Pam R

I completely agree that the 'off' muffins shouldn't have been sold in place of the good ones. But I also understand the boss not wanting to toss the whole batch. As I said earlier, I would have tried to use the bad-batch in another way - or chiantiglace's suggestion was great. Since you mentioned that this is not a retail operation, but a wholesale place you may not have the option to 'try to use it up in another way'. I know that I won't sell something that isn't up to par. If it's not the way it should be, it gets turned into something else. I have a bustub in the freezer for rum balls. Any cake scraps or extras get tossed in there - and voila there's my base. (I have no idea why rum balls are such big sellers, but they are - so it's a win-win). It's easy to say that the boss should have tossed the batch - but he's the one who sees the bottom line. The baking business isn't all about profits - you need to save what you can.

I've been using a variety lately - fuji, macintosh, pink ladies. I prefer crisp and slightly tart. I use breadcrumbs when I make a traditional stretch dough strudel. For the fillo strudel I've been sprinkling cin/sugar between the oiled/buttered layers. As long as the bread is kosher that's used for the breadcrumbs, it's kosher. The only issue is during Passover - but then I couldn't use fillo dough, so it's really not an issue... clear as mud right?

officially... we're not in the tundra. I'm not touching the comment about our wanting to be Americans. Can't a person (me) just like a cool beverage occasionally?

Normally I agree with you. But I'm telling you, this shredding thing worked. The apples were completely cooked through and there was no leaking - the filling was rather dense and sturdy - I just line it up along the edge and rolled. I actually put this recipe in a Rosh Hashana cooking column - I will no doubt receive feedback from my very vocal readers - I'll let you know if anybody had a problem with it .

GG's linked recipe looks great. I've never made an apple pie with fillo - but I do make an apple strudel. To save time and having to cook the apple filling, I've started grating the apples - toss them with cinnamon, sugar, a little flour, pinch of salt and anything else you like. Shredding the apples allows them to cook in the time the strudel is in the oven browning.

When I was away at university, I was told by everybody in town that there was a Jewish lawyer also living in town.... three years and I never met him. When I could I would return home for holidays - but it seems that many Jewish holidays fall in the first week of classes or during exams. So the first two years (in a dorm) I didn't do much for the holidays - other than bake dreidle shaped cookies at chanukah. but my third year in my apartment I invited my friends in for some holiday meals. Rosh Hashana meant teaching them all how to make a mushroom/onion kugle - most of them were farm kids from northern minnesota and north dakota. Believe me they had never tasted a kugle much less made one. I think that I must have been home the weekend before the holiday because I also remember garlic brisket on the menu - also a new one for my friends. Chanuka of course meant a latke party - which we all enjoyed eating in front of my roommates 8-foot christmas tree. But everybody took turns with the box grater and frying the pancakes. It was a lot of fun. I was lucky to have friends that really enjoyed learning about my holidays and taking part in the prep and enjoyment of the traditional foods. I would have rather been home with my family, but this was a pretty good second choice. Any chance of having a holiday meal with friends?

I agree with Sugarella. I wouldn't have used the muffins as is - but I would have tried to use the batter in another way - throw in a bunch of blueberries or something to make them different.

Our Thanksgiving is more of a harvest festival - and I don't think we have taken to celebrating it with the relish the Americans have. I can count on one hand the number of times my family has had a Thanksgiving dinner - though while I was away at university in Minnesota they had a Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner for us every year. I have though, taken other holiday meals and completely ignored the traditional foods and tried new things. Last year I had about 30 family members for Passover dinner (2nd night) - and everybody enjoyed the non-traditional meal. My family is traditional - nobody at the meal was divorced/remarried/step-children - so I don't think that's a factor. But - I think many families that have gone through divorce and remarriage may have a tendency to have the holiday meal twice. And in that way my meal is similar. Most Jewish holidays are celebrated for 2 nights - so by the time my 30 guests had arrived at my dinner, they had all eaten a traditional meal the night before. How many nights in a row can you eat brisket? (don't answer that). I love the idea of rethinking traditional foods and often do. Luckily my family likes the idea as well . PS: there is nothing wrong with candied yams occasionally. And let me tell you - they really do make a non-traditional Passover side dish.

So what other theories can we come up with that would answer such a quandary?

We're on two different wavelengths! I am often one for shaking up traditions - the last Passover seder I hosted had none of the traditional foods we usually have. Yet for some reason this year all I can think about is traditional stuff. I just spent a month working on recipes for all the old favorites (apple strudel, tzimmes, teiglach, compote, honey cake, honey cookies - I went old school!) Discussing with my mother earlier today what we mights serve at dinner this year she suggested hot dogs and hamburgers! What's with that woman? I think we may have to meet somewhere in the middle. Open to all good ideas.

I really think what I remember is closest to a puff pastry. I will continue to make them using pp and I have ordered 3 different brands of frozen products for my ultra-kosher customers.

me too... I've had a couple of beans is Vodka since about February (just enough Vodka to cover - though now that I see all of your links, I need to get more beans soon). I haven't checked it in a while - but it's turning into a recognizable form of extract. Smells good too. When I was in university my prof had a bunch of jars going with different liquids - I used the vodka hoping that it would keep the vanilla flavour as pure as possible... but I can see where using a different type might be less harsh. But do you taste bourban or do you taste vanilla? Inquiring minds want to know.

Something tells me there's gonna be more than one answer to this one... My grandmother (polish/jewish) used to make pirishkes - but they were more like a filled bun - not a dumpling.

I think of them as open faced too... can you use a finishing oven? Like a salamander ... doesn't require a hood, just a 220V plug. Or as this website calls them cheese melters ... or this one looksclose to the one I have..

Hand's down tuna melts were the most popular menu item when we ran a dairy restaurant. I can't tell you what was in the mix (famly secret) but we made it on a french baguette - sliced lengthwise, with a shmear of garlic butter under the tuna mix and plain old mozz. melted on top. I've made so many in my time I could make 'em in my sleep

I'm sorry I don't know the name of the company, but there is a line of black plastic ware that is oven, freezer and microwave proof - I've been looking for something for creme brulee myself and found these last week at my paper/packaging supplier. Since they are oven proof... I'm hoping that means they'd work. Otherwise, yes they make small foil tart pans. good luck!

Oh Adam.. I love love love greek food - your pictures are wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

thanks for the link... but those aren't quite the ones I remember from my youth...

I mentioned this to my sister today - she lived in Melbourne for a while and tells me that her kosher butcher had the same cuts of brisket that we get and resell here. It's worth a shot checking in with them.

OK OK. It's cold here. I'll bring this back to food. We have a large number of Argentinean immigrants here - last summer a mother brought her little boy in to stock up on poultry (that's the food part) -anyhow, last summer happened to be a cool one, but it was probably in the 20 C area. The little boy was wearing a parka! He looked like the michelin man. All I could think of was ... wait until January! I grant you that it's hard to get used to the weather... we're a tough people here you know.

There could be - but I don't know if any extra expense would be worth it (assuming it's extra... I've never seen a kosher Wagyu anything, so I don't know about the costs). I'm almost scared to tell you folks how much I have to sell kosher brisket for - you're probably able to buy Wagyu brisket for less than I buy kosher. The 'usual' brisket has it's share of fat in it - so I don't know if there is any benefit in that area - and you just aren't going to find a tender brisket. I'm interested in knowing though, if there is a difference - so if somebody wants to take one for the team and do a comparison that'd be great

Is that unusual? I'm enjoying your blog so much - I wish I had known about eGullet prior to my trip to Vancouver in november - but it was actually my food stylist there who pointed me in this direction. I can't wait to get back there (on a non-business trip) to try more of what Vancouver has to offer. Blog on!

I'm sure the wagyu/kobe brisket would be wonderful but I think that we're missing a point here. Fifi I think that USDA Prime brisket doesn't seem to exist because brisket is in fact a lesser cut. It USED to be one of the cheapest cuts around, which is why it's so popular in traditional peasant dishes. In the days when they were setting up deli's there were a couple of issues - the meat had to be kosher (meaning only cuts from the front end of the cow) and it had to be cheap (no rib roasts used for corned beef). The brisket is a tough cut that requires a long slow cooking method. It's not the best meat in the cow. I wouldn't worry too much about finding 'fancy' brisket - just get it from somebody you trust and you should be good to go.

I use these too. .. also known as a pasta cutter according to this site. I have a couple and use them mostly for cutting puff pastry. For things like brownies or squares, I use something closer to this - though mine is somewhat rounder. For tools that are that expensive, it often pays to go to auctions - we've picked up lots of stuff over the years that we'd never pay for new!

Hi Doc-G, I don't really know about true 'Texan brisket" but I have some thoughts on the meat. First of all, I'm assuming the briskets you're used to may look something like the one my father is holding in this picture. That's a whole, untrimmed brisket, weighing in at about 20 lbs. This includes both sections, the flat cut and the point cut, and the layer of fat between the two. Some explaining is done at the Cook's Thesaurus, though unfortunately no pictures. When we cook briskets ourselves (and sell them to any hotel or caterer) it's always the whole, huge one. In our storefront though, we sell what is called a 'single'. Our customers assume or at least call it a whole brisket but in reality it's just the thinner, less fatty part of the brisket (the flat cut). Here's a good sight with some diagrams I don't know if this helped - do Texans use the 20 lb-ers or smaller pieces?