Chris Amirault

I made tasso today to stock up for the winter's gumbo, jambalaya, etc. Usually, I store it in a bunch of little 4 oz bags, but I had an idea today I wanted to try out. The plan was to address two problems. The first is that I often lose track of how many portions of something I have on hand, because there are a bunch of little bags strewn around my less-than-perfectly-organized freezer. The second is that making a bunch of little bags is pretty wasteful, and I've always wondered if there was a better way. I think that there is. First, I made a really long bag. Then I slid a small bowl with 4 oz of diced tasso to the bottom, avoiding a moisture/grease trail. Next, I sealed the bag at the very top. Then, I sealed the tasso into the bottom of the bag without cutting it. I just rolled up the end, slid it into the roll space in the machine, and sealed the bag as close to the tasso as I could. Now I had a sealed package, but to load another 4 oz of tasso I had to cut off the seal at the top of the bag. That's the waste in this process, about an inch per seal. When I was done, I had a roll of 4 oz portions, all sealed individually but linked. Based on a rough estimate, I saved about a couple of inches per 4 oz bag using this system, and all of my tasso is in one place. YMMV on the bag savings, but the benefit of having them all linked is pretty cool.

I just made a bunch using a modified Ruhlman recipe, adding a bit of thyme and cloves, curing it overnight (~10 hours, I think), and smoking it cold first, not immediately hot. Turned out great. It may be that your application will determine what makes the most sense. I always add it to gumbo as an accent, not as a main item, so I want it uber-smoky and complex. The speedy cure -- and resulting lack of cured meat depth -- isn't as big an issue for me.

Thanks. So I don't want cocktail cold but something in the 33-34F range?

So I just got an absinthe fountain as a gift, and I have no idea what to do with it. Well, I have an idea: cold water with ice, spoon with sugar, drippy drippy, etc. Can someone give me some step-by-step instructions including amounts? Do you chill the glasses prior to dripping? These glasses are huge: I don't want to fill them at a 4:1 ratio, do I? Appropriate food, rituals, expressions, and so on are also welcome.

It's a supply issue in RI, not world- or even countrywide. Sniff.

You're supposed to hate the word. It's an amalgamation of all that is bad in your kitchen.

You haven't read McGee's chapter on skank? For shame. ETA: It's a five second rule. No wonder you're confused.

I thought compost was supposed to be skanky.

That looks mighty fine. As my last Carpano Antica Formula drink -- only 1/2 oz left -- I made a very tasty Leap Year, courtesy of Harry Craddock, and thought about the possibility of drinking CAF in 48 months: 2 oz gin (Beefeater) 1/2 oz sweet vermouth (CAF) 1/2 oz Grand Marnier 1/4 oz lemon juice Stir; strain; lemon twist. Sigh.

Don't worry: germs need at least six seconds to jump onto a piece of raw meat you've dropped.

Fess up. You're no more a crusader for hygiene or against pathogens than the next one. What's the skankiest part of your kitchen? If you ran a restaurant, what would you think, "I hide that first if the inspector shows up"? I'll start. A few of my cutting boards are, uh, dark on one side. Not the side I use, of course. You go next.

So maybe I should make with the ice pick a couple of days into the process, pour off a little water, and see what happens?

Adam at Boston Shaker seems to have restocked some Scrappy's, so I grabbed their celery bitters, which I like a lot and we have at the bar, and grapefruit, which I haven't tried. Ran out of my Bittermens grapefruit....

Yes, that's correct. An English muffin toasted dark. Not a Monty Python punch line.

So "gluten-free" is like the "It's toasted!" Lucky Strike campaign?

What was the rule? One thing from each box? Everything from each box? I got confused....

We've just moved from the city to the suburbs, and the family has survived the associated traumas by grabbing bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches at the place (now) down the road, Phenix Square Restaurant. Over easy/dark muffins makes for the perfect sandwich.

What temp do you keep it at?

I thought he came off pretty well, actually, making a good case for his attempts, admitting his limitations, and basically sounding like the sort of person I'd want to have a beer with. The folks who reamed him out last week? Not so much. Cheers, Alex.

I hope someone weighs in, as I'm wondering about the same issues. Uptopic I mentioned the trick of folding over a 2-3" cuff before putting food into the bag. Today, I had to seal some pork chops that were smeared with bacon fat and quatre epices. So I tried turning the bag nearly inside out -- more like an 8-10" cuff with only a few inches of bag -- and using it as a sort of "glove" to grab the chops, one at a time. I then just folded it back up. Worked pretty well, I must say.

I just got this Jaccard tenderizer despite my own doubts. Like ethermion, I feared that it would create gashes and bruise the flesh. But on the two pork chops I was preparing for the Sous Vide Supreme tonight, it didn't happen: easy in, easy out. As reported elsewhere, not at all like cube steak.

I can't believe no one's sending kiddos off with an induction cooktop! Amazon's got 'em for less than $70!!

Aside from Bayless and Kennedy, I use one book more than any other: Reed Hearon's La Parilla: The Mexican Grill, which has a lot of great salsas and preparations. It's slim but useful, and his rice with mint is fantastic. I also have Bruce Kraig and Dudley Nieto's Cuisines of Hidden Mexico, which is a companion book to a TV series. It's more ethnography than cookbook, but the regional Guerrero and Michoacan recipes are interesting to read. I also got Zarela Martinez's Veracruz book as a remaindered title somewhere, but I haven't ever cooked anything out of it. Has anyone here?

I think she said to freeze the prepared tortillas, not the masa....

Bumping this up because I have become addicted to a simple trio: Hawaiian pink salt, smoked Tellicherry peppercorns, and Aleppo pepper, all roughly ground in a mortar. What else are people using these days?