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There are two commonly used curing salts, Prague Powder #1 and #2. Why the name, I don't know. #1 is sodium nitrite only. #2 is nitrate + nitrite. Sounds like MC is discussing #2. The supposed purpose of #2 is for long cures where the nitrite will lose activity over time. The nitrate is said to be converted by bacterial activity into nitrite and is thus kind of a time-release nitrite. Is this true? I don't know.

This is going to make me sound like a horrible person... Pot lucks,uggh. They are nice for fellowship, but in our circle, horrible for eating. Do people actually eat the stuff at home that they bring? Rice-a-Roni with Jello etc., fried catfish with velveeta And the sanitary standards are lax. The same behavior that makes buffets gross goes on at pot lucks. And cold things get warm...and hot things cool off. And while we're at it, don't leave your serving dish for me to clean and then find a way to return to you. It's like camping..."pack-in, pack-out" damnit. When we host one, I make two mains and a salad of some sort so I know that there'll be something safe. As Pierogi said, its about the friends and not the food. And I'd add that beer covers a multitude of sins.

The risk of spoilage remains even if some move away from nitrates. I wouldn't risk it unless the meat will be eaten quickly. Botulism can suck.

Funny, I was thinking of jus gravies (possibly thickened with a small amount of gelatine), starch-thickened sauces aren't even really on my radar! To be more specific, to me, a gravy is the sort of thing served on turkey (or perhaps sausage in the South) where some of the fat in the pan that cooked the meat is used to make the roux.... and all the charred bits in the pan are deglazed with the making of the roux. I'm not a big fan of roux-thickened gravy; it is usually too fatty for my taste.

I redid the eggs with smoked trout. 1 filet, flaked + small amount chopped red onion + 2 tsp mayo + 2 tsp cream cheese + dusting of pimenton. I tried trout roe on top, but it was too big and looked wierd and added nothing to the flavor; which was great! Only thing I'd change is adding a drop or three of lemon juice.

I've been told that its a South Philly term. To me, a gravy connotes a roux-thickened sauce. Which this clearly isn't.

On GSN. Three Food Network/Bravo type chefs compete against three home cooks and the winner gets 25K. Terrible TV and terrible cooking. There is no detail. No recipes. There is barely any cooking. WTF. Shark-jumping to the max. I'm always reluctant to say someone sold out. But it'd take big bucks for ME to do this, and I have no culinary reputation to lose.

One trick to make a food thermometer do double duty as an oven thermometer is to put a ramekin with a cm of oil in the oven. After time to come up to temp take the temp of the oil which will = oven temp.

New Record for W-S pricing.... $700-$1000 for an ice ball press. Makes em one at a time. http://us.mg6.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=fqf5uf1s7qfk6

Ain't no body is going to mess with my maters! dcarch Nice still life. Tree rat with fruit.

MSG must be cheaper.

I have a hard time seeing salt penetrating a shell and seasoning an egg during an 11.5 minute boil. Testing is required.

Great advice all around. I love the idea of caviar...maybe flying fish roe for the color. So I eliminated mustard altogether and made a mousse in the mini-prep with 1/2 oz cream cheese, 1 Tbsp Mayo, and about 2 oz nova lox, dash of salt, a few drops of lemon juice and a drop of liquid smoke (I know its cheating). Yolk, chopped onions and paprika on top. Tasted cleanly salmon-y and lightly smoky. Nice! Photo could be better, but all I had handy was my phone. Color is off, it was much pinker. Thanks all!

Yes please! Good thoughts. Thanks. I will report back.

Salt is hardly the worst thing in the world healthwise. We need a certain amount of sodium to function. But extra salt makes the body retain water until the kidney excretes it, which raises BP if one's arteries are a little stiff. But controlling salt intake rarely affects BP significantly and high salt diets are only a real problem in those with bad kidneys and heart failure. (One can argue that compliance with a truly low salt diet is nearly impossible and controlling salt would be more effective in BP if people could actually restrict sodium reliably.) So this is just perhaps well-intentioned marketing BS that also saves Boston Market a little bit of money and gets them some nice press.

Thanks all. I did cut back on mayo...and then yolk, with not much effect. I also tried topping with lox instead of mixing...minimal effect. Likewise adding lemon.

I regularly use (>weekly) 10" aluminum fryingpan (cheap restaurant supply brand), 12" Lincoln Wearever clad stainless frying pan 2 qt sauce pan (all clad) 4 qt sauce pan (Scan Pan) Big saute pan (Calphalon) 10" heavy santoku knife 6" paring knife Breville Smart Oven I occasionally use: (few times a month) Cast Iron 10" pan Baking dishes Ramekins of various sizes Teflon 10" calphalon frying pan mostly for eggs Cuisinart Miniprep KA mixer Meat slicing knife (victorinox) Sous Vide Supreme (tho now I'd buy the Side Kick) I rarely use: (few times a year) Pressure Cooker (Fagor) Food Processor (cuisinart) So why do I have all this other crap?

After checking various recipes which are all pretty much mayo + mustard + yolk + onion + smoked salmon, I made several variations, all minimizing the mustard. All of them ended up pretty much like deviled eggs without much salmon taste. The salmon I used was of two types one labeled Nova Lox and the other was similar, but labeled only Smoked Salmon. They seemed nearly identical and tasted right on a bagel. Are there any more strongly salmon-y/smokey varieties? Perhaps smoked but not cured salmon?

I have one and loove it. It isn't really a toaster oven, it is a tabletop convection oven that toasts beautifully. It is faster to heat than my oven, Has perfectly calibrated temps. Doesn't heat up the kitchen. Will cook medium sized baking pans- plenty big enough for say, scallopped potatoes to serve 4. Great for cookies, corn bread etc etc. There are two sizes. Get the bigger one.

Sets of pans often appear to be a good deal, but how good a deal is it if you don't use half of them? And you still have to store them somewhere. That $300 spent at a restaurant supply store will go a much longer way.

Exactly right. I'd add a copy of Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It is readable and an excellent first cookbook.

A restaurant supply store has very functional pans and knives at really cheap prices. Hardware stores have cast iron pans cheap. Amazon has cheap victorinox knives which are highly rated. I'd spend cash for this stuff. I'd use BBB credit for stuff you can't buy at a restaurant store eg dishes... a Dutch oven... appliances like a food processor or a mixer.

Saurkraut braised in something a little sweet like apple juice.

Thunderbird Good and cold I forget Thirty twice Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Brilliant idea! I've made savory bread pudding but never cheesecake.