Chris Amirault

That sounds great. I've been trying to figure out what to do with a fifth of Hendricks I got as a gift, and came up with this Martiniz sort of thing: 2 oz Hendricks gin 1 oz NP dry vermouth 1 tsp Amer Picon dash Angostura orange bitters dash Luxardo Maraschino Stir, strain, up, orange twist. ETA: It's really good.

Welcome, Shaun! I don't think it's a bactoferm issue. My guess is that the humidity was too low, so your casings got dry, and the bulk of the weight loss is in the outer cylinder of meat. You might try hanging them a bit more in a more humid place; I've had a similar problem with saucisson sec and have been spraying them with a fine distilled water mist a couple times a day. Oh, and definitely eat 'em when you're done. We all seem to have lived through many worse experiences than this.

I just watched, over the course of a few days, the entire two seasons of "Mad Men," the outstanding AMC series on the ad men (and women) of Madison Avenue in the early 1960s. It's a great show for lots of reasons, but I'm here to write about the booze. It is literally incomprehensible to me how much they drink. We counted a "typical" day's drinking on a few shows, and gave up around eight or ten. Person walks into your office for a meeting: pour two drinks. Heading out for lunch: have a few martinis. Getting ready for home: one or two or three for the road. Hi honey: drink. What's for dinner? Drink. Meal: several drinks. Nightcap or two. And that's everyday behavior, without the Cuban missile crisis, your secret affair, or losing the Clearasil account forcing you to drink to excess. Everyone drinks. Everyone except the kids. They make the drinks for adults to drink. Everyone has a particular drink that defines them, too. Our (anti)hero Don Draper is an Old Fashioned sort of guy. His two bosses drink Martinis (or whatever he's handed) and wine, respectively. The guy who lost his marriage because -- get this -- he drank too much: he is a Tanqueray man. The woman writing copy in a man's, man's, man's world drinks plonk in basket bottles (and whatever she's handed by the guys). Don's wife drinks Heineken and, on benders, lots of red wine, then she steps on the glasses and cuts her feet. If you've seen the show, you know what I mean. It's only barely about advertising, the 1960s, gender relationships, work, or NYC. It's basically about drinking. The rest is garnish. Is anyone else obsessed with this show's taste for the hair of the dog?

Welcome to eGullet Cook-Off XLIV! Click here for the Cook-Off index. We've just devoted a Cook-Off to braised brisket, and we're turning again to moist, well-cooked proteins for our next adventure: ossobuco. You will see it spelled a number of different ways out there, but Marcella Hazan refers to it as one word in her definitive Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, so I'm going with that spelling. No reason to argue with Marcella, after all. Ossobuco is braised veal shank, named after the "bone with a hole" that used to be attached to the hind shank of a calf. (Let's all agree to stick to veal, and not have, say, halibut ossobuco. ) The classic Milanese version includes vegetables, tomatoes, wine, and broth, and is served with risotto alla milanese, perfumed with saffron, and with gremolada. Some of the versions out there are a bit wacky. In particular, The Silver Spoon Cookbook simmers the 2" thick shanks for 30 minutes atop the stove. Given that Hazan has 1 1/2" shanks in a 350F oven for two hours, I'm pretty sure the SSC is a waste of good veal. Indeed, I'd think that a much lower oven for longer would work wonders. There are more things to talk about here than just braising temps and times! For example, many other versions of ossobuco depart from the Milanese approach. In her out-of-print More Classic Italian Cooking, Hazan provides the recipe for Ossobuchi in Bianco, the white referring to a sauce lacking tomato. In The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, Giuliano Bugialli offers ossobuco Florentine style, with peas and pancetta, and Lynne Rossetto Kasper's Italian Country Table offers a home-style version with mushrooms, favas or snap peas, and more intense flavors such as anchovy, sage, and rosemary. We have one short discussion of ossobuco here, and an even shorter one on wine pairings here. Indeed, as is often the case with Italian food, the best discussion is the one shepherded by Kevin72, the Cooking and Cuisine of Lombardia, which muses on on the dish's origins and execution throughout. I'm wondering a few things myself. Some folks say that braised veal cannot be reheated, unlike other dishes that benefit from a night in the fridge. I'm also wondering what other sorts of sides -- polenta, say, or the Italian mashed potatoes that Hazan suggests for the ossobuchi in bianco -- would work and/or are traditional. So who wants to welcome the new year with some bones with holes?

Sam, can you give the basic outline? What else is in there with the LH 151 -- and how much of that?

Can you say more about the chicken and bones dish?

Welcome to posting, Steve! Tell me why you use both nuoc mau and kecap manis, which seem to have somewhat similar flavors (though the kecap manis is sweeter).

Not sure about France, but a lot of people are making their own at their home or bar.

At this point, another day or two in the packaging isn't going to have an appreciable effect on the meat, I think. If it's been dry-aged by someone skillful, it's lost a good percentage of its weight in lost moisture, and more time in the bag won't really do any significant wet aging. However, if it's swimming around in a lot of liquid, then it wasn't well aged. Of course, if it has puffed up at all, then you've got garbage.

From the website: Given that avocado pit obliteration by th e2+ HP 5200, I'm convinced. Holy crap.

Reporting back on these Maine mustard pickles. After two weeks and a daily shake or two, they were ready for a try: Color and texture are excellent, and they were about 55F when I got them from the basement; they should crisp up soon. The flavor is very close, but I'm missing a peppery note that's not from lack of mustard. Here's a revised recipe: 2-4 lbs pickling cucumbers, scrubbed 1/2 c Salt 1 qt vinegar 1/2 lb light brown sugar 1/2 c dry mustard 10-12 black peppercorns, cracked 1 qt water Slit cucumbers down the middle but don't cut them in half. Mix all other ingredients and pour over cucumbers; seal. Store in cool, dark place for 2-3 weeks, giving them a shake every day.

If it's already been dry-aged and then cryovacked, then you're basically double-aging it, with round two a wet-aging stint. If there's no oxygen in there, then you're almost certainly fine.

I'm giving my crack at Mia's brisket recipe (from this post) a try with a smallish (20 ounce) piece of brisket that had a decent fat cap on it. I also pulled 4 oz of brisket fat trimmings from the freezer and used that. It's now well-sealed in a low (225F) oven through step five above. I'll report back tomorrow when I serve it.

Can you say a bit more about what you mean by "professional skills"? There are, of course, lots of different domains that a successful pro must master.

This year's cassoulet: At this point, I'm using my own version of several recipes. I prepared two different kinds of sausages, smoked some ham hocks, cut meat off of a large pork belly and confited that while saving the rinds, and used plenty of duck confit. The gang of four here (me, wife, and two friends) thought that this one was the best ever, though it still had flaws. A few notes: I'm really sold on using home-smoked hocks for cooking the beans, and then reserving that stock for other purposes. (See below.) I had made some really wonderful, rich chicken and duck stock that I thought I'd use, but I ended up turning to that hock-based brew repeatedly instead. Once the meat was falling off of them, I chopped that up and threw the skins and bones back into the stock to reduce it some more. Good move. The biggest error was cooking both the great northern beans and the flageolets together, as the former needed more time than the latter. It wasn't a disaster, but the toothiness of the great northerns was, at times, more than al dente, if you get my drift. I made some garlic sausages (using a Ruhlman/Charcuterie base) last year and discovered them in the freezer, over 1 year old. I didn't want to chance that they had gone bad, so I also made another batch using Jane Grigson's Toulouse approach: a bit of saltpetre (I used pink salt), no garlic, and a healthy dose of booze. I used applejack for the last, which turned out really well, as did the freezer links. I poached the sausages in the hock stock before browning them in some duck fat, then sliced them into 2" rounds to add to the cassoulet. Good idea: It was good to be able to serve portions with lots of different meats and no foot-long links to cut up, and the two sausages were interestingly different. The biggest departure from previous efforts was omitting pork rind from the onion/garlic/stock puree. Not surprisingly, it made for a less lip-smackingly collagen-riddled mouthfeel. Two of the diners liked that change; one (raised in the UK -- I'm just sayin') wanted the sticky lips; I had no horse in the race. To minimize New Year's Day agita, I went with the bread crumbs and avoided the crust-busting. I think I'll be doing this from now on. Everyone seemed to like it, and it adds a textural quality that is different than the Maillard-y topping, which is more chewy than crunchy. After a multi-week prep, I'm happy to cut a corner like this. I served a Malbec de Cahors with the meal for the first time, specifically the Mission La Caminade 2006, a high tannin, high alcohol red that went very well with everything. On its own, however, it's pretty one-note; after some of those fatty, porky beans, it's wonderful. The only side was a frisee and parsley salad with shallots, arbequina olive oil, and Meyer lemon. That was a great idea.

Since we're now in 2009, I'm going to go ahead and close this topic -- and perhaps someone can start one for the new year!

I have two vintage measuring glasses that go to 4 and 6 oz respectively. I also have droppers and pharmacy measuring thingies -- that indicate mls and tsps -- for more precise measurements. The combo suits me fine, just fine.

As Steven noted in this announcement, Saveur magazine has included the eGullet Society in their yearly "Saveur 100" for 2009, on newsstands now. (Congrats also to emeritus staff member Sam Kinsey [slkinsey], whose home-cooking prowess and deft touch with tongs are also given propers in the list!) I'm writing to thank and congratulate all of the Society members for this honor. Saveur wrote that they love how the community we have built "has brought cooks together and democratized the world of food." Those cooks are you, our terrific Society membership, whose fervent interest in food and drink, in cooking and eating, make eG Forums the outstanding resource that it is. Not yet a participating member -- or wanting to become a donor and support the eGullet Society? You can join by clicking here, and you can become a donor by clicking here. Meanwhile, please share your congratulations in this topic in celebration of this wonderful acknowledgment of our eGullet Society! Here's to a lip-smacking 2009!

I think that's exactly right -- and it's the reason that listing our preferences for favorite sandwiches or good bread isn't ultimately going to be helpful to the OP's shop.

Can you tell the difference between them? What's good about 'em?

Me too -- and having discussed this with someone on the bread faculty at Johnson & Wales today, I think that our sorrow is shared by others. We know of at least two high-end bakeries -- award-winning shops -- that scratch by each year and probably don't clear a profit. Taking that on as well as a new sandwich shop sounds foolhardy. Once you've done ten years at the shop and have a nice nest egg, you can crack it into the "making one's own bread" frying pan and see what happens.

That Lustau made a fine Bamboo Cocktail and I got a fifth of it for under $20.

That looks tasty. I just made a Bamboo Cocktail from Dave's Saveur article: 1 1/2 oz sherry (I used Lustau Escuadrilla amontillado) 1 1/2 oz NP dry vermouth dash Angostura dash orange bitters (again, Angostura) lemon twist It's excellent, and promises to be a fine appetizer accompaniment.

This is especially true if you don't take the meat out of the body -- which is what most normal people do, unlike me. As with all stocks, you want some proteins in there, not just shells, gills, and cartilage.

I think that's especially true given the small size of the town and surrounding area and the fact that other options already exist.