perhaps other members can let us know when fish vendors appear at their local farmers' markets.

Older editions of the Larousse Gastronomique (though not THAT old: mine was bought new in the 1970s) used to contain an illustration showing the difference between cat and rabbit carcasses so that diners who ordered the latter would know if they were being sold the former. This suggests that, at least in post-WWII France, cat meat was not highly esteemed. What sorts of recipes do your Iberian sources give, Adam, and from when do they date?

French macaroons are different from the macaroons my mother used to buy in cans, but the English word remains the same.

On this, from today's NY Times dining section: Macaroons Everywhere, Except on the Sign Pascal Goupil, a baker who owned the French Oven, now closed, in the Chelsea Market, has opened Madeleine, a charming French pâtisserie with a few tables. In spite of its name, it specializes in macaroons, not madeleines. “In a week or so we’ll have about 18 flavors,” Mr. Goupil said, “and I also plan to make cakes based on macaroons.” The macaroons are big, filled and $2.50 each. Fresh fruit tartlets, like the elegant cherry variety, are $3.75 to $4.50, minitartlets are $1.50 each and small, rich chocolate croissants are 90 cents each. And yes, there are madeleines, 75 cents each; 128 West 23rd Street, (212) 243-2757.

Thanks re: Capital. But I have an elderly Garland six-burner now, and I really like the star burners, so BlueStar has particular appeal for me.

Thanks, Soupcon. I guess caramel-clog doesn't count as an inherent problem with the ignition - and it is good to hear that the burner can still be lit the old-fashioned way.

I have read on line about problems with the ignition on BlueStar ranges - is this no longer an issue with new ones? (One wishes for the option to order ranges with pilot lights. <Sigh>)

I seem to remember that Julia Child recommended Wondra for quick puff pastry. I've used AP with success - the technique really does work. As to its being GMO, I think the product pre-dates such things.

Somewhat off topic, but somewhat on as well: Some time ago there was a TV program, perhaps on PBS perhaps not, about hamburger joints across America. One of them deep fried its hamburgers (just the meat, happily) and evidently prided itself on never having changed the grease since early in the last century. Literally: when the restaurant moved, the fat came with it. By coincidence, I was in a fancy New York restaurant a day or two after I saw this program. At that time, they were flash-frying steaks to sear them after cooking them to rare at low temperature, and I asked how often they changed the fat. "Oh, three to five times a night" was the answer. A nice contrast.

A big surprise on a trip to Tokyo earlier this year was the presence of a Doughnut Plant shop in Shinjuku Station. Yes, we bought a couple and yes, they were very like the ones sold here. Speaking of stations, the Oren's coffee stand in Grand Central Terminal (not the one in the food market that sells loose coffee and tea, but the one that sells coffee and pastries to go) also sells Doughnut Plant doughnuts.

The Bronte pistachios that Corti sells are indeed peeled.

I am pretty sure that Corti Bros has sold these in small quantities - those nice, bright-green Sicilian ones; if they still do, perhaps they could arrange a bulk purchase.

I can't see that a dry knife in a fold of cardboard is any less sanitary than one in a fold of plastic. And - this is probably for another thread - how clean do we get our knives anyway?