phatj

Yeah, I know my setup isn't ideal, but as I said, I've had good results in the past.

If there already exists a thread for this purpose, please feel free to merge this with it. I couldn't find one. If you make a dish that turns out all wrong, despite following the recipe to a "T" or using previously-successful methods, post your story here. Hopefully the eGullet culinary wizards can help. I'll start: tonight I smoked pork spareribs, one of my favorite meals of all time. I've done these successfully a few times in the past. My method is as follows: remove membrane from back of ribs; rub with spice mixture; wrap and refrigerate for ~24 hours; put soaked wood chips in aluminum trays directly on the burner baffle on one side of the grill; heat with the one burner on high until chips are smoking, then turn heat down and put the meat on the other side; watch temp to keep it between 200-250F and replenish wood chips as necessary; remove ribs after ~4 hours. Tonight, they turned out really, really boring. Tender enough, but very little smoke flavor, and even the crusty outer bits were lacking in flavor, despite the rub. My rub: ~2 T paprika ~1 T ground cumin ~1 T table salt ~1 t garlic powder ~1 t freshly-ground black pepper ~1 t ground thyme ~1 t ancho chili powder ~1/2 t cayenne powder In one previous attempt, I had a lack of smoky taste, but the ribs were flavorful overall. I attributed the lack of smokiness at the time to the fact that I just had one pan of wood chips that didn't even burn through in four hours. This time, I had to replenish the wood five or six times, so there was plenty of smoke. The only thing I can think of is that it was pretty windy, and at times I could see a lot of smoke pouring out of the holes in the sides of the grill. Aside from the smoke problem, they seemed underseasoned overall. I'll probably use more salt next time, but otherwise I think my rub should be fine. Thoughts?

NO SAUERKRAUT! I've had a Kielbasa dish with beans and tomatos, similar to this recipe, but .... SB (no sauerkraut, what next?) ← Steve, I'll probably give the sauerkraut a try at some point. I've grown to appreciate reubens, I can probably dig sauerkraut with kielbasa. But sauerkraut is not a favorite of mine. Beans are just out, though. I thought I wasn't a picky eater...

I should have specified "no sauerkraut" in my request. Any other ideas? EDIT: I just noticed I posted this in the wrong forum. If someone could move this to "Cooking," I'd appreciate it.

I was perusing my local butcher looking for porky things to smoke, my pork- and smoked-meat-hating wife being away for the weekend, and I come across fresh kielbasa. I've never seen this stuff before, although I enjoy smoked kielbasa of the Hillshire Farms ilk. It looked pretty unassuming, more or less like a raw Italian sausage, but it was just $3/lb, so I picked some up. I just braised one length of it with beer and onions, as my smoking apparatus is currently clogged with ribs. Wow! Tender and juicy, with great garlicky pork flavor. I'm thinking I'll smoke the rest tomorrow. Should I expect something similar to the standard supermarket kielbasa? By the way, I can only hot-smoke; I can't hold temps under ~200F. Any other suggestions for cooking this stuff, when I eventually buy more?

Spicy Orange Beef Stir-fry Serves 4 as Main Dish. This is an adaptation of a previous recipe of mine: Spicy Orange-Garlic Beef Braise. It's very spicy as written. To tone it down, reduce the number of chiles or leave them whole. 2 T oil (such as peanut) 1 tsp sesame oil 4 whole cloves garlic, sliced 1 oz fresh ginger, cut into matchsticks 5 dried Asian chiles, cut in half lengthwise to release seeds 2 large onions, cut into wedges 8 oz steak (cheap -- chuck works fine), cut into thin 1-inch strips zest of one orange juice of one orange 2 T soy sauce salt freshly-ground black pepper 1. In a wok or large heavy skillet over high heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add garlic, ginger & chiles and saute, stirring frequently, until garlic just starts to brown. Remove spices with a slotted spoon and reserve. 2. Add onions and season with salt & pepper, then saute, stirring frequently, until just beginning to brown. Add beef and saute until browned. While onions and/or beef are cooking, chop reserved garlic, ginger and chiles. 3. Add orange zest and reserved garlic, ginger and chiles and stir until fragrant, ~30 seconds. Add orange juice and soy sauce and stir well. Remove from heat. Serve over hot rice. Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Beef, Dinner, Hot and Spicy ( RG1963 )

Silicone handles would help on the stove top, but not in the oven -- silicone eventually heats up (which is why it's used for bakeware). The "heat-proof" part refers to the fact that it won't melt, not that it doesn't get hot. That's the reason I think silicone potholders are a bad idea -- they're fine for a short time, but if you're holding a pan for a long period of time, say, to take cookies off a baking sheet, they become unbearably hot by the time you're done. ← This sounds good to me. My problem with using potholders or towels is that I generally feel clumsy handling the pan if I can't grip the handle directly. So, pans with stay-cool silicone handles for stove-top use, that are also oven-safe, sounds like a good compromise. I realize that the handles on things coming out of the oven are going to be hot, regardless of material -- I guess someone who's more a creature of habit might have a problem with that.

If one can buy silicone spatulas and the like that advertise heat-proofness above 500 degrees, why can't one buy silicone-handled pots that are useful at the consumer level?

I did simmer the fat with the stock. I usually do for whatever stock I'm making, because I find it easier to remove the fat after the fact if there's a good thick solid cap of it on top of the stock after chilling.

I actually find the smell of the germ bothersome. As to tuna, in Hawaii for dinner one night, I had an Ahi steak that was fully cooked. It tasted mostly like canned tuna. Later in the same trip, I had some Ahi sashimi that was fantastic. I suppose the cooked steak probably wasn't prepared as well as it could have been.

Oh, God, and it squeeks, too! <shudder> ← I loathe cooked cabbage (with the aforementioned exception of egg rolls, and I also don't mind it in stir fries), although not for that reason. Your mention of it reminded me of water chestnuts, though. I used to complain that their crunchiness had a "squeaky" quality that set my teeth on edge.

Last night, after boning the leg of lamb I roasted for tonight's dinner, I discovered I had bones and assorted fatty trimmings from three legs (I'm guessing it was about three pounds total), so I decided to make stock. The stock smelled wonderfully lamb-y as it was simmering. However, after skimming (and reserving) the fat, then straining and reducing the stock, I'm left with about a cup of hyper-concentrated lamb-flavored fat and a quart of tasty, but only vaguely meaty, and ever-so-slightly lamb-y stock. I know that a lot of chemicals that give food their aromas and flavors are fat-soluble; however, from my experience with other stocks I was expecting more flavor of the meat to assert itself in the stock, especially after reduction. (I had about six quarts to start with, and it's reduced to less than one right now.) (Full disclosure: I didn't have enough time to simmer the stock as long as I would have liked. It was only about five hours. Nevertheless, I was expecting more flavor.) Is this normal? Is lamb different from other meats in that it's flavoring compounds are mostly insoluble in water? Or did I just not simmer it enough? In the meantime, what do I do with this stuff? The fat, particularly. I thought about roasting potatoes in it to go with the lamb, but I was afraid they would be too strong-tasting even for me, and I love lamb. I don't have sausage-making equipment, or I might try that. Other ideas? What about the stock, too? It's a little sweet as it is, from I'm guessing Maillard reactions while reducing. Reducing it further would make it too sweet to use full strength, but diluting it would render it awfully bland.

Why a braise, specifically? Coincidentally, I have a butterflied leg of lamb rolled up with a tomato paste-herb mixture, sitting in the fridge waiting to be roasted tomorrow.

Who says you shouldn't wash mushrooms? I've heard they shouldn't be soaked, because they'll readily absorb water, but I'll certainly rinse and scrub them as needed if they have clumps of dirt clinging to them.

Cooked cruciferous vegetables. I can handle lightly steamed broccoli or stir-fried cabbage, but that's about it. The mere thought of "braised cabbage" makes me want to retch. I like most such veggies raw, though. I'm another liver hater, with the exception of pates. I don't care for cilantro, but don't quite hate it. One of my most disappointing dining experiences, though, involved ordering a basil-cilantro pesto dish. I was and am a huge fan of basil pesto, but didn't realize that I didn't like cilantro. Ugh.

This is how I normally use my current Microplane. Hopefully I can find a way make the new one work similarly.

Thanks all. After further inspection, I have concluded that the plastic sheath can actually function as a makeshift handle, should I need it. The thing is longer than I would realistically need, and the sheath fits quite snugly, so I can just partially unsheath it and hold it by the plastic should I desire a handle.

I received in the mail today my "Free Gift" from Cook's Illustrated, a Microplane zester. (I have no idea what I did to deserve this, but the included packing list says I don't owe anything, so I'm keeping it.) It's nice enough, including the heavy plastic sheath that's de rigeur these days (my old one just has a cardboard sheath, which I still use). But it has no handle, which pretty seriously limits its usefulness. As you can just barely see in the linked photo, it has at one end two offset holes; would it be feasible to attach some sort of third-party handle to this thing? Any other suggestions, short of using Vice Grips to clamp onto one end? Obviously it would have to be pretty cheap or I might as well just go buy a new Microplane, with a handle and the plastic sheath. Link

I've had pretty good results with the grocery store standard Marsala cooking wine. As long as you account for the added salt, it's OK. However, I never thought of freezing wine before; next time I make veal Marsala, I'll probably buy a bottle of "real" Marsala and freeze what I don't use.

What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Informal, except that we always ate together at dinner whenever possible, and dinner was always at the dining table, never in front of the TV. Was meal time important? It wasn't set in stone, and was moved around as needed when my brother and I grew up and started getting involved in sports. Was cooking important? Nobody in my immediate family was what I would call a foodie, but a basic knowledge of cooking was important and from about the age of 12 my brother and I were responsible for cooking dinner once a week. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? None that I recall. It certainly isn't an issue now. Who cooked in the family? When I was very young, my mom cooked almost exclusively. She is a competent cook of the Betty Crocker school, with some Depression-era frugality learned from her parents. My dad took over primary cook duties when I was around 12 or so. He was much more experimental, which resulted in some disasters but on the whole he's a better cook. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occasions? We went out to inexpensive restaurants like pizza parlors or buffets pretty much weekly as far back as I can recall. When we became old enough to appreciate it, we started going to fancier places once in a while. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? No, except at large family holidays. When did you get that first sip of wine? I think it was at a Passover Seder. I didn't care for it at all. Was there a pre-meal prayer? Only when eating with my mother's parents (mostly Thanksgiving and Christmas and the like). Then there was a brief prayer followed by a song. Was there a rotating menu? No, but there were of course recurring favorites. Macaroni and cheese and spaghetti with meat sauce were common when I was young, largely replaced by things like stir-fries and pesto when I was older. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? Very little. At present my wife and I have no children, so there's very little structure. I the sole cook, but I only cook maybe three or four days a week, generally making enough so there are leftovers for both lunch and dinner the next day. We mostly eat in front of the TV. I expect that this will all change if/when we have kids, and we'll use more or less the same "culture" as I experience growing up. My wife had a similar upbringing, so there shouldn't be any conflict.

This was the only cookbook I owned for a few years. I rarely open it any more, but once in a while I do for ideas. My recipes for beef stew, leg of lamb and onion soup evolved from Bittman's.

Here 'Ya go! That's just what I found in a quick search of ebaY. ← Thanks. Unfortunately, as we determined that Black & Decker seems to no longer make these items, we removed and discarded the metal heat shield/mounting bracket, which was sold separately. We would need that as well to be able to hang one of these again. I'm a little leery of doing so, though, until I can determine what became of these things. Did they just not sell, or were they discontinued for safety reasons?

What happened to Black & Decker's SpaceSaver toaster ovens? We had one that died an untimely death, and now have no toaster at all because we couldn't buy a direct replacement and I don't have counter or cabinet space to spare. Anyway, on my counters I have a coffee maker, microwave and miniature food processor (really just an electric chopper). Of these, only the latter takes up what otherwise might be work space; the coffee maker and micro are on the opposite end of the room from my regular workspace on a microwave cart. Not the most convenient for filling the coffeepot but an acceptable compromise. In drawers and cabinets I have an electric knife, an coffee grinder, an air popper, a KitchenAid mixer (I'd love to have room to keep this out all the time), a rechargeable battery-powered cheese grater, a Crock Pot and a blender.

I assume by this you mean it's not worth growing your own? I'd go so far as to say that whole heads of fresh garlic aren't worth buying, at least not this time of year, unless you have a source for really good fresh garlic. The stuff I can find in supermarkets is mostly starting to sprout before I even get it home. It's a big hassle to cut the cloves and dig out the green parts. A couple months ago I bought the giant plastic container of whole peeled cloves from Costco. I don't have it handy, but it's probably about two pounds of garlic cloves, for just a few bucks. The flavor isn't quite as good as fresh, but it's hassle-free.

Anyone who has ever used a bong (for tobacco or legal herbs, of course) can tell you that you certainly can impart a smoky flavor to water.