DerekW

Just why anyone would want to make Atholl brose using vodka instead of whisky puzzles me a bit. The original version tastes pretty good to me, but is hardly 'savoury' Skirlie purists notwithstanding, I'd recommend adding a bit of stock to the oats; it's possible to cook pinhead oats in fat for a long, long time without them taking up and softening at all, where the water in the stock seems to 'unlock' the softening process.

The ones I found had been cut out of the pig, rather than being cut off the pig, if you follow me. The tail had been followed into the pig for a distance of about 4 or 5 inches and cut off there. The "inside the pig" bit of each tail had been cut free from the carcase by two incisisions alongside the tail, made from above the pig's back, and as a result there was a large wedge of fat and rind attached to each. Having been cut free from the tails, the fat and rind were rendered. Mr Henderson's pigtail recipe was then [more or less] followed, with very satisfactory results. In truth, the "inside the pig" bits had more nibbling potential then the extremities, at least on the tails I found. If it is of any help, I should have pictures somewhere showing the before and after. Pigtail served to me at 'Au Pied du Cochon' had more meat, and had been roasted at a lower temperature than the book calls for, or so I think. [edited for lousy sentence construction]

At the risk of laying myself open to accusations of topic drift, and with the caveat of my definite "non-expert" status... I'd recommend anyone interested in mechanical sharpening to take a good look at the narrow-belt linishing machines, such as the one sold by Lee Valley. Purchased partly to do wood shop sanding, mine has become the 'go-to' tool of choice for sharpening everything from axes through to my Watanabe gyuto and santoku. In essence, it presents a moving surface, allowing you to concentrate on the blade contact angle instead of needing to maintain that angle while stroking the blade along the stone. You retain full manual control of the angle - it's not a preset guide system. For knife sharpening, a new 15 micron belt does the coarse sharpening and an old one does the fine work. A leather belt charged with chromium does the 'silly sharp' polishing. Friends and family get me to sharpen and repair their knives now - With a coarse 'grinding' belt I've completely reshaped horribly broken, scarred and abused blades, then gone on to edge the restored shapes at angles compatible with the blade metal. 15 minutes from scrap to restored. If you knew me, you would realise that this is not a testament to my superior skill, but rather an indication of the utility offered by the tool. As with any mechanical sharpener, the linisher requires that you take care not to overheat the blade steel. With a light touch, it is easy to sharpen a dull blade in one or two passes across the belt. Changing a belt takes seconds. I'm in danger of sounding like a snake-oil salesman, so I'd better leave off. To return closer to topic, the day to day touch up for both my Japanese blades is a wood backed leather strop, chrome charged. Wash, dry, wipe, wipe.

Paula Wolfert has a recipe for a goose stew done with glazed/braised radishes, which we tried recently; 'Third helpings' material which had the bottom of the pan well scraped, and has me eyeing up the Canada geese in the back yard. The radishes are not their crisp sharp little selves under such a treatment, but they retained interesting character and I'd cheerfully handle them similarly in the future.

Lots of valid points made, and questions raised. To answer your question directly, a fresh hock [rind on] will yield a lot of what a pig foot would add, just not as much weight for weight [since much of the weight in the hock is flesh, where the foot is all otherwise.

If the 140 degrees is Fahrenheit then it should present no problem - picking one manufacturer at random, MSDS figures for ignition temperature for particleboard are in the 450 degree range. Of course you might reasonably expect charring and other degradation before your cabinets burst into flames, but still, that's a big gap. It's not hard to get timber construction up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit by painting it dark colors and leaving it exposed to sunlight. I'm a little curious about the exact definition of the 140 degree figure you were quoted - on the face of things it's pretty meaningless, since the figure alone does not specify measurement conditions or factors which would affect the ability of the stove externals to maintain a steady temperature, such as ambient air temperature. If Prizer Painter are saying that when the oven is running at full output in a given ambient temperature and when installed with their recommended clearances then the exterior wall temp will never exceed ambient by a given amount then I'd have more confidence in the actual numbers. I'd be very surprised to learn that they had not done due diligence on this, since selling ranges capable of burning houses down in normal use would have surely raised problems by now... This is far from being a hypothetical issue for me, since we are looking seriously at buying a Bluestar. Have you placed a decent oven thermometer probe against the exterior of the oven when it is up to "melt-the-plastic laminate" temperature? cheers Derek

Context? [just curious...] Edited to add that escopeta [with a 'c'] is Spanish for a gun of sorts.

As beccaboo noted, coil stove won't be a problem. There's no suggestion [that I recall] in the user manual or other literature that came with the pan suggesting gas-only. It's a heavy gauge SS pan with a substantial aluminum bottom disk. I've mostly used mine on coil electric. CityChef have carried them for years, that's where I got mine. Vancouver based, $255 for the seven litre, free shipping By the sound of things, someone is feeding you suspect information cheers Derek

As 'small fry' we were fed sardines on toast. I'm begining to believe that an early introduction to the joys of tinfish really helps with later appreciation. Sardines are fine, but if you should ever chance upon tinned Portugese Chicharrinhos picantes, do not fail to pick up a tin or three. Quite possibly everything you enjoy about sardines, but more so. That's how they are for me, anyway. The tin has an English translation which calls them 'spiced Sticklebacks' but they most certainly are not those denizens of murky city-park ponds. A mackerel fry of some sort, I think. Sold hereabouts under the "Realfish" name.

I deliberately tried to avoid pushing Kuhn Rikon, but since you ask, the KR is simple and obvious in its design. I find it very easy to use, and assembly, disassembly and cleaning are fast and straightforward. Hard to answer that one. The 5 litre [or thereabouts] is big enough to make soup or stew for four to six people. The 7 would be bigger than I would get any benefit from. I bought the 'Two pans, two lids' kit, but rarely pressure cook in the smaller pan. It makes a very robust saute pan & the glass [non-PC ] lid is handy to drop on the big pan while doing initial cooking of dishes. That said, the additional cost for the second pan and lid on Amazon is about $30, and for that I'd buy the same kit again...

I remember using egg whites as adhesive for attaching real gold leaf in water-gilding....

Skirlie! Although butter would be the natural thing to reach for if drippings were not to hand, rather than the oil mentioned. Scots comfort food.

The Lagostina PC is an interesting design; Every other PC I can think of works by having two heavily overbuilt parts [lid and pan] with interlocking fingers which engage when the lid is rotated. The Lagostina uses a relatively thin stainless steel lid which is preformed into a curve to allow it to be inserted on an angle through the rolled lip of the top of the pan. A system of levers and rollers then bends the curved lid up towards the underside of the lip, forming the closure. 18/10 tells you about the composition of the steel; it's one of the common '304' family of alloys used for most kitchenware. The impact bonded aluminum base is likewise fairly standard. It's been a while since I handled one of the Lagostina pans, but I do not recall the base being either exceptionally thin [bad] or exceptionally thick [good]. I've handled them, and played around, but not used them. At $60 it would be a tempting experiment - if I didn't already own a Kuhn Rikon, touted as being the 'Rolls Royce' of pressure cookers. The build quality and finish on the Kuhn Rikon is superb - it will outlast me - but then it cost about four times what the Lagostina is available to you at. Since the flexing lid and cam operating lever is a more 'mechanical' system, I would say that in the long run there's more to go wrong, but the base product appears well made, and is almost certainly as safe as the competition. 7 litres might require you to joint the chicken, unless it's a small chicken in the first place. Looking at pressure cookers you might want to check what methods are available for regulating the pressure. The older models like my mother's Prestige [of fond memory] used to use a system of weights which nested one inside the other. Three pressures were available [5, 10 & 15 psi]. Some of the modern units sold only allow two pressures [usually only described as low and high, but frequently 5 and 10 psi]. Using a recipe which expects a 15 psi pressure in a 10 psi pan will require you to adjust cooking times. Different PCs release excess pressure in different ways - the old 'weight on top' systems were pretty foolproof, but constantly vented steam with an alarming hiss. The Kuhn Rikon [for example] sits quietly doing its thing, conserving moisture in the pan and generally not alarming the visitors. Bottom line - at the price quoted I'd probably give the Lagostina a try. cheers Derek

I doubt your naivete, Chris Your remark did prompt me to go and do a bit of reading in the Code of Federal Regulations "Natural flavour" has been bastardised by industrial food; the term is essentially worthless. Fruit flavour manufactured from fish-heads by industrial chemistry is 'natural'. That said, my reading of the following extracts suggests that what you have should be flavored with some sort of truffle extract. As an aside, Lamadia White truffle oil is labelled with words like "Olive oil infused with Tuber Magnatum Pico", which sounds promising. I seem to recall there being some additional weasel wording on included though, and don't have the label in front of me. Officialese follows: Section 101.22 Foods; labeling of spices, flavorings, colorings and chemical preservatives. (i)(1) If the food contains no artificial flavor which simulates, resembles or reinforces the characterizing flavor, the name of the food on the principal display panel or panels of the label shall be accompanied by the common or usual name of the characterizing flavor... (i)(1)(iii) (iii) If the food contains both a characterizing flavor from the product whose flavor is simulated and other natural flavor which simulates, resembles or reinforces the characterizing flavor, the food shall be labeled in accordance with the introductory text and paragraph (i)(1)(i) of this section and the name of the food shall be immediately followed by the words "with other natural flavor'' in letters not less than one-half the height of the letters used in the name of the characterizing flavor.

Another vote for weight. It's an American recipe, and the majority of those Americans who have not yet embraced the Kitchen Scale manifesto seem to tend towards cup measures for volumes. Otherwise, volume would be Fl.Oz. - fluid ounces. That said, I've seen oz. used as an abbreviation for fluid ounces, but context usually makes clear.

Hmmm. BananaGuard [or a close facsimile] is also available in 'glow in the dark'. For when you really need to be able to find your banana in the dark, presumably.

It's a pillar mechanism, not a complete table, but this one from Lee Valley has the seven inch lift you're looking for.

Count me as another one who wishes he'd spent more lavishly when those knives were available from Lee Valley. Ah, the wisdom of hindsight Anyway, Dehillerin carry a range of simple wooden handled 'peasant' knives, which might suit as a steak knife. The handles are a great fit in my hand. The blades are stainless rather than carbon, which seems to make sense for table cutlery. You probably already know that LV sell a re-make of the 'peasant Chef's knife' with a good carbon blade and a resin-impregnated wood handle. Not a steak knife, unless you're frighteningly big... Rambling back towards topic, I note that the 'Laguiole' name was made a subject of legal protection by a French company in the mid 90's for everything except knives. Am I the only one who finds this bizarre? To seek to protect a name whose international currency is tied to knives, and which has been debased by poor quality, then to try to build a trade empire around that selling all manner of other things?

Many of the creme brulee recipes I've seen call for brown sugar of one sort or another. Demerara or Muscovado seem to ball up and burn before they melt, at least for me. Eventually I did a little "science experiment" with a foil lined tray and little mounds of different sugars, ground to different textures. Hands down, the best 'brulee top' result was plain white granulated. By far! Easy melting, golden result, and good control over degree of caramelisation. I'd be the first to admit that I have no baking credentials, so take the information for what it is worth.

Some of it is marked as made in France, and I concur completely with your assessment of the quality. Much of the rubbish which flooded through our outlet stores just before the holiday was marked as Chinese made. Perhaps this note on an Australian website is of relevance. The blunt answer to Steven's question would seem to be that a name caught the public attention, again. "Gucci" or "Hermes", anyone? Worse yet, "Laguiole" and the Bee don't seem to be trademarks, and won't receive even that little protection.

Our local supermarket had [of all things] a special on whole pig legs at an irresistable price so there's some ham experimentation taking place. I feel I should be avoiding the agri-business beasts, but if I'm going to mess things up, better to do the experimenting on the offered legs. "It followed me home, can I keep it?" The real question: The recipe for the dry cure for Blackstrap Ham [on page 199 of my copy] calls for 3lbs of salt and what seems like a huge amount of #2 cure - 12oz. Can anyone confirm that the quantities are correct before I go giving friends and family nitrate poisoning? Mr Ruhlman, are you still out there?

Hi Tim Thanks for taking the pictures - what you have looks very much like that one pan I saw with the Inocuivre labeling. Looking at the edge of the rim, shown in the "two rulers" image, the exposed core appears to be grey, like aluminum. Three layers of metal: lining, core, outer cladding. If you compare the Inocuivre to the image of a Falk [stainless lined copper] pan, you can make your own assessment: Lining, solid outer. Even assuming I've interpreted your picture correctly, it's not to say that the Inocuivre pan is 'bad' - All Clad have made themselves a solid fortune selling clad aluminum pots and pans I'll be fascinated to hear the outcome if you ever do the 'pan comparison get together' suggested up-thread.... cheers Derek

At the risk of being accused of some self-promotion, I'll suggest that You could always D.I.Y.

Your braised ribs sound like the right sort of idea. Maybe one of the cassoulet variations? Ikea have 3 and 5 quart enamelled iron casseroles, made in France, with the little 'braising nubbins' under the lid, a la Staub. $60. We have the 5 quart and it seems to be of good quality. Lagostina sell a very similar item, at a considerably higher price. I found a 3 quart in our local 'end of line clearance' store for $30. The same discount store sells a range of Chinese made pots, and in many cases as you've observed, the enamelling seems easy to chip; many are damaged on the shelf. I'm a big lad and lifting the 5 quart full of stew isn't a problem, but I did sweat a little when I saw how much the oven's wire shelf sagged It's perhaps not clear from the pictures but both the Ikea and Lagostina pots have handles that 'droop' slightly, echoing the curvature of the lid, but also really helping you retain a good grip of the pot.

The mobile pen seems to answer most of the garden destruction concerns, at least for home-scale 'production'. We picked up the ChickenTractor book and might try the method this year. Tractor as in 'dragged' not as in 'you need a tractor'. Most of the pen designs I've seen are moved by person power - think large wheelbarrow. Moving the pen from spot to spot on a regular basis is supposed to both till the soil and deposit a moderate quantity of fertiliser.