andiesenji

I mentioned on the cornucopia thread that I have made cream horns, and filled them with a fluffy, savory cheese filling. I used cream cheese, sour cream, Stilton and herbs. Alternate cheeses are grated asiago, parmesan, romano, even kasseri. I also used whipped pimento cheese with bacon bits. The base was just grated sharp cheddar beaten with cream cheese and pimentos and seasoned to taste. If I am serving people who like spicy - I add some ground dried chile, mild to hot, depending on whom I am serving. For these, I only wrap half of the cone to make a half-sized horn.

For anything over 18 pounds, I brine for 12 hours then rinse, dry and allow to rest for 24.

Kim, there is one more thing that you might consider when trying to rescue a mis-treated piece of cast iron that has pitting from rust. Take it to a metal shop or a wrought iron shop and have them grind and polish out the pitting. It doesn't cost all that much and they can give you a base on which you can build a beautiful patina. My local shop has been very helpful. When one of my skillets (12 inch) was dropped and the handle broke off, I took it to them and they cut the sides off even with the bottom, then ground the cut edges smooth. This gave me a giant "flame-tamer" that actually now lives in one corner of my barbecue and is handy and stable for holding 3 or 4 little pots that would tip if put onto the grill. Now that the rainy season has arrived, I painted it all over with melted paraffin and stored it in a muslin bag in the store room. Next spring the paraffin will burn off when I first fire up the grill. The moral is, never throw away any piece of old cast iron. There are always ways to fix it. I have a sand-blasting rig that I used to use to carve glass. I have used it several times to clean up the outside of rusty and pitted cast iron. However, I have the inside done by someone who knows what they are doing.

The ninth recipe down on this page is for snow frosted ham. It's not exactly the recipe I used, but close enough for you to get the idea. I used to make a little scene on the top of a large ham - sprigs of rosemary for "trees" french fried onions for a patch of ground under each "tree" with bits of pimento for ornaments, etc. Lots of things you can do to make it interesting. If you add a tablespoon of unsalted softened butter for each cup of cream cheese/sour cream mixture, it will not develop a "skin" on the surface. Beat the mixture until it is fluffy and will form a peak.

Back in the late 50s and into the 60s we used to prepare a ham "frosted" with a mixture of cream cheese, sour cream with horseradish and mustard, decorated with thin strips of red bell pepper then sprinkled with chopped chives. Pretty. I will see if I can find a photo.

When I was a child, our cook did them this way. We had two big estate ranges, in addition to a huge wood/coal stove and still there was too much stuff for the ovens to hold all at once. Often 50 to 70 people for holiday dinners. After 1947, when my grandma got an electric roaster, there was always one turkey started in the roaster and transferred to the oven for browning. I have two of the 4269 Magnalite roasters - you see a lot of the smaller 4267 (18 inch) usually described as 'large' on ebay but not so many of the bigger one which is 22 1/2 inches long. It can be used on top of the stove as well as in the oven and holds a huge amount of food. for smaller turkeys, I can get two in side by side crossways.

At this point is the lid still on? ← Sorry! Remove lid before it goes into the oven. Mea culpa!

I never scrub my cast iron with anything but a damp cloth dipped in dry baking soda if something is a bit stuck. Usually, just putting it on the stove, half-filled with water and bringing it to a simmer, then whisking it with one of the "straw" brushes for cleaning woks, is enough to remove any burnt-on crud. The two I use for cornbread haven't been washed for years. They are virtually non-stick - the interior looks like enamel. The chicken fryer does tend to build up a rim of carbonized stuff at the top level of the grease and I used to char it off every year or so by putting it in the barbecue upside-down on the charcoal until the stuff was burnt off. The detailed seasoning instructions at this site cast iron care are about as complete as anywhere. This site has instruction on how to clean a really cruddy piece of cast iron: Clean cast iron. However, since I discovered Carbon-Off, I have used it on a couple of pieces I picked up at a yard sale that looked like they had been used to cook rubber. Carbon-Off I like this product much better than the old type oven cleaners. I hope this helps.

I have cooked some super sized turkeys, up to 35+ pounds. I start them on a rack, in a heavy covered roasting pan - a Magnalite - on top of the stove at a medium simmer for 3 1/2 hours, starting with one cup of broth. Once it heats up a lot more liquid will develop. This is essentially steaming the then into the oven at 375 degrees, for 2 1/2 hours. 6 hours total. A 28 - 30 pound turkey takes 5 hours. This is without dressing (or stuffing) The turkey will be well done and all the meat, including the breast meat will be juicy. If you don't have a heavy covered roaster, you can use a lighter one, such as the classic blue enamel pans, with a "Flame-tamer" underneath. Checking the temp, the thickest part of the thigh should be 110 to 120 degrees at the end of the stove-top part of the process.

If your are asking about filling and eating the cornucopia - no. I have however made little cream horns and filled them with a savory whipped cheese mixture for appetisers, I just pulled them off the cones before they set completely and bent the pointed end a little to make it shaped more like a cornucopia. I now use this recipe since my recipe makes 200 and it does not convert well. For the filling I just mix cream cheese and sour cream half and half, beat until fluffy, I add a little heavy cream if it is too stiff to go through the pastry tube. I add crumbled Stilton and fines herbs to taste. The cheese is salty enough to flavor it. I sometimes add a little ground chile, mild to hot, depending on who is going to be eating. There are hundreds of seasonings that will work. alterantives are grated asiago, parmesan, etc., for those who do not like blue cheeses. croquembosch can also be filled with savory fillings and can be formed around a styrofoam cone, covered with gold foil (or any other color- I just happen to prefer gold) so it will not collapse and even when partially gone, it still looks pretty good.

You could always make one of these. And fill it with fruits and etc. I no longer use the aluminum foil as in these instructions. I form a large Silpat mat into a sort of cone shape, staple it just at the edge and stuff it with crumpled baking parchment, then roll the pastry around it. The staple holes have not seemed to do any lasting harm.

Soup is always good. However You can beat some egg yolks and cream, stir into the squash, beat the egg whites separately then fold into the mixture. Pour into a buttered souffle dish and bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees until it is puffy and browned, about 15-20 minutes.

The Pork cake thread includes the recipe for pork mincemeat I posted a year or so ago. Viva made the mincemeat and the cake and posted wonderful photos. You can also use the mincemeat in empanadas, turnovers, tarts, and when thinned with a liquor, spread between layers of a stack cake. I make "beggars bags" with filo dough and a teaspoon of the pork mincemeat, or use wonton wrappers, seal and deep fry the little packets and apply a little spun sugar over them.

One might consider that this is Thanksgiving as seen by the turkey. Life as a turkey.

For those who are enthusiastic about quince the following site has several interesting recipes. It also has some other unusual fruit recipes and combinations. Recipes from Tazmania

Thanks for posting that thread link. I completely missed it, I wasn't a member when this was posted. Beautiful photos.

When I make quince jam, I look for fruits that are just barely ripe, still some green at the stem end. Very ripe fruit does not have as much pectin and will not jell firmly. I scrub the fruit (with a plastic scrubby or stiff brush to get rid of the fuzzy stuff), core, then chop very fine leaving the peel on the fruit. (Grating, as mentioned by bloviatrix will also work very well but quince is slippery to hold so be careful.) I cook the fruit in just enough water to cover until it is very soft, then put it through a food mill to remove the bits of skin and tough fibers. For each cup of pulp I add 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup water and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. This is cooked at a simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, the pulp will turn to a rose pink and as it cooks longer the color becomes deeper until it is almost red. Skim the foam off as it appears. When it has reached the desired color and thickness (test a spoonful on a saucer) pour it into a colander lined with cheesecloth or into a jelly bag and hang to drain. This will give you clear jelly. If you are not concerned that it is clear, put it through a fine sieve or chinois but do not force it too firmly or some of the fibers will end up in the paste. This is actually a variation of an old recipe for marmalade - marmelo is the name for quince in Portugese - given to me by a friend from Sardinia.

I have all of her books and like Paula, I had to get the English editions. I was lucky in that a friend was a book dealer and made two or three trips a year to England to buy books and would pick up things for me. (I collect books on Egyptology as well as cookbooks.) The first of Elizabeth David's books she got for me were purchased because she wasn't able to find the particular books I had put on my list and the store clerk told her Ms. David's cookbooks were very popular and she wrote articles for popular publications. (No email in those days and overseas phone calls were expensive!) She even went to Ms. David's kitchen store in London in 1970. She was in a used book store selecting several books and when the clerk noticed she had a couple of the David cookbooks, he mentioned that Ms. David had just had a new book published and it was for sale in her store around the corner. Ms. David was not in the store but she did get me a copy of Spices, Salt and Aromatics. I also have all of Paula's books and have enjoyed them greatly ever since I first opened "Couscous and Other Good Food....." The word pictures that put me in the places described are almost as good as a trip itself and the descriptions of the flavors can virtually be tasted.

Re: your mention of sorrel, it grows easily in pots (and merrily reseeds itself all over the yard) and comes back every year, even after a hard freeze. I move one 14 inch pot into the greenhouse as winter comes on and have fresh sorrel all winter. I love carrot/sorrel/ginger soup - originally it was carrot/sorrel soup that I learned to make about 40 years ago when I took a class on French country cooking. The chef told us stories about his maman who would be out at first light in the spring, striding up the hill behind their home, picking wild sorrel and other greens. I haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately, however I think your new book is terrific. I plan on taking my old one down and putting them side by side to see if any of my old favorites are included or altered. In my family "convenience food" meant that you didn't have to go out and pick, dig, kill/pluck or skin, clean and etc., before preparing a meal. My elderly relatives still do not trust prepared frozen meals. Some vegetables are okay, maybe fruit juice, but they still consider most of them as "TV Dinners" !!

This is one place I order from - they have River Road coffee I order for a friend. Cajun supermarket They also have Steen's syrup in the 12 oz can. In the past I have ordered from Cajun Grocer and Louisiana Spice but one is in Lafayette and the other in Broussard and I have not received any email specials from either in the past 3 months. I had a Turducken from Cajun Grocer last year and it was very good.

A stack of pancakes, layered with thin slices of Kasseri cheese and applesauce, served along side seared foie gras (or braised duck breast) makes a very tasty meal.

Actually, a cake left out at room temperature will become more dense the longer it sits. Freezing sort of speeds things up. What happens is that the sugar in the cake will absorb moisture from the air. This is accelerated in a humid climate, probably the reason that dense cakes are popular in tropical areas, a light, fluffy cake is difficult to produce and maintain. This is the same reason that cookies become chewy and pliable a few days after baking even though they were crisp when first baked. Sugar will keep cakes and sweet breads "fresher" and will slow staling simply because it will retain moisture in the cake. When you freeze a cake in a regular freezer, it drives much of the moisture out. As it thaws, unless you can keep it in a low-moisture enviornment, it will pull in a lot of moisture from the air, and in fact will seem to concentrate it on the bottom if on a solid or non porous surface, not so much if kept on a wire rack. Quick-freezing at a lower temperature has less effect. When I freeze cakes, I thaw them in a dehydrator without heat, just the fan, and they seem to collect less moisture but still retain their freshness. A convection oven, no heat, just the fan, works too. I apply a very thin layer of frosting while they are still mostly frozen, (the crumb coat) then allow it to finish defrosting before finishing.

Not from everywhere, just from one area. My favorite vendor.

The Global knives I have are ground only on one side, a "chisel" edge. I have had them for three years and have never used a steel. I use a ceramic hone the same way I would use a steel on my regular knives and use a diamond hone on just the ground side if they feel as if they are dragging. I take them to my knife man once a year for sharpening and dressing.

I trust it is less expensive than the regular caviar. The prices are astronomical this year. I haven't bought any for almost a year and it seems the price for the good stuff has doubled.