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Unless I am going to be baking a fruitcake for a long time to drive out the alcohol, I can't use it to soak dried fruit because I am allergic to alcohol. I have found that steaming the dried fruit plumps it nicely without making it so wet it sinks to the bottom in steamed puddings. Try it with a small amount and see how you like the texture. For small fruits I steam them for about 8 minutes, for something like apricot halves 15 minutes and for dried pineapple slices, mango or papaya slices, it takes about 25 minutes.

Also for removing odors from books, (tobacco, cooking odors, etc.), try interleaving some of the unscented dryer sheets between some of the pages, using about 6 in a regular sized book. You can also, for mildewed books and magazines, if you have a vacuum sealer, vacuum seal the book in a bag and put it in the freezer for 72 hours, remove from the plastic bag as soon as you take it out of the freezer. Place in a warm dry place and treat with baking soda.

Another batch newly acquired. Cookbook collection received 10/10/06 Pickles and Preserves - Marion Brown MCMLV Omelets, Crepes, and other Recipes - Rudolph Stanish 1970 Great British Cooking: A Well Kept Secret - Jane Garmey 1981 Soft Cheese Craft and other Recipes for the Aspiring dairymaid - Mary Ann Pike 1982 Mama Weiss Favorite Recipes - Mama Weiss, KHJ-TV Los Angeles, 1953 (First female television cooking show, Los Angeles, late ‘40s to mid ‘50s.) Signed Good Fare and Cheer of Old England - Joan Parry Dutton 1960 Condiments - Kathy Gunst 1984 Ice Cream Cookbook - Earl Goldman 1970 The Shaker Cookboos - Caroline B. Piercy 1953 Crepes Cook Book, Better Homes & Gardens 1976 McCall’s Cookie Collection 1965 Ideals From Mama’s Honey Jar Cookbook - Catharine P. Smith MCMLXXVIII The Everlasting Pleasure - Kathleen Ann Smallzried - - - The rich and savory story of American cooks, kitchens and cookery from 1565 to the year 2000. (Printed in 1956) Eggs I Have Known - Corinne Griffith 1955 (1st ed, signed) Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine - Madelaine Bullwinkel 1984 Feast of Santa Fe - Huntley Dent 1985 Early American Herb Recipes - Alice Cooke Brown 1966 The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger - Julie Kaufmann 2002

I posted a recipe I got from my neighbor and it is delicious. It is far more complex in flavor than the sweetened condensed milk stuff. I took some to an eGullet potluck a couple of years ago and everyone who tasted it thought it was great. Dulce de Leche from scratch.

History of cocktail shakers. Museum of the American Cocktail Perhaps these can help.

Shaker types

There is no active radioactive waste production in these instruments.

I have found it is quicker to cut the onion in half, cut the top and bottoms off, pop off the outer layer and line them up on the cutting board. I then put each half on the dicer, push down and if I am using the alligator, lift the cutting part which dumps the dice off onto the cuttin board on the other side of the dicer, then I place another half and so on. If I use the other dicer that has the chamber at the bottom (Progressive) I can do 4 or 5 halves, depending on size, until the thing is full then dump the dice into a bowl and keep going. Peeling whole onions takes a lot more time than this method. Same with shallots on the smaller dicer. Cut in half, top and tail, pop off outer layer, dice.

In Europe many food items are treated in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK, some in Italy and Spain but it is forbidden in Germany. Some "public information" groups always refer to it as "controversial technology" while ignoring that millions of people die every year because of eating contaminated food, from food lost to spoilage and continue to spout the diatribes that they want to "protect" citizens of the world from the "pressures from the nuclear lobby, governments and international organisations backing liberal globalisation and the expansion of trans-national corporations (TNCs)." Luddites, they can never see beyond their own prejudices.

This is from a year ago regarding Wood freezer/refrigerators. Amana has lost market share and since being sold to a conglomerate a few years back has a very poor customer satisfaction rating. Copeland/Emerson and Carlyle make most of the compressors for commercial freezer/refrigerators, from 5 cf to huge "drive-in" refrigerated warehouses. (I know someone who works for Copeland)

Someday, if people in this country ever get over the irrational fear of irradiated foods, all these kinds of vegetable products can be treated at point of packaging with no possibility of harmful pathogens getting into the food chain. The technology is affordable, the treatment does not alter the nutritional values and it would save lives, not to mention millions of dollars for growers, processors and markets. (It might take a few bucks out of the pockets of some lawyers but I do not see that as a bad thing!)

Thanks andi. I'm intrigued. I don't actually have a vacuum sealer, but I'm trying to figure out if I could do something similar with a sealed plastic freezer bag (or several). It would probably be messier/not as convenient, but I'm wondering... is having an airtight seal the key? Or is there something else specific about the vacuum sealer that makes this work? Can you tell me more about what is achieved by using the sealer? ← Have you seen the "Instant-Marinade" containers? This works on the same principal. I have seen something similar demonstrated in a laboratory, a lone time ago when a small container containing a very hot liquid was placed into a vacuum chamber with a piece of a wood block under it so the heat would not damage the base of the chamber (I guess, I was only an observer). The vacuum pump was started and we began to see condensation dripping down the walls of the chamber and collect on the bottom. I was away from the demonstration for a few minutes, while doing something else but when I returned they had just shut the pump down as it had reached the atmosphere level they wanted, only a partial vacuum. When they removed the sample from the chamber they also removed the wood block and set it on a manual laying on the counter. Someone noticed that there was obvious moisture around the spot and when they picked it up there was a wet spot on the book. Anything porous will apparently suck in any moisture when placed in a partial vacuum. In fact, I once put some skewers holding meats and onions in marinade in a vacuum package and then put them in the freezer. The skewers split when the moisture in them split. That was enough of a demonstration for me. In any event, when I got my first vacuum sealer, quite a few years ago, I began treating some antique wooden kitchen tools this way (unpainted) potato smashers, spoons, ladles, rolling pins, small bowls, butter molds, etc., and it seems to work quite well. It may just be my imagination, but since I have the machine (and a huge supply of bags bought on ebay) I figure it can't hurt. I will take a photo of one of the old rolling pins, a huge one, a bit later and post it here.

The internist in my office referred me to this site for low salt and salt-free questions and answers, asked by real people and answered in a way that anyone can understand. And the author has written a cookbook that is one of the best on the market. The doc in our office recommends it and one of the other doctors, a semi-retired internist who is on a low salt diet, uses it. There are several resources listed on the site, including a list of source links for ingredients, and he discusses bread at length and answers all of the questions people have about the bread recipes in the book as well as general baking questions at length. That being said, there is a way to get the flavor into bread without using salt. There are several salt substitutes but the only one that has the taste closest to real salt, without the unpleasant aftertaste and which can be used in baking is Also-Salt which is carried at the local health food store and also in some markets. Or you can order it on-line.

The reason I like the commercial freezers is because they have no door shelves. I have baskets that sit on the shelves for holding stuff - it makes it easier to rotate foods and much easier to clean inside. Also it saves the cooling. Pull a basket out, close the freezer door and search the basket instead of standing with the door open for five minutes while hunting for something. Like these

Sorry about my error. I have talked to Star Restaurant supply about getting a freezer and initially we talked about ColdTech and Traulson. I dug out my folder and went through the brochures and the one I found that would work best for me is this one made by Green World, more energy efficient than any of the other commercial freezers. It is bigger than the one I have now but I also have a side by side in the kitchen (Maytag wide-by-side) which I love but am pretty sure I am going to swap out for a fridge-only unit so the bigger capacity will take up the slack. I am getting rid of my commercial oven as I have a buyer for it, and putting in a regular oven/ovens and since that area has to be re-configured, I want to move the fridge also and I want one that has two doors but is all refrigerator, no freezer, made by Klondike in a wood cabinet to match my cabinets. Here's a better picture. This site lists almost all of the commercial freezers and fridges with prices so it's easier to compare them. freezer specs and prices

I have had both types of freezer and much prefer the upright types. I have had several different brands and sizes and I believe bigger is better. I have a huge 32 cf with the Kenmore label, however Sears no longer carries these big units (12 years old) which were made by a commercial freezer mfg. It is totally frost free. A couple of months ago, I went along with one of my neighbors who bought this freezer from Lowe's They ordered it, and it took about 3 weeks, as I recall, they rented a truck with a lift gate for half a day, which was cheaper than the delivery charge, which I think was $75.00. Since it went into the garage they didn't need an appliance dolly (although I have one, which everyone around here uses). We split a steer and he brings whole wild pigs back from Mexico and does some hunting. The freezer works very well. It is an Energy Star appliance and they got a rebate from Edison. - All power companies offer rebates for any Energy Star appliances and it is a money saver. In addition they took their old freezer, which like yours, still worked and cooled, to SCEs recycling center and got a check for $50.00 for it plus they got a $50.00 rebate from SCE for buying an Energy Star freezer. If my freezer dies, I plan on replacing it with a 2-door commercial one made by Cold-Tech that is about the same size volume, but is wider and not as deep from front to back.

Make it in the morning. No need to dry it. It is dense and not all that moist to begin with. I often have it baking when I begin frying onions and cooking the giblets, if I am going to use them. As soon as it comes out of the oven I turn it out onto the butcher block and chop it into chunks with a long knife (or a big 2-handled pizza cutter) and let it cool as much as it will until it is ready to add to the other ingredients.

When the first book to carry this name was being researched, the author interviewed dozens of citizens who live (and cook) much as their ancestors did and who are proud of their heritage. If you read the book you will see that it is not a condemnation of these people nor does it make fun of them. Those that were interviewed and whose stories were included in the book were very proud of it. There have been a lot of books about "down-home" cooking, "Southern Old-Time" cooking, and so on, but none have had the instant success of this book. The catchy title caught their eye but the quality of the food and the honesty of the recipes made people recommend it to others. In 1986, Ernest Mickler's book was a best-seller. If you scroll down to the 6th article on this page from the New York Times archives you can see what was being said at the time. The following quote is from the Jargon Society: "One book stands alone - Ernest Matthew Mickler's White Trash Cooking, called by Metropolitan Home "the best American cookbook of the century," which took Jargon and the country by surprise and storm. A fun book to hold and read, a visionary laugh at stodge, it is the one book Jargon had to divest, becoming bigger than Jargon could or wanted to handle. An unusual cookbook, in many ways it represents a sea-change for Jargon - a shift from the poetic arts to more works of photography and visionary folk art. White Trash was both a blessing and a curse, bringing a spurt of national notoriety to the press, which, I believe, has since hindered its fund-raising abilities. The question arises as to why Jargon didn't establish an endowment with the money made from the book, but Jargon remained true to its Utopian passion - publishing the best books possible from an expanding project list, and expecting the best from others - that the financial backing would appear for the next project: "I do always try to figure out some way to get the book paid for before I publish it...But after it is paid for and published I don't much concern myself with what happens to it. I feel that if the public wants badly enough...the books...they ought to be willing to make the effort to find them. The way I see it, it is much like 'dropping seeds into the ground.' Something is going to happen, and it usually does." (Rooke 6) Mickler's point was that this particular niche of society, long written off by the mainliners, had a rich, historical and important culinary tradition that had to be recorded for posterity. He was not putting these people down! He was celebrating their lives and cultural diversity. The fact is that the cookbook sold so well that it introduced a great many people all over the US (and other countries) to these traditional foods of the rural south. A significant side effect was the hugely increased interest in folk art of the rural south. Many of these people who had barely existed, found buyers seeking them out, galleries competing for their artworks and giving them the chance to make a decent living. One man, who became successful in the late '80s and early '90s, was interviewed as part of a PBS special and was proud to show off the home he had built and the community center and high school he had endowed with proceeds from his folk art. The gallery owner who discovered this backwoods artist, and several others, said that she had bought Ernest Mickler's cookbook and wanted to see for herself the people who could do so much with so little. She told the interviewer that she never knew that something as simple as beans could be so satisfying.

I order from a couple of vendors but have been using this one. Mousehouse Cheesehaus If you like sharp cheddar, try the 5-year-old. (That is what I ordered, the 6 was a typo in my first post.) Also the cranberry cheddar is delicious - I melt a slice on a lightly toasted English muffin. So good with tea. I used to buy a lot from Widmers but when I tried to place an order a few months back I couldn't get to the checkout page and they weren't answering their phone.

I love goat. The "chivo" (some call it "cabrito") I buy at the local Mexican carnicerias has never had the "gamy" flavor I find so objectional in the older "lamb" one finds in the markets, although some people say they have had goat meat that is gamy, I have not, it is probably due to how they are fed. Goat meat here, mostly grain fed, is sweet and actually low fat so is better for one than beef. My next-door neighbors are originally from Mexico and still own a ranch near Durango and often barbecue whole kid and pigs when they have a party. (Which is often because they have a large, extended family and any excuse, graduation from high school, university, 15th birthday for girls, weddings, children/grands home from Iraq or ???) I am almost always included because we share our garden stuff and they use my big barbecue when they have really big parties. I make a killer chile with goat meat, won a chile cookoff about 20 years ago with it. Goat meat slow braised - just like one does pork for carnitas - makes fantastic tacos or burritos. The neck meat, the two strips on either side of the spine, cut into chunks and marinated for a couple of days, then threaded onto skewers with small whole onions and split caloro or similar medium peppers, can be wrapped in foil and cooked in a low oven (250) for an hour, then finished on the barbecue. This treatment keeps the meat moist and very, very tender. Here are several recipes.

Yes. It does have a function. There has been discussion in previous topics. I will see if I can find the reference. Check here - scroll down to "salt".

That is very clever. I just ordered some Wisconsin cheese that is impossible to find out here.I love brick cheese, both young and aged, so ordered some of both, plus some 6-year-old cheddar. Also, I am still enjoying the Piave. I made a pizza with pears, apples and slices of the Piave drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

I am bumping this topic up because in today's email I received this periodic message from the California Avocado Commission. There are many terrific recipes on this site. These Halloween party recipes sound and look like they would be a great addition to a party meal. Topical avocado recipes. Haas avocados will be at their peak soon. Some stores are carrying the large, shiny, bright green skinned Zutano that is only available from September through December.

Er, do you mean one that moves about on its own? As the story went on, I began to think that this is beginning to sound a bit like The Luggage..... I mean, dropping out of trees..... sneaking up on Nac Mac Feegles???? The thing obviously has little fear of most things. I supposed one could always threaten it with a toasting fork....

The first ice cream machine I had was a Simac, that lasted about 18 years but finally got to the point that the coolant had to be recharged - the compressor leaked and the original coolant was no longer legal - or somethng like that. It would have cost too much to convert it. So I replaced it with one of the Lello, Gelato Jr machines(made by Simac) to see how well it worked. It was just fine but not enough capacity - just 1 quart. I then bought the larger Lello Pro, which makes 2 quarts. It works just fine also. A few months later the Musso 2-quart was offered for sale but for some reason was taken off the market a short time later. The Musso comparable to the Lello Pro was back in the catalogs (Chefs, Cooking.com, etc.) about 6 months later but was listed as 1 1/2 quart capacity. I have no idea why - when I checked back on the photos of the first offering of the Musso 2-quart, it looked identical to the now available 1 1/2 quart. It is possible that the capacity was misrepresented when it was first imported and they had complaints, but I don't know for sure. One of my neighbors got the Cuisinart supreme on sale for 250.00 US dollars last month - it is also a 1 1/2 quart machine. I still like the Lello Pro, its made by Simac which was a good buy for me, considering how long it lasted with heavy use (I was a caterer at the time) and it does a decent job. I ofen use both machines, the smaller capacity one for heavily flavored recipes - 30 minute cycle, and the larger machine for plain vanilla, or fruited ice creams - 45 minute cycle. Here is a write-up on Epinions. I couldn't find the Lello listed in the common UK sites: Amazon UK has these which include the self-contained units. I think the closest to the larger Lello would be the Gaggia. Here's another UK vendor They carry the Simac - which is very similar to the machine I had for so many years and was problem-free until near the end of its life and it was used heavily for many years. I used it for savory sorbets, not just for sweets. I often made a tomato/clam sorbet that my clients loved as a starter before dinner. Many times I would have the machine running for hours, making up multiple flavors of ice cream, sorbets, sherberts, etc. I should add that when I bought the Simac, in 1985, it cost almost 900.00 US. Pro-rating it over 18 years shows that the actual cost was very reasonable. (I could write it off as a business expense.) However I know other caterers who used the old-fashioned ice-and-salt machines (electric) which were priced over 100.00 US at the time and had to replace them every couple of years. They ended up paying more than I did when you figure the total costs - plus they had to buy ice and salt and make sure they didn't make a mess in their client's yard. (One had a helper that allowed the water to drain onto the lawn and the salt water killed a big patch of grass which cost the caterer who had to have it re-turfed) Many times warranted things do not carry over to a second owner. I am leery of buying "Used" things like this, however if there is one on eBay, still sealed in box from factory, with warranty card blank, then you can register it.