nr706

I love both of those last two suggestions!

I'm planning a summer cookout with the theme "everything on a stick." Satays and popsicles are obvious; I have yet to figure out how to do the soup.

Of course, you're right about steinbiers vs. rauchbiers. Forgive me - my comment came out of my beer-addled brain.

I believe (and I could be wrong) rauschbiers were traditionaly made by putting hot rocks into the wort. It's a good suggestion, but I won't be doing that. However, based on other threads, I was thinking of adding oatmeal to the stout ... maybe I'll smoke some oatmeal tonight.

Making a starter of Wyeast 1028 right now ...

OK - the mavens have spoken - I guess I'm making a stout. But I'm on page 101 of Mosher's "Radical Brewing" book - the page entitled Twelve Ways to Improve a Stout - and thinking of all sorts of heinous ways to make it an interesting stout.

I'm something of a hophead - I've made a wee heavy, but I really missed the noble cone (catkins? or whatever hop flowers are). Despite my Scottish heritage, Scotch Ales don't do much for me.

Okay, I'll bite. I haven't made a batch of beer in a few months, so I'll start one, take pix and post, etc. Suggestions on what to make? (I do ales only, and all-grain.) A stout? One of my best was an Ordinary Bitter. Or, I have a copy of Randy Mosher's excellent book Radical Brewing sitting in my lap right now - maybe I should make something really off the charts. I'm open to suggestions, but I reserve the right to make the final decision on the ultimate brew.

I was once cooking at another's house, and was asked to make a Waldorf salad. But there was no mayo, nothing remotely close, and no way to make mayo (it's tough to make without eggs). I used Cool Whip, doused with lots of vinegar to cut the sweetness. It seemed to have worked, although I'll never cook in that house again (it was out-of-town, I got in the night before, and was informed that I was supervising Thanksgiving dinner for 24. "We have all the ingredients" they said). I'm not a pro chef by any means.

I made my first trip to Chicago Live Poultry a couple of months ago on Western, about a block north of Devon). Here were my impressions at the time: A little smelly, but not necessarily in a bad way. The front room is pretty barren. Since I was there just for my own education, and not for a specific culinary purpose, I didn't know what I wanted. I wasn't going to spend a lot of money for this lesson. I perused the chalkbord, with all its many options. Finally, I told the counter guy I'd like a quail. He said okay, called to one of the guys in the back, and told me to follow him. The back room was amazing. Cages upon cages, row upon row, filled with all sorts of chickens - various breeds - ducks, geese, rabbits ... more live birds than I can ever remember seeing in one place. He pointed to the quail cage and asked (at least I think he asked, English was not his first language, to say the least) which one I wanted. I didn't want to be responsible for the death of any of them, so I told him to pick one. (Okay, I recognize that by ordering it I was responsible for the death, but at least I can rationalize that I wasn't exactly responsible for that particular bird's death.) The bird he picked out was so cute and docile - I could easily see taking it home as a pet. "Kill it?" he asked. I said "yes, and remove the feathers." There are two butchering rooms between the front and the big back room, both of which are visible from the front. He took the quail into the further of the two rooms, and was out of sight for a minute. (I assume there was some sort of boiling or steaming process going on.) Then he came to the front butchering room, dead bird in hand, and I watched him pull off the feathers. He turned the formerly cute little thing to his partner, who cut it open and pulled out the guts - saving the gizzard, liver and heart for me. He wrapped it in a plastic bag and gave it to the counter guy. I handed over my $4. So that cute little bird is now in my refrigerator, but not for long. Quail dinner. Poor cute little dead bird. But I guess that's what the food chain is all about. I think it'll get easier next time - I might even pick out my own bird.

Here's what I've been drinking from the basement brewery.

A neighborhood in Chicago with a good beer bar? That doesn't narrow it down much ... I can't think of a neighborhood in Chicago that doesn't have a good beer bar.

please report your experience after you get back.

Sounds similar to a Hawaiian poke to me.

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it. See you next week, Susan.

I make a coffee porter with oatmeal in my basement brewery. I call it my breakfast beer. Stop by and try one next time you're in the Chicago area.

Won't walnut oil go rancid eventually? ← To quote the Fine Woodworking article: Oxygen is absorbed into the wet oil around a molecule's double bonds to form to form peroxide ... Next the peroxide decomposes to produce very reactive free radicals, which attack the unsaturated fatty-acid segments of another oil molecule. This forms a stable chemcal bond between the two molecules, at the same time producing another free radical to carry on the reaction. Eventually all the oil molecules are linked by a network of stable chemical bonds known as a polymer." So, if I understand that correctly, yes the oil gets rancid - so rancid, in fact, that it forms a stable compound that protects and the wood. That's why they say, in general, that nut oils dry, mineral oils don't. And would you rather have your food touching a substance refined from crude oil, or pressed out of a tasty nut? But I think the original post asked the question whether to treat or not - and the answer is yes, apply an oil. Both work, mineral oil's a lot cheaper, but I prefer walnut oil.

I'd use walnut oil rather than mineral oil, since walnut oil dries and mineral oil doesn't (mineral oil is also a laxative, but probably not at the levels absorbed from a butcher block). Flood the surface, add more to any areas that look dry during the first 30 minutes, then wipe it off. Let it dry two days, buff, repeat, dry two days, buff, repeat again, and you've got a pretty strong surface. There's an interesting discussion of oils in the current (June 2005) issue of Fine Woodworking magazine (p. 22). It doesn't specifically address food-safe finishes, but does address them tangentially. Raw (NOT BOILED) linseed (aka Flax) oil might be another possibility, but the wait between coats would be more like five days. edited: out damn typos!

How do you scrub and rinse the oil before you heat it?

Same place I stayed - the conciege floor was great - esp. breakfasts and early evening wine tastings. And it's a nice walk to the lighthouse (passing a great little pub on the way). Also, the ferry to Hamilton just across the road from the Southhampton is very convenient. For food to bring back, Outerbridges Sherry Sauce is a must. It's in almost all groceries there. Gosling's Black Rum is another - again, easy to find. And if you look upthread, you'll see that I heartily recommend Dennis' Hideaway, although it's a bit of a trip from the hotel (we cabbed it there, which wasn't cheap, but it was better than using the moped during of the frequent - but short - thunderstorms they have there).

I've gotten mutton at Food4Less on Main St. in Evanston - although it's not there all the time. Have you tried some of the Mexican grocers, or maybe Patel Bros. on Devon?

Harold McGee's book The Curious Cook has an entire chapter about Jerusalem Artichokes, called "Taking the Wind Out of the Sunroot." He lists cold storage, slicing/boiling for 15 minutes, or (for maximum elimination of gas) cooking for 24 hours.

To my mind, Mark Grosz is horribly underappreciated. I'm sure he won't get a nomination.

So, cancer causes irradiation of food?

Not to nitpick (anything starting that way means there's a nitpick coming ...) but to be called squab, doesn't it have to be a pigeon so young that it's never flown? All the pigeons in the parks here take to the skies whenever anyone gets close.