culinary bear

I'm curious to know how people organise the recipes they have. Most chefs I've worked with carry books around with them, but I use 5" x 3" index cards. I can take one out at a time easily, and slide it under the tab-grabber if I need to refer to it. This is my pastry file : What do you use? Do you write them down in a book, or are you patient enough to file them in a database? Any horror stories of files/books going missing/being eaten by the dog? One reprehensible little toe-rag of a commis actually had the temerity to steal the recipe book of a colleague of mine.

One of the reviews on the site said the NS coating eventually peels and discolours the ice-cream. Any truth to this?

not here it wouldn't.

I have a real thing for washed-rind cheeses at the moment; it's a style a lot of UK and Ireland cheesemakers are adopting, with startlingly good results. England's Stinking Bishop is good, as is Scotland's Bishop Kennedy. The Irish seem to have a knack for it, as their Milleens and Durrus cheeses are superb. Milleens smells like yeast extract, and Durrus, to be frank, smells like a sewage works, but both taste meaty and ripe.

In cases of anaphylactic shock, you'd dial 999 and the paramedics would administer adrenaline and probably an antihistamine when they got there. There's not much you could do even as a trained civilian. There's an article in the current Caterer & Hotelkeeper about this, and the 'reasonable steps' a business should take to ensure that no unexpected surprises should lurk for a diner unaware of an allergy, such as not using groundnut oil for general sauteeing purposes, that sort of thing. In short, the onus is on the customer, but reasonable precautions on the part of the business wouldn't go amiss.

smart-arse.

Looking to invest in a good scoop; does anyone have any pointers?

My first thought is that it would help break up any ice crystals, but it's probably just insurance. I made a margarita sorbet once that benefitted from a second whizzing (I didn't have a sorbetiere at the time).

He was, but he was nit-picking horrendously. Vacherin Mont d'Or is made from pasteurised milk from the Swiss side of the Jura Mountains. Mont d'Or is made from raw milk from the French side of the same mountain range. Both are winter cheeses; the summer milk from the same cows (not as rich) is used to make gruyere. To say they're 'two completely different cheeses' is perhaps overstating the case. I defy him to identify the difference in a blind test.

hey, I'm wrong already. :) how long does it take to coalesce your pureed shrimp into malleable pasta-type material? We made tournedos from strips of turkey breast for christmas, using a traditional farce to bind the strips - I imagine TG would be a very handy way of making the farce redundant. Would TG bind cheese? most hard cheeses have well over 15% proteinaceous content. Oh, glory! saltimbocca where the ham doesn't detach... *rubs hands with glee*

What to eat with oysters? more oysters. Or vodka. Bisongrass vodka is especially nice.

The FDA do seem unneccesarily strict. A friend of mine was 'caught' with a half-pound of stilton at JFK airport and ate it as an alternative to throwing it away. The immigration officials thought he was quite, quite mad. Having said that, Humphrey Errington in Scotland had a huge fight on his hands with his Lanark Blue and Dunsyre Blue cheeses, when the local council condemned all his maturing stock on the basis there was a 'chance' of Listeria monocytogenes infection. The rallying cry of 'Safety First!' does not inspire the enjoyment of the best food has to offer.

This is all so strange to me, a Scotsman. I've visited the US a couple of times and noticed a lot of 'open container prohibited' areas, and laughed at the irony of not being able to buy wine at a grocery store but being able to buy beer at the gas station. Is this just a throwback to the Volstead Act, or is there some measure of effectiveness in these measures? I'd never have thought a rep carrying samples in the back of his car to be a potential risk, or carrying the heeltaps of your wine home from the restaurant.

The restaurant in which I work used to be the Manchester Rhodes & Co, before it became Watersreach. The HC and Sous both worked for Rhodes, so there's a lot of use of 'tried and tested' methods (i.e. Rhodes' own). It's no bad thing, as his recipes are eminently workable. Do check out Jane Grigson's 'English Food', though... it's a very rewarding read.

Treacle tart was something I struggled with for a while; I never seemed to be able to find a decent recipe which gave a good result. Some advocated grated apple, some brown breadcrumbs, some white. I've been converted to a very simple, very easy recipe : 230g ground almonds 530g golden syrup 3 eggs 285g double cream Mix everything together, put in blind-baked shortcrust shell, cook at 150C for 50-60 minutes.

Tronc skimming by the management is one of the most widespread, pernicious acts in this industry. When I leave my current position, the Inland Revenue (the UK IRS) are going to get a very long, very detailed letter, and I hope the hotel gets royally bummed.

potato scones fried in duck fat. *mouthgasms* excuse me while I remove the drool from the keyboard.

If I could find rye flour in Liverpool, that great big bloody enormous culinary desert, then I'm sure it's to be found in London. Try healthfood shops.

This is the recipe we use, which is adapted from a Gary Rhodes recipe. 1000g rump steak 1000g ox heart 1000g lamb liver 600g onion, brunoised 8 medium cloves garlic, brunoised 1.5 tbsp picked thyme leaves 1.5 tbsp sage leaves, finely chopped 250g unsalted butter 750ml strongly reduced beef stock, ideally demi-glace if you have some lying around - if not, add 3-4 leaves of gelatine to your stock. salt and pepper to taste 5 eggs crepinette, for wrapping (soak in running water for 4 hours) beef stock for poaching. 1) Trim all the meats, and pass through the medium plate of the mincer. Mince the liver last, as the tubes will clog up the blade horribly and it pays to only have to declog the mincer once. 2) Sweat off the onions, garlic and herbs in the butter. Don't colour them. Add the stock and reduce by half. Set aside to cool in the fridge. 3) Mix 1) and 2), add the eggs, and season. If you're squeamish about tasting raw mix, then fry or poach a little piece off and check the seasoning that way. Leave to set up in the fridge. 4) Take 85g lumps of mix and place in the centre of a sqaure of crepinette. Wrap as neatly as you can. Chill down, so they stand a better chance of retaining their shape when you cook them. 5) Fry in lard or dripping (I use leftover duck fat, personally) to colour on all sides, and then simmer in beef stock until tender (about 15 minutes). Leave to cook in the liquor. Reheat in the liquor when you want to eat them.

We had faggots on the menu before christmas as a 'bloody hell it's cold we need something stodgy on the menu' special... if you want a copy of the recipe we use let me know; I'll post it on here. Basically, we use lamb liver, ox kidney, ox heart and rump steak. I have the luxury of a 'kin huge hobart mixer with an industrial mincer attachment, but if you don't your local butcher (remember him?) will happily mince it for you if you buy the goodies from him. I find pig's liver gives too strong a liverish flavour to the final dish, so the slight added expense of lamb liver is worth it. Mushy peas are starchy dried marrowfat peas cooked to death with bicarbonate of soda until they're a rough puree. Be generous with the seasoning, and as mentioned above, mint makes a good addition. I haven't seen Mr Brain's faggots in the shops for donkey's years. I presume the BSE scare prompted a name change, at best. On a historical note, a faggot is an old english term for a bundle.

We'll always owe the french one, culinarily speaking...

like gnocchi or spaetzle? The key factor there might be to get it piped as quickly as possible so that all the strands cook for approximately the same amount of time... or is it more tolerant than I'm assuming? If you are, you're not the only one. Good aphorism. :)

faggots, mushy peas, onion gravy, and mash. oh my.

I do need to clear up a little misunderstanding (and I didn't help myself by my phrasing; my fault). I'm a doubting thomas because I see an awful lot of frippery presented as 'science' and if I've accidentally included you in that then I do apologise; I'm not as much of a horse's (or bear's) ass that I don't acknowledge when I make a mistake. I'm posting to that effect in the thread. My dander was put up by use of the word 'discover'; I take you at your word as a chef and a gentleman, so I believe you don't try and mislead people about the discovery of the enzyme. What are the FOH staff trained to say regarding the dish? Most of the people I work with wouldn't know how to pronounce transglutaminase. On a more constructive note, I am very (read: compulsively) interested by novel applications of science to food, especially in a restaurat setting, and if you'll forgive the somewhat abrasive manner of our first talking, I'd be interested to know how you developed this path re: TGA. ---------- Anyone have a recipe for humble pie they'll care to share?

Wylie, if that's you, you're on... :)