Mallet

what about a really strong magnet?

Compared to something like supermarket pork, any animal that has led a decent life will probably be of infinitely better quality. Once you take rearing conditions as a given, the different breed attributes will start showing, but I imagine these are small relative to the difference between intensively/extensively reared pork.

I've recently learned that you can search WITHIN specific threads, very useful for monster topics like this one...

I'm not so sure the bones are done. In your first post you said they were only boiled two hours? If this is the case, they should be good for another batch of stock. Typically, beef stock is simmered for more like 10 hours...

We have a raspberry patch at my parents place. As I recall, the plants are spaced about 2 ft apart, with no external support (but my grandfather has wires running parallel to the rows). Other than the odd bit of compost and some crushed shells, we didn't put in anything and got two crops a year. Maintenance is pretty easy, it's just a matter of removing the dead wood.

Correct! Although you should see it now, I'm amazed at how fast these things can grow. I'm finding it very difficult to not scrutinize every pot for new signs of growth at 10 minute intervals . The beans have some out, as well as the beginings of some mesclun mix I planted about 5 days ago. I'll try to borrow a camera and put up some more pictures. When should I start feeding the plants? I'm guessing I should wait until they've established a decent root system right?

If it's there, use it!

nah, phone books don't bruise. Interesting thing, this electric stunner. The website says it takes a fraction of a second to "stun" the lobster, but about 5 seconds to kill it (and I think about 10 s for crab). How would this compare to other methods of dispatching. I think both boiling water and the knife technique operate on a similar timescale, am I wrong?

I just picked up a copy of Pino Luongo's "La Mia Cucina Toscana". I haven't cooked anything from it yet, but the recipes look great.

In mayo-dressed chicken salad, playing with the source of acidity is another source of endless variation. Balsamic, sherry, red/white wine, and apple cider vinegars all add their own character as well any citrus juice.

I meant that being blissfully ignorant of where one's food comes from is nothing to be proud of. I have absolutely no problem with eating veal/lamb/foie gras, as long as it's from a farm/production system that I trust. There's no reason why we should eat anything served to us as an "act of faith". Indeed one would most likely be mistaken if he/she thought that buying meat at a restaurant was in any way an assurance of ethical sourcing. Also, I think trends are changing so that many restaurants are putting up this sort of information. Like you, I believe foie gras *can* be produced humanely. I guess I read a bit too fast. Apologies for the confusion.

Thanks, I do what I can . It was a pretty big rabbit (I think), roughly 3lbs. I actually thought butchering a rabbit was very instructive. Because I'm thankfully not in a situation where I see a lot of carcasses, handling a small vertebrate finally let me see exactly where most meat cuts are located, except in miniature. I already knew most of it before hand, but I just thought it was really cool to see the rib turn into the t-bone and then the saddle. I can't say it really bothered me at all. Seeing as there is another one in my freezer, I don't think I have a choice ! For roughly the same price as a free-range chicken of the same weight, I would say I could buy some more. Being domestic, the taste is pretty mild but I think it's different enough from chicken to make a nice change every once in a while. I could see how this would happen (and I emphasize completely), but would you really rather have supermarket beef? Try to take comfort in the knowledge that your cattle probably led very peaceful and contented lives, which is more than most can say...

Factory farming was not invented to feed the poor, and is a modern invention. In the times which you seem to refer too, most farming was done relatively ethically, precisely because people could not afford to do otherwise. Even *if* this arguments was correct, it would not change the fact that we are able to make those choices now. The choice of how and what to eat is something we must grapple with in the present, regardless of the historical status of the issue. I wouldn't be too proud of this... While it may be true that there is no absolute rights or wrong (a truism if I ever heard one), it doesn't mean have a carte blanche to abuse other living beings. I would certainly regard eating veal which was separated from its mother at birth in order to be confined in a small dark box and fed crap less moral than eating veal which was allowed to pasture with the herd until a certain age and then killed. This may be a murky territory, but that only makes discussion of the issue more relevant. I agree with most of your points about hypocrisy.

There have been no further assaults on my garden, but I may still pick up some chickenwire today.. . I had thought about deck protectors, but then promptly forgot , I'll cut up some small pieces of scrap wood to put under the pots (I'm amazed that you noticed!) On a happy note:

As it so happens, I also just cooked a rabbit for the first time. Here is the uncut rabbit Cutting it up was pretty easy, although there is some trimming. As you can see, the kidneys were still encased in fat: After trimming and removing the legs: Final cut: I braised the rabbit with orange, white wine, tomato sauce, mushrooms, dried chiles, onions and rosemary (A recipe in Mario Batali's Simple Italian food).

A few posters have talked about the guilt associated with eating meat. What is this guilt centered on? I used to feel guilty about buying meat that had likely come from suffering animals, and the solution was to stop buying this meat at home (gradually, this is expanding towards eating out as well). In fact, we haven't eaten pork since moving to Kingston because we couldn't find a source we trusted (this situation was recently, and very happily, resolved ). More importantly, buying our meat locally from sources we trust has done far more than simply alleviate guilt, it supports the sort of system we want to live in and makes the whole process thoroughly enjoyable. As we learn more, we find ourselves equally repulsed by the products of intensive vegetable farming as by factory meat. I think most people can better relate to animals than intensive corn production, (although see this).

Our patio is isolated and none of our neighboors have cats so I don't think this is the cause. I will try to pick up some chickenwire asap, thanks for the suggestion. Once the plants are established, this should cease to be a problem?

Thanks for the compliments! That's what I like about eGullet; positive reinforcment (I can only dream of what will happen if something actually grows in said pots ). Today I noticed that two of the pots looked like something had clawed through them. Could these be pigeons or squirrels? I could find some of the seeds (which had germinated), but I think I lost a few. I strung some aluminium foil near the pots, is there anything else I should be doing? I'd hate for my garden to be decimated because of something like this. Maybe I can fill a decoy pot with warfarin (just joking.... maybe ). edited to add that I hope my garden turns out half as nice as Petite Tête de Chou's

How long did it take to get to that stage?

I thought I'd throw in a picture of our patio garden for this year. This is our first time doing this (there's always been a vegetable garden at my parent's home but I mostly just reaped the benefits). We severely underestimated the amount of soil required, so I am unable to plant until we go get some more (we're also limited by whatever we can carry on the bus ). On the right I planted peas (Amish snap) and beans (Black-seeded Italian) and on the left I planted tomatoes (Mrs. Bot's Italian Giant) and pickling cucumbers (Parisian Cornichons). When we have the opportunity we'll put in some beets (Detroit Dark Red), carrots(Little Finger), as well as various herbs (chives, savory, basil, chervil, parsley) and salads (mache, salad mix, radishes) in the smaller pots. Hopefully this will be manageable and with luck I will get something edible...

When I got my eGullet membership. (also, when I was one I buried my face inside my birthday cake instead of blowing out the candle)

I grilled the pork rib chop confit I made last week today. I only confited one chop since this was an experiment, but I wished I had done another one! I followed the Charcuterie recipe, letting it confit for 6 hrs, and I made sure to heat up the chop in the oven beforehand so as to not dry it out on the grill. There was about 1/2" of fat on the outside that charred up sublimely The loin segment the chop was defininitely not dry, but neither was it melt in your mouth delicious as the rest of the chop (I was warned ). The texture was like slightly overcooked prok, but with lots of fat to compensate. I may try another one, confiting at closer to 150 for longer. I'm sure this is true of all confits, but these grill up beautifully. Since they are saturated with fat they char up evenly and quickly.

I think, on the balance, this is a great thing: I'm happy seeing breeding programs for something other than shelf life and size although there are occasionally the inevitable "misses". And I definitely don't think it's Frankenfood (a term I usually limit to transgenic organisms),

I'm going to try the pork confit this week, minus the pink salt (don't yet have any). I was thinking of confiting (?) rib chops, then grilling them.