Smithy

I wish I had such a problem as a lot of credit at BBB. :-) Here's a recent topic on the Demeyere that includes some discussion about Mauviel: Demeyere Skillet for Birthday Gift. You may find some useful information there, and of course we can hope for more responses from people who've used both these lines. Welcome to eGullet!

Weight of the finished product Some measure of balance - I don't know whether or how that's quantified for knives, but it's an important aspect for the user Warranty? This is a good idea, gfron1. There should be some enterprising genius hanging out here who could start up such a web site.

Bitter dark chocolate sputtered onto a crisp layer of raspberry glass (freeze dried but not powdered raspberry coulis). Hmm, you may have to start a topic on vacuum sputtering.

I see what you mean now, Blether. Thanks for the clarification and the links. Those lamb shoulders are *beautiful*!

It's so nice to see water getting more environmentally friendly.

I love the looks of that turquoise-colored plate. It reminds me of pottery I'd find somewhere in New Mexico or Arizona.

That sounds very tasty, Norm. Have you tried not bothering to boil it, and baking instead? I generally slice and scoop as you describe, score the interior, stuff with a savory meat/tomato/onion sort of mixture, bake covered until the squash is soft, then finish with grated cheese. It has to bake longer than when the squash is boiled first, but to me the flavor is more intensely squashy. I love those Carnivals! Well, tell him to smoke more, and pronto! That meal looks wonderful. Our tomato season is winding down (first frost tonight, maybe) and the sight of those beautiful tomatoes gives me a pang of mourning. Boy, do I feel your pain. I did the same thing to a finger tip last month, slicing onions, and spent 3 weeks typing and cooking without that finger. Maybe you and I need to enroll in a remedial knife skills class.

Ribs I cook low and slow. I haven't seen much difference between searing first or letting them brown by themselves, so I avoid the risk of toughening them by cooking too fast. By 'low and slow' I mean slightly below 200F for several hours, covered until the last half hour or so. I've generally cooked thicker cuts of meat - prime rib, tri-tip - by searing quickly in a good hot pan to get a good browning reaction and then finishing at about 200. Based on Blether's post I may try the low-slow method and see how that works. If the surface is adequately dry, there should be good browning even without the searing step. And yes, the business about 'sealing in the juices' has been pretty thoroughly debunked. (I have a friend who still believes it, however, and I don't try to convince him otherwise. He's a good cook, he knows what he knows, ...and he's a bar bouncer. )

That may explain why the tree I enjoyed so much last year is almost bare. The strange thing is that I thought it had had a generous compliment of blossoms this spring. Was it only wishful thinking that turned those blossoms into the green fruit I thought I was watching, or did some very ambitious person or birds harvest when I wasn't looking? At any rate, when I checked it last week there were 2 fruits, way out of reach, and nothing on the ground. I think of crab apples as being very tart / sour, and coming from the large trees with showy (often dark pink) blossoms. I may be making an incorrect distinction. The trees I'm referring to as wild apples are relatively small - say, 20' high - with miniature apples ranging in size from 1 to 3 cm. All the trees I've watched have white blossoms, but the fruits range from yellowish to the brilliant deep red of a radish. Most of the trees produce essentially spherical fruit, but a few put out oblong fruits. Some trees are loose in the brush by the roadside, but others were obviously planted; this year's 'favorite' set is arranged in a row on what we think is an old farmstead, overlooking a creek. The fruits of one tree are very different from the fruit of the next. Some may have sprouted from seeds, since (according to the University of Minnesota web site linked below) apples have to be grafted to run true to the parent. My term 'wild' refers to their being untended, probably not worth cultivating (because of size, texture, shelf life, etc.) and ignored except by wackos like me who go pick the fruit and try to do something with it. In 2011 the University of Minnesota rediscovered a test orchard that had been planted in 1911 and abandoned sometime in mid-century. Records unearthed (that led them to go find it again) indicated that seedlings were distributed from the test orchard to homeowners in the area. I suspect most or all of these trees are from that source, but there's no way to be sure. They ran a genotyping project to which I submitted leaves, but no match was found. Some other trees were identified as old and rare breeds.

Yes, do please stay in touch. The precision burner control mentioned by Shalmanese a few posts ago sounds very attractive. I have a few questions: 1. Is this strictly for iPad users at present, or are you also planning an Android interface? 2. You mention 'less' smoke and grease because of containment. That sounds good, but doesn't there still have to be some escape of steam, oil or smoke out to the kitchen? If not, it seems likely you'd be steaming meat instead of getting a good sear. 3. The photos of your cooked steak look very pretty, but I'm skeptical unless you have a way of maintaining a low interior temperature (for rare or medium rare) while high heat is applied to sear the surface. Please explain the process a bit more.

Yes, I'm curious about whether some volatiles end up in the water - enough to give it useful flavour. If it's more like distilled water I could imagine using it for watering plants or other household uses in an arid climate, but that hardly applies to your part of the world.

I don't see a vent in your setup. Are you easing the stopper, or am I overlooking the vent somewhere?

That looks like a lot of fun, Kerry, and I want one of those ice cream sandwiches after you're dipped them. At some point I hope you'll check the water to see what it's like.

Thank you for evoking Racheld, Kim...and thanks to the rest of you for the inspiring words. I'll give it another try, I promise...but not out of the jars... ;-)

A special sharp-edged spoon for digging around the stones in cling stone fruit. My parents mentioned my need for it one summer when they were visiting and I was fixing our family standard, fruit salad. I'd never heard of such an implement. Lo and behold, 'Santa' put one in my Christmas stocking that year. Mom and Dad were tickled pink to have found one; it had taken a lot of garage-sale haunting. Yes, it's very useful, but it's even better because of the memories.

It's interesting to see a recipe for pimento cheese that doesn't include pimientos! I thought that was de rigueur. I'm afraid pimento cheese is a bit of Southern Culture that my mother never could sell to me. She adored that stuff that comes in the little Kraft jars with the metal lids. They made great jelly jars afterward, but given a choice between eating the original contents and buying jelly jars with my own money, I'd have sacrificed my allowance without a second thought. She didn't force the issue, bless her, because she figured it left more of a luxury item for her. She loved it in sandwiches, spread on Ritz crackers, or filling the hollow in celery stalks. So, are y'all saying that there's a better version out there? Is this something I should try again? :-)

First, let me say that I've never cooked with acorns, so I have no firsthand knowledge of this. Earlier this summer I was told (by a Minnesota Park Ranger) that certain varieties of acorn don't need all that leaching. I was surprised at this information, because we were taught in school that leaching was mandatory in order to make the acorns edible. One of the web sites I read earlier today brought up the issue of simply roasting the acorns, but of course it's possible that the web site author is misinformed; you know what they say about not believing everything you read on the internet. ;-) This web site indicates that not all acorns are created equal, and makes for some interesting reading: http://honest-food.net/2010/01/14/acorn-pasta-and-the-mechanics-of-eating-acorns/

Shalmanese beat me to the granita comment. :-) I'll note that semifreddo also doesn't require an ice cream maker. It does, however, include sugar. In case you're interested, here's a link to the Fine Cooking article that put me on this path: http://www.finecooking.com/videos/how-to-make-semifreddo.aspx

Watermelon sorbet would be a good start. I've done that just by pureeing watermelon flesh and churning it in an ice cream maker, with reasonable success. Getting the pure essence sounds like just the ticket. Then again, there's peach sorbet, or mango, or pineapple...wow, the sorbet idea sounds great!

Does the nickel plating affect the cooking properties of the pan, or is it only a cosmetic feature? It's certainly pretty.

It might be. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure I know the difference between a relish and a chutney, but I'm willing to learn. Got any good recipes for me?

If not turmeric, perhaps cardamom?

This is interesting. It's another in a series of movements to preserve diversity. Two others that come to mind are Seed Savers Exchange and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. What seems to be different about The Ark of Taste is that they aren't limiting their efforts to seeds.

I bought 2 dozen ears of corn this weekend, because our corn season is also nearing its end, and tried the Bundt pan approach. The pan did make a nice catch basin for *most* of the corn kernels, with a few popping off too far for the pan to catch. The corn was so juicy that I still ended up having to wash the kitchen island and mop the floors all the way around when I was done. This job is best done outside on a fine day.

Pickled apples! I hadn't thought of that! Thanks for the link.