Chris Amirault

Brooks, is this recipe from cocktaildb a respectable version of the Milk Punch?

My Grizzly 5# arrived last week in time for birthday and father's day; it's a beaut! I have to figure out a way to anchor it to a base of some sort, but I think that's a convenience, not a necessity. Lube update: I found a $3 tube of Petro-Gel at our local Restaurant Depot, but it took some looking. (It was on an aisle end-cap beneath something or other.) As far as I can tell, I'm ready for a weekend makin' links. Update to follow.

We buy cheap, used coffee grinders at thrift stores and yard sales whenever we need a new spice grinder; for $2 or $3 you can usually get a perfectly serviceable Braun, Krups, whatever. When my long-lost third rich grandfather makes contact and then dies a day later, I'm getting a Sumeet (among many, many other things).

I'm afraid I haven't anything useful to say about ii or iii, but the answer to i is "Yes, utterly." High quality of beans ground them just before pulling shots will very quickly convince you of this truth.

I just learned about Edible Communities, an organizatoin that puts out community-based newsletters on sustainable food systems. From their website: They have a list of publications such as "Edible Boston," etc. but I've never seen one. Has anyone here?

Oh, man, I'm going to be following this topic. Erik, what kind of oj did you use? I wonder if orange bitters would be lost in this -- or just the thing.....

I think it's time to cure more meat, man!

I've heard tell of a place near the airport in E Boston that's supposed to be good....

Bumping this back up because I just found the cookbook at our local discounter and, thus, could afford it. First meal was something light and pretty quick, relatively speaking: the frisée salad with lardons and the macaroni and cheese. The mornay sauce for the latter was a bit too much; he says 3 c but I think 2 c would do it. And everyone should make the bacon fat vinaigrette at least once, particularly if you've chosen to fry and not poach your eggs. In duck fat. Like I said, "light."

Janet, I think that Todd is referring directly to the situation in New Orleans, where the needs and desires of the good citizens are beginning to revert to pre-Katrina levels of expectation. To that end, Todd, you say that it's still hard to staff places. Can you say more about that situation and its effect on dining experiences in NOLA these days?

So, if I wanted to serve these with a meal, are they pre-dinner snacks? Or congee accompaniments? Or...?

I haven't but I'm thinkin' about it with the next order, so I'm eager to hear. We need to get a Butcher & Packer person around here, methinks.

Well, you win this round! Burning the wood releases junk you don't want in the smoke; that's why you smoke moist chips, or heat the chips over something that doesn't make them flame up. I mean, I could be wrong. I think we need a diagram of some sort.

LaurieB, I don't really understand. Most people use the modifier "ethnic" to refer to a collective cultural and geographic category. In addition, "ethnic" usually means "other than what I'm used to around here." So I'm not sure how an individual can define an "ethnic" cuisine.

It's the proportions in the book, Jason. They suggest far higher quantities than the packaging.

I used standard hog casings and they were fine. Traditional is thinner (sheep I think?). I used a chuck roast and kept in the tiny bits of fat on it.

Based on what you've written, I think you'll be fine to let 'em sit for 3-4 days. Only one way to find out....

Ron, those look fantastic!! Was that beef or pork? Forgive me if you've said that somewhere waaaaaaaaaay up topic.

Thanks a bunch, Elie. They got in touch with me with an initial one-page survey in my doctor's office, about three months before the call. I had forgotten about it entirely. And, no, I haven't heard back about the survey results formally, but I did see an article in the local paper about the effectiveness of non-teetotaler/12-step methods for reducing drinking that might have included that data. Dunno for sure. It may be that proximity is the key, given that you're neighbor state makes it! We pretty much have Angostura everywhere, and Fee Bros or Peychaud's are hard to find. And Regan's orange bitters? Fuggedaboudit.

Made it for the umpteenth time tonight, but we were out of celery. Turns out that the celery makes a Huge difference, not just texturally but also in terms of flavor. That vegetal backbone really brings out the meatiness of the lop yuk and lop cheung. I am forever grateful for this topic, I must say. It's become a family staple!

Yeah, I think it's standard cookbook operating procedure everywhere else in the world. Seems true in all the non-US representatives in my collection.

I was fascinated to notice that, in the last two issues of Gourmet, there seems to be a new predilection among certain recipe writers to list ingredients by weight and not by volume. It's not true throughout, though: two different recipes include ricotta, one by weight (ounces, natch) and one by volume. Measuring by weight is standard in professional recipes, of course, but rare in home ones. I'm an adherent of the Kitchen Scale Manifesto, so this Gourmet change is good news for me, albeit a half-hearted effort. I haven't seen weights consistently in the other cooking mags I read, and the only recent cookbook that seems devoted to weights is Ruhlman and Polcyn's excellent Charcuterie (discussed at length here and here). Are you noticing this anywhere else?

Folks, we're keeping this thread up to discuss the food-related aspects of these good works. While the temptation to discuss a wide variety of subjects is great and understandable, let's do stick to food. Thanks.

I've been going to Chilango's lately (Manton Ave at the base of Atwells Ave), which proudly claims to make Mexican street food, and I'm hooked. They have great skirt steak, chorizo, and pork, which you can get on tostadas, in soft tacos and burritos, etc. They also have a huge tequila selection (import their own stuff, apparently) and are incredibly cheap.

Aren't we talking about different meats? Letting a pork butt come to temperature over an hour is different than, say, wrapping a roasted chicken in foil and letting the skin lose its crisp.