Chris Amirault

The real killer is the 1l Carpano Antica Formula bottle....

How did you smoke the tomatoes? Sliced and smoked? Hot or cold smoke?

A third vote for the fresh ginger cake, which we made last night. Gotta make sure you finely mince that ginger, but... oh man.

Here's one way to approach the question that avoids the red herrings, echoing the 1980 Reagan question: "Are you better off now than you were X years ago?" There's no doubt that I am, whether that number is 5, 10, or 20. (Maintaining geography and income, roughly, of course.)

Tasting is a great tactic, and the guessing game of ingredient and taste is fascinating to my five year old. Umami blows her mind.

I buy 375 ml bottles of vermouth as a matter of course, for exactly the reasons you give: it goes bad after a while, and I rarely make my way through 750 ml in time.

I just got Society member David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert out from the library. I know that he's a big favorite here in the P&B forum, especially for his Perfect Scoop book (topic here). However, there's no topic for this 2010 book, a new edition of many of the recipes from his first two, out-of-print books, Room for Dessert and Ripe for Dessert. I'm eager to see what people have done with it, as it looks fantastic. Has anyone tried any of recipes in the book? If you have a favorite from Room or Ripe, what is it?

Can't believe I missed this one the first time through. I always have pickled beets in the fridge, and I usually have red onions pickled with lime, salt, and water as a simple Mexican condiment.

Made this Sherry Netherlands by Philip Duff over in the genever topic tonight with slight changes: 1 1/2 oz Genevieve 1 1/2 oz Lustau PX 1/2 oz Señor Curaçao de Curaçao dash Regan's orange bitters dash Fee's orange bitters Stir; strain. I didn't shake, nor did I muddle raisins or garnish with them; it's so aromatic I don't think it needs any garnish at all. It's delicious, though next time I might cut back on the PX a bit to allow the Genevieve a little bit more room.

I'm not really worried about whether they like or want to cook. I'm mainly approaching it the same way I would any life skill like driving or balancing a check book.

Please keep posting, Lilija! I can see we're both trying to crack these tough nuts. Agree on the failures of (1) instant lecture or (2) asking to do things ad hoc. It has to be framed within a routinized set of expectations, at least around here. I think that's really, really smart. I have tried the "you make it" approach and it works for rudiments like heating soup. But poached eggs and French toast... that's impressive! What sorts of things does he like to choose to make? That when my wife says, "Where do you think she got that from?"

I think that growing up around a restaurant, or apprenticing at an early age, teaches how just how brutal, unforgiving, and insane the world of restaurants is. Guys like Achatz and Pepin clearly went into the game with eyes wide open. As for me, I grew up in a New England Yankee household where things tended to come from boxes and cans, and most previously living things were cooked well done. I learned broccoli was bright green in college. I conclude nothing from this. I think about the kids, families, and food question a lot, though, and this topic prompted me to start another one on a related subject here.

I have two kids. This is my 13 year old daughter, Lulu: I also have a kindergartener named Bebe: As a bartender, food writer, and eG Forums director, I get asked a lot about how I approach food and drink with my kids. For the most part, it's pretty straightforward: we talk about ingredients, flavors, and methods informally; I encourage them to try things but never force them to eat something they don't want; if they turn up their nose at dinner, well, I shrug my shoulders and they go to bed hungry. Basic stuff like that. They probably have a broader food vocabulary than any of their peers, and they've certainly tried a wider range of foods and drink than most. But I've never tried to turn them into "foodies," whatever that means. I feel like girls in the US have enough going on with food and bodies, and they don't need their dad hectoring them about consumption. In addition, I am a firm believer in the "you rebel against whatever your parents force you to be" principle. Whenever I have the desire to coerce Lulu into a fun day of sausage-making, I think about how June and Ward Cleaver provoking the entire hippie movement and back off. So I've never really pushed them to learn how to cook. But now, thanks to the explosion in marketing directed at young girls and their interest, particularly, in consumer electronics, I have a new tool at my disposal: allowance. Each week, for a small sum, Lulu serves as my sous chef. This enables me to get a hand on weekly meal prep -- she usually helps on Saturdays -- and to hand off dishes to someone else. But it also affords me a relatively non-dysfunctional way to teach some basic lessons in food and drink preparation. The way I see it, she doesn't have to like Regent's Punch to enjoy (well, a little) and learn from the experience of making it. Given that she's going to be feeding at least one person for the rest of her life, knowing how eggs work, what browning is all about, and how to curl her fingertips under a knife's edge are all skills she can use whatever interest in food she does or doesn't have as an adult. Meanwhile, her sister is fully into her "do whatever Lulu does" phase, so perhaps a few things might rub off on her. I thought I'd use this topic as a way to share how we're approaching this as a family. Today, for example, we are making a bastardized Bolognese sugo and some egg noodles. This gave us a chance to talk about a few important cooking principles: what "translucent" means when cooking small dice onion and celery why tomato sauce tastes "raw" -- and why it tastes harmonious when cooked what the boiling point of water is and why it's important in cooking using rinds (pancetta and Parmigiano Reggiano) to add flavor The sugo is in a 250F oven and we're about to get the pasta dough going, so I won't write more now. I'd love to hear how other parents have approached this, and, as I continue with this experiment, I'll add updates here.

Picking up my jaw from the floor after that DeCosti photo tour. Crickey. As Pierogi said, we have nothing remotely comparable to that here in "the Ocean State," nor are there any comparable places north or south of here. Who shops there? All year round? Crickey. Meanwhile: twice-cooked ravioli means what? Beautiful food as always, Nick.

Checking out the bacon post in Nick Reynold's great foodblog, I realized that I've been using SV to finish bacon after smoking: just pop it in a bag and heat through to 65C, then ice it down and put it in the fridge for later slicing -- or freeze it as one piece.

Absolutely! If you go to this Eggs & Dairy post in the SV Index, you'll see several links, including one to my adventures with an ice cream base here (fail) and here (success) for a Paula Wolfert recipe.

ElsieD, we're living strangely mirrored existences: I got home with my bottle of Hunt's and the Crispy Crowns and discovered that we have no straight-up Heinz! Gotta get that for a comparison. I will say that I preferred, much to my surprise, the Hunt's to the Heinz organic we had. Not a blind comparison, mind you, but still....

Lots of home cooks (and restaurant chefs I know) do what percyn is suggesting all the time.

You probably know this, but in case you don't: be sure you get clear guidance on which miso you're using. Some are straight miso paste, some have other ingredients in them for convenience.

I'd also suggest using a lot more fat as a cooking medium. One thing I remembered as I prepared the cod was that I really, really hate the smell of the cooked skin. I don't know what happens to it, but, man oh man, that's a familiar stink from way back when, and, iirc, my forebears didn't remove it when they prepared things. Yuck.

I'd love that NOMA book, too.... Two for me, and they're very different: Diana Kennedy's Oaxaca al Gusto and Grant Achatz's Alinea cookbook. Ingredient access for Kennedy; time, equipment, ingredients, and a willing audience for Alinea.

Excellent. Looking forward to your report. I wonder why they think you North of the Border types want extra calories. What're you gonna test 'em with?

I took the Heinz vs Hunt's battle over here.

Finally, after years of trying and failing to attend the Heartland Gathering, I've blocked out August 4-7 for the event. I won't be able to be there for a Sunday night dinner, probably, but could possibly arrive early to help with whatever needs helping. Just me right now, though I may have a kid or two along.

Definitely agree about the schmaltz. You probably could gather a bunch of good fat cheap from whole birds if you ask your butcher nicely.