Pam R

Are you cooking it whole or do you cube the meat? I have a brisket thawed in the fridge and I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I'm thinking about doing half of it with a soy/brownsugar/garlic/ginger mix - has anybody done anything like that?

Fry.

I think it depends on where you are. Gloves are not required by all health departments.

Different butchers will also call it different things. A whole brisket (the ones I get here go up to 20 lbs.) will take up a full-size, commercial sheet-pan. I have customers who like them without any fat left on them -- I feel that this is wrong. Definitely ask the butcher to leave a layer. And as Mitch suggests, at least 1 pound per person. You can lose up to 1/3 to shrinkage.

So what other flavours are in the recipe, other than the brisket and onions?

I prefer making it the day before too. Let it cool overnight and it's easier to remove the excess fat. It'll still be falling-apart good. Of course, you always have to have a slice or two (of a chunk) just out of the oven.

I can't say that I've ever had rabbit liver. Would it be closer to a beef liver or a chicken liver? Or something entirely different?

I've eaten many a brisket in my time -- I don't think a holiday passes without some family member serving it. I've also cooked a few, but almost every one of them was the same (not a bad thing): Cooked long and slow with lots of garlic and only a little liquid added, cooked in foil. I'd love to try some new recipes. I think I'll take a brisket out of the freezer tomorrow. What size briskets are being cooked?

Maggie, it was a pleasure being part of the Canadian volunteer contingent with you. Your work with the Daily Gullet was outstanding and I was always excited to read the new stories you found for us. Thanks, Maggie. See you in the forums.

Sukkot starts tomorrow night. In Canada we also celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, so dinner will follow the standard Thanksgiving menu. But Sukkot, of course, is more than one day so I'm thinking about the rest of the week. I'd like to do an interesting brisket and maybe some stuffed vegetables of some sort. Anything interesting going on under the stars?

Lots of people eat matza year-round. Why not charoset?

He sold the business and he's teaching now.

I don't know what a crisp is vs. a crumble. Anyway. I made one tonight for dessert tomorrow night (it'll be nice rewarmed). 3/4 cup butter 1 (slightly heaping, because it doesn't really matter) cup of oats 1 (ditto) cup AP flour 1 cup dark brown sugar (I used dark, because it worked well with the fruit but usually use light brown sugar) pinch of salt some allspice and cinnamon If it's too dry, I add a little butter -- to wet, a little flour. It's so good over well-spiced fruit. In this case a mix of pears, plums and nectarines with allspice, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. I think crumbles are the best fall desserts.

jackal10 suggested helzel in the chicken skin topic. My grandmother made it from turkey neck skin, rather than chicken neck skin, because it's kind of hard to stuff a chicken neck. Wikipedia has a little entry on it here, but you could stuff it with anything, really.

Qualita Paper might have something close to what you're looking for. But he'd need to order 12,000 pieces if he wants it personalized. But look around there site for some interesting customizing ideas. The link to their confection line isn't working at the moment, but I think you can download their catalogue.

Unless he has a display freezer . . I always make large batches and freeze lemon (or lime) curd.

It shouldn't be that surprising to see Martin Picard and sous chef Hugue Dufour of Au Pied de Cochon in a new show on Food TV. I caught the last third of a show this afternoon. I watched them setting traps with beaver meat and then cooking rabbit over a camp-fire with all of the ingredients frozen (winter in Quebec is cold, eh). According to the website, today's show also included muskrat spare ribs, partridge grilled cheese and pemmican. Even less surprising is that The Wild Chef has upcoming shows on foie gras and wild goose. Has anybody seen a whole show? Thoughts?

So how were the grape leaves processed in Lebanon? Were they 'cooked' or pickled first? What's preserving them?

My specialty store is pretty specialized, so I'm very limited in terms of suppliers. Having said that, shop around. Request product lists from lots of them. During a holiday season this year, I was able to save at least $5000 simply by buying certain items from one supplier and other items from another (I'm talking about the exact same items that both suppliers handled). As a small store, you're not likely to have a lot of negotiating power. We ship everything in from out of town -- one thing we've been able to do is get a couple of suppliers to agree to pay for shipping. Another company gives us a certain % off of everything we buy to help pay for shipping. Shipping costs are astronomical. Some of my larger suppliers also supplie grocery store chains across the country so my single independent store has no negotiating power with them. If your suppliers are local, you can get same day or next day delivery. If they have to travel, you might be looking at a week. I live in the centre of Canada and items from Montreal and Toronto take 3-8 days to get here by truck. If you are in NY, you should be able to get most things in a couple of days. It used to take a while for credit applications to be processed before suppliers would start supplying. Now, with a credit card, you can be in business in an hour.

What kind of specialty foods?

I have a number of beef cheeks that I and some customers want to use for an upcoming holiday. I've been served braised cheeks before and they were wonderful, but have no idea what the chef did with them. We're having an argument here about whether they're tough and must be braised or if they are tender and can be cooked in other ways. Any good recipes?

I'd look for the food-grade stuff - see if there is such a thing available. The few times I've purchased dry ice for packing food for shipment, it hasn't been . . clean would be the best word.

Thankfully, I'm invited out for both nights, but I will definitely be baking an apple/honey cake to nosh on and I'm hoping I'll have time to make a batch of chicken soup and meat kreplach.

Pheh. I wouldn't bother with a knish there (unless they've improved drastically in the last few years).

Hubert carries a lot of take-out containers. There ones go from freezer to microwave. I've never ordered these, but have ordered from the company several times and they give great service. We use a similar container for frozen dinners, but the ones we use can go into the microwave or oven (can't think of who makes them right now).