Kevin Weeks

I make a rhubarb mousse that's mighty good: http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2006/03/rhubarb-mousse.html

Tracie, Calhouns isn't very good, IMO. I'll check out Spooky's (there's a new location near me) and get back to you. Kevin

Chris, Though I live in Knoxville, I don't get up that way much and hadn't eaten there before so I drove up today and checked it out. I got the pulled pork and it was good enough -- though what I had didn't have much bark in it. But the Q itself was no better than Buddy's (Buddy's is a local chain and really does pit smoke it's Q, but not every store has it's own smoker). The sauce was quite good, and better than Buddy's. Kevin

I've never had marzipan on a fruitcake and I can say with certainty that it was the fruit in the fruitcake that no one liked. As far as booze, if you add so much it gets soggy then you're going to have a soggy cake. Seems pretty irrefutable. If you add less booze it doesn't get soggy because the booze evaporates as time goes by leaving behind the flavor behind.

Amccomb, Every Thanksgiving my father would make Fruitcake (which no one particularly liked except him) and my mother would make Bourbon Cake (which everyone loved). The Bourbon Cake matures at about six weeks and though it will keep longer (if you keep dousing it) it doesn't get significantly better. Here's the Bourbon Cake recipe: http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2003/12/bourbon-cake.html

It seems as though that would develop the glutin and produce a tough pastry.

Scooter, You've conflated a couple of messages. I've never smoked anything longer than 10 hours. My comment was about being old school was an objection to using rubs that are mostly sugar.

I can't speak for others, but I'm not trying to win contests, just make good Q. If I want it sweeter I'll add sugar to the sauce. And if that makes me "old school" I ain't bothered one little bit.

Southerners can't spell any better than Yankees.

I've been meaning to post this on my blog for awhile: http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2005/07/cornish-pastie.html

Cereal. It's about the only time I eat it.

This was amazingly good: http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2005/06/sherry-vinegar.html

I concur. I avoid sugar in rubs.

How about Chocolate Bladder Blaster -- dessert you can depend on.

Congratulations! And Chik-Fil-A isn't bad for junk food. As for the peaches, perhaps it's because they ship the Georgia peaches to the Kroger up here.

How easy is it?

It's always something. And on the subject, this is a particularly good bread pudding: http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2005/04/bread-pudding.html

Diva, I remember reading somewhere that McD used tallow as a flavoring in vegetable oil. BTW, According to Jeffrey Steingarten, horse tallow makes the best fries. It's a bit hard to find in this country, though. The only fat I don't have in my freezer just now is goose -- I haven't cooked one since my last move -- and beef, which it's just never occurred to me to keep. Go figure!<g> Kevin

Logically, properly rendered beef tallow should last as long as any other rendered saturated fat -- whether butter, goose, pork, chicken, duck, bacon... ← I just looked up fat and rancidity in On Food and Cooking and beef fat is the most saturated and so most stable of animal fats. In short, it will keep better and longer than anything else. Kevin

Scott, Logically, properly rendered beef tallow should last as long as any other rendered saturated fat -- whether butter, goose, pork, chicken, duck, bacon... Kevin

The Sweet Potato Queens Kevin

An update on this post, I'd been working on a post to my blog on the subject when it came up. The post is now available. http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2005/06/panini.html

A grill pan can't really make up for a charcoal grill. But that said, I have a Lodge pan that does a good job. I use it for steaks and chops, but primarily for pannini -- which I think it does an excellent job on. The thermal inertia of the cast iron means when it gets hot it stays hot, and once the surface is well seasoned it's as good as teflon.

As a rule I agree with you, even when simply cooking at home. Also, homemade mayo is only at it's best for a week at most. So unless you have something particular in mind that will use it up in that time it's not worth it. Nevertheless, I think flavored mayos -- even though they can be made with commercial stuff -- are better when made from scratch. So I make mayo perhaps three times a year. Kevin

No need. As I said, McGee performed the experiment: "The figure I came up with for that same ordinary yolk was on the order of 100 cups. Something more than 6 gallons of oil! Of course I didn't just add the oil straight, gallon by gallon; that would have been a waste of oil and work. After adding a certain amount of inexpensive soy bean oil, I took a small portion -- around a teaspoon -- of the mixture and then added more oil to just that portion. I repeated this subdivision several more times, periodically adding water to prevent the emulsion from breaking solely on account of crowding. When all the additions and multiplications were done (if a portion containing one-tenth of the yolk absorbs 1 tablespoon of oil, then the whole yolk would have absorbed 10) that astonishing figure emerged: 1 yolk, 100 cups of oil. It seemed impossible, so I did the whole experiment again from scratch. There were some differences, but the result was of the same order of magnitude. There can be no doubt that the egg yolk is a prodigious emulsifier." -- The Curious Cook, Harold McGee, pg 118.