Anna Friedman Herlihy

Did a bit more research---according to a MA red tide publication, you're not ever supposed to eat the tomalley, red tide or not. See link: MA Red Tide site Is this really true? Or have all of us who eat the stuff often being risking our lives...

Noticed no one replied...thought I'd update with where we went. So we went to the Lobster Shanty. And though it was not Maddie's, I had some perfectly respectable fried clams, as did my brother, and his girfriend had a good lobster roll. Certainly not the ambiance of Maddie's (it's basically a bar with some tables outside), but at least there's somewhere decent to go that's not a half hour drive.

Hi all, Read in the Chicago Tribune's food blog this morning about the FDA issuing a warning about eating lobster tomalley from any American (Maine) lobsters. I know you shouldn't eat it during or shortly after a red tide, but ever??? I grew up eating tons of the delicious stuff (and just recently ate some when I was home in Marblehead), and never got sick (nor do I ever remember hearing of someone who got sick from it). Anyone know the history behind this warning? Did a bunch of people get sick? Did someone die? Link to article: Trib article on FDA tomalley warning Thanks much for any info, as I love the stuff and don't want to be worried every time I eat it (not that an FDA warning will keep me from eating it...). Thanks, Anna

Hello all, Wondering if anyone might have a suggestion to replace the dearly departed Maddie's Sail Loft in Marblehead as a place for seafood in or very near to Marblehead. I'm visiting home for the first time in a while and craving proper fried clams, but the elderly mother doesn't want to make the drive to Essex or Ipswich (not bringing her is not an option...if you know what I mean). Possible options: Red Rock Bistro in Swampscott Lobster Shanty in Salem The Barnacle in M'head Dube's is out as my brother ate there recently and said it was awful. Thanks for any suggestions! Anna PS-also a bonus if it's a place where we can get some bluefish since it's in season right now!

Hey thanks guys, some interesting options. I think I'm definitely going to have to try a variation on the spaghetti with cantaloupe and chilis (without the tomatoes, as I'm allergic), with the addition of some meat (pancetta?). Perhaps even tonight, as I have all the ingredients handy. Also beef and cantaloupe stir-fry sounds great. Don't know why I was thinking the melon had to stay uncooked....plenty of other fruits take well to cooking (recently have done pork with dried cherry sauce and mango-glazed ribs, and tomorrow I think will be game hens with tangerine sauce). Keep the ideas coming!

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing the same thing, or had friends/family experiencing the same thing. After many years of being "lactose intolerant", I've found that I can eat rBGH-free dairy products with no side effects, but even a tiny bit of big ag milk gives me cramps, gas, and the hershey squirts (please excuse the graphicness, but anyone with the problem can relate) within several hours. I've tried to be "scientific" about this, and it really does seem that the culprit is rBGH (or perhaps some other industrial chemical--it's also possible that the problem is with some antibiotic or something similar). For example: I have no problems with "organic" milk, and our local Oberweis milk (which is rBGH- and antibiotic-free, but not organic) is also fine. Same for cheese products imported from countries that have banned rBGH. In the past year I spent two blissful months in England on research eating whatever I wanted with no problems. But I ate one (ONE) christmas cookie made with regular supermarket brand-name butter (will not mention the name for fear of corporate reprisal) at a family Christmas gathering this year, and spent the last hour of the gathering in and out of the toilet (no one else had any problems, so not food poisoning). I became American cow-dairy intolerant (can eat goat and sheep with no problem) when I was in grad school for the first time, so around 1995. Coincidentally (or perhaps not coincidentally) Monsanto introduced rBGH into the food supply in 1994. Is there a connection? My brother also became cow-dairy intolerant around the same time. He discovered he could eat dairy again during a year-long fellowship in Italy. I decided to experiment with organics and foreign products after his experience. Granted my family has a long history with allergies, so I am more sensitive to such things than most humans. But, I"m wondering, is there anyone out there on egullet with the same or similar experiences with dairy???

After years of not flying out of Midway, and a recent spate of business trips on Southwest out of Midway, I've been pleasantly surprised by the excellent eating options! A SuperDawg in terminal B! Greek pastries from one of the Greektown restaurants. Can't get much better than that, but they have many of Chicagoland's classic restaurants in outposts. Much, much better than O'Hare. Previously, my fave airport eating was Heathrow's BA terminal for the Pret a Manger in particular. Fun thread. Glad it got bumped up!

Hi all, Trying to eat more fruit lately (rarely eat it, and trying to be more varied in my diet lately). However, not very many good options in the winter. Cantaloupe is a decent option, but I'm kind of bored with it at this point. I love melon paired with prosciutto (or even just some regular old ham cold cuts). Which got me thinking--what other convenience meats might be well paired to cantaloupe? I've done cantaloupe and chicken salad to good effect. But chicken salad is not something I usually buy from the store to have on hand, rather I make it from scratch after a roast chicken. Or even any other salty/savory/sweet melon ideas? (Cheese? Cottage cheese comes to mind, but what about goat cheese or a hard cheese?) Thanks for ideas!

Hi all, Didn't see any posts on this, so I thought I'd make one. Today (Jan 23) is National Pie Day (http://www.piecouncil.org/national.htm). I love these silly "holidays". Anyone else "celebrating"? I'm currently trying to decide between making individual steak 'n' stout pies or shepherd's pies for dinner (or maybe some empanadas or other turnover-like meat pie). And I think it will have to be hubby's favorite crumble-top apple pie for dessert. On a snowy Chicago day, I can't think of anything better for dinner than flaky crust surrounding steaming hot morsels of meat! Maybe paired with a cup of broth-based soup and a bitter-green salad. Please share your pie ideas (especially savory ones--always like to hear about those).

The smoked liver is very easy to do, if you're set up for smoking. It's just a simple spice rub for a few hours, wiped off, and then hot smoked for half an hour. But my guess would be you could easily improvise a smoker for something that small. The lemon-celery mousse is my spin on a Maida Heatter recipe which in turn is someone else's recipe. I just replace 2/3 of the lemon juice with celery juice, made by puréeing about five stalks of celery in the Cuisinart and then squeezing the juice out using a cheescloth bag (two layers). The lemon and celery combine in an unforeseen way to taste like neither lemon nor celery, but a very good taste.

I just got my first half a pig this summer (Berkshire as well). I butchered it myself. Loads of fun (although I have done deer, lambs, half a cow previous to the pig). For the past year I've been buying my meat farm-direct in half and whole animals (slaughtered first, though). I highly recommend freezing and then vacuum-sealing the cuts. Freeze first, then vacuum-seal (so you don't squeeze out a bunch of liquid from the meat). I also weighed out parcels of shoulder, fat, and the like for the various sausage recipes that I was interested in making and labeled them as for such, so no confusion when I go to make the recipes (not that I can't change my mind and use the parts for other things). I cut the belly into several pieces for bacon, salt pork, and roasting (so I didn't have to defrost the whole thing at once). Save some nice thick pieces of back fat for lardo. Save any scraps of fat for rendering into lard. Don't forget about the leaf lard and caul fat. Don't forget about the spleen. I cut the ham in half, as a whole ham just seemed too big. I already brined and smoked one of the ham halves for a party and it was fabulous. I cut a variety of roasts and chops. Chops were individually vacuum-sealed, so as to make it easy to cook for one, two, three, or more, depending on who is around (also defrost easier as singles). Most of the organ meats freeze well--for liver, cut it into a couple of pieces, unless you're planning a huge liver fest or giant paté. Eat the kidneys right away (Fergus Henderson's lamb kidney's recipes work great for pork-but soak them first). You said the butcher's taking the head, but see if you can get the jowls off the head (or at least one jowl). If you can get the blood, make blood sausage (one of my favorite things in the world, and unfortunately the slaughterhouse here would not release the blood). Absolutely get Fearnley-Whittingstall's Meat Cookbook. It is my new favorite cookbook. Hope that helps!

As someone with a couple of food allergies (but also a very adventurous eater), I full well expect to not necessarily be able to eat certain things at people's houses. If I have enough advance notice, I will let them know (but also let them know that I'm happy to enjoy their company even if I can't eat a dish or two...or more--I do not want special accommodations made if it is even a remote hassle). I always have granola bars in my purse just in case I really can't eat anything! That said, I'm happy to try to accommodate true food allergies for my dinner guests given proper notice (in my book, that means at least four days). But I won't change a recipe, I'll just make something extra that's simple and not very time- or resource-consuming. I would only expect the same for myself. As for just picky eaters and (sorry to all of you who fit this category) vegetarians--screw them. As many have said, they are not invited for small parties, or at bigger gatherings, they just must fend for themselves (we explicitly let vegetarians know to bring their own tofu dogs and veggie burgers to our bbqs, because we refuse to buy them). Humans are biologically meant to be omnivores. Yes I have a pet peeve about vegetarians. It's interesting that I have had many a vegetarian eat my pies with complete and full disclosure that I make lard crusts, just because everyone else has raved about them. Similarly, I've gotten lots of people to eat liver in my patés because of the comments by others. Not pandering to pickiness may just open those people's minds and palates to other things.

As someone who regularly throws elaborate, multi-course dinner parties, my advice would be: Don't worry so much about what's classic, but rather make sure the courses progress in a manner that makes sense (I know that's a bit vague--someone had mentioned light to heavy, but also bland to spicy, sweet to salty or vice versa, etc. need to be considered), and that varies textures, colors, and ingredients. I also do very much agree with the big course, small course, big course, small course, and so on, that someone previous had suggested. It gives the guests time to breathe. Having just cooked a complicated 10 course-r this past Sunday, variety is the key. And include plenty of "refreshers" (i.e palate cleansers)--but these can take unusual forms. not just sorbets but things like crisp raw veggies as an accompaniment to a small course. As for wine, depending on how formal the party is (or your guests are), it is perfectly acceptable in my book to put one white and one red glass on the table, and have them re-used for different wines (I know...blasphemy!). This is what I did this past Sunday, and no one complained, nor did the wines suffer from having a drop of their predecessor in the glass. [Also, if you are lucky, one of your friends might volunteer--or be conned into volunteering--to play sommelier for the evening, freeing you from announcing and pouring wine for everyone.] And I very much liked Shaimanese's post.

Second that. I loooove bitter drinks and drinks with bitters. Don't know why I never thought to add to food (and I'm always raiding the bar for cooking ingredients). Just picked up a chicken to roast today, so maybe I will try some in the sauce and report back. We have Angostura and Peychaud's in the house right now. Fabulous post!

There's a pic of the finished plate as well as one of the sous-vide pig's ear after being sliced in my post about the dinner I served them at: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=108479

For any of you interested in doing something similar, I thought I'd post the after-party report. Feel free to scam any ideas for your own version. I'd love to have more people eating the whole animal (although then the prices on these parts will go up!). Another good thing to know is that properly frozen and vac-sealed, the parts did not suffer from being in the freezer for the past two to four months (time dependent on the part). The dinner really was a fabulous success--my adventurous eater friends snapped up the spaces on the Evite within sixteen hours of posting it. So we had a party of eight, seven of whom were very offal-friendly, and one of whom (my dear husband) was skeptical (his mother traumatized him with badly cooked liver as a child). Needless to say, hubby ended up eating quite a bit (and even tried everything). I was not the one taking the pictures (too busy cooking), so apologies for absent pics (not every dish got photographed). The menu ended up being much the same as what I posted above, with slight variations. I had to cut the gizzard dish since they didn't defrost (we keep our fridge very cold), and I realized also that they were not cleaned and didn't have the time for that. So 10 courses, some duos (or more, in the case of the charcuterie course). I prepped for two entire days and cooked the entire day of the event. It took us about 4 hours to get through the meal. It was loads of fun cooking this!!! So here goes (feel free to contact me if you'd like any additional info about the dishes): The charcuterie tower: on the top level is a pork headcheese and the pickled ox tongue; on the bottom is the pig tongue, poached goat brain, and smoked goat liver. I forgot the rolled spleen with bacon, but remembered it after the pic was snapped (see below). I decided to serve the parts whole for effect to be carved tableside. Served with whole grain baguette, cornichons, and pots of dijon, horseradish, and homemade onion marmelade. Carving tableside (don't flame me about cutting right on the ceramic plate!). PS--Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's smoked liver recipe is about the best preparation for liver I and my guests have ever eaten. Even hubby liked it. And the rolled spleen with bacon after I remembered it was missing from the table! Highly recommend Fergus Henderson's recipe on this. Presents beautifully. Steaming pork liver dumpling soup in roasted pork stock. Such a good addition to the menu (thanks rooftop1000!). The next two didn't get pics taken, but they were Roasted Marrow Bones with Parsley Salad and Paprikash of Goat Offal with Parsnip/Potato Galette. Ox heart with orange-cognac gastrique and mizuna salad with mandarins and crispy pig's ear. The mizuna I found at the farmer's market the day before and thought it would be a good green for this (it was). The ox heart I cooked sous-vide and it was so amazingly tender! The pig's ear I prepared as a confit (I did this sous-vide though) and then deep fried (thanks wallchef!). And this I just have to share. I had no idea that cross-sections of pig's ear were so beautiful (first time cooking them). I actually called everyone into the kitchen from the table to behold! Deep fried pork liver with honey bacon habenero sauce and radish garnish. The liver is just crusted in panko and fried. I meant to do a little radish salad, but got too busy, so a whole one had to suffice. Duo of spicy Asian pig's foot and chicken foot. Each had a slightly different flavor and the pig's foot (well, each person got a piece of pig's foot) was sauce-y while the chicken foot was sticky. I meant to do a line of a simple veggie stir fry down the center, but time ran short and everyone was starting to get kind of full anyway, so I just garnished with some pea pods (which everyone found to be nice and refreshing at this point, with all the fat). Braised goat's head. Presented in a bowl to pass at the table for guests to pick at. Yes we did eat the eyes (my first time) spurred on by my dare to anyone. Our friend Jim dove right in and dug one of the suckers out of the skull with his fork. Once he said it was palatable, me and several others split the other one. Can't say I would eat eyeballs out of love for them, but if I had to, I know I now could. They really don't taste like much and the texture is not too bad, not too good. It's the one part that I have a hard time with psychologically (windows to the soul and all). Braised goat's neck slices with anchovy sauce. This is what each diner got while the goat head was being passed. And the last of the savory courses, pig's feet Ste. Menehould with mustard sauce and rutabaga purée. Yes, the picture wasn't taken until already in the eating process. And there should have been something green on the plate (I was going to do a bit of frisée salad), but we were all fairly full at this point, and I was kind of done with cooking, so I left it off the plate. And for dessert, lemon-celery mousse with raspberries. The perfect, proper, light, palate-cleansing finale. Hope this makes all you offal lovers hungry!

Paté? You would have to have a decent amount of them though. Use the liver for the main part of the paté and the hearts leave whole for garnish (or in half). That way when you cut slices of the paté you'd have cross-sections of heart at the center of each slice.

Just wanted to report that the ox heart cooked sous vide (per NathanM's 180F/82C for 8 hours suggestion) came out fabulous. The heart was sliced into about 1/2" thick slices. I kept it real simple, just s/p and some frozen cubes of stock. I cooked it the day before, then chilled and reheated just before serving with an orange-cognac gastrique and a mizuna salad with mandarins and crispy pig's ear (see below for more info on that). Beautiful rose-pink color, fork tender. Although one of my dinner guests who is a big heart lover said it was maybe too tender--that he missed the chewiness. However another guest said you could have served it to anyone without telling them it was heart and they would have had no idea! In the future I might do a duo--one piece done sous-vide and the other marinated and grilled to get a contrast between the tender and the chewy. I also sous-vided the pig ear confit at the same time as the heart (put it in for an extra two hours beyond that for the heart), and that also came out great (then cut them up and deep fried them after they were done). So thanks for the guidelines for a newbie at this!

And since they already did with one hand tied behind one's back, how about standing on one foot?

I really like the method, and it should work for duck fat as well as for lard. But just for safety reasons I might be tempted to chill the vacuum bag in ice water before trying to pour off the fat, but the fat is likely to congeal non-uniformly in ice water so maybe it would be better to actually refrigerate the bag until the fat is completely solid. Then it should be possible to cut off the bottom of the bag, drain the water, remove and dry off the fat, then trim off any residual gunk. Doc ← I am definitely going to experiment with this now the next time I need to render fat! I'm pretty done with both the stovetop and oven methods, for all the reasons I mentioned above that the sous vide would eliminate. I'm thinking that if one were to leave a big enough margin above one of the sealed ends (easier to do with the non-vacuum end), that might give a big enough handle to be able to hold the warm bag of fat and snip and pour it from one corner without risk of burning oneself.

Heart muscles is TOUGH because it is constantly in use. I would try 180F/82C for 8 hours. This ought to be enough, but you may need to take it longer. This will create a texture similar to a traditional braise, which is probably what you are familiar with. I would cut it into serving portion and bag each separately. You could cook it down to 140F/60C but then it would require days and that may not be what you are looking for. Some experimentation will be necessary to get the results you want. ← Thanks much--that gives me a ballpark. I've braised hearts in liquid on the stovetop at a bare simmer for about 4 hours to good result, so doubling that seems reasonable at a slightly lower temp. Happy to report back with the results (will be eaten on Sunday).

Apologies if someone has asked a similar question (well...several questions) on this very long thread (I skimmed and searched and didn't find anything). First question (well..two questions): I'm thinking of cooking ox heart sous vide, since it works so well for tough muscles that are typically braised. What would my cooking time and temperature be for something like this? Also should I pre-slice it into the serving sizes or wait until it's done to cut it up? Second question: I was rendering lard the other day, and was reading the recent sous-vide-style chicken broth thread, and wondered if sous-vide would be a good way to render lard and other fats? Theoretically the fat would just melt off of the skin, membrane, etc. Less clean up, no watching that it doesn't burn, more consistent temp... Although one wouldn't get the cracklings, but I rarely end up using many of them anyway before they go bad (too rich to eat very many of them). I love my vacuum sealer for all sorts of things and have been beginning to dabble with sous-vide here and there. Thanks much for any thoughts. Very interesting thread.

I encountered the same thing the first time I decided to make jerky, so I did an experiment. I used two pieces and cut one with the grain and one against the grain (at about 1/4"). I far preferred the against the grain version (the with the grain was just too chewy and hard to tear a chunk off of with your teeth). But you might prefer the more chewy. I would try both (or all three, including on the bias) and see which you like better.

I'm a big post T-day turkey soup fan. I make mine in the usual way for stock (although I do make sure to scrape out any stuffing still sticking to the carcass--too many flavors) and without added salt. Then I reduce it quite a bit so that it's very flavorful (you can adjust the salt later--sometimes there's enough in the carcass--I always brine our turkeys--to be fine in the finished product). Then I strain and reheat the broth with chopped turkey meat, cubed carrots and parsnips, corn niblets (frozen is fine), lima beans (fresh or frozen--not canned), and some orzo pasta (be careful--absorbs a lot of the stock, so err on the meager side). Check for seasonings before serving, and...voila! This has become a family staple as a first course for turkey casserole!

This sounds like the Ste. Menehould recipe, and it's fabulous! Any of you in DC (or passing through DC) are craving this, I had a wonderful version of this last weekend at Central Michel Richard, which is what made me think to put it on my menu.