marinade

I have to agree with Rich. The motorcade idea seems to be the simplest from a logistical standpoint. Maybe we can back into a place for dessert or coffee or after BBQ cocktails at the end of the route. My suspicians that you're not going to be able to bring both of these joints out under mim costs per head. It would have to be one joint or another. But on the other hand is some pipes in with "You can use my back yard", then we may have something....

Right on target, How: Would be type of cooker, wood source, and technique What: Basic menu and some sides. As far as which option, B would be a fall back plan. With Option A: We'd have to do one or the other because the $ per head would be double with two "caterers". They probably have a mim price per person. Most public spaces may have an alcohol ban (insurance etc..). We have till the warm weather to think about it.

Andrew, glad you liked it. The baked beans stole my heart away! I ate them parked on State rd leaning over my passenger seat along with slaw and a crusty pulled pork. Even in this sub zero weather you can smell the smoke. Rich, had a thought about a DCC possibility. These folks are pretty mobile. Why not bring the joint to us? Know of a place or patch of land that can accomodate 50 or so smoke heads? Lets think on the possibilities for sometime in June. Re: The 'Cue Queue (sorry couldn't resist). Give me a few days to think of a list format. Something like Who, Where, When, How and What (food) with your collective zings Zagat style. Any other info that you'd like to see? Jim

Think this the time to start a survey of area BBQ pits? Now some of these are seasonal (when the flys come out) but I'd be curious as to whose blowing smoking and most inportantly --- how and with what wood. Some of the local trnds that I've been seeing is 'cue with convection (and some conviction). The convection cookers (eg Southern Pride)are restaurant hardware which is a convection oven, rotisserre set up. The temp is gas or electric driven and logs or wood chunks are used more to season the food rather than cook it. Zekes Main Line and the Bridgeport Rib House use setups like this. Then there's the par boilers. These seem to be inner city joints which parboil racks and then grill them. Is this a Lawnside style? Regional 'Cue seems to be all over the place. Chime in folks. I'd be happy to compile posts into a list. Jim

If Spanish editions don't pose a problen you may want to look into Celebrar el milenio con Arzak y Adrià - 2000 – 2001 Co-authored by Juan Mari Arzak and Ferran Adrià, and La Cocina de Los Postres by Oriol Balaguer an English edition dessert book by the pastry chef of El Bulli.

I'm not in front of the book right now but El Bulli 1998-2002 is the third book in a series spanning the restaurant's and Adria's recipe developement. The books are pubished in reverse chronological order. I was refering to the second of the series which is now published in Spanish with the English version to be published end of this year or early 2005.

Are we talking ElBulli 1998-2002 or the 2nd edition? I got mine (English edition 1998-2002) from Kitchen Arts & Letters in late November. The CD rom is in English USA, English UK (metric measurements) and Spanish. Price: $185.00 + Shipping, came to $193.00 Kitchen Arts & Letters 1435 Lexington Ave. (Upper East Side) at 93rd St. 212-876-5550

Nope! This is a DYI rig. I'll get back to ittomorrow or Thurs for a closer look at the cooker and a brisket sandwich (in the interest of scientific research, of course). Actually Joe is Francis Debreaux's husband, my mispelling. Been to their restaurant lots. Instead of Dwights I head into Zeke’s Main Line BBQ. Dwight's parboils and then grills and that sort of thing makes their ribs tougth. Dwight's sides (collards) are good.

They are the winners pf the DN Best Food Truck of 2003. But wait to you see this rig. Take the body of a typical (?) food truck off it's chassis. Plop it on a low flatbed dual axel trailor bed. Then attach a large smoker right next to it. No outdoor seating so BYO folding chair. They've been open since May and I've noticed them a few times flying by but today I noticed the large stack of hickory logs and that brougt me to a screeching halt. They're pretty nice folks and they gave me another source for smoking wood in the Quaketown, Pa area. He does large volumes. $75.00 per pickup truck. Let me know if anyone wants in on something like this. Andrew: If you do get there on Saturday, they will do combos. I'd be interested in what you think.

While trying to outrun a traffic jam on I-95 North this morning, I jumped off at Cottman ave to puddlejump the mess by a couple of exits. On the 7500 block of State road in a factory driveway is what looks like a food truck "cabin" mounted on a low flat bed with a smoker. There were stacks of logs around this rig and I was cursing the fact that they weren't open for breakfast. But they were open for lunch! They're smoking over hickory and are selling meat by the sandwich, platter, and the pound. Meat includes: Pulled Pork, Beef Brisket, Smoked Sausage, Rotisserie Chicken, BBQ Pulled Chicken, and "Memphis" Ribs. Sauce includes a NC Vinegar base and there own. Decent sides, and had the slaw and baked beans with a pulled pork sandwich. Good stuff! They're open Mon-Sat from 11:00 to 5:00. Ph# 215-287-1356 & 215-706-4059. If any of you like the soulful flavors of Dubreaux's in Overbrook, Francis's husband - Joseph is becoming a supplier of some fine smoking woods. I grabbed a bag of Black Cherry, Alder, and Hickory (he has a nice supply of pecan and fruitwoods, along with oak, maple, and mesq. He's in start-up now and the best way to get him is througth the resaturant. Tis the season for cold smoking, especially salmon. Did a batch for New Year's parties using a salt and maple sugar cure (with a splash of bourbon), and cold smoked over it sugar maple wood. Jim T

My all time favs: In Madeline's Kitchen, by Madeline Kamen Secret Ingredients by Michael Roberts Southwest Tastes by Ellen Brown (a compilation) Cusine Du Terroir by Celine Vence Mastering the Art of French Pastry by Bruce Henry and Paul Bugal Soup, Beautiful Soup by Felipe Rojas-Lombardi The Commisary Cookbook by Steve Poses How to Play with your Food by Penn and Teller anything by Dianna Kennedy These books do not leave my house! Some of these are available at Kitchen Arts& Letters http://kitchenartsandletters.com

Back on topic for a moment. That tile setup that I used in my smoker's fire box will not give you an exact match to a true wood burning oven. It will get you close. If you look at typical wood ovens from a spatial standpoint and notice the interior size in comparison to a gas oven, it's about heating air. It has an almost convection quality to it as opposed to radiated heat from a gas oven. I got some air througth the slider vents and was able to run some temp control with it but it was hit and miss. The firebox lacks the air space of a typical woodburner. I was getting a combination of air and radiated heat. Still my faux wood burner beat out my indoor oven flavor wise. There's got to be a design waiting to happen with this.

I apologize for straying off topic with this but heat and metal reaction seem to be an issue. I do remove the flaking. It's the one garnish I don't need. These cooker's paint jobs seem to be close to that of automobiles (prior to body damage). The parts are primed and either dipped or sprayed, then sent to a dryer to bake on the finish. Since the metal is so thin it does expand and contract over high heat. It looks to me that the paint can't withstand the heat. Think about it for a moment. Would happen if you had that paint on the bottom of saute pan (with that kind of thickness). There was a time when someone mentioned a BBQ pit it was something that looked like a stone throne in someone's back yard. Ah progress.

I was messing with something like this a few years back trying to simulate a wood burning oven for old world breads and pizza. I have a New Braunfelds Bandera smoker w/ an offset firebox. The smoker also has two thermometers, one on the lid of the fire box (my addition) and on the door of the smoking chamber. A friend of mine who is one of the best tile men (IMHO) in the Delaware Valley supplied me w/ sheets of unglazed tile to line the firebox. The Braunfeld's firebox is rectangular shaped with an air control slider and brackets to accommodate a grilling grate (from the smoker chamber). I lined the floor and 3 sides w the tiles, keeping the slider side open. I placed a baking stone on the grilling grate and used it for baking bread and pizza. I’ve found that the tiles can hold moisture better but it takes longer to get the temperatures up. Here are some results and opinions FWIW. 1. Hardwood Charcoal: Burns hot, over 600°. Hardwood rises and peaks in heat over a short period of time. 2. Charcoal briquettes: Don’t use ‘em; don’t know what’s in them. 3. Hardwood: Had the most luck with Oak because it tends to be the most neutral of smoking woods as compared to hickory, mesquite, and the flavor woods. 4. Crust: Crust comes from moisture. You need to introduce the element of steam into firebox during the roughly the last 1/4 of the baking time to produce crust. The more steam you introduce the thicker the crust. Soaking wood produces smoke, which is a cocktail of steam and other types of gases; you may not want that type of flavor color on your bread or pizza. I’ve had luck with pie pans and ice cubes. I’m going back and forth over the idea of going to stone for smoking foods as well. Most of the smokers I saw the Canadians using for smoking salmon (over maple) were stone and the antecedents for stone baking or smoking go way back in most traditional cuisines. One result I’ve noticed w/ high heat grilling with hardwood is that over time it will create scaling and flaking on the inside of Weber’s dome lid. Has anyone else had the same results?

Nope. Its Sauternes. The high acidity is masked by the sweet. It's part of the balence. I found this out the hard way. I was testing for a Poire William Marinade for Breast of Pheaseant . It contained Poire William, pear puree (amoung other ingredients) and I thougth I'd add sauterenes for my acid. Mix the ingredients, added the pheseant zip-locked them and put the bag in the fridge. About 2 hrs later I looked at the meat and it was starting to grey around the edges indicating it was getting cooked. Hey, I thougth it was the pheasent, removed the meat rom the zip-loc and added chicken breast to it. Two hours later the same result. This recipe was on the back batch and had tested set up most of my recipes before this so it wasn't an issue of acid prortion to the bulk of the recipe.

Lactic acid (in dairy) is actually a double whammy. You have an emulsified combination of fat and low level ph acid. The interesting thing about the way lactic acid seems to behave is that it leachs elements out. Sort of a reverse osmosis. When I was testing for my book I ran a series of ph tests on liquid acids using distilled vinegar as a constant and did readings on other vinegars, citrus, wines, and dairy in 1/4 cup ramekins. Then I brougth them to a boil, cooled them to room temp and retested for cook off. I did this to test for ingredient substitutions mostly but found that the distiled and feremeted liquids had the lowest ph (highest acidity) and the citrus the weakest and didn't hold their own over cookoff. As far as gatting more "surface" flavor from a marinade, I've had some luck by letting the marinade meld it's ingredients for a day or so before adding the "protein" but most folks pull the ingredients from the pantry and fridge, mix it and immediatly add the cut of food to it. Result being a lighter hit of flavor from the ingredients. BTW does anyone want to hazard a guess as to which type of wine has the most acidity?

Marinades tenderize or penetrate.

D&D had a run of a satellite coffee shops that were similar to their coffee counter at the main store in SoHo. They dropped a few here, some in Washington, and a number of them in Manhattan. Seems that they were trying to capitlize on their image as a culinary tabernacle, the holiest of holies but it was still just coffee. This may be another thread in itself. but Miel is a true "bar raiser", that is raises the quality level. Can anyone add to this list?

[When I was there on Saturday, the individual pastries were running $4-$5.75 or so. I might could check again on my way home today. Any specifics? ] That's pretty much the same pricing in the Cherry Hill store. The same individual small pastries roll out at $7.00 at Food Source in Bryn Mawr. The quality is well worth the trip to Jersy and CC. Seems we're paying for access in the 'burbs.

Hey Gang. Would some of you run a price check on the pastries @ the Center City location. I've been to the Cherry Hill store a few times and the individuals are running @ about $5.25 ea. But at Food Source in Bryn Mawr the same rolls out @ $7.00 each. They're great but at that price I should get a receipt for the Ben Franklin Toll.

I will never.... Napalm Muscouvey Duck Breast. Looked like an interesting recipe. Called for 1 canned chipolte chili, only I didn't see the "ned" behind the can and emptied an entire one into the sauce. Walk away from a deep fried turkey. This was actually last Thanksgiving and my wife and 2 dogs were over our friend's house for Thanksgiving. I was testing brines for a cookbook revision and my friend Dave (who was born and bred in Bocalousa, LA) suggested we fry the bird. We assembled the fryer out of the way of the dogs, poured the peanut oil into the pot, lit the burner and waited for the temp to hit 375o. We lowered the Turkey and walked away to have some soup (Butternut Squash with Maple Smoked Turkey Jerky). Midway through the soup, one of my dogs was barking his head off, after some nudging/nagging from my wife I went out to see. Well the bark translated to "Lassie go get help, Timmy's trapped in the old mine shaft". I walked over to the fryer and noticed the bird's leg "knuckle" was dark! I went back and got Dave and we pulled the bird out of the bubblin' ooze (oil that is) and the Turkey was shoe polish black! When we lowered the turkey at 350o and walked away the oil went to 400o...425o...475o... and upwards to 550o. We never turned down the gas jet. We did mangage to salvage some of the internal meat, good brine ... though the turkey recipe probaly won't make the cookbook. Jim T

Some music stuff. Those of us on the deck last Friday heard the Afro Cuban Jazz of Elio Villafranca. I’d describe their sound as velvet percussion. It was a combination of Elio’s keyboards, with vibes that were supported by 3 additional percussion musicians and a acoustic bass. Quite sweet, a thinking person’s Latin Jazz group. It made the food go down oh so well. Two weeks from tonight (Aug 1st) is Walter Bell and the Latin Jazz Unit. Another no miss. He’ll also be appearing at Wiggins Park Sunset Jazz Series on the Camden Marina on Tues, August 12th. Bell is a Latin flutist with 8 CD’s and is local. Mandatory Food Content: At Wiggins there’s a food tent serving a combination of Caribbean and Soul Food. We had the Curried Goat, Curried Chicken, and Southern Fried Chicken. I also noticed a couple of barrel smokers at the rear of the tent for their ribs. Let you know about them after I try them this Tuesday while listening to the Tower of Power Horns. Jim T

Hey Hol' Nice pix on your site http://www.hollyeats.com/ElMercado.htm The description really sums it up. We're taking a hiatus tonight and next Friday (White Dog Block Party), but we'll be back the following. Jim

Thanks for the Driskill menu, actually his recipe section loks pretty cool. Wonder if he has a book in the works. Jim T

If you're heading from Center City, I'd roll up 3rd to Girard. Make a right on Girard to Front (El Stop). Make a left on Front and it's on your right a few blocks up. If you hit the Berks El Stop you've gone too far. Beach chairs may not be a bad idea if you want to sit and listen after eating, dancing, and shopping. Jim T