Smithy

That's really pretty, Chris. It really does depend on having the best ingredients, doesn't it? A winter BLT just isn't right, because the tomatoes won't hold up their end of the show.

That last meal looks wonderfully tasty, and that table setting is beautiful: simple, connecting nicely to the summer outdoors. Thank you for sharing your week with us!

I want to know all about that fried fish, too! My other question is about the water gates in the photo with the kids crabbing. What are the gates regulating?

Does no one else add dill pickle slices? My BLT's absolutely must have that to be right. Whole wheat toast, best possible tomato and bacon, Hellman's mayonnaise. If I'm making it at home, sometimes I add avocado. I like the idea of arugula or basil, but hadn't thought to try it.

By the way - your photos are excellent! They give me a strong sense of being present with you, looking at the bread or the market or whatever. I went back to look at the cabinet joinery in the tomato house and could see what good work went into it.

The fish and chips question is an interesting one: why you can't seem to get good fish and chips there, even on the coast. That reminds me: does Denmark have a tradition of preserved fish, along the lines of pickled herring or gravlax or lutefisk? If so, what's the preferred method?

Lovely! and you're a woman after my own heart with this comment: "Why not turn any meal into a hefty research project?" :-)

I too am interested in the answers to questions already asked: - What is hokkaido like, and how do you use it? - Why is there such a great market for peeled potatoes? ...and pretty much anything you see fit to tell us! Funny, when you wrote about elderflowers it was "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" that came to mind for me!

What type of chocolate is the bread chocolate? Dark chocolate? Milk chocolate? Sweet, semi-sweet, or a variety?

I'm loving this blog! Your photos are great, with and without contortions. The pasta dish from directly above this post looks delicious, and strikes me as similar to the kinds of things I throw together from whatever happens to be on hand. Was it an improvised dish on your part? Do you tend to be more of an improvisational cook or a follow-a-recipe cook? Pheasant sounds very exotic to me. I've had it and enjoyed it, but it isn't commonly available here - at least not in northern Minnesota, unless I go hunting for it myself. Is it easy to find there? I hope you'll follow through on the "game" part of your title, and discuss how one comes by game there! I envy you your apparent fluency with Danish, Italian and English - and who knows how many others. Do you consider yourself to have one "mother tongue" that comes most easily? Any insights to Danish culture that you can throw in will also be appreciated. For instance, the "honor system" shop surprised me only a little; the security cameras surprised me more. Oh, finally (for now) - I just acquired lovage in my garden. I like its flavor but have only begun to explore its uses. Any hints you have about when / how your use that herb would be appreciated.

Citrus mold seems to be peculiar to citrus. I grew up on an orange ranch and still come home from visits with boxes of oranges, lemons, tangelos or whatever happens to be in season. Like heidih I can detect it with one short sniff. My means of stopping it, once started, are to remove the fruit until I find the offender, remove it and all the fruit touching it, discard the moldy fruit and use the good-but-touching fruit immediately, or else wash it and put it in the refrigerator to be used soon. My means of preventing the mold in the first place is to make sure all fruit is washed (I hadn't thought of bleach), THOROUGHLY dried, and then stored with plenty of air circulation. I still sometimes lose an orange or two, but that's out of a couple of boxes' worth over a couple of months. The mold is disgusting, and by the time it's visible the affected fruit is already shot. However, I agree with the others that it doesn't seem to affect any other produce.

"Birds, except when broiled and in the society of a cold bottle, bored him stiff." --P. G. Wodehouse "The French think a man can face the day on a cup of coffee and a piece of bread. That explains a lot about their politics." --Robert Heinlein (from memory - may not be quite verbatim)

Is that rapeseed? I was thinking mustard and wondering whether we're jumping to Provence.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Does sorbet count? Today I made a sorbet from pitted* sweet dark cherries and pitted* tart pie cherries, a spot of lemon juice, a whipped egg white, and a simple syrup of 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water. I plan to serve the finished product with chopped slivered almonds. It's all such a deep red that something lighter in color and crunchier in texture will be a complement. *Well, I thought they were pitted, but that seems only to have applied to the 99%. The blender suggested there was a 1% 'otherwise' in there, and the food mill proved it.

"The bookness of books". That says it all; thanks for a wonderful phrase!

We're in a heat wave up here - nothing unusual for people farther south, but everyone here in the Northland is wilting in the 90+ degree heat and >50% humidity. The only definite plan is cherry sorbet. Any cookery will be on the grill, outside, or the smoker, outside. Smoked chicken and grilled vegetables, perhaps. Happy Independence Day, USA'ans!

I'll second that. A wonderful book. I heard her speak about it in New York -- sadly, right after the invasion by the US -- and she seemed like a lovely person. Definitely a book worth tracking down. ObMeToo: I third the recommendation. A friend gave me a copy after hearing Ms. Nasralllah speak, and we both love the book.

I am an avid cook and ardent reader, and I have a terminal weakness for cookbooks in particular. My bookshelves are starting to groan despite frequent culling. Although culling helps the space issue (it would help more if I had more discipline) the purchases don't help my bank balance. In the process of thinking about cost, weight and space, I've started an internal debate about, among other things, conservation of resources (including but not limited to money) and fairness to authors. I bet I'm not the only one who thinks about these things. I'd like to hear from some of you. Borrowing from the library solves both the space and cost issues, and allows me to "test drive" a book. Sometimes a few uses show me that I don't want the book after all; other times I end up buying it to have for my very own. If I end up buying the book new, whether in electronic or bound form, the author (and everyone in the publishing chain) presumably gets something. As far as I know, authors and publishers only benefit from a library's purchase once, so my borrowing the book doesn't help them. Second-hand book sales help my bank account and address conservation of resources, but they don't help the author, publisher, et alia one bit. I purchase a fair amount from Better World Books or other charitable organizations, so that helps assuage my conscience. But it doesn't help Robb Walsh, Katy Loeb, Paula Wolfert, Lynne Rosetto Kasper...the people who actually generate the content I'm enjoying. Retail purchases seem to be the only way to contribute to the continuance of publishing, but then I'm back to killing trees, using energy, taking up space, and damaging my finances. The resources can be conserved somewhat with eBooks. I have a few of those. I like their compactness and portability, but otherwise I don't find eCookbooks as satisfying - partly because they don't seem to have effective indexing yet and partly because I like the feel and smell of physical books. Besides, a spill or stain is a badge of honor for a physical book...not so for electronics. What say you, cookbook collectors and writers? Does anyone else wrestle with this balancing act?

As a longtime fan of Lynne Rosetto Kasper and her works, I was surprised and a bit dismayed to find a book written by Maxine Clark and published in October, 2011 with the title Italian Country Table. "How strange," I muttered to myself, "I thought that was one of Lynne's books." Going back to check the record, I see that Ms. Kasper's book (published in 1999) is fully titled The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens. Hmm. Ms. Clark's book doesn't quite have the same title, but if you were going to look for Ms. Kasper's book in a store or online, my guess is you'd use the shorter name to find the book in question. Is the newer book flirting with copyright infringement? Are there rules - codified or unofficial - governing the naming of books with similar topics?

It's been a few years since my last trip to Egypt, and I haven't heard word one from friends who travel and work there, or used to; for all I know they may have bailed out during the past year. Does anyone know whether, say, Istoril and Tabbouli in Cairo have survived? What about Khoshary Tahrir? What about Pharoah's Hotel on the West Bank near Luxor, or the restaurants in Luxor proper? How are the street cart vendors making out? I'd love a firsthand report if anyone here has one to give.

Wait, Chris - are you saying you keep the specific gravity in mind of each of your liquids? Or do you just add the liquid in question to a beaker on a scale until you have the desired mass? I like the small Oxo "look down" cups for measuring up to a quarter-cup, but it has more to do with convenience, compactness and resolution down to a (more or less) tablespoon than with precision. For larger quantities I have a wonderful measuring cone that goes up to 2 cups, with gradations marking tablespoons, teaspoons, ounces, cups, pints and milliliters; its principal drawbacks are that it's some plastic prone to cracking with hot liquid and that it doesn't go up to the traditional 4 cups. For hot liquids and 1-quart measures I have my trusty Pyrex set. Guess I'll have to be more careful with them.

It's been here at eGullet that I've been able to ask questions, find answers, take courses, expand my cooking capabilities, share wacky experiments and their surprising results, and make some friends. You've been one of the faces of the community and a chief driver of its growth. I'm sure Dave, Chris and Chris, JAZ and the rest of the all-star cast will keep the community thriving, but I'll miss your voice here. Thanks, Steve, and Best of Luck to you! Smithy P.S. Do keep the eGullet community in mind if some new product needs beta testers!

Beautiful! Did it taste as good as it looked?

How can food coloring go off? Other than drying up in the bottle, of course. I've had that happen. I have some duck fat and duck jello that I've been hoarding for a few years, back when duck fat was all the rage on eGullet and I had time to render some. Looks and smells okay, but it's at leas 3 years old and possibly older. If I get around to using it instead of tossing it I'll give it a really good cookdown first. If some reader KNOWS that I'd be courting food poisoning, please let me know.