Chris Amirault

Over in my foodblog, I posted a quick and dirty recipe for baby bok choy with garlic that is the result of a lot of experimenting to find the secret to that same dish at our local Hong Kong haunt. (Click here for that.) The magic ingredient? Schmaltz, a.k.a. rendered chicken fat, in which I slowly fry the garlic before adding the bok choy. This is what heaven tastes like. I want -- no, I need -- to know more about schmaltz. Growing up goy, I didn't eat much Jewish food, so I don't really know about how schmaltz functioned at tables and in recipes. (I do know that, back in the day, Katz's Deli on the lower east side in NYC had condiment bottles of schmaltz on the table -- and did they cook their fries in it, or is that "land of milk and honey" apocrypha?) What did and do people use schmaltz for? Folks who work in kitchens: are there secret schmaltz shots in dishes that would surprise the unsuspecting diner?

Maggie, you just gotta go with it.... Here's my favorite shot from my own blog, the filth of which I didn't recognize until I had posted it. Let they who live without sin cast the first dolsot!

What do you make that in/with, Percy?

I'd be most tempted to use bone in country-style ribs (boned, cubed, but bones added to chili to be fished out later) or a nice butt than tenderloin. But, what do I know? ← Yeah, that's why I asked. If it was a pretty quick chili, then I think tenderloin might work ok. But butt or shoulder if it's going to cook for a while.

How long did you cook the tenderloin, Daniel?

Uncle!

Ka-BUMP. I'm starting to stress out about Thanksgiving. I've scuttled my plans to replicate Sam Kinsey's mind-bending, awe-inspiring feast documented astonishingly in his foodblog. (Truth be told, I've scuttled those plans permanently, but it's nice to dream, isn't it?) This year, I'm not just limited by the usual limitations (kitchen, mediocre skill and imagination, money... the list goes on). Because of a family matter, we're not going to be able to have Thanksgiving on, well, Thanksgiving. Instead, we're going to have it on Sat, 11/19. We've already ordered a free-range turkey from Ekonk Farms in Exeter RI (click and scroll down the alphabetical list), which I'll get the Th before to brine prior to the roast, and family insistence requires me to prepare the bird using this recipe from Gourmet a few years back. Finally, I'm working the entire week before, including a Fri early evening conference call (damned Californians!). Basically, this means that I'll have to prepare most of the meal on Saturday. I think that my partner Andrea will be handling baking, but I'd like to try to think about some possibilities for interesting sides to go along with the more typical bird. Everything has to be prepped, cooked, and served on Saturday. Ideas? Commisseration?

Mais oui! And the onion of the gibson! Excellent point!

Actually, this is not "plain wrong" but a matter of debate. Click here for the discussion in this thread about it, in which Linda (Fifi) and I go back and forth. For the record, adding small amounts of hot stock to a hot roux has never changed the texture of my many, many gumbos to grainy! I am not alone in this belief: Here's one recipe: More support here, here, and here. Edited to add support to my cockamamie hot stock belief -- ca

Why not just No. 9? Or "The Original No. 9"? Has a bit of mystery. People will know it's food and not widgets, believe me!

I don't know why I have such a blister on my ass about advocating for cubed chuck, but here's chapter 14: I've never tried chili made with cubed meat; I generally like the thicker consistency I can get using ground beef. I may experiment sometime in the future. ← What I've found is that cubed meat braised for a good long time reaches that point where it's both succulent and shredding into chunky strands that are more like well-pounded meat than meat that's been ground into small bits. I don't know why it is (McGee handy for anyone?), but ground beef never seems to get to that stage. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Or am I spinning in some strange, red universe in my mind?

This is one of my favorite drinks: There are chunks of coconut in it.

Linda, when you cube the beef, how big are the cubes? I tend to make them 1 1/2-2 inches, pretty big.

Just to state an obvious tip, get to know the owners and ask. Many small businesses are very happy to cultivate relationships with individuals, and thus would be more than willing to order special items or add those items to their stocks. In my area, a lot of shop owners also import or work closely with importers (mainly in NYC); I'd imagine that's true in Sacramento, too.

Call me a cynic, but this sounds like law-suit avoidance first, PR spin for shareholders second, and a change in corporate policy dead (insert joke) last. Didn't someone post something about the markets McD's targets having names like "super-repeat mega-eaters," people who eat there 7-10 times per week? There's the future of the company, and they ain't worried about whether that tomato slice is heirloom, folks....

That site is fantastic, Linda! Among the many things I didn't know about chili was this: Seems like chili has real parallels to the great dishes of French provincial cooking (especially daubes), Moroccan tagines, and other one-pot braised meals. Necessity, invention, all that stuff.

Milagai et al: let's get those recipes into RecipeGullet! They sound great -- even if they are crimes against nature.... See, I use 100% cubed chuck, period. I can't quite imagine using anything else, actually, as chili to me means, well, 100% cubed chuck, sautéed, seasoned, and braised for a good long while. Then, you start trying little chunks, and they go from chewy, to chewy, to chewy, to chewy, to chewy, to magical, red ambrosia....

Good mornin', Maggie, and welcome to the world of foodblogs! As someone who recently got started in this strange business, I wish you luck, a significant stash of camera batteries, and a great crowd. Can't wait to see the markets. What sorts of Polish food do you cook and eat?

The references to the Jiffy boxes make me want to give a shout out to andiesenji's great cornbread thread.

I usually use ground beef... what part of the cow is chuck again? Didn't we have this conversation before?? I have a really bad memory. ← In the fore-shoulder, neck, and blade region: click here for a diagram and article.

Cook-off XV: Chili.

Kristin, can you get decent chuck over there? The transformation beef makes in chili is one of cooking's most magical things to me....

I want them on my team!

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 fifteenth Cook-Off, we're making chili. I'll admit that most cook-off dishes are inspired by compelling tales from eGulleteers, or particularly memorable dishes, or somesuch. This time around, it was the What is wrong with this chili thread that did it. In that thread lurks a recipe so utterly defiling that it forced me to do a cook-off to erase the Frankenchili from memory. Click, ye who dare. But chili seems a good cook-off dish for a lot of reasons. There's lots of secret tricks (peanut butter, cinnamon, baby arugula and fig jam ) to share; cuts of meat must be discussed; the great bean debate can be commenced, as can those devoted to rice, cheese, onions, sour cream, chocolate chips (I'm not kidding), and other toppings. Who knows: someone might actually post a vegetarian chili and risk ridicule from a Lone Star Stater! Finally and as always, the eGullet Society is boiling over with experts ready to share ideas and recipes for this dish. Start by clicking here,here,here,and here.We've also got RecipeGullet recipes here,here,here,here (purists beware),here (ditto),and here (double ditto). You got a beef about how chili must be made? Let's hear it! Get out the dutch ovens and crock pots, people! And if anyone wants to take a crack at the Frankenchili, we're all dying to know!

Well, all that kneading, the two rises -- it's complicated!