abadoozy

It was just water from the tap, neither cold nor warm really. Room temperature. Storing under vacuum is a good idea, but that would require planning ahead, which I'm not very good at!

Thought I'd post this as I was just tickled it worked. The other night I pulled out the celery, only to find it went limp in the fridge. Blech. I've previously re-crisped celery by cutting the end off and leaving it in a glass of water for an hour or so, but I didn't have that amount of time. So rather than using limp celery, I started to think. Hmmm... I wonder if I could use the vacuum sealer to speed up the re-crisping process? I pulled out a shallow tupperware container, filled it with water, and cut the celery in half, to about 4" lengths. Threw them in the water, put the whole bowl in the chamber of the sealer. Let it vacuum for 30 secs or so. It worked WONDERFULLY. I had super-crisp celery in less than a minute. Very cool!

I had the same issue a few weeks ago; a friend gave me a bunch of goose and duck legs, skinned. I confited them using the sous-vide method. They were excellent. The friends were really happy as well - they struggle to find a use for the more gamey ducks, and the confit did the trick.

My husband and I will be in Quebec city for a few days next week. I searched for QC recommendations, but the only threads I found were several years old. Anyone know the latest on the restaurant scene there? I'd like to find a few decent bistro type places, and we're thinking of doing at least one splurge night if there's someplace worth it. And any cool hole-in-the-walls or whatever would be good, too. Really, I'm just looking for great food. Anyone?

I put them in chef's salads. In fact, I don't make chef's salads if we're out of pickled beets, because they add so much to the whole thing. Love them! They're best when made from fresh beets, but my mother, who has pretty bad arthritis in her hands, and thus doesn't want to spend too much time peeling & cooking beets, makes them from canned beets. They're almost as good, I think, and I do it in a pinch as well when I'm craving them and don't have the time to roast and peel and slice and then clean up all the red beet juice that's all over my hands, clothing, and kitchen.

After somewhere between 33 & 34 hours in the sous-vide at 149, it was heavenly. Incredibly tender & flavorful. When sliced thin it was almost buttery. This was an odd-shaped chunk a little less than 2#, pretty thick at one end but thin on the other. I'll probably do the rest of them sous-vide, playing a bit with the seasoning. For this first experiment I went pretty basic - salt/pepper/a little garlic. judiu: I do a similar dish with kielbasa. Never though of trying it with something other than sausage. I'll keep that in mind! I actually have a bunch of homemade sauerkraut in the freezer that I need to use up.

Update: Wednesday's pork ended up being a pork/bean/chipotle stew. I had some smokey chicken stock (which is what you get when you make stock out of smoked chicken carcassess that you got from your friend's BBQ restaurant) I used in it, and it turned out pretty good. The pork itself, though, was tough. I only sous-vided it for 4-5 hours, so I wasn't surprised. Good flavor, and I chopped it up small enough that the toughness wasn't an issue. I took the second half of the chunk I had thawed - about 1 3/4 pounds - and stuck it in the sous-vider at 149. We'll probably have it tonight, after it's been in for somewhere between 32-36 hours. Crossing my fingers that it comes out at least reasonable tender, because I have 2 or 3 more of these cuts in the freezer.

All good ideas, though the BBQ/smoker is under 2' of snow (will it ever end?) and I currently have pounds and pounds of scrap waiting to be made into sausage or burger. I'm looking for things to do with the whole roast, or stews/soups. I wanted to get it cooking, so for now, I cut half of what I thawed into cubes, browned 'em, and threw 'em in the sous-vider at 145 to finish off. I want to use it with beans, but was worried it would dry out if I cooked it for too long, so that was the solution. I have pintos and bacon and garlic cooking up right now. Not sure what I'm going to do with it all, other than make something with the pork chunks and the beans. I'm leaning towards something Mexican-ish since the only dried beans I had in the house were pintos. Had they been white beans, I'd be going for something cassoulet-ish.I I'll let everyone know how it turned out, and would still very much be interested in other people's takes on this not-very-common cut.

Any updates on this? I, too, ended up with several 4-5# chunks of fresh ham from the half pig I bought this year. From what I gather, it's more like loin than shoulder - lean, not fatty. I took one out and am thawing it now, not sure what I'm going to do with it. Probably not sous-vide because I want to have it tonight, but would like to know if anyone got the sous-vide version to work because I might try it in the future. Otherwise, I'm thinking of cooking it more like a loin, or even doing a bastardized cassoulet (cut it into chunks, cook with beans and maybe some sausage.) Any other suggestions? Like the OP's cut, it's about 3" thick, 4# total, I don't think it has a bone but it's still frozen solid so I can't really tell.

Once again, small town. There's no beer-brewing place, either. My husband brews; he ships his materials in. I'm leaning towards trying honey. Anyone think that would be a total disaster?

I'm thinking of making the "Chinese Turkey" recipe in the latest Lucky Peach, which is subtitled as Momofuku SSam Bar's rotisserie duck. Not going to do it for Thanksgiving, because that would give my poor parents a heart attack, but maybe sometime before Christmas. The recipe calls for 2 cups of maltose for the glaze. There are no Asian grocers anywhere near me, nor can I find it on Amazon (where I can count on free or cheap shipping). I did a little googling, and some sites say that it's a very neutral sweet flavor, and honey or corn syrup can be substituted with very little difference. True? I'll find it online and ship it in if it's truly required, but I'm guessing it'd cost me at least $10-$15 by the time I pay shipping, so if it's true that I can substitute something more easily aquired, I'll do that. But I'd like to hear from someone with more experience - am I going to end up with something vastly different if I substitute?

In anticipation of the holiday cooking season, I'm looking for some mini tart pans. I have a set similar to these, only the bottom is 3", across the top it's just under 4" - more appetizer sized, definitely needs a plate and a fork to eat. I want to make smaller tarts - just one or two bites, something easy to pick up and eat without a plate or a fork. I'm coming across tons of options! Non-stick pans, silicone pans, individual molds (but none that I can find that are both small and have removeable bottoms.) Can someone recommend first, a good size? 1.5" - 2" across the bottom is what I'm thinking, but ideally they would be one big bite or two normal-sized bites. Second, any opinions on pans versus individual molds versus non-stick versus removeable bottoms versus silicon would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for all the replies! I'm not going to juice them because I don't really drink juice or cider. Not that I don't like them - especially cider - but it's just not a big part of my diet. Applesauce: Yeah, probably could do that. But when my choice is applesauce from the local Honeycrisps which make excellent applesauce with next to no additions, or applesauce from my flavorless apples, I'm going for the Honeycrisps. Gratfing: now there's an idea! I have no idea how to go about finding someone to do that, though. I guess I'll start looking. Thanks!

Red delicious, sorry. Yes, I like the Goldens better as well - they have some tartness to them. These are not very tart at all.

The previous owner of my house planted a Delicious Apple tree in the front yard. Over the past few years, it's matured, and I've had a bumper crop of Delicious apples every fall. This year looks like it may turn out to be the biggest ever. Every time I look at that tree, I get mad. Who in their right mind plants a DELICIOUS APPLE tree?!? Those apples are absolutely not delicious. Now, granted, the ones off the tree are better than the ones you buy in the store, but they're still watery, bland, thick-skinned, and coarse-textured. I usually pick one every fall, take a bite, throw it away and curse whoever planted that tree. It'd be one thing if it was just a pretty ornamental tree that never produced. But having it be so bountiful in my yard - the yard that refuses to cough up decent tomatoes or basil or anything else I like - just pisses me off. OK, rant done. <whew> that made me feel better. Back to the original question: Is there anything I can do with these awful fruits beyond letting the deer eat them?