Porthos

thanks for the feedback. My first try was to cut up 2 quarts of veggies and then cook them. I sectioned and froze some of it and used some for my turkey-rice soup. I should be trying the first use of the frozed stuff tonight. Again, thanks for taking the time to give me the encouragement I needed. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

JAZ, the method you state is the same technique as shown in the knife skills book from a famous culinary institute (vagueness to avoid copyright hassles). Peel, cut in half root-to-stem, then do your cutting starting at the stem end. When I was learning to cook as a pre-teen my mother had me trying to cut into the stem end of a whole onion and I always had trouble keeping the onion from rolling around. As an adult I began using a technique called a radial cut. I had a lot of control over the size of the dice but it took a look longer. When I got the knife skills book and tried the method JAZ named, I was amazed at how fast I could peel and dice onions. Bye-Bye radial technique - hello slicing in half first. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Have you seen Alton Brown's Good Eats one hour behind-the-scenes episode? He covered the researchers, food prep team, prop and costume departments, other things I have forgotten as well as actors. He also briefly touched on the technical production staff. I had no idea he had so many staffers helping to make the show happen. He also revealed which of the regular on-screen talent were really experts in their field and which were just actors playing roles. The character W is actually his chiropractor! As far as a show that would catch my attention - the process of a chef creating a new dish for his/her menu. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

My dilema: I'm up and out the door at 6 a.m. and return home between 6:30 and 7:00 that evening. When I get home I've just finished driving for at least an hour and a half. Getting something cooked for dinner without taking an hour or 2 is important because there are errands to run, chores to do, before collapsing into bed. Not the life I envisioned but the one I am living for now. (Well for the last 2 decades...) A partially-done meal example: (to help with the question below). I roasted 4 turkey thighs and cut off most of the meat to portion and freeze for future weeknight meals. I then made a stock with the bones, then removed the rest of the meat from the bones while reducing the stock, then added the meat to the stock. I cooled the mixture and then put in the refrigerator planning on making a soup or stew with this as the base. The question: There are times when I have already done part of the work ahead of time for the meal I'm going to make. The problem is that I really want a pirepoix for a flavor base to which I'll add the previosly prepped items but don't have the energy or time to chop and cook the veggies needed. If I make up a larger quantity of mirepoix on the weekend and then portion it, vacuum-seal it and freeze it will it have the flavor I'm hoping for or significantly suffer. I realize that I could try it for myself but I figure that someone already has experience with this and can 1) save me the bother if it doesn't work well, or 2) give me the confidence that it is worth the effort as a short-cut to better-tasting week-day meals. Thanks in advance for your insights, Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Of course it's legal. Just like it's legal to charge one price for early payment to an event - most have dinner attached - and another price for payment after a certain date. ← My NON-LEGAL opinion: If you have to refrain from mentioning PTT and have to use a psuedonym, that seems to reek of fraud. IMHO there is a major distinction between buying tickets from a broker and being able to be known as yourself when you use them and buying a reservation and pretending to be someone you aren't to use the reservation. Porthos

At home I only eat meats and fish that I have smoked myself. I hot-smoke (~200 F) and I brine ahead of smoking. I do eat smoked meats at well-established restaurants. In Rancho Cucamonga, CA there is a fantastic hole-in-the-wall barbeque restaurant (Red Hill Barbeque on what was once part of Route 66) that I will patronize as long as I live near Rancho Cucamonga. You know the meats are fully cooked through since they are falling-off-the-bone tender. They also still make hush-puppies. Porthos Potwatcher the Unrelenting Carnivore

Please allow me to jump into the frey even though I never buy Smithfield hams. I went to Smithfield's website and found what I expected: you have to read the label to determine whether the particular ham in question (Smithfield or not) does or does not need cooking. from their webpage About Hams & Ham Cooking is this specific info: It seems clear that there is no one definitive answer to the question; the cook needs to read the packaging and determine if the ham should be cooked. If not sure, either contact the maker or err on the side of caution and cook the ham. Food poisoning is not fun stuff. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Lyle, I hope the backsplash keeps growing on you. It looks so rich and deep without screaming "Look at ME!" Is a wee bit of jealosy ok - 'cause I can detect a hint of green in me after seeing the pictures. Best of luck with the remainder, Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Cat food cans are one thing we don't open. If the can doesn't have a ring-pull type of lid, it doesn't make it into our shopping cart. FG: After 28 years of marriage I have yet to find an electric opener I like. I still prefer to use a hand-operated one. Kitchen-Aid has one for around $10 that is soilidly built. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I need to try it again. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Before I get to my question let my say that I have my own tried and true method for making hard-boiled eggs and it works whether I'm doing 4 eggs or a flat at a time (in the spring I boil 10 dozen eggs at a time for egg salad). Eggs are lowered into lightly-boiling water, turn up the heat until the boil returns, start timing and reduce heat to maintain reasonable boil, after 11 minutes remove eggs from water and submerge in room-temperature water to stop the cooking process. However, the start-and-then-walk-away technique has a great deal of appeal: I tried the following technique, as shown in the current Fine Cooking magazine, which technique I had heard of before but never tried. I put 6 eggs in cold water and brought the water to an active simmer (plenty of bubbles but not furious) then turned off the heat and left them for 40 minutes. When I opened an egg it was only coddled, not hard boiled. 2 Questions: My eggs came out of the refrigerator; is there an expectation of room temperature eggs? I use extra-large eggs (I get my eggs from Costco) so do I need to change how long the heat is appled before turning it off. Thanks for any insights you can give me. I just bought my first copies of Cook's Illustrated and Fine Cooking and was dissappointed in my first attempt to use info from FC. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

I couldn't wait to get my hands on the Smart Spin storage containers. Now, about a year later, I am going back to my Ziploc brand containers. The plus side for the Smart Spin containers is the one-lid-fits-all feature. The minus, and a big minus, for me is that the larger size is taller and in general the way I use them I prefer squat to tall and slender; I had to use them, however, to figure this out. I haven't tried Rubbermaid's line of containers. I never use Tupperware anymore based on cost when you lose them . I have used the Glad and Ziploc brands for several years and have finally rejected the Glad in deference to the better lid design of Ziploc's product. I long ago gave up on the no-names that are attractively cheap. They never held up to my usage which included freezing and microwaving. My basic usage of the containers are for freezing lunchs made from leftover dinner bits, and for freezing home-made stocks. When we cook a large meal for entertaining I use commercial kitchen "salad bar" plastic containers from Cambro and Rubbermaid's commercial division for storing leftovers because 1) I already own them for other uses and therefore can stand the cost of buying them and 2) they are easier to deal with in the dishwasher since they weigh enough not to flip upside down and trap water. As an example, yesterday I picked up 4 turkey thighs that had just been marked down by the butcher. I roasted them last night for use in future meals but didn't have time to portion them so they went into one of my commercial plastic pans until tonight. My apologies but I sure seem to have digressed... Anyway, these are my thoughts and experiences with various storage solutions. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

I keep regular (not extra-virgin) olive oil next to the stove in my kitchen. It is my go-to oil for sauteeing aromatics or for the first step in a braise. I rarely fry anything. I choose it specifically because 1) it is still fairly neutral in taste and what little it does add just adds to the party of flavors I am after; amd 2) I try to cook using the South Beach Diet as my guideline for balancing what I love to eat vs what will help keep me healthy (my cholesterol is better than it has been in many years). I use corn oil or peanut oil if I need to use a higher heat. Since I have a whimpy builder grade stove that's only good for maybe 10,000 BTU it may explain why I don't generally worry about the smoke point of oils considering I start with a full-on flame. I use a 30,000 BTU per burner free-standing camp stove when I do my renaisance feast cooking and don't use much oil but generally use wesson (someone else does the buying) when I do need oil. Prothos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

When I had a career down-turn (part of the dot-com industry crash in '01) I ended up sweeping trash at Disney's California Adventure. I had to go to a training class some while after I had started work there. Attendees were seated at round banquet tables.There was an ice-breaker exercize at the begining of the training where pieces of paper labeled with various historical events were placed on the table and bits of paper with dates were given to the table. The object was to identify the year of the event from and put the appropriate bit of paper with the date with the event. One of the events was the year man walked on the moon. I remember, as a teenager, watching Neil Armstrong step onto the surface of the moon. I looked around the room where we were being trained and realized that I was the only one there who was even alive in 1969. Talk about feeling old... Mark, I wish you every success in your culinary career. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

I had forgotten that frittatas even exist until watching a DVD of Everyday Italian in which Giada De Laurentis made a frittata. I then looked up a bunch of recipes on-line. I just picked up the first copies of Fine Cooking and Cook's Illustrated I have ever purchased. Fine Cooking had an article on frittatas. Seems that I was supposed be re-introduced to them. So last night I made a frittata for dinner. Portabello Mushroom Cubed Ham Cubed Extra-sharp Cheddar + Shredded Extra-sharp cheddar on top. Shallot Fresh Thyme Salt and Pepper My wife was pleased as was I. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Does anyone know if the Food Channel was profitable before they started messing with the programming? I'd love to know if their viewship has fallen off in the last year or if they have successfully (for them - not us) attracted a different demographic that is keeping their ratings up. Since Food Television is a business they will have to rethink the shift if the profits have gone down, but if they're stable or increasing the I think we're left with longing for the good ol' days. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore p.s. off topic: I just discovered Cooks Illustrated and I'm going gaga over their style of writing and presentation.

I folded it over. I got interested in knife sharpening in '06 after reading Chad Ward's article here. I was able to use what I learned to straighten the fold as best I could, then put a new edge on it. I'd take a picture to show the results but the knife "disappeared" the last day I was using it in a volunteer kitchen. Fortunately, it wasn't a very expensive knife - it was my fisrt try at owning one and I didn't want to spend a bundle of money on an "unknown to me" style of knife. I don't want to hijack this topic so please tell me where to post this question I do have about cleaning fish. I fish for trout in the eastern Sierras. For years I have used a basic fisherman's filet knife to clean the fish including cutting off the head (removal of the head at my wife's request). I struggle to keep an edge on the knife after cleaning the day's catch for my family. It dawned on my that maybe I should be using something more like a chef's knife for the head removal and the filet knife for the balance of the cleaning. Is this rational thinking or should I expect the filet knife to hold up against the fish bones. I typically clean 15 or so trout in a session. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

I'd like to weigh in on Santuko knives in light of the original quest of Swicks. I love my Santuko for veggie prep, However, is is useless for such basic tasks as cutting up a whole chicken. I damaged the blade of mine on bone. So if Swicks is looking for ONE good knife I still would opt for a quality chef's knife. I've paid attention lately to the order in which I chose to use my knives and have noticed the following pattern of choice: 10" Chef's Knife 8" Chef's Knife 3" Paring Knife 7" Santuko My slicers and filet knives don't get used much at all. My cooking: I cook more with chicken and pork than with beef. I rarely do fish - my wife and I love fish but my young adult daughters don't care for it. My cooking is fundamentally western European (German, Italian(Tuscan-influence mostly), basic French, occasional Greek, others as desired for specific ethnic-themed dinners). This is my opinion only and not meant to put down other's views. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

Yes, I often cook this way, especially with Swiss chard. Saute a little onion, add the rinsed, damp chard, steam away, add balsamic at the end. Good stuff. ← Thanks. Swiss chard is the specific green I have cooked.

I don't cook greens for myself. The smell of the cooking greens actually is offensive to my nose - but that is my problem. However, I have occasion to cook greens for some vegans. Because they are served to people I don't actually have contact with I have no idea if they even find what I've done acceptable. The reason I'm posting in this thread is to find out if anyone ever uses balsamic vinegar for flavoring without adding butter or meat. I would be willing to try this so that I could try and taste the greens before serving. Using the current method of just sauteing them (which the head of the kitchen - a volunteer effort - asked for) I can't bring myself to taste them at all - but I am concerned. I don't want to serve inedible food and without any feedback (because of the lack of contact with those who do eat it) I have no clue if it gets eaten or just tossed. Thanks for any light you can shed on this. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

That says more or less what I said before: marbling and maturity. And that's all good and well as to the rib and short loin sections of the carcass. However, as far as I can tell, the whole carcass is assigned a USDA grade based upon inspection of the rib section only of the carcass. So, a carcass with a prime rib and short loin may have chuck section that would grade out at select or good versus other chuck sections, and yet this chuck will still be considered "prime." ← My sincere apologies. I wasn't at all trying to disagree with you. I just looked up info from the USDA about the grading system and posted the links here if anybody wanted to read up on the specifics of how and why the grading is done; that is what the goal of grading is. It was not my intent to imply that the grading system applied to quality of the whole carcass. Sorry for the confusion. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

The road shows bored me to tears and I only collectively watched a few episodes. The only "road" show I would watch again is if they brought back Food Finds. Some of the finds inspired me to try some new ways of looking at old favorites - but I'll be darned if I can't remember a single one at the moment beyond one I didn't pursue, smoked tomatoes from Texas. As much as I enjoy Giada's Everday Italian when I happen to catch it, I couldn't care less about her 3-day weekend show. I am an unashamed fan of Alton Brown/Good Eats. However, I only made it part way through the first episode of "Feasting on Asphalt." My eager anticipation of this show had a head-on collision with the actual show. For road shows I'll stick with John Rattzenberger's Made in America on the Travel Channel. It reminds me of a show from my childhood called Ralph Story's LA which did "highlight" shows of local businesses and attractions and such. Ah to bring back Martha Stewart in the 11:00 p.m. slot. My wife and I enjoyed mocking her for her ridiculous repetition of "use only the finest (insert ingredient here)." Maybe someone should have told her "use only the finest brokers" . Porthos Potwatcher The Unrlenting Carnivore

We don't make bread very ofter any more but we do mix up some very stiff cookie doughs. Our Kitchen Aid 5 qt mixer is 25 years old and going strong. I have felt the motor get pretty warm but it seems to be like the Energizer Bunny... Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

I don't know how far and wide "Old Spaghetti Factory" restaurants range (basic Italian food on a budget) but it is a stand-by when no one wants to cook dinner during the week. The seats in their booths seem exceptionally high and with my stumpy 26" inseam legs I get uncomfortable sitting through a meal (usually about an hour). So when I step up to the host station besides telling them the number in my party, I ask to be seated at a table. I don't discuss how their booths affect my arthritis (in my spine, affects my legs) or complain of past pain, I just make my request. I've found at most restaurants if you want something specific AND reasonable, they will to the best of their ability accomodate you. If they are not busy and you are looking for some privacy you just ask them up front if you can be seated a bit away from others. When peaple respond to the question "how are you" with "I can't complain" I always have the same silly comeback for them. "Well, I can teach you how!" The truth is a bit different, though. I try very hard to remember that I am a human among other humans and we haven't figured out yet as a genus species how to be perfect. A couple of years ago my early 20s daughter asked to have her birthday dinner (immeadiate family and grandparents) at Bucca de Beppo, a family-style chain italian restaurant. After the meal was over and we were standing up to leave a server was bringing the entrees to a table near us. He misjudged the heat of the plates and in pain ended up launching one of the plates towards me. I was covered with spaghetti from my collar to my shoes. He was mortified and genuinely apologetic. The manager was there in seconds also apologizing and asking my to bring in my dry cleaning bill, etc. I told them that would not be necessary (except for those torturous times I don a suit I'm strictly a wash and wear person). They reworked the bill to comp us the desserts, which I appreciated. I was able to chuckle and not get my buns in a twist because I've lived enough years to know that accidents happen. I won't give you my age but I'll tell you I remember when Alaska was admitted as the 49th state and seeing the flags get changed to have 49 stars on them. Today as I typed this out I chuckled again. I washed my clothes and went on with living. Life happens, and most of it is good. I try to focus on that. Just some rambling thoughts on how I view needs and happenings while dining out. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore

"The quality grade factors, marbling and maturity, used to determine USDA beef quality grades (Prime, Choice, Select, etc.) do not explain all of the variation in beef palatability. However, they are capable of segregating a large dissimilar population of beef into more similar grade classes. " (italics mine) The Role of USDA’s Beef Grading Program in the Marketing of Beef part of the Agriculture Marketing Administration of the USDA. United States Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef A couple of reference sources regarding the intent (1st reference) and methodology of grading (2nd reference). This kind of reading appeals to the engineer in me. Profered here for anyone who is curious about grading. This is new territory for me and I will read more carefully after work today. Until then my boss would like me to earn my keep. Porthos Potwatcher The Unrelenting Carnivore