sandercohan

The format is probably by design -- it'd be impossible to get these guys away from their kitchens/business managers for three weeks while they film it all. The way they did it is probably easier -- two days an episode, then a call back for the final. I enjoyed the show -- good, laid back television.

Yep. I figured it was a pretty terrible idea. Thanks for all your help! Sander

Hi guys, What are people's experiences with downdraft hoods? I'm putting in a gas range and due to a long complicated tale involving duct work, I'm looking for some alternative options. I've found that people either love them or hate them. What models would people recommend? Is it possible to have a good reciprocating downdraft hood? Thanks, Sander

Hi, Our kitchen redesign is finally starting to gain traction. We've gotten contractors to call us back, and now we're starting to make some decisions on how it will look. I'll post photos once things get underway. The kitchen footprint is very small, and given its orientation (and our budget) putting in a full vent hood is not an option. I'm fine with that and I'll put in a recirculating vent. One, slightly irritating, discussion we keep having is that people keep asking us "where will the microwave go?" to the point where I think the microwave lobby is paying people to say that to us. We don't really use microwaves (we don't have one now), but I acknowledge that once we have kids and when we decide to sell the house, a microwave would be helpful. So its going into the design. Fine. My wife wants to put it over the stove. I think this is kind of ugly and slightly impractical and want to put it elsewhere. Am I being insane? Putting it elsewhere might mean less counterspace (which is a premium in this scenario) How are people's experiences with over-the-range microwaves? Thanks s

This is what I was going to suggest! I have very fond memories of doing this exact exercise in nursery school....thirty years ago. s

I have the Chef's Choice #632. I love it. I got it because I wanted a meat slicer and that's what they sold at Williams Sonoma (where I had a ton of gift cards). It's a good entry level product for small projects. I wouldn't use it for large scale projects (catering, etc...), but it's compact, pretty, and easy to handle. Cleanup is a bit cumbersome, I would have liked dishwasher safe components, but whatever, its not that big and its only five minutes out of my life. Half price, I think it would be a great idea. No experience with the serrated blade. That might be my next purchase. s

Liberating isn't it? We have not bought bacon since starting to cure our own. It is also economical since bellies are around $2 / lb or less and good bacon is more like $10 / lb and up... ← Nice work. That looks really tasty. Your photos lead me to an interesting question -- does it matter which side is up when you smoke your bellies? I noticed you put yours skin-side down. When I did mine a few weeks ago, I smoked them skin side up. Is there a difference, you think?

Seriously. Really drives home the meaning of "marks from where the jockey was hitting it" I'll probably just cut it out. Its a pretty large belly anyway, and it'll give me a good excuse to see if the cure made its way to the middle or not before I set to smoking it.

Here you go. It's not as pretty as Chris' photography, but any help with the diagnosis would be great. Lemme know if you need another angle. Thanks! I promise to publish photos of the finished product to offset the ghastliness of this one.

Guys, I need some help "troubleshooting" some of my bacon. I'll post pictures tonight, but maybe my description will yield a quick answer. I ordered a pork belly from niman ranch last week (which, on the downside, arrived frozen, but, on the upside, was way bigger than I expected), thawed it, and parceled it into four smaller bellies (about 4 lbs each) to make bacon, maple bacon, pancetta, and salt pork. I realize this is really bacon, bacon, bacon, and bacon, but I'm working on technique here. Anyway, they've been sitting in their respective cures in 2.5 gallon ziplocks, stacked on each other in a drawer in my refrigerator since Saturday afternoon, overhauling every other day (or so). I plan to pull them out on Friday to begin phase 2. My maple bacon seems to have developed a "bruise". Maybe I didn't notice it before, but it definitely has a dark spot that appears to be below the skin (i.e. not USDA dye or green mold). Its fairly large, probably about 1.5-2 inches in diameter. Should I be worried? My instinct is to cut it out, but I don't want to overreact. I also don't want to get sick, either. Thoughts?

My parents put in two dishwashers when they redid their kitchen fifteen years ago. It really worked out nicely when they entertained. My friends, however, made fun of me mercilessly. I'd like to think they were jealous.

I have to second the Tuesday and Wednesday night tasting menus at Ten Tables. Very nice meals, appropriate amounts of food, and not very pretentious at all.

Hey guys, So my fiancee and I are spending our honeymoon in Vancouver Island. We'll be there from June 9-15. We're spending two nights on Mayne Island, then moving onto Tofino, where we're going to spend three nights, then trucking back to Vancouver, where we'll spend one night there before heading back to Boston. Yep, it's a lot of driving and a lot of ferry trips, but we love both (we're big fans of the Maine coast), so there you go. We also really like to eat. We have plans to eat at Pointe in Tofino, but I wanted to get some recommendations from you guys for some other spots, especially if there are some "must-try" places. Also, if you have an idea of a really great lunch place between Victoria and Tofino that would be much obliged. Our tastes run pretty broad, and your suggestions don't have to be fancy, or even sit-down. Thanks for your help! Sander

I've been ruminating on that movie as well. All the ideas I have are good, but not nec. fine dining (much like the movie, actually). I haven't seen the movie in a while, either, so my memory might be foggy: 1. Something involving chile peppers, evoking the scene where they accidentally kill the hitman sent to take care of them. 2. Lloyd is a pet groomer -- something with hot dogs/sausages? 3. The whole end of the movie takes place in aspen, and involves the untimely demise of a snow owl (or was it a whooping crane...I might be confusing it "PCU"). There you can go in the small cooked bird direction. Okay, enough of this.... A braised rabbit evoking Fatal Attraction would have been just beautiful dark genius. No Chicago movies, either. Risky Business Puttanesca anyone? s

I tend to tolerate the Ronzoni. Which is (sigh) fine. I think the real solution is to eat pasta less often, or perhaps in smaller portions.

So the fiancee and I bought a fantastic house -- very much a right place at the right time situation -- a 1930's era brick colonial. While everything is in decent shape -- the previous owner was an engineer for the DPW who was meticulous about maintenance -- the kitchen is very small and needs some updating, especially for folks like us who like to cook (me) and entertain (my fiancee). On the upside, though, I get to re-do the kitchen how I like it. On the downside, our funds are limited. I'll post photos in a bit b/c I'm sure you folks would have some interesting ideas on how I can update the space, but my first question is about appliances. Do people have recommendations on good "entry level" gas ranges, refrigerators, and dishwashers (we need all three)? I can't afford a $3000 rig, but I could probably swing something in the $1500 range, for example. Thanks, Sander

Hello, So my in-laws are taking my fiancee and I along with them on their winter tour of the Amalfi coast -- it was a pretty good deal (heck, it's winter) from a package tour company here in Boston. Nevertheless, they're very generous folks. We'd like to take them out to dinner for at least one of the nights to thank them for their holiday present. Any recommendations? We're staying all four nights in the Hotel La Bussola in Amalfi, making day trips to Pompeii, Paestrum/Salerno, Capri, and Sorrento/Positano. How is the hotel, by the way? Dinner is included there all four nights, but I'm assuming its the same old boring glop they serve to the fanny-pack set, especially in the off-season and with the dollar what it is. If that's the case, we'll probably take them out to dinner more than once. Thanks, Sander

That's what I was screaming at the television. Apparently, btw, there is such a thing as good nursing home food. My future MIL works at a fancy nursing home (er, elderly community) around here, and good food is one of the things they advertise. I don't know how good, but from the sound of it it's far better than your average institution. I'm not sure the Asian Cowboy is from such an institution, though. Could be surprising. Didn't a cafeteria chef beat the odds last season and last for quite a while, mostly because she was habitually the best of the worst? s

I got my package of hog casings from butcher & packer, and I'm going to embark on some sausage making and football tomorrow afternoon. It's likely that I won't use the entire package -- how much salt should I use to re-pack my leftovers? Just salt? or a heavy brine? s

My girlfriend has requested a banana cream pie this weekend for a dinner party we're throwing (that's the way it works around here...I'm just the catering staff -- I'm no good at the "front of the house" stuff). Any favorite recipes? s

So, I'm working on my remedial Charcuterie course, and I'm working through the pancetta recipe. Its been about a week since I took that sucker out of the cure, trussed it and hung it up to dry. The problem is that it seems to be drying a bit too fast for my taste -- its been a very dry week in Massachusetts. The outside is a bit tough, but not hard yet (I would say, springy). What do I do? My instinct is to declare it "done" after a week and get snackin', but would I be missing a step, or two? s

Okay, In a story a bit too long and boring to be entertaining, I have wound up with a pound and a half of pork maws. My question to you: What the heck are pork maws? Where do they come from (on the pig)? How does one cook them? I'm assuming there's a braise (or two) involved, but I didn't really eat this part of the pig growing up in the suburbs. thx. Sander

That sounds like an awesome, improvised fluffer-nutter (I am referring to the awesome combination of marshmellow fluff and peanut butter, spread on wonder bread. Pronounced "Fluffah-Nuttah" Seriously awesome, requires milk. But that could be the New Englander coming out in me.) you could even fancy it up by putting the peanut-butter spread marshmellow on a cut out circle of white bread toast (cut into a crustless circle). My brother eats peanut butter by taking a very large spoonfull, covering it with chocolate chips, and eating it like an ice cream cone. If you gave my girlfriend a jar of peanut sauce and a spoon, she would be a very happy woman indeed. Myself, I like it straight, with a spoon. perhaps with ice cream. s

When I lived in New York, the most horrifying thing was to see the storefront of the chinese place from where you got delivery -- not for good chinese, mind you, but for the terrible kind that your body requires every so often and then regrets later. It usually went something like "Hey! That's where [name of restaurant] is. Oh god...." Anyway, funny delivery story -- my roomate in college had a very specific pattern most days of the week. 5PM -- go to the gym. 6PM, upon arrival at home, call chinese place, order chicken with broccoli and vegetable dumplings with extra duck sauce from the chinese place on the corner. Not long thereafter-- Greet delivery guy, Generously tip. It got to the point where two really interesting things started happening. We'd call to order, and the person on the other end of the phone would answer "Hey Tom!" [they had caller ID, of course]. What got scarier was when the food would arrive not 10 minutes after hanging up the phone. Since it was about a five minute walk to the chinese place, we figured that Tom had gotten so predictable, that they were either rushing his food, or staging the meal, so that it would be ready to go as soon as he called. I've never seen that since. s

So, I've really enjoyed reading parts of this thread, and there are a lot of great tips in here....but man, 57 pages and counting? It's getting a bit hard to suss out the knowledge, especially for the beginner stuff (i.e. the trials an tribulations of Pancetta). Has anybody thought of putting together a Carcuterie FAQ? Is there a way to print out the entire thread, or get it into a format to be, er, sliced and diced into categories? sander