Chris Amirault

1.25g per four servings of mac & cheese, so....

The white stuff is, indeed, mayo. There are grilled items that you can add, and the chiles are essential; scallions are tough to bite through, though. Also salsas, cheeses.... Sky's the limit.

Hard to swallow that when you're looking at the American barbecue section. So I'm home and have the volumes out. I have already learned about eighteen things I didn't know, and I want to dive back in. So, instead of stringing together a few more raving adjectives, I offer to play the following game with you. Ask me any question you have about savory food: history, fundamentals, techniques, equipment, animals, plants, ingredients, and preparations. I wager that I will be able to answer most, if not all, of those questions simply by referring to this book (using it's remarkable index and cross-referencing). I'm not talking about details of cuisines or dishes here, as it's not that kind of a book; it also doesn't cover pastry and baked goods (though there's a lot about what baking is). But what happens when questions, should you or should you not questions, best techniques, temps, and times questions? All are fair game. Who'll start?

Thanks, Chris. I just ordered my set. I was eyeing that mac & cheese too, but the only reasonable source I could find for the Iota Carrageenan was here. Over $50 with shipping and I don't need a pound. Ideas?

Here's a thought I just had. This is the least elitist cook book I've read in a long time -- particularly relative to the reputation some people think it deserves. Kung pao chicken, barbecue, shrimp cocktail, you name it: Everything is treated the way a course at El Bulli is treated. Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

I believe that the secret is an ungodly amount of bacon fat at a low temperature in which the bacon fat renders and the hot dog cooks, then a finish on a hotter griddle to crisp up the bacon. At least that's what they do at El Guero Canelo in Tucson, where one of the finest hot dogs in the world can be had:

I've got some work to do here, but will be happy to provide both photos and descriptions of the book later today. Feel free to post questions here for me to tackle later. First impressions: remember when you were standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, thinking, "It can't possibly be this... this... BIG"? That.

The eagle has landed: More -- much, much more -- soon.

Had the same reaction here, and not just me but the others, with a low-end 2006 Napa cab. I can't see doing anything else in the future.

I did and got confused. Is it bread or cake or what?

I'm fascinated by this. A sourdough starter? What sort of cake?

So ideally I want a completely fused set of layers?

Ye gods: yes. Scant 1/4 oz.

Sure, people bring some lame cookies or hard candies all the time, but around here, if I want to bring something truly special to the office, I either bring baked goods that my wife made or Allie's donuts, source of the best donuts in RI. You?

I saw nibs at Whole Foods the other day, so I think that they're starting to be carried more broadly.

Here's the permalink to the specific blog entry on yolks. An excerpt:

Cheap and plentiful seafood, including cod, steamers, and lobster.

Croutons are just toasted bread, either in the oven or a pan with fat. So use butter, cut the bread into fine dice, and make a sweet spice mix: viola!

Sweet croutons.

Really. We need photos.

Bump. In a rather shocking development, I found this pan at a second-hand store, perfect condition. Didn't know exactly what it was at first, but I had an inkling.... Got it home, whipped up some eggs with a bit of shoyu and sugar, and took a crack at it: My five-year-old daughter, for whom I regularly make lunch, declared this to be one of the greatest things ever. So, now, I turn to you. What can be added to this tamago -- or is the proper question what cannot? Is the sky the limit?

Two things to report. First, the Buffalo Trace Mash #1 does, indeed, work as a sipper, though your head has to be in the right place. A pale ale to the left helps as well. I found a good cocktail for white dog, from Jim Romdall at Vessel via Paul Harrington's cocktailchronicles.com blog. They urge a more rye-based white dog than I've got, so I went with the potent-but-corny Buffalo Trace: The Bumpass Hound 2 oz rye (Rittenhouse BIB) 1/2 oz white dog (Buffalo Trace Mash #1) 1/4 oz Fernet Branca 1/4 oz simple (I used a scant oz of gum syrup) dash Angostura bitters orange twist, for garnish Stir; strain; up.

As I walked around the preschool where I work today, I found myself wondering what playdough tools I should bring home for this project....

Like anything, precision is a goal for some people with some dishes and not a goal for others with those same dishes. My family likes the pancakes Just. So.

When I made pancakes this weekend, I was struck by the fact that one item wasn't carefully measured by weight or volume: the eggs. Production-scale recipes require that you weigh the eggs in toto, but every consumer recipe I've ever seen just list number of (large) eggs. I grabbed a pack of eggs and took a more careful look. As far as I could tell, the sizes ranged widely (though I didn't grab the scale -- tonight's project). The more I thought, the more I realized that I actually know very little about egg sizes, variability, and when I do and don't use which size. Here's the relevant chart from the US Dept of Agriculture's handbook on egg sizes and grades: See the repeated use of "per dozen"? That significant variability in individual eggs is typical, because the eggs aren't weighed one at a time. (From talking to a couple of egg farmers here, I learned that most small-scale producers have greater size control than the bigger ones, a rare case in which consistency of product increases as scale decreases.) So this all got me thinking about which egg sizes get used for what. When I'm teaching a cocktail class that includes eggs, I head out to a local farm and get a few smalls, but otherwise we only have large eggs in the house. It also got me thinking about what a large deviation of weights "three eggs" must have if you're not careful. Given all the eggheads around here, I'll bet we can figure out a lot more about the weight and size of these little buggers.