BRM

I made the Chicken Galantine from the book this weekend. It turned out really well I think. We had some people over for Super Bowl and served it...big hit!

I peeled fresh ginger and grated it with a microplane grater for about two cups. Added that to two cups of vodka and let sit for a couple of weeks. Then strained through a coffee filter and added an equal amount of simple syrup that was two parts water to one part sugar. You could use a more concentrated simple syrup but I did not want it to be super sweet. I will look for the Thai candied ginger and try that, I like that ginger burn.

It does seem to me that there are two demographics. The neighborhood diners during the week and the Friday/Saturday crowd that is more likely to include people who drive in from the suburbs. But it leaves me wondering what how to appeal to each group. Would prix fixe menus work for the Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday crowd?

I just finished a batch of Ginger-cello and I gotta tell you, it is very good! I used less sugar to begin with because I wanted it to be hotter and not as sweet. Might try some galangal for an extra flavor note next time. My wife is a big fan of ginger.

For something a little different there is a recipe in one of the Jean-George cookbooks I have where he grinds dry mushrooms into a coarse powder and uses it to 'bread' a lamb loin that is then lightly seared and roasted. I've made it and its pretty good.

Is he talking about sea turtles (in which case I agree...they are highly endangered) or land turtles. I'm not aware that the land variety are endangered. I'm also not aware that they are eaten. But I stand ready to be proven wrong on both counts.

That pasta filling really does sound good. I wish venison was easier to come by in the US. One question...I've had trouble putting stuffed pasta in the freezer. When I cook it a lot of them crack on the rounded side and the filling leaks into the water. When I freeze I put the pasta onto a sheet pan until just firm (a couple of hours) and then into sealed plastic bags. Do you anything differently?

Right before christmas my wife and I had dinner at Splendido's in Toronto. We had a venison and foie gras terrine there that was fabulous. I tried my own version for New year's eve. I was pretty happy with how this turned out. Our waiter told us that, at the restaurant, their nickname for this dish is mosaic. So that's what I called mine. Lamb and foie gras 'mosaic'

For new year's eve I did (or at least tried) two spherifications. One was porcini mushroom and thyme and the other was acorn squash and smoked ham (no actual ham solids in the spheres - just in the stock for flavoring). As you can see the mushroom one worked really well, the squash did not, but the squash one tasted better. I didn't measure the pH of either, but i figured that the squash wasn't too acidic yet it still failed miserably. I even put some more SA in the stock to see if that would help - didn't. Any ideas why?

=R= ← In Woodman's case I have heard he is a very hard guy to work with. I also eat at Levain a fair bit and all of the servers and line staff there are happy he's gone. I suspect the same happened at Five. I honestly don't know what the appeal of school lunch programs are for a chef of Bixby Daugherty's caliber. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

The chef at Cosmos, Seth Bixby Dougherty just left. I haven't heard if they've found a replacement. But it bears watching. I have to say that I ate at Chambers Kitchen last friday and it was great fun. To some extent, I think those place are designed for the see-and-be-seen crowd and if that is the case then my wager is that most of them will go to Chambers. Here's the story from the Strib (might require registration)

I went into Whole Foods near my house the other day to see if I could buy casings from them. They said no. I presume each store must be free to make its own decisions about stuff like that because others in this thread have gotten them there.

I've also had good luck starting with unpasteurized vinegar which is available at health food stores. Vinegar is a bit like making compost..it just happens.

Depending on the consistency of the sauce that you like I have sometimes taken the time to remove all of the meats/veg and strain the cooking liquid like a sauce. You can then add flavors to it like the demi mentioned above, more wine, cognac, etc. and reduce it to more of a glaze. Keeps the meats tightly covered during this step or they will dry out. Its a bit of work, but makes for some nice presentation. Even though you said you were only interested in basic, I also like the orange peel idea. I have added ancho chilies and peels to beef stews and the results were great. Tamarind paste is also very good with these flavors. The chilies really mellow as it cooks.

I got mine (a Haake) on eBay as well and it came without clamps. Even without the clamps it rests very securely on the rim of one of my stockpots with is what I use for most of my SV. So my advice would be to get it home and see if you really need them.

I got a Haake immersion circulator on e-bay for $100 and a vaccuum sealer from Target. Another route you cold go might be to modify your stove or a hot plate as in this post. The stove mod is also intriguing because it woudl also allow constant temp for things like deep frying.

Rubashov, Thanks for the thorough rundown. I think I am going to go with the KA attachment for now and see where that leads me. I have actually looked at some dedicated electric grinders and they aren't as pricey as I thought they might be. If I find myself doing a lot of sausage I may look into one of those. I am going to have to clear a shelf in the basement for all of the toys that I am accumulating as part of following threads on eGullet. Let's see...there was the immersion circulator and vacuum sealer for sous vide, now the meat grinder and sausage stuffer...oh well. Thanks again.

Sorry I missed the first part of this thread. I am in Minneapolis now but grew up in South Carolina and Tennesee. There was an article in The Economist shortly before the Atlanta Olympics that asked this same question. The conclusion they came to was "the South" was approximately the same as the natural range of kudzu. Not a bad proxy if you think about it.

So, I have been lurking eGullet for quite some time now. Just a few weeks ago I bought the book and did the duck procuitto in time for thanksgiving. This morning I had my first taste of my own homemade bacon and, like Susan said above (like 50 or so pages ago), it was an epiphany. I was so much more meaty and flavorful than storebought. I smoked it to an internal temp of about 140 which took 2.5 hours and then changed my smoker over to cold smoke and did that for another 3 hours (until I ran out of chips). I have a bit of work to get the saltiness just right, mine was just a bit too salty, but still fabulous. I think I am going to give bacon to my family as christmas presents. I'm setting my sights on sausages next. The andouille looks really good. One question though...I don't have a meat grinder. I could have my butcher to do it but I'd like to do it myself and I think I would get continuing use out of a grinder. It seems to me that most of the efforts here used the KA grinder attachment. It is generally the consensus that is the way to go or is it worth investing in a manual grinder? I know there are other meat grinder topics recently but they seem to be more about 'which type of manual' or 'which type of electric'. My question is more 'which type of grinder'? Show of hands anyone? ...and that is my first eGullet post.