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I hate the thought of food going to waste, but maybe it's the definition of "edible" that's confusing the issue. If you aren't starving, eating something you dislike just so it wouldn't "go to waste" would border on parsimonious. Feeding "inedible" parts to animals, or using it for compost, would seem to me to qualify as useful? SB

Do you bake bread? SB (great with peanut butter!)

Make 8-9 batches of these! SB

Honestly, I don't have the slightest idea. Does anyone have any ideas? ← To further confuse the issue; my Grandma Baker, (Scots/English), made pastys, which were beef/potato/carrot/rutebaga/onion incased in a freestanding crust, and pork pasty, which was pork and onion made like a regular two-crust pie. I don't know why. SB (also had a friend nicknamed "Pork Pie")(I don't know why either)

I've found that usually when a person has one particular passion they appreciate a gift in an entirely different category. Your friend would appear to be in this camp? Get him something like hockey tickets, or a gift card for dvd rentals? SB

Seven ounces of duck fat, (or anything else), is pretty damn close to 200 grams. SB

My Mother, although of Serbian heritage, was reknowned for her Pasty, which were made "Methodist Ladies Style", learned from her Scots/English Mother in Law, (my Grandmother). They were half-football shaped with a neat crimped seam along the top. And the meat was diced, not ground. Pastys are sold in many local bakeries and markets, and are still mass produced in church baeemnts for fund-raisers. There is no definitive version, but you know it's the genuine article if you're asked, "with or without", in reference to rutabaga. Porketta, (not to be confused with the fancier Italian Porchetta, from which it's probably derived), served on a hard roll, is staple at any area gathering. Fraboni's pretty much sets the standard. Every Italian grocery store used to make its own Porketta. The building my shore is in was originally Cianni's Grocery Store, and is still owned by the same family. In the basement is the chopping block used by Dino Cianni to create his Porkettas, using the recipe his father brought over from Italy in the early 1900's. He continued to make them for many years even after the store closed. My friends and I used to hang out at a auto repair shop down the block. Dino, who was retired from the iron mines, used to walk down to the shop every day, accompanied by his faithful canine companion, the Beloved Bootsie. Whenever he made Porketta he would bring us a sample. One time when he brought us sandwiches Bootsie wasn't with him. We accused Dino of using his dog for meat! I even made a poster for "Dino's Dogketta", with a cartoon of a butcher turning the crank on an old meat grinder with a dog sticking out the top. (Luckily Dino had a good sense of humor, and Bootsie was back on the route the next day.) Another food item found at every Iron Range wedding and funeral are Sarma. They are a ground meat, (mostly pork), with rice mixture rolled up in a cabbage leaf. They're then cooked in a bed of sauerkraut or cabbage. There are generations-long running arguments about various recipes for Sarma, (aka "Pigs in a Blanket"). The most vehement is over whether or not the cabbage should contain some tomato in the sauce. My Mother made hers Serb style with sauerkraut, but I have to confess to enjoying the tinge of sweetness tomato adds to the cabbage version. There are several other examples of ethnic foods that are common here. The Apple or Cheese Strudels made by the women at the Slovenski Dom (Slovenian Home) are, I dare say, as good as my Grandma used to make. I can still remember her stretching phyllo dough out on a bedsheet laid out over the dining room table. And although it's not unique to this area, Wild Rice is indigenous. This Wild Rice bears little resemblence to the hard, shiny black grains commonly found decorating fancy restaurant plates, which is commercially grown in California. These gray-green grains explode when cooked, and have a sweet grassy flavor which goes perfectly with native Walleye. People of Ojibway ancestory still hand harvest rice from area lakes and rivers using special sticks to beat the grain into canoes. Even most of this rice is commercially processed, but a very small amount is still hand parched, (roasted), the old fashioned way, stirred with a paddle over an open fire. This is the product tribes reserve for their personal use. I'm fortunate to get mine from my friend Big Lou. As the population has become more homogeneous over four generations some degree of authenticity has undoubtably been lost. There has even been some "fusion" dishes. I've had Turketta, Panko Crusted Walleye, and Venison Pasty. But the Iron Range is still a rather isolated and tradition bound area with many unique features, the wonderful blend of ethnic influenced food being one of the most interesting. SB (thinking Durian Strudel, Fava Potica, Kobeefketta?)

excusez-moi? manly man .... scallions? Oh, I get it. This is the NPR version of manly! SB (real men use onions )

Our intrepid culinary explorer visits Charleston. Most of the food makes it seem like it's almost a foreign country. 1. Fresh seafood doesn't excite me much, but maybe that's because I'm here in Northern Minnesota, about as far from the sea as anyplace in the Country? Shrimp and lobster, okay, raw oysters, no way! (aside) I see you scored another Mustang! 2. Green tomatos are something we get a lot around here by virture of a growing season that doesn't begin until Memorial Day and often ends with a frost around Labor Day. Maybe I should learn how to fry them up? Needless to say, grits aren't very common up here either, although polenta is. Do you really like grits? (bonus) eGullet gets a plug! (the checks in the mail ) 3. When I see a chef that looks like, or is shaped like Chris, I'm pretty comfortable too. The chili sundae was a nice presentation. 4. Fig? The rice pudding looked really great though. 5. BBQ. Another of my non-specialties, but ... now THAT's a SMOKER! The color on those chickens was beautiful. I wish this segment could have been a lot longer. SB (I'll have that chicken, and try some fried green tomatos, with rice pudding for dessert.)(and I'll take a Mustang convert to cruise around in too )

Thanks! That was something other than easy to find, even with your kind instructions! SB

I'd be interested in this recipe. On another thread we've been discussing the legitimacy of masculine and feminine labels for foods, and Manly Meatballs seem like they would be an appropriate example. SB (rough, tough and bulletproof)

That unfamiliar cuisine includes children? Shades of Jonathan Swift! SB (frequent butcher of English)(language that is, not children)

In 2007, I will eat - lots of good food. I will make - lots of money to buy good food. I will find - peace of mind, through cooking and eating good food. I will learn - the secret of life, which I suspect has a lot to do with good food. This is the year I will try - to make more relevant posts on eGullet. I will taste - success, in my food writings. I will use - correct spelling and commas in the right place when writing about good food. I will give - more money to the eGullet Society. I - promise to do my best, to do my duty, ..... (the Cub Scout Oath I believe?) We - who's we, you gotta mouse in your pocket? (as my Grandmother used to say) My (grand) kids - (Zach 3 and Jenna 4 mo) will spend at much time with me in the kitchen as I can arrange. I will teach - them to have fun cooking. (They already have fun eating) I will read - all my MFK Fisher books over again. SB

You'll be sorry to learn that Andrej's, which was located right across the street from my shop, has closed. I understand that Jan, the owner, is still having his potica produced by another bakery. I especially like his poppyseed potica, although his walnut was a little to grainy for my taste. Of course everybody's grandmother had the best recipe, and my Grandma Baich's povitica, (the Serbian version of potica), used honey instead of sugar for the sweetner. We always took ethnic foods for granted around here until the original immigrants had all but past away. Fortunately, although it almost seemed to skip an entire generation, interest in making these foods has been revived. Although there hasn't been a lot of commercial successes yet, (Fraboni Sauage Company probably being the best known), there are so many former Iron Rangers all over the Country nostalgic for a taste of home that I'm sure there are many more to come. SB (misses the locally produced high-fat butter from Jan at Andrej's)

The Gold Medal is 11.9% protein and King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose is 11.7%, so I'd expect them to perform about the same. I've used King Arthur products for many years, but, to tell the truth, as far as I'm concerned all AP flours are about the same. For thin crust pizza or pasta I'd use part duram/semolina or something like that. SB (A cuppa one, 4 ounces of the other)

I just discovered Edible Twin Cities this past summer, and hope to pick up the latest issue this week when I visit The Cities. SB (even sent a Letter to the Editor, which was printed)

As in sweetened condensed milk? or do you mean evaporated? ← Evaporated, of course! THANX SB

I'm no linguist, so I have to ask what may be a question with an obvious answer, or perhaps one far to complcated for this venue? Why do these languages have gendered words to begin with? SB (la volaille and la table sound more "feminine" to me. Must be the "la" part? )

You gotta admit, the little Hershey Kiss fondue pot is cute though? SB

Butter is okay, but use as little as possible. Shortening is 100% fat, butter around 80%. The other 20% is milk solids and water, both of which have opposite the intended effect. The "butter-flavor" shortening is good if you want some flavor. SB (remember, water + flour = paste ) edited to add link

Try solid shortening rather than butter, and apply it with a pastry brush. Also, when a cake breaks horizontally I just glue it back together with a layer of frosting and pretend that's the way I intended it to be. SB (Like Julia said; only the cook knows for sure? )

While they may not "correspond to how masculinity and femininity are socially constructed and perceived in society", I wonder if, over a long period of time, the words themselves and grammar of the language might not have somehow influenced the conception of gender? I think Latin may be the first language to have used this form? SB

Cake Flour is a very "soft" flour used to produce tender baked goods like biscuits. It has about two-thirds the protein of AP flour. You can produce a similar effect by substituting one or two tablespoons of cornstarch for an equal amount of the AP flour in a recipe. Some flours commonly used in the South were both self-rising and soft. SB

We always had a large orange, (purloined from the Harry & David's gift basket my grandfather always sent), in the toe of our Christmas stockings. I'd always assumed it was to add weight and insure the stocking hung straight. My Serbian grandmother always had pomegranates in a bowl on the dining room table during the Holiday Season, (Serbian/Orthodox Christmas comes on January 7th). I don't know why. There was also a large bowl of nuts in their shells with an assortment of nut crackers and picks. SB (liked the marzipan strawberries in the H&D Basket so much I couldn't bear to eat them. Many years later I'd discover them still wrapped in cellophane, hard as rocks! )(wish I could have saved money like that )

Remembering that I don't speak French; I understand French nouns are either feminine or masculine in gender, but that doesn't mean they have any specific sexual orientation? Maybe somebody fluent in the language can give some examples of French words for foods that do seem to connote masculine or feminine qualities? SB (oui oui )