Steven Blaski

I had an epiphany in (of all places) Walmart this week. (Hey -- it's the only place in town where I can find beef cheeks, thanks to the store catering to the local Hispanic population). Anyway, two women came up behind me in the spice/flour/boxed scalloped potatoes aisle searching for something. By the looks of them, my jaundiced, prejudiced eye assumed (in a split second summing up) that they were probably seeking out Hamburger Helper or some other such atrocity. But when I passed by I overheard one of them announce, with eagerness and perhaps a touch of boastfulness, "I need to find the sea salt." My jaw almost dropped. I apologized to the lady -- silently -- for my unfair assessment of her and moved along, feeling hopeful about the state of foodways in America.

Is this the recipe you're referring to? ← I'd like to give Sue B's cake a try, but I have a couple of questions for those who have made it: what kind of cocoa did you use -- natural or dutched? And for the "2 cups flour" - is that dip&sweep or spoon&sweep (this is a pet peeve of mine -- recipes that don't specify -- damn, I wish we could banish volume measurements!). Thanks!

Does he really call for *bread* flour? I've never heard of a cookie with bread flour. Is that supposed to make it chewier? Seems like it would make one tough cookie.

Marcella Hazan, in her first or second book (and collected in the later "Essentials"), has a tasty and extremely quick and easy to make pear tart, which is really more like a pear cake. Couple of pounds of pear slices tossed with an egg-milk-sugar-flour batter and baked. Called, I believe, Farm Wife's Pear Tart. In the headnote she says something like - "only a wilful act of sabotage could ruin this easy to make cake." It really is a snap and delicious to boot.

I think King Arthur has changed their product line recently. If you go to their Bakers Catalogue site, they are selling a "Mellow Pastry Blend" in 3 lb. sizes. KA Pastry Blend The only pastry flour I have seen at Whole Foods is whole wheat. ← I've tried their Mellow Blend for pie crusts, which lowers the protein to around 10.3%, but I actually think their regular AP unbleached 11.7% produces a better pie crust -- at least in the all-butter pastry I make. I find it makes a flakier crust -- maybe the extra gluten provides more structure for the butter to do its flaky-layering thing. Maybe the same reason why some bakers call for bread flour when making danish pastry?

I tried CI's new pie crust recipe too and I liked it a lot -- it was almost like puff pastry. I would encourage you to not skip the 10-minute freezing of the (already cold) butter before blending -- I think it made all the difference in preventing over-processing, at least in the food processor, (which I prefer to use because I'm lazy and find it easier). I noticed that this recipe from CI is almost identical to Sherry Yard's all-butter "1-2-3 Flaky" crust in her wonderful "Secrets of Baking" book (save the sour cream - she uses 1/2 t vinegar instead) -- right down to the 10-minute freeze of the butter.

But what about a patty melt? I've never seen one that wasn't 2 sided. Edited to wave Hello to Sandy! ← Not to be argumentative... A "Patty Melt" by any other name is a freakin' cheeseburger!! Isn't Patty Melt just a silly Cheeseburger alternative name? Is there something different about a Patty Melt that makes it not a cheeseburger?? I'm deeply confused now... ← I don't want to be argumentative either (and I'm mainly doing this in the spirit of, well... spirited discussion). But no, a patty melt isn't just a cheeseburger any more than a tuna melt is just a tuna sandwich. A patty melt has grilled onions on it and is NOT served on a bun, but on rye bread and then grilled. At least that's the way I've always had them. Uh-oh! Could this mean we're gonna need a patty melt thread?!?!? ← This has also been my experience on both coasts and in between: a cooked hamburger topped with cheese on bread (usually rye), with grilled onions, then fried like a grilled cheese.

See here's my problem with this. Melkor's sandwich looks delicious, but I would call it a "Grilled Tuna Salad Sandwich". The sandwich Mr. Mooshmouse made upthread is a Tuna Melt. The word "Melt" implies that there's melted bubbly cheese on the top of the open-faced sandwich. A Turkey Melt is the same and another item I've seen on diner menus in the past. I realize this may be a regional thing or might be purely semantics at this point, but the two sided sandwich definition isn't working for me with the word MELT in the title. ← I must concur here. Growing up in the Midwest, I ate a gazillion tuna melts and I never ever saw anything but an open-faced sandwich. My favorite was how my mother made it: a simple tuna salad placed on a lightly toasted Thomas' English Muffin (split first of course) topped with a thin slice of cheddar and broiled (in the toaster oven) till the cheese bubbled. Steven

Sorry to join this thread so late, but I'm rather new to eGullet and just found this discussion.... Anyway, I wanted to share some information that perhaps sheds light on the reason for the inclusion of the lime in Katie's recipe. In Arthur Schwartz's excellent book, "Naples at Tables," he offers a recipe for limoncello; here is an excerpt from the headnote: "Campanian recipes usually call for a couple or a few green lemons (not limes) along with the yellow, as the greener lemons are the most fragrant, while the yellow the most flavorful. In the United States, it's difficult to find still-green lemons, but mottled green and yellow ones are often in the supermarket bins. Choose them." So perhaps Katie's lime is there both for its appearance -- to simulate the color of the green lemons -- and for its fragrance, which is perhaps more akin to the green lemons. If anyone can find some green or mottled green lemons, it would be interesting to see how they affect the flavor. As for Schwartz's own recipe, he calls for 2 pounds of lemons (peeled with a swivel-bladed peeler) a quart of grain alcohol, and a sugar syrup from 6 c water + 2.5 c sugar. (On the page previous to this recipe he gives a recipe for Liquore di Fragole -- Strawberry Liqueur -- that sounds delicious!) Steven

I make homemade orange liqueur or "44" and it's delicious. The recipe I use is from "Patricia Wells At Home in Provence." It's one large fragrant organic orange with 44 (thus the name) coffee beans implanted via small slits into the fruit, 22 sugar cubes (or 6 TB granulated sugar) all steeped in a quart of clear eau-de-vie or vodka. You're supposed to set it aside for 44 days as well, but I can't always wait that long.

Frijoles de olla with garlic jack shredded on top, nuked for two minutes.

It was a meatloaf, 40 years ago ... I was a mere child and no food snob (yet), but I still recall with fresh revulsion and astonishment the worst meal of my life. I was a guest for dinner at the house of a playmate of mine. I don't remember if there was a side dish, all I recall is the meatloaf. This was not my Midwest mother's hamburger-egg-saltines-topped-with-Heinz-ketchup and baked to produce brown, firm slices meatloaf. No. This meatloaf was a mishapen lump of gray. I don't mean brownish gray, I mean grey gray. Then there was the texture -- somehow gummy and gristly and soggy all at once. Its surface was pocked with numerous little pools of watery fat. The flavor, if you could call it that, was something akin to rancid dishwater. No presence of salt. I remember eyeing the meatloaf as it was presented to me with some suspicion, but at that tender age I had yet to encounter something truly inedible. I came from a family of good cooks. So despite its unappetizing look, I took a trusting bite ... I gagged. And then I looked around me in disbelief and wonder as the rest of the family -- mother, father, two children -- casually devoured their meatloaf. As though it were normal food. I couldn't spit the meatloaf out, I was too polite for that, but I certainly wasn't going to risk swallowing it. I pretended to cough and spit the vile mouthful into my napkin. I spent the rest of the meal clutching my squishy napkin and pushing uneaten bites around the plate, wondering what planet I had suddenly stumbled onto. Afterwards, I asked my friend, trying not to sound judgmental, if he had truly liked the meatloaf. I was trying to get a fix on food standards. "Of course I liked it, why wouldn't I?" he said, defensively. "But it was so ... so awful," I said, bewildered. "My mother said you were rude," he replied. "She says you think you're too good for her cooking."

Congrats, Ling and happy birthday! BTW, to ensure a perfectly level layer each time, I recommend investing in Magi-Cake Strips - they're metallic fabric strips that you soak in water then wrap around the pans before baking. They inhibit the doming of the layers. You can get them at most kitchen shops off and online for less than $10.

I second Apicio's enthusiasm for the apple cakes -- especially Ligita's & Margaret's -- I make them both often, the former if I'm especially hurried but want something very simple and delicious. Sax's book is definitely one of my des(s)ert island picks. Some of the other delicious and reliable favorites: Oatmeal Shortbread Squares Boston Cream Pie Claremont Diner Coconut Cream Pie Lutz's Chocolate Cream Pie Dried-Fruit Mincemeat Pie with Lattice Cream Cheese Crust (great for holidays)

According to the following recipe, which discusses the cake's origins and related info at some length, the dessert originated at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel: http://www.texascooking.com/features/may99redvelvet.htm BTW, this recipe for Red Velvet Cake is excellent. I made it for a couple of southerners a few months ago who asked for the cake, which I'd never heard of. I did some research and compared various versions and settled on this one. I was rather appalled at adding so much red dye (safe though it may be), but the resulting cake was delicious and rather stunning when cut into - the deep red set off by the white. Kitschy but pretty.

Thai curry pastes, coconut milk, panko, Penzy's Foxpoint seasoning, Hellman's mayo, evaporated milk (for baking recipes that call for whole milk), Saco cultured buttermilk powder, Keebler graham cracker crust mix, Knorr chicken bouillon powder (from the Mexican market). Achiote paste. Goya canned beans. Goya frozen tamales. Herdez salsas. I like to keep a bag of packaged croutons on hand too for various uses (I get mine at Costco). They're great for when you just need a bit of toasted breadcrumbs - like for adding to pasta. Just crush some in a baggie and sprinkle. I also like to keep a bottle of Noilly Pratt Vermouth around as a sub for white wine for deglazing, etc.

← I wanted to add my congratulations to Miss Lewis and Scott Peacock on the recent legal decision to allow her to remain in his care. From the NY Times article referenced above: "After a parade of social workers, doctors and lawyers dissected the situation, the judge decided in May [2005] that Miss Lewis was right where she belonged, with Mr. Peacock, who has power of attorney, but is not her legal guardian." "The Gift of Southern Cooking" - the 2003 book that the two of them produced together - is not only a fantastic collection of recipes (ooh, that Lane Cake!) but also a charming chronicle of the alliance of two unlikely but kindred souls.

"The Golden Butter Cream Cake" (p. 34) is fabulous with whipped cream and strawberries. "Buttermilk Country Cake" (p.41) is really good too. I top it with the Joy of Cooking (1997) "quick lemon icing" (p. 1006). Steven

Can anyone recommend their favorite vinegar brands for the three varieties below? red: white: champagne: Thanks. Steven