Chris Amirault

Through the root and then stem end, a la JAZ. Can't really figure another way, actually, to cut any onion ever.

When I first started hosting in eG Forums, Bux was one of my go-to supports for big and little questions both. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing around here without him. His commitment to members, eG Forums, and the world of food was unsurpassed. Anyone who cares about those things should, I believe, share my deep appreciation for all that he did.

The eGullet Society lost a founder, manager, and member yesterday when Robert Buxbaum (Bux) passed away. Click here for the announcement. For the next week, we invite you to honor Bux's lasting presence on eG Forums and to share your remembrances of his love and appreciation for food, cooking, travel, and eating.

And you can use the juice for an Aviation Cocktail while you wait out the steepin'.

Thigh to 160F -- but I'm partial to the drumstick bone twist myself.

I can't really tell, Donna. My guess is that it wasn't particularly useful, but it's hard to say. I might have placed the pizza stones above the cassoulet, since I didn't have the browning on top that I would have liked. And, yes, the cassole is fantastic.

Duck ham a la Michael Ruhlman in Charcuterie.

This seems like the best criterion to me. I've contributed hundreds of dollars to the cause over the last few decades; my lost lids must be in Brigadoon dancing jigs with missing socks.

Steve, at least one Mexican-American family I know from Bisbee AZ calls that Mexican stew "posole," contrary to your and Diana Kennedy's usage. Not sure what to make of that!

Over in this topic, we've been discussing books that can support a member's interest in developing technique and method. There are lots of books out there that fit the bill -- the CIA's Professional Chef, Julia Child's The Way to Cook, Anne Willan's Varenne Practique, and Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques, among others. But those books really are about western techniques, even French. That prompts the question: what are some books that focus on Asian techniques? The two that pop to my mind are Barbara Tropp's Modern Art of Chinese Cooking and Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, both of which include great sections on technical stuff. Do folks have other non-western go-to cookbooks for technique and method? I'm not wondering about recipes here; there are lots of great books out there for that. I'm talking about equivalents to Willan and Pepin for Asian techniques.

Bouchon, a great book, presumes a lot about technique. Someone who's not up to the book's expectation of significant prep (especially knife), cooking, and baking skills might find it frustrating as a text. Based on what you've written -- an ability to think up interesting food combinations but a lack of strategies for how to follow them through to success -- I'd say that Julia's Way to Cook, Willan's Varenne Practique, or Pepin's Complete Techniques would be the way to go. I'd lean toward the latter, which in the dual edition is crammed with outstanding technical information. It's by my beside as we speak, not because I need to know how to make tomato roses but because of the hundreds of other techniques and methods that I want in my toolkit.

No dairy in the recipe above, Mel -- and I'd say that smoked dark meat turkey or chicken would work very well.

I doubt that you'll get the emulsion you want with cooked beef -- or am I missing something? Do you mean brisket instead of chuck?

I understand why it's an emulsion; is it a foam simply bc air is beaten into it?

Having typically used Goya canned posole/hominy and now having used the dried posole above from Rancho Gordo, the two are very different. Canned posole has a "squeaky" quality to it that's hard to explain but is very noticeable; it's sort of like eating cheese curds, for those from upper midwest US, without quite as much toothiness. The dried is not squeaky at all, just firm -- and it tastes much, much more like corn. The difference is very pronounced to us.

Welcome to the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off! Click here for the Cook-Off index. This cook-off: posole or pozole, the Mexican stew with hominy corn (the posole for which the dish is named). At the base of most posole is, of course, the corn itself, broth, and meat, usually pork. From there, well, the possibilities expand greatly. The pickin's on eG Forums are pretty slight: one discussion on dried vs fresh posole can be found here, there's a short topic here in the Mexico forum, and another asking questions here in Cooking. There are, however, two posole recipes in Recipe Gullet: fifi's barbeque posole and, well, my mother-in-law's fantastic recipe, which I'm calling Castañeda posole. Finally, our own rancho_gordo sells the remarkable stuff in the image above at his Rancho Gordo website. Posole is in my family's regular dinner rotation. Perhaps it is in yours -- or ought to be?

Castañeda Posole Serves 6 as Main Dish. This is Susan Castañeda's family recipe for posole; I've edited it slightly, following my tendencies as a tinkering son-in-law. The simplicity of the recipe belies its excellence: there's no better way to bring out the harmony of pig and corn in a bowl. NB: instead of dried hominy you can use 2 29 oz cans of hominy. Just skip the first step below, but do drain the hominy. 3 c dried hominy 2 T oil or lard 3 c pork shoulder, cut into 3/4" cubes 1 c medium onions, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 T ancho powder 1 T chipotle powder or paste (or to taste) 1/4 c jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped 1 tsp Mexican oregano 1 tsp ground cumin 1 T salt 1 tsp black pepper 6 c stock (chicken, pork, or beef works fine; smoked is even better) 2 c tomatoes, skinned, seeded, and chopped 1/2 c cilantro, chopped 2 limes, quartered 1. The night before you plan to prepare the meal, soak the hominy overnight with at least two inches of water above the hominy. Drain the next day, then simmer for 2-3 hours until just tender. Drain again. 2. Salt and pepper the pork. Heat the oil or lard in a heavy pot until almost smoking, and brown each cube of pork well in the fat. Do not crowd. Remove each cube from pot as it's browned. 3. Pour off excess fat and add the onion. Sauté the onion until it's slightly browned; add the garlic and sauté it briefly. Be sure to scrape up the fond (the brown bits) from the pork. 4. Add ancho, chipotle, jalapeño, oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper and sauté them for about a minute. Add the tomatoes and sauté them for a minute. Add the stock and pork, bring to a boil, and simmer for 2 hours, or until the pork is just tender. 5. Add the hominy and heat through, about ten minutes. Serve with the cilantro and lime. Keywords: Soup, Main Dish, Easy, Dinner, Hot and Spicy, Mexican ( RG1921 )

STOP YELLING!

I'm wondering specifically about porcini, whose aroma is crucial to most dishes. I've never had this problem with shiitake. Thanks for the explanations, but I'm not sure that they get at the crux of the matter for me. I just removed meat from sinew on the short ribs in question, and the porcini aroma was remarkably strong considering it had been in the fridge for a few days after both an initial braise and a warm up for service a day later. I think Steven's question is what I'm curious about: I didn't make it clear before that I used the mushroom liquid in both dishes.

There is another approach: I have always found that high-heat sautéing, blenders on "liquefy," and breaking down animals with cleavers while listening to the radio drowned out the kids' crying just fine.

Thanks to a recent trip to Your Dekalb Farmers Market, I came into a lot of dried porcini mushrooms. The first dish I made with them was on a Saturday night, and I soaked the mushrooms for a couple of hours before straining the liquid and using the mushrooms. Somehow they seemed less fragrant than I had expected, which I decided must be a result of inferior product. However, the next time I used them I was following a recipe in Molly Stevens's All About Braising, in which she made a point of saying not to start soaking the mushrooms until no more than 30 minutes prior to use. It seems to have made a huge difference: the mushrooms had the wonderful, familiar heady fragrance that you pay big bucks to get from porcini. My method was the same: very hot tap water to cover in a pyrex measuring cup; I put a small bowl over the top to push the mushrooms below the water level. The mushrooms were the same. So what gives? Why the significant difference? I ask since Stevens seemed to nail the timing on the head -- but for the life of me I can't figure out why.

Well, what are folks thinking about the latest issues?

Fascinating -- can I see some data to support that parenthesis?

What kind of "bad" was it? Unless it was putrid -- bad as in "after two months in the back of the fridge, it went bad" -- I don't think you've got a leg to stand on. Did you expect good food at an all-you-can-eat buffet on The Day after New Years Day? And of course your friends think you should have refused to pay! The story would have been so much more exciting!

[Thanks to member IgnatzH for this information -- CA] Invasive Species Recipe Competition Due in part to the high level of interest in the Invasive Species Cookbook, Bradford Street Press has announced, in preparation for compiling the second edition, a recipe contest. Prizes will include free copies of the book, "if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em" tee shirts, and the grand prize, a trip to the exotic location of your choice with Sir David Attenborough (well, no, actually it's a copy of the book AND a tee shirt, sorry). We're particularly interested in recipes that utilize species presently not in the book, and adaptations of classic recipes that use those already included in a novel way. To see more about the book and to make submissions, go to www.bradfordstreetpress.com. Our judges will be trying these in our own test kitchen, unless the recipe calls for something really difficult to obtain. Brown tree snakes for instance. We'll announce the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in the spring of '07.