Suzanne F

Any recent experiences? We're going on 11/1 for Paul's birthday.

True, true. The edition I have is mostly plucked from his Professional Cooking anyway. Definitely no new ground covered there.

Is that the santuko hollow-edge knife? aka "Kullenschlift" (sp?) Really good, eh? Oh dear, there goes more of my $$$$$.

The Virginia Lee recipe has a multi-step coating process: first you marinate the meat in a mixture of alcohol (she uses bourbon, cognac, or rum, because at the time "the Chinese counterpart" -- shao hsing? -- was not available here), light soy sauce, sugar, 5-spice, and salt. Then before cooking it you coat it with a mixture of "red bean curd sauce," bean sauce, light soy, sugar and sesame paste. While it's cooking you brush it with dark soy. Finally, after it's cooked you dip-and-dry several times with light and dark soys, sugar, and corn syrup or honey. That explains the crust and sweetness.

There's a recipe for Cantonese Roast Pork in The Chinese Cookbook by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee (1972; Lippincott; ISBN unknown). This one calls for "lean loin of pork or other boneless cut." But I think that might make it too dry. The marinade looks pretty tasty, though. The Hong Kong Cookbook by Arthur Lem and Dan Morris (1970, Funk & Wagnalls) uses boneless pork butt, and has a better method -- hanging the meat in the oven over a pan of water -- but the flavorings will probably NOT give you a superior product. I've probably got more recipes in other books and in files; let me know if you want them.

Yeah, but the labels are REALLY PRETTY!! Isn't that what counts when picking a wine after all?? Re Shermar's comment: I always thought "plonk" was English English. N'est-ce pas, Wilfrid? Oh, tighe, for beautiful labels, look to your own region Oregon and Washington (and even Idaho) put out some damn good wines with nifty artwork both inside AND outside the bottles. When I was doing pastry, the beverage manager at the restaurant offered me several cases of the previous year's New Beauj. I tried, god knows I tried to use it -- reduced to flavor ice cream (kind of greyish pink ), as a sweetened reduced syrup -- nothing worked. YUCK.

I would think consistency would be a problem. With paper-thin or near-paper-thin slices you don't have much margin for error. I've got 1 mm, 2 mm, and on up. Those are quite thin. Yes, if the pressure is uneven, the slices may be uneven. Like anything else, it just takes practice.

The slicing disks of the Cuisinart. This works for any dry-ish sausage you can fit into the feed tube. That's how I slice pepperoni for pizza, and the supermarket-size Hebrew National salamis and baloney for sandwiches.

No, no -- the sharper the better. What exactly are you slicing that sticks? If you do a lot of slicing of meats or fish, you might want to invest in a Granton-edge knife -- the kind that has oval or roundish cutouts along the edge of the blade. These reduce drag and allow the knife to slide through without the food sticking. But, hey, stuff sticks to a blade. Just wipe it off (carefully, so you don't wipe off any of your skin ) Or try Kyle's suggestion (I know I will!).

Yup, pickled. They were the first -- and only -- pickles I ever made. Jam, sweet. PM me if you want a recipe. Dessert sauce, with lemongrass and ginger. (well, it was supposed to be jam, but I didn't add enough pectin) Use instead of tomatillos in salsa verde.

What's this yearling doing in my kitchen??? Block that metaphor! :unsure: Swear to God. Good old IBM. No wonder I always had so much trouble compiling my COBOL programs -- I thought it was supposed to be close to English.

What, saying all that? More important, how much can you bill just for announcing your "title"?

Project, in most other instances I would agree with your concern about nouns being turned into verbs (or adjectives, or other parts of speech which they are NOT). However, you might need to consider the use of "to plate" as industry jargon working its way into common usage. In many restaurant kitchens, the cooks are taught "to plate" the menu items for which they are responsible: that is, to arrange all the parts of a menu item on the plate on which it is presented to the customer. This procedure is called "plating" (gerund) and the design of the finished plate of food is also referred to at "the plating." As in (chef de partie to commis): "I showed you how to plate the French apple tart "brulée" with cinnamon Ice cream, caramel sauce and mint oil a million times; I even gave you a picture of the plating. So why do you fuck up and put it on the wrong plate every time you plate it?"

And don't forget consultants. THAT covers a multitude of sins.

Toad Sweat is the bomb!!! I tasted it at the Fancy Food Show this summer. The Lemon-Vanilla is pretty tame, but the Key Lime-Habanero? AH-HOOOOOOOOOOOOO-AH! And Matouk's is available in supermarkets near me -- the Pathmark under the Manhattan Bridge has that and other Caribbean sauces.

Thanks for the extra info, SteveK. One more piece: if you register by October 11th, the cost is $20 instead of $40. ("Complimentary Registration for International Attendees") You can register online.

New York City. At the Javits Convention Center. Saturday November 9 - Tuesday November 12. You bet! I've got to look for equipment. But beyond that, I'm there for a good time.

Probably because no one really analyzed the situation. They just saw that egg products cost more on a per-egg-part basis; but never considered the cost of staff-time. Or because they thought "fresh" shell eggs are somehow better. Right now, the thought of all those dirty shells in contact with the edible part gives me the willies. 'Scuse me, gotta go check out the sin thread. (Thanks, guys!!)

Even if it's only chicken fat, no oil, you can keep it in the fridge and use it for cooking. Not as tasty as duck or goose fat, but pretty good. I assume it's been in the fridge since Sunday, right? Scrape the fat from the congealed juices, put it in a saucepan, and heat it until it boils gently. Chicken fat can have lot of water in it, which can cause it to go bad. So this is a lot like making clarified butter. Once the bubbling stops, pour it (very carefully -- it's HOT) into a clean jar, cap it, and let it cool down some. Then refrigerate. Use to make sauces, to sauté -- waste not, want not. The juices are good to add to stocks and soups, or to chicken sautés to make a pan sauce. But these you have to freeze to keep. Forgive me if I'm telling you what you already know.

A question for the pros here: I used to hear that at some places that do a huge brunch business (I mean REALLY huge), a prep cook might take a half-case of eggs, dump them in the mixer, give them a brief whirl, then strain the whole mess through a china cap to get out the shells. Any truth to that? (Disclaimer: this sounds like something only a ::shudder:: chain restaurant would do. We certainly never did it anywhere that I worked brunch. )

And polls already show Lautenberg ahead.

Nothing really to add (until I hit the market and get my goat) -- I just wanted to say that this is a GREAT thread!

Last night (yes, after having had lunch at Artisanal): Grilled halibut with a warm yuzu/orange vinaigrette, cherry and yellow teardrop tomatoes Green tea soba noodles Salad of watercress, endive, radicchio, boston, and romaine, with a garlic/yogurt dressing. Macari unoaked Chardonnay (North Fork, LI, NY) Tonight: Smothered boneless pork chops Red Bliss potato salad with roasted red pepper, celery, and cauliflower Salad of the same leaves plus same tomatoes plus cucumber plus red and green bell peppers (too busy, I think, but Paul loves it that way) with lemon thyme vinaigrette. Bass ale

You the man.

If it was, CONGRATULATIONS! I assume from the lack of mention of a trip to the emergency room that you used it without loss of limb or digit. Brava. Rochelle, bubbula, always listen to Mother Suzanne.