Peter the eater

That looks like a velodrome bike. Just how quick and short are those trips?

Ooh la la -- that's one sexy coullotte. I've never seen top sirloin like that, the marbling and the cap, very nice.

Just kill me now. You people out there have the most astounding shopping options.... No kidding. And he hasn't even mentioned avacados. Great stuff ScottyBoy.

Chicken curry and basmati comes to mind. You can serve lots of small bowls with fruit, hot peppers, yogurt, raisins, whatever.

Agreed. I'm buying a bunch at the market tomorrow to practice.

Excellent. I must know what that watermark is all about.

Not to mention having one of the best "fruit songs" ever. Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch. And The Jungle Books' The Bare Necessities. That must be the papaya type from Asia. The other kind from North American were around growing up in Southern Ontario but nobody ate them.

Ooooh, I missed that. It looks like "CHRISTOPHER . . . ends with ES". Seriously.

I hope so but I think he takes a bike, not the train.

Canadian lobsters come wearing plaid flannel jackets and a wool toque.

Twenty minutes may be a bit much -- I'm merely repeating my instructions. Chef Michael Smith from PEI says 15 minutes for a market lobster, no more and no less. There are plenty of variables. Salt water boils faster and at a higher temperature than fresh water. A recently molted lobster has a very soft and thin shell, as in you can actually squeeze a claw and watch it deform. What else . . . altitude affects cooking time, although I suppose most lobsters get boiled near sea level. I think the tricky part is not over-cooking the smaller parts before the tail is cooked through. Jumbos lobsters over 5 lbs I would give a knife to the head then bust up the carcass into more uniform chunks, or at least give the big parts a head start in the pot.

Hi scoop, can you please run through how you would prepare bone marrow as a spread for bread? My butcher will cut fresh beef bones to order. I can usually get a good sized bag of 1" chunks for under $10. Sprinkle with course salt and roast at 350F +/- until bubbly and cooked through, scoop out the marrow and spread onto sturdy toast. Parsley or chiver on top is nice.

Like a chart with lipids and their characteristics as the x and y? Calories, smoke points, flavor, viscosity, etc. across the top and the type of fats and oils down the side? That would be interesting.

So one hunts them with a shotgun, like a duck?

Paul, how do you procure such a bird? Pluck or peel?

That would explain why I'm never as hungry as I should be when it's time to eat. <Did I really put an s in facilitate? I'm lost without a spellckeck>

This was a frozen boneless lamb shoulder complete with mesh bag to hold it together. I coated it with rosemary, evoo, garlic, salt and pepper. I should have shoved some of these flavors into the roast or at least under the mesh because a fair bit fell off during the 1.5 hr roasting period. Next time I'll also put a clean foil pan underneath to fascilitate basting. The meat was very moist with lots of exterior crunch -- hard to acheive without a rotisserie. Served with boiled spuds, peas and fresh mint sauce from the garden.

Not baaaaad. I'm always impressed when I see that level of skill and care going into the preparation of a dish. I've got a lamb shoulder on my new rotisserie set up outside. Pictures are coming . . .

Martin, what's FL-style? I can't imagine wee rubber bands compromise the overall flavour. Those bugs can't taste any better.

I knew it! Bring on the charcuterie.

Curious, why not? We summer on a Maine island, and usually steam our lobsters with a mixture of fresh ocean water and seaweed. That was a rash statement on my part. I suspect most ocean water is perfectly safe. I was thinking of my own tiny fragment of the Atlantic where I live. Signs recently went up on the Government Wharf telling us to avoid eating the mussels and clams. If there are lots of old homes along the shore it may not be the best place to collect filtre-feeders. Lobsters are quite different. They are safely harvested from areas of dense human population, such as Halifax Harbour. They're scavengers on the ocean floor but they're also feirce hunters, unlike shellfish.

Now I know how to make it. Why is it called Ranch?

And garlic butter. When you pinch the crusher claw meat a perfect butter resevoir opens up.

That's a good point Linda. I'm looking at that plate and thinking how it doesn't reflect the Canada Food Guide Policy. From mid to late summer, yes, corn and potato would be the classic lobster boil sides. Unless you're on the beach I wouldn't put them all in the same water. In fact, unless I had to, I wouldn't cook anything in ocean water.

Earlier this summer The Eaters had a family-sized family-style lobster boil on Prince Edward Island. We were guests in a cabin near Cavendish where the proprietors told us how it's done in PEI and loaned us the kit plus garage. The m.o. is pretty much the same in Nova Scotia but I thought it might be interesting to share my instructions, with photos. Get 2-3 pounds of live lobster for each adult Bring 2 inches of salted water to the boil in the pot, out of the wind Plunge the lobsters in head first then cover for 20 minutes Plunge cooked lobsters into cold fresh water for 5 minutes Usings shears/cleaver open up the claws and tail as much as possible Serve warm