Chris Amirault

As someone who's been snooping through my Lutece Cookbook today for holiday meal ideas, I am particularly aware that several of the patron saints around here -- Bourdain, Fergus Henderson, Wolfert, etc. -- are very big fans of very cheap cuts of meat and of offal.

I didn't taste a bite, Bill, but it's one of MY all-time food highlights! Great work, man. My best non-restaurant meals have been at home with my family. Probably number one was the beef penang curry from David Thompson's Thai Food cookbook that I nailed in early spring, back before the baby arrived when I could spend hours pounding paste with the mortar and pestle!

Rest assured, my lucky friend, that I will never, ever allow you to take proximity to Katz's for granted.

Not sure how this would fit into such a discussion, but it's probably worth mentioning that a lot of the ingredients that are being rediscovered in avant-garde cuisines can be traced to pretty plebian roots. My grandfather in Maine used to give me pine gum to chew when I was a little kid, and I've always thought that it was a foodstuff worth revisiting. Lacking both a current pine gum source and sufficiently mad skills in the lab, however, I've been unable to do so -- until now. I'm also curious to know whether the Italian avantgardiste F. T. Marinetti, he of the Futurist Cookbook, is ever mentioned by chefs in these discussions. A meal at Alinea looks a lot like one of their banquets, and their concept of synesthesia would be a crucial precursor of the extensive use of senses other than taste in current avant-garde cuisine. I don't know if chef Achatz is planning any all-touch dinners, however.

Yes, Elie, do tell: collagen casings?

Jason, what are the benefits of the two textures? I'm particularly curious about the fine chop.

I want what Doc had! Working backwards: In December, a great slate of mezze, including several astonishing kibbeh, at Zaytinya in DC. In late October, a warming early winter meal of braised short ribs at Ici in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. In early October, a wonderful anniversary meal at Al Forno in Providence. In July, some killer hot dogs at Pink's in LA and El Guero Canelo in South Tucson. In January, a perfect bahn mi at Lu's in Boston. Plus, regular trips to Kabob n Curry in Providence for saag paneer, Lucky Garden in North Providence for dim sum, the Red Fez in Providence for grilled cheese and fries, Haruki in Cranston for sushi, and Original New York System in Providence for weiners.

Interesting post, Austin, but I'd have to disagree with your statement that "even in reading eGullet and other mags I still get a strong impression that the general concept of food in the US today is pretty elite." Depends on what you're reading, really. Sure, if you read the Alinea or Per Se threads you'll confirm this statement, but a scratch of the eGullet surface will reveal many threads devoted to inexpensive food for not-rich people. Of course, if you're arguing that the editor of a magazine called Gourmet focuses on elite food, well, that fish is dead in the barrel!

Charles, did you mince the pancetta? And grind the rest finely? I don't know why but I'm obsessing about the fineness of the grind....

How finely ground would the meat be in bangers?

I'm hoping to make some garlic sausages of the sort that are used in cassoulet. (Here's the cook-off, wherein I take a crack at them.) Any recipes out there?

What's the wind chill factor?

Cool! Photos??

Over in the Burger/Meat Loaf Cook-Off, Sandy throws down the gauntlet: 'Scuse me? Winter an impediment to grilling? As long as you can make a clear path to the grill, what's a little sub-freezing weather? Lack of outdoor space--now that's an impediment to grilling. Don't get me wrong--I love my countertop grill. But it's not quite the same thing, and besides, you can't barbecue on it. ← Sandy's right, of course: we should accept no impediments to grilling year-round. But I'll confess to being a wuss about it. My feeble logic? It's too cold to get the proper grilling effects. Do you grill outdoors in the winter? What special things do you do to make it work? And Sandy, we'll expect photos of you flippin' burgers with the snow falling, dude.

This is fascinating! My info: of the 200-ish books I have, the books from which I cook regularly are: Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook Grace Young's Breath of a Wok Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything David Thompson's Thai Food Alford and Duguid's Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet I could add a few others to look like a hotshot, but that's basically it, I think; the rest I pull down for specific dishes or inspiration but don't use regularly.

I've been hemming and hawing about my own Christmas gift this year from my folks (I buy it myself and they pay me back -- don't ask), which I planned to make a small and a large fry pan. After reading Sam's course and the Q&A, I finally gave up my irrational desire to own only All-Clad and started looking around at Sitram. After a Google search, I found this uberbargain: an 11-piece Sitram Profisserie line at Bridge for $162. Gulp. I get an additional 9 pieces over what I was going to get as All-Clad MC2. The order is in; I'll post here about results.

Talk about a random walk around the aisles: at our local Shaw's and Stop n Shop megasupergigamarkets, if you ask where even slightly obscure things are, the staff take you on a nice little tour of the store, saying things like, "Yeah, well, it used to be here, I'm pretty sure... or... maybe aisle 17B...."

Thanks, Susan. So what is the beer host going to be serving with her frosty lagers, eh? I used to live in Milwaukee, and I can tell you what they'd say there....

come on down and ask him about them. one of the fun things about sk is that shola is not secretive at all about techniques or ingredients, and he'll totally tell you how to make them yourself. ← Since I got this anniversary gift, I've been tryin', man, I've been tryin'!!!

OK, now I'm really intrigued, particularly given the topic of the new cook-off. What are farmer's sausages?

... swoon ... "Pickled grapes poached in olive oil." Must... have... more... information....

Well spank my fanny and call me Fergus! Zuke, this looks mighty swell! I'll be following along with my fingers crossed; keeping that schedule's gonna take some doin'! "Prairie soul food," eh? Please say more!

Sorry for the delay, Yetti! Cook-off XVII: Sausages.

Every now and then since December 2004, a good number of us have been getting together at the eGullet Recipe Cook-Off. Click here for the Cook-Off index. For our seventeenth Cook-Off, we're making sausages. Wait! Come back!! I think sausages get a lousy rap. There are many, many bad sausages around, ones that include animal body parts that even Fergus Henderson won't eat, and as a result a lot of folks here probably don't incorporate them into their diet regularly. But they're perfect for a cook-off, and here's why. Your effort is rewarded amply, because you can make a huge batch of sausages in roughly the same amount of time it takes to make a small batch, and most sausages freeze with ease. You don't really need any fancy equipment; indeed, you can make patties instead of links and "grind" the meat with a chef's knife or cleaver. Of course, there are more kinds of sausages than you can shake a link at. If you look at the list below, you'll see that there's a wide variety of pork-based European (and some Chinese) sausages explored in the eGullet Society forums. However, there are many kinds of sausages that aren't made with pork and that come from other cuisines. For example, I'm looking forward to making a new batch of sai oua, Thai sausage, in the next week or two, and I might take a crack at lobster sausages for a new years eve treat. Finally, sausages are one of the world's great foods. The snap of the casing, the flavor of the meat, the aroma of the seasonings, the lovely coating of fat on your tongue... once you start making your own, you'll begin to realize that there really is not limit to what you can make into sausages. Sausage fans should certainly check out Klink's sausage diary, days one, two, three, four, five, and (no typo) twenty four. There's also a great newer thread devoted mainly to cured European sausages here. There are other threads devoted to fat ratios in sausage, fresh Chinese pork sausages, a boudin making, equipment, sweet Italian sausage recipes, Nullo Modo's sausage-making party, and homemade sausage. There's even a previous sausage cook-off in the China forum. Finally, folks are cooking from eGullet's own Michael Ruhlman's new Charcuterie book here. So, all you sausage-phobes out there, remember that the purpose of a cook-off is to try to make something that you've never made before. As far as I can tell, sausage making is a bit precarious, but all the more fun because of that; I stress out about air pockets, while the gang curing their own get to worry about maggots and botulism. It's all part of what makes a cook-off great, though, imposing your anxieties on willing chums, right? Trust me: if you take a crack at making sausages from scratch, you'll never look back. Of course, we then need to discuss dishes in which to use them, so if you'd rather start on the bunny slope using storebought sausages, have at it! Let's get to grindin' and stuffin', folks!

Ba-BUMP. I started thinking about this idea tonight when I pulled Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art off my cookbookshelf to make miso soup and norimaki (yeah, I know, pretty basic stuff, but I had a houseful of kid guests ). I had read a lot in that book but never cooked from it, and I must say it was a wonderful experience. It really is a great book: clear instructions, thoughtful advice, accurate descriptions. Made me realize that there are a lot of books in my collection that I read but from which I don't cook. I'd guess that the percentage is pretty small, only about 10%, and even lower (5%? 3%?) if you only count recipes I follow step-by-step. You?