Jon Savage

[Host's note: this topic has been split to avoid an excessive load on our servers. The discussion continues from here.] There's the burger. A double because I can. It was good. Very good.

Shelby the pressure canner is totally worth it. We had been water bath canning lots of stuff but the ability to can low acid foods (think stew, chili con carne, pinto beans etc.) was a need worth addressing. I guess one could safely water bath can Hatch Chiles w/added acid but who wants that taste? I will say the quality of our home canned stuff far exceeds what you can purchase commercially & @ $1.50 a can for store bought beans alone you can quickly amortize the cost of the canner. Pint jars of stew, soup whatever make ideal lunches! We bought an all american weighted canner (this one) it holds up to 21 pints depending on the jars - IIRC Kerr load better than Ball (both owned by the same company now. The pic below is the other day with the weight off as it has to vent a while before one adds the weight to bring it up to pressure. The libation in question was ThrillSeeker IPA (APA) really from our local award winning brewery as it was by then after all the prep work "Miller Time"

I had been planning to buy some this Sunday at a market nearby as we both really have a soft spot for these after a 2,500 mile road trip honeymoon that included much time in NM. I seems that even in Southern California Hatch Roasting at supermarkets has suddenly become fairly commonplace this time of year (who knew and how did I miss it the past few years?). Anyway... We were shopping on Saturday last & unexpectedly the market we went to was roasting! 1 1/9 bushels purchased & roasted while we waited for the princely sum of $24.99 all in. That equates to about 25lbs of peppers. The time investment to prep & pressure can these was surprisingly trivial - maybe <45 minutes to peel/de-seed (my wife & I work well together) + another couple hours largely unattended to pressure can 2 batches which yielded 24 pints. We could have also frozen these but I have far more shelf space than freezer space. We have not tasted any yet but tonight will be cheeseburgers w/ Hatch Chiles . Shelby - the price seems about what it has been in the past but several roastings have been delayed due to inclement weather in Hatch. We'll surely do another batch before the season ends. All Prepped Done.

Be on the lookout for Kürbiskernöl- marketed as toasted pumpkinseed oil from Styria (Austria). It is damn good. Nutty dark green and sublime. Good for salad particularly rindesalat (beef salad) & paradeis (tomato salad) - also darned good to fry eggs with if you don't mind green eggs. In short get some. It is a small 250 ml metal container in the oil section for $9ish(!). Worth every penny. It is was generally artisanal when I lived in Austria; you bought it at the farmer's market in corked .5l (formerly beer) bottles from old ladies at the farmer's market. Not cheap then. Not cheap now but worth every cent. I'm going back Monday to buy a few bottles to store- they should be shelf stable & g-d knows If there's something you really like @ TJ's most likely it will soon be gone. Full disclosure I Lived in Austria for the better part of 10 years so this product is sentimental to me. That said it is sublime. My ex texted me about it the other day (she's Austrian) she was very excited & I can confirm it is the real deal. Nutty, dark green & sublime.

i'm saddened by his passing. Words that I lack can't even begin to express how very much the community he & others built means to me.

Anna N that looks fabulous.

Shit. I saw a whole duck for $45 at the market yesterday... Srsly? I can do much better in little Saigon on Monday. J.

OK a brief update- The water cured olives from the first batch are mostly eaten. The first batch of brine cured are happily fermenting on the counter & already becoming pretty damn tasty. 2n'd batches of each are in process. That's pretty much all for this year so we will have to make 20 lbs olives stretch until next Autumn. We wanted to do some black olives too but they did not ship well per our purveyor so we got none. Stay tuned... I'll post as our olives become over time.

re: Pink salt & confit- Most of the information I have Larousse Gastronomique included talk about salting the future confit for a time that varies from overnight to a day or two then slowly poaching (a low braise really). in fat- preferably the fat of the beastie in question & putting the resulting product up in jars well covered by same fat and aging to improve flavor. I tend to think of Confit as low & slow using fat as the medium rather than heat & smoke. It is said that a duck or goose yields enough fat to confit its meat. Alas I find both here in North America anyway too lean so a 3:2 ratio of bird to eventual confit with the odd bird out otherwise (except for its fat of course) otherwise utilized. As for the pink salt- I don't see a benefit nor do I feel there's a food safety issue without it. The resulting product would keep some of its color but confit tends to be rather brown for the most part & that seems fine to me. I could however foresee a scenario where I'd try it both ways & take both photographs & taste done with & without pink salt using turkey thighs or chicken (Duck & Goose are expensive here). All of that being said- I love confit. I'll play along after Thanksgiving for sure. I'm saddened Dave Hatfield can no longer play along. He'd have enjoyed this cook-off I'm certain.

I used to use Shopping List which I was happy with but now just IM or email myself reminders of what I want to buy. Google docs are also a great alternative -just make a doc with whatever you need & peruse while shopping. YMMV.

Well he's raised over $150,000 so far vs. a goal of $25,000 so I expect the project is funded anyway. I saw that pan in Wired the other day I think - I too agree it is likely just a solution in search of a problem. I have and regularly enjoy using several cast iron pans that have been in either my wife's family for well over a century. They just work.

I will note the brine cured ones are becoming mighty tasty - more interesting than the water cured olives.

Does that batch have any vinegar in it (and what is container made of)? I've noticed a distinct bubblegum note in one brand of pickled herring, and have wondered whether it was due to some interaction between the vinegar and the flavour compounds in the spices used (or possibly between the vinegar and the plastic of the jar this is packed in). There is vinegar in the brine- the container is a food grade cambro. It smells different now; more like the fruity esters one gets when fermenting Weissbier. It is fun to observe/taste/smell foods as they are made and the olives appear to be no exception.

OK weird. The first batch of brine cured olives now exactly smells like bubble gum.

A further note- a few cloves of peeled (sliced) Garlic and a couple of bay leaves are more than sufficient to flavour 5lbs water cured olives in their brine. This has been a fun experiment. We have 2X 5lbs both in water and brine cure so that should hopefully meet our olive needs for the year. I'm particularly excited by the brine cure- should take months but the fermentation has started and that cambro smells lovely.

I'd also tend to prefer water stones.

Well... The water cured ones are happy and palatable after just over a week in their brine post rinse & repeat. The brine cured ones are sitting in their cambro on the counter and... Becoming. We received another 10 lbs of olives today- We'll do 5lbs water cured and 5lbs brine cured. Ya don't wanna run out you know... Harvest is only once a year after all.

Barrila's OK but I prefer TJ's (organic) even better home made. YMMV.

Split the tails & grill them raw. perhaps also brush them w/ EVOO + Garlic or melted butter + garlic. Works well- I've done this for a large party think 10 kg + lobster tails... Delicious! J.

As an aside this might be helpful: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8267.pdf Also we have been buying our olives from: https://www.greatolives.com/buy-gourmet-olives/index.php?route=product/category&path=38 (no commercial interest) jon

That's a water cure which we have just tried- for us the cracked green olives needed 6 days with daily changes of water to become palatable. Then they go in brine + vinegar (seasonings to taste) for up to a year in the fridge. Tasty result thus far. We did 5lbs that way a couple of weeks ago and also 5lbs in a brine cure uncracked which will take 4 months or so to ferment and mature. Well worth trying and as a side note 'tis the harvest season. We may do some ripe ones next month. Some salt cured some brined. J.

I apologize- Life got in the way of all of this. Here's a photograph of Marco the fish guy of 4 scampi fame several years later.

I've made tacos with both. Fresh from a comal using masa harina Is *way* better than store bought. Using nixtamal on the other hand results in something very much like nirvana.

I've taken the day to read her memoir- "Amarcord: Marcella Remembers" - a good read by any measure.

I'm quite partial to the Trader Joe's stuff, regular, whole wheat (the only whole wheat pasta I've actually liked), and of course their organic pasta is excellent as well. Some shapes do (or at least did) use bronze die extrusion as well.