Chris Amirault

So I've never had a drink (knowingly) with orange bitters, and I now realize why there is such a fuss around here. I've just made my first perfect, blissful martini. Cheers.

Tell me about it. You don't want to know how many stores I visited before sucking up and paying that hefty Buffalo Trace shipping charge.

I'm planning to make a martini tonight for starters with Plymouth and Noilly Prat. Feel free to suggest other ideas!

No, 'tis I, my dear Alphonse, from whom should issue forth an apology, for I fear the cranial density is my own. I do believe that we three are all, indeed, in agreement.

I'm bumping this up to report that I have just received four 10 oz bottles of this magical elixir from Buffalo Trace: hale, whole, and quickly received.

John, I think that Elie explained the conclusion after the sentence you quoted, and it is one with which I would certainly agree: I just wrote out longhand (well, on the computer, but you get my drift) the Gascony daube recipe for my MIL who enjoyed the dish at Christmas, and in writing that up with my revisions and notes, I realized I was doing a few things for her that Paula did not do for me: listing equipment and material needed (the parchment paper for the braise, e.g.); estimating hourly and daily commitments; explaining certain steps in far greater detail; spending a lot of time discussing possible and impossible substitutions. This observation is not meant to be critical. Rather, it supports Elie's point that this book is not a starter book on continental cuisine. Huzzah, I say: I value this book for precisely what it is. I will say that I thought that the review was a bit too glibly clever for its own good, as did Lucy. And if I can get cassoulet down to seven hours, I'll be thrilled!

That is absolutely fascinating to me! I thought that there was always a culture at CIA involving constant tasting, you know, with the little spoons in the front pocket to discourage finger-slurping. Can you say more? Of course, another way to ask this question would be: "Wha?!? The CIA didn't teach you about taste?!"

Thank you for weighing in, Sara. You are, of course, absolutely correct. Sara, they are strangely quiet on the subject. I think that Linda may have gotten to them.

Sara, you may have noticed that the members here at the eGullet Society can be somewhat... energetic about their opinions related to food and cooking. I'm hoping I can drag you into the middle of one particular debate. We've been doing what we call "cook-offs" here for a while; a group of people cook, photograph, and discuss a particular dish in a thread devoted to that obsession. (Click here to see the list.) Over in the gumbo cook-off, Linda (fifi) threw down the gauntlet with this post: I just noticed that you said to add "hot stock." Mais non, mon cher! If the roux is hot, the stock must be cool, as in room temperature, or you will have a heck of a time. ← She and I have been back and forth on this now for months, and we're still a bit confused. We've consulted McGee and resident food scientists; we've also started a thread on oil separation (click) because we suspect that the addition of stock to roux is the key to that particular problem in gumbos. Care to dip your toe into this river of molten foodie lava? What's your opinion? Does the temperature of stock added to roux matter? If you think it does, it's because it should be simmering, right? Right?

I beg to differ, Sara. Nigella may well have been the first of the female PYTs on FTV, but let us not forget the original food-sex-bomb himself, Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet.

Hi Darcie! I'll be very interested to learn about Charleston. My trips to WV (Morgantown, mostly) have been wonderful. I'm eager to learn about the local food scene!

Elie, those look fantastic. I envied you your smoker -- until today. I just got back from a local Portuguese butcher where I've gotten great chorice. I was there to buy a pork belly, because my curing salts finally arrived today. So, at checkout, the boss apologizes because we was out in the smokehouse. Feeling brazen, I asked him whether I could bring stuff by to be smoked. "Sure, on Fridays, usually." We struck up a conversation, and now I think I've got a foot in the door there. I am going to start with some fresh bacon with this slab, but the sky's now the limit!

I would call it osso bucco. ← I thought of that, too, but osso bucco is really the name of a dish and not a cut of meat. It's also veal, not beef. My house is filled with a heavenly aroma....

Trust me, man, it will go down very nicely.

Great drink -- and yep, I've noticed that, too, esp if you really squeeze that cheesecloth. I'll have to fiddle with the ratios a bit bc my hibiscus tea isn't sweetened. Ever try that with gingered syrup?

I'm working at home today so I got the pho bo stock started using the Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet recipe as a guide. When I went to the Southeast Asian market yesterday to get the meat, I asked the Cambodian woman who runs the store what I should use for pho stock. "Oh, well, they use that beef over there," she said, sighing. Always with the Vietnamese food.... I'm not even sure what exactly to call this meat. The shank cross cut? I had about 7 pounds, and after breaking it down by cubing the meat and trimming the fat -- I had 3 1/2 lb meat and 2 1/2 lb bones and marrow. Seemed like a good ratio. I used the Alford and Duguid recipe because, well, everything I make in that book is fantastic, and also because I had seen this double boil method for clarifying the stock over in the cabocha and pork butt bone soup thread by Ah Leung (hzrt8w). It's pretty straightforward: you bring the meat to the boil and boil vigorously (I stirred constantly) for 4-5 min; you basically make this really disgusting stew of proteins, blood, and other dreck. I have chosen to spare you the image. I also roasted the ginger and onion on my new () gas range using bamboo skewers: I toasted the star anise, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, and cloves while the onion and garlic got charred and chopped: Then into the cleaned stock pot we go with lots of cold water, the cleaned meat and bones, and the aromatics. It's going to simmer for a while now. I also thought I'd share a method I came up with for skimming scum when you have aromatics floating around. I use the fine sieve to skim the scum , and of course I inevitably capture some of the aromatics. To save them, I dump them in a coarse sieve and rise them off, then dump them back into the pot: More a bit later. I want to see the bottom of the bowl with this stock, baybee.

Dried salted cuttlefish.

Better run run run run run run away.

I'd snag it if you've got the cash reserves; it'd make a great wedding or housewarming gift for someone you really, really like.

Has anyone experimented with hibiscus in mixed drinks? I have been tinkering around with some very strong hibiscus tea, some gingered simple syrup, and a few other things (rum, brandy, bourbon, tequila, cachaca). I can't seem to find any recipes that include it. Ideas?

Dinner at a GF's mom's house. She was very religious and utterly wary of the daughter's divorced BF with a little kid. She made the house specialty, roast beef: a tenderloin, salted liberally and peppered, roasted in a 400F oven for about two and a half hours. That's it: no sauce, no seasoning, no nothing. I think that mom got the "good cut" for the guest, I dunno, but this thing made me think lovingly of Charlie Chaplin's shoe leather meal. I choked it down under mom's stern gaze. So, afterwards, the GF asked me what I thought. I could not tell a lie: "It was horrible," I said. "Inedible. Overcooked to the point of absurdity." That comment basically set the clock a-ticking.... To this day, I'm convinced it was a set-up.

This is not merely a chick thing. No way. I seriously lust after midcentury modern barware, highball glasses, plates... you name it. My MIL got us a great set of eight highball glasses for xmas in this fantastic jungle motif. I'm still looking for the perfect flatware set....

Ah Leung, thanks again. When I've had this dish, it's been in a hot pot. Would you prepare the main ingredients in the same ratios? Anything else to add?

I once had conversation with a restauranteur in Providence and asked him a similar question. He said he had one regular who had eaten three to four times a week at his place for several years (usually ordering the same dish, too). Not quite 850, but getting there. The math I start doing involves the cost: thrice weekly for fifty weeks is 150 visits, each at, say, $40 back in those days (assuming he dined alone), means about $6K per annum. Did he splurge on weekends?

Welcome, Sara, to the eG Conversation! Of course, most of us have gotten to know you through your long career on television. We know that your stint at Food TV has just now come to an end, and we have heard tell that a new project at PBS may be in the works. What have your past experiences on television taught you about food media, and what TV projects might you hope to do in the future, near or far?