Chris Amirault

After four years of devoted behind-the-scenes service, life has forced John Sconzo (docsconz) to step down as a host in NY and Restaurant Life. All Society volunteers know how personable, dedicated, and thoughtful John has been as a volunteer. Of course, we all can look forward to many more insightful posts from him in the years ahead. Please share your thanks for John's work in the Member News topic here.

After four years of devoted behind-the-scenes service, life has forced John Sconzo (docsconz) to step down as a host in NY and Restaurant Life. All Society volunteers know how personable, dedicated, and thoughtful John has been as a host. Of course, we all can look forward to many more insightful posts from him in the years ahead. Please share your thanks for John's work here. I'll start. I'll confess to envying John's remarkable culinary travels right off the bat! Of course, I wouldn't know about any of them save for his consistent documentation in a wide array of topics that took many of us with him. His eye for the smallest details coupled with his willingness to engage every member with questions about those details make his travelogues, and all of his contributions, the cream of eG Forums. He also worked tirelessly on a number of projects and as a moderator, always seeking the best of what the Society could be for volunteers, members, and the public. We'll all look forward to seeing him around the forums as an emeritus staff member. Thanks, John!

In "The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen," an essay on heat that's one his regular food science pieces for the NY Times, Harold McGee writes, I've never heard of this pre-soak method before, and McGee doesn't say anything more about it. Does anyone do this? Results?

Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal in July and Alinea in Chicago in November were both fantastic.

Having read a few grocery industry magazines I spied on desks here and there, I had gotten the sense that most store brand products actually come from well-known corporations who make and then relabel package the products for different chains. A quick check online suggests that this is very true indeed. Consumer Reports points out not only that store brand quality is often very high but also that many "store brands" are sheep in wolf's clothing: They then list a few of the companies that supply store brands, like Alcoa (Reynolds Wrap), Birds Eye, Chicken of the Sea, Del Monte, etc. A 2003 Fortune article explained the need of heavily branded food corporations expanding into store brands as a matter of economic necessity:

Strained the stuff into two bottles and I'm now trying to figure out some interesting drinks to make with it. Andy's point about the W&N overproof seems to make sense at this early stage, btw, though it's still hard to tell (and I have no comparison to make).

It's been about a year since we've entered much in here, so I thought I'd bump it back up. Given some of the dire predictions about worldwide food price increases, we probably could track some interesting trends (or lack of them). I'll try to grab a few receipts and tally up things here in Providence RI USA. Does anyone have a shopping receipt handy to get us back going?

Jack, what's the difference between the two goose skin nibbles? I like the Peking duck/mushroom idea. If you could find some matsutake mushrooms and have guests who'd be happy to roll up their own pancakes, that might work very well. Gotta be careful about those pancakes, though, which dry up quickly and work best with lard (erp). Roasted winter vegetables is pretty limited main for vegetarians. You could whip up something fairly easy but still intended for them, like a meatless stuffed cabbage, maybe with a substantial starch like barley or wild rice and stuffed with onion confit, with a brown veg braising liquid.

Waaay back uptopic, you can see that I learned the hard way: this is not an exact science. Sure, you'll cut down on the smoking time by halving the butt, but estimates like 1 1/2 hrs per pound are unreliable, particularly on a Weber bullet. You want to go by temperature and feel. You can always rest it a little longer and keep it warm post-pull, so I'd get it started as soon as you can and keep fingers crossed. Having said all that, 9 hours sounds extremely optimistic to me -- and you don't want to hurry your butt!

Again using a combination of techniques stolen from Bourdain, the Saveur French book, and, mais oui, Wolfert, I got the cassoulet in the oven today. Here's the cassole with some skin-on rind lining it: I sautéed these Tolouse sausages (using a tweak of Wolfert's recipe with a few ideas from Ruhlman's Charcuterie) in duck confit fat then halved them: Using the same fat, I then cooked up some of the pork belly that I had cut away from the rinds above and tossed with some salt, pepper, and quatre epices: Then -- yup, using the same fat -- I sautéed three sliced onions and a head of garlic, then blended it up with a bit of duck stock: Here's the confit I put up a few weeks ago from two ducks (whose stock I just mentioned): And here are the beans. I used about a kilo of flageolet beans, half from Rancho Gordo and half from a Montreal grocer from a trip a while back. I cooked them with the bones and some skin of a smoked butt, four split pigs' feet, some thyme, and some lardons. The gelatinous stock was out of this world: Ready for the oven. 325F for about 3 1/2 hours -- I wait until I see bubbles coming from the very center of the cassole: Then a rest for the night on the porch. Tomorrow I'll get it back in the oven (with breadcrumbs this time) to finish at 350F, served with a frisée, pear, and walnut salad. Happy New Year, everyone! edited to add last photo -- ca

It's made for the reasons you list here, among others! Beyond the matter of how it feels (check) and the relatively low number of times you're likely to want to crunch through a few dozen pounds of onions (check), you should think about your counter and cutting board space. Ask the store if you can take a showroom sample home for a day. They'll probably let you do so, and you can give it a test run.

I think Sam's right -- and I think that's a fine cocktail.

Grabbed a bottle of the Fee Bros' Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters at LeNell's and, man, that's good stuff. A little bird told me that she grabbed all the bottles in the tri-state area, so if you're having a hard time finding them, get thee to Red Hook.

Stirring technique questions. Had some fine stirred drinks at PDT and Death & Co a few days ago. I noted varying rest times for stirred drinks. What's the guideline? Some bartenders stir only in one direction, using the spoon to create a vortex of ice and liquid and therefore not jostling the ice much. Others place the spoon in the middle and stir by rotating the spoon back-and-forth, using the twisted edge on the spoon, and therfore jostling the ice far more. Thoughts?

Piling on with the SG props. I liked the pickles more than anyone else at the table -- quick, 24 brine, I think, with a liberal dose of chili oil -- and agree about the lamb, the favorite dish of the table. The dan dan noodles, Sichuan dumplings, ma po tofu, and braised fish fillets with Napa and roasted chili all were excellent. The "Napa" includes baby bamboo shoots and, I think, young Chinese celery. Can anyone confirm? Of course, that may change each day.

Thanks to johnder, I was able to join him, fat guy, and weinoo the other day for a few drinks. I was able to try the fine Mai Tai #113 showing off that tasty orgeat, the great version of the Last Word, and two remarkable drinks: the Black Flip and the Harvest Moon. Make reservations and order them. On the dog front, I very much preferred Deragon's weiner, which goes better with drinks than the Chang Dog does. That kimchi blows out my taste buds for a few minutes -- not a bad thing if I'm tossing back a Bud but not something I want in my mouth at the same time that I'm sipping a Harvest Moon. Our own John is a swell host, of course, but what a pleasure to meet and spend time with Jim Meehan. He was a fantastic mixologist, to be sure (he presented that Harvest Moon when I asked him to build me whatever he thought I should have, and it was spectacular), and he is also just the sort of person with whom you can take best advantage of the uncrowded bar to discuss cocktails, the business, the role of bartender (both FOH and BOH), the lifespan of the current cocktail trend, and so on. ETA: I initially neglected to mention that, long after my glass was dry, I learned that my Harvest Moon was comped by Jim. -- CA

I wouldn't say she's below the radar, but Ana Sortun's omission from your list prompted me to add her just in case.

You can always mix it with a bit of warm water or give it a few seconds in a microwave to heat it up.

But if you've potted it correctly, there should be no air in the container, either. So I don't think air is at issue. That'd do it, I think.

Sure, you can seal it. The trick with a Food Saver is going to be figuring out how to deal with the liquid that'll come off the duck. If the fat seeps into the seal -- and duck fat seeps like nothing else -- it'll break very quickly. I've fiddled around with folded paper toweling at the top of the bag below the seal, and that works if there's just a bit of liquid.

No one said anything about boiling feet in stock. I'm wondering what Anna's wondering, particularly given that trotters are pretty easy to source in most communities with butchers and the preparation is remarkably simple.

In the last two weeks, I've had the good fortune to sample oysters from two local RI purveyors. Perry Raso of Matunuck Oysters (and the Ocean State Aquaculture Education Project) has been purveying his bivalves at Farm Fresh RI's AS220 indoor farmer's market each Saturday from 12n-3p, and they're briny and rich gems that'd be perfect on your holiday table. Fine, too, are Chris Clarendon's Seapowet oysters, big boys with a clean salt foreground and a meaty follow-up. He's got another week or two at East Side Marketplace, until he takes a breather until March or so. Who else is doing this good work out in the cold for our happy palates?

I think that the conspiracy against large glasses is coordinated by the evil geniuses toiling away in their hidden Rochester, NY laboratories to make better, stronger, and more brightly colored Nalgene 32 oz bottles.

Folks, this topic left its stated purpose long ago, and most posts are now simply reiterations of past positions. As there's nothing left to discuss productively, we're shutting it down. Thanks.

I'd say go with the Professor. More interesting historically, to be sure. And while I'm a pretty big fan of Duffy's book, there are quite a few stinkers in there. If you really want to do something different, why not go for Trader Vic's encyclopedia? Or Beachbum Berry's three magnificent tiki cocktail books?