Andy Lynes x

Yvonne, thats really interesting about the water temperature thing. I think I heard it on the TV somewhere, tried it out and noticed that if you add some salt to hot water just below boiling point, it appears to immeadiately start boiling, which I thought indicated that the salt allows the water to come to a boil at a lower temperature. In fact it appears to heat the water up and boil at a higher temperature, which will cook the potatos more quickly. What the article you linked to doesn't tell us is what the difference is to adding salt to cold water. Will it reach the higher temperature more quickly and therefore have the adverse effect that I pointed out of not cooking the inside of the potato through and the outside breaking up? Perhaps i should try a little experiment of my own. (Edited by Andy Lynes at 3:25 pm on Aug. 1, 2001) ----- Andy Lynes www.alynes.freeserve.co.uk eGullet.com Community Coordinator UK

I personally have a very crappy domestic oven with an electric oven and gas hob, but I manage OK. I did meet a cookery book dealer who was very keen to show off her genuine professional range, but had to admit that it was a real pain to clean, produced an awful lot of heat and required professional standard ventilation which really annoyed her neighbours. I suppose it's a matter of what you need a professional range in a domestic setting for and are the pluses worth the minuses. ----- The Food Store www.alynes.freeserve.co.uk

Yvonne, my only quibble would be to not add the salt until after the water has come to the boil. Salt lowers the boiling point of water and you therefore might risk the potatos breaking up on the outside and not cooking through on the inside. This holds true for all veg cooking by the way, especially green veg, where you want to cook quickly at a high temperature. Also, I always return the drain potatos to the stove to dry out a little before mashing. if you follow M Robuchon, cold butter is beaten in first, followed by warm cream. ----- The Food Store www.alynes.freeserve.co.uk

I have just attended an introduction to wine course and they said exactly as above but not so eloquently or in so much detail. What they did say was that, if you don't own a decanter, you can simply pour the wine into any old jug, in order for it to come into contact with the air clean out the bottle to get rid of sediment and return the wine to it for serving. I suppose you wouldn't want to do that for the very best stuff, but the point was that the decanter is a purely functional thing and does not in itself affect the wine. ----- Andy Lynes www.alynes.freeserve.co.uk eGullet.com Community Coordinator UK

Have you read this story about the biggest restaurant drinks bill in history (allegedly). It was run up at Gordon Ramsays Petrus restaurant in St James in London. The party of 6 were drinking Chateau Petrus 45,46,and 47. I was talking to a local wine merchant who doubted that they would even have enjoyed the bottles that much, at that age they would be very delicate specimens with very little fruit left. Apparently the 46 is an oddity from a bad vintage only of interest to real Petrus fanatics. Has anyone tried these wines or similar? You can read the article at http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=84075 ----- Andy Lynes www.alynes.freeserve.co.uk eGullet.com Community Coordinator UK