Suzanne F

Congratulations, GG Mora! Once you showed up, we all should have just folded our tents and slunk off. Truly unbeatable.

Staying a bit OT to discuss AC: we get his weekly "Penny Press" column in a local lower Manhattan newspaper. That's good, since I never know when/if I'll hear him on All Things Considered. The episode I mentioned, when he and some friends went to Sammy's, took place when he was a vegetarian. So you can imagine!

Uh, Sam, you mean maybe gribenes? Stone, on several levels, I love the idea of flattening sheets of chicken skin with a bacon press. What a cool adornment: a crisp, golden brown flake of chickeny goodness. But truffle oil? Nah. Some things are NOT improved by truffle oil, and chicken skin mashed potatoes is one of them.

I wish everyone could see how beautiful City Hall Park looks, especially the Xmas-tree and shrubs in the fountain with the gaslights at the corners. The snow would have to be up to my windowsills -- I'm on the ninth floor -- for me to cancel tonight's reservations: Amma, with HWOE and other eGulleteers!

Staff: Not sure I know whom you mean, but the servers tend to be good, or else they don't stay very long. The runners/bussers are great! Desserts: I don't know. They changed pastry chefs some time ago -- maybe as much as 2 years ago? -- and the desserts haven't been very good since. Good to order: crab spring roll app, when they have it. skate. Not as crisp as at Artisanal, but excellent. whole grilled fish. Almost as good as at City Hall. any of the fish specials. any of the salad specials. any of the terrines. chicken Grandmere, although sometimes the sauce is over-reduced. fried chicken, in the summertime. any soup. smoked salmon sandwich (lunch). almost anything on the wine list. Roger Dagorn finds some terrific bargains, good drinkable wines at reasonable prices. And they'll give you a taste of anything you're considering ordering.

May you? But of course! At least YOU won't need directions to the neighborhood. I will start the "official" list just after New Years. (I'll need until at least then to clear out all the stacks of newspapers and clean the oven.) No need to commit yet on either attendance or contribution. Just keep it in mind.

That's what I've been telling youse guys. But it IS a bit pricey ($12.50, I think; although that includes the bacon, cheese, AND frites).

Le Zinc is my home-away-from-home, especially when HWOE is out of town. They know and love me there, and I love them. Was Aggie your waitress (curly auburn hair, glasses)? She is THE BEST.

Soon I will be able to report on the results of my attempt to do duck confit in the slow cooker (aka crockpot). I made early this past week, and will probably use some tomorrow or Monday. The particulars: I used one entire duck, cut up as follows: 2 whole leg/thigh quarters; 2 breast halves; 2 wings, trimmed of the tip; 3 segments of neck. Rubbed with a combination of kosher salt and my homemade Ras al hanout spice blend; placed in fridge heavy-duty plastic bag for about 2 days, then drained and salt/spice wiped off. Cooked in slow cooker, alternating high and low setting, for most of a day. Fats used: freshly rendered duck fat (from the victim itself); stored fat from many previously-cooked ducks; stored previously-rendered chicken fat; stored pork fat (from my Labor Day PernilFest); and most of a package of supermarket lard. The various fats all had their own spicings. (I also have, but did not use, rendered beef and lamb fats; too distinctive.) It is stored in the fridge in 3 containers: one of legs, one of breast, and one of neck/wings. I had more than enough fat for the containers -- over 2 cups -- and about 2 cups of nicely jelling juices (a bit salty, but still eminently usable). Any suggestions which part(s) to try first?

:sigh of relief: Good. That lets out the branch of George Webb I used to patronize during college. Sometime in the middle of the night, the waitresses would stop whatever they were doing and announce, "We're closed." After one minute exactly, they'd resume and say, "Okay, we're open again." Hey, Ivan and WHT, nice to see you (and your avatars) again.

Ah yes. My mother's father apparently loved to snack on rye bread-grated black radish-salt-schmaltz canapes. Not surprisingly, he died several years before I was born. Sammy's Steak House (fka Sammy's Roumanian) supposedly has those same maple-syrup-dispensers of schmaltz, too. I've always be a little afraid to find out for sure. Especially after Andre Codrescu did an episode of his tv show there. Edited to add: The good reverend has supplied pictorial confirmation of the existence of schmaltz dispensers at Sammy's. The shot also confirms Andre Codrescu's account, and the reasons for some of his horror: check out the image at approximately 11 o'clock, behind the glass.

Doesn't Beer Club belong on a different board?

Seth, you managed to mention two of my favorite food writers in one post! Yes, that's the Schneider book with the recipe I referred to. And isn't (wasn't ) Laurie Colwin wonderful?

Both of you seem to have your points at the top of your heads. The more I think about it, the more I figure we should just skip it for now, and make Blue Smoke the first official BC meeting of the new year. I don't know about all of you, but I'm getting extra busy now (even without any holiday stuff). So while I absolutely adore BC meetings (for the company, even when the food disappoints), I suggest that any December meetings be unofficial. In other words, I've got to drop out of 12/13; if people still want to go, someone should contact Annie O'Scannlain at 212-447.7479, extension 256. She is available Monday through Friday 9:30am-6: 30pm. If 10 people or more are going, she needs to know by the day before. She told me it would be fine for us to just do our usual thing, that is, burgers all around, with no other special menu.

So, Doc, whadya eat?

Huh? So where do we stand? Sat 12/13 is now out because elyse can't come, and if she's not there, it's not BC. Beyond that, ?????

Oh, gosh, we've had so many discussions of this -- I guess since you're new, you just didn't know where to look. Check out the eGullet Culinary Institute lesson on stovetop cookware; and do a search on this board and on the General Food Topics board, using AllClad as the search word, and "Any date or newer" for the posting time. The answers for you are here; just dig around a bit and you'll find them. And Welcome

Oh, hell, a guy in my class at school misread tablespoons for teaspoons when measuring the salt for his focaccia on our baking final. At least HE had the excuse of being legally blind.

So shall I tell Blue Smoke we have to postpone?

Well, Blue Smoke is open for lunch on Sundays. We have no problem changing to Sunday 12/14.

Uh oh. Now I'm lost. Could we do it the next week, or will everyone be too busy getting ready for Xmas?

Chili is one of those never-to-be-repeated recipes, different every time I make it. This is not to say the chili does not repeat; oh, that it does! No beans Usually beef: ground-at-home, store-bought-ground, or diced Some kind of oil Onions Garlic A mix of whatever chilies I happen to have: fresh serranos, jalapenos, or habanero (more than one and I have to make a whole new batch of chili to mix together, the way you have to when you oversalt); the same chilies pickled, plus banana chilies; chipotle paste; canned chopped green chilies. Canned chopped tomatoes, sometimes with peppers. Sometimes, chopped red and/or green bell peppers. Chili powder (a cuvée of various kinds) Cumin Mexican or Dominican oregano Beef stock and/or beer Maybe a shot of red wine vinegar A few glubs of Tabasco: regular, green, or chipotle Unsweetened cocoa or bitter chocolate. And probably a few other things I've forgotten, although masa harina is not one of them. I used to make it with ground turkey, but it was too bland no matter how much other stuff I put in it. Ditto using crumbled, thawed tofu, although I still sometimes add a bit to stretch it.

Alas, I don't think so (haven't checked, though). If you look at the thread Mrs Woman started, in which she posted the link to Amazon, it says the revised British version won't be out until even later in 2004. As far as everyone here has said, it's just about impossible to get it there at present. edited to add link

Thanks to Mrs Woman, there is a link to pre-ordering Fergus Henderson's book on Amazon. I have to say, though, that I'm disappointed it will be coming out in the U.S. as a paperback. I do not like to cook from paperback books. They're all right to read, but impossible to work from. I prefer hard cover for real cooking. What say all of you?

JFLinLA: Ah! P-tcha, aka Calves' Foot Jelly. (I never could figure out why multiple calves only had one foot ) I hope the good Rabbi will discuss that in the future. Also schav (sour grass soup).