troyml

Prague Cure, Insta-Cure, Modern Cure, DQ cure, Pink Salt, all of these products are simply plain salt and sodium nitrite. The required amount of nitrite is so small that it is dispersed in the salt to make it measurable, and you will be using salt in your cured products anyways. Tenderquick contains more salt, sugar and some nitrATE in addition to the nitrITE. Rule of thumb for curing with #1 cure is a teaspoon for 5 pounds of meat, that will provide all the nitrite you need, then just make up the difference with salt and sugar to achieve the flavor profile desired. Take my words with a grain of salt though, (pink or otherwise). I'm pretty green at curing and sausage making myself.

I too thought of BurgerTime. I had the Intellivision version when I was a kid. It was my mother's favorite game, and the thought of my mother playing video games always cracks me up.

I've had very little actual experience with LN2, but I can see why street shoes would offer little to no protection from a LN2 spill. The liquid nitrogen rolls off when spilled on bare flesh because it rapidly forms a layer of nitrogen gas upon which it floats and provides an insulating effect. In a standard shoe the porous, absorbent nature of the materials shoes are made of would hold the LN2 in contact with the skin where it could cause frostbite. Bare feet, or flip-flops allow the nitrogen to escape, where it is not held in contact with the foot. I am not saying don't wear shoes and socks in the kitchen. I had an interesting triangular burn on my foot for sometime because I dropped a slice of pizza that had freshly come out of the oven onto my bare foot in my home kitchen. It was an entertaining sight watching me run to the bathroom where I shoved my hot cheese coated foot under the bath spigot. I'm pretty certain that what happened here was a pressurized vessel exploding. It says he stole the LN2 from his place of employment and I think it highly likely he did not have a Dewar with which to properly transport and store it. So if he put it into a regular vacuum thermos then the pressure would build without release until the thermos ruptured.

My sister-in-law is a resident of Durban SA and my family was able to visit for the wedding several years ago. We came to realize that South Africa has a wonderful food environment, definitely including its significant Indian influence. I purchased a copy of Indian Delights and love it, although it isn't the easiest book to cook from if not from that culture because many of the terms used are unfamiliar to me, and frequently assume knowledge I do not have. I would love to follow a blog on this aspect of the South African food scene, or hear what more you have to say about it.. please go on, and let us know where to find it.

Been some time since I've had a Grain Belt, too many beers out there to drink. Not that I consider THAT a problem. But my impressions at the time were that it made an excellent 'lawnmower' beer, if I remember correctly. Now I'll have to go out and buy some and refresh my impression... I don't expressly remember blueberry. My wife thinks it's low brow when I buy canned beer for some reason though? It's not like I crush 'em against my forehead.

Precisely. If your PB doesn't separate at room temp, then it's got more than peanuts in it. (Probably some form of bean gum or guano gum. Yummy stuff.) I refrigerate my peaches after a certain amount of windowsill ripening because I buy them once a week at the greenmarket, & otherwise they'd rot towards the end of the week. ← I really doubt you mean 'guano' gum. But I'm still off to check the label on my PB! My guess is you meant to say guar gum.

One of my favorite experiences while visiting the Netherlands on a short term Christian mission in High School was spending the evening at a Dutch farmers farm. He was entrepeneurially trying to introduce Sweet Corn into the Dutch diet, and we feasted on bushels of the most fantastic Sweet Corn ever. I got the impression he wasn't having much success overcoming the perception that corn was 'pig feed.'

Good job! I am not a big baby back rib fan. Some will call me a heretic, but I'm happier with a meaty slab of spare ribs with a nice fat cap. They've been running on sale here for $.98/lb about every three weeks. For more on ribs, click here. ← We should have a conversation sometime about where you buy some of your stuff in the Twin Cities area, perhaps in the Heartland area of the site. I'd love to know where you are buying your spareribs. I just got a Brinkmann Vertical Smoker for free from someone that upgrade to a Weber Smokey Mountain. So now I've got some smoking to do.

Well happy anniversary Snowangel. I just found this thread, it's great and I certainly hope to have children like I'm hearing about here someday.

My college library had that one for some reason, anthropology / sociology maybe? I checked it out and thouroughly enjoyed it! I could be convinced to have some of those things, but not all that's for sure.

This sounds like a fantastic idea gone terribly wrong. Might be worth it to try something similar without the soggy mess though.

Your assesment is spot on. The barbecue itself is pretty darn good. Tasty ribs, brisket, catfish. The selection of sauces is good and they all are tasty if you need or want to put sauce on something. I prefer the one they call Georgia Mustard, a vinegar based concoction. The corn bread is very sweet, and I've been told it is supposed to be this way, but the corn on the cob is overcooked to my taste, mushy. We go to the restaurant on a somewhat regular basis, and we've had them cater some events as well. We use 'em in my family so we must like 'em well enough. Dave is good at self promotion, but he seems like a decent guy. Involved in Indian affairs and community events, socially responsible. All in all for chain barbecue, I'm pleased.

In some of the Gardening forums I follow, for storing seeds from year to year they put some powdered milk in a tissue in the bottom of a canning jar before putting the seed packets in. Powdered milk is definitely okay to consume, of course so are salt and sugar. I haven't any clue which would be the most hygrospic though. Troy

or chervil... I also grew up intensely disliking black licorice flavor but I now enjoy everything up to but not including black licorice candy itself. (For some perverse reason though, I want to try Dutch Black Licorice candy which I understand is very strong). One reason I was able to 'evolve' my taste is that I found I loved fresh fennel. Have you ever had this roasted or in a soup or rissotto? If you enjoy that you may starting finding that you don't mind the taste of fennel or anise. It was worth it for me to wean myself towards enjoying fennel very much--up to you whether or not you want to do it. ← You definitely ought to try the Dutch Black licorice. I personally love the double salt variety. An acquired taste that I have no idea how I acquired except that I'm half Dutch myself. Even though it can be found from time to time around here or ordered. Whenever I find that a friend will be flying through Amsterdam I have them pick up a box of the stuff for me. In regards to the larger thread as a whole, Why make these dishes if you don't like a key flavor component of the dish? There is a world of flavors out there. Sure you can substitute, and you may have something delightful but I'm not sure what your motivation is. Perhaps if you want to come really close, you can make 4 spice powder from seperate spices and leave out the anise?

I hear ya. I upgraded my membership because I had to chime in with my Spring Fever blues too. I'm planning on planting my first REAL vegetable garden this year. I really don't have much space and in the past I've only done a few tomato and pepper plants, so I have little experience too. So as a fellow MN gardener I'll take any tips and hints you can spare. I'm probably biting off more than I can chew, but I'm planting salad greens, carrots, radishes, onions, a slicing tomato, a cherry tomato, a paste tomato, sweet peppers, beans, edible pod peas, and a couple of herbs. Whenever it actually gets warm enough to work the soil