Chris Amirault

Crouching Tyler, I can't commit to the entirety of Cradle of Flavor, but I'd sure happily participate in a topic devoted to working through the book.

I just got a promotional email from Bradley involving a Father's Day special for a propane smoker. I can't find any specs besides this page. Anyone have experience with one of these?

I can't -- sorry. All I've gotten for feedback is "Ugh. No. Don't." La Arepa on Smithfield Ave in Pawtucket has reopened after remodeling and is nice and big now. Got another one of those pabellon arepas today, which I enjoyed with lots of sauce and the soursop drink. Yum. Yes. Do.

How horrible. I've had some great stuff at SS, but heard things were slipping. "Disgraces to Boston"? Do tell!

Just got Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails and Dale DeGroff's The Craft of the Cocktail, both of which seem outstanding. I sought but could not find a copy of David Wondrich's Esquire Drinks for less than a benjamin. Anyone got sources out there?

This stuns me: Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring and environs are in Montgomery Country. There are no quality wine lists in those towns as a result of these laws?!?

Thanks for the FiberOne tip, therese. I'll be checking that out next trip to the store. Of course, I'll be interested to see if the FiberOne mascot is as good as that leapin' All-Bran being. And thank, Miriam. That means a lot.

Any updates?

It's true, she's not: the colder the meat, the longer it stays below 140F, the temperature at which the smoke stops permeating the meat.

Thanks to a generous gift from CaryMax, the culinary special events production company responsible for creating the 2007 Amoretti National Pastry Team Championship, the World Pastry Team Championship, and the World Pastry Forum, the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters is happy to make the following offer: Any Society member who becomes a society donor during the current spring fundraising drive will be automatically entered into a drawing for one of three demonstration tickets to the 2007 World Pastry Forum, a $1,500 value! Held this year from June 27 to July 1 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, Nashville, Tennessee, the World Pastry Forum brings industry innovators together under one roof and offers access to trends and techniques through a series of classes. The Forum was created in 2002 in direct response to requests from pastry chefs and industry suppliers for a need for better information dispersal throughout all levels and areas of the industry. Students will attend a total of 10 classes over five days. Each day will consist of a morning class (9am-12pm), a break for lunch (12pm-2pm), and an afternoon class (2pm-5pm). Classes will combine lectures and demonstrations and will be limited to no more than 40 students each. No tools are necessary as classes will not be hands on. Each class will be taught in a separate classroom and students will rotate from one kitchen classroom to the next. There will be a different pastry chef instructor, each representing the country in which they reside, for each class. Scheduled Class Topics and Instructors: Banquet Desserts – Donald Wressell, USA Cake Decorating for Pastry Chefs – Nicholas Lodge, USA Composition- Anil Rohira Decorative Breads – Ciril Hitz, USA Entremet – Thomas Lui, China Entremet Glace – John Kraus, USA Japanese Desserts – Tatsuya Kijima, Japan Painted Chocolates – Ewald Notter, USA Plated Desserts – Keegan Gerhard, USA Sugar Showpieces – Christian Faure, MOF, Canada The winning member will receive a demonstration package that includes: Classes Lunch each day Chef’s jacket Class workbook with instructors’ notes and recipes Admission to the 2007 National Pastry Team Championship July 2 &3, 2007 Gala dinner on July 3 The deadline to participate in this drawing is 12:00 noon EDT on Wednesday, June 20. Individuals who have already signed up for the course cannot receive a refund if they win this giveaway. Hotel and airfare not included. Contact ProTravel at 888-725-2223 for travel information. Volunteer staff for the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters are excluded from this drawing. This generous gift was donated by Carymax, a culinary special events production company responsible for creating the National Pastry Team Championship, the World Pastry Team Championship and the World Pastry Forum. Its owner, Michael Schneider, is also the driving force behind Chocolatier, Pastry Art & Design and Frozen Desserts Magazines.

No sauce will touch these save at the table! I'm just thinking about having a slight char on them. I'll report back.

Will do. A question for the vets. Does anyone finish the ribs off on a hot grill? I admit to being tempted to do this. Discuss.

A thought I just had in the kitchen. I have found that it's important to be sure all ingredients are ground to the same size grains. I just made this rub and didn't really do that as well as I should have done. As a result, the turbinado and pepper tended to fall to the bottom of the bowl while I was applying the rub to the ribs. I appreciate the texture of a crunch of peppercorn more than most, but with meat that's going to be jostled about, consistent granularity is more important, I think.

Susan and the gang here know their butts: low & slow, start cold, no such thing as "too much fat." If you've got the time, keep the heat no more than 250F (or lower if you have enough beer).

I guess Atkins wore tweed.

Trimmed the ribs and got them into the brine (following Ron's 2/3 c salt to 1 gal water, with about 1/3 c sugar and 20 peppercorns tossed in for good measure). I then came up with a rub that is Klink-esque both in ingredients but also in method: I went to my cupboard and took it from there. It's a hotter, jerk-ier version of Klink's: 1 T salt (brined, remember) 2 T black pepper 1 T roasted Thai chile, ground 1 T dried garlic 1 T dried onion 1 T sumac 2 T turbinado sugar 1 t sweet paprika 1 t cumin 1 t cinnamon 1 t allspice Feedback on this rub late Monday. I suspect that the sumac is an important ingredient; that pucker helps with both heat and sweet.

My first thoughts were to point out the UK breakfast fare included the roasted tomato half (fruit) and mushrooms (fungi) -- neither vegetables. Asparagus is often used in versions of eggs benedict. That count?

I think that one aspect of this salad's popularity is the ability of everyone to make it their own. Unlike the ubiquitous caesar, which has a very rigid base (romaine, parm, croutons, grilled chicken for $2 extra) this salad seems to have three elements (I'm excluding the greens) that can be fiddled with to make "signature" salads. I know three different people who have declared different versions of this salad as their own by changing cheese, fruit or nut and saying "Mine!" Disclosure: we had mesclun, hazelnuts, Maytag blue, and sliced apple for dinner in the 94F heat here last night, I should confess. Yeah, fresh fruit: my little variation, don't cha know.

Why not? What was missing?

Thanks for the kind words. Oh, man. I remember that as well. Yeeowch. I've gotta do 2%, personally, with the All Bran. It seems only fair to allow myself some remote sense of pleasure. As you can tell, I certainly believe in thinking about the "gut level"! Hmm. Maybe having the reality not match the memory is a way to honor your relation to her and to loss, you know? Worse, in fact, or even tasteless. And I think you're right that there's a lot more people around with less-than-jolly-making feelings about this holiday oddness. Thanks. Why FiberOne?

Interesting you'd mention Al Forno: though always pretty informal in certain aspects, it's also always been at or near the top of the list in terms of menu prices: cheapo it is not. But that raises another new place. Brian Kingsford -- EC at Al Forno for years and years -- just opened up Bacaro, and while I haven't eaten there yet, it does seem to be aiming more along the lines of "new paradigm," with a small plates list of cheeses, salumi, olives, and other antipasti. It's early yet (two weeks), but yesterday, when I poked my nose in there to see how things were going, I definitely got the vibe that this was the same crowd that fills the other high-end stand-bys in town. As for trendy and hip (neither of which I'd claim to be), I think I was one of only two men in the downstairs bar at 7p that wasn't in coat and tie, and I definitely was the only one whose short sleeves revealed tattoos, much to the concern of several diners, for what that's worth.

These comments make me want, again, to ask jesteinf's implied query about where this paradigm is or is not happening. I went into a new place here in Providence last night that, without realizing it until I read this topic, I hoped would meet these criteria. However, it's clear that in Providence the foodie crowd wants the trappings, perhaps as much as they want the food itself. Put differently, I think that it's hard to imagine "new paradigm" or "haute-cheap" making it here because there's not a sufficient diner demographic to keep the places running, whereas in NYC that demographic seems significant and growing.

Hickory, prolly.

Staples. Genius. I'm not sure whether I should just stack half-slabs on each of four racks (I have two slabs) or go for this contraption. I've got to get the measuring tape out tonight. To repeat with greater detail, I was reading through those posts above thinking, "How'm I gonna find this membrane?" and then I hit your very useful photos. Thanks!

I've got two slabs of Niman Ranch St. Louis ribs in the fridge for smoking and serving on Monday. Best as I can tell, I'll be 1. Trimming, 2. Brining, 3. Rubbing, 4. Smoking, 5. Spraying, 6. Resting, and 7. Serving (with =Mark's SC sauce for sure) Arne's photos up topic will help a lot with 1, and I've got good ideas for 2, 3, 5, and 6. I'm wondering about the smoking, however. Does anyone here use a Bradley for smoking ribs? Do you use a rib rack? Which one, if so?