Dave Hatfield

Thanks for the clarification and information. These sound great, but... Being old (fashioned) think I'll stick to my classic model which does everything. Besides, I'm not sure where I'd find Kyocera products here in France. Maybe next trip to the states.

I used smoked rind, from some bacon I smoked a while back, for Christmas dinner. I'm not sure it's authentic, but the flavor was nice, not overwhelmingly smoky, just a nice background. ← Think that either will do. I'd lean towards fresh, but only because I'm not sure what the smoky flavour would do to a casoulette. I agree. Only question whether to salad before? Or after? casoulette. Think I'll do after as I've been talked into a Grand Mariner soufflé for dessert. Some people are just gluttonous!

Chris - It is indeed a beautiful thing. No 'seasoning' needed. Just use it as is. Funny how things happen. As it turns out Linda & I are going down to Castelnaudry tomorrow to buy a Cassole. Its only about 2 hours away & besides Linda wants to stop at the Ikea in Toulouse which is on the way. My excuse is that I'm cooking casoulette for 15 this Saturday lunch time. My faithful old green pot, big though it is, isn't large enough to cater for 15. Thus I have a good excuse to buy a cassole. Since I'm buying one I may as well go to the ancestral home thereof and get the real thing. I'll now also be able to run an 'experiment' to see if there is a difference between the casoulette cooked in old faithful vs. the new cassole. I'll try to take some pictures for posting. I want to do a pictorial version of my casoulette recipe anyway.

Great suggestions all, but..... The stuffing's only half the equation. How about appropriate sauces to go with each type of ravioli? For example: How about ravioli stuffed with forcemeat & sage with a Turkey stock, cream & mild cheddar cheese sauce.

Don't dispense with the pork rind. Can you find pork hocks with the skin on? Or can you find a helpful butcher? Salt pork prepared as you outline will wok in a pinch. What you are looking for is something to add a certain glutinous quality to your casoulette. Pork rind does that. A bit of extra duck fat will help as will a little walnut oil added near the end. Good luck! I'm doing one just before New Year. For some variations on your recipe you can look at the one I posted earlier on this thread or on my blog below. Haven't done it pictorially yet, but plan to with the upcoming casoulette.

Do they also do julienne & crinkle cuts? Or do you have to buy more than one to get all of the cuts & infinitely variable thickness's?

Do it do it....break down already and get a digital! Why would I care? Well duh - I am dying to SEE all of your heavenly cheeses. I already enjoy reading about your experiences and uncovering your advice...pictures would be an additional benefit of having you're contributions! I've gotta say...you and Dave sure do know your cheeses~! ← LindsayAnn thanks for the kind words. I'm with you. Garotin, get a digital camera - soon. We'd all like to see pictures of the glorious cheeses you tell us about. The camera need not be a fancy one. I find that our little point & shoot works nearly as well as the fancy SLR. Lighting is the crucial part. You may notice that I take almost all of my cheese pictures in the same place. Its near a large window with good oblique light from behind me as I take the picture. So; SEE you soon!

If for casoulette then I always used Great Northern beans when we lived in the states. They worked well. If I didn't think customs would confiscate them I'd offer to ship some Lingots over. They're common here & I use them in my casoulettes as that's what the locals use.

Well, this is true, but on this Eve (the first of two revillions) we can all wish each other a Merry Christmas Eve meal and even a Merry Christmas meal, non?And I too, wanna know about deconstructing a turkey; I assume, before, not after, it's cooked. ← No originality claimed; I first saw the recipe in a Julia Child book. It works well though, I've been doing it this way for years. 1) Take the legs & thighs off the carcass at the thigh joint. 2) Chop out the backbone using a meat cleaver. 3) Bone the leg/ thighs. Turkey is now deconstructed. You put fresh sage + S&P into the leg/thighs & sew them up. Place in a roasting tin. (Note: don't worry about the leg tendons these will pull out easily AFTER roasting.) They only take about an hour or a bit more of roasting. For the main part of the bird cut off the wing tips then tie the wings close to the body. Season the outside (I just use some butter + S&P) You can place your stuffing(s) under the body & under the neck flap. Roast the body, breast side up, for about 3-4 hours depending upon size. The beauty of this method is that both parts cook for the appropriate amount of time so can be cooked to perfection. You can even do a 4 legged turkey if you have lots of dark meat lovers. Make gravy in the usual way. PS: you can deconstruct a day or so in advance then use the neck, backbone, thigh/leg bones for making your stock. Its then ready on the day. Too late for Christmas, but in time for New Year's.

I wanted to wish all eGulleteers a Merry Christmas, but didn't reckon I'd get away with as its not exactly food related. So, here's the food related part. The Christmas lunch we're having with friends: Various amuses Caesar Salad Roast de-constructed turkey with 2 stuffing's (forcemeat & apple) Roasted potatoes roasted sweet potatoes Carrots with orange & lemon Roasted parsnips with parmigiana drizzled with goose fat. Turkey gravy Cheese platter (Mont D'or, cabecou (s), herb crusted chevre , brabise & blue de causses) English Christmas pudding with hot custard. We may drink some wine. That's the food part. so in parting. Merry Christmas everyone.

But he had 2 egg yolks... Bud ← Quite agree with both of you. I think sequence is important if not critical in forming emulsions. Thus the late anchovies don't cause a break. And, yes, I had a strong emulsifier in the egg yolks. Made life much easier. My theories anyway.

If I did it right there's a link to today's NY Times article on visiting Paris here. My question to all of the knowledgeable Parisians who hang out around here is did they get it right? Given the time they had to spend would you have chosen the places to eat that they did? This lad from the boon docks looks forward to your answers.

Where's the emulsifier in that lot? Sounds like you were half way to a Caesar salad dressing. In fact last night I did make a Caesar salad & the dressing emulsified with no problem. 2 egg yolks + lemon juice + dry mustard + Worcestershire sauce + Pinch salt + Pepper. Whiz in food processor. Dribble in olive oil voilà mayonnaise. add garlic- add anchovies - add parmigiana. Still nicely emulsified. In fact the cheese seemed to thicken it ever more. Now have a nice Caesar salad dressing. Later, since I'd made too much I tried a totally unscientific experiment. First I added at least two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce - slowly. It still held. Next I started adding more anchovies - one fillet at a time (these were salt & oil packed). It still held. Give up after five fillets. By now the dressing was inedible, BUT it was still an emulsion. GO figure? Don't know that I've really added anything useful to the discussion, but I can say that before experimentation it was a really nice way to make a Caesar salad dressing. It tasted great & coated the lettuce very nicely.

My mouth is watering! Some great cheese platters above. Guess I'll have to shop at the market tomorrow & see what I can find. I did find this this the other day in the supermarket. As you can see its called Langres & comes from the Champagne region. Cows milk AOC & has been made for the last 200 years. Very nice tangy flavour. I've read that you can put champagne into the depression on top & let it soak in. Sounds festive to me. Any Excuse! Finally, a question for everyone to ponder over Christmas. In what sequence will you, ideally, eat the cheeses you have on your Christmas cheese platter.

Blue Wensleydale - Turns out that this is a very old cheese dating back to the 1300 hundreds & made by monks who emigrated from the Roquefort region of France. It nearly went out of production in favour of white Wensleydale until recently. Wonderful flavour, nutty smooth & very creamy. Not nearly as sharp as Roquefort. The above is from a post I did earlier this year after our return from England. Not sure who made the cheese, but I bought it at the Mousetrap Cheese shop in Ludlow. See wikipedia for nice write up on the history. Thanks for the info on the menange. Prices shouldn't go up that much. The dollar has only depreciated by about 3-4% since this summer. Against the Euro that it; its worse against the pound.

Lots to talk about today. Linsayann & Shar, I'm glad you're both really into this whole cheese thing. I'm really enjoying your posts. L, were those beautiful apples $3 per apple/ per pound or per kilogram? Three bucks a pound sounds pretty expensive. The cheeses look great. What exactly is the "fromage a trois"? I know what the literal translation is, but what kind of cheese is it? Sounds vaguely erotic. Gariotin; No apologies to Rupert necessary.After all we mistook you for a boy, how bad am I? Roop would love to meet (read chase) your cats, he'd mean no harm, but he is pretty excitable. Yes, Roquefort is a pretty small village, but the caves are extensive. I have to admit that it isn't my favourite blue cheese. In general its too salty & sharp for my taste. I prefer blues like; Blue de Causses, Blue de Brebis, St Augur, Forme d'Albert & so forth. Perhaps my favourite is Roquefort's cow milk cousin Stilton. I was also very taken by the Wensleydale Blue I had this fall; I understand that its the same bacterium as Roquefort, but its a milder cheese. You X-mas plate sounds pretty good to me. Don't know what we're having as we are going up to our friends for Christmas dinner. Hope to get into the Victor Hugo market in Toulouse tomorrow on our way to buy some wonderful Madiran wine direct from the producer. If we make I will for sure pick up some interesting cheeses.

Maybe not. Look at this link. Or this one. Still, the proof is in the tasting. Sorry, I misconstrued your attitude towards Auchan. Happy Holidays

Why not? They have buying power & use it. You benefit from that plus their willingness to take low margins. One can argue the 'morality', but the economics are irresistible. I've always found that the hypermarkets provide great value. Not always the best quality, but the best bang for the Euro to coin a phrase. Go for it! PS: As a joke I recently bought an 83 centime bottle of Corbiers at LeClerc. I gave a glass of it to our friend Rob & to my wife. Guess what? It was blinking marvellous for that price. We were gob smacked to coin another phrase.

You're right, Rouergue is indeed Roquefort country. We're just on the Western edge; the border between us & Quercy is Le Bonnette a stream about 5 km away. In addition to Roquefort the area is famous for other cheeses (tomme, Cabecou for example) and veal. It's the area Jeanne Strang is based in & wrote about in "Goose Fat & Garlic". Depopulated because the farms just aren't economic any more if they use much labour. For example, Pech Bernu a hamlet near us had a population of about 160 people in 1950. There are now 14 full time residents plus an equal number of part timers. So, no work no people. Its a beautiful area, but virtually no industry and few jobs. Thus there are quite a number of retirees like us who have bought & renovated old farmhouses. (go here to have a look.) Now, you're in big trouble with Rupert! He's a big, brown standard poodle (about 80 lb.); most definitely not a bunny. I'm not allowed to post any more Rupert pictures so you'll have to plough through my blog to find a more representative photo. He's the soul of kindness so will forgive your error.

Wonderful reports about wonderful foods in one of my favourite countries. Although not strictly a food comment I can't let this quote pass without comment. This is referring to the Franco era. Nothing could be further from the truth. Say what you like about his politics, but Franco brought Spain from impoverishment after the civil war to modernity by the time he died and he stage managed a transition to democracy before his death. By the way, the culinary scene in Spain was pretty hot even in the 60's when I lived there. Keep up the good work.

Don't think it matters too much as there is plenty of fat around from the comfit. I usually boil it for about 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Don't know about our local area being the 'source'; some other areas would hotly dispute any such claim made by the Rouergue. Having said that, walnuts are certainly used a lot here as the terroir & climate seem to be ideal for growing the trees. Even our sadly neglected tree seems to produce a good crop every year. Given the depopulation of this area & it's farms there are lots & lots of walnuts going begging every fall. A ramble around the countryside in October will yield bags full. My avatar, Rupert, is a walnut fanatic. If not carefully watched he'll get fat every fall as he adores walnuts. He knows exactly how to find, crack & eat them. In the house we have to keep ours well out of reach. How to use them? Well vinaigrette is a great way. Walnut oil is also traditionally poured over casoulette near the end of cooking; not much mind you. Probably the most delicious use I know of is in the local paste called aillade de Toulouse. This is traditionally served with magret & I can honestly say that its a taste combination made in heaven. Here's the recipe: 75g (2 1/2 oz) walnuts 50g (1 3/4 oz) garlic, peeled Salt, pepper to taste 150 ml (1/4 pint ) walnut oil 1 tbl spoon chopped parsley 1) pound the garlic & walnuts together in a mortar. Or process finely in a food processor. 2) stir in a spoonful or two of water to help the mixture to come together. 3) Slowly beat in the walnut oil until you have a thick sauce; almost like mayonnaise. 4) stir in the parsley & adjust the seasonings. NOTE: aillade freezes beautifully for later use. Serve this with duck or pheasant & you'll be delighted. ANOTHER NOTE: Once you open a bottle of walnut oil keep it in the fridge. Otherwise it can go rancid quite quickly. A shame as its not exactly cheap. With my local stuff I just always keep it in the fridge as I don't trust their sealing methods.

What is he doing? He's 83 years old & is making walnut oil. The picture was taken today at the Christmas fair in Puylagarde near where we live. For a complete description of the whole walnut oil making process go here where there are lots more pictures. In brief to make walnut oil you gather, dry, & crack your walnuts. Then you grind them finely and 'cook' them. After cooking they're pressed & filtered and are ready for sale. To whet your appetite here's a pic of the finished product. Amazing process!

According to Julia's original recipe you should first boil the rind to soften it, then cut into thin strips, then cut these into small triangles. I do this & put them in as I assemble the casoulette. By the time the dish is served the rind triangles. have melted into the casoulette

1) Encourage your guests to hike 10 miles before the meal. 2) A light fish mousse with toast is a good starter 3) Nothing with the casoulette. 4) a crisp Caesar salad (without the croutons.) 5) Cheese if everyone's up to it. If in doubt skip. 6) A grand marinier soufflé with sauce. After this you fast for 3 days while you enjoy your satiated feeling of pure bliss. Enjoy! Think I'm making one the evening before New Year's eve. edited to correct spelling.