rascal

Had a dinner at an otherwise nice restaurant last night and my fiance got a mussels dish that she had to send back... the mussels tasted kind of like what it smells like when you walk into a horse barn. Is there any reason non-spoiled mussels would EVER taste like that? Kind of disappointing because we have always had good luck at this place before.

I was wondering if anyone could point me to their favorite overview of edible fish species online. What they taste like, common cooking methods, etc... I want to cook more, different kinds of fish but I just don't know that much about the other species. Getting sick of seared tuna, broiled salmon, whitefish, etc... just need some new ideas. Can't believe Google isn't being kind to me here but it's a tough query...

One trick that I learned from a Ming Tsai PBS show is to toss that CI wok in a 500 degree oven while you're prepping your food. Then pull it out onto a burner on high when you're ready to begin cooking. This is the only way I've found with an electric stove to really get that seared on flavor that makes stir fry so darn good. You can use the whole surface of the wok instead of just a little portion at the bottom.

hey y'all... i was wondering if anyone knows where i could buy a digital kitchen timer with a 10-minute button. ie, i would ideally like to have hour, 10-minute, and minute buttons. i poked around the net for a while and couldn't find something like that. it seems like a miniscule detail but my old one kicked the bucket and i'd like to find one like that. i seem to make a lot of dishes requiring 30 to 45 minute cook times and i get irritated punching the minute button. heck, i'd even rather have a 10-minute than an hour... thanks in advance for your help!

Just joining the conversation.. watched every episode... the thing that piqued my interest was GR's slam of Trotter in that Sun-Tribune article... Quote: I don't want to turn into some old fart philosopher who gives a superficial insight into the industry that's not true. I love CT's cooking and have gotten a lot of insight from his show on PBS, but this just rings so true... I can't help but laugh at loud at some of his philosophical waxing.

Sounds great. I've been making a LOT of buffalo wings recently and saving the wing tip for the next batch of stock. I figure a whole chicken or two plus a couple of pounds of wing tips should turn out a great stock.

I have for sure used roasted chicken carcasses in the past, and turkey stock turned into turkey pot pie is a long running tradition in my family. However for stock used for sauces and/or put into dishes, using non-roasted bones and meat gives a much cleaner taste. I only started doing this recently and it is a very nice improvement. Usually if I want the richer, darker flavor I'll use beef stock.

Thinking about taking a different tack now... I just rendered a big pile o chicken skin into schmaltz this weekend and after separating the remaining water phase was QUITE jelled. Maybe I'll reserve this chicken jello and add it to the stock when I need significantly more body. I'm still a little baffled as to why every cooking tome I've ever said says that gelatin comes from bones and feet, while I've observed several times now that the skin has a significant quantity of gelling power.

Took another shot this weekend- I think I've got a good formula now. Slowly melt a stick of butter, add in a little less than a cup of Red Hot, then finish to taste with Sriracha chili sauce. Didn't break and was enough for 2 dozen jumbo wings with plenty left over for celery dipping. Thanks for your help.

Cool, I'll give that a try. I'm usually multi-tasking and leave the sauce on the burner for too long. I'm fully on the "give them a quick dip, then have some more on the side" train. They do stay WAY crispier that way. Go Eagles.

How do you guys keep the sauce from separating? I seem to always end up with a big oil slick on the top. It looks everyone else is recommending melting the butter first, then adding the hot sauce- I've been doing it the other way around. I tried tempering in some egg white last night to stabilize it- needless to say I can't recommend that approach.

My, quite the responses! Thanks to everyone for participating. I think the next time I'm going to try leaving the skin in for a bit longer. I'm not too concerned with clarity and could really use more gelling power. I suppose if I was shooting for a consomme-like clarity I would lose the skin entirely- although the result from this most recent batch was VERY clear, even with 40 minutes of skin-time. Adding my two cents on the roasted carcass question- this used to be my primary method... roast a chicken for dinner and make stock afterwards... but I've found using whole chickens (69 cents a pound at costco) to make a HUGE difference in flavor, plus I don't have to keep stacks of carcasses around until I have enough for a big pot of stock.

I guess I was just surprised in the amount of gelling action that came out of the skin while I was rendering it. I was under the impression that all of the gelatin came from the bones- not the skin. I may have to try and source some chicken feet. Unfortunately living in a small town things like that are not so easy to come by.

I made a big pot of chicken stock according the the eGCI instructions last weekend, using 2 whole chickens. Took them out after 40 mins, removed the breasts and skin, put the carcasses back in for another couple hours. Then, I tried to render out the fat from the chicken skin by boiling it with some water. After cooling the result of this overnight, the water phase of was VERY gelled- almost solid. And it seems that the stock itself is not as thick as I would have expected. Two questions here: Should I have left the skin on for the simmer longer? And, what is the proper rendering technique for the pile o skin? I came away with only a tiny amount of fat from that render- far more solidified on top of the stock.

I'm definitely going to be experimenting with this more.. for the first try I wanted to get the "pure" taste of the pork without a flavored cure. Unfortunately in my area (Burlington VT) real butcher shops are extinct, and we have no Latin markets. There is a meat wholesaler about 40 mins away who I'm going to contact about some pork fat. I agree that there is kind of a synthetic taste to the hydrogenated lard. I also would like to give rilletes a try.