Magictofu

I have yet to find a single-piece tong that opened wide enough for my tastes: do you have a recommendation? I am a little nervous about some of the fancier recommendations because I am not the world's most careful cook, and am pretty hard on my tongs. I'd be concerned about breaking the ones with little plastic bits, etc. My current main set of tongs is the kind where the locking mechanism is gravity-engaged, which is great once you get used to it, but every once in a while it screws you. I've also had these jam up over time. I'm intrigued by the other possibilities. What gets used in a restaurant kitchen? Do they lock closed at all? What mechanism? ← I can't find an example online but you should find them in any restaurant supply store for next to nothing. I actually got mine for 25c at a garage sale and they are now replacing more expensive tongs in my kitchen.

At home, we often add some kind of sugar to our vinaigrette, usually honey. Just a few drops. It seems to bring back the acidity into balance without drowning everything in oil.

I personally prefer the cheap single piece tongs. I don't like things that are built using more pieces than necessary. If done properly, there are no needs for a spring mechanism which can fail but more importantly tend to be less stable when lifting heavy objects.

I just bought a Bradley smoker and tried it in Canada's cold weather. It took a very long time to get hot enough and when I opened the door to place the racks with the food, the temperature obviously dropped again and took forever to get back to where it should have been all the time. I think the heating element at the back of the smoker could be stronger... but then I do live in cold icy Canada.

Oops! Mine are in the freezer. Last time they were still in good shape though.

Sorry to ask newbie questions: - What do you mean by 3-layer bags? - What is that thing with the strip of mesh? - How do these compare to the tilia bags?

I did buy a tilia foodsaver recently and so far I am pleased with it. It is a bit too automated for my taste though. Anyone has any experience with these bags? http://www.vacsealers.com/meshbags.html http://www.agribags.com/vacuum_bags_pg1.html

Around here, if you do not ask your butcher to ground a specific cut of meat for you, you'll get bits of everything mixed with round and other cheap cuts. I assumed part of the explanation came from this. To see that this is not the case only reinforce your conclusions.

Make sure you do not order something that should not be spicy in the first place.

I do think its collagen. Tails are essentially a bunch of tendons and cartilages surrounded by a little meat and skin.

What do we know about the cuts that end up in the pre-ground stuff? How does it compare to the choice of cuts in Fat Guy and slkinsey's experiment (or anyone elses experiment for that matter)?

Although I do not have the chemistry background to explain why I am doing it, I always lightly salt my stock. For some reason, I feel the final sauce always taste better this way, it feels more "meaty".

Some people talk about cooktop searing... how do you deal with such a monster roast on the stove?

I loved the first series when Hugh was actually learning with the viewer instead of teaching others... Thanks for the link!

Can't find them in Ottawa either.

Did you only add the pine needles on top? I wonder if having them in the water would impart a stronger flavour.

I have the opportunity of buying this smoker second hand. I would like to know how it compares with the bradley... any opinions?

I should not say that they are a nuisance everywhere in the country but in many areas, the ring billed gull certainly is. Its population has soared in part due to change in its feeding habits. In some places, I have heard that they almost completely wiped out entire colonies of birds (they eat eggs and small birds), polute water with excessive "nutrients" and wipe out the vegetation around their nesting areas. The protection of a species that is not endangered and that is causing environmental damage seems weird to me.

I am still doing this from time to time. Its much healthier and satisfying than whatever microwave-pop-in-the-bag junk you find almost everywhere. If you have a garden, you can even grow your own! Some variety have grains of different color like the decorative corn you find almost everywhere in the fall.

Seagulls are a nuisance almost everywhere in this country and the fact that they are protected these days is simply weird. I have heard that some people in Newfoundland used to gather these eggs a long time ago and that some Inuits are still practicing their traditional seabirds egg gathering. In Quebec, I am only aware of three types of wild meat currently available to customers: wild rabbit (almost always frozen as there is only one accredited meat processor in the province), caribou meat from native hunts and seal meat from the very controversial seal hunt (I'm not too sure about the legality of this last one either). And even then, these are hard to find. The rest of the "wild meat" is actually farmed. Martin Picard, Chef at au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, once argued that rules should be put in place to allow the commerce of sustainably harvested wild meat in the province. Often, this is what tourists are asking for when they visit the province and the country as a whole given Canada's reputation for its wilderness.

Add any heat to sorrel and you will loose the color. A sorrel sauce is a simple thing: butter, shallots, cream, chopped sorrel (in that order). To make a greener sauce, you can add other herbs and leaves and whiz everything with a stick blender. You can add a few leaves in a salad too.

How do farm scallops compare to wild ones? I tend to prefer farmed mussels to wild ones at least because they tend to be clean. I also believe the harvest of most scallops is quite bad for seabeds (diver harverted scallops being the exception)... are farmed scallops better for the marine environment?

Wholesale or retail? The whole fish or just the loins?

Barely related to the topic but a friend of mine uses white pine needles to perfume her dumplings when steaming them in a bamboo steamer. The flavour can be quite strong.

Seasonal, pricey and traditional -- I want some! How does it work when you're collecting wild nest eggs? In a hen house, you can always tell what's fresh and unfertilized. What species are harvested? My neighborhood is overrun with gulls, there's a dozen on my roof right now. Herring, Ring-billed, Glaucous, they're all there. Probably some uber-hybrids that will ultimately inherit the earth, along with cockroaches and rats. Extermination is not my motivation, I'm just practical. ← Peter, I am quite sure that, in Canada, it is illegal to collect gull eggs. I believe it falls under the Migratory Birds Convention Act.