mojoman

It's a wonder that we Americans can cook anything remotely tasty given the imprecision in our measuring methods and devices. I certainly agree that weight is more accurate than volume and degrees are more accurate than a description of what is supposed to be happening. However, I've got bigger nits to pick than to rant about the way American recipes are written. Recipes using volume, minutes, and rough descriptions of the desired product have produced palatable American food for generations. In fact, I would argue that American food is the best in the world...an argument that would be far more difficult to make for a cuisine such as English to make (no offense meant and certainly it's an opinion and not a fact).

I just saw the pork episode of Bittman's Best Recipes in the World. One of the dishes was a braised then fried pork belly in a luscious broth. http://www.randomhouse.com/broadway/bittma...n.php?p=recipes If this link doesn't like directly to the recipe, it's in Episode #10. Anyway, the broth is made by grinding up some prosciutto (it looked like about 1/2 pound for two servings) and cooking it with some aromatics, tomatoes, etc . That could get kinda expensive. Can anyone suggest a less expensive form of prosciutto, suitable for this purpose?

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post but could anyone advise me what brand of club soda or selzer is the most lighly carbonated. I'm trying a recipe where the harder the carbonation, the better. TIA

David, Do you think I could substitute fennel for the parsnip? Recipe for the cider vinaigrette? Is the vinaigrette a little sweet?

As soon as you find out that they're finicky beyond the usual American tastes (organ meats, Brussels sprouts, soft, delicous, stinky cheese). Being an Ami, I can understand some squeamishness towards game meats, strong cheeses, etc. However, an unwillingness to eat Western veggies, fruits, medium rare meat...fuck that.

I want to make the curry boneless chicken wings I had at minibar.

Thanks Busboy and wattacetti. On the subject of wine, do you think there's any way I can get away serving an Amarone with beef? I know it's supposed to be served with game, especially boar, but will beef be OK? Luckily, I live near a Metro stop so I will recommend that they take Metro.

Thx kpzachary. Medjool it is.

I'm making a baked, stuffed date dish. I think the dish would be best if the dates met the following criteria (in order): 1. Minimally stringy 2. Sweet 3. Large Which variety is best? Thanks!

wattacetti, You are so right that I'm confusing the two. I guess this is a tasting menu; that's what I'm familiar with. It was great to know what the courses are and progression for the formal dinner too. Thanks all.

Friends, eGulleteers, and Citizens of Planet Earth, Help a brother out. 1. What are the "classic" courses in a formal meal? 2. What is the "correct" order of courses? I have googled to no avail. For a dinner party I am considering: 1. Amuse #1 2. Amuse #2 3. Amuse #3 4. Soup 5. Very light poultry course (1 or 2 boneless chicken wings) 6. Pasta 7. Main (beef 2 ways) 8. Salad 9. Dessert What say ye?

I use won ton wrappers instead of pasta whenever I think I can get away with it.

Hello, I'm new to this forum because I'm not much of a dessert maker. I have been dabbling in the area with some success (caveat - I'm just an amateur but the flavor of the food has been pretty good). Anyway, last week, I had dinner at Komi, a prix-fixe fine-dinging place (Greek themed) in Washington, DC. One of the desserts was called "yuzu cream with huckleberries" or something like that. I would like to recreate the dessert as best I can. It had three components. 1. The yuzu cream was a tart, citrusy creamy solid served cold. It was obviously a mixture of cream, yuzu, and sugar what had been "treated" to solidify it into a sheet about 4 mm thick. The chef had then cut the sheet into triangles or diamonds, maybe 3.5 cm per edge. I'm thinking it might be a firm panna cotta (gelatin was the thickener?). It didn't taste eggy so I don't think it was thickened with eggs. I'm thinking about making a panna cotta mixture that had the right balance of yuzu and sugar, then adding gelatin. Do you think doubling the gelatin in a regular panna cotta would achieve the right texture (just firm enough to stay in the discrete shape when placed on edge on a plate but not all rubbery and gross? In the experimental phase, I plan to use lemon or lime juice to simulate the yuzu to save $$$. Will this affect the recipe when the yuzu is actually used? 2. The chef had made a huckleberry compote. This I can do although I'd probably have to use blueberries. 3. There was a tuile-like thingy stuck into the yuzu cream. I think it was fillo dough that had been layered with butter and sugar and baked to a delicious crispy texture. The sheet had been cut into triangles about the same size as the yuzu cream. I think I can execute this but does anyone have any tips to do so? Do I cut it to the final size before or after baking? How best to make sure the layers stick together? Many thanks for any and all responses I get.

Can't go wrong with Cashions. People think Pasta Mia is the bomb. I don't think it's worth the wait outside (no rezzies).

My GF and I had a great freakin' meal at Komi last night. We had the "dinner" ($84), not the "degustation" ($104). I went in very hungry and couldn't finish everything so be warned...the degustation must be a lot to eat. We had the pappardelle with bluberries, chanterelles, and guangiale and the sweet potato ravioli with proscuitto for the pasta course and the whole sea bream with (I think) sauteed romaine and guinea hen stuffed with foie for the entree. As described here, you are brought a number of starters, increasing in size, heat, and complexity prior to your pasta. Let me see if I can remember most of them (I don't take notes at restaurants). Radish with butter and trout roe - great combo House cured olive - good tasting but nothing that special Amberjack with salt and scallion - nice, nice dish...great balance...delish Roasted date stuffed with moscarpone and honey - a fav of my GF Fire roasted chile with pumpkin soup - the peppers weren't that special...I expected them to be a little spicy but they weren't unlike a regular green bell pepper. The soup was somewhat spicy and the pistachios added a nice textural contrast. Braised octopus on shaved avocado with a poached quail egg - great freakin' dish. Supertender, small octopus with the creamy avocado and perfectly cooked quail egg. Holy Shit. This great goat "gyro" - a small meatball with a sweetish sauce, tzadziki, on an interesting flatbrad. Delicious. The pappardelle was delicous. Crispy bits of guangiale, perfectly sauteed chanterelles in a light sauce on springy, perfectly cooked pasta. The blueberries provided a nice contrast. The ravioli was also delicious but not as innovative. Small pockets of tender pasta filled with a pleasing filling. Crispy sage leaves, great procuitto, and a brown butter sauce finished the dish. The whole roasted fish was perfectly cooked with nice crispy skin. It was served with lemon wedges, high quality EVOO, and salt. The guinea hen was similarly great. It had been boned and stuffed with a somewhat sweet stuffing. A small piece of perfectly seared foie topped it. It was served with brussels sprouts. It appeared to me that the sprouts had been sliced at the base to release the leaves and the leaves had been fried to crunchy deliciousness. Does anyone know how they did this? The desserts were fantastic. We had a "brown butter cake" with this fantastic butterscotch ice cream and poached pears and yuzu cream with huckelberries. Holy Mother of God. That ice cream was stupendous. The caramel that flavored it was brought just to the point of being burnt...just a little bitter. Went perfectly with the cake that seemed to have been baked in a minicupcake tin. The yuzu cream was out of this world. It was kind of like a thick (solid) panna cotta, intensely flavored with yuzu. It was quite tart. The cream had been cut into triangles set on edge with a little buttery filo tuile stuck into it. There were some small spoonfuls of a great huckelberry compote. Again, quite tart..not too sweet. I will be back to Komi and I will try to make a couple of the dishes at home. The service was fantastic too. Great pace to the dinner. The sommelier, Derek, was also terrific, helping new wine students (my GF and me) appreciate the 5 wines he chose. My only complaint--why no valet parking?!!!

Speaking as a physician with a lot of flatus himself, the paradigm is that the amount of flatus is dependent on your bowel flora, not what you eat. Patients will tell you otherwise.

With the miniscule consumption of raw milk cheese in the US, I'm finding it hard to see how the absence of a CDC-verified outbreak, linked to raw milk cheese consumption, constitutes evidence that there is no problem. However, take a look at this reference (from the UK). Kuusi M, Lahti E, Virolainen A, Hatakka M, Vuento R, Rantala L, Vuopio-Varkila J, Seuna E, Karppelin M, Hakkinen M, Takkinen J, Gindonis V, Siponen K, Huotari K. An outbreak of Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus associated with consumption of fresh goat cheese. BMC Infect Dis. 2006 Feb 27;6:36. Six people had septicemia and one had purulent arthritis. Here are the author's conclusions: "CONCLUSION: The outbreak was caused by goat cheese produced from unpasteurized milk." Here's a reference for an outbreak in Canada. Honish L, Predy G, Hislop N, Chui L, Kowalewska-Grochowska K, Trottier L, Kreplin C, Zazulak I. An outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 hemorrhagic colitis associated with unpasteurized gouda cheese. Can J Public Health. 2005 May-Jun;96(3):182-4. So, there are documented cases of outbreaks attributed to unpasteurized cheeses. I do not know how the incidence compares to that for pasteurized cheeses and one would have to normalize for quantities consumed to make a valid comparison. I'm going to let this go here. I don't disagree with those who want raw milk cheese available...IF they understand the risks and want to take them. However, do you all really understand the risks? You stated that "...raw-milk cheeses are not dangerous." (post #9). The references I've posted here show that raw milk cheese has been responsible for serious medical outcomes (purulent arthritis, hemolytic-uremic syndrome, hemorrhagic colitis). I'm pretty sure if you asked any of those patients, they would disagree that raw milk cheese is not dangerous.

The question is: are people in the real world getting sick from eating these cheeses? 1. I did not see any epi studies that would inform to this pertinent question. Do you have any references for any well conducted studies that show no excess morbidity? I think that would be a hard study to conduct because of the omnivorous nature of humans. With the myriad of things people eat, such a study would likely be excessively confounded. 2. Absence of evidence does not constitute proof that an association does not exist. That is a basic scientific principle. If two people take rofecoxib (Vioxx) and don't get heart attacks, does that mean that rofecoxib does not cause heart attacks? Maybe it does or maybe that "study" was flawed and does not adequately inform. If the answer is no then who cares what some study classifies as "satisfactory"? A concurrent control is always the best way to conduct hypothesis testing. However, I suspect that the definiton of "satisfactory" was based upon innoculum size. For most pathogens, the number of viable organisms necessary to cause clinical disease is known. For instance, IIRC, one Shigella organism will give you Shiggelosis. Those data were probably the basis for dichotomizing into satisfactory or not. The concern that studies like this Almeida study present is that policy will be made on the basis of theoretical "risk profiles" rather than real-world impacts. Once you go down that path, you can find a reason to outlaw just about any food -- especially if that food doesn't have a well-funded lobby behind it. Because of the difficulties of conducting a epidemiologic study that could inform to the effects of raw versus pasturized milk cheese eating in a scientifically valid manner, shouldn't we base our public health decisions on what scientifically valid data we do have, even if we have to extrapolate? ←

Many thanks for the tips and pics. By gosh I'll try it.

A Medline search for "raw milk cheese safety" brings up a couple of interesting references: Almeida G, Figueiredo A, Rola M, Barros RM, Gibbs P, Hogg T, Teixeira P. Microbiological characterization of randomly selected Portuguese raw milk cheeses with reference to food safety. J Food Prot. 2007 Jul;70(7):1710-6. Caro I, Garcia-Armesto MR. Occurrence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in a Spanish raw ewe's milk cheese. Int J Food Microbiol. 2007 May 30;116(3):410-3. Epub 2007 Mar 6. Here's an excerpt from the Almeida abstract: "Twenty-two of the 70 cheeses were classified as satisfactory or acceptable. Thirty-seven of the cheeses were considered unsatisfactory because of the presence of E. coli, S. aureus, or both, while 11 of the cheeses were graded as unacceptable and potentially hazardous because of the presence of excessive numbers of S. aureus, E. coli, or L. monocytogenes and the presence of Salmonella in three of these." So, I'm not sure that the assertion that raw milk cheeses are not dangerous is scientifically justified. A raw milk cheese is different from an egg, both of which are known to harbor Salmonella. Firstly, the rate of Salmonella in eggs is ~1 in 30,000, not 3 in 70 (11/70 if you count the other pathogents) like the Almeida study found. Second, most eggs get cooked. The gummint would rightly think that we would eat a raw milk cheese without cooking it.

You're entitled to hate the FDA as much as you like but consider this. In general, in the US, you can go into a supermarket and buy food items and feel pretty confident that you're not going to contract tuberculosis or listeria or cholera or experience botulism poisoning if you eat them. Check out this book http://www.amazon.com/Protecting-Americas-...n/dp/037540466X if you want to see what life was like pre-FDA. Does the system fail at times and people get sick from Hepatitis A from scallions or E coli from spinach? Hell yes. But, consider how much more frequent it would be if not for the "nanny" overbearing FDA. I am willing to pay the "price" of being denied raw milk cheese in order to have some peace of mind that I am unlikely to contract a bad food-borne illness. I don't love the FDA but they perform a useful function. And with regard to having private companies perform food safety surveillance instead of bureaucrats...who's going to oversee them to make sure they're not being bought off? Congress has and exercises considerable oversight of FDA.

lperry, Thanks for the tip about the mushrooms at Costco. I gotta git me some. At which Costco did you find them? TIA.

IIRC, it was the forearm part, not the upper arm. I'm pretty sure it was boned prior to cooking.

I ate at Minibar about a year ago and they served this great chicken wing dish. While the flavor was great, one of the things I really liked was that they boned out the wings. Does anyone have any tips how to do this without mangling the thing? Use a scalpel? Can you only bone out the "forearm" (with radius and ulna counterpart) or can you do the "drumette" (humerus) too?

Semantic question for all the grammar Nazis, Can a freshwater aquatic animal used for food rightly be called "seafood?" I thought "seafood" mean it comes from the sea (a saltwater environment). I haven't seen the trailers yet but it seems that Brian is going to be cooking a trout or some other fish from Colorado (therefore freshwater) but people want to call that "seafood." ETA: Per FDA, seafood includes freshwater critters. Per most dictionaries, limited to saltwater. BTW Casey is hawt in case nobody noticed.