ray goud

Well, if anyone doubts the effect of soaking in water, try this test: Parcel out a small quantity (4 oz. to 8 oz. by weight) of small "chunks" (1/2" x 1" or less) or chips of a dry hardwood. Weigh the lot, accurately (the new electronic kitchen scales are good). Submerge the wood in hot (140+ degrees) water, and weigh it down with something to keep it under the water level. Leave it there for two hours. Remove the wood from the water, and blot dry. Reweigh the wood. The increase in weight is the water the wood absorbed. Each gram of that water requires 340 calories of heat to turn it into steam. The water vapor is slowing down the wood's eventual reaching of its ignition point. If there was no moisture in the wood it would almost immediately burst into flame, at least at the surface. When wood vaporizes at a temperature less than its ignition or flame temp, it is emitting smoke, which goes to your food. Don't use large pieces of wood. Smaller pieces have more surface area per unit volume and absorb more water through the end pores. Conversely, don't use sawdust unless you can carefully control the heat; the dust, even if moistened, dries too quickly. Commercially available "seasoned" wood measures between 4 and 16 per cent (by weight) moisture. Ray

Drying or "seasoning" the wood is NOT necessary. HKDave is correct. To smoke properly one soaks the dry wood first in water anyway, so that it doesn't burn right away and smokes instead. Of course, something else provides the heat. I use cherry a lot, since I have a lot of scraps, being a furniture maker. DON'T USE WALNUT! It is poisonous. I read a book/memoir about France in which grape vines are commonly used both as fuel and a smoke source. Let us know how the plum wood works out. Ray

WOW! That thing has more parts than my kitchen! You want sharp knives, you learn how to do it the Jacques Pepin way, by hand with a bench stone, or a diamond stone (one of the TRUE worthwhile recent innovations). One could buy a bunch of full-size water or ceramic stones, or a double bunch of diamond stones for the price of that thing. I am a furniture-maker, self-taught, and I learned many years ago that it takes less than a tenth of the time to hand-sharpen anything as compared to a fixture or jig. Check to see if Jacques has a video available from his TV series on the basics of cooking. The sense of empowerment and satisfaction (and superbly sharp knives) is unattainable any other way. One can learn it ten minutes. Pardon me for spouting, but all the gizmos like this is one of my pet peeves. Ray

Thanks, Anna! I'll Google Home Outfitters to see if the inner mechanism is metal. One can compromise, can't I? Ray

I wish that it was a case of carelessness causing the failure of the plastic spinners, but instead it's just because I REALLY get the things spinning fast. The faster one spins, the drier the greens get. I build furniture by hand for a living, and I guess I'm a little stronger than normal. The pull cord ones last a couple of weeks, then the little knob comes off, and I use a spoon to wrap the end of the cord around to get a purchase. Plastic being cheaper is no real excuse because there still are people willing to pay more for a better product. And if it's built in the third world, it will also be less expensive (you should see the Chinese furniture coming into the country). Thanks for the thoughts, though. No one has identified a metal one yet; probably doesn't exist. Ray

Does anyone know of a manufacturer of a metal salad spinner? I need one of a normal size, manually driven, not some behemoth a Vegas hotel might use. I have been looking for at least ten years without luck. I regularly break the plastic ones, including the OXO good grips one (on the second try!). Plastic is not acceptable. Thanks, Ray Goud

Lori, I often bake them very much the same as Marlene, with two slight differences: 1. Split them in half lengthwise, lay down one or two bay leaves inside, and reassemble using toothpicks to hold them together. 2. Use 400 degrees in a non-convection oven. Tip #1 adds a really unique flavor (throw away the bay leaves when eating!), and tip #2 makes the skin crispier.

Probably 15 years ago I saw a rerun of a Pierre Franey TV show which showed his "mac&cheese", which included two kinds of cheddar, a wonderful roux, and sauteed onions, sauteed mushrooms, and leftover baked ham. I made that recipe as best as I could remember, and I believe there are no better recipes. However, I wish I had the original printed recipe. I don't know which Franey book it appeared in; certainly not any I have ever seen. I would buy the book just for that one. I make the dish often, and it is always wonderful. Best of all, it can be frozen, and warmed up after a long drive home from Vermont. Ray

Fifi: Redgum IS the heartwood of sweetgum, the L.styraciflua. Great for furniture, but be wary for foods. If one has a ready supply of it, the europeans love to buy it for furniture. We don't get any here in the Northeast. Ray

Back from my weekend away. I see several Eucalyptus species which are known to cause health problems, and the listing specifically is concerned with Australian timbers(!). They are: E.delegatensis (irritant to eyes, nose throat and causes dermatitis); E.globulus (dermatitis); E.coolibah and microtheca (skin irritant); E.microcarpa and marginata (irritant to mucous membranes & eyes, nose, throat); and several more. There are some eucalyptus species on the west coast of north America, and I am pretty sure one supplied the "flavoring" for an over-the-counter med called Vicks, at least originally. That must be yummy in smoked meat! Considering the possibilities offered by the eucalyptus species and the witch hazel ones, I would be careful not to use them to smoke food, for obvious reasons. If one is not in the USA or Europe, I wouldn't recommend any woods to them, because of the confusion caused by common names vs scientific ones. Here is the USA the safe ones are maple, ash, birch, hickory, corn cobs, mesquite (probably). Even if one does not get sick, what happens to the flavor of the food? I would bet that (an unsuitable wood) is the cause of the strange taste of your smoked meats. Ray

Being away for the weekend right now and not near my reference works, I will get back to you about whether eucalyptus is OK for one's health. Redgum is a common name, and those can be shared by many different species. One should be wary of anything they use to provide smoke or anything else. Sunday night (my time) I should know more. Ray

Julia Child and Katie Hepburn.

I am a furniture maker by profession, and I must tell you to stop using the red gum. It's scientific name is Liquidambar styraciflua, and is also called sweet gum. It is a member of the witch hazel family and should have the astringency and bitterness of "witch hazel" lotion. It is frequently used for furniture when people can get it. The redgum is the heartwood of the tree and thus has the MOST of the extractives and bad stuff (to eat) in it. So stop using it and try something else; you might even be poisoning yourself. Ray

Get and use a baking stone for your oven. The bread recipes in Jacques Pepin's "Happy Cooking" are completely reliable (start with one or two tbsp. less water at first, and add as needed), though I like to use 100% bread flour. If you mess up a batch, find out why, and try again, no matter how many tries it takes. If you watch baking shows (like "Baking with Julia", rerun many times) and your dough looks limper than the TV chef, use less water. Ray

Sara, whatever happens at PBS, PLEASE do what you can to prevent the awful camera work which seems to be taking over at Food Network: super-close close-ups, herky-jerky handheld cinema, zooming in and out, two-second cuts of scenes, etc. Thanks in advance, Ray

Lamb biryani, or homemade bread, or duck confit.

Now don't laugh so hard you fall off your chair, but - Stop & Shop brand Dark Chocolate, at $1.29 for a 5 oz. bar and frequently on sale for 99 cents. This isn't the world's best chocolate, but still very much worth eating, especially if you are going to be distracted while munching, or whatever. That works out to less than $4.25 per pound, which is a bargain. Then save your money for the really expensive stuff when you are having some fine old port with it.

All the previous replies look good, but I don't see mentioned "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. That title is not totally accurate, but close. I use it frequently as a starting point, especially when I just want to cook but not be adventurous. Also, look in used-book stores for anything by Pierre Franey. I have his "Seafood Cookbook", and it's a treasure. One can count on every recipe being absolutely accurate.

Hi, everyone. This is my first post to the EG forums. I have an outdoor, wood-fired pizza/bake oven which I built from scratch about three years ago. I used "The Bread Builders" and "The Bread Ovens of Quebec" as reference material. Mine is a rectangular oven, with a lot of mass. Mass is good. Always. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to reach 800-900 degrees F, and I have an infrared non-contact thermometer to verify that for myself. While heating, I roast veggies in a stainless roasting pan, using the reflected heat from the inner dome of the oven. The veggies roast really fast! If I am doing pizza, I periodically rake coals forward to super-heat the hearth in front of the fire. This gives me a very crispy pizza crust. While the pizzas cook I maintain a rather small fire in the back; too large and the tops burn by reflected heat. There is plenty of reflected heat beating down from the inside of the dome in my rectangular, Quebec-style oven. Later, my wife often cooks baked beans, after I do a batch of the best-that-can-be-imagined homemade bread. My pizzas average between 2.5 and 5 minutes each. Keep in mind that pellet stoves use forced-air to burn the pellets, which would otherwise just smolder.