Smithy

Thanks for sharing that, Chris. You may not have thought the tone was quite right, but I find it evocative of a scene I've never seen and now wish I could. Bless Paul for bringing Louisiana's cuisine to the rest of us.

I remember those canned hams from my childhood, and they put me off ham altogether, until I discovered roast picnic ham sans cloves. Your ham above looks like ham is supposed to look. Good on you! Hooray for JP, too!

Thank you for that report, rotuts! I confess to not being a ham enthusiast myself except for smoked picnic hams, which we roast unglazed. This might be a good way for me to like other ham treatments, since we have trouble finding said picnic hams. What approximate proportions did you use for your glaze? Is that Redi-Check thermometer set up particularly for a water bath? I have one (two, actually) dual-probe setups for a smoker, but I thought the probes were supposed to stay dry. You seem to have submerged the water bath sensor.

Can you slice them and dry the slices, or even dry the limes whole? There are Middle Eastern (primarily toward the Iraq/Iran region of the Middle East, IIRC) recipes that call for preserved limes. If this sounds appealing I'll look through my cookbooks for more ideas.

I had no idea that ultrasonic agitation could hasten the aging of a liqueur. Why does it work? Is it peculiar to lemoncello? What other cool food-related things could I do with one of those gadgets?

No, definitely toward the cut end. That part is 'intuitively obvious', as my profs like to say, once you see it cut, but thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of dangling and waving it like that. Thanks for the tip.For those who haven't seen the initial discussion, here's a link to the topic: Simple Trick to Cook Corn on the Cob. Apologies to Kerry for such a protracted discussion. We now return to her Chillin'...

This is where I've been cutting, but I haven't gotten the "it practically squirts out" result. Maybe I'm not nuking the corn long enough, although it seems fully cooked. I end up squeezing like crazy, working the cob along its green shell until it comes out, and often giving up about halfway through and peeling the rest back. I confess to a bit of a mental block with regard to sweet corn, so that may be a factor. Looking back at Kerry's response, it's also possible I'm not letting it cool quite long enough before squeezing. Kerry, that toast looks perfect.

I've tried that method of cooking corn a number of times, and decided that I'm missing the hand strength, the heat tolerance, or both to make it work satisfactorily. Mitts are too clumsy, towels too big and bare hands too tender for me. Got any tips on this? If it were me, I'd be out of commission until I found a replacement keyboard. I've already sacrificed one keyboard/docking station to the Salad Dressing Gods.

Oh, dear! That is an impressive number of shards. Given the size range, I can imagine Porthos' scenario. When you have a moment, please tell us how far and high it spread. A story as colorful as your language must have been would not be amiss.

I hope you'll favor us with photos of the pressing process and results! More exposition on the issues would be nice, too, if you can do it without smearing your camera. :-)

It will be a while before I can watch this, so please help me out here: what is the purpose of the long soak in warm water? The ham is already cooked; is it to reduce the salt, or does it somehow change the texture? Next question: does the smoked picnic ham I picked up yesterday count as a 'lightly smoked supermarket ham' or did he have in mind one of the less strongly flavored (to me insipid) hams?

"Rye sour" = rye-based sourdough? eta: I've had brisket on the brain lately. I'm looking forward to shots of your sandwich!

I also think that sandwich looks lovely. Is that rye bread? What bread would you have preferred for that sandwich? I'm looking forward to seeing what you get up to during your visit this fall. I hope the silences aren't too protracted due to a heavy workload. :-)

It's the season for chowda now, isn't it? That was our dinner a few evenings ago, but it didn't look as nice as yours.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

I can't detect any smoke. There's only one dried chipotle per jar, and I admit it's old, but it's potent enough to give a small kick. Thanks so much for your recipe!

This is a shot of my most recent eggplant salad. We make it fairly often. Get the juices right, get some good crusty bread to sop up extra dressing, and you have a fine meal. I think the colors are beautiful.

*Bump* Is anyone else making sauerkraut these days? I set up 2 crocks' worth - one green, one red - a little over 2 weeks ago. I think red cabbage when cut is particularly beautiful: Isn't this beautiful stuff? Here it is, sliced, mixed with salt, caraway and coriander seeds, and ready to pack in the crock: Last year's kraut fermentation stuck, and I got it going with the addition of more salt and a touch more water. I had calculated 3% by weight for the salt, so this year I tried 4% from the outset. It's a bit more than Sandor Katz recommends, but so far seems to be going properly. Our tap water is more basic than most; that may account for needing more salt. The poor green cabbage got the same treatment, but like the homely child just didn't get as much photographic attention. Nonetheless when this particular photo was taken, the green kraut was making better progress than the flashier red and had thrown off more water. I added brine to both after this shot to ensure the liquid level stayed high enough, but it probably wasn't necessary for the green kraut. Yesterday was the first taste test. It has a way to go before it's done, but it's quite edible and nicely crunchy.

In the last month I've made a batch of Shelby's quickles, another batch of refrigerator pickles from my friend April's recipe, and two batches of sauerkraut. It's all coming to fruition - er, fermentation! Yippee! April's refrigerator pickles went into one very large jar - good for packing, not so easy for distribution: They were packed earlier than Shelby's Quickles, so we got into them first: Meanwhile, Shelby's Quickles got several different treatments. This photo is from the initial packing, not after they'd had time to ferment. We've been taste-testing and deciding that the addition of a dried chipotle to a quart jar gives a pleasant kick. I packed 2 crock's worth of kraut some 2 or 3 weeks ago. Yesterday was the first taste test. It's coming along nicely. It still has a way to go, but it's well on its way to being proper kraut:

I adapted a friend's recipe for yellow and red tomato 'pie' a few nights ago: omitted the pastry shell and substituted fresh, finely sliced potatoes instead. The layers are helped with a mix of grated parmesan, mayonnaise and garlic. The photo isn't the greatest, but we agreed the dinner was well worth repeating.

Beautiful photos, David. Hmm: we have freshly-dug potatoes and a wood-cutting/splitting/stacking party coming up in good crisp fall weather. Thanks for the inspiration!

Wow, thanks! Yes, we'll be heading south again in about a month. I'll try to see whether I can come up on a new spin that isn't just a rehash of our usual routine.

Welcome back, ChefCrash; good to see you! A couple of questions: - What, please, is lemon-gret? (or is it lemong-gret?) - What would be the Berberi spice mix?

It might depend on the proportions you use. My fruit ice creams, made with nectarines, plums, peaches or raspberries, taste intensely of the fruit in question, but the dairy portion is relatively small in order to keep that flavor.

Welcome to eGullet, simon ben. What do you do with the olive oil? What seasonings, if any, do you include?