Chris Amirault

Daniel, this is a great question. Can you post whatever policy you come up with here? I'm gonna steal it....

I think Jamaican sorrel is a totally different plant. The sorrel I grow does not do well in mid-summer, and attracts more bugs than in spring or fall. Maybe the punch was made with shav grass, which is sometimes called sorrel. It appears in some flavoured vodkas, from eastern Europe. ← Hmmm.... The sorrel I've grown has definitely had the same flavor as the sorrel punch I had....

Pie. Hands down, absolutely. An Al Forno crostada, to be specific.

Jasie, did you wash off the oil coating before you started to season it? If not, that stuff would burn and create some pretty thick, acrid smoke!

Friends, throw away your Peugeots and buy those Magnums. That thing is a beast. Honestly, how in the world one compares to the other is beyond me. Peugeot is now relegated to white pepper for eternity......

Pizza with ramps and anchovies: brilliant.

Yeah, well, since I drive and have to fit my belly under the steering wheel, I can't really go for the dozen!

Extra crispy? Fuggedaboudit. Trying to get good home fries around here is like trying to get people to pronounce closing "-r"s. Not gonna happen. Oh, man: pork ton bor (pork belly), pea pod leaves, steamed scallop and tofu in black bean sauce, virtually every dim sum dish especially rice in lotus leaf, the egg custard tarts....

I'm a big Clam Box fan, and my folks are die-hard Village (in Essex) fans.

For breakfast, don't go to Brickway unless you want greasy eggs, bad bacon, and flabby pancakes. Instead, hit Modern Diner in Pawtucket for, well, anything save the home fries, JP Spoonems in Cranston for jonnycakes, and Jiggers in East Greenwich for great pancakes. There are lots of good Central/Latin American places in Providence, several on Atwells Ave/Manton Ave, including the aforementioned Mexico (just mediocre), Mi Guatemala for, obviously, Guatemalan, and Chilangos for street Mexican. Though we disagree on many things, menton1 is spot-on concerning one thing: you must have weiners while you're here. Hit the Olneyville spot in Olneyville or Cranston, or (my favorite) Original NY System on Smith St. Wash it down with a Del's frozen lemonade, stands for which will be open widely in the next week or two. edited to add: I think I'm hitting one of the two Bolivian places on Chalkstone Ave tomorrow night. If so, I'll report back!

← Actually, Adam, I think that's the Sincerest Form article in The Daily Gullet, not this topic.

Maggie, if Gary Regan's phenomenal Joy of Mixology counts -- and it should, since it's devoted to the craft of mixology with a care that would put many cookbook authors to shame -- then add one!

I had a great Jamaican sorrel and hibiscus punch in Brooklyn once, but I've never been able to find a recipe. Anyone?

A swell quotation from that letter:

Great post, Davydd -- and welcome! Besides the Chicha, how does Bolivian cuisine use corn?

Folks, much to the chagrin of Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau and the disappointment of our members, today is Sandy's last day of foodblogging. Please do make your final posts to the thread no later than midnight EDT!

FFB, I think that "healthy" modifies "choices," not "food" in that phrase.

Ron, I think that there was something a bit off about the color. The meat in this photo -- -- had an intensely thick pink smoke ring on it; the entire piece was smoky pink. However, the butt did have a darker color than I expected, yes. Susan, I decided to get a Niman Ranch butt, which are, apparently, preboned. Next time I'm going to head to my local carnicaria for the butt.

Well, we just ate half of my butt, and the other half is in the freezer for another time. It was fantastic butt, but there's a great deal of room for improvement. Because we had guests over who had time constraints, I had to take it out of the Bradley at 188, and that was my biggest mistake: even with a tight, thick foil wrap, it cooled instead of finishing cooking, never getting above 188. As a result, it didn't pull as well as it should have (though the sections near the crack, which were warmer, pulled better). Meanwhile, =Mark's sauce is fantastic, just perfect. Here it is, crack and all.

We're approaching eight hours: it's 4:10 pm and my butt is at 174F. I know that I want to pull it at around 190, but I'm not sure when I should take it out of the smoker and wrap it to rest/finish cooking. Thoughts? Meanwhile, a troubling development. Remember that my butt was boneless? Well, I didn't tie it before putting it in the smoker. Now... my butt has a huge crack in it.

Mike, check out this topic for more info about the Bradley. There are a few other topics floating around, but that's a good place to start. To answer your questions, the heat is generated by a heating element, which is separate from the smoke plate on which the pucks sit and burn.

Thanks! My sense is that you could do it for cold smoking if the ambient temperature is pretty cool and you have a hotel pan or two full of ice.

Over in the butt smoking thread, I'm using my new Bradley to, well, smoke my butt. Click here for a rather detailed post about the Bradley.

Started at 8:30 with the temp at 34F. A few people have asked me some questions about the Bradley via PM, so I thought I'd say a few things about it here. I love my Bradley so far. I got the "Original Smoker," the black one, instead of the stainless steel one, saving $100. As you can see from the photos below, I don't have a $45K outdoor kitchen, so stainless would be a total waste for me. I mean, let's be honest here: the thing is already a smoky, slightly gloppy mess inside, and I'm not going to be taking three hours per use to clean it, myself. Stainless would look silly. I mentioned on another thread that the initial puck feeder on the smoke generator was feeding two or three or seven pucks at a time. I called customer service and got immediate assistance from a friendly rep who sent me a new smoke generator gratis, no questions asked, and told me to keep the original one. I've read elsewhere that the company has had a service problem in the past, but my experience suggests that's no longer the case, if ever it was. I've been doing primarily hot smoking; the few experiments I've run to do cold smoking have been promising. The issue is that the smoke generator has a hot plate on which the pucks rest and burn, meaning that the smoke is not cool and that the plate warms the air in the smoker even if the heating unit is turned off. However, if you're considering a Bradley, remember that the smoke generator is detachable, so with a little duct tape, a cardboard box, and a dryer duct, you can rig up a cold smoker by putting some distance between the smoke generator and the main smoke box pretty easily. A few people have asked how much smoke it generates outside the entire contraption. There's occasionally a little smoke released at the link between the smoke generator and the main compartment when it's windy, but not much. Here are two photos of the places where there's more consistent smoke escaping. First, the top of the smoker, where there's a little wheel vent that, even when "shut," isn't hermetic and thus releases some smoke. (I think that the photo is exaggerating the amount here because of the slant of sunlight coming from the upper left of the frame, btw.) Next, I'm using a Maverick remote thermometer, and when that's in place, there's a little bit of smoke that releases in the space created by the cord between the door and frame. Having said all of that, let me repeat that I'm thrilled with it. Hopefully, when you see my butt later today, you'll know why. At 9:10 and my butt had reached 43F; it's now 10:10 and my butt's at 84F. The smoker's holding tight at 210F.

Behold my butt: Just a smidge over eight pounds, and after an overnight (12 hour, approximately) brine using Dave the Cook's eGCI brining course ratios, my butt is now chilling out in the freezer as per Susan's instructions. (What's best for Susan's butts is best for my butt.) I've now got to get my Bradley set up -- I have to install a new smoke generator as the first one I got was a bit eager about feeding pucks -- and get my butt into the smoke.